Kotki
Kotki Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
During the game, you will encourage the cats appearing in the yard to come over to you. Place cat treats and toys on your soft pillows to attract the kittens to yourself. Each cat has points, which you receive for luring it. Whoever gets the most points wins.
Components
- 4 player pillows
- 32 cat tiles
- 55 bait cards
- rulebook
Setup
- Regardless of the number of players, arrange all 4 pillows as shown in the illustration. Each player receives one pillow. One of the players receives the pillow marked with a star. That player will start the game.
- Shuffle the bait cards and place them in a face-down stack, bait side down. On each pillow, on the field with the arrows, place one card from the top of the stack face up. If you reveal a dog, shuffle it back into the deck and draw a new card.
- Shuffle the cat tiles and form a stack from them. The tiles should lie cat side up. Turn over the four top cat tiles and place them in the middle of the table, next to each other, in the shape of a square. These four tiles form the yard.
Gameplay
Starting with the first player, each of you in turn performs one of the two available actions: collecting bait or luring cats. After the action, the next player clockwise takes their turn.
Collecting Bait
When you decide to collect bait, reveal the cards from the face-down stack in the middle of the table one at a time. You may reveal as many cards as you like. After revealing each bait card, you may stop (pass) and reveal no more cards. However, if you reveal a dog, you lose all the cards revealed during this turn: discard them, together with the dog card, onto a separate pile.
If you reveal the dog as your first card, you may ignore it. Discard it and reveal your first card again. If that is a dog too, discard it as well.
When you have passed, you may place the collected cards on your pillow. Each field may hold only one card. If the field with the arrows is empty, you must place one of the collected cards there. Discard all surplus cards that have no room on the pillow.
If there are already cards on your pillow, you may discard them to place new ones in their place. Cards already on the pillow cannot be moved between fields.
If the bait stack runs out, shuffle all the discarded cards (including the discarded dogs) and form a new face-down stack.
Examples:
Patryk revealed the 4 cards shown below one after another. After revealing the fourth card he passed and may place cards on his pillow. He has 3 free fields, so he discards one of the collected cards and places the rest on the free fields. He may also discard a card he already had on his pillow, in order to place on it all the cards collected in this turn.
Michał revealed two bait cards; the third card is a dog. Michał discards the dog together with the two cards he had collected earlier.
Marta revealed a dog as her first card. She discards it and reveals another card. This time it is a mouse. Marta may pass and place it on her pillow, or continue revealing cards.
Monika revealed a dog as her first card. She discards it and reveals another card, which is a dog again. That dog is also discarded. Monika reveals another card, this time milk. Monika may pass and place it on her pillow, or choose to keep revealing.
Luring Cats
As part of this action, you may discard bait cards from your pillow in order to lure cats that are in the yard to yourself.
Each cat in the yard has:
- Cost – which bait cards must be discarded from your pillow to lure the cat. For each symbol shown in the cost, discard one card.
- Ability – a one-time ability that can help the player using it or hinder opponents.
- Points – the player with the largest total of points at the end of the game wins!
To lure a cat from the yard, you must discard from your pillow cards bearing the symbols shown in the cat's cost. For each symbol shown, discard one card with a matching symbol. If a card shows two or three matching symbols, for example as on the card shown beside the cost, you may use only one of them. Within one action you may lure more than one cat, provided you can pay the cost of all the cats you are luring. Place the captured cats in front of you, next to your pillow.
When you lure a cat from the yard, a new one immediately takes its place. Draw the top cat tile from the stack, turn it over and add it to the three remaining cats in the yard. If you lure several cats within one action, refill the yard after each of them.
Examples:
Marta has a bait card with milk and food on her pillow. In the yard there is a cat whose cost shows food and milk. Marta cannot discard this card to pay the cat's cost, because she may use only one of the symbols on the card. To lure this cat, Marta would need to have one more card, with milk or food.
Patryk has the cards shown on his pillow. The cats shown are in the yard. Patryk can lure three of the four cats in the yard. He discards the required cards and takes the cats to himself. After each cat is lured, a new one immediately appears in its place.
Swapping Cards
At any moment of your turn, you may swap your card on the arrow field for any card lying on another pillow, on the same field. Place the new card on your arrow field. You may not take a card from another pillow if your arrow field is empty. The player you are swapping with may not refuse the exchange.
2- and 3-Player Variant
In a two- or three-player game, the game contains pillows that have no player. If, between the player who has just completed their action and the next player, there is such a pillow, reveal the top bait card from the stack and place it on a free field of that pillow. If the arrow field is empty, cover it with the card you placed. If all the fields are occupied, do not add further cards. If, while adding a card, you reveal a dog, discard it and reveal another card.
Using Cat Abilities
Each cat has its own one-time ability. The ability is symbolised by the icon at the bottom of the cat tile. A player may use the ability of any cat they have lured, at any moment of their turn. If you have several cats whose abilities you have not yet used, you may use the abilities of several of them in one turn. After using a cat's ability, turn its tile over so that only the picture of the cat and its points are visible.
The cat abilities are described by the following icons:
- Discard one cat from the yard and place a new one. (Shown with one cat tile and arrows.)
- Discard two cats from the yard and place new ones. (Shown with two cat tiles and arrows.)
- Discard all the cats from the yard and place new ones. (Shown with four cat tiles and arrows.)
- Ignore the revealed dog while collecting bait.
- Draw one card from the bait stack and place it on an empty field of your pillow. If the drawn card is a dog, discard it and draw another card.
- Draw two cards and place them on empty fields of your pillow. If a drawn card is a dog, discard it and draw another card.
- Use this tile when luring cats instead of a bait card showing one of the symbols shown on it. (The tile shows a spider and a ball of yarn.)
- Shift all pillows, with the cards lying on them, one place to the right.
- Shift all pillows, with the cards lying on them, one place to the left.
- Until the next turn of the player who used it, the card on that player's arrow field cannot be used, and that player's pillow is also skipped when pillows are shifted. (Shown with a red padlock.)
End of the Game
When any player reaches 10 points, the other players finish the round so that every player has taken the same number of turns. The last player to act is the player seated to the right of the player who started the game. If the last player is the first to reach 10 points, the game ends after the end of their turn.
Then add up the points on the cats you have lured (whether or not you used their abilities). The player with the most points wins!
Longer Variant
If the game seems too short to you, play until someone first reaches 15 points.