Kyoto no Neko Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Standard Components
• Scenario Components
• Description of Game Components
  • Boards
  • Kitten Sheets and Skill Sheets
  • Mission Cards
  • Icons
  • Skill Dice
• Setup
• Game Turn
• 1. Movement
  • The Basics (Stamina, Agility)
    • Agility: Hedges and Roofs
  • Crossing the Road
• 2. Action
  • The Basics (Agility, Friendship, Fighting, Hunting)
  • Action and Reaction
  • Agility
    • Climb a Cherry Tree
  • Friendship
  • Fighting
  • Hunting
• 3. Missions
  • Mission Cards
  • Achieving Missions
• Other Ways to Earn Medals
• Kitten Growth
• Game End
• Game Variants
  • "Experienced" Kittens
  • Asymmetrical Central Area Board
• Credits

Goal

You play the role of a Kitten who will try to discover its environment, grow up, and acquire skills by learning from its failures.

Kittens earn Medals by achieving Objectives.

The Kitten who obtains the most Medals (with a minimum of 5) wins the game.

Standard Components

• 1 double-sided Central Area board (Standard side, Asymmetrical side)
• 5 "Standard" Mission cards
• 40 base Paw tokens with their Storage Chest
  • Base Paws do not contain the "friend at home" placement icon.
• 1 Scenario board
• 2 Bikes and 6 Cherry tree standees to assemble
• 16 Bike cards
• 10 "Enemy defeated" tokens
• 2 Skill dice (6-sided)
• 1 Koban "First player" token
• For each of the 4 players and by color:
  • 1 Kitten
  • 1 Neighborhood board (Starting area)
  • 1 Kitten sheet (2 sided): "Beginner" side and "Experienced" side
  • 1 Skill sheet
  • 4 Skill counters (cubes)
  • 1 Stamina counter (cube)
  • 7 Medals (+2 replacement Medals)
  • 1 Storage Chest

Scenario Components

You can find the details for Scenario components in the Scenario booklet. There, you will also find all the needed information to play various Scenarios.

The 5 envelopes are used to store the various tokens and cards.

Description of Game Components

Boards

The Central Area board and the Neighborhood boards are made up of spaces: Roof, Road, Hedge, and Terrace space. Each player's Neighborhood board also has a Home space.

The Kitten sheet board shows the Stamina track, the Growth track (earned Medals), the initial skill values, the Victories tally, and the Skills.

Kitten Sheets and Skill Sheets

• Stamina: shown on the Kitten sheet.
• Growth track (earned Medals): shown on the Kitten sheet.
• Initial skill values: shown on the Skill sheet.
• Victories tally: shown on the Skill sheet.
• Skills: shown on the Skill sheet.

Mission Cards

Each Mission card shows:

• The Skill to use for succeeding the Mission.
• An icon for the placement of the corresponding Paw (for Scenario Mission cards).
• A Mission illustration.
• Placement of Medals (1 per player).

5 Mission cards are placed on the Scenario board.

Icons

• The "1 space upwards" icon indicates that a Skill counter cube must be moved 1 space upwards.
• The "1 space downwards" icon indicates that a Skill counter cube must be moved 1 space downwards.
• The "4x upwards" icon indicates that a Skill counter cube must be moved 1 space upwards 4 times. You're free to choose different cubes or not.

The Skill icons are:

• Stamina (paw print)
• Agility (lightning bolt)
• Friendship (heart)
• Fighting (crossed claw marks)
• Hunting (bow/claw mark circle)

Skill Dice

The "X" face of the die indicates a critical failure. Please note that in this case, the Skill counter advances 1 extra space (1 from failing the Skill Check and 1 from the critical failure). See The Basics under Movement.

Setup

1. Place the Central Area board on the table, using the Standard side.
2. Place the 4 Neighborhood boards next to the Central Area board, using the Standard side (no matter the number of players).
3. Shuffle the 40 Paws face down and place them randomly on each space in the Central Area board, except for the road. Do the same for the Neighborhood boards, except for the Terrace and Home spaces.
4. Place the 2 dice, the "Enemy defeated" tokens and the Cherry trees within reach of all players.
5. Place the Bikes 3 spaces before the arrows drawn on the Road spaces, facing the same direction as the arrows. Place the Bike cards within reach.
6. Place the Scenario board near the Central Area board and place the 5 Mission cards on it.
7. Each player takes:
   • 1 Kitten and places it on the Terrace space of their Neighborhood;
   • 1 Kitten sheet on the Beginner side, the corresponding Skills sheet, and places their 4 Skill counters and the Stamina counter on spaces with a dot of their color.
8. Each player also takes 7 Medals of their color and places:
   • 1 on each of the 5 Mission cards;
   • 1 on the indicated place in their Home space;
   • 1 on the indicated place at the right of the Victories tally.
9. Player who pet a Kitty the most recently gets the Koban "First player" token.

• Even if there are fewer than 4 players, all boards as well as all Paws are placed according to these instructions. However, the number of Kittens remains tied to the number of players.

10. Starting skill levels
    • Look carefully to your chosen Skill sheet: it defines the starting position of the Skill counters.
    • Place the skill counters according to diagram next to the Kitten's name.

Game Turn

Starting from the first player and continuing in clockwise order, all players take their turn. If, at the end of a full round of turns, the game end wasn't triggered by any player, the first player starts a new round.

A player's turn is divided into 3 phases:

1. Movement (optional): The Kitten moves space by space. When moving, if the Kitten moves onto a space:
   • which contains a face down Paw, they flip it.
   • which contains a Paw with a red background and an orange Objective (even if they just flipped it), they need to react immediately by doing a Skill Check (example: fleeing from a dog with an Agility Check). In this case, it consists of a reaction (and not an action). If the skill check fails, the turn is over. If the skill check succeeds, the turn continues.
2. Action (optional)
   • Possible actions are determined by the Paws present on the space in which the Kitten ended their movement. Reaction(s) must be resolved before performing an action.
   • If several actions are possible, the player chooses one of them freely.
   • Only one action can be done each turn. Once complete, the Action phase ends no matter the result of the action.
3. Missions (if applicable)

Example: Paws — Action Paw and Reaction Paw. Paws that don't have a red background may be ignored. Paws (including Reaction Paws) situated in the starting space of the movement do not trigger a reaction.

1. Movement

The Basics (Stamina, Agility)

• A Kitten can move as many spaces as their Stamina number (indicated by the Stamina icon on the left of their player board).
• Movement is assessed one space at a time and always orthogonal: you cannot move between spaces that only have a connection through their corners.
• The road contains spaces. The Home space is connected to the 3 spaces beside it.
• Each time a Kitten moves onto a space with a face down Paw, they flip it. If they discover a Paw with a red background and an orange Objective number, they must react with the corresponding Skill Check. In other cases, they can decide to not interact with the Paw(s) in the space and continue their movement.
• If a Kitten moves on a space containing one (or several) Reaction Paw(s) (with a red background and an orange Objective number), they must react with the corresponding Skill Check(s).
• If a Kitten fails a reaction, their movement stops and their turn ends. If they succeed, they can perform an action or continue moving.
• If a Kitten moves onto a space with another Kitten, they can either:
  • Trigger a fight (see the action "fighting"), OR
  • Continue their movement without fighting. In that case, the opposite Kitten may choose to trigger the fight, which will force the moving Kitten to fight as a reaction (just as if the moving Kitten flipped a "Rat" Paw).
• Hedges and Roofs block Kitten movement until the Kittens have a high enough Agility Skill to allow them to pass over them (at least +4 for hedges and +6 for roofs). No Skill Check is required for jumping over hedges or roofs.

Example: Movement 1a/1b — moving and discovering a Paw. Example 2 — moving by jumping over a hedge. Example 3 — you cannot move between spaces diagonally.

Example: Assembling the standees — if you discover a Paw that has an existing standee (for example the Cherry Tree or key characters from Scenarios), you may store the Paw in the box and replace it by the corresponding standee.

Agility: Hedges and Roofs

• Hedges: moving from a space to another through hedges doesn't trigger a Skill Check, but requires an Agility Skill of at least +4.
• Roofs: moving from a space to another through roofs doesn't trigger a Skill Check, but requires an Agility Skill of at least +6.

Crossing the Road

• As soon as a Kitten enters a Road space, they draw a Bike card and move each Bike clockwise by as many spaces as indicated on the card (a number between 1 and 6 for each Bike color). Bikes always move for the exact number of spaces indicated on the card.
• If a Kitten voluntarily moves on a space with a Bike, they don't need to dodge it with an Agility Check: they simply pass behind it.
• If a Bike moves through or stops on a space with a Kitten (including Kittens from players who did not just cross up the road) when moving, the Kitten must dodge the Bike in reaction with an Agility Check (even if it is not their own turn of play). Skill Checks will be explained below.
• If a Kitten on a Road space moves onto another Road space, they must draw another Bike card, move the Bikes accordingly, and dodge them if necessary.
• Kittens don't care about crosswalks!

Example: Crossing the road — if a Bike card drawn moves the purple bike 1 space and teal bike 5 spaces.

2. Action

The Basics (Agility, Friendship, Fighting, Hunting)

Most actions require the use of a Skill to interact with a Paw. This is referred to as a "Skill Check": the result of the action is determined by reaching or failing to reach an "Objective" indicated on top of the Paw with which the Kitten interacts. The player then throws one Skill die, and adds to the result the level of the Skill used, which is indicated on their Skills sheet, next to the counter of the related Skill.

• If the sum is lower than the Objective or if the die shows an "X" (critical failure), the action fails! The Kitten learns from their failure and moves the corresponding Skill counter one space upwards (remember, critical failures move your Skill an extra space upwards).
• If the sum equal to or higher than the Objective, the action is a success (the Kitten's Skill doesn't improve).

The Skill Check is mandatory, even if your level is higher or equal to the Objective: it is always possible to roll an "X".

Action Skills reminder: Agility, Friendship, Fighting, Hunting.

Action and Reaction

• Paws and Bikes contain between 2 and 4 icons in their corners (4 if 2 actions are possible).
  • Icons on the top indicate the available actions, as well as the Objective number for the associated Skill Check.
  • Icons at the bottom indicate what happens if you fail the Skill Check above them.
  • If they fail, the Kitten learns from their failure and advances the corresponding Skill counter 1 space upwards (2 in case of a critical failure).
  • On top of that, the consequences of the failure must be applied:
    • The next player moves the Paw X spaces, ignoring any movement constraints (for example, Bikes, hedges, roofs, and roads are ignored). It is possible to have several Paws on the same space. This movement is mandatory, and the Paw's movement must finish in a different space than its starting space.
    • The Kitten flees in panic: the next player moves them X spaces towards their Home space, using the shortest or one of the shortest paths possible. When fleeing, the kitten must cross the road and avoid it as much as possible.
      • All movement constraints that trigger are ignored here (and face down Paws are not flipped face up when moved onto, and Bike cards are not drawn). However, the Kitten cannot finish their movement on the road, on a space with a face down Paw, on a space triggering a reaction, or on a space with an opposing Kitten: in any of those cases, they must flee 1 more space towards their home.
      • In the event that a Kitten flees starting from their own Home space, they go to their Terrace space.

Example: Paw — choose one of the 2 Objectives (Friendship Objective or Fighting Objective). Friendship failure: Paw is moved 3 spaces. Fighting failure: Kitten flees 3 spaces.

Example: Bike — Agility failure: Kitten flees 1 space.

Agility

• Agility is mainly used during movement and in reactions, to avoid stopping the Kitten's movement. A successful Skill Check allows the player to keep moving uninterrupted. The action of climbing a Cherry tree allows the player to obtain information on the environment.
• If you fail an Agility Check, advance 1 space (or 2 in case of critical failure) in the Agility Skill, and apply the effect indicated at the bottom of the Paw (generally, you're slightly injured and flee towards your Home space in panic).

Climb a Cherry Tree

Cherry trees: If you succeed at climbing a Cherry tree, you can look at the surroundings: secretly look at 3 face down Paws of your choice anywhere on the board.

Example: Managing to climb a Cherry tree — Die value (3) + Agility value (2) = 5. 5 is above 3 (Objective). 3 + 2 ≥ 3. Benefit: the player secretly looks at 3 face down Paws.

Example: Success and failure of an Agility Check — 1. The Kitten reaches a space with a watchdog. They must and try to escape. 2. Successful Skill Check: Die value (3) + Agility value (3) = 6. 6 equals 6 (Objective). 3 + 3 ≥ 6. 3. Benefit: the Kitten manages to escape the watchdog and continues their turn. They can remain on this space if, for example, they do not have any movement left, or if they decide to interact on another Paw on this space.

Alternatively: 2. Failed Skill Check: Die value (2) + Agility value (3) = 5. 5 is under 6 (Objective). 2 + 3 < 6. 3. Consequences: the Kitten flees 2 spaces towards their Home space, and learns from their failure (their Agility Skill counter moves 1 space upwards).

Friendship

• If you fail a Friendship Check, advance 1 space (or 2 in case of critical failure) in the Friendship Skill, and apply the effect indicated at the bottom of the Paw (generally, the potential friend flees).
• If you succeed:
  • The new friend is brought to the Kitten's home (which is filled from left to right). If your home is full (already has 3 tokens), pile up the new token on the last space.
  • The Kitten benefits from a bonus in the following cases:
    • If they fill the 2nd space, they can move the Skill counter of their choice 1 space upwards.
    • The first time they fill the 3rd space, they gain a Medal (the Medal next to the 3rd space is moved to the Growth track of their Kitten sheet, filling it from left to right).
• All friends in your Home space are accessible to other Kittens: they can thus be "stolen" and "disappear". In this case, bonuses that were previously gained aren't canceled, and you can potentially gain the Skill bonus again if you fill the 2nd space once more (however, the Medal bonus cannot be gained again).

Example: Successfully making a friend — Die value (3) + Friendship value (2) = 5. 5 is above 3 (Objective). 3 + 2 ≥ 3. Benefit: the Kitten adds the friend to their home.

Fighting

• Fighting an animal:
  • If you succeed on a Fighting Check, like in the "Hunting" description below, add your enemy's Paw to your Victories tally and gain the corresponding bonuses when applicable.
  • If you fail a Fighting Check, advance 1 space (or 2 in case of critical failure) in the Fighting Skill, and apply the effect indicated at the bottom of the Paw (generally, you flee).
• Fighting an opposing Kitten:
  • Place an "Enemy defeated" token on the space where the fight took place.
  • Players simultaneously do a Fighting Check, then compare the results to determine the winner. In case of a draw, they try again.
  • The losing player advances 1 space (or 2 in case of critical failure) in the Fighting Skill and applies the effect indicated at the bottom of the "Enemy defeated" token (generally, they flee).
  • The winner adds the "Enemy defeated" token to their Victories tally, gaining any corresponding bonuses, if applicable.

Example: Fighting an opponent — 1. Place the "Enemy defeated" token. 2. Simultaneous Skill Checks: 2 + 1 < 3 + 1. 3. Consequences: the orange Kitten flees 4 spaces away towards their Home space, as decided by the next player, and the Kitten learns from their failure (their Fighting Skill counter moves 1 space upwards). 4. Benefit: the blue Kitten succeeds. The Paw is added to the Victories tally (filled from bottom to top), and the Kitten gains a bonus Medal which they place on their Growth track.

Hunting

• If you succeed on a Hunting Check:
  • The Paw is added to the Victories tally (filled from bottom to top). If the Victories tally is full, start again starting from the bottom.
  • The Kitten benefits from a bonus in the following cases:
    • The first time they fill the 4th space, they gain a Medal (the Medal next to the 4th space is moved to the Growth track of their Kitten sheet, filling it from left to right).
    • If they fill the 2nd or the 5th space, they can move the Skill counter of their choice 1 space upwards.
• If you fail a Hunting Check, advance 1 space (or 2 in case of critical failure) in the Hunting Skill, and apply the effect indicated at the bottom of the Paw (generally, your prey flees).

Example: Gaining the hunting Medal — when you fill the 4th space of the Victories tally, gain the corresponding Medal.

Example: Success and failure of a Hunting Check — 1. The Kitten decides to hunt the bug present on this space. 2. Successful Skill Check: Die value (3) + Hunting value (1) = 4. 4 equals 4 (Objective). 3 + 1 ≥ 4. 3. Benefit: the Kitten manages to hunt their prey. The Paw is added to the Victories tally (filled from bottom to top).

Alternatively: 2. Failed Skill Check: Die value (2) + Hunting value (1) = 3. 3 is under 4 (Objective). 2 + 1 < 4. 3. Consequences: the bug flees one space away in a direction decided by the next player, and the Kitten learns from their failure (their Hunting Skill counter moves 1 space upwards).

3. Missions

Mission Cards

Each Mission card represents an Objective which, once achieved, awards you with a Medal:

• Cross the road: this Mission is achieved if you cross the road during your turn.
• Climb a tree: this Mission is achieved if you successfully climb a tree (no matter which).
• Hunt a bug: this Mission is achieved if you successfully hunt a bug (no matter which).
• Become friends with a butterfly: this Mission is achieved if you become friends with a butterfly (no matter which).
• Defeat an enemy Kitten: this Mission is achieved if you defeat an enemy Kitten during a fight (no matter which — do not forget to add an "Enemy defeated" token to your Victories tally). The Mission can be achieved even if you did not start the fight.

Achieving Missions

• At the end of their turn, each player checks if they achieved one or more Missions.
• If that is the case, they move their Medal(s) on each achieved Mission card to the Growth track of their Kitten sheet, filling it from left to right.

Achieving a Mission a second time doesn't award you with a Medal. You do not need to achieve Missions in the same order as on the Scenario board.

Example: Earning Medals and placing them on the Growth track — Example 1: the Mission "climb a tree" is achieved first. Take the Medal of your color on the Mission card and place it on your Growth track. Example 2: later in the game, the Mission "defeat an enemy Kitten" is achieved. Take the Medal of your color on the Mission card and place it on your Growth track.

Other Ways to Earn Medals

• On top of Missions, there are 2 other ways to earn Medals:
  • The Victories tally;
  • Friends welcomed at home.
• Just as for Missions, take the corresponding Medal and place it on your Growth track.

You gain the Medal on the Victories tally when placing the 4th Paw on the tally. You gain the Medal at your home when placing the 3rd friend.

Kitten Growth

• The first player to add a Medal on one of the 2 "Growth" spaces triggers the growth of all Kittens. Growth takes place at the end of turn (after achieving Missions) as below:
  • The Stamina counter of all Kittens moves 1 space to the right;
  • Each player moves 1 of their Skill counters 1 space upwards as many times as indicated on the corresponding Growth space on their Kitten sheet. The same counter can be chosen several times.
• If, later in the game, other players reach the same Growth space, nothing happens. Thus, Kittens will have 2 simultaneous Growth phases during the game.

Example: Growth track — 2 Growth spaces determine the quantity of initial Skills gained (e.g. 5x and 3x) out of the 6 spaces for earned Medals, ending in the Victory space.

Example: Stamina track — the Stamina counter moves 1 space to the right each time a Growth phase is triggered (e.g. from 3, to 4, to 6).

Game End

When a player adds the fifth Medal on their "victory" space, finish the current game round (until the player sitting right to the first player) and the game ends. The Kitten with the most Medals wins the game. To mark their victory, they check a box in the "Hall of Fame" beside their name at the end of this rulebook. If this is their first win, they add their name before checking the box!

It is possible to obtain more than 5 Medals. Ties are determined by the level of the Friendship Skill (and by a fight if there is still a tie!).

Example: Game end — the last player of the round to be the first to reach 5 Medals on the Growth track wins the game.

Game Variants

After playing a few games, you can try one or two of the following variants.

"Experienced" Kittens

Instead of using the Beginner side of your Skills sheet, use the "Experienced" side:

• Each player moves 1 of their Skill counters 1 space upwards as many times as indicated on the left of their Growth track (on their Kitten sheet).
• The same counter can be chosen several times.

Stamina cannot be increased in this way.

Asymmetrical Central Area Board

Use the asymmetrical back side of the Central Area board. The youngest player chooses how to position it.

Credits

• Designer: Cédric Millet
• Illustration: Jérémie Fleury
• Editorial director: Arnaud Charpentier
• Art director: Maxime Erceau
• Prepress: Arthur Jacques, Laura Arrescurrenaga
• Proofreading: Cédric Basso
• Production: Publishing Technology & Solutions
• Graphic design: Maxime Erceau, Arthur Jacques
• English translation: Valentin Le Lay
• English proofreading: Billy Chandler, Julia Phipps

Designer's message: I dedicate this game to my wife Myriam. Huge thanks to Hervé and Grégory for their invaluable support on this project. Thanks also to Fabien, Laurant, Marc, Sandrine, Thierry, Thomas, Patrick, Philippe, Yaël, their children, and all the other testers! Big hugs to Nouba, Marc's cat, who inspired the name for the prototype.

Published by Matagot.