Le Clan des Souris Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Aim of the Game
• Contents
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. The Mouse Crew's Aid
  • 2. Exploring the Forest
  • 3. Ending the Turn
• End of the Game
• Adjustments for Older Kids (6+)
  • Setup (6+)
  • Gameplay and End of the Game (6+)
  • Special Tiles
  • Villains and Trophies
    • The Witch Griselda Grimtooth
    • The Ogre Knorrgar Thunderstep
    • The Dragon Bluesnout
• Variants

Aim of the Game

The Mouse Crew is a cooperative game: You all win or lose together! To win, you'll have to work together to find all 9 baby teeth the animal kids of the forest have hidden under their pillows before the moon tokens are used up and the sun rises.

Contents

• 18 forest tiles:
  • 9 tiles with animals
  • 6 special tiles
  • 3 villain tiles
• 2 supply tiles: 1 tooth supply, 1 time supply
• 9 objective tiles
• 5 mouse tiles
• 9 teeth: 3 small, 3 medium and 3 large
• 11 moon tokens
• 3 trophies (magic wand, ogre club and golden tooth)
• 5 mouse pawns

The following are the rules for younger kids (4 years and up) that constitute the base rules of the game. The adjustments for older kids (6 years and up) can be found from page 6 onward.

Setup

1. Shuffle the 9 forest tiles with animals and place them face down in the center of the table to form a grid of 3 by 3 tiles. All other forest tiles can be set aside; you only need them when playing with the adjustments for older kids.
2. Shuffle the objective tiles and place them as a face down draw pile next to the grid.
3. Place the box bottom with the closed chest next to the grid as well.
4. Place the tooth supply next to the box bottom and put all 9 teeth on it.
5. Do the same thing with the time supply and 10 of the moon tokens. Set the remaining moon token aside, you won't need it for this game.
6. Choose a mouse pawn each and take the according mouse tile. Place your mouse pawn on it.
7. Secretly look at 1 forest tile each and memorize it before returning it to its place in the grid.
8. The player who has last been visited by the tooth fairy begins.

Gameplay

At the start of the first turn, reveal the top objective tile of the draw pile. That is the first animal you'll have to find. Then you take turns in clockwise order, beginning with the starting player, following these steps in this order:

1. The Mouse Crew's Aid

Before the active player reveals a forest tile, all other members of the mouse crew may attempt to help them. Each player may place their mouse pawn next to a row or column if they think the animal you're currently looking for is hiding in that row or column.

Note: You do not have to provide aid. It can be better not to place your mouse pawn in this step if you aren't certain enough.

Important: It is forbidden to talk about or point at forest tiles!

2. Exploring the Forest

As soon as all players have had the chance to provide aid, the active player flips one forest tile face up to try and find the animal on the objective tile.

Found it! If the forest tile depicts the animal on the objective tile, the active player takes a tooth of the appropriate size from the tooth supply and slides it into the chest. For a large illustration on the forest tile a large tooth can be slid into the chest, for a medium illustration a medium one and for a small illustration a small one. Well done!

If you don't have any teeth of that size left in your tooth supply, you unfortunately do not find a tooth, but you also do not lose a moon token (see below).

Got lost! If the forest tile does not depict the animal on the objective tile, the active player has gotten lost in the forest. They must take a moon token from the time supply and slide it into the chest. Sunrise is approaching, be careful!

3. Ending the Turn

The active player flips the forest tile face down and all players who tried to provide aid return their mouse pawns to their mouse tiles.

If an animal has been found and a tooth has been slid into the chest, reveal a new objective tile – the next player must now look for this animal! But if there were no teeth of the right size left in your tooth supply or the active player has gotten lost, no new objective tile is revealed. The next player must look for the same animal as their predecessor.

End of the Game

The game ends in one of two ways:

• As soon as the tooth supply is empty because you have successfully found all the animal kids in the forest and collected their baby teeth. Congratulations, you won! The tooth fairy will be very proud of you!
• As soon as the time supply is empty and the sun rises. Unfortunately, you took too long trying to find all the baby teeth. Editor's note: the printed text here contains the German sentence "Ihr habt auf eurer Suche leider zu lange gebraucht." It is rendered in English as "You unfortunately took too long on your search." One more try – you've got this!

Adjustments for Older Kids (6+)

Setup (6+)

Setup works the same way as in the base game, with the following adjustments:

1. Shuffle the 3 villain tiles and choose one of them at random. Set the remaining two aside without looking at them. You will not need them for this game.
2. Shuffle the chosen tile together with the 9 forest tiles with animals as well as all 6 special tiles and place them in the center of the table in a 4 by 4 grid. (Editor's note: the printed text reads "witch animals" here; corrected to "with animals".)
3. Place the 3 trophies (magic wand, ogre club and golden tooth) next to the box bottom.

Gameplay and End of the Game (6+)

Gameplay and the end of the game both work the same way as in the base game, but there are several special tiles with different effects, which will be explained on the following pages.

Special Tiles

Special tiles all work the same way, with the exception of the wrong turn (see below): When a special tile is flipped face up, do not slide a moon token into the box. All special tiles remain face up once they have been flipped.

Magical Items. There are 3 magical items: the sword, the spellbook and the shield. These magical items are needed to defend against the villains. To fend them off, two of these magical items must be face up in the grid (which ones of them are needed depends on the villain, see pp. 8–10).

The Owl Fairy Aurelia Nightfeather. When a player would have to slide a moon token into the chest while Aurelia is face up in the grid, they can instead remove Aurelia from the grid and set her aside to keep the moon token in the time supply.

The Candle. When a player starts their turn, after players have had an opportunity to provide aid, the active player may remove the candle from the grid and set it aside to secretly look at a face down tile, before exploring the forest.

The Wrong Turn. You can easily get lost in the forest and that costs time! When the wrong turn is flipped face up the active player must slide a moon token into the chest and end their turn. The wrong turn is left "face up" like the other special tiles, but watch out: its two sides look exactly the same!

Villains and Trophies

The Witch Griselda Grimtooth

Griselda Grimtooth is very grumpy. When she is awakened, she puts a curse on the purple forests.

When Griselda is flipped face up, one of the following situations occurs:

• The sword and the spellbook are already face up in the grid: Wonderful, you have fended off Griselda! Remove her from the grid and set her aside before the active player takes the magic wand as a trophy.

• The sword and the spellbook have not yet been flipped face up: The active player must slide a moon token into the chest and end their turn immediately. Griselda remains face up until she is fended off. As long as Griselda remains face up in the grid, whenever a player flips a purple forest tile face up, they must slide an additional moon token into the chest (whether the animal on the objective tile has been found or not).

  Note: The purple forest tiles can be recognized by their color as well as the magic wand in the bottom left corner.

• As soon as the sword and the spellbook have been flipped face up you have fended off Griselda. Remove her from the grid and set her aside before the active player takes the magic wand as a trophy.

Trophy: The magic wand can be used and set aside by its owner at any time to change the size of a depicted animal on a forest tile (and slide a tooth of a different size into the chest).

The Ogre Knorrgar Thunderstep

Knorrgar's every step thunders through the forest and the mouse crew has to hide as long as he is awake.

When Knorrgar is flipped face up, one of the following situations occurs:

• The shield and the spellbook are already face up in the grid: Wonderful, you have fended off Knorrgar! Remove him from the grid and set him aside before the active player takes the ogre club as a trophy.
• The shield and the spellbook have not yet been flipped face up: The active player must slide a moon token into the chest and end their turn immediately. Knorrgar remains face up until he is fended off. For as long as Knorrgar remains face up in the grid, players may not provide each other with aid by placing their mouse pawns next to a row or column. Additionally, the effect of the candle may not be used.
• As soon as the shield and the spellbook have been flipped face up you have fended off Knorrgar. Remove him from the grid and set him aside before the active player takes the ogre club as a trophy.

Trophy: The ogre club can be used and set aside by its owner at any time to reverse a tile being flipped face up. That tile is returned face down to the same space in the grid and the active player flips another tile instead.

The Dragon Bluesnout

Bluesnout is a very sleepy dragon. When he is awakened, he jumbles up the forest with mighty strong flaps of his wings before falling asleep again.

When Bluesnout is flipped face up, one of the following situations occurs:

• The sword and the shield are already face up in the grid: Wonderful, you have fended off Bluesnout! Remove him from the grid and set him aside before the active player takes the ogre club as a trophy. (Editor's note: the printed text names the ogre club as the trophy here, but the Bluesnout trophy listed below is the golden tooth. Transcribed as printed; the source appears to contain an error.)
• The sword and the shield have not yet been flipped face up: The active player must slide a moon token into the chest. Then, they must pick up all tiles in either the row or column in which Bluesnout was flipped face up, shuffle them and return them to the same row or column face down. Then the active player must end their turn.

Trophy: The golden tooth can be used and set aside by its owner at any time to slide any remaining tooth on the tooth supply into the box, regardless of size or animal on the objective tile.

Variants

The Night's Length. For a slightly easier game, you may decide to play with all 11 moon tokens. For a more difficult game, try it with 9 moon tokens. For true experts, try it with 8, and for the ultimate challenge, try it with only 7 moon tokens!

The Dangers of the Forest. For a challenge fit for true tooth fairies, remove the candle and add a second villain. If you dare to try the impossible, you can even add all 3 villains by also removing the owl fairy Aurelia Nightfeather. Note: In this variant the ogre club can be used to turn a flipped villain face down before its effect is activated. (Editor's note: the printed text reads "ist effect"; corrected to "its effect".)