Le Petit Poucet Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Principle of the Game
  • Turn Structure
    • 1. Touch the Tree
    • 2. Find the Tree
      • Variant for the Less Quick
    • 3. Help Each Other
    • 4. Advance Through the Forest
    • 5. Advance the Ogre
  • End of the Game or a New Turn
• Variants
  • Easier Games

Contents

• 1 Path board
• 5 Child pawns (1 per player)
• 2 Boot pawns
• 25 Tree tokens
• 25 Tree cards
• 25 Little Pebbles cards
• 1 fabric bag

Setup

Refer to the diagram inside the game box, which illustrates a setup for 4 players:

1. All the Tree tokens are placed in the bag and shuffled.
2. The Path board is placed on the table. Each player chooses a Child pawn of their favourite colour and places it on the board's starting space.
3. The Boot pawns are placed outside the Path board, near the Ogre's House.
4. Each player receives a deck of Little Pebbles cards in their pawn's colour, which they place in front of them, face down.
5. A player chosen at random is the first player for the first turn. They place the Tree card deck in front of them, face down, and take the bag containing the Tree tokens.

The game can begin!

Playing the Game

Principle of the Game

A game consists of several turns and ends when one of the players reaches the parents' cottage, or when the Ogre has caught up with all players except one (more rarely, when the Ogre has eaten everyone). Memory and sense of touch will allow you to find your way through this dark forest.

Turn Structure

A turn consists of 5 steps:

1. Touch the tree
2. Find the tree
3. Help each other
4. Advance through the forest
5. Advance the Ogre

1. Touch the Tree

The first player of the turn draws a Tree token from the bag without looking at it and without showing it to the other players. Keeping their hands under the table (or behind their back), they handle the Tree token in order to memorise its shape by touch.

Meanwhile, the other players count aloud and in unison up to 10. (They may even tap the table or their hands on each number spoken, to simulate the Ogre's approach!)

At 10, the first player passes the Tree token to their left-hand neighbour, without looking at it or showing it. This player in turn handles the Tree token under the table (or behind their back) to memorise its shape, while the other players count up to 10... and so on until every player has touched and memorised the shape of the Tree token.

Once the round of the table is complete, the last player of the turn puts the Tree token into the game box without looking at it or showing it, and closes the box.

2. Find the Tree

The first player of the turn takes the Tree card deck and slowly reveals the cards, one by one, in the centre of the table. They must do so with their best hand and turn each card over so that they do not see it before the other players.

As they are revealed, the Tree cards are stacked on top of one another in the centre of the table, face up.

At any time, if a player thinks that the last card revealed, on top of the stack, matches the tree memorised during step 1 (Touch the Tree), they may place their hand on the stack as quickly as possible and take the card, which they place in front of them.

Each player may take only one card. A player who has already taken a Tree card during this step must therefore wait until the step is over.

Cards are revealed one by one until every player has a card in front of them, or until the whole deck has been turned over.

Variant for the Less Quick

To avoid using speed to take a Tree card, here is a possible variant:

The first player reveals the cards one by one in the centre of the table, but each time they reveal a Tree card, they ask each other player whether they want to take the card or not. They begin by asking their left-hand neighbour. If that player takes the card, they place it in front of them and the first player continues revealing cards. Otherwise, the question is put to the next player clockwise, finishing with the first player themselves.

Each player may take only one card.

If nobody takes the proposed card, it is placed on the pile of revealed cards in the centre of the table and the first player continues revealing.

Cards are revealed one by one until every player has a card in front of them, or until the whole deck has been turned over.

3. Help Each Other

Before taking the Tree token out of the box to check which player has found the matching Tree card, each player secretly votes for the player who, in their opinion, has found the card that matches the Tree token.

Each player takes their Little Pebbles deck and chooses the card of the player (identified by pawn colour) whom they believe has found the card matching the Tree token. The chosen card is placed face down in front of them.

A player may vote for themselves.

(Example from the page: in a 5-player game, Maïa chooses the card of the blue player because she believes that this player has found the Tree card matching the Tree token.)

4. Advance Through the Forest

The first player of the turn takes the Tree token out of the box and checks whether a player has found the matching Tree card. To do so, they place the Tree token on top of the cards taken by the players during step 2 (Find the Tree).

• The player who found the card matching the Tree token advances their pawn one space on the board, towards the parents' cottage.
• Then each player reveals their Little Pebbles card. Each player who voted for the player who found the card matching the Tree token also advances one space. A player who found the correct card and voted for themselves advances 2 spaces!

(Example from the page: Maïa (red pawn) found the Tree card matching the Tree token and voted for herself. She advances 2 spaces. Némo (blue pawn) also voted for Maïa. He advances one space.)

5. Advance the Ogre

Finally, the Ogre sets off thanks to his seven-league boots:

• At the end of the first turn, the Ogre puts on his first boot. Place one of the Ogre's boots on one of the two footprint marks of the Ogre's House.
• At the end of the second turn, the Ogre puts on his second boot. Place it on the free footprint mark of the Ogre's House.
• At the end of the third turn, the Ogre sets off. Advance one of the Ogre's boots one space towards the players' pawns (the players' starting space).
• At the end of the fourth turn, advance the second boot up to the space in front of the first boot.

And so on...

Thus, at the end of each turn, the rear boot jumps over the space of the front boot to land on the next space, as if the Ogre were taking great strides!

If one of the Ogre's boots arrives on a space where one or more players' pawns are located, those players end up in the Ogre's stomach! Their pawns are removed from the board, and they may from now on take charge of the Ogre's movement until the end of the game.

(Example from the page: Maïa, red pawn, has just ended up in the Ogre's belly!)

Finally, the Tree token of this turn and the corresponding Tree card are set aside.

End of the Game or a New Turn

The game ends:

• if a player reaches the parents' cottage and is declared the winner. However, they must have found the Tree card matching the Tree token in order to reach the cottage. (A player cannot reach the cottage simply by voting for another player in step 3, Help Each Other.)
• or if all players have been devoured except one, who wins by taking advantage of the Ogre's digestive nap (and also uses the opportunity to free his brothers)!

Naturally, all players lose if the Ogre devours all the remaining players in a single turn.

If neither of these cases occurs, the game continues and the player who found the Tree card matching the Tree token during this turn becomes the first player of the next turn.

If nobody found the Tree card matching the Tree token, the first player remains the same.

Variants

Easier Games

In the basic rules, all the Tree tokens and Tree cards are used. However, you may adjust the difficulty of the game as you wish.

For easier games, remove from the game the Tree tokens (and associated cards) showing 2 vertical holes or 2 horizontal holes (or both types).

In short, the idea is to remove one or two tree series to adjust the difficulty of the game to your liking.