Lepidoptery Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Setup
• Play
• Climbing
• Jokers
• Turn - Pick One
  • Play & Place
  • Pass & Refresh (not available when leading if you can play)
• Designer Clarification: Clearing Columns
• Credits

Equipment

• 2 packs of standard playing cards
• 1 printed board
• 15 tokens for each player in different colors (can use Checkers or Othello pieces).
• 1 cube in each player color (used to mark last played combination).

Setup

Place the board between players and a Joker face up in front of each player. Hand each player the tokens and cube of their color and a deck of cards (38 cards) consisting of:

• 4 copies of rank 2-9
• 3 copies of rank 1 and 10 (treat Aces as 1s).

Each player shuffles their deck and draws 12 cards as their starting hand.

Play

Each turn a player chooses to either Play & Place or Pass & Refresh. After either action their turn ends and control moves to the other player. Players alternate turns until someone meets a win condition - either connecting four of their tokens in a line or emptying their hand and deck.

Climbing

Lepidoptery is a may-follow climber (with some additional constraints as described in the "Play & Place" section).

In Lepidoptery, there are 5 combination types that can be played:

• Run of 3: Three cards with sequential ranks: 1-2-3
• Run of 2: Two cards with sequential ranks: 4-5
• Single: A single card: 7
• Pair: Two cards of the same rank: 6-6
• Triple: Three cards of the same rank: 8-8-8

These are also listed below the board.

Note: Each of the above combinations does not care about suit.

Each combination played must beat the previous combination (if it exists). To beat a combination the lowest card of the new combination must beat the lowest card of the previous one OR the lowest card must be the same as the lowest card of the previous combination and must contain more cards.

Jokers

Jokers are Wilds that can not be used as singles, representing any number from 1-10. Flip over a joker once it is used. It can not be used again until it is refreshed. When a player passes, they refresh their joker so it can be used again. Jokers are not considered a part of your deck, and thus need not be used for shed out purposes.

Turn - Pick One

Play & Place

1. Play Cards: Play an allowed combination from your hand. To play a combination, it must be:
   1. Different: a player cannot play the same combination type two times in a row (unless they pass between the plays). The "Previous Combo" area tracks this. Note: you may play the same combination type as your opponent as long it differs from your own previously played combination type.
   2. Placeable: There must be space to place a token in that combination type's column.
   3. Climbing: The combination must follow the climbing rules above.
2. Place Token: Place a token in the bottom most empty space of the board column corresponding to the played combination type ("drop it down the column").
3. Update Previous Combo Marker: Move your cube in the "Previous Combo" area to the slot for the played combination type.
4. Check for Win: If either of the following conditions are met then you win and the game ends.
   1. Shed Out: You have played your entire deck and hand.
   2. Four in a Row: You have four adjacent tokens placed on the board in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line.
5. Clear Columns: If your token placement fills a column, then remove all tokens from any other filled columns.

Pass & Refresh (not available when leading if you can play)

1. Clear: Discard all combinations from the play area.
2. Update Previous Combo Marker: Move your cube to the "pass" slot.
3. Reset Joker: Flip your Joker face up.
4. Draw: Everyone replenishes their hands to 12 cards; if they already had 12+ cards, they draw 1 card.

NOTE: It's possible that when leading you may not be able to Play & Place. In which case you must Pass & Refresh (which passes the lead to your opponent).

Designer Clarification: Clearing Columns

The official column clearing rule is that as soon as two columns are filled, the first filled column clears immediately.

Credits

Designers: David Karesh, Srinivas Vasudevan Artist: Imogen Oh Publisher: New Mill Industries

Lepidoptery v1.0.0