Mieses Karma Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Contents
• Preparation
• Karma tableau
• Rebirth cards
• Life cards
• Lifeline
• Game Play
  • Scoring a lifeline
  • Cleaning up the lifeline
  • Draw a rebirth card
  • When will I be human?
  • Exactly when do I die?
• End of the Game

Objective

In this game, players slip into the role of ants, which have in their past life apparently accumulated a lot of lousy karma. They are now trying to collect good karma to be human again. Before that can happen the player will have to live through the lives of many other animals. The game ends when the first player dies as a man and enters into Nirvana. Whoever has collected the most points from Karma and Life cards, wins.

Note! He who helps his fellow players and passes them appropriate cards will be rewarded with good karma and reach their goal faster!

Contents

• 29 rebirth cards, divided into:
  • 5 Ant cards,
  • 6 x "0-1 Karma" cards,
  • 5 x "2-3 Karma" cards,
  • 4 x "4-5 Karma" cards,
  • 4 x "6-7 Karma" cards and
  • 5 x Human cards
• 60 Life cards
• 5 Karma tableaus (one for each player)
• 5 Buddha figures (one for each player)

Preparation

[Illustration omitted]

Ant cards, "0-1 Karma" cards, "2-3 Karma" cards, "4-5 Karma" cards, "6-7 Karma" cards, Human cards, Life card draw pile, space for the discard pile.

• The 29 rebirth cards are sorted according to their backs (Ant cards, "0-1 Karma", "2-3 Karma", ...) and placed in six stacks in the middle of the table as shown in the illustration above. The 5 Human cards are stacked in number order, so that the top card would be "1. Human", then "2. Human" and so on. The other five decks are each individually shuffled.
• The 60 Life cards are shuffled and placed as a face-down deck in the middle of the table. Next to this a space is left for a general discard pile.
• Each player receives an Ant card, a Karma tableau and a Buddha figure. Each player places his Karma tableau before him, and the Ant card next to it. The Buddha figure is placed on the "0" of the Karma tableau.
• With fewer than 5 players the remaining Ant cards, Karma tableaus and Buddha figures are put back in the box.
• Now each player receives two Life cards from the deck and takes them into his hand.
• During the game, each player should hold his cards in his hand so that his opponents cannot see them!

Karma tableau

The Karma tableau displays, using the Buddha figure, the amount of good karma a player has accumulated. When the game starts you have no karma - hence the Buddha is on the "0".

Rebirth cards

Front: The front of each rebirth card shows an animal or human. When the game starts, each player is an ant.

Each animal - with the exception of the ant and the worms - has a special ability, which can be used once per turn. Humans have no special skill.

On the bottom right of each rebirth card a symbol is given.

Back: The number indicates how much karma you need to be reincarnated as this animal.

Life cards

On each card two life symbols are shown. On some Life cards a Buddha is depicted. These cards are especially valuable. Why? You'll find out later.

Lifeline

Life cards are played to the right of the rebirth card (which at the beginning of the game is an ant). The result will be the formation of a lifeline in front of each player. The cards, however, must be laid so that each neighbouring symbol matches each other (like in dominoes).

The following symbols may be shown on the cards:

The four living symbols (heart, sun, clover leaf, scales) represent special values for which one strives in his life:

• Heart (Love)
• Sun (Enlightenment)
• Clover (Luck)
• Libra / scales (Balance)

The joker symbol can be used in the place of any other symbol.

After a Grim Reaper symbol is played, no more Life cards can be played - the animal dies. And that's not bad, because in this game it's all about dying and rebirth!

Tip: You will find a detailed example of a game turn on the separate overview sheet.

Game Play

The players choose a start player.

In each turn a player's turn proceeds as follows:

1. The active player may perform the following actions in any order, once each:
   • Play exactly one Life card from your hand to your own lifeline or discard it to the general discard pile. (mandatory!)
   • Use your animal's special ability once. (Optional)
   • Ask a fellow player once for a matching Life card. (Optional)
2. If the active player has no more Life cards in his hand or if a Grim Reaper symbol is in his lifeline, his animal dies and is reborn as a new animal or human.

Then the next player in clockwise order has his turn.

And now here is a turn explained in more detail:

1. The active player can perform the following actions in any order, once each:

Play exactly one Life card from your hand to your own lifeline or discard it to the general discard pile. (mandatory!)

The active player plays exactly one of his Life cards he holds in his hand, to the right side of his lifeline. Naturally the Life card must show the appropriate matching symbol on the left! If the player can't or doesn't want to play a new card onto his lifeline, he must instead discard a Life card face up onto the discard pile.

IMPORTANT: If a player has no more cards left in his hand (at the moment in which he may take this action) then he may skip this action.

Use your animal's special ability once. (Optional)

With the exception of Ants, worms and men, each animal has a unique special ability that the active player may use once in their turn. A list of the special abilities with detailed descriptions can be found on the separate overview sheet.

Ask a fellow player once for a matching Life card. (Optional)

Once in his turn, the active player can ask his fellow players for a matching Life card. He asks: "Has anybody got a matching Life card for me?" He is not however allowed to describe the required card exactly - i.e. he must not say that the card must have for example a clover leaf symbol on the right. The player to the left of the active player decides whether to give the active player a matching Life card from his hand. If so, he places it face down in front of himself.

A Life card may not be offered that cannot be added correctly to the lifeline of the active player!

Then the other players also decide in turn whether to give the active player a matching Life card. After all players have decided in turn, the offered Life cards are turned over. The active player must now choose one of these cards and immediately add it to his lifeline. The player whose Life card was chosen gains 1 karma, i.e. he pushes his Buddha forward one space. The other players get nothing and take their Life cards back into their hand.

CARD EXCHANGE: If a player asks his fellow players for a Life card, but he is not offered any, he may immediately put all the cards in his hand on the discard pile and draw as many Life cards as he discarded from the deck.

REMINDER: The action "Play exactly one Life card from your hand to your own lifeline or discard to the general discard pile" is mandatory and must be performed. Whether it is the only action in the turn, or whether it is performed together with one or two optional actions, is up to the active player - as is the order in which the actions are taken. The action can only be omitted if the active player has no cards left in his hand.

2. Eventual death and rebirth

If the active player has no more cards at the end of his turn, or the Grim Reaper symbol appears in his lifeline, his animal dies and is reborn as a new animal or human. In this game this is very desirable, because in order to eventually become human, the players must die again and again. So during the game players will "live through" bigger and bigger animals with better and better abilities.

IMPORTANT: If the death was caused by a Grim Reaper symbol all the cards in the active player's hand must be discarded to the general pile. A player can never take cards from his old life to his new life!

Scoring a lifeline

Before the player is reborn as a new animal his existing life is evaluated.

a) First, the Buddhas are counted on the cards of his lifeline. For every Buddha, the active player moves his Buddha figure one space forward on his Karma tableau.

Example: [Illustration omitted]

b) Then the active player checks to see if he has four identical and/or four different symbols on the cards in his lifeline. For each combination of four identical or four different symbols, the active player may take a card from his lifeline and place it face down on the "Points deck" space on his Karma tableau.

IMPORTANT:

• Each symbol shall only be used as part of one of the four combinations.

Here there is a combination of 4 clovers:

[Illustration omitted] - 4 identical symbols

Although there are also 4 different symbols visible, one may not consider the four clovers as one of these symbols because they have all already been used.

To have another combination of four different symbols is possible if there is a fifth clover available:

[Illustration omitted] - 2 four combinations: 4 clovers + 4 different symbols

• Wild symbols and Grim Reaper symbols do not count for the four combinations!

Here there are no combinations, since neither jokers nor grim reapers may be counted for the combination of 4 different symbols:

[Illustration omitted]

Cleaning up the lifeline

All Life cards on the lifeline of the active player which were not placed on the "Points deck" of his tableau are discarded face up into the discard pile. The rebirth card is returned to the bottom of the pile from which it originated (note the number on the back!).

• Exception 1: When an ant dies, the ant rebirth card is placed directly in the box.
• Exception 2: When a man dies, you keep the Human card and the game ends.

Example: [Illustration omitted]

Draw a rebirth card

Next the active player draws a new rebirth card from the stack of his current value in karma - that is, the value on which his Buddha figure sits. (In a five-player game, it is possible that all the rebirth cards in the stack to be drawn from are already in use by the players, in which case the active player draws a rebirth card from the stack with the next lowest karma value.)

In either case, he places the rebirth card with the new animal in front of him and draws as many Life cards from the deck to his hand, as are indicated on the rebirth card on the top right.

[Illustration omitted]

If not enough cards are available on the draw deck, the discard pile is shuffled and turned over to form a new draw pile. Then the player fills his hand up with the missing Life cards.

When will I be human?

If the active player collects eight or more karma points and his animal dies, he becomes human and takes the top card from the "human" deck.

Exactly when do I die?

IMPORTANT: You can only die and be reborn in your own turn. If you have given away the last card in your hand when it wasn't your turn, or if a Grim Reaper symbol is played on your lifeline when it is not your turn, your animal will die at the end of your next turn. (Prior to that you can still use your animal's special ability and ask the players for a card).

End of the Game

The game ends when a player dies as a human. That player then scores his lifeline - but he keeps his Human card (which will win him points!). Now all the other players score their current lifeline according to the above rules (same as when dying).

Then all the players count their victory points:

• Any accumulated karma is worth 1 victory point. (The Buddha figure on the Karma tableau displays how much karma each player has gathered.)
• Each card on a player's Points stack is worth 2 victory points.
• Each Human card earns a player 2-6 victory points, depending on its number value.
• Each player adds the victory points he has earned in this way and the player with the most points wins the game. (Note that it is not essential to have become human to win.)
• If there is a tie, all tied players win.

Example: [Illustration omitted]

• Arnd has collected 9 karma at the end of the game, as well as a Life card on his Points stack, and a Human card worth 6 victory points in front of him. Thus, he has 9 + 2 + 6 = 17 victory points.
• Bärbel has collected 8 karma, has no Life cards on her Points stack, and she has a Human card which brings 4 victory points. Thus, she scores 8 + 0 + 4 = 12 victory points.
• Carol has collected 6 karma, she has 6 Life cards on her Points deck and she has no Human card. Thus, she scores 6 + 12 + 0 = 18 victory points and wins - even though she never was reborn as a human.