Moby Trick
Moby Trick Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 36 whale cards (four families: orca, narwhal, blue whale, sperm whale; each card shows a family, a value, pearls (victory points) on its left side, and a bonus)
- 1 trump whale card
- 1 double-sided value token
- 1 score pad
Each card shows: whale family (orca, narwhal, blue whale, sperm whale), card value, victory points (pearls), and bonus.
Setup
With 3 or 4 players use the full set of cards; with 2 players remove all cards with value 5.
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Place the trump whale card and the value token in the centre of the table.
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Shuffle all whale cards, then pick a random card from the pile. The whale family on this card becomes the first trump whale, and the value of the card shows which side the value token will lie on.
- If the drawn card has a value from 1 to 4, turn the token to the "1" side.
- If the drawn card has a value from 6 to 9, turn the token to the "9" side.
- If the drawn card has value 5, take another card!
Important. The visible side of the token shows which card wins the trick this round: if the token lies on the "1" side, the card with the lowest value wins; if on the "9" side, the card with the highest value wins. A trick is the cards laid on the table by each of the players during one turn.
Place the token on the trump whale card, with the side showing the corresponding family of whales. Return the whale card to the pile and shuffle it.
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Deal 9 cards to each player. Players take the cards into their hand. If you play with two or three players, set the remaining cards aside face down; they will not be needed during the round.
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Each player chooses one of his cards whose bonus he would like to use during the game and places it in front of him; this is his first bonus. Descriptions of the bonuses are on page 8 (see Bonus Effects below).
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The first player is the one who last saw a whale.
Goal and Overview
The goal of the game is to be the first to score 30 victory points (pearls).
On your turn you try to win the trick by playing the most suitable card from your hand. If you win, the winning player chooses one of the cards in this trick (other than his own) and receives the number of pearls shown on the left of that card, while the player who owns the card keeps it and can use its bonus at any moment of the game.
A round ends as soon as the players have played all 8 cards from their hands. Then the players count the victory points they received. If no player has scored 30 or more points, reshuffle and deal the cards again and play another round.
Gameplay
The game consists of several rounds, in each of which 8 tricks are played.
- The first player chooses 1 card from his hand and lays it face up in front of him. If he wishes, before playing the card he may use one or more of his bonuses.
- Players in turn, clockwise, play 1 card each. They must play a whale card of the same family as the first player's card. If a player has no cards of that family in hand, he may play any other card. If they wish, before playing a card from hand, each player may use his bonuses.
The Five!
A card with value 5 belongs to no family and can be played at any moment. It becomes of the same family as the first card played in the trick. If a 5 is played as the first card in the trick, it becomes of the same family as the first whale card played after it. If all players played only cards of value 5, the trick is won by the player who played the first card.
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When all players have played 1 card each, the player who won the trick is determined. To do this, look at the value token.
Token on the "1" side: The player who played the trump whale card with the lowest value wins. If there are no trump whales in the trick, the player who played the card with the lowest value of the family of the first card played in the trick wins.
Token on the "9" side: The player who played the trump whale card with the highest value wins. If there are no trump whales in the trick, the player who played the card with the highest value of the family of the first card played in the trick wins.
(The Russian text prints these two descriptions in the opposite order of the token sides, with the side icons not extracted as text; the above follows the rule stated in Setup: the "1" side means the lowest value wins, the "9" side the highest.)
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The winning player chooses, among the other players' cards, one card showing the number of pearls he would like to receive as a reward.
- The player who played the card chosen by the winner keeps it in front of him face up, to use its bonus at any moment of the game.
- The winner receives as many victory points as there are pearls shown on the left of the chosen card. He takes that number of cards from the remaining cards of the trick and places them in front of him, face down, in a pearl pile. The remaining cards are put in the discard pile. If there are not enough cards in the trick to receive the reward, they may be taken from the discard pile.
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The winning player starts the next trick.
Exception: The Five!
If at least one card of value 5 was played in the trick, the following happens.
- If the winner decides to take the reward shown on a 5 card, he receives 1 victory point and places that card face down in front of him in his pearl pile. The player who played the 5 does not get the bonus.
- If the winner does not choose a 5, he receives victory points as described above in step 4. However, he does not automatically become the first player of the next trick. Instead, the first player is determined by the player who played the 5. If several 5s were played, the first player of the next trick is chosen by the player who played the first 5.
- The round ends when all players have played 8 cards (8 tricks).
(Note: the source rulebook deals 9 cards per player in Setup but states that a round consists of 8 tricks; transcribed as printed.)
Scoring
Prepare a pencil and the pad to record the players' victory points.
- 1 victory point for each card in the pearl pile.
- 1 victory point for each pair of unused bonuses.
Example: Zhenya received 7 cards with pearls. Three unused bonuses are also left in front of him. For them he gets 1 point. In total he has 7 + 1 = 8 points this round.
If no player has scored 30 or more points, start a new round. Repeat all the steps as in game setup.
End of the Game
The game ends at the end of the round in which any player reaches a total of 30 or more points. This player is declared the winner! In case of a tie, play 1 more round until a winner is determined.
Example of a Trick
In this round the value token lies with the "1" side up on the blue whale. The blue whale is the trump whale, and the card with the lowest value will win the trick.
Andrey is the first player. He plays a narwhal of value 2.
The next player is Tyoma. He uses a bonus and turns the value token to the "9" side up; now the card with the highest value will win. Then Tyoma must play a narwhal card (if he has one), and he plays a narwhal of value 6.
The next player is Lena. She has no narwhal in hand, so she may play any card. She plays a blue whale of value 9. Since she played a trump whale, she can win the trick.
Zhenya goes last. Although he has a narwhal, he decides to play a card of value 5.
Lena won the trick and wants the maximum reward, so she chooses Andrey's card with three pearls and receives 3 victory points. She takes her own card, Tyoma's card and Zhenya's card and places them in front of her with the pearls face up.
Andrey keeps the card he played in front of him. He will be able to use the bonus shown on the card as early as the next round.
Since Zhenya played a card of value 5 and the trick winner did not choose this card, Zhenya decides who will be the first player in the next trick.
Bonus Effects
CHOOSE WISELY!
Before playing a card, each player may use one or more bonuses shown on the cards lying in front of him.
The bonus effect is applied IMMEDIATELY, and the card is put in the discard pile!
- Change trump: Change the TRUMP WHALE of the current round to the whale family shown in the bonus symbol. Move the value token onto the new whale family; discard the whale card whose bonus you used.
- Flip token: Turn over the value token. This changes the condition of which card wins in the current round: the highest or the lowest value. The trump whale does not change! Discard the whale card whose bonus you used.
- Pearl: GET 1 VICTORY POINT. Turn this card over and put it, pearl side up, into your pearl pile.