Porca Miseria
Porca Miseria Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
The Cards
- Place the three target cards in the middle of the table. Every player must be able to reach all three cards with both hands.
- Shuffle the remaining 63 cards (symbol cards and touch cards) well and place them as a face-down stack on the table.
- Determine a starting player.
Lucky Numbers
- Each player receives one or more lucky numbers. The starting player receives the number "1", the player following clockwise receives the number "2", and so on, counting up to "8".
- Depending on the number of players, a player receives two or even three lucky numbers at once.
- Players keep their lucky numbers for the entire game.
Playing the Game
- The starting player takes the face-down stack. He turns over the top card so that all players can see the card at the same time.
- So that the starting player has no advantage over the other players, he must always handle the card so that it is turned over away from him. The faster the turning movement, the sooner the starting player himself sees the face-up card.
Turning over the card: grip the top card from the front and turn it over, away from the player.
- The revealed card is either a symbol card or a touch card.
Action with a Symbol Card
A symbol card shows one to eight small "lucky mushrooms" (blue), "lucky pigs" (yellow) and "chimney sweeps" (red), in different combinations and in the color of the respective target card.
When a symbol card is revealed, every player must find out as quickly as possible how often a symbol appears on the card. If the number of a symbol matches one of a player's lucky numbers, he must immediately take the corresponding target card for himself.
Example 1: Adrienne has the lucky number "5" and may take the target card "Chimney sweep". Corinna has the lucky number "2" and may take the target card "Lucky pig". David has the lucky number "4" and may take the target card "Lucky mushroom".
The card shows 3 yellow lucky pigs, 4 blue lucky mushrooms and 6 red chimney sweeps.
If, by luck, several of a player's lucky numbers match the number of symbols on a symbol card, he may also take several target cards, provided he manages to do so.
Example 2: Bernd has the lucky numbers "1" and "5". On the symbol card the lucky pig appears five times and the lucky mushroom once. Bernd may take the corresponding target cards.
A player with several lucky numbers may take several target cards, if he is fast enough.
If none of a player's lucky numbers matches the number of any of the symbols on a symbol card, he may take any target card he wants.
Example 3: Corinna has the lucky numbers "3" and "7". On the revealed symbol card no symbol appears three times or seven times. Corinna may take any target card, if she is fast enough.
Only if no lucky number of a player matches the number of the symbols may he take any target cards he wants.
Winnings
For each target card that a player was allowed to take, he receives one card from the stack as a winning. Won cards are placed face up in front of the players.
Loss
If a player has taken (touched = taken) a target card that he was not allowed to take, for example because he miscounted and therefore grabbed the wrong target card, then for each wrong target card he must put three cards from his winnings into the jackpot.
If a player has fewer than three cards in his winnings, he must give up his entire winnings as a loss.
Jackpot
The jackpot is a collection of at most five cards, lying near the target cards in the middle of the table. If there are more than five cards in the jackpot, the respective starting player shuffles the surplus cards back into the stack before he turns over the top card.
At the beginning of the game there is no card in the jackpot.
End of the Action with a Symbol Card
After the starting player has handed each player who rightfully took a target card one card from the stack as a winning, the target cards are placed back in the middle of the table. The revealed symbol card and the cards that a player must give up from his winnings as a loss are placed in the jackpot.
Action with a Touch Card
A touch card shows either a large "lucky mushroom", a large "lucky pig" or a large "chimney sweep".
When a touch card is revealed, action must be taken quickly. Every player tries as fast as possible to slap, with both hands one after the other, onto the corresponding target card or onto the hands of the other players already lying there. This creates a stack of hands. The target card stays in the middle of the table.
Sandwich
Whoever first manages to catch exactly one hand of another player between his own hands (a "sandwich") receives the revealed touch card and the jackpot as winnings.
Example 4: The starting player has revealed a touch card with the mushroom. Adrienne has caught one of Bernd's hands between her hands. She has won this action.
Target card "Lucky mushroom".
If no "sandwich" has been created, the player whose hand is at the bottom of the stack of hands wins the revealed touch card and the jackpot.
If a player does not want or cannot place another hand on the stack of hands, and no "sandwich" has yet been created, then the player whose hand is at the bottom of the stack of hands wins the revealed touch card and the jackpot.
End of the Action with a Touch Card
After the starting player has handed the revealed touch card and the jackpot to the winner of this action as winnings, this action is over.
The Starting Player Changes
Once one of the two actions has been carried out, the starting player changes. The player following clockwise becomes the new starting player. He receives the card stack and checks the number of cards in the jackpot (at most five). If there are more than five, he shuffles the surplus cards into the stack. Then he reveals the top card.
End of the Game
The game ends immediately when the cards left in the stack are no longer sufficient to hand out winnings. As compensation for missing cards, the players receive the target cards. Each player now counts his winning cards. Whoever has the most cards has won.
Variant for Experts
Whenever the starting player changes, the lucky numbers of the players also change. The starting player always has the lucky number "1", and his left-hand neighbour always has the "2", and so on. With this variant, the players always have to pay attention anew and cannot get used to a particular lucky number.
Distribution of Lucky Numbers
With 3 players:
- Player A: 1+4+7
- Player B: 2+5+8
- Player C: 3+6
With 4 players:
- Player A: 1+5
- Player B: 2+6
- Player C: 3+7
- Player D: 4+8
With 5 players:
- Player A: 1+6
- Player B: 2+7
- Player C: 3+8
- Player D: 4
- Player E: 5
With 6 players:
- Player A: 1+7
- Player B: 2+8
- Player C: 3
- Player D: 4
- Player E: 5
- Player F: 6
With 7 players:
- Player A: 1+8
- Player B: 2
- Player C: 3
- Player D: 4
- Player E: 5
- Player F: 6
- Player G: 7
With 8 players:
- Player A: 1
- Player B: 2
- Player C: 3
- Player D: 4
- Player E: 5
- Player F: 6
- Player G: 7
- Player H: 8