Seers Catalog
Seers Catalog Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Prepare Cards
2 Seers: 3 Suits #2-10 of each (before each round, remove 3 random Suited cards), 4 Artifacts, 2 Wilds.
3 Seers: 3 Suits #2-13 of each, 6 Artifacts, 3 Wilds.
4 Seers: 4 Suits #2-13 of each, 8 Artifacts, 4 Wilds.
5 Seers: 5 Suits #2-13 of each, 10 Artifacts, 5 Wilds.
Always include Go First with Artifacts.
Seer (Player) Setup
Give each seer 1 Wild card, 2 random face down Artifact cards, and 1 Bonus token with the 6+ side face up. Make sure that the Go First Artifact is included as one of the Artifacts.
Shuffle and deal all of the suited cards evenly to all seers.
Each seer should have the following cards (and token): 1 Wild, 2 Artifacts, 1 Token, 12 Suited Cards.
These cards are the items you are planning on ordering from the catalog, but before you place your order, you'll need to whittle the list down to the essentials. That's where the game comes in... you want to have fewer than 6 cards in your hand when someone else runs out of cards.
Each round, the seer who has the Go First Artifact is the Start Seer.
Gameplay
Seers Catalog takes place over 4 rounds. Each round, seers will take turns playing melds of cards to the table or passing. Each meld of cards must follow the rules of a series of ranked card melds, called a trick. Once all seers but one have passed for a trick, that seer clears the table and starts the next trick.
This continues until one seer runs out of cards. The round is then instantly over and scored.
Tricks
The start seer plays to the table any valid meld of face up cards: singles, matching sets (2+ cards), or suited runs (2+ cards). This may include playing one or more Artifact cards.
In clockwise order from the left of the start seer, each seer must either pass or play a higher meld of the same number of cards (and same type of meld). Seers may play on the trick the next time it is their turn (if they haven't passed yet).
If a seer passes, they are out until the next trick. A seer may pass even if they have a valid meld of cards to play (until they have 5 or fewer cards; see "Flipping 6+ to Bonus" section on page 6).
If all but one seer passes, the remaining seer puts all played cards aside and becomes the new start seer.
Melds of Cards
A meld of cards can be Singles, Matching Sets, or Suited Runs.
Singles
A Single is a single card, usually a suited card from 2-13, but certain Artifacts may also be played as Singles. Each Single played after the led Single card must be higher than the previous Single card.
Matching Sets
A Matching Set is 2 or more cards of the same value. For instance, a plum 6, green 6, and teal 6 would be a 3 card matching set. Subsequent cards played that trick must consist of the same quantity of cards (in this case 3 cards), but the number value on those cards must be higher than the last matching set played (e.g., 3 "7"s of any suit). A Wild card can be any number from 2-13 and can be part of any set.
Suited Runs
A Suited Run is 2 or more cards of the same suit in a row. A teal 4 and a teal 5 would be a suited run of 2 cards. Subsequent cards in this trick have to end with a higher card than the previous suited run, but with the same quantity of cards, and must consist of any single suit (but can be a different suit than the led run). For instance, a plum 5 and plum 6 could be played after the teal 4 and teal 5. A Wild card can be any number from 2-13 of the same suit as the cards in the run.
Flipping 6+ to "Bonus"
When a seer has 5 or fewer cards remaining in their hand, that seer flips their 6+ token over to the Bonus side. That seer is now considered to be "in the Bonus". For the rest of the round, that seer cannot pass if they have a valid play, which might include playing 1 or more Artifact cards. If that seer gains cards so that their hand exceeds 5 cards, that seer is no longer considered to be in the Bonus and must flip their Bonus token over to the 6+ side.
Example 1
Blathers leads a 5.
Longclaw has 5 cards: a 5, 5, 7, 8, and 9. Being in the Bonus, Longclaw cannot pass if Longclaw is able to play. Since he has cards that are higher than a 5 (7, 8 and 9), Longclaw is required to play and lays down a 7.
Zaz has 6 cards and passes. Blathers passes and Longclaw wins the trick.
Example 2
In another game, Longclaw leads a set of two 5's.
Zaz has 6 cards and passes.
Blathers now has 3 cards: a 2, 6, and a Wild. Since Blathers is in the Bonus and can legally play a 6 and Wild, Blathers must play those cards.
All other seers pass, so Blathers wins this trick and will lead the next one.
Round End
Play continues until one seer is out of cards. When this happens, the round ends immediately—no other seers may play any cards at this time.
Scoring
If a seer has 5 or fewer cards (their Bonus token should be turned to "Bonus" side up), they gain points equal to the lowest value of any of their cards (Artifact and Wild cards have a value of 0, so a seer with an Artifact or Wild as one of their 5 or fewer cards will not gain any points).
Then, each seer loses 1 point for each card that they have in their hand. A seer can (and often does) have negative points as their score.
Scoring Example
Blathers played his last card (a 2) to lead the next trick. Because it was his last card, the round ended instantly. At that time:
Blathers gets a score of 0 with no cards remaining.
Longclaw had 2 cards left: 8 and 9. Longclaw's score is 6. 8 (their lowest card) - 2 (2 cards left).
Zaz had 6 cards left: 2, 2, 3, 6, 6, and 10. Zaz's score is -6. 0 bonus points (because they had more than 5 cards) -6 (6 cards left).
Next Round Setup
After each of the first 3 rounds, shuffle all of the suited cards together, and evenly deal them out face down to the seers.
Give each seer 1 Wild card, and shuffle and deal out 2 Artifact cards face down to each seer.
The seer with the Go First card goes first.
End of Game
After 4 rounds, the seer with the most points wins.
If more than 1 seer is tied for the most points, the tied seer with the most points in the final round wins. If still tied, the first seer to grab the Seers Catalog box wins.