Sock Monsters Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Moving Pawns
  • Collecting Socks
  • Moving Monsters
• Ending the Game
• Silly Socks Mini-Expansion

Components

• 1 plastic game board
• 36 board tiles (square)
• 16 player tokens (round)
• 4 character placards
• 40 socks (5 colors, 8 each)
• 1 bag
• 4 player pawns
• 4 monster figures
• 4 monster dice
• 1 color die
• game rules
• Silly Socks mini-expansion (rainbow socks, smelly socks and boomerang socks, 4 each)

Setup

Before your first game, carefully punch all cardboard components from the counter sheets.

1. Insert the plastic game board into the game box or put it in the middle of the table.
2. Put four monster lair tiles on the corner spaces of the board, face up.
3. Shuffle the rest of the tiles, then put a single tile on each empty space on the board, face down.
4. Put a single monster die on each monster lair, then put a monster figure matching the color of the lair on top of the die.
5. Put all 40 socks from the base game into the bag and shuffle them.
6. Give each player a single placard, 4 player tokens and a pawn of a matching color.
7. Each player draws a single sock from the bag and places the sock and the tokens (face up) near his placard.
8. Then each player places his pawn on one of the four central spaces of the board.
9. Choose the first player and give him the color die.

Playing the Game

Players take turn in clockwise order in the following fashion:

First player takes a turn with his pawn and passes the color die to the next player clockwise. That player rolls the die and takes a monster turn, and then takes a turn with his own pawn. Then that player passes the color die to the next player clockwise, etc.

Moving Pawns

During your turn you may move your pawn up to three spaces in any direction or combination of directions. Player pawns may move diagonally. Your pawn may not enter or pass through spaces occupied by other pawns or monster figures, nor may it enter monster lairs (in a rare case when all of the adjacent spaces are unavailable for movement, you may move your pawn through another pawn or through a monster figure). You may choose not to move your pawn at all.

After moving your pawn you may EITHER

1. Take the tile from the space occupied by your pawn (lifting it) and show it to all players. If its color matches your player color, put it back face up, and then:
   • if your matching token is still face up, flip it face down and draw two socks from the bag.
   • if your matching token is already face down, you do not get any socks. If its color does not match yours, just put it back face down.

OR

2. Take a single sock from an orthogonally adjacent monster lair.

Collecting Socks

Whenever you collect a sock, check if you have made a pair. If you now have two socks of a matching color next to your placard, put those socks on the placard (putting them on the feet, hands or ears of the character). Those socks can no longer be stolen (see "Moving Monsters").

If you now have three pairs of socks on your placard, you have won the game! Congratulations!

Moving Monsters

Monsters lurk around the house, always eager to steal a lone sock from a careless elf and carry it into a dark corner.

After you have finished your turn, pass the color die to the next player clockwise. That player then rolls the die and gets to move the monster of the indicated color (or any one monster, if a side with four colors was rolled).

A monster must move 1-3 spaces each turn. However, monsters may not move diagonally, unlike player pawns. Monster figures cannot enter or pass spaces occupied by player pawns or other monster figures, but they may enter monster lairs.

When moving a monster figure, lift it only very slightly above the board, so the die underneath it would remain unseen and would move together with the figure.

If all spaces next to the monster are occupied, the monster misses its turn.

After moving the monster, lift the figure and look at the top face of the die. If it is showing a closed eye, the monster falls asleep, and its turn ends. If it is showing an open eye, do ONE of the following actions:

EITHER

1. Look at the face of an orthogonally adjacent board tile, without showing it to other players, then put it back, face down. You cannot look at the face of a tile occupied by player pawns or other monsters.

OR

2. Take a single unpaired sock from a player whose pawn is adjacent to the monster and put it into the monster lair matching the monster's color. Note that you can only take socks lying NEXT to the player's placard, not the paired socks from the player's placard.

OR

3. Immediately take another turn with the same monster (move the monster, look at the die again and, possibly, take another action).

After finishing the monster turn, take a turn with your player pawn as described above.

Then pass the color die clockwise so a new player can take a monster turn, and so on.

Ending the Game

As soon as one player collects 3 pairs of socks, the game ends and that player wins!

Silly Socks Mini-Expansion

Add all 12 silly socks to the bag during the setup.

They have the following special properties:

• Rainbow sock – can be paired with a sock of any color.
• Smelly sock – a monster stealing a sock from you has to steal this particular sock. This makes the monster so happy, it then gives you a sock of your choice from its lair (or a random sock from the bag, if there is none in the lair).
• Boomerang sock – when you finish your movement on the same row or column as another player's pawn, you may roll the color die. If you roll a side with four colors, take any unpaired sock from that player and give him the boomerang sock. If you roll any other side, the boomerang sock just returns to you.