Squirrel or Die Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup: Basic Game
• Game Play
  • Phase I: Autumn
  • Phase II: Winter
  • Game Over
• Special Tiles
• Variant One: the Birdhouse
• Variant Two: Reverse or Die

Setup: Basic Game

1. Ensure the proper death to squirrel ratio. (Skulls look like the SoD logo.)
   • 4-player: remove 2 food tiles and the birdhouse leaving 25 tiles - enough for a 5x5 grid.
   • 3-player: remove 3 skull tiles from the pile of tiles leaving 25 tiles - enough for a 5x5 grid.
   • 2-player: remove 6 skull tiles, 5 food tiles, and the birdhouse leaving 16 tiles - enough for a 4x4 grid.
2. Put all the remaining tiles in the sack. Place one tile facedown (keep it secret) and then three tiles faceup around it creating a 2x2 grid of tiles.
3. Determine who goes first. The person who looks most like a squirrel goes first or the person who won last. Squirrel imitations should be considered seriously during this step.
4. All players draw three tiles. Look at what you got, but keep them hidden from each other.

Game Play

There are two phases in SoD - Autumn (hide stuff) then Winter (eat stuff).

Phase I: Autumn

Play goes clockwise around the table. On their turn, each player:

1. Draws a tile from the pile/bag. Places the freshly drawn tile faceup and adjacent to any of the tiles on the board already (No diagonals).
   • You may not make any one direction more than 5 tiles wide/tall or 4 tiles wide/tall if playing the 2 player game.
2. Swaps a tile from their hand facedown with one of the faceup tiles on the board.
   • Tip: Remember what you placed where or you may die a horrible squirrel death.
   • Tip: Try to remember what the other players collected especially the special tiles.

Continue going around the table until there are no more tiles to draw. Afterward, each player's turn is just step #2.

After all the faceup tiles are gone, each player simply places a tile facedown on the board from their hand for their turn.

Autumn ends when all the tiles are facedown and in a 5x5 grid (or 4x4 for 2 players.)

Phase II: Winter

Each player selects a tile and turns it faceup in front of them. Then one of three things happens:

1. You flip a food or birdhouse tile then all is good. Nothing happens; it's the next player's turn.
2. You flip a skull tile, it's not as good. Check to see if you lose and then it's the next player's turn.
3. You flip a special tile, see the special tile descriptions for what happens to you. Check to see if you or someone else loses and then it's the next player's turn.

Game Over

A player is out when they collect three skulls (or equivalent). The game is over when only one player remains.

Last squirrel standing wins. In the unlikely event of a tie, the player who collected the most food tiles wins.

Special Tiles

• The Bomb: when flipped counts as 2 skulls instead of just one.
• Again: the current player takes another turn immediately.
• The Sleepy Squirrel: hibernating is good. The current player skips their next turn.
• Squirrel Love: gain an additional life point. It takes 4 skull tiles to take you out of the game.
• Confused Cat: counts as 1 skull but you give it to another player immediately! That's so mean. You won't go to squirrel heaven.

Variant One: the Birdhouse

Setup: first establish the proper death to player ratio as in the normal game, but substitute the birdhouse tile in for one of the food tiles. Next, set up the 2x2 starting grid but instead of using a secret facedown tile use the birdhouse faceup.

Autumn: is the same as the basic game except instead of swapping facedown tiles in place of faceup ones, you take any faceup tile into your hand and then play any tile from your hand facedown in any legal place on the board (still working towards a 5x5 grid.)

Note: leave the birdhouse alone. It stays faceup where it is the whole game to give players a landmark to remember things by.

Winter: is exactly the same as the basic game.

Variant Two: Reverse or Die

Setup: first establish the proper death ratio as the basic game. Next instead of a 2x2 grid, put all 25 tiles faceup 5x5 in the middle. Put the bag away, you don't need it.

Autumn: in this variant each player has their own individual patch of tiles they're creating in any shape they desire. Each player's turn consists of taking one of the faceup tiles from the middle and adding it facedown in their own private patch. The only rule is no diagonals.

Winter: players can choose to flip a tile in any player's tile patch. Otherwise, the game proceeds as usual.