The Bark Side
The Bark Side Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
50 cards numbered from 1 to 10, ×5 each.
A card number represents the strength of the card.
Overview
The Bark Side is a climbing card game. The gameplay goes through several rounds until a player loses the game by fulfilling one of the game end condition (please refer to "Game end condition").
Each turn, players get rid of one of their card while aiming to not discard the highest card on the last turn of a round, at the risk of having to add cards to their personal area. The goal of the game is to have the least cards in your area.
Gameplay
Step 1: Card distribution
Shuffle all cards and deal 10 to each player. This is your hand. Make sure it is not visible to other players throughout the play.
Set aside any remaining cards in a pile face-down.
All players choose 2 cards and hand it face-down to the player on their right. Be careful to add the new cards to your hand after handing 2 of your own cards, not before!
Step 2: Playing cards
The starting player plays face-up in front of him either 1 card or a set of cards. Then turn proceeds in clockwise order.
A. Playing 1 card
The starting player plays 1 card of his choice. From now on each player must play 1 card of equal or higher strength than the one played by the previous player.
If you cannot or do not want to play such a card, you must discard the lowest card you have in hand. This move is called the "tail-tucking move".
(Illustration: a same or higher card... or a tail-tucking move!)
B. Playing a set of cards
A set of cards is when the starting player plays several cards of same strength (e.g.: 3+3, 4+4+4…). However, the following conditions must be fulfilled to play a set:
- At least 1 player must have made a tail-tucking move during one of the previous turns. Then sets can be played during any turn of this round.
- After playing a set you must at least have 1 remaining card in hand.
Then, each player must on their turn play with the same number of cards a set of cards of equal or higher strength than the one played by the previous player.
(Illustration: a set of 7+7 works, but not 7+7+7!)
If you cannot or do not want to play, you must discard a set of the lowest cards you have in hand. In that case, it does not matter if they are not of same strength.
After all players played a card (or set of cards), the player who played the highest one is the next starting player. If several players played the highest card only the last one played is taken into account.
Set aside all played cards, and keep repeating "step 2 - Playing cards" until each player is left with only 1 card in hand.
Step 3: Playing the last card
Your owner comes back from work! This step starts when all players only have 1 remaining card in hand.
From the starting player and in clockwise order, play your last card in front of you. The player with the highest card loses the round. If several players played the highest card only the last one played is taken into account.
The loser of the round adds the highest card and the two lowest cards played during this turn to his area.
(Illustration: You got caught! Add your card and the two lowest cards to your area.)
Next round
If a game end condition is not fulfilled at this stage, shuffle all cards (except of course cards placed in players' area) and start a new round. If there are not enough cards to deal 10 per players, distribute it as evenly as possible and leave remaining cards face-down.
Game end condition
The game ends when either:
- A player gets 7 cards of different dogs caught in his area. He loses the game.
- There are only 4 or less cards left to deal per player at the beginning of a round. The loser of the game is the player with the most cards of different strength in his house. In case of a tie, the player with the most cards in total loses the game.
The player with the least cards in his area wins.