The Cookie 2.0
The Cookie 2.0 Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Contents
- 6 sets of cards in 6 colors (each set includes: 6 Characters, 1 Sword, 1 Shield, and 1 Hill)
- 6 Role cards
- 3 Reference cards for different numbers of players
- 30 Coin tokens with the value 1
- 20 Coin tokens with the value 3
- 1 First Player token
This rulebook contains two game variants designed for different numbers of players.
Variant 1: Every Man for Himself
For 4 to 6 players. Duration: 30 minutes.
Game Setup
- Give each player one set of cards in one color. If there are 6 players, remove the Hill card from each set. If there are 5 players, remove the Cosine card from each set and from the Role deck. If there are 4 players, remove the Cosine and the Persians cards from each set and from the Role deck.
- Place the Coins on the table in easy reach of each player.
- Place a Reference card corresponding to the current number of players in the center of the table.
- Shuffle the Role cards and deal each player one card face down. You must not show your Role card to the others. Your Role card depicts a character for which you will play this round. Find that character among your Character cards and place it under your Role card face down.
- The first player is the one who has most recently eaten cookies. Give him/her the First Player token. (For the sake of simplicity, a player henceforth will be referred to as he.) Now you are ready to begin!
Note: the printed rulebook reads "Fist Player token" in step 5; it is transcribed here as "First Player token".
Goal of the Game
You need to determine two characters: the one you hunt for and the one who hunts for you. The Reference card always shows you which character you need to attack and from which character you need to defend. At the end of each round, you get Coins for your successful attack and defense as well as for your Hill card if it's still in your hand. At the end of the game, a player with the most Coins wins.
Game Round
The game consists of several rounds: 4, 5, or 6 based on the number of players. Each round is divided into several turns. The number of turns is equal to the number of players. A round ends after the final turn, and the Coin scoring begins. Then the next round begins and the First Player token proceeds to the next player in a clockwise direction.
Turn Description
On each turn, players place one card of their choice from their hands in front of themselves face down. Each player can choose a Character, the Sword, the Shield, or the Hill card. Then the players simultaneously reveal their placed cards. The revealed cards remain on the table face up. All of your opponents should see which card you have played this round as well as which card you won't play for the rest of the round.
You will obtain more information with each passing turn, and it will become more obviously which roles your opponents have.
Example: Homer placed the Cookie card, Bart and Marge placed the Strontium cards, and Lisa placed the 37 card. Now it is known for sure that Homer is not Cookie, Bart and Marge are not Strontium, and Lisa is not 37.
If you play your Sword card, you choose another player to attack. Place your Sword card in front of the player you would like to hunt.
Example: Bart plays the Sword card. He plays for Cookie, which means he hunts for Blue. He supposes that Lisa plays for Blue because she has already played the Strontium and 37 cards. So Bart knows that Lisa is not 37, Strontium, or Cookie (as Bart plays for Cookie by himself). After some thought, Bart decides to attack Lisa and places his Sword card in front of her.
Important: You cannot play the Sword card against a player who has played his Shield card against you.
If you play your Shield card, you choose from whom you will defend. Place your Shield card in front of the player who (as you think) hunts for you.
Important: You cannot play the Shield card against a player who has played his Sword card against you.
Example: Bart has attacked Lisa, which means that Lisa cannot play her Shield card against Bart. Meanwhile, Homer decides to defend himself from Marge and plays his Shield card against her, so Marge cannot attack Homer this round.
Important: The effects of the placed Sword and Shield cards are applied in a clockwise order starting with the first player.
Example: On the third turn, Bart and Marge place the Sword cards, Homer places the Shield card, and Lisa places the Hill card. The first player of this round is Bart, the second player is Homer, the third player is Marge, and the fourth player is Lisa. Bart attacks first; he chooses Lisa as his target. Now it's time for Homer to defend himself. He believes that Marge hunts for him, so he places his Shield card in front of her. Marge cannot attack Homer anymore. She has to place her Sword card in front of any other player; she chooses Bart.
Instead of placing a Character, the Sword, or the Shield card, a player can place the Hill card. The main function of this card is not to give your opponents information about your role. However, if you can keep this card in your hand until the end of the round, you will get an extra Coin.
Coin Scoring
At the end of the round, each player gets Coins for meeting the following conditions:
- 3 Coins if he attacked the player for whom he hunts.
- 2 Coins if he defended himself from the player who hunts for him.
- 1 Coin if he kept the Hill card in his hand until the end of the round.
After players have received their Coins, a new round begins. The First Player token proceeds to the next player in a clockwise direction.
Game End
The game ends after everyone has played as the first player. So there are 4 rounds in case of 4 players, 5 rounds in case of 5 players, and 6 rounds in case of 6 players. The winner is a player who collected the greatest amount of Coins at the end of the game. In case of a tie, there is a tie.
Variant 2: The Big Hunt
For 2 to 4 players. Duration: from 15 minutes.
Several bounty hunters have arrived in Cookieburg chasing a criminal who stole the golden chocolate crumbs. They're after an ample reward promised for the villain's capture: 3 coins! However, during the chase, bounty hunters have broken too many laws, and now they have to hide their true identities for fear of being captured by other bounty hunters. So which of them will catch the wanted criminal and won't be caught by their greedy competitors?
Game Setup
- Give each player one set of cards in one color and 1 Coin. You won't need the Sword, the Shield, and the Hill cards in this game variant, so put all of them into the box.
- Place the Coins on the table in easy reach of each player. Place the Reference card for 6 players in the center of the table.
- Randomly select 1 Role card without revealing it. Place this card under the Reference card face down without looking at it. That Role card is called the target card; it depicts a character for whom the reward is offered.
- The first player is the one who has most recently eaten cookies. Give him the First Player token. Now you are ready to begin!
Game Goal
In each round, you try to find out for which character the main award is promised. But don't think that it will be easy to gain money for your target. If you're not cautious enough, you will give yourself away and the others will get a chance to eliminate you. Not only will you get nothing, your killers will obtain an additional reward. After several rounds, the player with the most Coins wins.
Round Overview
You need to perform several actions during each round. First, you must name one of the characters and place the corresponding card in front of you. By doing this, you announce which role you have. You can tell the truth or you can lie, it's your choice. Next, you try to find out for which character everybody hunts or to know if your playfellow is not the one he named himself. Finally, the end of the round begins and everyone plays cards to hunt their opponents. The character you play determines how many Coins you receive.
The game rules are different based on the number of players.
Game Play: 4 Players
Each round is divided into 3 Phases.
Phase 1: Shuffle the Role cards and deal each player 1 card face down as his secret role. Place the last Role card near the Coins face down: that card is called the exclusion card. After players have looked at their Role cards, they place them in front of themselves face down, without showing them to the other players. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player names a character and places the corresponding Character card from his hand on top of his Role card; those Character cards are placed face up. The player can name any character he wants even if it does not correspond to his own role.
Example: Homer is still eating cookies, so he is the first player without any doubt. His Role card is Cookie. He decides to be honest and says that he is Cookie. He places the Cookie card from his hand in front of himself. The next player is Lisa. Her Role card is Strontium. Lisa is not a very good liar, so she tells the truth too and places the Strontium card from her hand. The third player is Bart. His Role card is the Persians, and he doesn't want to make this information public. He says that he is Strontium too and places the Strontium card from his hand. Marge is the last player. Her Role card is 37. She decides not to tell the truth and says that she is Blue. Then she places the Blue card from her hand.
Phase 2: Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player must perform 1 of 2 actions: either reveal the Role card of any player or look at the exclusion card.
- If you think that your opponent named a role that is not his own role, you can reveal that opponent's Role card face up. If the revealed Role card doesn't match the Character card that your opponent placed, he must give you 1 of his Coins. If the Role card revealed matches the Character card placed by your opponent, nothing happens. In either case, the revealed Role card remains revealed and the next player in a clockwise direction begins to perform his action.
- If you don't want to reveal any Role card, you must look at the exclusion card. Don't show it to anybody else.
Example: Homer doesn't believe Bart. Previously Bart named and placed the Strontium card. Homer reveals Bart's Role card finding out that it's the Persians card. So Bart has to give 1 Coin to Homer. Moreover, everybody knows now that the target is not the Persians. Homer knows that the target is neither the Persians nor Cookie (because Cookie is his own role). Lisa doesn't want to reveal any Role card, so she looks at the exclusion card: it is Blue. Now she knows for sure that Marge bluffed. And she knows that the target is not the Persians (Bart's revealed Role card), Strontium (her own Role card), or Blue. Bart decides to get revenge on Homer and reveals his Role card. Homer's role is Cookie, and Homer named and placed the same Character card during the Phase 1. Bart doesn't get a Coin from Homer. The players know a little bit more about their target: it's not Cookie or the Persians. Unfortunately Bart has no more information. Marge is confused. She doesn't reveal a Role card and looks at the exclusion card. She sees that it is the Blue card. She remembers it. Then Phase 3 begins.
Phase 3: Each player places one card from his hand in front of himself face down. Next, players simultaneously reveal their placed cards as well as the target card. After that each player gets Coins in accordance with his reached goals.
Important: The only cards which participate in the hunt are the cards placed during the Phase 3.
The goals are:
- To eliminate the target (3 Coins): To do it, the placed card must hunt for the revealed target card. For example, if the target is 37, a player should place the Strontium card. Important: The characters eliminated by other characters cannot participate in the hunt!
- To eliminate a character (1 Coin for each character): A character is considered to be eliminated if at least one player placed a card that hunts for that character (see the Reference card). All characters are eliminated simultaneously.
For example, if Homer placed the Cosine card, Lisa placed the 37 card, and Bart placed the Persians card, Bart eliminates Homer's character and Lisa eliminates Bart's character.
- To be the only survivor (2 Coins): If there is only one uneliminated character left, its owner is considered to be the only survivor.
- To take a guaranteed Coin (1 Coin): Each player gets 1 Coin despite their other goals reached. Players with eliminated characters get their guaranty Coins too.
Example: Each player places 1 Character card face down. The target is Cosine. The players reveal their placed characters.
- Homer placed the Persians card.
- Lisa placed the Persians card too.
- Bart placed the 37 card.
- Marge decided to place the Cookie card.
The players score Coins in the following way:
- Homer guessed the target correctly; unfortunately he cannot eliminate it because he has been eliminated by Bart. Thus Homer gets 1 guaranteed Coin only.
- Lisa is in the same situation, so she gets 1 guaranteed Coin only too.
- Bart couldn't define the target and decided to earn money by eliminating the other players. As a result, he eliminates Homer's and Lisa's characters getting 2 Coins (1 Coin for each character) as well as 1 guaranteed Coin. Bart gets 3 Coins this round in sum.
- Marge is far enough from the epicenter of events and gets 1 guaranty Coin only.
After all players have received their Coins, a new round begins. The First Player token proceeds to the next player in a clockwise direction.
Game End
The game ends after everyone has played as the first player twice (at least; but players may agree to play longer). Then players count their Coins gained. The winner is the player who has collected the greatest amount of Coins. In case of a tie, there is the tie.
Game Play: 2 Players
Phase 1: The rules don't change except that each player takes 2 Role cards instead of 1. During this Phase, players must name characters and place their Character cards two times. At first, the first player names a character and places the corresponding Character card on top of it; then the second player does the same. Then the first player names and places a card one more time, and then the second player does the same.
Phase 2: Nothing changes. Each player can reveal only one Role card as usual.
Phase 3: Nothing changes.
Game Play: 3 Players
Phase 1: After the Role cards are dealt, there are 2 cards in the Role deck left. Place them in the center of the table face down and then reveal one of them. Those cards are the open and the secret exclusion cards.
Phase 2: Nothing changes.
Phase 3: Nothing changes.