The Walking Pet Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Drawing new Toons from the draw pile
  • Taking the top Toon from the discard pile
  • Shooting a Blockbuster
  • Blockbuster hype!
• End of the game
• Variant for 3–5 players
  • Studio specialisation!

Contents

• 110 cards:
  • 70 Toon cards (13 per film genre plus 5 Jokers)
  • 40 Blockbuster cards (8 per film genre)
  • This rulebook

Setup

• Find the Blockbuster cards (from now on "Blockbusters") and lay them out in the middle of the table, sorted by film genre. This is the Blockbuster display.
• Then shuffle the Toon cards (from now on "Toons") face down, i.e. with the back side up, and deal each player 5 Toons into hand. You may look at the faces of your own Toons. Make sure that each player can see only his or her own Toons!
• Place the remaining Toons as a face-down stack in the middle of the table, within easy reach of everyone, slightly below the Blockbusters. This is the draw pile. Leave enough room to its left for the discard pile.
• The youngest player is the starting player.

[Diagram labels: Blockbuster pile; Toon card front; Toon card back; discard pile; draw pile.]

The Toon cards:

a) Star factor – how much this Toon contributes to your Blockbuster b) Film genre symbol – for better legibility for colour-blind players c) Budget – the total you must reach with your Toon team at minimum in order to shoot a Blockbuster d) Bonus action – may be carried out after you have shot a Blockbuster

Gameplay

On your turn you perform exactly one of the following three actions:

• Draw new Toons from the draw pile
• Take the top Toon from the discard pile
• Shoot a Blockbuster

Drawing new Toons from the draw pile

To get new Toons, you must first place 1 Toon (or several) from your hand face up on the discard pile. The star factor indicates how many Toons you may draw from the draw pile into your hand. If the draw pile has run out, leave the top 2 cards of the discard pile in place, shuffle the rest of the discard pile and begin a new draw pile with it.

Note: You may also place several Toons, but only if they show the same Toon! Draw as many Toons as the star factors add up to.

Note: In the rare case that it is your turn and you have no Toons left in hand, you may instead simply draw 2 Toons from the draw pile.

Taking the top Toon from the discard pile

Take the top Toon from the discard pile into your hand. You do not have to place a Toon for this! If the discard pile is empty (as at the start of the game), this action is not possible.

Note: There is a hand limit! If you have more than 15 Toons in hand, you must place the excess Toons of your choice on the discard pile.

Shooting a Blockbuster

To shoot a Blockbuster, you must play out a Toon team. The Toons must be from the same film genre. However, you may also include 1 or more Jokers in the Toon team. In addition, the total star factor of the Toons played must be higher than the budget of the Blockbuster.

Note: In your turn you may shoot only 1 Blockbuster!

Note: The total star factor of the Toons played may be higher than the required budget. This has no additional effect.

Example: You want to shoot a SciFi Blockbuster. The required budget for it is 10 (the figure to the right of the planet symbol). You play 3 Toons from the corresponding film genre (2x Tiger and 1x Fennek). This gives you a star factor of 3 + 3 + 5 = 11. Enough to shoot the SciFi Blockbuster! Alternatively, you could for example have played a 3-star Joker instead of the second Tiger.

Once you have played out your Toon team, take 1 Blockbuster from the corresponding pile in the Blockbuster display and place it in front of you. This is your director's pile. If you already have one Blockbuster (or several), place the new Blockbuster slightly offset on top of your director's pile. Make sure all players can always see how many Blockbusters you already have in your director's piles!

If there are no more Blockbusters of a certain film genre, you can no longer shoot any either! However, you can still use the Toons of that film genre to draw new Toons from the draw pile.

Afterwards, carry out the bonus action of the Blockbuster. Each film genre has a different bonus action:

• Joker – Can be part of any Blockbuster team. Several Jokers in one Toon team are allowed. A Toon team may also consist exclusively of Jokers, provided that the budget of at least one of the possible Blockbusters is reached.
• Action – Take 1 face-down Toon from the player with the most Toons. In case of a tie, you may choose one of the players.
• Adventure – One fellow player of your choice discards 1 Toon of his or her choice onto the discard pile.
• History – Take the top 2 Toons from the discard pile. In the rare case that there are no Toons there, you come away empty-handed. So plan ahead for when you want to shoot this Blockbuster.
• SciFi – Take the top 2 Toons from the draw pile. Should it be used up, shuffle the discard pile (except for its top 2 Toons) and take the top 2 Toons of the new draw pile.
• TV – Take 1 face-down Toon from 1 fellow player, then give that player 1 Toon of yours.

Note: Only after you have carried out the bonus action do you place your just-played Toon team on the discard pile. You may of course decide in what order the Toons go onto the discard pile…

Blockbuster hype!

The more Blockbusters of a single film genre are currently on top of your director's piles, the easier it is to shoot a new Blockbuster in that film genre! For each Blockbuster lying on top of a director's pile, the required budget drops by 1. Your own director's pile counts too!

Example: On Finn's director's pile the top card is a SciFi Blockbuster, as it is for Leo, while for Lucy it is a TV Blockbuster. Now Leo is on turn and plays out a Toon team to shoot another SciFi Blockbuster. For this he needs only a budget of at least 8 – the original 10 for a SciFi Blockbuster minus 1 for each SciFi Blockbuster lying on top. If there were also a SciFi Blockbuster on top of Lucy's director's pile, Leo would need a budget of only 7.

[Diagram: Finn, Lucy, Leo; calculation "10 - 1 - 1 = 8".]

Pay attention to which Blockbusters your fellow players are shooting!

Then the next player clockwise takes a turn.

End of the game

If a player shoots his or her 7th Blockbuster, the game ends immediately. That player wins and is the new celebrated star director of Toonywood!

Variant for 3–5 players

The game proceeds as described, with the following changes:

Studio specialisation!

For each Blockbuster you already have in your director's pile, the budget required for further Blockbusters of that film genre drops by 1 for you.

Note: Studio specialisation replaces Blockbuster hype!