We Rate Dogs: The Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object
• Players
• Set Up
• Dog Ratings
• Event Cards
• Playtime
  • 1. The Shelter
  • 2. Path to Goodness
  • 3. The Winner's Circle
• Notes
• Optional Rules

Components

• 100 Event Cards
• 50 Dog Cards (the Shelter Deck)
• 1 Category Die
• 1 Winner's Circle board
• 1 First Player Card
• Player Tokens

Object

Get your dog the highest rating in competitive categories, and prove that your dog is the goodest of them all!

Players

3–6 players. Ages 8+.

Set Up

1. Shuffle the Event Deck. Remove the "Dogrates" cards from the Shelter Deck, and shuffle.
2. Deal each player a hand of seven Event Cards. Players may look at them, but should keep them secret from the other players. Place the Event Deck and the Category Die where everyone can reach them.
3. Take the number of players and add one; then draw that many cards from the Shelter Deck and place them face up in the middle of the table. These are the dogs that the shelter has ready for that day. Each Dog Card has a set of ratings at the bottom.
4. Distribute Player Tokens to each player—these are placed on top of Dog Cards to claim them for a player. The First Player Card goes to the youngest player.

Dog Ratings

Each dog card has a set of ratings:

• Floof: the amount of fur that protrudes from the body, critical to overall snug-gability and identifiable from afar
• Sass: some dogs are sassy—hard to quantify, but you know it when you see it
• Boopability: based on the amount of individuals you'd fight through to lightly touch a pup's snoot with your forefinger
• Zoom: just how speedy is this doggo? Take the time to reach maximum zoomage, multiply by top speed when a snackum is introduced, then add total squirrels caught (this metric is a constant zero)
• Ears: ears may come in all sizes and orientations, but this rating gauges a very specific combination of perk, flop, and listening skills
• Wag: WPS (wags per second when excited) combined with maximum decibel level achieved when thudded against hardwood floor
• Goodness: all of the above combined with each dog's special quotient of unconditional love and unrivaled companionship

Event Cards

Each Event Card lists its possible effects. If an Event Card has two possible effects (i.e. an event or a rating change), the player can only choose one effect when the card is played.

• Player can choose between changing a dog's ratings (1) or taking the action described (2)

Some are Reaction cards, which can only be played in response to another player's Event Card.

• Player can only use this card based on the conditions shown on the card (3)

Event Cards are played over Dog Cards as shown (4).

An example Event Card shown in the rulebook, "NOPE NOPE NOPE," reads: "Discard one event card currently affecting a dog in the competition."

Playtime

There are three stages in this game:

1. The Shelter
2. Path to Goodness
3. The Winner's Circle

1. The Shelter

The youngest player picks the first dog, followed by the player to their left, and so on until each player has picked a dog. The last player takes both remaining dogs. When you have picked a dog, place it in your Home, face-up in front of you. Deal out the same number of cards from the Shelter Deck (player count plus one). Whoever picked last in the previous round picks first, and choices proceed to the left. Repeat this until every player has a number of dogs equal to the number of players plus one (three players should each have four dogs, four players should each have five dogs, etc.).

Set aside the Shelter Deck next to the Winner's Circle board. The space on the other side of the Winner's Circle is the Yard, where dogs go to play outside when they are finished competing. In the event that the Shelter Deck is ever empty, the Yard is shuffled and placed face-down to become a new Shelter Deck.

2. Path to Goodness

It's competition day! First, roll the Category Die. This die represents the six main ratings on the Dog Cards (Floof, Sass, Boopability, Zoom, Ears, Wag). The category rolled is the one the dogs in this round will be judged on. It's possible that the category being judged may change during the round due to Event Cards.

Once the judging category is chosen, each player chooses a dog from their Home to Try for the Circle! and places it face-down in front of them. Once all players have chosen their dogs, everyone turns their cards face-up at once, and places a player token on top of their dog. The dogs are ready to compete!

Each Try for the Circle! competition consists of three turns. At the end of three turns, the dog with the highest rating in the judged category goes to the Winner's Circle!

Starting with the youngest player in the first turn, each player chooses to either play one Event Card or pass. Event Cards can be played on any dog in the competition (even someone else's), and the player must choose whether to use the action or the ratings modifier.

An important note: Unless a card specifically states otherwise, no dog's rating can ever be reduced below 10/10. They are all good dogs.

Play then proceeds to the left until each player has either played a single event or passed. This completes the first turn. Play continues around the table in this way until three turns are completed. After the last player has played a card or passed three times the round is done. (There are three turns of card play because dogs always turn around three times before lying down!)

The round is then judged, and the dog with the highest rating in their current category is declared the winner and goes to the Winner's Circle. In the case of a tie, all tied dogs are declared winners, because they're all good dogs! All Event Cards in play are discarded, and do not carry over to the Winner's Circle.

The remaining dogs go to play in the Yard. Every player who did not get a dog in the Winner's Circle draws two more Event Cards as a consolation.

Move the First Player Card to the left and roll the Category Die to begin a new Try for the Circle! round. Each player chooses another dog from their Home and places it face-down in front of them; all dogs are revealed simultaneously, and a new competition begins.

Once you have played as many Try for the Circle! rounds as there are players, it's time to move on to the Winner's Circle to determine The Goodest Dog!

3. The Winner's Circle

The dogs in the Winner's Circle are placed back in play, under the control of their original players. If a player has not advanced any of their dogs to the Winner's Circle, they receive a special dog named "Dogrates" to enter in the Winner's Circle competition. Dogrates may not have the best ratings, but you may find that's because nobody has really gotten to know him yet.

Instead of rolling the Category Die, dogs in this round will be judged on their Goodness. Any card that changes the category for the entire table or for individual dogs cannot be used for that purpose in the Winner's Circle round, though it can still be used to modify ratings.

The player who has the dog with the lowest Goodness gets to go last in this round, even if they have more than one dog in the competition. Therefore, the first player is the one on that player's left.

After three turns, the dog with the highest Goodness rating is declared The Goodest Dog, and its owner wins the game. Everybody gets treats and pets! In the event of a tie in the final round, all tied dogs win, because, of course, they're good dogs, Brent!

Notes

• Event Card effects are resolved most recently played first.
• If a dog is removed from a round to go to the Winner's Circle, the Yard, or the Home, all of the cards affecting it are cleared as well. Card effects do not carry over between rounds.
• If at any point during the Try for the Circle! rounds a player empties their Home (for example, some Event Cards allow players to have more than one dog in the contest), they can draw another dog from the Shelter Deck and place it in their Home. If the Shelter Deck is empty, they can place Dogrates in their Home.

Optional Rules

Speedy Zoom Version: Players who are unable to advance a dog to the Winner's Circle do not get to use Dogrates, but can keep playing any Event Cards they have left on their turn on their fellow players' dogs.

The Long Leash Version: In the Winner's Circle round, players are not limited to three rounds, and Event Cards may be played until all players have chosen to pass.