Xylotar
Xylotar Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents: 65 Cards
- 5 High Note cards
- 11 Red Whole Note Chords (0-10)
- 10 Orange 3/4 Notes (0-9)
- 9 Yellow 1/2 Note Chords (0-8)
- 8 Green Sharp 1/2 Notes (0-7)
- 7 Teal 1/4 Notes (0-6)
- 6 Blue Staccato 1/8 Notes (0-5)
- 5 Purple Flat 1/8 Notes (0-4)
- 4 Pink 1/16 Notes (0-3)
Your Mission
In the card game Xylotar, you've found the xylotar schematics. Without knowing exactly how it should work, play until you discover the sweetest sounds. The player who scores the most points has found the perfect balance of 80's synthesizer rock and modern carimba-style melodies. Only then can you mass produce the xylotar, succeeding in your goal of acheiving moderate commercial success!
Setup
Give each player a "high note" card.
2, 4, and 5 Players: Use all cards. Red cards are trump.
3 Players: Remove Red cards and Orange cards. Yellow cards will be trump.
See page 17 for special 2-player rules.
Deal
Shuffle the rest of the cards, and then deal them to players evenly.
Sort Cards & Pass
Each player secretly sorts their cards: Put all of the highest value cards (regardless of color) on the left (back) and then work your way down to the lowest value card on the right (front). If there are multiple cards of a specific value, you may choose their order.
When finished, put the "high note" card on the left (back) of the deck, and give the deck face down to the player to your left.
Assemble Your Xylotar!
Each player then spreads their cards on the table face down without looking at them so that the colors of all cards are visible for all players, which creates a xylotar! The "high note" card should be on the left, with the cards arranged from highest to lowest face down from left to right. Players may not look at their own cards.
The example shown here is for a 4-player game.
Gameplay
On the 1st round of the game, the player to the left of the dealer is the start player.
The start player plays any of their cards except the leftmost (closest to the high note) card, revealing it face up in front of them. Players then each play a card face up in clockwise order with any of their cards (including their highest card if they wish), forming a "trick" of all played cards. Each player plays 1 card on their turn, playing the color of the first card played if they can. If they do not have any cards of that color, they may play any card.
The winner of that trick of cards is the player playing the highest trump card (see page 10); otherwise, it is the highest value card of the first played color.
For 2, 4, and 5 players, Red cards are trump.
For 3 players, Yellow cards are trump.
Playing Trump
The highest trump color (red for 2, 4, and 5 players, yellow for 3 players) played will win against any cards of the led color (or any other colors) if it is played, regardless of the value of the trump card.
In the example on the facing page, Left leads the trick with a Pink 2.
Top has 1 Pink card, which is a 3. Top is currently winning the trick.
Right does not have a Pink card, so they may play any color card. Right decides that they want to win this trick, so they play a Red 7, making them currently winning the trick because Red is trump.
Bottom has 1 Pink card, which they have to play. It is a 0. Since a trump has already been played, Bottom has no chance of winning the trick regardless of what their Pink card value is.
Right wins the trick, collects the cards, and will lead the next trick.
End of Each Trick
The winner of the trick stacks the cards face down below their xylotar and leads the next trick. For each trick you take, offset the stack slightly so all players can easily see how many tricks you've won.
Play continues until all cards have been played.
On the very last trick of a round, all players have 1 card. This is the only time during the game in which the lead player may lead with their highest card.
Bidding
After playing a card into a trick, but before the next player plays, a player may announce they are bidding. This may happen at any point during gameplay. To bid, a player secretly views any 2 adjacent cards*. Other players should not play until that player finished bidding. See example on following page.
*There may be gaps where cards used to be between "adjacent" cards as the game is played; cards on either side of a gap are considered adjacent when viewing 2 adjacent cards to choose a bid card.
Once you look at those 2 cards, you MUST choose one for your bid.
Then put the other one back where it came from face down. Place the bid card face up at 90° below your xylotar, near the tricks you have won.
If a player waits until there are only 2 cards face down in front of them, they must play a card first, and then the remaining card becomes their bid card. They may not look at both cards before they play one of them in this situation.
The bid card cannot be played into a trick.
Scoring
Trick Scoring: Players gain 1 point per trick. You do not have to make your bid to score won tricks.
Bid Scoring: Players gain 5 points if the face value of their bid card matches the number of tricks they took, including a bid of 0. This is in addition to any tricks that they've taken.
Round Scoring Example
2 points (1 point for each trick) 5 points (for making your bid) Total Round score: 7 points
2 won tricks; your bid: 2
Additional Rounds
Record the scores after each round.
After 3 rounds total, the game ends.
For the 2nd and 3rd round, the player with the lowest total score starts the round (ties are broken by the player to the left of the previous start player).
Winning
Whoever has the highest score after 3 rounds has found the perfect balance of 80's synthesizer rock and modern carimba-style melodies. They win the game and are poised to acheive moderate commercial success!
In the event of a tie, the tied player who matched their bid with the fewest tricks in the last round wins.
If there is still a tie, all players play another round of Xylotar and add those points to their totals. Repeat until one player wins (using the tiebreaker above if necessary).
2-Player Variant
Players sit across from each other. Deal out 4 xylotars as depicted in the example on page 6. Each player sorts their opponent's xylotar and the xylotar immediately to their left (in that order). Cards are spread out for both players as well as the two "side" players as depicted in the example on page 8.
Turn over the center (8th from each end) card for each of the side players to determine their bid, placing it face up at 90° below their xylotars.
The side players always play their lowest legal card on their turn. At the end of any round, if one of the side players' bids is exactly achieved, the human players do not get points for tricks they've taken (but they still get 5 points if they make their bid). If both of the side players' bids are exactly acheived, the human players do not score any points!
After 3 rounds, the highest score wins! Ties are broken as indicated on page 16.
Credits
Game Design: Chris Wray
Game Development: Ted Alspach
Cover Art: Davi Comodo
Playtesters: Toni Alspach, Jay Bernardo, Richard Bethany, Clint Brubakken, Tyler Cornell, Anthony Crusha, Jessica Crusha, Molly Farrell, Brad Genz, Angela Godel, Trip Godel, Sarah Grappin, Tony Grappin, Janna Gregory, Renée Harris, Joshua Johnson, Tyler Inzer, Chris Landon, Cynthia Landon, Dan King, Ryan Moore, Kevin Padula, Chad Roberts, Doris Roberts, Manny Rodriguez, Matt Russell, Megan Russell, David Satterfield, Lindsay Schlesser, Capt. Mark Sliwoski, Mark Smith, Tim Stoner, Sean Walsh, Stephanie Walsh, Nick Weaver, Kristin Weaver, Matt White, Louisa Whitfield-Smith, and Kelly Wray.