Yokai Septet
Yokai Septet Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Game Overview
In Yokai Septet, your goal is to capture high-scoring Boss Yokai. Each turn, players play a card from their hand. After everyone has played a card, the player who played the best card takes all the cards played this turn, some of which may be Boss Yokai. You'll keep playing until the round ends, and you'll determine the round's winner.
You'll win a round by taking a certain number of Boss Yokai cards, which will score you points. Be careful; you can lose a round by taking too many cards that aren't Boss Yokai!
The main text of this rulebook covers the 4-player team game. Changes for the 3-player game are covered in 8. The 3-Player Game.
2. Components
- 49 cards (7 suits, 7 cards each)
- 7 foil cards (7's of each suit) — same fronts as the regular 7's, with a foil back
- 4 player aids
- 1 lead player card
- 20 scoring tokens
- 1 rulebook
3. Card Anatomy
There are 7 suits of cards, with 7 cards in each suit. Each card has a rank. Wind has the lowest ranks and is least powerful; Snow has the highest ranks, and is most powerful. One side of the player aid has a breakdown of suits and ranks.
Every suit has a card with a value of 7. That is the suit's Boss Yokai. Every Boss Yokai has point-value icons next to the card's rank. One point-value symbol counts in all games; the other point-value symbol only counts in 3-player games.
Wind's lowest card has the rank A. Despite its low rank, it is the most powerful card in the game.
Each card shows:
- Card rank — the card's rank within its suit.
- Range meter — indicates the relative strength of the card within its suit. If the marker is at the top, that card is the strongest card of its suit.
- Point value — how many scoring tokens the card is worth if it's a Boss Yokai. The Wind Boss Yokai doesn't have a point value.
4. Before the Game
At the start of the game, give each player a Player Aid.
Split up into two teams of two players each. Team members should sit across from each other, so each player's opponents are to their left and right.
Use only 1 set of 7's; either the foil cards or the regular cards.
5. Round Setup
Shuffle the deck of 49 cards. Deal a hand of 12 cards face-down to each player. There will be 1 card remaining; place it face-up on the table, visible to everyone. This card's suit will be the Trump Suit.
Each player looks at their hand, and passes 3 cards to their team member.
If this is the start of the game, then the player who was dealt the A card reveals it, and takes the Lead Player card. If the A card is the face-up Trump Suit card, then the player who was dealt the 13 card reveals it, and takes the Lead Player card.
6. Game Play Rules
Each round, you'll play multiple turns called Tricks where every player will play one card from their hand.
The Lead Player will play first. They choose any card from their hand and play it face-up in front of them.
Every other player, in clockwise order, must now play a card of the same suit as the Lead Player. If a player has no cards of that suit, they may play any card in their hand.
Taking a trick
After everyone has played a card, check to see if anyone played the A card. If they did, that player takes the trick.
If no one played the A card, then if anyone played a card of the Trump Suit, whoever played the highest card of that suit takes the trick.
Otherwise, the player who played the highest card of the same suit as the Lead Player takes the trick. If no one else played a card of the same suit as the Lead Player, then the Lead Player takes the trick.
If you take the trick, take all the cards played this trick. If you took any Boss Yokai cards, keep them face-up in front of you. Flip the other cards you took face-down. Keep face-down cards you took this trick separate from cards you took in other tricks; that way, anyone can easily count how many tricks you have taken this round.
Each team should keep all cards they took together in one place, regardless of which player actually took the card.
- Keep Boss Yokai cards you took face-up in front of you.
- Keep face-down cards you took this trick separate from cards you took in other tricks.
Next, the player who took the trick takes the Lead Player card.
If the round isn't over (see 7. End of Round), continue to the next trick.
7. End of Round
The round is over, and a round winner is determined, if any of the following has happened.
- A team has a total of 4 or more Boss Yokai cards face-up in front of them. That team wins the round.
- A team has taken 7 tricks, but has 3 or fewer Boss Yokai cards face-up in front of them. The other team wins the round.
- No one has cards left in their hands. The team with the Lead Player card wins the round.
Scoring
Only the team who won the round scores points. The other team does not score, regardless of how many cards they took.
Important: If a team won the round because the other team took 7 tricks, the winning team takes all Boss Yokai cards remaining in all players' hands. They add these to the Boss Yokai they took this round.
The winning team looks at the Boss Yokai cards they took this round. Discard the Boss Yokai card of the Trump Suit; it will not score. Take 1 scoring token for every scoring symbol on each remaining Boss Yokai card you have; ignore the other symbol. Note that Wind and Earth cards do not have any scoring symbols, and will not give you any scoring tokens in the 4-player game.
End of the Game
If one team has 7 or more scoring tokens, they win!
Otherwise, go back to 5. Round Setup and play another round. The Lead Player card remains with the last player that took the trick.
Scoring Examples
Example 1: Team A won the round with 4 Boss Yokai cards: one worth 0 points, one worth 1 point, the Trump suit card (worth 0 points and discarded), and one worth 2 points. Total score = 3 points.
Example 2: Team A lost the round by taking 7 tricks. All Boss Yokai cards left in all players' hands are added to Team B's stack of Boss Yokai. Team B's cards won during the round plus the cards taken from players' hands: one worth 0 points, one worth 1 point, the Trump suit card (worth 0 points and discarded), one worth 1 point, and one worth 2 points. Total score = 4 points.
8. The 3-Player Game
If you are playing with 3 players, you'll play with slightly different rules.
- You will play individually, instead of on teams.
- At the start of each round, deal a hand of 16 cards to each player.
- Pass 3 cards to the player to your left.
- The round is over, and a winner is determined, slightly differently:
- A player has 3 or more Boss Yokai cards face-up in front of them. That player wins the round.
- A player has taken 7 tricks, but has 2 or fewer Boss Yokai cards face-up in front of them. The other players both win the round.
- No one has cards left in their hands. The player with the Lead Player card wins the round.
- Scoring a round depends on how the round ended:
- If the round ended with a single winner, then that player looks at the Boss Yokai cards they took this round. Discard the Boss Yokai card of the Trump Suit; it will not score. Take 1 scoring token for every scoring symbol on each remaining Boss Yokai card you have (both symbols count in the 3-player game). Note that Wind cards do not have either of these symbols, and will not give you any scoring tokens.
- If the round ended because a player won 7 tricks, then the other two players each take 3 scoring tokens from the supply. Ignore scoring symbols on Boss Yokai cards.
- If one player has 7 or more scoring tokens, the game ends and the player with the most scoring tokens wins.
- If 2 players are tied with 7 or more scoring tokens, then the last round ended with one player taking 7 tricks. The player to the left of the player who took 7 tricks wins the game.
9. Variant 4-Player Game: Seven Suitors
This is a variant 4-player game rule using the two sets of 7's included in this game. We recommend playing this variant only after everyone has played and understood the rules of the base game.
Game Overview
The goal of this game is to be the first team to capture and seal Boss Yokai of all seven suits. To seal a suit, your team must capture both 7's of a given suit during a round (not necessarily in a single trick).
Before the Game
Just like the base game, split up into two teams of two players each. Team members should sit across from each other, so each player's opponents are to their left and right.
Each team takes a set of player aid cards, flipped to the side with circular slots corresponding to the 7 suits. One card has 4 slots and the other has 3 slots. These slots are used to seal the captured suits.
Use two sets of 7's; both the foil cards and the regular cards. You will play with a deck of 56 cards.
Each team takes a set of player aid cards. Use the scoring tokens to seal a captured suit.
Round Setup
Shuffle the deck of 56 cards. Deal a hand of 14 cards face-down to each player. There will be no cards remaining.
Each player looks at their hand and passes one card to each other player face-down. That is, each player will be passing 3 cards.
The player who was dealt the A card reveals it, and takes the Lead Player card.
Game Play Rules
The Lead Player will play first. They choose any card from their hand and play it face-up in front of them.
The suit of the first card played by the Lead Player each round determines the Trump Suit for the rest of the round.
Every other player plays a card exactly the same way as the base game. That is, they must play a card of the same suit as the Lead Player, and may only play a card off suit if a player has no cards of that suit.
Taking a trick
The trick is taken in exactly the same way as the base game except when both 7's of a suit are played and would win the trick. In this case, the first 7 played wins and takes the trick.
If you take the trick, take all the cards played this trick. If you took any Boss Yokai cards, keep them face-up in front of you. If your team has now taken both 7's of a given suit this round, then seal that suit on your team's player aid card by covering that suit's slot with a scoring token.
Next, the player who took the trick takes the Lead Player card. Continue playing the next trick until all 14 cards are played.
End of a Round
The round is over after playing all cards in your hand, which is 14 tricks.
Play another round until one team has sealed all seven suits. This will generally take multiple rounds.
End of a Game
The game is over as soon as one team seals all seven suits, even in the middle of a round. That team claims victory!
Shorter Variant
Instead of having each team seal all seven suits, in this variant each suit is sealed by the first team to capture both 7's of a suit in a round. The first team to seal four of the seven suits wins the game.
Credits
Seven Suitors variant was designed by Chris Wray, and the shorter variant idea was from W. Eric Martin. Thanks to Chris and his friends for developing the variant rules and allowing us to include it in this rulebook.
Words from the Designer
Yokai Septet is based on a game previously released in Japan in Spring 2015. It is still being played in Japan as one of the gateway games of the trick-taking genre. My goal with Yokai Septet was to add more strategic rules to a game with simple yet thrilling play. I hope that this becomes one of the classic trick-taking games.
- Game Designer: Muneyuki Yokouchi
- Developer: Yirli'kumde, Ayatsurare Ningyoukan
- Illustrator: U
- Graphic Design: Tori Hasegawa, Satsuki Nakayama
- Art Direction: Fukutarou
- Rules Editor: Gil Hova
- Publisher: Dan Kobayashi
Special thanks to all our play testers and Kickstarter backers.