Assel Schlamassel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Materials
• Preparing to play
• How to play
• End of the game
• Variants to the game

Materials

• 50 animal cards (10x woodlice, spiders, flies, rats, snails with values between 1 and 5)

• 5x sequence cards: woodlouse, spider, fly, rat, snail (each with the same front and back)

• Rules of the game

• Number of players: 3 - 6

• Age: from 8

• Length of the game: approx. 15 minutes

Preparing to play

In the basic game, four species (i.e. 40 cards) of animal are used. The players decide mutually which species of animal is left out of the game. The appropriate 10 animal cards and the right sequence card are removed from the rest of the cards and put back into the box. The other four sequence cards are placed down randomly in the middle of the table. The box is placed to the left, next to the four sequence cards.

The 40 animal cards are shuffled and each player is dealt three cards, which he places face-down in front of him without looking at them. This is the player's own score pile onto which the player needs to collect as many cards as possible by the end of the game. Depending on the number of players, some of the leftover cards are put into the middle of the table as a concealed draw pile.

• 3 players: 1 pile of 15 cards
• 4 players: 1 pile of 16 cards
• 5 players: 1 pile of 15 cards
• 6 players: 1 pile of 18 cards

The remaining cards are not used for the game and are returned to the box.

How to play

The youngest player starts the game as the animal trainer. The animal trainer takes a card from the draw pile and looks at the card. Between 1 and 5 animals of one animal species are always depicted on each card. According to the sequence cards next to the box, the trainer has to communicate, without speaking, to the other players how many animals are visible on the card, and which species of animal it is. The card right next to the box counts as "Position 1". The card to the right of this one is, correspondingly, "Position 2", followed by "Position 3" and "Position 4".

Example: In this display, the woodlouse is on "Position 1", the rat is on "Position 2", the spider is on "Position 3" and the fly on "Position 4".

In order to display the position of the animal species, the animal trainer bangs his flat hand onto the table the same number of times as the position on the sequence cards. In order to indicate the number of animals, the animal trainer claps both hands the number of times indicated by the number of animals on the card he has picked up.

The animal trainer must always communicate the "code" correctly. However, since it is better for him if his fellow players don't guess the "code", he can make it somewhat more difficult by mixing up the bangs on the table and the hand claps - causing chaos!

Example: The animal trainer picks up an animal card depicting four spiders. The sequence cards are laid out as shown in the example above.

The player now has to bang his flat hand on the table three times (spiders are on Position 3) and clap his hands a total of four time (number of spiders = 4). The animal trainer decides to clap his hands twice, then bang his flat hand on the table once, claps once, bangs his flat hand on the table twice, and to round off claps once.

Once the animal trainer has finished clapping and banging, the other players can immediately shout out the answer if they think they have guessed the correct number and species of animal. As soon as the first player has shouted out the right answer, the trainer reveals the card to all of his fellow players. The player who guessed correctly receives the animal card and puts it face-down on the top of his score pile.

All players that shouted out the wrong answer have to give one card for each wrong shout from their animal cards to the animal trainer, who then puts it face-down onto his score pile.

Once a player no longer has any animal cards on his score pile, he is still allowed to guess, but only once per turn of the animal trainer.

If the animal trainer makes a mistake when he is clapping and banging, he is to reveal the card to his fellow players and put the card along with one card from his own score pile on the bottom of the draw pile. He has now finished his turn.

If no players wish to make a guess and no player has guessed the right answer, the animal trainer shows the other players the card and then adds it to his own score pile.

Then the next player in a clockwise direction becomes the animal trainer.

Once all the players have had a turn at being the animal trainer, the sequence cards are shuffled and dealt out anew next to the box.

End of the game

The game ends as soon as the draw pile is empty. The player with the most cards in his score pile is the winner. In the event of a tie, the numerical values of the cards are added up and the player with the higher value wins the game.

Variants to the game

What about making things a bit easier - or even a bit harder?

A bit harder! The rules of the game stay the same but, instead of 40 animal cards, all 50 animal cards are used. Similarly, all 5 animals on the sequence cards are used.

Somewhat easier! The rules of the game stay the same but, instead of 40 animal cards, only 30 animal cards are used (i.e. only three different animal species). Only the three corresponding animals are used for the sequence cards. In this variant, the draw pile comprises only 12 cards.

Even easier! The rules of the game stay the same, but the sequence cards are not shuffled at the end of a round. The sequence remains the same for the entire game.