Bable
Bable Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 60 Idea cards
- 20 starting Word cards
- 25 Word cards
- 16 Building cards
- 36 Resource cards
- 9 Confusion cards
- Reference cards
Setup
- Shuffle the Resource cards and deal 3 to each player. They place these face-up in front of them on the table. This is their personal Supply. Shuffle the other Resource cards into a face down deck.
- Give each player a set of 4 Starting Word cards in their player color, which they take into their Hand.
- Shuffle the Word cards and deal 1 to each player. They take these into their Hand, and then place the Starting Word card with the same command symbol (Build, Gather, Give, Reveal) into a face down discard pile.
- Shuffle the Building cards and deal 1 to each player. They place it face down in their Supply.
- Create four different Idea decks using the number of Word and Building cards specified below.
- Shuffle each of the 4 Idea decks and place them in a column to the left of the play area.
Deck 4 — 2 Word cards
Deck 3 — 3 Word cards, 1 Building card
Deck 2 — 5 Word cards, 2 Building cards
Deck 1 — At 2/3/4/5 players: 6/7/8/9 Word cards, 7/6/5/5 Building cards
Goal of the Game
The goal in Bable is to complete the tower before all Idea decks have run out. Players construct the tower in 4 distinct Layers, containing (from bottom to top) 4, 3, 2 and 1 Building cards. Players must complete building each Layer before its corresponding Idea deck runs out.
Quick Overview
On your turn, you are the overseer, giving commands to the other players. Players always have 4 commands at their disposal — Build, Gather, Give, and Reveal — that help construct the tower. The commands are referred to by their symbols, as the words associated with them will change for each player during the game.
An important command is the Build command, which allows a player to place a Building card in the tower if they pay the associated cost in Resources.
Gameplay
The player who most recently spoke a language that's not their native tongue, is the starting player. They take the first turn, after which play continues in clockwise order.
On your turn
- Twice, take one of the following actions: a. Give out a command to another player b. Reveal one card to all other players
- Draw an Idea card from the lowest available deck.
Giving a command to another player
Choose another player. Speak a Word that you think corresponds to one of their Word cards.
- If the player has a Word card with the spoken word, they reveal it. The player then performs the associated command (see 'Commands'). They take the revealed card back into their hand.
- If the player does not have a Word card with the spoken word, they shake their head. The player does not perform the command.
N.B.: It is possible to have two or more cards in your hand with the same word on them. If you receive a command with that word, you may choose which of those commands to perform.
Revealing a card to all other players
Choose a Word card from your hand or a Building card from your supply to reveal.
- If you reveal a Word card, show it to all other players, then take it back into your hand.
- If you reveal a Building card, flip it face up. It will remain face up for the rest of the game.
N.B.: You may give two commands to the same player, or to two different players. You may give the same command twice, or two different commands.
Limited communication
Bable is a limited communication game. Any information is personal and should be kept secret. You may only share information with other players by:
- Revealing a Word card while receiving a command.
- Performing the Reveal command (see 'Commands').
- Revealing a hand card on your own turn.
Commands
Each player always has 1 Word card for each of the 4 commands in their hand. These Word cards and the words on them change over the course of the game by drawing new Idea cards.
Build
Place a Building card from your supply into the tower.
Pay the cost on a Building card in your Supply (face up or face down) by discarding the corresponding Resources. Place the Building card into the lowest unfinished layer.
Gather
Draw 2 Resource cards from the deck, and place them face up in your Supply.
You can have up to 7 Resources in your Supply. If at any time you have more than 7, discard down to 7. If the Resource deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile.
Give
Give up to 3 cards from your Supply (Resource and Building cards) to other players.
You may give all cards to one other player, or split them between multiple players. You may give face up and face down Building cards (they remain in the same orientation).
Reveal
Reveal up to 2 cards from your hand or Supply.
The revealed cards may be Word or Building cards. Revealed Building cards stay face up in your Supply. Take revealed Word cards back into your hand.
Drawing an Idea Card
After giving two commands, draw an Idea card from the first available deck (starting from the bottom Layer). If a deck has run out of cards, draw from the deck directly above it. If you draw the last card from a deck without a completed layer next to it, the game is over (see 'End of the Game').
There are two kinds of Idea cards; Word cards and Building cards.
Did you draw a Word card?
Replace the Word card in your hand with the same command symbol as the card you just drew. Discard the old Word card face down.
You always keep 1 copy of each of the command symbols in your hand.
Did you draw a Building card?
Place it face down in your Supply. You may look at face down Building cards in your supply at any time.
The Resource cost for constructing it with the Build action is displayed at the bottom.
Resources
There are 4 types of resources that are used to construct a Building card:
- Stone
- Cement
- Tools
- Wood
End of the Game
The game ends in a loss for the players when:
A player draws the last Idea card from a deck, while the tower Layer next to that deck is still unfinished. This also applies when a player draws the last Idea card from the final deck, and the tower as a whole is still unfinished.
The game ends in a victory for the players when:
The players finish building the tower by placing the last Building card in the top Layer.
Advanced Game
The Confusion cards add extra challenge to the game by introducing a penalty for saying the wrong word to another player. It is recommended to play the advanced game once the group has won the basic game a few times.
Setup for the advanced game
After the regular setup, shuffle the Confusion cards, and place them in a deck next to the playing area.
Explaining the Confusion cards
Every Confusion card features a negative action that a player must perform when they receive a command they don't understand (i.e. the other player tells them a word they do not have in their hand). Whenever you receive a command you don't understand, draw the top Confusion card from the deck, and perform its action. Some of these actions refer to the different images on the Building cards.
Building card images
Some Confusion cards use the different images on the Building cards. There are four different details: Relief, Statue, Doors, Stairs.
Confusion card reference
1x — Take a Building card with a Statue/Relief from the current layer of the tower, then shuffle it through the current Idea card deck.
Discard an amount of Resource cards from your supply, equal to the amount of Doors/Stairs in the tower.
Shuffle the discard pile, then draw the top Word card from it. Replace the Word card in your hand with the same command symbol as the card you just drew. Discard the old Word card face down.
Give all your Building cards (face up or face down) to the player to your left.
Give all your Resources to the player to your right. If this brings their Resource total over the limit of 7, they must discard down to 7.
Discard a Word card of your choice from your hand. You will have a hand size of 3 until you draw a Word card with the command symbol you discarded.
Place your Word cards face down on the table until the start of your next turn. As long as your word cards are on the table, other players may not give you any commands.