Banana Bandido Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Turn Sequence
  • Phase 1: Draw a "Reward" Card
  • Phase 2
    • I. Activate an Action Card
    • II. Play an Effect
    • III. Deactivate an Action Card
• Character Cards
• End of the Game

Game Overview

Players: 2–5. Age: 9 and up. Duration: 15–30 minutes.

Contents: 27 action cards, 27 "Reward" cards, 6 character cards, 20 victory point cards, 40 resource cards (15 bananas, 25 sticks).

Video rules are available at www.mogel-verlag.de.

Setup

1. Shuffle the "Reward" cards. Take care when shuffling the two "Reward" cards that show a baboon: they must be mixed in so that the coloured side with the baboon faces down. Then lay the "Reward" cards out face up in the middle of the table as the "Reward" card display. The display always contains one card more than there are players at the table (with 2, 3, 4 or 5 players, that is 3, 4, 5 or 6 "Reward" cards).
2. Each player secretly receives one monkey character card and four secret action cards. Each player may look only at his own character card and action cards.
3. Each player also receives three bananas and five sticks as starting resources.
4. The remaining cards are each laid out as a separate draw pile (Nachziehstapel), as shown in the illustration. Only the remaining character cards are no longer needed (see illustration).

The illustration labels the following areas: Nachziehstapel (draw piles), Siegpunkte (victory points), "Reward"-Karten Auslage ("Reward" card display), 4 Aktionskarten (four action cards), and Charakterkarten, 3 Bananen und 5 Stöcke (character cards, three bananas and five sticks).

Goal of the Game

There are two ways to win:

1. Victory points. A player collects victory points. A victory point is obtained in exchange for five bananas. As soon as a player has collected five victory points, he wins the game.
2. Symbols. Each character card shows, at the top, a combination of three symbols (stone / water / coconut). A player collects symbols by activating the corresponding action cards. As soon as a player has collected the three symbols shown on his character card, he wins the game.

Whoever first has five victory points, or first has collected the three matching symbols of his character card, wins the game.

Turn Sequence

The most monkey-like player begins. Each turn consists of Phase 1 and Phase 2. After the turn, the next player takes his turn.

Phase 1: Draw a "Reward" Card

In Phase 1, the player draws any "Reward" card from the display and looks only at its front side. However, he receives the reward of the front side and the reward of the back side, which was covered until then. The drawn "Reward" card is placed on the discard pile.

There are the following rewards:

• Bananas: The player receives the number of bananas shown from the banana supply.
• Sticks: The player receives the number of sticks shown from the stick supply.
• Mush banana (Matsch-Banane): If a crushed banana peel is shown, the player must squash one banana of an opponent. The chosen banana is placed back on the draw pile. Victory points are protected from squashing. If no opponent has any bananas, the squashing is omitted.
• Ass card (Arsch-Karte): If a baboon is shown on the back of the "Reward" card, presenting its rear end to you, the reward on the front side is cancelled.

As soon as the display of "Reward" cards has been used up, new "Reward" cards are laid out from the draw pile. If no display can be formed from the remaining "Reward" cards, a new draw pile is shuffled.

After receiving the reward, the player continues his turn with Phase 2.

Phase 2

In Phase 2, the player has the following options: activate an action card, play an effect, deactivate an action card.

I. Activate an Action Card

The player may use his sticks to activate one of his four action cards. To do so, he places the required number of sticks and lays the action card face up in front of himself. Of his four action cards, only one may be activated per turn. After activation, no new action card is drawn into the hand. The player therefore always has four action cards in total (activated and non-activated).

Each action card has four fields:

1. Number of sticks that must be placed to activate the card.
2. Effect, which is activated.
3. Symbol, which is laid face up for a symbol victory.
4. Number of sticks that must be placed to deactivate the card.

Example: The player places five sticks once, activates the action card and lays it face up in front of himself. In this turn and in every further turn he may steal a banana from an opponent. In addition, he has now laid face up the coconut symbol. If the opponents later, during their turn, place four sticks in total, the card can be deactivated again.

II. Play an Effect

The player may play each effect of his activated action cards once per turn. The effect may also be played in the turn in which the action card is activated. If the player has several activated action cards, he may therefore play each effect once in every turn. There are four different types of effects:

• Receive (Erhalten): If bananas or sticks are shown on the activated action card, the player receives the corresponding number of those resources from the supply. If a victory point is shown, he receives one victory point.
• Steal (Klauen): If a banana or a stick with a shackle is shown on the activated action card, the player steals that resource from one opponent of his choice. If none of the opponents has that resource, the player comes away empty-handed. Victory points are protected from stealing.
• Exchange (Tauschen): If an arrow is shown on the activated action card, the player may exchange sticks. If four sticks are shown, he may exchange them for one victory point. If one stick is shown, he may exchange it for one banana. Exception: the effect "Exchange" may be played several times per turn.
• Protect (Schützen): If a wall is shown on the activated action card, this card protects all activated action cards of the player, including the protecting card itself. The cost to deactivate an action card therefore increases by the value shown on the protecting card. If several protecting cards are active, their values are added together.

III. Deactivate an Action Card

The player may use his sticks to deactivate action cards of opponents. Only one action card may be deactivated per turn.

Either he deactivates the action card alone, or he seeks the support of one opponent to deactivate the card, at most twice. How the player convinces an opponent is up to him. For example, he can offer resources, or also (empty) promises.

To deactivate an action card, the number of sticks shown at the bottom of the card (field 4) must be placed. In a joint deactivation, the player whose turn it is must contribute at least one stick himself.

After a deactivation, the player whose turn it is always receives this deactivated action card into his hand. He must then place any action card from his hand back under the draw pile of action cards, so that he again has four action cards in total.

The player whose action card was deactivated and taken away draws two new action cards from the draw pile. He chooses one of the two, takes it into his hand, and the other action card must be placed back under the draw pile.

"Activate action card", "Play effect" and "Deactivate action card" in Phase 2 may be carried out in any order. The player ends his turn by passing it to the next player.

Character Cards

There are six different characters. Each character card shows at the top a combination of symbols for the symbol victory. As soon as a player has the action cards with all the corresponding symbols laid face up in front of him, he wins.

Below the symbols is the character with its special effect. A special effect may be played only once in the whole game. It may be carried out at any time during the player's own turn. To do so, the player lays the character card face up in front of himself for the rest of the game, so that the symbols are revealed as well. There are three special effects:

1. Outlaws: With this special effect the player receives, once, either the three bananas shown or four sticks from the draw pile.
2. Bandits: With this special effect the player steals, once, either the two bananas shown or three sticks from opponents of his choice.
3. Sheriffs: With this special effect the player destroys, once, either one action card or one victory point of a player of his choice, as shown on the card. The destroyed card is placed under the draw pile each time. If an action card of a player was destroyed, that player takes one new action card from the draw pile into his hand.

Note: the special actions do not prevent the player from carrying out all other actions of Phase 2. For example, an action card can be deactivated in the same turn.

End of the Game

As soon as a player has five victory points, or the three required symbols of his combination lying face up in front of him, he wins the game. It is possible that four symbols are lying face up.

In this rulebook the generic masculine is used; female and other gender identities are expressly meant as well.