Barking Up The Wrong Tree Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Round Structure
  • 1. Laying Out Items
  • 2. Dealing Cards
  • 3. Playing Cards
    • Dog Cards
    • Cat Cards
    • End of Playing Cards
  • 4. Collecting Items
  • 5. Clearing the Table
• End of the Game

Components

• Dog cards × 50
• Wonder Dog cards (jokers) × 6
• Cat cards × 7
• Item cards × 40
• First player token × 1
• Cat tokens × 7

The component sheet shows the number of copies of each dog breed card (×3, ×3, ×4, ×4, ×5, ×5, ×6, ×6, ×7, ×7 — 50 dog cards in total) and of each item card (×2, ×2, ×3, ×3, ×4, ×4, ×5, ×5, ×6, ×6 — 40 item cards in total, across 20 item types). The breed and item names are printed only on the artwork and are not reproduced here.

Setup

1. Choose a color shown on the item cards and sit so that you can comfortably place your dog cards opposite that color.

Example 1: Phone booth; Anna's dogs; Anna.

2. Place the cat tokens in the middle of the table.
3. Shuffle the item cards, split them into five stacks, and place them face down. The first stack should have three cards, the second four, and the next three stacks five, six, and seven cards respectively. Place these stacks in ascending order along the edge of the table. Return the remaining item cards to the box; they are not used in the game.
4. Deal each player one cat card.
5. Shuffle the dog cards and the remaining cat cards together into a deck and place it on the table.
6. Give the first player token to whoever can best imitate a dog!

Each round repeats the following phases:

1. Laying out items.
2. Dealing cards.
3. Playing cards.
4. Collecting items.
5. Clearing the table.

Round Structure

1. Laying Out Items

In the first round, take the stack of three item cards and lay them face up on the table, some distance apart from each other.

In later rounds, lay out the cards from the stacks in ascending order (so in the second round, lay out four item cards; in the third, five; and so on).

2. Dealing Cards

Deal each player as many cards as there are items on the table. For example, in the first round each player receives three cards.

Important! The hand limit is ten cards. If a player has more than ten cards, they must immediately discard the excess. Discarded cards are placed face up next to the deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discards and use them as a new deck.

Pack limit! If there are not enough cards to finish dealing, the dealing stops. Make sure every player has received the same number of cards.

3. Playing Cards

Each round begins with the first player, and turns pass clockwise. On their turn, a player may either play cards (cat cards or dog cards) or pass. If a player passes, they may not play any more cards in this round. A player who has no cards left must pass.

Dog Cards

On their turn, a player may play one or more dog cards. These cards:

• must be dogs of the same breed;
• must be played next to one item;
• must be played next to an item beside which this player has not yet played dogs;
• must be of a breed different from the breeds already played next to that item.

Important! Dog cards cannot be added to dogs of the same breed that have already been played.

Wonder Dog cards (jokers) can be used as an extra card of any other breed.

A Wonder Dog card can only be played together with a card of another breed. It cannot be played on its own.

A played Wonder Dog card counts as a dog of the breed it was played with, until the end of the round.

On their turn, a player may also discard a Wonder Dog card from their hand and take the top card of the deck in its place.

Example 2: Karl plays one Bulldog barking at the mailbox.

Anna plays two Mutts at the boxes. She could have competed with Karl's Bulldog at the mailbox (two dogs would beat one), but she chose not to.

Max plays one Doberman at the mailbox and competes with Karl's Bulldog. Each player has one dog barking at the item, but Max's Doberman has a higher rank (3) than Karl's Bulldog (9).

Maria has a Doberman, a Bulldog, and a Wonder Dog. She cannot play a Doberman at the mailbox, because there is already a Doberman there. She could have gained the advantage at the boxes by playing a Doberman and a Wonder Dog there, but instead she plays a Husky at the hot air balloon.

Cat Cards

At the start of a turn (before playing dog cards), a player may play one or more cat cards.

When doing so, the player:

• discards a cat card;
• takes the top card of the deck in its place;
• may place a cat token on an item;
• then plays dog cards on any item, or passes.

Important! A player is not required to place a cat token.

Cat tokens may be placed on any item that does not already have another cat token on it. It does not matter whether dogs are barking at that item.

Any player, on their turn, may play dog cards on an item that has a cat token. If they choose to do so, the playing of dog cards on that item follows these rules:

• The cards being played may be dogs of different breeds.
• They may be played even if the player has already played their own dogs next to this item.
• Important! The breed of each card being played must still differ from the breeds already played next to that item.

SUMMARY: When an item has a cat token, all players may add any number of dogs, as long as their breed differs from the breeds of dogs already barking at the item with the cat. This may also be done in later turns. This is (as you will surely remember) still different from a world without cats.

Example 3: Max's Doberman competes with Karl's Bulldog for the mailbox. Karl thinks it over and plays a cat card. In exchange he draws a card from the deck, and now has a Husky and a Basset Hound. Karl places a cat token on the mailbox and then adds his Husky to his Bulldog at that item.

Max has a Husky and a Wonder Dog, which he cannot play with the Doberman at the mailbox. To avoid losing, he discards the Wonder Dog and draws a new card. It is a Basset Hound. He adds it to his Doberman and now leads, because although both players have two dogs there, Max's Doberman still has the highest rank among the dogs at that item (3).

Karl could have played the Basset Hound at the same time he played the Husky. But he did not, and now he cannot play it. Grr!

End of Playing Cards

Once all players have passed, give the first player token to the player who passed last.

Important! Players keep all unused cards and may use them in the next round.

4. Collecting Items

An item card goes to the player who has the most of their dogs next to that item. In case of a tie, the item goes to the player with the highest-ranking dog breed (1 is the highest, 10 is the lowest). Give all items to the players who won them. Item cards won as trophies must be kept face up so that the other players can see them. Identical item cards may be stacked together.

Important! Remember that you will score more points the more different items you collect, so try to make sure the dog does not get it wrong!

5. Clearing the Table

1. Remove any items still on the table from the game.
2. Set all cat tokens aside.
3. Collect all played dog cards, shuffle them together with the discards, and place them face down as the deck.
4. Start the next round.

End of the Game

After the fifth round, players score points for the items they have collected. For the first item of each kind a player collects, they score 3 points. For the second item of the same kind, 2 points. The third and every subsequent item of the same kind is worth only 1 point.

Example 4: Maria has items of four kinds: hot air balloon, boxes, trash bin, and van (4 × 3 = 12 points). She also has another van (2 points) and two more boxes (2 + 1 = 3 points).

In total, Maria scores 17 points.

The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player who barks louder wins. And if your neighbours come over, disturbed by the noise, invite them to join the game!

Tip: When teaching the game, do not use the cat cards and do not explain them until the second round.