Bayou Boss Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Objective
• Setting Up
• The Deal
• Overview
• The Play
  • Winning a Trick – Who has the high card?
  • Example 1
  • Example 2, the next turn.
• End of Round & Scoring
• End of The Game

Contents

• 102 Playing cards in 6 suits numbered 0–16
• 16 Character cards
• 1 Dealer card
• 8 Character reference aids

Note: the rulebook PDF does not print the text of individual Character abilities; those are on the Character cards and the Character reference aids.

Objective

Win by collecting the LEAST tricks total.

Setting Up

Before playing, prepare two decks:

1. The Game Deck: Build a deck of Playing cards using the range and suits (no Ravens) per the table below.
2. The Character Deck:
   • Set aside a number of Raven Character cards per the table below. (Return extra Ravens to the box.)
   • Shuffle the other Character cards and deal 6 onto the table. (Return the extras to the box.)
   • Shuffle these Ravens and Characters together to make the Character Deck. (This will be added to the Game Deck after dealing hands to each player.)

Number of Players	Number of Suits	Card Range used in each Suit	Ravens used
2	4	0 – 6	1
3	4	0 – 9	2
4	5	0 – 9	3
5	5	0 – 12	4
6	5	0 – 15	5
7	6	0 – 15	6
8	6

The Deal

In the first round, select a dealer. Give them the dealer card. Each round after, the new dealer is the person with the most tricks. (Ties are broken clockwise from the current dealer.) The dealer shuffles the Game Deck and follows these steps:

• Deal each player a hand of 7 cards (face down).
• Deal the next card face up in the middle of the table. This is the trump card.
• Shuffle the Character Deck into the remainder of the Game Deck. Place this Game Deck in the center of the table beside the trump card.
• From this Deck flip as many cards face up as there are players. Arrange them into a row beside the Deck — these form the Swamp.

Overview

Bayou Boss is played over 4 rounds. In each round players play tricks until all their cards are gone. A trick is a sequence of cards played in clockwise order where each player plays one card. Each round, the trick winner adds a Swamp card into their hand, as do the rest of the players in clockwise order.

The Play

• The first trick in the round is led by the player to the left of the dealer. Subsequent tricks in a round are led by the winner of the previous trick. If a Character card is led, the first suit card played is the suit to be followed for the hand.
  1. Players must always follow suit if they can.
  2. If they don't have this suit, they must instead play a card of the trump suit.
  3. If they don't have either, they may play any other suit card.
• A Character card may always be played instead of a suit card. The ability takes effect immediately! Some Characters will change the lowest or highest card in a trick. Even if an ability becomes useless a Character can still be played with no effect.
• Once all players have played a card, the trick is complete. Determine the trick winner as follows:

Winning a Trick – Who has the high card?

1. If any Character establishing a high card was played, the last played indicates the high card and any previous one determines the next highest. If the Python is played, then whatever is the 2nd highest card will win instead of the high card.
2. If not, the high card is the highest trump.
3. If no trumps were played, the high card is the highest card value in the suit led.
4. If only Characters were played and either a high or 2nd highest card isn't defined — by default the last non-'Manatee' Character played becomes the high card. Likewise the next to last fills in as the 2nd highest if needed.

The player with the high card wins the trick, collects the cards, placing them face-down in a zigzag stack before them. The tricks each player won are visible to all players.

If cards are in the Swamp, the trick winner chooses one card from it and adds it to their hand. Then, in clockwise order, every other player does the same.

Refill the Swamp unless the BLUE CRAB was played or there aren't enough cards to fill the Swamp. The Swamp may at times be empty. The trick winner then leads the next trick.

Example 1

Stacey leads a Red 3. Ainslee follows suit with a Red 12. Brent has no Red cards and must play a trump. He plays a Yellow 1. Frank can follow suit and plays a Red 5. Jenn cannot follow suit and has no trump, so she plays a Blue 12. Brent played the highest trump and wins the trick, collects the cards, and will lead the next trick. He picks first and takes the Heron card from the Swamp, followed by Frank (Alligator), Jenn (Blue 4), Stacey (Green 5), and finally Ainslee (Yellow 10). Unfortunately, Ainslee ends up with a terrible card from the Swamp, which is a high trump card. Brent turns over 5 new cards in the Swamp and leads.

Example 2, the next turn.

Brent leads with the Heron. He is currently the high card. Frank follows with the Alligator. Because Ainslee has the least tricks this round, the card she plays will become the high card. Brent's card now becomes 2nd highest. Jenn plays a Raven, takes the Yellow 4 trump card, replacing it with a Blue 9 card from her hand. Blue is now trump. Stacey plays the Python, so now the 2nd highest card will win the trick. Ainslee discards the Raccoon and takes the Manatee to play. She now becomes the lowest card thereby nullifying the Alligator's choice. Because no high card is designated and only Characters were played, the highest card becomes Stacey's Python. Because the Heron was already designated as 2nd highest, Brent wins the trick.

End of Round & Scoring

The round ends when all players have played all their cards. Use pencil and paper or a scoring app to score. Each player scores 1 point per trick won.

The new Dealer is the person with the highest number of tricks. (If tied, it's the tied player closest clockwise to the current dealer).

Collect the cards, but keep the Characters aside in a Character Deck. Then deal the next hand as shown on page 3.

End of The Game

The game ends after 4 rounds, or at the end of a round where one player scores 12 points. Add up the scores from all played rounds. The Winner(s) of the game are the player(s) with the lowest score.