Before the Guests Arrive
Before the Guests Arrive Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
70 cards:
- 21 Animal cards (3 of each animal)
- 45 Object cards (9 of each color)
- 1 Winter is coming card
- 3 player aid cards
Goal of the Game
Winter is coming! Fill your stock with all the things you need for a comfortable hibernation. Be clever with your choices and safely store your provisions at just the right moment to win the game!
Setup
- Find the player aid card for the number of players playing. Return the other two player aid cards to the box.
- Shuffle all the animal and object cards together, face down, to form a deck.
- Take 15 cards (9 in a 3-player game) from the deck, keeping them face down. Add the Winter is coming card, also face down, to these cards and shuffle them together. Place these 16 cards (10 in a 3-player game) at the bottom of the deck. The deck is now ready.
- Take cards one at a time from the deck and place them face up in the pattern shown on the player aid card (see the pattern to the right). These cards form the 'stock'.
When setup is complete, the tidiest player starts.
How to Play
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn, perform the following actions:
- Take cards (mandatory)
- Store provisions (optional)
- Check the stock (mandatory)
1. Take Cards (mandatory)
On your turn, start by taking cards from the stock. Take all the cards in the row or column of your choice (even if it's not full). Place these cards face up in front of you. We recommend organizing your cards by type. Identical objects must be stacked.
2. Store Provisions (optional)
If you have any animal and object cards of a matching color in front of you, you may perform the Store Provisions action.
If you decide to store provisions, choose 1 of your animals. For every 1 paw symbol on this animal, you may store 1 object of that animal's color (and all identical cards). Multiple identical objects only require 1 paw symbol. You do not need to use all of an animal's paw symbols, and you may choose to store only 1 object, even if the animal has 2 paw symbols.
Place the animal card and the object cards it has stored in a face-down pile, and place the pile next to your other cards.
Example: the hedgehog can store 2 objects of its color.
The bat and the frog can store objects of 3 different colors. However, because they only have 1 paw symbol, they can only choose to store 1 object at a time.
Important: you can only choose to store provisions once per turn. In other words, you can only store 1 animal card (and its objects) per turn.
3. Check the Stock (mandatory)
At the end of every turn, count the number of cards remaining in the middle of the table.
If there are 4 or more cards remaining, play passes to the current player's left.
If there are 3 or fewer cards in the stock, the stock is refilled. To do this, move the cards that are still in the stock to positions 1, 2, and 3, keeping them in order. Then draw and place as many cards as necessary to refill the stock.
If this happens, the active player takes another turn.
Therefore, if you trigger the refill of the stock, you will take 2 turns in a row.
End of the Game
When someone draws the Winter is coming card, the game IMMEDIATELY ends.
Each player may perform 1 final action:
- You may store provisions. Choose 1 animal and perform the 'Store Provisions' action.
- Or, you may discard 1 card. Discard 1 of the face-up cards in front of you.
Final Scoring
For each object card stored, you earn points equal to the number of snowflakes on the card. No points are awarded for the animal cards.
Each object card still in front of you (not stored) is worth -1 point. Each paw symbol on any animal cards still in front of you is worth -1 point.
Add up all your points. The player with the highest total wins. In case of a tie, the player with the fewest negative points wins. If still tied, those players share the victory.
We recommend that you play the game 3 times in a row. In this case, the starting player is the player who had the lowest total in the previous game.
About the Name "Hygge"
Hygge (pronounced "HOO-gah"):
Why is this game called Hygge, you ask? Please bear in mind that we are a group of French-speaking people trying to explain a concept that is foreign to us. Hygge is a lifestyle that is principally Danish in origin. You could translate it as cocooning, but this would not do it justice. Above all, Hygge is a way of life. It's a concept that encompasses comfort, wellbeing, warmth, safety, and more…
A game by Saashi. Illustrated by Ewelina Proczko.
English Translation and Proofreading: Alexander Caves and Jo Lefebure for The Geeky Pen.