Café Fatal Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Game
• Components and Set Up
• Sequence of Play
  • 1. Prepare the Round
  • 2. Throw and Place the Dice
  • 3. Distribute the Morsels
  • 4. End of the Round
• End of the Game and Victory

The Game

Choose one result from the dice that you rolled. Put all dice of that result on to a single table, trying to beat your opponents. Take part in the struggle for neighboring tables and snatch as many of their morsels as possible. Five morsels of one kind form a "round thing", and the more of these you collect the closer you are to your free feast.

Components and Set Up

• 13 table tops, that you lay out (ignoring their dice symbols). Lay them out in the configuration for your player count:
  • 2 players: 7 table tops, laid out as shown in the rulebook diagram.
  • 3 players: 10 table tops, laid out as shown in the rulebook diagram.
  • 4/5 players: 13 table tops, laid out as shown in the rulebook diagram.
  • Return any excess tables to the box.
• 60 morsels, comprising 30 pieces of cheese, 20 slices of pizza and 10 pieces of cake.
• 1 cloth bag.
• 30 dice in 5 colors.

Set up: Before the game, put all the morsels in the cloth bag and mix them well. Each player takes the six dice of one color.

Editor's note: the printed rulebook shows the table layouts as diagrams only. The table counts above are the number of table tops in each diagram.

Sequence of Play

The hungriest player starts the round, the player to his left goes next and so on.

1. Prepare the Round

A. Place a morsel drawn at random from the bag on to each table, including any tables on which there are morsels remaining from previous rounds.

B. One of you throws two dice. For each die, place another morsel drawn from the bag on to the table showing that die's result. (It is possible that both additional morsels will go on the same table.)

The printed die results on the red tables have no further meaning in the game.

2. Throw and Place the Dice

Purpose of this action: If you have the most dice on a table at the end of the round, you get all the morsels on it. Ties are broken in favor of the higher die result.

Players take turns throwing their dice. If you have no dice left, skip your turn.

On your turn, take all your own dice that you have not yet placed on tables and throw them once. Then select from these all the dice of a single (identical) result and place them on one table.

• On your first throw (with all six dice), place them on a table of your choice.
• On all subsequent throws (with your remaining dice), you may only place dice on or adjacent to tables already occupied by you.

Always remember the three house rules of The Jackpot Café:

1. Your dice on a single table may not differ.
2. Your dice on a table may differ from those of the other players.
3. If you have already placed dice showing a particular result, you may not place dice showing that result on another table.

According to these rules, any number of dice belonging to any number of players may be placed on a table.

There are two possibilities:

1. Dice of a result that you have already placed must be placed on the same table.

   • Example from the diagram: The green player may add only 3s to this table – the blue player may add only 1s. The green player may not add 3s to any other table – the blue player can't add 1s.

2. Dice of a result that you have not yet placed on a table, must be placed on any neighboring table. It must be horizontally or vertically adjacent to a table already containing dice belonging to you.

   • a) If the green player chooses the 3s from this throw, he must place them with the 3s he has already placed.
   • b) If he chooses the 2s or the 6s, he must place them on a neighboring table adjacent to his own dice.

This throwing phase ends when all players' dice have been placed on tables.

3. Distribute the Morsels

Once all the dice have been placed this way, distribute the morsels.

• For each table, whoever has the most dice on that table gets all its morsels.
• If there is a tie (the same number of dice), all the morsels go to the player whose dice show the higher result.
• If both the number of dice and their results are tied, leave the morsels on the table for the next round.

Place the morsels you collect in front of you. Each complete wheel of cheese, complete pizza and whole cake will be worth double Gourmet Points and the end of the round (see Game End and Victory).

Editor's note: the printed text reads "worth double Gourmet Points and the end of the round". The doubling applies at final scoring, as described in "End of the Game and Victory" below.

4. End of the Round

Each player takes his six dice back. Leave any morsels that weren't won on their tables.

End of the Game and Victory

Each player earns Gourmet Points for the morsels he has collected:

• Each individual piece of cheese is worth 1 buffet-point.
• Each individual slice of pizza is worth 2 Gourmet Points.
• Each individual piece of cake is worth 5 Gourmet Points.
• Complete – comprising 5 morsels – cheese wheels, pizzas and cakes are worth double.
  • A complete wheel of cheese is worth 10 Gourmet Points.
  • A complete pizza is worth 20 Gourmet Points.
  • A complete cake is worth 50 Gourmet Points.

The game ends as soon as (at least) one player has 40 points or more or there aren't enough morsels left in the bag to set up another round.

The player with the most points is the well-fed winner of the game. Ties are broken in favor of the player with more morsels. If this does not break the tie, the victory is shared.

Example:

• Beatrix has 50 Gourmet Points:
  • 3 pieces of cake at 5 = 15 Gourmet Points
  • 1 complete pizza = 20 Gourmet Points
  • 2 slices of pizza at 2 = 4 Gourmet Points
  • 1 complete wheel of cheese = 10 Gourmet Points
  • 1 piece of cheese = 1 buffet-point
• Lars also has 50 Gourmet Points:
  • 4 pieces of cake at 5 = 20 Gourmet Points
  • 4 slices of pizza at 2 = 8 Gourmet Points
  • 2 complete wheels of cheese at 10 = 20 Gourmet Points
  • 2 pieces of cheese at 1 = 2 Gourmet Points

Lars wins the tie as he has more morsels (20) than Beatrix (16).