Castellers!
Castellers! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 12 castells cards
- 81 castellers cards
- 17 special cards
- 4 llenya
- 4 canguelo
- 4 grallers
- 5 caps de colla
- 16 applause counters
The goal of the game
The objective is to build three human castles (castells) on the day of the castells competition in order to become the colla who receives the most applause.
Getting ready
Separate the castells cards into the different kinds and make four decks face down on the table. Depending on the number of castellers in each level of the castell, they are called a pilar (column), a castell of 2, castell of 3 or castell of 4.
Then, you draw and show the first card from each deck so that there is a castell of each type on the table. These will be the four castells you are able to raise during during today's competition. Next to each castell card, place the applause counters matching each type.
Once the castells for the festival have been prepared, shuffle the castellers cards and deal out 5 cards to each player. Leave the rest of the castellers cards in a face down stack. Then, take the first 6 and distribute them around the table in three groups of castellers: 3 cards in the first group, 2 cards in second group, and 1 card in the last group. These groups make up the castellers that you can use during your turn to make your castells.
The oldest player goes first, then the turns are taken in order moving clockwise.
How to play
During each player's turn, he or she must perform one of these three actions:
- Take a group of castellers from the table: the player takes all the cards from one of the three groups that are on the table, whichever the player prefers, and adds them to the cards in hand. These groups will always have between 1 and 3 cards. There is no limit to the number of cards players can have in their hands.
- Take two cards from the deck: the player draws the top two cards from the deck.
- Raise a castell: when a player decides to, he or she can start building the castell using the cards in his or her hand. Only one of the three parts of the castell (pinya, tronc or pom de dalt) can be raised in each turn. Once the castell is completed, you can take the highest score applause counter available for that castell type. You can't try to raise more than one castell at the same time. Raising a castell is explained in greater detail below.
In addition to these actions, players can play the special "Grallers", "Jitters", "Llenya" and "Cap de colla" cards at any time during their turn, as explained below.
Add cards to groups
Once the chosen action has been performed (and once the special cards have been played, when applicable), the player then discards the groups of castellers that have three cards. They are removed from the center of the table and put face up in the discarded cards pile, next to the deck.
Then, the player places a new card on top of each group of castellers (regardless of the number of cards that are in the group), starting with the group closest to the deck and then working away from the deck. This way, there are always three groups of castellers. When laying out the new cards, do not forget to place one in any empty group space if needed. During the game, as soon as the deck runs empty, shuffle the discard pile in order to create a brand new deck.
Raise a castell
When a player decides to raise a castell, he or she can construct one of its parts, naturally in ascending order. As the cards show, the castells are made up of three parts:
- Pom de dalt: cards that make up the pom de dalt (dosos, acotxador, enxaneta). Number and type of cards needed to complete this part.
- Tronc: number of cards needed to complete this part.
- Pinya: number of cards needed for this part.
Pinya
- Pinya: this is the base and the foundation of a castell. The castell card indicates the number of pinya cards needed to raise this part of the human castle. The pinya is formed when you play, face down, the indicated number of cards (these can be any of the cards in your hand).
- Tronc: this is made up with the castellers who climb up to make the levels of the tower. Each level can have a single casteller (for a pilar) or 2, 3 or 4 castellers for the castells of 2, 3 or 4. The number of tronc levels in each castell is indicated in the middle part of the card, and this is the number of cards for that type that you must play to complete the tronc.
- Pom de dalt: this is the group of castellers that crowns the top of the human castle. In pilars, it is just the enxaneta. Castells of 2 require both the acotxador and the enxaneta. Castells of 3 and 4 requires the dosos, the acotxador and the enxaneta.
In their turn, each player may only play the cards for one of the parts of the castell. It is recommended that he or she try to complete the entire level in a single turn, provided the cards needed are in their hand. However, it is also possible to construct a single level over multiple turns.
When raising a castell, the player places their cards one after the other according to their position in the castell, and they must always begin with the pinya (I), which is followed by the tronc (II) and then finally the pom de dalt (III).
Scoring a castell
Once the enxaneta is on the top of the castell, the player receives their applause from the audience. When this happens, the player takes the applause counter of the highest value available for that type of castell. The player who completes a specific castell type first will get more applause than those who complete it after them. Once a castell has been raised and the applause received, the player discards all the cards of their castell, including those from the pinya, and puts them in the discard pile.
This player won't be able to raise this same castle again, but any other player who hasn't raised it previously will be able to attempt building or raising it, but will receive less applause for it.
Special cards
Making castells requires something more than planning and care. Strength, balance, bravery and common sense are all needed, along with a good cap de colla, in order to successfully raise a castell. And if everything goes wrong and the castell goes llenya and falls, well then, just try again until you succeed.
In their turn, each player can play as many special cards as they want, in addition to the chosen action. During the other players' turn, players can only play the cap de colla in response to a special card played by another player.
Each card has a different effect, depending on the castell it is played for:
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Grallers: With their music, the grallers of each team of castellers encourage the castellers as they raise the castell. If a player is raising their castell and plays the grallers card, he can raise the next level of the castell in that same turn, so long as they have all the necessary cards. A player can only play a grallers once for each of their castells.
Example: Betty has finished the pinya of her castell. Right away, she plays a grallers card and can now also build the tronc. Even if she has another grallers card in her hand, she cannot use it to build the pom de dalt, since that card can only be played once per castell.
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Jitters: When raising the tronc, the time comes when the enxaneta must climb up to the top of the castell to complete it doing l'aleta (spreading his or her arms in salute). However, this is not as easy as it looks and sometimes it is hard to find the courage needed to get to the top. If a player receives a jitters card, he or she cannot make the pom de dalt in their next turn. Once that turn (the one after getting the card) is completed, the player then discards the jitters card.
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Llenya: When this card is played on the castell of another player, all the cards that make up the tronc return to that player's hand.
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Cap de colla: the leader or cap of the colla is a key member of the entire team of castellers. He or she is in charge of supervising the execution of the castell and giving the instructions and directions needed to raise and break down the castell without wasting time. The cap de colla card can be played to carry out the following actions:
- Call a casteller: by playing the cap de colla card, you can take any casteller card you want from the deck (if it is not there, you can take it from the discarded pile). Note: the cap de colla cannot be used to get any special card (grallers, jitters, llenya or cap de colla). Once the player has taken the desired card, he or she shows it to the rest of the players and the deck is shuffled again.
Once a special card has been played, it is placed in the discard pile with the other groups of discarded cards and the cards from the completed castells.
End of the game
The game continues until one of the players is able to successfully raise their third castell. Once the round of turns is complete and it is that player's turn again, the game is over and the applause received by each colla are counted. The player who has received the most applause wins. If there is a tie, the player who completed the three castells first is the winner of the festival.
Notes on this transcription
- The components list prints "canguelo" for the four jitters cards; the rules text names them "Jitters" and the transcription uses that name throughout.
- The scoring section prints "building por raising it"; "por" is transcribed as "or" (apparent typo in the printed text).
- The castell card face values (pinya/tronc counts and the applause counter values printed on the counters) are shown in the printed setup diagrams and are not restated in the prose; this transcription follows the prose only.
- Only the English edition of the rules is transcribed. The separate "Castellers Solo Variant" file offered on BoardGameGeek is a community-made document and is not part of this rulebook.