CATz in the Town! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• The Aim of the Game
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Drawing a Card from One of the Discard Piles
  • Drawing Two Cards from the Drawing Deck
  • Stealing a Card from One of the Opponents
  • Stealing One Card from Two Different Opponents
• Special Cards
• Extra Cards
• Assembling Sequences and Scoring
  • Features of the Sequence Scores
• End of the Game

Components

• 120 cards:
  • 92 kitty cats in blue, yellow, red and green colors;
  • 12 black stray cats;
  • 16 extra cards: 4 kitten cards, 3 bratty boys, 3 good dogs, 3 cat ladies, 3 bad dogs.
• 1 rule booklet

The Aim of the Game

Players collect sequences of four kinds of house cats (blue, yellow, red and green). Each player can only have one sequence of each color (e.g. they cannot have two red sequences at the same time), so they can compile 4 different sequences in their playing area at most. Another sequence of the same color can only be started again, if that sequence was scored.

Sequences should consist of exactly 3, 5 or, in special cases, 7 cards, having the same color if possible, and if you sum up the values of the cards in one sequence, the last digit of their total value should always be 9 (i.e. 9, 19, 29, etc.).

There are only odd numbers on the cards, and there are a few which have two numbers on them: in case of these cards players can decide which value of the two they add to the total value of their sequence. Of course, to make the game a little bit more challenging, different kinds of extra cards aggravate or ease cat collecting.

Players get points, also known as kitty coins for scoring their sequences, which they acquire by turning their cards face down, when these cards will depict a kitty coin, worth 1 point. The winner of the game will be the one with the most kitty coins.

Setup

Shuffle the deck of cards thoroughly, turn them face down in one pile, and put the pile in the middle of the table where everyone can easily reach it. This will be the drawing deck.

Thereafter, turn up cards equal to the number of players next to the drawing deck. These will be the discard piles.

Note: If any time during the game, including setup, there are two completely identical extra cards on the discard piles, both cards should be put back into the game box. In case any of the discard piles runs empty because of this, it should be immediately replaced by another card from the top of the drawing deck, placing it face up.

The starting player will be the one whose path was last crossed by a black cat.

Gameplay

From the starting player and proceeding clockwise every player must perform exactly one of the following actions:

• (red) draws a card from one of the discard piles,
• (blue) draws two cards from the drawing deck,
• (yellow) steals a card from one of his opponents,
• (green) steals one card from two different opponents.

Drawing a Card from One of the Discard Piles

The player draws a card from the top of one of the discard piles and plays it in front of him starting a new sequence or adding it to one of his existing ones. Cards should be placed one by one, slightly shifted on each other, revealing the value of the cards.

Since these cards are turned face up, this is the safest choice for the players from the four possible actions.

Note: In case any of the discard piles runs empty due to this draw action, the player who drew the last card should immediately replace it with another card from the top of the drawing deck, placing it face up. The effect of this card is not resolved.

Drawing Two Cards from the Drawing Deck

The player draws exactly two cards from the drawing deck, turns them face up AT THE SAME TIME, and resolves their effects in the order of his choice:

• if he drew a numbered card, he can either play it in front of him, starting a new sequence or adding it to one of his already existing ones, or he can discard it onto one of the discard piles,
• if he drew a stray cat or an extra card, the effect of the card must be resolved (see the details of the special cards).

Since the players draw these cards face down, choosing this action is a little bit more risky.

Note: If two completely identical extra cards are drawn, the player has to put both of them back to the game box, ending his turn immediately. If the player drew two numbered cards, and he decides to discard them both, the two cards should be discarded on two different discard piles. If one of the cards could not be played according to the rules, or the effect of the card could not be resolved, the card should be discarded to one of the discard piles.

Stealing a Card from One of the Opponents

Instead of drawing cards from the drawing deck or the discard piles players can draw cards from one of their opponents. In this case the player can pick up a card from the bottom of any of the sequences laying in front of this opponent (so the card which was last played to one of his sequences), he plays it to one of his own sequences (which, in this way will consist of exactly 3, 5 or 7 cards), and scores that sequence immediately (see the details of scoring below).

Choosing this action might be annoying by making your opponent's job harder, but it is useful by all means, although you can easily turn someone into your enemy.

Note: Stray cats and kitten extra cards cannot be stolen.

Stealing One Card from Two Different Opponents

If a player needs two cards at the same time for scoring one of his sequences (or two different ones), he can decide to steal one card from each of his two opponents (only their last played cards can be stolen). In this case he also has to play both cards to his own sequences and must score the affected sequences immediately. The two stolen cards can be played to the same sequence as well (which, in this way will consist of 3, 5 or 7 cards).

Choosing this action might be even more annoying by making two of your opponents' job harder, but even more useful, although you can easily turn two of your opponents into your enemies...

Note: Players can only steal cards from their opponents, thus they cannot steal for example one card from one of their opponents and draw the other card from one of the discard piles.

Special Cards

Stray cat: The card of the stray cat is basically a not too nice joker card. If a player turns up this card from the drawing deck, it is mandatory to play it on one of his sequences (in case he can do it in compliance with the rules), regardless of its color. One sequence can contain only one stray cat and the stray cat cannot be the starting card of a new sequence. Any sequence containing a stray cat is not worth more than 1 point at scoring instead of its normal value (see the details of scoring below).

Extra Cards

Kittens: If a player draws this card, he has to place it above one of his existing sequences, rotating it by 90 degrees, meaning that this sequence must consist of exactly 7 cards (i.e. this sequence cannot be scored after 3 or 5 cards). If the player does not have any existing sequences, the card is discarded to one of the discard piles.

Note: If the sequence with the kittens would run out of cards for any reason (e.g. they got stolen or they were chased away by a bad dog), the kitten card must be discarded to one of the discard piles by the owner of the card.

Bratty boy: If a player draws a bratty boy card, he can exchange one of his stray cats (from any of his sequences) with the last played card of any of his opponents' sequence of the same color as his own sequence. (Example: Peter takes a stray cat from his own blue sequence, gives it to his opponent Lotti, along with the bratty boy card, while Lotti must give him the last played card of her blue sequence in exchange. After this Lotti has to play the stray cat chased by the bratty boy to this blue sequence of hers, and Peter plays the blue card, which he got in exchange for the bratty boy, to his own sequence.) The player targeted by this action can collect the bratty boy card as a compensation turned to its kitty coin side, which means that it is worth 1 point for him.

Good dog: The good dog likes to play with kitties and often visits the neighborhood, so if a player draws its card, he has to pass it to one of his opponents, along with one of his last played cats, and this opponent collects both cards turned onto their kitty coin sides as points.

Bad dog: The bad dog chases one sequence of the player to one of his opponents, so if this card is drawn, he has to give every card of one of his sequences to the opponent of his choice, who collects all these cards turned to their kitty coin sides.

Cat lady: The cat lady adopts every single stray cat that gets in her way, so if a player draws her card, he can take every stray cat from his own sequences, and collect them all along with the cat lady's card turned onto their kitty coin sides.

Note: If the player does not possess any stray cats, the card must be discarded to one of the discard piles.

Assembling Sequences and Scoring

Players can normally assemble sequences consisting of 3 or 5 cards of the same color. If a player's sequence consists of exactly 3 cards when he completes it with a card, he can decide if he wants to score it or continues collecting. If he completes a sequence to 5 cards by playing a card, and he does not have a kitten card, he must score his sequence. If he has a kitten card above this sequence, he has to continue collecting until his sequence consists of 7 cards.

Note: If a sequence contains a stray cat, it must always consist of 5 or 7 cards.

• If a player scores a sequence consisting of 3 cards of the same color, and the last digit of the total value of the cards is 9 (i.e. their total value is 9 or 19), the player gets 1 point. He turns one of the three cards to its kitty coin side and puts back the rest of the cards to the game box.
• If a player scores a sequence consisting of 5 cards of the same color, and the last digit of the total value of the cards is 9 (i.e. their total value is 9, 19, 29 or 39), the player gets 3 points. He turns three of the five cards to their kitty coin sides and puts back the rest of the cards to the game box. If a stray cat got mixed into the five cards of this sequence (but the last digit of the total value of the cards is still 9), the sequence is only worth 1 point, so he can only turn one of the five cards onto its kitty coin side.
• If a player scores a sequence consisting of 7 cards of the same color, and the last digit of the total value of the cards is 9 (i.e. their total value is 9, 19, 29 or 39), the player gets 8 points. He turns every card of the sequence to their kitty coin sides along with the kitten card. If a stray cat got mixed into the seven cards of this sequence (but the last digit of the total value of the cards is still 9), unfortunately, this sequence is only worth 1 point, too.
• If the last digit of the total value of a scored sequence is not 9, the sequence is worth 0 points, so the player has to put back every card into the game box.
• There is an extra possibility for collecting points, if a player collects a sequence consisting of exactly three completely identical cards (e.g. three orange 5 cards, or e.g. two green 7 cards and one green 3-7 card). This is worth 3 points, so the player turns all three cards onto their kitty coin sides. Note: This is the only case in the game when the last digit of the total value of the sequence does not have to be 9, while you still score points.

Features of the Sequence Scores

Features of the sequence	Scores
3 cards of the same color, the last digit of their total value is 9	1 point
5 cards of the same color, the last digit of their total value is 9	3 points
7 cards of the same color, the last digit of their total value is 9	8 points
The last digit of the cards' total value is 9, but a stray cat got mixed into the sequence (in case of 5 or 7 cards)	1 point
3 completely identical cards in one sequence (the last digit of the total value does not have to be 9)	3 points
The last digit of the sequence's total value is not 9, regardless of its color (and also does not contain 3 identical cards)	0 points

End of the Game

In a 3 player game the game ends when the drawing deck runs empty. The active player can still place the last card (or cards) in front of him, put it on the discard pile or resolve its effect, and after that everybody should proceed to the final scoring. If the drawing deck runs empty in a 4 or 5 player game, the cards collected in the game box and every card in the discard piles should be reshuffled and formed into a new drawing deck. Just like at setup, you have to turn cards face up forming the discard piles. In a 4 or 5 player game the game ends and continues with game end scoring when this reshuffled drawing deck runs empty too.