Chop! Chop!
Chop! Chop! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
With 2 players: 1 cat player against 1 mouse player. With 3-5 players: 1 cat player against 2, 3, or 4 mice players.
Contents: 1 kitchen board, 1 table, 38 floor tiles, 4 mouse hole tiles, 4 mice, 1 cat, 2 dice.
Aim of the Game
For the mice: collect the 10 pieces of cheese. For the cat: Catch all 4 mice before they collect 10 pieces of cheese.
Game Setup
Choose which player will be the cat and which player(s) will be the mice. The mice play together against the cat. Each mouse player can move any mouse on his turn.
Place the kitchen board in the center of the table. Shuffle the floor tiles and place them facedown on the board, making sure not to peek at their opposite side. Place the table on the board on the marked space. Place the mouse hole tiles facedown, with a mouse on each one, as shown in the diagram. Place the cat on one of the 6 spaces on the table.
Playing the Game
Players roll dice to move the mice and the cat around the board. Each side has its own die: the mice roll the grey die, the cat rolls the blue die.
1 / Movement Rules
- You must move horizontally or vertically (never diagonally).
- You must move the exact number of spaces shown on the die.
- You cannot jump over another playing piece, you must move around it.
- When moving after a die roll, you cannot move back to a space you just left.
The cat: The cat can move to the top of the table, but never underneath it. The table has 6 spaces the cat can move to and from, just like floor spaces.
The mice:
- You can move only one mouse each turn.
- The mice can move to a space under the table but they cannot move to a space on top of the table.
- A mouse can hide in a mouse hole but there can never be more than one mouse in each mouse hole.
The youngest mouse player goes first. On your turn, roll a die, choose a mouse, and move it a number of spaces equal to the die result. Then, flip the floor tile you just left, so that the mouse hole is face up.
After moving, flip the floor tile on which the mouse landed and do the action shown on that tile (see 2 / Floor Tile Actions).
Then the cat player takes a turn. On your turn, roll a die and move the cat a number of spaces equal to the die result. If the cat lands on a space occupied by a mouse: Congratulations! You catch it and remove it from the game. If you land on a space with a floor tile, flip it and do the action shown on that tile.
Continue playing this way, making sure to alternate between cat and mouse players.
Note: If you land on a space with no floor tiles, nothing happens.
2 / Floor Tile Actions
Each time you flip a floor tile, remove it from the board.
- Broken Plate: Nothing happens. The cat and mice can land on the space this tile was on.
- Cheese:
- For the mice: Perfect! Take the piece of cheese and keep it in front of you.
- For the cat: Place the tile back on the board face up and place the cat on top of it. The cat cannot move onto spaces with a face up cheese tile.
- Note: If the cat is on a cheese tile, the mice cannot move to that space to take that cheese.
- +1 and +2: Bonus move! After landing on this floor tile, move the cat or mouse one or two extra spaces. Important: You cannot move back to this space but you can move back to the space you left at the start of your turn if able.
- Arrow: Free move! Move the cat or mouse anywhere on the board, with a few exceptions:
- You cannot move a mouse onto a space of the table, a face up cheese tile, or onto a mouse hole.
- You cannot move the cat under the table, onto a face up cheese tile, or onto a mouse hole.
- Fork:
- For the mice: If there is a face up cheese tile on the board, the fork allows the mouse to take the piece of cheese without landing on it. If there are no face up cheese tiles or if a cat is on the cheese tile (printed "cheese file"), nothing happens.
- For the cat: nothing happens, the cat simply lands on this space.
- Knife: Ouch! You injure yourself and must skip a turn. The next player takes two turns in a row. (Important: If the next player is a mouse player, that player must move the same mouse twice.)
After doing the corresponding action, remove the tile from the board.
Winning the Game
If the mice collect all 10 pieces of cheese, they win the game as soon as one of them moves to a mouse hole. If the cat catches all mice before they collect all 10 pieces of cheese, the cat wins.
Important: To win, each mouse must have left its starting space (the 4 mouse holes must be face up) and one of them must return to a mouse hole.
Note: If there is only one mouse left in play and it is in a mouse hole, the cat player cannot move to the space in front of that hole to block it. The mouse must be able to leave its hole.