Cocoons
Cocoons Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Together, you must help each of the Guardian Animals that are at the bottom of the game box by placing them in their own cocoon (the nested boxes).
Once you have done this, you must make the Start token visible. However, you must do so before you run out of Action tokens!
Cocoons is a game with ascending difficulty levels. The setup and rules describe the first level. You will discover the other levels later!
Components
Before your first game, remove all elements from the punchboards 1, 2 and 3. Then place all the emptied punchboards inside of the box (step 4). Finally, place the Trapdoors and Guardian Animals board on top of them (step 5).
Note: the source text layer drops the punchboard numbers and step references in this paragraph; they are restored here from the page image.
- The game box: At the bottom of the box, you will find the Trapdoors and Guardian Animals board. It has 9 spaces that may each hold a Guardian Animal token and a trapdoor.
- 9 cocoons: On the outer side of each of the cocoons, there is a seal to indicate which Guardian Animal the cocoon belongs to. Inside each cocoon, a pink symbol points at the side of the cocoon that bears the seal. There is a cocoon that belongs to no Guardian Animal. Use it as the Action tokens supply!
- 8 Guardian Animal tokens: The Guardian Animal is only printed on one side. Back side (common).
- 1 Start token.
- 25 Trapdoors: A side of the Trapdoor has an icon depicting its effect and the back side is simply decorated. The effects of the trapdoors are depicted in the game levels.
- Back side (common).
- 8 different Rune trapdoors (x8 different).
- 4 Spring trapdoors (x4).
- 2 Spinning trapdoors (x2).
- 1 Action trapdoor (x1).
- 2 Padlock trapdoors (x2).
- 8 different numbered trapdoors (x8 different).
- 25 Action tokens.
Setup
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Shuffle all 8 Guardian Animal tokens and the Start token. Randomly place a token in each slot at the bottom of the game box. Guardian Animal tokens must stay face down.
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Take all 8 Rune trapdoors. Place one in each slot, face down, on top of the Guardian Animal tokens. Only the Start token should be left uncovered.
Rune trapdoors:
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Randomly place the 8 cocoons in the game box, without looking at their sides. Each cocoon should be on top of a trapdoor, and all cocoons should have a random orientation.
Important: during this step of setup, no one should see which Guardian Animal a cocoon belongs to.
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Place all 25 Action tokens in their own cocoon, on the table, within reach of all players. This is the action supply.
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Place the game box in the center of the table. Each player should be facing a corner of the box. If there are only two players, players should face each other.
- Each player can only see the information in front of them, and inside of the cocoons.
- No one should get up to try and see the information on the other sides of the cocoons.
- However, you may freely communicate any information you have access to!
Gameplay
The youngest player starts their turn. Then the player to their left plays, and so on – the turn order goes clockwise.
On your turn, you must choose one of these actions:
- A Main action
- A Correcting action
The Main action allows you to slide a cocoon and may reveal new information, new trapdoors and a Guardian Animal to place back in their own cocoon.
The Correcting action is taken instead of the main action and allows you to rectify mistakes the players may have made.
Main Action
- Take an Action token from the supply and place it inside the cocoon you want to move. This cocoon must be adjacent to the free space.
- Slide the cocoon to the free space. Note: You cannot move multiple cocoons in a single action. If this move revealed any piece of information on the side of one or more cocoons, share all this new information with the group.
- The space you freed may contain:
- A trapdoor: if the trapdoor is face down, flip it face up and apply its effect (if any). Except if the game tells you otherwise, reveal the Guardian Animal token underneath. Note: For level 1 (or your first game), you are using the 8 Rune trapdoors. They have no special effect. When you slide a cocoon and reveal a Rune trapdoor, discard it in the lid of the box.
- A Guardian Animal token: if this token is face down, flip it face up. If you wish, you may place the Guardian Animal token in a cocoon. Otherwise, leave the token where it is, face up.
- The Start token: nothing happens, except if players decide altogether that they put an end to the game.
- Nothing: nothing happens.
Correcting Action
Take a Guardian Animal within a cocoon and move it to any other cocoon.
This action is meant as a means of correcting placement mistakes, but it is costly!
To take this action instead of a main action, put three Action tokens from the supply and place them in the lid of the box. Those will not be used until the end of the game.
Turn Example
It is the beginning of the game and Melody is the first player.
She may move cocoons a, b or c.
She places an action token in cocoon a to move it to the free space. Doing so, she reveals a piece of information that was previously hidden (the iguana's cocoon).
She also reveals a new trapdoor d. It bears a Rune. As Rune trapdoors have no abilities for the current level, she discards it.
She then reveals the Guardian Animal hidden underneath the trapdoor. It is the fish. Other players remind her the fish's cocoon is cocoon a.
She places the Fish Guardian Animal token in its cocoon.
Note: the source prints "ou" (French for "or") in the first line of this example; it is rendered here as "or".
End of the Game
To win the game, players must replace each Guardian Animal in its cocoon, then make the Start token visible.
Once the players think they have succeeded, if they all agree to it and anytime, they may decide to put an end to the game. Remove each cocoon from the box. If each Guardian Animal is in its own cocoon, the players win the game!
The game is lost if players run out of Action tokens before they can put an Animal Guardian token in each cocoon and make the Start token visible again.
It is also lost if, when revealing the cocoons, some Guardian Animals are not in their right cocoon.
Levels and Trapdoor Abilities
The game has multiple levels – each uses different trapdoors.
Level 1: Simple Lids
From the bottom of the box, Guardian Animals are speaking to you…
Setup: 8 Rune trapdoors.
Gameplay: This is the base level, as described in the rules! Rune trapdoors have no abilities. When you reveal a Rune trapdoor, just remove it and place it in the lid of the box.
Level 2: Sliding Boxes
As soon as you touch a cocoon, trapdoors spring alive, slide and move other cocoons around!
Setup: 4 Rune trapdoors and 4 Spring trapdoors.
Gameplay: Shuffle all the trapdoors and place them randomly, face down, to cover Guardian Animals.
Whenever you reveal a Spring trapdoor, you must discard it, then slide a cocoon to the free space without being able to flip the Guardian Animal token that was there, if it was face down. If you reveal another trapdoor this way, reveal it and resolve its ability as normal.
Level 3: Magical Locks
The antique dealer told you that pulling on locked trapdoors was useless… you just need to find the right Runes!
Setup: 2 Padlock trapdoors and 6 Rune trapdoors matching the padlock symbols.
Gameplay: Shuffle all the trapdoors and place them randomly, face down, to cover Guardian Animals.
To remove a Padlock from the game box, you must have removed all 3 matching Rune trapdoors.
Level 4: Spinning Box
The box starts spinning! You hope it won't do that while you are sliding the cocoons around… Oh wait, it does?!
Setup: 5 random Rune trapdoors, 2 Spinning trapdoors and 1 Action trapdoor.
Gameplay: Shuffle all the trapdoors and place them randomly, face down, to cover Guardian Animals.
Whenever you reveal a Spinning trapdoor, spin the box clockwise by a quarter turn. Players will then face a new angle of the box. Finally, remove the Spinning trapdoor from the game.
When you reveal the Action trapdoor, place it in any cocoon. For the remainder of the game, sliding this cocoon costs no Action token.
Level 5: Pieces of the Puzzle
The trapdoors aren't moving. Oh, but there are symbols you didn't see on them… are those… numbers?
Setup: 8 numbered trapdoors.
Gameplay: Shuffle all the trapdoors and place them randomly, face down, to cover Guardian Animals.
You may only remove the trapdoors in an ascending sequence: start with trapdoor number 1, then number 2, number 3 and so on, without skipping numbers. If you discover a trapdoor that does not follow the previous number, replace it where it was, number side up.
Once assembled, the numbered trapdoors make a pattern.
Important
Only use the rules in this section when you have won all levels, including level 5, and you pieced the puzzle back together!
Hard Mode
You may also rediscover levels 1 through 5 with an added difficulty.
In this hard mode, when you reveal an empty space (that contains no trapdoor and no token) when sliding a cocoon, you must place an Action token in the space where you would usually find a Guardian Animal token.
Making Your Own Levels
You may also create your own levels by selecting the trapdoors and rules of your choice!
Beware not to create an impossible combination! To avoid this, just follow the following rules:
- If you are using numbered trapdoors, take trapdoors in sequence, starting with trapdoor number 1.
- If you are using a padlock, be sure to take the Rune trapdoors that match the padlock.