Consentacle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Turn Sequence
• The Outcome
• Types of Action Cards
• Advanced Cards: Extension and Desire
  • Extension Cards
  • Desire Cards
• Question and Answer
• Manifest
• Reflect Upon Your Outcome and Discuss

Setup

• Before playing Consentacle, ask a potential partner if they're willing to play Consentacle with you. Consentacle is a game of trust and intimacy, where both partners must consent to play!

• Decide with your partner which of you will play the Curious Human, and which will play the Tentacled Alien. Take the cards for your role.

• Put the correct amount of colored Trust Tokens on your Identity Card: the Human starts with 4 Trust Tokens, the Alien starts with 5 Trust Tokens.

• Shuffle your Action Cards to form your Action Deck and place the Consentacle playmat between you and your partner.

• Decide with your partner which game mode to play:

  PRACTICE CONSENT: Let's Talk About It, Baby! In this mode, you and your partner may communicate openly about what cards you have in your hand, and which cards you're going to play next.

  CONSENT CHALLENGE: Universal Translator Breakdown! In this mode, the two of you may not talk aloud about your cards, which cards to play, or overall strategy. You may communicate with your eyes.

• If you've played before, you may want to add Advanced Cards (cards with white backs). See the Advanced Cards section for instructions; set those cards to one side.

• Draw five cards from your Action Deck. This is your starting hand.

Mull It Over First: At first, cards with a 1 (Build Trust) or 2 (Share Trust) in a lower corner are the most useful. If you have few or none of these cards in your hand, you may draw a new starting hand, then shuffle your first starting hand back into your Action Deck.

Turn Sequence

1. Pick a card to play. Depending on which mode you're playing you should communicate about which cards you might play — either out loud (Practice Consent) or non-verbally (Consent Challenge).

2. Play your cards. In Consentacle, both players play a card at the same time. Place your cards face down on the playmat, then flip them over.

3. Check for combos and follow instructions. See if the two cards you played form the combo listed at the bottom of the card, like: GAZE + GAZE, "Meaningful Stare", COMBO: OOOH!

   If your cards form a combo, follow the combo instructions on the bottom of the card. [NOTE: Combos are usually good, but some combos are of questionable value: COMBO: OOPS?]

   If your cards don't form a combo, follow the instructions at the top of the card instead. (See the Types of Action Cards section for examples.)

   Not sure which instructions come first? Carry them out in order of the numbers at the bottom, starting with 1 - Build Trust.

4. Instead of following instructions, you have the option to Withdraw Consent. This cancels the turn: take your card back into your hand and don't draw a new one. If you Withdraw Consent, discard 1 Trust Token.

5. Discard and Draw. Put the card you played in your Discard Pile and draw a new card from your Action Deck.

The Outcome

When you've drawn the last card in your Action Deck, the following turn is the final turn of the game. When you've finished the final turn, consult the chart at the end of this booklet to take stock of your encounter.

Types of Action Cards

Action Cards come in five types that let you perform different actions. Combos sometimes change or add a type of action to a card's instructions!

Opening Moves: Useful at the start of the game!

• 1 - Build Trust (+3 Trust Tokens): These cards let you add more Trust Tokens from the game tray to the amount on your Identity Card.
• 2 - Share Trust (move up to 2 Trust Tokens): These cards let you move Trust Tokens from your Identity Card to the Intimacy Pool on the playmat.

Midgame: These cards are useful once you have both colors of Trust Tokens in the Intimacy Pool.

• 3 - Create Satisfaction (up to 4 pairs): If you have matched pairs of red & blue Trust Tokens in the Intimacy Pool, these cards let you change pairs into one Satisfaction Token per pair.
• 4 - Take Satisfaction (up to 3): Once you've created some Satisfaction Tokens, these cards let you take one or more out of the Intimacy Pool. Place them on your Identity Card.

Bonus Round: Doing well? Use that Satisfaction to keep it going.

• 5 - Do It Some More (discard 1 Satisfaction Token, Give 8 Trust Tokens): Once you've taken some Satisfaction Tokens, you can use these cards to discard one and give your partner a whole lot of Trust Tokens.

Just Can't Get Enough? If you (or the Intimacy Pool) have less than the number of tokens or pairs shown on an Action Card, you may still perform the action — just fewer times!

Advanced Cards: Extension and Desire

Got the hang of the basic game? The advanced cards give you new moves and new ways of getting some Satisfaction.

Extension Cards

Before playing, select up to three Extension Cards for your role (Human or Alien). Some Extension Cards are designed especially for use in Consent Challenge Mode.

An Extension Card stays face down until you pay to reveal it by discarding the number of Trust Tokens shown at the top of the card.

Once revealed, Extension Cards give you additional abilities.

Some abilities are triggered by other cards being played, for example: When you play a card with the mouth icon, your partner may draw 1 Satisfaction Token (Give +1).

Others can be used once or more per turn by discarding Trust Tokens, for example: Pay 1 Trust Token to show your partner exactly 3 cards from your hand.

How much more Satisfaction can you generate by choosing when to reveal your body parts and intimate style?

Desire Cards

Before playing, shuffle the Desire Cards for your role (Human or Alien) and draw one at random.

Look at this card before playing: if you fulfill the instructions shown on the card, take the number of Satisfaction Tokens shown at the bottom of the card directly from the game tray.

In Consent Challenge mode, you may not discuss your desires!

Question and Answer

Which player carries out their instructions first? The card with the lower number in a bottom corner happens first, starting with 1 - Build Trust and going up from there. If both cards have the same number, you can either carry out the instructions simultaneously, or discuss which should happen first.

When both players play a Release card, how are the Satisfaction Tokens divided? You may divide them evenly, or mutually agree who should take more Satisfaction Tokens. If you can't agree on this, then you must each take the same number of Satisfaction Tokens, with any remaining Satisfaction Tokens (if there were an odd number) remaining in the Intimacy Pool.

Can we really not talk at all during Consent Challenge Mode? Consent Challenge doesn't need to be completely silent — you and your partner should still talk in order to make sure you're carrying out instructions on your cards correctly. You can also remind each other to discard cards and draw a new card, mention when you've reached the final turn, etc. You may not communicate about what cards you have in your hand, what cards are still in your deck, which cards you might play next, or overall strategy for the game. (Unless, of course, you have an Extension Card that allows you to do this somehow.)

What kind of non-verbal communication is allowed during Consent Challenge Mode? Can I wink? This is up to you and your partner, but if you're a stickler for details, you can tune the kinds of communication allowed during play to suit your needs. Here are some recommended sub-mode settings:

• Suggestive Gestures (easier). You may use any part of your body to communicate suggestively, but you may not talk about your cards or strategy.
• Windows of the Soul (standard). You may only communicate using your eyes — including whatever eyes can do, wink away.
• The Strictest Discipline (harder). You may only communicate by staring at each other. Eyes forward, player: don't even exchange significant looks in a certain direction, winks, or eye-rolls.

Can I play this game competitively, to beat my partner? It's hard to do this with the current Consentacle decks. In future versions of the game, you and a consenting opponent may be able to compete by playing Flagging the Orange Hanky Mode. Let us know if you're interested!

Manifest

The Consentacle decks for this version consist of:

Human

• Identity Card (1): Kit
• Action Cards (19): Wink (2), Gaze (3), Touch (3), Kiss (2), Bite (1), Restrain (1), Penetrate (1), Envelop (1), Release (3), Lick (1), Stroke (1)
• Extension Cards (4): Eyes, Hand, Tongue, Enthusiastic Consent
• Desire Cards (4)

Alien

• Identity Card (1): Dup
• Action Cards (19): Wink (2), Gaze (3), Touch (3), Kiss (2), Bite (1), Restrain (1), Penetrate (1), Envelop (1), Release (3), Lick (1), Stroke (1)
• Extension Cards (4): Eyes, Tentacle, Maw, Like That, Again
• Desire Cards (4)

Reflect Upon Your Outcome and Discuss

Total Satisfaction (both players)	Your romantic encounter...	Who has more satisfaction?	Amidst this tangle of limbs and tentacles, you...
0-1	...was just kind of... okay?	+6 or more for them	...seemed to desire only whatever your partner did, and nothing more.
2-4	...managed to be adequate for routine maintenance of intimate needs.	+3-5 for them	...were left aching with desire and unfulfilled, trembling at your partner's satiated smile.
5-9	...gave you quite a few lasting tingles!	+1-2 for them	...proved yourself a giving partner, even at the expense of your own satisfaction.
10-15	...managed to both satiate your hungers and leave you thirsting for more.	Equilibrium!	...were both left panting, exhausted, and mutually fulfilled.
16-20	...transported you beyond the bounds of self.	+1-2 for you	...found pleasures and pains in the ministrations and moans of your partner, then took them.
21-23	...threatened to turn you into a moonstruck servant of pleasures & pains.	+3-5 for you	...knew exactly what your body desired, and fearlessly claimed it.
24+	...collapsed the local fabric of time & space, destroying civilization.	+6 or more for you	...got just what you wanted, to your own extreme satisfaction.