DIG
DIG Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Your task is to find the tastiest bones and drop them into the bowls. Only one of you will enjoy victory — such is a dog's life.
Components
30 cards:
- 20 Bone cards
- 4 Dog cards
- 5 Bowl cards
- 1 Dog House card
Setup
- Set the 4 Dog cards aside. Place the Dog House card on the right-hand side of the play area.
- Shuffle the Bone cards together with the Bowl cards (note: the bones must not be visible) and lay them out in a long row to the left of the Dog House. From here on, this row is called the Yard.
- Each player chooses 1 Dog card and places it above or below the Dog House card. Return the unchosen Dog cards to the box.
- The youngest player begins the game.
Setup example for 4 players: All 4 dogs are at the Dog House. The row of cards — the Yard — is made up of the shuffled, laid-out Bowl cards and Bone cards (at this moment the bones themselves must not be visible).
How the Game Works
Hidden among the Yard cards are 4 bones in each of the 5 colors. Over the course of the game you move your dogs around the Yard, dig up bones and carry them to the bowls of matching colors. When all of the bones have been dug up, the game ends and players total their points based on what they achieved.
At the start of the game it is not known which bones will be worth how many points. The point value of a bone is determined only at the end of the game.
Game Turn
On your turn you may perform a maximum of 3 actions from the options below. You may perform the actions in any order, and you may perform each of them more than once, but remember that you must always finish carrying out one action before starting the next.
A. Move
Move your dog up to 4 spaces (in any direction; you may always move less if you wish). Your movement range is affected by the bones you are carrying: each carried bone reduces the range by 1 (so, for example, while carrying 2 bones you may move a maximum of 2 spaces). The Dog House card has a simple table showing how many spaces you may move depending on how many bones you hold. Place your Dog card above or below the card you are standing on. Several dogs may be on the same card.
B. Dig
If your dog is standing on a Bone card, you may dig up the bone (you cannot dig on Bowl cards or on the Dog House). If you decide to dig, simply take into your hand the Bone card your dog is standing on (do not reveal it to the other players).
Immediately after digging up the bone you may (if you wish) put a Bone card of your choice from your hand back into that space — even the one you just dug up. If you decide to put a card back, do so in such a way that the bone is face down (hidden).
The maximum number of Bone cards you may hold in your hand is 3. If you already have 3 cards in hand, you may still dig up another bone, but after digging you must put 1 card back in the place of the dug-up card (so that you do not exceed the hand limit).
Note: if after digging up a bone you do not put any card back from your hand, a gap is created in the Yard. Do not fill that gap immediately — the rules explain below when and how gaps are filled.
C. Drop
If you have at least 1 bone in hand and your dog is on a space with a bowl, you may deliver bones of the matching color into that bowl (in a single action you may deliver several bones, as long as they are all of the same, matching color). Place the bones delivered in this way in front of you — they will earn you points at the end of the game (there is no limit to the number of bones you may have in front of you).
Example turn: Bartek digs and adds the dug-up Bone card to his hand. Then he moves 2 spaces. Because he is now standing on a space with a purple bowl, he decides to deliver a purple bone — he places its card in front of himself.
Tidying the Yard
If a gap has been created in the Yard, it must be filled at the end of the turn of the person who created it. To do this, take the card that is furthest from the Dog House (regardless of whether it is a Bone card or a Bowl card) and place it in the space of the dug-up card. In this way the cards change their positions during the game, and players are able to influence where they lie.
If during tidying you have to fill 2 empty spaces, fill first the one that is closer to the Dog House.
If a dog was standing on one of the cards used for tidying, move it to the card that is now furthest from the Dog House.
Example turn and tidying: Bartek (the grey dog) dug up card A, moved 3 spaces to card B and dug that one up as well. Card A will not be filled (because it was the card furthest from the Dog House). The card with the red-and-yellow scent is moved into the place of the dug-up card B. Ania's brown dog has ended up "outside the Yard", so it must now be moved to the card furthest from the Dog House (currently the card with the green and red scent).
Follow Your Nose
Every Yard card is marked with two scent colors. The color of the bone on the back of the card will always match one of those two scents. Thanks to this, players can more easily decide where they want to dig.
Note that each pair of scents appears twice in the game. This means that if, digging up a card with a red-and-yellow scent, you find a red bone, then you can be sure that the other card with those same scents holds a yellow bone.
Example: the card shown has a green and a red scent. On its back there will be either a green or a red bone.
End of the Game
When all of the Bone cards have been dug out of the Yard, the current player may still finish their turn, and then the game ends. Players count their points for the bones they delivered. Bones that remain in players' hands score no points at all.
Scoring
The value of the delivered bones depends on how close to the Dog House the bowls of the matching colors are.
| Bowl position (counting away from the Dog House) | Value of each bone of that color |
|---|---|
| Closest to the Dog House | 5 points |
| 2nd closest | 4 points |
| 3rd closest | 3 points |
| 4th closest | 2 points |
| Furthest from the Dog House | 1 point |
Tie-breaker: In the case of a tie, the winner among the tied players is the one who delivered the most bones worth 5 points. If that does not settle the tie, the winner is the person who delivered the most bones worth 4 points, and so on.
Scoring example: Ania scores 2 + 6 + 9 + 4 + 10 = 31 points in total. Bartek scores 2 + 2 + 3 + 12 + 10 = 29 points in total. Ania wins.