Dodoresque
Dodoresque Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Intro, Set-Up & Game Objective
Set-Up
- Separate the playing cards according to the image on the back of the cards and shuffle them. From now on, these stacks of cards will be called: Adventure Stacks.
- Each player chooses a Dodo Card and places it face down in front of him/her.
- Determine the starting player. It should be the person who ate eggs most recently.
- In clockwise order, the players now draw 2 cards from the stack whose back shows the palm-and-river image and 1 card from the stack whose back shows the purple image.
- The players now choose one of these cards to discard. Put the chosen cards face down in the middle. From now on this stack of cards will be called: Exchange Stack.
"Now that we have cleared things up, I would like to come back to the bow tie again. I'm wearing it, because I'm already late for my date. At this time of the year, it is common for a Dodo, to be on the search for a mate. And my nest is already nice and cosy... pardon me? How does the cosy nest relate to dating? I see... You're a bit slow on the uptake."
Game Objective
The objective of Dodoresque is to build the most beautiful nest of all nests. To determine who has the best nest you simply add the values on the Material Cards. The higher the sum, the more beautiful the nest. You can increase the result by collecting cards of the same Theme (Beach, Savanna, Jungle and Mountain).
How to Play
Number of players: The following rules are not dependent on a certain number of players except for one.
Possible Actions
Every player can carry out two of the following actions in his/her turn. The player must not carry out the same action twice. You can choose which of the two actions you want to perform first.
You don't have to carry out the second action, you can pass and the player to your left continues.
- Adventure
Draw one card from one of the Adventure Stacks. Reveal the card to the other players. Now, there are two possibilities:
Action Cards. If an Action Card is revealed you can simply add the card to your hand and perform another action.
There are 4 different normal Action Cards (Flight Attempt, Dodolōtl, U-Doad and Primal Instinct) as well as 11 special Action Cards. All Action Cards have the same layout but different Action Symbols.
You need normal Action Cards to gain high-quality Material Cards and to defend yourself against the dangers caused by these Material Cards. The special Action Cards give you different advantages in the game and will be explained later.
Material Cards. If a Material Card is revealed, you have to check the Action Symbol in the upper right corner.
- If you have an Action Card with the same symbol, you have to discard this card to gain the Material Card.
- If the Action Symbol is empty you can simply take the Material Card.
If you don't have the Action Card that matches the Action Symbol, the other symbol on the Material Card takes effect.
- Cross symbol (grey stone with a white cross): The player will not get the card. Discard the Material Card immediately.
- Star symbol (grey stone with a white star burst): The player will not get the card. Discard the Material Card immediately and the Dodo takes damage.
Damage. You can see the current health on the Dodo Card. When the Dodo takes damage, you rotate the card 90° counterclockwise.
Note: If you have the Action Card that matches the Action Symbol on the Material Card, you have to play it, no matter what! The limit for the cards in your hand is five. If a player has more than five cards in his/her hand at the end of his/her turn, s/he has to discard cards until s/he only has 5 left.
- Nest building
To build your nest, you take a Material Card from your hand and place it in front of you for everyone to see.
"Wait! Having a faint clue what the materials are for doesn't make you a professional nest builder! You can't just put together a few random sticks and straws! It has to be nice looking and professionally placed sticks and straws! Here, let me show you how it's done."
The Nest
A nest is made of up to 6 Material Cards which are arranged in two rows. Both rows include one Basic material, one Padding material and one Decoration material.
The cards don't have to be placed in a particular order. The Material Type is indicated in the upper left corner and the number shows the value of the card.
This is what a finished nest would look like:
Example of a finished nest (as printed):
- Row 1: Isle (3), Dodo Feather (2), Berries (1)
- Row 2: Burrow (2), Fern (1), Lotus (2)
If one building space in the Nest is already occupied you can simply exchange the card with a new one. The old Material Card must be discarded.
- Exchanging Cards
The Dodos are quite a sociable crowd and exchange materials which they do not need with others. The players can exchange a card from their hand with one of the Exchange Cards from the Exchange Stack.
Exchange Stack Set-Up
The Exchange Cards are the cards that were placed in the middle of the table by each player at the beginning of the game. Shuffle these cards and place them face up on the table except for one. (The number of Exchange Cards depends on the number of players. If there are 2 players you have 2 Exchange Cards and one of these cards is placed face down and one face up in the middle of the table).
The Exchange Stack may contain Action as well as Material Cards.
Exchanging a Card
If you want to exchange a card, follow these steps:
- Draw one of the Exchange Cards. You can also choose the face-down card.
- If you choose a Material Card, you don't have to have the matching Action Card. You can just take it.
- Now, you choose one of the cards in your hand and put it face down on the left side of the other Exchange Cards. If you have chosen one of the face-down cards, you don't have to do anything anymore. However, if you have chosen one of the face-up cards, you now have to reveal the other face-down card so that there is always only one Exchange Card lying face down in the middle of the table.
Example with 4 players: You choose the card "James Drond" and place one of your cards in your hand face down on the left side of the other Exchange Cards. This new card will not be revealed to the other players. Now, you reveal the other hidden card. It turns out to be the "Hill Grass" card.
"Well, if you made it this far then you've learned enough to embark on your own Dodo adventure. However, I still have a tiny piece of advice for you. The darker it looks, the more dangerous it is to go there to search for materials. You should keep that in mind. Well, alright then, there is nothing left to say but good luck! I watched you for some time. You will need it."
How to Win the Game
The player with the most beautiful nest wins the game. To determine who has won the game, all players count their points and compare the result with each other.
The points for each row are calculated separately.
The Highest Valued Card Counts
If a player has no combination (more about that later), only the Material Card with the highest value in each row counts, regardless of how many cards are in this row.
Example: This player has only built his nest with 3 Material Cards. There are no card combinations and this is why only the highest value in each row counts. Row 1: Dodo Feather (2). Row 2: Burrow (2) and Fern (1), so the highest value is 2. Therefore, the result is 4.
Joker Cards
Special rules apply to the Joker Cards. You can identify them by the sunset in the background. The value on the Joker Cards is always added to the result of each row.
Example: Let's look at the example from above with an additional Material Card. The card on the left now has the highest value (3). However, we also have the Joker Card in the same row. This is why we can add the value of 2. Together with the second row, we now have 7 points.
A single Joker Card counts like a normal Material Card (see example 1). If you have several Joker Cards in one row, these are also added to the other value/s in the row.
Combinations
You can achieve a higher result when you combine cards. If you have a card combination, the usual rules for determining the result do not apply anymore. Instead, you use the rules for combinations. However, you still calculate the result for each row separately.
There are two possible combinations:
Material Combination. You have a Material Combination when you have each of the 3 Material Types in one row. In this case, the values on all 3 cards are added to one another, regardless of the theme of the card (Savanna, Mountain etc.).
Theme Combination. Every card has a theme (Savanna, Mountain etc.). The background on the front of the card shows you what theme it is. The values on the cards with the same theme are always added to one another. However, if all 3 cards in one row have the same theme, you first add the values of all 3 cards and then multiply the result by 2.
Should you have both possible combinations in one row, you have to decide which one you want to use to determine the result.
Example: In the first row, the player has both, Material and Theme Combination. She decides to use the Material Combination and gains 4 points (Drift Wood 1 + Cotton 2 + Sphere 1). If she had used the Theme Combination "Savanna", she would only have gained 3 points (Cotton 2 + Sphere 1).
Example: In the second row, she has 3 cards of the same theme. She first adds all the values on the cards. The result is 4 and we multiply it by 2. That means that altogether, she gains 8 points (Nest-foundling 1 + Fern 1 + Lotus 2 = 4, multiplied by 2).
Note: Some cards with the same theme have a slightly different background such as the "Lotus" card in the example above. However, these cards are not very different so that you can still see which of the themes it is.
Determining the Winner
To determine the winner of Dodoresque, you add the final results of both rows and after that, you add the remaining hit points of your Dodo. The player with the most points wins the game.
End of the Game
The game ends when one of the following two cases occurs:
- One of the Adventure Stacks is empty. The game ends after the player who drew the last card of this Adventure Stack ends his/her turn.
- A Dodo cannot continue to build its nest because it has lost all hit points. If this is the case, the turn of this player ends immediately and also the game. Every Dodo has 3 hit points.
Figure captions on this page (Dodo Card rotations): "Starting Position" and "Unable to build".
Special Action Cards
Jesus Bird: This card is played like a normal Action Card but it enables you to carry out one of the two actions displayed (U-Doat or Primal Instinct) depending on which one you need.
Super Dodo: This card is played like a normal Action Card but it enables you to carry out one of the two actions displayed (Flight Attempt or Dodolotl), depending on which one you need.
Gluttony: This card can be played at the beginning of a turn and allows the player to perform the same action twice in this turn. His/Her turn ends after this.
Ragpicker: This card can be used during a turn and counts as one of the two actions which can be carried out during one turn. Ragpicker allows the player to look at the discarded cards and pick one. The player receives this card immediately and does not have to use any Action Cards or else to get it.
James Drond: This card can be used during a turn and allows the player to look at the top card of one Adventure Stack. After that, the player can still perform two more actions in his/her turn.
Thief Dodo: This card can be played during a turn and allows the player to draw one card from the hand of another player and to add this card to his own hand. This counts as one action in his turn.
Gift: This card has to be placed next to the player's nest immediately after it was drawn. This does not count as one of the two actions which can be carried out during a turn. At the end of the game, the player gains one additional point for his/her nest. The card does not count as a material card.