Feeling Lucky?
Feeling Lucky? Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 96 task cards:
- 24 starting cards (6 per player, marked A-D)
- 36 green cards
- 21 yellow cards
- 15 red cards
- 4 clover cards
- 4 In/Out markers
- 20 black markers
- 16 green luck markers
- 4 multiplier markers
- 4 score tracks (Punkteleisten)
- 1 round tracker
- 1 round overview
- 7 dice (4 blue, 3 red)
Setup
- Sort the 96 task cards and form a face-down stack of each kind.
- First find the 24 starting cards. They are marked with the letters A to D. Form one stack for each letter. Each set of starting cards consists of 4 green and 2 yellow cards.
- Form 3 more stacks from the remaining task cards, one each in green, yellow and red. (The tasks on the green cards are easy, those on the yellow cards are medium, and those on the red cards are hard.)
- Now each of you takes:
- 1 score track, and places it in front of you with the star side up.
- 1 clover card, and also places it in front of you.
- 1 set of starting cards (6x A for player 1, 6x B for player 2, 6x C for player 3 and 6x D for player 4). As shown in the illustration, place 2 green starting cards each in the two lowest levels and the two yellow starting cards in the 3rd level. In your 1st game you should lay out your 6 starting cards as described here. In later games you may instead choose to place the starting cards "freely" in your display. You only have to observe the rules of phase "3. Build" (page 6).
- 1 In/Out marker, placed with the IN side up in front of you.
- 5 black markers.
- Make the round overview available (star side up) and put the round tracker next to it.
- Make the 16 green luck markers available as a supply.
Return the remaining score tracks, clover cards, In/Out markers and black markers to the box. Shuffle the remaining starting cards into the stack of task cards of the matching colour.
- Leave the 4 multiplier markers in the box for now. You will only need them in exceptional cases.
- Whoever of you most recently had real luck takes the 7 dice. The game can begin!
The Task Cards
Front: Shows the condition. Example: to fulfil this task card, 2 blue dice must show directly consecutive numbers.
Back:
- The small triangle only serves for the correct orientation of the card. It is always at the top.
- Point value at game end, if the card is fulfilled.
- The banknote (only on green cards) shows that this card brings income.
Every task card has an individual number that only serves for identification and has no effect on play. You can also play "Feeling Lucky?" with more than 4 players. For that you need a second copy of the game. The number helps you sort the two games apart again later.
Course of Play
You play a total of 5 rounds. Whoever has the dice is the Lucky Fairy (Glücksfee) for an entire round.
If you are the Lucky Fairy, you first set the round tracker to the current round. In the 1st round, set the tracker to round 1. In all following rounds, advance the tracker by 1 round.
Then you carry out the following 5 phases in this order:
1. Bonus
In the 1st round, each of you takes 1 luck marker from the general supply and places it on 1 free space of your clover card.
The clover offers room for 4 luck markers. If your clover is full, you receive no further luck.
In later rounds you always have the choice between the two bonuses shown on the round overview for that round:
- Round 2: 2 luck, or 1 luck and 1 green task card.
- Round 3: 2 luck, or 1 luck and 1 yellow task card.
- Round 4: 2 luck, or 1 red task card.
- Round 5: 3 luck, or 1 luck and 1 red task card.
You place luck markers on your clover immediately. New task cards you first place face up next to your clover card.
When all of you have taken your bonus, you move on to the next phase.
2. Buy (from round 2)
In addition to your bonus, you may now buy up to 4 more task cards to expand your display further.
To shop you need money. You do not receive it in the form of coins or notes, but receive a virtual income in every round. You can use this income immediately to buy new task cards from the general supply. First you must determine your income. To do so, look at all of your already scored green task cards.
In the 1st round this phase does not apply, as you do not yet have any scored cards and therefore no income.
Just like the active task cards, every scored card is always clearly assigned to one of the 5 levels of the score track. The number on the track (1-8) states how much income each scored green card brings. The higher the level the card lies in, the more income it brings you.
Example: You have 2 scored green cards in the lowest level (2 income), 1 in the 2nd level (1 income) and 1 in the 3rd level (2 income). The yellow card brings no income. So you have a total income of 5.
Only green cards bring income. That is why only these cards show a banknote on the back.
You may now use your entire income to buy up to 4 new task cards. Green cards cost 1 income each, yellow cards 2 and red cards 4. Income that you do not use immediately is forfeited. You cannot save for the next round.
Important: You keep your scored cards for the entire game. They bring you income again every round.
If you want to buy a card, take the top one from the stack and, as in the previous phase, first place it face up next to your clover card. If you draw a card that is identical to a card in your display, you may slide the card you just drew back under the stack and take a new card from the stack instead.
With your 5 income you can therefore buy: 1 red card (4) and 1 green card (1); or 1 yellow card (2) and 3 green cards (3); or 4 green cards (4). In the last case 1 income is forfeited, since you may buy at most 4 new cards in each round.
When all of you have bought, you move on to the next phase.
3. Build (from round 2)
In this phase you place your new task cards into your display, to the left of your score track.
When you place a new task card in your display, you must observe 2 important rules:
- You may only place new cards in one of the 3 lower levels.
- At most 4 cards may lie in each level.
Cards that you cannot place in your display according to these rules you put back into the general supply.
In addition to these rules, you should keep a few further points in mind when building:
- You can score a great many points in the higher levels. However, you may not build above the VIP band. You only get there by pushing your cards up during the course of the game (see "5. Push", page 9).
- While rolling you climb up level by level. If you have no task card in a level, you cannot climb into that level and cannot reach the cards above it either.
- In the lower levels a "solid base" is important, so that you do not drop out early while rolling.
- Also consider the difficulty of the task cards. The easier green cards offer you a safe start. You should bring the harder yellow and red cards as far up as possible to increase their points.
When you have placed your cards in your display, turn your In/Out marker to the "IN" side to show that you are ready. When all of you have set your In/Out markers to "IN", rolling can begin!
Do not worry if you cannot yet judge all of this. In the 1st round you do not yet have to build any new cards. Once you have played the two phases "4. Roll" and "5. Push" once, you will have understood everything.
And with that we come to the core of the game: let the dice roll!
4. Roll
This phase is the main part of the game. Here it will become clear how good your display really is.
If you are the Lucky Fairy, you roll all 7 dice exactly once. The rolled result applies to everyone.
After the 1st roll of a round, all of you try to fulfil exactly 1 task card on the lowest level. If you can fulfil the condition on a card with the rolled result, you place one of your 5 black markers on that card. If you can fulfil several task cards, you must decide on one of them. You may fulfil each card only once per round.
Afterwards you decide whether you drop out of the current round or continue playing.
If you want to drop out, turn your In/Out marker to "OUT" and place it clearly visible in front of you. Markers that you placed on your task cards this round initially stay there. Otherwise you leave the marker on "IN" and keep taking part in the round.
If you cannot (or do not want to) fulfil a task card after a dice roll, you have failed in this round. Then you first remove all markers from your task cards. So you fulfil no tasks in this round. As a small consolation prize you immediately take a new green task card and place it in your lowest level. Then you turn your In/Out marker to "OUT".
Attention! You can avert your failure by using luck markers. More about this under "Luck in the game ..." on page 8.
When everyone has decided whether to continue or drop out, you, as the Lucky Fairy, roll all the dice once more. You remain Lucky Fairy for the entire round, even if you have already dropped out yourself.
Whoever has already dropped out in this round (voluntarily or involuntarily) receives 1 luck marker as compensation at every further roll in this round. Remember that you can have at most 4 luck markers.
On the 1st roll you can only fulfil task cards on the lowest level. After you have fulfilled a card, on the next roll you may fulfil another card on the same level or the next higher level. In this way you can climb up level by level. (It does not matter whether a card lies further left or right within a level. You do not have to move in a straight line.)
However, you may not fulfil a task card on a lower level in this round. Likewise you may not skip a level when "climbing".
To mark a further task card as fulfilled you always need a marker. Since you only have 5 black markers, you can only fulfil 5 tasks per round with them. If you want to fulfil more anyway, your luck markers help you here as well.
The individual conditions for fulfilling the task cards are explained on the back of this rulebook.
Repeat the rolling and fulfilling of cards until everyone has dropped out of the round (voluntarily or involuntarily).
Luck in the game ...
No matter how well you have built your display, if the dice do not cooperate, a little extra luck cannot hurt. That is exactly what the green luck markers help you with.
You can get new luck markers in 2 ways:
- If you have dropped out (voluntarily or involuntarily), you receive 1 new luck marker at every further dice roll in this round.
- As a round bonus ("1. Bonus", page 4).
You always place new luck markers on one of the free spaces of your clover. Remember that you may never have more than 4 luck markers.
The luck markers can help you in different ways:
- If you cannot fulfil a task card after a roll, you may return one of your green luck markers to the general supply to avert the failure. You therefore do not have to take back the markers placed this round. You do not fulfil a new task on this roll, but keep your progress so far and may now decide whether to drop out voluntarily or stay in the round. (If you fail again at a later roll, you can still lose your progress so far.)
- In exceptional cases it can happen that you do not want to fulfil a card. You may return 1 luck marker to stay in the round.
- If after a roll you could fulfil a further task card but have already used all 5 black markers, you may also use green luck markers to fulfil more than 5 cards in a round. Luck markers that you use in this way you return to the general supply in phase "5. Push".
5. Push
After everyone has turned their IN/OUT marker to the "OUT" side and so dropped out of the current round, you may evaluate your collected successes.
For each task card that is marked as fulfilled with a marker, you have the choice:
a) Slide the task card to the next higher level. We call this process "pushing". Pushing is the only way to bring cards into the two upper levels. You can fulfil this task card again in a later round and thereby move it further up, or score the card.
or
b) Score the task card. To do so, turn the card over and place it in the same level on the right side of your score track.
Scored cards bring you points at game end. Scored green cards additionally bring you income to buy new task cards.
Once you have chosen one of the two options, remove the marker from the card. If it is a black marker, take it back into your possession. If it is a green luck marker, return it to the general supply.
Cards that are not marked stay exactly where they are. Marked cards must be moved (pushed or scored)!
When all of you have pushed or scored your fulfilled task cards, this phase ends. The Lucky Fairy passes all 7 dice clockwise to the next player and you begin a new round.
End of the Game and Scoring
After the 5th round the game ends and you count your points.
You begin in the top level. First add up the points on your scored cards of this level. The scored cards lie face down to the right of the score track. Multiply the sum by the factor of the level to get the score for this level.
(The factors printed on the score track, from the lowest to the top level, are 1x, 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x; the same numbers give the income per scored green card.)
Write down the number and repeat this for all further levels. In addition you receive 1 point for each remaining luck marker on your clover.
Whoever of you achieves the highest score wins the game.
In case of a tie, you again begin in the top level. Whoever among the tied players has the most unscored cards in the top level wins the tie. If there is still a tie, repeat the same in the next level.
Scoring example: In the top level you have scored 1 red and 1 yellow card. The cards are worth 6 points in total (2+4). In the top level you multiply these points by 8. So in this level you receive a proud 48 points. In the 2nd level you receive another 16 points (4 for 1 scored red card times 4 for the level). In the 3rd level you receive another 10 points (5x2), and in the lower two levels a further 10 points in total. In addition you have 1 luck marker left over. In total you have achieved 85 points.
Special Case: What happens when the cards in the supply run out?
If you want to take a new task card but there is no card of the desired colour left in the supply, proceed as follows:
If you have 3 or 4 task cards of the desired colour in one level, you put all but 1 of them back into the supply and mark the remaining task card with the x3/x4 marker. A card marked this way stands in for 3 or 4 fulfilled tasks of this colour, respectively, for income and in the final scoring.
The other players do this in turn as well.
Shuffle all returned cards and make them available as a new face-down supply in this colour.
Solo Game
You can also play "Feeling Lucky?" alone. As in the regular game, you try to score as many points as possible. In the solo variant, however, you must observe a few additional rules that make the game more challenging and require somewhat more strategic planning.
In this variant there are a few important changes:
-
Turn the score track to the SOLO side. The levels on this side have different factors for scoring and income.
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Push it! (bonus scoring). If you score a task card on one of the two upper levels, you may additionally push another already scored card immediately, i.e. move it up one level. You may only ever push cards of the same colour or an easier one. If you score a green card here, you may only push green cards; with a yellow card you may push other yellow or green cards; and with red all colours are allowed. On the 2nd level from the top you may push 1 card. On the top level you may even push 2 cards. You may score your tasks in any order to make the best use of this effect, and you may also push the same card several times.
-
Possession is transient. In the SOLO variant you must hand in green cards that you use for buying. You can always decide whether and how many green cards you use for buying. All green cards you use in this way you slide back under the green supply stack.
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Be colourful! In addition to the usual final scoring you receive 8 points for each set of 1 fulfilled card of each colour.
You can read how well you did from the following table. Simply look up how many points you reached.
| Points | Stars (out of 5) |
|---|---|
| 1-20 | 0 |
| 21-40 | 1 |
| 41-60 | 2 |
| 61-80 | 3 |
| 81-100 | 3.5 |
| 101-120 | 4 |
| 121-140 | 4.5 |
| 141+ | 5 |
If you are looking for new challenges, you can also play the normal game with these rules.
The Conditions on the Task Cards
The conditions are shown according to a simple scheme:
- A die showing a specific number of pips: you need 1 die that shows exactly this number. Example: you need 1 die showing exactly a 4.
- A die showing an Arabic numeral with a +: a rolled die must show at least the number shown. Example: you need a total of 5 dice that each show a 3 or more.
- Several dice in a straight line with an = sign: you need as many dice as shown with the same number of pips. Example: you need 3 dice with the same number.
- Several dice shown as a staircase with arrows between them: you need as many dice as shown with directly consecutive numbers. (1 and 6 are not adjacent.) You can fulfil the pictured card, for example, with a 2, a 3 and a 4.
- A die shown in blue or red: the rolled die must also have the colour shown. Example: you need 2 blue dice with directly consecutive numbers.
- A die shown in white: the colour is irrelevant. Example: 4 dice with directly consecutive numbers are required. The dice may be of any colours.
- The sum symbol: this symbol means that you need red dice with a total sum of at least 9.
- Several conditions shown one below the other: you must fulfil all of them. Example: you need 1 pair (Zweierpasch) and 1 triple (Dreierpasch). Both conditions are independent of each other, so they may have the same or different numbers.
- 2 conditions separated by a slash: it is enough to fulfil 1 of the two. Example: you need 1 pair in red or 1 pair in blue.
General rule: You may use each die only once.
Example: To fulfil this task you need 2 dice that both show a 1. (The colour of the dice is irrelevant.)