Flinke Stinker
Flinke Stinker Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
You turn over cards. If a card shows a path, you may move your skunk forward. However, if a puma appears, your skunk is frightened and freezes in place, and the other players take your movement cards for themselves. If your skunk overtakes another player's skunk, it forces that skunk back a few tiles, scared off by its pungent scent. And if your striped one is the first to pass the last tile of the trail, take a deep breath: you have won!
Setup
The box contains 30 round cards (20 showing a path and 10 showing a puma) and 22 route tiles (7 red stinker tiles and 15 green trail tiles).
Count the number of players. This determines how many cards will not take part in the game and go back into the box:
- For 2 players: remove two cards with path 3, two cards with path 4, and two pumas.
- For 3 players: remove two cards with path 4, one card with path 3, and one puma.
- For 4 players: remove one card with path 3 and one card with path 4.
- For 5 players: all cards take part in the game.
Shuffle all the remaining round cards and lay them face down in the centre of the table (in random order).
Lay the 22 route tiles face down around the cards. There must be at least one green tile between any two stinker tiles. Only in one place on the route may two red tiles appear in a row.
Each player chooses a skunk and places it in front of the first route tile.
Play proceeds clockwise. The youngest player begins the game.
Playing the Game
At the start of your turn, you turn over (flip) any one round movement card. What you can turn over:
- A number: movement forward.
- A puma: stop.
Player Actions
As soon as you turn over a card with a number, place it in front of you. Then choose:
- Either end your turn and move your skunk forward (see Movement),
- Or turn over another card.
In the second case you may keep turning over cards until you decide to voluntarily end your turn and move your skunk (see Movement), or until you turn over a puma, which immediately ends your turn (see Puma). Once a puma has been turned over, you can no longer voluntarily end your turn.
Movement
After you voluntarily end your turn, add up the values of your movement cards. The sum is the number of route tiles your skunk may advance. Note that a skunk may not stop on a red tile!
Beware of the Stinker!
Skunks cannot stand on red tiles. If your skunk, based on the sum of the turned-over round cards, would have to end its movement on a stinker tile, you cannot move it there yet. Instead, you are obliged to turn over one more card (see Example 1).
Each time your skunk overtakes another skunk, it sprays it with its special "aroma". Each skunk it has treated must immediately move back to the first route tile located behind the nearest stinker tile. If there is no such tile behind it, the skunk simply goes back to the starting position, in front of the first route tile.
No more than two skunks may stand on one route tile at the same time! If a single skunk on a tile is joined by another skunk, this is not considered an overtaking, and the first skunk does not have to move back.
If your skunk, based on the sum of the movement cards collected, would end its movement on a tile with two skunks (that is, it cannot move forward), take one more card.
Exception: more than two skunks may stand on one tile if they arrived there as a result of overtaking (see Example 2).
After your skunk has moved, set the used round cards aside, face down, forming a pile. They leave the game.
Example 1: Sasha has a movement card of 3, and turns over another one, showing 4. He would be happy to move his skunk forward seven tiles, but the seventh tile along his path is a stinker. So he must turn over another card. Luck is with him: he draws a 1. Since the eighth tile from his position is green, he can safely move forward, and does so. After that, he sets the played movement cards aside, next to the route cards.
Example 2: Koli's skunk runs seven tiles forward and overtakes the skunks of the green, yellow and orange players. Now each of the three overtaken skunks must move back behind the last red tile passed. If the green skunk had been standing next to the yellow or orange one at the start of Koli's turn, then all the skunks would have ended up on one tile.
Puma
Each time you turn over a puma, show it to the other players, then return it to its place. Your skunk stays where it is, and your turn ends.
Now, if you already have movement cards, hand them out to the other players. Distribution goes one card at a time, moving clockwise (from yourself). You decide which player gets which card. Players place the cards they receive in front of them, face down.
Example 3: Masha already has three movement cards and decides to turn over a new one. Unfortunately, she gets a puma. She turns it back face down and ends her turn without moving her skunk. Now it is time to hand out the cards she has collected to the other players. Her left-hand neighbour, Kolya, receives the card with a 2. Sasha receives the 1. Since she cannot give a card to herself, Kolya receives one more, this time a 3.
Important! On your turn you must turn over at least one card, even if you already have cards received from other players. If you turn over a movement card, you can then move your skunk by adding the values of all the cards in front of you. That is: you may not move your skunk without personally turning over at least one movement card (on your turn).
Example 4: At the start of his turn, Sasha already has two movement cards giving a total of 5. Even so, he still has to turn over a card from the middle of the table. He turns over a card with path 2. Now he moves his skunk forward seven tiles with an easy mind, since the seventh tile ahead of his position is unoccupied and green. If that tile were red, or held two or more skunks, Sasha would have to turn over another card. Had he turned over a puma, the movement cards he had accumulated would have had to be handed out to Kolya and Masha.
When Only Pumas Remain in the Centre
If, when you turn over a movement card, only the following number of cards remains in the centre of the table:
- 10 cards (in a game for 4 or 5 players),
- 9 cards (in a game for 3 players),
- 8 cards (in a game for 2 players),
...then it is clear: only pumas remain in the centre!
Take all the played movement cards, shuffle them, lay them out among the pumas, and then continue the game. Now you may either:
- continue your turn and turn over a new card; or
- end your turn and move your skunk forward.
End of the Game and Determining the Winner
The player whose skunk first crosses the last tile of the route wins the game.