Floppy Ears Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Most Important Rules
• End of the Game

Components

• 36 hanging ears.
• 8 magic ears.
• Game rules.
• 7 different pictures, which you will find on the ears in this game. Each set of ears of one colour contains each picture exactly once.
• 7 ears each of yellow, green, blue and red colours.

Setup

1. Place all the ears face down on the table and shuffle them thoroughly. Then, without turning them over, form a stack of ears by placing them one on top of another. Place the stack so that all players can easily reach it.
2. Each player takes 5 ears from the stack, without showing them to the other players.
3. Each player then chooses any 2 ears from those they are holding. After carefully looking at them and memorising their colour and the pictures on them, the players hang the ears on their crown: they hang them one on each ear, face outward. The other 3 ears the players keep in their hands. Ears in hand must never be shown to anyone!

Woof-woof! Pay attention to which ear you hang on the right and which on the left. You will not be able to check this during the game!

4. Take 1 ear from the top of the stack and place it face up on the table. This is the first ear of the discard pile. If the face-up ear turns out to be a magic ear, turn it over and hide it under the stack of ears. Reveal a new ear and place it on the table as the first ear of the discard pile.

Gameplay

Turns pass clockwise. The first player is the one who best imitates a dog. This player reveals the top ear from the stack and places it on top of the discard pile.

The player must now determine, by remembering the ears on their crown and looking at the ears in their hand, whether they have an ear with the same picture or the same colour as the revealed ear.

• If yes, woof-woof hooray! Is the matching ear in the hand or on the crown?

Ears on the crown are played first!

• If a suitable ear is on the player's crown, they must play exactly that ear, even if they have suitable ears in hand.

How to play an ear: choose the ear you want to play. If it is one of the ears on your crown, you must first decide whether you want to play the right or the left ear, and only then take it off the ear and compare it with the top ear of the discard pile. You may take off from your crown only this ear!

If you made a mistake and your ear matches the top ear of the discard pile neither by colour nor by picture, put it back on your crown and take a penalty ear from the stack of ears into your hand.

If you guessed correctly, place the chosen ear on top of the discard pile.

Magic ears: if you have a magic ear, you may play it as an ear of any colour with any picture. When you play it, name the colour of the ear that the next player must play. This may be any of the four colours of ears in the game. If the next player reveals an ear that is not of the colour you named, that player must play an ear of the colour you named, with the picture that is on the ear they revealed.

• If a suitable ear is in the player's hand, they place it on top of the discard pile.

Be attentive, even when it is not your turn: if your opponent wants to play an ear from their hand, but you have a suitable ear on your crown, shout at once: "Ears on the crown!" That player must return the ear they wanted to play back to their hand and take a penalty ear from the stack of ears. If not, bad luck. Don't give up, keep drawing!

• If a player believes they have no suitable ear either in their hand or on their crown, they must take a new ear from the stack of ears. Don't cheat! Even if the new ear turns out to be suitable, you may not play it on this turn!

Woof-woof! If a player successfully played an ear from their crown, they must immediately choose one ear from their hand and hang it on the freed ear. The turn then passes to the next player.

If the stack of ears runs out, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down on the table. This is your new stack of ears, and you can carry on playing.

Woof-woof! Remember that the last ear you placed on top of the discard pile before the previous stack ran out becomes the first ear of the new discard pile. Before shuffling the old discard pile, set this ear aside separately, face up.

Most Important Rules

• Ears from the crown are played first!
• There must always be an ear hanging on each of a player's ears! If you played an ear from your crown, immediately choose a new one from your hand and hang it on the freed ear. If you played your last or second-to-last ear (including ears in hand and on the crown), this rule does not apply to you.
• Look carefully at the ears you are going to hang on your crown. Remember the colour and picture of each of them before you hang them on your ears. You will not be able to look at them again during the game! If you forget which ear hangs on which side, you will have to play by luck.
• As soon as you have only 1 ear left (including ears in hand and on the crown), loudly say "Woof!" When you play your last ear, loudly say "Woof-woof!" If you forget to bark in either of these cases, you must immediately take a penalty ear from the stack of ears and hang it on an ear.

End of the Game

The player who first plays their last ear, and remembers to bark "Woof-woof!", becomes the winner.