Fox Matters
Fox Matters Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Description
Fox Matters is a cooperative board game, in which you pick up the mantle of Fox Knights - defenders of the Fox Kingdom. During the game you battle Common Problems and Complicated Problems, which amass over time, threatening the local Foxes. At the game's end you will face the Nightmare - the cause of all this commotion.
You all win, if you defeat the Nightmare at the end of the fifth round.
You all lose, if the Nightmare was not defeated in the fifth round or if you ever have to add third Fear Token below any column of Problems.
Components
- 40 Relief Cards
- 10 Complicated Problem Cards
- 25 Common Problem Cards
- 6 Nightmare Cards
- 10 Fox Knight standees
- 12 Cheese Tokens
- 20 Fear Tokens
- 5 double-sided Fox Knight boards
- 25 Fox Cards
- 4 Grey Tail Cards
- Help card
- Game board
The Fox Matters app (foxmatters.gindi.pl) is recommended for the game timer and can be downloaded for free.
Game Setup
- Place the game board and separate the decks by card type. Shuffle each deck and place them face-down on the proper spot on the board.
- Place the 12 Cheese Tokens and 20 face-down Fear Tokens (blackish monster side up) next to the board.
- Pick 1 Nightmare card and place it face-up on the orange spot. Pick 4 Complicated Problems and place them face-down on pink spots on the top of the board. Return the rest of the Complicated Problem and Nightmare cards back into the box.
- Draw 6 Common Problem cards and place 1 face-up on each violet column on the board.
- Reveal the leftmost Complicated Problem card and place it below, on top of the Common Problem card in the first column.
- Pick the boards and markers of your chosen Fox Knights.
| Player count | Fox Knights |
|---|---|
| 1 | Player controls 5 Fox Knights |
| 2 | Each player controls 2 Fox Knights |
| 3 | One player controls 2 Fox Knights, and the others 1 each |
| 4 | Each player controls 1 Fox Knight |
| 5 | Each player controls 1 Fox Knight |
- Draw (but don't reveal!) 12 Relief Cards (10 cards in solo and 5-player games) and distribute them evenly between players. The player controlling more Fox Knights than others gets the same number of cards.
E.g.: 6 cards in a 2-player game, 4 cards in a 3-player game, 3 cards in a 4-player game and 2 cards in a 5-player game.
- Prepare 2 minute timer. We recommend using the Fox Matters app, which you can download for free.
- You are ready to play!
Basic Rules
There are three types of Problems in the game: Common, Complicated and Nightmare. To deal with them you have to gather proper sets of Relief symbols.
Problems amass in columns from round to round, forming clusters. When dealing with a cluster you need to deal with all the Problems in the given column in a single round - you can't deal with them one by one.
To deal with this Common Problem you need 3 symbols, including 1 crown and 1 red symbol.
To deal with this Complicated Problem you need 6 symbols, including 2 crown and 2 sailboat.
To deal with this Nightmare you need 15 of any symbols.
Relief Symbols
Relief symbols can be obtained in 3 ways:
- Fox Knight markers - it is enough to put your Fox Knight marker on the Problem column to contribute the symbol depicted on its Fox Knight board.
- Relief Cards - that you draw every round.
- Fox Cards - you can recruit in the Planning Phase.
This Fox Knight (Fox King) marker gives 1 crown.
This Relief Card gives 1 red symbol.
This Fox card gives 1 sailboat and 1 green symbol.
When playing Relief and Fox Cards you need to follow one important rule:
At least 1 Relief symbol on the card you are adding to a column, has to match 1 of the follow-up symbols on the previous card.
Advice. When a player runs out of cards to play, that player should focus on checking follow-up symbols and whether the cards match the requirements.
3 Relief cards fulfill the requirement on "Compulsive Nibbling". There are 3 symbols including 1 crown and 1 red symbol.
Two Fox cards, a Relief card and a Fox Knight marker fulfill the requirement on the "Nightmare Sandwich". There are 6 symbols including 2 crown and 2 sailboat.
This problem cluster calls for a total of 6 symbols including 2 crown, 1 sailboat and 1 pot.
Game Phases
Each round is played through the following phases.
1. Planning Phase
In this phase you plan out your strategy for the round. You may also:
- Put your Fox Knight markers on Problem columns.
- Use special abilities of your Fox Knights (see page 9).
- Place face-up cards, that you have left from the previous Action Phase. (You still can't see the Relief cards you were just dealt)
- Freely move around any Relief Cards, Fox Cards and Gray Tail cards, which you bought or saved from previous rounds.
- Face your Fear (see page 8).
Advice. Each Relief Card can be played on a Relief card with the same symbol. Sadly, Fox Cards and Gray Tail Cards do not follow this rule.
You can perform all these actions in any order. Planning phase lasts until you decide together that you are ready to start the Action Phase.
2. Action Phase
In this phase you start up the app and turn on the timer.
- Once the timer starts, you reveal the Relief Cards you got last round.
- You can now play or move any face up Relief Cards, as well as obtained Fox cards and Gray Tail Cards (see page 9).
- You may also move cards (Relief, Fox, Gray Tail) or Fox Knight markers.
Take note! You don't have to play all the cards you own. You can keep unused cards for future rounds.
The Action Phase ends when the time runs out on the App. You may also decide to end it sooner.
3. Problem Phase
In this phase you check, whether you played your cards correctly in the previous phase.
Start by looking at the Relief symbols on the cards in each column to compare them with the requirements. Then check whether the follow-up symbols chain up. Remember that you may no longer move any cards around.
If you managed to deal with a Problem:
- Get 1 Cheese Token for each Problem card. Distribute those among the Fox Knights that contributed their markers to this column. If there are none, discard these Cheese Tokens.
- Discard the Problem cards (Common or Complicated) that were dealt with to their proper discard piles (marked with "Zzz").
- Discard the Relief and Fox Cards from below the column to their proper discard piles (marked with "Zzz").
- Return the Grey Tails back to the Grey Tail deck.
- Discard the face-up Fear Tokens from below the column.
Advice. Talk to each other! Communication is the key. Discuss your plans, ask for help and point out dangers. Split the work: let some players check the left side of the board while others check the right side. That's what cooperation is. It also works in real life!
If you didn't manage to deal with a Problem:
- Place 1 face-down Fear Token on a spot below that column. Remember that if you have to put 3rd Fear Token below a column, you lose!
- Take back all the cards you played below this column. Usually you won't remember which cards were whose, so just split them fairly between players.
Clean-Up Phase
In this phase you prepare the board for the next round.
Starting with the first column on the left, add 1 new Common Problem Card to each column.
Move the leftmost Complicated Problem Card to the row below. (In the last round move the Nightmare Card instead of a Complicated Problem).
If there are already 3 problem cards in a column, put any exceeding cards in the next column to the right (circling back to the first column, if necessary).
Place face-up Fox Cards from the deck onto the empty spots where Complicated Problems were.
Draw 12 Relief cards (10 in a solo and 5-player game) and distribute them evenly between all players.
Other Rules
Deck Depletion
Whenever a deck runs out of cards, shuffle all the cards from the proper discard pile and create a new draw pile.
Fox Cards
Most Fox Cards are basically stronger Relief Cards. You can acquire them, by using the abilities of your heroes. A recruited Fox Card is granted to the player who paid for it and it's placed beside his or her Fox Knight board.
Some Fox cards grant 1 universal Relief symbol - it's a kind of a Joker, it can be interpreted as any of the 5 symbols. When it shows up in the follow-up section it means it can be followed by a card with any Relief symbol.
The rulebook shows three example Fox Cards: Felice, the Lamplighter Fox; Briegild, the Correctness Fox; and Dracofox, the Dragon Fox.
Facing Your Fear
In the Planning Phase you can turn any number of Fear Tokens face-up. This will make it more difficult to deal with problems, but if you manage to deal with Problems enhanced by those, you discard the face-up Fear Tokens too.
Remember, that abilities of some Fox Knights allow you to move Fear Tokens from one column to another.
The Relief symbols on Fear Tokens are added to the requirements on Problem Cards in the given column.
Tokens with a red "2" symbol increase the total amount of Relief symbols required by 2. Tokens with a specific symbol (like a pot) add the specific requirement to the list.
Take note! After revealing a Fear Token, if the sum of specific symbols is greater than the number on the red symbol, then to deal with that cluster of problems you need to face the higher number.
Example: To deal with this Problem (Broken Mug, 4), you need a total of 4 symbols, including 1 crown and 2 sword.
Example: To deal with this Problem (Matted Fur, 3), you need a total of 4 symbols, including 3 pot and 1 sword.
Fox Knights Abilities
You can activate the abilities of your Fox Knights in the Planning Phase, by paying Cheese Tokens. There's no limit to the number of times an ability can be used in a turn, as long as it's paid for. Spent Cheese Tokens go back to the pile next to the board. Remember that Cheese tokens cannot be traded - they're assigned to the Fox Knight that earned them.
- Fox Admiral - Pay 1 Cheese Token to: Recruit 1 Gray Tail card; OR Draw 3 Fox cards, recruit 1 of them and shuffle back the rest; OR Recruit 1 face-up Fox card.
- Vixen Rebel - Pay 1 Cheese Token to: Draw 3 Relief cards (do not reveal them); OR Remove 1 non-single Common Problem Card from the board; OR Recruit 1 face-up Fox card.
- Fox Wizard - Pay 1 Cheese Token to: Remove 1 non-single Common Problem Card from the board; OR Recruit 1 Gray Tail card; OR Recruit 1 face-up Fox card.
Gray Tail
There's a special ability, which lets you draw one Gray Tail card from its deck. A Gray Tail card when played, reduces the number of Relief symbols required to deal with problems by 3. Gray Tails do not contribute any specific symbols and can only be played as the first card in a column. But because of its universal Relief symbol any card may follow a Gray Tail card.
When resolved, Gray Tail Cards are returned to the Gray Tail Deck.
The rulebook shows example Gray Tail cards, Dirty Clothes and Dorian. The caption under the Dorian card reads: "Thanks to this card you must only contribute 4 symbols, including 1 sword, 1 crown and 1 sailboat."
Difficulty
There are 5 Difficulty levels in the game based on the number of lightning-bolt symbols on the Nightmare card.
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Holiday / Special | During the setup of the game draw 4 Common Problems instead of picking 4 Complicated Problems and place them face-down on the pink spots on top of the board. Using those Common Problems instead of the Complicated Problems makes the game much easier. It may also be combined with almost any available Nightmare. |
| Easy (1 lightning-bolt symbol) | Easy, with no significant rules changes. |
| Intermediate (2 lightning-bolt symbols) | Intermediate, often with significant rules changes. |
| Difficult (3 lightning-bolt symbols) | Difficult, with severe rules changes. |
| Extremely difficult (4 lightning-bolt symbols) | Extremely difficult, be ready for super-intense challenge. |