Gazobu
Gazobu Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
55 square cards representing 5 families of monsters:
- the Blob, the Yoo, the Gazobu, the Twini and the Twinax,
plus several special cards:
- 11 Blob;
- 11 Gazobu;
- 11 Yoo;
- 2 Twini;
- 2 Twinax;
- 3 black holes;
- 7 miscellaneous Bonus/Malus cards;
- 4 Extra Monster cards;
- 4 Multiplier cards;
- 16 green pills (ideal for calming down).
Setup
The deck of cards is shuffled and placed face down in the middle of the table to form the draw pile.
The player who last ran the vacuum cleaner begins and becomes the dealer for the first turn.
The dealer takes 2 cards from the draw pile and places them face up, side by side, in the middle of the table. Each of these 2 cards is the top card of one of 2 future columns of cards: it is therefore important to leave a little room under the 2 cards placed.
Then play passes to the player on the left of the dealer, and continues in this way until the end of the game.
Object of the Game
The great cosmic vacuum cleaner has separated all the monsters, including the famous Gazobu! The players must gather them into families as well as possible, by collecting the right cards during the game.
At the end, the player who has obtained the most points wins.
Playing a Turn
On their turn, a player carries out the following two phases:
- They may, if they wish, take one of the two columns of cards. In this case they take all the cards of the chosen column and place them in their hand. To calm down, they take one small green pill.
- Then they must draw 2 new cards from the draw pile and place them as they wish in the extension of the two columns (either 1 card per column, or both under the same column). The player chooses under which column each card is placed. The only rule to observe is this: if they have just taken a column, they are obliged to recreate it with at least one card.
This second action is mandatory, even if the player did not take a column at the start of their turn.
Note: all the cards in the columns must be placed face up, so that the players can choose a column with full knowledge of the facts.
Very important rule: a player who has 4 green pills in front of them ends their turn, but no longer plays in the game.
End of the Game
When only two players remain who have not yet taken their 4 green pills, play continues until one of the two has 4 pills. At that moment, the last player automatically takes the first 3 cards of the draw pile and the game ends.
Special cards are then resolved, mandatorily in the order indicated below:
- Black holes. Each player removes the black hole cards from their set, and their left-hand neighbour draws at random from the hand of the player who had those black hole cards one card per black hole. The cards drawn and the black holes are removed from the game.
- Bonus/Malus. Each player places in front of them, face up, all the Bonus/Malus cards in their hand.
- Extra monsters. Then each player forms as many face-down piles as they have different families. They then add to these piles the Extra Monster cards they hold in hand. Warning: these cards may only replace Yoo, Gazobu and Blob, never Twini or Twinax.
- Multipliers. Finally, each player places the Multiplier cards on the relevant piles, or as they choose depending on the case. Warning: several multipliers in the same family are worthless; only one will count!
Scoring
Points. The player holding the majority in a family of monsters gains the points indicated on the card (example: 10 points for holding the majority of Gazobu). The others lose points for each card of that family in their set.
The card illustrated in the rulebook's scoring section carries two callouts: "points gained if you hold the majority in this family" points to a value of 10, and "otherwise, each card you hold makes you lose this number of points" points to a value of 3. The values are read from the illustration.
If a family has received a "Multiplier" card, multiply the points gained (yay!) or lost (ooooh...) accordingly.
If several players have the same number of cards of a family, the next player in the count (the second, so to speak) wins all the points planned for that family. Players who are tied suffer the usual penalties.
The player with the greatest number of points at the end of the game is declared the winner.
Multiplier cards (examples shown under step 4 of the end of the game). The captions printed beside the two example cards read:
- "This card modifies the value of the Blobs."
- "This card modifies, at your choice, the value of the Blobs, the Gazobu or the Yoo."
Quick Reference
The rulebook closes with a summary sheet, transcribed here as printed.
Turn
- Optional: take a column of cards, then take a green pill.
- Mandatory: draw 2 cards and distribute them under the columns: 1 card under each column, or both cards under a column of your choice.
- You must recreate a column if you have just taken one.
- If a player takes their 4th green pill, they end their turn and no longer play until the end of the game.
End of game
- As soon as the second-to-last player still in the game takes their 4th green pill, the last player immediately draws 3 cards from the draw pile and the game stops.
Score
- Black holes: 1 card eliminated for each black hole.
- Bonus/Malus: placed face up.
- Extra monsters: form face-down piles of creatures including the extra monsters. These are forbidden on a pile of Twini or Twinax.
- Multipliers: placed on the piles of creatures.