Hámster Gángster Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• How to Play
  • 1. Setting Up the Game
  • Your Play Area
• 2. Your Turn
  • Collecting Nuts
  • Your Cheek Pouches Have a Limit
  • How the Burrow Works
  • Storing the Loot
  • Your Gang
  • Patrolman Erwin: Scares and End of Game
• 3. Scoring
• Additional Game Modes
  • 1. Mini Gangster Mode
  • 2. Crazy Squirrel After a Coffee Mode
  • 3. Gang Boss Mode
  • 4. Full Burrow Mode
  • 5. Boss Mode

Components

• 4 Hámster Gángster cards (printed double-sided)
• 4 Burrow cards (printed double-sided)
• 16 Gang cards: 4 different characters, 4 of each (weasel, heavyset, stick insect, pill bug)
• 68 Forest cards: 67 nuts and 1 patrolman Erwin

Objective

Your goal is to be the most respected gangster hamster in the forest. To do so you must score more points than the others by forming groups of nuts that add up to 13 and storing them in your burrow.

How to Play

1. Setting Up the Game

• Each player chooses one Hámster card, four Gang cards (weasel, heavyset, stick insect and pill bug) and one Burrow card, and places them in front of them. For the first games use the Hámster card with the face shown large.
• Shuffle the Forest cards. Each player takes one Forest card at random and places it on the left side of their burrow, next to the briefcase icon. If someone draws the patrolman Erwin card, they must draw another so that they start the game with a nut in their briefcase.
• Take all the remaining Forest cards (including the patrolman Erwin card) and spread them face down in the centre of the table within reach of all players. This pile of cards is the forest.

Take a look at the example play area on the next page:

Your Play Area

(The rulebook shows the layout below.) Your play area consists of:

• Your burrow card, in the centre, with the briefcase (left) and the storeroom (right) beside it.
• Left cheek pouch and right cheek pouch, below the burrow card, on the left and right of your hamster card.
• Your hamster card, below the burrow card.
• Your gang, the four Gang cards laid in a row below your hamster card.
• The Forest card you placed next to your briefcase at setup.

2. Your Turn

On your turn you draw Forest cards to find nuts, which you store in your cheek pouches. When you form a group that adds up to exactly 13, you can move it to the storeroom in your burrow.

Collecting Nuts

• Draw a Forest card at random and turn it over. If it is a nut, you must decide which cheek pouch (right or left) it goes into. For the rest of your turn, the following nut cards you get must always go to that same cheek pouch. Place them face up so that the number (top left) is visible.
• On your next turn you may change cheek pouch, even if you have not reached the storage limit in the other pouch.

Your Cheek Pouches Have a Limit

• A hamster can store a lot of food in its cheek pouches, but it has a limit. In this case, the limit is 13 for each cheek pouch. Also, hamsters are very efficient, so to move nuts to the burrow without wasting energy, you must add up to exactly 13.
• Each nut card has a numerical value in its top left corner, which is higher the larger the nut is. These are the numbers you must add up to reach 13:
  • Sunflower seed (1), pistachio (2), corn (3), cashew (4), hazelnut (5), peanut (6), almond (7), walnut (8), and chestnut (12).
• If you take a nut card that makes your total go over 13, you will lose all the cards in that cheek pouch... unless you decide to use your briefcase!

How the Burrow Works

• The burrow has two parts: the right part is the storeroom, where you keep your groups of nuts totalling 13.
• The left part is the briefcase, which helps you manage your loot. If you draw a nut that takes you over 13 and you do not want to lose everything, you can keep that card in your briefcase, provided it is empty, because it only has room for 1 nut.
• On later turns, if you want to use the card in your briefcase, you may either add it to the cheek pouch you are using, or swap it for one of the cards in that cheek pouch.
• Each time you use the briefcase your turn ends. If you make a group of 13 using the briefcase, your turn ends when you store the group in your storeroom.

Storing the Loot

• You may keep drawing nut cards from the forest until one of these three things happens:

• a) Being afraid of going over 13: you may stop and decide not to draw a card.

• b) Going over 13: if the value of the nuts in one of your cheek pouches exceeds 13, remove from the game all the cards in that cheek pouch, together with the card you have just drawn. If at the start of your turn you draw a card that takes you over 13 and both your cheek pouches and your briefcase are occupied, remove that card from the game. You may then remove one nut from one of your cheek pouches or from your briefcase.

• c) Completing a group of 13: when you put together a group of cards that adds up to 13, place it face down in your storeroom. Each card you have in the storeroom at the end of the game will give you points.

• In any of these 3 cases your turn ends, and it passes to the next person clockwise (or anticlockwise, as you decide).

Your Gang

No hamster is a real gangster without a gang. Luckily you have recruited four characters from the forest who will help you get more nuts and annoy your rivals.

• You may only use each one once. If you do not use them, they will be worth points at the end of the game. You decide how best to manage your gang.

• These are the characters in your gang and their abilities:

• Heavyset Hamster (Hámster Forzudo): you may use it to have the contents of one of your cheek pouches taken to the storeroom, even if you have not completed a group of 13.

• Weasel (Comadreja): it is very slippery and slips into any place. Choose a hamster that has nuts in its storeroom and say the name or number of a nut you need. If that hamster has it, it must give it to you; put it in the cheek pouch you are using. If it does not have it, you lose your chance and cannot use this card again.

• Pill Bug (Bicho Bola): there are no bullets in the forest, but there are pill bugs. "Throw" the Pill Bug at another hamster to surprise it and take one nut from it. Take the last card in one of its cheek pouches and put it in the cheek pouch you are using.

• Stick Insect (Insecto Palo): this is the only gang member you will use during another person's turn. The Stick Insect has very long legs and is very good at disguising itself. When another person turns over a Forest card that interests you, use this card to steal it and put it in the cheek pouch you are using. Then the other person may continue their turn. If two or more people try to use this card at the same time, the one closest in turn order has priority.

• When you have used a Gang card, your turn ends.

Patrolman Erwin: Scares and End of Game

While you are searching for nuts in the forest, you may run into patrolman Erwin doing his rounds. If this happens it will give you a good scare, and you will lose all the nuts in one of your two cheek pouches, your choice. If you only have nuts in one cheek pouch, you lose the cards stored in that one.

• The cards you lose are removed from the game.
• When patrolman Erwin appears for the third time, the game ends. Use the game box to keep count, placing it so that it shows the icon matching the number of times Erwin has appeared:
  • 1 time: one broken heart
  • 2 times: two broken hearts
  • 3 times: three broken hearts

3. Scoring

The game can also end when, at the end of a turn, only five or fewer Forest cards remain on the table.

It is time to count points and find out who has gathered the biggest loot in the forest:

• 1 point for each card stored in your storeroom; if you have the chestnut (12), count 3 points.
• 2 points if you have a card in your briefcase.
• 2 points for each Gang member you have not used.

If there is a tie, the winner is whoever has the chestnut card in their storeroom. If nobody has it, the winner is whoever has more walnut cards (worth 8).

Additional Game Modes

1. Mini Gangster Mode

This is the ideal mode for little ones. It is played without the gang, and the briefcase is not used; only the storeroom is used to store groups of 13. Everything else is played the same way.

2. Crazy Squirrel After a Coffee Mode

For this mode, remove the Burrow cards, the Gang cards, and the patrolman Erwin card (from the Forest cards).

Everyone takes Forest cards at the same time and places them in the cheek pouches, in any order. The first person to fill both cheek pouches with exactly 13 wins. Since this is a very fast game, you can play a best of three rounds, for example.

3. Gang Boss Mode

If you decide to play in this mode, you have two options:

• a) The Gang cards are placed face down, and each person in turn takes one at random until they have a gang of four.
• b) The Gang cards are placed face up, and each person takes the four cards they prefer. It is a matter of speed to form your ideal gang.

4. Full Burrow Mode

In this mode you get additional bonuses for each nut of the type shown on the door of the burrow you are playing with.

• Burrows showing a sunflower seed (1) and a pistachio (2) give an additional bonus of 1 point for every two sunflower seed or pistachio cards you have in your storeroom at the end of the game.
• Burrows showing corn (3), cashew (4), and hazelnut (5) give an additional bonus of 1 point for each corn, cashew or hazelnut card you have in your storeroom at the end of the game.
• Burrows showing peanut (6), almond (7), and walnut (8) give an additional bonus of 2 points for each peanut, almond or walnut card you have in your storeroom at the end of the game.

You may choose which burrow you want to play with, or choose them at random to add a little more excitement.

5. Boss Mode

Turn the Hámster cards over to reveal the full character and play with their particular abilities:

• Grey hamster (14): you may form your groups of nuts adding up to 13 or 14.
• Fedora hamster (gang member icon): you may use one member of your gang twice. But only one.
• Hamster in the dark red cap, with cigar (12): you may form your groups of nuts adding up to 12 or 13.
• Hamster in the red hat (heart icon): if patrolman Erwin appears to you, you do not lose any nut from your cheek pouches. If he appears to another person, you may steal a Forest card and store it wherever you like: in a cheek pouch, in the burrow or in the briefcase.

The additional modes will let you play with different degrees of complexity, from pure chance up to a certain degree of control over your actions.

Here we have explained some of the possible variations, but you will surely have noticed that they can be combined in different ways. We invite you to design your own game mode! Because in the end... every burrow has its own rules.