Hop la bille
Hop la bille Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Game
- 20 marbles of 5 colors.
- 12 cards: 4 green (with 3 marbles), 4 blue (with 4 marbles), 4 red (with 5 marbles).
- A playground in cloth.
- This booklet.
Aim of the Game
Each gamer must realize color combinations of its cards in his game area, by winning marbles he needs and losing ones he does not need.
Set Up
You can play where you want: in sand, on clay, in the playground, on a carpet or on the tablecloth of the living room table. Otherwise, better, you can use the cloth playground present in the box: fold it on the table. It's like in a real playground, the folds of cloth create a small relief.
Each gamer takes place in front of a side of the playground. At 2 players, we are face to face, and at 4 gamers, the 4 sides are occupied. 3 cards are given to each player: a green, a blue and a red one. Thus, at 4 players, the 12 cards are distributed. Each gamer puts its 3 cards on the visible face, on the table, in front of him.
Each player gets 5 marbles of 5 different colors. Each gamer places its marbles in the playground, in his game area, in front of him, as he wants. After that he can no longer move its marbles. And wherever they are, 2 marbles can never touch: always let a space between them.
Your game area corresponds approximately to the surface of your hand, splayed (like in the example on the next page). And if someone complains because his hand is too small, take a representative hand for everybody!
Example of a starting game at 4 players: 5 marbles in the game area of each player; the middle of the game; 3 cards for each player; the game area of a player, corresponding approximately to the surface of an open hand.
Game Progress
You have to realize the combination of marbles present on one of your 3 cards. For that, on your turn, you make a flick on one of your marbles. Then, 2 possibilities:
-
The marble you flicked touches one or several other marbles (in game areas of other players or in the middle of the game): so you recover it with also all touched marbles, that you can put where you want in your game area, without moving those already in place.
or
-
The marble you flicked does not touch other marbles: then you take it to place it where you want in the middle of the playground. It could be won by anyone else thereafter.
All touched marbles, either directly or by rebound, are won and put in your game area. If the marble you played touches one of your marbles, you win it!
As soon as a player gets a card combination in his game area, he returns this card.
Careful, to win a combination, you must have exactly the right number of marbles. And the position is not important. So, sometimes, you will have to voluntarily not touch other marbles just to lose one and put it in the middle of the playground.
Example of an ongoing party: Gamer 3 made his combination of 4 marbles (2 clear blue, 1 red, 1 green). He returns the corresponding card. It remains for him 2 cards to win. If, on his turn, gamer 4 succeeds in touching only one yellow marble, he will obtain its combination of 3 marbles.
If a gamer has only one marble, he can't lose it. That means when he plays his last marble and it does not touch anything, he takes it again and puts it where he wants in his game area. And if this last marble is touched by the one of another player, this last one chooses which marble he keeps and which one he gives to the other player.
As soon as a gamer has returned his 3 cards, he wins the game!
Variant Modes
Not Time (faster parties)
The rule is exactly the same, but each player gets only one card at the beginning (but of the same color!). The winner will be the first one to realize its combination!
Suite
The rule is always the same, but you have to realize your objectives in this order: combo 5 marbles, combo 4 marbles and then combo 3 marbles.
No Card!
At the beginning, leave the cards in the box and take all marbles except dark blue ones. Each gamer gets 4 marbles, one of each color, and puts all remaining marbles at the center of the playground. So, at 4 players, there will be no marbles in the center.
We play like with the normal rule, but the winner will be the first one to obtain in his game area 4 marbles of one color.
Pile
The rule is nearly the same as in the normal game, but no cards are given to gamers. Cards are all shuffled and put on the table like a pile.
Each player takes the first card of the pile and will have to realize this combination.
As soon as a player realizes its combination, he returns its card and takes a new one from the pile.
As soon as a player can no longer take a new card from the pile (empty), the game is over. Then, gamers score points present on their returned cards.
[Completion from the publisher's French rules, not in the English text: the players count the total number of marbles present on their returned cards; the player with the highest total wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most cards wins. If still tied, the French text closes with the line "well, you are both strong!".]
[Optional shorter game, from the French rules: do not put all the cards in the pile. Alternatively, the winner is the first player to have 11 marbles on their validated cards.]