Itchy Monkey
Itchy Monkey Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
In Itchy Monkey several families of lice try to become dominant. Every turn you'll spawn new lice and jump over to nearby Monkeys. Alternatively you can move a Monkey by tickling it, which makes it bump into other Monkeys. That way whole armies of your little friends can jump over! But beware of your rival families, because nobody likes nitpicking...
The first player that can build a colony on 5 different species of Monkeys, 4 of the same species, or 3 Gorillas wins the game! A colony consist of 3 or more Worker lice.
Survival Gear
- 29 Monkey tiles: 4 Gorillas, 5 Orangutans, 5 Lemurs, 5 Spider Monkeys, 5 Mandrills, 5 Emperor Tamarins
- 80 Worker lice: 20 per color
- 12 Queen lice: 3 per color
- 1 Game board (double sided)
Setup
Below is the setup for a basic game of Itchy Monkey. For more variations and advanced rules have a look at the end of the rulebook.
- Separate all lice (wooden tokens) by color and give one color to each player.
- Put the game board with the correct side according to the number of players at the center of the table.
- Put the Monkey tiles with their regular side on the corresponding flower spots on the game board. The Emperor Tamarin may be used instead of any Monkey other than a Gorilla.
- The player whose imitation of an Itchy Monkey surpasses the others may place 1 Queen and 2 Worker lice on 1 Monkey.
- In a clockwise order all other players place 1 Queen and 2 Worker lice on 1 Monkey. Players can only place lice on Monkeys if they do not contain lice and if the first Monkey in all horizontal and vertical lines does not contain lice.
- The player that placed the first lice on a Monkey starts the game.
Playing the Game
Players play in turns. A turn consists of 2 phases: first Spawn, then Move!
At any time during your own turn you may exchange 6 Worker lice on a single Monkey for 1 Queen.
All Worker lice have power 1, all Queen lice have power 2 (see Jump and Bump).
Phase 1: Spawn
Choose 1 Monkey that contains at least 1 of your lice, then:
- Add 1 Worker if the Monkey contains only Workers.
- Add 2 Workers if the Monkey contains 1 Queen.
- Add 3 Workers if the Monkey contains 2 Queens.
- Add 4 Workers if the Monkey contains 3 Queens.
There is no limit to the amount of lice a Monkey can contain. However, there is always the risk of nitpicking!
If a player has no lice left on the game board, he/she may place 2 Worker lice on any empty Monkey during his/her Spawn phase.
It's possible to run out of lice to spawn. If no lice are left during the Spawn phase no new lice will be spawned. Continue spawning as normal if you have new lice available in your Spawn phase.
Phase 2: Move
Choose 1 of the 3 options below:
Jump
Choose 1 of your lice (either a Worker or a Queen) and move it to a directly horizontally or vertically adjacent Monkey.
If you jump onto a Monkey that's occupied by lice of an opponent, you'll need to match or exceed the total power of lice on that Monkey. If the power of your jumping louse matches the power of the opponents lice, all lice of both players are removed and returned to those players. If you exceed the power, all opponents' lice are removed from the Monkey and returned to that player.
Bump
Choose 1 Monkey that contains at least 1 of your lice. Move the Monkey any number of spaces, or until you bump into another Monkey, or until you have reached the end of the board. You may move horizontally or vertically (not diagonal) in one direction only.
If you bump into another Monkey after moving at least 1 space, any amount of lice (none, some or all) may jump from the moving Monkey onto the bumped Monkey.
If you bump into a Monkey that's occupied by lice of an opponent you'll need to match or exceed the total power of lice on that Monkey. If the power of your jumping lice matches the power of the opponents lice, all lice of both players are removed and returned to those players. If you exceed the power, all opponents' lice are removed from the Monkey and returned to that player.
NOTE: you can choose any number of lice to jump over, or none at all!
Nitpicking
Choose 1 Monkey token that contains at least 5 or more Worker lice of an opponent. Remove all lice (including any Queens) from that Monkey and return them to the opponent.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player reaches a winning condition. To win the game players have to build colonies. A colony consists of 3 or more Worker lice.
NOTE: a Queen is not counted when determining colonies.
You win the game if you are the first player to reach one of the following conditions:
- A colony on 3 Gorillas.
- A colony on 4 of the same species of Monkeys.
- A colony on 5 different species of Monkeys.
Monkey Abilities
If you want an even bigger challenge you can try some of the Monkey abilities by flipping over all Monkey tiles of one or more species at the start of the game. We advise experimenting with these abilities one or two at a time.
Gorilla
Instead of phase 2 (Jump, Bump or Nitpicking) you may move an adjacent (horizontally or vertically) Monkey in a straight line up to 2 spots away from the Gorilla. You may only move the Monkey in a horizontal or vertical direction. Stop the movement when you collide into a Monkey. This does not count as bumping.
Orangutan
Whenever you use Jump from the Orangutan, you may choose to move up to 2 lice to an adjacent Monkey instead of 1.
Lemur
At any time during your own turn, if you have no Queen on the Lemur, you may exchange 3 Worker lice for 1 Queen.
Spider Monkey
Whenever you use Bump with a Spider Monkey, you may move your tile over 1 adjacent (horizontally or vertically) Monkey, and continue your movement.
Mandrill
Whenever you spawn on the Mandrill, add 2 Workers instead of 1 if the Mandrill only contains Workers.
Emperor Tamarin
You may use the special ability of any adjacent (horizontally or vertically) Monkey. You may use multiple special abilities each turn. You still only have 1 Spawn phase and 1 Move phase.
Last Louse Left
This is an optional rule for advanced play. When you defeat an opponents' lice, instead of returning those lice to the player, they are removed from the game. A player wins when he/she is the only one with lice on Monkeys.
This variation can also be played with the various Monkey abilities explained above.