Katz Fatz

Katz Fatz Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
Preparing a Round
Round Sequence
- 1. Play a cat card
- 2. Draw a cat card from the stack
Cat Cards
Explanation of the Toy Cards (Erklärung der Spielzeugkarten)
End of a Round and Round Scoring (Ende einer Runde und Rundenwertung)
Subsequent Rounds and Final Scoring (Folgende Runden und Schlusswertung)
Advanced Variant (Profi-Variante)

Components

72 cat cards in six colours (some of them multicoloured)
10 cat toy cards
1 scoring pad

Setup

Draw 4 random cat toy cards and place them as a face-down stack. Return the other toy cards to the box, as they are not needed for this game.

Katz Fatz is played over four rounds. After the fourth round the total points are calculated, and whoever has the most points wins the game.

Preparing a Round

A. Determine who reveals and deals the cards. This role passes clockwise for each following round. Turn over the top card of the toy stack and place it in the middle of the play area. This is the cat toy of the current round. Familiarise yourselves with the toy's ability (see pages 11 and 12).

B. Shuffle all cat cards and deal 8 cards to each player. The cards are taken into hand and so are hidden from the others.

C. Place the remaining cat cards as a face-down stack in the middle.

D. Then turn over cards from the cat stack, one more than the number of players taking part (for example, with 3 players, 4 cat cards are laid out face up; see below).

E. Each player then chooses one of the cat cards in turn.

The person who dealt the cards in this round may choose first and places their card face up in front of them. NOTE: This first card does not trigger any effect! The others then follow against (!) the clockwise direction.

The cards placed face up in front of each player form that player's personal discard pile. The cat card that remains at the end forms the neutral discard pile in the middle (directly next to the cat card stack).

Round Sequence

The round begins with the player seated to the left of the dealer.

Each turn consists of exactly two actions, carried out one after the other. You may not skip an action; you must always perform two actions. For each action you may choose independently between two options:

1. Play a cat card

Place one of your cat cards from your hand onto a discard pile. You may choose from all the discard piles: the neutral discard pile in the middle (A), your own discard pile (B), and the discard piles of all the other players (C).

The condition is that the card you play and the top card of the chosen discard pile share the same number or the same colour (or both).

A matching number also counts when the numbers differ only in sign (for example, a Minus 5 may be placed on a Plus 5 and vice versa). With multicoloured cards only one of the colours needs to match.

NOTE: In the fairly rare case that there is no card on a player's discard pile, any card may be played there (regardless of number and colour).

2. Draw a cat card from the stack

Take the top, face-down card of the cat stack into your hand. You must choose this action if you cannot play a cat card. It may also be chosen voluntarily, if for tactical reasons you do not want to play a cat card or need a new hand card.

So you may choose action 1 twice, action 2 twice, or action 1 and action 2 once each, in any order.

Afterwards play continues clockwise.

Cat Cards

Each cat card consists of a value and one or more colours. The possible values are the negative values from -3 to -7, the positive values from 3 to 7, and the value 0. In addition, each cat card has exactly one, two or three colours.

If you play a multicoloured cat card onto a pile, or a matching card lies there, it does not matter which of the two or three colours matches; it only has to be one of them (if the number matches anyway, that is also sufficient).

Furthermore, many cats on the cards also have a trick that they carry out when they are played. Some tricks only take effect when played onto certain piles, others are always triggered.

GENERAL RULE: Tricks that are triggered by playing the card only trigger if the card is played normally. If the card is instead discarded, passed on, or something similar, its trick does not trigger.

Begging / Pitiful Begging (Betteln / Mitleiderregendes Betteln)

The source prints these two cards under one shared entry, with the same effect text.

When this card is placed on another player's or your own discard pile, the affected player must immediately take the top card of the cat stack into their hand. (If someone plays this card as their last hand card and has to draw cards because of the effect, the round does not end as a result.) If this card is placed on the neutral discard pile, it has no effect.

There are also cards where you must draw 2 cards.

Cuddling (Schmusen)

When this card lies on your own discard pile at round scoring, it converts one minus card into a plus card. It only affects a -3, -4 or -5 card.

Vigorous Cuddling (Heftiges Schmusen)

When this card lies on your own discard pile at round scoring, it converts one minus card into a plus card. It only affects a -6 or -7 card.

Cat Litter Visit (Katzenklobesuch)

When this card is placed on another player's or your own discard pile, the affected player must immediately place any card from their hand onto the neutral discard pile (the card does not have to match there). If this card is placed on the neutral discard pile, it has no effect.

Mouse Hunt to the Left (Mäusejagd nach links)

When this card is placed on the neutral discard pile, everyone must place the top card of their own discard pile onto the discard pile of the person to your left. If this card is placed on your own or another player's discard pile, it has no effect.

Mouse Hunt to the Right (Mäusejagd nach rechts)

When this card is placed on the neutral discard pile, everyone must place the top card of their own discard pile onto the discard pile of the person to your right. If this card is placed on your own or another player's discard pile, it has no effect.

Toy Emergency (Spielzeugnotstand)

When this card is placed on another player's or your own discard pile, the affected player receives the toy card that is in play this round and places it face up next to their own discard pile (regardless of whether the toy card was still lying in the middle or was already with someone else). If this card is placed on the neutral discard pile, it has no effect.

Claw (Kralle)

When you place this card on the neutral discard pile, you must place the top card of a foreign or your own discard pile onto the neutral discard pile. If this card is placed on your own or another player's discard pile, it has no effect.

Explanation of the Toy Cards (Erklärung der Spielzeugkarten)

High-Quality Armchair (Hochwertiger Sessel)

While you hold this toy card, you have only one action instead of two during your turn (this already applies if you receive this toy with your first action).

Expensive Specialist Toy (Teures Fachspielzeug)

If you have this toy card at the end of the round, you receive 5 minus points during scoring.

Ultra-Laser

While you hold this toy card, you have three actions instead of two during your turn (this already applies if you receive this toy with your first or second action). The third action is also mandatory.

Cheap Cardboard (Billiger Karton)

If you have this toy card at the end of the round and have no cards in hand, you receive 8 plus points during scoring.

Multifunction Scratching Tree (Multifunktionskratzbaum)

If you have this toy card at the end of the round, the worst colour of your discard pile is not scored (only colours of which you actually have cards are compared).

Magic String (Zauber-Schnur)

While you hold this toy card, you may also play cards whose number value differs by 1 from the top card of the chosen discard pile.

Balled Wool (Knäuliger Wollknäuel)

While you hold this toy card, you may, at the start of your turn, place any card from your hand onto the neutral discard pile in order to take the top card of the cat stack into your hand. The card you place does not have to match. You may not look at the top card of the cat stack beforehand.

Short-Lived Fabric Mouse (Kurzlebige Stoffmaus)

While you hold this toy card, you may at any time during your turn place it back into the middle in order to ignore the conditions when playing a card (you may play a card where neither the number nor the colour matches the top card of the discard pile).

Cat Fishing Rod (Katzen-Angel)

While you hold this toy card, you may, at the start of your turn, place the top card of the cat stack onto your own discard pile without looking at it beforehand.

Rubber Ball (Gummiball)

While you hold this toy card, you may at any time during your turn place it back into the middle in order to swap the top cards of any two discard piles (foreign, your own, or neutral) with each other.

End of a Round and Round Scoring (Ende einer Runde und Rundenwertung)

If anyone has no cards left in hand, the round ends and scoring takes place. The round also ends immediately in the very rare case that no cards remain in the cat stack.

First count the point total of your discard pile. The numerical values of the plus cards are added, and the numerical values of the minus cards are subtracted. Each cuddling card (Schmusen or Heftiges Schmusen) in your discard pile can convert exactly one minus card into a plus card (if a minus card of the stated value range is present). Enter the result on the scoring pad in the field of the corresponding round.

Also count how many cards on your discard pile show a toy symbol, and cross off that many toy symbols on the scoring pad, from left to right, row by row.

Then all players who still had cat cards in hand at the end of the round count the number of different colours among their hand cards (maximum 6), and cross off that many colour-splat symbols on the scoring pad, from left to right, row by row. Multicoloured cards count as all of the colours shown at the same time.

After round scoring, the cat toy used for this round is removed from the game, and all cat cards are reshuffled.

Example from the rulebook (round 1): In this example, the discard pile collected 26 plus points and 14 minus points, which gives 12 points for round 1. Two cards show a toy symbol. The cat cards left in hand have three different colours.

Subsequent Rounds and Final Scoring (Folgende Runden und Schlusswertung)

Rounds 2, 3 and 4 follow exactly the same procedure as round 1, with the difference that the role of the dealer moves one position clockwise from round to round.

After the scoring of round 4 the final scoring takes place.

For every player, look at the point value next to the last toy symbol that you were able to cross off. Enter this point value in the field with the toy symbol.

Also look at the point value next to the last colour splat that you had to cross off. Enter this point value in the field with the colour-splat symbol.

The point values of round 1, round 2, round 3, round 4, the toys, and the hand colours are then added up for each player, and the result is entered under "Total".

The player who reached the highest total score has won the game. In case of a tie, the player among the leaders who has collected more toys wins. If there is still a tie, all the leading players have won.

Example from the rulebook: In this example, the discard piles collected 62 points over all 4 rounds. Added to these are 35 toy points and 20 colour-splat points. The total is therefore 117. (Scoring pad example for the player "Nils": round 1: 12; round 2: 16; round 3: 11; round 4: 23; toys: 35; colour splats: 20; total: 117.)

Advanced Variant (Profi-Variante)

If you want a bit more tactics when choosing the starting cards for your discard pile, play with the following change. During the selection, the following effects already trigger, if they are present on the card that you choose for your discard pile: Begging, Pitiful Begging, Cat Litter Visit and Toy Emergency (each for yourself).