Kitty Cataclysm
Kitty Cataclysm Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
You are squabbling with the other cats, trying to have the most meowney. Steal, donate and pass around your cards. Give away whichever you think are the worst, and try to have the most valuable ones at the end of the game.
Setup
The most recent winner is the dealer.
Shuffle. Deal 5 cards to each player.
These 5 cards — and any others you steal, draw or are given during the game — are in your ‘paws’. The remaining cards form ‘Schrödinger’s deck’, which should be placed in the centre of the table. Leave space for a ‘litter tray’, where cards are discarded into.
Someone else starts (whoever is first to play a card).
Each Turn
Play a card on top of your ‘purrsonal kitty’, then do whatever it says. Your purrsonal kitty is one face-up pile of all the cards you have played over the course of the game. If you can’t do everything a card says (e.g. you don’t have enough cards to donate), just do as much as you can. Follow instructions in the order written.
After you have done what the card says, the player to your left takes a turn.
Unless, of course, the card told you to ‘play again’.
Ending the Game
If anyone has no cards in their paws at the start of their turn and so cannot play a card, the game ends.
The game also ends if Schrödinger’s deck is empty when anyone should draw a card.
Add up the meowney on all the cards in your paws, as well as all the cards you have in your purrsonal kitty.
Whoever has the most meowney wins!
Card Overview
Meowney: The meownetary value of the card. It ranges from -1 to 3.
Effect: When the card is played, you follow these instructions.
The card overview diagram labels its parts as: Superfluous Picture; Pun-tastic Name.
Details for Setup
Whoever most recently won a game is the dealer.
Anyone else (not the dealer) can start the game by being first to play a card face up in front of themself.
When playing multiple games, the previous winner deals, and so has a slight disadvantage as they cannot start.
When dealing, cards should be dealt one by one, so the person to the dealer’s left gets their last card before the person to the dealer’s right. If you’re not dealing, it is an advantage to grab your 5 cards as soon as they have been dealt and choose as quickly as you can!
Details for a Turn
As long as you have a card, you must play it.
Details for the End of the Game
If at the start of your turn you don’t have a card to play, the game ends. The game also ends if there aren’t enough cards to draw when cards are drawn.
If multiple people were meant to draw a card, and there are not enough left, do it in clockwise order — starting with whoever played the card.
Count all the meowney on all the cards in your kitty and all the cards in your paws. Whoever has the most meowney is the winner!
If there is a tie for most, the tied player who most recently took a turn is the winner. If there is still a tie, you have misunderstood the rules.
Where a Card May Be
Your paws / someone else’s paws: Every card you have been dealt, or have drawn, is considered to be ‘in your paws’. Whether you’re actually holding them, or have momentarily put them on a table to snack on a piece of sashimi, makes no difference.
Your kitty / someone else’s kitty: The face-up pile you play cards onto is called your kitty. You may hide your older cards, but your latest card must be visible. You are allowed to gaze inside your own kitty but should never touch someone else’s kitty.
Schrödinger’s deck: This is the face-down deck in the middle of the table, from which you draw cards. If you know the deck distribution, you may be able to say that the next card has a 5% chance of being a cat-aclysm. For the purposes of this game, each card exists in every possible state, until it is examined. When multiple people draw cards, do not worry if someone else drew cards before or after you. It does not matter. All hail the mysteries of Schrödinger’s deck.
The litter tray: When a card tells you to ‘lose’ cards, all the lost cards go into a face-up central pile, called the litter tray. You are allowed to go rooting in the litter tray, to see what other folk chose to lose, if you really want. But that’s just icky.
Clarifications for Card Text
Donate x: Take x cards from your paws, and add them to other players’ paws. You can donate everything to one player, or split it up as you wish.
Steal x: Take x cards from other players’ paws, and place them into your own paws. You can steal from multiple players with 1 card if you wish. Other players can always shuffle their cards first.
Draw x: Take x cards from the top of Schrödinger’s deck. Add them to your paws.
Lose x cards: These cards are lost from your paws. They go into the litter tray. (Or start a litter tray, if none exists.)
Pass x cards left: This is done simultaneously. If one player has no cards in their paws, they will pass nothing left and will just receive x cards.
Everyone holding 7 or more cards loses all those cards: This card affects everyone — including whoever played the card — when played. All the lost cards go into the litter tray.
Everyone holding 6 or more cards loses their entire kitty: Everyone holding 6 or more cards — including whoever played this card — takes their entire kitty and puts it into the litter tray. This is the only way to lose cards from your kitty.