La Marche du Crabe
La Marche du Crabe Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Our Goal: Freeeeeedoooom!
Together, you need to free 8 of your trapped Crab comrades without getting caught by the Big Bad Brown Crabs and Lobsters!
Your (Beach) Playset
2 Crab cards: It's your buddy and you! You've been friends for a long time. If you're Boater, you can use both of your hands to play, even if you have only one pincer left because of a bad encounter with a brown crab. (There's a whole comic book trilogy about it.)
12 Item cards: you'll find the 12 yucky things that litter all our beaches…
11 Adventure cards: they are used in the Adventure mode (sounds about right…), which will be explained later. For now, leave that into the box, kiddo, and only tackle it when you're seasoned enough. The Atlantic beaches are not for rookies.
36 Beach cards: 6 cards for each of the 6 rows that make up the beach. On the front of 2 cards of each row, you'll find an Item that was left there by carefree humans! On the back of each Item card, you'll see a green Freed Crab. Some cards show a nice little icon (a shrimp, a brown fish, or a blue-green wave) that is only used in Adventure mode. You'll discover this mode a bit further.
5 Shrimp cards: your ammo to keep the Big Bad Brown Crabs and Lobsters busy! On their front (pink side), they are alive. On the back, they are very much less alive (black background, because black is all about death).
1 Crabs token: it's the both of you! That's exactly you, except here, you're square crabs in a rounded shape…
24 Baddies cards: Brown Crabs and Lobsters are your sworn enemies! There are 12 red and 12 blue of those. On the back, each Baddie can be seen on one of the 6 rows of the beach.
Setup
Setup the beach between both players, making 6 rows of 6 cards each. There should be exactly 2 Items in each column.
Shuffle the 12 Item cards and deal 2 to each of you. Peek at your cards without showing them to your buddy! Same goes for them. Otherwise the game doesn't work, and it will be less fun that way. You are crabs anyway, SO YOU CAN'T TALK! These 4 forbidden items are those under which Baddies are hidden. These baddies are ready to jump at you if you stop there! On the other hand, you will have to free your Crab brothers and sisters who hide under the 8 other Items. On that note, you should remove the 8 remaining Item cards. They won't be used during this game.
Stack the 5 Shrimp cards, from the 5 Shrimps card (on top) to the 1 Shrimp card (on the bottom).
Put the Crabs token on the first card without an item from the first row (the row with sand).
Each player takes their 12 Baddies cards, shuffles them, and puts them into a deck, face down.
Each player puts their character card in front of them. During the game, Boater only moves VERTICALLY and Sunny, HORIZONTALLY.
Let's Go!
Boater always goes first. It's always like that. There's an actual reason for this. You wouldn't understand. Then you play clockwise. It's a bit stupid since there are only two players, but we wanted our game to have the same rules as every other game, even if we're li'l measly crabbies.
On your turn, there's going to be an uncool thing, then a cool thing:
- A Baddie (either Brown Crab or Lobster) will show up on the beach (mandatory).
- The crabs move together (optional).
ALSO: STILL KEEP QUIET! YOU SHALL NEVER GIVE A VERBAL HINT! ONLY COMMUNICATE WITH GAME ACTIONS!
1. The Baddie Shows Up (mandatory)
You reveal the first card of your Baddies deck. You place that Baddie on the Beach card of your choice, simply observing the depicted row (to know what's what, just take a look at the background behind the Brown Crab or Lobster).
CAREFUL: you can't put it on an Item, on another Baddie or on a freed crab (you'll see that a bit further). However you can put it on anything else. A Shrimp, a Pebble (again, you'll see that further). You can even put it on a card with the Crabs token (sometimes, you don't have a choice), but it costs one Shrimp!
2. You Move (optional)
If you wish to do so, you move the Crabs token in a straight line (vertically if you're Boater, and horizontally if you're Sunny) on the Beach card of your choice.
Depending on the space you go to, there are multiple possibilities:
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If Crabs land on a Beach card without an Item or anything else (save for a crab buddy that has been freed): they enjoy the breeze, the iodine smell of the ebb and flow, the lapping of water… nothing happens.
-
If the Crabs stop into an Item card and:
Your pal tells you that Item is not one of their 2 Forbidden items, and you've not been stupid enough to stop on one of yours? Well done, you crustaceans, you freed a Crab brother! You flip the Beach card on which you stand and you'll see a cute little buddy, all green because he's just been freed!
Your gaming partner tells you you've messed up because you stopped on one of their 2 Forbidden Items? Worse, you realize you just stopped on one of YOUR OWN 2 Forbidden Items? Well, a Baddie was hidden underneath the Item… Your buddy will probably be a bit annoyed, as they take the first card of their Baddies deck and put it on the Beach card with the matching Item (without flipping it). It is going to be slid underneath the Crabs token. Also you lose 2 Shrimps! You flip the 2 first cards of the Shrimp deck to indicate they have been eaten by the Baddies… Sad for those Shrimps, but it was you or them. AH! I see we're less altruistic now, aren't we?!
Game Example (From the Start of Game)
Boater starts playing. Boater flips their first Baddie card, and puts it on the 2nd row (1). Then they choose to move vertically three spaces upwards (2).
Now it's Sunny's turn. They put their first Baddie card on the 5th row (3). They move to the Beach card with the Tyre (4). Boater checks their 2 Item cards (to be sure) and it's alright, the Tyre is not one of their Forbidden Items! The Beach card with the Tyre is then flipped. You'll see a cute li'l Crab brother (5) who's now freed, and who will never lie again!
Only 7 bros left to free!
Baddies: Brown Crabs and Lobsters
You may cross the path of one or more Baddies when you move, and may even stop on one of them. Too easy, you say? Don't be overconfident: if you cross the path of at least one Baddie, you'll lose 1 Shrimp!
Please note that if you choose not to move, you don't lose any Shrimps. However, if you do nothing… Well, not moving is a strong indication for your buddy… We're sure of it.
Endgame
The game can end in 4 different ways:
- You must spend Shrimps but have none left? Oops, you've lost…
- One of you cannot put a Baddie card, and you haven't freed your 8 comrades from their prisons? You've really lost! Play again! Never gonna give them up… Never gonna let them down… never gonna run around and desert them…
- You've freed the 8 li'l crabbies? Congratulations, you've beaten the Brown Crabs, the Lobsters, and the game! Your score is the number of (live) Shrimps left in your supply. The high score is 5 points.
- Your 2 year-old crabby has spilt HIS bowl of milk on YOUR beach… Yet another human who ruins their environment. And your game, crap!
Adventure Mode: A Persecuted Species Takes Its Freedom!
Now you're the bosses of the beach, why not put your talent to good use and free all the crabs of all the beaches? Don't expect the beaches to look like each other, though!
To do so, set up your game normally, then take the Adventure cards deck. The first card matches the first beach, which is the base game ruleset. Once the game is over (and that you've won, otherwise you cry a little and start over), don't shuffle and re-deal Beach cards. However:
- Put your 4 Item cards in the unused deck and shuffle it up.
- Each player takes their baddies and shuffles them into a fresh deck. Flip Beach cards with freed crabs, so that the 12 Items are visible. Above all, keep your Shrimp cards the way they are! If, for example, you finished with 2 Shrimps, you'll start the next game with 2 Shrimps!
Take the next Adventure card (2nd beach) and follow its new instructions:
Icons of the Beach cards to flip (white circle).
Icons of the rules to be taken into account (green hexagon).
Some rules apply to multiple beaches. For example, each level starts with flipping the Shrimps back.
Starting position of the Crabs token: here, it should be the third empty card (without an Item) from the first row (sand).
End: If you lose a game on a beach… The adventure ends now!
Saving the game! You want to resume later? Put the game back into the box with the Adventure and Shrimp cards on top!
Freedooooooom! Play the Adventures in any order you choose, shuffle them up, be free!
Credits
Squeaky Clean! Square crabs are not struggling for nothing. As we want to prevent their environment from making a landfill site out of our beaches, this game is entirely designed, developed and manufactured in France! Really, 100%! And it's even eco-designed! We promise we do our best in this regard…
Friends:
- Jeux Opla, publisher of the game: www.jeux-opla.fr
- Soleil, publisher of the comic book: https://www.soleilprod.com/
- The artist, Arthur de Pins: http://www.arthurdepins.com/
- The Belgian distributor: http://geronimogames.com
- The Swiss distributor: http://www.deliriumludensonline.ch/
The game rules video can be found on our website: www.jeu-opla.fr
Thanks:
The designer, Julien Prothière — First, I would like to thank my dad, who is a huge fan of the game, with whom I played my first tense games! Also thanks to the Ludix festival and its jury for awarding the Special Award of the Jury, which allowed me to completely persuade my good friend Florent. My thanks go to him as well. And thank you to my many friends, to my kids, who accepted playing this over and over with me… Designing a 2-player game is quite convenient, as you only bother one playtester at a time!
The artist, Arthur de Pins — Thank you Jérémy and Clotilde – you allowed marbled crabs to exist on paper and screen. Thank you Julien and Florent for turning my crab tragedy into a game that's all about coordination and gumption. My crabbies will look a bit more intelligent for a game or two…
The publisher, Florent Toscano — I'd like to congratulate Julien as he turned Arthur's comic book, of which I am a fan since forever, into a sublime game. Also thank you, Arthur, for allowing this new adventure by illustrating our game. Thank you Seb from Soleil, for giving us a hand! Thank you to all players who, for the last two years, encourage us into making this game. Thank you Johanna, Bony, Alex, Fabienne, Florian, Coralie, Agnès, Cyril, Ludix and the CAL. To all crustaceans of the world. To Céline. And, most of all, to Jean, my own li'l crabby who grows up so fast…