Level 8: Das Brettspiel

Level 8: Das Brettspiel Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Components

1 game board (with 28 action spaces)
6 sets of 3 game pieces
2 dice
90 number cards (1 to 15, in 6 colours)
8 jokers (identical on both sides)
6 level cards (front side with one star, back side with two stars)
6 level indicators

Please note: Before the first game, the level indicators must be carefully cut along the two dashed lines with a paper knife or a utility knife.

Note for everyone who already knows the LEVEL 8 card game: the two essential elements of the card game ("laying out a level" and "discarding a card") are handled in the same way in the LEVEL 8 board game. You can therefore skip "Step 2" (including page 6 with the explanations of the card combinations) and "Step 3" when you study the rules.

Setup

The game board is spread out in the middle of the table. Around its outer edge it shows six discard spaces for up to six players, an oval track of 28 action spaces, and further inside eight level spaces and one victory space (the laurel wreath). In the centre there are two further spaces: one for the draw pile and one for the 8 jokers.
Each player receives 3 game pieces in the colour of his choice. He stacks two of them as a tower on the larger blue action space with the 7 stars. He places the third piece (his "level piece") on the space with the golden 1 ("Level 1").
Each player also receives a level card and a level indicator. He slides his level card into his indicator so that the first level ("1 Drilling + 1 three-card run" or "1 Drilling + 1 five-card run") is visible in the window.

Note: The level cards show two different difficulty levels, one on each side. The side with one star shows easier levels, and the side with two stars shows harder levels. At the start of the game the group should agree which side it will play. It is also possible for adults to use the harder side while children play with the easier side at the same time.

The 8 jokers are placed on one of the two spaces in the centre of the board.

Then the first round is prepared:

A dealer is determined. He shuffles all 90 number cards thoroughly. Then he deals them out one at a time, face down, to each player in turn, 10 cards each (including to himself). Each player should take his cards into his hand so that opponents cannot see them.
The remaining cards form the draw pile. It is placed face down on the second space in the centre of the board.
The dealer turns over a card from the draw pile and places it face up on the discard space nearest to him. This is the first card of his personal discard pile.
The player to the left of the dealer is the starting player. He receives the two dice and begins the first round.

Levels

Each level is a required combination of cards. The levels get harder as the game goes on. The single-star side and the two-star side of the level cards read as follows.

Level cards, one-star side (easier):

1 Drilling + 1 three-card run (Dreierfolge)
2 pairs (Zwillinge) + 1 Drilling
1 four-card run (Vierfolge) + 4 cards of one colour
1 eight-card run (Achterfolge)
1 Drilling + 5 cards of one colour
1 nine-card run (Neunerfolge)
1 Vierling + 5 cards of one colour
2 Vierlinge

Level cards, two-star side (harder):

1 Drilling + 1 five-card run (Fünferfolge)
1 pair (Zwilling) + 2 Drillinge
1 Drilling + 5 cards of one colour
1 nine-card run (Neunerfolge)
1 Drilling + 1 three-card colour run (Dreierfarbfolge)
1 pair (Zwilling) + 2 three-card colour runs (Dreierfarbfolgen)
1 Drilling + 1 Fünfling
1 Vierling + 1 Fünfling

Terms: Zwilling = two cards of the same number (pair); Drilling = three cards of the same number; Vierling = four; Fünfling = five; Sechsling = six. A Dreierfarbfolge is three cards of one colour (see "The Combinations" below).

Note: The printed level-card lines are small, and the wording of one-star level 3 is partly obscured in the card image. It is transcribed here as printed, with the German term Vierfolge.

Course of a Round

Play proceeds clockwise. Whoever is on turn takes one turn. Each turn consists of three steps that follow one another:

First, the player must roll the dice, move his pieces accordingly, and carry out the action of the target space he chooses.
Afterwards he may lay out his level, completely independently of which action he carried out.
Finally, he must place one card face up on his discard pile.

Step 1 (mandatory): Move the pieces and carry out an action

First the player rolls both dice. Then he moves his upper piece forward by one of the rolled numbers and his lower piece forward by the other number (each clockwise) (Fig. 1). The pieces now show which two actions are available to the player (Fig. 2). He must choose one of them. Once he has chosen, he stacks the two pieces again into a tower on the chosen action space (Fig. 3). Then he carries out the action (see page 5).

Exception: If the same number was rolled twice (a "Pasch", i.e. doubles), he moves one of his pieces forward by the single number and the other piece by the double number.

Note: When moving, spaces occupied by opposing pieces are always skipped and are not counted.

Step 2 (optional): Lay out the level

After a player has rolled, moved his pieces and carried out an action, he may lay out, face up in front of him, the level he is currently on. (His current level is shown by his level piece on the board and by his level card in his level indicator.)

To do this, he must lay out from his hand all the card combinations the level requires, face up on the table in front of him. The cards are fanned out so that all players can easily see them.

Important: The complete level must always be laid out. Laying out only part of a level is not allowed! It is also not allowed to lay out more combinations than the level requires.

Example: Ellen is on level 2 ("2 pairs + 1 Drilling"). She draws an 8, and now has among other cards two 4s, two 11s and three 8s in her hand. She may therefore lay these 7 cards out face up in front of her.

Had Ellen not received the third 8, she could not yet have laid out her level. She may not add her two 5s as a third pair.

Once a player has laid out his level, he must try to get rid of his remaining hand cards as quickly as possible by adding matching cards to laid-out levels. In each later Step 2 of his turns, he may add one or more matching cards, both to his own laid-out combinations and to those of his opponents. A card is matching if it extends a laid-out card combination, but not if it creates a new combination!

Important: Matching cards may already be added in the same turn in which the level is laid out.

Example: Frank has laid out the 5th level and Gerald the 6th level. Frank and Gerald may now add further 8s to the 8 Drilling, any red numbers to the colour combination, and a 2 (and then a 1) and/or a 12 (and then a 13, and so on) to the run. They may not, however, lay out another Drilling (such as 4-4-4) or a new run (such as 5-6-7).

In the example above, Frank could therefore also have laid out more 8s and/or red cards in this turn, and in addition a 2 or a 12 onto Gerald's level.

Reminder: Only once a player has laid out his level may he add cards to the levels of opponents!

Step 3 (mandatory): Discard a card

Whether or not a player laid out his level in Step 2, he must conclude his turn by placing one of his hand cards face up on his personal discard pile in front of him. Then the next player takes his turn, and so on.

End of a Round

If a player discards his last hand card (this can also happen if he has only just laid out his level), he ends the current round with that discard.

As a reward, he may advance his level piece and his level card by two levels, i.e. he skips one level!

All players who have their level laid out advance their level card and their level piece by one level.

All players who do not have their level laid out must try the same level again in the next round. As a small consolation, each of them may keep up to 4 of his hand cards in hand. All further hand cards must be handed in, as must the hand cards of all other players.

A New Round

The player who ended the round becomes the new dealer. He collects all the number cards (except for the up to 4 cards each player kept in hand) and shuffles them thoroughly. All jokers are returned to their separate stack (except any jokers among the up to 4 cards kept in hand).

The dealer then deals cards out one at a time to the players until each player again has 10 cards in hand. The remaining cards are placed as a face-down draw pile in the centre of the board. Finally, he turns over the top card of the draw pile and places it face up on his discard pile.

The player to the left of the dealer begins the new round.

Important: All game pieces remain where they are. They are not put back onto the large action space with the stars!

End of the Game

A player wins immediately if he is on the 8th level and lays it out. (He does not need to get rid of his hand cards first!) He moves his level piece one space forward and so reaches the laurel wreath, the victory space.

A player also wins if he has laid out his 7th level and ends the current round. In doing so, he skips the 8th level and likewise reaches the victory space with his level piece!

The Actions

Note: Except for two of them, the action spaces are not named in the rulebook text. The actions below are listed in the order of the rulebook's action page, and each is headed by its icon.

Action "+1 Karte" (+1 card)

The player takes a card from any pile into his hand: either the top card of the face-down draw pile, or the top card of any face-up discard pile (including his own discard pile).

Action "+2 Karten" (+2 cards)

The player may first take the top card of any pile (and look at it, if it comes from the draw pile), and then decide from which pile he takes the second card. Both cards may also be taken from the same pile. However, he may not forgo taking the second card.

After the action "+2 Karten", a player has one more hand card than before.

Action "Eine Karte nehmen. Mache noch einen Zug." (Take a card. Take another turn.)

The player takes the top card of any pile into his hand. He then lays out his level if he can, and finally places a card on his discard pile. Afterwards he takes a complete further turn (again Steps 1 to 3). If he lands on such an action space again in that further turn, this action applies again, and so on.

Important: If the player ends the round already during his first turn, he loses the extra turn of this action space.

Action: Discard 1 to 3, then draw one more (icons -1...3 / +2...4)

First the player places at least one and at most three of his hand cards, one after another and visible to his opponents, on his discard pile. Then he takes from the draw pile one more card than he has just discarded. He may not take cards from the discard piles.

Action: All players draw (icon +1 for everyone)

The player takes the top card of the draw pile into his hand. Immediately afterwards, all other players must, in turn, each take one card from the draw pile into their hand. In this way the other players receive one more card in hand than before.

Action: Joker (icon +1 with joker)

The player takes one joker from the centre of the board into his hand. If no joker is left in the centre, the player has bad luck and takes a card from any pile instead.

Further rules on jokers are on the next page (see "The Jokers" below).

Action: Ask (icon ? +1)

The player asks the other players, one after another (clockwise or counter-clockwise), for a card with a given number or colour. The first player who has a card with that number or colour must give it to the player whose turn it is. In return, that player (whether he wants to or not) immediately receives the top card of the draw pile as a replacement in his hand.

If nobody has a card with the asked number or colour, the player whose turn it is takes the top card of any pile instead.

Action: Steal (icon of a card with an eye, +1)

All other players must, in turn clockwise, lay out three cards from their hand face up in front of them. The player whose turn it is must choose one of all the face-up cards and take it into his hand. The "robbed" player receives (whether he wants to or not) the top card of the draw pile as a replacement in his hand. The other face-up cards are now taken back into the hand by their owners.

If a player no longer has 3 hand cards, he lays out fewer.

Action: Choose any action (star icon)

The player may choose any action by moving his tower of pieces to the next free space clockwise on that action's spaces, and then carrying out that action. If all spaces of the desired action are occupied (for example, all three joker spaces), the player must choose another action.

Clarification on actions

After a player has carried out the action of the space on which he stacked his pieces again (Step 1), he may lay out his level (Step 2), and he must finally place a card face up on his discard pile (Step 3). This applies to every action! Then the next player in clockwise order takes his turn (Steps 1 to 3), and so on.

Exception: the action "Eine Karte nehmen. Mache noch einen Zug." (see above).

The Combinations

x cards of one colour

This means any numbers in the same colour (for example 7-2-11-15, or 12-13-4-8-1). The numbers on the cards are irrelevant.

Example: Any further red cards may be added to 7-2-11-15.

Sets (pairs, Drillinge, etc.)

These are several cards with the same number (for example 4-4, or 11-11-11, or 7-7-7-7). The colours of these cards are irrelevant.

If several sets are required in one level, the same number may be used more than once. For example, for "2 pairs + 1 Drilling", 5-5, 3-3 and 3-3-3 are allowed.

Example: Any further 11s may be added to 11-11-11.

Runs (Folgen)

These are several cards with directly consecutive numbers (for example 4-5-6, or 8-9-10-11). The colours of these cards are irrelevant. There is no connection between 15 and 1.

Example: On 8-9-10-11, a 7 may be added below it (and then a 6, and so on), and a 12 above it (and then a 13, and so on).

The Jokers

Jokers may be used in any level, for any number or colour. However, it must always be clear which number or colour a joker replaces. If this is not clear, the player must state, when laying out, which number or colour each joker replaces.

Laid-out jokers may not be exchanged for matching cards later in the round.

Jokers may still be added to combinations even when those combinations are "full".

Example: If a set of six 11s (with or without jokers), or a complete run from 1 to 15 (with or without jokers), is already laid out, further jokers may still be added to it.

Rare special case: If only such "full" combinations are laid out, then all players who have already laid out their level may, at the end of their turn, place two cards (in any order) on their discard pile instead of the usual one.