Lupos Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game objective
• Setup
• Playing The Game
• Movement tiles
  • Stump, mushrooms, or stone
  • Small wolves
  • Owl
  • Owl flying away
• Forest tiles
  • Stump, mushrooms, or stone
  • Yellow movement tiles
  • Red Squirrel
  • Spider
  • Empty Spaces
• Completing tasks - finding wolf spirits
• Lupos tiles
  • Lair
  • Owl flying away
  • Howl
• End of a game round
• Next game round
• End of the Game
• The next adventures - changing the difficulty level

Components

• 1 game board (5 pieces)
• 24 location tiles: three sets of 8 tiles each. With these sets you can customize the difficulty level of the game. Front side: depicts the location and the task to be completed. Back: depicts the wolf spirit that will be found when solving the task.
• 16 forest tiles: green front side (6x, 5x, 5x); blue back
• 12 Lupos tiles: 5x Lair, 4x Owl flying away, 3x Howl
• 1 Wolves' Rock (2 pieces)
• 4 owl tokens
• 1 legendary wolf chieftain Lupos
• 4 wolves - with plastic stands (2x small, 2x large)
• 21 movement tiles: 15 blue tiles and 6 yellow tiles
• 2 cloth bags
• 1 rules booklet

Game objective

It is your task to find the seven legendary wolf spirits in the Forest of Wolves by the end of the night. You will do this by moving the wolves of the pack to specific locations at the right time. Wolves are moved through the forest by drawing movement tiles from the bag, which will indicate where you must move one of the wolves. Since all players are working as a team, an agreement should be reached about the best move to make.

If you manage to find all seven wolf spirits before the night ends, the Legendary wolf chieftain will appear on Wolves' Rock, and all players will win the game.

Setup

1. Assemble the five pieces of the game board in the center of the table, and set Wolves' Rock in the designated slots.
2. At the start of the game you will receive three Lupos tiles: one each of "Howl," "Owl flying away," and "Lair." Place these three tiles on the small clearing near the top of the game board. Mix all remaining Lupos tiles and stack them face down next to the game board.
3. Place Lupos and the four owl tokens near Wolves' Rock.
4. All four wolves are placed on the starting space, regardless of the number of players.
5. Mix the forest tiles, green side up. Randomly place one on each of the empty path and lair spaces of the game board.
6. Place the 15 blue movement tiles into one of the bags and place it nearby. Keep the 6 yellow movement tiles next to the game board.
7. Sort the location tiles by the number of wolf heads on their back and form three stacks. The more wolf heads a stack shows, the more difficult it is to complete its tasks. You need exactly 2 stacks for each game you play. For the first game, it is recommended to play with the stacks with one and two heads. You will not need the stack with three heads, and it may be returned to the box.

Mix the 16 location tiles and put them in the second bag. Immediately draw three location tiles from the bag and place them on the locations shown on the tiles. Put the bag with the location tiles behind the Wolves' Rock.

Note: Whenever you draw a location tile from the bag and a location tile is already on the space, return the tile to the bag and draw a new one instead. Thus, there should always be three different location tiles at the start of each game round.

The location tiles show you which wolves you have to move to this location in order to complete the task: small wolf, large wolf, or any wolf.

Example: If you have drawn the tile showing one small wolf, one large wolf and any wolf, put it on the tower space. In order to find the wolf spirit, one small wolf, one large wolf, and any other wolf (large or small) must be gathered at the tower.

The board has landing spaces for owls (next to the bare trees), a small clearing, a large clearing, location spaces (dark green), path spaces (light green) and lair spaces.

Playing The Game

In this cooperative adventure the players act together as a wolf pack, and you will win or lose all together as a team. Each player may move each wolf - there are no personal wolf tokens.

During each game round wolf spirits can be found at three different locations in the forest. It is your goal to move the wolves of the players' pack to these locations.

Game play proceeds in a clockwise direction, starting with the youngest player. A player's turn always consists of drawing one tile from the bag and then performing that action.

Important: During each turn, all players should discuss the next move and help each other. Still, each player performs the action on their turn themselves, and makes all final decisions.

You win the game if you have found seven wolf spirits. You lose the game if you did not achieve this after four game rounds, when the full moon night ends.

Hint: For your first game, go ahead and draw a tile from the bag, then continue to see what you are supposed to do!

Movement tiles

A drawn tile must always be resolved immediately, and then placed on the large clearing. That is where all drawn tiles are collected for the next game round.

Stump, mushrooms, or stone

Most tiles in the bag show one of these icons and allow players to move wolves in the forest. Move one wolf in any direction up to the next space with that icon; however, you may stop on any space before the icon.

Note: Only one wolf may be on a light green space, whereas the number of wolves on a dark green space is not limited.

Important: If a wolf is on a space (location or path) showing the drawn icon, you may skip that space when moving another wolf and proceed to the next space with this icon.

Example:

1. Maurice draws mushrooms from the bag. He consults his team partners, and finally decides to move a large wolf two spaces to the next mushrooms space.
2. Lea's turn is next; she draws a stone. She moves the other large wolf three spaces away to the next stone space. Lea could have moved the wolf three spaces to the stone space in the other direction as well.
3. Simon draws another stone. He could move the small black wolf from the starting space to the stone space behind the tower. He can simply skip the stone space with the large wolf. However, he decides to stop at the tower.

Small wolves

The small wolves like swimming, even if the timing is somewhat inappropriate. Place the small wolf shown on the tile on one of the two forest lakes immediately.

• Both small wolves may swim together in the same lake.
• If the small wolf is swimming in a lake already, move it to the other lake.

Example: Maurice draws the small wolf from the bag. He must move the wolf on one of the two forest lakes. Together with his team he decides for the lake in the center of the game board.

Owl

The owls determine how long your game session will last. If you draw an owl from the bag, do not put it on the large clearing, but on one of the three spaces next to the bare trees. As soon as the third owl is placed here, the game round ends immediately.

Example: Lea draws an owl from the bag, and puts the tile on one of the three landing spaces.

Owl flying away

You're lucky! Take one owl from its landing space in the trees and return it to the bag. Place the tile with the owl flying away on the large clearing.

Note: If no owl has landed there yet, you cannot return any owl of course. Return the "Owl flying away" tile to the bag instead.

Example: Simon draws the owl flying away, and returns one owl tile from the landing spaces to the bag.

Forest tiles

Now you know how to move around in the forest. You may happen to stop on a green forest tile. In this case read the rules to see what you have to do.

If a wolf stops on a space containing a forest tile, remove it from the game board. Flip the tile and look at what is hidden underneath.

Example: Maurice moves the wolf to a forest tile, reveals and resolves it.

Stump, mushrooms, or stone

Same as the movement tiles, you may move any wolf in any direction you want to the nearest space with this icon. Again, you may stop on any space before you get to that space.

Yellow movement tiles

Take the depicted yellow movement tile and add it to the bag containing the other movement tiles. This additional movement tile is now available during each game round. A yellow movement tile is treated the same as a blue movement tile.

Red Squirrel

A wolf can't help but chase after a bold red squirrel. Unfortunately this wastes some precious time. If you come across a red squirrel, you have to draw a movement tile from the bag immediately and place it on the large clearing. You do not resolve this movement tile. If you draw an owl put it in the bare trees.

Spider

Even wolves do not like spiders. If you find a spider, the wolf you are moving gets scared and is placed back on the starting space.

Empty Spaces

After revealing a forest tile, always resolve it then remove it from the game. When moving, wolves ignore empty spaces, meaning they can move farther as the game progresses.

Example: Lea draws mushrooms from the bag, then moves the wolf to the mill space, one space ahead of the mushrooms.

Completing tasks - finding wolf spirits

If all required wolves have gathered at a location tile, you have completed your task and found the wolf spirit. Take that location tile and insert it into any empty slot of Wolves' Rock, with the wolf facing the game board.

As a reward you may now take one Lupos tile from the stack, reveal it, and place it on the small clearing. The number of tiles on the small clearing is not limited.

Example: Simon draws a stone and moves the second wolf to the mill. One large wolf is waiting there already. The task is completed, and the team has found the first wolf spirit. Simon inserts the wolf spirit token into Wolves' Rock. As a reward, he takes a Lupos tile from the stack, reveals it and places it on the small clearing.

Lupos tiles

At the start of the game the players (as a team) received three Lupos tiles. During the game you will earn more Lupos tiles as a reward for each wolf spirit found. The Lupos tiles are a big help by providing special abilities. Players may use as many Lupos tiles as they would like on one turn. Once used, a Lupos tile is removed from the game.

Lair

You may use this tile during the movement of a wolf (due to a movement tile or forest tile). The four lairs on the game board are connected to each other underground. A wolf may enter a lair and exit at any other lair (as if these two spaces are adjacent to each other). The usual movement rules apply.

Example: Maurice has drawn a stump. He discards a "Lair" Lupos tile, which allows him to move the small white wolf from the lake downwards to the lair space. From this space he can move the wolf to the stump space just above the lair, bottom right.

Owl flying away

You may use this tile before you draw a new movement tile from the bag. If you do, immediately take one owl from its landing space and return it to the bag.

Howl

You may use this tile before you draw a new movement tile from the bag. If you do, you may cause any wolf currently on a location to howl, attracting another wolf. Choose one of the other wolves and move it to the howling wolf's location.

Example: Lea lets the small black wolf howl to attract the large wolf, joining it on its tower space.

Hint: To support your wolf pack you may now howl aloud all together - you are a wolf pack, after all!

End of a game round

A game round can end in two ways. The current game round ends immediately, as soon as...

• ... all three landing spaces at the bare trees are occupied by owls; or
• ... all three tasks (location tiles) of this game round have been completed, meaning that you have found three wolf spirits.

Note: Unfortunately, it is too late now to use a Lupos tile "Owl flying away" - the game round ends immediately!

Remove any location tiles still on the game board at this point from the game. Finally, insert one of the owl tokens in the next empty slot above Wolves' Rock, from left to right in the direction of the sunrise. This way it is easy to track the number of completed game rounds.

Next game round

Remove ALL movement tiles from the large clearing (both blue and yellow), and return them to the bag containing the movement tiles. Also put the owl tiles from their landing spaces into the bag.

Then, draw three new location tiles from the bag of location tiles and place them on the corresponding locations of the game board.

Please note:

• You always have to draw and place three location tiles, even if you still need to find only one or two wolf spirits.
• In case the required wolves are already on the space of a drawn location tile, this task is considered as completed already, and you are very lucky indeed! Do not draw a replacement tile for that tile!
• If you have found fewer than four wolf spirits at the end of the third round (or none at all at the end of the second) winning the game is impossible. You may end the game and start again if you like.

Now, the next game round is ready to start!

End of the Game

You win the game together, if you have found the seventh wolf spirit and added its token to Wolves' Rock. Any location tiles still on the game board do not have to be completed. The wolf spirits summon the legendary wolf chieftain Lupos, who is added to Wolves' Rock as well. You did a marvelous job! All together you start a loud howl to welcome Lupos! Maybe the time is right for your pack to try the next difficulty level?

You lose the game together if all four owls have arrived at Wolves' Rock after four game rounds, and you have not yet found seven wolf spirits. The wolf chieftain will not show up this time. But this is no big problem - just try again at once. For sure next time you will do better!

The next adventures - changing the difficulty level

After your first game, you know the rules well, and are prepared to customize the difficulty level of the game. All players should agree on a certain difficulty level before the game starts. The more wolf heads are shown on the location tiles, the more difficult it is to complete the tasks of that stack. You may combine the stacks any way you like.

• Young wolf pups: stacks with one head + two heads
• Gifted wolf youngsters: stacks with one head + three heads
• Experienced wolf pack: stacks with two heads + three heads

Even more challenges are waiting for die-hard wolf experts: Remove one blue movement tile (stump, mushrooms or stone) from the game at the very start.

Still too easy? Remove a second blue movement tile. But be warned: this challenge is really quite difficult.

Hint: If you want even more variety, stack all Lupos tiles face down next to the game board during setup. Then, randomly draw three of them to start the game and place them on the small clearing.