Mimikri
Mimikri Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Materials
- 20 Butterfly cards
- 5 Subject cards
- 1 special camera (folding box with mirror face)
Object of the Game
The player who collects the most butterflies wins.
Set-up
Before you play for the first time, you should make yourself familiar with the game materials. Put a Subject card completely into the camera (illus. 1a). Now you see a butterfly (illus. 1b). There is exactly one Butterfly card showing this butterfly (illus. 1c). Can you find it?
Illus. 1a, 1b, 1c: Subject card inserted in the camera; the butterfly seen in the camera; the matching Butterfly card.
Good! Then you can take the Subject card out of the viewer and turn it once, 90 degrees (illus. 2a). If you put it back into the device now, you'll see a different butterfly (illus. 2b). This butterfly is also represented by exactly one Butterfly card (illus. 2c).
Illus. 2a, 2b, 2c: The Subject card turned 90 degrees; the new butterfly seen in the camera; the matching Butterfly card.
Later, when you're really good at it, you can play the game very well with all 5 Subject cards and 20 Butterfly cards. But first you should start with 4 Subject cards. To this end, take out one Subject card and the 4 corresponding Butterfly cards and put these cards back into the box! To make it easier, in the overview at the end of the game instructions you can see what Subject cards and butterflies belong together.
Now shuffle the selected Subject cards and make a face-down pile.
After that, shuffle also the corresponding Butterfly cards and lay them out, one by one, face down in the middle of the table.
Illus. 3: If you look into the mirror of the special camera, you will also see the butterfly's second wing.
Course of the Game
1. Inserting a Subject card
Play proceeds in turn, clockwise. The player who has last seen a flying butterfly receives the special camera and begins the game. He picks the topmost Subject card from the pile and, visible to everybody, inserts it completely into the camera. Then he puts the camera on the table in such a way that all players can see the butterfly in it...
2. Looking for a butterfly
The player who inserted the Subject card into the camera begins. He reveals one Butterfly card in the hope of finding the butterfly showing in the camera.
Does the revealed card not show the butterfly the player is looking for? In this case, he leaves the card face up (and keeps the camera). Now, his left neighbor reveals another Butterfly card. You continue doing this in turn until one of you finally reveals the correct butterfly. This player puts the found butterfly face up and well visible in front of him. Then you turn over again all the other Butterfly cards revealed in the middle of the table. Take the Subject card out of the camera and put it aside face up. Only now is the camera passed on to the next player, clockwise. This player picks a new Subject card from the pile...
A little hint: Over the course of time, you may be able to memorize where specific butterflies are hiding. Then you try to insert the corresponding Subject card into the camera so that the camera shows this very butterfly. This way, you manage to reveal the correct Butterfly card immediately!
Illus. 4: This is the wanted butterfly! The player who has revealed it puts it down in front of him face up.
When all Subject cards have been played, they are reshuffled and put down as a face-down pile again.
From now on, when you insert the next Subject card, you have to WATCH OUT CAREFULLY: The camera must show a butterfly that no player has put down yet in front of him!
If you don't succeed, you have to pass the camera including the Subject card to your left neighbor. Now this player tries to insert the same Subject card in such a way that a butterfly comes up that nobody has collected yet. If he fails too, he passes the camera with this Subject card, and so on, in turn, until one of the players manages to show a butterfly in the camera that is still hidden in the middle of the table. Then this player starts looking for this very butterfly by revealing a card in the middle of the table (as described in Section 2, "Looking for a butterfly").
Illus. 5a: Fred has inserted the Subject card into the camera, but Iris has already collected the respective butterfly.
Illus. 5b: Fred passes the camera, including the inserted Subject card, to Oswald. Oswald re-inserts the Subject card differently. Well done: This is a butterfly that nobody has gotten yet! Oswald may reveal a card in the middle of the table in order to find this very butterfly.
Illus. 5c: Too bad! This is not the wanted butterfly. Oswald keeps the camera.
Illus. 5d: After his left neighbor, Sophia, has not revealed the wanted butterfly either, the next player, Iris, succeeds. She gets the butterfly. Oswald passes the camera on to Sophia who now inserts the topmost Subject card of the pile into the camera.
Ending and Winning the Game
The game ends after the last Butterfly card has been collected. The player who has the most butterflies wins. There can be more than one winner.
Note: the source's "Overview of all Subject cards and Butterfly cards" is a pictorial table (five rows, each showing one Subject card beside its four Butterfly cards). The card pairings are shown only as images in the source and are not reproduced in this transcription.