Moteneba
Moteneba Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
100 cubes (20 each of 5 colors) 60 heart markers (points) 14 girl cards (purple back) 14 event cards (green back) 5 value cards (numbers 1-5, yellow back) 5 topic cards (red, blue, yellow, white, black; yellow back) 1 cloth bag 5 rule papers 2 rule booklets (Japanese and English)
Trend Cubes and Topic Cards
Trend cubes and topic cards have the same five colors, corresponding to five different areas which can make a girl popular. They are school results (blue), body building (blue), wealth (yellow), fashion consciousness (white), and wit (black). Technically, however, there is no meaning as to which color corresponds to which trend.
The Girl Cards
Girl cards have heart symbols in the upper left corner. This represents how many points the player who managed to most impress the girl receives. If there are several heart symbols in the upper left corner, the top-most heart is how much the most impressive player receives, below that is the amount of the next most impressive player, and so on.
Preparation
1st, shuffle the girl cards and put out 7 pieces on the playing surface. The order does not matter, but the cards will need approximately one inch of space between each other. The leftover 7 girl cards are put back in the box. (Optionally, players can decide which 7 girls to use instead of having it decided randomly.)
2nd, put out the value cards (1-5) in a vertical row beside the girl cards. They must be in order, where 5 is the highest and 1 the lowest. Shuffle the topic cards and put one next to each of the value card. This arrangement is the current "popularity ranking" and it shows what the popularity of each topic is when the game starts (if for example a yellow card ended up in the #5 place, it means that wealth is the thing that is most trendy right now).
3rd, place all trend cubes in the cloth bag and keep it handy.
4th, shuffle the event cards and put them in a stack face down.
5th, place the heart markers (points) in a handy pile area.
6th, whoever came to school earliest during their high school years is the initial starting player.
Playing the Game
The game is played in three rounds, each round representing one school year. Each game begins with each player getting a set of cubes, which they in turn put out on the girl cards or topic cards. When all players have placed their cubes the year ends and points are counted. This is repeated three times.
One Year (aka - one round)
Placing cubes
First all players get their cubes for the school year. This process goes in order, with each player taking out a few cubes (explained in detail below) from the bag and putting them in a central cube pile. Then the first player takes a cube he wants, and in turn clockwise around the table, the other players take their cubes. The player to the left of the one who was first in the last round selects first in this round. The process goes: 1st player takes out cubes, put them in a pile, choose your cubes, then advance to the next player until all players have been starting player opposite once.
How many cubes are awarded depends on how many players you have.
Three players: Take 10 cubes. Starting player takes 4 cubes, the other takes 3 each. Repeat this 3 times (all will have 10 cubes).
Four players: Take 7 cubes. Starting player as well as the others take two cubes each, the last player takes the first Repeat this 4 times (all will have 7 cubes).
Note (added for this transcription): as printed, the four-player line does not add up (two cubes per player over four players is 8, not 7). The text is reproduced as printed; the wording of the last-player step is ambiguous in the source.
Five players: Take 6 cubes. Starting players takes two cubes, the other players take one cube. Repeat this 5 times (all will have 6 cubes).
Play out the year
Now it's time to become seriously popular! The player who was the first to take the cubes begins, then the order goes clockwise around the table. On your turn, you get to do one of these three things. It may not fit:
(1) Impress a girl
The players can impress a girl by putting out one of their cubes beside girl card ("Hey girl, you know I 'm nice to you and killer at math, right?"). Because it is important to remember who placed the various cubes, you should consistently place the cubes right next to the card so that they are facing where you yourself are sitting.
The cube you put will be worth just as much "trendy- force" as that subject is worth at year end. But beware! Things which are trendy can fluctuate quite a lot during the game.
(2) Adjust popularity
By adding a cube of the same color to a topic card, you will instead raise the overall popularity of that particular subject. One can only add cubes onto topic cards of the same suit (color).
When you put a cube on a topic card, the popularity scheme has possibly changed: Substance cards will be in the order of "most cubes highest, least cubes lowest," so if the card you put a cube on now has more cubes than the card(s) above it, it should slide up in the rankings (and the other cards then drop a step lower). However, do not move a topic card past a higher ranking topic card that has the same number of cubes as the new one.
Rule change proposed by the translator: When we played, we often ended up often in a situation where the topic ranking was locked in early and changing it later in the game became very difficult. There was no way to knock down a popular topic, and also "passing it by" with topic a lower topic became very time consuming. This became quite sad, for it created a losing situation which could not be reversed. Therefore, we added the following two house rules, which can be used by those who want to follow:
a) If a cube is placed which causes a topic card to have as many cubes as a higher ranking topic card, the lower ranking topic card advances past the equal valued, higher ranking topic card. The new higher ranking topic card is considered "newer" and therefore slightly more "trendy" - for now, anyway. However, of course, it does not pass a topic card that has more cubes.
b) You can choose to ruin the reputation of a subject, too! To do this, instead of placing a cube, you may remove a cube from a topic card with and throw it back into the cube bag.
(3) Play an Event Card
Instead of playing a cube on a girl or topic card, a player can play one of the event cards they have received from previous rounds (school years). In addition to the card's effect, this makes it technically fits because you cannot get rid of a cube. In the first round (First Year), the players have no cards, so you cannot do this. You also cannot play a card if you do not have any cubes left to play.
Once the current player has made one of these three moves, it's the next player's turn. Turns go clockwise around the table until everyone has placed all of their cubes. If someone runs out of cubes before the others, he is hopeful, but he has no more chances to impact what is popular and trendy.
Scoring
After all of the players have played all of their cubes, it's time to calculate the score.
Each of the seven girls will now determine which players had the most impact on popularity. Each player counts how popular he is with the girl by simply looking at the cubes he has put on the girl card. Each cube is worth as much "trendiness" as the topic card with the same color shown in the ranking list. If a player has added more cubes of the same color, the number of cubes is multiplied by the popularity ranking for as many cubes you put on the girl. For example, if blue is worth 3 popularity points and you put 3 blue cubes on a girl, it's 9 total popularity points. However, you count only one color per player. The girls only remember one main impression per person! If a player has added several cubes of different colors on a girl, the color that gives the most popular points it counted.
Each girl gives heart points according to what her card says: the top heart on a girl card shows how many heart points a player gets for having the most "trendy" influence, the second heart to the top shows how many heart points the second highest "trendy" influence player receives, and the third heart shows what is received by the third most popular player. If the girl just has one heart, she only gives points to the player who has the most "trendy" influence.
If there is a card symbol at this point on the girl card, the player with the most "trendy" influence takes the topmost event card from the deck into his hand. This card can be played in the next round.
If several players have the same number popularity points in a girl, they both get the reward that is a notch lower. For example, if a girl gives 7 points to the highest player, and 4 points for second highest, and 1 point to third highest, and there were two that tied for the highest, both these two highest players get 4 points each, and those who came after them may receive 1 point . This can result in the two that were tied as most popular not get anything at all, if such a girl gives 8 points only to the highest player, and two had the highest, nobody gets anything at all!
If you play with three players, none of the girls give points to the third highest. Ignore the third heart, basically.
Rule change proposed by the translator: We found it strange that they only got credit for one color for each girl. First, it was thematically unreasonable, and second, the game was technically boring. It meant that you did not have a chance against someone who had already captured a lot of points. This, combined with the fact that it was slow to change the popularity ranking of topics, made it so that the game was often decided by the middle of the second round. Therefore, we suggested that one should certainly be credited with more colors when counting popularity points. Possibly, you should not run with this optional rule while playing with the other house rules, and it is not thoroughly tested in the game, but it is nevertheless a suggestion.
After you finish distributing the heart points from all the girls, continue on to start the next year. Nothing on the playing surface is cleaned away. All of the cubes remain where they have been placed. Whoever has the most heart points is the starting player for the new year. Distribute new cubes as usual, and play another year, and then the final year.
In the third year the heart points are awarded slightly differently. Each girl gives heart points only to the player who is the most-trendy for each topic. The player who is the second most trendy, and all the rest, receive nothing.
Whoever has the most heart points at the end of three years has been the most-trendy, and wins the game!
Notes
- At the beginning of the game when you shuffle and deal to see which girls will be there, you can instead decide to select the girls in any way that you like.
- Sometimes it happens that a player is taking a long time thinking about a move. Take these moments as an opportunity to discuss amongst yourselves about the eternal mystery of girls.
- If the heart point markers run out, replace them with something else suitable (coins, buttons, etc.).
Event cards
Trade cubes with another player - take one of your cubes and trade it for a cube of your choice with any other player.
Replace cube bag - replace one of your cubes in the bag and draw a new random cube.
Add a cube back to the bag - take one of the cubes from any topic card and put it back in the bag. Adjust the rankings accordingly (the card is moved down if the topic below has more cubes, but not if it has the same number).
If playing with the proposed house rule: the topic card should move down the rankings even when the topic card below it has the same number of cubes.
Take a cube randomly from the bag - take a cube at random from the bag and place on any girl or any topic card.
+3 Power - this card is played only at the end of a round. When you are counting "trendiness" for the girls, you can play this card and then add 3 to his popularity for any girl. If several players play this at the exact same time, one should in turn, starting from the starting player and moving clockwise, choose which girl to play it on. A player may play more than one of these cards at once, on the same or different girls. The cards are then placed; they are only used for popularity totals for the current year.