Neko-in
Neko-in Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Versions
Neko-in can be played in two versions: "Classic" and "Events". The rules below explain the Classic version first, which is the suggested starting point. Once you are familiar with Neko-in, you can try the "Events" version, explained at the end of the rulebook.
Components
- 2 dice.
- 6 cat pawns, one per colour: black, red, yellow, pink, light blue and white.
- 7 room boards, one per colour: Black/Entrance, Red/Kitchen, Yellow/Living Room, Pink/Bedroom, Light Blue/Bedroom, White/Bathroom and Green/Garden. The boards represent the rooms of a house and each has two sides. The Classic side is used in the Classic version and the Events side in the Events version.
- 30 hideout tiles. Each shows a coloured icon: spring mouse, bird, bell, butterfly or fish bone. The back shows pink pawprints on a grey background.
- 30 event tiles, used only in the Events version. The front has a green background. The backs show pawprints on backgrounds of different colours (pink, black, white, yellow, red and light blue).
Goal of the Game
The game is played in turns, in clockwise order. At the start of the game each player receives 5 hideout tiles. The goal of Neko-in is to be the first player to get rid of all of your hideout tiles.
Setup
Each player chooses a cat pawn, takes the room board whose frame colour matches their cat (for example red cat / red kitchen, white cat / white bathroom, black cat / black entrance), and places it in front of them with the Classic side face up.
Place the Garden board (green frame) in the centre of the table.
Take all the hideout tiles showing the icons of the colours of the rooms in play, shuffle them face down and deal 5 to each player. Each player takes their tiles without showing them to anyone, places them face down in front of them, and may look at them at any time during the game without ever showing them to anyone. These are the tiles you must get rid of to win the game.
Return to the box any unused rooms and any hideout tiles belonging to them.
Before starting, place all the cats, both those of each player and the spare ones, on the Garden board. You are ready to play.
Caption beside the illustration: "The objects you must have in front of you at the end of setup."
How to Play
In Neko-in, players take turns in clockwise order. There are two ways to get rid of all your hideout tiles and win:
- Bring your own cat to the hideouts scattered through the rooms of the house that match the coloured icons on your hideout tiles. In the example beside the rules, you hold a hideout tile showing a red fish bone; you must bring your yellow cat to the red fish bone hideout in the kitchen.
- Be the fastest to catch the cat of the right colour at the end of each turn.
Your Turn
During your turn you:
-
Look at your hideout tiles and choose the hideout to which you want to bring your cat, in order to get rid of a tile.
-
Take your own cat (at the start of the game the cat is in the garden) and move it next to the room containing the hideout that matches the tile you want to get rid of. For example, if you want to get rid of the tile showing a yellow bell, you place your cat next to the living room (yellow board). Are there other cats in that room?
-
YES, THE ROOM IS OCCUPIED: If another cat is already in the room, a BRAWL (ZUFFA) breaks out! The active player rolls the two dice:
- If the colour of the active player's cat comes up, that cat is moved to the garden and you go to step 3.
- If the colours of both cats come up, both cats are moved to the garden and you go to step 3.
- If the colour of the cat already in the room comes up, or neither colour comes up, the cat already in the room goes to the garden. Then the player proceeds as if the room were free.
-
NO, THE ROOM IS FREE: The player who owns that room chooses the hideout on which to place the active player's cat. The chosen hideout must still be reachable, meaning it must not have a hideout tile on top of it (see below for how tiles are placed on spaces). If the room belongs to the active player, the active player chooses where to place their own cat.
Example: if red plays and wants to take the cat to the kitchen (red board), red chooses where to place the cat himself; if red wants to take the cat to the living room (yellow board), the yellow player decides.
-
THE ACTIVE PLAYER'S CAT IS ALREADY IN THE ROOM containing the hideout it wants to reach: the active player may freely choose one of the spaces of the room and move the cat there, whether the room belongs to them or to another player. Only when the active player's cat changes room does the player who owns that room choose the hideout. Once the cat is already inside the room, the active player may choose which hideout to move to.
-
Ending the Game
The game ends when one of the players has got rid of all their hideout tiles. That player is now the true master of the house and wins the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make more than one movement per turn? No. During my turn I can make only one movement.
Can I go to a hideout even if I do not hold the matching hideout tile? Yes, if you want to. Sometimes cats like to bluff.
Can I win by catching only the cats at the right moment? No. You cannot get rid of your last tile by catching the cat shown on the die; you must bring your cat to the right hideout. Life is not that easy for cats.
A cat wants to enter my room; can I place it on a hideout that has a hideout tile on top of it? No. It is fine to be mean, but some fair play is needed: the active player must always have the chance to get rid of the tile they want to get rid of.
But do brawls break out in the garden? No. The garden is very large, and there is plenty of room for all the felines! This means that more than one cat can be on the Garden board (even all of them, as at the start of the game) without causing brawls.
Events Version
To play the Events version of Neko-in, you must introduce the event tiles. Follow the normal setup, taking care to use the boards on their Events side. When each player takes their board, they also take the set of 5 event tiles of the same colour (recognisable by their back), place them face down, shuffle them, and lay one on each hideout space of their room.
During the game, if a cat is placed on a hideout that still has its event tile, that tile is revealed, its effects are applied, and it is then discarded back into the box. Otherwise, the game proceeds normally. The effects of all the event tiles are printed on the back of the rules sheet, and are listed below.
Event Tiles
Titles are translated from the Italian.
Nap (Pisolino) - Your cat decides it is time for a nap. Put this tile back in the box and lay your cat down on the hideout space: on your next turn you may only wake it up, standing it up again. If your cat ends up in the garden, it wakes up automatically.
Crunchies (Croccantini) - Filling the stomach is always good... unless it is a trap set by the young human! Roll the two dice. If your cat's colour comes up on at least one of them, move your cat to the garden and put this tile back in the box. Otherwise, take this tile and place it in front of you. During your turn you may discard it to perform one extra movement action!
Affinity (Affinità) - Take this tile and place it in front of you. During your turn you may discard it to swap the positions of two cats of your choice.
Litter Box (Lettiera) - Take this tile and place it in front of you. During your turn you may discard it to move directly to the chosen hideout space, even if the room belongs to another player.
Cat Teaser (Stuzzicagatti) - The young human's ultimate trap! All the cats gather in the room where the cat teaser was turned over. Then start rolling the dice: the cats of the colours shown go to the garden. Keep rolling until only one cat (or none) remains in the room; some rolls may have no effect. The player of that cat chooses where to place their cat among the available hideouts.
Extra Rule
If you want to lengthen a single game and better balance the start of the game, you may use the following extra rule: players may not access the rooms they control during their first turn of play.