Okoshki
Okoshki Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
"Window Cats" is based on a popular Japanese card game "Koi-Koi" for two players. The game consists of 6 rounds, each player tries to win a round by scoring points for different card combinations.
The Deck
48 cards: There are twelve suits, and each suit has four cards (see Deck Contents). Suits are differentiated by the curtain color and print (red and red with flower print are different suits/curtains). Every suit has cards with empty windows (sky cards) and cards with special elements: suns, birds, cats and rainbows.
Game Setup
Determine the 1st player. The 1st player shuffles the deck and distributes the cards facedown as follows: 8 cards to form each player's hand and 8 cards to the board. The players take their cards and then turn the 8 board cards face up. The remainder of the deck is placed at the center of the table. Then it's 1st player's turn.
- If a whole suit (4 cards) is on the table after the initial distribution, shuffle all cards back to the deck and distribute them again.
- If a whole suit (4 cards) is in a player's hand, he may request a reshuffle (but he's not obliged to).
A Player's Turn (3 Phases)
1) A player places a card from his hand face-up in the center of the table.
- If the player has a card that is the same suit as a face-up card on the table, the player may capture it and then place both cards face up in a "player's zone" in front of himself.
- If there are 2 cards of the same suit, the player must choose which one he will capture.
- If there are 3 cards of the same suit, the player captures the whole suit (4 cards: 1 from the hand and 3 from the table).
- If there are no matching cards, the player's card is added to the board cards.
2) The second phase is just like the 1st one, but instead of playing a card from his hand a player places the top card from the deck face-up in the center of the table and plays it as if it were played from the hand (see Phase 1).
Important: A player can't skip his turn, he must capture a card if his card and board card have a matching suit. If there are no cards left on the board, a player must place a card on the board. A player may play any card form his hand, it doesn't have to be of the matching suit.
(Printed as "form" in the source; read as "from".)
We recommend grouping the cards in a player's zone according to their type. E.g. sun cards with the other sun cards, sky cards with the other sky cards etc. All players must be able to see all face up cards (both board cards and cards in player's zones) at any time.
3) At the end of his turn a player must check if he's got a set of cards in his zone or not (see "Scoring"). Board cards and cards in a player's hand do not count while determining the set.
- If a player has got at least one set, he decides whether he wants to continue or end the round.
If a player says "Stop", he's declared a round's winner and scores points for his sets.
If a player says "Game on", his turn ends and the other player begins his turn as normal.
If a player decided to continue, he'll be able to end the round later if and only if he will get another set or improve one of his existing ones (e.g. If a player continued with a set of 5 points, he will be able to end the round if he will score 6 or more points by doing so).
- If there are no sets to be scored, it's the other player's turn.
End of the Round
Whoever said "Stop" is a winner. The loser doesn't score any points even if he's got completed sets and said "Game on" during the round.
The winner scores his sets and writes the sum of the points down.
Important: a player doubles his points for the round if the game was continued during that round (it does not matter who said "Game on").
If there are no cards left in players' hands and they didn't say "Stop", the round is tied and nobody scores any points, even if someone continued the round by saying "Game on". Next round begins.
During the next round 1st player is the last round's winner. He shuffles the deck and distributes the cards (see Game Setup).
End of the Game
Whoever scored more points after 6 rounds is the winner. If the score is tied, play 1 more round.
Scoring
Sets and their point values:
| Set | Points |
|---|---|
| 3 Suns (without the clouded one) | 6 |
| 4 Suns, any | 7 |
| 4 Suns (without the clouded one) | 8 |
| 5 Suns | 10 |
| 5 Birds, any (+every extra) | 1 (+1) |
| 3 Owls | 5 |
| 5 Cats, any (+every extra) | 1 (+1) |
| 3 Red Cats | 5 |
| 3 Gray Tabby Cats | 5 |
| Swallow with Rainbow + Sun with Rainbow | 3 |
| Swallow with Rainbow + 2 x Sun with Rainbow | 6 |
| 10 Sky cards (+every extra) |
(The source prints the point unit as Russian "очков"/"очко"/"очка" in this table; it is rendered here as "points".)
Double the points if there was a "Game on" during the round.
Don't sum the points for Sun sets, choose the one that scores more points instead: If a player has 4 Suns, he doesn't score 3 Suns + 4 Suns, he only scores 4 Suns.
Sum the points for all other sets: If a player has 7 cats and 3 of them are Red, he will receive 1+2 (1 for any 5 Cats plus 2 for 2 extra cats) + 5 (for 3 Red Cats), 8 points total.
Deck Contents
The source shows the 48 cards as a grid of window illustrations (six rows of eight cards, grouped by curtain colour: yellow, purple, red, green, brown and blue). The card-by-card grid is an image in the source and is not reproduced as text here; the set rules above refer to the card types shown in it.