Ouch!
Ouch! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Materials
- 44 Cactus cards: 36 cards with only flowers on the back, plus 8 cards with an animal on the back
- This rulebook
Setup
- Shuffle the Cactus cards with the cactus side face up and form a draw pile.
- Draw 6 cards and place them in the center of the table, cactus side up.
How to Play
Players take turns in clockwise order. The youngest player goes first (or whoever won the last game of Ouch!).
On your turn, you must choose one of the 6 cards in the center of the table and announce which side you will touch before flipping the card over (left, right, top, or bottom).
Then you flip it by touching only that side.
Two things can then happen when the back of the card is revealed:
If the side you chose shows cactus spines, you get pricked! You must say "Ouch!" out loud and the card is discarded into the box.
If the side you chose shows nothing, you are safe! Take the card and place it in front of you.
Draw new cards and place them in the center of the table so that there are 6 cards available again. Then it is the next player's turn!
Dangerous Red Flowers
If you get pricked by a red flower, you lose that card and also 1 additional card of your choice among those you have already won and have in front of you (if you have any).
However, at the end of the game, the player(s) with the most red flowers get 5 additional points.
Desert Animals
Some cards show an animal on the back when revealed. If you reveal a card with an animal and you are not pricked, you may use its special effect:
Snake: If the next player is pricked, they must give you their card instead of discarding it.
Fennec: You may choose to immediately take an extra turn. But watch out! If you get pricked during that extra turn, you lose that card as well as the Fennec card!
Rare case: Player A picks up a Snake on their turn. Player B picks up a Fennec and uses its ability, but gets pricked while trying to pick up the second card. Player B must therefore give both of their cards to Player A, who picked up the Snake the turn before.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as a player has 8 cards in front of them, or when there are no more cards in the draw pile.
Now, players add up their points:
- So many pretty flowers! You get 1 point for every flower you have collected.
- Wild bouquet: You get 4 additional points for every set of 4 different-colored flowers you have.
- Red flowers: The player with the most red flowers gets 5 points. If several players are tied for the most, they all get the 5 points.
The player with the most points wins the game!
Adjusting the Difficulty
If you are playing this game with very young children, you may choose to set some rules aside, at least for your first games. Feel free to ignore any or all of the more complicated rules until you feel comfortable with the game: Dangerous Red Flowers, Desert Animals, and Wild Bouquet.
Keep the box — it contains useful information.