Panda Spin: Mandate of Heaven
Panda Spin: Mandate of Heaven Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 12 Animal Mandate Cards
- 10 Aid cards (FR-CN)
Setup
To play Panda Spin using the Mandate of Heaven expansion, set up the game as normal and then shuffle the 12 Animal Mandate cards. Place them in a face-down deck near the center of the table. Each of these cards represents one of the animals of the zodiac and reminds you of their special power.
At the beginning of each round, before the starting player takes their first hand, reveal one of the Animal Mandate cards and place it face up near the playing area. The Mandate displayed on this card may be used by any player for the duration of the round (until all but one player showed out).
At the start of every subsequent round, replace the current Mandate card with a new one from the deck.
Using an Animal Mandate
During a turn in which they play a bid, a player may activate the ability of the current animal Mandate featured on the revealed card by either:
- playing a bid using one or more cards featuring the animal of the current Mandate white side up; OR,
- drawing a card and add it to their hand white side up, then discard a single card featuring the animal of the current Mandate white side up.
However, in neither case can a Mandate be used with an element card or a bomb.
Important: If the draw deck is depleted, players don't draw cards when directed by an Element card or when activating a Mandate. This is an additional strategy consideration.
All the animal mandates are explained in full on the player aid cards.
Variant
When it is a player's turn to make a beating bid and they have not yet bid to a trick or passed to that trick, they may play one or more of the Mandated white animal cards alone as any combination of element symbols only. For example, they could play a Mandated card as Bamboo for a point, as Fire to discard another card, as a Panda to steal a point or spin a card in their hand, or as Water and use it as any value. Or, with two white Mandated cards they could do any combination of these things. All Mandated cards except those used as Water for a bid are discarded, and if none are used for Water, the play is considered a pass.
Example: The current Mandate animal is the Horse. Player A has not made a bid or passed yet. They play a white Horse card as a Bamboo icon and take 1 point token. Their card is discarded and they pass. (This could give them the win!)
Example: The current Mandate animal is the Dog. Player B has not made a bid or passed yet. Player A has made a leading bid of 2 Qs. Player B plays 2 white Dog cards as 2 Water icons and declares the cards are 2 Ks. Player C must now try to beat this bid or pass.
Animal Power Effects (Player Aid)
The Mandate effects are printed across the two aid cards (Rat, Snake, Rooster and Rabbit on the first; Monkey through Dragon on the second). Each is listed below under its animal, with the value token printed beside it on the aid card.
Animal Power Effect
On their turn, to activate the ability of the current animal Mandate featured on the revealed card, a player may either: play a bid using one or more cards featuring the animal of the current Mandate white side up; OR, draw a card and add it to their hand white side up, then discard a single card featuring the animal of the current Mandate white side up.
Always complete the bid before applying the Mandate.
The first aid card also carries a pictorial legend (not transcribed in words) showing, for the player with the power and for an opponent, the Hand, Bid and Draw actions, and the Back card and Front card cards, with PLAY and PICK arrows.
Rat (token 3)
In a Starting or Beating Bid, a player may use the Rat Mandate to swap a card in their hand with the top card of the draw deck. To do this, the player draws the top card of the deck and either returns it to the top of the deck, or places it in their hand white side up and places a different card from their hand face down on top of the deck.
Snake (token 4)
In a Starting or Beating Bid, a player may use the Snake Mandate to draw a card from the draw deck into their hand. They may choose to immediately flip it.
Rooster (token 5)
In a Starting or Beating Bid, a player may use the Rooster Mandate to immediately play again and outbid themselves.
Rabbit (token 6)
In a Starting Bid, a player may use the Rabbit Mandate to discard up to 3 cards of their choice from their hand.
Monkey (token 7)
In a Beating Bid, a player may use the Monkey Mandate to take a random card from the previous player's hand. After seeing it, they may decide to keep it or return the card to the player's hand, staying white or blue side up.
Dog (token 8)
In a Starting or Beating Bid, a player may use the Dog Mandate to score 2 points. All other players still in the trick score 1 point, but players who have passed or showed out score zero.
Pig (token 9)
In a Starting or Beating Bid, a player may use the Pig Mandate, forcing each other player (starting with the next active player and going clockwise) to draw a card if possible, white side up.
Goat (token 10)
In a Beating Bid, a player may use the Goat Mandate to make a bid with one more value than the current bid, thus building or extending a set or a run, without having to use higher values. For example, a 6-7 run is beaten by a 4-5-6 run, and a 10 singleton is beaten by a 9-9 set or a Q-K run.
Tiger (token Q)
In a single value Beating Bid, a player may use the Tiger Mandate to win the bid immediately.
Horse (token K)
In a Beating Bid, a player may use the Horse Mandate to take a card white side up from the previous bid into their hand.
Ox (token A)
In a Beating Bid, a player may use the Ox Mandate to modify the requirement and make a bid with identical values as the previous bid. For example, a player may tie a bid of A, K, Q with A, K, Q.
Dragon (token =)
The printed value token for the Dragon shows an equals sign (=) rather than a rank; it is transcribed as printed.
In a Beating Bid, a player may use the Dragon Mandate to score 3 points and immediately pass, discarding their cards or flipping them as usual.