Paws Up Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Layout of the Photo Cards
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Round Sequence
  • 1. Preparation Phase
  • 2. Swap Phase
  • 3. Clean-up Phase
• End of Game
• Overview: Round Sequence

Layout of the Photo Cards

The photo cards show these elements:

1. Paws
2. Emojis (1 or 2 per card, usually a location and an animal)
3. Animal
4. Location
5. Set symbol (I to III, or A to E for the starting photo cards)

The photo cards show 5 to 15 Paws. The starting photo cards show 1 to 6 Paws.

Components

• 39 photo cards divided into 3 sets:
  • Set I: 10 cards (9× hamster, 1× baby animals)
  • Set II: 17 cards (14× dog, 3× baby animals)
  • Set III: 12 cards (12× cat)
• 25 starting photo cards divided into 5 sets labeled A to E (5 cards per set)
• 36 story cards divided into 9 types (4 cards per type, showing 15, 10, 8, and 7 Paws)
• 4 marker cards. The unmarked marker card shows the draw "2× I, 1× II"; the card marked "I" shows "2× II, 1× III"; the card marked "II" shows "3× III"; the card marked "III" shows a trophy symbol.
• 5 trend cards (one each for beach, bedroom, garden, kitchen, and living room)

Setup

1. Shuffle the 5 trend cards and place them face-up in a random order in a row at the edge of the playing area.
2. Sort the story cards into 9 piles according to their front sides. There are 5 piles for Location Stories, 3 piles for Animal Stories and 1 pile for Paw Stories. For each type of Story, there are 4 cards, showing 15, 10, 8, and 7 Paws respectively. Arrange the cards in each pile so the number of Paws decreases from top to bottom (so the card with 15 Paws should be on the top, and the card with 7 Paws at the bottom). a. Place the 5 Location Story piles below the corresponding trend cards with matching locations. (Tip: If space is limited, you can place the Location Story cards directly on top of their corresponding trend cards instead.) b. Arrange the 3 Animal Story piles and the Paw Story pile in any order below the Location Story piles.
3. Place the 4 marker cards below the story piles in the following order from left to right: first the card without a marking on the bottom, then the cards marked "I", "II" and "III" in ascending order. Leave some space below them for a display area.
4. Sort the photo cards into 3 piles according to the Roman numbers in their set symbols (I, II and III). Then shuffle each pile face-down and place the 3 face-down piles slightly offset on their corresponding marker card, ensuring the numbers I, II, and III on the marker cards remain visible.
5. Give each player 1 random set of starting photo cards (A, B, C, D, or E). Take your starting photo cards into your hand. These are the photos in your profile at the beginning of the game. If any starting photo cards are left over, return them to the box.

Gameplay

Paws Up is played over 13 rounds, each consisting of 3 phases: the preparation phase, the swap phase, and the clean-up phase.

In the preparation phase, you reveal 3 new photo cards and use them to form the display.

In the swap phase, each player secretly selects 1 photo card from their hand and then all players reveal their choice simultaneously. Depending on the number of Paws on the played card, players take turns swapping their played photo card with one from the display. During this phase, players can also create Stories to earn story cards.

In the clean-up phase, you remove the photo cards from the display before moving on to the next round.

After the 13th round, all players add up the Paws from the photo cards in their hand and the story cards they have collected. The player with the most Paws will be the winner.

Round Sequence

In each round, you play through the following 3 phases in this order:

1. Preparation phase
2. Swap phase
3. Clean-up phase

1. Preparation Phase

Turn over 3 new photo cards and place them face-up in the center of the playing area to create the display, making sure everyone can see them clearly. Draw the cards from different piles as follows:

• As long as there are cards in pile I: 2 photo cards from pile I and 1 photo card from pile II.
• When pile I is empty (crossed-out "I" marker): 2 photo cards from pile II and 1 photo card from pile III.
• When pile II is empty (crossed-out "II" marker): 3 photo cards from pile III.

	Pile I	Pile II	Pile III
Round 1–5	2	1
Round 6–11		2	1
Round 13–14			3

Source note: the printed table (and the overview on the last page) lists rounds 1–5, 6–11 and 13–14 only; round 12 is not printed in the source. It is transcribed as printed.

Example: At the start of the 6th round, the pile for set I is empty. Players now reveal 2 photo cards from set II and 1 photo card from set III.

2. Swap Phase

The swap phase consists of 2 steps:

• A. Play a photo card and determine the turn order (simultaneously).
• B. Swap photo cards and create Stories (in turn).

Step A: Each player chooses 1 photo card from their hand at the same time and places it face-down in front of them. Once everyone has made their choice, all players reveal their chosen photo cards simultaneously. Next, determine the turn order for step B by comparing the number of Paws on the played photo cards:

• The player whose photo card has the most Paws goes first, followed by the player with the second most Paws, and so on.
• If 2 players have the same number of Paws on their cards, compare the locations on the cards with the order of the trend cards. The card with the location appearing furthest to the left amongst the trend cards takes priority.
• Exception: Photos featuring baby animals are special cards and always take priority over other photo cards, even if they show fewer Paws. The emoji serves as a reminder for this. If multiple baby animal cards are played simultaneously, the baby animal card with the most Paws goes first.

Example: Merle and Lenya both played photo cards with baby animals. Even though their photo cards only show 7 and 5 Paws, they take their turn before Quentin and Youri in step B, who both played photo cards with 8 Paws. Merle goes first, followed by Lenya. Quentin and Youri compare the locations on their cards with the trend cards. Since the bedroom is further to the left than the kitchen in the trend card order, Quentin takes his turn before Youri.

Step B: Players now take turns in the order determined in step A. On your turn, you must choose 1 photo card from the display and add it to your hand. Then place the photo card you played into the empty slot of the display, so that there are 3 cards in the display again. (Players who take their turns later may end up taking the photo card you just played.) You cannot skip taking a photo card from the display.

After swapping your played photo card with one from the display, you have the option to create Stories using the photo cards in your hand. To create a Story, you must meet the condition listed on the corresponding story card:

• Location Story: 3 photo cards with the same location (garden, kitchen, bedroom, beach, or living room)
• Animal Story: 3 photo cards with the same animal (hamster, dog, or cat)
• Paw Story: 3 photo cards with the same number of Paws

Note that some of your starting photo cards show a plushie instead of an actual animal. You can use these cards to create Location Stories and/or the Paw Story, but not an Animal Story. Similarly, you can use the baby animals for the Paw Story, but none of the other Stories. In short: You can only use photo cards to create a Story if those cards show the same emoji depicted on the respective story card.

Reveal the photo cards you are using to create the Story, take the top story card from the corresponding pile, and place it face up in front of you. Then return the photo cards to your hand.

Important: You can create multiple Stories during your turn, but you may only create each type of Story once throughout the entire game (i.e. you can only create 9 Stories in total). Additionally, there are only 4 story cards available for each type of Story. If 5 players are playing, not everyone will be able to create every Story.

Example: Lenya has 3 hamsters in her hand. She reveals the cards and takes the top story card from the corresponding pile, which has 15 Paws. She also has 3 garden cards in her hand and displays them next. Since Youri already created a Garden Story in an earlier round and claimed the story card with 15 Paws, Lenya takes the next available story card for the garden, which has 10 Paws. She cannot create another Hamster Story or Garden Story for the remainder of the game.

Special rules for 2 players: In step A of the swap phase, each player selects 2 photo cards from their hand and determines their order separately. In step B, each of you will take 2 turns. When doing so, you must always place the photo card that was first in the determined order into the display before placing the second. This means, on your second turn you could take back the card you played on your first turn. Every time you take a card from the display into your hand, you may create Stories.

Note: You may use these special rules in a 3-player game as well, if you want the game to be more competitive.

3. Clean-up Phase

Once everyone has taken their turn during the swap phase, the round concludes with the clean-up phase. Return the 3 photo cards still in the display to the box. Proceed with the preparation phase of the next round, or move to the end of the game if it is the conclusion of the 13th round.

End of Game

The game ends after 13 rounds, when all 3 piles of photo cards have been emptied.

Reveal the photo cards in your hand, which make up your final profile. Add together the Paws from these 5 photo cards and your collected story cards. The player with the highest total number of Paws is the winner.

In the event of a tie, the player with the photo card showing the most Paws wins. If there is still a tie, the winner is the tied player whose highest-paw photo card shows the location furthest to the left on the trend cards.

Overview: Round Sequence

1. Preparation phase: Turn over 3 new photo cards and place them face-up in the center of the playing area, using the pile draws for the current round (see the table above).
2. Swap phase:
   • A. Play a photo card and determine the turn order (simultaneously). Important: baby animal photo cards always take priority over other photo cards.
   • B. Swap photo cards and create Stories (in turn). Important: each player may only create each type of Story once throughout the game.
3. Clean-up phase: Return the 3 photo cards still in the display to the box.