Pick-a-Pepper Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Determining Turn Order
  • Phase 1 – Collecting Chilis
  • Phase 2 – Collecting Chilis and Cooking Sauces
• The End of the Game
• Quick Guide

Contents

• 110 chili cards
  • 104 number cards with values 1-13 (8 each)
  • 6 "wild" cards
• 22 chili sauces with hotness levels 2-9 (1 x 2, 2 x 3, 3 x 4, 4 x 5, 4 x 6, 4 x 7, 2 x 8, and 2 x 9). Each sauce shows its victory points and its hotness level.
• 1 card divider made up of 3 puzzle pieces, forming 7 slots for card groups
• 1 stirring spoon

Setup

1. Assemble the card divider and place it in the middle of the playing area.

2. Shuffle all the chili cards and fill the card slots by revealing one chili card after the other and placing them in the seven slots until they've all been filled. Cards with the same value go in the same slot, splayed down, creating groups in the card divider. No group can ever have more than three cards. If you reveal a fourth card with the same value, place it in a new card slot. Note: Wild cards do not go in groups—only a single wild card can be in a slot. If you reveal more than one wild card, put them in different slots.

3. Put the remaining chili cards in a face-down draw deck next to the card divider and leave some space for a face-up discard pile.

4. Pick your game's difficulty level:

   Difficulty Level	Mild	Hot	Scorching
   Number of Hand Cards	10 cards	9 cards	8 cards
   Chili Sauces to Remove (Hotness Levels)	7, 8, 9	2, 8, 9	2, 3

   We recommend playing your first games on mild difficulty. Once you've gained a little experience, move on to the hot version. Still looking for a greater challenge? Try a game at scorching difficulty!

5. Depending on your chosen difficulty level, check the table and deal the number of chili cards listed to each player. These are your hand cards.

6. Prepare the chili sauces for your game: Remove all chili sauces with the hotness levels shown in the table and put them back in the box. You won't need them for this game. Shuffle the remaining chili sauces and put them aside in a face-down pile for now.

7. The last player who ate a really spicy meal takes the stirring spoon and goes first.

Playing the Game

Sauscharf is a game with two phases, each made up of several rounds.

Start the game with Phase 1: Collecting Chilis. In this phase, you'll collect chili cards for your personal ingredient decks. In Phase 2: Collecting Chilis and Cooking Sauces, you'll play with your ingredient deck as a new hand of cards while still collecting new chilis if you want. At the same time, you'll play multiple chili cards with the same value to cook chili sauces.

Determining Turn Order

In both phases, you'll start every round by playing chili cards from your hand. With these, you'll determine the turn order for the rest of the round. In phase 2, the chili cards you play will also be important for cooking chili sauces.

First, the player with the stirring spoon plays a combination in front of them, face up. A combination always consists of one or more cards of the same value. Then, the other players follow in a clockwise direction, each playing one combination.

Wild cards take on the value of the cards you combine them with. If you play wild cards without any number cards, their value is always higher than that of all other cards.

Determine the turn order for the current round by comparing the combinations you've played:

The player who played the highest number of cards goes first. If more than one of you have played the same number of cards, the higher value goes first. If both the number and the value of the cards are the same, the combination that was played first is higher.

Check who has played the highest combination: That player takes the stirring spoon and keeps it at least until the next time you determine the turn order. They also go first in the current round, followed by the player with the second-highest combination, and so on until the player with the lowest combination has gone.

Important: Keep your combinations in front of you for now. You're going to need them later for your turns.

Example: Julia goes first and plays two 5s. Daniel plays three 12s and Sarah plays an 8. This determines the turn order for this round: Daniel has the highest combination because he has played the most cards. He takes the stirring spoon and gets to go first. Next up is Julia, followed by Sarah.

Phase 1 – Collecting Chilis

In Phase 1, you'll play several rounds of collecting chilis for your ingredient decks, until you've played all of the cards in your hand. At the start of each round, determine the turn order as described above.

On your turn, carry out the following steps:

Collecting Chilis

Take all the cards from one slot of the card divider and place them in front of you, face down. This is your personal ingredient deck. Ingredients always go on your deck face down, but you may look at them at any time.

Note: Always put any cards you take on your ingredient deck. Do not ever add them to your hand directly!

You may choose not to take any cards from the card divider.

Next, decide whether you want to keep the combination you played this round. If you do, put it on your ingredient deck face down as well. If you don't want to keep it, put it on the discard pile.

Then it's the next player's turn, according to the turn order.

The round ends once you've each taken your turn. Refill any empty slots of the card divider like you did during setup. If the draw deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile and make a new draw deck.

The player with the stirring spoon in front of them starts the next round by playing a combination.

Continue playing round after round, until no one has any cards left in their hand. This marks the end of Phase 1.

If you don't have any cards left in your hand at the start of a round, but other players do, skip your turns until the end of Phase 1. The other players continue playing as usual.

Example: Daniel takes the wild from its card slot and puts it in front of him, face down. He wants to keep his combination of three 12s, so he puts those on his ingredient deck, too. Then it's Julia's turn. She takes the two 5s. Her played chili cards go on her ingredient deck as well. Finally, Sarah takes the three 2s from their slot. She does not want to keep the 8 she played and puts it on the discard pile.

Phase 2 – Collecting Chilis and Cooking Sauces

In Phase 2, you can continue collecting chilis. In addition, you'll get the chance to prepare the hot chili sauces that will earn you victory points.

Prepare the sauce display at the start of Phase 2 by revealing two more chili sauces than there are people playing and put them where you can all see them.

Example: Sarah prepares the sauce display. As there are three players, she reveals five chili sauces.

Then you all pick up your ingredient decks from Phase 1 as your new hand of cards.

In this phase, you'll determine the turn order at the start of each round by playing a combination, just like in Phase 1, unless you decide to take the special action (see below).

On your turn, you have the following options:

Collecting Chilis

Proceed as described in Phase 1.

or

Cook a Chili Sauce

Each chili sauce shows in its top right corner how many victory points it's worth.

The lower area shows its hotness level. This determines the minimum number of the same chili card you have to play in your combination when determining the turn order to cook that sauce.

If you cook a chili sauce, you must put all the chili cards of your played combination on the discard pile. Then take the corresponding sauce and put it in front of you.

To cook a chili sauce with hotness 6, you need at least six cards with the same value.

Example: Sarah has played the highest combination with her six 2s, so she goes first. She uses her chili cards to prepare a chili sauce with hotness level 6. This earns her 8 points. Daniel has played four 12s and one wild for a combination of 5 cards. He decides to cook the chili sauce worth 4 points. Although the chili sauce with hotness level 5 is no longer available, Julia still decides to cook a chili sauce. She takes the one that's worth 3 points.

All three of them must put the cards they played on the discard pile, as they have each cooked a sauce.

Special Action

In Phase 2, you may choose not to play a combination. This means that you won't collect chilis or cook a sauce this round. Instead, take your entire ingredient deck into your hand. For the next round, you'll have these and any cards still in your hand—i.e., all of your chili cards—available.

Once each of you has taken their turn, refill the empty slots in the card divider and replace the taken chili sauce tiles in the display with new ones from the supply. Any players who have run out of cards take their ingredient deck into their hand for the next round. As usual, the player with the stirring spoon starts off the next round by playing a combination.

The End of the Game

The final round of the game begins when one of you has cooked the required number of chili sauces and doesn't have any chili cards left in their hand or in their ingredient deck.

The number of required sauces depends on how many players there are and the difficulty level:

Difficulty Level	Mild	Hot	Scorching
2 players	5 sauces	6 sauces	6 sauces
3 players	4 sauces	5 sauces	5 sauces
4 players	3 sauces	4 sauces	4 sauces

Important: You can't cook more chili sauces than the required number!

When one of you triggers the final round in this manner, finish the current round. Then, the game ends.

Add up the victory points on your chili sauces. These are your positive points. Each chili card you still have in your hand or your ingredient deck is worth one negative point, regardless of its value.

The player with the most points wins the chili sauce cooking competition! If there's a tie, you may have more than one winner.

Do you have the required number of sauces, but still have cards left? Remember that you don't have to take chili cards from a slot. Then, if you discard the combination you played, you're effectively reducing the chili cards you have.

At the end of the round, what happens if you don't have any cards in your hand or an ingredient deck, but you haven't cooked the required number of sauces? In this case, you must take chili cards from one slot of the card divider before it gets refilled and add them to your hand directly. This applies even if you cooked a chili sauce this round.

Example: Daniel has cooked four sauces for a total of 20 points. His four remaining cards earn him 4 negative points. Daniel has a total of 16 points.

Julia has cooked sauces worth 12 points in total. As she has no cards left, she doesn't get any negative points.

Sarah has cooked three sauces for a total of 19 points. Since she has five cards left in her ingredient deck, she gets 5 negative points. Sarah has a total of 14 points.

Daniel wins the game with 16 points!

Quick Guide

Difficulty Level	Mild	Hot	Scorching
Number of Hand Cards	10 cards	9 cards	8 cards
Chili Sauces to Remove (Hotness Levels)	7, 8, 9	2, 8, 9	2, 3
Number of Chili Sauces – 2 players	5 sauces	6 sauces	6 sauces
Number of Chili Sauces – 3 players	4 sauces	5 sauces	5 sauces
Number of Chili Sauces – 4 players	3 sauces	4 sauces	4 sauces