Piggy Forest
Piggy Forest Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Box Contents and Card Types
1 instruction manual 55 normal game cards 6 special game cards 1 unlockable achievement card 1 game variants card 9 additional game cards
Objective
The goal depends on the number of players. Players must build as many houses to shelter their piglets as the following table shows:
| Players | Houses needed | Rounds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 player | 5 houses | 1 round |
| 2 players | 5 houses | 1 round |
| 3 players | 7 houses | 2 rounds |
| 4 players | 9 houses | 2 rounds |
Rounds: the number of times the deck can be played through to complete the task before the game ends. If playing two rounds, the discards from El Bosque are shuffled to keep playing.
House limit: unless playing solo, no player may build more than one house of the same material in their area.
Setup
Shuffle the game's draw deck. Each player draws two cards. If any of those cards is a wolf or a tornado, discard it and draw again until each player has two house or ally cards. When everyone has their two cards, shuffle the discards back into the deck, including the discards. This deck is called El Bosque (The Forest).
Then choose who starts the game: whoever best imitates the sound of a piglet.
Note: The El Bosque deck includes 6 special game cards. They are marked with a small star in the upper right corner and are used optionally. The use of these cards is detailed at the end of the instructions.
Types of Playable Cards
There are three types of playable cards: houses, protectors and piglets. On their turn, a player may play a card from their hand to their building area. It can be a house card, a protector, or a piglet placed inside a complete house in their area, which ends their turn.
Houses come in three types:
- Straw house (casa de tipo paja)
- Wood house (casa de tipo madera)
- Brick house (casa de tipo ladrillo)
Protector: "Little Red Riding Hood" (Caperucita)
Inhabitant: piglet (habitante cerdito)
How to Play
Each player, on their turn, performs the following actions in order:
- Draw phase. If the card drawn is a wolf card (a lone wolf or a tornado), its effect applies immediately (see the section "Problems in El Bosque") and the turn ends, with that card discarded. Discards go to a new face-up deck placed next to the El Bosque deck.
- Exchange phase. If the revealed card was not a wolf attack, the player may exchange one card from their hand with another player.
- Play phase. Finally, the player must play a card from their hand to their table area. If they cannot play any card, they must discard one of the three they hold. At the end of their turn, a player may only keep two cards in hand.
Exchange example: Imagine a player has two identical house cards. They only need one, so they could exchange the repeated card with another player who has the opposite side of that card or a piglet. Both players can then build on their respective turns (if the wolves allow it, of course).
Table Placement System
Building a house: If a player manages to gather both halves of a house of the same material in their construction area, they may play a piglet on it (on the following turn or later).
Restrictions (*): A player may not have two identical halves (for example, two left halves of a wood house) in their construction area, nor may they play a house card if they already have a house built with that material (straw, wood or brick).
*Exclusive rule of the 1-player mode: up to two houses of the same type may be built.
Protectors: The cards of the sisters Little Red Riding Hood (Caperucita, Red and Rosa) protect the construction area of whoever has them in play against wolf attacks. If a wolf appears and is going to take pieces from a house under construction, Little Red Riding Hood goes to the discard pile with it, and those pieces are not lost. If the wolf knocks nothing down, or the player does not mind losing the material under attack and so does not want to use her, the player is not obliged to discard Little Red Riding Hood, and the wolf carries out its attack (that is, the specified house cards are eliminated and the turn ends).
Piglets: A piglet may only be played if the player has a complete house built in their own area. There may be no more than one piglet per house. The piglet card is placed in the centre of the house to show that it is safe.
Example of a play area: The wood house is half built. The brick house is complete and occupied by one of the piglets, and Little Red Riding Hood protects the play area against a possible wolf attack.
- Half-built house.
- House with a piglet, safe.
- Little Red Riding Hood protecting the area from a possible wolf attack.
Problems in El Bosque
The Wolf Gang lurks on every corner, ready to knock down houses. Luckily its three members, Ama, Deus and Mozart, split their forces, and each attacks only one type of house:
- Ama attacks straw houses.
- Deus knocks down wood houses.
- Mozart specialises in not leaving a brick house standing.
So when one of them appears on a player's turn, they blow and destroy only the house cards corresponding to that type of material. Wolves can also eliminate complete houses that are empty. However, if a piglet occupies a house, it locks the door with a key and nobody can get it out. Not even a tornado!
Wolves and the houses they attack (diagram).
If a wolf is revealed and there are no houses of its type in the revealing player's play area, the wolf does not eliminate any card.
Tornado: Unfortunately, on some occasions the Wolf Gang agrees to blow together, forming a gigantic tornado. When it appears, all empty house cards and half-built houses in the play area of the player who revealed it go to the discard pile, as do the protector cards of Little Red Riding Hood.
End of the Game
The game ends depending on the number of players and rounds of the deck, as specified in the section "Objective".
In Piggy Forest we either win or lose together, so it is very important to collaborate to complete the maximum number of houses.
A tip that will come in handy: don't forget to exchange cards on your turns to beat the wolves in the competition!
Special Game Cards
The cards marked with a small star are not used in the base game, but they help make victory easier and give free rein to the creativity of the youngest players. A summary of how to use them:
- Gnome protectors (Gnomos): They defend the player's area against a tornado if they have one.
- Protector "Hada Gorrina" (Gorrina Fairy): Grants a wish to whoever plays it, for themselves or for another player. What will you ask for?
- Faceless piglets (Cerditos sin cara): Draw an expression on them!
- Blank cards (Cartas vacías): Create your own free character. You can draw yourself too!
Educational Uses
Not all games have to be competitive. Enjoying the experience with a shared goal makes learning last longer. Working as a team to win is a huge incentive, and the pleasure is unique when the whole group wins the game together. This game is a perfect tool for developing the capacity to "learn to learn", since players look for strategies and cooperation in a changing scenario.
Besides helping develop executive functions such as planning, flexibility and decision-making, having to exchange cards and collaborate helps improve language skills: oral expression and comprehension, a broader vocabulary (materials, productive sectors, musical concepts, etc.), and non-verbal communication.
Because the game has a popular folk tale as its background, it can support any animation project aimed at encouraging reading or literary creativity in class or at home.