Polar Panic
Polar Panic Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
50 Fish cards, 5 Fishermen cards, 1 Polar Bear card
Object of the Game
Spot identical fish and catch them before the other players. The more fish cards you get, the better you will do, but watch out for the polar bear because the game stops when he shows up!
Before You Start
Most of the cards show 1, 2, or 3 different fish. Spread the cards over the table face down, with the ice hole side facing up. Shuffle them around so they are all mixed up, making sure that there are no cards overlapping.
Playing the Game
The player who has been ice-skating most recently starts the game, and play goes clockwise.
Each turn, the current player must flip over only one card, placing it face up on the table. To make sure everybody has an equal chance to see the front of the card at the same time, you must flip the bottom of the card away from you. Cards remain face up on the table after they are flipped over.
When any player spots two or more cards that have one or more fish that match, they try to catch these as fast as possible.
Quickly place your hands on top of the cards and then reveal the match. If you are right, take both cards.
The player who has their hands on the cards first will win the match if they are correct. Players keep all the cards they collect in their own scoring pile.
Since everyone may be trying to catch the same matching fish, one player may get to one card while another player may get to another. In this case, both players will collect one card each.
Sometimes, a player may catch two cards while another player grabs a third matching card, or maybe three players will catch one card each – as long as any two fish match on any pair of cards, the players keep their cards.
Note: If a player makes a mistake and catches the wrong fish they must place two cards from their scoring pile back on the table, face down.
If they have just one or no cards in their pile they do not pay the penalty.
Fisherman
If a player flips over a Fisherman card, they keep the card and add it to their pile; but, all face up cards are flipped back over so that the empty ice holes are facing up again. Play resumes with the player to the left of the player who flipped the Fisherman.
Polar Bear
When you flip over the Polar Bear card, put one of the cards from your scoring pile back, ice-hole side up. Then flip the Polar Bear card over so its ice-hole side is facing up. If you haven't collected any cards yet, then just flip the Polar Bear card back over.
Winning the Game
Play continues until players have collected all of the Fish cards, or until all cards except the Polar Bear card are face up and no more matches can be made.
The player with the most cards wins.