Pool Party Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Playing a Turn
• The Diving Board
• End of the Game
• Two-Player Game

Contents

• 6 tokens
• 18 pawns
• 37 stickers
• Rules of play
• 3D pool

Setup

Before you play Pool Party for the first time:

• Punch all the components out of the punchboard and assemble the pool.
• Stick the diving-board sticker in the correct spot.
• Stick the number stickers onto the bottom of the pawns — each color must end up with the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

You may decorate the pawns with the decorative stickers if you like. Just make sure the same sticker is used across each set of three — pawns of the same color must be identical.

Randomly place the pawns on the marked spaces around the pool, without checking their numbers.

Shuffle the 6 face-down tokens and deal one to each player. If there are more tokens than players, leave the extra ones face-down on the table. Each player secretly checks which color they received, then keeps their token face-down in front of them.

Playing a Turn

The player who was most recently at a pool goes first.

1. Take any pawn standing next to the pool, turn it over, and show everyone the number on the bottom.
2. Move it the indicated number of spaces (1, 2, or 3) around the pool, in whichever direction you choose. You cannot change direction partway through the move.
3. If, at the end of your turn, the pawn lands on an occupied space, push the pawn that was standing there into the pool and put your pawn in its place.

You cannot repeat the same move the player before you just made.

Play proceeds clockwise. Each following player performs the same three steps.

When a player's third pawn falls into the water, that player reveals their token and is out of the game. Play continues without them.

The Diving Board

After passing over the diving-board space, or stopping on it, you may try to guess an opponent's color.

• If you guess correctly, that opponent must reveal their token and push all of their pawns into the pool. They are out of the game.
• If you guess wrong, you must reveal your own token and push all of your pawns into the pool. You are out of the game instead.

For example: a player moves her pawn across the diving-board space and decides to guess an opponent's color. "You're blue!" she says. If she's right, that opponent is eliminated — but if she's wrong, she is eliminated immediately instead.

Pawns pushed into the pool may land in any position. Don't straighten them up, whether their number is showing or not.

End of the Game

The game ends when only pawns of 2 colors remain standing around the pool.

• The player whose pawn is closest to the diving board wins.
• If the closest pawns are tied for distance, the player whose pawn shows the higher number wins.
• If that still doesn't break the tie, start a new game.

In a game with fewer than 6 players, not every color has an owner. If only 1 player remains in the game, that player wins — even if pawns of unclaimed colors are still standing around the pool.

Two-Player Game

In a two-player game, the game ends when pawns of 3 different colors remain around the pool.