Pug You!

Pug You! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Set Up
How to Play
A New Turn Starts!
End of the Game: The Pugs Smear One of You in Feces!
Customized Deck: Nicer Pugs or Even More Vicious Pugs
Turn Overview

Components

Recommended number of players: 5-10 Playing time: 20-45 min Recommended age: +16

These are the game components:

108 Pug cards. Most of them come in 3 different levels. (You also have 6 customizable pugs.)
2 nomination cards. We will call them turd cards from now on.
These rules you are reading right now.

Set Up

First, shuffle all the pug cards you are going to use. Don't use the customizable blue pug cards if you haven't written something on them.

Deal 5 cards to each player (deal only 4 if you are 8 or more players). The rest will form the drawing pile. Place them in the centre of the table face down.

Now you are ready to play!

The player who looks the most like a pug is the first "active player". You don't dare pointing fingers? Then go play chess, this game is going to get worse than that!

If you all look like a bunch of pugs and you just can't decide, choose the starting player randomly. It's not that important.

Let's go!

How to Play

During your turn, other players will offer you pugs. Choose just one.

Offering a Pug

First, each player has to choose a pug from their hand and offer it to the active player face down. You can choose whatever pug you want, but it might be a good idea to offer her one that doesn't describe you. As soon as you have chosen the pug, try to convince the active player so she chooses yours!

You can lie about the pug you are offering, hint at the real question or use reverse psychology, but you can't give out what card it is.

Examples:

"this pug is the worst, it's red!"
"if you want adrian to lose the game, take mine!"
"this pug is so good, you are going to love the question!"

Choosing a Pug

The active player will have to choose one of the cards that players are offering her and take it into her hand. She doesn't have to wait for everyone to speak, but it's good to have options. All cards that weren't chosen go back to their disappointed owner's hands.

Sorry, try harder next time!

The Vicious Pug Asks a Question

Now, the active player has to read the chosen question out loud.

Example: "who gave you the worst first impression?"

You like the question? You think it's awkward? They lied about it? Snap out of it! As uncomfortable as it might be, you have to nominate two other players that fit the question.

Sticking to our example, you'd have to nominate the two players that gave you the worst first impression.

In order to do so, take the turd cards and place one of them in front of each of those two players.

Will you be shy about it? Will you show no mercy? The pugs are living for the drama!

You can explain or excuse your choice as much as you want, but you can never nominate yourself.

This game is not about being a hero.

Throw Your Turds!

You think the active player gave a bad image? I've got news for you: you are all going to look bad.

During this phase, all players that were not nominated, active player included, will have to choose between both nominated players. Vote for who you think fits the question the best.

Still sticking with the example, you'd have to choose who gave you the worst first impression.

In order to vote, play one of the pug cards from your hand face down on the turd card in front of your chosen nominee. You only get to vote once, you can neither vote for both players nor decline your vote. But you should take a look at the number of turds on the top of the card you are voting with! The more turds it has, the stronger your vote will be!

It's fun to play at the same time, but if you want to be more organized, the player left of the active player gets to vote first, then it goes around in clockwise order skipping nominated players. The active player gets the last vote.

Don't misplace the active pug card. If you are a messy group, put it on top of the game box so you don't lose it: you will need it later!

Drumrolls... Someone Is About to Score Some Badges!

Once the voting round is over, the cards you used to vote are revealed. You can mix them up a little first if you want to keep the secret of who played which card.

Now count the turds! The player who got more turd-votes is the "winner" (yes, that's a lot of quotation marks) of the round. The cards used for voting are now discarded into a discard pile.

At the same time, the "winner" takes the active pug card and places it face up in front of her.

It will probably stay there for the rest of the game in order to record the negative points that player has scored. The negative points are the shiny badges in the bottom left corner.

The more badges you have, the worse!

For further humiliation, the "winner" should read out loud why she got the badges: the descriptive is in the bottom right corner.

In our example, it would be: "i get one badge because i'm unpresentable".

Special Case: The Pugs Get Confused When There Is a Tie!

It could happen that the nominated players got the same amount of turd votes. In that case, the pugs are confused and don't know who to insult!

This situation gives the active player two advantages.

First, she gets to choose which nominated player scores the badges of the active pug.

Only one opinion matters now. Autocracy!

Second, the active player gets to answer a second question. But not in the normal fashion! No one offers face down pug cards. Instead of that, the active player can get rid of one of her scored pug cards by answering the question again and nominating whoever she wants.

Revenge!

If the active player hasn't any scored pug cards yet or doesn't want to get rid of any, she can choose to answer one of the cards from her hand instead.

The turn proceeds as usual, but if there is a second tie, the active player only gets to decide who scores the badges. The turn passes on now. The pugs' patience isn't infinite.

A New Turn Starts!

Each player draws up to 5 cards (4 cards for 8 or more players). If the drawing pile runs out of cards, just shuffle the discard pile and form a new one.

The player left to the previous active player becomes the new active player and takes both turd cards.

End of the Game: The Pugs Smear One of You in Feces!

The game ends after two complete rounds, that is when everyone has been active player twice (extra turns caused by ties do not count). Alternatively, you can also set a badge limit and play until some player reaches it.

In any case, the player with the most badges loses!

The pugs cover him up in feces and smile happily. It seems like you think really badly of that person!

If there is a badge tie, all the tied players lose. Of course! You can consider yourself winners if you have less badges than other players.

If someone is still upset or offended after the game, she can always ask for a rematch. But remember: in Pug You!, only the pugs really win!

After finishing the game, it's always fun to list the descriptive words once again by reading them out loud, specially the loser.

Like: "I lost because I'm fake, basic and look like a hooker".

Customized Deck: Nicer Pugs or Even More Vicious Pugs

Your friends think the pugs are too hardcore and they chicken out before playing? Or maybe they think the pugs are too nice? No problem: you can customize your deck depending on your playing group.

The colour of each card and the little dots left on the cards' frame signal that pug's level: Red (3 dots) is for hardcore pugs, yellow (2 dots) for slightly less vicious pugs and green (1 dot) for nicer pugs.

So if you want to play a game with less conflict, you can leave the "red pugs" in the box. If you guys are savage, you can put away the "green pugs" and the "healthy mutt" cards back into the box. In the special case of some player having a real issue with some of the questions, you can always set specific cards aside. But the bigger a problem is, the more important it is to laugh about it!

I'm Playing With People I Don't Know a Lot About. Can We Play Pug You!?

Of course.

The thermometer on the right part of the frame signals how much you have to know people in order to play that card.

If you are a group of strangers, you can put aside those cards that have a full thermometer. Or you can just play them prejudging each other!

If there are one or more players who don't know each other, we recommend to do a round of introduction. Describe yourself a little before playing!

What Are the Blue Pugs For?

You can create your own original cards writing on them.

Let's see how messed up you are!

You can use the hashtag #pugyougame to share your ideas or to get inspired by others!

Why Are There Some Other Dog Breeds in My Pug Deck? What Are Those Pink Cards?

All cards except for the turd cards are pug cards. You might encounter a phony cat or a confused Chihuahua, but they work exactly the same as a pug!

In the game there are four pink "healthy mutt" cards. These cards show a nice mutt dog who loves humans since he isn't an anatomical disaster. These cards are played exactly the same as each other cards, but their questions are "positive". If you score one of these (after the usual nomination and voting), the dog will take away two of your badges in the final scoring.

This means you can have less than zero badge points if you only score mutt dogs!

I Don't Give a Damn About Points and Badges. I Just Want to Insult People and Have a Good Time

Mazeltov, my friend. If you all agree, you can play Pug You! however you want. You can do shots instead of scoring badges, take your clothes off or throw virgins into active volcanoes. I support you (but just in the legal stuff, OK?).

The pugs want you to hate each other! This game aims to be comedic, so don't get too mad at each other. Remember, the revenge of the pugs is only complete if we get really pissed.

Don't fall into their trap!

This Game Is Not a Case in Favour of Pugs

Although pugs are super cute and funny dogs, this game is not a case in favour of acquiring pugs as pets. On the contrary: pugs really suffer from a huge amount of health problems that make them suffer because of their artificial anatomy. Because of that, they require more veterinary attention and costs than most other breeds.

Before adopting a pug (don't buy animals!), inform yourself well. Or even better: get rid of your pug craving by playing Pug You!

Turn Overview

Everyone chooses a card from their hand and offers it to the active player face down. Be convincing!
The active player chooses one and reads it out loud. She nominates 2 players placing the turd cards in front of them.
The players that were not nominated vote using 1 card from their hand.
The nominee with the most turd-votes scores the active card's badges. If there is a tie, the active player decides who scores and answers another question.
Fill up your hands. Start a new turn with a new active player (left of the current one).