Robotrick Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Game Flow
How to Play
End of the Game
AI Card Description
Optional Rules
Credits

Components

52 Robot cards (4 types [A-D], 13 cards each [1-13])

The black numbers on the upper left and right of each Robot card indicate the robot's strength. The letter below each of them indicates the type of robot, and the white number (in a triangle icon) below it indicates the card's victory points (VP).
10 AI cards

Each AI card shows a Card No., and two rows, "1. Primary" and "2. Secondary," each with a criterion icon and a Low/High or Long/Short indicator.
2 rule books (JPN & ENG)

Game Flow

① Round Setup ② 12 Tricks ③ Scoring

Each round consist of ① to ③. After 3 rounds, the player with the highest score wins.

How to Play

① Round Setup

Shuffle all AI cards face down. The owner of this game (or the temporary owner determined by rock-paper-scissors) draws 1 AI card face down on each round. Then they place the card face up between themselves and the player to their left on the 1st round, between the non-owner players on the 2nd round, and between themselves and the player to their right on the 3rd round. (The game proceeds as if Droco is sitting as the 4th player in the position where the AI card is placed.) Place the remaining AI cards aside until the next round.
Shuffle all Robot cards face down to form a deck, draw 1 card from the deck and place it face up in the center of the table. This card is the trump card. (See "Determine the Winner of the Trick".) Draw 3 more cards and place them aside face down until the next round without anyone checking what are on them.
Deal the remaining 48 Robot cards face down, 12 cards each to the players (including Droco). All players except Droco each hold the cards dealt to them as their hand without revealing them to others.
Flip all the Robot cards dealt to Droco face up and arrange them near the AI card in vertical lines (columns) of A to D by type. Line up the cards in each column in descending order of strength from top to bottom.
Players each check their hand of cards and pass 2 cards to the player to their left. Do this without involving Droco's hand of cards. After passing the cards, add the 2 cards received from the player to your right to your hand.

② 12 Tricks

Play a mini-game called "trick" 12 times with the cards.

Droco leads the first trick. In clockwise order beginning with the leader, all players, including Droco, each play 1 Robot card face up from their hand. (When you play a card, place it in the play area.) Do this without stacking the cards on each other and make it clear who played which card. When Droco plays a card, the player to the right of Droco takes the card determined by the criteria (See "AI Card Description") from Droco's hand and places it in the play area for Droco.

The leader can play any one card (Droco plays as per the AI card), but other players must play a card of the type matching that played by the leader. Only if they do not have the same type of card, they may play any type of card. When all players, including Droco, have played one card each, determine the winner of the trick according to "Determine the Winner of the Trick".

A. If card(s) of the type matching the trump card is not played

The player who played the highest strength card among the cards of type matching that played by the leader wins the trick.

The players who played any other type of card cannot win the trick, regardless of its strength.

B. If card(s) of the type matching the trump card is played

The player who played the highest strength card among the cards of type matching the trump card wins the trick.

After determining the winner of the trick, move the cards in the play area as follows.

If Droco wins

The players other than Droco each take the Robot card they played in this trick and place it face down in front of themselves. Then place the Robot card played by Droco face down aside on the table.

If a player other than Droco wins

The winner of the trick takes the Robot card played by Droco and places it face up in front of themselves. However, if the player already has 3 face-up Robot cards in front of themselves, they must place the card they just received face down. (Each player has only 3 hangars, and you cannot swap the captured robots!) Flip the remaining cards in the play area face down and move them aside.

Play the tricks repeatedly until all the players, including Droco, have used up the cards in their hands. In the 2nd and later tricks, the winner of the previous trick leads the trick.

③ Scoring

After playing the tricks until everyone has used up their hand, check the Robot cards in front of you.

Count the VP indicated on face-up Robot cards as your positive points and the VP on face-down Robot cards as negative points. After calculating the score, write it down. (Your total score may be negative points.)

It is not necessary to calculate Droco's score, because Droco is not in this competition.

Divide all the cards, including those used and those used in the current round, into Robot cards and AI cards, and start the next round from ① Round Setup.

End of the Game

End the game after 3 rounds. Add up the scores from all rounds, and the player with the highest total score wins the game. In the case of a tie, the tied players share the victory.

AI Card Description

Each AI card indicates the criteria for determining which card Droco plays. There are 3 columns according to Droco's situation: Follow, Unfollow, and Lead. Refer only to the column that applies to Droco's current situation.

Follow: If a card of the type matching that played by the leader is in hand
Unfollow: If a card of the type matching that played by the leader is not in hand
Lead: If Droco is the leader

There are 2 horizontal lines (rows) with different criteria: "1. Primary" and "2. Secondary".

First, apply only the "Primary" criterion in the top row to narrow down the card for Droco to play. If the criterion in the top row alone is not sufficient to determine the card to play, apply the "Secondary" criterion in the bottom row. If the card to play still cannot be determined by that, determine the card by type. A is the highest priority card, followed by B, C, and D.

There are 4 types of criteria indicated by the following icons.

The lowest strength card (Low)
The highest strength card (High)
The type (A to D) with the most cards in Droco's hand (Long)
The type (A to D) with the least cards in Droco's hand (Short)

(Ex 1) If Droco is not the leader and has card(s) of type matching that played by the leader (can follow)

If a card of type matching that played by the leader is in the Droco's hand, check the "Follow" column at the left end. In the example on the right, the top row indicates the "LOW" criterion and the bottom row is blank.

The player to the right of Droco picks from Droco's hand the lowest number card among the cards of type matching that played by the leader and places it in the play area for Droco.

(Ex 2) If Droco is the leader

If Droco is the leader, check the "Lead" column at the right end.

In the example on the right, the top row indicates the "HIGH" criterion and the bottom row indicates the "SHORT" criterion.

The player to the right of Droco seeks the highest number card from Droco's hand. In the example, this applies to 2 cards, "A10" and "D10". Since the card to play cannot be determined by this, also apply the "SHORT" criterion in the bottom row. Droco has 4 "A" cards and 3 "D" cards. Thus, "D10" of the type "D", with less cards in Droco's hand, is played.

If Droco has the same number of "A" and "D" cards, the card to play is determined by its type (A>B>C>D), so "A10" is played.

Optional Rules

The following optional rules can be adopted to add variety to the game. You can also adopt ① and ② at the same time.

① Increase the number of hangars (recommended for the first play)

Increase the number of Robot cards that each player can place face up in front of themselves from 3 to 4 cards.

It is recommended to make this adjustment for those who are new to this game, as it makes the game milder and easier to play.

② Play without changing the AI card

Instead of drawing an AI card on each round, use the AI card drawn in the 1st round for 3 rounds. This makes it easier to plan your moves because Droco plays with the same criteria every round.

Credits

System Design: Domi. Development: hal_99. Artwork: decoctdesign. Rule Proofreading: Yoshihiko Koriyama (Ichinen ju MIRAI). DTP: Satoshi Takahata (Korokorodou). Editing: Toshinori Iwai (Korokorodou). English Translation: Saigo.

Publisher: Korokorodou LLC 1F Hyuga Building, 1-9-3 Ueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0005, Japan https://korokorodou.com [email protected]