Straw
Straw Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Be the player with the highest score at the end of play.
Setup
Place the Camel Card in the center of the play area. Shuffle the remaining cards. Deal four cards to each player. The remaining cards become the Draw Pile.
Play
The player to the left of the Dealer goes first. On your turn, you must:
- Play one card on the camel.
- Announce the total weight on the camel. The weight is depicted in the upper left-hand corner of the card. Weight is cumulative, so if a Basket of Fruit weighing 6 is added to a camel with a weight of 15 already on it, the new weight is 21.
- Draw one card from the Draw Pile. If the Draw Pile runs out of cards, continue playing without drawing cards.
Play passes to the left. Continue clockwise around the table until the Camel's back breaks (see Ending the Round).
Ending the Round
When the weight of the camel exceeds 50, the camel's back breaks and the round ends.
Scoring the Round
When the round ends, each player, except the one who broke the camel's back, scores his or her hand. Add up the weight of each card remaining in your hand and add that to your total score from previous rounds.
However, if a player is able to break the camel's back with the Straw card, only that player scores his or her hand. The remaining players do not score that round.
Once scores for the round are recorded, collect all of the cards and shuffle. Pass the position of Dealer to the player to the left of the previous dealer and start a new round, dealing four new cards to each player.
Winning the Game
Play continues until each player has been the Dealer once (and only once). The player with the highest total score at the end of the last round is the winner.
Special Cards
There are five different special cards in Straw (explained below). Reverse, Copy, Aladdin's Lamp and Straw cards each weigh zero when scoring. Flying Carpet is worth negative points in a player's hand at the end of the round.
Reverse: Reverses the direction of play. The weight value of this card is zero.
Copy: Copies the previous card that was played. Cannot be played if there are no other cards on top of the camel. When copying an Aladdin's Lamp card, choose a new weight value (1–10).
Aladdin's Lamp: The player chooses a weight value from one to ten. This value must be a whole number.
Straw: May only be played to break the camel's back. If successfully played, only the player playing the Straw card scores the round; other players do not. The player playing the Straw card does not draw another card before scoring the round.
Flying Carpet: These cards have a negative (-) weight value. When playing a Flying Carpet, subtract the number on the Flying Carpet card from the total weight currently on the camel. When scoring, this card counts as a negative value in your hand as well.
Credits
Design Studio: Evertide Games
Game Design: Richard James
Sorvent Development: Michael J. Nickoloff
AEG Edition Development: Ken Carpenter, Marcelo A. Figueroa, Brent Keith, David Lepore, jim pinto, John Zinser
Playtest: John Brader, Max Cavanaugh, Michael Chen, Bernie DeKoven, Marc Fairty, Darren Ford, Nick Ingwerson, Donna James, Laura James, Robert James, Ross James, Rizwan Kassim, Jeff Kelly, Pat Mannion, Tanya Mannion, Scott Martin, David Milano, Scott Reese, Jared Rogness, Jason Schissel, Graydon Schlichter, Chritopher Tate, Lauren Tate, Prasanna Vernenkar, Sein Vernenkar, Megan Watson, Neth Woelfleim, David Zahl
Original Illustrations: Jared Rogness
Original Translations: Mohamed Aboudina
AEG Edition Rules Translations: French by Fréderic Bizet, German by Pegasus Spiele, Gmbh, Italian by Federico Dumas, Spanish by Darío Aguilar
AEG Edition Art Direction: Ken Carpenter
AEG Edition Art: Octographics
AEG Edition Graphic Design: Creative Instinct, Inc. [www.creativeinstinct.com]
Copyright ©2006 Evertide Games. All rights reserved. Evertide Games represented by Sorvent, Inc. Published under license by Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. Alderac Entertainment Group and all related marks are ™ and © Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.