Tea Time
Tea Time Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 60 cards, split into 6 sets of 10 cards for each of the 6 characters
- The cards have two faces, one normal and the other "mirror"
- 1 Alice card
- Rules of the game
Object of the Game
At the end of the game, players score points based on the number of cards they have collected for each character (see the scoring table). Whoever has accumulated the most points wins.
Setup
- With 2 players: all Character cards are used; there will be 5 rounds.
- With 3 players: remove 2 cards for each Character; there will be 3 rounds.
- With 4 players: all Character cards are used; there will be 3 rounds.
For the first round, the starting player is chosen at random. They take the Alice card, then shuffle and stack the other 60 cards (48 with 3 players). For later rounds, the starting player is whoever collected the Alice card on the previous turn.
Before each round, the starting player draws and lays out the cards alternating mirror face, then normal face, and so on, to form a grid at the center of the table:
- With 2 players, they form a 3x4 grid of cards.
- With 3 players, they form a 4x4 grid of cards.
- With 4 players, they form a 4x5 grid of cards.
(fig.1: example of setup with 2 players)
Playing a Round
- Whoever holds the Alice card starts the round. They take the card of their choice from the grid and place their Alice card in its spot.
(fig.2: Arthur has the Alice card, he takes the Hatter, mirror face, and places his Alice card in its spot.)
- The next player clockwise may choose to take 1 or 2 cards. To take several cards, they must be neighboring and aligned (orthogonally or diagonally).
(fig.3: the next player, Nina, takes a Cat, mirror face, and a White Rabbit, mirror face.)
From the third turn onward, each player may choose to take 1, 2, or 3 cards. These cards must always be neighboring and aligned horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Two cards separated by a gap in the grid are not considered neighboring. If a player wants to take 3 cards, they must be placed on the same continuous line. On their turn, a player must take at least one card.
(fig.4: it is Arthur's turn again; he may take up to 3 cards. He would like to take the Hatter, mirror face, and 2 White Rabbits, normal face, but this is not possible because there is a gap between the 2 White Rabbits. He could only take the Hatter, mirror face, and a single White Rabbit, normal face. Instead he decides to take a Cat, normal face, a Hatter, mirror face, and a Caterpillar, normal face.)
The cards collected are placed by the player in front of themselves, sorted into columns, Character by Character. Be careful to respect the face (normal or mirror) of the cards collected, keeping them always on the same face as when they were taken.
(fig.5: at this point in the game, Arthur has 2 Hatters, mirror face, 1 Cat, normal face, and a Caterpillar, normal face (a). Nina has 1 Cat, mirror face, and 1 White Rabbit, mirror face (b).)
If a player collects a card of a Character they have already collected under the opposite face, these two cards cancel each other out and are immediately discarded: a player can therefore never have in their collection the same Character under both normal face and mirror face. It is possible to have to discard several cards during the same turn. Discarded cards are removed from the game.
(fig.6: it is Nina's turn; she decides to take the Alice card, the White Rabbit, normal face, and the Cat, mirror face. In her collection she already has a White Rabbit, mirror face: she therefore discards these 2 Rabbit cards and keeps the Alice card and 2 Cats, mirror face.)
Taking the Alice card: the Alice card can be taken by players on the same terms as the other Character cards. The player who collects the Alice card will be the starting player for the next round.
The round ends when all the cards in the grid have been collected; a new round is then begun by forming a new grid.
End of the Game
The game ends after 5 rounds with 2 players, and 3 rounds with 3 or 4 players. Each player then counts the points in their collection following the scoring table below.
| Number of cards for each character | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victory points | 5 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 |
The player who holds the Alice card at the time of scoring gains 4 points.
The winner is the player who has accumulated the most points.
(fig.7: scoring example — a set of 0 cards scores 5, another set of 0 cards scores 5, a set of 2 cards scores 3, a set of 1 card scores 1, a set of 4 cards scores 10, a set of 6 cards scores 15, and holding the Alice card scores 4, for a total of 43.)