Triqueta Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
Playing the game
End of the game
- Scoring example
Credits

Components

60 animal tokens:

10 x rabbit (value 5)
10 x owl (value 6)
10 x deer (value 7)
10 x boar (value 8)
10 x ram (value 9)
10 x bear (value 10)

5 row markers, 3 tree tiles, 1 starting rock

Setup

Place one row marker per player in the middle of the table, one below the other. Each of these markers begins an animal row. Return any unused row markers to the box.

Example: In a three-player game, 3 round markers would be laid out (animal row 1, animal row 2, animal row 3 — with room for animal tokens next to each).

Mix the 60 animal tokens face down. Stack them above the row markers into 4 face-down round towers. Build each round tower by putting the pointed ends of 5 animal tokens together to form a "flower". Then, form two more flowers above this base, making a 3-high tower of 15 animal tokens.

Place 1 tree tile on 3 of the towers. The tower without a tree tile is the current tower.

The youngest player takes the starting rock.

Playing the game

Play 4 rounds. Each round goes as follows:

The player with the starting rock begins the round by taking the first turn. Play then goes clockwise, with each player taking a turn till everyone has dropped out.

What do you do on your turn?

On your turn, you must do one of the following:

EITHER Action A: Draw an animal token OR Action B: Take an animal row

Action A: Draw an animal token

Take an animal token from the current tower and look at it in secret. Then choose either to place it in an animal row (see Option 1) or to keep it face down for yourself (see Option 2).

Option 1: Place the animal token face up in any animal row (i.e. next to one of the row markers). How many animal tokens are already there doesn't matter.

Option 2: Place the animal token face down in front of you without showing it to the other players. Keep it there till the end of the game (you can peek at it whenever you like). You can only take this option twice in the entire game. Once you have 2 tokens face down in front of you, you can only choose Option 1.

Action B: Take an animal row (and drop out of the round)

Instead of drawing an animal token from the tower, take one of the animal rows from the middle of the table (all its animal tokens and its row marker). You may take a row that contains no animal tokens.

Put the row marker in front of you to show that you've dropped out of the round. Put the animal tokens you've taken (if any) face up and clearly visible in front of you.

Group all your animal tokens by type. When you have 3 animal tokens of a type, they form a triqueta. If you collect more of that type, stack them on that triqueta. (You cannot form more than one triqueta per type.)

After your action, the player to your left takes a turn.

How does the round continue after you drop out?

Once you've dropped out (with a row marker in front of you), skip your turn for the rest of the round. Eventually, just one player and one row will remain. That player may take Action A as long as that player likes and is able.

If the current tower is empty, only Action B can be chosen.

When does the round end?

When the last player in the round takes the last animal row, they also take the starting rock. This ends the round. Return any animal tokens left in the current tower to the box unseen.

Return the row markers to the middle of the table (as in the setup).

If any round towers remain, the player with the starting rock chooses one of them to be the current tower, then takes the tree tile from it and places it beside their collected animals. Then the next round starts.

If no towers remain, the game ends.

End of the game

The game ends after the fourth round. Now, the scores are worked out.

Each player does the following:

For each face-down animal token in front of you, either:

Add it face up to the rest of the animal tokens you collected, or
Put it back in the box face down.

Then count how many animal tokens you have of each of the 6 types:

If you have none of that type, you get 0 points.
If you have exactly 1 of that type, you get 1 point.
If you have exactly 2 of that type, you get 2 points.
If you have exactly 3 of that type (a triqueta) you get that type's printed value (5 to 10 points).
If you have more than 3 of that type, you get nothing for the triqueta. Instead, you lose 1 point for each animal token on top of the triqueta.

Add your scores for each type together. If you have the starting rock, get 1 more point, and get 1 point for each of your tree tiles.

The player with the most points wins. Ties are broken in favor of the tied player with the most animal tokens. If still tied, all tied players win.

Scoring example

At the end of the game, you have:

2x rabbit: 2 points
3x owl: 6 points
1x deer: 1 points
3x boar: 8 points
5x bear: -2 points
Starting rock: 1 point
2x tree tiles: 2 points

Total = 18 points

In our Deep Print Games app, you can find virtual scoring pads for all our games. Get it for free on the App Store and on Google Play.

Credits

Game design: Stefan Dorra, Ralf zur Linde
Artwork: Annika Heller
Development: Peter Eggert, Viktor Kobilke
Rule book: Viktor Kobilke
Translation: Neil Crowley