Gamehelplepidoptery

Objective

In Lepidoptery, a hybrid of a connection game and a deck climber, there are two ways to win:

• Four in a Row: Be the first to connect four of your tokens in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line.
• Shed Out: Be the first to play all the cards from your hand and your deck.

Quick Setup

• Decks: Each player has a 38-card deck (ranks 1-10) and starts with a 12-card hand.
• Joker: Each player has one Joker (wildcard) placed face up in front of them.
• Board: Place the board between players. Each column represents one of the five combination types.

Gameplay

Players take turns choosing one of the following two actions:

Action 1: Play & Place

This action allows you to play cards and place tokens on the board.

1. Play a Combination: Play a valid card combination from your hand.
   • Restriction: You cannot play the same combination type twice in a row (unless you passed in between).
   • Placeable: There must be an empty space in the corresponding column on the board.
   • Climbing: Your combination must "beat" the previous one (see Climbing Rules below).
2. Place Token: "Drop" a token into the lowest empty space of the column matching your combination.
3. Update Marker: Move your marker to show which combination type you just played.
4. Check for Win: Check if you have achieved "Four in a Row" or "Shed Out".
5. Clear Columns: If your token fills a column, remove all tokens from all other already full columns.

Action 2: Pass & Refresh

Choose this if you cannot or do not want to play (not allowed if you are the leader and have a legal move).

1. Clear Play Area: Discard all cards currently in the play area.
2. Pass Marker: Move your marker to the "Pass" slot.
3. Reset Joker: Flip your Joker back to its face-up (active) side.
4. Draw Cards: All players replenish their hands to 12 cards. If a player already has 12 or more cards, they draw exactly one card instead.

Key Decision Information

The 5 Combination Types

• Single: One card (e.g., 7).
• Pair: Two cards of the same rank (e.g., 6-6).
• Run of 2: Two cards with sequential ranks (e.g., 4-5).
• Triple: Three cards of the same rank (e.g., 8-8-8).
• Run of 3: Three cards with sequential ranks (e.g., 1-2-3).

Climbing Rules (Beating Combinations)

A new combination beats the previous one if:

• Its lowest card rank is higher than the lowest rank of the previous combo.
• OR: The lowest rank is the same, but the new combo contains more cards (e.g., a Pair of 5s beats a Single 5).
• Note: Combinations belonging to the same column (type) cannot be played on each other.

Joker Rules

• Jokers are Wildcards (ranks 1-10) but cannot be played as a Single.
• Once played, flip the Joker over. It only refreshes when you take the "Pass & Refresh" action.
• Jokers are not part of your deck and do not need to be played to "Shed Out".

Game End

The game ends immediately when a player completes a line of four tokens or plays their final card from both hand and deck.