Gamehelpcatinthebox

2024-07-24T15:51:08Z

DougFullStop: /* Check the winner of the trick */

==Overview==
'''Cat in the Box''' is a trick-taking game. Your goal is to get the most points by winning tricks. You receive bonus points for successfully predicting the number of tricks you win. However, you lose points if you cause a paradox!

The game includes:

* 45 cards: 1-9 (5 copies each)
* Research board with colors: blue, yellow, green, red (trump color)
* Player boards

{|class="wikitable" style="width:auto;" border="2"
|+Card Uses
!'''Player'''
|'''Cat Cards'''
|'''Cards per Player'''
|-
!5
|45 (1-9)
|9
|-
!4
|40 (1-8)
|10
|-
!3
|30 (1-6)
|10
|-
!2
|25 (1-5)
|10
|}

==Preparation==

# Cards are dealt evenly to each player
# After checking their hand, each player selects one of their cards and places it facedown near the research board
# Predict number of tricks in clockwise order

==Game Play==

Beginning with the start player, play a turn:

# Play a card and declare the observed color
# Place a player token on the corresponding space on the research board
# Determine winner of trick (See below)

Repeat playing turns until there is only '''one card''' left in your hand.

===Check the winner of the trick===
The player who played the highest rank card in trump (red) wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest rank card in the led suit wins the trick.
**
**
*

The player who played the winning card leads the next trick.

===Declaring the Observed Color===
Rules to follow:

# In the row of the color you are declaring on the research board, the played card number's space must be empty.
# On your player board, X of the color you are declaring is not revealed.

Follow these rules depending on your position:

* '''Start Player''': You may only declare blue, yellow, or green. Exception: if any tokens are on the red row of the research board, you may declare red. In other words, the start player can lead with trump if it has been broken.
* '''Following Players''': You may declare any color (following the above rules). If you declare a color other than the led color, remove your player token of the led color on your player board, revealing X. For the rest of the round, you will not be able to declare that color.

===Paradox===
A paradox occurs when declaring the observed color rule cannot be met. Immediately proceed to the scoring phase.

==Scoring==
Points from tricks

* 1 point for each trick won

Bonus points from prediction

* 1 point for each token in the largest group of your player tokens connected adjacently on the research board

If you caused a paradox

* -1 point for each trick won and bonus score is forfeited.

==End of Game==
The game ends after all players have been the round start player. The winner is the player with the most total points.

Gamehelplunar

2024-06-07T15:50:04Z

DougFullStop: Added deck Composition section

===Overview===

A twist on the traditional Trick Taking game, where one partner plays the Suit and the other plays the Rank, attempting to combine their cards into winning combinations

'''Deck Composition'''

The deck is composed of 48 cards:

3 of each rank card (without suits) in ranks 1-8

6 of each suit card (without ranks) in 4 suits (wolf, owl, lynx & bat)
===Turn===

To start off, each player picks 2 Rank cards and 2 Suit cards from their starting hand to exchange with their partner

Secondly, beginning with the start player, players flip one trump card facedown until only one remains faceup and this becomes the Trump suit

Then Tricks commence

The starting player can play any card they desire

The first player of a team can also play either a Suit card or Rank card, whilst the second player on the same team has to play the other i.e. if teammate 1 plays a Suit then teammate 2 must play a Rank

The first player to play a Suit determines the lead Suit of the trick, note that this does NOT have to be the start player nor the start team e.g. team A Player 1 plays Rank, team B Player 1 plays Suit, team B has determined Suit

Once Lead Suit is determined, the next player to play Suit must play the same Suit if they have it, or any if they do not hold a copy of Lead Suit

After a Trick is completed, determine the winner of the trick as follows:

If the teams played the same suit, the highest rank wins, if tied the team who played last wins

If the teams played different suits, and one was the trump suit, the team with the trump suit wins

If the team played different suits, with no trump played, the team who determined the Lead Suit (i.e. played Suit earliest) wins

The team who wins advances their team marker one space and retains any cards played by any team which contain the star icon

The leader of the winning team starts the next trick

===Round End===

The round ends when players run out of hand cards

Each team scores points based on the stars next to their position on the team track

In addition, each team scores a point for each retained star card

A new round begins

===Game End===

The game ends if, at round end, at least one team has scored at least 30 points

The team with the most points, wins!

If tied, continue playing rounds until there is a clear winner

===2 Player Variant===

There is a neutral Sky area with its own 'hand' of cards

In each round, each player has two turns, one where they must play Suit or Rank, and the other where they play what they did not play before

In addition, one card must come from their hidden hand and the other must come from the shared Sky 'hand', again the order is player choice but the second turn must be played from where they did not play before

In regards to following Suit, ONLY consider the cards in the area you plan to (or must) play from e.g. if there is a lead suit card in the Sky but none in your hand, you can choose to play a non-lead Suit from your hand.

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Gamehelpcatinthebox

Gamehelplunar