Games & Cats — How to Play

Game Objective

In Games & Cats, the cats have decided to play a cooperative video game to ward off loneliness! The theme involves heroes (animals from the Brazilian fauna) who must stop evil robots that are destroying the forest. The ultimate final challenge is to face the boss: the Red Dragon.

Since it is a cooperative game, all players win together or all players lose together. The victory condition is to defeat the Dragon and all of its robots, ensuring that at least one hero remains alive at the end of the match.

Setup

The game setup varies depending on the number of players:

• 1 player: Choose one cat and 4 heroes.
• 2 players: Each player chooses 1 cat and 3 heroes.>
• 3 players: Each player chooses 1 cat and 2 heroes.
• 4 players: Each player chooses 1 cat and 1 hero. (If a player loses their hero, they may replace them with one of the other 2 available heroes).

The remaining cat cards should be kept out of the game.

Robot deck setup:

1. Separate the dragon card and shuffle the robot cards.
2. Choose the difficulty:
   • Easy Mode: Remove the dragon and 15 robot cards.
   • Medium Mode: Remove only 10 robot cards.
   • Hard Mode: Use all robot cards.
3. Place 10 robot cards face down on the table and place the dragon on top of them.
4. Place all the other robot cards face down on top of the dragon (this ensures that the dragon is the last card of the game).

Gameplay Flow

The player with the most cats at home starts the match. The game follows a turn-based structure among the players.

Turn Structure:

1. The current player draws 4 robot cards from the deck and leaves them face up.
2. The player chooses a hero to face the robots of the round.
3. The player performs the attack using cat dice and their character's power.
4. After the attack, the player can decide to flee or continue the attack.
5. If the player ends their turn, the turn passes to the next player.

Table limit rule: The next player must also place up to 4 more cards, but the table can have a maximum of 6 robot cards in total. If there are already 3 on the table, the player can only place 3 more.

Actions and How to Play

During your turn, you have the following options and mechanics:

Facing Robots

To defeat a robot, you must hit exactly the number indicated on its card. You can use the result of a single cat die, or add the results of the dice or your character's power to reach the exact value.

• Important: A single die cannot be used to face two different robots, but you can distribute the dice among the robots to defeat more than one.
• If the hero fails to hit at least one robot or the dragon in the dice roll, the hero is defeated and removed from the game.

Special Abilities

• Hero Power: Each hero has a different power to help in combat.>
• Cat Power: Each cat has a different power, but it can only be used once per game. After use, turn the card face down to mark that the power has been spent.
• Robot Abilities: Some robots have defense or counter-attack abilities. If the hero does not survive the counter-attack, they are defeated and removed from the game.

Flee or Continue

After defeating at least one robot, the player decides:

• Flee: If no robot on the table is preventing the escape, the hero leaves the table and the turn passes.>
• Continue the attack: The player rolls the cat dice again to try to defeat more robots.>

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when all robots and the dragon are defeated, or when all heroes are defeated.

Cooperative Mode

Players win together if they defeat the dragon and all the robots, even if some heroes were defeated in the process.

Competitive Mode

If played competitively, the player with the most points at the end wins. The scoring is:

• Each robot defeated: 1 point.>
• Defeating all robots on the table at once: 3 additional points.>
• Defeating the Dragon: 3 points.>
• Each living hero: 3 points.>
• Unused cat ability: 3 points.>

Tips for Winning

Consult the manual for details regarding this section.