Kill The Unicorns Rulebook (Work in Pogress) 3-4 Players game Once upon a time… A long time ago, far far away, a Queendom was overrun with thousands of pesky unicorns relieving themselves on private property, eating endangered plant life and subsequently farting a lot! As unicorn gas is toxic, air pollution in the Queendom drastically increased, seriously impacting the local environment. This contamination created microclimates around the Queendom: it started raining sugar and candy, making everything sticky. Too kind to take action, the old Queen left the matter with her malicious daughter. Eager to prove her leadership to the citizens, the Princess declared four days dedicated to hunting unicorns annually, and everyone was invited! This was great news for the gnomes, who ran an illegal global black market for unicorn parts. This annual hunt meant that they didn’t have to waste time catching the beasts themselves - a difficult thing to do - and could instead buy them cheapy from the citizens!
Goal of the game: Capture the most beautiful unicorns, then sell them on the gnome’s black market, while avoiding the traps from your opponents. The game lasts 4 days / rounds. At the end of the 4th round, players count their victory points by adding the value of each unicorn card and the color collection points.
In the box: • • • • • • • •
20 unicorn cards 4 starting unicorn cards 4 black market cards 4 character power cards 8 hunt cards per player 8 scheme cards per player 1 scoring card 16 black market tokens
Set up:
1. Each player chooses a character, and takes their corresponding hunt and scheme cards.
The players shuffle all their scheme cards and lay them on a pile facing down in front of them and then take their hunt cards in hands. 2. Shuffle the unicorn cards; place 4 unicorns in line on the table. Put the black market cards
above the unicorns and place the tokens on them. 2. Randomly distribute a starting unicorn to each player, then place the remaining starting
unicorns cards in the box. 4. The player who last saw a real unicorn is the first player (and should consult a psychiatrist as
quickly as possible).
Hunting Day/ Round: 1. It’s a Trap ! (Beginning of the round) 2. Eyes on the Prize & 3. Definitely Maybe (1 / Unicorn) 4. The Black Market (End of the round)
1/ It’s a Trap! Each player draws two scheme cards. Starting with the first player, each player clockwise will discard one of his scheme card face up. This will be his scheme discard pile. He then slides his remaining scheme card under the unicorn of his choice, face down. There can not be more than two scheme cards per unicorn (one below and one above the unicorn card). Once the card is placed, it can no longer be looked at during the turn.
2/ Eyes on the Prize To catch a unicorn, you have to win a hunt. A hunt corresponds to only one of the four unicorns unveiled during the set up of the current turn and they are necessarily resolved one by one starting from the Unicorn drawing pile to the black market cards. The first player can do one of two actions: hunt or pass. If he decides to pass, the next player clockwise becomes the first player. If he decides to hunt, the first player announces the number of hunt cards that will have to be played during this hunt (from 1 to 3 cards). Then he plays the same number of hunt cards face down in front of him. These hunt cards represent the hunter's motivation to capture these vile creatures: the higher the score, the more likely he is to catch the Unicorn. Following clockwise, the other players may also choose to hunt or pass. If they decide to hunt, they must play the exact same number of cards announced by the first player, face down in front of them. If they pass ... well, they pass!
3/ Definitely Maybe Once everyone has played or passed, the hunt cards are revealed. The player who has the highest accumulated value of hunt cards is the winner! Note: In case of ties between the highest values, the 2nd best value wins (the ties are canceled). If all players are tied, the unicorn runs away: the unicorn card is discarded, along with the associated scheme cards.
The Shaman and the Wizard are tied, their hunt value are cancelled and the Princess wins. The winner then reveals the scheme card associated with the unicorn hunted (if there is one). If there is a choice, he chooses one of the two scheme cards present without consulting them beforehand (we can only reveal one card per unicorn) and immediately applies the effect BEWARE : Some scheme card, once revealed, may name another winner. After the scheme card is revealed and its effect applied, the winner captures the unicorn and places it in front of him. If he wishes, he can group his Unicorns by color: he can re-arrange his collections throughout the game to improve his scoring. Hunt and scheme cards played during this turn are discarded face-up in front of their owner (unless the scheme card had to be attached to a unicorn). The player who won the Unicorn then becomes the new first player. If the first player won the hunt or the unicorn was discarded, he remains first player. If there are still unicorns on the table, repeat phase 2 and 3. If there are no Unicorns go to phase 4.
4/ The Black Market Once all the unicorns are hunted, the day ends and the players can make a purchase on the gnome black market. Starting from the first player, they can each make one and only one purchase from the black market, by paying with the value of the remaining hunt cards in their hand (it represents the remaining will and energy, the player has to bargain with the gnomes). When you buy an item on the black market, you choose the token that you want and then it is not available for other players. The token is immediately associated with a unicorn (except for the paté that is placed in front of the player).
$2 Unicorn Butcher: Discard a Unicorn card and its scheme card (if there is one) and take a Pâté (Pâté = Victory points) $3 Fake Horn : This unicorn is worth +2 points. $3 Cotton Candy : Change the color of this unicorn into the color of the token. $6 Fairy Dust : Change the color of this unicorn into the color of the token and increase its worth by +2 points. Once all these steps have been completed, the players all recover their hunt cards in hand. They draw four new unicorns and start a new day / round.
Scoring: This is the moment for each player to sell all his unicorns captured to the gnomes! What the gnomes will do with them next is a well kept secret ... You first count the points of the unicorns (the number of coins at the top of the card), then the bonuses / penalties associated with the scheme cards and the black market tokens. Players will receive additional victory points for each unicorn color collection. 2 Unicorns of the same color: +2 points 3 Unicorns of the same color: +5 points 4 Unicorns of the same color: +8 points 5 Unicorns of the same color: +12 points With more than 5 unicorns of the same color, players must start a new collection. The player may also create a "Rainbow", but the cards used can not be reused to complete another collection. Rainbow (1 unicorn card of each color): +8 points Double Rainbow (2 unicorn cards of each color): Instant victory
Note : Legendary unicorns : The legendary 4-point unicorn cards, have no color, and are too cool to belong to any family ... so you have to buy items on the black market to incorporate them into a collection. Character Powers: Using character powers is optional, but can only be done once per hunting day.
F.A.Q : What happens in case of a tie at the end? You've been told that ties cancel each other out, right? :-) So the next player with the most victory points wins the game. Can we put several black market items on the same unicorn card? Yes. Victory point bonuses are cumulative. If this concerns several objects that change the color of a unicorn, it is the player who chooses at the end of the game what object color is applied.
Starting Unicorn: Despite the fact that they vaguely look like Unicorns, they are classic unicorn cards. Trojan Unicorn: The unicorn exchange applies even if one of two players does not have unicorns to give. In case the owner of the card wins the hunt, nothing happens. Smelly Unicorns: This card can give negative points to one unicorn.