Good Critters
4 - 8 players
In Good Critters, you are members
of a truly wild gang that makes
a business of stealing piles of loot.
After each heist, everybody eagerly
tries to get the biggest share possible.
In the end, the critter that can collect
the most valuable stash of lot wins!
If you can scan the QR code above,
you can also see it on your mobile!
<Components>
- 140 Loot Cards
: representing the cash, gems,
jewelry, paintings and sculptures
the gang might lift during a job.
Loot cards come in 4 values
: $2000, $3000, $4000, and $5000.
- 40 Action Cards
: 5 for each player, which are
: Guard, Rob, Skim, Vote NO, Vote YES.
- 1 THE FUZZ! Card
: that ends the game.
- 8 Threat Markers
with plastic stands
: 1 for each player.
- 1 BOSS Marker
with a plastic stand
: to show who's calling the shots.
- 16 Payoff Tokens
: 2 for each player.
Used only with the optional
Payoff Rules.
- 40 Payoff Cards
: for use as bribes.
Each is worth $1000.
Used only with the optional
Payoff Rules.
<Set Up>
Each player choose a critter to play
and takes all of the matching pieces
: 5 Action cards and 1 Threat marker.
(If you are playing with
the optional Payoff rules,
each player also takes 5 Payoff cards
and 2 Payoff tokens of
the matching color to their critter.)
Give each player 4 Loot cards
to start their Stash : one of each value.
The type of Loot does not matter
(but might in expansions),
and should be chosen randomly.
Your Stash includes all of
the Loot cards you own,
and never includes your Action cards
(or any Payoff cards if you're
using that optional rule).
Now you need to create the Loot pile.
Shuffle the rest of the Loot cards
to create a face-down pile.
Divide the deck into roughly equal parts,
according to the number of players,
as shown on the chart.
Don't worry about making the parts
exactly equal in size.
Randomly shuffle THE FUZZ! card
into one of those parts,
as shown on the cart.
Stack the parts of the deck on
top of each other to form a single pile.
Be careful that the part with THE FUZZ! card
is in its appropriate position.
ex)
In a five player game,
the deck is split in 7 roughly equal parts.
The Fuzz! is randomly shuffled into the fifth part,
then the deck is put back together:
2 parts are at the bottom,
then the part with The Fuzz!,
and the other 4 parts on top.
When you are finished,
you will have a face-down Loot pile in the center of the table,
with The Fuzz! card randomly placed in the lower half of the pile.
The owner of the game is always the first Boss.
The Boss takes the Boss Marker,
and should do the best they can to keep the other critters in line.
<Game Progress>
Good Critters is played over
a number of rounds, continuing
until the FUZZ! card is revealed.
Then the FUZZ show up and
everybody has to take it on the lam...
and count their "hard won" loot.
During each round,
a number of Loot cards will be
drawn from the Loot pile.
The Boss will decide how to spread
the loot around,
then everybody votes on
whether they can accept it or not.
If they vote yes, the Boss hands out
the loot and stays in charge
for around round.
If they vote no, the Boss has to
surrender the Boss Ring and
a new Boss gets to split the loot!
When the FUZZ show up,
the game ends immediately.
Any Loot left on the table gets confiscated.
The critter with the most valuable
Stash when the FUZZ bust in is the winner.
Each round is divided into
these four steps,
which are played in order :
Step 1. Show the Loot
Step 2. Distribute the Loot
Step 3. Choose Actions
Step 4. Resolve Actions
Step 1. Show the Loot
The Boss turns over a number of
cards from the top of the Loot pile
equal to the number of players+2
and places them face up
in the middle of the table.
Everybody takes a moment to
OOH and AAH over the awesome goodies!
ex)
Al's the Boss, so he turns over the top 7 Loot cards(5 players +2 cards)
and puts them on the table.
"Look at all that lettuce!" he croons.
Step 2. Distribute the Loot
Now the Boss has to decide
how to spread the Loot around.
It's totally up to the Boss how to
distribute the cards
- they are not required to give
everybody a card.
They can even give everything
to just one player if they want.
The Boss can even give Loot to themselves.
But, all of the face up Loot cards
must be distributed.
Once the Boss has made up
their mind and distributed the shares,
this step ends.
Nobody gets to take their Loot yet.
The shares cannot be changed
during Step 3, and Step 4.
ex)
Now Al gets to split up the Loot.
He knows he needs more Yes votes than No notes to stay the Boss,
so he tries to make some friends:
He offers 2 Loot cards to Bonnie and 2 to Sammy.
He keeps the best 2 Loot cards for himself,
of course, and tries to hedge his bets by tossing the last Loot card to Louie.
Step 3. Choose Actions
During this step,
all players play at the same time
- there are no turns!
Players can try to make deals
or issue Threats and ultimatums.
At some point, each player
must choose exactly one of
their Action cards to play,
placing it face down in front of them.
You can change your mind
after you choose your card
and play another one,
up until the point that everybody
has a card in front of them,
and nobody wants to make any changes.
If you are playing with
the optional Payoff rules,
players can also offer bribes to
other players to influence their vote.
Attention:
If this step is taking too long because players keep changing their minds,
you can have everybody take turns,
starting with the Boss and going clockwise,
offering bribes and making threats.
Afterwards, players can choose an Action card at the same time.
Making Threats
During Step 3, players can make any deals
they want to make to try to get
the others to vote the way
they want them to.
But sometimes, the best way
to get a goon to follow your orders
is to make a good threat.
Each player has one Threat marker
that they can use to threaten another player.
A Threat means that the player
may try to steal Loot from the player
by playing a Rob card.
A Rob card can only target the player
that has the robber's Threat marker
in front of them.
Threat markers can be used as a bluff.
A player is never required to play a Rob card,
even if they have placed their Threat marker
in front of another player.
ex)
Now the free-for-all begins,
with the critters making demands and complaints.
After a lot of finger-pointing,
Sammy puts his Threat token in front of Louie (A),
who returns the favor (B).
Bonnie thinks that's fun,
so she puts her Threat token in front of Sammy, too (C).
Then everybody picks an Action card and places it face down in front of them.
Step 4. Resolve Actions
Now it's time to see how all
the previous turn's scheming will unfold,
and whether or not the Boss
will stay in power or if a different critter
will don the ring.
During this step,
each player has a turn,
starting with the Boss and
going clockwise around the table,
revealing the Action card they
played during Step 3.
When a card is revealed,
the player that revealed it
then carries out the action shown.
Attention:
If a player played a Guard card,
they must reveal it out of turn order
if it is revealed that another player
is robbing them with the Rob card.
- Vote Yes is a vote in favor of
the current Boss and the Loot distribution
they are proposing.
If there are at least as many Vote Yes card
as Vote No cards, the vote passes.
- Vote No is a vote against
the current Boss and the Loot distribution
they are proposing.
If there are more Vote No cards
than Vote Yes cards, the vote fails.
Attention:
Though it may seem strange,
the Boss can Vote No against themselves!
- Skim allows a player to take
the top Loot card from the Loot Pile
and add it to their Stash
(it is not taken from the face up
Loot cards being voted on - always the top
face down card from the deck).
But, only the first player to reveal
a Skim card each round gets to
carry out this action!
Anybody else who plays one gets
nothing for their trouble.
- Rob means that a player is trying
to take Loot directly from another player.
The player who is robbed is always
the one that has the robber's
Threat marker in front of them.
If the player didn't put their Treat marker
in front or another player,
the Rob action has no effect.
If a player successfully robs,
they pull a random Loot card from
the Stash of their victim and
adds it to their own.
- Guard is used by a player to
protect themselves from being robbed.
If a player plays this card,
they reveal it any time another player
reveals a Rob card,
if the robber's Threat marker
is in front of them.
Instead of being robbed,
the guarding player gets to steal one
random Loot card from the robber's Stash!
A single Guard card protects the player
from all robbery attempts against them
for the entire round.
If multiple players reveal Rob cards
against a player who is guarding,
the guarding player gets to steal
one random Loot card from
each of the robber's Stashes!
Attention:
The Guard card is revealed out of turn
if you are the target of a Rob card.
Results of the Vote
- If there are more Vote Yes card
than Vote No cards, the Vote passes.
A Yes Vote:
If the Vote passes,
the distribution of Loot put
forth by the Boss is accepted.
Everybody takes the Loot assigned to
them and adds it to their own Stash.
The Boss gets to keep being the Boss,
and a new round starts with Step 1.
- If there are exactly as many
Vote Yes cards as Vote No cards
(or if no Vote Yes or Vote No cards
are played at all), the vote is a tie.
A Tie Vote:
If the vote is a tie,
the gang reluctantly accepts
the distribution of Loot,
but they lose faith in the Boss
and decide it's time for
somebody else to take charge.
Everybody takes the Loot assigned to them,
and then the next player clockwise
from the previous Boss
becomes the new Boss,
and a new round starts with Step 1.
- If there are more Vote No cards
than Vote Yes cards, the vote fails.
A No Vote:
If the vote fails,
the gang has rejected the Boss' plans.
All of the Loot cards distributed in
Step 2 are returned to the middle
of the table, still face up.
The first player clockwise from the Boss
who revealed a No card during
the voting becomes the new Boss.
They turn over two more cards
from the Loot Pile and
add them to the Loot already
in the middle of the table.
Then a new round starts with Step 2.
Attention:
In the rare case that the only vote is a No vote is a No vote placed by the Boss,
they keep the Boss job.
Return the Loot cards to the center of the table and draw two more Loot cards.
Begin the next round with Step 2.
If there aren't any votes placed at all,
voting should be resolved as if it were a tie.
Start the Next Round
Each player takes back the Action card
they played and their Threat marker
if they gave it out.
You must always have all 5 Action cards
to choose from each round
and your Threat marker to place.
Depending on the result of the vote,
the next round will begin
with either Step 1 or Step 2,
possibly with a new Boss.
<How to Finish the Game>
The players continue to play,
round after round,
voting and collecting Loot until
THE FUZZ! card is revealed.
- If THE FUZZ! show up when
you are drawing new Loot cards
to be distributed, the game ends immediately.
This can happen during Step 1
at the start of a new round,
or when there was a No vote
and you are drawing 2 additional
Loot cards for the new Boss to distribute.
- If THE FUZZ! don't make
an appearance until Step 4,
which can happen if the Skim action
is played, a new Loot card
is drawn for the Skim,
and the game continues until
the end of the current round.
When the game ends,
everybody counts up all of the
Loot in their Stash.
The player with the most valuable
wad of lettuce wins the game!
<Optional Rules>
Once you are familiar with
the basics of Good Critters,
you can add a little spice to the game
by including these optional rules.
PAYOFFS
When playing with this variant,
each player gets 2 Payoff tokens and 5 Payoff cards
at the beginning of the game.
Payoff cards are kept separate from your Stash,
and cannot be stolen with a Rob Action card.
At the end of the game,
each Payoff card is worth $1000.
OFFERING BRIBES
During the game, players can offer
bribes to other players to do
just about anything they want them to do
: vote yes, vote no, rob a specific player,
guard their stash, and so on.
They can even try to bribe the Boss
into distributing more Loot their way.
Similarly, they can offer almost
anything as part of the bribe,
such as taking a future action,
offering to do a favor, or giving them
Loot cards or Payoff cards.
Loot cards used this way can be open
(so everybody can see it),
or hidden(played face-down).
If you play the cards face-down,
you can allow the player
to peek at them or not.
Making a PAYOFF
The catch with bribers is that they are not
enforced by any rules in the game,
and players are free to cheat,
swindle, or lie as much as it suits them to.
However, if a player wants a little
guarantee of their quid pro quo,
they can offer a PAYOFF.
Each player has 2 Payoff tokens
that they can use to offer "binding"
bribes to other players.
To offer a Payoff, the player places
one of their Payoff tokens in front of
another player, along with any number of
Loot cards and/or Payoff cards
in any combination.
If a player needs more Payoff cards,
they can buy them from another player
in exchange for Loot cards from their Stash.
Each Payoff card is worth $1000
at the end of the game,
but players are free to negotiate
prices for them during the game.
Each Payoff token is double-sided
: one side shows Yes and
the other shows No.
The side of the Payoff token
showing indicates what action
the other player must take
in order to collect the Payoff.
If the player takes a different action,
they do not get to take the bribe.
Either way, the owner always takes
their Payoff token back.
Bribes are resolved immediately
after the player reveals their
Action card during Step 4
- Count the Votes.
Attention:
Since you have two Payoff tokens,
you can offer bribes to two players each round.
After all bribing is finished,
the players put their Loot cards
into their Stash,
and set their Payoff cards to the side
(the bills don't go in your Stash
because they can't be
stolen with a Rob card).
At the end of the game,
Payoff cards are added to the player's
Stash before they count their loot
to see who wins the game.
ex)
Al really wants the vote to pass so he can keep being the Boss,
and he's willing o throw some cash around to make it happen.
He puts a Payoff token with the Yes side up in front of Sammy with 2 Payoff cards (A).
Then he puts his other Payoff token,
also showing Yes,
in front of Bonnie with 1 Loot card and 1 Payoff card (B).
During the Count the Votes Step,
Sammy takes his turn after Al and reveals a No card (A),
so he doesn't get the Payoff cardsㅡthey go back to Al.
Later on, Bonnie turns over her Yes card (B).
She did what Al wanted,
so she keeps his bribe,
adding the Loot card to her Stash card
and the Payoff card with her other bills
After the dust settles,
Al will take both of his Payoff tokens back for the next round.
Limited BOSS Terms
Sometimes, a particularly charismatic player
can dominate the Boos job.
To give every player a chance at the job,
limit the Boss to a maximum of 3 rounds.
At the end of the third round,
even if the vote passes,
the title of Boss passes to the next player,
going clockwise.
As a reward for being so clever,
the former Boss gets a bonus
of one Loot card from
the top of the Loot Pile.
If it's THE FUZZ! card,
they draw a Loot card from the top
of the Loot pile for their reward.
Then the game ends immediately.
Alternate Game Length
Once you are familiar with the game,
feel free to randomly place
THE FUZZ! card into the Loot pile
without first separating the pile
into several parts.
Place it closer to the top of the pile
for a shorter game,
or closer to the bottom for a longer game.
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