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Quabble - Rules

Story

The battle for the land of Hedonia was both unspectacular and short lived. The once warring houses are finally united under a single King, who graciously allows each house the autonomy to manage their surrounding lands…lands that now belong to the Kingdom.

There is a problem though:


Prior to the war, the houses jointly claimed (and fought over) many of the magical creatures and enchanted artefacts from these lands – these “assets” are very valuable, but now…which house keeps them?

To prevent further bickering, the King collects all of the disputed assets and gradually releases them back to each house.. under the condition that each asset must first be offered to the neighbouring house to the left.


If both houses want the asset, neither can claim it but the asset’s value will be split between them. If only one house wants the asset, the house can claim it as their own. If neither house wants it, the asset will be returned to the King.

 

Setup

  1. Players must be seated in a circle. Shuffle the 60 asset cards.
  2. Each player privately receives 5 asset cards. Cards in a player’s hand are referred to as the player’s ‘available’ cards.
  3. Place the remaining asset cards face-down in the center. These cards form the ‘unreleased’ deck.
  4. Give each player a claim indicator card.
  5. Decide who will be the first ‘active’ player. The direction of play is initially clockwise.
Game setup

 

Gameplay

Each round consists of three phases:


1. Offer Phase

The active player in each round is the player to the left of the active player from the previous round. Starting from the active player and moving in the direction of play, each player chooses one of their available asset cards to ‘offer’ to their opponent to their left.

This asset card is placed face up between themselves and the player to their left.

 

2. Decision Phase

All players then take a moment to decide if they want to claim the asset on their left (the one they offered) or their right (the one that was offered to them).

Players place their obscured claim indicator card in front of them, so the arrow points to the desired asset card on the left or right (the easiest way to do this is to place the claim indicator card face up with your palm over it, ensuring the other players can’t see the direction it’s pointing).

 

3. Reveal Phase

All players simultaneously reveal the direction of their claim indicator card. Each asset card will end up being claimed by both players, one player or neither player.

The consequence for each offered asset card is resolved according to the Claim Rules.

If there are still cards remaining in the unreleased deck, each player takes an asset card from the top of the unreleased card deck, adds it to their available cards and a new round begins. Otherwise, the game ends.

Claim example

 

Claim Rules

Both players claim the card

The asset card becomes “shared”. Neither player may claim the card, but it is placed face-up between them. Each player will receive half of its value at the end of the game.

 

One player claims the card

The claiming player moves the face-up asset card to their ‘Treasury’ in front of them. They now ‘own’ this card. Treasury cards must be visible to all players.

 

Neither player claims the card

If neither player claims the asset card, it’s moved to the center, face up, as part of the King’s Treasury.

 

card setup

 

Asset Powers

An asset’s power can grant (or sometimes remove) points from their owner in addition to the points shown for its value. Some asset’s powers are dependent on the assets held by other players, so play the game carefully!

An asset’s power is only used at the end of the game during scoring – the exception is the Red Snatcher and the Misdirection cards, which are used immediately.

An asset’s power can only be used once.

card explainer

 

Winning

The game ends when players have no more available cards remaining. Starting from the next active player in the current direction of play, each player’s final score is calculated by adding:

  • Half of all the values of the shared cards on their left
  • Half of all the values of the shared cards on their right
  • All of their asset’s values in their Treasury, after following the Power Activation Laws

 

Power Activation Laws

Asset powers are activated in the following order:


1.    Snorkel Pigs
2.    Bearded Hoppers
3.    Magic Carrots
4.    Doom Snails
5.    Royal Poofins
6.    Very Rare Eggs
7.    Grungles
8.    Deathslayers
9.    Cursed Sushi

Note: the King is not considered a Player.

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