Here you can see a tutorial to know how to play The Jelly Monster Lab, a card game you can find at thegamecrafter.com.
Here are the rules:
The Jelly Monster Lab is a game of skill, memory and strategy, consisting of creating diverse jelly monsters, combining parts (colored bodies, eyes and mouth) in a particular laboratory.
COMPONENTS
· 36 monster part cards,
· 24 experiment cards,
· 6 labs cards,
· 5 'game guide' cards,
· 30 trail tokens,
· 5 meeples,
· rules booklets.
GAME SETUP
Place the labs in a circle at the center the table, as shown in the image. Shuffle the parts cards and place 6 cards in each laboratory. Shuffle the experiments cards and place them in the center of the circle. Place also there one meeples for each player and deal them the trail tokens of its color.
Then, the most monstrous player draws two experiment cards and the other players do the same in clockwise direction.
OBJECTIVE
Them game objective is to get the highest possible score, by getting experiments. Each experiment has a rating score, and at the end of the game, all experiments made by a player will be summed and will give its final score.
TURNS
In clockwise direction, and beginning with the most monstrous player, the game will be played by turns. Each turn has different phases:
1. Movement
Each lab is connected to their adjacent labs and to the center, so we can move our meeple to any other connected place. If our movement comes from the center, we can move to any lab.
It's not allowed to move to a lab that has a trail token of our color, nor can we move to the center if we have 5 cards in hand, unless there are no longer experiment cards in the center to draw.
If we go to the center...
Draw an experiment card, if any left, and add it to your hand. Here ends your turn.
If we go to to a lab...
2. Lift/lay the meeple
If we come from the center, we lay down our meeple. If not, and our meeple was layed, we lift it up.
A player whose meeple is layed at the beginning of the turn, can't move to the center in its movement phase.
3. Check for experiments
In The Jelly Monster Lab, you won't get an experiment until another player has cheked it out. If we enter to a lab which has a trail token from another player on it, we will check if there is any valid experiment in its cards.
An experiment is consideded valid if among all the cards in the lab, you can find the three different parts: eyes, mouth and colored body, that make up the jelly monster from the experiment card (also found among that lab cards), and only if we are in the lab indicated by the experiment.
If an experiment is valid, we give the experiment card to the trail token's owner, who will leave it on the table faced down, in such a way no other player may see the experiment, but count how many experiments each player has achieved. Players can see their own achieved experiments in any moment at the game.
It's possible to find more than one valid experiment in the same lab, using the same parts cards or different ones. It's also possible to find experiments that are not valid at the first moment, because any other player didn't find it much interesting and left it in there.
4. Exchange trails
In case there was a trail token in the lab, we give it back to its owner and we leave there one of our color.
5. ¡Let's make experiments!
We pick up all the cards in the lab and mix them with all cards in our hand.
According to our strategy and the experiments we have, we may choose which cards put back into the lab and which cards we keep in hand.
The only restriction is that we can not have more than five cards in hand, but we can keep one, two or none. The remaining cards (either parts or experiments) will be left back into the lab.
6. End of turn
The turn passes to the player on your left.
LOCKS IN MOVEMENT
Maybe at some point in the game, you can not move to an adjacent lab that has trails of your color, and also can not go to the center, either because you have 5 cards in hand or have your meeple lying down.
In that case, you are forced to leave a card from your hand to the lab where you are and you will pass turn. If you had your meeple lying down, lift it up.
END OF THE GAME
At the moment any player has 4 experiments achieved, the game will end when any player go to the center in its movement phase.
VARIANTS
You can place labs randomly, remove some parts cards to unbalance the experiments, play to more or less experiments achieved to lengthen or shorten the game... You can even invent new features! Hair, arms, legs, accessories ...
This game has been designed, created and illustrated by Adela Torre.
For more information, questions, suggestions and Print and Play copies, you can contact adela@ludocoop.es.
This game has been fully developed with Libre Software.
Text and images are subject to a Creative Commons - Attribution - ShareAlike license. March 2013.