Objective of the Game

The players attempt to 'palm off' as many cards as possible on the other players. You must be able to bluff and size up the other players. The player who collected too many cards loses!

Setup

All the cards should be shuffled well. Seven cards are placed face down as a penalty pile with the top card face up. The other cards are dealt equally to the players. Then each player picks up his cards. If there are cards left over, the first player receives one extra card and the others are added to the penalty pile.

Gameplay

The youngest player begins by passing one card from his hand face down to another player by making a claim. Regardless the card he plays, he can choose one of these claims: 'stink bug, cockroach, bat, fly, toad, rat, scorpion or royal'. The claim 'royal' means it is (or could be) any animal with a crown. Further course of the game is explained by an example. Example: Henry plays a card from his hand by and passes it face down to Lea. At the same time he makes a claim and says for example, 'Cockroach'. Now Lea has two possibilities: 1) Show the card Lea decides to see the card. But before she can see the card, she has to judge Henry’s claim. She says: ● 'right', if she believes Henry’s claim ('Cockroach'); ● 'wrong', if she doesn’t believe his claim. Then the card is displayed. If Lea has guessed correctly, Henry gets the card and places it in front of him, facing up. But if Lea is wrong, she has to take the card and place it in front of her, facing up. Whoever gets the card starts the next round by playing a card from his hand and making a claim. 2) Passing the card on If Lea does not want to show the card but pass it on, she must say so before she takes a secret look at the card. Then she slides the card face down to any one of the other players (Derek for instance), who has not yet seen what card it is. Then she in turn makes a claim about which card it is. Either she repeats Henry’s claim ('Cockroach') or she makes a new claim (e.g. 'Royal'). Derek then also has the choice of showing the card or passing it on. The last player, however, is left with no choice but to show the card. Royal cards While for normal animal cards only one claim is 'right', the royal cards offer two 'right' claims: The pictured kind of animal or the claim 'Royal'. Each time a player receives a royal card and places it face up in front of him, he must also take the top card from the penalty pile and also place it face up in front of him. The laid out royal animals are counted as one of their type. Afterwards the top card on the penalty pile is turned face up once more. Special cards Wild: This card is a joker for all animals without a crown. No matter what claim one makes, this card is always right, with one exception: 'Royal' is wrong. Nothing: There is nothing to be seen on this card. No matter what claim one makes, it is always wrong. Whoever gets one of the special cards does not place it in front of him, but adds it to his hand. Also this player must either: 1) place one of the cards from his hand in front of him, according to the last claim (e.g. 'Fly') or, 2) if he cannot or does not want to place the named card in front of him, he must place any two other cards from his hand. Attention: Whenever you place a royal card in front of you, you must also take the top card from the penalty pile and place it too. End of Game The game ends either when a player has 4 animals of one type (e.g. 4 cockroaches with or without a crown) placed in front of him or when it is his turn and he has no more cards in his hand. In both cases this player has lost and all the others have won! 2 Players Variant Before the start of a game for two players, 16 cards are put in the penalty pile. The other cards are dealt equally between the two players. The first player receives one extra card. Passing on a card is not possible in the two-player-version. The game ends when a player either has placed 5 animals of one type in front of him, or when it is his turn and he has no more cards in his hand. In both cases this player has lost and the other player has won.

Rules Source: Official Manual