Grotesque - Rules
Setup:
1. Players choose and shuffle an individual grotesque (character) deck of cards; then from this deck deal themselves a hand of seven cards (the remaining five cards will not be used in this game).
2. The player who last made something with their hands chooses who will start (there is a slight advantage to playing last – so choosing the person to your left means you will play the last card of the game)
3. See Number of Player Variations below for the setup depending on the number of players – place any neutral leaf/flower ‘boss’ cards in a row in the centre of the table.
4. Players look at their hand, and choose ONE card from the hand to be their grotesque marker card. Beginning with the starting player, players in turn place their marker card at either end of the row of cards on the table, to complete the setup. This card is your grotesque.
NB – it is a good idea to choose a card whose action you don’t want to have in your hand to be your marker card, as a way of removing that action from your hand.
5. Players each keep the remaining hand of six cards for playing the game.
Play:
6. Each player in turn chooses one card from their hand, and plays it into an individual discard pile (face up) in front of them. They then perform on their grotesque the action described on the card.
7. Players attempt to play cards in such as way as to manoeuvre their grotesque as close as possible to the central position by the end of the game.
8. Play continues in this way until all the cards have been played – NB it is not possible to ‘pass’ – all cards MUST be played.
9. The winner of each round becomes the starting player of the successive round.
Object and scoring:
1. The winner is the player whose grotesque card is in or closest to the middle position of the row.
2. If playing multiple rounds, each player scores each round with a score based on their distance from the middle position (e.g. middle = 0, adjacent to middle = 1 etc.) Lowest total score over multiple rounds wins.
Number of player variations:
Because there must always be an odd number of grotesque cards in play (in order for one to be in the middle), a number of neutral leaf/flower cards are used, which are not part of a character deck.
As long as the requirement of an odd total number of cards is respected, players may experiment with total numbers of cards in play on the table, adding more or fewer neutral cards; however we recommend the following setup. In each case, place any neutral cards in a row on the table first before laying players’ individual grotesques adjacent to them:
2-4 players: add neutral cards to make total 7 cards in the row
5-8 players: add neutral cards to make total 9 cards in the row
