Paws in Peril

1. The goal

You are animals trying to stay alive and take the forest by claiming homes and mansions, while monsters and the other players get in your way.

• Victory Points (VP). Every home or mansion you own is worth 1 VP. Nothing else scores. Knocking out another player never scores.
• Win by being the first to 4 VP. In a 2-player Explorer game, the first to 3 VP wins.
• You also win if you are the last player with lives left.
• Teams (4 players, two teams of two, partners sit opposite): the first team to 5 VP between them wins, or the last team with lives left.

2. Setting up

1. Put the Desert tile in the middle of the table. It is where everyone starts and where knocked-out players come back.
2. Build the board:
   • Beginner board (for your first game): shuffle the 18 other tiles (4 mansions, 4 homes, 6 chests, 4 forests) and lay them face up in two rings around the Desert: 6 tiles touching it, 12 around those.
   • Explorer board: only the Desert is on the table. Each player takes their own tiles:

     Players	Each player's tiles
     2	1 mansion, 1 home, 2 chests, 2 forests
     3 or 4	1 mansion, 1 home, 2 chests, 1 forest

3. Shuffle the monster deck and the item deck (face down).
4. Each player picks a colour, puts their animal on the Desert, and takes 2 lives, 10 HP and 3 item cards. Your HP can never go above 12.
5. Everyone rolls two dice. The highest roll goes first (roll again on a tie). Play goes clockwise.

3. Your turn

At the start of your turn you get 5 action points (AP). Spend them in any order:

• One building fight a turn. On your turn you may start only one fight for a home or mansion: looting one, or invading one. Chests and forests do not count.
• Your turn ends when you have no AP left and any fight is over, or when you choose to end it. Unused AP is lost.
• If you are knocked out on your own turn, your turn ends at once.
• Rest. If you start your turn on the Desert, heal 2 HP first.

4. Tiles and looting

Stand on a tile and spend 1 AP to loot it:

• When you loot a tile, put one of your bricks on it. Each tile can be looted only once, and nobody else can loot a tile with your brick on it.
• When you are knocked out, the chests and forests you looted lose your brick and can be looted again. Homes and mansions you own stay yours.

Explorer board: placing tiles. Spend 1 AP to put one of your tiles face up on any empty space touching a tile already on the table. Anyone may walk onto it and loot it.

5. Monsters and their buffs

• Draw the top card of the monster deck to find out what you fight. Its HP is on the top left of the card.
• A monster fighting for its home rolls 4 dice.
• Each monster in a mansion has 1 more HP than its card shows.
• In a mansion, your HP carries over from the first monster to the second, and you attack first in both fights.
• Win and the monster's card is yours: put it face up in front of you. You own the home (put your marker on it). The monster's buff (bottom of the card) works from the start of your next turn.
• Lose (you drop to 0 HP) and you are knocked out (section 8). The home or mansion stays unclaimed and the monster goes to the bottom of the deck.

6. Home invasion

To take a home or mansion another player owns, stand on it and spend 1 AP. It counts as your building fight for the turn.

1. The owner chooses one of their monster cards to defend. If they have none, you fight the top card of the monster deck.
2. The defending monster rolls 4 dice and adds 1 to its score every roll (the defender's edge). The leader rule: if the owner is the VP leader (the one player with the most VP, no ties), the monster does not get the +1.
3. Beat it: the home and that monster card are yours.
4. Lose: you are knocked out by the owner (section 8). The owner never loses HP in an invasion.

7. Raids

Fighting another player is a raid: a quick scuffle over item cards. It never scores VP.

• Spend 1 AP to raid a player on your tile. You may raid once a turn.
• A raid is three rolls: you attack, they strike back, you attack again (the combat rules in section 11 decide the damage).
• The raided player adds 1 to their score every roll (the defender's edge).
• After each roll, whoever scored higher takes a random item card from the other player's hand. On a tie nobody takes a card.
• If someone drops to 0 HP, the raid ends and that player is knocked out (section 8).
• Either player may play item cards during a raid as in any fight.

Tip: the raided player's +1 means a raid usually costs the raider more cards than it wins. Raid when you have few cards to lose and they have many, when their cards are worth more than yours, or to wear down a player you can knock out.

8. Knockouts

When your HP drops to 0 you are knocked out:

1. Lose 1 life. Knocking a player out scores nothing.
2. If a player knocked you out (in a raid, with a card, or as the owner of a home you invaded), they look at your cards and take 1 of them: an item card or a monster card.
3. If you still have a life, keep one of your monster cards (your choice, before they take theirs). All your other item and monster cards go to the discard pile.
4. Come back on the Desert with 10 HP and 3 new item cards. Your homes stay yours; the chests and forests you looted reset (section 4).
5. Any Snare you played on other players stops working.
6. Explorer board: place all the tiles you still hold, free.
7. Out of lives: you are out of the game. Your homes, mansions and barricades are cleared and can be looted again.

9. Healing

• Start your turn on the Desert: heal 2 HP.
• Item cards (Bandage Kit, Fruit Smoothie and others) and some monster buffs heal you.
• You can never go above 12 HP. Coming back from a knockout sets you to 10 HP.

10. Item cards

• You may hold 5 item cards. If you ever hold more, discard down to 5 straight away.
• Each card says when you may play it:
  • On your turn: on your own turn, outside a fight, while you still have AP.
  • In Combat: during a fight you are in.
  • Anytime: at any moment, even on another player's turn.
• Playing a card is free. Cards are used once and go to the discard pile. When the item deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new deck.

New in V4 (2 copies of each; the deck is now 78 cards):

Damage from cards never scores, but if it knocks a player out, you take 1 of their cards as in section 8. Running from a monster fight (Smoke Bomb, Escape Rope) leaves the home or mansion unclaimed and sends its monster to the bottom of the deck.

11. Barricades

• Loot a forest to take a barricade.
• On your turn, spend 1 AP to put a barricade on a tile you own or that has your brick on it (you do not need to stand there).
• For the rest of the game nobody else can loot or invade that tile. Barricades do not block movement.

12. Combat

Every fight (a monster, an invasion or a raid) works the same way:

1. Roll. You roll 4 dice. A monster rolls 4 dice. Another player rolls 4 dice.
2. Score. Each side adds its two highest dice, plus any bonus (the defender's +1, cards, buffs).
3. Damage. The attacker deals its score minus the defender's score to the defender. If that is 0 or less, nobody takes damage.
4. Swap. The defender becomes the attacker for the next roll.
5. Repeat until one side is at 0 HP (a raid also ends after its third roll).

Whoever starts the fight (the looter, the invader, the raider) attacks first.

13. Winning

• Claim homes and mansions: 4 VP wins (3 VP in a 2-player Explorer game; 5 team VP in Teams). You win the moment you reach it.
• Or be the last player (or team) with lives left.