ANiMaL MaNiacS!
Advanced Rules
36 animals and a deck of cards can make a much more complex game. The Advanced Rules show how to make the game challenging and exciting for players of all ages. One can use some or all of these rules to make Animal Maniacs! more a more strategic and wild game that both animal lovers and ruthless hunters can enjoy.
Game Materials and Setup
The game uses 12 triplets of different animals a full deck of playing cards, including the two jokers. For the advanced game, half the animals are "red" (tiger, cheetah, lion giraffe, camel, and moose), and the other half are "black" (gorilla, elephant, rhino, zebra, polar bear, and the gray-red hippo). Half the playing cards are red (hearts and diamonds), and the other half are black (spades and clubs). The 2 through 10 are regular "point cards" worth their face value, but the jack, queen, king, ace, and joker have special meanings. The setup of the zoos and animals is identical to the regular Animal Maniacs! game.
Winning the Game
You can win Advanced Animal Maniacs! by conserving, zookeeping, or hunting.
k Conserving
2-3 player game: gather 3 pairs of animals
4-5 player game: gather 2 pairs of animals
a Zookeeping
2-3 player game: collect 7 kinds of animals
4-5 player game: collect 5 kinds of animals
c Hunting
2-3 player game: kill any 7 wild animals
4-5 player game: kill any 5 wild animals
If you choose, you may pursue all three of these objectives at the same time.
Player Actions
There are three times when you can take an action: (1) at the beginning of your turn, (2) when you play a special card, or (3) when a special circumstance permits all players to play a card (i.e., when a player hunts an endangered species or when a defending wild animal draws a jack; these situations are explained later).
Playing a Turn. During your turn, you can attempt one of four possible actions:
(1) take an animal from the wild to your zoo,
(2) attempt to "borrow" an animal from another person's zoo,
(3) kill an animal in the wild, or
(4) trade one of your animals with an animal in another zoo (this requires playing a joker).
Capturing Wild Animals. To take an animal from the wild, identify your chosen animal and play a point card from your hand face-down. The chosen animal then draws a "defense" card from the deck and lays it face-down. Once the animal's defense score is determined, turn over the capturer's card. If the capture score is greater than the defense score, the animal is captured.
"Borrowing" Zoo Animals. When you successfully "borrow" another player's zoo animal, that animal remains in your zoo until taken back. To borrow an animal, identify your chosen animal and play a point card from your hand face-down. The zookeeper with the chosen animal then plays a point card face-down to defend the animal. Once the animal's defense score is determined, turn over the borrower's card. If the borrower's score is greater than the defense score, the animal is captured.
Killing Wild Animals. To hunt an animal in the wild, identify the hunted animal and play a point card from your hand face-down. Then draw a "defense card" for the animal from the deck lay it face-down. Once the hunted animal's defense score is determined, turn over the hunter's card. If the hunter's score is greater than the defense score, the animal is killed. Suggested Rule: In a two or three-person game, if the hunt is unsuccessful, the hunter loses his or her next turn.
Playing Special Cards. At appropriate moments in the game, you can also take action by playing a face card from your hand. As the table below explains, you can play a jack to help an animal, a Queen to refill your hand of cards, or a King to set a cat loose. You can only play a Joker during your turn, where it counts as your action for that turn.
The Sequence of Play
As in the regular Animal Maniacs!, turns rotate clockwise and play continues until a player reaches one of the three objectives listed above. A difference is you can refill your hand whenever you run out of point cards. You must refill your hand if you have no point cards and either (a) another zookeeper attempts to borrow one of your animals or (b) your turn begins.
For instance, you might have only a Jack in your hand draw no cards to make other players think you have one, lowly point card left, which you must play during your next action. Once another zookeeper attempts to borrow one of your animals, though, you must draw the four new point cards.
Special Note: If you draw a full hand (five cards) that includes only Jacks, Kings, and/or Jokers, you must discard your entire hand immediately and draw five new cards. This is the only time that you may discard cards in your hand without playing them first.
The Effects of Special Cards
Click here for table of effects...
Additional Rules
Cats on the Loose! When Kings get played and cats get on the loose, there can be multiple attacks and capture attempts at the same time. To sort out this mess, resolve the attacks in the following order: most recently declared "cat on the loose", second most recent, etc., followed by the action that was part of a player's regular turn.
For example, you might try to capture a wild elephant, but another zookeeper plays a King and sets the wild lion after the elephant. The lion-elephant conflict is resolved first, then the attempted capture. Of course, if the lion eats the elephant, the original capture attempt was a failure.
Special Note: So long as there was another big cat in the wild, the zookeeper could have played a King and sent the second cat after the lion. If it ate the lion, the elephant would be safe! You may not send a cat on the loose if it is already attacking another animal or defending itself.
Endangered Species. As explained in the table on the previous page, endangered species appear when a wild animal draws an ace from the deck. When a species becomes endangered, place on the Ace drawn all members of the animal's species that are currently in the wild or in zoos.
An endangered species remains on the Ace until killed by a hunter or the game ends. The rules for killing an endangered species depend on the number of players in a game. The attacking player may lay down as many numbered cards as there are other players. For example, you may attack with up to four numbered cards in a five-player game. The other players may each play one card in defense of the endangered species, which otherwise has no defense because of its fragile condition. (As usual, a player may use a Jack to add another defense card.) If the total value of the attack cards is greater than the defense cards, the hunter is successful. Either way, the hunter loses his/her next turn because of the public protests against brazenly hunting endangered animals.
Unless the species has been killed by a hunter, any new animals of the same type that are later placed in the wild instead join those on the endangered species card. If a hunter has already killed the species while it was endangered, then the newly drawn animal appears in the wild as an uncaptured member of the species, which was not extinct after all.
The "Play What You Got" Rule. There are a few situations where you can play multiple point cards (e.g., defending an endangered species in a two-player game or attacking one in a game with three or more players). In these situations, you may not refill your hand after playing initial point cards. For example, if you are hunting an endangered species in a four-player game and you have two point cards in your hand, your can not play these, then draw more and play them on the same hunt. Even playing a Queen does not allow you to draw and play point cards during an action in which you have already played point cards.
Putting Animals in the Wild. Whenever an animal leaves the wild (captured or killed), a new animal is drawn from the bowl of unused animals to replace it. In a long, multi-player game, it is possible to run out of animals and still have no winner. Depending on what's in the wild and others' zoos, this may make the game a stalemate. Suggested Rule: When the last animal is taken from the wild, there is one more round of play in which each player gets a single turn. After the last turn, if no player has won, the player with the highest number of animals in his or her zoo and on the trophy wall (animals successfully hunted) is the winner. If two or more players have the same number of animals captured/hunted, the game ends in a tie.
Special and Especially Silly Variations
By changing the rules here and there, you can make several different versions of Animal Maniacs!, and these can make the game more complex or just plain sillier. Here are a few suggestions.
Noisy Version. Every time you choose an animal to capture, borrow, or kill, you must make the animal's sound. If you don't know the animal's sound, improvise.
Screenwriters Guild Variant. Whenever you successfully capture or hunt an animal in the wild, you must enact the episode. If you wish, you may assign roles to fellow players.
Limited Objectives. Players can limit themselves to one or two objectives each. Objectives can be randomly assigned with die rolls or chosen by the players. Roles can be publicly known or secret.
Specialized Zoos. Each player represents a special zoo, each of which has a special ability. There are 11 zoos players can choose from or randomly assign themselves.
A Directory of Special Zoos
1) Berkeley Zoo. This zoological society is populated by preservationists. This player can aid the defense of animals in the wild without having to play a Jack. When this player uses a Jack to defend an animal, he or she can play two point cards. This player can not hunt.
2) Nairobi Wilderness Park. This zoo has been designated as a haven for endangered species. This player can capture endangered species, using the same rules as for hunting them (but no turn is lost if unsuccessful).
3) Paris Philanthropical Zoo. This zoo is a front for a hunting society. This player does not lose a turn when he or she hunts but fails to kill an endangered species. When hunting a wild animal (except endangered species), this player's point cards are all scored as if they match the color of the attacked animal.
4) San Diego Zoo. This zoo is world-renown for its efforts to breed animals in captivity. This zookeeper can play two cards when taking an animal from the wild that already has a mate in the player's zoo.
5) Tokyo Zoo. This zoo is notorious for indefinitely exhibiting animals that belong to other zoos. This zookeeper can play two point cards when "borrowing" animals from other zoos.
6) Central American Zoo. This zoo has an international reputation for keeping its promises. When it borrows animals from another zoo, it actually returns them three turns later. Because of its good record, this zookeeper may borrow an animal from another zoo on his or her turn without having to play any cards (but it still counts as the player's main action). Use paper and pencil to keep records on borrowed animals. If another zookeeper takes the animal out of the Central American Zoo before its return date, the Zoo is no longer responsible for it. The return of animals occurs at the end of this player's turn.
7) People's Zoo of Beijing. This zoo is notorious for taking healthy animals from other zoos, then treating them so shabbily that they die in captivity. This zookeeper can attempt to trade animals with any other zoo in the same manner that other players attempt to borrow animals (i.e., each plays a point card and the highest one wins). The diseased animal arriving from the Beijing Zoo dies upon after arriving at its new zoo, taking with it any other animals of the same species that the receiving zoo has at the time.
8) Royal Kuwaiti Zoo. This zoo has an incredibly large endowment, which gives it the ability to buy what it desires. This zookeeper can refill his or her hand to a full five cards at the beginning of his or her turn.
9) Nigerian National Zoo. This zoo specializes in animals that can be found in Africa. This zookeeper's point cards are all worth double their face value when used to capture cheetahs, lions, giraffes, and zebras.
10) New Delhi Zoo Park. This zoo specializes in Middle Eastern and South Asian animals. This zookeeper's point cards are all worth double their face value when used to capture camels, elephants, gorillas, and tigers.
11) Siberian Zoological Refuge. This zoo specializes in housing and protecting animals that can be found in the Northern hemisphere. This zookeeper may play two point cards when (a) capturing polar bears or moose or (b) preventing another zookeeper from borrowing these animals from his or her zoo.
12) Weight Watchers Animal Spa. This Buenos Aires zoo supports itself through a weight-loss program for wildlife who have become dangerously obese. This zookeeper can play two point cards to capture or borrow hippos or rhinos. This player can also trade any animal for a rhino or hippo (as if using a joker).
ANiMaL MaNiacS! was made for Charlie Gastil in December, 1995, by John Gastil and Cindy Simmons.
