Game Description
In CatSanity you’re competing with your fellow cat lovers to adopt the best sets of cats.
Game Setup (4-player)
7 Sanity Tokens for each Player. Your remaining Sanity Tokens are visible to all.
The Player who most recently touched a cat is the starting Player.
The starting Player shuffles the deck and reveals 3 cat cards face up in a row. This space for the revealed cards is called the ALLEY. The remaining deck is placed beside the ALLEY.
Winning Condition
The winner is the Player(s) who has the highest total score from their sets of cats in their HOME after Play Ends.
Play Ends
Play ends when the deck is out of cards or all Players are out of Sanity Tokens. After Play Ends then Scoring begins.
How to Play on your turn
- If needed, restore the ALLEY to a total of 3 visible cat cards from the top of the deck.
- CatSanity!? If all the cats in the ALLEY are Moon Cats then “CatSanity!” occurs. When “CatSanity!” happens then all Players lose one sanity token, the 3 Moon Cats are shuffled back into the deck by the Player, then the current Player turn ends and the turn goes to the next Player on the left who still has any Sanity Tokens.
- The Player chooses to do one of two actions:
- Adopt one Cat. Adopt any one of the cats in the ALLEY to their HOME (Sun Cats cost no Sanity Tokens while Moon Cats cost 1 Sanity Token to Adopt), OR…
- Call an Auction. The Player can choose to call an Auction for all (1,2 or 3) Sun Cats in the ALLEY by declaring “Mine! Mine! Mine!”. (For the Auction, Players bid* once around the table using Sanity Tokens; each Player bid must increase or the Player can pass and the Player who bids the most Sanity Tokens gets to adopt all the Sun Cats from the ALLEY into their HOME at the cost of the Sanity Tokens bid.)
- If a Moon cat was Adopted in the previous step then resolve any Special Actions. (e.g. Ninja cats allow the Player to steal a random Sun Cat from another Player)
- Turn ends and play continues to the next Player on the left who still has any Sanity Tokens.
*Auction bidding suggestion: Bid no more than 3 Sanity Tokens. It isn’t wise to bid more than 3 Sanity tokens to win the Sun Cats in the ALLEY; you can do it but it isn’t recommended.
CatSanity Game Summary
During each turn, the Player usually chooses one cat to Adopt from the ALLEY into their HOME. When in the HOME all of your cats are visible for other Players to admire. Between the two types of cats, Sun Cats are safe and can score many points in certain sets, whereas Moon Cats will often provide you with special scores or power over your opponents, but they will also cost you some Sanity to bring HOME. Moon Cats also trigger “CatSanity! when all the cats in the ALLEY are Moon Cats, so you need to pay attention to how many are in the ALLEY at all times. When a “CatSanity!” occurs the game accelerates towards the end.
In many games, most Players will eventually run out of Sanity because there is no way to recover Sanity Tokens. Once all Players are out of Sanity Tokens, or there aren’t enough cards left to restore the alley each Player will add up their score to compare the value of their cats to determine the winner.
To learn more about the game and for the description of the Sun and Moon Cats please see the complete Rules page.