Hoity Toity Game Rules

Hey there! I want to talk to you about an awesome game called Hoity Toity. This game is all about art, auctions, and strategy. It’s a really fun way to spend time with your family and friends, and I think you’re going to love it.

So, let’s dive right in and learn about the rules of Hoity Toity. The game is set in a fancy art auction house, and each player takes on the role of an art collector. The objective is simple – you want to buy the most valuable art pieces and earn the most points.

To do this, you’ll need to carefully choose which art pieces to bid on. You want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth, while also keeping an eye on what your opponents are doing. It’s a delicate balance between going for high-value items and outsmarting your opponents.

You also have the option to open your own art gallery. This is a great way to earn extra points and show off your impeccable taste in art. However, it comes with a risk – opening a gallery can make you a target for theft. You’ll need to take precautions to protect your valuable art collection.

The game is played over a series of rounds, with each round representing a day at the auction house. At the end of each round, the players’ purchases and sales are evaluated, and points are awarded based on the value of the art. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Now that you know the basic rules of the game, it’s time to start playing Hoity Toity and let your inner art connoisseur shine. Have fun and may the best collector win!

• 1 gameboard
• 6 Figures
• 48 action cards
• 51 collection cards
• 1 rulebook

The Game Board

The game board shows the inside of the ‘Antique Club’. I start in the Club Room and move towards the fancy Dinner Banquet. On my way to the Dinner Banquet, I pass by Castles where the exhibitions are held. The spaces in between have octagonal areas with 2 numbers.

The numbers show how far I can move my figure. Now, let’s look at the middle of the game board. There’s an Auction Hall with two display windows and a cash register. Higher up, there’s a prison with six cells where they detain thieves.

Cards

Action cards tell me what I can do and where I can do it. The back of these cards always shows the number 2.

Collectible cards, they’re like treasures that we all want to get our hands on. These cards showcase a whole bunch of cool collectible items, divided into six categories (A through F). On the top of each card, you’ll see the age of the item, and the older it is, the more it’s worth. We use these cards to create our very own exhibits.

Let’s Get Started

Choose a Color

First, we need to decide which color you want to play as. To do this, we’ll shuffle the Castle cards – there are six different colors. We’ll place all the cards face down on the table, and then you can pick one.

Get Your Cards

Now that you have your color, I’ll give you the rest of the cards that match your color. This includes the Auction Hall card and eight Action cards. If we don’t have six players, we’ll remove any leftover cards from the game.

Grab Your Play Figure

Next, you’ll need a play figure. Each player gets a triangular play figure in their chosen color. Put it in the Club Room on the game board.

Let’s Hand Out Collectibles Cards!

Alright, folks! Time to get into the exciting world of Collectibles cards. I’m going to shuffle up these 51 cards really well and give each of you four cards. You can take a peek at your cards, but keep them face-down in front of you.

Now, let’s divide up the rest of the Collectibles cards. We’ll make two stacks with roughly the same number of cards and place them face-up in the Auction Hall’s windows. This way, there will always be two stacks of cards for you to choose from.

Remember: You’re not allowed to look at the cards underneath the top cards in those stacks. Keep the surprise alive!

How to Play the Game

Playing the game is easy! Let me walk you through the different steps:

• Step 1 (Where?): First, I need to decide where I want to go. There are two options – the Castle or the Auction House. To choose, I’ll play a Place card with a number 1 on the back. This will help me designate my destination.
• Step 2 (What?): Once I’ve decided where to go, it’s time to think about what action I want to take. I’ll use an Action card with a number 2 on the back to make my choice. This card will help me determine what action I want to perform at my chosen place.
• Step 3 (Auction Hall): If I’ve chosen to go to the Auction Hall, it’s time to play my action card. This is where I’ll execute the action I’ve selected.
• Step 4 (Castle): If I’ve chosen to go to the Castle, I’ll also play my action card at this point. This is where I’ll perform the action I’ve chosen.

Step 1: “Where”

When it’s time to make a decision in the game, we all have to choose where we want to go – either to the Auction Hall or the Castle. It’s an important moment!

I’ve made up my mind and I place my card face down in front of me. It has a 1 on the back. We all do the same, and once everyone has chosen, we flip our cards over.

Now I can see where everyone else is going. But the question is, what will they do there? We’ll find out soon enough, in the next phase.

Phase II: “What”

So, once we’ve decided on our destination, we all take turns picking an action to do there. The place cards stay face up in front of us, so everyone can see where we’re going. And this is when things get really interesting – because now we can start trying to figure out what everyone else is up to!

Here are the different actions we can choose from:

The Auction Hall

When you step into the Auction Hall, you have a couple of choices:

• You can use a Cash card to get one of the top two Collectibles cards from the stacks in the Auction Hall.
• Alternatively, you can take a risk and steal cash from the cash register that other players have added to on the same turn.

Keep in mind: The Detective cannot be used in the Auction Hall.

The Castle

When you’re playing in the castle, you have a few options:

• You can play an Exhibit card if you have enough Collectibles cards to put on an exhibit.
• You can use a Thief to steal Collectibles cards from other players’ exhibits.
• You can use your Detective to arrest and jail other players’ Thieves.

How do you put on an exhibit?

To put on an exhibit, you need at least three Collectibles cards that are linked together in alphabetical order. There’s no limit to how many cards you can include in your exhibit.

Example: I want to show you a few Collectibles cards that are considered legitimate: AAA, AABBC, CDEE. However, these card orders are not allowed: AB (too short) and BCE (not in alphabetical order).

Note: If you don’t have at least 3 cards in a legitimate order, you can’t play the Exhibit card.

Phase III: Time to Play in the Auction Hall

If you played the Castle card in phase 1, you don’t get to do anything in this phase. You have to wait until phase IV!

For all other players, it’s decision time. You have to choose which Action card to play. Once you’ve made your choice, put your card face down next to the Place card that’s already face up. Once everyone is ready, we all turn over our Action cards at the same time.

Players who played a Cash card get to go first, followed by the player(s) who played a Thief.

Cash Cards

When I play, the person with the most money gets to choose a Collectibles card from one of the windows in the Auction Hall. I take that card and put it with my other Collectibles cards. Then, I put my money card face-up on the cash register. If someone has less money than me, they can’t get a Collectibles card, but they can take their money back to use later.

Theft

If you were a Thief, you could steal the Cash card that was just played from the cash register. You can use the stolen cash in any future round of the game, but only if no one else paid any cash that round. If there were other Thieves who also played cards, nobody gets any cash. Regardless of whether you were successful or not, you take back all the Thieves you played from the Auction Hall and put them back into your hand.

Now, let’s move on to the next part. At this point, all players pick up their Auction Hall place card and put it back into their hand of cards.

Before we wrap up, I want to mention that if there are no more Collectibles cards available for purchase after a few rounds, the game will only take place in the Castle. I’ll explain more about the Castle in the next section.

Phase IV: It’s Time to Play in the Castle!

So, now that we’ve all played the Castle card in phase 1, it’s time to choose our action cards! Ready? Let’s flip our action cards over all at once. Here’s what we do next:

1. Exhibits: Show Off Your Best Stuff!

Hey there! So, here’s what we need to do. First off, if you played the Exhibit card, you gotta show off at least three Collectibles cards. And get this, they need to be in alphabetical order, no interruptions allowed.

Now, if more than one player decides to have an exhibition, things get a little secret. See, you gotta combine your required cards without letting anyone know how many you’re gonna display. And then, when the time is right, you all reveal your exhibits together. Pretty cool, right?

The player with the most cards in their collection, they’ve created the most valuable exhibit. Simple as that. But hey, if there’s a tie, the player with the oldest object in their exhibit wins the prize. So keep that in mind!

So, here’s what we need to do. First, we gotta figure out which exhibit is the most valuable. Once we know that, we can move on to finding out who has the second most valuable exhibit. Easy peasy, right?

Hey there! Did you know that all exhibits, no matter how valuable, are on full display in front of us until phase IV is over?

Now, here’s where things get interesting. The two players who have the most valuable and second-most valuable exhibits can move their little game pieces forward along the Castles of the score track. How cool is that?

But wait, there’s an important detail to keep in mind. The number of spaces you can move depends on where the leading player is on the score track. You see, there’s a special octagonal space on the player’s current position, and it has two numbers in it. The higher number tells the player with the most valuable exhibit how far they can move, while the lower number shows the second-place player’s limit.

And here’s the real kicker – only the top two players get points. The rest of us walk away empty-handed. Tough luck, right?

Note: When you first start playing in the Club Room, all of the wooden playing figures will be on the starting field. The octagonal space in the Club will have two numbers displayed, which will determine how far the players with the most valuable exhibits can move forward.

Here is a scenario: You have a board game in front of you. One of the players has a blue playing figure, which represents their valuable exhibit. The score track shows two figures in the lead: a beige one and a purple one, positioned next to the octagonal space with the numbers 3/2. As a result, the blue figure moves forward 3 spaces. The player with the second most valuable exhibit, represented by a green figure, moves ahead 2 spaces.

2. Troublemakers

Once the scores for the exhibits are determined, the Thieves’ actions come into play. Each player who played a Thief card in the Castle can choose one Collectibles card from the exhibit of each player. It’s a sneaky strategy to expand your collection, in addition to obtaining Collectibles cards from the Auction Hall!

If there are multiple players who played a Thief, the one with the highest number (representing years of experience) goes first, followed by the one with the next lower number, and so on.

However, if no player showcased an exhibit in the round, the Thieves leave the Castle empty-handed.

Now let’s move on to the third character: the Detective.

When the Thieves finish their job and collect their loot, it’s time for the Detectives to step in. If at least one Detective is in play, all the Thieves get caught and end up in jail, regardless of whether they actually managed to steal anything or not.

Even though the Thieves are behind bars, the players who played as Thieves still get to keep the stolen items they managed to snatch. Their loot remains safe and secure.

If there was at least one Thief played, the players who chose to play as Detectives need to examine where their game pieces are positioned on the score track. The player who’s in the lead gets to move forward by one space. The player in second place gets to move forward by 2 spaces, and the player in third place gets to move forward by 3 spaces, and so on.

In a nutshell, every player who played as a Detective, and if there was at least one Thief played, moves their game piece forward by a number of spaces that corresponds to their position relative to the other players on the score track.

Example: Once upon a time, there was an exciting game of Detectives and Thieves! The players, colored in red, green, and purple, took on the roles of detective, each with their own special abilities. The red detective could move one step, the green detective could move three steps, and the purple detective was especially agile, able to move four steps at a time.

But beware! There were cunning thieves lurking in the shadows. If any player successfully played a thief, they would receive a reward. However, if no player played a thief, the detectives would go unrewarded.

The Dark Prison

When a Thief gets caught, they end up in jail, right in the middle of the game board. The first Thief caught goes into cell number 1. Whenever a new Thief joins the jail, all the Thieves already in jail move up to the next cell number.

If multiple Thieves get caught in the same round, they all go to jail. The Thieves with the lowest numbers enter first, followed by those with higher numbers.

The number of prison cells matches the number of players in the game. For example, in a game with six players, cells 1 through 6 are used. In a game with five players, only cells 1 through 5 are used, and so on.

Once a Thief moves out of the last prison cell, because new Thieves enter the jail, the player who owns that Thief gets the card back into their hand. They can then use that Thief again in future rounds.

Example: Imagine you’re playing a game with four people. One of the players, a Thief, gets caught and is sent to prison cell 1. The other Thieves who were previously in jail move to the next cells. Look at the picture to see how Thief number 9 leaves the prison as Thief number 11 enters the first cell.

Note: Thieves that you play in the Castle only affect what happens in the Castle. If they aren’t caught by a Detective, you can take them back into your hand at the end of that phase.

Thieves that you play in the Auction Hall (phase III of the game) only count there. You can take them back into your hand at the end of phase III. This means that a Detective played in phase IV can’t arrest Thieves that were played in phase III.

When I finish phase IV, I take my Place and Action cards and put them back into my hand of cards. If I displayed an exhibit, I put the Collectibles cards back in front of me, face down.

The Game Ends

We keep playing the game until one player reaches any field on the big Dinner Banquet.

Now it’s time for the final round, where you have one last chance to score points with your exhibits. Show off your best collection and see if it’s valuable enough to win!

The player who has the most valuable collection will earn 8 points on the score track. And don’t worry if you’re not in first place. The player with the second most valuable exhibit still gets 4 points!

After this final exhibit, the player who is furthest ahead on the score track will be declared the winner of the game.

If there’s a tie between two or more players, the player with the most valuable exhibit will be the ultimate winner. So make sure your collection shines!

Note: This game is really enjoyable when played with 3-6 players. However, if you only have two players, there’s a special variant just for you, and it adds an extra layer of strategy!

Rules for two-player games

1. The Surprise Variant

So, picture this: you and I are in the midst of an intense game. We’re both strategizing, trying to outsmart each other. Suddenly, we both decide to play a Place and Action card at the same time. Exciting, right? We choose our cards, place them face down, and then simultaneously reveal them.

2. The Confrontation Variant

Now, here’s a twist: let’s try the Confrontation Variant. We’ll skip the Place cards this time. Instead, we’ll always be in the same place, but that place will change with each round. In the first round, we’ll be in the Auction Hall. The second round? We’ll find ourselves in the Castle. And in the third round, we’ll meet again in the Auction Hall, and so on.

Just a little reminder: before we play our Action cards, we’ll announce the place we’re in. This way, we’ll never lose track of where we are.