DISCOUNT SALMON

Hey there! I’m a fishmonger, and I’ve got a pretty tough challenge for you. You see, there’s this lake, but it’s not your average, clean and fresh lake. No, no. This one’s contaminated. And it’s your job to fish from this polluted lake and save as many fish as you can. Oh, and you can also cure them to earn extra points. Ready for the challenge? Let’s dive in!

SETUP

Let’s get started by setting up the game. Take all the fish cards and mix them up, then place them face down in the middle of the play area. This will represent the pool.

Next, grab the modifier cards and shuffle them as well. Deal five cards to each player.

Now, take the remaining modifier cards and divide them into two equal piles. Put one pile on each side of the pool.

Now, it’s time to play!

We need to choose a first player, and they will be the one who gets the fish fryer card.

The first player will randomly choose a card from the pool and quickly flip it over for everyone to see.

This flipped card is now in play, and we can all take a look at it.

When I look at the card, I try to figure out if I can fix any fish problems using my modifier cards. But I can also choose to make it harder for someone else to fix the problem by using a modifier card that makes the situation worse.

When you’re playing a game, you have the power to make some big choices. It’s all about the cards you choose to play from your hand. And let me tell you, those choices can have some serious consequences!

So, here’s the deal. You can play up to three cards, and the way you play them is totally up to you. Maybe you want to play all your good cards, so you can fix the fish problem and save the day. Or maybe you want to play all your bad cards, just to mess with the other players and make things more challenging for them. It’s totally your call!

But here’s the thing – once you play a card, you can’t take it back. It’s out there, and it’s happening. The only exception is if you play an invalid card. In that case, you’ve got to remove it from the game. No cheating allowed!

If you want to know if a card is valid or not, here are a couple of things to consider:

• If a card is positive but doesn’t solve the problem it’s meant to fix, then it’s invalid. For instance, if a fish is toxic, using a makeup card won’t work because makeup only helps with ugly fish.
• If a card is negative and just repeats a problem that’s already there, then it’s also invalid. For example, if a fish is already ugly, playing a mustache card won’t have any effect.

When you play cards in this game, the one closest to the bottom of the stack is considered to be played first, and it determines what happens to all the other cards played on top of it.

There are some cards that have multiple problems, and you can choose to fix one or all of the issues to claim the card.

After playing cards, you need to immediately refill your hand deck so that you always have five cards in your hand.

Once you completely resolve a card, which means you fix all the issues with it, whether they were assigned to you initially or caused by other players, you get to keep the card and any valid modifiers that were played on it.

The player who won the last card reveals the next card to be resolved, and the game keeps going until all the fish cards are resolved.

There are also special cards in the game that have specific effects;

• A blender card is an amazing card that solves all the problems with a card all at once. If you play this card, you get to keep it along with any other cards that were played on it. Then, you get to flip the next card to see what happens next.
• When Andrew the super hungry cat shows up, he steals our fish card! This means that if someone plays the Andrew card, all the other cards played on it and the Andrew card itself go to the discard pile. Nobody gets any points for that round. The player who played the Andrew card gets to reveal the next card and see what happens.

THE FROZEN STANDOFF

Sometimes during the game, a situation arises where a card is revealed that cannot be resolved by any player. It’s like a frozen moment, where everyone’s cards fall short of solving the puzzle, and no one is willing to make a move, granting an advantage to someone who can strategically claim the victory fish card.

In this frozen standoff, when no player takes any action for up to five seconds, the player holding the deep fryer card seizes the opportunity to claim the victory fish, along with any other cards attached to it. They then pass the deep fryer to the player on their left, as if challenging them to break the frozen silence.

So, here’s what happens in the game: all of us players have to discard two cards from our hand and replace them from the deck. This helps to lower the chances of another stalemate, which is when the game gets stuck and no one can move forward.

Let’s talk about scoring now,

So, how do we score points? Well, it’s based on the number of fish cards each player is able to claim. The more fish cards you have, the higher your score. But what if there’s a tie? Don’t worry, we’ve got a solution for that too. The negative modifiers we’ve claimed come into play. These are cards that make it harder for our opponents to score. If there’s still a tie after that, then we look at the number of positive modifiers we’ve claimed. These are cards that help us score more points. So, in the end, it’s all about strategy and making the most of the cards we have.

Now, let’s talk about how the game ends.

The game keeps going until all the fish cards from the lake or pool have been used up. Once we run out of fish cards, or if there aren’t enough modifier cards for each player to complete a set of five, then the game is over. It’s time to tally up our scores and see who came out on top!