Petroglyph

Memory with a twist.

Find sets of matching petroglyphs in this 17 card micro game for 1-4 players from 8 years.

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Petroglyph cover

How to play

Setup

Shuffle the cards and place 16 cards face down in a four by four grid. Put the last card aside without looking at it.

The player left of the dealer starts.

Play

Turn over one card at a time. As long as only cards of the same colour have been turned over, the player may continue to turn over cards.

Sets

Cards of the same colour form a set depending on the colour: Two red cards, two yellow cards, or three blue cards make a set. 

The player collects the set and their turn ends. 

The first player turned over two red cards which form a set. The player collects the set and their turn ends.

Green cards

A green set is between one and six cards. The player may choose to collect the set or to continue turning over more cards when only green cards have been turned over. 

The player collects the set and their turn ends.

The second player turned over first one green card, then another. The player may choose to collect the set or to turn over a third card.

Cards of different colours

If cards of different colours are turned up, the cards are turned over face down again.

The player turned over a blue card. All three cards are turned face down again in the same positions.

Shuffle

The player may then pick up one row or one column, shuffle the cards and place them back in the same positions. 

The player may pick any row or column but hesitates between shuffling the blue row or the orange column.

Play then continues with the next player.

Game end

The game ends when in a players turn there no more cards face down on the table. If all cards on the table form a set, the player may collect it, otherwise the remaining cards are not collected.

The player turns over two blue cards, hoping to find the last blue card but instead finds a green card. Even if one green card alone is a set, as the three cards have different colours, no set is collected. 

The game ends as there are no face down cards left.

Scoring

Each collected set scores as follows. The player with the most points win.

Red Couples (4)

A set of couples is two cards and score 5 points.

Blue Ships (3)

A set of ships is three cards and score 10 points.

Green Cups (6)

A set of cups is from one to six cards. A set with one Cup card scores 1 point. Two cards score 3 points. Three cards score 7 points. Four cards score 13 points. Five cards score 21 points. If you collect a set of all six green cards you score a whopping 31 points. 

Yellow Animals (4)

A set of animals is two cards. Each card in a set scores 1, 2, or 3 points as stated on the card. The hunter scores 1 point and the animal in a set with the hunter scores x3 points. Thus a set with the hunter and an animal scores 4, 7 or 10 points.

Solo

Here is how to play Petroglyph as one person.

Set up

Shuffle the cards and place 16 cards face down in a four by four grid. Put the last card aside without looking at it. 

Play

Turn over one card at a time and collect sets of matching colours. 

If cards of different colours are turned up, discard one face up card, turn the other cards over face down again. 

Then shuffle a row or a column that contains one of the cards kept. You must pick a row with three or four cards; if there is no such row then don’t shuffle. 

In the following example, the player has turned over two cards of different colours. If you discard the green card you must shuffle the row with the red card. If you discard the red card, there is no row with three or four cards that contain the green card and you do not shuffle, even if there is a column with three cards.

Download rules

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