EN
2 TO 4 PLAYERS
COMPONENTS
4 identical kits of building parts.
Each kit contains:
• 3 acrylic parts: 1 box, 1 sphere, 1 tetrahedron
• 15 wooden parts: 1 square base with peg holes,
3 pegs (one slightly thinner than the others),
3 cylinders, 3 circles, 3 cubes, 2 spheres
36 cards
36 cards
4 voting rulers (1 of each player colour) +
16 round markers (4 of each player colour)
16 cards
1 hourglass
4 scoring rulers (1 of each player colour) +
4 cubes (1 of each player colour)
AGES 8 TO 99
30 MIN
36 cards
36 cards
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SETUP
Set aside a wide space, large table, or even the floor as your play area.
Each player gets a kit of building parts. They also pick a colour to identify them from now on, then take a
voting ruler, a scoring ruler, and a scoring cube of the chosen colour. Insert your scoring cube — blank side
up — into the 0 mark of your scoring ruler. Finally, each player picks a set of round markers, one of each
player colour.
Stack up four card piles according to their increasing level of abstraction:
1: Builder of Landscapes, 2: Master of Shapes,
3: Sculptor of Possibilities, 4: Architect of the Impossible.
GAMEPLAY
These are the rules for a game with three or four players (see p. 19 for a two-player game; for a five- or
six-player game, check the "Expansion Kit" section).
Abstratus is played along four rounds of increasing complexity. In the very first round, each player takes
a card from the Builder of Landscapes pile. In the beginning of each further round, players will take cards
from the pile whose level of abstraction matches the number of the round. (If you're playing with children,
consider using only cards from the first two levels of abstraction throughout the four rounds.)
Each player then secretly reads the word printed on their card's face. Then an hourglass is turned, and
players are free to use the parts in their kits to build a structure that hopefully will depict their words. Use
the hourglass to time the maximum length of this building phase (around 2 minutes).
Remember: You don't have to use all the parts in your kit. You may choose how many and which parts
you're using. You're not allowed to make either letters or symbols with your building parts.
When the building phase is over, everyone hands their card face-down to the one player charged with
the task of arranging all cards in a single row and revealing them. Before revealing the cards, though, that
player should add cards from the round's pile to the row, bringing the total up to six.
Therefore,
• in a three-player game, you add three cards;
• in a four-player game, you add two cards.
All six cards are then shuffled and displayed face-up on the play area, with their arrows pointing to the right.
Try not to snap a peg as you remove it
from its hole. If it jams, turn the fitting
part clockwise while spinning the peg
in the opposite direction until it breaks
loose.
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