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Dogs Bond Board Game

Video Tutorial

We're learning to love, wagging our tail, barking with our friends, and following our instincts to our forever home. 

Hello and welcome to Dogs BOND -  a new game coming to Kickstarter in 2020! I'm Alex the game designer, and this is a virtual environment I'm using to demonstrate how to play our upcoming board game! 
 

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This game puts 2-4 players in the role of a rescue dog collecting and sometimes competing for the attributes they need to be adopted into one of six forever homes.  
 
Setup begins with each Player choosing from one of six available dogs. Each of the dogs has a different special ability. Some are available the whole game, some only when a specific event type is revealed, and some that occur towards the end of the game.

 

Take your character card; and corresponding tokens

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Next, Take the 6 Door cards and place them in the center of the table in sequential order. 

Then shuffle and place the potential adopters into their respective homes. 

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For a short game, you deal with 8 yellow event cards per player. For longer games, you can play 10 yellow event cards per player. The game scales to how fast and how many people are playing, but we'll warn you the shorter games are harder!

 

Each player is dealt with three blue attribute cards for their opening paw. Paw Limit based on the number of players. 

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Name your dogs, or they get your name. Here we've got Chip, Alex, and Pearl.

Gameplay occurs in turns, starting with the active player and proceeding clockwise.

 

The player who most recently pets a dog gets to go first! Give that Player the Ropetoy to denote they are the Alpha dog and current active player. 

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Draw an event card and take the actions as instructed on the card. Some cards will apply only to the Alpha, and some events will apply to all player dogs. 

Read the event aloud and play through. 

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Draw 1 and Play 1. You draw 1 blue attribute card into your paw and then you may play any 1 card from to your dog. Play allows you to Play one card from your paw; except the Play Bow card which is played as a reaction. 
 
As you build up the attributes on your dog, you will match more sets with the adopters.

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When you've played enough cards to match with a potential adopter - put one of your tokens on their adopter board to show how much you match with the adopter, and how interested they are in you! Each time you build on those sets, you advance with that adopter! 

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Let's look at the 6 different symbols, colors, and types of attributes:
-Yellow for Obedience, 
-Green for Temperament
-Pink for Grooming
-Blue for Health
These four types of attribute cards are what players will Play on their dog, which gains matches with potential adopters. 
 
-instinct cards always present a choice. Play the card facedown to gain an instinct point. When players attempt to be adopted, they go in order of instinct value highest to lowest. Since adopters can only rescue one dog, this can be a particularly devious move to take another player's ideal adopter.  
OR 
The Instinct card may be used to immediately force another player to discard a card. This is another way to maneuver another player's strategy. 
-but this game is about play and sometimes other dogs just need to be reminded of that. A play bow card can be used at any time to cancel another card that forces you to Discard. That's this coral card which is played as a reaction to any card forcing a discard. 

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So which cards are you going to play from your paw? 
 
Let's look at Yasmin and Mike as an example. He's looking for 1 grooming and 2 obedience; while she's looking for 2 obedience and 1 health.

 

You've got 1 Grooming and 1 Obedience already; and I just got this card that says Draw 2 and Plays 2. I can play 1 health and 1 grooming - which gets you on the board. 

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Every additional set you make can advance you further with multiple adapters. 

In this example; you have 10 obedience, 3 health. Which gives you 2 matches with Yasmin.

You also have 8 obedience and 4 Grooming which is 5 matches with Mike

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Now that my turn is over; I will take the ropetoy and BARK at my opponent to take their turn. 

Play continues clockwise. 

 

When you've run out of event cards, the game is moving to another phase. Wag your tail and each player may play 1 additional card from their paw.

 

If you have a special ability in the Wag the Tail phase, this is your time to shine! After all players have finished this last play, discard the rest of your paw into the discard. 

Add up all your attributes and make sure you're on the adopter boards with all your matches!

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ADOPTION PHASE

Now reveal all the facedown instinct cards you have played. 

 

The player with the highest value instinct goes first to find their adopter. When you are finding your forever home you make a roll with the adopter of your choosing to see if they'll adopt you. 

 

Roll up to the number of matches you have with your adopter and you’ve found your forever home! The collie has 5 matches with Mike, so let's see if we can get adopted! 

If you miss, you get to go to your next choice of an adopter. Each player gets to do this, but watch out because adopters can only adopt one dog.

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SCORING
After all the players are adopted, or find out where their story continues in the sanctuary, Scoring happens along three  areas. 


You get points for every match with every adopter. 

 

You get house points from the house card
Adopters give Bone-Us points to their dog, equal to the number of a specific attribute. Their favorite attribute is the way to their heart! 

Add up all the points and find out who is top dog! If two dogs have the same point value at the end of the game, the player with more Instinct is the winner. 


The Collie has 13 match points; a house card worth 6; and Mike awards 10 bonus points for a total of 29 points! 

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After all is said and done, we have a special surprise for you. Every dog adoption is special. Flip over your adopter and dog to find their happily ever after scene. 
 
This family-friendly, gateway, casual boardgame is for dog-people by dog-people. Please join me Alex, Sarah our illustrator, and Kiki our graphic designer, and bring this project to life via Kickstarter. A portion of our Kickstarter fundraising round will be donated to local rescue organizations that are part of our pack, and we plan to make donations every year after that. 
 
Go to Dogsbondgame.com, join our email list and sign up for your rescue organizations. Sharing this project could save lives and make a big impact on dog rescues of all sizes. 
 
Join, tag, and at us on all social media at Dogs Bond Game. The bigger this project is the more we can donate.  
 
Thanks for learning to play Dogs BOND! 

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How to Play

We cannot wait to hear about you playing with friends and family! Tag us @dogsbondgame on all your favorite social media!

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