Antartik

Overview

Antartik is a game for two to five players aged 5 and up, who embody penguins facing each other in a diving contest. They jump from the ice shelf, in the middle of Antarctica. The penguins must perform the most impressive series of artistic figures while avoiding a disastrous belly flop, which never goes unnoticed by the well-skilled jury. The game is made of 55 cards, numbered from 1 to 10. There is only one card marked 1, whereas there are two cards marked 2, three cards marked 3, etc., and ten cards marked 10. Some cards marked 8, 9, and 10 also feature a bonus symbol in the top left corner, representing a judge or a parachute. Game flow Each player takes turn trying to make up a series of figures during his dive. He can perform three kinds of actions until his turn ends: Either drawing a card and place it in the center of the table so as to complete his series of figures. If the player draws a card which number already appears on one of the cards of the series, he keeps the last card he drew and his turn ends. The next player will choose either to keep the current series, or to return the series’ cards to the bottom of the deck. Or stopping the current series and taking all the cards it is made of before a pair is formed. The player’s turn ends. Or discarding a card with a "Judge" symbol to examine the top three cards in the deck and rearrange them in the order of his choice. Before performing any of these three actions, the active player must wait for each of his opponents to: Either raise his hand in agreement. Or place (once per player during a series of figures) one of his cards in front of the active player’s series so as to confront him, and dare him to perform another figure. If the active player refuses the challenge or accepts it and loses, his turn ends and the player who dared him takes his card back and turns it over; now the card is worth 3 stars. If the active player accepts the challenge and succeeds, he immediately takes the card that was bet, he puts it in his stock and his turn goes on. At any time, a player can turn over a card won during a successful challenge (i.e., a face down card) and draw the card at the bottom of the deck. End of game The game ends when the last card of the deck is drawn. The cards face up are worth one or two stars whereas the cards face down (from a successful bet) are worth three stars. The player with most stars wins the game and the title of "Antarctic Champion Diver".