Nine Lives is a Rogue-Like Roll-and-Write Game
You are a Cat trying to explore a Dungeon. You only have Nine Lives to explore the Dungeon. Find treasure, upgrade your Cat, and explore the dungeon in order to earn the most points.
Players: 1 - 100+
Game Time: 20 minutes
Items needed: 6 six-sided dice, one of them being a different color than the other five and one “Nine Lives” sheet per player
Setup: Roll 2 d6 to determine the End Goals for the game, mark the End Goals with an X over the die symbol. (Re-roll if necessary until there are two different numbers)
All players will use the same Dungeon Map layout and End Goals. The game is played simultaneously, with players trying to earn the most points. All players will use the same dice pool for each roll, assigning however each player determines.
Gameplay:
Determine Starting Point - Roll 2 d6 that are different colors. Use the darker die for determining the columns and the lighter die for determining the rows. Find coordinating locations on the Dungeon Map. Choose one and mark an X on the Dungeon Map to show your starting point for this life. If a 6 is rolled on the die, it is a wild for that row or column, and you may choose any location while still following the other die rolled. If both dice are 6’s, you can start at any location on the map. Each player chooses their own starting point following these rules.
Choose a Cat - Choose a Cat by marking the number of this life in the corner for this run in the dungeon. For the first turn, use the Starter Cat. Following turns, you may choose any cat that has not yet been chosen. In a multiplayer game, each player can choose any Cat they would like for each life.
Roll 5 Dice - Roll 5 d6 for this Cat’s life in the dungeon.
Assign Dice - For each die, choose to either Upgrade a skill or Move the direction of the dice in the dungeon. Players simultaneously use the 5 dice rolled to move and/or upgrade.
Repeat these steps for each life of your Cat.
How Movement Works:
- Orthogonally (Up, Down, Right, Left; North, South, East, West)
- When you enter a new square/room, mark an X on it.
- Your next movement must always follow from the last X you marked this life.
- The die numbers correspond to the direction you may move; 1=North, 2=East, 3=South, 4=West, 5=North OR South, 6=East OR West
- You may only move into a square/room without an X. You may never retrace your steps or go onto a space that you have previously X’ed.
- If you enter a square/room with an icon that you have upgraded to, you earn a treasure. Mark an X over one of the Treasure. Each Treasure is worth 2 Victory Points.
- You may X squares/rooms that have icons you have not unlocked yet, you just will not earn that Treasure this game.
- There are “Upgrade Arrows” throughout the map. If you ever enter one of these spaces, you immediately mark the next X on any one Upgrade track
How Upgrading Works:
- There are four skill tracks to advance to upgrade your Cat throughout the game.
- Upgrade from left to right, marking an X in the leftmost empty square corresponding to the die.
- Once a square with an icon in it is X’ed, you now have that skill. When entering spaces in the Dungeon Map with that icon, you now earn Treasure.
- Once a skill track has been upgraded 9 times, you unlock a unique ability to use once during each Cat’s life.
- Upgrades remain for the entire game.
End of Game: After you have used your last Cat (9 lives), the game is over. Total your score. Each Treasure earned is worth 2 Victory Points. Earn corresponding Victory Points for each Upgrade unlocked (On each skill track, first unlock is 1 VP, second unlock is an additional 2 VP, third unlock is an additional 3 VP). Total your Victory Points for the two End Goals that were rolled during Setup. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner!
-description from designer
Adventure, Animals, Dice, Print & Play · Dice Rolling, Paper-and-Pencil
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