Rules

Objective

A push-your-luck deck builder. Each round you choose how hard to push your luck drawing from your own deck — the deeper you go, the more $ and Cows you turn up, and the closer you get to three Bandits and losing the round.

Your goal: build the biggest Herd of Cows.

Each round you bank the Cows you drew into your Herd. When the Store runs out, one final showdown adds every Cow in your whole deck on top of everything you already banked — biggest Herd wins. 2–4 players.

Reading the Cards

Every card is laid out the same way. Four places to look:

1 2 3 4

1. Suit — top-right. River, Cactus or Rattlesnake. It shows on the card back too, so you know the risk before you draw.
2. What it does — the middle. Any mix of $, Cows, Bandits, Jail or an Explosive. This is what you get when you draw it.
3. Cost — bottom-left. What you pay to buy it from the Store. Always a plain $, never in a circle.
4. Act — bottom-right. One, two or three cowboy hats. Only used when you build the Store during Setup.

Starter cards have no cost and no hats — both bottom corners are empty. That's how you tell your 10 starters from the Store cards.

The three suits

River — safe. Never has Bandits.

Cactus — up to 1 Bandit.

Rattlesnake — 1–2 Bandits, best rewards.

The six symbols

$
Money to spend this round.

Cow
Goes to your Herd. How you win.

Bandit
Your 3rd in a round busts you.

Double Bandit
Counts as 2.

Jail
Cancels 1 Bandit.

Explosive
One-time use. Does nothing when drawn; use it on your turn and it leaves your deck for good.

Setup

1. Each player takes an identical 10-card starter deck — these are the cards with no cost and no Act hats in the bottom corners. Shuffle yours face-down as your draw pile.
   
2. Split the 54 Store cards into three Act decks by the cowboy hats in the bottom-right corner (18 per Act). Shuffle each Act deck separately.
3. Build the Store once, face-down, back to front: Act 3 at the back, Act 2 in the middle, Act 1 at the front. Each Act is 2 rows — see the table for row width.
4. Stagger every other row by half a card, brick-wall style, so two cards cover the one above. Flip the front row face-up.

Only the Store width changes with the player count — the rules are identical at 2, 3 and 4 players.

Sequence of Play

1. Draw — everyone at the same time

• Everyone draws at the same time, one card at a time off your draw pile. You must draw at least one; after that you may stop whenever you like.
• Run out? Shuffle your discard pile into a new draw pile and cut one card from top to bottom. If both piles are empty, stop drawing for the round.

Bust. The moment you have 3 Bandits in front of you, you bust: score nothing, no buy, and everything you drew goes to your discard pile.

Didn't bust? Add the Cows you drew to your Herd now — the Herd is a running total that carries from round to round.

2. Buy — one player at a time, in turn order

• Busted players sit this phase out.
• On your turn you must buy or burn one card — no passing. Buy any face-up Store card you can afford with the $ you drew (cost is in the bottom-left corner); it and everything you drew go to your discard pile. Or burn a face-up card out of the game.
• Then discard your drawn cards and start a new round.

Always reveal. As soon as a card leaves the Store, turn face-up anything behind it that is no longer covered.

Who goes first

1. Most $ this round — that player chooses who buys first.
2. Tied? Most Cows this round.
3. Still tied? Most cards drawn.
4. Still tied? Compare drawn-card cost by position — 1st vs 1st, 2nd vs 2nd. First higher cost wins.
5. Still tied? Random draw.

Play continues clockwise from whoever was chosen, skipping busted players. Same rule every round, including the first.

3. Final Scoring

The Store empties once, and that ends the game. The moment the final card is bought or burned, the buy phase stops there — anyone yet to take a turn misses it. If you didn't bust, you still score the Cows you drew.

Then, in one final showdown, everyone — including anyone who just busted — lays out their whole deck face-up and adds every Cow they own to their Herd. Most Cows wins.

Example. Jo has 14 Cows banked from scoring rounds. She lays out her deck and counts 9 more printed across her cards, for 23. Cows on cards she never drew still count.

If Herds are tied

1. Most $ printed across your deck.
2. Still tied? Most cards in your deck.

Still level? It's a tie.

Clarifications

• You may check the card backs in your draw pile. You may not look through your discard pile.
• Burn always means removing a Store card from the game. To consume one of your own cards you use an Explosive.
• Deck = every card you own: draw pile, drawn cards and discard pile.
• Draw 4s stack. If a mandatory draw is itself a Draw 4, it counts as one of the draws you owed and adds 4 more on top — owe 4, draw a Draw 4, now owe 7. Busting cancels any draws still owed.