In ねこやしき ("Cat Mansion"), players are cat-lovers trying to attract stray cats from a nearby vacant lot to come live in their yards.

There are 6 different cat types ("suits"), of which players are striving to collect majorities for points, plus a "rare" cat type that acts as a wild suit at the end of the game. The cats in the regular suits can be values of 1, 2, or 3, while the rare cats are only value 1. There are also "item" cards that give special abilities.

Each player starts with 3 cat cards in the player's "yard." The vacant lot begins as 4 face up cat cards and the rest of the draw deck face down. There are two ways to obtain cards from the vacant lot. First, a player may simply draw from the face up cards either A) up to 2 cats of value 1, B) 1 cat of value 2 or 3, or C) all visible items. Alternatively, the player may take a card from the player's own yard and return it to the vacant lot, then draw the top card from the deck. If the top card matches any of the cards in the vacant lot, the player gains the drawn card plus any that match it. (If no cards match, the drawn card remains face up in the vacant lot.) This second option may be repeated as often as desired until the player gains cards.

When gaining cards from the vacant lot, the player must be careful of the suit. The suit(s) in the player's yard with the most cards is considered threatening to cats in any other suits. If a player gains a card in a suit of which the player already has more cards than any other, one cat card in each of the suits with lower numbers of cats will return to the vacant lot due to fear.

Points are awarded at the end based on the highest value cat in the yard in each suit. One point is added for the player with a majority in that suit, while one point is subtracted from each player who has at least one card in that suit but does not have the majority. Every player with 2 or fewer suits at the end of the game gets a "maniac bonus" of 3 points. The player with the most points at the end is the winner.

Neko Yashiki

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