How to Play


Quick Reference Guide
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Version	5.0
Release Date	July 2024

How to Win

Reach 100 cookies, or
Win 10 fights

Ties

If both players meet one of the criteria to win at the same time, the game is a tie, UNLESS
One player achieves both conditions at the same time. That player wins.

Order of the Turn

Setup

The high roll on a 6-sided die goes first!
Shuffle your deck, add 30 cookies to your jar, and draw 10 cards. Pick 6 to keep and shuffle 4 back into your deck.
In a best of 3, loser of the last game goes first.

First Turn

During the starting player's first turn, they do not have a fight step nor do they draw a free card during their resource step.
The following player's turn proceeds as normal.

Starting Step

In this step, you play Characters, Fields, Actions, and activate abilities, up to 4 times.
Opponents may play up to 4 Quick Actions / Quick Abilities during this step.
You can have up to 5 Characters and 1 Field in play.

Fight Step

You may (but don't have to) choose one of your characters and one of your opponent's characters to fight.
After that, you and your opponent alternative playing up to 4 Quick Actions or Quick Abilities that may affect the fight.
Once you're done, compare both characters' Confidence and Maturity.
If the character's Confidence is greater than or equal to the Maturity of the opposite character:
- regress that character if they're an adult, or
- send them to timeout (discard) if they're already regressed
If you win the fight, gain the cookies on the losing character's fight reward

What counts as a win?

Any character who changes state at the end of the fight via damage lost the fight.
This means that both players can win AND lose a fight in the event of a tie that causes both parties to regress and/or go to timeout.

Fight Review:

If your opponent's character regresses or is sent to timeout, you win.
If your character regresses or is sent to timeout, you lose.
If both characters regress or are sent to timeout, both players win AND lose.
If neither character regresses or is sent to a timeout, it's a draw (no one wins OR loses).

Resource Step

In this step, collect all the resources listed on the bottom of character cards you control.
Resource modifiers are added in the order if the player's choice.
You may draw one 'free' card. If you have over 9 cards, discard down to 9.
Resolve all "at the end of the turn" effects, and erase any single-turn effects.
When a new turn starts, all cards should read as printed unless another card in play changes that text.
Once you've gotten your cookies, cards and resolved effects, your turn is over!

Card Sections


Icon	Element	Description
	Icon	Indicates the card type
	Cost	How many cookies you pay to play this card
	Art	No game effect, But it looks cool!
	Ability	The way the card impacts the game.
	Confidence	Character's ability to win fights. (Attack)
	Maturity	Character's ability to stay adult - or out of timeout (Defense)
	Resources	The number of cookies and cards you gain each resource phase
	Fight Reward	The number of cookies you get if you win a fight against this character

Card Types


Icon	Type
	Adult Character
	Regressed Character
	Adult Main Character
	Regressed Main Character
	Action
	Quick Action
	Decisive Quick Action
	Field
	Iconic Field
	Iconic Global Field
	Toy
	Shiny Toy
	Scene
	Memorable Scene

Note: players can have 3 of most cards per deck. However, players may only have 1 main / decisive / iconic / shiny / memorable prefixed card per deck.

Rules

Rule of One

No value can be zero. If a stat or cost would go below 1, it still functions as 1, and would read as: (-x) 1, unless it's printed value is already 0.

Rule of Fun

(As important as the Rule of One) Make sure the ways you're engaging with the game, playspace and opponent foster a positive experience. If at ANY POINT during a game, elements of that game (beyond the board state) are preventing you from having fun, whether they are external or internal, express this and catch your breath. It's always better to delay a game by a minute to preserve the fun. Do Not Abuse This Rule.

Field of Play

Each player has 5 Character slots, 5 Toy slots, and 1 Field slot unless a card changes these values.

Field Replacement

You can play a field even if you already have one in play. The existing field goes to Timeout.

Toys

Toys stay in play after their cost is paid. Grabbing a Toy is a normal speed action unless otherwise indicated by a shooting-star icon (quick ability).

Emptying Your Draw Pile

If you run out of cards to draw, shuffle your Timeout - it becomes your new draw pile.

Scenes

Scenes stay in play after the cost is paid. Scenes can be played to any slot on the board (including the opponents side) and only affect the space they are played into.

Good Players Don't Interrupt

All cards in Little Troubles resolve in full before another card can be played. Even in the case of a 'Quick' card, there can't be any other cards being played in order for you to play a new one. If a card has an effect, for example "if a character would be regressed while this card is in play, restore it and regress this character instead", that happens as a part of playing the card.