Overview

Dungeon Petz is a worker-placement and pet-management game where 2-4 players run competing pet shops catering to dungeon lords. Players use their imp families to buy baby pets, cages, food, and artifacts, then care for their pets by assigning Need Cards that determine the pets’ behavior. Pets participate in exhibitions for reputation points and are sold to visiting dungeon lord customers. The game lasts 5 rounds (4 players) or 6 rounds (2-3 players). The player with the most reputation points wins.

Components

• Central Board (double-sided for 2-3 or 4 players)
• Progress Board (double-sided for 2-3 or 4 players)
• 4 Pet Display Boards
• 4 Burrow Boards (with screen/quick reference tables)
• 4 sets of 10 imp figures and 2 minion figures per color
• 4 Achievement Tiles
• 18 assembled pets (egg-shaped piece + rotating wheel)
• Cage tiles (large rectangular)
• Addon tiles (narrow rectangular)
• 4 Need Card decks (green, red, yellow, purple) — shuffled separately
• 5 Potion Cards
• 8 Exhibition tiles
• 8 Customer tiles
• Artifact tiles (round)
• Food tokens (green vegetables, red meat)
• Gold tokens
• Suffering tokens, Manure tokens, Mutation tokens
• Starting Player Token

Setup

1. Place Central Board (4-player side without arrows for 4 players; arrow side for 2-3).
2. Place Progress Board (5-round side for 4 players; 6-round side for 2-3). Put Progress Marker on space 1.
3. Place Extra Imps: Each player puts 1 imp on each of 4 spaces of the Progress Track (distant relatives arriving in future rounds).
4. Deal 1 Exhibition tile face-down to each exhibition space; reveal the one for round 2. Remove unused tiles.
5. Deal 1 Customer tile face-down to each customer space; reveal the one for round 3. Remove unused tiles.
6. Set up Central Board: 3 cages face-up, 2 addons face-up, 3 size-2 pets in lower corral, 1 size-3 pet in upper corral, food in market stands (2 vegetable, 2 meat, 1 of each in mixed stand), 2 artifacts in blue tents.
7. Shuffle Need Card decks (4 colors) separately; place face-down.
8. Each player takes: Burrow Board, Pet Display Board, 10 imps (6 at home, 4 on Progress Board), 2 gold, 1 initial cage (pre-printed, strength 1 / antimagic 1), 1 manure token in initial cage, 4 Need Cards (1 of each color), Achievement Tile.
9. Place each player’s minion figures on space 0 of scoring track and exhibition tent.
10. For 2-3 players: place neutral imps on Central Board action spaces marked with dots to block certain actions.
11. Give Starting Player Token to the most recent pet-feeder (or randomly).

Turn Structure

Each round has 6 phases:

Phase 1 — Setup

• Reveal new exhibition tile (2 rounds ahead) and customer tile (3 rounds ahead).
• Restock food market, cages, addons, pets, and artifacts per Progress Board.
• All players receive income: starting player and player to their left get 1 gold; others get 2 gold.
• In 2-3 player games, move neutral imps to next action spaces (following arrows).

Phase 2 — Shopping

1. Group Imps: All players simultaneously and secretly divide their imps and gold into up to 6 groups behind screens. Groups are ordered by size (imps + gold tokens).
2. Choose Actions: Reveal groups. Biggest groups go first. On your turn, either send a group to an unoccupied action space (gold spent to bank, imps placed on space) or keep the group home. Tied groups resolved clockwise from Starting Player.

Phase 3 — Need Cards

1. Arrange cages and pets: Assign each pet to its own cage. Pets without cages are released (lost).
2. Draw Need Cards: For each revealed colored bar on each pet, draw 1 Need Card of that color.
3. Assign Need Cards: Assign 1 card per revealed bar to each pet, face down. Color must match the bar. You keep 1 card of each color in hand.

Phase 4 — Showing Off

Players take turns (clockwise from Starting Player):

1. Reveal all assigned Need Cards and evaluate needs.
2. Score the current exhibition (starting round 2).
3. Award reputation points based on exhibition rankings.

Phase 5 — Business

• Sell pets to customers (starting round 3). Each customer buys 1 pet from each player willing to sell.
• Discard assigned Need Cards.
• Unused imps either clean cages (remove up to 2 manure from empty cages per imp) or earn 1 gold each.

Phase 6 — Aging

• Pets grow (turn wheel to reveal more colored bars).
• Food ages (moves one chamber right; rightmost food discarded).
• Imps return home from action spaces (except platform and hospital).
• Pass Starting Player Token clockwise (or to lowest-reputation player before final round).

Actions

Shopping Actions (Phase 2)

• Buy Food: Take all food from one food stand. Minimum group: 1 imp.
• Buy Artifacts: Take both artifacts from tents. Minimum group: 1 imp.
• Buy Cage: Choose 1 of the available cages. Minimum group: 2 imps.
• Buy Addon: Choose 1 of the available addons. Minimum group: 1 imp.
• Buy Pet: Choose 1 pet from the corral (lower = size 2, upper = size 3). Group must include gold.
• Invite New Imps: Take all your imps from the Progress Board for the current round and earlier.
• Visit Hospital: Draw 1 Potion Card and retrieve any imps in the hospital.
• Volunteer for Judging: Move exhibition minion to space 2 (+2 bonus in exhibition).
• Book Platform: Imps stay on platform after the round; use 1 imp when selling for x3 multiplier.

Evaluating Needs (Phase 4)

Needs are resolved in order:

• Hunger: Spend 1 matching food token per hunger need, or add 1 suffering token.
• Poop: Add 1 manure token to cage per poop need.
• Play: Assign 1 available imp per play need (1 imp between 2 cages satisfies 1 need each), or add 1 suffering token.
• Anger: If anger needs exceed cage strength, either send available imps to hospital (1 per excess) or lose the pet.
• Magic: If magic needs exceed cage antimagic, add 1 mutation token per excess. At 2 mutation tokens, pet vanishes.
• Disease: If pet has disease needs, add disease needs + manure tokens in cage. If total > 2, add suffering tokens equal to (total - 2) + 1.
• Potion: No effect on pet (pet sleeps). Discard 1 hand card of the replaced color.

Selling Pets (Phase 5)

• Only pets of size 4+ can be sold.
• Calculate match score using customer’s preferences (positive and negative symbols).
• Match score must be > 0 to sell.
• Black Market: Reputation = 2 x match score.
• Platform: Reputation = 3 x match score (requires 1 imp on platform; only 1 pet per round from platform).
• Receive gold based on pet size and type (carnivores most valuable). Mutation reduces price by 2 gold.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

During the game: Reputation from exhibitions (8/6/4/2 for 1st-4th place in 4-player; ties reduce awards by 1 per extra tied player) and selling pets.

Final Scoring (2 exhibitions):

Business Acumen:

• +1 per food token, +1 per artifact, +1 per Potion Card
• +0.5 per gold token
• -2 per imp not at home (hospital, platform, or still on Progress Board)

Pet Display:

• +2 per pet remaining
• +1 per cage (including initial if not replaced), +1 per addon
• -1 per token on Pet Display Board (suffering, mutation, manure in any cage)

Each final exhibition awards reputation by ranking. Negative exhibition scores cost 1 reputation per point below 0.

Winner: Most reputation points. Ties shared.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Losing a Pet: Lose 1 reputation per full 10 reputation you have (0 if under 10, 1 if 10-19, etc.).
• Pet suffering: If suffering tokens equal or exceed pet’s size (visible bars), pet perishes.
• 2 mutation tokens: Pet vanishes to another dimension (lost).
• Cage symbols: Grazing (auto-feeds 1 vegetable need), meat trough (auto-feeds 1 meat need), playground (auto-satisfies 1 play need), strength bonus, antimagic bonus, poop absorption (1 less manure per round).
• Food aging: Vegetables last 2 rounds after purchase. Meat lasts only 1 round after purchase.
• 2-3 player neutral imps: Block action spaces on a rotating schedule, reducing available actions each round.
• Potions: Replace any color Need Card; the replaced color’s extra hand card must be discarded.
• Double-symboled cards (advanced): Cards with non-dominant needs can be played upside-down to count as 2 needs (the printed need plus the deck’s dominant need).
• Platform imps: Only return home when used to sell a pet. Long-term commitment.
• Components not limited: Use substitutes if tokens run out.

Player Reference

Round: Setup -> Shopping -> Need Cards -> Showing Off -> Business -> Aging

Shopping: Divide imps+gold into groups -> Biggest groups go first -> Send to action spaces or keep home

Need Evaluation Order: Hunger -> Poop -> Play -> Anger -> Magic -> Disease -> Potion

Selling: Match > 0 required

Black Market = 2x match

Platform = 3x match (need imp on platform)

Exhibition Awards (4p): 1st: 8

2nd: 6

3rd: 4

4th: 2 (ties reduce by 1 per extra player)

Pet Death: Suffering >= size, 2+ mutations, anger escape, or no cage

Game Length: 5 rounds (4 players)

6 rounds (2-3 players)