My First Castle Panic

Overview

My First Castle Panic is a cooperative game for young children where players work together to catch monsters before they reach and destroy the castle. Players match cards by color and shape to catch monsters on a linear path. If all monsters are caught, everyone wins. If a monster reaches the castle, everyone loses. No reading is required.

Components

• 1 board (linear path with colored/shaped spaces)
• 1 castle (3 pieces: front + 2 sides)
• 1 wall (3 pieces: front + 2 sides)
• 26 Castle cards
• 16 monster tokens (including 3 starting monsters with stars)
• 4 How-to-Play reference cards
• 1 Monster Dungeon (bottom of box)

Setup

1. Place the castle in the castle space, wall in the wall space.
2. Place the 3 star monsters on the first 3 spaces starting from START.
3. Mix remaining monsters face down next to the board.
4. Shuffle Castle cards and deal 1 face up to each player. Place rest as draw deck.
5. Keep the bottom of the box nearby as the Monster Dungeon.
6. Youngest player goes first; play clockwise.

Turn Structure

Each turn has 4 steps in order:

1. Draw 1 card from the draw pile.
2. Play 1 card from your hand (or ask for help).
3. Move all monsters 1 space closer to the castle.
4. Draw 1 monster token and place it on the START space.

Actions

Playing Cards

To catch a monster, play a card matching BOTH the color AND shape of the space the monster occupies.

Card Type	Effect
Regular card	Matches 1 monster on the matching color + shape space
Hero card	Matches any shape of the shown color
Any-color card	Matches any color of the shown shape
Wall card	Rebuilds the wall if knocked flat
Boot card	Send any monster back face down into the monster pile

Asking for Help

Instead of playing your own card, you may ask 1 other player to play a matching card from their hand. Only 1 card may be played per turn total.

Monster Types

Monster	Special Effect
Regular	No special effect
Shover	After being placed on START, move ALL monsters 1 additional space toward the castle
Runner	Placed on the 2nd space instead of START
Super Monster	Requires 2 hits (2 matching cards on separate turns) to catch

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Win: All monsters are caught (dungeon’d) and no more monsters remain in the pile.

Lose: A monster reaches the castle and knocks it flat.

Wall and Castle

• If a monster reaches the wall, both the wall and monster are knocked flat. The monster goes to the Dungeon and the wall is set aside.
• If a monster reaches the castle (wall already destroyed), the castle is knocked flat and all players lose.
• Monsters cannot land in an empty wall space.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• If the draw pile runs out, shuffle discards to form a new draw pile.
• No hand limit.
• Players may show cards and discuss strategy openly (cooperative).
• If no player has a matching card, skip the Play step.
• The More Help Variation: Allow any player to play a matching card on any turn, not just when asked.

Player Reference

Step	Action
1	Draw 1 card
2	Play 1 matching card (or ask for help)
3	Move all monsters 1 space toward castle
4	Draw 1 new monster onto START
Win	All monsters caught
Lose	Monster reaches castle