Cat Lady

To set up Cat Lady, shuffle the main deck of cards and deal out a 3x3 grid of cards face-up in the center of the play area. Below the grid, deal three stray cat cards face up. The player who has the most cats in real life goes first, and they receive the cat token, which starts placed beside any row or column. Other players arrange their starting resources as needed, preparing for the drafting phase.

The objective of Cat Lady is to accumulate the most victory points by the end of the game. Players act as cat enthusiasts drafting cards from a shared grid to collect cats, food, toys, catnip, costumes, and other items. You must successfully feed the cats you collect using food cards, and you earn points through various set-collection mechanisms.

On your turn, you choose either one row or one column from the 3x3 grid and take all three cards. However, you cannot choose the exact row or column that the cat token currently occupies and is watching over. Any cat cards you draft are placed face up in front of you. Food cards are exchanged for matching colored cubes used to feed cats, while all other cards go secretly into your hand. At the end of your turn, you replenish the grid and move the cat token to the row or column you just took.

At the end of the game, players score victory points based on several criteria. Each cat you successfully feed with the required food cubes scores points, while unfed cats cost you points. Players also lose points for having the most leftover food. Additional points come from catnip sets, unique toy sets, costume majorities, and special cards like lost cats. Ties are broken by the player with the most fed cats.

The game continues in a clockwise fashion until an empty row or column in the 3x3 grid needs to be refilled from the main deck, but there are not enough cards left to do so. Once this triggering condition is met, the game immediately ends, and players proceed to final scoring to determine the winning cat lady.