Looking for a specific Harry Potter Catch The Golden Snitch rule? | Set Up | Playing the Game | Playing Sets of Cards | Cards | Winning the Game | FAQ | Components |
Objective
The objective of Harry Potter Catch The Golden Snitch is to score the most points by playing the most sets of cards before one of the players catch the Golden Snitch.
Set Up
- Place the Quidditch chest in the center of the table.
- Push the Golden Snitch down until it clicks.
- One of the players becomes the dealer. They will shuffle all of the cards. They will then deal twelve cards to each player. These twelve cards become each players’ personal draw deck. You should place your own personal draw deck to your right.
- The remaining cards should be split into two roughly equal piles. One pile is placed face down on each side of the Quidditch chest.
- All of the players will draw the fop five cards from their own personal draw decks. You can look at your own hand, but shouldn’t show it to the other players.
How to Play Harry Potter Catch The Golden Snitch
All of the players play the game at the same time. There are no turns and you can take your turns as quickly or as slowly as you want. Generally you will do better if you take your turns as quickly as you can.
Each player begins their turn by drawing one of the cards from their personal draw pile. They will add the card to their hand which should mean they have six cards in their hand. If your personal draw pile ever runs out of cards, you can take a card from either of the piles next to the Quidditch Chest. As you progress in the game, your personal draw pile eventually becomes the discard pile from the player on your right.
The player then decides what they want to do with the card they just drew.
If the cards matches one of the other cards in your hand, you should consider keeping it. If you decide to keep a card, you must choose another card from your hand to discard. At the end of each of your turns you should only have five cards in your hand.
Otherwise if you don’t like the card that you just drew, you can discard it immediately.
The card you choose to discard should be placed into a discard pile to your left. This pile eventually becomes the draw pile for the player on your left.
Playing Sets of Cards
As you add and remove cards from your hand, you will eventually create sets of cards. Once you have created a set of cards, you can play them in front of you. You should play them as quickly as possible since you only score points for them if you play them before the Golden Snitch is caught. Any sets left in your hand at the end of the game score zero points. Make sure you play them somewhere that they don’t accidentally get passed to the next player.
Once you play cards in a set, you will have less than five cards in your hand. You can immediately draw new cards until you have five cards left in your hand. You will then take a normal turn.
There are a number of different types of cards in Harry Potter Catch The Golden Snitch. Each type of card will be played in a different way. See the corresponding section below for more details.
Cards of Harry Potter Catch The Golden Snitch
Items
There are four different types of item cards in the game: cauldrons, broomsticks, wands, and potions.
When you have collected three of the same type of item in your hand, you can play them as a set in front of you. At the end of the game, each set of item cards is worth ten points.
Beaters
You will play Beater cards in a pair of two. Once you have two of the cards in your hand, you will play them face up in front of yourself.
After you play the cards you will choose another player and say their name out loud. Then you will pick up one of the Bludgers from the Quidditch chest and toss it towards the player whose name you called out.
The player you toss the Bludger at has to try and swat it at another player. They cannot swat it back at the player that played the pair of Beater cards.
Should the player hit another player with the Bludger, the hit player has to discard all of the cards from their hand. They will then have to draw five new cards for their hand. After they draw the new cards they will place the Bludger back onto its spot in the Qudditch chest. You will press down until you hear a click.
If the player fails to hit another player with the Bludger, they will have to return the Bludger to the Quidditch chest. They must make sure to hear the click sound when they place it on the corresponding spot.
Chasers
You will play Chaser cards in a pair of two cards. When you play both cards, you will choose a set of item cards played in front of another player. You will steal the chosen set of item cards and move them in front of yourself. Place the Chaser cards on top of the item cards you stole.
Once you place Chaser cards on top of a set of item cards, no other player may steal those cards for the rest of the game.
Keeper
Keeper cards are unique as you can play them by themselves.
When you play the Keeper card you will take the Quaffle and put it in front of yourself. While the Quaffle is in front of you, no player may use Chaser cards to steal cards from you.
Should another player play a Keeper card, they will take the Quaffle from you and place it in front of themselves.
Seekers
You will play Seeker cards in a pair (two cards).
Seeker cards by themselves are not worth any points. If you are the player that catches the Golden Snitch though, each pair of Seekers that you play are worth ten points each.
Winning the Game
Each time the Bludger is picked up and returned to the chest, it will move the Golden Snitch closer to launching from the chest. Once the Golden Snitch launches out of the chest, all of the players race to try and catch it. If no one catches it before it hits the table/floor, the first player to pick it up gets it. Players cannot just wait and hover over the chest waiting for the Golden Snitch to launch into the air.
The player that catches the Golden Snitch gets 15 points. They also score 10 points for each pair of Seekers they played during the game.
All of the players count up how many points they scored during the game. The player with the most points wins the game.
Harry Potter Catch the Golden Snitch FAQ
If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.
Components
- Quidditch Chest
- Quaffle
- 2 Bludgers
- Golden Snitch
- 16 Seeker Cards
- 18 Beater Cards
- 12 Chaser Cards
- 6 Keeper Cards
- 12 Broomstick Cards
- 12 Cauldron Cards
- 12 Potion Cards
- 12 Wand Cards
- Instructions
Year: 2021 | Publisher: Spin Master
Genres: Card, Family, Speed, Set Collection
Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 3-4 | Length of Game: 5-15 minutes
Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate
For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.