Just Borrowin'

People are always losing things. Handkerchiefs, thimbles, matchboxes, pins… all sorts of stuff! But maybe people aren’t just being forgetful. Maybe these items are being stolen… or is “borrowed” a better term? Because these items never leave the house.

In Just Borrowin’, you take on the role of a family of tiny people who live under the floorboards, in the walls and in the nooks and crannies of a nice big house of rich and forgetful humans. Each night, you venture out to “borrow” items to make your tiny house bigger, better and nicer to live in.

But beware of fellow tiny people, who are also trying to furnish their homes, and won’t hesitate to scuffle with you for the items they want.

What’s more, you have to look out for the cat, the ferocious pet of the humans, whose keen senses know when there’s a scuffle among the tiny people. Avoid the cat at all costs, or you’ll be cat food.

Survive the scuffles and the feline wrath, and you’ll return with the materials to decorate your home. You can even assemble borrowed items to create more elaborate furniture. If you accomplish your goals for a dream home, you’ll be the envy of all tiny people.

This is a card-based game where 3-5 players start of with just a an empty room card. Their ideal dream home is dictated by goal cards drawn at the start of each game. Each turn, item cards are presented and all players simultaneously place their meeples on the items they want to grab. If two or more players go after the same item card, a scuffle breaks out. Scuffles are resolved with dice rolls but if the difference exceeds two, the cat will hear and disrupt the scuffle. Everyone flees and no one gets the item.

Players decorate their room card with the item cards. There are also Assembly cards where players are required to get two or more specified item cards to build into the Assembly. Assemblies score more and give action bonuses. Players may also trade items with each other, expand their tiny house by adding room cards. Play ends when there are no more item cards to grab. Then points are added. Item cards, Assembly Cards and Goal cards are scored and totalled.

Video Tutorial