12 Rivers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Game Components
• Game Setup
• Game Flow
  • Preparation Phase
    • The fairy emerges
  • Camp Phase
  • Reward Phase
• Game End
• Scoring
• Villager Tile
• Fairy Token
  • The ability of Fairy
• Mission Card
• Family Mode

Game Overview

Players are acting as a leader for 4 tribes and take turns to send warriors to climb the mountain. The warriors camp near the river to collect Nature's bounties successfully and bring the resources to the villagers in need when they return to the village. Warriors can collect more valuable bounties if they move toward the origin of the river, but more camp tools have to be paid as well. After 5 rounds, the bounties to the villagers will be scored for players based on the rarity.

Game Components

• 3D Game Board x 1 (with Background area, River area, Lake area, Village area and Trail)
• 3D Game Board holder x 2
• Nature's Bounty x 65: Healing Pearl x 9, Magic Pearl x 11, Wildlife Growing Pearl x 13, Aquatic Life Growing Pearl x 15, Plant Growing Pearl x 17
• Villager Tile x 30
• Alpaca Board x 4
• Tribe Token x 12
• Camp Card x 48
• Fairy Token x 25
• Block Bar x 1
• Drawstring Bag x 1
• Mission Card x 5
• Player's Aid Sheet x 4

Game Setup

The game setup diagram shows a 4 player game.

Range of application of the game board for 2/3/4 player game:

• 2 Players: only 6 rivers from the left side
• 3 Players: only 9 rivers from the left side
• 4 Players: all 12 rivers

1. Place the 3D Game Board in the center of the table according to the following steps.

   • 1a. Open the Game Board. Fold the background area to have 2 deep grooves on its bottom.
   • 1b. Fold the two 3D Game Board holders and insert them into the grooves on the bottom of the background area.
   • 1c. Please refer to the 3D Game Board display in the Game Components section. Place the Village area flat on the table, the River area slightly tilted, and raise the Background area to the vertical on the table.

   All 12 rivers will be used in a 4 player game. Only 9 rivers from the left side of the Game Board will be used in a 3 player game. And only 6 rivers from the left side of the Game Board will be used in a 2 player game.

2. Place the Block Bar into the long groove on the origin of the river on the Game Board.

3. Put all 65 Nature's Bounties (pearls) into the Drawstring Bag and place the bag aside the Game Board.

4. Each player receives a Player's Aid Sheet, takes 3 Tribe Tokens and 1 corresponding color of Alpaca Board.

5. Shuffle 30 Villager Tiles and pile them face down, then flip 6 Villager Tiles face up randomly and place them next to the Game Board.

6. Shuffle 25 Fairy Tokens and pile them face down next to the Game Board.

7. Shuffle 5 Mission Cards, draw one card randomly and place it face up on the table to be the mission of this game, and remove the others from the game.

8. The player who recently climbed a mountain is the first player. The first player puts one of his/her Tribe Tokens on the first space of the trail, and the player on his/her left side puts one of his/her tokens on the empty space behind the first player. All players proceed by this rule until all the Tribe Tokens are placed on the trail.

• The first player takes 4 and the second player takes 5 Camp Cards in a 2 player game.
• The first player takes 4, the second player takes 5, and the third player takes 6 Camp Cards in a 3 player game.

Game Flow

The Game ends after 5 rounds, which represents 5 years. The God of Nature will bestow different types of Nature's bounties to everyone who lives in this wonderland every year. The God of Nature is not out of reach in this wonderland as Nature's Bounties can be seen everywhere in the river. In addition, the God of Nature has its avatar, stumps and statues, standing along the rivers. When warriors are climbing the mountain, the God of Nature will send out the cloud fairy, river fairy, bonfire fairy, breeze fairy, and mushroom fairy to help them collect Nature's bounties more smoothly. During the game, players may take turns sending out their warriors to camp near the rivers to collect resources in the mountain, or they may choose to find out what villagers need by sending their warriors back to the village. At the end of each round, the warriors will come back to the village with the Nature's bounties they collected.

Each round contains 3 different phases as follows:

Preparation Phase

Start from the river on the far left, draw a Nature's Bounty (pearl) randomly from the bag and place it at the origin of the river. 6 pearls are drawn in a 2 player game, 9 for 3 players, and 12 for 4 players.

Take a 3 player game for example, draw a Nature's Bounty from the bag randomly and place it at the origin of each river from the far left to right one by one. The three rivers on the far right side of the Game Board will not be used in a 3 player game.

The fairy emerges

Draw the Fairy Tokens randomly from the supply area, place them on the stumps or statues based on the instructions on the Player's Aid Sheet in each round, and then flip the tokens face up one by one.

• 1st/3rd/5th round: Place the Fairy Token on the stumps.
• 2nd/4th round: Place the Fairy Token on the statues.

Fairy Tokens will only emerge by the rivers that are used in the game, which means Fairy Tokens will only be placed on the 2 / 3 stumps or statues from the far left in a 2 / 3 player game.

• When you place the Fairy Token on the stump or statue, it doesn't matter if the stump or statue has a Fairy Token placed in the previous rounds, which means not only 1 Fairy Token can be placed on the stump or statue. The player may collect all the Fairy Tokens on the stump or statue if he/she chooses to camp there (See the next paragraph "Camp Phase").

In the first round of a 3 player game, only 3 Fairy Tokens will be drawn out and be placed on the 3 stumps respectively from the far left of the board. After the tokens were placed, flip them face up one by one.

Camp Phase

Following the order of the Tribe Tokens on the trail, players take turns to insert their Tribe Tokens into any groove on the board and pay the Camp Cards according to the numbers listed on the Player's Aid Sheet. Each groove can only be inserted in one Tribe Token.

Camping in the mountain (River area): The Players can send their warriors into the River area to collect pearls by placing Tribe Tokens. If you go closer to the origin of the river, you have to pay more Camp Cards, but the Nature bounties you can collect are more valuable. Or the players can also choose not to go deep in the mountain and ask warriors to camp in the lower reaches of the river. In this way, players do not need to pay any Camp Card but obtain 1 pcs instead, but the bounties that are more valuable might be blocked in the upper reaches of the river.

• For example, the row marked "x3" means you have to pay 3 Camp Cards to insert the Tribe Token into any grooves in this row. The row marked "+1" represents that you do not need to pay any Camp Card to insert the Tribe Token into any grooves in this row, and you can obtain 1 more Camp Card immediately instead. In addition, different plant pictures are used in the game board to indicate the Camp Card that you have to be paid is different.

If the left side of the groove that players choose to insert his/her Tribe Token has Fairy Tokens, players can take the Fairy tokens immediately. The tokens can be used later during the game.

Grooves in the same area cost the same numbers of Camp Cards. Therefore, it is better for players to block the bounties if they choose the grooves that are closer to the origin of the river.

Stay nearby lake (Lake area): There is only one groove in the Lake area. The player will neither pay nor receive any Camp Card if he/she inserts his/her token here. But the player will obtain all the Nature's bounties in the lake at a time.

Back to the Village (Village area): In addition to collecting the pearls, players also have to fulfill the villager's request. If players choose to go back to the village, they will not receive any Nature's bounty but will have priority to select Villager Tile. Each tile has different requests and accomplishing the requests can receive major points in this game. There are 6 grooves in the Village area, 2 of them can take 1 or 2 Camp Card(s) immediately while the rest grooves cannot obtain any card (the grooves are marked +2, +1 and 0).

• You can't choose a Villager Tile right away after inserting your Tribe Token into the groove at Village area, you still need to wait until Reward Phase, then you can choose a Villager Tile while taking back the Tribe Token.

Players take turns placing their Tribe Tokens following the order on the trail until all the Tribe Tokens are placed. The Camp Phase ends immediately and the Reward Phase begins.

In a 3 player game, the green player takes first and pays 1 Camp Card to insert the token into the groove. The red player is the next to play and he/she decides to pay 3 Camp Cards to insert the token in the area where the "river fairy" token is on the left side and receives the "river fairy" token immediately. The yellow player comes next to make choices, and so on. The Camp Phase ends until all the Tribe Tokens on the trail are inserted to the grooves.

Reward Phase

Remove the Block Bar and let all the Nature's Bounties roll in the river. The Tribe Tokens placed in the previous phase become the gate that can intercept the Nature's Bounties.

Players take back their own Tribe Token one area by one area following the order from top to bottom, and left to right. If there are many tokens in the same area, players take back their own Tribe Token from top to bottom. The token should be immediately placed on the last empty space on the trail after taking back, which means the token that is taken back earlier will be placed on the far last space on the trail. In this way, the order for players to place tokens in the Camp Phase of next round will be changed.

• Each space on the trail can only be placed one Tribe Token.

Take a 3 player game for example, players take back their own Tribe Token, choose the pearl and then put the token on the trail following the order 1 to 9.

If there are many tribe tokens in the same row, players should take back by areas and from left to right. If there are many tokens in the same area, players should take back from top to bottom.

Area A (left side) has the priority to take back Tribe Tokens than Area B (right side). Therefore, the order to take Tribe Tokens back is: red, green, orange (following the areas from left to right), not the reverse.

Please see the below instructions about the rewards you can get while taking back tribe tokens in different positions:

Reward from the mountain (River area): Each tribe climbs the mountain with an alpaca to carry the pearls they collected. When a player takes back his/her Tribe Token, he/she should choose one pearl blocked by his/her Tribe Token and put it on the Alpaca Board, and let the remaining pearls continue to roll down. The player must put the pearl on his/her Alpaca Board immediately. Once a player accomplishes the request on the Mission Card, he/she can flip the card and put it in front of himself/herself immediately, which means the player can get 4 stars (4 victory points) when the game ends.

• Each player has his/her own alpaca to carry the Nature's Bounties back to the village. Each Alpaca can carry a maximum of 6 pearls. If 6 spaces for pearls are all positioned, he/she may discard any pearl on the Alpaca Board to put in the new one instead, or he/she may also simply discard the new pearl. Remove the discarded pearl from the game.

Reward from the lake (Lake area): When a player takes back his/her Tribe Token here, he/she can collect all the pearls in the lake and put them on his/her Alpaca Board immediately.

• If no player stays nearby the lake in this round, remove all the pearls in the lake before next round begins.
• If there is no empty space for the new pearls on the Alpaca Board, the player can decide what he/she wants to keep and discard. Remove the discarded pearls from the game.

Reward from the village (Village area): When a player takes back his/her Tribe Token in the Village area, he/she may choose one of the Villager Tiles that are flipped this round and put the tile in front of himself/herself. Players can get points if they share the pearls with villagers later, and some Villager Tiles can offer Camp Cards as supply. Each Villager Tile has different requests for different colors of Nature's Bounties. (See the paragraph "Villager Tile")

• If the tribe totem on the upper right corner of Villager Tile matches the player's tribe, the player will receive extra benefits immediately while he/she selects the tile. By contrast, if the tribe totem is different from the player's tribe, the player might have a chance to get extra points at the end of the game. (See the paragraph "Villager Tile")

After all the Tribe Tokens on the board are taken back, players can put the pearls from their Alpaca Board onto their Villager Tiles. It's the only moment in each round when the pearls can be put from the Alpaca onto the Villager Tiles. And the next round begins.

The Rules to put the Nature's Bounties:

• The pearl must meet the Villager Tile's requested color.
• The pearl can be put on the Villager Tile acquired in this round or in the previous round.
• The pearl can not be moved once it is placed on a Villager Tile.
• The player may decide how many pearls will be put on the Villager Tile as he/she wishes. He/She may leave some pearls on the Alpaca Board as well, although it will reduce the empty spaces on the Alpaca Board for the next round.

Game End

The game ends after 5 rounds, and the player with the highest star (victory points) wins the game.

If there is a tie, the player whose Tribe Token is on the first space of the trail wins the game.

Scoring

When the game ends, each player will receive stars (victory points) according to the following rules. The total stars will be the player's final score.

• Each pearl on player's Villager Tiles will receive different stars by the color: healing pearl 5 stars, magic pearl 4 stars, wildlife growing pearl 3 stars, aquatic life growing pearl 2 stars, plant growing pearl 1 star.
  • The pearls on the Alpaca Board will not receive any stars when the game ends.
• Additional stars received from each Villager Tiles. (See "Reward at the end" in the below paragraph)
• Each set of Villager Tiles that have different tribe totem from the player's Tribe Token will receive 4 stars.
• The player who has Mission Card in front of him/her receives 4 stars.

Player A (red tribe) finished the game with the components represented below (4 Villager Tiles; Reward at the end shown on the tiles: 8, 3, 7 and 2 stars).

• Player A has total 2 healing pearls, 3 magic pearls, 3 wildlife growing pearls, 2 aquatic life growing pearls, and 5 plant growing pearls on his 4 Villager Tiles, and will gain 40 stars.
• Player A receives additional 20 stars from the Villager Tiles.
• Player A has a set of Villager Tiles different from his tribe and gain 4 stars.
• Player A doesn't have the Mission Card in front of him.

The final score of Player A is 40+20+4=64 stars (victory points).

Villager Tile

The Villager Tile has 4 functions as below:

1. Request of Nature's bounties: Each Villager Tile has 5 empty spaces which the pearls can fit in. The pearl can only be placed on the empty space that matches its own color.
   • The rainbow space can fit in any colors of pearls.
   • The pearl can not be moved once it is placed on a Villager Tile.
2. Supply of the Camp Cards: The player will receive the corresponding numbers of Camp Cards listed on the tile immediately when he/she brings back the Villager Tile.
   • Some Villager Tiles do not have icons on the upper left corner, and the player will not receive any Camp Cards if he/she chooses these tiles.
3. Totem of the Tribes: The player will receive 1 extra Camp Card every time after he/she brings back the Villager Tile with the same tribe totem as his/hers after receiving the Camp Cards listed on the tile as usual. At the end of the game, the player will receive 4 stars for each set of Villager Tile with different tribe totems from his/hers.
   • If the player chooses the Villager Tile doesn't have a Camp Card icon on its upper left corner but with the same tribe totem as his/hers, the player may still receive 1 extra Camp Card.
   • For example, if your Tribe Token is the red (fire) tribe, a set of Villager Tile with different tribe totems means a green (wood) tribe, a blue (water) tribe, and an orange (earth) tribe icon on the upper right corner of each Villager Tile.
4. Reward at the end: the additional stars which the player can receive at the end of the game if he/she achieves the goal.

For the goals that have reward at the end, we give an example for each goal as below:

• Receive 8 stars if this Villager Tile has 5 pearls.
• Receive 7 stars if this Villager Tile has 5 pearls of the same color.
• Receive 5 stars if this Villager Tile has 5 pearls of different colors.
• Receive 3 stars for each Villager Tile with 5 pearls in front of you.
• Receive 6 stars if you are the player who has the most unused Fairy Tokens.
  • You can't receive any stars if there is a tie.
• Receive 5 stars if you are the player who has the most Camp Cards left.
  • You can't receive any stars if there is a tie.
• Receive 2 stars for each unused Fairy Tokens, Maximum 8 stars.
• Receive 1 star for each Camp Card left, Maximum 8 stars.
• Receive 2 stars for each yellow pearl on your Villager Tiles.
• Receive 6 stars if you are the player who has the most red pearls on your Villager Tiles.
  • You can't receive any stars if there is a tie.

Fairy Token

The player shall put the Fairy Token obtained at Camp Phase face up in front of him/her. The player can use the Fairy Token to trigger the ability to help himself/herself. Discard the Fairy Token after it is used.

The ability of Fairy

• The cloud fairy who gives you a ride: Insert Tribe Token to any groove without paying any Camp Cards.
• The river fairy who is generous to a fault: Keep 2 pearls instead of 1 while you take back your Tribe Token from river area.
• The bonfire fairy who is eager to help: Pay 1 less Camp Card while you place your Tribe Token on the board.
• The breeze fairy who is heading back down: Immediately move all the pearls on your Alpaca Board to your Villager Tiles as you wish.
  • "As you wish" means you may move any numbers of pearls on alpaca to any numbers of your Villager Tiles.
• The mushroom fairy who likes to monkey around: Transfer an indicated color into rainbow color on 1 empty space of your Villager Tile, which means the space can be placed with any color of the pearls.
  • The score still follows the color of the Nature's Bounty (pearl), ignore the original color on the empty space of the Villager Tile. For example, if you put a red pearl on a blue space of a Villager Tiles, you will receive 3 stars instead of 2 stars at the end of the game.

Mission Card

During the game setup of each game, draw 1 Mission Card randomly and put it face up on the table to be the mission of this game. The player who accomplishes the mission of this game immediately receives the Mission Card as reward. Flip the Mission Card face down in the front and gain 4 stars at the end of the game.

Example for Mission Card:

• The first player who has 3+ healing pearls on his/her Alpaca Board.
• The first player who has 3+ magic pearls on his/her Alpaca Board.
• The first player who has 4+ wildlife growing pearls on his/her Alpaca Board.
• The first player who has 4+ aquatic life growing pearls on his/her Alpaca Board.
• The first player who has 4+ plant growing pearls on his/her Alpaca Board.

Family Mode

If the players want to play this game more easily, you can follow the Family Mode, which can cut off some branch rules but still keep the main mechanics of this game.

In the Family Mode:

1. Mission Cards will not be used in the game, remove all the Mission Cards from the game.
2. Ignore the tribe totem on the Villager Tiles, that is, player will neither receive extra bonus by choosing the Villager Tile with the same tribe totem as his/hers nor any stars (victory points) for each set of Villager Tile with different tribe totems from his/hers.