A Nice Cuppa Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Key Concepts
• Gameplay
• End of Game
• Worry Card Notes
• Scoring
• Credits

Components

• 7 Tea Cards, each with a Distracted side and a Focused side
• 10 Worry Cards
• 1 Reference Card

The Tea Cards, focused-side up, show the steps of making a nice cuppa, numbered 1 through 7:

1. Select Tea
2. Boil Water
3. Select Favorite Mug
4. Pour
5. Steep
6. Add Milk and Sugar
7. Sip and Enjoy

Setup

1. Shuffle the Tea Cards and place them, focused-side up, in a row known as the "line."
2. Shuffle the Worry Cards. In a separate row, place one Worry Card face-down below each Tea Card. Set the remaining Worry Cards aside without looking at them.
3. Place the Reference Card, showing the Turn Reference side, to the left of the line.
4. Choose a difficulty level: Casual (standard) or Ceremonial (hard).

Key Concepts

Group: Any set of adjacent Tea Cards.

Pair: Any set of 2 adjacent Tea Cards.

Move or Swap: If a Worry Card's action requires you to move or swap one or more Tea Cards, pick up those cards and shift other cards in the line over as needed to fill in gaps or make space. Then place the action's target cards in their new positions. When moving or swapping pairs or groups, the cards within those pairs or groups keep their relative order unless otherwise stated.

Example: Swapping a pair of cards with a single card. Tea Cards #4 and #1 shift over to make space.

Gameplay

The more you can Focus on your Tea and forget your Worries, the better off you'll be.

Over the course of eight turns, try to maximize your end-game score. Each turn, complete the following steps:

1. Flip 1 face-down Worry Card face-up. If none exist, see End of Game.

   First-game Tip: Before you brew, choose your tea type. On your first turn, flip the Worry Card under "Select Tea" (Tea Card #1). You might find a better strategy after a few games, but this is a perfectly fine way to start your first game.

2. Perform the action of each face-up Worry Card from left to right, resolving each action before starting the next. Worry Card actions only modify the line of Tea Cards (never Worry Cards).

3. Flip each Tea Card above a face-up Worry Card. This can flip both focused and distracted cards.

   Example: Tea Card #3 (distracted) and Tea Card #5 (focused) are flipped as they are both above face-up Worry Cards.

4. Remove from the game each face-up Worry Card below a focused Tea Card.

   Example: Tea Card #3 is focused, so the face-up Worry Card below it is removed from the game.

5. You may swap 2 adjacent Tea Cards.

End of Game

When there are no face-down Worry Cards at the beginning of your turn, skip step 1, complete the rest of your turn, then proceed to scoring.

Worry Card Notes

Politics: If you choose a pair at either end of the line for this action, you only move the inside card (the other card is already at the end of the line and does not move).

Scoring

Discard all Tea Cards to the left of Tea Card #1. Keep Tea Card #1 and each subsequent Tea Card that forms an unbroken ascending sequence. Discard any Tea Cards after this sequence. Score the remaining Tea Cards and Worry Cards as follows:

• Each focused Tea Card scores 2 points.
• Each distracted Tea Card scores 1 point.
• Each Worry Card scores -1 point.

Check the scoring table based on your chosen difficulty to see how well you did.

Casual (standard)	Ceremonial (hard)*
12+ = Perfect Tea	13-14 = Perfect Tea
9-11 = Satisfying Tea	11-12 = Satisfying Tea
6-8 = Weak Tea	8-10 = Weak Tea
5 or less = Spilled Tea (You Lose)	7 or less = Spilled Tea (You Lose)

* For a Ceremonial game, you lose if all 7 Tea Cards are not in the correct order.

Scoring Example: Theresa chose the Casual difficulty. At the end of the game, the following is her line of Tea Cards and remaining Worry Cards: Tea Cards #5, #1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #7 (in that order in the line), with one Worry Card (Commute) remaining below Tea Card #4.

• Tea Cards #5, #6, and #7 are out of sequence and are discarded.
• Tea Cards #1, #2, and #4 are focused and score 2 points each.
• Tea Card #3 is distracted and scores 1 point. One Worry remains, which is -1 point.

Theresa's final score is 6, and scores "Weak Tea" for Casual difficulty.

Credits

Design: Scott Almes

Development: Dustin Dobson

Playtesting Lead: Vince Tagle

Writing: Ian Howard

Rules Editing: Michael Lee

Art: Andrea Ivetic Vicai

Graphic Design: Milan Zivkovic

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