Awaken the Ancients Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • 16 Wildseed Tokens
  • 16 Double-sided Ancient Cards
  • 2 Double-sided Keeper Cards
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Move Seeds
  • Check for Consumed Seeds
  • Perform Awakening Rituals
• End of Game

Components

16 Wildseed Tokens

(Provided by Player - Suggested: 15mm x 4mm Wood Discs or 10mm Wood Cubes)

• 4 Red
• 4 Green
• 4 Blue
• 2 White
• 2 Black

16 Double-sided Ancient Cards

(Print & Play - 2.5" x 3.5" Poker-sized Cards)

Each Ancient has a slumbering side and an awakened side.

• Slumbering side: This is the seed combination that must be placed on this Ancient to perform the awakening ritual and flip it to its awakened side.
• Awakened side: Each matching seed (marked with an 'x') is removed from the game whenever it is placed on this Ancient.

Some Ancients display non-standard seed symbols:

• A symbol meaning any seed color/type.
• A symbol meaning any seeds of the same color/type.

(Shown in slumbering and awakened versions.)

2 Double-sided Keeper Cards

(Print & Play - 2.5" x 3.5" Poker-sized Cards)

Each Keeper has an active side (Left Keeper) and an inactive side (Right Keeper).

During the Move Seeds step of a turn, you may flip an active Keeper to move the seeds in the opposite direction of the direction chosen during Setup for that turn. An active Keeper can only be flipped to use its ability while it has no seeds on it. Since there are two Keepers, this ability can be used twice per game.

Each Keeper displays a reference chart indicating whether they accept an even or odd number of seeds from an awakening ritual: the left Keeper accepts an even number of seeds (4/6/8), while the right Keeper accepts an odd number of seeds (3/5/7/9).

Setup

1. Choose the direction in which you will move seeds during the game: clockwise (modern) or counterclockwise (traditional).
2. Shuffle the Ancients and deal eight of them, slumbering side up, into two rows of four to form the Grove. Set the remaining Ancients aside, out of play.
3. Place the Keepers, active side up, at each end of the Grove, vertically centered between the two rows and facing inward.
4. Place two random seeds on each slumbering Ancient.

Gameplay

The game is played over a series of turns until you either awaken all eight Ancients and win, or awakening all the Ancients becomes impossible and you lose. Each turn consists of three steps: Move Seeds, Check for Consumed Seeds, and Perform Awakening Rituals.

Move Seeds

Pick up all the seeds from an Ancient or Keeper. Moving in the direction chosen during Setup (counterclockwise in the example scenario), place one seed on each subsequent Ancient around the Grove, skipping over the Keepers, until all seeds in hand have been placed.

Grove's Grasp: Once a seed is placed and your hand is lifted off it, it cannot be picked back up.

Check for Consumed Seeds

If a seed on an awakened Ancient matches one of its displayed seeds marked with an 'x', remove that consumed seed from the game!

Perform Awakening Rituals

When the seeds on a slumbering Ancient match its displayed awakening ritual combination (note that not all seeds on the Ancient need to be part of the combination), follow these steps:

1. Move all seeds from the Ancient to a Keeper:
   • If the number of seeds being moved is even, move them to the left Keeper.
   • If the number of seeds being moved is odd, move them to the right Keeper.
2. Flip the Ancient to its awakened side.

End of Game

The game ends when you awaken all eight Ancients and win, or when awakening all the Ancients becomes impossible and you lose. If you win, your score is equal to the number of remaining seeds that have not been removed from the game.