Benevolent Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Rules
• Game Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Movement
  • Action
  • Hex's Action
  • Gather Leaves
  • How to Use Secrets
  • If the Dream Board Is Out of Some Tokens
• Game End
• Single-Use Secrets
• Permanent Secrets

Game Rules

Step by step the players will explore the magical forest to gain gifts from its spirits: four-leaf clovers, bluebird's feathers, crimson crystals, amber pieces with butterflies inside, and stone figurines. The first player to gather 5 different gifts wins the game!

Game Components

• 1 reference pad
• 1 Dream board (with gift slots, each gift's value, and the Dream Path)
• 3 double-sided forest segments (every segment contains five hexes)
• 9 double-sided Secret tiles (single-use Secrets and permanent Secrets)
• 6 Clover tokens, 6 Feather tokens, 5 Crystal tokens, 4 Amber tokens, 4 Figurine tokens
• 4 Character cards (to remember players' colors)
• 64 Leaves
• 20 Footsteps (five of each color)

Before your first game, carefully push out the cardboard components from their sheets and put the gift stickers on the corresponding tokens (Clover on the green ones, Feather on the violet ones, Crystal on the red ones, Amber on the yellow ones, and Figurine on the white ones).

Setup

• Every player takes the Character card and all 5 Footsteps of their chosen color. Put the unused Footsteps and cards back into the box. The last player to bring something from a forest becomes the first player. The players take their turns in a clockwise direction starting from the first player.
• Put all Leaves into one or several piles and make sure all players can reach them. These Leaves form the supply.
• Then each player takes Leaves from the supply: the first player takes 1 leaf, the second player takes 3 Leaves, the third and the fourth players (if any) take 4 and 5 Leaves respectively.
• Place the Dream board in the center of the table and create the gift pool: put the gift tokens in separate stacks on their respective slots.
  • for 2 players: 4 Clovers, 4 Feathers, 3 Crystals, 2 Ambers, 2 Figurines.
  • for 3 players: 5 Clovers, 5 Feathers, 4 Crystals, 3 Ambers, 3 Figurines.
  • for 4 players: 6 Clovers, 6 Feathers, 5 Crystals, 4 Ambers, 4 Figurines.
• The number of tokens in the gift pool for different number of players is also shown on the reference pad. Put the unused gift tokens back into the box.
• Each player takes 1 Clover token from the Dream board and places 1 Footstep on the first position of the Dream Path (the leftmost blanket). The remaining Footsteps are placed on their Character card.
• Assemble the forest board and place it in the center of the table, next to the Dream board. Shape and size of the forest board depend on the number of players. Use random segments and place them random side up, so that every game's forest board is different!
  • For 2 players: place 2 segments one upon the other, so that two hexes of the upper segment cover two hexes of the lower segment. Place the reference pad under the upper segment to align the board. Put the third segment back into the box.
  • For 3 players: place 2 segments side by side. Put the third segment back into the box.
  • For 4 players: place all 3 segments, so that one hex of the upper segment covers one hex of the lower segment. Place the reference pad under the upper segment to align the board.

Now you are ready to start!

Playing the Game

Players take turns clockwise starting with the first player, until one of them wins.

During your turn you must move first, and then perform an action.

Movement

Place one of your Footsteps onto a hex without your Footstep. If it is your first turn you don't have any Footsteps on the forest board, just place a Footstep from your Character card onto any hex. Starting from your second turn you should adhere to these rules:

• You can't place your Footstep onto a hex where you already have a Footstep.
• You can't place your Footstep onto a hex if there are no adjacent hexes with your Footsteps.

Other players' Footsteps and gray Footsteps don't affect your movement in any way.

Each turn you move a Footstep from your Character card to the forest board until you are out of Footsteps. If there are no Footsteps left on your card, use your Footsteps on the forest board: move one of them to another hex (the destination hex doesn't have to be adjacent to the original one, but still has to "connect" to at least one hex with your Footstep).

Important: At the end of your movement phase all your Footsteps should be connected -- i.e. form a single unbroken group.

Illustration: You may move this Footstep along the blue arrow because your Footsteps would remain connected, but not along the red arrow because your Footsteps would fall into three groups.

Footsteps on the Dream Path are not moved in the movement phase.

Action

After the movement phase you must perform an action on the hex where you've just placed the Footstep. You have two options:

• Perform that hex's action -- but first you must pay Leaves for all Footsteps there, except yours.
• Gather Leaves -- take 2 Leaves from the supply.

Hex's Action

You might gain the forest spirits' support on any hex of the forest. Usually, you will have to appease them first, as they get tired if players turn to them too often. Before performing the hex's action, you must pay for every Footstep (except yours) on the hex:

• For a gray Footstep (the one printed on the forest board) you must pay 1 leaf to the supply.
• For every other player's Footstep, you must pay 1 leaf to its owner.

If there are no Footsteps on the hex (except yours), you don't need to pay.

Stone Altar. In the past, people used to leave offerings here. You place several leaves on the stone and turn around to find a gift hidden in the grass. Purchase one of five gifts. Pay its value in Leaves and take one token of this gift from the Dream board. The value of each gift is shown on the Dream board: Clover -- 2 Leaves, Feather -- 4 Leaves, Crystal -- 7 Leaves, Amber -- 10 Leaves, Figurine -- 12 Leaves.

Meadow. Right in the middle of a sunlit meadow you find an enormous four-leaf clover. Take 1 Clover token from the Dream board.

Nest. Some bird has made its nest right on the ground. The bird is probably huge and blue, judging by its feather's color and size. Take 1 Feather token from the Dream board.

Pond. Having fallen asleep, you see the forest as it was a thousand years ago. You exchange a few words with its guardians. Perhaps you will find a gift nearby when you wake up. You sleep and wander the forest even in your dreams. Move your Footstep on the Dream Path along any arrow. If there's a gift depicted on the chosen arrow, take a corresponding token from the Dream board.

In this case, when you sleep, choose any of three arrows: either go back to the previous position and take a Feather, or go back to the very first position and take a Crystal, or just go to the last position (from where you will be able to acquire an Amber or a Figurine).

Ring of Stones. This place is ripe with ancient magic. You carefully place the gift between the stones, and it changes its shape right in front of your eyes. Exchange 1 gift for the gift that is next in value. To do this, return 1 gift token to the corresponding stack on the Dream board and take 1 token from the next stack to the right. A Figurine can't be traded for anything, as it is the most valuable gift of all.

Wooden Table. There are several tablets on a split trunk of a fallen tree. Having read one of them, you discover something interesting about the forest. Take one Secret tile from the triangle in the direction from the bottom to the top. You cannot take a tile if there is at least another tile below it. At the start of the game only 4 tiles from the first row are available. As they get taken in course of the game, tiles from the second and the third row will become available.

Place the taken tile the same side up as it was in the triangle. The Secret on the opposite side of the tile is not used in this game.

Gather Leaves

If you can't or don't want to perform a hex's action, take 2 Leaves from the supply. You don't have to pay for other player's Footsteps on that hex.

How to Use Secrets

There are single-use and permanent Secrets. Their effects are shown on the tile.

You may resolve a single-use Secret at any time during your turn, even right after you got it. You also can resolve several single-use Secrets one after another. You still perform your movement and action as usual even if you decide to resolve a Secret. After resolving a single-use Secret, put its tile back into the box.

Permanent Secrets are activated immediately after you gain them and stay active till the end of the game. You may have any number of permanent Secrets.

All Secret tiles are described below.

If the Dream Board Is Out of Some Tokens

Usually, when you get a gift, you take its token from the Dream board. However, the token stack might get depleted. If you need to get a gift and there are no tokens of this kind on the Dream board, check which opponent has the most tokens of this kind and take the needed token from them. It doesn't matter how many tokens of that kind you have. If two or several opponents have the same number of tokens, it is up to you who of them will lose a token.

Game End

When a player has all 5 different gift tokens (no matter how many of each kind), the game immediately ends and that player wins.

Single-Use Secrets

Single-use Secrets can be resolved at any time during your turn. Follow the instructions on the tile and put it back into the box.

• Tile "Gain" with a Feather / tile "Gain" with a Clover "and 2 from the supply": Take 1 Feather from the Dream board / Take 1 Clover from the Dream board and 2 Leaves from the supply.
• Three tiles showing gifts above and below an arrow: Return the gifts shown above the arrow to the Dream board and take the gift shown under the arrow from the Dream board. This is not an exchange action.
• Tile "Purchase" with a Crystal "for 3": Purchase 1 Crystal as if you were performing the Stone Altar's action, but pay 3 Leaves instead of 7.
• Three tiles "Resolve" (the last "for 3 less"): Sleep/exchange/purchase, as if performing the corresponding hex's action (when purchasing a gift, pay 3 Leaves less than its value).

Permanent Secrets

Permanent Secrets get activated immediately after you gain them and stay active till the end of the game.

• "When you exchange a gift, you may pay 2 Leaves to exchange a gift again" and "When you sleep, you may pay 3 Leaves to sleep again": After you exchange/sleep (while on the corresponding hex or using a single-use Secret) you may pay 2 Leaves/3 Leaves to exchange/sleep respectively once more. Second exchange/sleep doesn't require any payment for other player's Footsteps. Every single exchange/sleep performed as a hex's action or a tile's effect can be repeated by this Secret only once.
• "When you gather Leaves, either place here 1 Leaf from the supply, or take 1 Leaf from here": When you gather Leaves (instead of performing a hex's action) either place 1 Leaf on this Secret tile from the supply or take 1 Leaf from this Secret tile.
• "You may have two of your Footsteps on the same hex": When moving you may place your Footstep on a hex where you already have a Footstep. You don't have to pay for that Footstep to perform the hex's action. However, other players will have to pay for each of your Footsteps.
• "When you place a Footstep on a hex without opponents' Footsteps, take 1 Leaf": After moving take 1 Leaf from the supply if there are no opponents' Footsteps on the destination hex (gray Footsteps don't count).
• "Your Footsteps don't have to be connected": When moving you may place your Footstep on any hex without your Footsteps with no regard to basic rules of Movement. After your movement, your Footsteps don't have to be connected.
• "You don't pay for grey Footsteps": To perform a hex's action you don't have to pay for the gray Footsteps (but you still must pay for opponents' Footsteps).
• "Pay for your opponents' Footsteps to the supply, not to them": When you pay for Footsteps to perform a hex's action, pay the Leaves to the supply and not to your opponents.
• "When you purchase a gift pay 2 Leaves less": Pay 2 Leaves less when you purchase a gift (performed as a hex's action or a single-use Secret tile's effect). Discounts from this tile and single-use Secrets add up.