Birdwatcher
Birdwatcher Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Contents
- 69 Bird cards, each depicting one of 10 possible species in the game
- 4 Rare Hybrids cards
- 16 Publication cards
- Two Central Player Boards (The Clearing, The Jungle, The Academy)
- 1 Camera card (first player marker)
- 4 Player Trees (player aids)
- Rulebook
- Score Pad
- 25 Insect tokens
Setup
- Shuffle the 69 bird cards and deal each player 4 cards faceup. Place these 4 faceup cards above your tree (see setup diagram below).
- Place the remaining bird cards in the middle of the table and reveal the top 3 cards faceup in the area beside the deck. This area represents the jungle. Shuffle the 4 rare hybrid cards in with this deck to form the bird deck, and return it to the middle of the table. When any visible birds are taken from the jungle during the game, they are replaced by new birds from the bird deck.
- Shuffle the 16 publication cards to form the publications deck, and place these facedown above the bird deck. Reveal the top 3 cards, placing them beside the publications deck (see setup diagram). This area represents the academy.
- Below the jungle is the clearing, which can have a maximum of 4 faceup cards. At the beginning of the game, all 4 spaces are empty.
The setup diagram shows: the Jungle and the Academy at the top, the Clearing below them, and each player's Tree with their Photo Journal below it.
Game Overview
In Birdwatcher, players will spend their turns calling birds to their tree from the clearing and jungle, snapping photos of birds in their tree, or running into the jungle to flush new birds to the clearing. Players can also use their actions to set up a zoom lens to capture a bird from another player's tree, or to publish a paper. Photos and publications will be assembled from left to right in the player's photo journal, where they will score points at the end of the game.
Tree
Your tree is a faceup row of up to 6 bird cards that you have lured from the jungle and clearing and can easily photograph. You will add birds to your tree with bird calls, and some actions will require you to remove a bird from your tree. Your tree can only hold 6 birds—once it is full, any bird you would gain simply stays where it is.
Photo Journal
The space below your tree is called your photo journal. During the game, you will add bird and publication cards to your journal as pages. When you add a page, place it to the right of any cards previously placed there. The order of the cards in your photo journal is important, and once a card is added, its position may not be changed. Only the cards in your photo journal will score at the end of the game.
The Jungle
The jungle is represented by 3 faceup bird cards. Birds may be called from the jungle, and the birds in the jungle may be flushed into the clearing (see Playing the Game, p.8). At the end of an action replace any cards taken from the jungle with bird cards from the bird deck.
The Clearing
The clearing is a tableau of 4 faceup piles of bird cards. Players are allowed to look through the piles of bird cards at any time. Birds may be called from the clearing, and birds will return to the clearing when startled by a standard photograph action. When adding birds to the clearing, whether from the jungle or from a player tree, empty spaces must be filled first.
The Academy
The academy is represented by 3 faceup publication cards. When you take the publish action, you choose any of the 3 faceup publication cards and add one as the next page in your photo journal. Replace any cards taken from the academy with cards from the publications deck at the end of your turn.
Bird Cards
Each Bird card shows how many of that type exist in the game, and how many Citations Points (CP) they are worth. Birds score in two different ways depending on whether they have a ribbon or a stamp.
Birds with a scoring stamp score the amount shown, regardless of where they are in your photojournal. These birds are never considered sets for publications or other purposes.
Birds with scoring ribbons reward you for assembling them into sets of adjacent pages in your photo journal.
With one bird, the set will score the value closest to the top of the ribbon. Each successive adjacent bird of the same species will make the set score the next value until the final and greatest value is reached, and the set is complete. Additional adjacent birds of that species will start a new set.
For instance, if a player had 3 adjacent Blue Birds-of-Paradise (shown below), they would score 11 points.
Scoring Ribbon — Birds with a scoring ribbon are scored as sets. Additional adjacent birds of that species will start a new set.
Scoring Stamp — Birds with a scoring stamp are scored individually. Each scores the amount shown. These birds are never considered sets for publications or other purposes.
Rarity — Total number of this species in the deck.
Insects — Take the matching token when photographed.
Insects
Insects appear on some bird cards. When you add a card to your photo journal, take the corresponding insect token for each insect icon on that card. Players receive citation points for each unique insect token they have at game's end (see insects under scoring). Once per turn, a player may return any two insect tokens to the supply to gain an additional action.
The insect tokens are: Stink Bug, Moth, Butterfly, Beatle, and Ladybug.
Publication Cards
Publication cards are gained using the publish action. When you gain a publication card, place it in the rightmost space in your photo journal, just as you would with a bird card. At the end of the game, you will score any points you have earned from each publication card. In addition, there will be an award for the player with the most book icons on their publications and a penalty for the player with the least. Some publications have a special effect that is performed immediately when they are placed in a photo journal. Publications with red ribbons have a conditional award; blue ribbons only have flat awards.
Conditional Award — This shows how many points are scored each time the condition is met.
Location Icon — Shows which pages in your photo journal are eligible. (In the example, your entire photo journal.)
Flat Award — These awards are only scored once at game end.
Rules Text — This explains what the card does in plain language.
Book Icons — The player with the greatest total of these symbols on all their Publications scores an Award.
Playing the Game
The player who most recently saw a bird is the first player and takes the first player card.
Each player has three actions on their turn. A player may spend their actions performing various activities, and may perform the same activity more than once. Most activities take one action to perform, but some require the player to spend multiple actions.
Once during their turn, a player may spend two insect tokens to gain an extra action.
Take a Photo of a Bird in Your Tree
You may only take this action if you have at least two birds in your tree.
Startled Birds
- Rotate 90 degrees to show that it is startled.
- Startled birds will not respond to a bird call.
- A startled bird may not be placed on top of another startled bird.
- Birds cease to be startled at the end of your turn, or when covered by an unstartled bird. Rotate them back to normal.
1. Startle a Bird from Your Tree When you take a photo, the flash and sound from the camera startles another bird away from your tree. Discard a bird card from your tree to the clearing in order to take this action. That bird is startled (see the sidebar for more information), representing that it cannot be called back to your tree this turn.
2. Add a Bird from Your Tree to Your Photo Journal Choose a bird from your tree and place it in the rightmost open space of your photo journal. If the bird has an insect symbol on it, take the corresponding insect token.
Perform a Bird Call
Call one specific species: Add all visible birds of that species that are not startled in the jungle and clearing to your tree. You must add every bird you have space for in your tree.
- You only add cards that are currently visible. If your call reveals a bird of the same species, you do not also gain that card.
- Replace any cards you took from the jungle with cards from the bird deck.
- Each player's tree may not contain more than 6 birds.
- The bird call does not work on startled birds.
Run Into the Jungle
Place all three visible birds in the jungle in any three separate spaces in the clearing (empty spaces must be filled first). Then, flip the next 3 cards in the jungle.
Birds placed into the clearing in this way are not startled, and are available to be called this turn.
Zoom Lens (takes 2 actions)
Use your zoom lens to take a photo of a bird in another player's tree. You may only take this action if you have at least one bird in your tree.
- Choose a bird in an opponent's tree and place that card into your photo journal.
- Place one bird card of your choice from your tree into that player's tree.
- Finally, if the player that had a bird taken from their tree has room in their tree, they draw a card from the facedown bird deck and add it to their tree.
Publish (takes 2 actions)
Place an available publication in the next page of your photo journal. Replace the card you took with a new card from the publication deck at the end of your turn.
Note: A Publication card ends any preceding set—new photos of the same species will score as a separate set.
Ending the Game
A game's end is triggered when either:
- A player reaches a set number of pages in their photo journal: 12 in a 4-player game, 14 in a 3-player game, or 16 in a 2-player game, or;
- A player needs to draw a card from the bird deck and there are no cards remaining.
Play continues until each player has had the same number of turns; then final scoring begins. The player to the right of the start player will be the last player.
Scoring
There are five ways in which a player scores points, based only on the contents of their photo journal. Birds remaining in your tree do not count for scoring but may break ties.
Photographs
Players add Citation Points (CP) for all photos taken throughout the game (sets of birds and solo birds all score as indicated in the scoring example).
Publications
Players add CP for each of their individual publications. Additionally, the player who has the most book icons on the publication cards in their photo journal receives an additional 5CP, and the player with the fewest receives -2CP. Tied players all receive the awards or penalties for their rank. Having zero publications will always score -2CP.
Black Sicklebills
The player who has the most Black Sicklebills in their photo journal at the end of the game scores 7CP. The player with the second most scores 3CP. Tied players all receive the CP. If players tie for 1st, no points are awarded for 2nd. Players must have at least 1 Sicklebill to score.
Insects
Players receive points at game's end for the total number of unique insect tokens they have gathered from their photo journal. There are a maximum of 5 different species, with the following point breakdown:
| Unique species | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CP | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 |
Greatest Variety
The player who has the greatest variety of bird species in their photo journal receives an additional 7 points. The player with the second most scores 3 points. Tied players all receive the CP. If players tie for 1st, no points are awarded for 2nd.
If the final score is tied, the player with the most birds remaining in their tree wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most convincing bird call wins.
Bird and Publication Scoring Example
In this example, the player scores a total of 49 before evaluating awards and insects.
- The two Western Parotia form an incomplete set. The two cards score a total of 8 points.
- Each of these Black Sicklebills scores 3 points. They do not form a set.
- The first two Standardwings form a complete set, and score the maximum of 11 points.
- The third Standardwing is considered its own set which is incomplete. It scores 2 points.
- These three Blue Birds-of-Paradise are separated by a Publication, and thus do not form a set of three, but rather a set of two and a set of one. The first two cards score 6 points, and the third scores 4 points.
- This Publication awards 6 points.
- This Publication awards two points per identical bird in the last four pages. There are three, so it awards 6 points. (The Publication counts as a page.)
Credits
Oni Games: Charlie Chu, Steve Ellis, Ben Eisner, Amber O'Neill
Game Design: Zakir Jafry
Cover and Game Art: Lauren Helton
Game Development: Steve Ellis and Ben Eisner
Graphic Design: Kate Z. Stone
Editor: Chris Cerasi
Publisher: Oni Games and Renegade Game Studios
Playtesters: The Oni Press Team, Amy Ellis, Kaitlin Ellis, Tim Eisner, Brian Brokaw, Tekela Fisher, Amanda St-Jean, Al Leduc, Ash Arsenault, Amanda Vallerand, Chris Chung, Zain Jafry, Zaki Jafry, Fizza Jafry, Sarah Rizvi, Chris Burg, Kaitlyn Walsh, Adam Walsh, Conor Donaldson, and the Reptile House.
Renegade Game Studios: President & Publisher: Scott Gaeta; Controller: Robyn Gaeta; Director of Operations: Leisha Cummins; Creative Director: Anita Osburn; Senior Producer: Dan Bojanowski; Vice President of Sales & Marketing: Sara Erickson
Birdwatcher and its logo are TM & © 2022 Renegade Games Studios LLC and Oni Games. Oni Games logo and icon are TM & © 2022 Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group, LLC.