Blume Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Game Overview
  • Objective
  • Flower Bed
  • Rounds
  • Greenhouse
  • Single Colored Flowers
  • Pruning
  • Watering Can Location
  • Hybrid Flowers
  • Flower Market Board
• Turns & Actions
  • 1. Refresh Tiles
  • 2. Select Tile
  • 3. Place a Tile
  • 4. Take Action
    • A. Single Colored Flower
    • B. (see A above) / C. Hybrid Flower
    • Triggering Watering Can Locations
    • D. Single Colored Flower + Watering Can Location
    • E. Hybrid Flower + Watering Can Location
    • Full Greenhouse
• Round End, Pruning & Scoring
  • Pruning
  • Hybrids & Pruning
  • End of Round Scoring
• New Round & Game End
  • Starting A New Round
  • Final Scoring
  • Tiebreakers
• Modules
  • Tools Module
  • Botanist Module
• Variants
  • Field of Flowers
  • Solo Variant

Components

• 129 Petal Tiles
• 1 Flower Market Board
• 15 Hybrid Tiles
• 5 Score Cubes
• 5 Garden Boards
• 1 Tile Bag
• 23 Watering Can Cards
• 36 Flower Pegs

Game Variants: If you are playing with younger gamers or would like to play solo, see the Variants section (Field of Flowers, Solo Variant).

Setup

1. Give each player a Garden Board, a score cube in the color of their choice, and a set of 6 colored Flower Pegs - one of each color. Place all the Flower Pegs on the "0" spaces of your Garden Board.
2. Place the Flower Market Board in the center of the table. Place a set of colored Flower Pegs on their "0" spaces along the left side of the Flower Market Board.
3. Separate the Watering Can Cards (1, 2, 3) into decks and shuffle each deck separately. Randomly draw 1 card from each deck and place them face down in a row, from 1 to 3, below the Flower Market Board.
4. Reveal the round 1 Watering Can Card.
5. Select 3 Hybrid Flower Tiles and place them face down in a row above the Watering Can Cards.
6. Reveal the Hybrid Flower Tile above the round 1 Watering Can Card.
7. Put all of the Petal Tiles into the Tile Bag and place it near the first player.
8. Draw 3 Petal Tiles from the bag and place them face up below the 3 Hybrid Flower tiles.

Game Overview

Objective

In Blume, you'll plant and prune a garden, stock up your Greenhouse, and influence the Flower Market. You and your opponents will transform your own small patch of dirt into a fully grown flower bed and compete for the most valuable collection of flowers.

Flower Bed

The top section of the Garden Board is your Flower Bed. This is where you will place your selected Petal Tiles to form flowers.

Rounds

In the first round, you'll build your garden in the bottom left 3x3 corner of the Flower Bed. On the first turn of the game, you may place your Petal Tile anywhere in that 3x3 area.

In the following rounds, your garden will increase in size from a small 3x3 garden in round 1, to a 4x4 garden in round 2, and, finally, to a full 5x5 Flower Bed in round 3.

Greenhouse

The bottom of the Garden Board is your Greenhouse. This is where you track your supply of the six different colored flowers.

Single Colored Flowers

Each corner of a Petal Tile has petals from one of the six different colored flowers (Orange, Blue, Yellow, Red, Pink, Purple). When 4 matching tile corners are placed together in a Flower Bed, they form a complete single colored flower. Completed flowers grant actions that you will use to stock your supply and/or influence the public market.

Pruning

At the end of the 1st and 2nd rounds, you will prune your garden. To prune, remove a tile from any location in your garden. The goal of Pruning is to allow for the growth of your garden. (see Round End, Pruning & Scoring)

Watering Can Location

Each round a new Watering Can Card will be revealed, showing you a location in the flower bed. Locations will vary from card to card and will offer an action bonus if a flower is completed on the designated area of your garden.

Hybrid Flowers

Each round, a Hybrid Flower Tile is revealed which combines petals from two of the six colored flowers. You may place tile corners together to form any revealed hybrid flower. Actions granted by completing hybrid flowers are generally more powerful.

Important: Only ONE hybrid flower of each available type may be planted in your garden at the same time. If the same type of Hybrid is built while another is already planted, you will not take any actions.

Flower Market Board

The Flower Market is where you track the value of the six different colored flowers. This is also where you track players' scores.

Turns & Actions

Players take turns in clockwise order. The person who last gave or was given flowers takes the tile bag and begins the game.

Turns consist of these 4 steps:

1. Refresh Tiles

At the beginning of your turn, if there are less than 3 Petal Tiles available, reveal a new tile from the bag and place it in the tile row.

2. Select Tile

Select a single Petal Tile from the row, or draw blindly from the tile bag.

Important: Once you touch a tile, it is yours and you must place that tile.

3. Place a Tile

Place the selected tile on your player board.

All placed tiles MUST connect to an existing tile, side-by-side. Petal colors do not have to match for a tile to be placed next to an existing tile.

First Turn Rule: The first tile a player places in the game MUST be placed within the starting 3x3 garden area, but it may be placed anywhere within this area.

4. Take Action

If by placing a tile, a flower is formed, you must then take an action.

When a flower is formed by connecting matching corners of 4 Petal Tiles, you MUST perform an action based on the type and location of the completed flower.

A. Single Colored Flower

YOU MUST CHOOSE:

• Stock Your Greenhouse: Add 1 flower of the MATCHING color to your personal greenhouse.

OR

• Influence The Market: Increase or decrease ANY flower's colored Flower Peg on the Flower Market Board by 1. Move in the direction of your choice to the next available space on the market track. If no spaces are available you may not move that peg.

Important: Flower Pegs NEVER return to the zero space once they are placed on the market track.

B. (see A above) / C. Hybrid Flower

YOU MUST:

• Stock Your Greenhouse: Add 1 flower of EACH MATCHING color in the Hybrid to their personal Greenhouse.

Important: Only ONE Hybrid, for each available type, may be planted in your garden at once. Duplicate Hybrids are treated as incomplete flowers. Hybrids may be pruned, then built again in subsequent rounds and will trigger actions as long as they are the only one of their type in your garden.

Triggering Watering Can Locations

If a flower is completed in your Garden Board that matches the current Watering Can Location card, the action is triggered.

D. Single Colored Flower + Watering Can Location

YOU MUST:

• Stock Your Greenhouse: Add 1 flower of the MATCHING color to your personal Greenhouse.

AND

• Influence The Market: Increase or decrease ANY flower's colored Flower Peg on the Flower Market Board by 1. Move in the direction of your choice to the next available space on the Market Track. If no spaces are available you may not move that peg.

E. Hybrid Flower + Watering Can Location

YOU MUST:

• Stock Your Greenhouse: Add 1 flower of EACH MATCHING color in the Hybrid to their personal Greenhouse.

AND

• Influence The Market: Increase or decrease ANY flower's colored Flower Peg on the Flower Market Board by 1. Move in the direction of your choice to the next available space on the Market Track. If no spaces are available you may not move that peg.

Full Greenhouse

In some games, you may completely fill your Greenhouse in a single color. When this occurs, you may not add any more to your Greenhouse or increase the market for the maxed out color. Instead, you MUST:

• Increase or decrease ANY OTHER Flower Peg on the Market Board by 1.

OR

• Decrease ANY flower in your OWN Greenhouse.

Round End, Pruning & Scoring

Pruning

At the end of the 1st and 2nd rounds (after each player has completed their 3x3 or 4x4 area and finished their actions) all players must prune their gardens in preparation for the next round. Pruned tiles are discarded.

Before pruning begins, a new Hybrid Flower Tile will be revealed, allowing all players a chance to plan ahead and build this special type of flower. Do NOT flip the previous Hybrid Flower Tile face down, it will remain available for the entire game.

When pruning, you MUST remove 3 tiles in the first round and 4 tiles in the 2nd. Remember: pruning only occurs at the end of the 1st and 2nd rounds.

• Round One: MUST REMOVE 3 TILES
• Round Two: MUST REMOVE 4 TILES

Hybrids & Pruning

For EACH completed hybrid Flower, you MUST ADD (+1) OR SUBTRACT (-1) tile from your Prune total for the round.

Example: It is the first round and Angie has completed 1 Hybrid Flower. She MUST add or subtract 1 tile when she Prunes. In round 1 all players are allowed to prune 3 Tiles. In Angie's case, she MUST Prune 2 or 4 tiles. Angie chooses to prune 4. (Figure 1)

End of Round Scoring

After Pruning (Pruning does not occur in the 3rd round), you will tally up your score for the round by multiplying your Greenhouse flowers by the current Market Board values. The scores for the round are added to the Market Board score track, moving your scoring cube up or down, reflecting the points scored.

Scoring Example: At the end of Round 1, Keith, the green player, has 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Orange, 0 Purple, 0 Blue and 1 Pink in his Greenhouse. (Figure 2)

Keith then multiplies each color flower in his Greenhouse by each flower in the Market. (Figure 3)

Red: 1 x 1 = 1 | Yellow: 1 x 0 = 0 | Orange: 1 x 1 = 1 | Purple: 0 x 0 = 0 | Blue: 0 x 1 = 0 | Pink: 1 x 2 = 2

Total 4 points.

Keith then moves his green score cube forward 4 spaces on the score track. (Figure 4)

New Round & Game End

Starting A New Round

Once everyone has finished scoring, flip the completed Watering Can Card face down.

Reveal the next Watering Can Card.

The player who started the game also starts the new round.

Final Scoring

After completing the end of round scoring for the third round, the player with the most points wins.

Tiebreakers

• First Tiebreaker: Most Flowers in Greenhouse
• Second Tiebreaker: Fewest Hybrid Flowers in Flowerbed

Modules

Tools Module

Components: Tool Cards (8 cards); Glove Tokens (3 per player).

Setup

1. Shuffle the 8 Tool cards.
2. Draw 3 from the top of the shuffled deck and place them face up, in a row, below the Market.
3. Place the remaining cards within reach.
4. Give each player the Glove Tokens that match their score cube color.

How Tool Cards Work

Tools may be used before selecting and placing Petal Tiles on your turn.

Tool Actions: To use a tool, place a Glove Token on the Tool Card of your choice. As soon as the token is placed, the tool's action goes into effect. After using the tool's action, you then select a Petal Tile and place it on your board.

Note: Some tool actions may result in a player completing additional flowers before selecting and placing during their turn. This is normal and is encouraged. This is the power of the tools! Use them to your advantage to pull off powerful scoring combos, that would otherwise be impossible.

Using The Same Tools

The first time you use a tool, it only costs you a single Glove. However, if you decide to use the same tool again, it will cost you two Gloves, instead of one.

Other players who have not yet used the tool will only need a single Glove, even if someone has already used their Glove on the tool.

Once ALL players have used a tool, a SINGLE Glove token is returned to each player, and a new Tool card is revealed from the deck. Any gloves remaining on this tool are returned to the box.

Example: Keith has already used the Garden Fork once. He wants to use the action again. To do this, he places two of his gloves on the Garden Fork.

Angie would like to use the Garden Fork now. Since this is her first time using the tool, she only needs one Glove to take the action.

Both Angie and Keith have used a Tool. Since they are the only two players in the game, all players have used this tool. Keith and Angie both take 1 of their Glove Tokens back, and reveal a new Tool card. Keith's other 2 Gloves are returned to the box.

Botanist Module

Components: Botanist Cards (15 cards); Water Drop (3 glass beads).

Setup

1. Remove the Hybrid Tiles from the game.
2. Shuffle the Botanist Deck and deal each player a single card. This card will remain hidden until completed.
3. Place the Botanist Deck within reach.
4. Create a Water Drop supply near the deck.

How Botanist Cards Work

Each player has a hidden card to begin the game. On this card is a Hybrid Flower that may be grown in your garden.

As soon as the Hybrid on your Botanist Card is completed perform the following steps:

1. Take Action (see D & E above).

2. Gain 4 points on the Market Board score track.

3. Reveal the completed Botanist card and place in a row near the Petal Tiles. Then place a Water Drop on the "2" space of the card.

   Important: Only three Botanist cards may be revealed at once. Once a fourth card is to be revealed, the first card in the row will be covered with the new card. This continues down the row of cards as new cards are revealed.

4. Draw a new Botanist Card, keeping it hidden.

Revealed Botanist Cards

If a Water Drop is present when a player grows a revealed Botanist Card, that player will remove the Water Drop from the card and gain 2 points, in addition to taking the Action for completing a Hybrid Flower. (see D & E above)

Players may continue to grow Botanist Cards that do not contain Water Drops, just as standard Hybrid Tiles work in the base game.

Also like in the base game, only one hybrid of a single type is allowed on a players Garden Board at one time.

Example: Angie has completed her first Botanist Card. She took her Action, gained 4 points, then revealed the card, placing a Water Drop on the "2".

A few turns later, Keith is able to complete the same Botanist Card. Since this card was already completed in a previous turn, Keith will not gain 4 points. Instead he will take the Water Token off of the card and gain 2 points. He then increases his Greenhouse as usual.

Variants

Field of Flowers

Objective

In the Field of Flowers variant, you are building your own garden and placing your colored pegs on matching completed flowers. The first player to complete all 6 flower types, triggers the end of the game. Each flower with a peg is worth 2 points. Completed flowers without a peg are worth 1 point.

Setup

1. Give each player 6 of their colored flower pegs. (No Garden or Market Board for this variant)
2. Place all the Petal Tiles in the bag.
3. Each player draws a single starting tile.
4. Reveal 2 tiles, in reach of all players.

How to Play

Turns go around the table in clockwise order, starting with the oldest player.

On your turn, you must draw a single tile, either from the 2 face-up tiles or blindly from the bag.

Once you have selected a tile, place the tile side-by-side with any one of your existing Petal Tiles. If the placed tile results in a complete flower of a single color, you must place the matching Flower Peg in the center of the flower. This flower is worth 2 points at the end of the game.

If the completed flower's peg has already been placed, you do not need to place or move any pegs. This flower is worth 1 point at the end of the game.

Once you have placed your tile, the next player may take their turn. If a new tile needs to be revealed, the next player must reveal a new tile before selecting one.

End of Game

The end of the game is triggered when a player places their final color peg. Once this occurs, all other players have one final turn. The player who triggered the game end does not get an extra turn. After all players have finished their final turn, scoring takes place.

Each flower with a peg placed in the center is worth two points. Each completed flower without a peg is worth 1 point.

In the case of a tie, the player with the most pegs in the field of flowers wins.

Solo Variant

Objective

In the Solo Variant, you are playing for a personal high score. An automated Gardner, the "Tertill", will draw tile and influence the Market. As in the base game, you are trying to build flowers to add them to your greenhouse and influence the market. The higher the market value of a flower, the more it is worth in your greenhouse.

Setup

1. Place a Garden Player Board and a set of six colored pegs on their matching spaces in front of you.
2. Draw from the bag and reveal 3 face-up Petal Tiles above your flower bed.
3. Place the Public Market Track with its 6 colored pegs on their matching spaces next to your board.
4. Shuffle the Watering Can Cards and place them face down in a stack nearby.
5. Shuffle the Hybrid Flower Tiles and also place them face down in a stack nearby.

How to Play

The game is played over the course of 3 rounds. Starting with a 3x3 garden then growing to a 4x4 in the 2nd round, and a 5x5 in the third. Play goes back and forth between the AI bot and the single player.

There are two phases each turn.

• Phase 1: (The AI) Tertill's Turn
• Phase 2: Player's Turn

Phase 1: (The AI) Tertill's Turn

1. AI Reveal: a. Reveal Hybrid Flower: Flip over the top Hybrid Flower Tile and place it next to the stack of Hybrids. DO NOT rotate the tile. The revealed tile will decide how the AI will influence the Market. (see "Hybrid Triggering & Market Influence" below) b. Watering Can Cards: The top card on the deck will determine which Petal Tile the AI will choose for their turn. (see "Select AI Tile" below)

   Important: Each subsequent turn the top card of the deck will be discarded, revealing a new card to trigger the AI's Petal Tile selection.

2. AI Select Petal Tile: The number on the current Watering Can Card coincides with the available Petal Tiles, numbered 1-3 from left to right.

   c. Add the Petal Tile: Looking at the Watering Can card, take the corresponding Flower Petal Tile and add it to the AI Bot's flower pool.

   Check for Trigger: When there are at least 4 corners of the same color, that matches either of the two colors on the current Hybrid Tile, the AI will Influence the Market. (see below)

   d. Reveal New Petal Tile: After a tile has been added to the bot's pool, a new tile is drawn from the bag, giving you three tiles to choose from on your turn.

   Example: After adding the 3rd tile in the row, there are 4 instances of Purple in the Pool.

3. AI Influence Market

Each Hybrid has two flower colors on a single tile. These colors determine the color and direction in which the AI will influence the Market when triggered (Top Left / Top Right of the tile).

If the Hybrid is triggered:

e. Remove any Petal Tiles from the AI's flower pool that triggered this event. In some cases there may be more than 4 of the petals that caused the trigger. Remove all of them.

f. Influence the Market by moving the Flower Pegs of the color that match the Hybrid Tile.

• The Top Left of a Hybrid Tile shows which type of flower in the Market will be influenced negatively, moving that color's flower peg to the left.
• The Top Right of a Hybrid Tile shows which type of flower in the Market will be influenced positively, moving that color's flower peg to the left. [Transcribed as printed; the rulebook's own example shows the positively influenced peg moving to the right.]

Example: Since purple was one of the two colors on the current Hybrid Tile, all 4 Petal Tiles are removed from the AI's pool. Red is moved to the left, while Purple is moved to the right.

Phase 2: The Player's Turn

Take a normal turn as you would in the standard game. (see Turns & Actions)

End of Round: A round ends when no more tiles can be placed on the current round's flower bed. At which point you will Prune your garden, in preparation for the next round. (See Round End, Pruning & Scoring)

End of Game: The game ends after the third round. (See Final Scoring)

Play against your highest score and continually try to best your previous games!