Books of Time
Books of Time Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Living Rules Pledge
We pledge to support every game well after its initial release. Despite rigorous play testing and multiple rounds of both internal and external proof reading and editing, occasionally the need for rules corrections or minor game play adjustments is discovered only several months or years after the game was manufactured. We promise to produce timely rules updates as necessary, along with expanded FAQ clarifications if needed, available for download from our website in digital PDF format.
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Game Components
- 8 Industry Cover tiles (4 Front Covers, 4 Back Covers)
- 8 Science Cover tiles (4 Front Covers, 4 Back Covers)
- 8 Trade Cover tiles (4 Front Covers, 4 Back Covers)
- 2 Chronicle Cover tiles (1 Front Cover, 1 Back Cover)
- 13 Binder rings
- 5 Bookmarks (1 in each of the 4 player colors and 1 Chronicle Bookmark)
- 24 Starting pages (2 of each type per player)
- 72 Regular pages
- 23 Chronicle pages
- 1 Civilization board
- 4 Player boards
- 12 Industry Objective tiles
- 12 Science Objective tiles
- 12 Trade Objective tiles
- 4 Player Reference cards (1 per player)
- 16 Science tokens
- 16 Track markers (4 in each of the 4 player colors)
- 8 Victory Point tokens (with 50 Victory Points printed on one side, and 100 Victory Points printed on the other side)
- 20+ File tokens
- 40+ Pen tokens
- 40+ Paper tokens
Lectern Assembly
Before your first play, carefully punch out all components from the punchboards. The rulebook provides a numbered diagram (steps 1-5) for building the 1 Chronicle Lectern from its punchboard pieces before setup.
Setup
Before your first play, carefully punch out all components from the punchboards. See the assembly guide for creating the Chronicle lectern.
- Set up the boards: Place the Civilization board in the center of the table. Give each player a Player board, and a Bookmark in their chosen color.
- Create the supply: Place Files, Paper, and Pen tokens; Science tokens, and a stack of the Victory Point tokens within easy reach of all players.
- Give each player a set of 3 books: 1 Industry book, 1 Science book and 1 Trade book. See Book Assembly for details on how to prepare the books before every game. Any unused books are returned to the game box. Open your books to their first page.
- Give each player 3 sets of Objectives: 1 Industry, 1 Science and 1 Trade. See Objective Assembly for details on how to prepare a set of Objectives. Any unused Objective tiles are returned to the game box. Important: Different sets do not have to share the same symbol.
- Set up player markers: Place 1 of each of the player markers at the bottom of the Science, Industry, and Trade tracks, and stack the remaining player markers on the 10 Victory Point position of the Victory Point track.
- Shuffle all non-starting pages to create a common deck. Leave space next to the common deck for a discard pile.
- Create the offer: Draw 4 pages and place them in a row next to the common deck.
- Each player receives a Reference sheet, 2 Pen, and 2 Paper tokens, and draws 6 pages from the common deck. Choose and write 1 of these pages for free following the rules for the Write Pages action (including the instant benefit). Next, place another 2 of these pages in the leftmost spaces above your Player Board. Discard the remaining 3 pages.
- Create the Chronicle: Shuffle the Chronicle pages and randomly remove 8 of them. Add the remaining pages to the Chronicle. See Book Assembly for details. Place the Chronicle on the lectern, and open it on the first page.
- Select the Starting Player and proceed to the first turn of the game!
Book Assembly
To assemble any of the books used in the game, take a binder ring, a front and back Cover tiles of the same color, and the Starting Pages (cards) that match the Covers.
Trade book: Add the 2 Starting Trade pages, numbered I and II, as depicted in the image below.
Science book: Add the 2 Starting Science pages, numbered I and II, as depicted in the image below.
Industry book: Add the 2 Starting Industry pages, numbered I and II, as depicted in the image below.
The Chronicle: Shuffle the remaining 15 Chronicle pages and add them to the Chronicle, as depicted in the image below. Add the Chronicle Bookmark 3 pages before the end of the book. The Bookmark will serve as a reminder that the game is coming to an end.
Objective Assembly: To identify a set of Objective tiles, check the symbol on the back of all the tiles. They should all share the same symbol and the same color. When assembling Objective tiles, select a set and place it starting from the largest tile at the bottom, as depicted in the image below.
Key Concepts
Page Anatomy: Books
There are three types of pages that go into player books: Trade, Science, and Industry. Regardless of type, every page is built using a number of common elements, as presented below.
You may never, through any means, add a page of a certain type to a book of a different type!
- Page color. Indicates its type and the book it can be inserted into: red for Science, green for Industry and yellow for Trade.
- Page symbol. Printed in a large version on the front of each page, and in a smaller version on its back. The small symbols are there for ease of reference only: no page may ever have more than one symbol.
- Page ability. The front and the back of each page will come with different abilities, although in most cases, the page back ability will be a less potent version of the ability printed on the front of the page.
- Instant benefit. Printed only on the front of the page, and serving as a reward for adding a page to your book, as well as in some instances of closing the book.
Page Anatomy: Chronicle
- Page color. Chronicles pages are brown.
- Page ability. The front and the back of each page come with different abilities. Unlike book pages, these are not necessarily connected.
- Solo ability. This is used only when playing the game solo.
Player Area
Your player area is the space on the table in front of you.
- Player board. You may keep for up to 5 pages above it (see Available Pages).
- Open books. Whenever you start or finish a turn, all of your books should be open.
- Objectives.
- Resources. Paper, Pens, and Files.
- Bookmark.
- Reference sheet.
Available Pages
Your player board is made of 5 sections. Each section may contain a single page. All these pages are your available pages. Anytime you are allowed to add a page to one of your books, it must come from your available pages.
Whenever you draw or receive a new page, it must be added to the leftmost space of your player board. If there is a page there, it must be moved to the next (left to right) section, which may in turn cause another page to be moved. Whenever a page is moved away from the rightmost section of your player board, place it in the general discard pile.
When adding a page to your available pages, move all the pages one space to the right.
Your available pages do not move automatically between sections. Unless a new page is added, cards remain in their positions, even if some of them are written into your books (see the Write Pages action in the Actions section for more details).
Turning a Page
Anytime you are required to turn a page, you must flip it to the left in your book. Turning a page may also flip the cover, in which case the book will close (see the Close Books section for more details).
Objective Tiles
You start the game with 3 stacks of Objective tiles, and as the game progresses, you will have opportunities to remove the top tiles of those stacks. At the start of the game, each stack is made of exactly 3 Objective tiles.
From left to right: Industry objectives, Science objectives, Trade objectives.
Your Trade Objective tiles require you to have pages in your Trade book in a certain order, so that at the end of the game you gain Victory Points. The top tile will require 3 symbols on pages in a specific order. The second and third tile require 4 and 5 symbols respectively. As you remove the tiles, the Objective becomes more difficult to fulfill, but it is also worth more Victory Points. Once you have chosen to remove the top tile, you no longer have the option to go back. Flip the tile to its back side, select one of the depicted benefits, then remove the tile from the game.
You are allowed to have more symbols than required in your Trade Book but you must be able to show a sequence of symbols on following pages that matches the one from the top Objective tile to score the points. The Objective is still fulfilled if there are other symbols preceding and/or following the sequence but not when there are other symbols between those that are included in the sequence.
Your Science Objective tiles require you to have a certain number of symbols in your Science book. One of the symbols is fixed, the second is up to you to define. If a Science objective requires you to have 3 symbols of one type and 2 of another type, you meet this requirement regardless of order or presence of other symbols in your Science book. Just like with the Trade Objectives, as you remove the tiles, the Objective becomes more difficult to fulfill, but it also becomes worth more Victory Points. However, you may gain a Science symbol of your choice by advancing on the Science track of the Civilization board.
Your Industry Objective tiles require you to have a number of different symbols in your Industry Book. You meet the requirement by having the specific number of different symbols regardless of their order. Additionally the most difficult tile requires you to have additionally one specific symbol on top of all 4 different symbols to meet its requirement.
The way the Objective tiles are stacked, you can see the current requirements and benefits, as well as the requirements and benefits of future tiles. This way you can make an informed decision to remove the current one and go to a harder objective for potentially more Victory Points.
Advancing Your Objectives
Whenever you have the option to advance one of your Objectives, you remove the current top Objective tile of a given stack. There is no option in the game to go back on that choice!
Civilization Board
The Civilization board is made of three tracks: Science track, Industry track, and Trade track. Each track is made of a number of spots (including the starting spot). Advancing on a track means moving your marker on that track to the next spot right above the one the player marker is situated in now. After you advance on a track, you have a choice between gaining the depicted benefit or advancing your corresponding Objective.
There is no option to go down on a track. All benefits from the tracks are described in the Appendix.
Files Are Wild
A File may be used as Paper or as a Pen. Some costs may only be paid with a File. In this case, a different resource may not be used in its place.
The back of the File tokens provides a reminder.
The Offer
Anytime a page leaves the offer, immediately draw a new page from the common deck to replace it, so that there are always 4 pages in the offer plus the card on top of the common deck (the card on the top of the common deck is also a part of the offer!). Whenever the common deck is empty, shuffle together thoroughly all the pages from the discard to create a new common deck.
In the unlikely case that there are not enough pages left to fully refill the offer, the game play continues normally and anytime a page is placed in the discard, it should be immediately moved into the offer. While the offer is incomplete, when taking pages from the offer players are limited to the number of pages physically present there.
Victory Points
All players start the game with 10 Victory Points. Throughout the game it is possible to activate abilities which require you to lose Victory Points in order to gain certain benefits. You may only do so as long as your marker does not go below 0 Victory Points. You may never choose to activate an ability which would cause your marker to drop below 0 Victory Points.
Game Play
The game is played over a fixed number of rounds. Each round consists of each player's turn and an Event phase.
During your turn:
- You must select one of the 6 available actions and perform it.
- You may use an ability from the two options presented by the Chronicle.
- Then pass the play to the next player.
After you Activate pages in a book, you must turn the page in that book once you have resolved the activation. This may result in the book closing, in which case you immediately resolve all its effects as if you used a Close Book action (receiving all of the bottom benefits from all the pages in the closed book).
Actions
Activate Pages
Choose one of your books and activate the abilities depicted on both visible pages in that book. You may perform them in any order, but you must complete one before starting the second one. These page abilities are not mandatory, you may choose to perform both of them, one of them, or even none of them (although that would bring you no benefit).
Some page abilities require you to be able to pay a certain number of resources (Pen, Paper, File, or Victory Points) or to have certain pages on your player board. If you do not have the required resources or pages, or if you choose not to pay, you must skip that page ability in its entirety.
If you started using a page ability, you must pay the cost, then you may gain part of or the entire benefit. There is no reason you would choose to forfeit part of the benefit, especially since you have already paid the cost (if applicable), however this is not expressly prohibited.
Some page abilities may allow you to add a page into one of your books. In this case, you must add a page into a different book than the one you have selected to activate pages.
Write Pages
To Write a Page, choose an available page from one of the sections of your player board, pay the depicted cost, and place it in its corresponding book, placing it on top of the right-hand side of the book. The type of page must match the book type (e.g. a Trade page may only be placed in your Trade book). Then, immediately gain the instant benefit depicted at the bottom of that page.
You are allowed to write as many pages as you want using this action. Simply repeat the above procedure in its entirety, first paying the resources needed to write a page, and then receiving possible gains from writing it. You may write these pages in the same book or multiple books. Any resources you gain by Writing Pages you receive immediately, so you may use them during the same action.
After you write a page, do not move any of your available pages! This movement may still happen but only if you add new pages to the available ones.
Before your first turn, you will write your first page in one of your books. In this special case, you will pay no costs, just receive possible benefits from writing the page. Otherwise, the procedure remains unchanged (but you may not immediately repeat it).
You may never, through any means, add a page of a certain type to a book of a different type!
Close Books
You may close any of your open books before you have reached its end. In this case, you only gain the benefits depicted at the bottom of pages (the same ones you receive when Writing a Page), to the left of your current page, then close the book and open it again at its first page. When gaining the benefits, you may select the order you receive them in.
When closing a book you may use your Bookmark to help you with counting your benefits.
A Book also closes automatically when you turn its back cover. If this happens, you simply receive all of the immediate benefits depicted at the bottom of its pages, and then open it again at its first page.
Draw
Choose exactly 2 pages from the offer or the top of the common deck. Add them, one by one, to your player board, moving any pages already there to the right when needed. If a card is pushed from the rightmost position of your player board, it is discarded. Immediately after drawing each of the pages, replenish the offer if needed.
As a free action, before selecting pages, you may pay 2 Victory Points to put any of the pages currently in the offer into the discard pile, and then replenish the offer.
Advance
Pay to advance your marker on one of the three tracks. The cost is shown to the right of the spot you are advancing to.
After your marker has advanced, you must choose one option:
- Gain the benefit depicted in the spot to which you advanced (except the benefit in the top spot of each track, which is awarded at the end of the game), or
- Advance your corresponding Objective (in this case ignore the benefit).
Benefits range from gaining resources to gaining Victory Points based on set conditions. Details can be found in the Appendix.
You are allowed to Advance multiple times using this action. Simply repeat the above procedure in its entirety, first paying the resources needed to Advance, and then selecting one of two options. You may advance on any number of tracks any number of times, as long as you are able to pay the costs.
When you advance to the top spot of a track, you may not choose to advance the corresponding Objective, as this is an award at the end of the game which you cannot forfeit. After reaching the top of a track, with further advancements you gain exactly one of the following: 1 Victory Point, 1 Pen, or 1 Paper.
Turn Pages
Select up to three of your books and turn the page in any of them. After turning pages, gain the instant benefit on the current page of each of your books. Pages can only ever be turned from the right position to the left (as if you were reading a book).
The Chronicle Events
Before or after taking your action (but not in the middle of it), you may choose up to one of the two events visible in the Chronicle and resolve it. You are allowed to simply pass on using any of the abilities. If this closes the Chronicle, see the End of the Game and Final Scoring section.
The Event Phase
If you are the last player, after you finish your turn, make sure to turn the page of the Chronicle to reveal a new set of usable Events.
The Event Phase is only performed by the last player! In other words, in a 3-player game, an Event Phase happens every 3 player turns.
End of the Game and Final Scoring
When the Chronicle has been closed, the game is immediately over, and additional Victory Points are scored.
Final Scoring
Each player evaluates their 3 Objective tiles atop of each of their stacks and gains Victory Points accordingly. If the top Objective tile of any type is unfulfiled (you do not have the correct symbols), you receive 0 Victory Points for that objective.
Then, each player with a player marker on the topmost position of a track on the Civilization board scores 2 Victory Points per page (excluding covers) in their corresponding book.
Finally, each player gains 1 Victory Point for every 5 leftover resources (Paper + Pen + File) in their player area. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most remaining Files is the winner. In case of a further tie, players share the victory.
Pages Description
Science
Archimedes of Syracuse — A Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor. Considered to be the greatest mathematician of ancient times, and one of the greatest of all time, Archimedes anticipated modern calculus and analysis. He also invented a device with a revolving screw-shaped blade inside a cylinder, now called Archimedes' screw. It could be used to transfer water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation canals and is still in use today for pumping liquids and granulated solids such as coal and grain.
Pythagoras — Ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician. He was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries, including the Pythagorean theorem and the sphericity of the Earth. Pythagorean theorem states that the area of the square whose side is the side opposite the right angle is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides, which can be written as an equation a²+b²=c².
Ernest Everett Just — A pioneering African-American biologist and academic. Just's primary legacy is his recognition of the fundamental role of the cell surface in the development of organisms. Just's many experiments with marine invertebrates showed that the egg surface, or ectoplasm, plays an important role in the fertilization and development of eggs.
Rosalind Franklin — An English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life. Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize, although her work played a crucial part in the discovery of DNA's structure, which along with subsequent related work led to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins being awarded a Nobel Prize in 1962, four years after her death.
Mariya Zerova — A Ukrainian biologist and taxonomist known for her work in mycology (the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi). She identified over 400 species of fungi, some new to science, on 160 plant species. She made a major contribution to the multi-volume books of the Determination of Mushrooms of Ukraine published between 1967 and 1979. Her collection of 12,000 specimens of fungi and plants is now held in the National Herbarium of Ukraine.
Jane Cooke Wright — A pioneering cancer researcher and surgeon noted for her contributions to chemotherapy. In particular, Wright is credited with developing the technique of using human tissue culture rather than laboratory mice to test the effects of potential drugs on cancer cells. She also pioneered the use of the drug methotrexate to treat breast cancer and skin cancer. Wright was appointed associate dean and head of the Cancer Chemotherapy Department at New York Medical College in 1967, apparently the highest-ranked African-American physician at a prominent medical college at the time, and certainly the highest-ranked African-American woman physician.
Marie Maynard Daly — An American biochemist. She was the first African-American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry (awarded by Columbia University in 1947). Daly made important contributions in four areas of research: the chemistry of histones, protein synthesis, the relationships between cholesterol and hypertension, and creatine's uptake by muscle cells.
Esther Park (Kim Jeom-dong) — A Korean physician; she was the first Korean woman to practice Western medicine in the country. In 1900, Park graduated from the Women's Medical College of Baltimore, as the first Korean woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. After obtaining her degree, Pak returned to Korea and settled in the first female hospital in the country. She also traveled all around Korea, including during the cholera epidemic, helping patients free of charge.
Albert Einstein — A German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory of relativity, but he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics - both are together the two pillars of modern physics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc², which arises from relativity theory, has been dubbed the world's most famous equation. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics".
Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) — A Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. The publication of Copernicus's model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution.
Caroline Herschel — A German astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet. She was the younger sister of astronomer William Herschel, with whom she worked throughout her career. She was the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and the first woman in England to hold a government position. She was also the first woman to publish scientific findings in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1828), and to be named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society (1835, with Mary Somerville).
Marie Sklodowska-Curie — A Polish physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a co-winner on her first Nobel Prize, making them the first ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.
George Washington Carver — An American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was the most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century. Apart from his work to improve the lives of farmers, Carver was also a leader in promoting environmentalism. In an era of high racial polarization, his fame reached beyond the black community. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "Black Leonardo [da Vinci]".
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace — The only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron and mathematician Lady Byron. She was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and to have published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.
Industry
Domestication of Horses — Horses were first domesticated 6000 years ago in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, modern-day Ukraine and Western Kazakhstan. The date of 4000 BCE is based on evidence that includes the appearance of dental pathologies associated with biting, changes in butchering practices, changes in human economies and settlement patterns, the depiction of horses as symbols of power in artifacts, and the appearance of horse bones in human graves.
The Wheel — The place and time of the invention of the wheel remains unclear, because the oldest hints do not guarantee the existence of real wheeled transport. The invention of the solid wooden disk wheel falls into the late Neolithic, and may be seen in conjunction with other technological advances that gave rise to the early Bronze Age. The oldest indirect evidence of wheeled movement was found in the form of miniature clay wheels north of the Black Sea before 4000 BCE. Early wheels were simple wooden disks with a hole for the axle. The spoked wheel was invented more recently (circa 2000 BCE) and allowed the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles.
Jazz Music — Music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jazz is difficult to define because it encompasses a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years, from ragtime to the rock-infused fusion, although one of its defining elements is improvisation.
Color Television — The basic idea of using three monochrome images to produce a color image had been experimented with almost as soon as black-and-white televisions had first been built. The first network broadcast to go out over the air in NTSC color was a performance of the opera Carmen on October 31st, 1953. Television broadcasting stations and networks in most parts of the world upgraded from black-and-white to color transmission between the 1960s and the 1980s.
Chocolate — Chocolate has been prepared as a drink for nearly all of its history. On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cocoa beverages dating even earlier than 1900 BCE. In the early 19th century Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten created a press to remove about half the natural fat (cocoa butter) from chocolate liquor, which made chocolate both cheaper to produce and more consistent in quality. This innovation introduced the modern era of chocolate, as this machine-pressed chocolate was instrumental in the transformation of chocolate to its solid form.
Telegraph — An electrical telegraph was a point-to-point text messaging system, used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. There were many different electrical telegraph systems invented, but the ones that became widespread fit into two broad categories: needle telegraphs in which a needle pointer is made to move electromagnetically with an electric current from a battery passing down the telegraph line and armature systems in which the current activates a telegraph sounder which makes a click (Morse system).
Printing Press — In Germany, around 1440, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, which started the Printing Revolution. Modeled on the design of existing screw presses, a single Renaissance movable-type printing press could produce up to 3,600 pages per workday, compared to forty by hand-printing and a few by hand-copying. The arrival of mechanical movable type printing in Europe introduced the era of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society.
Paper Currency — Paper currency first developed in Tang dynasty in China during the 7th century, although true paper money did not appear until the 11th century, during the Song dynasty. European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe during the 13th century. Napoleon issued paper banknotes in the early 1800s.
Compass — A device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. The magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty (since c. 206 BCE), and later adopted for navigation by the Chinese Song dynasty during the 11th century. The first usage of a compass recorded in Western Europe and the Islamic world occurred around 1190.
Steam Engine — The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in the United Kingdom and, on 21 February 1804, the world's first railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway in south Wales. In 1825 George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. This was the first public steam railway in the world. Steam locomotives continued to be manufactured until the late twentieth century in places such as China and the former East Germany.
Airplane — The Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903, recognized as "the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight". They built on the works of George Cayley dating from 1799, when he set forth the concept of the modern airplane and the work of German pioneer of human aviation Otto Lilienthal. Only a decade later, at the start of World War I, heavier-than-air powered aircraft had become practical for reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and even attacks against ground positions.
Water Wheel — The earliest waterwheel working like a lever was described by Zhuangzi (around 369-286 BCE). According to him, the water wheel was invented by Zigong, a disciple of Confucius in the 5th century BCE. By at least the 1st century CE, the Chinese of the Eastern Han Dynasty were using water wheels to crush grain in mills and to power the piston-bellows in forging iron ore into cast iron. The ancient Greeks invented the water wheel independently between the 3rd and 1st century BCE and used it in nearly all of the forms and functions described above, including its application for watermilling.
Magnifying Lens [Telescope] — An optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects. The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both terrestrial applications and astronomy. The actual inventor is unknown but word of it spread through Europe. Galileo heard about it and, in 1609, built his own version, and made his telescopic observations of celestial objects.
Refrigerator — Before the invention of the modern electric refrigerator, icehouses and iceboxes were used to provide cool storage for most of the year. The history of artificial refrigeration began when Scottish professor William Cullen designed a small refrigerating machine in 1755. In 1820, the British scientist Michael Faraday liquefied ammonia and other gasses by using high pressures and low temperatures, and in 1834 Jacob Perkins built the first working vapor-compression refrigeration system. It was a closed-cycle device that could operate continuously.
Scribbles - Solo Mode
Components
4 challenge tokens
Setup
Regular game setup, with only one player set. There are 2 additional steps:
9-1) Pick 3 challenges from the Challenge Board - one challenge from each column, each challenge must be from a different tier than the others. Mark picked challenges with challenge tokens on the correct side (Unfulfilled side or Fulfilled side).
9-2) Choose the difficulty level:
- Easy: Shuffle Chronicle pages and randomly remove 7 of them, fulfill at least one of the Challenges and score 100 points.
- Medium: Shuffle Chronicle pages and randomly remove 8 of them, fulfill at least one of the Challenges and score 110 points.
- Hard: Shuffle Chronicle pages and randomly remove 8 of them, choose one additional challenge from any column (it must be from a different tier than the other challenge from the same column). Fulfill at least two of the Challenges and score 120 points.
After choosing the difficulty level add the remaining pages to the Chronicle. See Book Assembly for details. Place the Chronicle on the lectern, place the Chronicle bookmark 3 pages from the end of the Chronicle and open the Chronicle on the first page.
10-1) Scribbles will start the game by taking the marked cards from the offer.
Gameplay
You will play your turns as per the normal rules. In the Event phase, when you flip a new Chronicle page, Scribbles will remove cards, as shown on the bottom of the newly revealed (righthand) page. Resolve the icons on the card from left to right, until all the cards shown are removed (0-3 cards).
- These cards do not go to the discard pile! Scribbles takes them away, so they will not come back later during that game. Also, some of the challenges require that the player counts certain type of cards. Simply put those cards on the side and keep track of how many of them Scribbles took.
- Offer is refilled only after Scribbles takes all of the applicable cards.
- If there is a specific symbol that Scribbles wants to take, and there are more cards with it on the offer, Scribbles will always take the leftmost card showing that symbol.
- You can stop Scribbles from taking cards by spending one File token per card you want to be left in the offer.
When you fulfill one of the challenges during the game, flip the corresponding Challenge token on the Challenge Board.
The Game ends when the Chronicle closes. Proceed to the final scoring according to the normal rules. Additionally check the Challenge Board - for every challenge you did not fulfill, subtract 15 points from your score.
You have to fulfill the difficulty level requirements to win the game - have a certain number of points and fulfill at least one of the objectives that you chose during the setup. You lose if even one of those requirements is not met or if you choose a TIER III challenge with an instant lose condition that was met during the game.
Solo Appendix
Scribbles removes cards from the offer according to the icons printed on the bottom of each newly revealed Chronicle page:
- Remove cards with certain symbols from the offer (example: 1 trade card with a boat icon, 1 industry card with a map symbol, 1 science card with a planet symbol). Remember that you refill the offer only after Scribbles takes all of the cards, so if there is no card with that symbol, you simply skip it.
- Remove cards from the offer based on their position (example: 1 from the top of the deck, and the 3rd card from the offer).
- Remove the leftmost card of the specific type (color) (example: the leftmost Industry card).
- On the last round Scribbles removes all of the cards from the offer and 1 from the top of the deck. You still have to refill it afterwards.
Challenge Board
The Challenge Board has three columns, one per book color: Science (red), Industry (green), and Trade (yellow).
| Tier | Science (red) | Industry (green) | Trade (yellow) |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Reach the top of Science track. | Reach the top of Industry track. | Reach the top of Trade track. |
| I | Get to the IV+ level on each track. | Take 4 pages in a single turn. | Have 5 File tokens. |
| I | Advance 4 times on a single track in a single turn. | Discard 4 pages in a single turn. | Do not use any File tokens during the game. |
| II | Have all 4 symbols in your Science book. | Have 2 cards with one symbol and two with another written down in the Industry Book. | Have 3 cards with the same symbol written in the Trade book. |
| II | Advance the Science objective to the maximum and fulfill it. | Advance the Industry objective to the maximum and fulfill it. | Advance the Trade objective to the maximum and fulfill it. |
| II | Write at least 6 pages into the Science book. | Write at least 6 pages into the Industry book. | Write at least 6 pages into the Trade book. |
| III | Write at least 5 pages in a single turn. | Advance two objectives to the maximum and fulfill them. | Write at least 4 pages into every book. |
| III | If Scribbles gets 3 of any one of the Science symbols (microbe / caduceus / planet / book) - you lose. | If Scribbles gets 3 of any one of the Industry symbols (heart / speech bubble / gear / sundial) - you lose. | If Scribbles gets 4 of any one of the Trade symbols (ship / wheel / donkey) - you lose. |
Appendix
This is the reference key for the Civilization board track benefits and the Objective tile benefits, as printed in the rulebook's icon table.
- 3 Victory Points for each type of symbol you have in your Science / Trade book.
- 4 Victory Points for each of the symbols you have the most of (even if tied) in your Science / Industry book.
- 6 Victory Points for each of the symbols you have the second most of (even if tied) in your Industry book.
- 4 Victory Points per File in your player area, but no more than 16 Victory Points. Note: the Files are not spent to receive Victory Points.
- Gain a Science token of your choice. This counts towards anything that requires or counts Science symbols.
- At the end of the game, receive 2 Victory Points for each page (excluding the covers) in your Science / Industry / Trade book.
- Advance on a single track of your choice without paying any cost.
- Advance on Science / Industry / Trade track without paying any cost.
- Gain 1 File / Pay 1 File.
- Gain 1 Pen / Pay 1 Pen.
- Gain 1 Paper / Pay 1 Paper.
- Gain X Victory Points / Lose X Victory Points.
- Pay/Have what is on the left of the arrow to gain what is on the right.
- Write any page following normal rules, except you do not have to pay the cost depicted on your player board.
- Write any page that matches one of the colors shown following normal rules, except you do not have to pay the cost depicted on your player board.
- You may discard any number of pages from the offer, then immediately replenish the offer with pages from the common deck. You must do this before taking any pages from the offer.
- Take any one page from the offer and add it to your player board following normal rules.
- Name a symbol and gain a page with that symbol from the discard, adding it to your player board. You may check if your chosen symbol is present in the discard before naming it.
- Discard depicted pages from your player board. This is always a cost. If multiple pages appear as part of one cost, they must all be discarded.
- Remove the top Objective tile from an Objective stack of your choice.
- Remove the top Objective tile from the depicted Objective stack.
- Have the depicted types of pages on your player board.
- Have 3 pages of the same type on your player board.
- Be on the fourth or higher position (IV+) of the Science / Industry / Trade track.
Science Objective tile (top, hardest tier): At the end of the game, in your Science book, you must have the following symbols: 4 or more of the microbe symbol, and 2 or more of another symbol (planet / caduceus / book). The second chosen symbol must be different from the first one depicted on the Objective. A single symbol in 2 or more copies counts, other different symbols in a single copy each do not count. If you do, you gain 22 Victory Points.
Industry Objective tile (top, hardest tier): At the end of the game, in your Industry book you must have all 4 different symbols and additionally the depicted symbol (speech bubble). If you do, you gain 18 Victory Points.
Trade Objective tile (top, hardest tier): At the end of the game, in your Trade book, you must have the following symbols in order: ship, wheel, donkey, ship, donkey. If you do, you gain 24 Victory Points. No other symbols may be between the symbols depicted but you may have extra symbols before the first one and after the last one. Starting pages (which do not contain symbols) do not affect your sequence of symbols in any way.
Credits
Game Design: Filip Głowacz
Solo Mode Design: David Turczi, Michał Cieślikowski, Kacper Frydrykiewicz
Game Development: Andrei Novac, Błażej Kubacki, Borys Bielas, Kacper Frydrykiewicz, Michał Cieślikowski, Rainer Åhlfors
Illustrations: Aleksander Zawada
Graphic Design: Zbigniew Umgelter
Rulebook: Błażej Kubacki
Card notes: Kacper Frydrykiewicz
Rulebook DTP: Zuzanna Kołakowska, Zbigniew Umgelter
Cultural consultants: Our Family Plays Games
Board&Dice would like to thank the following for their invaluable play testing, advice, and feedback: Łukasz Stadnik, Paweł "Wppxis" Gajda, Bartek Bajda, Dominik "Vykk" Pańczyk, Iwona Jaworowska, Maria Jóźwik, Marcin Zahorowicz, Adam Foland, Przemysław Kapica, Damian "Erefor" Adamczak, Marcin Birgiel, Anita Sokołowska, Emil Pacholczyk, Filip Loba, Jakub Kisała, Julia Gauza, Patryk Olbert, Robert Deninis, Sebastian Borowczyk, Yuriy Ivanov, Klaudyna Mikołajczyk, Adam Kamiński, Wiktoria Matyja, Krzysztof Widera, Marta Szpaderska, Aleksandra Wiatr, David Digby.
BOARD&DICE
- CEO: Andrei Novac
- Operations Manager: Aleksandra Menio
- Head of Marketing: Aleksandra Skłodowska-Michalak
- Head of Sales: Ireneusz Huszcza
- Art Direction: Filip Głowacz
- Head of Development: Kuba Polkowski
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