Ganesha Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Take Gems from the Ganesha Altar
  • Phase 2: Place Gems on Your Destiny Tile
  • Phase 3: Move Gems to the Mandala and Score Victory Points (Optional)
  • End of Round
• Game End & Victory
• Spice Tokens

Objective

To win the game and obtain Ganesha's favor, you'll need to collect the most victory points. During the game, you'll collect gems from the Ganesha Altar, place them on your Destiny tile, and then decide whether to place them on the Mandala to score points now or keep them for later and go for an even bigger score.

Components

• 4 Player pawns
• 1 Scoring track (3 pieces)
• 4 Destiny tiles
• 60 Gems (12 each of red, green, purple, blue, and yellow)
• 1 Gem bag
• 3 Mandala boards
• 1 Ganesha Altar board
• 1 Ganesha's Drum token (first player)
• 8 Spice tokens

Rules printed in red in the original rulebook are the advanced rules that refer to the Spice tokens. They are marked [Advanced: Spice tokens] in this transcription.

Setup

1. Place a Mandala board in the middle of the table, selecting either the day side (lighter) or night side (darker):

   • 2 players: Green Mandala
   • 3 players: Blue Mandala
   • 4 players: Purple Mandala

   The other Mandalas can be returned to the box — they will not be used.

2. Assemble the scoring track around the Mandala (either side may be used).

3. Place the Ganesha Altar board next to the Mandala.

4. Place the following gems into the gem bag:

   • 2 players: 40 gems (return 4 of each color to the box)
   • 3 players: 50 gems (return 2 of each color to the box)
   • 4 players: 60 gems (use all the gems)

5. Randomly choose the first player and give them the Ganesha's Drum token, rotated with the number 1 facing upwards.

6. Each player selects a pawn and takes the matching color Destiny tile. The pawn is placed on the "0" starting space of the scoring track and the tile is placed in front of the player. In a 4-player game, the last player to act (on the right of the first player) places their pawn on the "2" space of the scoring track and starts the game with 2 victory points.

7. Fill the Altar.

   7.1 [Advanced: Spice tokens] Place the Spice tokens:

   a. The first player shuffles all Spice tokens and randomly draws as many of them as there are players in the game.

You are now ready to begin the game!

Gameplay

• 2-player games last 12 rounds.
• 3 and 4-player games last 9 rounds.

During every round and beginning with the first player, each player will take 1 turn consisting of 3 phases:

1. Take 1 or 2 gems from the Altar [Advanced: and activate Spice token effects].
2. Place the taken gem(s) on your Destiny tile: a. In your Treasury; b. In 1 of your Destiny slots.
3. Move gems from your Treasury onto the Mandala and score victory points. (Optional)

If there are no gems to take from the Altar on your turn, Phases 1 and 2 are skipped. You may still perform Phase 3.

Phase 1: Take Gems from the Ganesha Altar

On your turn, you have 2 options:

A. Take 1 gem of any color from any hex of the Altar (on your first turn, you must choose this option). [Advanced: If the hex has a Spice token, you may activate the effect of that token immediately after taking the gem.]

B. Take 2 gems if you have at least 1 gem in your Destiny slots.

The first gem you take:

• May be from ANY hex, but must match the color of a gem on 1 of your Destiny slots. [Advanced: If the hex has a Spice token, you may activate the effect of that token immediately after taking the gem.]

The second gem you take:

• May be any color, but must be taken from a hex adjacent to the first gem. [Advanced: If the hex has a Spice token, you may activate the effect of that token immediately after taking the gem.]

If you have the same color gem in both of your Destiny slots, then the second gem:

• May be any color and may be taken from ANY hex of the Altar. [Advanced: If the hex has a Spice token, you may activate the effect of that token immediately after taking the gem.]

When taking 2 gems, take both gems before placing the first gem on your Destiny tile — you will place both in Phase 2.

Note: It is not possible to take more than 2 gems from the Altar during Phase 1.

EXAMPLE #1: You have 1 red and 1 green gem in your Destiny slots. You may either:

A. Take 1 gem from any hex of the Altar.

B. Take 2 gems, starting with the red gem in the top row (it matches the red gem in your left Destiny slot). For the second gem, you can take either one of the yellow gems or the purple gem (all are adjacent to the red gem you took).

Phase 2: Place Gems on Your Destiny Tile

You must place all gems taken from the Altar either in your Treasury or in the Destiny slot(s). Each Destiny slot may only hold 1 gem at a time.

If you took 1 gem, you may:

A. Place it in your Treasury.

B. Place it in 1 of your Destiny slots. If the slot is occupied, the existing gem is moved to your Treasury before the new gem is placed.

If you took 2 gems, you may:

A. Place both gems in your Treasury.

B. Place each gem in a different Destiny slot. If the slot is occupied, the existing gem is moved to your Treasury before the new gem is placed.

C. Place 1 gem in your Treasury and the other gem in 1 of your Destiny slots. If the slot is occupied, the existing gem is moved to your Treasury before the new gem is placed.

Note: Gems placed in the Treasury will stay there until you decide to move them to the Mandala (during Phase 3). A gem may not be moved from your Treasury to a Destiny slot.

EXAMPLE #2: Using Example #1, you took 1 red and 1 yellow gem from the Altar.

You place the red gem directly into your Treasury.

You place the yellow gem into your left Destiny slot, which moves the red gem from the slot into your Treasury as well.

Phase 3: Move Gems to the Mandala and Score Victory Points (Optional)

During Phase 3, you may move 1 or more gems from your Treasury to the Mandala and score victory points. This Phase consists of 2 steps:

1. Sacrifice. To move gems to the Mandala, you must first sacrifice a gem to Ganesha from your Treasury (not from a Destiny slot) by placing it back in the bag. You may sacrifice:

   • 1 gem of any color — move all remaining gems of that color to the Mandala.
   • 1 yellow gem — move all gems of any 1 color to the Mandala.
   • ZERO gems — move all yellow gems from your Treasury to the Mandala.

2. Place. Move all available gems of the chosen color from your Treasury to the Mandala. Immediately score victory points for each gem placed on the Mandala and advance your pawn the corresponding number of spaces on the scoring track.

There are several rules you must follow when placing gems on the Mandala:

1. The color of the gems you place on the Mandala must match the color of the gem slots.
2. The gems must be placed in order. The first gem of a color that is placed on the Mandala must always be put in the starting gem slot, indicated by the starting-slot symbol shown in the original rulebook (the symbol is pictured only, not described in text). Subsequent gems of the same color must be placed on the next clockwise empty gem slot. You may not skip any gem slots.
3. You may only place 1 color per turn.
4. You must move ALL gems of the chosen color from your Treasury to the Mandala.

EXAMPLE #3: You decide to Sacrifice and Place red gems. You first sacrifice 1 red gem from your Treasury to the bag. Next, you move your remaining 3 red gems to the red gem slots on the Mandala, beginning with the starting slot and moving clockwise. You score 3, 5, and 3 points and move your pawn forward 11 spaces on the scoring track.

End of Round

After each player has taken 1 turn, the current round ends.

At the end of every round, the first player spins the Ganesha's Drum token counterclockwise to the next number and gains 1 victory point (move the pawn ahead 1 space on the scoring track). This marks the beginning of a new round.

Every 3 rounds, the following steps are taken:

1. Ganesha's Drum is passed clockwise to the next player. The new first player places the token so that the number 1 faces upwards.
2. All gems on the Altar are returned to the bag.
3. [Advanced: Spice tokens] All Spice tokens are removed from the Altar and shuffled with the unused Spice tokens. The first player randomly draws tokens equal to the number of players and places them on the Altar as in step 7.1 of the Setup.
4. New gems are drawn from the bag and placed on the Altar as in step 7.2 of the Setup.

Game End & Victory

• 2-player games last 12 rounds.
• 3 and 4-player games last 9 rounds.

After the last round of the game, the final stage begins:

1. Players move all gems from their Destiny slots to their Treasuries.
2. Starting with the player who has the lowest number of victory points and moving clockwise, players take turns placing 1 gem from their Treasury onto the Mandala (they do not need to sacrifice anything to do so). If multiple players have the same lowest number of victory points, the younger player begins.

This placement must follow the usual rules:

• The color of the gem being placed must be the same as the gem slot.
• Gems must be placed on the first empty gem slot (clockwise) from the starting gem slot.
• After placing a gem onto the Mandala, score the number of victory points indicated and move your pawn forward on the scoring track.

Players continue placing gems one by one until all Treasuries are empty.

The player with the most victory points wins the game.

If multiple players have the same number of points, the first player to reach the winning score is declared the winner.

Spice Tokens

[Advanced] If there is a Spice token under a gem that you take from the Altar during Phase 1 of your turn, you may immediately apply the effect of the token after taking the gem.

Effects of the Spice Tokens:

• Cardamom. Remove the last placed gem of any color from the Mandala and return it to the bag. Example: There are 2 red, 4 green, and 3 blue gems on the Mandala. The effect of Cardamom allows you to remove the last red, green, or blue gem.

• Caraway. Exchange your taken gem with any other gem on the Altar and keep the replaced gem. If there is a Spice token on the hex of the replaced gem, do not apply the effect of that token.

• Coriander. After Phase 2 of your turn, perform an additional action: move 1 or 2 gems from your Destiny slot(s) to your Treasury, and then move the same number of gems from your Treasury to your Destiny slot(s).

• Ginger. Give the gem from this hex to another player. They must give you a gem of a different color from their Treasury (if possible).

• Cinnamon. Immediately gain 1 victory point and advance your pawn on the scoring track.

• Clove. If you place any gems onto the Mandala this turn, you may sacrifice a gem of any color (not only of the same color or yellow).

• Red Pepper. Spend 1 victory point and draw 1 random gem from the bag. If it is the same color as the gem you took from the Red Pepper hex, place it in your Treasury. Otherwise, return it to the bag. If you do not have any points, you may not use Red Pepper.

• Black Pepper. Return to the bag any gem from your Treasury. Then draw 1 random gem from the bag and place it in your Treasury.