Kintsugi
Kintsugi Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
4 Pottery Color cards: These are four cards that each depict one color of pottery.
13 Fragment cards: Each depicts a unique arrangement of four broken pottery fragments joined together by golden lacquer.
Setup
- Randomly give each player a Pottery Color card. Look at your own card, then put it face down so no one else sees it (it's a secret). This is the color of pottery you favor.
- Set aside the remaining Pottery Color cards; they will not be used this game.
- Shuffle the deck of fragment cards and place the deck face-down beside the play area.
- Draw the top card from the deck and place it face up in the play area. This is the starting card.
How to Play
Randomly choose a player to start the game. Starting with the start player and proceeding to the left each player will take a turn until there are no more cards in the deck.
On your turn, draw the top card from the deck. Place it face-up on the previously revealed card. (The card placed by the player to your right on their last turn, or the starting card, if this is the first turn.)
Your card may be oriented in any direction as long as the following rules are obeyed:
- Your card must completely cover one fragment on the previous card.
- Your card may not cover more than one fragment on the previous card.
- Your card may also partially or completely cover parts of any other cards, so long as the above rules are obeyed.
Any fragments of a color that do not have fragments of other colors between them are considered to be 1 piece.
In other words, one piece is a contiguous group of fragments of one color. Gold lacquer between fragments of the same color does not separate them into different pieces, it binds them together (it can even connect fragments corner to corner).
Congratulations, you have started repairing your pottery!
Game End
Continue taking turns until no more cards remain to be drawn. After that, you change from artists into critics. You must now try to guess which color the player to your left favored (the color on their Pottery Color card). All players simultaneously say their guess out loud. We recommend "1, 2, 3, [your guess here]!"
Scoring
- Your score is the total number of pieces of your color visible. Remember: Don't count each fragment of your color visible, count contiguous groups of your color that are visible.
- If you correctly guessed the pottery color of the player to your left, subtract their score from your score. Your score may go below zero, to negative points.
The player with the lowest score wins.
In the event of a tie, players share the victory.
Scoring Example (Before Guessing)
- Blue: 3 (OPPONENT)
- Yellow: 2 (YOU)
- White: 2
- Red: 5
Guessing
Blue guessed her opponent was playing Yellow and is correct. Blue's final score is 1. (3-2=1)
Yellow guessed her opponent was playing White and is wrong. Yellow's final score is 2. (2-0=2)
We recommend playing as many games as their are players, giving each player the chance to go first. After the last game, sum each player's score. The player with the lowest total score is the grand winner! If tied, play until a player wins.
Strategy
The best way to win is to connect fragments of your color together to form as few pieces as possible, while not being obvious about it.
Try to join together two or three different colors each turn, to hide which one you're consistently favoring. This will keep your score as low as possible, and even if your color is guessed, your opponent only subtracts a small number from their score.