Magical Treehouse Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparations
• Victory Conditions
• Flow of the Game
  • 1. Preparations Step
  • 2. Planning Step
  • 3. Building Step
  • 4. Scoring
  • VP Effects of Level 3 Buildings
  • VP Effects of Level 5 Buildings
  • VP From Objective Tiles
  • Example of Scoring

Components

• 6 Forest tiles (Front = Day, Back = Night)
• 1 biscuit tray
• 1 sub board
• 4 working boards
• 4 carriages
• 10 objective tiles
• 96 planning cards:
  • 80 buildings (5 colours), each showing a VP value, a familiar position icon, a level, a colour, an order icon and an effect icon
  • 8 pipes
  • 8 spells
• 1 turn order tile
• 40 familiars
• 20 biscuits
• 2 manuals

Preparations

1. Put together the 6 forest tiles. This is called the "magic forest". See to that either all tiles are face up or all tiles face down. You can choose the order freely. For your first play, it's recommended to use the front side of the tiles.
2. Place the sub board beside the magic forest.
3. Randomly pick 1 brown objective tile and 1 green objective tile, and place face up on the sub board. The objectives placed here are called "common objectives". For your first play, it's recommended to use the biscuits objective tile. The remaining green objectives aren't used in the game; put them back in the box.
4. Put the turn order tile near the sub board. At the start, it should point in clockwise order.
5. Place the biscuit tray near the sub board. Put 4 piles of biscuits in the tray; in a 3 player game there should be 2 biscuits in each pile, in a 4 player game 3 biscuits in each pile.
6. Deal 1 working board to each player.
7. Each player places 9 familiars of the same pattern on his working board, and 1 on the turn order tile beside the magic forest. (The order is irrelevant, as this will change later.)
8. Shuffle the 4 remaining brown objective tiles face down. Each player takes 1 tile at random and places face down on his working board. This tile is called the "personal objective". Each player can always look at his own objective. On 3 players, the remaining brown objective tile isn't used in the game; put it back in the box.
9. Deal 2 biscuits to each player. On 3 players the remaining 6 biscuits aren't used in the game; put them back in the box.
10. Put 1 carriage between each player. On 3 players, the remaining carriage isn't used in the game, put it back in the box.

Victory Conditions

The winner is the player who has most Victory Points (VP) at the end of the fourth round. Ties are broken by number of biscuits. In case of a continued tie, the youngest player is the final tie breaker.

Flow of the Game

The game is played in rounds. Each round consists of the preparations step, planning step and building step, in that order.

1. Preparations Step

The first round, take all planning cards. The second round and onwards, take all planning cards remaining on the working boards and the carriages, shuffle them face down, and divide them in equal decks as many as there are players. Each player takes one of these decks, and places on his working board.

Each player draws 8 cards from his deck to his hand. Players should not look at their hands at this point.

Finally, take the lowest numbered pile of biscuits from the biscuit tray. This is this round's biscuits. Spread them out so they are easy to take.

This concludes preparations step.

2. Planning Step

In this step, all players act at the same time. You do not have to wait for the other players to do your next move. Each to his own.

The eldest player says "start!" and players look at their hands and start.

Players with cards in hand can do the following:

• Place a planning card in your drawer. Choose one non-spell planning card in your hand, and place on your working board, on the drawer space, and place the remaining cards on the carriage tile on your left or right, depending on the turn order tile arrow. If there already are cards on that carriage, place the new ones on top of the old. (The manual's diagram shows the carriage side for clockwise and anti-clockwise turn order.)
• Discard all your hand cards (only possible if you have a spell card in hand). Place all your cards in hand in your trash can, in one pile, face up, with the spell card on top, visible.
• Use the special power of a spell (only possible if you have a spell card in hand). Announce "I whistle!" or "Stop!" aloud, and play out the spell so that all can see. All other players must immediately stop and follow the effects of the spell. Players who are in the middle of an action must finish that action first, though. Players who have dropped out of the planning step are not affected by the spell. When the effects of the spell have been resolved, the spell is put in the trash can. Then, the player who played the spell says "I snap my fingers!" or "Restart", and the players can resume their playing.

List of spell effects:

• Turn order switches direction. Turn the turn order tile upside down, to mark that the direction has changed. Cards on the carriages stay where they are, and are not moved.
• Place all hand cards on carriage. All players place their cards in hand on the carriage in the direction of the turn order. Players with no cards in hand do nothing.
• Discard a hand card. All players simultaneously choose a card in hand and place in their trash cans. Players with no cards in hand do nothing.
• Discard a drawer card. All players simultaneously choose a card from their drawer and place in their trash cans. Players with no cards in drawer do nothing.
• Exchange drawer with storage. All players who wish may switch places between one card in drawer and one card in storage. This is not mandatory.

Players with no cards in hand can do the following:

• Take cards from the carriage (only possible if you have less than 5 planning cards in your drawer). Take the cards from the carriage in the opposite direction of the turn order arrow (i.e. those between you and the player "before you" in the turn order.)
• Draw cards from your deck (only possible if you have less than 5 planning cards in your drawer). Draw 4 cards from your deck of planning cards.
• Drop out of the planning step. Announce "I'm done!" and end your part in the planning phase. Then take one of the biscuits for this round, if there are any left. Players who have dropped out of the planning step will wait for the others to finish. The last player to finish his planning step doesn't get a biscuit.

What's the biscuits all about? When someone drops out of the planning step, cards on the carriages will stop moving, and won't travel to people who haven't finished yet. Players can give a biscuit to a dropped out player to move the planning cards from the carriage that the dropped out player would take from, to the carriage that the dropped out player would leave cards on.

• If the game stalls, because all players want to wait for another player to do something, then the oldest player must make a move first.

The Planning step will continue until, normally, all players have 5 planning cards in their drawers.

• Players who do not have 5 planning cards in their drawers must take as many cards as they have less than 5 planning cards in their drawer, from their trash can (taking spells is not allowed), show them to all other players, and then put them back in the box. When doing so, they must take the cards with the highest possible play order number. If they do not have enough cards in their own trash can, they take from the next player's trash can, in the turn order. All these cards go out of the game and will not be used further in the game.

3. Building Step

In this step, players take turns to build villages.

1. Determining play order. All players take one card from their drawer, and reveal them simultaneously. The play order will be in number order on the revealed cards (lowest first, then next lowest etc). Rearrange the player's familiar pawns on the sub board to reflect this play order. The revealed cards go to their respective trash cans.
2. Building a village. The turn player takes the planning cards from his drawer and places them in their village (above their working board).

Building a building:

• Players can always build any number of level 1 buildings. They are always placed beside other buildings, even if they share colour and level.
• For each building with "place familiar", the player can place one of his familiar pawns in the magic forest (see page 12). If the area the familiar was placed in had resource icons, that means the player is gathering that resource.
• Any building can be flipped face down to be a [VP 0, level 1] building. Any effect on the card's front side is ignored. Building of any colour's level 2 can be placed onto this card.
• Buildings of level 2 and above can only be placed onto cards of the same colour and of one level lower. The level of the building rises, but the effect of the card below remains. Therefore, when placing a card on top of another, let the effect icons of the card below still be visible.
• Pipes are placed so that they connect two buildings. As a base rule, a pipe placed will not move. However, players with [move pipes] are allowed to always move a pipe, when they want to.
  • Blue level 4 [move pipes]: Players with this effect can always move their pipes.
• Players with building cards they don't want to build at this point can put them below a card with a "Storage" effect. Each Storage can only hold 1 card. Planning cards in Storage can be built just as if they came from the Drawer.
  • Each colour, level 2 [Storage]
  • Purple level 4 [Unlimited Storage]: This Storage can hold any number of cards.
• Buildings that are not connected to anything by pipes can always switch places with each other.

Rules for placing familiars:

• You can always place in the outmost areas.
• You can place in areas that are connected to another area in which you already have a familiar.
• You cannot place in areas where there already is a familiar.

Effects concerning placing familiars:

• Each colour, level 1 [Place familiar]: You can place a familiar.
• Red level 4 [Breeding familiar]: When you build a level 3, you can place a familiar.
• Yellow level 4 [Flying familiar]: When you place familiar, you can place a familiar in any unproductive area.
• Yellow level 4 [Place familiar]: You can place a familiar in an unproductive area. In this time, the effect of [Flying familiar] is enabled.

Players may not leave unused cards in their drawers. When all cards have been used, their turn ends. All players build their village in play order, and when all players have had their turn, the building step ends.

When the building step ends, that concludes one round; prepare the next round. Repeat this, and when the fourth round has been played out, proceed to scoring.

4. Scoring

Each player calculates their score:

• VP from each building
• VP from level 3 buildings (see later)
• VP from level 5 buildings (see later)
• VP from objective tiles (see later)
• VP from biscuits

Building VP: Only the VP of the top card in each building is considered.

Biscuit VP: Every 3 biscuits is 1 VP.

The player with the most VP wins. In case of a tie, amount of biscuits is the tie breaker. If it's still a tie, the youngest player of those tied wins.

VP Effects of Level 3 Buildings

The special effects of level 3 buildings lets you gain VP from connecting a level 1 "Extract Potion" and a level 3 "Potion into VP" with pipes.

• Each colour, level 1 [Extract Potion]: When the player is collecting 2 of the specified resource colour, he gains potion of that colour. Resources are gained by placing your familiars in the forest. If you supply that potion to a level 3 card, you will gain VP. The resources in question is just a prerequisite; they are not consumed by this.
• Each colour, level 3 [Potion into VP]: You gain 3 VP if this building is supplied with the specified potion. The potion is a prerequisite and is not consumed. Even if you supply 2 or more potion by connecting several buildings, you will still just get 3 VP from each "Potion into VP" card.
• Green level 4 [Change 3 coloured potion]: If you supply a purple potion, you gain a red, blue and yellow potion. You will need to gain purple potion with another building, and connect it to this building with a pipe. The purple potion is not consumed. The potion gained in this effect, is supplied to level 3 [Potion into VP] of this building, it meets the prerequisite.

Important notes:

• The specified potion can be gained by a "Extract Potion" in another building.
• In order to supply a "Potion into VP" building with the right coloured potion, you need to connect those buildings with a pipe.
• If you connect 3 or more buildings together, all supplied potion is supplied to all those connected buildings. Remember that a pipe cannot be moved unless specified by a special rule.

The manual's illustrated sequence reads: Gain 2 resources in the Magic forest. A building level 1 effect turns it into potion. Connect the potion extracting building with a level 3 building that can turn that potion into VP. You gain 3 VP.

VP Effects of Level 5 Buildings

The conditions for gaining VP from level 5 buildings vary with colour.

• Red level 5: You gain 1 VP per building of precisely level 3 you have.
• Yellow level 5: You gain 1 VP per familiar you have in an unproductive area. You count those even in the outermost areas.
• Blue level 5: You gain 1 VP per pipe you have.
• Purple level 5: You gain 1 VP per card you have in your Storage.
• Green level 5: You gain 1 VP per colour of potion you extract (max 5). This is calculated from your whole village. The potion extracting buildings do not need to be piped to this building.

VP From Objective Tiles

All players can gain VP from the common objective tiles. The private objective tiles can only give VP to the owning player.

Each objective tile will only give VP if one player has single most. In case of a tie for most, no one gains the VP. Also, getting the VP is mandatory. You can't choose not to lose VP.

• You get 3 VP if you have the single most juicy apples (resource).
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most spider webs (resource).
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most light shrooms (resource).
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most lizard's tails (resource).
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most bat fangs (resource).
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most biscuits. [Editor's note: the printed tile for this objective shows a 1 VP coin; the text above is transcribed as printed.]
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most buildings of level 2 or higher. [Editor's note: the printed tile for this objective shows a 2 VP coin; the text above is transcribed as printed.]
• You get 2 VP if you have the single most of that resource.
• You get 3 VP if you have the single most colours among your buildings.
• You get -4 VP if you have the single most buildings of precisely level 1.

Example of Scoring

After the fourth round, the game looks like this. This is how Keita's score is calculated.

• Building VP: From the left: 1 + 5 + 13 + 2 + 1 = 22 VP
• VP from buildings level 3: He has 2 buildings that are supplied with the right potion: 3 + 3 = 6 VP
• VP from buildings level 5: He has a blue level 5 (number of pipes): 2 VP
• VP from objective tiles:
  • Common objective (biscuits): Has not most: 0 VP
  • Common objective (bat fangs): Has single most: 3 VP
  • Private objective (light shrooms): Tied for most: 0 VP
• Biscuit VP: 4 biscuits: 1 VP

Total: 34 VP