Mandala Stones Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Components
Setup
Playing the Game
Player Turn
- PICK
- SCORE
  - Score a color
  - Score any top Stones
Tower Rules (Player Board Scoring)
The Mandala Board
Game End
Objective Cards
Credits

Game Components

Your copy of Mandala Stones contains the following components:

10 Objective cards
4 Player boards
4 Reference cards
1 Main board
1 Mandala board
96 Stones (24 in each of four colors)
4 Artists
1 Cotton bag
4 Scoring markers
4 "+50 VP" markers

Setup

Before your first game, carefully punch out all cardboard components.

Main Board Setup

Place the main board in the middle of the table, within easy reach of all players. Add all Stones to the cotton bag. Draw Stones, one at a time, from the bag and place 4 onto each space marked with the stack symbol on the main board, forming stacks.

Place a random Artist onto each of the four circle spaces shown on the main board.

Mandala Board Setup

Place the Mandala board next to the main board. It is empty at the start of the game and will be filled with Stones as the game progresses.

Player Setup

Give each player a reference card, a player board, and a scoring marker. Place your scoring marker on the starting space on your player board, marking the start of the Victory Point track. During the game, whenever you score any Victory Points, mark them by advancing your marker on this track. When you exceed 50 Victory Points, take a "+50 VP" marker and reset your scoring marker to the initial position on the Victory Point track before advancing the marker further.

Shuffle all Objective cards without looking at them and deal 2 to each player. You may look at your own Objective cards at any time but should keep them hidden from the other players.

You are now ready to play Mandala Stones!

Playing the Game

Randomly select a starting player. Mandala Stones is played over a number of rounds. Each round, beginning with the starting player and continuing clockwise around the table, every player will take one turn. The game will conclude at the end of the round during which the end-game condition is triggered, thus giving all players an equal number of turns. The player with the most Victory Points is the winner.

Player Turn

On your turn, you must perform one of two possible actions: PICK or SCORE. The handy reference card will remind you of the rules governing each action.

PICK

Note: If there are no empty spaces on your player board, you are not allowed to take the PICK action, therefore you must SCORE.

Choose one Artist and move it to a different position. You can move the Artist to any empty circle space on the main board. Then, take all the Stones from the top of the four adjacent stacks that are:

not adjacent to any other Artists, and
match the pattern of the Artist you selected.

You must be able to take at least one stone!

Once you have identified which Stones you are allowed to take, you must decide which Stone to take first. Starting with this Stone, proceeding clockwise around the Artist, take each allowed Stone, placing them on top of each other, to form a tower with the first Stone on the bottom, until you have taken all the Stones you were allowed to take.

Note: When taking Stones, you are not allowed to skip any of the allowed Stones. You must always take all of the Stones you were allowed to take.

After you have finished taking all the Stones, you must place the tower on any empty space on your player board. You may not rearrange the order of the Stones within the tower.

Example: An Artist is moved to a new position. You are not allowed to take a Stone that does not match the pattern of the Artist. You are also not allowed to take a Stone that is adjacent to another Artist. Depending on which Stone you take first, the order of the Stones in the resulting tower changes. For example, if the placement allows you to take the red, blue, and purple Stones, then starting with the red Stone builds the tower red, blue, purple (bottom to top); starting with the purple Stone builds purple, red, blue; and starting with the blue Stone builds blue, purple, red.

Important! In rare cases you may be unable to move an Artist in a way that allows you to take any Stones. In such a case you must select to SCORE instead. If you are also unable to SCORE, the game ends immediately.

SCORE

Decide whether to score a color or to score any top stones.

Score a color

Choose a color shared by the top Stones of at least 2 towers on your player board. Their patterns do not matter, as long as the Stones themselves are of the same color. When choosing this scoring option, you must always score all towers that share the selected color.

Score each such tower individually, according to the rule depicted next to it on your player board.

Important! Always score the applicable towers on your player board from left to right!

After scoring the color, remove all of the top Stones of the towers scored and place them on the Mandala board in any order, starting from the first unoccupied space nearest the center of the Mandala board and proceeding clockwise and outward.

Example: If there is only one top Stone of yellow and one of red, but three purple top Stones, you may only choose to score purple. Since you must score all towers that share the selected color, you must score all three purple towers.

Score any top Stones

When scoring any Stones, select any number of Stones from the tops of your towers, and score 1 Victory Point for each selected Stone. The individual colors and patterns of these Stones do not matter. Then, remove each selected Stone and place them on the Mandala board in any order.

Example: You decide to use the option of scoring any Stones and select the towers with purple, yellow, and blue Stones on top. You score 3 Victory Points and remove the Stones, leaving you with towers now topped by red Stones (ready for a much stronger color scoring on a future turn).

Note: Stones removed from your player board after choosing to score any top Stones are placed on the Mandala board following the same rules as when scoring a color.

Tower Rules (Player Board Scoring)

Each space on your player board has a rule that determines how a tower there scores when you Score a color:

Tower Rule: score 1 Victory Point for each different height among all towers on your player board. Note: The colors of their top Stones do not matter. "Zero" (an empty space) is a valid height.
Tower Rule: score Victory Points depending on the current height of this tower. A tower consisting of 1/2/3/4 Stones scores you 4/2/1/1 Victory Points.
Tower Rule: score Victory Points depending on the current height of this tower. A tower consisting of 1/2/3/4 Stones scores you 1/3/4/1 Victory Points.
Tower Rule: score Victory Points depending on the current height of this tower. A tower consisting of 1/2/3/4 Stones scores you 1/2/4/6 Victory Points.
Tower Rule: score Victory Points equal to the number of differently colored Stones in this tower plus 1. 1/2/3/4 different colors scores you 2/3/4/5 Victory Points.

Scoring example: Scoring the purple color on a player board might yield: Tower 1 — 4 Victory Points (you have towers of heights 1, 2, 3, and 4); Tower 4 — 4 Victory Points (height 3 tower); Tower 5 — 5 Victory Points (there are 4 different colors in this tower). Combined score: 13 Victory Points. Having scored, you remove the purple Stone from the top of each of the towers you scored and place them on the Mandala board. As you place them one by one, a Stone may cover a "+2" space, giving you 2 additional Victory Points.

The Mandala Board

As you place the Stones, they may end up covering spaces with special markings:

Victory Point spaces. If you cover one of them, immediately receive the depicted Victory Points.
Hand spaces. If you cover a space showing a number of hands equal to the number of players, the end of the game has been triggered. (Spaces depicting fewer hands than the number of players are treated as if they had no special marking.)

If the Mandala board becomes full, simply set excess scored Stones aside until the game ends.

Game End

The game will end in one of two ways:

If a Stone is placed on the Mandala board covering a space showing a number of hands equal to the number of players — finish the round, thus giving all players an equal number of turns.
If any player is unable to take any Stone with a PICK action and is unable to SCORE, end the game immediately!

Note: To make sure that everyone has played an equal number of turns, remember that the last player to play is the one sitting to the immediate right of the player who started the game.

No matter how the game ended — in player order, each player should reveal their Objective cards, select one of them, scoring the indicated number of Victory Points if the Objective was met.

The player with the most Victory Points is the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player who was first in turn order wins.

Objective Cards

At the end of the game, each player scores one of their two secret Objective cards. Examples of Objectives include: score 7 Victory Points if you end the game with only one pattern visible on your player board; score 8 Victory Points if you end the game with exactly 1 Stone on your player board; score 6 Victory Points if you end the game with exactly 3 Stones on your player board.

Credits

Game Design: Filip Głowacz. Game Development: Andrei Novac, Błażej Kubacki, Małgorzata Mitura, Rainer Åhlfors. Graphic Design: Zbigniew Umgelter. English Rules: Rainer Åhlfors, Błażej Kubacki. Rulebook DTP: Agnieszka Kopera.