Masai Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Setup
• Board
  • Sectors
  • Seeds
• Turn Flow
  • Common Action
  • Standard Scoring
  • Inner Line Scoring (dotted)
  • Outer Line Scoring (solid)
• Special Actions
• End of Game
• Final Scoring
• Tiebreak

Components

• 1 board
• 48 dice (8 red, 8 orange, 8 yellow, 8 green, 8 blue, 8 violet)
• 80 seeds (20 each of black, brown, cyan and pink)
• 4 turn order markers
• 4 scoring markers
• 1 rulebook
• 1 cloth bag

Objective

The goal of the game is to score more points than your opponents by allocating dice and seeds on the board, scoring points instantly and preparing ground for end-game scoring.

Setup

For 2 players: Place the board in the centre of the table. Give each player a set of 20 seeds (return the rest to the box). Place the dice inside the bag.

For 3 and 4 players: Place the board in the centre of the table. Give each player a set of 15 seeds (return the rest to the box). Place the dice inside the bag.

Board

The Masai board represents a necklace that the players must assemble together. It has spaces called "sectors" and "areas". There are 6 sectors, one for each colour. Each sector allows the use of two areas pertaining to it.

Sectors

Each sector has "slots", which are spaces for allocating dice and seeds. There are 6 for dice and 6 for seeds. The sectors are connected by lines: an inner line (dotted), where instant scoring takes place, and an outer line (solid), where one of the end-game scores is formed.

In addition, a sector is formed by two areas which individually have 3 slots for dice (square) and 3 slots for seeds (elliptical).

At no time may there be 2 or more dice showing the same face in a sector. This means that each sector may hold only 1 die showing face 1, another showing face 2, another showing face 3, and so on.

Seeds

Seeds have several uses in Masai:

A) Making the connection between the dice allocated on the lines of the necklace.

B) Scoring 2 points per seed in each player's best link at the end of the game (see Inner Line Scoring).

C) Confirming control of an area in the final scoring (see Final Scoring).

D) Performing special actions (see Special Actions).

Turn Flow

Masai is played in turns. Each turn works the same way: the first player of that turn draws from the bag 2 dice for each participant, plus 2. For example, in a 2-player game there will be 6 dice; for 3 players, 8 dice; in a 4-player game, 10 dice. The dice drawn form the turn's "pool".

Common Action

The first player must choose one of the dice to use as the "key" for entering the chosen sector (the colour of the die must be the SAME as the sector; the face does not matter), and then another die to allocate to one of the slots of one of the areas pertaining to the chosen sector. The player may also choose whether or not to allocate a seed, which must be placed in the SAME area where the die was allocated.

NOTE: a player must NOT allocate a die IF the sector has not yet been "opened" (has not received a die of the same colour as the sector).

NOTE: a player must NOT allocate a die IF its face is the same as that of a die already allocated in the sector.

NOTE: If a player wants to use a sector that has already been used, they MUST replace the key die on top of the sector, placing it in the discard.

Each player proceeds in the same way. At the end of the turn, the dice that remain are discarded (keeping their current face). The order of the next turn is determined: the last player on the score track will be the first to play, the second-to-last will be the second, and so on. To make this easier, stack the players' turn order markers on top of one another on the track.

Standard Scoring

Whenever a player allocates a die to a slot on their turn, they score points instantly, regardless of the line selected (inner or outer), as follows:

• 1 point per die allocated to a slot
• 1 additional point if the allocated die is the same colour as the sector

Inner Line Scoring (dotted)

Allocating dice on the inner (dotted) line also yields another score, called the inner link. Points are scored as follows: +1 point for each die in a link.

NOTE: links on the inner line are determined by the OCCUPIED slots, joined by the player's own seeds and by natural links.

NOTE: Opponents' seeds and empty slots create blocks in the adjacency scoring.

Example: The player Rennan allocated a green key die to gain access to that sector. After that, he allocated a green die showing face 2 in one of the green areas, specifically on the inner (dotted) line. In addition, he added a seed that links with the yellow die showing face 4. In this way, the score obtained was: 1 point for the allocation + 1 point because the colour is the same as the sector + 3 points for the dice that link with the newly allocated die, thus totalling 5 points.

Outer Line Scoring (solid)

Allocating dice on the outer (solid) line yields another type of score, but it is applied at the end of the game. This score is based on the set of seeds and dice in continuous form, called the outer link. The outer link score is the sum of the faces of the dice plus two points for each seed that makes it up. Players always score their BEST link at the end of the game.

NOTE: Allocating dice on the outer line is for a future score. However, it is important to reinforce that the player still receives the standard score (1 point for the allocation and another if the colour is correct) immediately.

Special Actions

On their turn, participants may use seeds as payment for carrying out one of the four special actions available. Payment works as follows:

• The 1st time a player uses an action, they pay 1 seed;
• The 2nd time a player uses an action already used before, they pay 2 seeds;
• The 3rd time a player uses an action already used twice before, they pay 3 seeds.

The Special Actions are:

1. "Use any die as the key" - If there is no die of the colour the player intends to use, the player may use as the key any other die that has just been rolled. This action is coordinated together with the player's common actions of the turn.

2. "Change the face of a newly rolled die" - Change the face number of the die that will be used for allocation in the necklace. This action is coordinated together with the player's common actions of the turn.

3. "Take a die used as a key from any sector and allocate it to any empty slot". This action replaces the player's common action for the turn.

4. "Repair an allocated die" - Replace a die of a colour different from the sector into which it was allocated with another die of the same face, but of the sector's colour. The die used for the replacement may come from: the necklace, the pool of newly rolled dice, or the pool of discarded dice, but NEVER from the keys. This action replaces the player's common action for the turn.

NOTE: only ONE Special Action may be used per turn!

Pools: there are two pools, the newly rolled dice and the discarded dice. If at any point there are no more dice in the bag, all discarded dice must be returned to it and the game continues normally from there.

End of Game

The game may end in two ways:

• When all the die slots are filled. In this case the round ends normally.
• When one of the participants runs out of seeds. In this case the round ends normally. The final scores are computed and the participant with the highest score wins.

Final Scoring

When the game ends, the final score is tallied in three steps:

• Best outer link of each player: 2 points for each seed in the link, plus the sum of the face values of the dice in it.

• Scoring of each area.

  • A) Majority in the area: The player with more seeds in an area receives the score for control of it. The score is equal to the face value of the highest die in that area.
  • B) Minority in the area: The player with fewer seeds in an area receives the score for minority of it. The score is equal to the face value of the lowest die in that area.
  • C) Tie in the area (with 3 dice): The score in this case is the face value of the middle die. The players involved in the area each receive this value.
  • D) Tie in the area (with 2 dice): The empty slot is considered to have a value of 0 (zero). In this case the null value is excluded, the die with the higher face is removed, and both players receive the average value.

• Unused seeds: +1 point for each unused seed.

Tiebreak

The tiebreak criteria, in order, are:

• Number of seeds on the outer line (they do not need to be in a link).
• Turn order.