Merchants Cove: The Dragon Rancher Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Dragon Rancher Actions
  • Draw & Place 3 Food (1 Hour + 1 Corruption)
  • Draw & Place 3+ Food (2 Hours)
  • Shovel Poop (1 Hour)
  • Chop Down a Tree (2 Hours)
  • Eat & Grow (2 Hours)
• Mega Dragon and Stumps

Components

• This Rulebook
• 1 Dragon Rancher figure
• 1 Dragon Rancher Shop board (Ranch)
• 1 Dragon Rancher Staff board
• 1 cardboard Sale shelf (Pen)
• 4 cardboard Tree tokens
• 4 cardboard Poop tokens
• 1 cloth Feeding bag
• 28 Food discs
  • 7 red, 7 green, 5 yellow, 5 blue, and 4 white
• 20 Dragon Rancher Goods
  • 8 small (2 in each of 4 colors)
  • 8 large (2 in each of 4 colors)
  • 4 mega (1 in each of 4 colors)
• 20 plastic standees

Setup

1. Place the Dragon Rancher Shop board, Staff board, and Dragon Pen on the table in front of you.
2. Place the matching colored Tree over each Stump on the Ranch board. Then, place 1 matching colored Food and 1 white Food onto each Tree.
3. Place the remaining Food (6 red, 6 green, 4 blue, and 4 yellow) into the Feeding bag.
4. Place the 4 Poop tokens in a pyramid shape on the Dump space.
5. Keep the Small Dragons (small Goods), Large Dragons (large Goods), and Mega Dragons (mega Goods) nearby, ready for use.
6. Place the Dragon Rancher figure onto the Activate Staff action space.

Dragon Rancher Actions

Draw & Place 3 Food (1 Hour + 1 Corruption)

Draw and place 3 Food from the Feeding bag, following the placement rules described under the Draw & Place 3+ Food action, in section 2. Place Food.

Note: White Food is special. Set them aside when drawing; they do not count towards the limit of Food drawn.

Draw & Place 3+ Food (2 Hours)

This action, like the Draw & Place 3 Food action, consists of two steps:

1. Draw Food: Draw Food from the Feeding bag until you either draw 3 matching colored Food, or 3 differently colored Food.

   Note: You will always draw a minimum of 3 Food this way, so you can start this action by drawing 3 at once before evaluating if you can draw more.

2. Place Food: Start from any legal Ranch space. Then place a trail of Food onto adjacent spaces, one at a time—like pieces in the game, mancala. You must also observe the following rules:

   • Each Food must be placed onto an orthogonally adjacent Ranch space from the previous Food you placed.
   • You may not reverse and place Food onto the last space you placed Food—though it is possible to make a loop with 5 or more Food.
   • Each Ranch space can hold up to 2 Food, maximum. The second Food placed is always stacked on top of the first.
   • You cannot place Food onto a space full with 2 Food, a Dragon, Poop, a Tree, or the Dump. Nor can you cross over a Stump (line).
   • If you cannot place a Food—because there are no Legal spaces—return the excess Food to the Feeding bag.

Shovel Poop (1 Hour)

Remove all Poop from Ranch spaces and return them to the Dump. The Dump is not considered a normal Ranch space, as such, Food and Dragons cannot be placed or moved into it.

Chop Down a Tree (2 Hours)

At the start of the game, your Ranch is overgrown with Trees. Chopping them down can yield a range of benefits: more Ranch spaces, Market Phase Sponsorships, and special white Food.

1. Remove the 2 Food from a Tree on your Ranch and place them into your Feeding bag. Each Tree contains 1 matching colored Food and 1 white Food.

   Note: White Food is special; it can Grow or Hatch any color of Dragon. Also, it does not count against your limits when you draw Food from the Feeding bag.

2. Remove the Tree from your Ranch board. This will uncover a new Ranch space and reveal a Stump with a matching colored Market Phase Sponsorship icon.

Eat & Grow (2 Hours)

This is your main Dragon raising action, where Dragons eat the Food on your Ranch board and grow in size. During an Eat & Grow action, take the following steps as many times as you wish, as long as it is legal to do so.

Hatch a Dragon:

• Select a Ranch space that contains at least 1 Food. Remove the Food and return it to the Feeding bag and place a Dragon into that space.
  • If there was 1 Food in the space, place a matching colored Small Dragon.
  • If there was 2 Food, place a Large Dragon matching the color of the topmost Food.

Move & Grow a Dragon:

• Starting from a Ranch space with a Dragon, trace a path around your Ranch, moving the Dragon as you go.
  • A Dragon can only enter a space if the Food (or topmost Food) matches the Dragon's color.
  • Dragons only move orthogonally.
  • Dragons cannot move through Trees, Stumps, other Dragons, or Poop.
• Dragons eat all Food in the spaces they enter, return the Food to the Feeding bag. Dragons grow exactly one size for each Food eaten. Any excess Food is returned to the Feeding bag with no further effect.

Note: Only the Good representing the Dragon's final size is required. You can grow a Dragon by multiple steps even if you lack Dragons of the intermediate sizes.

Similarly, you may Hatch a Dragon you do not have available, provided you immediately Move & Grow it into a Good size that is available in your supply.

Designate a Dragons for Sale:

• Move a Dragon from your Ranch to your Pen, where it may be sold during the Market Phase (your Dragon Pen is equivalent to the Sale Shelf of other Merchants).
• Place 1 Poop from the Dump into the Dragon's previous Ranch space. If no Poop remains in the Dump, instead draw 1 Corruption card.

(Heading reproduced as printed in the source.)

Mega Dragon and Stumps

Mega Dragons are considered mega Goods, and are unique to the Dragon Rancher. They may only be sold at the Black Market (right) Pier. Thus, you must draw 1 Corruption card if you want to sell one or more Mega Dragon.

During the Market Phase the Dragon Rancher gains Gold for each Sponsorship icon revealed on a Stump.

Recruit/Replace Townsfolk (Cost Varies)

Recruit Townsfolk from the Town Square, gaining their ability. Then, slide the card behind your Staff board to assign them to a Staff Ability. Most Townsfolk have Faction icons which give you Gold during Final Scoring.

Activate Staff (2 Hours)

You may activate each Staff Ability that has a Townsfolk assigned to it—in any order you wish.

Staff Abilities

• Shepherd: Hatch and/or Move and Grow 1 Dragon. Then you may Designate a Dragon for Sale any number of times.
• Ranch Hand: Draw and place 2 Food from the Feeding bag.
• Field Hand: Move the Food/Poop/Dragon from any one Ranch space to any other empty Ranch space.
• Security: Choose and discard 1 Corruption card from your supply.

Action reference strip

The printed reference strip on the Staff board's page pairs each action icon with its effect. The rows read, in order:

• Draw 3 Food from the Feeding bag, then place it on your Ranch board.
• Draw Food from the Feeding bag until you have drawn 3 of the same color or 3 of different colors, then place it on your Ranch board.
• Hatch, move, and grow any number of Dragons. You may move any number of Dragons to your Dragon Pen (Sale Shelf).
• Remove all Poop from Ranch spaces and place it into the Dump.
• Remove 1 Tree and place the 2 Food into the Feeding bag. This reveals a Market Phase Sponsorship icon.