SticX Games: Orc Market
SticX Games: Orc Market Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Set up your stall in the market with different orc products. Serve the customers better than your rivals and earn victory points. But watch out! Part of your customers will come back for more. When the market closes its doors, it is time to count points.
Components
16 customer cards and 32 product cards.
Setup
- Separate the product cards and the customer cards. For games of 2 or 3 players, put back into the box the customer cards marked with the 4-player icon (in the bottom-right corner).
- Shuffle and make a deck of 16 / 13 / 10 customer cards for 4 / 3 / 2 players. Return the extra cards to the box.
- Place 8 / 7 / 6 customer cards face up in a row in the middle of the table for 4 / 3 / 2 players.
- Deal each player one customer card face down. They may look at it, but they keep it hidden from the others.
- Leave the remaining customer cards in a face-down stack in the middle of the table.
- Shuffle the product cards and deal 8 face down to each player. This is their hand. Set the leftover cards aside in a face-down stack.
- Have paper and pencil ready to keep score.
The two-player layout diagram ("Preparación partida a 2") is not reproduced here; the steps above give the same setup in text.
How to Play
Structure of the Game
The game is played over 3 rounds (morning, noon and night), accumulating points in each one. In each round, points are awarded for:
- the customer cards face up in the middle of the table, and
- the face-down customer cards of each participant.
The face-down customer cards in the middle of the table do NOT award points.
Important: the customer card you hold face down does not mean that customer will buy only from you. If another stall serves it better than you, at the end of the round that customer scores at the other stall.
Turns
Each round has as many turns as product cards you have in hand at the start of the round. In each turn:
- Choose 1 product card from your hand and place it face up in your play area. This will be your stall.
- Pass the rest of your hand to the player on your left. You will receive the same number of cards from the player on your right.
- Choose and pass cards from your hand until you have only 1 card in hand, which you also place face up in your stall.
At the end of the 8 turns, you will have 8 product cards face up in your play area. They represent the products you offer at your market stall. Then the customers buy at your stall and you score points.
Product Types
There are 6 different products: elf ear, stinking brew, toad eye, bat wing, kraken tentacles and necromancer's skull.
Elf ears, toad eyes and bat wings may appear duplicated or even tripled on a card. For example, one card shows 3 units of bat wings and another shows 2 units of toad eyes.
Round 1 — Morning: I Love the Smell of Elf Ear in the Morning!
Look at the demand of the customers in the middle of the table and of your face-down customer card, and try to set up your stall accordingly.
In the morning, the customers who ask for elf ear give more points, but they can also take away more points if you do not have it!
Scoring at the End of Each Round
Once you have set up your stalls, go to the scoring:
- Turn face up the hidden customer cards of each participant and check, customer by customer, including those in the middle of the table, which stall takes the points of each customer (see Customer Orders below).
- Write each participant's points on a sheet of paper and move on to the next round.
Round 2 — Noon: Bat Wings and Necromancer's Skull with Joy!
Some of the customers are satisfied and go home, or perhaps they just don't want to taste those delicious bat wings…
Customer Cards
- Take the 4 / 3 / 2 customer cards (depending on the number of participants) that are face up at the right end of the row and return them to the box.
- Shift the remaining customer cards in the row to the right.
- Add each participant's face-down customer cards to the row, on the left.
- Deal 1 card from the face-down customer deck to each participant. This will be their new face-down customer card.
Product Cards
- Each participant chooses 1 product card from their stall and leaves it in their play area, so Round 2 starts with 1 product already in their stall.
- Gather the rest of your product cards and shuffle them together with the ones set aside during setup (if any).
- Deal 7 face-down cards to each participant. This is their new hand.
- Set the leftover cards aside.
As in Round 1, play 7 turns this time, choosing and passing cards. Follow the same scoring instructions.
This time, the customers who ask for bat wings and necromancer's skull give more points! But they also take away more points if you do not have bat wings!
Round 3 — Night: At Night It Is Cold and They Are Roasting Toad Eyes
Some of the customers did not bring a coat and go home, or perhaps they hate toad eyes…
Customer Cards
Repeat the removal and addition of customers instructions from Round 2, but do NOT deal new cards from the face-down customer deck. In Round 3 there are no hidden customer cards. If any cards are left in the deck, they are not used.
Product Cards
- Each participant chooses 2 product cards from their stall and leaves them in place. Round 3 starts with 2 products already in their stall.
- Gather the rest of your product cards and shuffle them together with the ones set aside during setup (if any).
- Deal 6 face-down cards to each participant. This is their new hand.
- Return the leftover cards to the box.
As in the earlier rounds, play 6 turns this time, and follow the same scoring instructions.
In this third round, the customers who ask for toad eyes give more points!
Customer Orders
Customer orders are scored as follows. The printed rules name both options, "more or fewer" (más o menos), for some orders; the chevron up or down on the card indicates which one applies. Translator's note: the printed text does not spell out the chevron meanings; this reading is taken from the icons.
- Units of a product: whoever has more units of the indicated product scores the corresponding points.
- Units of several products: whoever has more total units of the indicated products scores the corresponding points. Careful! You must have at least 1 unit of each product.
- Different products: whoever has more or fewer different products (mercancías diferentes) scores the indicated points. Example: Elvira 1 has elf ears, stinking brew and toad eyes in her stall, while Laia 2 has kraken tentacles, elf ears, toad eyes and necromancer's skull. Elvira has fewer different products (3) and Laia more (4).
- Total units of any product: whoever has more or fewer total units of any product (unidades sumadas en total) scores the indicated points.
- Ties: if there is a tie, the points are split, rounding down.
- Shared round: if you meet in that round, the winning stall scores the extra points indicated on the card.
- Missing product: each participant without that product loses 2 points. The time of day can affect how many more points are lost.
Card note: one card gives 3 points, and also gives 2 more points if it was played in Round 3 (night).
End of the Game
The market closes at nightfall, at the end of the third round. Add up the points from all 3 rounds. Whoever has the most points is the winning stall. In case of a tie, play again!