Origin of Failing Water Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Introduction
• Preparation for the Game
• Game Sequence
• Win
• Variant Rules
  • 1. Thinking cards
  • 2. Changing the order of playing (Easy rules)
  • 3. Hands switching (Advance rules)

Components

• 24 Failingwater cards, ranked 1 to 8 by 3 colors (Red, Blue, Yellow)
• 8 Architect indexes, each 2 by 4 colors (Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple)
• 6 kinds of Story indexes (1 Blue, 1 Red, 2 Blue, 2 Red, 3 Blue, 4 Red)
• 4 kinds of Designing plans. Every plan expresses a different numerical order.
• 4 Thinking cards, each 1 by 4 colors (Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple). Thinking cards are used only in the Variant Rules.
• 1 Start player marker
• 1 Lead player marker

Note: the four Designing plans are pictorial in the source. Their numerical layouts are not given as text in the rulebook, and are not reproduced here; use the printed Designing plans.

Introduction

This "Origin of Failingwater" is a trick-taking game.

But, for the people not familiar to trick-taking, and to explain uniqueness of "Origin of Failingwater" easier, we do not use technical terms or expressions of the trick-taking specific. If you are familiar to trick-taking games, you shall enjoy reading this rules as an exceptional trick-taking game, we swear.

Preparation for the Game

1. Determination of each player's color Each player selects a color properly from Red, Blue, Yellow and Purple, and takes his/her color's Architect index. Place one of them in front of him/herself.

2. Determination of start player The most recent player who bought a home or a country house becomes first start player, then, takes and places the Start player marker in front of him/herself.

3. Setting of Architect indexes Clockwise from the start player, each player sets another Architect index at the center of the table in line from left to right. Then, set the Lead player marker at just upper side of the start player's Architect index. (The most left: See Example of card matrix)

4. Setting of Story indexes At first, shuffle and place tails up all four Designing plans as the draw pile. Turn up top Designing plan of the pile. Set Story indexes as described at the Designing plan (To know where to set which each Story index, see figure above). As the figure of "Example of card matrix", set Story indexes in up-down line against orthogonal Architect indexes line to make virtual matrix of 4 by 6 cards grid. Leave remaining draw pile of the Designing plans at the side of the matrix.

5. Dealing cards for hands Shuffle Failingwater cards well and deal six tails up to each player as hand.

Game Sequence

1. Playing of Failingwater cards From the start player, every player plays Failingwater card by turns alternatively. Clockwise from the start player, each player chooses 1st Failingwater card from his/her hand, and play it at the junction space of the matrix; row of 6th Story index; column below Architect index of each player (For convenience, "top" means the direction for Architect indexes. See right figure). After each player played Failingwater card in the row beside 6th Story index, start player moves the Start player marker to the left next player, who becomes start player for the next card play (or trick). Clockwise from the start player, each player chooses 2nd Failingwater card from his/her hand, and play it at the junction space of the matrix; row beside 5th Story index; column below Architect index of each player. After each player played Failingwater card in the row of 5th Story index, start player moves the Start player marker to the left next player, who becomes start player for the next card play. Repeat this method until all Failingwater cards played at all spaces of the matrix from each player's hand.

   Order of Failingwater cards matrix (as printed): 1st row = Playing space for 6th card; 2nd row = 5th card; 3rd row = 4th card; 4th row = 3rd card; 5th row = 2nd card; 6th row = 1st card.

2. Getting Story indexes After each player played last card at the row of 1st Story index, procedure of getting Story indexes will begin. At first, evaluate Failingwater cards in the row of 1st Story index (last cards played). Among the same color cards as the Failingwater card just below Lead player marker, the highest ranked card wins (Water flowed down the surface of the wall). Player of won card gets the 1st Story index. After that, move Lead player marker to just upper side of the winner's Architect index. Next, evaluate cards in the row of 2nd Story index as above. Among same color cards as the card just below Lead player marker, the highest ranked card wins and player of won card gets the 2nd Story index. After that, move Lead player marker to just upper side of the winner's Architect index. In the same way on and after 3rd Story index, among same color as the card just below Lead player marker, the highest ranked card wins. Winner gets Story index of the row. After 6th Story index have got, procedure of getting Story indexes are finished.

   Example of getting Story indexes (as printed in the source figure): Because Yellow player won 1st Story index, move Lead player marker to Yellow Architect index before evaluating the row of 2nd Story index. Color of the highest ranked card is Purple. But color of the card just below Lead player marker is Blue. Thus, compare only the ranks between Blue cards. Yellow player wins. Because of Lead player marker has moved to Yellow Architect index, color of the card just below Lead player marker (played by Yellow player) is Red. Playing highest ranked Red card, Blue player wins the 2nd Story index.

Win

At the end of the game, each player should total their VP of all 4 rounds. The player has highest VP becomes the victor of the game. In the case of tie VP, the player among them got highest VP in the 4th round wins. Even if also at tie situation, all appropriate players wins together.

Variant Rules

In this part, we shall explain Variant Rules. You may use some or all of them if you prefer to.

1. Thinking cards

At the beginning of the game, each player receives a Thinking card of same color as his/her Architect card. Add this to your hand. You can play the Thinking card instead of playing a normal Failingwater card. If you already played your Thinking card, just one Failingwater card be still remain in your hand after 6th playing. Before procedure of getting Story indexes, replace the Thinking card into your last hand. After every player who played Thinking card replaced it into the last card, go to the procedure of getting Story indexes. Thinking cards are one use only. After replaced into a normal Failingwater card, that Thinking card is removed from the game. Thus, you cannot play your Thinking card twice in the each game. If you did not play your Thinking card at the last round, you mix it into your hand of the next round.

2. Changing the order of playing (Easy rules)

To change the procedure of playing Failingwater cards as 2 sets of three cards. Clockwise from the start player, each player chooses and play 1st Failingwater card at the row of 3rd Story index. After that, play at the row of the 2nd Story index, then 1st Story index. And next, play at the row of the 6th, 5th and 4th Story indexes.

3. Hands switching (Advance rules)

In spite of shuffle between the rounds, each player gives the hand to next player. After finished scoring VP of the first round, each player withdraws 6 Failingwater cards just under his/her Architect index and gives them to left next player as hand for next round. Thus, each player shall play same as right player's hand of the last round.