Patios

Patios Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

76 square cards (Flower pack) with 17 Plant pot cards x 3 colours (blue, green, red); 14 Cane with can cards, and 11 Balcony cards. All have the same dry flower on the back.
5 square Well cards
7 square Improvement cards
5 coins
9 Characters cards
61 score tokens: 7 trio tokens x 3 colours, 30 tokens of 1 point, 10 tokens of 5 points

NOTE:

In these rules we use two similar words, face up and face down, to refer to the position of the flower cards and character cards. You might not be able to find these words in the dictionary but they are common in Cordovan dialect and we hope you understand them easily.
Traditionally, cans with water are tied to the end of a large cane in order to be able to reach the plant pots which are in the spots of a patio hardest to get to in order to water them.

Preparation

Deal one Well card to each person, which is to be placed on the table with its prettiest (without work) face showing face up. This Well card and the cards you place around it make up your Patio.
The first player is the person who most enjoys the smell of nocturnal flowers in the month of May (or rather anyone chosen at random). The direction of play in Patios is anticlockwise around the table (After you, the next person to your right plays his/her turn).

The traditional direction of play around a table is anticlockwise, at least in Andalusia. This is not the case in many other places around the world.

Take as many Plant pot cards of each colour as there are people in the game. Shuffle them and deal 2 cards so that nobody has two cards of the same colour. Starting with the first player, each person places one card face up in one of the eight positions around his/her Well (beautiful plant pot) and the other card face down in another position (dry plant pot).
Each person receives 1 coin which he/she places next to his/her Patio. If coins are left over, leave them on the table to form a reserve.
From the Flower Pack, take the number of cards shown in the following table (according to the number of people in the game) and place them face up on the table, therefore making up the sample.

No. of people in the game	2	3	4	5
Cards in the sample	4	5	7	8
Characters face down	4	3	4	3

Take the Visitors card and place it on the table. Shuffle the remaining Characters cards and place them in a row in the following way.
Place Characters cards face down in front of the Visitors, as in the previous table.
Then place the remaining Characters face up in the row. The Visitors are therefore in the last position of the row.

The Sun card cannot be face up among the first 3 cards of the row at the start of a round. If this happens, place the Sun as the last card face up (just in front of the cards face down).

Shuffle the Improvement cards and form a pack face down next to the row of Characters. Place all score tokens to one side of the area of play.

Aim

Throughout the game you will get help from different characters to place and look after the plant pots in your Patio. You will get beautiful flowers (cards face up) in your turn and also dry flowers (cards face down) in other players' turns, which you will need to water with canes with cans of water in order to make them beautiful again. You will also be able to win special Improvements for your Patio.

At the end of a round, when you open the doors of your Patio to anyone who wants to visit, each beautiful plant pot card will provide you with points to win this patios competition. And the ideal way to win points is to have a harmonious Patio with at least one trio of plant pot cards of the same colour and to meet the requirements of the balcony cards. At the end of the game,

The printed sentence breaks off at this point; it is transcribed as printed.

Playing

In each round you will play turns in succession until the Visitors card reaches the 1st position of the row of characters, marking the end of the round. The game lasts 3 rounds.

Each person plays his/her turn and then the following person in an anticlockwise direction plays.

In your turn you must carry out the following steps:

Choose a Character face up and execute his/her action.
Place the Character card in the last place of the row face down.
Complete the cards in the Sample, if necessary. If the Flower pack runs out and you need more cards, shuffle the discards and form a new Flower Pack.
Place the Character card which is face down closest to the start of the row face up.
Carry out the effect of the Sun if its card is in the 1st position of the row, or the end of the round if it is the Visitors who have reached the start.

The actions of the Characters

Red / green / blue gardeners

From the sample take 1 Plant pot card of the corresponding colour or any 1 Balcony card. Place it face up in your Patio around your Well.

By the order of the game, each person must do the same whenever possible, but he/she places the card with the dry face visible in his/her Patio (unless it is a Cane). Cards are taken until the Plant pot cards of the appropriate colour and Balcony cards in the sample are used up, or until each person has taken a card.

If when you choose the Character card in the sample there are no appropriate Plant pot or Balcony cards, discard all the cards from the sample and take a new sample of cards from the Flower Pack. If again there are no appropriate cards, you lose the action.

General rule of the patios

In your turn: Place any flower card (Plant pot or Balcony) with its beautiful face visible.
If it is not your turn: Place any flower card (Plant pot or Balcony) with its dry face visible. You can look at the dry cards (face down) in your Patio in private at any time after placing them (unless you are playing with the Monument to memory variant).
The Cane cards are never placed face down.

Work on your Patio

If you receive a Plant pot or Balcony card and your Patio is full (with 8 cards around the Well), you must carry out extension work on your Patio to remodel it. You must turn over your Well card, which will allow you to place a second line of cards around it (up to 16 cards more). But be careful: this leads to a penalty of 2 points at the end of the round (as indicated on the Well card itself). Each Cane is still used to water 2 cards in any position adjacent to its surroundings.

Water carrier

Take 1 Cane card from the sample. You can either use it immediately or place it face up in your Patio (taking up the position of a flower card). By the order of the game, the other people must do the same whenever possible, until the Cane cards in the sample are used up, or until each person has taken one.

If when you choose the character, there are no Cane cards in the sample, discard all the cards from the sample and take a new sample from the Flower Pack. If there are no Cane cards in the new sample, you lose the action and your turn ends.

Cane with can cards

When you receive a Cane card you can use it immediately, to water and make any 1 card beautiful (Plant pot or Balcony) that was dry in your Patio. The Cane is discarded.
Or, you can place the Cane so it takes up a space in the Patio and later you will be able to water 2 cards orthogonally (not diagonally) adjacent to the Cane. In this case it will only be possible to water when the action or the effect of the Sun arrives, or when the Visitors arrive at the end of the round.

Assistant gardener

Take as many cards from the Flower Pack as there are people in the game plus one. Look at them in secret, choose a card and place it face up in your Patio (or you can use it immediately if it is a Cane).

Pass the rest of the cards to the next person in the opposite direction to the game (clockwise), who chooses one of them, places it face down (unless it is a Cane) and passes the rest of the cards to the following person, until each person has chosen a card. The remaining card is discarded.

Children

Take one card from the Steal Pack and place it face up in your patio. Then you can swap one card from your patio with another card from a different patio. Canes, Balconies, or Improvement cards face up cannot be swapped.

The swapped cards must both be beautiful Plant pot cards cards (one Plant pot card face up from your Patio for another Plant pot card face up from another Patio) or both must be dry cards (face down - the cards received can be looked at before placing them in the Patios). Each card received must be placed in the same position of the Patio as the replaced card.

Sun

The Sun card has two different functions. Its action can normally be carried out if a person chooses the Sun card in his/her turn. But if nobody chooses the Sun card and it reaches the 1st position of the row, its effect is automatic and affects all Patios.

Action of the Sun (when you choose the card in your turn): Choose a specific location for the patios: North, South, West, East, North-west, North-east, South-east or South-west. The other people must dry (placing face down) the Plant pot or Balcony card in this position of their Patio, if there is one. To do this each person looks at his/her Patio positioned from his/her point of view on the table (North = top, South = bottom, East = right, West = left).

If there is a dry card in this position, it is discarded. If in the position indicated there is no flower card, the person who owns the Patio must apply the action, if possible, to a card adjacent to this position. If he/she has several options, the person who owns the Patio chooses the option he/she prefers.

The action of the Sun on a card can be prevented if it is watered with an adjacent Cane card (or an appropriate Improvement card). The flower card remains unaltered and the card used for watering is discarded. Therefore, only the effect of the Sun is prevented on affected cards (other cards are not watered).

If work has been done on a Patio, the action of the Sun may affect more than one card. The Sun affects the position shown and if possible, it must affect another card which is in contact with this position (even diagonally) in the second line of cards around the Well. If there are several possibilities, the person who owns the Patio chooses the card affected in the second line. And again, if any of the positions selected is empty, the person who owns the Patio must choose if it is possible for an adjacent card to undergo the action.

Effect of the Sun (when it reaches the 1st position of the row): All players can use their Canes (and Improvement cards) for watering (Remember that each Cane card can water 2 cards adjacent to its position). Then all dry Plant pot or Balcony cards from all Patios are discarded. The Sun card returns to the end of the row of Characters cards face down and the Character card which is face down is placed face up closest to the start of the row; or the end of the round is triggered if the next card is the Visitors card.

The Neighbour

When you select this character, any other person can give you a coin in order to be your apprentice. If several people offer you a coin, you must only choose one of them.

Then take 2 cards from the Improvement pack. Choose 1 card for yourself and give the remaining card to your apprentice. If there is not an apprentice, return the remaining card to the top of the Improvement pack.

If the Improvement Pack has run out, take an Improvement card from another person who has one that has not been used (face down). In this case there can be no apprentice either.

The cards acquired can be played immediately (if their action allows it).

Visitors

The Visitors card cannot be chosen by anyone in their turn and it has no associated action. Throughout the round, this card moves along the row of Characters until it reaches the 1st position. When the Visitors arrive, it means that friends and tourists go to visit the patios and everything must be as pretty as possible! This is the end of the round and this means a score is given.

End of Round and Scoring

When the Visitors reach the start of the row, the game round ends immediately. All players must then carry out the following actions:

Water your Patio, using the Cane, Hose or Watering can cards, making the flowers beautiful.
Discard all the dry flowers (cards still face down).
Score your Patio, taking the corresponding points tokens:

If you have at least 3 beautiful Plant pot cards of the same colour: +1 trio token of the corresponding colour (No more than one trio token of the same colour can be taken per round).
If you have a trio of one colour and more Plant pot cards of this colour: +2 points for every extra card (on top of the trio).
If you meet the requirements of a Balcony card: +as many points as Plant pot cards required by the Balcony.
Each plant pot card of one colour without trio: +1 point.
Patio under work (when you have turned over the Well card): -2 points.

You must return tokens for the value of 2 points (Even with a trio token if you don't have others! The trio token has a value of 3 points and you can get change). If you have less than 2 points, pay everything you have (without being in debt for later).

Balcony cards

To score a Balcony card, you must have the beautiful Plant pot cards of the colours indicated by the Balcony in your Patio. The same Plant pot cards can be used to score different Balconies. The delicate Balconies are a risk, whether they are scored or not, they are discarded at the end of each round.

The "mud-coloured" plant pots represent a unique colour to choose as a requirement in order to score the Balcony.

Example: Win 4 point if you have the following beautiful cards:

1 card of blue plant, and
3 cards of plants the same colour.

Each person receives his/her corresponding points tokens, which he/she keeps secret in a pile.

When required, tokens of a lower value can be exchanged for those of a higher value (5 points), except the trio tokens.

Next Round

If it is not the last round, the next round is prepared in the following way in each Patio:

Discard all Balcony cards (scored or not), and Cane cards (used or not).
Discard 3 cards that make up a colour trio (including the special Plant tub pot wildcard if it has been used). Do this for each of the three colours.
Of the remaining Plant pot cards, in each colour you can only keep, at most, one beautiful card and one dry card (Choose how to do this if you have various options). The remaining Plant pot cards are discarded.
If you have an Awning Improvement card, you can keep one flower card beautiful (Plant pot or Balcony) that you had to discard.
Discard any Improvement cards visible in your Patio (keep the Improvement cards that have still not been used for the next round).
The special cards that have been used are shuffled and returned to the bottom of the pack of Improvement cards.
If you have done work on your Patio, return the Well card to its face without work. If there are cards in the outer row, move them closer around the Well (keeping their positions as far as possible).
For every 2 Coins that you have, you can give them over to the reserve in order to take 1 Plant pot or Balcony card from the sample and place it beautiful in your Patio. If several people want to use this option, do so in order of the game, starting from the person who finished the round. Each person keeps his/her unused coins for the next round.

So a Patio can start the next round with a maximum of only 1 beautiful Plant pot card of each colour, and 1 dry Plant pot card of each colour (You cannot have 3 or more cards of the same colour to start a round). Added to these are the possible cards that you have obtained using coins, and even one more if you have also had the Awning Improvement card. Place the Visitors card at the end of the row again. Shuffle the remaining Characters and a new row is prepared like at the start of the game. Complete the sample if necessary.

The person who brought about the end of the previous round starts the new round with his/her turn.

End of the Game and Victory

The game finishes at the end of the 3rd round.

Then each person reveals all his/her points tokens and adds up their values, bearing in mind that the value of the trio tokens depends on how many different colours have been won:

For every 3 trio tokens of different colours: +15 points
For every 2 trio tokens of different colours: +8 points
For every 1 individual trio token (not paired up with another trio token of a different colour): +3 points
For every plant pot token: +1 or +5 points
Each coin: +½ point

The person with most points wins the patios competition of the game. If there is a draw, celebrate the victory together!

The Coins

You can get a coin when choosing the Neighbour Character. Then another person can give you 1 coin (in order to be your apprentice and use the Improvement card that you have left over). You can also get a coin from the reserve, if there is one, when using the Flamenco Dancer or Guitarist Improvement card).

Coins have various uses:

During a round: Give 1 coin to your Neighbour, in order to be his/her apprentice.
At the end of a round (if it is not the last one): Hand over 2 coins to the reserve in order to take a Plant pot or Balcony card from the sample and place it face up in your Patio in order to start the next round.
At the end of the last round: Each coin is worth +½ point.

Improvement Cards

(Obtained with the Neighbour character)

Unless another particular rule is indicated, you can play each Improvement card immediately when you get it, or in your own turn later on. Keep them face down next to your Patio until you play them.

Awning

Place the Awning card in your Patio (taking up the position of a Plant pot card). During the round in play your Patio is protected from the action and the effect of the Sun.

At the end of the round you must return the Awning (and water your flowers as normal), but after scoring and in order to start the next round you can remain in your Patio with one beautiful card more than that allowed (in other words, keep 1 card that you should have discarded after the scoring face up).

Guitarist

Play it at any time of your own turn: With his music, he attracts Visitors and makes them move up to 2 positions in the row of Characters, in one direction or another as you prefer (depending on where the sound of the guitar is coming from...).

If the Visitors move along the row and reach the first position, this may cause the round to end. After using the Guitarist, take 1 coin from the reserve, if there is one. Then discard the Guitarist card to the bottom of the Improvement pack.

Flamenco Dancer (with traditional Cordovan dress)

Play it at the start of your turn. Then place all Characters cards in the row face up. Choose any one of them and carry out its action without moving it from its place in the row.

At the end of your turn, place the Characters that you want (according to the number of people in the game) face down, but without moving the cards from their position in the row. This way, even the Character that you have used can stay face up if you want. After using the Flamenco Dancer, take 1 coin from the reserve, if there is one. Then discard the Flamenco Dancer card to the bottom of the Improvement pack.

Hose

Place it in your Patio, taking up a position. When you water, the Hose can water up to 3 cards orthogonally adjacent among them and adjacent to the Hose (You can share out its effect in different directions. After using it for watering, discard the Hose card to the bottom of the Improvement pack.

Ladder

You must place it in your Patio but it can share a position with a Cane card. If you later get more Cane cards you can put them all in the same place, over the Ladder card.

When you need to water, you can use each Cane with the Ladder to water any two cards (in any position of the Patio).

The Hose can also share space with the Ladder, even with other Cane cards (In this case, the Hose could water any 3 cards in your Patio).

The Ladder is kept until the end of the round.

Watering can

You have two options of when to play it: Use it immediately to water only one Balcony card and discard the Watering can. Or place the Watering can in a free position in your Patio and when you use it for watering, place all Balcony cards face up that were face down in your Patio. After using it for watering, discard the Watering can card to the bottom of the Improvement pack.

Tub

Place this card in your Patio like a normal Plant pot card in the Patio (Face up if it is your turn, face down if it is not). It can also dry up like other flower cards and be affected by the Sun, but Children cannot move it. At the end of a round it is used as a wildcard for scoring like a Plant pot of the colour you want. Then return it to the bottom of the Improvement pack.

If several Improvement cards are returned at the same time (for example, at the end of a round), these are shuffled and then placed at the bottom of the Improvement pack.

The Improvement cards which have not been used are kept from one round to the next.

Variants

If you like, you can use any of these slight modifications to the rules:

Monument to memory: If you have played several games, you can venture into a greater challenge. Once placed in your Patio, you cannot look at the dry cards again (except by using the Watering can, or to see a card received when swapping with Children).
May has 31 days: The game is extended to last 4 rounds.
Not a nit-picker end: If anyone scores 3 different-coloured trios in the same round, he/she automatically wins the game. If you see someone is trying and it's not you, you must stop it immediately!
Playground: Do not use the Neighbour character or its Improvement cards (It might be suitable for games with children playing and simpler games).