Pelican Cove Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Content
• Game Preparation
• Gameplay
  • 1. Place Request Cards
  • 2. Placement of Birds
  • 3. Evaluate
  • 4. New Round
• Overview of Request Cards
• Variants

Content

5 player boards; 1 timer; 40 minus points (glass stones); 1 game board (printed on both sides, depending on game variant); 80 request cards with different difficulty from 1 (easy) to 5 (very difficult): 8 level 1, 16 level 2, 24 level 3, 24 level 4 and 8 level 5; 40 Birds (pawns), 5 each in sets of 8 colors (Black, white, yellow, orange, red, blue, green, pink).

Game Preparation

Place the main board in the middle of the table. Each player should take a player board and a set of 8 different colored birds (pawns). Place the timer and the minus points next to the game board. Shuffle the 80 request cards and place them in a face down stack next to the board (Note: for the first game it is recommended to just use request cards with difficulty levels 1 through 3 leaving the others in the box).

Gameplay

The game is played over 6 rounds (or until the cards run out if wanting a longer game). Each round is comprised of four steps: (1) Place request cards, (2) Placement of birds, (3) Evaluation, (4) Prepare for new round.

1. Place Request Cards

A randomly picked starting player draws 8 request cards from the deck and puts each face up on the 8 spaces on the main board. Each card indicates the dream of the corresponding colored bird that the card is below. Notes: (1) The request cards differ in difficulty: level 1 are the easiest and level 5 are the most difficult. (2) Each card that has a neutral colored pawn depicted on it is considered the color of the bird that is above the card on the main board. (3) To avoid a negative point for a particular bird's request, the specific pawn must be on the player's board and must be in the correct position before time runs out.

Example: Pink Bird wants to be next to Blue Bird and Yellow Bird wants to be placed across from White bird.

2. Placement of Birds

The starting player flips over the timer and all players simultaneous place their pawns on the spaces located on their player boards trying to accommodate the particular birds' dream based on the request cards on the main board, before the timer runs out. For each pawn not placed on a player's board when the timer runs out, he should take 1 glass stone as a penalty point. Notes: players should not look at other players' boards during placement. When the timer runs out, no additional pawns may be placed.

3. Evaluate

Now, starting from the left (white) bird and proceeding to the right, each request card is evaluated to see which players were able to accomplish the particular bird's dream. One at a time, the starting player reads where each bird should actually sit. Each player should then announce if they have met the applicable request on their player board. If the request was not met, the player takes a glass stone from the supply. Proceed to the next bird until all 8 have been resolved and stones have been handed out for all unsuccessful requests. Note: Each round, a player can only receive a maximum 1 stone for each bird (i.e. if a player already received one due to the applicable pawn not being placed on their board, they do not take another one for not fulfilling that same birds request).

4. New Round

Discard the face up request cards and draw 8 new cards placing them on the main board as before. The game ends when all of the request cards have been played. The player with the fewest points wins! Tied players share the victory.

Overview of Request Cards

L1 card: This bird just wants to be placed on the board. Any position is acceptable.

L2 cards: Birds with these request cards want to be located in one of the designated circles depicted on the card.

L3 card (next to): This bird wants to be located next to the particular colored bird depicted.

L3 card (across from): This bird wants to be located across from the particular colored bird depicted.

L3 card (corner): This bird wants to share a corner with the particular colored bird depicted.

L4 card #1: This bird does not want to be located next to or across from the particular colored bird depicted.

L4 card #2: This bird wants to be at least two spaces away from the particular colored bird depicted.

L4 card #3: This bird wants the same thing as the particular colored bird depicted.

L5 card: This bird wants the opposite of the particular colored bird depicted.

Notes: There is no opposite of L1 cards, so any position is acceptable. Opposite of L2 cards are the non-colored spaces of the particular card. Opposite of L3 cards are any position that does not satisfy the particular position relative to the color depicted. Opposite of L4#1 card is sitting next to or across from the particular colored bird depicted. Opposite of L4#2 card is to not be 2 spaces away from the particular colored bird depicted. Opposite of L4#3 card is the opposite of the particular colored bird depicted. Opposite of L5 card is the same as the colored bird depicted.

Variants

1. For a longer game, include all cards and play 10 rounds.

2. For a more challenging game, remove the level 1 request cards and play 9 rounds or remove the level 1 & 2 request cards and play 7 rounds.

3. When playing with players of different skill levels, (a) flip the main board over so that the side with 16 cards spaces is face up, (b) sort the request cards into two decks: the "Easier" deck comprised of level 1, level 2 & any 16-level 3 cards and the "Harder" deck comprised of the remaining cards, (c) shuffle each separately and place each of them next to the board, (d) play 5 rounds with the normal rules, but when placing request cards, deal 8 cards from the easy deck onto the light colored (top) spaces and 8 cards from the harder deck onto the darker colored (bottom) spaces, (e) more skilled players should attempt to complete the Harder deck requests, while the less skilled players attempt to complete the Easier deck requests (players should announce which cards they will be working on at the beginning of the game).

The board's light-colored (top) row of spaces is the Easier Row; the dark-colored (bottom) row of spaces is the Harder Row.

4. Intermediate and advanced players can also use the side of the board with 16 card space and, using all cards, play 5 rounds attempting to assign two requests to certain bird each round. Before the game, players should determine how many birds they want to have two requests (1-8). Shuffle all request cards into one deck. When placing request cards, the lighter (top) spaces should be filled first and then, based on the number of birds agreed to have two requests, place additional cards on the darker (bottom) spaces accordingly. Any birds not placed receive two negative points. During evaluation, each colored bird should first be evaluated on accomplishing the top cards and then, after all birds have been check, move to the bottom cards (therefore any birds with two requests can provide up to two negative points).

5. Solo play: Play the game as normal comparing your score against prior games.