Polyhedral Park Planner
Polyhedral Park Planner Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
The biggest board gaming convention in the world is coming to your city, and local leaders want to develop a new city park to celebrate the event. They have solicited designs from the most prestigious firms in town to see who can plan the best park according to the demands of the local population. You, as a representative of one of these firms, must manage the limited budget of city hall and the restrictions of the proposed park site as you decide where to plant trees, lay paths, dig lakes, and build benches. The park planner that pleases the most people will win the bid and be honored at the opening ceremony of the convention.
Components
- 1 set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20). The 0 face on the d10 should be counted as a value of 10.
- 100 unique park sheets. There are 100 different park sheets available in the Files section of Polyhedral Park Planner's BoardGameGeek page.
- 12 tarot size scoring cards.
Each scoring card has a title, scoring instructions, an example park area with the relevant developments highlighted, the victory points that example would earn, and, for solo play, a target score and additional requirements (for example, the card "Hundred Acre Wood" reads: "Earn 1 point for each tree in your largest rectangular forest." with the solo requirement "You must build a forest in the vicinity of the info booth that includes a corner square.").
Quick reference: there are 100 different park sheets available in the Files section of the game's BoardGameGeek page. Look for the solo-play symbol for features of the game specific to solo play.
Setup
The setup is the same regardless of the number of players. Game play in Polyhedral Park Planner is simultaneous, so the number of players is only limited by the number of park sheets available.
- Randomly deal three scoring cards in the center of the table. If together the cards only require the use of two different park developments, reshuffle all scoring cards together and repeat this step.
- Give each player a park sheet and a writing utensil. Each park sheet has a random layout of numbers in the park squares, so players should agree before the game whether they should use different sheets or if they should all use copies of the same sheet.
Tip: If you have them available, give each player a green, gray, blue and brown writing utensil so they can create a more thematic park sheet.
Anatomy of a Park Sheet
A park sheet contains: the park area; the values required to unlock each development; the round tracker; the die modifiers and other penalties; the park sheet identifier; and the scoring area.
Game Round
A game of Polyhedral Park Planner lasts 10 rounds. In each round the following three phases are carried out.
- Roll dice: One player rolls all six dice, then calls out the results. Each player writes the values in the box corresponding to the current round. The type of die is not important, only the value.
- Modify dice: Simultaneously, each player may modify their dice values as described below. Each time you use one of these modifications, mark off one of the boxes in the penalty area of your park sheet. You are limited to 12 total modifications over the course of the game, and each one carries a game-end penalty of -1 victory point.
- (a) Adjust die value: You may adjust the value of a single die up or down by 1 (values do NOT wrap around).
- (b) Reroll dice (solo play only): You may simultaneously reroll as many dice as you wish one time, recording the new results in the current round's box. The reroll modification is only available during solo play.
- Use dice: Simultaneously, each player uses the dice to perform some actions. Each die must be used exactly one time, but two or more dice can be combined to form a larger value (you can never split a die value, only combine it with other values).
- (a) Unlock a development: Circle the value(s) you use to unlock one of the developments listed above the round tracker on your park sheet. Circle value(s) that sum to a number in the given range of the development you want to unlock. The available developments (and values required to unlock that development) are: tree (1-4), path segment (5-8), water (9-12), and bench (13 or higher). You may unlock more than one development each round, but you must place at least one of each development that you unlock. The developments that you unlock are available for THIS ROUND ONLY. If you want to use them in a later round, you must unlock them again. The circled die values used to unlock developments may NOT be used to place developments this round.
- (b) Place an unlocked development: Cross off the value(s) you use to place one of the developments that you unlocked this round in a square whose printed value matches the value (or sum of values) of the dice you crossed off. Cross off value(s) that sum to the number in the park square in which you want to place an unlocked development. You may place more than one of each development that you unlocked (but you must place at least one).
Game Round Example
- Roll dice: Alice rolls the dice, noting the following results: 3 on the d4, 1 on the d6, 6 on the d8, 1 on the d10, 7 on the d12, and 12 on the d20. She records these values in the appropriate box in the round tracker of her park sheet. Looking at the results, she decides to put a bench in the highlighted square with value 7, so she needs to unlock the bench development.
- Use dice: Alice circles the 12 and 1 values, which sum to the required unlock value of 13 or higher for the bench development. She then crosses off the 7 to place a bench in the desired square. She could continue to place benches using the remaining values, but she prefers to place path segments in the highlighted squares, so she needs to unlock the path segment development.
- Use dice (continued): Alice circles the 6 to unlock the path segment development, then crosses off the 1 and 3 to place path segments in the desired squares. Her round is now complete; as soon as all the players are finished using the six values for this round, the game proceeds to Round 2.
Scoring
Once everyone finishes the 10th round, proceed to end of game scoring. The game ends after 10 rounds. Each player's score is the sum of the following: (1) positive points from the three scoring cards; (2) negative points from the two penalty sections: (a) die modifications, (b) regions not in vicinity of the info booth.
- Compute your score for each of the three scoring cards and record these scores in the appropriate objective boxes on your park sheet. A region (i.e. a connected section of developments of any type) can only be scored if it contains at least one developed square in the vicinity of the info booth in the center of the park sheet. Follow the instructions on the cards to determine your score, and see the Clarifications and Reminders for some clarifications. In a multiplayer game, ignore the additional requirements for solo play contained in the gray box on each card.
- Compute your total penalty from the two penalty sections and record it in the penalty box on your park sheet. First, you lose three points for each region that is not in the vicinity of the info booth - no matter how many squares it contains. Then, you lose one point for each die modification box that you marked off.
- Compute your total score.
- (a) For a multiplayer game, the player with the highest score is the winner. If there is a tie, the player with the fewest penalty points is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player whose minimum score from the three scoring cards is the highest is the winner. In the rare case a tie remains, the victory is shared.
- (b) For a solitaire game (solo play), you win if your total score equals or exceeds the sum of the target scores in the gray box on each scoring card AND your park meets all of the additional requirements for solo play listed in these boxes.
Tiebreaker order: 1. Fewest penalty points. 2. Highest minimum score from the 3 cards in play. 3. Shared victory.
Adjacency, connection and vicinity
Together the eight squares surrounding a square form the vicinity of that square. Squares that are orthogonally adjacent to a square are CONNECTED to it (an example of five connected squares: the highlighted square and its four orthogonal neighbours). Squares that are only diagonally adjacent to a square are in its vicinity but are NOT connected to it (in the diagonal example, none of the five squares are connected).
A Note on Drawing Paths
Any two adjacent path segments are assumed to be connected. To help illustrate this while maintaining an aesthetically pleasing park sheet, we suggest drawing paths as follows.
- For each new park segment, simply draw one small circle in the center of the park square.
- Whenever you place a park segment that is adjacent to existing park segments, draw additional small circles to connect these segments.
Anatomy of a Scoring Card
A scoring card shows the card title, the scoring instructions for the card, an example park area with relevant developments highlighted, the victory points the example park area shown would earn for this scoring card, and the target score and additional requirements for solo play.
Clarifications and Reminders
- A development is a park feature of one of the following types: tree, path segment, water square, or bench; a park square is developed if it contains a development.
- Two squares or regions are adjacent if they are orthogonally adjacent. The vicinity of a square includes all squares adjacent or diagonally adjacent to that square.
- A region is a collection of (orthogonally) connected developments. Similarly, a forest/path/lake is a collection of (orthogonally) connected trees/path segments/water squares. Thus, a forest/path/lake can be included in a larger region of mixed development types.
- The info booth is the center square of your park board. You can only earn points for a region if at least one square of that region is in the vicinity of the info booth. For your convenience, the vicinity of the info booth is denoted by a thick border.
- For the card A LONG AND WINDING ROAD, a path is closed if each end independently satisfies one of the following conditions: it is a boundary square, it is adjacent to the info booth, or it is adjacent to another segment of the path in question (e.g. the path shown on the card is closed). You may ignore branching path segments when determining if your chosen path is closed or not.
- In solo play, your individual score for each scoring card is not relevant. Your total score must meet or exceed the sum of the target scores shown on all three cards. You must also meet any additional requirements shown on those cards.