Portents Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object
• Components
• 2 Player Set-Up
• What Are Portents?
• Collecting Omens
• Making Fortunes
• 2 Player Turn Sequence
  • Sleight of Hand Phase
  • Scrying Phase
• Burnt Offerings in Detail
• Game End/Victory
• Solo Rules
  • Solo Object
  • Solo Set Up
  • Solo Turn Sequence: Player
  • Solo Turn Sequence: The Kitty
  • Solo Victory Conditions
  • Advanced Challenges

Object

Manipulate the Bird Sacrifice Tiles (referred to as "BS Tiles") into lines of 3 with a shared attribute, called Portents, to collect Omen Tokens from the outside of the Altar. Use Portents to make sets of Omens with a common attribute called Fortunes. Create one Fortune of 4 Omens or two Fortunes of 3 Omens to win!

Components

• 1 Altar Board
• 16 B.S. Tiles
• 16 Omen Tokens
• 1 Kitty Token
• 1 Cloth bag
• 1 Player Aid

2 Player Set-Up

1. Place the Altar between the two players.
2. Randomly place the Omen Tokens face-up in the 16 slots around the Altar.
3. Randomly place 9 BS Tiles onto the Altar, unlit side up. 3a. If any Portents are present, reshuffle the BS Tiles on the Altar.
4. Randomly distribute 3 BS Tiles from the remainder to each player to form their hand. Make sure both players' hands are easily visible to the other. 4a. Neither player may start with three tiles sharing an attribute in hand. If this happens, redistribute the tiles.
5. Put the last B.S. Tile on the Kitty Token and set it between players. It will not be used but should be visible as a reminder.
6. Determine 1st player randomly. The 2nd player then chooses any BS Tile on the Altar and flips it over to its Burnt Offering side.

What Are Portents?

A Portent is a line of 3 tiles in the same lane or diagonal on the Altar with an attribute of either color or shape in common. There are four shapes and four colors. Each BS Tile is a unique combination and may be used to create multiple Portents on the Altar.

NOTE: Color is also represented as a smaller astronomical icon for colorblind players.

Example: A Yellow Portent and a Skull Portent. The Yellow Skull can be used in both.

Collecting Omens

Two conditions must be met to collect an Omen from the Altar.

1. A new Portent is made in the same lane as an available Omen Token.
2. The common attribute of the new Portent must match one of the Omen Token's own attributes: shape or color.

There is no limit to how many Omens a player can collect on their turn.

Example: This example has 3 Portents. Here's what they collect:

A) nothing B) the Red Claw C) the Red Wishbone & the Blue Wishbone

Making Fortunes

Fortunes are sets of collected Omens that have an attribute of color or shape in common. The same Omen token may be used to create multiple Fortunes. Game winning examples follow.

• One Fortune of 4 Blue Omens
• Two Fortunes of 3 Omens
• Two Fortunes of 3 Omens, sharing an Omen
• One Fortune of 4 Claw Omens

2 Player Turn Sequence

Each turn has two phases: Sleight of Hand and then Scrying.

In the Sleight of Hand phase, the active player manipulates the arrangement and composition of the BS Tiles on the Altar.

In the Scrying Phase the active player performs upkeep on the Altar and collects Omens for their Fortunes.

Sleight of Hand Phase

There are 3 steps in this phase. It represents waving one's hands over the altar with occult flair. Improvised incantations are encouraged.

1. Push. The active player may push 1, 2, or 3 tiles off the Altar from a single side. These BS tiles may be pushed in any arrangement as long as they move in the same direction from the same side.
2. Replace. After tiles are pushed off of the Altar, the active player fills the empty spaces on the Altar with new tiles from their hand. They may place their tiles freely in the empty spaces.
3. Palm. All the tiles that the active player pushed off of the Altar enter their hand for the next turn.

IMPORTANT: A player may NEVER end this phase with 3 tiles sharing a common attribute in their hand.

Scrying Phase

This phase combines scoring and upkeep. There may be up to 4 steps depending on the game state. They are performed in the order below.

1. Check for New Portents. The active player checks the Altar for any new Portents. If any are present on the Altar proceed to step 2. If not, skip to step 4.
2. Collect Omens. If any of the new Portents on the Altar are in a line with an Omen Token, the player immediately collects the Omen(s).
3. Ignite New Burnt Offerings. For each new Portent on the Altar, the player chooses a tile to turn into a Burnt Offering and flips it over to its lit side. Every new Portent requires a new Burnt Offering of its own. (See Burnt Offerings in Detail below.)

Example: The player made 2 Portents on the Altar. The White Skull is in both Portents but it is only one Burnt Offering. Another Burnt Offering is needed. The player lights the Blue Skull.

4. Snuff Old Burnt Offerings. If any Burnt Offerings were on the Altar during the Sleight of Hand phase, check if they are still a part of a Portent. If they are no longer a part of any Portent, flip the Burnt Offering tile to its unlit side. If flipping a Burnt Offering over would create a new Portent, it stays lit.

Examples: During Sleight of Hand a player pushes Burnt Offerings on the Altar. The Blue Wing is no longer part of any Portent and is snuffed. Flipping the Yellow Wishbone would make a new Portent. It stays lit.

Burnt Offerings in Detail

Any BS tile on the Altar can become a Burnt Offering if it is part of a Portent. This choice is left up to the player. To indicate that a BS Tile is a Burnt Offering, flip it over. Though Burnt Offerings display their attributes, those attributes are null. These tiles have two restrictions:

1. They can't be used to create new Portents or collect Omens.
2. They can move around the Altar but they can't be pushed off of it.

Burnt Offerings stay lit as long as they're a part of any possible Portent on the Altar. In other words, if flipping a Burnt Offering over would make a new Portent, it remains a Burnt Offering.

If a Burnt Offering isn't part of any Portent on the Altar at the end of the Scrying Phase, flip it over and treat it as a normal BS Tile again.

Examples: Flip a BS Tile over to make it into a Burnt Offering. The Red Claw may be pushed to the edge of the Altar, but no further. This is not a new Claw Portent if the Red Claw was already a Burnt Offering.

Designer's Note: Savvy players will use the restrictions of Burnt Offerings to their advantage when choosing which BS Tiles to light/snuff.

Game End/Victory

If at least one of these conditions are met at the end of their turn, the game ends immediately and the active player wins.

• The active player has created one Fortune of 4 Omens
• The active player has created two Fortunes of 3 Omens
• The turn ends with 4 Burnt Offerings on the Altar.

Solo Rules

Terrible news, seer! The King took a jest about feline "Nekomancy" seriously. The cat-sized seer hat is very cute, but if you can't tell a better fortune than the royal kitty tonight, you'll be cat food by tomorrow.

STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE 2-PLAYER RULES YET! This section assumes that you already have an understanding of the core game concepts and will only explain how they are modified.

Solo Object

The Player Wins if they collect enough Omens to meet/exceed their target collection. (See Solo Victory Conditions below.)

The Kitty Wins if:

• The Kitty circles the Altar twice.
• The Kitty creates 1 Fortune of 3.
• The Kitty creates 2 Fortunes of 2.
• The Altar has 4 or more Burnt Offerings on it at the end of a turn.

Solo Set Up

1. Arrange the Altar, Omen Tokens, and BS tiles as in a 2 player game.
2. The Player takes 3 random BS tiles.
3. Place the Kitty, hatless side up, adjacent to the Altar pointing to the Omen Token by the Solo Start Icon.
4. Place one random BS tile onto the Kitty Token and put the rest into the bag.
5. Select a level of difficulty (see Solo Victory Conditions below).

Solo Turn Sequence: Player

The solo game alternates between the Player and the Kitty taking turns like in the 2 player game. The player's Sleight of Hand and Scrying phases are unchanged from the 2 player game. However, unlike the 2 player game, the player must create a new Portent every turn or suffer consequences on the Kitty's turn. (See Catastrophe below.)

The Player always takes the first turn to start.

Solo Turn Sequence: The Kitty

1. Catastrophe (The Kitty Steals an Omen). Like all cats, the Kitty likes dead birds. The Omens are just that. If the player didn't create a new Portent on their turn the Kitty will begin its turn by stealing the Omen token in its current position on the Altar.

The Kitty is not a smart opponent, but it is adorable and it can cheat.

2. The Kitty Pushes Tiles. In their infinite spite, cats knock things off tables, or Altars. So the Kitty always pushes 3 tiles off of the Altar if it can. It does this in the lane it currently points at, from the side it is on. The first BS Tile it pushes onto the Altar is always the BS Tile on its token. After that first tile is placed, draw and place BS Tiles from the bag randomly until the lane is filled. Draw one more tile and place it on the Kitty token for the next turn. Last, put the tiles the Kitty pushed off the Altar into the bag.

   • Push as many tiles as possible off the Altar from the Kitty's current position.
   • The first replaced tile is the current BS tile on the Kitty token.
   • Draw the other replacement BS Tiles randomly.
   • Replace the BS Tile on the Kitty token last.
   • Put tiles pushed off the Altar in step 1 into the bag.

   NOTE: More pushing is blocked by a Burnt Offering.

   IMPORTANT: The Kitty follows the same restrictions regarding Burnt Offerings as the Player. It cannot push Burnt Offerings off the Altar. If a Burnt Offering would prevent the Kitty from pushing any BS tiles off the Altar, the Kitty will still swap out the current tile on its token with a random draw from the bag. The Player may use this restriction to their advantage if they want to control the Kitty's impact on the Altar.

   What if the Kitty is on a Corner Omen? If the Kitty is pushing from a corner Omen it still pushes up to three BS tiles onto the Altar if possible. However, it changes its pattern into a wide push, instead of a long push. The first tile will go to the furthest possible lane on the counter clockwise side from its current corner and the others will fill in randomly, if possible.

   • First, replace the left most available space with the Kitty's Tile.
   • Then replace the rest randomly from the bag.
   • Finish the Kitty Pushes Tiles step as usual after this.

Solo Victory Conditions

The solo mode is meant to be a challenging and dynamic puzzle. Follow the chart below to find a challenge that suits your tastes.

Difficulty	Fortunes of 4	Fortunes of 3
Cute Clairvoyent	1	& 2
Middling Medium	1	& 3
Standard Seer	2	& 3
Expert Evocator	3	& 4
Omniscient Oracle	Collect 15 or more Omens

Advanced Challenges

If your fortune-making skills outgrow the core solo puzzle, you can brutalize your brain more by applying these advanced modifications to the solo game in any combination you fancy.

• Chaotic Cat: Put all the Kitty's tiles into the bag instead of placing one tile on the Kitty token and draw randomly as the Kitty pushes.
• Feed the Cat: At the end of your turn set aside one tile to sacrifice, draw a tile from the bag to replace it, then add your sacrifice to the bag.
• Felis Pyromanias: If there aren't at least 2 Burnt Offerings on the Altar at the end of your turn, the Kitty advances one extra step on its turn.
• Don't Disturb the Cat: You can't push tiles from the same side as the Kitty. When it's on a corner you can't push from either side it touches.