Quartz: The Dice Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Set Up
• How to Play
  • 1. Mine a Crystal
  • 2. Roll the Dice
  • 3. Perform Actions
• Actions
  • Come to me, little crystal... (Pickaxe)
  • There you go! (Jackhammer)
  • Crystal? Which Crystal? (Chest)
  • Oops, this Crystal is not mine... (Transfer)
  • This doesn't belong to you anymore... (Steal)
  • Hmm... Got it! (Helmet)
• End of Round
• End Game
  • Crystals
  • Bonus
  • Unstable Crystals
  • Reckless Miner
• Winning the Game
• Variants
  • The Last Will Be First
  • The Grand Tournament
• Credits

Components

• 70 Plastic Crystals
• 18 Reroll Marker
• 1 Leader Marker
• 6 Mining Carts
• 6 Chests
• 5 Dice
• 1 Cloth Bag

Objective

Accumulate more money than other players after one day of work.

Set Up

1. Remove a number of Valuable Crystals and put them back in the box according to the number of players, as per chart below:

# Players	Quartz	Rubelite	Emerald	Sapphire	Ruby	Amber
3	4	4	3	3	3	2
4	3	3	2	2	2	1
5	2	2	1	1	1	1
6	0	0	0	0	0	0

2. Place all the remaining Valuable Crystals inside the bag.
3. Each player receives a Mining Cart and a Chest. The Mining Carts and Chests that are left over are returned to the game box.
4. The shortest player will be the first leader. They receive the Leader Marker, the five dice, and all the Unstable Crystals.
5. The Leader adds one Unstable Crystal to the bag and arranges the others in pairs, six in total. These pairs will be used to mark the game rounds.

How to Play

The game is divided into six rounds. At the beginning of each round, the Leader must place two Unstable Crystals into the bag (including the first round). Then, starting with the leader and going clockwise, each player takes their turn.

A turn is divided in 3 steps:

1. Mine a Crystal
2. Roll Dice
3. Perform Actions

Here is a detailed description of each step.

1. Mine a Crystal

The player draws a Crystal from the bag and places it on their Cart.

Please note: When mining an Unstable Crystal (either at the beginning of the turn or as a result of the dice roll), the player receives a Reroll Marker. There is no limit to how many Reroll Markers a player can have.

2. Roll the Dice

The player has up to three dice rolls. On the first roll, all five dice must be rolled. On the second and third rolls, the player can roll as many dice as he wants.

A Re-Roll Marker can be discarded to provide an extra Re-Roll. Players can spend as many markers as they want, as long as they have them.

3. Perform Actions

According to the dice final result, the player can perform one or more actions. The more faces of the same action that are available, the more efficient that action is.

The player may choose the order in which these actions will be resolved.

Actions

Come to me, little crystal... (Pickaxe)

For each Pickaxe face the player can mine a Crystal.

The player announces how many Pickaxes will be used in total and then takes the same amount of Crystals from the bag.

It's not mandatory using all Pickaxes. All of them or part of them may be ignored when performing actions.

There you go! (Jackhammer)

At least two Jackhammer faces are required to perform this action.

The player announces how many Jackhammers will be used, and then draws the same amount of Crystals from the bag. Then, the player must return to the bag half of the drawn Crystals, rounding down.

Crystal? Which Crystal? (Chest)

At least two Chest faces are required to perform this action.

With two Chests dice faces the player can protect one Crystal, with three chests two Crystals can be protected, and so on.

To protect a Crystal, players transfer it from their Cart to their Chest. From now on, this Crystal can no longer be stolen by an opponent.

Oops, this Crystal is not mine... (Transfer)

At least two Transfer faces are required to perform this action.

With two Transfer dice faces the player can pass one unstable Crystal from their Cart to any player's Cart, with three faces two unstable Crystals can be passed, and so on.

This doesn't belong to you anymore... (Steal)

At least two Steal faces are required to perform this action.

With two Steal dice faces the player can take one Valuable Crystal from any player, with three sides two Crystals can be taken from any player, and so on. The player places the stolen Crystals on their Cart.

Crystals in Chests cannot be stolen.

Hmm... Got it! (Helmet)

At least two Helmet faces are required to perform this action.

Two Helmet dice faces work as a wild and can represent any of the other five faces.

Note: If you have four dice with Helmets on them, you can take any action as if you had two dice for that action, or pair them with the face you have on the fifth die to take a three-dice strength action. Similarly, only one Helmet die does not perform any action.

Example 1: If you have a Steal face and four Helmets, you can perform a Steal action with three dice (one Steal + two Steals represented by the four Helmets).

Example 2: If the player has a Pickaxe and four Helmets, he can mine a Crystal with the Pickaxe and do any other action with the two Wilds.

End of Round

After all players take their turns, the player with the most Valuable Crystal on their Cart receives the Leader Marker.

In case of a tie for the most Valuable Crystal, the current Leader chooses which of the tied players will become the new Leader.

The new Leader places two Unstable Crystals into the bag for a new round to begin.

End Game

The game ends at the end of the sixth round (the round in which the last Unstable Crystals are placed in the bag) or in case there are no more crystals in the bag.

Once the game ends, players calculate their scores.

Crystals

Each Valuable Crystal has a corresponding value. Players add up the values of the Crystals they own:

Crystal	Value
Quartz	$2
Rubellite	$3
Emerald	$4
Sapphire	$5
Ruby	$7
Amber	$9

Bonus

Sets of Valuable Crystals of the same color grant bonus points:

• 3 identical Crystals: +3 Points
• 4 identical Crystals: +6 Points
• 5 identical Crystals: +10 Points

Unstable Crystals

Unstable Crystals (Autunite) are not Valuable and each one is worth -3 points.

Players must subtract the value according to the amount of Unstable Crystals they have.

Reckless Miner

The player with the fewest Crystals in the Chest suffers a penalty for his reckless and loses 5 points. In case of a tie, all tied players lose 5 points.

Winning the Game

The player with the highest score is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most Quartz wins. If the tie persists, the one with the most Rubellites wins, and so on.

Variants

The Last Will Be First

In this variant, the game does not end by rounds. Also, the penalty for having fewer protected stones is not counted.

A player who has three or more Unstable Crystals on their Cart at the end of their turn has a mining accident and is eliminated from the game. When there are only two players left in the mine, the match ends immediately. The player with the most points among the survivors is the winner.

The Grand Tournament

Play three days, and at the end of each day (six rounds) write down the scores of all the players on a sheet of paper. At the end of the third day, add up the scores and the player with the highest score is the winner.

Credits

Game Design: Luis Francisco and Sergio Halaban

Illustrations: Max Grecke

Graphic Design: Luis Francisco

Editing: Robert Coelho and Pedro Vinicius

©2021 Grok Games. All rights reserved.