Reflections in the Looking Glass
Reflections in the Looking Glass Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object
The goal is to have the largest absolute score — that is, the score furthest from 0 — at the end of each round in order to win the round. The first player to win 3 rounds is the winner of the game.
Contents
There are 40 character cards — 4 copies of 10 different characters (or pairs of characters, but this doesn't affect gameplay and all cards will be called "characters" going forward). Note that 5 characters are on the Sun Team, and 5 characters are on the Moon Team.
Sun Team: The Caterpillar, The Mad Hatter, The Mock Turtle, The Queen of Hearts, The Walrus & The Carpenter.
Moon Team: Alice & The Cheshire Cat, The Dodo, The Jabberwocky, The White Rabbit, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum.
There are 5 layout cards showing the various ways the game can be set up.
There are 2 scoring reference cards. These are double-sided for the players to use according to the ways their individual minds work, but the information is the same:
| Cards of a character collected | Sun Team | Moon Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | +1 | -1 |
| 2 | -2 | +2 |
| 3 | +3 | -3 |
| 4 | -1 | +1 |
Game Setup
Shuffle the layout cards and place them in a stack face down. Give a reference card to each player. Randomly choose a starting player for the first round. In each subsequent round, alternate the starting player.
Round Setup
Shuffle all of the character cards. Keep them all oriented the same direction while doing so to save time while setting up the Looking Glass play area in the next step.
Flip over the top layout card and deal out character cards face up onto the table between the players according to the layout card. Start from the inside of each half of the layout and layer each row accordingly, covering the lower half of the previous row. Orient all of the cards so that the top of each card points toward the center. This makes them easier to recognize when they are obscured and this was why you were careful to keep them oriented while shuffling.
There should be 12 cards remaining. Deal 4 to each player face down and remove 4 from the game without either player looking at them.
Each player may privately view their own cards. These will end up in the score piles later and should be considered throughout the game.
Player Turns
Players alternate taking turns. Both players will receive a card each turn, but the active player gets to make that important decision. She chooses any character card from either side that is completely uncovered. As the game progresses, new options will open up below. The active player takes the chosen card, and the other player receives the "reflection." The reflection card is in the same location on the opposite side.
Any cards taken from the Looking Glass go in public score piles in front of the players, not into the players' hands, which will continue to keep their starting cards hidden until the end of the round. Cards chosen and received should be organized by character as they are acquired, stacking cards that match those already collected, and starting new piles for new characters. Players should also keep their characters organized in 2 rows to make a 5x2 grid, with a row for the Sun Team and a row for the Moon Team. This will help both players to assess the game more easily throughout.
End of Round
When all of the cards in the Looking Glass have been taken, both players add the cards they've kept in their hands since the beginning of their respective score piles. They should each now have 18 cards, sorted by character. Consult the reference cards. They show how many points each stack of the same character is worth based on the size of the stack and the Team of that character. Since the goal is to get the furthest from 0, neither negative nor positive points are better than the other, you just want them all to go the same direction.
Computing your final score can be daunting, but it is much easier if you cancel out piles first. Piles that are the same size but on different Teams will always add to 0 and can be removed making your calculation simpler. The player with the largest absolute score wins the round. A tie goes to the player that went first this round.
The player who wins a round takes the layout card to count as her point and play continues with a new layout for the next round. The first player to win 3 rounds is the winner of the game.
The Brawlers Mini Expansion
There are two cards not mentioned in the main rules: The Lion and The Unicorn (collectively The Brawlers). Note that there is only 1 copy of each of these characters instead of 4. The game plays fine without them, and it is recommended that you play a few rounds without them to get a feel for the rest of the game.
The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown; The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the town. Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown; Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town.
"What-is-this? A child! I always thought they were fabulous monsters! Is it alive? It talks?" – The Unicorn
"Hand round the plum-cake, Monster!" – The Lion
Brawlers Setup
You must ensure that these cards don't get dealt to either player. They can only be in the Looking Glass or removed. There will be 6 removed cards instead of 4 in a game with The Brawlers. The official method (for tournament play) is to pull a random card from the normal shuffled deck each round. If it is a Queen of Hearts or a Jabberwocky, The Brawlers are banned or scared off; don't use them. Otherwise, shuffle them into the deck and deal the Looking Glass. When dealing the player's hands, skip these special cards straight to the removed pile. The mirror on the back of The Brawlers is cracked to help you notice them. They also shouldn't end up in the top row. If so, switch them with the closest card in the same spot 2 rows down, or with the Reflection to that spot if the other Brawler is there. This method will cause the Looking Glass to have 2, 1, or 0 Brawlers about 35.1%, 36.4%, and 28.5% of the time, respectively.
Brawlers Scoring
A player that collects The Lion but not The Unicorn scores +2 points for just the 1 card. That's a more dramatic score than a single card normally offers, but the scoring direction is set. Similarly, The Unicorn alone scores -2 points. However, if a player collects both, the set scores 1 point in whichever direction is worse for her after computing the rest of her score (pick either direction if the score is 0, it won't matter).
Strategy Tips
Collect odd quantities of one Team and even quantities of the other, but avoid 4 of a kind except to save a bad 3. But don't expect you can get only 3s or even the majority of one Team. You'll likely be about 50-50 by Team, so recognize the power of 1s and 2s.
Consider at the beginning which direction to go based on how difficult it will be to collect the quantities you want. Go for a strategy that gives you many options of making it work, but don't be afraid to change your goal if your original plan starts to unravel.
When equally-talented players face off, if they've picked the same direction, their scores tend to both be high, as the opposite of one player's sets fill in nicely for their opponent: 3s and 1s, and 2s and 2s. When they pick different directions, the struggle sometimes makes a low-scoring game. Think about what your opponent wants and let her make the choices you probably agree on.
Self-linked cards occur about 1.14 times per round. Generally, you don't want to waste your turns on choosing self-linked characters. Try to make the other player have to do it. There are exceptions to this rule based on decisions you might care more about with cards below.
If The Brawlers are in play, don't obsess about them. The other cards will still be the bulk of your score. But be aware of how you can prepare for their effects, or mess with your opponent.
Credits
Game Designer: J. Ryan Opp Artwork: Wilfred Dajotoy and Imaginaires Based in Wonderland, created by: Lewis Carroll Special Thanks To: Theresa (Oma) Opp, Kristi Kilpatrick, Peter Davis, Mike Fitzgerald, Heather Newton, Andrea Pinedo, Jules Carlson, and the Colorado Game Designers Guild
Copyright 2024 Electric Pepper Games LLC