Rice Dice
Rice Dice Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object
Be the first farmer to grow 100 rice. Roll custom dice to collect paddy cards, flood fields with water needed to grow rice, hire workers to plant and harvest. Press your luck with rerolls, but beware of weeds!
Components
5 custom rice dice, 30 paddy cards, 5 reference cards, 20 planted tokens, 24 wooden weed tokens, 20 water tokens, 10 wooden rice farmer tokens for scoring, 1 scoreboard, 1 Happy Farmer action reference card/sheet, this rule sheet.
[Include a diagram showing the paddy card anatomy.]
Solo rules are described at the end of this sheet.
Setup
- Place the scoring/reservoir board in the center of the play area, placing a scoring token for each player on the Start location. Each player keeps a second scoring token of the same color in front of them, to remind them of their color.
- Place water tokens to the side, based on the number of players: 5P – 20 water tokens, 4P/3P – 15 water tokens, 2P/1P – 10 water tokens. This is called the supply. Place all other water tokens in the box; they will not be used in this game.
- Give each player a reference card, if necessary.
- Shuffle the paddy cards and deal three to each player. Each player chooses one card, placing it face-up in their play area. Place the rest of the paddy cards face-down near the scoring board to form a draw deck. Create a face-up discard pile near the draw deck with the unchosen paddy cards.
- Take water from the supply equal to the water value listed on all of the paddy cards in play. Place these tokens next to the scoreboard. This area becomes the reservoir.
[Include a diagram showing the scoring board, water supply, reservoir, and setup for two players that includes a paddy card, reference card, and a single player scoring meeple.]
Each player rolls the dice and counts the number of workers rolled (count two for rolls of two workers). Players tied for the most re-roll until there is a winner. The player who rolled the most will go first. The active player takes their action, then passes the dice to the player on the left, who then takes an action.
Play
The active player rolls all five dice, then takes one of the following actions, based on the symbols rolled. This action will often be affected by the abilities listed on your spirit cards. It is not necessary to roll any of the symbols for the selected action. For instance, a player could roll no water symbols, yet take the water action to simply release water from their paddies. Or she may take a card action because one of her paddies adds cards to every roll.
Rerolls
Players unhappy with the result may reroll the dice one time. All of the dice must be rerolled, and the dice results after the reroll must be kept, barring any paddy card effects. One weed is added to the active player's paddy for each weed result (weed icon) showing on the dice. The player may select where to place the weed(s), but no paddy may have more than two weeds. Ignore any weeds that would be placed if all paddies already have two weeds.
Actions
The possible actions are described below.
Worker
Each worker rolled can perform one of the following actions. (Note that the double worker symbol counts as two workers):
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Weed. A worker may remove weeds from any of her paddies that do not contain water. Each worker allocated to a paddy removes one weed.
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Harvest. To harvest a planted paddy, a player allocates workers equal to the number of hexes in that paddy. Workers may only harvest paddies that have no water. Refer to the harvest guide at the left-hand side of each card to determine the amount of rice to collect. Workers harvesting paddies with no weeds collect rice indicated in the top left. Paddies with one weed provide rice equal to the middle number, and paddies with two or more weeds provide rice equal to the bottom number.
Remove the planted token from harvested fields, along with any weeds.
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Plant. A paddy must contain water to plant it, and the player must assign workers equal to the number of hexes in the paddy. The player will then place one planted token on each paddy planted. Players may not partially plant a paddy. A player cannot harvest a paddy on the same turn it was planted. However, a paddy may be planted on the same turn after harvesting it.
Card
This action allows a player to add a new paddy card to her field. The player should draw the number of paddy cards equal to the card symbols rolled. Then select up to one of these cards to add to her field. Place the new paddy to the left of the first card, or to the right of the last card (but not between cards.) Players are limited to four paddy cards in their field. However, a player may replace an existing card with the new one. In this case, remove any water, weeds, and planted tokens from the card being replaced. Return water from the replaced paddy to the supply.
Modify the total amount of water in paddies and the reservoir when adding or replacing paddy cards. The available water in play should always be equal to the total of the water number on the top right of all cards in play. If adding a new paddy card, add water from the supply to the reservoir equal to the water number on the paddy card. If replacing a paddy card, add or remove water from the reservoir accordingly.
If water needs to be added to the reservoir and no water is available in the supply, only add as much as is available in the supply. If water is to be removed and the reservoir does not have the required amount, remove the indicated amount as soon as it is returned to the reservoir.
Example: there is a total of 10 water tokens in a 2-player game. This includes water in players' paddies, the reservoir, and the supply. If the sum of the water numbers on the paddy cards in play is seven, then there should be three water tokens in the supply and seven water divided between the reservoir and paddy cards.
If Qun adds a new paddy with a 2 water value, then she would take two water from the supply and add it to the reservoir.
If she instead replaces a 1 water value paddy in her field with a new 2-value paddy, then she would just move one water from the supply to the reservoir.
Water
Only the active player participates in all of the other actions, but when the active player selects the water action, all players partake!
First, all players may release water. Releasing water can be done simultaneously in most cases, but it should be done in turn order if any player feels this is necessary. Water tokens flow from left to right across each player's paddy cards. A player may allow water to flow out of a left-hand paddy into an empty paddy further to the right or else into the reservoir next to the scoring board. When moving or placing water, put the water tokens above the appropriate paddy cards.
Any paddies that contain water must have one water token for each hex on the paddy card. For non-active players, any water that cannot fill paddies is added to the reservoir when releasing water. It is not necessary for all of the active player's paddies to be filled with water until the end of her turn.
After all players have finished releasing water, only the active player may take water tokens from the reservoir up to the number of water symbols rolled, and place the paddy card. Return any water tokens in paddies that are not full at the end of the active player's turn to the reservoir.
Example: Qun rolled three water tokens. Her Twisted Fate paddy is already planted, so as part of releasing water she removes the two water from that paddy and places them above the Foresight paddy on the right. She then takes three water tokens from the reservoir and adds them to the Foresight paddy. Since this paddy is now full, it is not necessary to return any water tokens to the reservoir.
[Include a diagram showing Twisted Fate, Master of Fate, Foresight, and Crafty Weeds paddies (from left to right.) Show five dice results showing 3x Water, 2x Laborer. Show a Planted token in the Twisted Fate paddy. Show two water above Twisted Fate moving to above Foresight. Show three water from the reservoir moving (or from somewhere off-picture) to the Foresight paddy.]
[Magic Water Sidebar – Some spirit cards contain magic water that is 'both there and not there.' This means that the hexes which have the magic water tokens (printed on the cards) contain water when the controlling player wants them to (e.g., for planting) and contain no water when the player does not want them to (e.g., for weeding and harvesting.) Players may not add water tokens to these hexes. For instance, a player may add only one water token to fill the Magic Spring card.]
[Include a diagram of the Magic Spring card.]
Wild
This symbol can be used as any other symbol described above except the double-worker symbol or the weed symbol (shown as icons in the original).
Ending the Game
The game ends immediately when any player reaches or exceeds 100 rice on the scoring chart. This player is the winner.
FAQ
- The base Spirits of the Rice Paddy game allows players to partially harvest fields. In Rice Dice workers must harvest all paddy hexes.
- Cards that score rice for having the most of some commodity do so at the very start of the turn.
- Cards that add symbols to rolls do so even if the player rolled none of that symbol.
- Players may not plant or harvest more than the active player rolled when using the Mimic cards' abilities. A player using the Planting Mimic ability to plant a paddy may harvest that paddy as soon as his next turn.
Solo Rules
Setup: Set the game up as you would for a 2P game (10 water tokens). Draw three cards for yourself, choose one, and place the others at the bottom of the deck. Draw the top card for the Happy Farmer player.
Play: You will go first. Conduct your turns as explained in the rules above. After you complete your turn, roll all of the dice for the Happy Farmer and conduct its turn using the rules on the Happy Farmer Actions reference card. It will take the action of the most rolled symbol. For example, if the Happy Farmer rolls 3 water, 1 worker, and 1 wild symbol, it would perform its water symbol action. In the case of a tie, it will carry out the action closest to the top of the list among the tied symbols.
When resolving the Worker action, the Happy Farmer performs all the steps listed to the fullest extent possible, skipping any that are not applicable. In general, the Happy Farmer attempts to water, plant, weed, and harvest to the best of its ability based on the dice symbols rolled.
Ignore all spirit abilities on paddy cards for the Happy Farmer.
Ending the Game: The game ends immediately when you or the Happy Farmer reaches or exceeds 100 rice on the scoring chart. This player is the winner.