River Woods Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup - Centre of the Table
• Setup - For Each Player
• Setup - Start Game
• Goal of the Game
• Gameplay (Player Turn) - Select Action
  • Terrain Action
  • Companion Action
  • Movement Action
• Gameplay (Player Turn) - Check Objectives (Terrain Objectives)
  • Terrain Objective descriptions
• Gameplay (Player Turn) - Check Objectives (Round Objectives)
• Round End & Setup for the Next Round
• End of the Game & Scoring
• Companion Abilities
  • Forager Abilities
  • Hiker Abilities
  • Artist Abilities
• Game Variant - Game End Objective Cards

Components

• x4 Player Cards
• x4 Player Aids
• x1 First Player Marker
• x4 Main Pieces
• x12 Action Discs
• x12 Companion Cards
• x11 Terrain Objective Cards
• x4 Cylinders
• x10 Starting Terrain Tiles
• x48 Terrain Tiles
• x5 Round Objective Cards
• x4 Pawns
• x40 Cubes
• x40 Resource Tokens
• x5 Game End Objective Cards

Setup - Centre of the Table

1. Place all the 10 Starting Terrain Tiles face-down according to any of the two starting map arrangements (Flower Map or Mushroom Map). For advanced players, any shape can be formed as long as all players agree to it. After the starting map is formed, open to reveal all the Starting Terrain Tiles to form a central area.
2. Shuffle all the 48 Terrain Tiles face-down and stack them to form the Terrain Deck. Open and reveal 3 Terrain Tiles to form Terrain Choices. Leave some space for discarded Terrain Tiles.
3. Shuffle all the 12 Companion Cards face-down to form a Companion Deck, then open the top 3 cards and place them in a row to form Companion Choices where the Companion Deck is on the right side.
4. Place the Starting Terrain Objective Card (has the same front and back), then randomly draw and place a Terrain Objective Card face-up, and leave 3 card spaces to form a Terrain Objective row. Shuffle the rest of the Terrain Objective Cards face-down and deal 2 cards to each player and put the rest out of the game.
5. Shuffle all the 5 Round Objective Cards face-down to form a Round Objective row, and open the first card from the left to indicate the first round of the game.
6. Gather all the Resource Tokens and place them at the side of the table.

Setup - For Each Player

Each player will take the following items of their player colour:

• x3 Player Pieces: Main Piece, Cylinder, and Pawn
• x10 Wooden Cubes
• x1 Player Card
• x1 Player Aid
• x3 Action Discs: Numbered 1, 2, and 3
• x2 Terrain Objective Cards (Do not reveal to other players.)

The appointed starting player takes the First Player Marker.

Setup - Start Game

From the starting player onwards in clockwise direction, players are to place their Main Piece on an empty Terrain Tile that looks like a cabin wall with a window as their starting position.

For example in the turn order, Blue starts first, Purple second, Green third, and Brown last.

Goal of the Game

The game is played within 5 rounds. From the starting player of the round onwards, each player's turn consists of the following phases:

1. Select Action
2. Check Objectives
3. Next Player's Turn (Clockwise)

The round ends after players perform 3 turns, and then prepare the setup for the next round.

At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins the game.

Gameplay (Player Turn) - Select Action

In each player's turn, that player must place one of his/her Action Discs numbered 1, 2, and 3, on any of the three actions shown on the Player Card:

• The numbers represent up to the number of Action Points available for the turn.
• After performing the action, used Action Discs will stay on the Player Card and cannot be used again until the next round.
• Action Discs can be placed in any order.
• The same action can be repeated in the player's next turn by placing the current Action Disc on top of the previous.

Terrain Action

This action must be performed at least once per round.

Spend 1 Action Point: Take 1 Terrain Tile from the Terrain Choices and place it adjacent to any Terrain Tile in the central area.

• Terrain Tiles will be replenished at the end of the turn.
• If there are no more Terrain Tiles left, the discarded Terrain Tiles will be shuffled back. Otherwise, the game will end at the current round (page 12).

Spend 2 Action Points: Take 1 Terrain Tile and place it on top of an empty Terrain Tile in the central area, except for tiles with Player Pieces and River Terrain.

• There is no limit to how many Terrain Tiles can be stacked.

Spend 1 Action Point: Discard 1-3 Terrain Tiles in the Terrain Choices, and then draw that same number of Terrain Tiles.

Companion Action

Take only 1 Companion Card from the Companion Choices at the cost of Action Points.

• The left side cost 1 Action Point, the middle cost 2 Action Points, and the right side cost 3 Action Points. Do not take from deck.

After taking the Companion Card, the cards at the right will move towards any empty space at their left, and draw a Companion Card to fill up the right side.

After taking the Companion Card, place that card on either the left or right side of the Player Card. Companions are identified by their Player Pieces (Cylinder or Pawn) that will be summoned by placing onto an empty Terrain Tile adjacent to the player's Main Piece. The shape of the cylinder and pawn are to identify the number of companions at the central area.

Companion Cards owned by the player will activate their abilities (shown at the bottom of the card) until they are replaced. Refer to page 13-15 to learn more about their abilities.

To summon the companion after placing a Companion Card, take the correct Player Piece and place it onto an empty Terrain Tile adjacent to the player's Main Piece in the central area:

• Do not place on a Terrain Tile with Player Pieces and River Terrains adjacent to the Main Piece.
• Player Pieces that are placed on a Terrain Tile with Token Icons will not be allowed to take the Resource Token (page 8).
• If there are no empty Terrain Tiles adjacent to the player's Main Piece, the Companion Action cannot be performed.

Owned Companion Cards can be replaced:

• The previous Companion Card will be discarded back to the bottom of the Companion Deck.
• The represented Player Piece will immediately assume its new identity and ability.

Spend 1 Action Point: Discard all the Companion Cards in the Companion Choices to the bottom of the Companion Deck. Then, draw back 3 Companion Cards.

Movement Action

Players move their Player Pieces within the central area with one step onto an adjacent Terrain Tile per action point:

• Action Points can be shared among the player's own Player Pieces.
• Do not move Player Pieces onto a Full River Terrain.
• Player Pieces are allowed to move onto Terrain Tiles with other Player Pieces, which counts as a step at the cost of 1 Action Point, but not allowed to end there.
• For Shared Terrains with a River Terrain, Player Pieces cannot move onto the tile from adjacent to the River Terrain.

When a Player Piece moves onto each Terrain Tile with Token Icons, the current player can also choose to take the token that matches his/her Companion Card(s) as shown at the bottom right (e.g. Stoat allows Mountain Tokens, Fox allows Berry Tokens):

• Tokens that are taken must be placed at the slots shown at the upper part of the Player Card.
• The maximum of 3 tokens can be kept at the Player Card.
• Current tokens can be replaced when new tokens are taken.

Using the example shown, all of the Blue player's pieces could collect Mountain and Berry tokens.

Gameplay (Player Turn) - Check Objectives (Terrain Objectives)

At the end of a player's turn, that player will need to check if the requirements of any one of the Terrain Objective Cards or Round Objective Cards can be met. More than 1 objective card can be achieved in a single turn.

There are 2 types of Terrain Objectives:

• Public Terrain Objectives (Up to 5)
• Terrain Objectives in Hand

Terrain Objectives are achieved according to where the Player Pieces are placed within the central area. Each Terrain Objective Card will indicate the objective (refer to page 10 for descriptions), the number of Player Pieces involved, the required quantity, and the scoring: Scoring for First (Gold), Scoring for Second (Silver) (First for 2 Players), and Scoring for Late Players.

When a Public Terrain Objective Card has been achieved, the player who achieved first will place his/her cube at the gold section of the card (silver for 2 players). The rest of the players can achieve the same Terrain Objective with a higher required quantity, the second player placed on the silver section, and the rest of the players placed on the wood section.

When a Terrain Objective Card in Hand has been achieved, that player will place that card into the Public Terrain Objective row, and also place a cube at the gold section.

When there are 5 Public Terrain Objectives, players are to discard all the Terrain Objective Cards in Hand out of the game.

Terrain Objective descriptions

There is an icon that represents all types of Player Pieces.

One of the player's Player Pieces on a terrain of any colour at the size of 6/7/8:

• Terrain sizes are determined by terrain colours on Terrain Tiles adjacent to each other.
• Half colours on Shared Terrains count as +1 size if the correct side is adjacent to each other.
• Player Piece on a Shared Terrain count as +1 size for both colours.

Two Player Pieces on separate terrains of specific colour at the size of 3/4/5 each:

• Both coloured terrain groups don't have to be adjacent to each other.

One or more Player Pieces combined to be surrounded by specific number (3/4/5) of Token Icons:

• The correct Token Icons must be adjacent to the Player Pieces.
• Player Pieces directly on the correct Token Icon doesn't count.
• Player Pieces cannot share the same Token Icon.

Gameplay (Player Turn) - Check Objectives (Round Objectives)

Players can also check if the requirements of any one of the available Round Objective Cards can be met.

Round Objectives are achieved when a player collects the correct set of three tokens shown on the card.

When a Round Objective Card has been achieved, the player who achieved first will place his/her cube at the gold section of the card. The rest of the players were placed on the wood section.

Players don't have to remove the tokens after the objectives are met.

The Round Objective Card that shows the X, Y, and Z means three different tokens of the player's choice.

Round End & Setup for the Next Round

The round ends when all players have performed their 3 turns.

Players will then take back all their Action Discs, and the next Round Objective Card flipped face-up as the setup for the next round. Pass the First Player Marker to the next player in clockwise direction.

End of the Game & Scoring

The game ends at any one of the following conditions:

1. After 5 rounds.
2. When all terrain tiles are placed within the central area, that current round will be the final round.
3. In a rare situation when a player completes all 10 Terrain and Round Objectives, that current round will be the final round.

Players will then calculate their score based on the number of stars on both Terrain Objective Cards and Round Objective Cards. The player with the highest score wins the game.

If there is a tie for the highest score, the tied player with the most gold sections from the Terrain Objective Cards wins. If that still resulted in a tie, both players will share the victory.

In this example:

• Blue: 10 points for Terrain Objectives + 3 points for Round Objectives = 13
• Purple: 7 points for Terrain Objectives + 3 points for Round Objectives = 10
• Green: 6 points for Terrain Objectives + 4 points for Round Objectives = 10
• Brown: 6 points for Terrain Objectives + 6 points for Round Objectives = 12

Companion Abilities

Forager Abilities

During the Movement Action, the active player can spend 1 Action Point to exchange 2 similar Tokens of the Forager's ability into a Token of his/her choice.

• Squirrel: Exchange 2 'Flower' Tokens into a single other Token.
• Beaver: Exchange 2 'Berry' Tokens into a single other Token.
• Hedgehog: Exchange 2 'Tea' Tokens into a single other Token.
• Badger: Exchange 2 'Mountain' Tokens into a single other Token.

In this example, Blue placed an Action Disc numbered '2' to select the Movement Action. As the Hedgehog is his companion, Blue is allowed to spend 1 Action Point to exchange 2 'Tea' Tokens into a 'Flower' Token.

Hiker Abilities

Terrain Objectives that require a number of Terrain Types require 1 quantity less as of the Hiker's ability.

• Rabbit: Terrain Objectives require 1 less Pink Terrain.
• Fox: Terrain Objectives require 1 less Green Terrain.
• Dormouse: Terrain Objectives require 1 less Yellow Terrain.
• Stag: Terrain Objectives require 1 less Purple Terrain.

In this example, the Fox is Blue's companion that helps him to require 1 less Green Terrain. Therefore, Blue can complete the gold section of the Terrain Objective that requires 3 Purple Terrain and 2 Green Terrain instead.

Artist Abilities

Each Artist has their own unique abilities.

• Boar: During the Terrain Action, Only 1 Action Point required to place a selected Terrain Tile on an empty terrain in the central area.
• Otter: During the Movement Action, all of the player's Player Pieces can move past River Terrain and collect their Token Type.
• Shrew: Terrain Objectives that need to be surrounded by Token Types require 1 quantity less.
• Stoat: During the Movement Action, spend 1 Action Point to move any player piece beside one of your player pieces 1 or 2 steps. The player piece that moved will not be allowed to collect Tokens.

Game Variant - Game End Objective Cards

There are 5 Game End Objective Cards which are optional gameplay that players could score additional bonuses at the end of the game.

Setup - Centre of the Table: Randomly place 2 Game End Objective Cards beside the Terrain and Round Objective rows. Players will get to score for both Game End Objective Cards.

End of the Game & Scoring: At the end of the game, players can score additional points for each required terrain colour adjacent to their own Main Piece:

• Half colours on Shared Terrains count as 1 point if the correct side is adjacent to the Main Piece.
• Main Pieces directly on the correct terrain colour doesn't count.