Rolling in Wonderland Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Components
• Setup
  • Board Setup
  • Player Setup
• Gameplay
  • Game Board Anatomy
• Mushrooms & Manipulating Dice
  • White Dice
• Special Abilities
• Actions & Benefits
  • White Rabbit
  • Mad Hatter
  • Queen of Hearts
  • Alice
  • Cheshire Cat
  • Caterpillar
• The Jabberwocky Attacks
• End Game Triggers
• Final Scoring
• Optional Rules
  • Youngest Use
  • Experienced Use
  • The Twins
• Solo Mode
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Bot Turn
  • Mushrooms
  • Actions
  • Difficulty
• Quick Reference

Goal

In Rolling in Wonderland, each player takes on the role of a dreamer. Your goal is to gain the most victory points (VP), representing your influence over Wonderland. The game lasts up to 6 rounds. In each round, players take turns in clockwise order taking dice and actions from around the game board. The round ends when every player has 6 dice on their player board, at which point the Jabberwocky attacks before the next round begins.

Components

Global Components

• 1 game board
• 1 first player marker
• 5 player aids
• 2 Caterpillar markers
• 8 mushrooms
• 24 dice (4 per color)
• 1 Jabberwocky
• 60+ VP tokens
• 4 ability tokens
• 7 Cheshire Cat tokens
• 34 Mad Hatter cards
• 15 Objective cards
• 25 Alice Challenge cards
• 6 Jabberwocky cards
• 4 bot cards
• 1 score pad

Player Components

• 4 player boards
• 4 characters
• 48 soldiers
• 36 cubes
• 4 discs

Setup

Board Setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the play area.
2. Shuffle the Cheshire Cat tokens, then randomly deal 1 Cheshire Cat token face-up into each of the 4 slots along the top edge of the board. Return the remaining Cheshire Cat tokens to the box.
3. Shuffle the Objective cards to form the Objective deck. Deal 1 Objective card face-down to each player. If the Cheshire Cat token that grants an Objective card is above the board, then place the Objective deck face-down near the board. Otherwise, return the Objective deck to the box.
4. Shuffle the Mad Hatter cards to form the Mad Hatter deck. Deal 1 Mad Hatter card face-down to each player, then place the Mad Hatter deck face-down in its assigned space on the board.
   • If you are playing with the Madder Hatter promo cards, first remove any cards greater than your player count. Certain cards are marked with "3+ players".
5. Shuffle the Alice Challenge cards to form the Alice Challenge deck. Deal 1 Alice Challenge card face-up to each player, then place the Alice Challenge deck face-up in its assigned space on the board.
6. Shuffle the 6 Jabberwocky cards to form the Jabberwocky deck. Place the Jabberwocky deck face-down near the board with the Jabberwocky beside it.
7. Place the VP tokens and Caterpillar markers near the board to form the supply.
8. Randomly determine the first player and give them the first player marker. It will rotate clockwise each round.

Player Setup

9. Each player selects a color and takes the corresponding player components along with a player aid.
   • Choose which side of your player board and matching character to use, which has no effect on gameplay.
10. Keep your soldiers and cubes near your player board to form your supply. Place your character on the starting space of the White Rabbit's path and your disc on the starting space of the Caterpillar's path.
11. Randomly deal 1 ability token to each player and slot it into their player board.
12. Take 1 die of each color (6 total) and place them on your player board.
13. Take 2 mushrooms and place them on your player board.
14. Place your starting Alice Challenge card face-up into one of the three slots above your player board.
15. Keep your starting Mad Hatter card and Objective card secret in your hand. If your Mad Hatter card has an Ongoing effect, place it face-up into one of the three slots below your player board. Otherwise, keep it in your hand.

Gameplay

1. Move the Jabberwocky - Reveal the top card of the Jabberwocky deck and move the Jabberwocky to the matching region.
   • The cards revealed from the Jabberwocky deck are public information. Any player may view them at any time.
2. Roll and Place Dice - Players simultaneously roll all dice on their player boards, then place each die into the matching action area around the game board.
   • Place each Cheshire Cat die above the token in the slot matching its color. The colors of the other dice faces do not matter at this point.
3. Player Turns - Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, select any action area containing at least one die and take as many dice as possible from it, placing them into available spaces on your player board. Then, take the corresponding Wonderland character's action (see Actions & Benefits).
   • You have 6 spaces for dice on your player board. Once all 6 spaces are full, you take no further turns in the round.
   • Once every player has 6 dice on their player board, the round ends.
   • When you select an action area containing more dice than you have spaces available, you choose which dice to take and which to leave behind.
   • At the end of your turn, discard down to 5 single use Mad Hatter cards and 3 Objective cards. Return excess Objective cards secretly to the bottom of the Objective deck.
4. The Jabberwocky Attacks - Award VP tokens to the players with the highest strength in the Jabberwocky's region (see The Jabberwocky Attacks).
5. Check for Game End - If any end game trigger applies, the game ends now and players perform final scoring. Otherwise, pass the first player marker clockwise and begin the next round.

Game Board Anatomy

The game board is divided into 6 regions. All regions contain 4 common elements:

1. A Wonderland character who presides over the region.
2. An action area, beside which dice are placed.
3. An action summary, depicting the action granted by the region's Wonderland character.
4. Influence scoring values, depicting the VP awarded for controlling that region at the end of the game.

Mushrooms & Manipulating Dice

Mushrooms (and certain Mad Hatter cards) allow you to manipulate dice, making your actions stronger and increasing the options available to you. Effective use of mushrooms can be an important part of strategic play.

At any time on your turn (before or after taking dice), you may spend a mushroom to manipulate dice in one of the following ways:

• A. Turn a die: Select one non-white die in any action area and turn it to the face of your choice.
• B. Reroll dice: Select any number of non-white dice in any one action area and reroll them.

Whenever a die is manipulated (either by a mushroom or a Mad Hatter card), immediately place it into the matching action area around the game board.

When you spend a mushroom, remove it from your player board. When you gain a mushroom, return it to your player board. You cannot have more than 2 mushrooms at a time.

There is no limit to the number of mushrooms that you may spend on your turn. After spending a mushroom, you are not required to take any of the dice that were manipulated by it.

Example: The green player wants to take a blue die from Alice's action area, but none are present. They spend a mushroom to turn a blue die in another action area to Alice's face. They immediately place that die into Alice's action area and take it (along with the other dice present) for Alice's action.

White Dice

White dice cannot be manipulated by mushrooms. However, when you take a white die, you gain a mushroom.

Strategy Tip: Don't waste your mushrooms! If you would gain a mushroom but already have 2, see if you can first spend a mushroom to make your action more efficient, trigger your special ability, or make the next player's options weaker or more limited.

Special Abilities

Each player has a unique special ability depicted on their ability token. When you take 4 or more dice on a single turn, gain the benefit of your special ability. You gain this benefit after taking your action.

The five abilities are:

• Move 2 spaces on the Caterpillar's path.
• Place 1 cube from your supply onto a die icon (of any color) on any of your Alice Challenge cards.
• Draw 1 Mad Hatter card.
• Gain the benefit from the Cheshire Cat token in the leftmost slot. Then, move it to the rightmost slot and shift the other 3 tokens each one slot to the left. (This ability is included in the 5th player expansion.)
• Move 5 spaces on the White Rabbit's path.

Actions & Benefits

White Rabbit

When you take dice from the White Rabbit's action area, move your character forward on the White Rabbit's path according to the number and colors of dice that you take:

• Each blue or white die: move 2 spaces
• Each orange or pink die: move 3 spaces
• Each green or purple die: move 4 spaces

At the end of the game, you will score VP equal to the highest-value star icon that you have reached or passed on the White Rabbit's path.

Example: You take 1 purple die and 2 orange dice from the White Rabbit's action area, then move 10 spaces forward (4+3+3).

Mad Hatter

When you take dice from the Mad Hatter's action area, draw Mad Hatter cards according to the number of dice that you take:

• 1 or 2 dice: 1 card
• 3 or 4 dice: 2 cards
• 5 or 6 dice: 3 cards

There are two types of Mad Hatter cards:

Single Use cards are kept in your hand until played.

• When you play a single use card, place it face-up in a discard pile beside the Mad Hatter's region unless otherwise stated.
• You may play a single use card at any time on your turn only unless otherwise stated.
• At the end of your turn, discard down to 5 single use cards.

Ongoing cards must be played immediately after drawing them.

• When you play an ongoing card, place it face-up into one of the three slots below your player board.
• If all three slots are already occupied, you must discard either the new ongoing card that you drew or one of your existing ongoing cards to replace it. Gain 1 VP token when you are forced to discard an ongoing card in this way.

You may play a Mad Hatter card as soon as you draw it. If it specifies a criteria such as "when taking dice", as long as that criteria was met this turn, the card may be used this turn.

When a Mad Hatter card instructs you to gain VP, gain VP tokens from the supply.

If the Mad Hatter deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to reform the Mad Hatter deck.

Queen of Hearts

When you take dice from the Queen of Hearts' action area, place soldiers from your supply onto the board according to the number of dice that you take:

• 1 or 2 dice: 1 soldier
• 3 or 4 dice: 2 soldiers
• 5 or 6 dice: 3 soldiers

Soldiers may be placed freely among any of the 6 regions on the board.

At the end of the game, VP will be awarded in each region to the players with the highest strength in that region.

At the end of each round, VP will be awarded to the players with the highest strength in the Jabberwocky's region.

Each soldier has a base strength of 1.

If you have no soldiers remaining in your supply, then placing a soldier has no effect.

Alice

When you take dice from Alice's action area, first take the top card of the Alice Challenge deck and place it face-up into one of the three slots above your player board.

• If all three slots are already occupied, you must choose to either not take a card or to replace any one of your existing Alice Challenge cards, returning it to the bottom of the deck. Any cubes on a replaced card are returned to your supply.

Then, for each die that you take, place a cube from your supply onto a die icon of the matching color on any of your Alice Challenge cards.

• If you have no die icons matching the color of a given die that you take, then that die's cube placement is lost.

When all 4 of the die icons on an Alice Challenge card have cubes on them, that card is completed. Immediately flip it face-down and place it into a personal scoring pile beside your player board. Return its cubes to your supply. At the end of the game, you will score the VP printed on each completed Alice Challenge card.

• You only have 9 cubes, as if all 9 are placed, the 10th would complete a card and immediately return to your supply.

Example: You take 1 pink die, 1 orange die, and 1 blue die from Alice's action area. You take the top card of the Alice Challenge deck and place it above your player board. Then, you place cubes from your supply onto 1 orange die icon and 1 blue die icon on your Alice Challenge cards. There are no pink die icons among your cards, so that cube placement is lost. The blue die icon was the last one needed to complete the card, so you return the 4 cubes on that card to your supply, flip the card face-down, and place it to the right of your player board.

Cheshire Cat

When you take dice from the Cheshire Cat's action area, gain benefits from the Cheshire Cat tokens according to the number and colors of dice that you take:

• 1 or 2 dice: 1 benefit
• 3 or 4 dice: 2 benefits
• 5 or 6 dice: 3 benefits

The colors of dice that you take determine which Cheshire Cat tokens you are able to access:

• Pink: The token in the first (leftmost) slot.
• Orange: The token in the second slot.
• Green or purple: The token in the third slot.
• Blue or white: The token in the last (rightmost) slot.

You may only select benefits from among the Cheshire Cat tokens in slots matching the colors of the dice that you take. There is no limit to the number of times that you may gain the benefit from a single token.

Example: You take 2 purple dice and 1 blue die from the Cheshire Cat's action area. Taking 3 total dice gives you 2 benefits, and the colors of those dice allow you to access the Cheshire Cat tokens in the 2 rightmost slots. You choose to gain the benefit of the rightmost token twice, placing 2 soldiers onto the board.

Caterpillar

When you take dice from the Caterpillar's action area, move your disc forward on the Caterpillar's path according to the number and colors of dice that you take:

• Each green, purple die, or blue die: move 1 space
• Each orange, white, or blue die: move 2 spaces

(Printed as above in the manual; blue appears in both lines.)

At the end of the game, you will score VP equal to the highest-value star icon that you have reached or passed on the Caterpillar's path. Additionally, you immediately gain a benefit from each non-star space that you reach or pass. You gain these benefits space-by-space as you move, rather than gaining them all after completing your movement.

To help track your total movement as you gain benefits, place a Caterpillar marker beside your starting space and ending space before moving your disc. Once you have finished moving your disc and gaining benefits, return the 2 Caterpillar markers to be near the board.

Caterpillar path benefit icons:

• Draw 1 Mad Hatter card.
• Gain 1 mushroom.
• Move 2 spaces on the White Rabbit's path.
• Gain the benefit from 1 of the 4 Cheshire Cat tokens.
• Place 1 soldier from your supply onto the board.
• Move 1 of your soldiers from any region on the board to another.
• Place 1 cube from your supply onto a die icon (of any color) on any of your Alice Challenge cards.

The Jabberwocky Attacks

When the Jabberwocky attacks, rank players by their strength in the Jabberwocky's region and award VP tokens:

• 1st position (greatest strength): 3 VP
• 2nd position (second greatest strength): 2 VP
• 3rd position (third greatest strength): 1 VP

You must have at least one soldier in the region to gain these VP.

In a 2-player game, the player in 2nd position gains only 1 VP instead of 2 VP. This applies to the Jabberwocky only, not to influence scoring at the end of the game.

Ties are unfriendly. If multiple players are tied in strength, they skip the position they are tied for and each gain VP for the next position instead. A group of tied players occupies a number of positions equal to the number of players in the tie. If multiple players are tied for 3rd position, they do not gain VP.

Example 1: The red player has 3 soldiers in the Jabberwocky's region, while the yellow and green players each have 2 soldiers. Since the red player has the greatest strength, they gain 3 VP. Since the yellow and green players are tied for the second greatest strength, they each gain 1 VP.

Example 2: The blue, yellow, and green players each have 2 soldiers in the Jabberwocky's region. Since they are all tied for the greatest strength, they each gain 2 VP. If the red player had 1 soldier present, they would gain 0 VP.

End Game Triggers

• The Jabberwocky deck is empty (at the end of round 6).
• Any player has reached the end of the White Rabbit's path.
• Any player has reached the end of the Caterpillar's path.
• Any player has placed all 12 of their soldiers.

Final Scoring

• White Rabbit's path: Score VP equal to the highest-value star icon that you have reached or passed.

• Caterpillar's path: Score VP equal to the highest-value star icon that you have reached or passed.

• Influence scoring: For each region, rank players by their strength in that region:

  • 1st position (greatest strength): score the highest VP value
  • 2nd position (second greatest strength): score the second highest VP value
  • 3rd position (third greatest strength): score the third highest VP value

  You must have at least one soldier in a region to score these VP. Ties are unfriendly. If multiple players are tied in strength, they skip the position they are tied for and each gain VP for the next position instead (see The Jabberwocky Attacks for examples). A group of tied players occupies a number of positions equal to the number of players in the tie. If multiple players are tied for 3rd position, they do not gain VP.

• Alice Challenge cards: Score the VP printed on each of your completed Alice Challenge cards.

• Objective cards: Score VP according to the condition on each of your Objective cards.

• Mad Hatter cards: Score 1 VP for each Mad Hatter card remaining in your hand.

• VP tokens: Score VP for the VP tokens that you gained during the game.

The player with the most VP wins the game. If there is a tie, the winner is determined in the following ranked order:

1. The tied player with more mushrooms.
2. The tied player with more cubes remaining on their Alice Challenge cards.
3. The tied player farther along the White Rabbit's path.
4. The tied player closest to the right of the first player marker.

Optional Rules

Youngest Use

When playing with younger players, you may choose to use this "youngest use" variant that eliminates hidden information and the need for reading comprehension.

Setup Changes

• Do not deal Mad Hatter cards or Objective cards to any player. They will not be used.
• Remove the Cheshire Cat token that grants an Objective card.

Gameplay Changes

• Whenever you would gain a Mad Hatter card, gain 1 VP instead.
• Whenever you have 2 mushrooms and would gain another, gain 1 VP for each mushroom that cannot be gained.
• Older players should gently help younger players find opportunities to use mushrooms effectively. If this help is unwanted or causes undue stress at your table, you may choose to play without the rules for mushrooms entirely, using them only to gain VP as described above.

Experienced Use

When playing with experienced players, you may choose to use this "experienced use" variant that only affects setup.

Setup Changes

• Instead of randomly selecting all 4 Cheshire Cat tokens, make sure the Cheshire Cat token that grants an Objective card is included in the game. Shuffle that token with 3 other random Cheshire Cat tokens, then randomly deal 1 token face-up into each of the 4 slots along the top edge of the board.
• Instead of randomly dealing ability tokens, draft ability tokens in reverse turn order. Starting with the last player and proceeding counterclockwise, select any available ability token and slot it into your player board.
• If you have the Madder Hatter promo cards (available directly from Bellows Intent), shuffle them in with the base game Mad Hatter cards. First remove any Madder Hatter cards greater than your player count.

The Twins

If you have The Twins promo pack (available directly from Bellows Intent), you may choose to play with either or both of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Tweedledee

During setup, place the Tweedledee card, die, and figure near the board.

At the beginning of each round:

• Return the Tweedledee card and figure to be near the board. They will already be there in the first round.
• Roll the Tweedledee die and place it into the matching action area around the game board. It counts as a blue die.

When you take the Tweedledee die, you immediately take the Tweedledee card and figure.

• Place the Tweedledee card near your player board. It counts as an extra space on your player board. You take 7 dice in the round instead of 6.
• Place the Tweedledee figure into any region on the board, grouped with any of your soldiers in that region. The Tweedledee figure counts as 1 of your soldiers.

Tweedledum

During setup, place the Tweedledum card and figure near the board.

At the beginning of each round, return the Tweedledum card and figure to be near the board. They will already be there in the first round.

The first player to spend a mushroom to reroll 2+ dice each round immediately takes the Tweedledum card and figure.

• Place the Tweedledum card near your player board. You may take any number of dice from the Tweedledum figure's region, ignoring the rule to take as many dice as possible.
• Place the Tweedledum figure into any region on the board, grouped with any of your soldiers in that region. The Tweedledum figure counts as 1 of your soldiers.

Solo Mode

This section introduces an automated opponent to Rolling in Wonderland, so that you can play the game solo. You are referred to as you or the player, whereas your automated opponent is referred to as it or the bot.

Setup

1. Select a difficulty level (normal, hard, or expert). Select a color for the bot and complete setup as normal for a 2-player game, including dealing cards to both you and the bot.
2. Shuffle the 4 bot cards to form the bot deck. Place the bot deck face-down near the bot's player board.
3. You start as the first player.

Gameplay

The game follows the normal rules, with you and the bot taking alternating turns until you each have 6 dice on your player board. When you roll dice to begin each round, roll all dice on the bot's player board as well as your own.

Your turns are carried out as normal. The bot's turns are carried out using a deck of bot cards to determine how it selects an action area and uses mushrooms. The bot takes actions just as you do as the player, with the modifications below.

Bot Turn

On the bot's turn, reveal the top card of the bot deck, place it on top of a discard pile, and resolve it. If the bot deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to re-form the bot deck.

Each bot card defines a priority order of the action area from which the bot will take dice on its turn. Each row may contain the following information:

• The exact number of dice that the bot wants to take.
• The action area(s) from which the bot wants to take dice. If blank, the bot will select any action area.
• Whether the bot is willing to spend a mushroom to make the criteria above possible.

To resolve a bot card, work through each row from top to bottom, left to right. For each row, determine if it's possible for the bot to take the indicated number of dice from the indicated action area(s). If the row contains a mushroom icon, consider whether spending a single mushroom would make that row possible (either by moving dice into or away from the indicated action area). As soon as any end game trigger applies (including from the first turn of round 6), the bot considers every row to have a mushroom icon.

As soon as the bot finds a row that it can execute, it does so in the same way that you would as the player: by taking as many dice as possible from the indicated action area (spending a mushroom only if necessary), then taking the corresponding Wonderland character's action. When taking 4 or more dice, it gains the benefit of its special ability. If you determine that no row is possible for the bot to execute, then the bot selects the first action area containing at least one die that appears on the bot card from top to bottom, left to right.

If the bot wants to take 4+ dice and there are multiple action areas possible to select, the bot selects between them in the following ranked order:

1. The action area containing the most white dice.
2. The action area that first appears on the bot card from top to bottom, left to right.

Whenever the bot selects an action area containing more dice than it has spaces available, it selects dice in the following ranked order: white > blue > orange > purple > pink > green.

Mushrooms

The bot may spend a mushroom to turn a die to the face of its choice, but not to reroll dice.

When the bot spends a mushroom to manipulate a die into the action area from which it will take dice, it takes the die from the first action area containing a non-white die in clockwise order around the board from its selected action area.

When the bot spends a mushroom to manipulate a die away from the action area from which it will take dice, it moves the die to the next action area in clockwise order around the board, skipping over the Queen of Hearts.

The bot selects a die to manipulate in the following ranked order: blue > orange > purple > pink > green. Whenever the bot has 2 mushrooms and would gain another, it gains 1 VP for each mushroom that cannot be gained.

Actions

White Rabbit: Each die that the bot takes from the White Rabbit's action area moves its character 4 spaces forward, rather than the value matching the color of the die.

Caterpillar: Each die that the bot takes from the Caterpillar's action area moves its disc 2 spaces forward, rather than the value matching the color of the die.

Cheshire Cat tokens: For each benefit that the bot gains from Cheshire Cat tokens, it selects a token in the following ranked order:

1. The token that lets it place a soldier (if available).
2. The token that lets it draw an Objective card (if available).
3. The leftmost possible token that it has not yet selected this turn. The bot will therefore repeat a benefit on its turn only if the dice colors restrict it to do so.

Alice Challenge cards: When the bot gets to take a new Alice Challenge card, it does not do so if all three slots above its player board are already occupied.

The bot ignores die color when placing cubes onto Alice Challenge cards. For each cube that the bot gets to place, it selects an Alice Challenge card for that cube in the following ranked order:

1. The bot's Alice Challenge card with the most cubes on it already.
2. The bot's Alice Challenge card with the highest VP value. If there's a tie, select the leftmost tied card.

Soldiers: For each soldier that the bot gets to place onto the board, it selects a region for that soldier in the following ranked order:

1. The Jabberwocky's region, unless the bot already has the single greatest strength in that region.
2. The region with the highest gold VP value in which the bot has no soldiers.
3. The region with the highest gold VP value in which the bot does not have the single greatest strength. If there's a tie, select the tied region that appears first on the current bot card.
4. The Jabberwocky's region.

When the bot gets to move a soldier, it gains 1 VP instead. If the bot gets to place a soldier and has none remaining in its supply, it gains 1 VP instead.

Difficulty

When you perform final scoring, the bot scores VP just as you do as the player, with the following modifications. Reveal the Mad Hatter and Objective cards that the bot has collected. Instead of scoring them as normal, the bot gains VP tokens from them according to your selected difficulty.

	Normal	Hard	Expert
Mad Hatter card - Ongoing	2	3	4
Mad Hatter card - One Time Use	1	2	3
Objective card (modify the value of each card by the value shown)	-1	0	+1

Quick Reference

Dice Colors: White, Blue, Purple, Green, Pink, Orange. Each die has the same 6 faces. To ensure all players can easily tell them apart, some die colors include a small dot in one corner as an additional identifying marker.

The Quick Reference page also repeats the Gameplay sequence, the Mushrooms rules (turn a die / reroll dice; manipulated dice are immediately placed into the matching action area) and the End Game Triggers, all as given above.