Sand Art Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Overview
  • What Happens in a Turn?
  • 1. Move Your Hand
  • 2. Take an Action
• The Workbench
  • Gaining Sand
  • Pouring Sand
  • A Few Rules About Pouring Sand
  • Mixing Sand
  • Shake It Up!
• Bottle Sheet Abilities
• Ending the Game
  • Tie-Breaker
• Scoring the Game
  • Layers Cards
  • Objective Cards

Components

• 3 Point Layers cards × 12
• 5 Point Layers cards × 18
• Workbench cards × 10
• Double-sided Hand markers × 4 (one per player)
• Pattern Objective cards × 18
• Color Objective cards × 6
• Pad of Bottle sheets
• Set of six colored pencils × 4 (one set per player)
• First Finished card
• First Player marker

Game Setup

1. Give each player a Bottle sheet, a set of six colored pencils (one of each color), and a Hand marker.
2. Create the Workbench: Set aside the two Workbench cards marked 3 and 5.
   • For 2 players: Remove the cards marked with a 3-player or 4-player symbol and return them to the box. Shuffle the remaining six Workbench cards and place them face-up in a row.
   • For 3 or 4 players: Keep the card marked with the symbol that matches the number of players (3-player or 4-player symbol). Remove the card with the symbol that does not match and return it to the box. Shuffle the remaining seven Workbench cards and place them face-up in a row.
3. Place the Workbench card marked 3 face-up to the left of the Workbench row and the card marked 5 face-up to the right of the row to form the ends of the Workbench.
4. Shuffle the 3 Point Layers cards and place them face-down beside the 3 Workbench card to form a deck. Reveal the top two cards and place them face-up beside the deck.
5. Shuffle the 5 Point Layers cards and place them face-down beside the 5 Workbench card to form a deck. Reveal the top two cards and place them face-up beside the deck.
6. Create the Objective Lineup: Place all six Color Objective cards face-up in a row above the Workbench.
7. Place the First Finished card above the Color Objectives. Shuffle the Pattern Objective cards. Deal three cards and place them face-up in a row beside the First Finished card. Return the unused Objective cards to the box.
8. Choose a player to receive the First Player marker using any method you wish.
9. Starting with the First Player and continuing clockwise, each player places their Hand marker on their choice of the left or right end of the Workbench. The thumb on each Hand marker must face inward toward the row of Workbench cards. You are now ready to play!

Note: In a 2-player game, players must begin on opposite sides of the Workbench.

Example setup for 2 players (the rulebook's setup diagram shows the steps numbered 1–9 above).

Playing the Game

Overview

Your goal is to collect and mix colored sand to pour into your sand art bottle, creating designs that match your objectives for colors, patterns, and layers. You score points for each completed objective. The game ends once someone completely fills their bottle, and the player with the highest score wins!

The person who has the First Player marker takes the first turn, and play proceeds clockwise.

What Happens in a Turn?

Your turn has two parts. First, you must move your Hand marker to a new location, then take an action available at that location.

1. Move Your Hand

Your Hand marker shows your current location on the Workbench. On your turn, you must move your Hand marker to a different location in the direction its thumb is pointing. When you place your Hand marker in a new location, you must flip the marker over so the thumb points in the opposite direction. In this way, your Hand marker can move back and forth across the Workbench.

Most Workbench cards have two locations, top and bottom. You cannot place your Hand marker in a location already occupied by another player. The exceptions are the cards at the end of the Workbench, which have only one location (no top and bottom) but can contain any number of Hand markers.

Example: Blue player's turn. The Yellow player already occupies the bottom of the card, but the top is available, so Blue moves to that location and flips over their Hand marker.

Special Action — Layers Card Locations: The locations at each end of the Workbench have a special action, allowing you to gain one of the face-up Layers cards from that end. When you take a Layers card, immediately reveal a new one from the matching deck to replace it.

Important: Unlike normal Workbench locations, you can visit the ends of the Workbench even when other players are there.

2. Take an Action

Once you have moved your Hand marker, take one action at the new location. There are four types of standard action available:

• GAIN sand of the color and number of scoops shown.
• MIX sand to create secondary colors.
• POUR sand to fill sections of your sand art bottle.
• SHAKE IT UP to spread the sand already in your bottle.

These actions are described in detail on the next page.

The Workbench

Workbench cards offer actions you can take on your turn. You can gain sand, pour sand, mix sand, shake your bottle (gently!), or gain a new Layers card by visiting either end of the Workbench.

Most Workbench cards have two locations, top and bottom (except for the cards at the end of the Workbench).

Note: Some Workbench locations have more than one type of action (for example, the card shown below allows Mixing or Pouring sand in the top location, and Gaining or Pouring sand in the bottom location).

After choosing which location to visit, you must choose which single type of action to take within that location. You cannot take more than one of the types of action offered.

Gaining Sand

GAIN sand actions show a sand scoop icon and a number.

When you gain a number of scoops of sand in a particular color, mark that number of empty boxes in the Sand Supply Shelf for that color.

Be sure to mark the sand you gain using only a single line across the box. Later, when you use that sand, you will use a second line to cross out that box.

Example: If you choose the Workbench location with the 5 Red Scoops icon, mark five boxes in the red supply section on your Bottle sheet using diagonal lines, to show you have five scoops of red sand available.

Some Workbench locations have icons for scoops of more than one color. Because they are part of the same GAIN action, you are allowed to take both colors.

Example: If you choose the location with the 3 Blue Scoops and 3 Yellow Scoops icons, mark three boxes in each of the blue and yellow supply sections on your Bottle sheet as shown.

Some Workbench locations offer a choice of multiple colors of sand. You can choose any combination of the colors shown, up to the total amount of sand shown by the number on that location.

Sand Limit: The Sand Supply Shelf sets the limit for the amount of sand you are allowed to use. If you mark every box of one color in your Shelf, you can no longer gain sand of that color.

Pouring Sand

POURING sand is where the fun begins! These actions allow you to start working towards earning points by moving sand from your supply into your bottle.

Workbench locations that allow you to pour sand show a funnel icon. Funnels of a specific color can only be used to pour sand of that color. A gray funnel can be used to pour sand of any one color each time you use it.

A Few Rules About Pouring Sand

• Work from the bottom up.
• Pouring sand must not defy the laws of gravity, meaning you can never have an empty section below a filled section in your bottle.
• When pouring sand into a section, you must fill the entire section. Each section is marked with a number of dots indicating the amount of sand from your supply needed to fill that section.
• Filling the small sections that have no dots uses no sand from your supply, but they may only be filled while you are filling a connected section, and they must be filled with the same color as that section.

Wrong color for no-dot section. Floating sand.

To pour sand, use a pencil of the color you are pouring to color in one or more sections at the lowest empty level of the bottle. Mark x's on the Sand Supply Shelf for that color to cross out the amount of sand used in that pour.

You may pour up to 5 dots of a single color using one Pour action. All the sand in a single pour must flow through a connected set of sections. Sections are connected when they share a side — if they only touch at a pointy tip, they are not connected.

Example: This filled-in section of the bottle uses a total of 3 sand, so you must cross out three squares in the red sand section of your shelf.

Mixing Sand

Sand MIXING actions have three icons. By adding the first two colors together you produce the third color.

Mixing sand allows players to mix red, yellow, or blue primary-colored sand from their supply to create secondary-colored sand — purple, green, and orange.

Red plus yellow equals orange: 2 red plus 2 yellow equals 2 orange.

You may use a Mix action to create as many scoops as you wish of a single secondary sand color by crossing out equal amounts from your supply of the two primary colors involved. Then, mark that same amount of sand available for the secondary color in your supply. (Some sand is inevitably spilled in the mixing process!)

Shake It Up!

SHAKE IT UP actions show this bottle icon and allow you to do one or both of these options:

• SPREAD EXTRA SAND without taking it from your supply. You can fill up to 2 additional dots with the same color as sand from the top sections of your bottle. The new sand must be connected to an existing section of that color. You can fill up to two different 1-dot sections or one 2-dot section. You may also fill any connected 0-dot sections at the same time.
• SHAKE UP LAYERS CARDS by discarding both Layers cards from one end of the Workbench (left or right) and replacing them with two new Layers cards from the matching deck.

Bottle Sheet Abilities

Filling your bottle up to or above one of the levels marked on the left side of the bottle activates the ability shown at that level. You can use that ability for the remainder of the game, starting on your next turn. You must fill sand all the way across the bottle at that level to activate the ability.

• GAIN 1 EXTRA SAND: Gain 1 extra sand whenever you use a GAIN action. The extra sand must be a color you gained using that action. This ability does not apply to MIX actions.

  Example: If you gained 1 red scoop, gain 1 extra red scoop. If you gained 1 red, 1 yellow, and 2 blue scoops, you may choose to gain 1 extra scoop of red OR yellow OR blue, but only one of them.

• DOUBLE ARROW: After you move to a location, you may choose not to flip your Hand marker. This allows you to continue moving in the same direction the next time you move. This does not apply to the Workbench end locations.

• HAND: You may move your Hand marker one extra time each turn and take another action at the new location.

• UP/DOWN: When you move your Hand marker, you may move to the other location within your current Workbench card without leaving the card first. You must still flip your Hand marker after the movement. This ability does not apply to the Workbench end locations.

Ending the Game

The first player to completely fill their bottle takes the First Finished card. Play continues until it is the First Player's turn again, so all players get an equal number of turns, then the game ends and players score their bottles. The player with the most points wins!

Tie-Breaker

• If there is a tie, the tied player with the fewest unfilled dots in their bottle is the winner.
• If still tied, the tied player with the most remaining sand available to use in their supply is the winner.
• If there is still a tie... that's quite amazing, and you deserve to share the victory!

Scoring the Game

Layers cards and Objectives provide different ways to score points.

Layers Cards

A Layers card belongs to the player who collected it. To score points from your Layers card, the side of your bottle must be filled to match the order of layers shown on the card exactly.

• You can score the same Layers card more than once.
• You can use the same sand to score different Layers cards, even if they overlap.
• You cannot use the same sand to score the same Layers card more than once.

Objective Cards

Cards above the Workbench are shared objectives for all players.

• FIRST FINISHED: Only one player can score the First Finished card, even if other players complete their bottle before the end.
• COLOR OBJECTIVES: Players add up the number of dots in their bottle that are covered by the indicated color. The player who has covered the most dots of that color scores the points for the objective. If there is a tie, all tied players score the points.
• PATTERN OBJECTIVES: More than one player can complete the same Pattern Objective card, and a player can complete the same pattern multiple times in their bottle if they wish.
  • You cannot use the same sand to score the same pattern objective more than once. You must have another completely separate copy of the pattern in your bottle.
  • The pattern must be an exact match and have no extra sand of the same color touching the pattern.
  • Some patterns are shown in gray — you can complete those in any color you wish, but the whole pattern must be completed using the same color.
  • You score more points for completing gray patterns in secondary colors (purple, orange, or green) than primary colors (red, yellow, or blue).

Example: The pattern "Helix" scores 13 points when completed in purple, orange, or green. The same pattern scores 7 points when completed in red, yellow, or blue.