Shadow of the Obelisk Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Needed Components
• Setup
• Game Round
  • Player Turn
    • 1. Tick
    • 2. Write
  • Building the Obelisk
  • Carving Symbols
  • Scribing a Scroll
  • Renewal
• Game End
• Scoring
• Winner

Objective

By employing the most helpful workers, you will build your obelisk and decorate it with a variety of beautifully carved symbols. Scribe scrolls to receive additional points and powerful bonus actions. Be careful, however! As your obelisk rises in height, the shadow it casts will begin to obscure the symbols on your wall, making them unavailable for you to use!

Needed Components

• 12 worker tiles
• 1 game sheet and pencil per player

It may also be beneficial to have some form of first player marker (this can be anything: a coin, a token … although a life-size obelisk might be a bit cumbersome to use).

Note: Before playing Shadow of the Obelisk for the first time, you need to print out the 12 worker tiles. We recommend that you mount them on a piece of cardboard or plasticard first. You will also need to print out one game sheet per player in the game. Each player will also need a pen or pencil to mark their progress.

Example: Single game sheet. The game sheet shows the obelisk, the wall, and the scrolls. The scrolls are the three boxes on the left. The obelisk is the tall column in the centre, and the wall is the grid of symbols on the right.

Setup

1. Give each player a single game sheet and a pen or a pencil.
2. Shuffle all 12 worker tiles face down. Draw and lay out 3 of them, face up, onto the table, forming the worker pool. When placing the workers, make sure they are oriented the same way.
3. The player who most recently built a sand castle becomes the starting player. Alternatively, you may determine the starting player using a method of your choosing. Give the starting player the first player token.

Example: A correctly laid out worker pool.

Game Round

Shadow of the Obelisk is played over a series of rounds during which the players will take one turn each.

Each round begins with the first player taking their turn. Once all players have taken their turn, a Renewal step will take place before beginning a new round. Once the game end condition has been met, play will continue until the end of the current round.

Player Turn

A player turn consists of two steps: Tick and Write.

1. Tick

The active player must select a single worker and rotate it one step clockwise.

Example: Rotating (ticking) a worker one step.

2. Write

All players must write a symbol onto their game sheet.

• The active player copies (draws) the shape depicted at the top of the ticked worker onto their sheet.
• All other players copy (draw) the shape depicted at the bottom of the ticked worker onto their sheet.

Note: The Write step should preferably be carried out simultaneously by all players.

There are three possible locations where you can use the shape, but you may only draw the shape once, choosing between:

• Building the Obelisk
• Carving Symbols
• Scribing a Scroll (The shape must be a square!)

Once all players have had a chance to mark their shapes, the turn passes to the next player (who becomes the new active player).

Building the Obelisk

The shape must fit fully on the obelisk and may not overlap any portion of a previously marked shape or overhang the sides of the obelisk. The shape must also rest on top of any previously marked shape, or the base of the obelisk itself.

You may freely rotate or mirror the shape before marking it on your game sheet.

When drawing the shape, only mark the outline! Note: You will be filling these spaces with symbols later!

Example: Example of a valid placement.

Example: The red shape cannot be placed there as it does not rest on top of a previously marked shape or the base of the obelisk itself. The green shapes all represent valid placements.

Example: Marking the outlines of the shapes to allow room for Carving Symbols later.

If your placement creates an closed area, no other shape may be placed there. Cross out any such spaces immediately. You will not be able to fill these spaces with symbols later.

Example: No other shapes can be built within these areas, so they must be crossed out.

As your obelisk grows taller it will eventually reach (by touching or crossing over the line) the next level. When this happens, immediately mark points for reaching that level (depending on whether you were the first, second, or third player to reach that level). You receive no points for being the fourth player to reach a particular level.

Note: The printed text does not list the point values per level. The game sheet illustration on page 1 shows them as labels beside the obelisk: 3/2/1 for the lowest level, 5/3/1 for the middle level, and 8/5/3 for the top level (first/second/third player to reach that level).

Example: After placing the green shape, you see that it touches the line of the next level? This means your obelisk has reached the next level. Being the first to reach this level, you immediately mark 3 points.

Whenever you reach a new obelisk level, the height of your obelisk begins to cast its shadow higher and higher on the nearby wall. All symbols on this level are now in the shadow and you may no longer use them. We suggest crossing them out to show that they are unavailable.

Note: The height of your obelisk has no impact on the walls belonging to other players. Only the symbols on your own game sheet become unavailable as a result of the newly attained height.

Example: Your obelisk has reached the next level. As a result, the crossed-out symbols on the wall are no longer available.

Carving Symbols

The shape must fit fully on the wall and may not overlap any portion of a previously marked shape or overhang the sides of the wall.

You may freely rotate or mirror the shape before marking it on your game sheet.

You may also place the shape anywhere on your wall and are not restricted to starting from the bottom.

After drawing the shape on your wall, you must immediately copy the outlined symbols from your wall to an already built portion of your obelisk:

• The symbols may not be rearranged.
• You may place this group of symbols (as a group) anywhere inside the outlined areas of your obelisk.

Note: All outlined (previously built) spaces of your obelisk are treated as a single connected area. In other words, if you are using a square shape to mark symbols on the wall, you are not required to have a square outline on your obelisk. You must, however, be able to fit the square group of symbols so that they all overlay outlined (but otherwise empty) spaces previously drawn on your obelisk.

Example: You decide to mark the green area on the wall.

Example: You immediately copy the symbols to a previously built portion of your obelisk, without rearranging them.

Scribing a Scroll

The shape must be a square!

The shape must fit fully on the wall and may not overlap any portion of a previously marked shape or overhang the sides of the wall.

You may place the shape anywhere on your wall and are not restricted to starting from the bottom.

After drawing the shape on your wall, you must immediately copy the outlined symbols from your wall to the bottom-most empty scroll.

Immediately mark its point value (3 points for the bottom scroll, 6 points for the middle scroll, and 9 points for the top scroll).

During one of your future turns, you may activate the scroll. To do so:

1. Cross out the circle next to the scroll (to show that it has been used).
2. Immediately perform a bonus action during which you Tick one of the available workers and use the shape depicted at the top of the ticked worker as normal.

Note: Other players do not get to use the shape depicted at the bottom of the worker. This is a bonus action during which you are the only one who gets to use the shape.

Note: Each scroll can only be used once.

Example: On your turn, you decide to tick a worker and use the square shape on your wall. However, instead of copying the symbols to your obelisk, you copy them to the bottom scroll on your game sheet. Not only will you score 3 points at the end of the game; on one of your future turns, you can perform a bonus action to Tick one of the workers and perform a second Write step, for your own benefit only.

Renewal

After each player has taken one turn (that is, been the active player once during the round), the last player must choose to discard one of the workers from the pool.

Place the discarded worker tile face-down underneath the worker tile stack and draw a new worker as a replacement. The newly added worker should be placed face-up, oriented the same way as during setup.

Example: The newly added worker is oriented this direction, regardless of the orientation of the other two workers in the pool.

The first player token then passes, clockwise, to the next player who begins a new round.

Game End

As soon as any player reaches the top level of the obelisk, the end of the game is triggered. The current round will be the final round of the game. Continue playing until all players have taken an equal number of turns, then proceed to scoring.

Scoring

Each player will begin by scoring their obelisk.

For each column in your obelisk: Choose one of the symbols. Count how many times that symbol appears within the column. You score that many points.

Note: The column does not have to be completely built, nor does it need to be completely filled with symbols. However, only actual symbols count. Empty or crossed out spaces should not be counted.

For each row in your obelisk: Count how many different symbols appear in the row. Score 3/5/8/13 points for having 2/3/4/5 different symbols.

Note: The row does not have to be completely built, nor does it need to be completely filled with symbols. However, only actual symbols count. Empty or crossed out spaces should not be counted.

Finally, add any points you have marked for reaching various obelisk levels or filling scrolls.

Winner

The player with the highest number of points is the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the fewest empty spaces remaining wins the game. In case of a further tie, the players rejoice in their unlikely matchup as joint master builders!