Shogun no Katana: Wandering Characters Expansion Set
Shogun no Katana: Wandering Characters Expansion Set Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Setup
Place 4 Wandering Characters on the main gameboard at the beginning of the game. Each one must be placed in a space in one of the four areas at the corners of the board (Academy, Daimyō Houses, Market, Shōgun's Palace). To do so, shuffle the Wandering Character tiles and reveal one of them for each area. The Character placed in the Daimyō Houses area must be placed on the Sword tile with the lowest number (in the bottom right corner). The Characters placed in the other three areas must be placed in the leftmost space of each area.
Keep the Wandering Characters tiles near the board as a quick reference for the Characters' effects.
General Rule for the Wandering Characters
When you place a Worker or a Monk in a space with a Wandering Character:
- Move the Character to another empty space on the board or to a Sword tile in the Daimyō Houses area which has no Characters on it;
- Then immediately apply its effect before taking the action you selected. This means you cannot use Coins earned from the current action to pay the Character, if needed.
- If a Character requires you to pay a cost but you can't or don't want to pay it, you must move it anyway but you don't obtain its effect.
Choose carefully where to place the Character, because you might help the next player going after you, since they can use the Wandering Character just like you did!
PLEASE NOTE: If there is more than 1 Wandering Character in the same area, you can choose which one to activate by placing your Worker or Monk in the chosen Character's space.
PLEASE NOTE: You are not forced to choose a space with a Character. If there are one of more empty spaces in the same area, you can place your Worker or Monk there and the Wandering Character remains where it is, without being activated.
The Ghost Player
The Ghost player never activates Wandering Characters and treats spaces with Wandering Characters as occupied. This means that:
- If the Ghost player goes to the Daimyō Houses area, it doesn't consider any Sword with a Wandering Character on it when determining which one to choose.
- If the Ghost player goes to another area, it always places its Worker in an empty space, if available.
- If there are no empty spaces (or available Swords) in an area, it's considered an Occupied Area. This means that the Ghost will score extra points if it goes there. Think about this when you decide where to move a Wandering Character!
Character Effects
Unsuisō (Wandering Monk)
The Unsuisō comes with a set of 4 Bowl tiles. Give one of them to each player at the beginning of the game. When you encounter him, you may offer him 1 Coin by placing it in your Bowl, where it will remain until the end of the game. At the end of each round, score as many points as the number of Coins in your Bowl.
This character is not included in the Wandering Characters expansion set. It's a special Character originally included in the Kickstarter Deluxe Edition. You may purchase it separately.
Geisha
The Geisha comes with a set of 15 tokens (3 per type in 5 types). Shuffle the tokens and place 3 of them randomly on her tile, face up, and leave the others in a pile nearby, face down. When you encounter her, take one of the 3 tokens on her tile of your choice, then replace it with a token from her pile. Each token represents one of the arts she has mastered. At the end of the game, score the points shown on her tile for each set of different tokens you have.
The values shown on her tile are 1 / 2 / 4 / 7 / 11.
This character is not included in the Wandering Characters expansion set. It's a special Character originally included in the Kickstarter Deluxe Edition. You may purchase it separately.
Kaji (Master Forger)
The Kaji comes with a set of 12 cards. Shuffle them and place them on his tile, face down. When you encounter him, take 1 card and place it in your playing area, face up. Each card shows some specific spaces in your Forge, and can be played when you perform a Move Swords action to move a Sword that is in one of those spaces! The card can be played before or after you move any Sword which was activated by this action. You can use it to move a Sword you already moved again or a different one. It's possible to play multiple Kaji cards in the same action, but each one must be discarded after a single use.
Kanri (Shōgun's Official)
When you encounter the Kanri, you may spend 1 Coin to receive the benefit of any Room in the Palace, regardless of whether one of your Family Members is there.
PLEASE NOTE: The effect of the selected Room must be completed before taking your action, so if you encounter the Kanri at the Market, you cannot use his effect to select the Passive room related to the Market because you have not purchased the required Resource yet.
Kōgeika (Artist)
The Kōgeika comes with a set of 15 tokens (5 per type in 3 types). Shuffle the tokens and place 1 of them face up on her tile and leave the others in a pile nearby, face down. When you encounter her, take the token on her tile. You can use it immediately or keep it and use it later, as follows:
- Discard this token to advance one of your Decorators, of your choice.
- Discard this token to Decorate a Resource of your choice on a Sword in your Forge, following the normal rules (you receive Coins as normal).
- Keep this token until the end of the game. Each time you perform the Academy action, you get 1 additional Coin. If you have more than one of these tokens, receive 1 Coin for each of them.
After taking her token, replace it with another one from her pile.
Shinobi
When you encounter the Shinobi, you may spend 1 Coin to take a Daimyō or Market card visible on the board, of your choice.
Rōnin
When you encounter the Rōnin, you immediately score 1 point for each Sword still in your Forge.
Samurai
When you encounter the Samurai, you immediately score as many points as the Strength value of the strongest Sword still in your Forge.
Shōnin (Merchant)
When you encounter the Shōnin, you may immediately buy 1 Resource of your choice and pay 1 Coin less (i.e., you can take 1 Wood for free) or sell 1 Resource of your choice and get 1 Coin more than its cost.
Extra Rules
Promo Tiles
- During the Game Setup, shuffle the 4 tiles and randomly place them in the last/rightmost spaces of each row in the Academy (1 tile per row). Place them with the correct side up, according to the Resources shown on that tile.
- The first player whose Decorator reaches the last space of a row removes the tile from that row and immediately obtains the benefit, as follows:
- Take card(s) as shown on the tile, from all those visible on the board, of your choice.
- Take as many Coins as shown on the tile.
- Score as many Points as shown on the tile.
- Take 1 or 2 Sashimono(s) of your choice as shown on the tile and place them directly on the Sashimono area of your Washitsu board.
Metal Katana
- Place the Metal Katana near the board at the beginning of the game.
- Each time you Deliver a Sword, take the Metal Katana and place it on your Washitsu board, in the next space after the one where you just Delivered a Sword. If there is a Blocked Worker there, move it to your Available Workers area. You can use that Worker this round (even if you lose the Metal Katana before using it).
- At the end of each round, if the Metal Katana is in your area, you must decide whether to immediately score 4 points or to add 1 Resource of your choice to your Project for the Shogun (if your SHOGUN NO KATANA is already in play, you must decide to score 4 points), then return the Metal Katana to the center of the table.
- During the Restore Phase at the end of the Round, place a Worker in each visible Blocked Worker space without a Worker, if any.
- All the rules for the Metal Katana are also applied normally to the Ghost player. If the Ghost has the Metal Katana at the end of a round, it always chooses to score 4 points.