Spellbloom Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Overview
• Card Anatomy & Symbology
  • Spell cards
  • Task cards
  • Spellbooks
  • Island Board
• Setup
• How to Play
• Learn
  • Bonus actions
    • Change die value
    • Use a Guide die
    • Discard Spells from the Island board
    • Activate Spells
  • Adding Spells to your Spellbook
    • Placement bonuses
    • Sigils
    • Completing a row of Spells in a Spellbook
• Rest
• End of the Game
• Scoring
• Solo Mode
  • Scenarios
• Spell Descriptions
• Task Descriptions

Contents

• 105 cards (75 Spell cards and 30 Task cards)
• 35 Mana tokens
• 1 First Player token
• 1 Island board
• 4 wooden scoring markers (1 in each player color)
• 30 wooden Energy dice (5 sets of 6 different colors)
• 8 Point tokens (2 in each player color; 50, 100, 150, 200)
• 1 Rulebook
• 4 Player boards/Spellbooks (1 in each player color)

Game Overview

Spellbloom is a tableau-building, open drafting game in which players learn new Spells to score the most Knowledge points.

During the game, players take turns rolling and using Energy dice to learn new Spells and collect them into their Spellbook. Each Spell has a unique effect that helps players learn other new Spells or score Knowledge points. However, players might run out of Energy dice, so they may have to rest on their turn to refresh Spells and reroll their Energy dice.

The game ends after at least one player places a 10th spell in that player's Spellbook. The player with the most Knowledge points becomes the mage to whom the bloom will appear and grant immense power.

Card Anatomy & Symbology

There are two types of cards in Spellbloom - Spell cards and Task cards. There are two types of effects - those you may activate during your turn and those that give extra Knowledge Points at the end of the game.

Spell effects that may be activated during a player's turn show a bottle icon in the center of the Spell card. Effects that score points at the end of the game have a brown background.

Spell cards

1. Knowledge point value
2. Element of the Spell (Water, Fire, Wind, Mountain, Forest)
3. Color of the Spell (orange, pink, purple, teal, brown)
4. Two halves of a sigil (Circle, Triangle, Square), one on the left and one on the right side of the card
5. Card effect

Task cards

1. Knowledge point value
2. Requirements

Spellbooks

Each player has their own Spellbook which shows:

1. Player color
2. 10 card slots
3. 6 placement bonuses
4. 4 half sigils
5. Available Energy dice area
6. Used Energy dice area
7. Reminders

Island Board

1. Score track
2. Available Guide dice area
3. Used Guide dice area
4. 6 regions (Reefs, Snowlands, Grove, Desert, Volcano, Gorge)

Setup

1. Place the Island board at the center of the playing area.
2. Each player chooses a player color, takes the matching Spellbook, and then places it in front of their play areas.
3. Each player takes a set of 6 Energy dice (1 in each color), rolls them, and then places them in the Available dice area on their Spellbook. Dice in this area are the player's available Energy dice.
4. Take an additional set of 6 Energy dice, roll them, and place them on the Available Guide dice area on the Island board. Dice on the Island board are called Guide dice.
5. Shuffle all Spell cards and randomly place 6 of them face up on the Island board, 1 in each region. Place the remaining Spell cards face down as the Spell deck next to the Island board.
6. Shuffle all Task cards and deal 2 to each player. Players look at their Task cards and keep them face down next to their Spellbook. They may look at their own cards at any time during the game. Place the remaining Task cards face down as the Task deck next to the Island board.
7. Each player places the scoring marker of their color on the 0 space of the score track. Each player places both point tokens of their color next to the Island board.
8. Each player takes 2 Mana tokens and places them into their Personal Supply next to their Spellbook. Place the rest of them next to the Island board as the General Supply.
9. The player who most recently smelled a flower takes the First Player token. They become the first player.
10. Put any remaining Spellbooks, Energy dice and scoring markers back into the box.

How to Play

Starting with the first player, players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn, you must take 1 of 2 possible actions: Learn or Rest.

Learn

This is the main action of the game taken to learn new Spells and complete your Spellbook. You may learn only one Spell per turn. When learning, you may also take bonus actions (see Bonus actions).

To learn a new spell, you must follow these 4 steps below.

Step 1: Choose 1 Energy die in your Available Energy dice area. It becomes the Difficulty die. The color of the Difficulty die determines which of the 6 Island regions you may learn a Spell from. The 6 regions are marked with matching color borders. The blue die lets you learn a Spell from the Reefs, white die from the Snowlands, green die from the Grove, yellow die from the Desert, red die from the Volcano, and black die from the Gorge.

Step 2: Then, choose 1 or more of your available Energy dice as Provision dice from your Available Energy dice area. The sum of the values of the chosen Provision dice must exactly match the value of the Difficulty die.

Important: If you choose exactly 2 Provision dice, you take 2 Mana tokens from the General Supply. If you choose 3 or more Provision dice, you immediately score 3 Knowledge points. If you choose exactly 1 Provision die, you do not get any additional bonuses.

Note: Whenever you score 1 or more Knowledge points, move your scoring marker that many spaces on the score track on the Island board.

If you cross the 0-point mark on the score track:

• First time - take a Point token matching your color showing "50" and place it next to your Spellbook to indicate an additional 50 points.
• Second time - flip the Point token next to your Spellbook to show "100".
• Third time - replace your Point token with one showing "150".
• Fourth time - flip the Point token next to your Spellbook to show "200".

Step 3: Next, take the Spell from the region matching your Difficulty die's color and place it on any empty card slot in your Spellbook. Score the Knowledge points, shown in the top left corner of the Spell card (see Adding Spells to your Spellbook).

Step 4: Lastly, place all used Energy dice (both Difficulty and Provision) in your Spellbook's Used Energy dice area and refill the empty region on Island board with a face-up Spell card from the Spell deck.

Example: Jadis decides to learn a Spell from the Snowlands. She chooses her white "5" die from her Available Energy dice area as the Difficulty die. To learn the Spell, she needs to choose Provision dice from her Available Energy dice area with a total value of 5. She chooses her red "2" die and green "3" die. Then she takes the Spell card from the Snowlands and places it in an empty card slot on her Spellbook. She scores 2 points as it's shown in the Spell's top left corner. She places all 3 dice (white, red, green) to the Used Energy dice area on her Spellbook. Since Jadis used exactly 2 Provision dice, she also takes 2 Mana tokens from the General Supply. Lastly, she refills the Snowlands region with a face up Spell from the top of the Spell deck.

Bonus actions

During the learn action, you may take 1 or more of the following bonus actions:

• Change die value
• Use a Guide die (limit - once per turn)
• Discard Spells from the Island board (limit - once per turn)
• Activate Spells

Change die value

If you cannot match the exact value of the Difficulty die with your available Energy dice, you may use Mana tokens to match a value. On your turn you may spend 1 or more Mana tokens by placing them back into the General Supply. Each spent Mana token allows you to increase or decrease the value of 1 of your Difficulty or Provision dice by 1.

Important: You must rotate the die, to show the new value. The value can never be above 6 or below 1. You cannot increase the value of a die showing "6", so it becomes a "1", and vice versa.

Example: Mal wants to learn the orange Fire Spell from the Grove. His green die has a value of 3, however, he cannot match it with any of his available Energy dice. So he spends 1 Mana token to change the value of his yellow die from 4 to 3. Now he may use the yellow 3 die as a Provision die to learn the Spell from the Grove.

Use a Guide die

Once per turn, you may use a Guide dice on the Island to help. To do so, you must spend 1 Mana token from your Personal Supply by placing it back to the General Supply. Then choose 1 Guide die from the Available Guide dice area on the Island board. During this turn, you may use the chosen Guide die as your Difficulty or Provision die. After learning the Spell, you must place the chosen Guide die in the Used Guide dice area on the Island board.

Note: Whenever there is 1 or no Guide die in the Available Guide dice area, you may reroll all Guide dice (from both areas) and place them in the Available Guide dice area on the Island board.

Example: Chandra wants to learn the Spell from the Volcano region, but her red die has already been used. However, there is a red "5" Guide die available on the Island board. She spends 1 of her Mana tokens to use the red Guide die as her Difficulty die. Then she uses her black "2" die and white "2" die as Provision dice. As the sum of their values is only 4, she spends another Mana token to increase the value of the white die by 1. Then she takes the Spell from the Volcano and places it into her Spellbook. She places the red Guide die in the Used Guide dice area on the Island board and her white and black dice in the Used dice area on her Spellbook. Since she used 2 dice as Provision dice, she takes 2 Mana tokens from the General Supply.

Discard Spells from the Island board

Once per turn you may spend 1 Mana token from your Personal Supply to discard all Spell cards in either a column or a row of your choice from the Island board (not your Spellbook). Remove these cards from the Island board and place them at the bottom of the Spell deck in random order. Then, fill all empty regions from left to right, or from top to bottom with cards from the top of the Spell deck.

Example: Stephen is left with only 2 Energy dice, blue and yellow. He does not like the Spell on the Reefs or the Spell on the Desert, so he decides to spend 1 of his Mana tokens to discard both of them. He places them at the bottom of the Spell deck and draws 2 new Spells from the top of the Spell deck, placing the first on the Reefs (top region) and the second on the Desert (bottom region).

Activate Spells

Each Spell card in your Spellbook grants you some kind of effect. Spell card effects with a brown background score Knowledge points at the end of the game and cannot be activated during the game. Spells of cards with a bottle icon in the center can be activated on your turn. These Spells can score additional Knowledge points, manipulate dice, or gain Mana tokens.

Note: You may only activate Spells you have in your Spellbook.

To activate a Spell, you must take 1 Mana token from the General Supply and place it on a Spell card with a free bottle icon. Then you resolve the effect of the Spell card (see Spell descriptions). You may activate multiple Spells in one turn, even the one you learned this turn.

You cannot activate Spells that already have a Mana token on them (i.e. have been used in this or previous turn).

Note: Activated Spells effect apply only once and only in the current turn.

Note: Mana tokens on your Spells stay there until you take the Rest action (see Rest). You cannot spend Mana tokens on Spell cards.

Example: Vivienne is learning a Spell from the Gorge. She chooses the black "2" die as Difficulty die and the white "2" die as Provision die. Since she has a Spell that allows her to score 2 Knowledge points for learning a Spell from the Gorge, she activates its effect by placing a Mana token from the General Supply onto that card. After scoring 2 points and placing the Spell into her Spellbook, she uses another Spell's effect that allows her to reroll the black die and place it in her Available Energy dice area. She puts a Mana token from the General Supply on the Spell, rolls the black die and places it back into her Available Energy dice area.

Adding Spells to your Spellbook

After you have successfully learned a new Spell, you must place it into any empty card slot in your Spellbook. However, there are several things to consider when deciding on the best slot: placement bonuses, sigils, and completing rows.

Placement bonuses

Each Spellbook has 10 card slots. The 6 card slots in the center show placement bonuses. Each placement bonus asks for a specific Spell color or element. Whenever you place a Spell on one of those 6 slots you must check if the Spell matches the conditions of the placement bonus. If it does, you score 2 Knowledge points.

Example: Harry just learned the orange Fire Spell. He decides to put it in the second to left slot of the top row, which shows a placement bonus for orange Spells. By doing so he scores 2 Knowledge points.

Sigils

Each Spell card has a half of a sigil on its left and right side. There are 3 types of sigils - Circle, Triangle, and Square. A completed sigil is made up of 2 adjacent cards or a card and a half sigil printed on the Spellbook with the same type of sigil on their touching sides. At the end of the game, you score 2 points for each completed sigil in your Spellbook.

Example: After learning a new Spell, Nicolas decides to put it on the teal placement bonus slot even though his new Spell is a purple Water Spell. He can do so, but he does not score the 2 extra Knowledge points for the placement bonus. However, his newly placed Spell completes a Triangle sigil on the left and a Circle sigil on the right side of the card. Each completed sigil scores him 2 Knowledge points at the end of the game.

Note: There are 75 Spells in the game. Each of the 5 colors and 5 elements are represented equally. There are 15 Spells of each color and element, and there are 3 Spells with each of the 25 unique combinations of elements and colors (there are 3 orange Fire Spells, 3 orange Water Spells, etc.)

Note: Each of the 3 sigil types are represented equally in the game. There are 25 halves of each type on both left and right sides of the cards.

Completing a row of Spells in a Spellbook

There are 2 rows of 5 card slots in each Spellbook. As soon as you have cards in all 5 slots of any row for the first time in the game, you immediately draw 2 Task cards from the Task deck and add them to your Task cards. You must then discard 1 Task card from your hand (it may be a Task card gained during setup or one you just received). Place the discarded card at the bottom of the Task deck. You do not gain Task cards for completing your second row.

Players may gain Task cards on different turns during the game. While one player might put their first 5 Spells in one row, other players may divide them among both rows.

Example: Shaz learns a new Spell and places the card into his Spellbook. As he completes the upper row of his Spellbook, he draws 2 Task cards from the Task deck. Since he likes both Tasks he drew, he decides to discard 1 of the Task cards he received during setup. He places that card at the bottom of the Task deck.

Note: Each player will end the game with a maximum of 3 Task cards. The 2 they get during setup and then 2 after completing the first row in their Spellbook. However, they must discard 1 Task after receiving 2 Tasks for completing the first row in their Spellbook.

Rest

If you cannot or do not want to learn a Spell, you must take the Rest action. When taking the Rest action, you must follow these 3 steps:

Step 1: Reroll all 6 of your Energy dice and place them in your Available Energy dice area.

Step 2: Remove all Mana tokens from your Spell cards and place them in your Personal Supply.

Step 3: Take 1 additional Mana token from the General Supply and place it in your Personal Supply.

Then, your turn ends.

Note: You cannot take any bonus actions when resting.

Example: Alina has only her yellow die available. Since she has no Mana token to use a Guide die, she cannot take the Learn action, so she has to rest. She rolls all 6 of her Energy dice and puts them in her Available Energy dice area. Then she takes both Mana tokens from her Spells and 1 additional Mana token from the General Supply. Since she is not allowed to take any bonus actions, she ends her turn.

End of the Game

When any player places their 10th Spell into their Spellbook, that player finishes the turn, and the other players take their turns (depending on the turn order) until every player has had the same number of turns (the last player to take a turn is the player to the right of the player with the First Player token). Then the game ends. Proceed with scoring.

Scoring

In addition to each player's current Knowledge points on the score track, each player scores points for:

• End game Spell effects in their Spellbook (brown background, see Spell descriptions)
• Completed personal Task cards (see Task descriptions)
• 1 point for every 2 Mana tokens in their personal supply
• 2 points for each completed sigil in their Spellbook

Note: Mana tokens on Spell cards are worth no Knowledge points.

The player with the most Knowledge points wins the game. If two or more players are tied, the tied player with the most completed sigils is the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied player with more Mana tokens in their Personal Supply wins. In the unlikely event that they are still tied, the tied players share the victory.

Solo Mode

You play through a series of scenarios. You unlock the next scenario by meeting the conditions of the previous one.

Set up the game as usual, but only for yourself. For your first game choose the scenario "The Placement". Familiarize yourself with the scenario's special rules that must be used during the game.

Take your turns as usual with the following exceptions.

1. Before the start of your turn, if there are no Guide dice in the Available Guide dice area, you must reroll all Guide dice and place them in the Available Guide dice area.
2. Move the lowest value available Guide die to the Used Guide dice area. If more than 1 Guide die has the lowest value, you choose which one to move.
3. Then you discard the Spell card from the region matching the moved Guide die's color. Immediately replace it with a face up card from the Spell deck.
4. Instead of putting discarded cards at the bottom of the Spell deck, place them next to the Island board side by side in a 4x3 grid. These cards act as a timer where you only have at most 12 turns.
5. When there are 12 discarded Spells next to the Island board, you take your last turn. Then the game ends.

Note: If you collect 10 Spells in your Spellbook before there are 12 discarded Spells next to the Island board, the game ends immediately at the end of your turn.

Important: Treat discarded Spell cards as Spells of another player when activating your own Spells.

Example: You have a Spell in your Spellbook that gives you 6 points if you have more purple Spells in your Spellbook than in any other Spellbook. To score this Spell you must have more purple Spells in your Spellbook than there are discarded purple Spells next to the Island board.

At the end of the game, compare your score to the scenario's target score. If your score is equal or greater than the target score, you have completed the scenario and may proceed to the next one. After completing a scenario you may tick the "Completed" box at the bottom of the scenario description.

Scenarios

1. The Placement. Special rules: You must place all of your Spells in the leftmost empty card slot in your Spellbook. You must finish the first row before you start the second. Target score: 85 Knowledge points.

2. The Spells. Special rules: You cannot activate Spells of colors that match any discarded Spell next to the Island board. Target score: 90 Knowledge points.

3. The Mana. Special rules: After learning a Spell with bottle icon on it, place 1 Mana token from the General Supply on that Spell card and move 1 Mana token from another Spell of the same element to your Personal Supply (if possible). You do not remove any Mana tokens from Spells during the Rest action. Target score: 80 Knowledge points.

4. The Guides. Special rules: The Difficulty die value before modification must always match at least 1 die in the Available Guide dice area. Target score: 75 Knowledge points.

5. The Bonuses. Special rules: You can only place Spells on the 6 card slots in the center of your Spellbook if they match the placement bonus conditions. Your Spellbook's leftmost and rightmost slots have no placing restrictions. Target score: 85 Knowledge points.

6. The Sigils. Special rules: When you place a Spell card that does not match all adjacent sigils, immediately flip it over and place it face down. Face-down Spells count as having 2 halves of any 2 sigils of your choice, but the Spell does not score any points nor can it be activated. Target score: 80 Knowledge points.

7. The Dice. Special rules: When learning a Spell, you must always use at least 2 Provision dice. Target score: 85 Knowledge points.

8. The Tasks. Special rules: There are no Task cards in this scenario. After setup, choose 1 element and 1 color. At the end of the game if you have less than 4 Spells in your Spellbook with the chosen element and less than 4 Spells with the chosen color, you lose the Scenario. Target score: 80 Knowledge points.

Spell Descriptions

Spell effects are shown as icons on the cards; the appendix text explains each type. Each entry below is one effect type.

• You increase or decrease the value of 1 black Difficulty or Provision die by 1 or 2. A die value can never be above 6 or below 1. Similar icons are used for dice in other colors.
• You score 2 Knowledge points after learning a Spell from the Reef region. Similar icons are used for other regions.
• You take 2 Mana tokens from the General Supply when you complete a Circle sigil in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for other sigil types.
• You reroll your red Energy die. After the roll, place the red die in the Available Energy dice area. You can use this Spell even if your red die is in your Used Energy dice area. Similar icons are used for dice in other colors.
• You score 2 Knowledge points after learning a Spell using a Difficulty die with a value of 5 (after modification). Similar icons are used for other values.
• You use your red available Energy die as Difficulty die to learn a Spell from any region. Similar icons are used for dice in other colors.
• You score 1 Knowledge point after modifying and using any die with a value of 6 as a Provision die. Similar icons are used for other values.
• You score 3 Knowledge points when you place a Forest Spell orthogonally adjacent to another Forest Spell in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.
• You reroll 1 of your Energy dice with a value of 5. After the roll, place the die in your Available Energy dice area. You can use this Spell to reroll a die from your Used Energy dice area. Similar icons are used for dice with other values.
• You score 1 Knowledge point for each purple Spell in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells in other colors.

End-of-game effects (brown background):

• At the end of the game, you score 3 Knowledge points for every pink Spell in your Spellbook that is in the same row as this Spell. Similar icons are used for Spells in other colors.
• At the end of the game, you score 2 Knowledge points for every purple Spell in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells in other colors.
• At the end of the game, you score 6 Knowledge points if you have more brown Spells in your Spellbook than any other player has in their Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells in other colors.
• At the end of the game, you score 5 Knowledge points if you have more Fire Spells than you have Forest Spells in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.
• At the end of the game, you score 2 Knowledge points for every Water Spell in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.
• At the end of the game, you score 4 Knowledge points for every pair of Water and Fire Spell in your Spellbook. These Spells do not need to be adjacent to each other. Each Spell can only be used once for this scoring. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.

Task Descriptions

• You score 3 Knowledge points for each Mountain Spell in your Spellbook that is not orthogonally adjacent to another Mountain Spell. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.
• You score 7 Knowledge points if you have at least 3 teal Spells in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells in other colors.
• You score 7 Knowledge points if you have more pink Spells in your Spellbook, than other color Spells separately. Similar icons are used for Spells in other colors.
• You score 6 Knowledge points for every set of 5 Spells of each element in your Spellbook.
• You score 7 Knowledge points if you have at least 3 Forest Spells in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.
• You score 10 Knowledge points but lose 2 Knowledge points for every Fire Spell in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for Spells of other elements.
• You score 6 Knowledge points for every set of 5 Spells in each color in your Spellbook.
• You score 6 Knowledge points if you have at least 3 completed Triangle sigils in your Spellbook. Similar icons are used for other sigil types.