Temple of Five Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Game Objective
• How to Play
  • First Level of the Pyramid
    • 1. Materials Exchange
    • 2. Construction
    • 3. Priest Placement
      • Completing Blessing Cards
      • Bonus Decorations
    • End of the First Level
  • Second Level of the Pyramid
  • Third Level of the Pyramid
• Game End and Scoring
• FAQ
• Game Variants
  • Effect Tiles
  • A Bird in the Hand
  • The Ultimate Goal

Components

• 52 decoration tiles: 12 tiles with 1 decoration, 28 tiles with 2 decorations, 12 tiles with 4 decorations (the back side of all is the same)
• 16 special tiles: 8 single-color tiles and 8 effect tiles
• Bonus decorations: 28 2-space bonus decorations (7 per color) and 24 3-space bonus decorations (6 per color)
• 4 player boards
• 40 priest pawns (4 sets of 10 pawns)
• 4 reference cards (double sided)
• 50 blessing cards (5 decks of 10 cards)
• 1 first player token
• 4 ultimate goal cards (double sided)

Setup

1. Shuffle the player boards and randomly deal one to each player. (Note that each board is slightly different.) Then each player chooses a set of priest pawns and takes a reference card with a brief reminder of the game process.
2. Separate the blessing cards into five decks by color, shuffle each, and lay the decks out in a row face down. Then reveal one card from each deck and lay them out nearby face up, within reach of all players.
3. Shuffle the 2- and 3-space bonus decorations separately and place them into face-down piles.
4. Shuffle all 52 decoration tiles and place them face down in several stacks within reach of all players.
5. Divide 16 special tiles into 8 single-color tiles and 8 effect tiles. Choose one of the sets, shuffle it, and place it next to decoration tiles as a separate face-down stack.
   • NOTE: For your first games, we recommend using single-color special tiles. In this case, put the effect tiles, as well as ultimate goal cards, away in the box.
6. The player who last saw a pyramid takes the first player token.

Game Objective

Each player builds a pyramid on their board using tiles. As you build, try to place the tiles so that the decorations on them form chains of the same colors. Use these chains and your priests to win blessing cards, which will earn you victory points. Whoever gets the most victory points by the end of the game wins.

How to Play

The game is played in 3 stages. During each stage, you will build one of the levels of the pyramid.

• The first level consists of 9 decoration tiles.
• The second level consists of 4 decoration tiles.
• The third level consists of 1 special tile.

First Level of the Pyramid

Follow these 3 steps in order. Repeat them 3 times to complete the first level of the pyramid:

1. Materials exchange
2. Construction
3. Priest placement

1. Materials Exchange

Before you start building the pyramid, you have the opportunity to exchange materials with your rivals. Try to keep the most useful decorations for yourself and give the unprofitable ones to your opponents.

In this step, players act simultaneously.

In any order, each player draws 3 random decoration tiles from any stacks without revealing them. Examine the faces of all three tiles, then keep 1 for yourself and give 1 to each neighbor (to your left and right).

You cannot keep two tiles for yourself or give two tiles to the same player!

IMPORTANT: Only in a 2-player game you are obliged to give two tiles to your opponent and keep one for yourself.

At the end of this step, you will have 3 face-down tiles: one received from the player on the left, one received from the player on the right, and one kept for yourself.

Wait until all the players have finished and move on to the next step.

2. Construction

Use the materials you have received to build your pyramid, arranging them so that the decorations form chains of the same colors.

In this step, players act simultaneously.

Take the three tiles you got, look at their face side and place them face up in any order on your board. On the first level, place the tiles into any of the available 9 slots within the largest golden border of the board (a 3x3 area of tile slots, as shown in the illustration; tiles placed outside that border are incorrect placement).

When laying out tiles, you may rotate them in any direction so that the decorations on them form chains.

A chain is 2 or more decorations of the same color, adjacent to each other horizontally or vertically when viewed from above.

This way you may chain together decorations on different levels of the pyramid including those on the board.

A chain may be of any shape.

The tiles bear sacred markings — prayers to the old gods. By forging chains of the same color, your clan's devotion to the gods grows, and with it, the chance to win their divine favor:

• God of Fire (red)
• God of Hunting (yellow)
• God of Vegetation (green)
• God of Water (blue)
• The Supreme God (white) has no special decorations and accepts all kinds of prayers to the other gods.

Once all the players have placed their 3 tiles, move on to the next step.

3. Priest Placement

Wisely locate your priests to compete for priority on the blessing cards and win them.

In this step, the player with the first player token takes turn first. Then pass the turn clockwise.

On your turn, use up to 2 chains that you have made previously:

• Choose which chain you're going to use first. Place a priest from your reserve on the chain's space (for this, you may choose any decoration space within this chain, be it a space on the board or a tile).
• Then count the length of this chain (number of decoration spaces in it). Depending on it, place other priests from your reserve on the cells of the open blessing card of the appropriate color.

Use yellow, blue, red and green chains to compete for the blessings of corresponding gods. Use chains of any color to occupy cells of the Supreme God's cards.

Your goal is to occupy as many card cells as possible with your priests. You may place priests on one, several or even all the cells of the card at once, if the following condition is met: the length of the chosen chain must be equal to or greater than the sum of the numbers on the cells you want to occupy.

E.g., using a chain of 5 cells, a player may place 2 priests on cells 3 and 2 (5 in total) or 2 and 2 (4 in total) or a single priest on cell 4.

The small number in the upper left part of a blessing card indicates the minimal length of a chain required to complete this card (occupy all of its cells) at once.

But remember that you have a limited number of priests, and they will remain on the card until all its cells are occupied!

Example: Derek decides to use a blue chain of 9 spaces. He places his priest on one of the spaces of this chain, and decides to occupy cells of the Supreme God's blessing card, which has no other players' priests on it so far. In his situation, it is most advantageous to place priests:

• on cells 4, 3 and 2 (9 in total) — he will take up more than half of the card cells, thus ensuring that no one else will win this card; however, he will spend quite a lot of priests;

OR

• on the two cells 4 and 4 (total 8) — he will spend fewer priests and occupy two leftmost cells, which provide priority in case of a tie (see page 8). However, more than half of the cells will remain free, and someone else will be able to win this card from him.

When finished with one of the chains, do the same with another one. In one turn you may use a maximum of 2 chains not yet occupied with your priests. Remember that you may use just one chain or skip this step entirely and not use any chains at all if you want to save the priests for later.

IMPORTANT: If you previously placed a priest on a chain, you may not use it again while the priest remains on it.

Completing Blessing Cards

When all cells of a card are occupied, it is considered complete. Check who has the most priests on it — this player immediately takes the card, and at the end of the game will receive the points indicated in the big circle.

In case of a tie, the player whose priest occupies the leftmost cell among the tied players wins the card. After completing a card, return the priests from it to their owners and open a new card from the deck of that god.

NOTE: If one of the decks is empty, players will not be able to receive blessing cards of this god until the end of the game.

Place the cards you win face up next to you so your opponents can see them.

Example: Steven places his priest on the last empty cell of the card. Now Steven, Derek and Helen have one priest on this card each. Since Steven's priest is located on the leftmost cell, he wins this card.

Bonus Decorations

If, using a chain, you place a priest on only one cell of a card, marked with the symbol of a 2-space bonus decoration or a 3-space bonus decoration (printed under the cell), claim a random bonus decoration from the stack of the corresponding length. Do not show it to your opponents! At any time, you may place it on the empty spaces of the board or the pyramid (i. e. spaces without decorations) located all on the same level to expand your existing chains or start new ones.

Example: Helen uses a red chain of 5 spaces. She could have placed two priests on cells 3 and 2 of the blessing card, but then she would not have received a bonus decoration, and she really needs one. So Helen decides to place only one priest — on cell 4. This cell is marked with the 3-space bonus decoration symbol, so Helen draws a 3-space bonus decoration and connects it to her blue chain.

IMPORTANT: If you place a priest on the last free space on a card but do not win it (because another player has more priests on it), you receive a random 2-space bonus decoration.

Example: Helen places her priest on the last cell of the yellow card. Now all the cells of the card are occupied. Since Steven has the majority of priests on the card, he is the one to win the card. Helen gets a 2-space bonus decoration for helping Steven complete the card. (She also gets another bonus decoration, since there is the 2-space bonus decoration symbol under the cell she occupied.)

End of the First Level

Once all the players have completed step 3, pass the first player token to the next player in clockwise order. After this, repeat the three steps: draw tiles, distribute them among yourselves, place them on the boards, and take turns using your chains to fill cells on the blessing cards.

The first level is considered complete when players have repeated the steps three times (each player's board will have 9 decoration tiles at this point).

Without removing priests from your boards and incomplete blessing cards proceed to the second level.

Second Level of the Pyramid

Construct the second level according to the rules of the first level with the following changes:

• Step 1: Draw 2 tiles instead of 3. Give 1 to your left neighbor and keep 1 for yourself.

• Step 2: Place tiles on top of the first level of the pyramid as shown on the picture (the second level is the central 2x2 arrangement of tile slots, on top of the first-level tiles).

  The golden lines framing the outer side of paths at the edges of the player board will help you visually define the second level area.

  IMPORTANT: By covering priests with new tiles, you return them to the reserve. Thus, previously used chains and priests can become available again. Priests that cannot be covered with new tiles will remain on their spaces till the end of the game.

• Step 3 remains unchanged.

In this level, you need to perform all the steps twice, placing 4 tiles in total on your boards.

Third Level of the Pyramid

Construct the third level according to the rules of the first level with the following changes:

• Step 1: Draw 2 special tiles.

• Step 2: Look at the faces of your tiles and decide which one you want to use. Place it face up in the center of the second level of the pyramid and discard the other one.

  The golden lines framing the inner side of paths at the edges of the player board will help you visually define the third level area.

  If you don't want to or can't use the special tile you chose, place it face down on the pyramid and use it as 4 empty spaces for bonus decorations instead.

• Step 3 is performed as usual with the single-color tiles. If you use the effect tile set, apply the tile's effect (see "Game Variants"). Immediately after step 3 move on to scoring.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends when the last player has placed their priests on the third level. The moment has come to reveal which clan has earned the gods' favor.

Now everyone counts their points:

1. Sum up the points on your completed blessing cards (the large number).
2. Add the points for your unfinished cards (the small number). Unfinished cards are distributed according to the usual rules (the card is won by the player who has the most priests on it and, in case of a tie, by the tied player whose priest is the leftmost one).
3. Add 1 point for each bonus decoration remaining in your reserve (regardless of its size).

The player who gained the most points wins. Your name shall be etched into the annals of history as the greatest builder of your time!

In case of a tie, the player with the most priests left in their reserve wins.

If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

FAQ

Is it possible to reuse a chain that has a priest on it if it has been prolonged since the previous turn? Despite the chain being longer now, it cannot be used again while the priest is on it. The chain will become available when you remove the priest by covering it with a new tile on the next level.

Can I use the remaining spaces of a chain later? For example, if I used a chain of 8 spaces, but occupied cells 4 and 2, what happens to the remaining 2 spaces? All extra cells in such case are lost and can't be used later.

Can I retrieve the priests from my pyramid using bonus decorations? It's not possible since the decorations must only be placed on the empty spaces of the pyramid which cannot contain priests.

May I claim cells of different cards using one chain? No, you may not. By using, for example, a yellow chain, you may place priests either on the card of the God of Agriculture or on the Supreme God's card, but not both at the same time.

(The printed FAQ repeats the question about retrieving priests using bonus decorations a second time with the same answer.)

Game Variants

Try the changes below when you get the hang of the base game to add variety to your sessions. You may introduce the variants one by one or use them all at once.

Effect Tiles

Replace the single-color special tiles with effect tiles during step 3 of the last level of the pyramid. Each of them gives a certain bonus. Use it in the most advantageous way during your last turn!

• Reuse 1 chain that already has your priest on it.
• Use 1 additional chain this turn (3 chains instead of the usual 2).
• Draw 2 random 2-space bonus decorations (+2 tile). You may place them on your pyramid right away or save them for scoring at the end of the game.
• Take a blessing card from any deck of your choice and place it in front of you (separately from your completed cards) (+1 tile). Only you may occupy the cells of this card. At the end of the game, this card will earn you points just like any other card.

For more asymmetrical gameplay, try using a set of 4 single-color tiles in different colors and 4 different effect tiles.

A Bird in the Hand

When you draw the tiles during step 1 and distribute them during step 2, instead of looking at all the faces at once, turn the tiles one by one and then immediately decide where to place them.

Example: Andy takes one tile from the stack. He looks at its face and decides to give it to the player on his right. Then he draws another tile. That's a good one! Andy decides to keep it for himself. The last tile he draws automatically goes to the player on his left.

The Ultimate Goal

While preparing for the game, each player also takes an ultimate goal card (all 4 of them are identical). Choose one of its sides with the description of the 3 goals you would like to try to achieve during this game. Place the card the chosen side up. While scoring, add the points for all the completed goals to your score.

Side 1:

• 3 points: Have at least 3 unused bonus decorations by the end of the game.
• 4 points: Create a chain of at least 12 decoration spaces of the same color, visible at the end of the game.
• 5 points: Gather at least 4 blessing cards of the same God (except the Supreme God).

Side 2:

• 3 points: Have at least 3 priests in your reserve by the end of the game.
• 4 points: Create 4 chains of different colors, each consisting of at least 4 decoration spaces, visible by the end of the game.
• 5 points: Gather at least 1 blessing card of each God (except the Supreme God).