Ten Suns Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Set Up
• Playing a Round
• Executing God Card Abilities
• The Bagua Balance
• Monster Cards
• Palace Parts
• Ending the Game
  • The Three Endgame Bonus Prestige Areas

Overview

Orange Solar cubes are used for bidding. They cannot be stored. Blue Lunar cubes are also used for bidding, but they can be kept from turn to turn.

Set Up

1. The player who last shot an actual bow takes the Bow card.
2. Each player chooses a color to represent themselves and takes 4 cubes of the color they chose, and then places a cube on each of the following Tracks at the zero value:
   • Prestige Track (2 cubes here each; 1 for Ones, and another for Tens)
   • Bagua Track
   • Moon Track
3. Players also take a Bidding Sheet of the color they chose earlier, and a Screen of their choice.
4. Place an orange Solar energy cube on the '10' space of the Sun Track.
5. Put the rest of the Solar & Lunar Energy cubes in the middle of the play area within reach of everyone.
6. Shuffle the Palace Parts deck and give each player 5 Lunar Energy cubes.
7. Locate the 9 Hou Yi cards and place them aside, then shuffle the rest of the Influence cards into one deck. Roughly cut one-third of this deck from the top and shuffle the 3 'STARRED' Hou Yi cards into it. Shuffle the remaining 6 Non-STARRED Hou Yi cards into the other two-third of the deck. Finally, place the one-third section back on top of the two-third section to form back a single deck again. (This way, all 3 STARRED Hou Yi cards are guaranteed to appear somewhere in the first third of the game while the rest can appear anywhere after that.)

Set-up diagram: Arrow Card, Palace Parts deck, Mortal Plane (Spaces 1-4 in the illustration), Bagua Track, Bow Card, each player's Bidding Sheet, Screen and Play Area. Hou Yi cards must be shuffled face-down.

Playing a Round

1. Reveal the top cards of the Influence deck and form a row in the middle. This row is known as the Mortal Plane. The cards are referenced as spaces from 1 to 6 in order from left to right. The number of spaces to utilise is based on the number of players +1, up to a limit of 6 cards. (E.g. reveal 3 cards for 2 players, and 6 for 6 players) If there are more than 2 Hou Yi cards revealed on the Mortal Plane in the same Round, discard the latest one and redraw. All discarded Hou Yi cards still bring the Sun Track value down by 1 each.

2. The player with the Bow card now draws an amount of Palace Parts equal to the number of spaces utilised in the Mortal Plane for this game, as well as 2 Lunar Energy Cubes. These are known as bonus items. She will now decide which spaces to assign the Palace cards face-up, along with the 2 Lunar Energy cubes. She can split or mix them in any combination, as long as no space has more than 3 bonus items attached to it. Any player who wins the highest Bid on those spaces will also gain these placed items as bonuses. (See next Step on highest Bid) In other words, the player with the Bow card can manipulate the worth of the different spaces with these bonus items. Each player then gains 'X' Solar Energy, where X is the value on the Sun Track.

3. Using their own Screens to keep their Bidding Sheets hidden from others, players now secretly place any amount of their Solar & Lunar Energy cubes they possess onto any of the spaces on their own Bidding sheets in any combination. Each of these spaces corresponds to a specific space on the Mortal Plane. (If a player wants to acquire the 3rd card on the Mortal Plane, she should put more Energy cubes onto her 3rd space of her Bidding Sheet)

4. When all players are ready, remove all Screens to reveal all bids.

5. Starting from the player with the Bow card and then clockwise, each player may now trigger the ability of any God Card(s) they possess in their Play Area. A player must trigger all of the cards she wants to do so before moving on to the next player. (This means the last player has the greatest advantage as she will be able to study the latest situation and react accordingly)

6. In order from leftmost to rightmost space on the Mortal Plane, the one with the highest 'Bid' (number of Energy) on a space gains its card and all items on it. As soon as a card is gained, immediately move its owner up the Bagua Track by 1. In a tie for highest Bid on a space, the one lower on the Bagua Track wins the tie. If still tied on the Bagua Track, the card & all items on that space are discarded. Remember if Hou Yi was discarded without a winner, still reduce the Sun Track by 1. Players may now work on their Palaces. (explained under Palace Parts)

Executing God Card Abilities

Some God cards trigger as soon as they are acquired and some are manually triggered in Step 5 of Playing A Round. You can identify a God Card being an immediate one-off effect if there are no power trackers along its borders. If you see power trackers around the sides of a card, then it has to be triggered manually, but can be done multiple times. Some require spending an Energy from your reserve, symbolized by a lightning bolt, so remember not to use all your Energy on Bids! Some abilities refer to Bids, such as your highest Bid (which can be a tie). Note that a Bid is valid only if you put at least 1 Energy on a space. A space with zero Energy is NOT a Bid!

• No power tracker: this card's effect is one-off and happens as soon as it is acquired.
• Power tracker of 4 dots: this card can be used 4 times.
• Rotate 90 degrees to the right when triggered. Now only 3 dots are green instead of 4, to show it has only 3 uses remaining.
• A Lightning Bolt symbol shows that this card's ability requires you to spend 1 Energy to use it.

God card activations are limited in number of uses and they vary from card to card. They can also only trigger once per round each. Track this by rotating the card 90 degrees to the right when triggered. Cards are placed right-way up in their owner's Play Area when first acquired, such that the Power Track at the top side shows its initial total limit that it can be triggered. When triggered once and rotated to the right, the top side will now show 1 less green dot. This way, you can track its usage remaining by the green dots.

Do not discard any player-owned God cards from their Play Areas even if they have been used completely, as they are worth points at the end of the game. When fully utilized, keep them in the Play Area but face-down as reminder.

The Bagua Balance

It is said that the Universe has a unique way of balancing all its elements when something tilts too much to either side. If a player crosses the '4' value of the Bagua Track, do the following during Step 7 of Playing A Round:

1. Give 4 Lunar Energy to the player lowest on the Bagua Track.
2. Give 4 Lunar Energy to the player lowest on the Prestige Track.
3. Reset all Player cubes' positions back to '0' on the Bagua Track.

It is entirely possible for a single player to acquire a whopping 8 Lunar Energy by being last for both #1 and #2 above. In fact, it is a viable strategy to do so, but beware of hanging back too much or you will never catch up!

Monster Cards

Some of the Influence cards in the game are Monsters. When they appear, players may choose to help repel them by placing Bids on them. Every Energy bid is a damage dealt by the player. When Bids are revealed and abilities have been triggered, count the total damage dealt by all players against the health of the monster (bottom right corner of card). If the total damage equals or exceeds its health, then it was defeated and all players who participated will gain 2 Prestige Points immediately. The player(s) who dealt the most damage will gain 5 Prestige Points instead. If it was not defeated, then all players who participated lose 2 Prestige Points instead! This is a mini-game of bluff!

Check the Monster's Health against the number of players. In the example, Tao Wu has 4 Health in a 2-player game and 7 Health in a game with 5 or 6 players.

Bonus items on Monsters are only awarded if the monster is defeated, and to the player who dealt the highest damage. If there is a tie or if the monster was undefeated, no one gets the bonus items and they are discarded. Monster cards are never kept by any player. Always discard them.

Palace Parts

When a player acquires Palace Parts, she must immediately place them down in her Play Area. She can place them adjacent to existing pieces, forming a larger palace, or on its own to form a separate new palace. A player may only work on a maximum of two palaces at all times. Players can choose to 'Complete' palaces after spaces are resolved for that round. Completed palaces are dismantled and sent to the discard pile. These no longer count towards a player's 2-limit on palace building. When the Palace Parts deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new one. For each palace Completed, a player immediately gains Lunar Energy & Prestige based on its size:

• 2-card palace = 0 bonus Lunar Energy & 1 Prestige Point.
• 4-card palace = 2 bonus Lunar Energy & 2 Prestige Points.
• 8-card palace = 7 bonus Lunar Energy & 3 Prestige Points.

He also gains 1 bonus Prestige Point for every unique Palace Part forming it. There are only 6 different types of Palace Parts in the game, so even 8-card palaces can only be formed from a maximum of 6 unique Parts!

Ending the Game

If any of the following End Conditions occur, the game ends:

• When a player crosses 30 Prestige Points. (before bonus Prestige)
• When a player lands on the final space of the Moon Track.
• When there is only 1 or no Sun remaining on the Sun Track.

End Conditions are only checked in the last step of each Round.

There are 3 areas (stated below) where players can gain bonus Prestige at the end of the game, after which the winner is the one with the highest Prestige total. The player higher up on the Moon Track wins any ties. If still tied, the player who first flies to the real moon wins.

The Three Endgame Bonus Prestige Areas

1. Moon Track: Highest gains 12 Prestige, followed by 7 and then 2. Any others beyond the third place score zero bonus. Tied players gain the same amount.
2. Players gain 1 Prestige for every God card acquired through the game.
3. Lastly, Prestige is also awarded for every unique location card acquired:

Unique Location Cards	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8+
Bonus Prestige Points	1	3	6	10	15	20	25	30