The Voynich Puzzle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
- Player setup
Overview of Play
Card Structure
Object of the Game
Turn Structure
Scoring
Solo Mode
Appendix
- Action symbols
- Study condition symbols
Credits

Components

1 double-sided board
4 books with front and back covers
40 Voynich cards (8 of each type)
40 reminder cards
16 Water Drop tokens (4 of each colour)
16 Leaf tokens (4 of each colour)
16 Star tokens (4 of each colour)
16 Text tokens (4 of each colour)
4 Botany knowledge markers
4 Baths knowledge markers
4 Astrology knowledge markers
4 Writings knowledge markers
4 General Knowledge markers
24 research tokens (6 of each colour)
1 central puzzle piece
60 puzzle pieces
1 Capricorn disc
16 neutral player cards for the two-player game
8 Dirty Water Drop tokens
16 Knowledge Exchange tokens
1 first player token

Setup

Place the board on the table with the multiplayer side face up (the side without the numbered yellow spaces).
Place the central puzzle piece in the centre of the puzzle area on the board in any orientation, and lay out all the other puzzle pieces symbol side up next to the board.
Place the Capricorn disc on its space so that its dark part coincides with one of the 5 Astrology sectors, chosen at random.
Randomly place 7 Dirty Water Drop tokens in the first basin of the Baths section, and 1 on the "Dirty water" space beneath the spring on the right.
Form a supply of Knowledge Exchange tokens next to the board.
Shuffle each of the 5 Voynich decks separately (Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and Recipes) and deal each player 2 cards from each one. If there are fewer than four players, return the remaining cards to the box.
In a two-player game, randomly take one neutral player card of each type and follow the instructions printed on them, placing tokens to simulate the neutral player. Also place the indicated puzzle pieces in the puzzle area. Text tokens are placed undeciphered side up. In a three-player game do the same, but only in the Botany and Astrology sections.

Player setup

Randomly choose a player to start the game; they receive the first player token. Then each player must:

Take a book and all the components of one colour.
Place all the cards dealt from the Voynich decks into the book, one in each pocket, so that they are all arranged with their starting phase face up (the picture with the least complete illustration). The cards must be arranged in this order, starting from the first page: Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and Recipes. When finished, each spread of the book must show 2 cards from the same deck, all starting phase up.
- Insert the front cover card into the front cover pocket.
- Behind the cover, in its pocket, will be the first Botany card.
- When you open the book, each spread shows two cards of the same type.
- Insert the back cover card into the back cover pocket.
Place 1 of your Leaf tokens on the starting Leaf space in the Botany section of the main board, and 1 of your research tokens on each part of the central puzzle piece.
Place your 5 knowledge markers (Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and General Knowledge) on the "0" mark of the score track on the board.
Keep the rest of your tokens next to your book as your supply: research tokens, leaves, stars, water drops and text — the last of these undeciphered side up.
Find the reminder cards matching the numbers of the cards in your book and place them next to you, so that all the information about your pages is in front of your eyes.

Overview of Play

In The Voynich Puzzle you jointly try to decipher the riddle of the Voynich Manuscript, using your copy of the book as your main tool. As the collective understanding of the manuscript grows, you will gradually be able to decipher the pages of your own book, increasing your chances of success. The winner is the player with the most General Knowledge (GK) at the end of the game.

On your turn you choose any spread in your book and perform the actions from the upper half of one of those pages (cards). Each pair of pages lets you interact with one of the 5 main sections of the manuscript (Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and Recipes).

Note: the pages in the players' books are not in the order in which they appear in the Voynich Manuscript. The Writings pages should come last, after the Recipes pages, but for clarity of play the designer chose to change the order.

The sections are: Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings, Recipes, and General Knowledge.

Having accumulated enough knowledge in some field, you share it by adding to the common puzzle a piece representing that knowledge. All players gain access to that knowledge by flipping and rotating the cards in their books. Deciphering the manuscript opens access to more powerful actions and to points at the end of the game — this should be your main goal.

The game ends when any player's General Knowledge (GK) marker reaches the end-of-game symbol on the 52nd space of the track.

Finish the round so that all players have taken the same number of turns, after which everyone plays one more turn and final scoring takes place.

Card Structure

Cards are divided into 4 phases (the upper and lower halves of the front and back of each card); each phase reflects the progress in deciphering that page.

Only the upper phase on the visible side of the card is active. During the game, however, cards will be flipped and rotated upside down, so the active phase on each card changes as the game goes on. Each phase can consist of at most 3 different sections.

A — The upper central section shows the actions you may perform when this page is activated.
B — The upper right section indicates the final scoring this page will bring (the starting phase of a card gives no points).
C — The lower right section shows the "Knowledge" you must spend to study this page, and the direction in which the card must be rotated or flipped when you do.
D — In addition, in the second phase of the card you will find information about the study conditions and the available actions on the opposite side of the card.

Front of a card: the upper half holds the starting phase, the lower half the second phase. Back of a card: the upper half holds the third phase, the lower half the fourth phase.

Each new phase brings stronger actions and more points at the end of the game, and the study conditions become harder, but they always follow a predictable sequence which can be checked on the reminder cards.

Actions improve by adding new effects to those already present, the amount of end-game points increases, and the study conditions demand ever more "Knowledge" beyond what has already been spent earlier. Thanks to this it is easy to plan ahead and prepare for the next phases of each card.

Object of the Game

By performing the actions on your pages you gradually accumulate enough knowledge to share it with all the players — and you add to the puzzle a new piece corresponding to that kind of knowledge.

This shared knowledge can be used to study your pages — this not only strengthens your actions, but also lets you, at the end of the game, convert part of your accumulated knowledge into General Knowledge (GK). For that reason the position of each puzzle piece is of key importance to your strategy.

You will have to balance studying your own pages, accumulating enough knowledge to share it with all players, and collecting the specific types of knowledge that score points at the end of the game.

Turn Structure

In The Voynich Puzzle you choose your actions with your book. You may hold it in your hands or leave it on the table; either way it is always considered open at your active spread (two cards of the same type). You may look at other pages at any time, but you must always return to the active spread.

On your turn you must change the active spread in your book to a different one (except on the first turn, when you may freely choose which spread to start from). To save time you may open your book at the new active spread in advance during another player's turn, so that on your own turn you can start performing actions right away.

Golden rule: you may not use the same active spread on two consecutive turns.

Once you have chosen the spread for the current turn, you must observe the following order of steps:

STUDY A CARD. You may study 1 or both open pages as many times as you wish or can pay for.
PERFORM ACTIONS. You may perform any (or all) of the actions shown in the upper part of one of the two open pages, in any order. Some pages have a "/" symbol, which means that when performing the actions you must choose one of the offered options.
EXCHANGE KNOWLEDGE. If you have one or more Knowledge Exchange tokens, you must use them, placing the corresponding puzzle pieces on the board.
STUDY A CARD. You may again study 1 or both open pages as many times as you wish or can pay for.

After this your turn ends and play continues clockwise to the next player.

1) Studying a card

If a page has not yet reached its final phase, its lower right section shows a study condition. This condition requires you to return one or more of your research tokens from specific areas of the puzzle on the main board back to your supply.

If more than one research token must be removed, they must be taken from different zones matching the condition. (Example: if you must remove 2 research tokens from a group of 2 Botany puzzle pieces, they must be taken from two different groups.)

If you fulfil the condition on the card, you gain the GK shown at the intersection of the row and column of the research tokens that were returned.

Then take the card out of the book and, depending on the arrow next to the condition, either rotate the card 180° or flip it over keeping its current orientation, after which return the card to the same pocket in its new position.

As already mentioned, this may be done before and/or after performing actions, and several times with the same card if you have enough research tokens to fulfil the conditions. However, it may only be done for pages that are open on the current turn.

A new card phase provides an improved action, better final scoring conditions and, if it is not the last phase, a new study condition connected to the previous one.

Reminder cards: you may lay them out in front of you in any way you find convenient. They give an overview of all the study conditions on your cards, helping you plan the placement of puzzle pieces and knowledge markers.

Example of studying a card

At the start of her turn Clara (red) decides to study one of the pages open this turn. The study condition requires her to have a research token on a group of at least 2 adjacent Botany pieces.

She removes the research token that fulfils the condition and gains 4 General Knowledge (GK) — for the column and the row at whose intersection that token stood.

Then she takes the card out of the book, rotates it as indicated on the card and returns it to the book.

If she could fulfil any further conditions on either of the 2 open cards, she would be entitled to do so, but in this situation that is not the case.

Designer's note: most people researching the Voynich Manuscript share their theories over the Internet. The puzzle reflects this: each time you have accumulated enough knowledge about a specific part of the book, you share it by adding a puzzle piece. This new shared knowledge in the puzzle can then be used by any researcher — represented in the game by the research tokens — to make discoveries of their own.

2) Performing actions

Each card type is linked to its own section of the Voynich Manuscript and has its own set of possible actions and a corresponding section on the main board. By performing actions in one section you may trigger actions in another — this reflects the connection between the parts of the manuscript.

You perform actions as described below, regardless of how they were activated (directly from the pages, or as a consequence of your actions on the main board).

Token limits: tokens of your colour are a limited resource. When a game effect lets you add a token, it may only be taken from your supply or from another section of the main board. (Example: a star may be moved from the Astrology section to the Writings section, but it may not be moved within the Astrology section itself.)

Sometimes a token you have just placed triggers an action to place another token of the same kind elsewhere. The token that triggered the action may not be used for this — take a different token of the same type. (Example: if placing a star token in the Astrology section triggers a "place a star" action in the Writings section, a different star token must be placed there.)

Gaining knowledge

Knowledge can be gained through the actions on your cards or as a reward for performing other actions in the game.

These actions let you gain knowledge of the corresponding type (Botany, Astrology, Baths or Writings), advancing the relevant knowledge marker along the track.

Every time you reach or pass an insight symbol on the track, take a Knowledge Exchange token of the same type as the marker you moved. As already stated, you use this token later in your turn to share the discovery — by adding a puzzle piece to the board.

The knowledge types are: Botany knowledge, Astrology knowledge, Baths knowledge, Writings knowledge, and General Knowledge.

If the General Knowledge (GK) marker reaches or passes an insight symbol, nothing happens.

Research actions

These actions appear on cards of any type or as rewards for other actions in the game. They let you:

…either place one of your research tokens on any of the 4 spaces of the central puzzle piece…
…or place one of your research tokens on any puzzle piece on the board, including the central one…
…or move one of your research tokens on the board in the direction indicated by the action, or in any direction.

A research token may only be placed on spaces holding a puzzle piece (or on any of the 4 spaces of the central piece) — never on empty puzzle spaces. Any number of research tokens may be on the same space. The position of these tokens will help you fulfil the study conditions of the pages in your book.

Actions with a number: if a number appears next to the action icon, the action may be performed as many times as the number indicates.

In cases where an action applies to several tokens, you may perform all the actions with a single token or split them between different tokens. (For example: the "plant growth" action allows several moves in the Botany section. You may move one of your tokens as many times as the action indicates, or distribute the moves among different tokens.)

Actions in the Botany section

These actions apply to the Botany section on the main board — you will find them on Botany cards or gain them as rewards for other actions.

The "place a leaf" and "place a water drop" actions let you take a Leaf token or a Water Drop token respectively from your supply or from another section of the board and place it in the Botany section:

A — Leaf tokens are placed on the space at the base of the plant's stem, which may hold any number of them.
B — A Water Drop token may be placed on any of the 4 root tips, gaining the reward shown there. Each such space may hold only 1 water drop token. You may place a water drop on a root tip that already has a water drop — in that case your token immediately moves to the next empty space along the arrows, taking the reward of the space it lands on.

The "plant growth" action lets you move one of your Leaf tokens or Water Drop tokens one space in the direction of the arrow and gain the reward of the space you land on. The following rules apply:

If a water drop token reaches the base of the stem, immediately perform an additional "plant growth" action with that same water drop token. That space does not count.
Except for the space at the base of the stem and the two upper flower spaces, tokens may not share a space. If you need to move a token onto an occupied space, skip it and keep moving the token to the first empty space, where it stops.
When moving a token onto a branch, choose any empty space of that branch and place the token there, gaining its reward.
Once it has reached a branch or a flower space, a token can no longer be moved by this action. (It can, however, be removed from there in order to perform actions in other sections of the board.)

Example of an action

The left-hand page lets Clara (red) gain 4 Botany knowledge, place a Leaf token and perform 2 "plant growth" actions.

She starts by using one of the "plant growth" actions to move her Water Drop token one space upwards (a) — this immediately lets the drop move one more space up, bringing her 4 Botany knowledge (b).

Then she places a leaf on the stem (c) and uses the second "plant growth" action with this leaf — skipping the token on the stem, the leaf lands on the indicated branch space and gains its reward (d).

Designer's note: the Botany section of the manuscript apparently depicts various kinds of plants and their descriptions. To convey this process of study, players add leaves to the stem and water to the roots — and these move up towards the flowers and the leafy branches.

Actions in the Astrology section

These actions are performed in the Astrology section of the main board — on Astrology cards or as rewards for other actions in the game.

The "place a star" and "place a text" actions let you take a Star token or a Text token respectively from your supply or from another section of the board and place it in the Astrology section:

Star tokens are placed on any empty star-shaped space (with no other star token) on a constellation. You gain the reward of the space you placed it on.
Text tokens are placed on any empty text space (with no other text token) on a constellation — you gain the reward depicted on the text token itself.

The Astrology section is divided into 5 sectors, and each sector is divided into two parts — an inner part (a) and an outer part (b). A star token may be placed on the outer part of a sector only if another star token already stands in the inner part of that sector. The same applies to text tokens: a text token may be placed in the outer part of a sector only if there is already a text token in the inner part. Note that each outer part of a sector holds two different constellations.

If, after placing a star or text token, a constellation holds both tokens, their owners gain the knowledge reward of that constellation. If both tokens belong to the same player, the knowledge reward is granted only once.

The "rotate Capricorn" action lets you rotate the Capricorn disc clockwise to the next sector and gain the knowledge reward of every constellation in that sector that has a star token, a text token, or both.

Using text tokens: text tokens may never be flipped unless specifically instructed. Each time you place a text token, you choose it yourself — based on its reward.

Example of an action

The left-hand page lets Clara (red) rotate Capricorn 2 times, place a text token in the Astrology section, and place a research token on the central puzzle piece.

Clara starts by placing a text token on this space — this is allowed because there is already a text token in the inner part of the sector. She gains the reward of that text token (in this case 1 Writings knowledge).

After this placement, the constellation now holds both a text and a star token — so Clara and the blue player each gain 4 Astrology knowledge.

Then she rotates Capricorn 2 times clockwise (passing through two different sectors) and gains a total of 10 Astrology knowledge: 3 in the first sector and 7 in the second.

Finally, she places a research token on the central puzzle piece.

Designer's note: the Astrology section of the manuscript seems to depict astrological signs and heavenly bodies such as the sun and the moon. I took a page that appears to show Capricorn and made it rotate towards different constellations, imitating the movement of a star across the night sky over the course of a year.

Actions in the Baths section

The Baths section of the board has its own actions too — on Baths cards or as a reward for other actions.

The "place a water drop" action lets you take a Water Drop token from your supply or from another section of the board and place it in the Baths section. The drop may be placed on either of the 2 spring spaces, gaining the corresponding reward.

Any token already standing on that space is pushed further downstream — to the next space in the direction of the arrow — and its owner gains the reward of the space the token lands on (if there is one). If that token in turn is pushed onto a space where another token stands, that one is pushed on as well — and the process continues until no one else can be pushed.

If a water drop token reaches the first basin, it stays there and does not advance further automatically.

However, if a Leaf token reaches the first basin (this can happen because there is an action that converts a water drop token into a leaf token — see the "conversion" action on the next page), it immediately moves one more space towards the second basin. If another leaf token already stands on that space, that one advances further as well, into the second basin.

The second basin: when any of your leaf tokens reaches the second basin (even outside your turn), immediately place it on an empty space with no leaf and gain the corresponding reward.

The "purify water" action lets you take one of the Dirty Water Drop tokens in the first basin and gain its reward. After gaining the reward, place that dirty water drop token on the space beneath the right-hand spring, and move the dirty water drop token that was already there one space to the left. If a token stands on that space, it advances by the normal rules.

When a dirty water drop token reaches the first basin, it becomes available to be chosen again.

The "conversion" action lets you remove one of your Water Drop tokens from the Baths section and place a Leaf token in its place.

If the water drop stood in the first basin, the leaf token immediately moves one more space towards the second basin — and this movement, as usual, may push another leaf token along.

In a two-player game: as soon as 2 water drop tokens of the colour not used by the players reach the first basin, immediately remove them and place one on the left spring space and the other on the right spring space (in that order). This may push other water drop tokens by the normal rules.

Example of an action

One of the active pages lets Clara (red) purify water and convert a water drop token.

She starts by converting a water drop in the first basin — returning it to her supply (a) and placing one of her leaves in its place (b), which immediately moves one space forward (c), bringing 6 Baths knowledge.

Then she purifies water — she takes a dirty water drop token from the first basin, gains its reward, and places the dirty water drop token itself on the space beneath the right-hand spring.

This token pushes the dirty water drop token on that space along, and that one pushes two yellow water drop tokens — and the yellow player gains 4 Baths knowledge.

Designer's note: the Baths section is perhaps the strangest in the whole manuscript. I used water drop tokens and a pushing mechanism to depict the flow of water running downwards. And the green colour of the water on the original pages suggested the idea of algae — represented by leaf tokens floating along with the water.

Actions in the Writings section

The actions of the Writings section appear on Writings cards or as rewards for other actions in the game.

The "place a text" action lets you take a Text token from your supply or from another section of the board and place it on the leftmost empty text token space in any row.

After placing it, gain the reward of that text token as well as the reward depicted at the start of that same row on the board. The rewards may be gained in any order.

The "place a star" action lets you take a Star token from your supply or from another section of the board and place it on any empty star token space.

You gain all the rewards on the text tokens of that row, regardless of their colour, as well as the reward at the start of that row — in any order.

The "translate text" action lets you flip one of your Text tokens in the Writings section of the main board to its translated side — you gain the reward of that side and the reward at the start of the row on the board, in any order.

From that moment on the token always lies with its improved, translated side showing, with the better reward.

Designer's note: the Writings section is the hardest to make sense of, since no one knows how to translate the text. I used star tokens (the only other element of the section besides the text tokens) to create an interesting interaction with these pages.

Example of an action

The right-hand page lets Clara (red) place 1 text token and 1 star token in the Writings section, and place a research token on the central puzzle piece.

She starts by placing a text token in this row, gaining both the reward of the token itself (in this case 1 Writings knowledge) and 4 Writings knowledge at the start of the row.

Then she places a star token in the row, gaining the rewards of all the text tokens in that row (including the blue ones), as well as 4 Writings knowledge at the start of the row.

Finally, she places a research token on the central puzzle piece.

Actions in the Recipes section

The actions of the Recipes section appear on Recipes cards or as rewards for performing other actions in the game.

All these actions let you take the depicted component (a Leaf token, Star token, Water Drop token or Text token) of your colour from any other section of the main board — but never from your supply. Then place it on one of the corresponding empty spaces in the Recipes section (the type of space is shown by the illustrations of each row), gaining the corresponding reward.

In the case of text tokens, the reward of the token is multiplied by the number shown on the space you place it on.

The Recipes section has a row of star tokens, a row of leaf tokens, a row of water drop tokens and a row of text tokens. The available actions are: move a leaf token to Recipes, move a star token to Recipes, move a water drop token to Recipes, and move a text token to Recipes.

Designer's note: the Recipes section seems to bring together all the other parts of the manuscript — as if it explained how to brew potions by combining plants from the Botany section, the season from the Astrology section, water from the Baths section and instructions from the Writings section. There is of course no proof of this — but these are exactly the ideas I used to build the mechanics of this section: tokens are taken from other parts of the board in order to gain rewards here.

3) Exchanging knowledge

If, after performing the actions on your pages, you have 1 or more Knowledge Exchange tokens, you must return each token to the general supply and take a puzzle piece from the supply (1 piece for each returned token). The type of the puzzle pieces must match the knowledge type of the returned tokens.

These puzzle pieces are placed in the puzzle area according to the following rules:

A — A puzzle piece must be placed on a space orthogonally adjacent to a piece already in place.
B — Take a puzzle piece with a symbol matching the space you want to place it on, and place it face down — symbol side down.

After all the required pieces have been placed, you may move 1 of your research tokens already standing on the puzzle onto 1 of the pieces you have just placed.

In a two-player game: puzzle pieces added during setup are not considered to be in the puzzle area until they are connected to the central puzzle piece through a chain of orthogonally connected pieces. You may not place a puzzle piece next to them unless that piece is itself connected to the central piece through such a chain. You also may not place or move your research tokens onto those pieces until they are connected.

Example of exchanging knowledge

At the end of her turn Clara (red) has gained a Botany knowledge exchange token and an Astrology knowledge exchange token.

Clara returns them to the general supply and takes one puzzle piece of each type from the supply, making sure that their symbols match the spaces she wants to cover, and adds them to the puzzle.

Clara decides to move 1 of her research tokens already in the puzzle area onto the Botany puzzle piece she has just placed.

Now she can study one of her active pages, because she fulfils its study condition.

4) Studying a card

As at the start of the turn, you may now study 1 or both of the currently open pages — as many times as you wish and as many times as you can afford.

After this the turn ends, and the player to your left takes theirs.

Scoring

The game ends when any player's General Knowledge (GK) marker reaches the end-of-game symbol on the 52nd space.

Finish the round so that all players have taken the same number of turns, then all players take one more turn each — after that scoring begins.

Scoring works as follows:

Each player adds up the General Knowledge (GK) at the intersections of the rows and columns of all their research tokens on the board, divides the result by 2 (rounding down) and adds it to their score.
Each player applies the scoring conditions depicted on the active phases of all the pages in their book. Each scoring condition grants General Knowledge (GK) based on the position of a specific knowledge marker (the symbol is shown on each section of the board) on the score track. The GK gained is counted like this: first determine the furthest scoring space that this marker has reached or passed. Then the amount of GK shown in that space is multiplied by 1, 2 or 4 — depending on what is indicated on the corresponding page.

Note: each section of the board shows which knowledge marker is scored by the pages of that section. The only exception is Recipes. Each Recipes page depicts two knowledge types; in final scoring you choose which knowledge type to score on that page.

After all players have scored all their pages, the player with the most General Knowledge (GK) wins.

In case of a tie, the player whose knowledge marker (other than the GK marker) has advanced the furthest wins. If the tie persists, compare the second-furthest knowledge markers (other than GK) — and so on. If the tie is not resolved after comparing all 4 markers, the players share the victory equally.

Solo Mode

In solo mode your opponent is Voynich himself. Setup is as in the 2-player game, but the board is placed with the solo side face up (a), and the text tokens are stacked in a pile (in random order) (b) untranslated side up. Instead of freely placing the 7 dirty water drop tokens (c) in the first basin, place each one on a numbered space. The last dirty water drop token is placed on its usual space beneath the right-hand spring.

Shuffle his reminder cards (d) and make a deck of them, making sure all the cards lie so that the top card of the deck shows its first phase and faces you. The top card must not be a Recipes card. Place this deck next to Voynich's book — from now on it is called the "Voynich deck".

Finally, choose a difficulty level: easy, medium, hard, very hard or extremely hard. If you chose very hard or extremely hard, Voynich immediately advances once on the 2 left-hand cards of the Botany and Baths spreads, and once on the 2 right-hand cards of the Astrology and Writings spreads. See "End-of-game scoring" on page 32 — it describes how the different difficulty levels affect scoring.

You are the first player.

In solo mode you take your turns exactly as in the 2-player game. Voynich also follows most of the normal rules, but with 3 differences:

He automatically studies a page at the start of his turn, ignoring the conditions, and therefore never uses his research tokens.
If he must perform research actions, he exchanges them for 1 General Knowledge (GK). (Example: instead of placing 2 research tokens, he gains 1 GK.)
When he takes a text token from his supply, he takes the top one.

Voynich's turn structure

At the start of his turn Voynich flips the top card of his deck, places it in a pile next to it, and changes the open page in Voynich's book to the spread corresponding to the card just flipped.

If that card shows the current spread already open in his book, repeat the process with a new card of the deck — until you can move to a new spread.

If the deck runs out, take all the cards from the discard pile except the top one, shuffle them — this is now the new deck.

When Voynich has chosen a new spread, perform the following steps:

If possible, he studies one phase of one of the open pages. If the page number on the top card of his deck (the one just flipped) is odd, he studies the left-hand page; if it is even, the right-hand page.
Perform the actions of the page he has just studied (or tried to study).
If he has knowledge exchange tokens, use them to place puzzle pieces on the board.

Voynich performing actions

Voynich performs all the actions of the page he has just studied (or tried to study) in order — from left to right.

If a card has 2 options separated by a slash, he chooses the left one if the action is on the left-hand page, and the right one if it is on the right-hand page.

If Voynich cannot perform an action in full, he does as much as he can, skipping what he cannot do. (Example: if he must place 2 leaf tokens in the Botany section but there are already 3 there, he will place only 1 — no more may be placed by the rules.)

If he cannot gain any benefit from the actions (other than research actions), repeat the process of flipping the top card of the Voynich deck and choosing a new page — until you find one on which he can gain a benefit from something other than research actions. In that case, however, he does not study the newly chosen page.

Placing puzzle pieces (Voynich)

When Voynich must add puzzle pieces to the board, you decide where to place them, but you must follow the study condition depicted on the top card of the deck, if that is possible.

If several pieces must be placed, you choose the order in which to place them. The normal rules for placing puzzle pieces always apply. When checking the study conditions, count all pieces as pieces of "any colour", ignoring their specific colour.

Depending on the condition you must:

Place in or next to a group of X pieces: place the puzzle piece so that it becomes part of (or is adjacent to) a group of pieces of its colour containing at least as many pieces as the condition requires.
Place on an edge: place the puzzle piece on an edge or in a corner.
Place in a circle: place the puzzle piece so that it becomes part of a circle.
Place next to different colours (≠): place the puzzle piece so that it is adjacent to at least 3 different colours.

If it is impossible to place a puzzle piece according to the condition, you place it anywhere you choose.

For each puzzle piece placed, Voynich gains the General Knowledge (GK) at the intersection of the row and the column of that space.

Adding and moving tokens (Voynich)

When Voynich must add tokens to the board, he always takes them from his supply if possible.

To decide where to place the tokens, use the page number shown on the top card of his deck (hereafter the priority number). Look for the first available space on the board starting from the priority number: check all numbers in order, wrapping from 40 to 1, until you find a space where Voynich can place the token.

Bear in mind: not all numbers are present on the board, so if the priority number is not in the part of the board being checked, use the nearest lower one. (Example: if the priority number is 18 and the nearest numbers in the part being checked are 7 and 22, start checking from 7.)

The priority number system is also used for other actions, as described below.

If Voynich must take a token from the board in order to place it elsewhere, he may not take tokens from the same section he wants to place it in — just like any other player.

Depending on the token type, he chooses which token to move with the following priority:

Tokens that have already reached the branches or the upper flowers in the Botany section.
Tokens in the inner circle of the Astrology section.
Tokens in either of the basins of the Baths section.
Text tokens in rows without star tokens, and star tokens in rows with one or fewer text tokens, in the Writings section.

If several tokens match these conditions, choose any of them. If no token matches any of these conditions, choose which token to move at your own discretion.

Special rules for the Botany section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a water drop" action, he chooses the root for the token by the priority number.
When he performs the "plant growth" action, he moves a token towards the branch or flower with the matching number — or towards the nearest number lower than the priority number.

Move the token that is closest to that number. If a token reaches a branch, it occupies the first empty space and performs its action, if possible.

In the rare cases where all the spaces of the chosen branch are occupied, move the token to the next branch or flower in ascending order of numbers.

If all available tokens are above the branch corresponding to the priority number, keep checking the numbers in order until you find one where tokens can be placed.

Special rules for the Astrology section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a star" or "place a text" action in the sector chosen by the priority number, he places the token in the inner circle if there is a free space.

Otherwise he places it in the outer part of the sector — on the first free space clockwise. If all three spaces are occupied, proceed in the same way with the next sector clockwise.

Special rules for the Writings section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a text" or "place a star" action, the priority number determines the row in which the token may be placed. If that row has no empty spaces of the required type, move to the row below and continue by the same principle, wrapping from the bottom row back to the top if necessary.
When he performs the "translate text" action, Voynich translates the first (from left to right) of his untranslated text tokens in the row chosen by the priority number.

If that row has no text tokens that can be translated, go down to the row below, following the same principle, wrapping from the bottom row back to the top if necessary.

Special rules for the Baths section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a water drop" action, he chooses the left or right spring by the priority number.
When he performs the "purify water" action, he chooses by the priority number which dirty water drop token to move, and performs that action as usual.

If there is no token at the priority number, check all numbers in order, wrapping from 40 to 1 if necessary — until you find a dirty water drop token available to be moved.

When performing the "conversion" action, the water drop token closest to the first basin is converted (if a token is already in the basin, it is the closest and therefore has priority).

When a token reaches the second basin, the reward is chosen by the priority number. If the required space is already occupied, check all numbers in order (wrapping from 40 to 1 if necessary) until you find a free one.

If a dirty water drop token reaches the first basin, place it on the first available empty space with the lowest value.

Special rules for the Recipes section (Voynich)

When Voynich places a token in the Recipes section, he chooses the space by the priority number.

If in doing so Voynich would have to perform an action that he cannot perform even partially, keep checking all numbers in order (wrapping from 40 to 1 if necessary) until you find an action he can perform at least partially. If even that is impossible, simply place the token on the action chosen by the priority number, gaining no benefit from it.

Solo scoring

Easy: move all of Voynich's knowledge markers, except the General Knowledge (GK) marker, back 5 spaces. Voynich totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.
Medium: Voynich totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.
Hard / very hard: Voynich gains 2 General Knowledge (GK) for each of his tokens on the board, then totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.
Extremely hard: Voynich gains 5 General Knowledge (GK) for each of his tokens on the board, then totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.

You carry out your own end-of-game scoring in the usual way. If you have more General Knowledge (GK) than Voynich, you win.

Appendix

Action symbols

Remember: if a number appears next to an action symbol, it means the action may be performed as many times as the number indicates. In cases where the action applies to several tokens, you may perform all the actions with the same token or split them between different tokens. (For example: advancing different tokens in the Botany section with the "plant growth" action, or moving different research tokens with the "research" action.)

Perform the "place a leaf" action in the Botany section of the board.
Perform the "place a water drop" action in the Botany section of the board.
Perform the "plant growth" action in the Botany section of the board.
Perform the "place a star" action in the Astrology section of the board.
Perform the "place a text" action in the Astrology section of the board.
Perform the "rotate Capricorn" action in the Astrology section of the board.
Perform the "place a water drop" action in the Baths section of the board.
Perform the "purify water" action in the Baths section of the board.
Perform the "conversion" action in the Baths section of the board.
Perform the "place a text" action in the Writings section of the board.
Perform the "place a star" action in the Writings section of the board.
Perform the "translate text" action in the Writings section of the board.
Move a token of the indicated type to the Recipes section of the board (in this case a leaf token).
Place one of your research tokens on any of the 4 spaces of the central puzzle piece.
Place one of your research tokens on any puzzle piece on the board.
Move one of your research tokens one space in the direction of the arrow — onto any puzzle piece on the board.
Move one of your research tokens one space in any orthogonal direction — onto any puzzle piece on the board.
Gain Botany knowledge.
Gain Astrology knowledge.
Gain Baths knowledge.
Gain Writings knowledge.
Gain General Knowledge.

Study condition symbols

Remember: when removing research tokens you also gain the GK of their row and column. Not all conditions are shown here, but the iconography is uniform for all of them.

Note: when several puzzle pieces of the same type are orthogonally connected in an unbroken chain, this counts as a group. A group may be of any shape, not only the one shown on the symbols, as long as the number of pieces matches.

Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 2 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a different group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to a group of 2 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to a group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to a group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each orthogonally adjacent to a different group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from an edge puzzle piece of any colour (excluding corners).
Remove 1 of your research tokens from an edge puzzle piece of the indicated colour (excluding corners).
Remove 3 of your research tokens from different edge puzzle pieces of the indicated colour (excluding corners).
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a corner puzzle piece of the indicated colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a puzzle piece of any colour belonging to one of the 8 outer circles of the puzzle (excluding the central circle). Each token must be in a different circle.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a puzzle piece of the indicated colour belonging to one of the 8 outer circles of the puzzle (excluding the central circle).
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a puzzle piece of the indicated colour belonging to one of the 8 outer circles of the puzzle (excluding the central circle). The tokens must be in different circles.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 6 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a different group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour. Each group must be of one colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to puzzle pieces of at least 3 different colours.
Remove 2 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to puzzle pieces of at least 3 different colours. Each token must be on a different puzzle piece.
Remove 2 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to puzzle pieces of 4 different colours. Each token must be on a different puzzle piece.
Remove 2 of your research tokens from different edge puzzle pieces of any colour (excluding corners).
Remove 2 of your research tokens from different corner puzzle pieces of any colour.

Credits

Game design: Dani Garcia. Illustrations: Jorge Tabanera Redondo. Graphic design: João Duarte-Silva. Editorial direction: Gonzalo Maldonado. Translation: Louise Keohane. Russian translation and layout: Hellarion (tesera / nastol.io / BGG).

The Voynich Puzzle Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
- Player setup
Overview of Play
Card Structure
Object of the Game
Turn Structure
Scoring
Solo Mode
Appendix
- Action symbols
- Study condition symbols
Credits

Components

1 double-sided board
4 books with front and back covers
40 Voynich cards (8 of each type)
40 reminder cards
16 Water Drop tokens (4 of each colour)
16 Leaf tokens (4 of each colour)
16 Star tokens (4 of each colour)
16 Text tokens (4 of each colour)
4 Botany knowledge markers
4 Baths knowledge markers
4 Astrology knowledge markers
4 Writings knowledge markers
4 General Knowledge markers
24 research tokens (6 of each colour)
1 central puzzle piece
60 puzzle pieces
1 Capricorn disc
16 neutral player cards for the two-player game
8 Dirty Water Drop tokens
16 Knowledge Exchange tokens
1 first player token

Setup

Place the board on the table with the multiplayer side face up (the side without the numbered yellow spaces).
Place the central puzzle piece in the centre of the puzzle area on the board in any orientation, and lay out all the other puzzle pieces symbol side up next to the board.
Place the Capricorn disc on its space so that its dark part coincides with one of the 5 Astrology sectors, chosen at random.
Randomly place 7 Dirty Water Drop tokens in the first basin of the Baths section, and 1 on the "Dirty water" space beneath the spring on the right.
Form a supply of Knowledge Exchange tokens next to the board.
Shuffle each of the 5 Voynich decks separately (Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and Recipes) and deal each player 2 cards from each one. If there are fewer than four players, return the remaining cards to the box.
In a two-player game, randomly take one neutral player card of each type and follow the instructions printed on them, placing tokens to simulate the neutral player. Also place the indicated puzzle pieces in the puzzle area. Text tokens are placed undeciphered side up. In a three-player game do the same, but only in the Botany and Astrology sections.

Player setup

Randomly choose a player to start the game; they receive the first player token. Then each player must:

Take a book and all the components of one colour.
Place all the cards dealt from the Voynich decks into the book, one in each pocket, so that they are all arranged with their starting phase face up (the picture with the least complete illustration). The cards must be arranged in this order, starting from the first page: Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and Recipes. When finished, each spread of the book must show 2 cards from the same deck, all starting phase up.
- Insert the front cover card into the front cover pocket.
- Behind the cover, in its pocket, will be the first Botany card.
- When you open the book, each spread shows two cards of the same type.
- Insert the back cover card into the back cover pocket.
Place 1 of your Leaf tokens on the starting Leaf space in the Botany section of the main board, and 1 of your research tokens on each part of the central puzzle piece.
Place your 5 knowledge markers (Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings and General Knowledge) on the "0" mark of the score track on the board.
Keep the rest of your tokens next to your book as your supply: research tokens, leaves, stars, water drops and text — the last of these undeciphered side up.
Find the reminder cards matching the numbers of the cards in your book and place them next to you, so that all the information about your pages is in front of your eyes.

Overview of Play

Note: the pages in the players' books are not in the order in which they appear in the Voynich Manuscript. The Writings pages should come last, after the Recipes pages, but for clarity of play the designer chose to change the order.

The sections are: Botany, Astrology, Baths, Writings, Recipes, and General Knowledge.

The game ends when any player's General Knowledge (GK) marker reaches the end-of-game symbol on the 52nd space of the track.

Finish the round so that all players have taken the same number of turns, after which everyone plays one more turn and final scoring takes place.

Card Structure

Cards are divided into 4 phases (the upper and lower halves of the front and back of each card); each phase reflects the progress in deciphering that page.

A — The upper central section shows the actions you may perform when this page is activated.
B — The upper right section indicates the final scoring this page will bring (the starting phase of a card gives no points).
C — The lower right section shows the "Knowledge" you must spend to study this page, and the direction in which the card must be rotated or flipped when you do.
D — In addition, in the second phase of the card you will find information about the study conditions and the available actions on the opposite side of the card.

Front of a card: the upper half holds the starting phase, the lower half the second phase. Back of a card: the upper half holds the third phase, the lower half the fourth phase.

Object of the Game

By performing the actions on your pages you gradually accumulate enough knowledge to share it with all the players — and you add to the puzzle a new piece corresponding to that kind of knowledge.

You will have to balance studying your own pages, accumulating enough knowledge to share it with all players, and collecting the specific types of knowledge that score points at the end of the game.

Turn Structure

Golden rule: you may not use the same active spread on two consecutive turns.

Once you have chosen the spread for the current turn, you must observe the following order of steps:

STUDY A CARD. You may study 1 or both open pages as many times as you wish or can pay for.
PERFORM ACTIONS. You may perform any (or all) of the actions shown in the upper part of one of the two open pages, in any order. Some pages have a "/" symbol, which means that when performing the actions you must choose one of the offered options.
EXCHANGE KNOWLEDGE. If you have one or more Knowledge Exchange tokens, you must use them, placing the corresponding puzzle pieces on the board.
STUDY A CARD. You may again study 1 or both open pages as many times as you wish or can pay for.

After this your turn ends and play continues clockwise to the next player.

1) Studying a card

If you fulfil the condition on the card, you gain the GK shown at the intersection of the row and column of the research tokens that were returned.

A new card phase provides an improved action, better final scoring conditions and, if it is not the last phase, a new study condition connected to the previous one.

Reminder cards: you may lay them out in front of you in any way you find convenient. They give an overview of all the study conditions on your cards, helping you plan the placement of puzzle pieces and knowledge markers.

Example of studying a card

At the start of her turn Clara (red) decides to study one of the pages open this turn. The study condition requires her to have a research token on a group of at least 2 adjacent Botany pieces.

She removes the research token that fulfils the condition and gains 4 General Knowledge (GK) — for the column and the row at whose intersection that token stood.

Then she takes the card out of the book, rotates it as indicated on the card and returns it to the book.

If she could fulfil any further conditions on either of the 2 open cards, she would be entitled to do so, but in this situation that is not the case.

Designer's note: most people researching the Voynich Manuscript share their theories over the Internet. The puzzle reflects this: each time you have accumulated enough knowledge about a specific part of the book, you share it by adding a puzzle piece. This new shared knowledge in the puzzle can then be used by any researcher — represented in the game by the research tokens — to make discoveries of their own.

2) Performing actions

You perform actions as described below, regardless of how they were activated (directly from the pages, or as a consequence of your actions on the main board).

Token limits: tokens of your colour are a limited resource. When a game effect lets you add a token, it may only be taken from your supply or from another section of the main board. (Example: a star may be moved from the Astrology section to the Writings section, but it may not be moved within the Astrology section itself.)

Sometimes a token you have just placed triggers an action to place another token of the same kind elsewhere. The token that triggered the action may not be used for this — take a different token of the same type. (Example: if placing a star token in the Astrology section triggers a "place a star" action in the Writings section, a different star token must be placed there.)

Gaining knowledge

Knowledge can be gained through the actions on your cards or as a reward for performing other actions in the game.

These actions let you gain knowledge of the corresponding type (Botany, Astrology, Baths or Writings), advancing the relevant knowledge marker along the track.

The knowledge types are: Botany knowledge, Astrology knowledge, Baths knowledge, Writings knowledge, and General Knowledge.

If the General Knowledge (GK) marker reaches or passes an insight symbol, nothing happens.

Research actions

These actions appear on cards of any type or as rewards for other actions in the game. They let you:

…either place one of your research tokens on any of the 4 spaces of the central puzzle piece…
…or place one of your research tokens on any puzzle piece on the board, including the central one…
…or move one of your research tokens on the board in the direction indicated by the action, or in any direction.

Actions with a number: if a number appears next to the action icon, the action may be performed as many times as the number indicates.

Actions in the Botany section

These actions apply to the Botany section on the main board — you will find them on Botany cards or gain them as rewards for other actions.

A — Leaf tokens are placed on the space at the base of the plant's stem, which may hold any number of them.
B — A Water Drop token may be placed on any of the 4 root tips, gaining the reward shown there. Each such space may hold only 1 water drop token. You may place a water drop on a root tip that already has a water drop — in that case your token immediately moves to the next empty space along the arrows, taking the reward of the space it lands on.

The "plant growth" action lets you move one of your Leaf tokens or Water Drop tokens one space in the direction of the arrow and gain the reward of the space you land on. The following rules apply:

If a water drop token reaches the base of the stem, immediately perform an additional "plant growth" action with that same water drop token. That space does not count.
Except for the space at the base of the stem and the two upper flower spaces, tokens may not share a space. If you need to move a token onto an occupied space, skip it and keep moving the token to the first empty space, where it stops.
When moving a token onto a branch, choose any empty space of that branch and place the token there, gaining its reward.
Once it has reached a branch or a flower space, a token can no longer be moved by this action. (It can, however, be removed from there in order to perform actions in other sections of the board.)

Example of an action

The left-hand page lets Clara (red) gain 4 Botany knowledge, place a Leaf token and perform 2 "plant growth" actions.

Designer's note: the Botany section of the manuscript apparently depicts various kinds of plants and their descriptions. To convey this process of study, players add leaves to the stem and water to the roots — and these move up towards the flowers and the leafy branches.

Actions in the Astrology section

These actions are performed in the Astrology section of the main board — on Astrology cards or as rewards for other actions in the game.

The "place a star" and "place a text" actions let you take a Star token or a Text token respectively from your supply or from another section of the board and place it in the Astrology section:

Star tokens are placed on any empty star-shaped space (with no other star token) on a constellation. You gain the reward of the space you placed it on.
Text tokens are placed on any empty text space (with no other text token) on a constellation — you gain the reward depicted on the text token itself.

Using text tokens: text tokens may never be flipped unless specifically instructed. Each time you place a text token, you choose it yourself — based on its reward.

Example of an action

The left-hand page lets Clara (red) rotate Capricorn 2 times, place a text token in the Astrology section, and place a research token on the central puzzle piece.

After this placement, the constellation now holds both a text and a star token — so Clara and the blue player each gain 4 Astrology knowledge.

Then she rotates Capricorn 2 times clockwise (passing through two different sectors) and gains a total of 10 Astrology knowledge: 3 in the first sector and 7 in the second.

Finally, she places a research token on the central puzzle piece.

Designer's note: the Astrology section of the manuscript seems to depict astrological signs and heavenly bodies such as the sun and the moon. I took a page that appears to show Capricorn and made it rotate towards different constellations, imitating the movement of a star across the night sky over the course of a year.

Actions in the Baths section

The Baths section of the board has its own actions too — on Baths cards or as a reward for other actions.

If a water drop token reaches the first basin, it stays there and does not advance further automatically.

The second basin: when any of your leaf tokens reaches the second basin (even outside your turn), immediately place it on an empty space with no leaf and gain the corresponding reward.

When a dirty water drop token reaches the first basin, it becomes available to be chosen again.

The "conversion" action lets you remove one of your Water Drop tokens from the Baths section and place a Leaf token in its place.

If the water drop stood in the first basin, the leaf token immediately moves one more space towards the second basin — and this movement, as usual, may push another leaf token along.

In a two-player game: as soon as 2 water drop tokens of the colour not used by the players reach the first basin, immediately remove them and place one on the left spring space and the other on the right spring space (in that order). This may push other water drop tokens by the normal rules.

Example of an action

One of the active pages lets Clara (red) purify water and convert a water drop token.

Then she purifies water — she takes a dirty water drop token from the first basin, gains its reward, and places the dirty water drop token itself on the space beneath the right-hand spring.

This token pushes the dirty water drop token on that space along, and that one pushes two yellow water drop tokens — and the yellow player gains 4 Baths knowledge.

Designer's note: the Baths section is perhaps the strangest in the whole manuscript. I used water drop tokens and a pushing mechanism to depict the flow of water running downwards. And the green colour of the water on the original pages suggested the idea of algae — represented by leaf tokens floating along with the water.

Actions in the Writings section

The actions of the Writings section appear on Writings cards or as rewards for other actions in the game.

The "place a text" action lets you take a Text token from your supply or from another section of the board and place it on the leftmost empty text token space in any row.

After placing it, gain the reward of that text token as well as the reward depicted at the start of that same row on the board. The rewards may be gained in any order.

The "place a star" action lets you take a Star token from your supply or from another section of the board and place it on any empty star token space.

You gain all the rewards on the text tokens of that row, regardless of their colour, as well as the reward at the start of that row — in any order.

From that moment on the token always lies with its improved, translated side showing, with the better reward.

Designer's note: the Writings section is the hardest to make sense of, since no one knows how to translate the text. I used star tokens (the only other element of the section besides the text tokens) to create an interesting interaction with these pages.

Example of an action

The right-hand page lets Clara (red) place 1 text token and 1 star token in the Writings section, and place a research token on the central puzzle piece.

She starts by placing a text token in this row, gaining both the reward of the token itself (in this case 1 Writings knowledge) and 4 Writings knowledge at the start of the row.

Then she places a star token in the row, gaining the rewards of all the text tokens in that row (including the blue ones), as well as 4 Writings knowledge at the start of the row.

Finally, she places a research token on the central puzzle piece.

Actions in the Recipes section

The actions of the Recipes section appear on Recipes cards or as rewards for performing other actions in the game.

In the case of text tokens, the reward of the token is multiplied by the number shown on the space you place it on.

Designer's note: the Recipes section seems to bring together all the other parts of the manuscript — as if it explained how to brew potions by combining plants from the Botany section, the season from the Astrology section, water from the Baths section and instructions from the Writings section. There is of course no proof of this — but these are exactly the ideas I used to build the mechanics of this section: tokens are taken from other parts of the board in order to gain rewards here.

3) Exchanging knowledge

These puzzle pieces are placed in the puzzle area according to the following rules:

A — A puzzle piece must be placed on a space orthogonally adjacent to a piece already in place.
B — Take a puzzle piece with a symbol matching the space you want to place it on, and place it face down — symbol side down.

After all the required pieces have been placed, you may move 1 of your research tokens already standing on the puzzle onto 1 of the pieces you have just placed.

In a two-player game: puzzle pieces added during setup are not considered to be in the puzzle area until they are connected to the central puzzle piece through a chain of orthogonally connected pieces. You may not place a puzzle piece next to them unless that piece is itself connected to the central piece through such a chain. You also may not place or move your research tokens onto those pieces until they are connected.

Example of exchanging knowledge

At the end of her turn Clara (red) has gained a Botany knowledge exchange token and an Astrology knowledge exchange token.

Clara returns them to the general supply and takes one puzzle piece of each type from the supply, making sure that their symbols match the spaces she wants to cover, and adds them to the puzzle.

Clara decides to move 1 of her research tokens already in the puzzle area onto the Botany puzzle piece she has just placed.

Now she can study one of her active pages, because she fulfils its study condition.

4) Studying a card

As at the start of the turn, you may now study 1 or both of the currently open pages — as many times as you wish and as many times as you can afford.

After this the turn ends, and the player to your left takes theirs.

Scoring

The game ends when any player's General Knowledge (GK) marker reaches the end-of-game symbol on the 52nd space.

Finish the round so that all players have taken the same number of turns, then all players take one more turn each — after that scoring begins.

Scoring works as follows:

Each player adds up the General Knowledge (GK) at the intersections of the rows and columns of all their research tokens on the board, divides the result by 2 (rounding down) and adds it to their score.
Each player applies the scoring conditions depicted on the active phases of all the pages in their book. Each scoring condition grants General Knowledge (GK) based on the position of a specific knowledge marker (the symbol is shown on each section of the board) on the score track. The GK gained is counted like this: first determine the furthest scoring space that this marker has reached or passed. Then the amount of GK shown in that space is multiplied by 1, 2 or 4 — depending on what is indicated on the corresponding page.

Note: each section of the board shows which knowledge marker is scored by the pages of that section. The only exception is Recipes. Each Recipes page depicts two knowledge types; in final scoring you choose which knowledge type to score on that page.

After all players have scored all their pages, the player with the most General Knowledge (GK) wins.

Solo Mode

You are the first player.

In solo mode you take your turns exactly as in the 2-player game. Voynich also follows most of the normal rules, but with 3 differences:

He automatically studies a page at the start of his turn, ignoring the conditions, and therefore never uses his research tokens.
If he must perform research actions, he exchanges them for 1 General Knowledge (GK). (Example: instead of placing 2 research tokens, he gains 1 GK.)
When he takes a text token from his supply, he takes the top one.

Voynich's turn structure

At the start of his turn Voynich flips the top card of his deck, places it in a pile next to it, and changes the open page in Voynich's book to the spread corresponding to the card just flipped.

If that card shows the current spread already open in his book, repeat the process with a new card of the deck — until you can move to a new spread.

If the deck runs out, take all the cards from the discard pile except the top one, shuffle them — this is now the new deck.

When Voynich has chosen a new spread, perform the following steps:

If possible, he studies one phase of one of the open pages. If the page number on the top card of his deck (the one just flipped) is odd, he studies the left-hand page; if it is even, the right-hand page.
Perform the actions of the page he has just studied (or tried to study).
If he has knowledge exchange tokens, use them to place puzzle pieces on the board.

Voynich performing actions

Voynich performs all the actions of the page he has just studied (or tried to study) in order — from left to right.

If a card has 2 options separated by a slash, he chooses the left one if the action is on the left-hand page, and the right one if it is on the right-hand page.

Placing puzzle pieces (Voynich)

When Voynich must add puzzle pieces to the board, you decide where to place them, but you must follow the study condition depicted on the top card of the deck, if that is possible.

Depending on the condition you must:

Place in or next to a group of X pieces: place the puzzle piece so that it becomes part of (or is adjacent to) a group of pieces of its colour containing at least as many pieces as the condition requires.
Place on an edge: place the puzzle piece on an edge or in a corner.
Place in a circle: place the puzzle piece so that it becomes part of a circle.
Place next to different colours (≠): place the puzzle piece so that it is adjacent to at least 3 different colours.

If it is impossible to place a puzzle piece according to the condition, you place it anywhere you choose.

For each puzzle piece placed, Voynich gains the General Knowledge (GK) at the intersection of the row and the column of that space.

Adding and moving tokens (Voynich)

When Voynich must add tokens to the board, he always takes them from his supply if possible.

The priority number system is also used for other actions, as described below.

If Voynich must take a token from the board in order to place it elsewhere, he may not take tokens from the same section he wants to place it in — just like any other player.

Depending on the token type, he chooses which token to move with the following priority:

Tokens that have already reached the branches or the upper flowers in the Botany section.
Tokens in the inner circle of the Astrology section.
Tokens in either of the basins of the Baths section.
Text tokens in rows without star tokens, and star tokens in rows with one or fewer text tokens, in the Writings section.

If several tokens match these conditions, choose any of them. If no token matches any of these conditions, choose which token to move at your own discretion.

Special rules for the Botany section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a water drop" action, he chooses the root for the token by the priority number.
When he performs the "plant growth" action, he moves a token towards the branch or flower with the matching number — or towards the nearest number lower than the priority number.

Move the token that is closest to that number. If a token reaches a branch, it occupies the first empty space and performs its action, if possible.

In the rare cases where all the spaces of the chosen branch are occupied, move the token to the next branch or flower in ascending order of numbers.

If all available tokens are above the branch corresponding to the priority number, keep checking the numbers in order until you find one where tokens can be placed.

Special rules for the Astrology section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a star" or "place a text" action in the sector chosen by the priority number, he places the token in the inner circle if there is a free space.

Otherwise he places it in the outer part of the sector — on the first free space clockwise. If all three spaces are occupied, proceed in the same way with the next sector clockwise.

Special rules for the Writings section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a text" or "place a star" action, the priority number determines the row in which the token may be placed. If that row has no empty spaces of the required type, move to the row below and continue by the same principle, wrapping from the bottom row back to the top if necessary.
When he performs the "translate text" action, Voynich translates the first (from left to right) of his untranslated text tokens in the row chosen by the priority number.

If that row has no text tokens that can be translated, go down to the row below, following the same principle, wrapping from the bottom row back to the top if necessary.

Special rules for the Baths section (Voynich)

When Voynich performs the "place a water drop" action, he chooses the left or right spring by the priority number.
When he performs the "purify water" action, he chooses by the priority number which dirty water drop token to move, and performs that action as usual.

If there is no token at the priority number, check all numbers in order, wrapping from 40 to 1 if necessary — until you find a dirty water drop token available to be moved.

When performing the "conversion" action, the water drop token closest to the first basin is converted (if a token is already in the basin, it is the closest and therefore has priority).

If a dirty water drop token reaches the first basin, place it on the first available empty space with the lowest value.

Special rules for the Recipes section (Voynich)

When Voynich places a token in the Recipes section, he chooses the space by the priority number.

Solo scoring

Easy: move all of Voynich's knowledge markers, except the General Knowledge (GK) marker, back 5 spaces. Voynich totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.
Medium: Voynich totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.
Hard / very hard: Voynich gains 2 General Knowledge (GK) for each of his tokens on the board, then totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.
Extremely hard: Voynich gains 5 General Knowledge (GK) for each of his tokens on the board, then totals the points from his pages just like any player, but gains no points for his research tokens on the board — he will not have any.

You carry out your own end-of-game scoring in the usual way. If you have more General Knowledge (GK) than Voynich, you win.

Appendix

Action symbols

Perform the "place a leaf" action in the Botany section of the board.
Perform the "place a water drop" action in the Botany section of the board.
Perform the "plant growth" action in the Botany section of the board.
Perform the "place a star" action in the Astrology section of the board.
Perform the "place a text" action in the Astrology section of the board.
Perform the "rotate Capricorn" action in the Astrology section of the board.
Perform the "place a water drop" action in the Baths section of the board.
Perform the "purify water" action in the Baths section of the board.
Perform the "conversion" action in the Baths section of the board.
Perform the "place a text" action in the Writings section of the board.
Perform the "place a star" action in the Writings section of the board.
Perform the "translate text" action in the Writings section of the board.
Move a token of the indicated type to the Recipes section of the board (in this case a leaf token).
Place one of your research tokens on any of the 4 spaces of the central puzzle piece.
Place one of your research tokens on any puzzle piece on the board.
Move one of your research tokens one space in the direction of the arrow — onto any puzzle piece on the board.
Move one of your research tokens one space in any orthogonal direction — onto any puzzle piece on the board.
Gain Botany knowledge.
Gain Astrology knowledge.
Gain Baths knowledge.
Gain Writings knowledge.
Gain General Knowledge.

Study condition symbols

Remember: when removing research tokens you also gain the GK of their row and column. Not all conditions are shown here, but the iconography is uniform for all of them.

Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 2 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a different group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to a group of 2 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to a group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to a group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each orthogonally adjacent to a different group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of the indicated colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from an edge puzzle piece of any colour (excluding corners).
Remove 1 of your research tokens from an edge puzzle piece of the indicated colour (excluding corners).
Remove 3 of your research tokens from different edge puzzle pieces of the indicated colour (excluding corners).
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a corner puzzle piece of the indicated colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a puzzle piece of any colour belonging to one of the 8 outer circles of the puzzle (excluding the central circle). Each token must be in a different circle.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a puzzle piece of the indicated colour belonging to one of the 8 outer circles of the puzzle (excluding the central circle).
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a puzzle piece of the indicated colour belonging to one of the 8 outer circles of the puzzle (excluding the central circle). The tokens must be in different circles.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 4 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens from a group of 6 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour.
Remove 2 of your research tokens — each from a different group of 3 or more puzzle pieces of a single colour. Each group must be of one colour.
Remove 1 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to puzzle pieces of at least 3 different colours.
Remove 2 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to puzzle pieces of at least 3 different colours. Each token must be on a different puzzle piece.
Remove 2 of your research tokens orthogonally adjacent to puzzle pieces of 4 different colours. Each token must be on a different puzzle piece.
Remove 2 of your research tokens from different edge puzzle pieces of any colour (excluding corners).
Remove 2 of your research tokens from different corner puzzle pieces of any colour.