Tír na nÓg
Tír na nÓg Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Journey to the Otherworld by placing Storytellers next to Encounter cards, then select from the cards next to your Storytellers and add them to your Saga, which is the grid of cards in front of you. At the end of 5 rounds, score each row according to the rules on its corresponding Geas card, and earn points for having the most connected Encounter cards of each color. The highest score wins.
Components
- 96 Encounter cards
- 60 Double-sided Geas cards — 12 each in 5 colors
- 1 Balor Card (for Solo Mode)
- Regions of Tír na nÓg Geas card
- 15 Storytellers — 3 each in 5 player colors
- 24 Color Change Tokens
- 23 Value tokens
- 1st Player Token
- 1 Score Pad
Setup
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Give each player 3 storytellers in their chosen player color.
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Flip the Regions of Tír Na nÓg card to the appropriate player count and place the card where players can see it.
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Select one Geas card for each row (Top, Middle, and Bottom). If this is your first game, use the cards marked "1st." Give each player a copy of each card in their player color. All players should use the same three Geas cards. Each player places these to the left of their personal play areas in the row order shown on the cards.
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Shuffle the Encounter card deck and deal 5 cards to each player.
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Create the Otherworld by dealing Encounter cards into a grid, according to the chart below:
Players Setup 2 3x3 grid, but do not place the central card. 3 3x4 grid 4 3x5 grid 5 3x6 grid -
Place the remaining Encounter cards in a face-down stack near the play area, leaving enough room for a discard pile beside it.
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The player who most recently told a story takes the 1st player token. Alternatively, randomly choose a starting player.
How to Play
Your Saga: Geas and Encounter Cards
Geas is an Old Gaelic word for a vow or a curse, common in Irish mythology, that either requires you to do something, or to avoid doing something. Violating your Geas leads to punishment, but fulfilling it leads to great rewards!
Over 5 rounds, you will place Encounter cards in 3 rows in front of you to create your Saga of 15 cards. Each row has a Geas card, with rules for placing and scoring Encounter cards in that row. Encounter cards come in four colors, and you will also score points for creating large connected regions of the same color, across all the rows of your Saga.
Game Round
The game plays over 5 rounds. Each round has 3 phases:
- Journey Phase: Place Storytellers
- Saga Phase: Select & place Encounter cards
- Cleanup: Prepare for the next round
1. Journey Phase
Your Storytellers depart on a great voyage to reach the realm of Tír na nÓg, adventuring through fog and mist to a land of youth and promise.
Starting with the player with the 1st Player Token, place a Storyteller in a space between any two Encounter cards in the Otherworld.
You may not place a Storyteller:
- On a space already occupied by a Storyteller
- At the corner of cards
- Along the outside of the Otherworld card grid
- In a 2-player game, along the inside edges of the card grid
Play passes to the left until all players have placed all of their Storytellers.
2. Saga Phase
Having tasted the Land of Eternal Youth, your Storytellers return home to sing songs and spin tales of their adventures, recording them in a great Saga.
Starting with the player to the right of the 1st Player token and proceeding counterclockwise, players take turns. Each turn consists of two actions: taking a card from the Otherworld and playing a card to your Saga.
Take an Encounter Card
Choose an Encounter card next to one of your Storytellers and add it to your hand. Then, return the corresponding Storyteller to your supply.
If none of your Storytellers are next to any cards, skip your turn for now, and pass play to the next player. These Lost Storytellers will activate later, as described below in Lost Storytellers and the Echtra Quest.
Play an Encounter Card
Choose any card from your hand — even the one you just took — and add it to a row in your Saga. Place your card in the first open slot in a row, from left to right. Usually, this will be to the right of the last card in the row. However, game effects can cause a gap to appear in the middle of a row. In this case, the next card played to the row must fill that gap.
Restrictions on Playing Encounter Cards
You may not play an Encounter card into a row that already has 5 cards, though some game effects will ignore this limit. You must observe any placement rules and requirements on the target row's Geas card, if there are any. Very rarely, you may not have any legal plays available. In that case, discard one card to the discard pile instead, ignoring any effect printed on the card. This may result in your Saga having fewer than 15 cards at the end of the game.
Lost Storytellers and the Echtra Quest
Echtra means adventure or journey in Old Irish, and is related to the modern English word "extra."
If all the Encounter cards next to your Storyteller are taken, your Storyteller has become Lost in the Otherworld. Don't panic! After all the other Storytellers return home, your Storyteller will embark on an Echtra Quest.
When the only Storytellers left in the Otherworld are Lost, you and all players with Lost Storytellers take turns in counterclockwise order picking cards and playing them, until all Storytellers have returned home. Select any card in the Otherworld, add it to your hand, return your Storyteller home, and play a card to your Saga.
When all players have returned all their Storytellers and played three Encounter cards, the Saga phase is over.
3. Cleanup
All players discard a card from their hands. The number of cards left in your hand is equal to the number of rounds that remain in the game. If you have no cards to discard, you have played all 5 rounds and it is time to proceed to final scoring. Otherwise, prepare for a new round.
Discard the current Otherworld cards, then create a new Otherworld grid from the draw deck just as you did at the start of the game. If the draw deck runs out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw deck. Pass the 1st Player token to the left and start a new round.
Encounter Cards, Card Effects, and Timing
Every Encounter card has a color and a value. The value is the number printed on the top-left corner. Special Encounter cards have effects printed on them. Card effects only apply once the Encounter card is played into your Saga, not while the card is in your hand. Some cards, typically those that can change their own value, are marked with an Ailm symbol below their printed value. This icon is referenced by some card effects.
An Encounter card shows: the Color symbol, the printed Value (with the Ailm marker below it when present), Subplots Expansion Icons, the Effect Type, and the Effect Description.
The Encounter cards describe when and how their effects operate. Always follow the rules on the card even when they contradict the rules in this rulebook. Effects are mandatory unless the card says otherwise, or the effect is impossible to perform. Effects can increase or decrease a card's value, change its color, move its position, and more. Initial card values range from 0-8. Effects can increase values past 8, but cannot decrease values below 0. Card effects trigger at these times:
- When Played: Once, when the card is added to your Saga.
- Ongoing: When the card is added to your Saga, and after any other applicable change is made to your Saga.
- Journey Phase / Saga Phase: On your turn in that phase, unless otherwise noted on the card. These cards often have optional effects, or allow you to perform an additional action, or to take an improved version of a standard action.
- Scoring: At the end of the game as part of scoring.
Moving or swapping a card that is already in your Saga is not the same as playing a card. Effects that move cards, like Manannán's Dock, do not have to follow the placement restrictions on Geas cards, or the restriction of playing no more than 5 cards in each row.
Use Value tokens and Color Change tokens to indicate any changes made to the cards. Place Value tokens on top of the printed value, to replace it entirely. The tokens have different numbers on each side, so you should usually be able to find exactly the number that you need. In the rare case that you need a different number, use two or more tokens that sum up to the number you need.
Place Color Change tokens on the top right of the card, over the old color symbol.
Cards that are moved keep any tokens they have on them, but remember to re-check all "Ongoing" cards, as their values may be affected by their own move, or the movement of other cards.
When your card triggers during a particular phase, but has no other timing instructions, you may choose when in the phase to trigger it. For example, you may trigger the ability of the Leipreachán Cobblers at any time during the Saga Phase, either prior to adding a card to your Saga, or afterwards. If any timing issues arise with regards to the effects of your cards, you may choose how to resolve them as you wish, so long as you do not create infinite loops or other impossible situations.
Game End
The game ends after 5 rounds. In most cases, you will have a complete Saga of 15 Encounter cards in 3 rows, with 5 Encounter cards per row. It is possible that you will have fewer cards, or have more than 5 cards in one row and fewer than 5 cards in another row, or that you will have a blank space in the middle of one of your rows. For the purposes of scoring, blank spaces simply do not count. A blank space in the middle of a row disrupts connections and runs for all Geas cards, including the Regions of Tír na nÓg Geas card.
Scoring
Check your Saga for cards with effects that trigger in the scoring phase, and resolve all of those effects. Usually, player order will not matter and players can all do this step at the same time. In the rare case where order matters, pass the 1st Player Marker at the start of scoring, as though you were starting a new round, then go clockwise from the 1st Player Marker.
I. Geas Cards
Score each row in your Saga according to its Geas card's scoring condition. Each Geas card has a scoring condition on the right and an example of the condition on the left. Score rows even if the Encounter cards now violate the Geas card's original placement rules; this can happen due to move or swap effects that occur during the game.
Unless they explicitly state otherwise, Geas cards apply to the Encounter cards in their corresponding rows, and use the word "here" to mean "in this row." When a Geas card says "score a card" it means score points equal to the value of the card. "Score the total" means sum up the values of each card the Geas card refers to, and score that many points. Record the totals for each on the score pad.
II. Regions of Tír na nÓg
Score the Regions of Tír na nÓg Geas card. For each of the 4 Encounter card colors (yellow, blue, green, and red), the player with the largest connected region of the same color scores the highest point value on the Regions of Tír na nÓg card. The player with the 2nd-largest region scores the second highest point value, and so on. Players must have a region of at least 2 cards to score points. Cards are connected when they are next to each other horizontally or vertically. Record the totals for each on the score pad.
In case of a tie for region size, give each player half the points (rounded down) for the position they have tied for, and half the points for the next position, if applicable. Do not award points to any other players for that next position.
Add up all the scores. The player with the highest score wins. In case of a tie, the player with the largest single region is the winner.
Scoring Example
- Oisín's Journey: 7+5+6+8 = 26 VP
- Fionn and the Salmon of Knowledge: 4+4+2 = 10 VP
- Cathbad's Divination: 3 value 3 cards = 10 VP
- Regions of Tír Na Nóg: 7 red, 3 green, 2 yellow: 8+3 = 11 VP
Geas Cards = 46 VP, Regions = 11 VP, Total Score = 57 VP
This player's 7 reds were the largest compared to the other players' reds, the 3 green was the 2nd-largest compared to other players' green regions, and the 2 yellow were not the largest in comparison to any other player.
Solo Rules - Balor's Gaze
Balor, the evil-eyed chieftain of the Fomóire, has his own vision of his legacy. He has recruited his own Storytellers to retell the stories — with himself as the hero! Build your Saga as best you can and preserve the truth of the Otherworld, or at least something like it, for all time.
Set up for a 2-player game but with the following changes: Place the Balor reference card on the "Highest" side and do not deal Balor any Encounter cards. Balor does not have a Saga. Instead, he places all of his selected cards into a single scoring pile.
Balor always goes first during the Journey Phase AND the Saga Phase. Place the first player marker in between any two cards in the Otherworld grid. It will remain there the entire game.
Journey Phase: On Balor's turn, discard the top card of the Encounter deck. If that card has an Ailm, flip Balor's reference card.
Check Balor's reference card. If it indicates "Highest," place one of Balor's Storytellers between the two cards in the Otherworld that have the highest sum. If that spot is already occupied by a Storyteller, go to the spot with the next highest sum, until you find an open spot. Ignore any effects on cards that would increase or decrease their value when summing the cards for this purpose.
If Balor's reference card indicates "Lowest," then place one of Balor's Storytellers between the two cards that have the lowest sum, following the same rule as above if that spot is occupied, but looking for the next lowest sum.
If two spots are tied, start at the first player marker and travel clockwise around the grid in a spiral until you reach one of the tied locations and place the Storyteller there.
Saga Phase: On Balor's turn, discard the top card of the Encounter deck. If that card has an Ailm, flip Balor's reference card.
Based on his reference card, Balor takes the highest or lowest value card that is next to one of his Storytellers. Ignore any effects that would increase or decrease the value of the card. If one or more cards are tied, Balor will take the card closest to the 1st-Player Token, going clockwise. If Balor has two Storytellers that are both next to the card Balor intends to take, Balor will use the Storyteller closest to the 1st-Player Token, going clockwise, to take the card.
When Balor chooses a card for a lost Storyteller, he will still take the highest or lowest card from those remaining, following the same rule for ties as above.
Place the card Balor took face up into his scoring pile.
Example: Balor's Storyteller went between 7 and 6 because it was the highest sum. You placed between 6 and 3, and Balor went between 5 and 5 on his second turn. In the Saga Phase, Balor will take the green 7 because it is the highest. Since the other pair are the same value, Balor will take the green 5 since it is the closest clockwise from the first player token.
Cleanup Phase: When you deal out the new Otherworld grid, flip Balor's reference card.
Scoring: Calculate your score for Geas cards normally. Balor scores the points located in the lower right of each of the three Geas cards. Reveal the cards Balor selected into his scoring pile. Choose and discard a number of cards from Balor's scoring pile based on the difficulty setting you want to play from the table below. When comparing color regions, Balor's connected region size is the number of all cards of that color remaining in his scoring pile after discarding. Points are awarded like normal for a two-player game: 8 points to the player with the largest region of that color, 3 points to the player with the second largest region, and 0 points to players with regions of 0 or 1 cards. Ties split the first and second total 11 points evenly rounded down, so 5 points each.
Good luck beating Balor!
| Difficulty | Easy | Normal | Hard | Impossible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discard | 3 cards | 2 cards | 1 card | 0 cards |
Card Reference and Pronunciation
Encounter Card Clarifications
Aengus's Brú — You may choose to keep the card you drew, or resolve your Lost Storyteller normally, by discarding that card and picking a card from the Otherworld.
Brú na Bóinne — You may only place your Storytellers in a standard occupied space. You cannot, for example, place a Storyteller in an occupied corner, even if you also have the Merrow Milliners card in your Saga.
Cailleach's Crag — Cailleach's Crag gets a +3 per color that it is next to, for each of the four colors: Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. Cailleach's Crag does not count as next to itself.
Clúrachán Brewery — If there is a green card next to Clúrachán Brewery, you may choose for Clúrachán Brewery to remain green.
Cú Sidhe Kennel — Cú Sidhe Kennel doesn't count itself, but does count a second copy of Cú Sidhe Kennel.
Dobhar-chú Loch — The Storyteller must be moved to another valid space where two cards are still present. If no such place is available, ignore the effect.
Far Darrig — If there is no card to the left of Far Darrig, it retains its printed value of 2.
Gancanagh's Valley — If the space to the right of Gancanagh's Valley is filled when Gancanagh's Valley is played, ignore the effect of this card. This may occur when Gancanagh's Valley is played into a gap in a row.
Keening Banshee — This card triggers as soon as one of your Storytellers has no cards next to them, and interrupts the regular turn order. It may trigger multiple times per round. You may place your Storyteller in a space next to one or two cards. You must still observe all other placement rules (e.g., no placing on the outside of the Otherworld grid).
Leipreachán Cobblers — Moving does not count as playing, so you may move Leipreachán Cobblers to a row that already has 5 or more cards.
Mag Mell — Discard Mag Mell from your hand to trigger its ability. If you play Mag Mell into your Saga instead, its ability is lost forever.
Manannán's Dock — Swapping is not "Playing" and does not re-trigger "When Played" abilities.
Merrow Milliners — Only one of your Storytellers may be placed at a corner in each Journey Phase. In the 2-player game, you may place the Storyteller along the inside edge of the Otherworld grid; in the Saga phase you can take any of the 3 cards your Storyteller is touching.
Water Kelpie — If Water Kelpie ever stops being next to a Green card, add 6 back to its value.
Geas Card Clarifications
Legend of Knockgrafton (Middle) — Cards tied for highest in their column do not count as 2nd-highest, and do not score. For example, a column of 8-8-1 will not score at all. The 8 in the middle row is tied for highest, and does not also count as 2nd-highest. The '1' is second-highest, but it is in the wrong row. It would need to be in the middle row to score, since Legend of Knockgrafton scores the middle row.
Pronunciation Guide
Note: There are many dialects of Old Irish, so there are many valid ways to pronounce these words.
- Aengus (AYN-guhs)
- Balor (BAY-lir)
- Banshee (ban-shee)
- Benandonner (BEH-nihn-DAH-ner)
- Bodach (BOH-dach)
- Brú na Bóinne (BROO nah BON-yeh)
- Cailleach (KAH-lahk)
- Cathbad (KAH-vah)
- Clúrachán (CLOR-ih-HAN)
- Cú Chulainn (KOO KULL-in)
- Cú Sídhe (koo shee)
- Dagda (DAHG-duh)
- Deirdre (DEER-druh)
- Diarmuid (JEER-mid)
- Dobhar-chú (DOH-rah HOO)
- Dolmen (DOWL-muhn)
- Dullaghan (DOH-luh-HAN)
- Echtra (EH-truh)
- Étaín (EE-tohn)
- Far Darrig (far DAR-rig)
- Fergus O'Mara (FER-guhs)
- Fionn mac Cumhaill (FEN mak-KOO-el)
- Fomóire (fo-MOIR-uh)
- Gancanagh (GAN KAH-nah)
- Geas (gesh)
- Glastonbury (GLAS-tuhn-BREE)
- Gollerus (GUHL-er-US)
- Gráinne (GRAW-nyah)
- Kelpie (KEL-pee)
- Knockgrafton (NAHK-graf-TUHN)
- Leipreachán (LEH-preh-kHAWN)
- Lir (leer)
- Lugh (loo)
- Macha (MAH-hah)
- Mag Mell (mah mal)
- Manannán (MAH-nah-NAHN)
- Medb (mayv)
- Merrow (MEH-roh)
- Nuada (NEW-dah)
- Oilliphéist (OHL-ih-FISHT)
- Oisín (oh-SHEEN)
- Owney-Na-Peak (OW-nee na PEEK)
- Púca (POO-kuh)
- Selkie (SEHL-kee)
- Sídhe (shee)
- Tír na nÓg (TEER nah NOHG)
- Tuatha Dé Danann (too-AH DAY dah-NAAN)
- Túr Bhalair (TOR BAY-lir)
Credits
Game Design: Isaac Shalev and Jason Slingerland Solo Mode: John Brieger and Joe Hopkins Illustration: Marlies Barends Art Direction and Graphic Design: Brigette Indelicato Producer: Marc Specter Development: Joe Hopkins and John Brieger Cultural Consultant: Nick Ferris Rulebook Proofreader: Lauren Pacifico
Special Thanks: Thanks to John Brieger for setting the thematic stage for our story. Thanks to Joe Hopkins for bringing that tale to an epic conclusion. Special thanks to Nick Ferris for being the bard of our party, supporting us with his knowledge of Celtic history, lore, and magic. Jason would like to thank his wife Stephanie, and his children Josiah and Laurel for everything they do, and the amazing Building the Game Community for their continual support and friendship. Isaac would like to thank his family, Corinne Roberts for the art that inspired this project, and the TantrumCon community that playtested this game for several years. Finally, thanks to all of our Gamefound backers for your support.
Copyright © Grand Gamers Guild 2023