Tranquility
Tranquility Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1. Components
- 80 Island cards (numbered 1-80)
- 5 Start and 5 Finish cards
- 20 Stormy Seas expansion cards, illustrated as: Compass (6), Yellow Storm (3), Purple Storm (2), Orange Storm (1), Jagged Rocks (1), Sea Monster (5) and Wild — Kickstarter exclusive (2)
plus:
- 2 reference cards
- 25 border cards (to outline the playing area)
- 3 rule sheets (in English, German and French).
2. The goal
You will attempt to find your paradise island on the good ship Tranquility. To do this you will need to fill the entire 6x6 sea grid with Island cards and have played one Start and one Finish card. You all win if you complete the grid, and have placed a Start and Finish card, living out your days in an island paradise. You all lose if a single player can no longer play or discard any cards (see Section 4) causing the ship to be lost forever.
You may NOT communicate with other players except when discussing the Start card (see below).
3. Game setup
If this is your first game, we usually recommend playing the standard game. Remove all expansion cards and return them to the box. Rules for the expansion and information on available game variants can be found at the end of these rules. Note: experienced gamers may want to remove four random Island cards as per the Galateia variant in Section 7.1).
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Place 24 border cards (which have the boat design front and back) so as to frame a 6 x 6 playing area (see below and/or reference card A1).
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Set aside 1 Start card per player (returning any unused Start cards to the box).
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Shuffle together all of the Island and Finish cards and deal them out face down to each player, divided as evenly as possible, to form their draw piles. For example, in a 3-player game one player will have 29 cards, and the other two players 28 each (80 Island cards plus 5 Finish cards).
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Each player should then draw a starting hand of five cards from their individual draw piles. Cards in your hand are kept secret from all other players at all times.
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Finally, each player must shuffle 1 Start card into their draw pile.
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The player with the fewest cards should start, or choose at random.
4. How to play
Solo game: Please consult reference card A2 for instructions on how to play the game solo.
You all take a turn, one after another, starting with the first player and then moving clockwise around the table. Play continues in this fashion until the game is either won or lost. On your turn you must take one action by doing one of the following:
A) Play a card or B) Discard two cards.
After taking an action you must draw back up to a hand of five cards by taking cards from the top of your own draw pile (unless your draw pile has run out, in which case continue playing until the game ends).
A) Play a card
You select an Island card from your hand and may play it anywhere in the grid providing you follow these rules:
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Cards must be placed so that the grid ascends in numerical order from bottom-left to top-right, first moving along the bottom row from left to right, followed by the second row moving left to right etc.
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If the card is placed next to an existing card in the ascending sequence (even if they are on different rows) then you must discard the number of cards face down from your hand equal to the difference between the numbers shown on the two cards e.g. placing a '5' next to a '3' will mean you must discard two cards.
If a card is played between two cards, you discard cards equal to the difference between the card you played and one of the cards to either side, whichever result is the lowest. You may not place a card if that would require you to discard more than the four cards remaining in your hand. You may not discard cards from your draw pile.
Start Cards
If you have a Start card in your hand, and one has yet to be played, you must play that Start card as your action this turn. The Start card is not placed within the grid but in the bottom left-hand corner of the frame. When a Start card is played you must discard a total of eight cards between you. You may discuss how many cards each of you is willing to discard but not specifics about what is in your hand or where you might wish to play cards in the future.
Note: this is the only time in the game that players can communicate. After discarding all players draw back up to five cards. If the Start space has already been filled the remaining Start cards have no purpose and may be discarded using the normal rules.
In a 2-player game, each player draws two extra cards from their draw piles before discarding the eight cards.
Finish Cards
You may only play a Finish card once the rest of the grid (plus a Start card) has been completed. If this card is played before any player runs out of legal moves then you all win the game. Finish cards may be discarded using the normal rules but beware: there are only five in the game! You cannot win without a Finish card being played.
B) Discard two cards
You may discard two cards rather than playing a card either because you cannot legally play a card or because you choose to. To do this you must place two cards of your choice from your hand, face down, in front of you. Note: we advise keeping this discard pile messy so as to easily differentiate from the draw pile.
Cards are discarded by placing them face down in front of you. Neither you, nor anyone else, may look through your discard pile.
5. End of the game
You all win if the active player successfully plays a Finish card after the grid is complete. You all lose if any player cannot take a legal action on their turn. This could be because they can't play a card into the grid, either because it doesn't fit numerically, or because the player doesn't have enough cards to discard in order to play it, or you have either one or zero cards left in your hand at the start of your turn.
Guidance for Communication
Strictly speaking, Tranquility should be played in silence. Ultimately, however, players may create their own rules of communication or may simply choose to take the opportunity to discuss other aspects of life.
If you're regularly winning the standard game, or just want to shake things up a little, then please try the mini-expansions and/or variants. The difficulty of each expansion and variant is indicated by a number of warning icons.
6. Stormy Seas expansion
Included in the game box are the following three mini-expansions: Jagged Rocks, Sea Monsters and Storm & Compass plus the Kickstarter-exclusive 'Wild' cards. They can be used to make the game more difficult, and also add variety. Note: we recommend adding the expansions in one at a time, especially at the start.
6.1 Jagged Rocks
Difficulty: 1 warning icon.
The game begins with the Jagged Rocks card placed randomly on one of the six border cards on the left-hand side of the grid. This row is considered as temporarily impenetrable so no cards may be placed into it. After taking your action as normal, before drawing up, you must move the Jagged Rocks card to any row with at least one empty space in it before drawing back up to five cards. If you choose not to move the Jagged Rocks card, you must instead discard two cards. The Jagged Rocks card is removed from the game once four rows have been completed.
6.2 Sea Monsters
Difficulty: 2 warning icons / 3 warning icons.
Depending on the level of difficulty you wish to play shuffle three, four or five Sea Monster cards into the Island and Finish cards before dealing out to players. If you draw a Sea Monster card, you keep it in your hand as one of your five cards. On your turn you may play the Sea Monster card into the grid by placing it on top of any previously played card. The Sea Monster destroys the card and then both cards are removed from the game. This counts as taking an action on your turn. You may never discard a Sea Monster card. The only way to remove them is to play them into the grid.
If anyone tries to end the game by placing a Finish card and one or more players are still holding a Sea Monster card then this must be disclosed. The game continues until all Sea Monster cards in hand have been played. The Finish card may then be played to win the game.
6.3 Storm & Compass
Difficulty: 3 warning icons.
In setup, add the six Storm cards and shuffle them into the Island and Finish cards before dealing out to players. The six Compass cards are placed to the side of the playing area. You resolve a Storm card as soon as you draw it. You then draw back up to five (or three, see below) cards. The Storms are resolved as follows:
Yellow Storm: Place the Yellow Storm card face up in front of you and immediately discard down to three cards; this is your new hand limit until the Storm card is removed. When the Start card is played, if you have a Yellow Storm you may choose to discard the top two cards from your draw pile without looking at them to contribute to the eight cards that must be discarded.
Note: if a player draws multiple Yellow Storms, the three-card limit remains but they now need multiple Compass cards to remove the restriction (see below).
Purple Storm: Place the Purple Storm card on one of the six border cards on the left-hand side of the grid on a row with at least one empty space. This row is now inaccessible while the Storm is ongoing and may only be removed by a Compass (see below).
Orange Storm: Place the Orange Storm card face up in front of you. For all future turns you may now only play next to an existing card (discarding the appropriate number of cards as per the usual rules) or discard two cards.
Compass cards: Compasses may be played to help the players navigate the Storms and remove playing restrictions.
They may be played at any point, including immediately after a Storm has been revealed but not yet resolved. They may also be saved for future use and do not count towards the five-card hand limit. Players may discuss freely which Storm to remove.
Compass cards may be acquired in three different ways:
- When the Start card is played, the players earn one Compass card between them.
- When filling an entire row with consecutive cards (e.g. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17).
- If any player chooses to discard their whole hand.
Note: a player subject to the three-card hand limit imposed by the Yellow Storm is still able to gain a Compass in this way.
6.4 Wild cards
Players may choose to shuffle these in deck during setup. They may be used in lieu of any card e.g. Start, Finish, Compass etc (with the exception of Island cards already played) and make the game slightly easier.
7. Variants
7.1 Removing Island cards
This is the simplest way to make the game more difficult. Not only do players have fewer cards to play or discard, they must also take greater risks due to the uncertainty of not knowing which cards have been removed. Discard the following number of random Island cards from play (without looking) before constructing the deck. Make sure to set aside the Finish cards before discarding otherwise the game could, theoretically, become impossible to win!
- Galateia: discard 4. (1 warning icon.)
- Triton: discard 6. (2 warning icons.)
- Leucothea: discard 8. (2 warning icons.)
- Amphitrite: discard 10. (3 warning icons.)
- Poseidon: discard 12. (3 warning icons.)
More variants?
You can find the full rules for the following variants on BoardGameGeek.
7.2 The High Arch
Difficulty: 1 warning icon.
The players must complete the two pillars before putting the roof on to complete the arch. This is an alternative grid-type variant that largely uses the standard game rules.
7.3 The Pyramid
Difficulty: 2 warning icons.
A Pyramid-shaped grid is outlined using most of the border cards. Players also create an 'Explorer deck' using cards from the expansion, Finish cards and leftover border cards. Whenever an Island card is placed on one of the border cards the player must draw the top card of the Explorer deck and resolve the effect immediately.
7.4 Day & Night
Difficulty: 1 warning icon.
A new mechanism is introduced in which players must orient their hands the same way e.g. at the start everyone must have the sun at the top. Cards must be placed into the grid matching this orientation. To win the game, half of the grid must be placed sun side up whilst the other half should be moon side up.
Cards can be placed anywhere in the grid, as per the standard game, but the players cannot win if cards are oriented the wrong way round. A new action is available: discard one card to rotate a card in the grid.
7.5 Competitive
This is a variant to allow 2 players to play competitively. Both players play cards with a certain orientation and will earn points for cards played into the grid; discards will lose points. Finally, cards are drawn from a face-up area rather than individual draw decks.
Official FAQs can be found on the Tranquility page on BoardGameGeek in the Files section.
Solo rules
The rules sheet refers solo players to reference card A2; the text below is the publisher's Official solo rules version 1.0, as posted by the project manager on BoardGameGeek.
Setup
Construct the grid as per the standard game. Prepare the deck as normal with the Island and Finish cards then split roughly into two. Shuffle a single Start card into one of the halves and place it on top of the other half deck to form one draw pile.
Gameplay
All gameplay and hand limits remain the same as with 2-5 players with one exception. When playing the Start card the player must first draw eight cards into their hand before deciding which eight to discard and which four to keep.
Credits
Game designer: James Emmerson
Illustrator: Tristam Rossin
Project manager: Peter Hazlewood
Proof-reader: Eleanor Hazlewood
Playtesters: Andreea Cicu, James Green, Amanda Hazlewood, Andrew Hazlewood, Eleanor Hazlewood, Emma Hazlewood, David Houchen, Carl Natress, Abi Newton, Holly Newton and Peter Whitelegg.
The designer would also like to offer special thanks to his wife, Megan, and his family for all their support.