Treasure of the Dwarves Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components and Setup
• Gameplay Overview
• Gameplay in Detail
  • 1) Select Cards for Sale
  • 2) Fill Chests
  • 3) Make Offers
  • 4) First Seller Evaluation
  • 5) Second Seller Evaluation
  • 6) Resolve Cards
  • 7) Rotate Sellers
• Final Scoring
• Winning
• Draft Variant
• Card-Specific Notes
• Quick Setup

Components and Setup

8 Cave Screens Give each player 1 of these. Return any that are left over to the game box; they will not be used this game. Anything you place behind your Cave screen is meant to be kept hidden from the other players.

8 Secret Chests Give each player 1 of these with a seal matching the seal on their Cave screen. Return any that are left over to the game box.

1 Gem Bag Place this in the center of the table, within easy reach of all players.

53 Gems 10 each in 5 colors, plus 3 white Gems.

Place all the Gems except the white ones into the Gem bag. Place the white Gems beside the Gem bag. Mix up the Gems inside the bag and have each player pull 5 Gems from the bag and place them behind their Cave screen without revealing them to the other players.

42 Coins 14 Copper, 20 Silver, and 8 Gold coins.

Give 1 Copper, 2 Silver, and 1 Gold coin to each player. Place any remaining coins into a general supply beside the Gem bag. Your coins should be stored behind your Cave screen. Copper coins have a value of 1, Silver have a value of 2, and Gold have a value of 4.

1 Cursed Anvil Token Set aside for later use.

1 First Seller Token Give this to the player who was most recently swindled on a deal.

1 Second Seller Token If you are only playing with 3 or 4 players, return this to the game box. When playing with 5 or more players, give this to the player opposite of the one with the First Seller token, as shown in the diagram below.

(Diagram: seating positions for First Seller and Second Seller tokens at 5, 6, 7 and 8 players.)

81 Treasure Cards When playing with 3 or 4 players, remove the cards marked (5+ & 7+), returning them to the game box.

When playing with 5 or 6 players, return the cards marked (7+) to the game box.

When playing with 8 players, all cards are used.

Shuffle the cards to form the deck, then deal cards from the deck out to the players based on the player count:

Player count	Number of cards dealt to each player
3	9
4, 5, 6, 7	8
8	7

This forms your starting hand. You may look at the cards in your hand, but you should not show them to the other players.

Treasure cards come in two types:

• Display cards – these are placed face-up in front of you as part of your personal display.
• Instant cards – marked with a lightning bolt symbol. Their effect is resolved when they are played or received, and then they are discarded.

If you were dealt no Display cards, you must reveal your hand of cards, shuffle them back into the deck and draw a new starting hand. Repeat this process until you have at least 1 Display card to place in front of you. Select 1 Display card from your starting hand and place it face-up in front of you. All players do this simultaneously.

Gameplay Overview

Each round, sellers will reveal 1 card from their hand for sale. The other players will make a secret offer for a card using their chests. The sellers may look in the chests and choose 1 to accept for the card, but once they have looked at the contents of a new chest, they may not go back to one they have previously viewed. This continues until all players only have 3 cards left in their hand, then the player with the most points in Treasure cards, coins, and Gems will be declared the winner!

Gameplay in Detail

Each round, you will perform the following steps, in order:

1. Select Cards for Sale
2. Fill Chests
3. Make Offers
4. First Seller Evaluation
5. Second Seller Evaluation
6. Resolve Cards
7. Rotate Sellers

1) Select Cards for Sale

At the beginning of each round, if you have a Seller token you must select 1 card from your hand to offer for sale. The selected card is revealed (if there are 2 players with Seller tokens, the cards are revealed simultaneously). After you reveal a card, push it towards the center of the table to make it clear it's not part of your personal display of cards.

2) Fill Chests

You must all now place some quantity of Gems or coins from behind your Cave screen into your own chest. You must place at least one thing into your chest unless you have none available. What you place into your chest is a secret; use your screen to obscure the contents. Once this step ends you may not go back and change the contents of your chest.

3) Make Offers

Place your chest in front of one of the other players who has a Seller token. If you have the First Seller token, this means you must place it in front of the player with the Second Seller token (in a 3 or 4 player game with no Second Seller, you do not make an offer). If you have the Second Seller token, you must place your chest in front of the player with the First Seller token.

If there are 2 sellers and you are not one of them, you may move your chest to the other seller at any time, until all chests have been placed in front of a seller. If necessary, choices are made in player order, beginning with the player who has the First Seller token.

4) First Seller Evaluation

If you have the First Seller token, you must select one of the chests in front of you, open it, and look at what's inside. You may not shake the chest to try and determine what's inside before opening it. You must then choose to either accept or reject the contents of the chest in exchange for the card you are offering for sale.

• Accept – if you accept the chest, place its contents behind your Cave screen, then return the empty chest to the player who put it in front of you. Then give that player the card you were offering for sale. Finally, return all the other full chests in front of you to their respective players. Those players empty the contents of those chests back behind their player screens.
• Reject – if you reject the chest, do not take the contents out of the chest and give it back to the player who put it in front of you. You may then pick up one of the chests you were given this round that you have not yet looked in and choose whether to accept or reject it as before. Repeat this process until you have accepted a chest, or you have rejected all of them. If you reject a chest, you may not later go back to it and accept it, you may only move on to a new chest. Trying to go back to a previous chest would be considered very rude in Dwarf culture.

If you decline all the chests you were given, the Treasure card you offered is discarded face-down to the bottom of the deck.

5) Second Seller Evaluation

When playing with 5 or more players, the player with the Second Seller token now evaluates the chests that were offered for their card in the same way the First Seller did. For a faster game, you may choose to have the Sellers perform their evaluation at the same time.

6) Resolve Cards

If your chest was accepted by a seller, and the Treasure card you received is a Display card, place it face-up in front of your Cave screen as part of your personal display. Some of these provide points or abilities at the end of the game, and some provide abilities that apply throughout the game while they are in your display.

If you received an Instant card, resolve the effect described on the card now, then discard the card face-down to the bottom of the deck.

Please note that the Resolve Cards step occurs after all offers have been accepted or rejected, and the contents of all chests have been emptied behind the appropriate players' screens. If there are 2 sellers, the card that came from the First Seller is resolved before the card that came from the Second Seller.

7) Rotate Sellers

If all players have 3 cards left in their hand, the game ends and you must proceed to Final Scoring.

Otherwise, if you have a Seller token, pass it to the player on your left and begin a new round.

Final Scoring

At the end of any round, if all players have 3 or fewer cards in their hand, the game ends. If anyone does not have 3 cards in their hand at this point, they should draw until they have 3 cards.

• If you have a Display card in your hand, you may add 1 Display card from your hand to your personal display now.

• If you have any cards that require you to make decisions before the contents of Caves are revealed, make those choices now. This includes the:

  • Magic Mirror
  • Joker Hat
  • Colored Eye
  • Eye of Zoltar

  In some rare cases, there can be timing issues, about who places their Chest in front of which seller, or about end game card choices (Lucky Eye and Magic Mirror before Caves are revealed, Dragon Tooth and Diamond color after they have been revealed). (The rulebook prints "Lucky Eye" in this sentence; the card named in the list above is the Colored Eye.) If necessary, choices are made in clockwise order starting with the player with the First Seller token.

• Reveal your Caves by showing players all the items (coins and Gems) hidden behind your Cave screen.

  • For each white Gem you have, select a color and treat the Gem as the chosen color for the remainder of the Final Scoring.
  • If you have a Dragon Tooth card, make any decisions for it now.

• Finally, score points for what you have in front of you:

  • Gems:
    • If you have the most Gems of a single color (red, blue, purple, yellow, or green) you score 15 for having the most of that single color. If multiple players are tied for having the most Gems of a certain color, the 15 points are divided evenly among those players, rounding down. Remember that some cards count as Gems for this purpose (such as Dragon Scales).
    • If you have one or more sets of 1 Gem of each of the 5 colors (red, blue, purple, yellow, and green), score 10 for each of those sets. Remember that some cards count as Gems for this purpose.

Winning

The player with the most total points wins! If there is a tie, the tied player with the fewest Display cards wins (then fewest Gems, then fewest Coins). If there is still a tie, the players must hold a grudge forever regarding their shared victory.

Draft Variant

If all players have played before, you may choose to amend the setup as follows:

After players have been dealt their hands (but before playing a Display card from your hand for free), you must each select a card from your hand to keep and place it face-down in front of you, passing the rest of your hand to the player on your left. Select another card to place face-down in front of you from the cards you have just received, then pass the rest of those cards to the player on your left. Repeat this process until you have received only 1 card and placed it face-down in front of you. Now pick up all the cards that you placed in front of you – these form your starting hand.

If you did not draft any Display cards, you do not get to play one face-up from your hand for free at the start of the game.

Card-Specific Notes

If there are any cards your group does not want to play with, you may mutually decide to exclude them at the start of the game.

Amulet of Growth (7+): Score 6 extra points for each color of Gems of which you have the most (including ties).

• For each Gem color for which you have a majority, score 21 instead of 15. If 2 players have the most, you score 13 instead of 7. If 3 players are tied for the most, you get 11 instead of 5. (Other tied players do not benefit from the effect.)

Amulet of No Color (5+): Score 20 if you have the fewest Gems in your Cave (including ties).

• Dragon Scales count as 2 Gems for determining if this effect applies.

Dragon Scale (7+): Counts as 2 Yellow Gems.

• Dragon Scales count as Gems for the Gem-based scoring in Final Scoring, and count as 2 Gems for the Amulet of No Color (see below).

Dragon Tooth (5+): Copies any 1 Dragon Scale from your Display.

• Make your decision for the Dragon Tooth after the Caves are revealed, during Final Scoring.

Golden Amulet: Score 8 instead of 4 for every Gold coin.

Scepter, Crown, Orb (regalia): Score for sets of regalia (Scepter, Crown, Orb):

• 1 item: 0
• 2 different items: 12
• 3 different items: 30

Diamond (7+): Take 1 White Diamond Gem from the bank. Diamonds are wild gems that can replace any color.

• You chose the color of the Gem you receive at the end of the game. Each white Gem can only count as 1 color. If there are no white Gems left in the supply when this resolves, this card has no effect.

Eye of Zoltar (5+): At the end of the game, before Caves are revealed, name the player who you think has the most items (Coins and Gems) behind your Cave screen. Score 15 if you're right, including ties. You cannot name yourself.

• You cannot name yourself, which means this card is not worth any points if you have the most items. This card does not count other cards (like Dragon Scales) when determining who has the most.

Grail / Oil Lamp: If you don't have a card of the appropriate type in hand when receiving the Grail / Oil Lamp, the card has no effect and is discarded.

• Oil Lamp: Play 1 Instant card from your hand as if you just bought it and draw another card from the deck as replacement.
• Grail: Play 1 Display card from your hand as if you just bought it and draw another card from the deck as replacement.

Joker Hat (7+): Counts as any one of the 3 regalia (Scepter, Crown, Orb). You chose which type of regalia this counts as during Final Scoring.

Lute (5+): Copies the effect of the last Instant card played.

• When the Lute is first offered, reveal the most recently played Instant card from the bottom of the deck, in case some players don't remember. If no Instant card had been resolved prior to this, do not reveal the bottom card of the deck, and the Lute has no effect.

Magic Mirror (5+): Copies 1 card from the Display of the player to your right. Choose at the end of the game, before Caves are revealed.

• You choose what card to copy at the end of the game, before Gems and Coins are revealed. If the player to your right has no cards in their personal display, you don't copy anything and the Magic Mirror has no effect. If you copy the Sword and tie with the Sword's owner, divide tied points evenly between the two of you. If you copy a card that requires a choice, you make your choice after the original card's owner makes theirs.

Magic Wand: When buying or playing this card, place it in another player's Display. Steal a card from their Display and place it in yours.

• If you play the Magic Wand directly into your display as your first or last card, wait until all other players have revealed their card before applying its effect. The swapping ONLY happens when the card first enters someone's display, and does not repeat if this card is copied or stolen later. If it is copied, the copy is just worth 10.

Moonshine (5+): Draw 4 cards, then discard 4 cards from your hand.

• When choosing what to discard, you may discard 1 or more of the cards you just drew.

Shield (7+): The Shield protects against the following cards:

• Crossbow
• Crystal Orb
• Clavis Aurea
• Helm of Command
• Magic Box
• Magic Wand
• Ring
• Silver Key
• Sledgehammer
• Stout
• Torc

The other cards in your Display, the cards in your hand, and the Gems and Coins in your Cave cannot be stolen, destroyed or swapped in any way. The Shield doesn't protect itself and can be affected by any card. You cannot decide not to apply the Shield's effect.

Sledge Hammer: Discard 1 card from any player's Display. You can discard one of your own cards. Discarded cards go to the bottom of the deck, below the Sledge Hammer.

Sword: You win all ties for Gems, and for end game victory.

• This means that when you are tied for having the most of 1 color of Gem, instead you are considered to have the most and other tied players are not; you score the 15 points.

Torc (5+): Pick a player. They must secretly give you 3 items of their choice (Coins and/or Gems).

• If the targeted player doesn't have three items, they give you all the items (Coins and Gems) in their Cave.

Wedding Rings (7+): When buying or playing this card, place it between yourself and the player to your right OR left. You and that player both score 10 points.

• You chose to place the card on your left or right when you buy it. You cannot change this later. The card belongs to your Display, not to your neighbor's. This card is considered to be only in your Display for all card effects.

Note: the rulebook does not print the effect text of the following cards, which appear only by name in the Shield list or the Final Scoring text, or on card faces not reproduced in the rulebook: Crossbow, Crystal Orb, Clavis Aurea, Helm of Command, Magic Box, Ring, Silver Key, Stout, Colored Eye. The unlabelled numbers printed on the Magic Wand and Sword card faces are not explained in the rulebook and are not transcribed.

Quick Setup

1. Give each player a matching Cave screen and Secret chest.
2. Each player gets these to hide behind their Cave screen:
   • 5 random Gems
   • 1 Copper coin
   • 1 Gold coin
   • 2 Silver coins
3. Give someone the First Seller token, and if playing with more than 4 players, give a player on the opposite side of the table the Second Seller token. Remove cards from the deck based on their player count indicators, then deal players cards based on the player count:

Player count	Number of cards dealt to each player
3	9
4, 5, 6, 7	8
8	7

4. Each player chooses 1 Display card they were dealt to play face-up in front of them, adding it to their display.