Tree Society Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
  • Fruit Cards Draft Setup Variant
• Gameplay
• Phase 1: Sell
  • Fruit Card Actions
  • Additional Sell Effect
  • Valuable Fruits
• Phase 2: Build
  • Guild Cards
  • Build a Guild Card / Level
  • Completing a Guild Card
  • Level Effects
  • Level Effect Synergy Examples
  • Discarding a Guild Card
• Phase 3: Rest
  • Step 1
  • Step 2
  • Step 3
• Game End
• Guild Cards Effects
  • Standard Effects
  • Ongoing Effects
  • End of Game Effects
  • The Botanists and the Explorers
    • Mandatory Effects
    • Reveal Effects
• Fruit Card Actions

Components

• 1 Market board
• 4 Player boards
• 4 Score markers
• 12 Tree markers
• 4 Chests
• 35 Coins
• 75 Fruit cards
• 73 Guild cards

Game Setup

1. Set up the Market board in the middle of the play area.

2. Randomly give each player a Player board. Give them the matching Score marker, 3 Tree markers (in any color combination), and 1 Chest (to assemble before your 1st game). Make sure the Player board and Score marker are used; they determine the first player. Players place their Chest on the designated area of their board. Return any unused Player boards, Score markers, Tree markers, and Chests back to the box. Starting with the first player and continuing in clockwise order, each player receives their starting money as per the table below (1 coin = 1 coin token):

   • 1st Player: 1 coin in their Purse.
   • 2nd Player: 1 coin in their Purse and 1 coin in their Chest.
   • 3rd Player: 2 coins in their Purse.
   • 4th Player: 2 coins in their Purse and 1 coin in their Chest.

   Note: Coins you add or gain are taken from the supply. Coins are always placed in your Purse unless you are told to put them into the Chest. You can have any number of coins in your Purse and Chest.

3. Form a supply with all remaining coins.

4. Sort the Guild cards into 6 decks based on their banner color/icon. Each deck contains 12 Guild cards (13 for the Architects guild). From the Architects deck, give one starting card (identified with a special icon in their upper right corner) to each player; they place it in their Ongoing section with a Tree marker on the card's level 1. Then choose exactly 4 decks and shuffle them together. Return the other 2 guild decks to the box. For your first game, we recommend using these guilds: Architects, Bankers, Merchants, and Writers.

   Once you are comfortable with the game, you may play without the starting card and feel free to use any 4 of the 6 guilds.

5. Place the shuffled guild decks face down next to the Market. Draw a total of 6 cards and place them face up in the Guild cards market in two rows of 3 cards. Leave space below the guild deck for a discard pile.

6. In a 2-player game, return to the box all 25 Fruit cards marked with "3-4" players. Use all cards in 3 or 4 player games. Based on the number of players (2/3/4), take 5/4/3 different type of Fruit cards to create the fruit market by placing these Fruit cards face up at the top section of the Market. In other words, all 5 fruit types will be present in a 2-player game, and 1 or 2 types will be missing with 3 and 4 players respectively. Then, shuffle the Fruit cards and place them as a facedown fruit deck next to the Market.

7. Finally, each player draws 3 Fruit cards from the facedown fruit deck and places them face up on their Player board. You are now ready to start!

Fruit Cards Draft Setup Variant

Replace step 7 with the following: the starting player takes 1 Fruit card from the Market and places it on their Player board. The fruit market is always immediately replenished by drawing the top card from the fruit deck. Players continue taking 1 Fruit card in clockwise order, until all players have 3 Fruit cards.

Gameplay

Starting with the first player, the game is played in clockwise order over several rounds, with each player taking one turn per round. Each turn consists in 3 phases:

• Phase 1: Sell — Sell a Fruit card and gain coins.
• Phase 2: Build — Use your coins to build levels of your Guild cards.
• Phase 3: Rest — Take a Fruit card from the Market and refill it.

On each of your turns, you must first sell exactly 1 Fruit card. Then you may build as many Guild cards levels (level 1/level 2/level 3) as you want and can afford. Finally, you choose and take 1 Fruit card from the Market and refill it.

After all 3 phases have been completed in order, play continues with the next player in turn order until the game end is triggered.

The game end is triggered when a player reaches a total of 6 banners among their completed Guild cards.

Players total the points of all their guilds. The player with the most points wins.

Phase 1: Sell

In Phase 1 at the start of your turn, you must sell exactly 1 of your Fruit cards. Choose any of your faceup Fruit cards by sliding it away from your Player board.

Then count the total number of Fruit cards (including the one you are selling) of this type that are visible among all the players and the Market: take the same amount of coins from the supply. Place the coins in your Purse. If the coin supply runs out, use something else as a substitute.

When you sell a Fruit card that has a coin icon in their top right corner, take 1 additional coin (see "Valuable fruits" below for more details).

Fruit Card Actions

When you sell a Fruit card during Phase 1: Sell, you also gain the fruit action shown at the bottom of the sold card.

At any point during Phase 2, you may use the fruit action of the sold Fruit card. (See "Fruit Card Actions" near the end of this rulebook for more information on each fruit action.)

If you decide to use it, you must perform this action entirely before performing another action. Then, rotate this Fruit card 90 degrees to indicate you have used its effect.

Additional Sell Effect

Some Guild and Fruit cards allow you to sell additional Fruit cards.

Follow the standard Phase 1: Sell rules, with these two exceptions:

• The Fruit card must be of a different type from any other fruit you have sold this turn.
• You may not use the fruit action of Fruit cards sold with an additional sell effect.

Valuable Fruits

Whenever you sell a Fruit card with a coin icon in its top right corner, that card is always sold for +1 coin. This also applies when using the additional sell effect.

Ignore this icon if it is on any other cards than the card you are selling.

Phase 2: Build

During Phase 2, you may build as many Guild card levels as you can afford by spending coins from your Purse. You can never spend coins from your Chest; you can only use them on your next turn (see "Phase 3: Rest" below).

Guild Cards

The front of each Guild card shows the plan of the building and the banners represent the guild it belongs to. Each card has between 1 and 3 banners and three levels (level 1, level 2, and level 3). Each level has a cost, an effect (if any), and a point value.

The back of the card shows the completed Guild card with a reminder of its level 3 scoring effect (if any), or its point value, as well as its number of banners.

Build a Guild Card / Level

In order to build a Guild card from the Market, you must first pay that Guild card level's cost. Then place it in the Ongoing section of your Player board and immediately place 1 of your available Tree markers on level 1. You can have a maximum of 3 Guild cards in your Ongoing section.

The Guild cards in the top row of the Market always cost 1 additional coin; this added cost cannot be reduced by any effect.

All coins spent to pay for building Guild cards levels are returned to the coin supply.

To build levels 2 and 3, you must pay the cost of that level and then move the Tree marker upwards. You may build as many cards and levels as you want and can pay for, as long as they fit in your Ongoing section. However, you must always build level 2 before level 3.

Completing a Guild Card

Once the Tree marker reaches level 3 of a Guild card, that guild is now completed (and immediately considered as part of your Completed section). Free the space of your Ongoing section by removing the Tree marker and turning the Guild card on its completed side (back side) in your Completed section. Place your completed Guild cards splayed out so the banners are easy to see for everyone. Guilds of the same type do not have to be grouped together in the Completed section.

Note: If you already have 3 ongoing Guild cards and the level 3 effect of one of them allows you to build a new Guild card, first apply the effect of the completed card. Then remove the Tree marker and place the completed card in your Completed section. Finally, place the new Guild card in your Ongoing section.

Level Effects

Most Guild levels show an effect. You may only use the effect of a level when that level is built (except ongoing effects). You may forfeit any effect if you do not want to use it. Otherwise, you must use them immediately and entirely.

Some Guild levels have no effects; they show a line instead of an effect. (For more details on the effects, see "Guild Cards Effects" below.)

Level Effect Synergy Examples

1. You pay 3 coins to build this Guild card level 2. Its effect allows you to build the level 1, 2, or 3 of another Guild card for half its cost.
2. You then pay 2 coins instead of 4 to build the level 3 of this Guild card. Since it is now completed, this Guild card is immediately considered as part of your Completed section. Therefore, you gain a coin for its banner and each other banner in your Completed section. Then place the completed Guild card in your Completed section.

If you have enough coins in your Purse, you can even build another Guild card or other levels of your current Guild card. Otherwise, move on to Phase 3.

Discarding a Guild Card

Whether to free up room in your Ongoing section or to activate a level effect, you can discard any one of your Guild cards at any time during Phase 2. If you discard an ongoing card, the corresponding Tree marker becomes available immediately, but you do not get back any coins previously spent for that guild. Discarded guilds are placed in the discard pile whether they were discarded voluntarily or as the result of an effect.

Unless specified, you may discard a guild either from your Ongoing section or your Completed section.

Phase 3: Rest

The Rest phase consists of 3 steps to be realized in this order:

Step 1

All Fruit cards sold during Phase 2 are placed face down in your sold section for the rest of the game. (You can look at your sold Fruit cards at any time.) Then, take exactly 1 faceup Fruit card of your choice from the Market and place it on your Player board. Refill the fruit market immediately as usual.

Consequently, you will always have at least 1 faceup Fruit card on your Player board at the end of your turn. There is no limit to the number of Fruit cards you can have. (Display them to the left if necessary.)

Step 2

Perform a coin check: first reduce your Purse to 2 coins by returning excess coins to the supply. Then move all coins from your Chest to your Purse.

Step 3

Refill the Guild cards in the Market (if necessary). First move the guilds from the top row to the empty space directly below them in the bottom row. Then, starting from the bottom left, draw cards from the guild deck to fill all empty spaces. If the guild deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to create a new guild deck.

Once this step is completed, the next player in turn order takes their turn and so on, until the end of the game is triggered.

Game End

The end of the game is triggered as soon as a player has 6 or more banners in their Completed section. Finish the current round and play one final full round after that, so that all players have played the same number of turns. For a more advanced playthrough, the end of the game trigger may be increased to 7 or more banners.

Alternative game end: In the rare case the last Fruit card is drawn from the fruit deck, the game ends as soon as the current round is finished. If there are no more Fruit cards left in the Market during this round, none can be taken.

Remove the Guild cards from the Market and flip it on the score track side. Then add up your points as follows:

Score each guild in your Ongoing section according to its highest built level. Then score each guild in your Completed section according to its level 3.

Each level either shows a fixed point value or a variable point value. A level with a variable value is scored according to its effect. A single card can be counted multiple times by different effects. Refer to the front side of a card for its level 3 effect if needed.

Coins and Fruit cards are not worth any points on their own, but some Guild cards may score points for them.

The player with the most points wins. In the event of a tie, the tied player who played last in turn order wins.

Guild Cards Effects

As soon as you build a level, you may decide to use its effect or not. An effect must be performed immediately and entirely before you build the next level of this or any other Guild card. Effects never take place at the same time and may not be accumulated.

There are 3 types of effects:

Standard Effects

Effects without a specification are standard effects.

If you choose to use this effect, you must use it as soon as you build this level or forfeit it.

Ongoing Effects

These effects are active as long as your Tree marker remains on the corresponding level. If you build the next level of this Guild card or discard it, you may no longer use its ongoing effect.

End of Game Effects

These effects only apply during the game end.

The banner refers to each banner in your Completed section, whereas the house refers to each Guild card in your Completed section.

The Botanists and the Explorers

Once you are comfortable with the game, you may replace 1 of the decks with the Botanists or Explorers deck. You may even replace 2 of the decks to include both. Create your own combination of decks you want to play with. Here is an overview of the new effects from these two advanced guilds:

Mandatory Effects

You must perform these effects to build the corresponding level. If you do not want to or if it is not possible to perform the effect, you may not build that level.

Reveal Effects

These effects allow you to reveal Guild or Fruit cards. After revealing the indicated number of cards, all cards you do not keep are shuffled back into their corresponding deck.

Fruit Card Actions

• Sell 1 Fruit card. This Fruit card must be of a different type than any other fruit you already sold this turn and you may not perform its fruit action.
• Discard a row of Guild cards in the Market and replenish it. Follow the Phase 3 rules when replenishing the Market.
• Take 1 Fruit card from the Market and place it on your Player board.
• Add the depicted number of coins to your Chest.
• The cost of any one level is reduced by 2 coins.

Reminder: Whenever a Fruit card is taken from the Market, immediately refill the Market according to the player count.

Important:

• There is no limit to the number of Fruit cards on your Player board.
• If you sell a Fruit card with a coin icon, you receive +1 coin.
• Coins may only be placed into your Chest when an effect shows the Chest icon.
• An unused fruit action is lost at the end of your turn.