TriATri Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Components
• 2. Terminology
• 3. Card Details
• 4. Game Setup
• 5. Determining the Start Player
• 6. Playing a Trick (Mini-Game)
• 7. End and Start of a Round
• 8. End of the Game
• 9. Scoring
• Appendix: Processing by Pattern
  • 1-1. Basic rule
  • 1-2. Exception to the basic rule ①
  • 1-3. Exception to the basic rule ②
  • 2. Attribute Card Ability: Doubling
  • 2-2. Supplement
  • 3. Fake Card Ability: Swap
  • Supplementary notes on other rare cases
• Trick (Mini-Game) Win/Loss Determination Practice
  • Q&A
• Errata (April 29, 2022)
• Digital Edition Note

1. Components

• Gems (crystal ice): red (fire), blue (water), green (wood) — 6 of each.
  • Red corresponds to fire, blue to water, and green to wood.
• Attribute cards: bordered with a fire, water, or wood icon, each numbered 2 through 8 — 21 cards total.
• Fake cards: bordered with a gray icon — 3 cards.
• 2 instruction sheets (double-sided).

(Example attribute cards: wood [5], water [7], fire [2]. Example fake card: bordered in gray, marked "Exchange / Imitation.")

2. Terminology

Round

From the moment hands are dealt until every player has used up their entire hand is called one Round. A game lasts a maximum of 3 Rounds.

Trick

The mini-game in which each player plays one card is called a "Trick." Winning that mini-game is described as "taking the Trick." In this game, you take Tricks to acquire gems, and collecting gems is how you aim to win (win conditions are explained later).

Acquiring and holding gems

Taking a Trick gets you a gem. Taking a gem from the central space is called "acquiring" it; the state of holding a gem is called "holding" it.

Start Player

In each Trick, players play a card one at a time; the person who plays first is called the Start Player. Except for the first Trick of each Round, the player who took the previous Trick becomes the Start Player of the next Trick. How the Start Player of the very first Trick is decided is explained later (p.5).

3. Card Details

Card strength

Regardless of an attribute card's icon, the higher number is stronger; when numbers are tied, compare attributes instead. The three attributes form a rock-paper-scissors triangle: fire is strong against wood, wood is strong against water, and water is strong against fire. Fake cards are the weakest cards of all.

Card abilities

• Doubling: Every attribute card compares itself to the card played immediately before it, and its value may become doubled or quadrupled.
  • (Example: a green [5] card and a green [2] card, each marked "2X against water" / "4X against wood.")
  • If the card played immediately before it has the water attribute (blue), this number doubles and is treated as [10].
  • Only [2] cards of any attribute quadruple to [8] instead, if the card played immediately before them has an attribute that is stronger than their own.
• Swap: A fake card swaps places with whichever card already played is currently the strongest (see the separate sheet, "Processing by Pattern," for details).
  • (Example: Start Player's card [7], 2nd player's card [5], 3rd player's Exchange/fake card — the fake card swaps with the [7].)

4. Game Setup

i. Place the gems where every player can always see them and reach them, in a shared common supply. (See the reference diagram.)

ii. Leave an open space in front of each player for playing cards, and secure a shared space for discarding used cards.

iii. Deal 6 cards to each player; the rest become the draw discard. The cards you use differ by player count:

Players	Attribute cards (fire, water, wood)	Fake cards	Cards left over
2	[2]–[6] of each — 15 cards total	2	5
3	[2]–[7] of each — 18 cards total	1	1
4	[2]–[8] of each — 21 cards total	3	0

(Reference diagram — mid-game layout: the shared discard pile, face down; the shared gem supply; the gems a player holds; the space where each player plays cards; the central space.)

5. Determining the Start Player

All players simultaneously play one card each; whoever plays the strongest card becomes the Start Player. Card abilities are ignored for this. All cards played this way are discarded face down.

As an exception, if all players tie on the same number in a 3-player game, take those cards back into hand and play different cards to determine the Start Player. In a 4-player game, if 3 players tie on the same number, those three are voided and the one remaining player becomes the Start Player.

Example: comparing strength

Player A plays Fire [3], Player B plays Water [3], Player C plays Fire [2]. First compare numbers, then compare attributes. The largest number is [3], and since water (blue) is stronger than fire (red), Player B becomes the Start Player. The three cards used — Fire [3], Water [3], Fire [2] — are all discarded face down.

6. Playing a Trick (Mini-Game)

i. Choose a gem

The Start Player chooses one gem, either from the shared supply or from among the gems they themselves hold, and places it in the central space.

You may not choose a gem that another player holds.

ii. Play cards

Starting with the Start Player, play one card each in clockwise order. On your turn, you may only play an attribute card matching the color of the gem in the central space, or a fake card. If you have no card of the matching attribute, you may play a card of any attribute you like (even if you also hold a fake card).

Ability processing happens every time a card is played, and it can get fairly involved — see the separate sheet, "Processing by Pattern."

iii. Acquire the gem

Whoever has played the strongest card wins the Trick and acquires the gem chosen in step i. The cards played are discarded face down. During the Round, the winner of the Trick becomes the Start Player of the next Trick.

(Diagram: a player with no matching-attribute card in hand may play any other attribute's card instead; the winner of the Trick acquires the gem.)

7. End and Start of a Round

i. After 5 Tricks, everyone's hand is empty and the Round ends. When a Round ends, keep whatever gems you hold, gather up all the discards, shuffle them, and deal out 6 fresh cards to each player.

ii. Once 3 Rounds in total have ended, the game ends and moves to "9. Scoring" — but the game can sometimes end before all 3 Rounds are complete (see "8. End of the Game").

8. End of the Game

Besides ending after the 3rd Round as described above, there are two other conditions that end the game:

A. If any one color of gem in the shared supply set up in "4. Game Setup" runs out completely. → Move immediately to "9. Scoring."

B. If any player acquires at least 2 gems of each color (that is, completes 2 full red/blue/green sets). → That player wins the game immediately. Rank among the remaining players is then decided by "9. Scoring."

9. Scoring

From the type and number of gems each player has acquired, calculate points in the following order:

i. Each complete set of one red, one blue, and one green gem: +1 point.

ii. Of the gems left over, each complete 2-color set: -2 points (minus 2).

iii. For each single gem still left over, it scores points equal to the number of that same color of gem still remaining in the shared gem supply.

Example

Three Rounds have ended and the game is over. The gems remaining in the shared supply are 1 red, 2 blue, 0 green. Player A, meanwhile, has acquired 1 red, 3 blue, 2 green.

One red/blue/green set is worth 1 point. From what's left — 2 blue, 1 green — one blue/green 2-color set is worth -2 points. Finally, 1 blue gem is left over; since 2 blue gems remain in the shared supply, that gem is worth 2 points. Player A's total score is therefore 1 point.

4. If scores are tied, whoever holds more gems wins.

If the number of gems held is also tied, it is a draw.

Appendix: Processing by Pattern

This section transcribes the separate reference sheet included in the box, which supplements the ability rules in sections 3 and 6 with worked diagrams.

Legend

• A crown icon marks the largest number in a Trick.
• "WIN!!" marks the winning player.
• A circled number is the number a card becomes after its ability changes it (for example, a circled 8 next to a green [4] shows it becomes green [8] after doubling).
• A curved arrow between two cards shows a fake-card swap; the diagram shows the state before the swap.

1-1. Basic rule

If you hold a card matching the attribute of the gem placed in the center, you must play it (this is called "must-follow"). In this example, the player who played the strongest card, water [7], wins.

1-2. Exception to the basic rule ①

If you do not hold a card matching the attribute of the gem placed in the center, you may play a card of another attribute instead.

(This diagram shows a mid-Trick state, so no win/loss result is given. Caption: if you don't hold a water-attribute card, you may play a card of another attribute.)

1-3. Exception to the basic rule ②

Even if you hold a card matching the attribute of the gem placed in the center, you may play a fake card instead, as an exception.

(The fake card's effect is explained later; this diagram omits the effect and the win/loss result.)

2. Attribute Card Ability: Doubling

If the attribute card you play is stronger, in the rock-paper-scissors sense, than the attribute of the card played immediately before it, it doubles. [2] cards are the only ones that quadruple instead (see "3. Card Details" in the main rulebook). You may still play a weaker attribute than the previous card, but in that case no number changes.

Example: Wood is strong against water, so it doubles, and is treated as [12] for this Trick. As a result, in this example it becomes the largest number and wins.

2-2. Supplement

Even if the previous player's card did not match the gem's color, if you hold a card of the matching attribute, you must play it.

(Caption: does not hold blue (water).)

3. Fake Card Ability: Swap

A fake card swaps places with whichever card played so far is the strongest. (In the example above, fire [7] is the strongest card, so it swaps with the fake card, and the player who played the fake card wins.)

Supplementary notes on other rare cases

In this case, every [2] becomes [8] (because its attribute is stronger than the card played immediately before it). When numbers are tied, compare attributes — but if, as in the diagram, all three colors end up with the same number, the card played later wins.

Trick (Mini-Game) Win/Loss Determination Practice

This game repeats a mini-game called a Trick; 5 Tricks make up one Round, and a game runs up to 3 Rounds — that is, up to 15 Tricks (mini-games) in a single game. Because of that, here are a few worked cases where judging the winner of a Trick gets tricky.

Pattern 1: Wood is a stronger attribute than water, but a green [3] only doubles to green [6], so water [7] has the higher number — and since number is compared before attribute, water [7] wins.

Pattern 2: Fire is strong against wood, so fire [3] becomes fire [6]; but water is strong against fire, so water [4] becomes water [8], and the last player wins.

Pattern 3: At the moment the fake card is played, fire [7] is the strongest, so the fake card swaps with it. When blue [2] is later played, the previous player's position now holds fire [7], so the water-is-strong-against-fire doubling ability applies, and blue [2] becomes blue [8] and wins.

Pattern 4: The fake card swaps with fire [4], the strongest card at that moment. Blue [6] is strong against fire, so it becomes [12]; green [7], played after it, is strong against blue, so it becomes [14] — and the player who played green [7] wins.

Q&A

Q. What happens if the Start Player plays a fake card? A. No ability applies; it's treated as if the Start Player played a card with no attribute, [0].

Q. Are attribute-card and fake-card abilities applied automatically? A. Yes — whenever the conditions are met, they always apply.

Q. If I win a Trick, must I take the gem placed in the center? A. Yes — winning a Trick always means taking that gem.

Q. When the Start Player places a gem in the center, can they place, say, a red gem even if they have no fire card in hand? A. Yes — you can place a gem even without holding a card of the matching attribute in hand.

Errata (April 29, 2022)

An omission was found in the rulebook. Our sincere apologies to everyone who had already purchased the game. The following is added to the rulebook:

"In the following cases, the later player wins:

① When the attribute and the number end up the same. (Example: fire [8], and a fire [2] that was played after green and had the 4x effect applied, making it also [8], etc.)

② When only fake cards have been played. (Example: in a 2-player game, when both players play a fake card.)"

Digital Edition Note

On January 25, 2023, an alpha version was released on the "Board Game Arena" site. The Board Game Arena version changes part of the rule for deciding the Start Player in a 3-player game: if all players play the same number when determining the 3-player Start Player, the cards are reshuffled into the hands and redealt, rather than voided as in the physical rulebook. (Added January 25, 2023.)