Tyler Sigman's Crows Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Map Tiles
• Spells
  • Spells Summary
• Game Setup
• Round Order
• On Your Turn
  • 1) Choose a Tile and Add It to the Gameboard
    • Tiles with Crow Icons
    • Other Tiles
    • Lava Pool Tiles
  • 2) Place Your Mana Totem
  • 3) Optional: Play One Spell
  • Continue Taking Turns
• Crows Flock
• Score Points for Flocks
• Murders
  • Scatter According to These Rules
• Take Back Mana Totems and Begin the Next Round
• Game End

Map Tiles

• Barrens: a basic tile that begins with no crows on it.
• Trees with Crows: a tile that begins with 1, 2, or 3 crows on it. When the tile is played, the icon at the top right shows how many crows should immediately be drawn from the crow pool and placed on the tile. Crow icons only matter for the initial tile placement; after that, they are ignored.
• Gem Cave: gives flocking priority when two or more players' Mana Totem are the same distance away from some crows (see Flocking Crows)
• Mana Ley Line: any crows that flock to a Mana Ley Line tile score double points
• Lava Pool: acts as an obstacle to flocking crows. Any flocking crows will stop in a carrion space if it lies on the path to a Mana Totem (see Flocking Crows). When this tile is played, it can replace any empty tile on the board. (If used this way, place the replaced tile in any other legal position without spawning any new crows)
• Queen's Totem: Summons the Queen Crow. The Queen is worth 3 points during scoring. She never flies away during murders. She will always prioritize flocking to the nearest Mana Totem on a Gemstone Cave.
• Carrion Paradise: Spawns a Crow each turn
• Nightfall: Signifies the End of the Game when drawn (The game will end at the end of the current round)

Spells

Any time you place your Mana Totem on a Barrens tile, you draw a spell card.

Spells come in a few different flavors. On your turn, after placing your Mana Totem, you may discard a spell to invoke its power. Alternatively, you may hold on to the token and it will give a 2 point bonus at the end of the game.

Spells Summary

• Attract: Choose an Empty tile and a direction. All crows in the direction flock as normal to the chosen tile.
• Disperse: Choose an Empty tile. All crows one space diagonally and orthogonally move one square away from the chosen tile if possible.
• Drain: Mana Ley Lines will not provide double points this round.
• Landfall: Draw another tile and place another tile on the board.
• Teleport: Choose 2 tiles. The second one must be empty. Move up to 2 Crows from the first tile to the second.
• Populate: Choose an Empty 2 or 3 crow tile and populate the tile with Crows as if it had just been placed.

Game Setup

• Each player chooses a color and takes the Mana Totem for that color.
• Shuffle all spells and place face down in a deck.
• Set aside the Nightfall tile and then flip all map tiles face down and shuffle. Place them into one large stack.
• Depending on how many players there are, remove some tiles from the tile deck:
  • 2 Players: remove 8 random tiles
  • 3 Players: remove 4 random tiles
  • 4 Players: don't remove any tiles
• Select 6 tiles and shuffle the Nightfall tile into them. Then place this stack of 7 tiles on the bottom of the Tile stack. Then take 4 tiles from the top of the stack and place them on the bottom of the stack.
• Draw thirteen tiles and arrange them in the starting pattern.
• Every player draws one tile and keeps it facedown in front of them in their "hand".
• Place crow figures on any tiles with crow icons. If a tile has two or three crow icons, place that many.
• Randomly choose a first player and give them the first player token.

Round Order

The game is played in rounds. During each round:

1. Players take turns, beginning with the starting player for that round and proceeding clockwise.
2. After all players have had a turn, crows flock and then players score points.
3. Players take back their Mana Totems to use again on the next round. Then begin the next round.

On Your Turn

1. Draw a tile, adding it to your hand, then choose one tile and add it to the gameboard.
2. Place your Mana Totem onto an empty tile that is in play. If you played on a barrens tile, immediately draw one spell.
3. Optional: play one spell.

1) Choose a Tile and Add It to the Gameboard

Place it on the playing surface according to the following restrictions:

• The new tile must connect along at least one edge with any other tile already placed.
• You may not play a tile on top of another tile.

Tiles with Crow Icons

If the newly drawn tile has any crow icons on it, then you immediately place that many crow figures on the tile.

Other Tiles

Place in accordance to the rules explained above.

Lava Pool Tiles

If you draw a Lava Pool, then special rules apply — they are a valuable tile!

1. If you wish, you may replace a tile already on the gameboard with the newly drawn Lava Pool. You may not replace any tiles that have crow figures (actual crows, not crow icons) or Mana Totems on them.
2. You may now play the tile that you replaced as normal and then place your Mana Totem per normal rules (see below). However, do not place any new crows on the tile even if it has crow icons.

2) Place Your Mana Totem

Now place your Mana Totem on a tile on the board. You may place it on any tile except:

• ...any tile that currently has any crow tokens on it. (Crow icons don't matter — only tokens.)
• ...on a tile with a Mana Corruption token.
• ...a Lava Pool
• ...a tile with another player's Mana Totem

Draw Spell: If you played your Mana Totem on a Barrens tile, now draw a Spell.

3) Optional: Play One Spell

If you have any spells and wish to play one, you may do so at the end of your turn.

Continue Taking Turns

Play continues around the table until each player has taken a turn. At this point, crows flock.

Crows Flock

After all players have had a turn, crows flock to Mana Totems. Crows flock according to these rules:

a. Crows will flock to the nearest Mana Totem in the same row or column. (No diagonals.) b. Crows can move any number of spaces while flocking. c. Crows will not flock over gaps between tiles. d. If a crow encounters a Lava Pool while flocking, it must stop there for the round. However, if a crow begins the round on a Lava Pool, it can fly off of it. e. If two or more Mana Totems are at the same distance to the flocking crows, then:

• the crows will favor a Mana Totem that is on a Gem Cave tile.
• If no players' Mana Totem are on a Gem Cave tile, then the crows will divide evenly between the totems. If there are an uneven number of crows, then all odd crows will remain stationary.

Score Points for Flocks

After crows are finished flocking, players score points:

• Each crow on the same tile as the player's Mana Totem is worth 1 point
• The Queen crow is worth 3 points
• If the tile is a Mana Ley Line, then double the points from this flock
• Crows stay on the board after scoring. Crows are never removed unless there was a Murder (see below).

Record points by gaining mana coins.

Murders

If 6 or more crows have flocked to a single tile, it's considered a Murder and special rules apply:

1. Score the crows normally. Then,
2. Remove any Mana Corruption Tiles on the Board from previous rounds (Any created this round stay in play)
3. Two crows become a mated pair and fly off of the gameboard. Discard them from play.
4. The remainder must be scattered.

Scatter According to These Rules

a. The scatter pattern is a clockwise spiral. b. The player who is scattering the Murder may choose which direction to start the spiral at. c. Move one crow from the Murder tile to each successive tile in the pattern. If a tile does not exist on the gameboard, skip to the next tile indicated in the pattern. d. Continue scattering until all crows are scattered. Then place the Mana Corruption token on the original square.

(Note: the player may choose which adjacent tile from the Murder tile — North, South, East, or West — acts as dispersal tile #1. The pattern is just an outward expanding spiral.)

Take Back Mana Totems and Begin the Next Round

After scoring and scattering, each player takes back their Mana Totem and the next round begins. Before the end of the round, place a new Crow on each Carrion Paradise. The player to the left of the previous starting player takes the Starting Player token and begins the round.

Game End

When the Nightfall tile is drawn, (the player draws a new tile to replace Nightfall) finish the current round as normal, score that round and then the game is over. All players will have had an equal number of turns.

All players now reveal any unused Spells and gain 2 points for each one. The winner is the player with the most points!