Vine Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Starting Player
• Objective
  • End of Game Scoring
• Player's Turn Order
  • Pruning Introduction
• Draw and Play Tiles
  • Placement Rules
  • Stems
  • Open Connections
  • Leaves
  • Growing Your Opponent's Vine
  • Choosing Which Tile(s) to Keep
• Gain a Bean
  • Bean Bunches
• Prune
• Growth Tokens
  • Stacking on a Bean Bunch
  • Draw from the Compost
  • Refresh the Bean Supply
• Reset
• End of Game
  • Tie Breaker
  • End of Game Scoring
• Public Objectives
• Solo Mode
  • Setup
  • Objective
  • Gameplay
  • Additional Notes
• Player Aid
  • Player's Turn Order
  • Scoring

Components

• 120 Plant Tiles
• 32 Bean Tiles
• 6 Root Tiles
• 6 Public Objectives Cards
• 6 Player Aids Cards
• 15 Growth Tokens
• 2 Drawstring Bags
• First Player Token

Setup

1. Give each player a root tile to place out in front of them with the skyline at the top and dirt on the bottom. Make sure there is space above and to either side of the roots for each player to grow their beanstalk throughout the game.
2. Randomly draw 3 beans from the bean bag (tan) and place them in the center of the table. This is the Supply of beans available at the start of the game.
3. Add 20 random plant tiles per player to the plant bag (green).

Starting Player

The player with the most dirt underneath their fingernails takes the plant bag (green) and is the starting player.

Objective

Score the most victory points from growing beans and growing your vine optimally. While it may be advantageous to grow your vine horizontally to attach a bean, you'll only score points for each vertical tile placed.

End of Game Scoring

• +1 point per bean at the end of the game
• +1 point per tile row on your vine above the roots (height)
• -1 point for each open stem connection

Player's Turn Order

Each turn, a player will go through the following steps in order:

1. Prune and Harvest (optional)
2. Draw and Play Tiles
3. Gain a Bean and Use Growth Tokens (optional)
4. Reset

Pruning Introduction

Pruning is the first action you can perform on your turn, however, to understand why you would prune, you first need to understand how the game plays. The rules for pruning your vine are described in a later section.

Draw and Play Tiles

Each turn, the active player will draw 2 tiles using the method "one for me, one for you". When placing the two tiles, the player will place one tile on their own vine and one tile on the vine owned by the player to their left.

Placement Rules

All growth must connect back to the main root system and must be placed above ground. Tiles can never be placed in the same row or below the root tile, including bean tiles which are two tiles tall.

There are two types of tiles that can be drawn from the plant bag: stems and leaves.

Stems

These tiles grow vines larger and can provide additional placement locations for more stems, leaves, and beans. Stems can be placed off of the root system or any offshoot from other stem tiles. If a tile has the connection symbols (fig. 1) along one of its edges, that side of the tile must connect to your existing vine or root system. If the tile doesn't have these symbols, the tile can be rotated to connect on any edge.

Open Connections

You will often have open connections on stem offshoots. Stems may be placed next to tiles that do not provide connection points, however, this counts as an open connection which will be a negative point if it is still an open connection at the end of the game. Shoots that terminate next to other tiles in this manner cannot be grown on until pruning opens up new placement opportunities.

In fig. 2, the top highlighted tile terminates on both the left and the right from a leaf and a stem tile. That tile currently has 3 open connections but only one of them can be played on at the moment. Similarly, the bottom highlighted tile terminates into the ground causing another open connection that cannot be played on. This plant currently has negative five open connection points.

Leaves

Leaves are an important part of your vine. They are needed to produce beans which provide victory points.

Some leaves hang down to the left and some to the right. When placing a leaf on a shoot that faces the left or right, the leaf must hang down, following the rules of gravity.

Leaves can also grow off of shoots pointing up or down. Either leaf direction can be placed on shoots that point up or down.

When a leaf is placed on a shoot, it closes the open connection and prevents further growth from being placed on that part of the vine.

A leaf can be placed on a root tile, but it must be pruned at the start of that player's next turn in order to continue play (see Prune).

Growing Your Opponent's Vine

When placing a tile on the vine owned by the player to your left, the active player gets to choose the location and orientation of the tile as long as there is a legal placement option.

One tile, and one tile only, must always go to the player to your left, even if their vine doesn't have any legal placement options. If this happens, simply give the player the tile and they will have an extra tile to place on their vine during their next turn. On that player's turn, they will have a Supply of three tiles to choose from, the one passed and the two drawn. That player will keep two and place the third on the player to their left.

Choosing Which Tile(s) to Keep

A player may keep any tile(s) they choose, even if the tile cannot be legally placed on their vine. However, if a legal placement exists, the player must place the selected tile(s) on their vine. Any tiles not played by the end of the turn are discarded (see Reset).

Gain a Bean

Beans are the most important tiles of the game since they will be the primary way you will earn points. Each bean tile is worth points equal to the number of beans printed on the tile (1, 2 or 3 points). After you start growing your vine, if you have the proper plant structure in place, you can add one bean tile from the Supply to your vine. You cannot gain more than one bean tile per turn.

Beans can grow off of any stem as long as the graphics match up to allow the bean to hang down without any obstructions and as long as there are enough leaves on the vine.

To grow beans, the vine must have at least one leaf per Bean Bunch.

Bean Bunches

A Bean Bunch is any physical location a bean grows from the vine, regardless of how many beans are printed on the tile or how many bean tiles are stacked in that physical location (see Stacking on a Bean Bunch).

If a leaf is removed by pruning, existing Bean Bunches are not affected, even if there are fewer leaves than Bean Bunches. To place any additional bean tiles, the player will need to grow more leaves than Bean Bunches.

Beans must always hang down following the rules of gravity and can never grow sideways, up-side-down, or underground.

Each bean tile will reward 1-3 victory points depending on the number of beans printed on the tiles.

Prune

At the beginning of each turn, players may prune their vines before starting to grow.

The player has the opportunity to make one cut anywhere on their vine to remove everything beyond that cut. A cut can be made between any two tiles connected by the graphics shown on the tiles. The tiles that no longer trace back to the roots are placed in the Compost pile in the center of the table. Any Bean Bunches that were pruned are harvested to be counted towards end game victory points.

When pruning a vine, the player will be rewarded growth tokens as follows (per the Player Aid): 1 growth token for each leaf tile pruned, and 1 growth token for every 2 stem tiles pruned.

Clarification: Only a single cut can be made between two tiles. Just because tiles are adjacent, does not mean they can be removed from the single cut.

This means if you start your turn with a vine that is completely closed, most of the time, you will want to take advantage of the prune action to open it back up so that you can continue to grow your vine.

Only tiles that have been severed from the root system and connecting vine tiles will be removed from the prune. This means that a prune action can never sever a loop since it would require 2 cuts to separate it from the roots, which is not possible in the base game.

Fun Fact: Plants in real life can also make loops when stems rub against each other signaling to the plant the two parts are supposed to be connected. This phenomenon is much more rare in real life than in this game.

Growth Tokens

During step 3, the active player may use growth tokens. These tokens can be used in one of three ways:

1. Stack a bean on an existing Bean Bunch
2. Draw a tile from the Compost and place it on your vine
3. Replenish the Bean Supply

Stacking on a Bean Bunch

Typically when placing a bean, a player must place the tile as a new Bunch, in its own location, but a player may instead stack a bean tile on an existing Bean Bunch by spending a growth token.

Each bean in a stack will reward victory points just like separate bean tiles, however, the player does not need to grow additional leaves to support more beans in a Bunch. Similar to growing new Bunches, bean tiles cannot be stacked onto existing Bunches if the player does not have enough leaves to support the total number of Bunches.

NOTE: Stacking a bean does not allow players to gain additional bean tiles on their turn; it only helps players acquire more bean tiles without needing additional leaves.

When stacking beans onto a Bunch, the new bean tile may have different connections as long as it doesn't cause any existing tile(s) to be disconnected from the vine.

Draw from the Compost

The player may choose to use a growth token to gain an extra tile from the Compost. The player can select from any tile that is available in the Compost. This action can be done as many times as the player would like, as long as they spend a growth token for each tile.

Refresh the Bean Supply

The last action a Growth Token provides is refreshing the Bean Supply. Simply draw three new tiles from the bean bag and then place the old bean tiles back in.

Reset

At the end of a player's turn, if a tile was acquired from the Bean Supply, draw a replacement tile from the bean bag to replenish the Supply back to three tiles.

Tiles that cannot go on the active player's plant get discarded. In most cases you will want to use as many tiles as you can but if you do have tiles remaining, they get discarded.

End of Game

The game ends when the last tile is drawn from either plant bag or bean bag.

If the last plant tile is pulled from the plant bag, the game ends immediately. This will give each player 10 turns.

If the last bean tile is taken from the bean bag and placed in the Supply, players will finish the current round and then the game is over.

Tie Breaker

If players tie for points, tie breakers are followed in this order until a tie has been broken: the most growth tokens, the most beans, the tallest vine, the fewest open connections. If there is still a tie, the players share the victory.

End of Game Scoring

• +1 point per bean printed on harvested tiles and ones still on your vine.
• +1 point per height. Count each tile row on your vine above the roots to determine height.
• -1 point for each open connection, including connections that are open next to other tiles or the ground.

Scoring example: +3 pts for beans, +3 pts for height, -2 points for open connections.

Public Objectives

It is recommended to play without public objectives for your first game.

Setup: Place three random public objectives face up in the center of the play area.

The first player who meets the criteria described at the bottom of the card takes the card and is awarded the points denoted in the green circle. Each objective card can only be awarded once.

Solo Mode

Solo Mode plays similarly to the standard game but introduces a puzzle element.

Setup

Set the game up as you would for a 2 player game. You will control two roots, each growing its own vine. These vines will alternate as the active vine during play.

Objective

The goal of the solo mode is to score the most points but the vine that yields the lower victory points will be your final score.

Gameplay

Start with the vine on the left as the active vine.

Draw two tiles and place one tile on the active vine as normal.

When placing the second tile on the other vine, you may not grow the plant taller unless that is your only legal placement.

After completing the turn for the first vine, switch the active vine to the vine on the right. Take a turn for it in the same way, placing the second tile back onto the first vine. Continue alternating between the two vines for the rest of the game.

Additional Notes

Unlike the standard game, you are managing two vines at once. The tiles you prune and keep will greatly affect how well you can balance both plants to achieve the highest possible score.

Harvested beans remain associated with the vine they grew on and count toward that vine's final victory point total. Growth tokens gained from pruning are also associated with the vine they came from and may only be used for that vine.

Player Aid

Player's Turn Order

1. Prune and Harvest (optional): One cut between two tiles that removes everything beyond the cut from your vine. Gain growth tokens: one for every leaf pruned, one for every two stems pruned.
2. Draw and Play Tiles: Draw two tiles from the plant bag, one for me, one for you (active player's choice). Tile edges with the connection symbols must connect to your existing vine or root tile.
3. Gain a Bean and Use Growth Tokens (optional): These actions can be done in any order during this step. Gain one bean tile from the Supply if your vine meets the requirements. Use any number of Growth Tokens: refresh the Bean Supply, stack beans on a bunch, draw from the compost pile.
4. Reset: Replace the bean tile in the Supply so there are 3 tiles. Discard extra tiles that could not be placed on your vine.

Scoring

• Positive: +1 point per bean; +1 point per height.
• Negative: -1 point for each open connection.