What The Fog?! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Setup
• Brief Game Overview
• Gameplay
  • 1a. Placing Weather Tokens
  • Action Symbols
  • 1b. Making Intermediate Predictions
  • 2. Claiming Days
  • 3. Scoring Points
• End of a Round
• End of the Game
• Variant

Game Contents

• 48 weather cards
• 45 weather tokens (Rain, Snow, Fog, Clouds, Thunder and Sun, each with a back side showing a different weather symbol)
• 1 starting player sun
• 7 day boards
• 1 cloud (2 pieces)
• 1 barometer
• 1 scoring pad
• 5 player tokens (in assorted player colours)
• 5 wooden arrows (in assorted player colours)

Setup

1. Place the day boards numbered 1 to 4 in the middle of the table (see the numbers in the bar at the bottom of the boards).
2. Each player takes a player token and a wooden arrow in one colour. Place your wooden arrow on position 0 on the barometer and lay your player token in front of you to indicate your colour.
3. Shuffle all weather tokens. Randomly pick one out and place it on the leftmost part of each of the four day boards.
4. Randomly create 3 piles of 10 weather tokens each. Flip the piles over as a whole. Place the remaining weather tokens as a supply at the edge of the table. Note: each weather token displays a weather symbol on one side and a different symbol on the reverse. It's crucial that players do not see which symbols are in the pile (except for the top symbol of a pile).
5. Shuffle all 48 weather cards and deal 5 face down to each player. Place the rest as a face-down deck on the table. Players may look at their cards.
6. Each player takes a sheet from the scoring pad to keep track of their score during the game.
7. Assemble the cloud and place it in the middle of the table.
8. Choose a starting player at random. That player takes the starting player sun.

Brief Game Overview

Players manipulate the day's weather by placing weather tokens on their turn. Once the weather for a day is fully determined, players can predict what their score will be at the end of the round. When all days are fully covered by tokens, players claim the days where they had the most influence. Any player who correctly predicts the number of days they claim scores points. Players making incorrect predictions lose points. The player with the most points after 4 rounds wins the game.

Gameplay

Play proceeds clockwise. The starting player begins. The player currently taking their turn is known as the active player.

The game lasts 4 rounds, each consisting of the following 3 phases:

1a. Placing weather tokens 1b. Making intermediate predictions (only after the last weather token is placed on a day board)

Repeat steps 1a and 1b until all day boards are fully covered with tokens.

2. Claiming Days
3. Scoring Points

1a. Placing Weather Tokens

The active player must pick the top weather token from 1 of the 3 piles. They place it face up on the next empty part of any available day board of their choice and immediately perform any actions (see below). Then it's the next player's turn.

Notes:

• Once the active player has picked up a token (revealing the one underneath), they cannot change their mind. Peeking at the back of a token when lifting it is not allowed.
• If the active player can choose a weather token and all 3 tokens on the 3 piles show the same weather symbol, they may opt to return these 3 tokens to the supply.
• If a pile runs out during the game, create a new pile from the supply in the same way as described under 'Setup'.
• Each day board shows 4 parts of a day with time indications. The active player may only place a weather token on the next empty part of a day board. Day boards are therefore always filled from left to right. If a day board is fully filled, a player cannot choose it.

Example: Toby is the starting player. There are 2 snow tokens and 1 sun token showing. He chooses to take the sun token and place it on the next free part of day 2. Now it's Ruby's turn. Because there's another snow tile underneath the sun tile taken by Toby, Ruby may now choose to take a snow tile and place it down or put all 3 snow tiles in the supply. She chooses the latter option. She then has to choose from the tokens now on the top of the piles.

Action Symbols

Some parts of a day show an action symbol. If a player places a weather token on one of these parts, they must immediately perform the corresponding action. There are 2 types of action symbols:

• Discard action: Discard a weather card of your choice from your hand face up onto the discard pile, then take a new weather card from the face-down deck. Note: this action is only for the active player.

Example: Lucy places a weather token on a part of a day with the discard symbol. She decides to discard a snow card onto the discard pile. Then she takes a new card from the face-down deck.

• Reveal action: Every player reveals 1 card from their hand. This is done as follows: each player first selects 1 card from their hand and places it face down in front of them. Once all players have chosen, everyone flips their selected card over at the same time. This card remains face up for the rest of the round and cannot be discarded in any way.

Example: Ruby places a weather token on a part of a day with the reveal symbol. All players now choose a card from their hand, flip it over at the same time, and lay it open in front of them.

1b. Making Intermediate Predictions

(only after the last weather token is placed on a day board)

Each time the last weather token is placed on a day board (which is therefore fully covered with tokens), an intermediate prediction is made before the next player's turn. Players try to predict on how many days they will have the most influence on the weather at the end of the round. The player who placed the last weather token takes the cloud. This player then goes first, before all other players (moving in a clockwise direction) perform 1 prediction action each:

1. They move their wooden arrow forward 1 position on the barometer. or
2. They choose to pass and stick with their current prediction, which can be 0.

After all players have performed their prediction action, the player with the cloud places it back in the middle of the table. The player to their left is now the active player. Note: the cloud serves purely as a reminder for whose turn it is next.

Example: Toby, Ruby, Jack and Lucy are in phase 1. Jack places a weather token on the last part of day 3. He starts the intermediate prediction and takes the cloud. He thinks he can claim at least one day and moves his wooden arrow to position 1 on the barometer. Lucy isn't sure yet. She knows there are 3 more opportunities for intermediate predictions and she can't move her wooden arrow back later, so she passes. Toby also passes, and Ruby moves her wooden arrow to position 1. Now that everyone has had their turn, Jack places the cloud back in the middle of the table. It's Lucy's turn to place a weather token.

2. Claiming Days

Once no more weather tokens can be placed and the last intermediate prediction has been made, each player discards 1 weather card from their hand face down onto the discard pile. Then each player lays out their remaining hand cards face up in front of them (next to any cards previously laid out, see 'Action Symbols'). Each player records the prediction indicated by their wooden arrow in the first column on their score sheet, and resets their wooden arrow to 0 on the barometer.

Now, for each day, players work out who has the most influence on the weather. A player has as much influence on each token on a day board as the number of cards of that type they have. They add up their influence for each day board to work out their total.

Example: Toby has 2 sun cards. He therefore has an influence of 2 on each sun token on this day board. He also has an influence of 1 on the snow token because of his snow card. So he has an influence of 5 on the weather in total for day 2.

The player with the most influence on the weather for a day claims that day and moves their wooden arrow forward 1 position on the barometer. In the event of a tie, all tied players move their wooden arrow forward. To claim a day, a player must have at least 1 influence on it.

3. Scoring Points

When all the days have been worked out, each player checks if their prediction matches the number of days they claimed. They compare the number where their wooden arrow is pointing at with the number noted on their score sheet for this round. There are 2 possible outcomes:

• The prediction is exactly right: the player scores as many points as their prediction plus the number of the round the players are currently in (1 point in the first round, 2 points in the second, and so on).
• The prediction is wrong: the player has predicted fewer or more days than they claimed. They lose a number of points equal to the difference between their prediction and the number their wooden arrow is pointing at.

Each player notes their results on their score sheet. They always note their prediction in the first column (below ?), their number of claimed days in the second column (below !), and their score for the respective round in the third column (below =).

Example: Lucy predicted 1 in the first round and also claimed 1 day. So in this round she scores: 1 + 1 = 2 points.

Example: Lucy predicted 2 in the second round, but claimed 3 days. She scores: 2 - 3 = -1 point.

End of a Round

After rounds 1, 2 and 3, perform the following steps:

• Add the next day board (see the numbers on them) to the day boards already on the table. So there are 5 day boards on the table in the second round, 6 in the third round, and 7 in the fourth round.
• Put all weather tokens back in the supply and shuffle well. Place one random weather token on the first part of a day of each of the available day boards, except for day 7 (which is only included in round 4). Day 7 always starts a round with 4 free parts of a day.
• Shuffle all 48 weather cards and deal a new hand of face-down cards to each player. The number of cards a player gets equals the number of day boards on the table plus 1 (so 6 in the second round, 7 in the third round, and 8 in the fourth round).
• Form 3 new piles of 10 weather tokens and flip them over as usual.
• Place all wooden arrows back on position 0 of the barometer.
• The player with the starting player sun passes it to the player on their left. That player then starts the new round.

End of the Game

The game ends after round 4. Each player adds up their scores from the 4 rounds. The player with the most points wins. In the event of a tie, the tied player who claimed the most days in the last round wins. If still tied, the tied player who had the most cards of the same symbol in their hand in the last round wins. If it's still a tie, the tied players share the victory!

Example end of the game: round 4 has been finished. The game is over. Toby wins with a total of 10 points.

Score sheets from the example (score columns ? / ! / =, per round 1–4):

• Lucy: round 1: 1 / 1 / 2; round 2: 2 / 3 / -1; round 3: 2 / 1 / -1; round 4: 0 / 0 / 4. Total: 4.
• Toby: round 1: 0 / 0 / 1; round 2: 2 / 2 / 4; round 3: 3 / 2 / -1; round 4: 2 / 2 / 6. Total: 10.
• Jack: round 1: 2 / 1 / -1; round 2: 0 / 1 / -1; round 3: 3 / 3 / 6; round 4: 4 / 1 / -3. Total: 1.
• Ruby: round 1: 1 / 0 / -1; round 2: 0 / 0 / 2; round 3: 2 / 2 / 5; round 4: 3 / 4 / -1. Total: 5.

Variant

For a longer and more strategic game, players can choose not to place a random weather token on each of the available day boards at the beginning of a round. This ensures that all day boards start each round with 4 free parts of a day.