Widget Ridge
Widget Ridge Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Game
Widget Ridge is a Steampunk deckbuilding game for 2 players, though it can easily support more. It even has a single player variant!
The starting box includes the following components:
- 60 Marketplace cards
- 12 Basic Widget cards
- 2 Prime Widget cards
- 6 Gadget cards
- 2 Goal cards
- 4 Spark tracking cards
- 1 Rule booklet
In this game, players start with a 10-card deck filled with Widgets and Gadgets. Players use these cards to generate Gold and Spark.
GOLD is a chemical element. It is very rare, and in its purest form it is considered quite valuable. We're pretty sure you have this back on Earth. Players may only gain Gold during their turn, and it goes away at the end of the turn. Gold is used to buy inventions from the Marketplace and as payment for some Full Construct abilities.
SPARK is a curious energy that can be absorbed from the environment. Players may gain or lose Spark at any time. Spark does not go away at the end of your turn like Gold does. When Spark is gained, it's immediately added to the player's Spark total. When Spark is lost or paid, it's immediately subtracted from the player's Spark total.
The citizens of Widget Ridge enjoy a society of their own creation. They enjoy learning, and they have fun doing it. Their knowledge comes from three different schools of engineering.
- The Church of the Flying Cog, which encourages experimentation. Sometimes things explode, but they usually don't.
- The Church of the Ember Sky, which encourages more traditional building practices. It can be a bit dull, but they also mine the volcano.
- The Church of the Dream of Stars, where idealism and practicality try to live in harmony.
Example: Starting Card
Card parts: the Card Title & Type (e.g. "Beloved Widget", Starter - Prime Widget); Starter Cards have Gold Frames; the Starting Card # in the lower corner; the Gold & Spark gained when played (shown at the bottom of the card; the example gives 2 Gold and 1 Spark).
The Goal
Be the first player to have 100 Spark. This is the default goal in the game, but the players may agree to use a Goal card (included with the basic game) to change the win condition and even the game rules! The win condition is checked at any time, as long as there are no card effects waiting to resolve.
Stop the Statue of Lord Admiral Sir Eustace Covington
The citizens of Widget Ridge love a festival, and the biggest festival of all is the annual Festival of Three Churches, where students and graduates of all three churches come together for the world's biggest science fair.
Inventors from all ages and social classes are welcome to enter, and the streets and squares fill with all kinds of strange devices.
It's the morning of the second day, and you hear a commotion coming from Faraday Square. The statue of the first mayor of Widget Ridge, Lord Admiral Sir Eustace Covington, has been activated by an unseen hand. The statue, an automaton, is normally only activated on Covington's birthday, and only when the square is relatively free of people.
But this is dangerous. You run towards the panicked screams. Covington will roam the area, looking for coal to eat, until he is full or his power system is overloaded by a huge infusion of Spark. He will smash anything or anybody in his way.
This is your moment. If you can put something together that will shut the statue down in front of the city, the church elders will have no choice but to declare you Engineer Laureate.
You must hurry, however. You can see others having the same idea. You must work fast, and also do what you can to sabotage your rivals.
GOAL: Get your Spark score to 100 and stop the rampaging statue!
Setup
At the start of the game, take the Marketplace Deck, and place it on the table between the players. After shuffling, overturn the top 6 cards and lay them out in a row next to the Marketplace Deck. This is the Marketplace. Cards are purchased from the Marketplace with Gold. When you have enough Gold to afford a card, you may purchase it, and then put that card in your discard pile.
If a card leaves the Marketplace, it is immediately replaced with the top card of the Marketplace Deck. If the Marketplace Deck ever runs out of cards, reshuffle all of the melted Invention cards and make a new one.
Example: Game Starting Layout
Between the players: the Marketplace Row (6 cards), the Marketplace Deck and the Melted pile. Each player has a Deck, a Discard pile, a Workshop and a starting hand (the second player starts with a 5-card hand, the first player with a 3-card hand).
The Starting Deck
Each player starts the game with a Starter Deck. These cards are all given a unique number from 1-10. The Widget Ridge Core Set comes with a basic Starting Deck for each player. The only rule for swapping out cards is that you end up with a 10-card deck, with each number from 1-10 represented.
Widgets & Gadgets
Widgets are tiny, helpful robots with a rudimentary intelligence. Each citizen of Widget Ridge is given their first Widget on their 6th birthday, though they can make or buy more.
Your Starting Deck comes with 6 Basic Widgets, 1 Prime Widget, and 3 Gadgets.
BASIC WIDGETS all have different names, but they all do the same thing.
PRIME WIDGET is a larger, more experienced Widget. It a bit older, but it really wants to help and generates both Gold and Spark.
GADGETS are simply tools. They are pretty cool, but not as exciting or fun as Widgets.
Play, Build, Win!
Once you have purchased a card, you no longer have to pay Gold to use or play it. Purchased cards go to the discard pile, and when you run out of cards in your personal deck, you'll reshuffle your discard pile (including your cool new inventions) and draw from your new deck.
Cards may have an effect when played or an effect when connected.
Played (play symbol) is very easy. When you play the card from your hand, you do what it says. Often these effects are simple. Gain Gold, Spark, or draw cards. You do everything instructed in the order given. If you can't do everything, then do as much as you can. You only get the "played" effect when you play the card from your hand, not if you connect or move it anywhere.
Connected (connect symbol) is where the fun truly begins!
Connecting
When you play a card, it goes into your in-play area in front of you. Once you have cards in play, you may move them to your Workshop, which is a special area that each player has in front of them. Your Workshop may have a maximum of one Augment, one Device, and one Accessory.
For example: If you have played Mechanical Bison this turn, you may choose to put that card into your Workshop so that it doesn't get discarded at the end of your turn. Next turn, you play with a Parachute, and you connect it to your Mechanical Bison.
Now your Mechanical Bison with a Parachute can stay relatively safely in your workshop until you choose to replace it.
Whenever you connect an Augment or Accessory to a Device, it will trigger the connection ability. If you connect a Device on both sides, the ability will trigger twice.
You can only connect cards Augment and Accessories to Devices if there is a connection path (ie, the symbols on the sides of the cards line up). The connection points don't have to be the same on both sides, and you only have to match one of the connection points. Augment and Accessories can not be connected to each other.
Example: Invention Card
Card parts: Card Title; Card Cost; Connector (left and right sides); Invention Type (e.g. "Invention - Whimsical Device"); Played & Connect Abilities; Full Construct Ability; Card #; Set & Artist.
At the end of your turn, you take all cards that you have in play, and put them into your discard pile. You also discard any cards you still have in your hand. However, you may keep one card or a series of connected cards in your Workshop.
During your turn, you may clean out your Workshop (discarding all cards there), and move other cards into it. If you want to move a card and there's already another card of the same type, you can replace the old card as long as the new cards are able to connect.
Some effects allow players to destroy cards in the Workshop. If this makes an illegal Workshop situation (such as having a Device destroyed, thus leaving an Augment and Accessory by themselves), you must discard cards from your Workshop until you have a legal Workshop.
Full Constructs
If you are able to connect an Augment, Device, and Accessory, you have completed a Full Construct. The name of your Construct reads from left-to-right, and the ability at the bottom also reads left-to-right. Like most creations, sometimes they work exceptionally well. However, they can also be pretty weird.
If you have a Full Construct in your Workshop, you may use the ability at the end of your turn. Cheaper Augments tend to have a detrimental cost that must be paid. Higher-end Augments will usually have a beneficial cost (such as drawing a card or gaining Spark).
For example: Coal-Powered requires the player to keep 3 Gold unspent in order to use the Full Construct ability. It's suboptimal, certainly, but Coal-Powered only costs 2 Gold to acquire. Hydro-Powered is more expensive at 5 Gold, but it gives you a much better activation cost (put up to one card from your discard pile on top of your deck).
Example: Full Construct Ability
Read left to right: Solar-Powered (Theoretical Augment, cost 4: Played: Gain 3 Gold and 3 Spark. Full Construct: You may pay 3 Gold), Mechanical Bison (Whimsical Device, cost 3: Connected: You may melt a widget. If you do, you may destroy a card in a workshop. Full Construct: If you do, you may melt a card), With a Parachute (Practical Accessory, cost 6: Played: If an opponent has the most Spark, they lose 5 Spark and you gain 5 Spark. Repeat this once if you gained 10 Spark this way, melt this card. Full Construct: OR you may put a card from your discard pile into your hand).
Turn Structure
Let's take a look at how the turn breaks down. Remember that players only take actions on their own turns, but occasionally an action taken by a player will require a choice or notation from inactive players (such as discarding a card or gaining Spark).
Steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the Ideas Phase. You can do these actions in any order, and as many times as you wish. You don't have to take any of these actions if you don't want to (or can't).
- Start of turn. If this is the first turn of the game, the player going first draws 3 cards, and everybody else draws 5. If this isn't the first turn, the player should already have cards in their hand from the previous turn.
- (Ideas Phase) Play cards. The player may play cards in any order, and does not have to play every card if they don't want to.
- (Ideas Phase) Purchase cards. Choose a card in the Marketplace and put it in your discard pile, deducting the appropriate amount of Gold.
- (Ideas Phase) Place or replace a card in your Workshop. Cards may Connect when this happens, and you apply that effect immediately. If two connection effects trigger at the same time, apply one completely, then the other.
- (Ideas Phase) Clean out your Workshop (discarding all cards from it).
- End the Ideas Phase. You discard all non-workshop cards in play, and any cards in your hand. You then draw 5 cards.
- You may now use the ability of your Full Construct. (If you discard a card to activate it, you don't draw a card to replace the one you discarded.)
- If any effects trigger from the Full Construct activation, resolve those here.
- Any unspent gold you have is now gone. The turn passes to the next player.
Destroying and Melting
You will see these two terms fairly often in the game. If a card is Destroyed, it is merely placed in its controller's discard pile, and will likely return at some point.
If a card is melted, it is put in the melted pile. Cards that are melted are not reshuffled into anyone's personal deck, and will most likely be removed from the game forever.
Some melt effects may specify a card type (ie, melt a non-Widget) or a specific area (ie melt a card from your hand). If an effect says melt a card, and does not specify, you may melt a card from your hand, discard pile, in-play area, or from the Marketplace. (If you melt a Marketplace card, replace it immediately) You can never melt a card that an opponent controls unless a card effect specifies that.
Single Player Game
It's the annual Festival of Three Churches, and someone has activated the statue of Lord Admiral Sir Eustace Covington! Normally Lord Covington is activated only on his birthday, and there isn't enough coal nearby to placate him. The statue is going berserk in Faraday Square, and if left unchecked, he could explode!
As the inventor that would have certainly been named Engineer Laureate, it's up to you to somehow generate enough Spark to overload Covington's heart and shut the statue down.
However, Covington has broken the Bison Pen, and several Mechanical Bison are also going berserk in the marketplace. You must stop the bison!
Phase 1: Mechanical Bison Stampede
Setup: Remove the three Mechanical Bison card from the Marketplace deck and lay them in your opponent's play area. Shuffle both starting decks of 10 cards each.
When Lord Covington takes his turn,
- The Bison destroy the Marketplace row causing the cards to be removed and added to the melted pile and flipping over 6 new cards. (This only happens once per turn, no matter how many Bison there are.)
- Overturn the top card of his deck and compare the Starter # to Table 1 to see what Covington does. Obey all instructions to the best of your ability.
The player starts the game with 5 cards in their opening hand. During this Phase, If the Marketplace Deck runs out of cards you lose the game. You must disable the 3 Mechanical Bison before the Marketplace is destroyed and they move to PHASE 2 Lord Covington.
Disabling the Mechanical Bison: Each Bison is disabled as you reach a level of total Spark.
- 10 Spark - 1 Bison Disabled
- 20 Spark - 2 Bison Disabled
- 30 Spark - 3 Bison Disabled. At the end of your turn move to phase 2
Table 1
| Card # | Ability | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lord Covington heats up. | You must melt a Widget in your hand or discard pile. |
| 2-7 | Lord Covington punches the ground, knocking everybody over. | All Players lose Spark equal to the number of Bison still in play. |
| 8 | Lord Covington crushes the balloon vendor's cart, popping all the balloons except one. | You start your next turn by drawing an extra card. |
| 9 | Lord Covington shakes his fist at some cheeky zeppelins. | You start your turn with 2 extra gold! |
| 10 | Lord Covington gets tangled in some bunting. | You start your turn with 3 extra gold! |
Phase 2: Lord Covington
The Bison are disabled, but you must now chase down Lord Covington. Before you leave the smashed Marketplace, you may take one Augment or Accessory from the Marketplace Melted pile and put it in your deck. Then count the rest of the cards in the Marketplace Melted pile. The number of cards here now becomes Lord Covington's Spark total.
Your goal is to generate 100 Spark to shut down Covington's heart.
Setup:
- Calculate Lord Covington's Spark total.
- Shuffle all the remaining melted cards (row and melted pile) back into the Market Place deck (including the 3 Mechanical Bison) and refresh the Marketplace row. Remember that your Starter cards don't go to the Marketplace Melted pile, so don't shuffle in your widgets!
- Reset Lord Covington's starting deck. Pull starting card 10 from the deck, shuffle the deck, and place starting card 10 on the bottom of the shuffled pile.
When Lord Covington takes his turn,
- Overturn the top card of his deck and compare the Starter # to Table 2 to see what Covington does. Obey all instructions to the best of your ability. Lord Covington's power is based on the number of cards in his discard pile.
- Overload! Lord Covington consumes inventions (closest to the Marketplace deck moving right to left) based on his power in the Marketplace row and gains Spark equal to their combined cost.
Lord Covington is heating up! His Thermal Energy is equal to the number of cards in his discard pile. Remember to track Covington's spark!
Table 2
| Card # | Ability | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lord Covington becomes confused by some birds. | Lord Covington ends his turn and you may draw a card. |
| 2-5 | Lord Covington belches fire, scaring several cats. | All Players lose 2 Spark plus Lord Covington's Thermal Energy total, and Lord Covington gains Spark equal to what was lost. |
| 6 | Lord Covington throws a brick at you! | It destroys an accessory in your Workshop. |
| 7 | Lord Covington kicks a rock at you! | It destroys an augment in your Workshop |
| 8 | Lord Covington vents steam. | You must melt a card from your hand. |
| 9 | Lord Covington shoots fire from his hands. | You didn't even know he could do that! You must melt a card from your discard pile. |
| 10 | Lord Covington reaches critical and explodes! | You have failed. |
Spark Tracking
We've included two Spark Tracking cards for each player, but you can use whatever method you like to keep track of Spark. To use them, place the 0-9 Spark Tracker card on top of Spark Tracking clock card. The example shows a player at 22 Spark.
Glossary
Accessory: One of the three Invention types. Accessories are cool things to add to a Device to make it better. Sometimes it's useful, but it usually isn't.
Augment: One of the three Invention types. Augments will often give your Device a power source, or it might just be an aesthetic change that somehow makes it better.
Connect: An Accessory or Augment can connect to a Device as long as the two cards share at least one connection point (red, blue, or yellow). Connections can only be made in your Workshop. Once a connection is made, the Device will usually have a Connection effect.
Construct (see Full Construct)
Destroy: If a card is Destroyed, it is placed in its owner's discard pile. If a Full Construct is Destroyed, all three cards go to the owner's discard pile. Destroyed cards remain in the game.
Device: One of the three Invention types. Devices don't do anything when you play them, but they have an effect when a card is Connected to them.
Full Construct: A special creation. Full Constructs are made when a Device, Augment, and Accessory are legally connected in your Workshop. They form a name that can be read left-to-right, and they have a Full Construct ability that can also be read left-to-right. Full Construct abilities are used in the very last phase of a turn, after cards are drawn.
Goal (see Winning the Game)
Gold: A resource. You generate Gold by playing cards. After the Full Construct phase, you lose all your unspent Gold.
Invention: A card supertype. Inventions can be Accessories, Devices, or Augments.
Marketplace: The centre row of 6 cards is called the Marketplace of Ideas (or just Marketplace). When a card is removed from the Marketplace, it is immediately replaced by a card from the Marketplace Deck.
Melt: When a card is Melted, it is removed from the game. If a Starting card is Melted, it goes to its owner's melted pile. If a Marketplace card is Melted, it goes to the Marketplace Melted pile.
Play: To take a card from your hand and put it in front of you. Devices don't do anything when played, but every other card does. Starter cards don't have a "When Played" symbol, but they all give you Gold and/or Spark when you play them (as listed on the card).
Practical: A subtype of Inventions. In the basic game, this has no effect on gameplay.
Spark: A resource. It's definitely not magic because that doesn't exist. You can generate Spark in multiple ways, and it is your win condition (see Winning the Game). Spark doesn't go away at the end of your turn. Your Spark can't go below zero. If you want to pay Spark for an effect but you don't have enough, you can't use that effect. If an opponent causes you to lose Spark, you can't go below zero.
Spark, the Lowest: You are considered to have the Lowest Spark if you have less Spark than every other player. If you are tied with another player, you aren't considered to have the lowest.
Spark, the Most: You are considered to have the most Spark if you have more than every other player. If you are tied with another player, you aren't considered to have the most.
Starting/Starter: Starter cards are gold-bordered cards that you start the game with. They are either Widgets or Gadgets.
Theoretical: A subtype of Inventions. In the basic game, this has no effect on gameplay.
Whimsical: A subtype of Inventions. In the basic game, this has no effect on gameplay.
Winning the Game: The goal for the game is to get 100 Spark, and you immediately win. Widget Ridge also comes with Goal cards for the basic game (and more with expansions) that will give players a new win condition, and possibly modify a game rule. Players should agree to play with these alternate Goal cards, and if they can't, the goal defaults to getting 100 Spark.
Workshop: An area on the game board. Each player's Workshop may contain 1 Augment, Device, and Accessory. If a Workshop contains more than one card, they must be legally connected.