How to play
Lantern clans settle isles on a calm night sea. The sea chart has isles of seven kinds on a wheel (moss, bloom, coral, amber, pumice, slate and frost), drift isles, and mist that a tender can turn into drift. The seed lays out the goals, the winds and the charms; everything is face up from the first turn.
- Pick a clan. There are 14 clans, two for each kind of isle, and each has its own ability. In turn order, each player picks a clan, so no two share a home kind. Each then sets two start mines on a free isle of the home kind, and takes a wind.
- Six tides. Each tide starts with income for everyone: ore, coin, lore and new glow. Then the players take turns until every clan has passed. The first to pass starts the next tide.
- One main action a turn. Settle a mine, upgrade a building, send a tender to a mist isle, climb a craft track, form a league, take a glow or pearl action, use a special, or pass. Before it you may exchange stocks or burn glow. Choose Then free actions to keep your turn open for them after the main action, and end it with End turn.
- Settle and shape. A mine goes on a free isle within your range of one of your buildings; pearls add range. An isle of another kind must be shaped first: one step for each place it lies from your home kind on the wheel of kinds, paid in ore. It then shows your home kind for good.
- Glow in three jars. New glow lands in jar I. Charging moves it on to jar II, and when jar I is empty from jar II to jar III. Glow is spent from jar III and goes back to jar I. Burning drops one token from jar II out of the game to move another to jar III.
- Build near others. When you settle or upgrade near other clans, each of them may draw glow: the strength of their strongest building near you, for one point less than that in points.
- Leagues. Buildings next to each other, linked by lantern posts on the sea, form a league when their strength adds up to 7. You choose where the posts stand, and each post costs a glow token. The league takes a token with a reward; a fresh token also opens level 5 of a craft track.
- The end. After tide 6 the two final goals score 18, 12 and 6 points by count, each track at level 3, 4 or 5 scores 4, 8 or 12, and every 3 leftover ore, coin or lore score 1. The most points wins; equal points share the place.
The pieces
Each clan has 8 mines, 4 markets, 3 libraries, a great hall and 2 colleges. A mine becomes a market; a market a library or the great hall; a library a college. A piece that leaves its row on your mat shows the income under it.
| Piece | Cost | Strength | Income when built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mine | 1 ore, 2 coin | 1 | +1 ore |
| Market | 2 ore, 6 coin (3 coin near a rival) | 2 | +3 coin or +2 coin and charge 1 |
| Library | 3 ore, 5 coin; takes a charm | 2 | +2 lore or +1 lore +1 coin |
| Great hall | 4 ore, 6 coin | 3 | 1 new glow, charge 3, and the clan’s hall ability |
| College | 6 ore, 6 coin; takes a charm | 3 | a lore wing (+3 lore) or a pearl wing (a special) |
Crafts
Six tracks: shaping (cheaper steps), charting (range), pearl-diving (pearls), tending (tenders), trade and lore (income). A level costs 4 lore. Level 3 also charges 3 glow; level 5 needs a fresh league token and belongs to one clan only. At the end, levels 3, 4 and 5 score 4, 8 and 12 points.
At the online table
- Point at a jar, a craft box, a row of your mat or a league token, or hold a finger on it, to read what it holds or gives.
- Tap a lit isle: its choices open next to it (settle, upgrade, tend) with what each costs. An action that pays pearls or points asks once more.
- On a phone, the chart is small: tap the sea to look closer, move the view with the arrows at its edges, and tap Whole sea to see it all. The mat, the crafts, the actions and the goals are one tap away in the tabs.
- On a keyboard: the arrow keys move over the chart, Enter opens a hex, 1 to 9 pick a choice and Esc closes. C crafts, A actions, G goals, E exchanges, L league, H keeps the turn open, D ends it, S pass, O burns glow, R takes a draw offer, N lets it go, F looks closer, ? lists the keys and M turns the sound off.
- Each decision has a 90-second timer. If it runs out, the table passes for you and takes only free draws.
- An empty seat is taken by a bot, always marked as a bot.
- A game takes about 75 minutes. A game lives on the server: if the server restarts, the table closes.
Why it is fair
A secret seed lays out the setup. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check the setup and replay every decision. Verify a game.
Playing online for the first time?
Our guide compares the ways to play online, with steps for each. Read the guide to playing online.