How to play
You and your neighbours run a market town at a ford below a mountain pass. Each of you starts with a satchel of five townsfolk (two farmers, a boatman, a craftsman and a trader), 4 coins, a rye and a cart in Satchelford. The game lasts twelve seasons; each season runs in this order:
- Turn the season card. Everyone sees what the season brings. Snow on the pass closes the high roads at once; every other card acts at the end of the season.
- Count the farmers. The neighbours with the most farmers gain a coin each; those with the fewest pay a coin. If everyone has as many, nothing happens.
- Draw to your hearth. Draw townsfolk at random from your satchel onto your hearth until it holds your hearth size (4 at the start).
- Plan in secret. Everyone sets hearth townsfolk on the spaces of their own board at once. A space asks for certain kinds; a mender fits any slot. Nobody sees another plan until all plans are in, and a planned townsfolk waits on its space until the space is taken.
- Claim ready spaces in turn. Going round from the start seat, you either claim one full space or pass, and a pass lasts until the season ends. A claimed space runs its effects, then its townsfolk return to your satchel.
- The card acts. Unplanned townsfolk go back into the satchel, the season card acts, and the start seat moves on. After twelve seasons the game ends.
Recruit
A recruit takes the next townsfolk of that kind from the town’s rows into your satchel, with the reward printed under its slot. Each warden also lets you draw one more each season (up to 8; 9 with the Warden’s lodge).
Travel and guild posts
The Cart road and the Raft run move your cart from its hamlet over one road or river path to the hamlet at the far end. You may pick up one good that lies on that path. The Carpenter’s bench raises a guild post where your cart stands: not in Satchelford, and one per hamlet.
Tools and workshops
A tool fills a farmer, boatman, craftsman or trader slot of a bigger home space for good. A trader lets you buy a workshop: a new space for your board, or a lasting ability. The second tier opens in season 5.
Good works and seals
The Moot hall sends its two townsfolk to the town’s good works for the reward under each slot; they leave for good. Whoever fills the last slot of a work takes a wax seal.
Standing
Scholars and other rewards move you up the standing track. Your level (1 to 5) multiplies your posts and seals at the end.
The score
Coins, plus each good at its value (rye 1, felt 2, butter 3, dye 4, amber 5), plus your guild posts and seals times your standing level.
Your board
| Space | Asks for | Does |
|---|---|---|
| Sheepfold | boatman, trader | recruit a farmer |
| Ferry steps | farmer, craftsman | recruit a boatman |
| Stoneyard | farmer, boatman | recruit a craftsman |
| Pack house | boatman, craftsman | recruit a trader |
| Schoolroom | farmer, craftsman, trader | recruit a scholar |
| Watch gate | farmer, boatman, trader | recruit a warden |
| Mending shed | scholar, trader | recruit a mender |
| Ledger desk | scholar, boatman | a standing step and a coin |
| Cart road | farmer, craftsman, warden | roll your cart along one road |
| Raft run | boatman, trader, warden | roll your cart along one river path |
| Carpenter's bench | boatman, craftsman, trader, warden | raise a guild post where your cart stands |
| Moot hall | anyone, anyone | give both townsfolk to good works |
At the online table
- Point at a space, a recruit row, a workshop, the season card or the standing track, or hold a finger on it, to read what it takes and what it gives.
- Planning: tap a townsfolk on your hearth (it lifts), then a space on your board; it goes to the first open slot that takes it. Tap a space again to take your newest townsfolk back. Tap Done to send your plan.
- Acting: full spaces rise with a brass edge; tap one to take it, or tap Pass. A pick (a road, a workshop, a good work, a tool slot) opens its surface by itself.
- On a phone the table has four surfaces: your board, the valley, the town board and the workshops, each a tap away.
- On a keyboard: 1 to 9 lift a townsfolk, the arrows move between spaces, Enter sets down or takes, Backspace or U takes the last one back, D is Done, S is pass or skip, O, V, T and W open the surfaces, M turns the sound off, and ? lists the keys.
- Each decision has a 60-second timer (90 seconds to plan). If it runs out, the table plans and acts for you without spending anything or giving townsfolk away.
- 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
Every draw, the goods on the paths and the order of the season cards come from a secret seed. You see its fingerprint when the game starts and the seed itself when it ends, so you can check every draw. Verify a game.