How to play
Two to five craft folk share one valley of seven soils between the streams: meadow, fen, mere-shore, dune, heath, crag and wood. Each folk builds only on its own soil, so it reshapes the valley as it grows. The game lasts six years.
A year
- Dawn. Every folk gains its income at once: a hand and a penny, and more for each building on the map, the hall, boons and the passing card it holds.
- Work. In turn order, each folk takes one action on its turn, until everyone has passed. Before the action it may trade on its mat (sap for pennies, a hand for two pennies, and more) or press sap.
- Dusk. The year’s aim pays each folk for its steps on one season track. A penny goes onto each passing card still in the offer. After the sixth year the game ends.
Actions
- Reshape and build. Turn an empty hex in your reach into another soil. Each step round the soil wheel is one dig, paid in hands. On your own soil you may build a cottage.
- Upgrade. A cottage becomes a workshop, a workshop a hall or a shrine, a shrine the sanctum. A workshop is cheaper next to another folk. A shrine or sanctum brings a boon.
- Send a warden. Put a warden on one of the four benches of a season track (three, two, two or two steps; it stays there), or move one step and let the warden go home.
- Raft or dig step. A raft reaches over more stream hexes; a dig step makes digs cheaper. Both score points.
- Grove spot or special action. Spend crown sap at one of six grove spots, each once a year: a footbridge, a warden, hands, pennies or free digs. Your folk, hall, boons and card may give a once-a-year action too.
- Pass. Take a new passing card (with the pennies on it) and give back yours. The first folk to pass leads the next year.
Sap
Your mat has a tree with drops of sap in its root, trunk and crown. Sap rises from the root to the trunk and from the trunk to the crown; you spend it from the crown, and it falls back to the root. When another folk builds next to your buildings, you may draw sap: the first drop is free, and each drop after it costs a point.
Hamlets, season tracks and the end
Four of your buildings joined side by side with a strength of 7 or more found a hamlet: take a hamlet tile and a charter. A charter opens the top step of a season track. At the end, the largest holding (your buildings joined through your reach) scores 18, 12 and 6 points; each season track scores 8, 4 and 2; and what is left on your mat turns into pennies, 3 of them to a point. Most points wins.
The pieces
| Piece | Costs | Strength | Pays at dawn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottage | 1 hand, 2 pennies | 1 | 1 hand |
| Workshop | 2 hands, 3 pennies (6 alone) | 2 | 2–3 pennies and sap, by count |
| Hall | by folk, about 4 hands and 6 pennies | 3 | by folk |
| Shrine | 2 hands, 5 pennies | 2 | 1 warden |
| Sanctum | 4 hands, 6 pennies | 3 | 1 warden, 2 sap |
At the table, point at a season track, a bench, a row of your mat, your soil or a passing card, or hold a finger on it, to read what it does.
A game takes about 90 minutes. A game lives on the server: if the server restarts, the table closes.