Dice Realms: Trade Expansion
Dice Realms: Trade Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
5 customizable dice: 4 orange and 1 red 255 custom die faces in 3 bags 1 storage tray and lid 22 randomizer and 2 summary tiles (all tiles have an expansion mark) 2 storage sheets 1 player guide (these rules)
2nd Edition Dice Realms Upgrade Items
Eight items in this expansion duplicate items added to 2nd edition Dice Realms. They are provided as an upgrade for 1st edition buyers:
- player guide (with co-op and solo rules)
- red die (used in co-op/solo games)
- base game storage sheet
- 5 extra standard Fate die faces (as these faces are rolled more than other die faces): Winter, Good Harvest, Bad Harvest, Innovation, Robber
Before Play
From the bag with 48 orange die faces, assemble the 4 orange Trade dice as shown at right. Add the other 16 and 8 Commerce line faces to their compartments in the master tray.
Dice assembly and master tray: the Prospector face (24 faces, placed 6x on the dice assembly), the Miner face (16) and the Mine face (8) go to the master tray.
Set the red die aside, for use in the co-op or solo games (see player guide).
Add the 15 fate die faces (including the 5 extra standard Fate die faces) in the small bag to the Fate Die face compartment in the master tray. The 15 Fate die faces are: Conquest, Crop Rotation, Destruction, Drought, Famine, Lawlessness, Looting, Malcontent, Strife, Wheel of Fortune, and the 5 extra standard faces Winter, Good Harvest, Bad Harvest, Innovation, and Robber.
Open the bag with 192 die faces and sort them into the storage tray, 8 of each different die face to a compartment, as shown on the Trade Expansion storage sheet.
Carefully remove the tiles from their frames. Add the 22 randomizer tiles to the tile bag.
After sorting all the faces, if any are missing, note their names and contact Rio Grande Games using the support form at www.riograndegames.com/support
Setup
Set up the game normally, except add 1 orange trade die per player (see the updated summary tile). Recommended tile setups are provided on the back page of these rules and the tray sorting sheet.
Random Tile Setups. This expansion adds a second purple line, Merchant House; a second yellow line, Wine; 3 orange lines, Debt, Gems, and Mining; and 3 colored die faces that are not part of lines: Courtier (green), Rural Church (green), and Granary (yellow). In step A, when drawing tiles, you can have at most 1 line or face tile in each of the 6 line colors (purple, yellow, orange, green, red, or brown). Set aside and redraw any tiles that exceed this limit.
Examples: Courtier and Rural Church cannot be in the same game or a game with the (green) Holdings line. Similarly, Granary Master and Wine cannot be in the same game or a game with the (yellow) Grain Trade line.
Play
Play as in the base game, except as noted below:
The green Rural Church or Courtier faces can be on green dice. They are not part of the Lands standard line. Thus, a 1-dot Barony face takes 2 upgrades to become a Courtier.
Similarly, the yellow Granary Master face is not part of the Farming standard line.
Trade Dice. These orange dice are bought, rolled, require grain in Winter, and are affected by attacks normally (same as gray or green dice). Trade dice have an upgrade restriction: their faces can be upgraded only to other orange die faces, either from the Commerce standard line or, by cross-grading, to a Debt, Gems, or Mining line in play.
The Estate Manager, Mining, and Wine faces count only indicated die faces showing on active dice.
Die Face Fine Points
Conquest. Do its face destruction attack before its loss of die attack.
Courtier. This face gains a set-a-die token for use in future rounds. After drawing tiles, if no line tiles are present, add the Nobles line. Courtier faces count as nobles for Noble face powers, but are not part of the Nobles line for upgrades.
Drought. Its grain reduction effect cannot reduce a face's grain below 0.
Gems. A Gem Cutter's or Jeweler's conversion power occurs in the first part of Collect, before the Buy portion, and requires a Treasury coin stored earlier, either in a previous round or by a Gem Hunter during the reroll step.
Inventor. Its upgrade is gained in the reroll step, but occurs in Upgrades.
Land Speculator. A die cannot be returned for negative VPs. Upon being returned, restore the die to its initial faces (so it can be purchased again).
Example: A returned die with 1 destroyed and 3 2-dot faces produces 6 VPs (5 −2 +3).
Mining Engineer. This is a 2-dot face (whose upgrade effect produces 4-dot faces).
Outlaw. Players without a coin in Treasury are not affected by its attack.
Wheel of Fortune. Determine all gains before doing any of them.
Example: The player with the most misery had 4 grain before gaining 2 grain (for most misery), while two other players who were tied at 5 grain apiece each gain 2 VP chips.
Co-op / Solo Notes
Player Attacks. An Outlaw's loss of treasury attack causes the Invader, if its face showing does not have a shield, to return 1 VP to the VP pool.
Solo Setup (both). The supply now also starts with 2 Trade (orange) dice.
Solo Invasion. The Land Speculator cannot return your last gray die. (You do not have to track which gray die you started with; you simply cannot return all your gray dice.)
Co-op / Solo Invasion Mini-Campaigns
Two co-op mini-campaigns are provided below. See the Player Guide, page 7, for the co-op rules and page 9 for two other mini-campaigns that use just the base set die faces.
Source formatting: in the printed sheet, underlined names are face lines and italic names are expansion tiles or changed Fate die faces. Underlining is not reproduced in this text; the italics are kept as printed.
#3: March on the Capital
Game 1: The prosperity of your realm is threatened by an invasion across the mountain passes.
- Tiles: Fertile Valley, Granary Master (+grain), Fairs, Inventor, Mining
- Invader Difficulty: Medium
- Fate Die Faces: Winter, Winter, Good Harvest, Bad Harvest, Crop Rotation, Robber
- Experience award: replace 1 face with Inventor or +1 starting upgrade
- Win bonus: +1 starting upgrade. Loss Effect: −2 misery at start
Game 2: The disrupted harvest results in famine as the Invaders slowly march inland.
- Tiles: Debt (+misery), Estate Manager, Granary, Mining Engineer, Rural Church
- Invader Difficulty: Easy
- Fate Die Faces: Winter, Winter, Famine, Bad Harvest, Innovation, Bad Harvest
- Experience award: above, and replace 1 face with Estate Manager or +1 starting upgrade
- Win bonus: +1 starting upgrade. Loss Effect: Invader starts with 4 VPs in chips
Game 3: The reinforced invaders march on the capital as strife and discontent rise.
- Tiles: Courtier, Nobles, Patron, Steward, University
- Invader Difficulty: Hard
- Fate Die Faces: Winter, Winter, Malcontent, Bad Harvest, Innovation, Strife
#4: Revenge of the Merchants
Game 1: The invaders attack, landing in rural regions already threatened by drought.
- Tiles: Castellan, Courtier, Gardener, Gems, Merchant House
- Invader Difficulty: Medium
- Fate Die Faces: Winter, Winter, Drought, Bad Harvest, Innovation, Robber
- Experience Award: replace 1 face with Courtier or +1 starting upgrade
- Win bonus: +2 starting grain. Loss Effect: −2 starting grain
Game 2: The invaders shift to destroying production instead of advancing.
- Tiles: Blacksmith, Land Speculator, Mining, Mining Engineer, Rural Church
- Invader Difficulty: Easy
- Fate Die Faces: Winter, Winter, Good Harvest, Destruction, Conquest, Robber
- Experience Award: above, and replace 1 face with Mining Engineer or +1 starting upgrade
- Win bonus: +1 starting upgrade. Loss Effect: destroy a face at start
Game 3: The invaders renew their attacks while saboteurs are hired to slow their advance.
- Tiles: Fairs, Patron, Saboteur, Wine (+grain), University
- Invader Difficulty: Hard
- Fate Die Faces: Winter, Winter, Contagion, Bad Harvest, Innovation, Looting
Recommended Tile Setups
Important! Add any extra 4* grain or −4* misery chips listed on tiles to the supply.
Expansion tiles: italics. Events: bold. Lines: underlined. Added grain, misery, or tiles follow in (). (Underlining is not reproduced in this text; lines are named as printed.)
- New Ventures: Debt (+misery), Granary Master (+grain & Fertile Valley), Inventor, Sheep (+grain), Shrine. Do you go into debt to gain dice quickly? Do you build up grain for the Granary Master?
- Fear of New Ways: Castellan, Mining, Mining Engineer, Rural Church, Unrest. Unrest shakes up normal play while trade dice are quite attractive in this setup; how will you respond?
- Progress and Possibilities: Gardener, Gems, Land Speculator, Outlaw, Renaissance. Renaissance adds lots of free upgrades while Land Speculator offers a new way to earn VP chips.
- Learning Amidst Strife: Civil War, Courtier (Nobles), Estate Manager, Inventor, University. Courtier offers end game control while Estate Manager can leverage built up defenses versus Civil War.
- Resilience: Crop Failures (+misery & Granary), Matchmaker, Jack of all Trades, Plow Team, Rural Church. Grain production is diminished, but the Matchmaker doesn't require grain to cheaply buy dice...
- Growth: Aqueduct (Plow Team), Holdings (+grain), Patron, Wheel of Fortune (Almshouse), Wine (+grain). Timing is everything in this grain based setup. Can you earn enough VPs to win before the game ends?
These setups are especially designed for co-op and solo invasion games.
- Division of Labor: Engineer, Hero, Merchant House, Mining Engineer, Monument. Some players can defend and earn VP chips while the others build and score VPs for improved faces.
- Endgame: Banker, Courtier, Debt (+misery), Estate Manager, University. The Estate Manager leverages Town defenses. Do you take misery to grow or aim for big endgame moves?
- Balancing Act: Blacksmith, Castellan, Grain Trade (+grain), Land Speculator, Mining. Should players specialize or should everyone attempt to defend and expand?
- Bountiful Harvest: Granary, Inventor, Patron, Rural Church, Wine (+grain). Will your big final turn VP gains come from donating grain or a very good year for Wine?