Digger
Digger Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Aim of the Game
You are an intrepid prospector deep in the Amazon jungle in search of gold and precious stones. To succeed, you must be fast and accurate to collect as many stones as possible and store them in your box before sunset (because time is running out!). When the river water no longer flows, the winner is the one who has gathered the most valuable gemstones.
Preparation of the Game
All stones are placed in the middle of the table. There are 5 different types of pieces (Blue = Water, Yellow = Gold, Red = Rubies, Green = Emeralds and White = Diamonds). Each player has a card depicting a box in front of him (for the basic game, the white boxes are used, which together have all the same values – see VARIANT).
How to Play
The youngest player begins and takes the 5 dice (he is the first gold digger). The player to his right, takes the hourglass and hides it behind his hands (he is the master of time). As the gold panning starts (by throwing all 5 dice), the master of time, turns the hourglass. The gold diggers collect as many precious stones as possible and places them to the right next to his crate. He can throw as often as he dares, but he must have his finds sorted by color in the boxes in his crate before night falls (this is symbolized by the expiry of the hourglass, which means he has 30 seconds!).
During his turn, the gold diggers must observe the following rules:
- Every time he picks up stones they MUST be placed to the right, next to his box store.
- He can only take stones whose color uniquely corresponds to Dice (the color may be displayed only on ONE cube). IF MULTIPLE DIE THE SAME COLOR SHOW YOU CAN NOT USE THIS GROUP (thus the discovery of a gemstone rare, and therefore something special!).
- If he does not like the result of the throw, he can immediately roll the dice again, but he must always roll with all 5 cubes simultaneously.
- When the color black occurs EXACTLY ONCE in a dice roll, the gold digger can steal stones from other players' boxes to match the color of any dice that APPEAR ONLY ONCE (Blue stones cannot be stolen because they represent water which is consumed during mining). If he touches one or several other stones or knocks over an adjacent pile, the gold digger MUST immediately stop his turn and return ALL stones that he has taken during this go, to the middle of the table (including the blue stones).
- Once he decides to stop, he MUST arrange his collected gemstones by color in stacks on the corresponding squares in his crate. The water pieces (blue) are returned to the game box.
- Once he has finished arranging, he MUST immediately call "STOP". If at this moment the hourglass is not yet empty (Approaching the sunset!), the gold digger gets to keep all the stones he has collected (in the other case, see below: "What is the Master of Time's job?")
What Is the Master of Time's Job?
- Once the player seeking gold rolls for the first time, the master of time turns the hourglass over and hides it behind his hands (he must keep hidden until the last grain of sand has gone through!).
- Once the sand has run out he MUST immediately call "STOP". If the prospector is still taking his turn, he must immediately stop, the night has fallen in the Amazon rainforest, and you cannot see. In this case, all the pieces which he collected but has not yet piled up in his crate or placed in the box (water), are lost. These must be returned to the middle of the table.
- He subsequently passes the hourglass to the player on the left and the game continues.
Example of a Turn
The gold digger starts his turn and rolls all 5 dice. The dice roll is 2 red dice, 2 green dice and one blue die. He cannot collect the red or green gems, as the color appears on more than one dice. He can play only a blue stone (water) and he places it in the game box.
The prospector decides to roll the dice again and throws 2 Red dice, 1 Yellow die, 1 blue die and 1 black die. He may not collect any RED stones, but he MUST steal a yellow stone from someone (if this is not possible because no yellow stone is located in an opponent's chest, or if he does not want to rob him, he can take it from the middle of the table). Of course he cannot steal blue tokens (as was previously explained), but he can take a blue stone from the middle of the game table.
The player estimates that he still has enough time for one final throw before night fall, and he rolls 2 Black dice, 1 Yellow die, 1 blue die and 1 red die. This time cannot STEAL any stones, because he has multiple black dice. He may therefore take exactly 1 yellow, 1 blue and 1 red cube from the middle of the table.
The player then decides, to stack his gems as fast as he can, sorted by color and on the corresponding spaces in his crate (the blue cubes are returned to the game box). When he is finished, he must immediately call "STOP" before the sand has run out.
Game End
If there are no more Blue cubes in the middle of the table, the final player finishes his turn, and ends the game (the river has dried up and there is no more water for panning for gold). Each player sells their gems and counts the cubes and multiplies them by their value (on the card) to give their total number of points. The blue tiles (water) give no points.
The player who scores the most points is the winner and becomes the best gold and gemstone miner throughout the Amazon!
Tips
If you don't have many pieces in your crate, it is not worth taking BLUE tokens, as they bring the end of the game closer.
You are not obliged to take any gemstones, you can just roll the dice again.
It is worthwhile waiting for the best moment and watching the Stacks of gems belonging to the good players.
Variant
You can also play with the black boxes (the other side of the evaluation maps). On this the gem fields of the players have different values, but the total value of the map always corresponds Fifteen. When playing this variant, one must be even more observant and take every opportunity!