Faeries & Magical Creatures Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gameplay
• Contents
• Setup
• Game Turns
• Cards
• Actions
  • Gain Trust: Place a Kinship Token
    • The Five Faerie Folk
    • Area Majority and Faerie Homes
  • Build Garden: Select and Place a Garden Tile
    • The Garden Player Board
  • Befriend a Faerie: Draft a New Card
  • Helping Hand: Play a Card from Your Hand
  • Call Faeries: Draw Cards from Your Draw Pile
• Game End
• End of Game Scoring
  • Faerie Folk Areas
  • Garden
  • To Win
• Starting Draft

Gameplay

In Faeries & Magical Creatures you will build your deck by drafting unique Faerie Cards, gain trust and kinship with the five Faerie Folk, and build your ultimate Faerie Garden.

Select one of five Actions on your turn (draft a new Card, play a Card from your hand, redraw up to five Cards from your Discard Pile, select and place a Polynomial Tile in your Faerie Garden, or place a Kinship Token in one of the five Faerie Folk Areas). The other players will then follow by playing the same Action. Once all players have performed the same Action, the Acting Player Marker moves so that the next player can choose an Action. You can score many different ways via your Cards, Area majority, and Tile placement in your Garden.

The winner of the game is the player with the most Victory Points tallied on their Faerie Garden at the end of the game.

Contents

• 1 Game Board
  • The top of the Game Board shows the five possible Actions that players may choose from.
  • The rest of the Game Board contains the five Faerie Folk Areas.
• 4 Garden Player Boards
• 160 Wood Kinship Tokens (40 in each player's color)
• 8 Wood Player Scoring and Action Pawns (2 in each player's color)
• 1 Acting Player Token and Stand
• 48 Polynomial 2-Sided Garden Tiles
• 16 Player Starting Cards
• 5 Faerie Home Tiles
• 60 Faerie Cards
• 1 Cinch Bag for the Garden Tiles

If this is your first time playing the game, punch out the Acting Player Token, Faerie Home Tiles and Garden Tiles.

Setup

A. Place the Game Board in the middle of the table. B. Place a Garden Player Board in front of each player.

Each Player chooses their player color and takes the C. 40 Kinship Tokens and D. 2 Scoring/Action Pawns in their player color. Each player places their Kinship Tokens in front of them to create their Supply.

Each player takes the E. 4 Player Starting Cards in their player color. These are placed face down in their Draw Pile to their left.

Shuffle the deck of F. 60 Faerie Cards and place the deck near the Game Board.

G. Draw Faerie Cards equal to the number of players +1 and place them face up near the Game Board so that all players can see them. For example, if there are three players, draw four Cards. This is the Card Offer.

Place all Garden Tiles in the Cinch Bag and draw out Tiles equal to the number of players and place them near the Game Board. This is the H. Tile Offer.

I. Place the Faerie Home Tiles near the Game Board.

Place the J. Acting Player Token in its Stand. Select a Starting Player and place the Acting Player Token in front of them.

For a two player game, reduce the number of Tiles by randomly removing 16 Tiles from the Bag, and reduce the Card deck by randomly removing 20 Cards.

Game Turns

The Acting Player will select an Action from the five available at the top of the Game Board, placing their Action Pawn on that circle to show which Action they have selected.

They will then perform that Action AND may also play a Card from their hand. These may be done in any order: Card first and then Action, or Action first and then Card.

After a Card is played, it is placed in that player's Discard Pile. Note: The Acting Player does not have to play a Card, or may just discard a Card from their hand instead of using the benefit on the Card.

Once the Acting Player is done performing their Action and playing/discarding a Card from their hand, the other players, in clockwise order around the table, will also perform the SAME Action. Thus, all players will perform the same Action each turn. Note: Players MUST perform the Action if they are able to.

Once all players have performed the Action, the Acting Player Token is passed to the player to the right (counter-clockwise) and they become the Acting Player for the next turn.

Cards

There are three places in front of each player for Cards (from left to right): Draw Pile, Hand, Discard Pile.

After Cards are played, or when new Cards are Drafted from the Card Offer, (which happens when players befriend a Faerie as an Action) they are always placed into that player's Discard Pile face down to the player's right. Whenever that player's Draw Pile (to their left) has no remaining Cards, they will shuffle their Discard Pile and place those Cards to their left to form a new Draw Pile.

Actions

On a turn, players will select and perform one of the following five Actions, then each player will perform the same Action clockwise around the table.

Gain Trust: Place a Kinship Token

As you move quietly nearer and nearer to the blinking lights, you start to make out small glowing shapes flitting near the edge of the forest. They seem to know that you are there, but don't fly away. Maybe they are as curious about you as you are about them. You decide that you should present them with a gift to bring them closer, and looking around spot a beautiful flower blooming in the moonlight. You carefully pick the white lily, and holding it out, move closer to the Faeries...

Take one of your Kinship Tokens from your Supply, and place it in any one of the five Faerie Folk Areas.

Example: Jane takes a cube from her Supply and places it into the Troll Area.

The Five Faerie Folk

Faeries derive from five different Folk, each a bit unique and sharing certain properties, preferences, and traditions.

• Fae: Fae are what most humans refer to as Faeries.
• Nature: Nature Folk live close to nature, and love trees, flowers, streams, and all forms of greenery.
• Earth: These Folk live close to the earth, in caves, under trees, or in the mountains.
• Trolls: These Folk do not usually like other Faeries or humans, and are seen as slightly evil.
• Beast: These Folk live deep in the woods, and are closest to animals.

Area Majority and Faerie Homes

The object of placing Kinship Tokens is to have more of them in a Faerie Folk Area than the other players. The player with the most Kinship Tokens in each Faerie Folk Area at the end of the game will score 1 Victory Point (VP) for each Kinship Token in that Area, regardless of which player color they are. The player with the second most Kinship Tokens in an Area will score 1 VP for each Kinship Token of THEIR color in that Area.

The FIRST player to have 10 Kinship Tokens in a Faerie Folk Area will claim that Folk's Faerie Home and place it on their Garden Player Board on any uncovered squares (no other Tile on any of the squares where the Faerie Home is placed). At the end of the game, that player will score double points for any Plant Tiles that are adjacent to the Faerie Home Tile.

Example: The Plant Tile (A) that is adjacent to the Nature Faerie Home Tile (B) will score double points (2x the size of the Tile) at the end of the game, while the non-adjacent Plant Tile (C) will score the regular points (1 per size of the Tile).

Build Garden: Select and Place a Garden Tile

As you get to know the Faeries more and more, you learn which flowers they are drawn to, and which they dislike. One day, Aunt Victoria suggests that you could plant some of the Faeries' most beloved flowers in the garden behind the manor. That way, the Faeries might start to come into the garden. Soon, the two of you are hard at work making new beds, planting Butterwort, Cowslips, Day Lilies, Foxglove, Bluebells, Rowan Tree, and others, and even paving new stone pathways through the garden. And come they do! Many kinds of Faeries are soon visiting the garden at night, turning it into a truly magical and happy place! One night, while whispering secrets to you, a Flower Faerie suggests that you could build a special Faerie Home in the garden so that they might stay there always. She tells you exactly what materials to find and how to fashion the small home.

Select one of the Garden Tiles from the Tile Offer and place it on your Garden Player Board covering spaces that do not already have a Tile on them (no stacking).

You can decide which side to use: Plant side or Path side. The first Path Tile placed on your Garden Player Board MUST be placed along an edge of the Board. All Path Tiles placed after that must connect with a previously placed Path Tile to form an unbroken Path in the Garden (diagonal placement does not count).

Path Tiles do not score any Victory Points (VP).

Plant Tiles may be placed anywhere in the Garden (no stacking), however, they will only score at the end of the game if at least one of their edges connects them to a Path Tile edge.

Example: Jane will score 4 Victory Points (VP) for the Plant Tile (A) that is connected to a Path Tile, and will score 0 VP for the Plant Tile (B) that is not connected to a Path Tile.

When all players have selected a Garden Tile from the Offer, refill the Tile Offer with Tiles from the Bag so that the Tiles in the Offer equal the number of players.

The Garden Player Board

The Garden Player Board has three unique Board Benefit icons. Whenever you place a Garden Tile (the Path Side or the Plant Side) that covers one or more of these icons, you will immediately gain any benefit of the icon(s):

• Kinship Icon: Place a Kinship Token.
• Draw Card Icon: Draw a Card from your Draw Pile into your Hand. Note: You may have more than 5 Cards in your hand as a result of this, which is allowed.
• VP Icon: Gain 2 VPs (Victory Points).

The Garden Player Board also acts as your scoreboard (notice the numbers along the top and down the right edge). Whenever you score Victory Points during and at the end of the game, you keep track of them with your Scoring Pawn in your Garden.

Befriend a Faerie: Draft a New Card

As the Summer draws on and you get to know some of the Faeries more and more, you befriend a few of them. They start to bring you small gifts in exchange for your kindnesses. These friendships blossom like the flowers in your garden, and one night, Moxie, a small Mushroom Faerie who now lives in your garden, tells you a deep secret. The Queen of the Faeries and her King are becoming estranged from each other and are both demanding loyalty. And as a result, the usual mischief that the Folk play on each other has started to become more cruel and sometimes dangerous, and some are declaring for either the King or the Queen. Moxie wonders if you will pick a side...

Draft (select and take) a Card from the Card Offer, and place it in your Discard Pile.

When all players have drafted a Card from the Card Offer, place the remaining Card on the bottom of the Card Deck and draw Cards from the top of the Card Deck to refill the Card Offer with the same number of Cards (number of players +1).

Helping Hand: Play a Card from Your Hand

The night that you learn about the great struggle from Moxie, you can't sleep. You toss and turn all night. Until finally, in a half-sleep dream, the Queen of the Faeries appears and speaks to you. She asks you to use your influence with the Fae Folk to convince them to join her. In exchange for your help, she promises to allow you to enter into the Faerie realm, something that very few mortals have ever done. When you awake, you wonder if it truly happened, or if it was just a dream... and if this entire Summer has been a dream.

Play a Card from your hand and perform the Action/benefit stated on the Card. Then place the Card in your Discard Pile. Note: When the Acting Player chooses the Helping Hand Action, they will actually play two Cards (one for the Action, and one as their advantage as the Acting Player). Note: Some Cards allow you to move Kinship Tokens. If not stated as "yours" or "opponent's", it may be either or both.

Call Faeries: Draw Cards from Your Draw Pile

As the sun sets that night, you creep into the garden. Instinctively, you move to the Faerie circle that you and Aunt Victoria had created and start to speak the words that you learned from the Queen. The words become a steady chant and the circle begins to glow brighter and brighter. Faeries start to appear out of the woods and gather around you. Very soon there are more Faerie Folk in your Garden than you even knew existed. You finish and they all watch you expectantly. You stare into the circle for minutes that seem like an eternity. Then suddenly you command them to follow you as you step through.

You may discard one Card from your hand into your Discard Pile, and then must draw Cards from your Draw Pile into your hand up to 5 total Cards.

If you draw the last Card from your Draw Pile, shuffle the Cards in your Discard Pile and place them in your Draw Pile. If you have not finished drawing up to 5 Cards into your hand, continue until you have.

Game End

Play continues around the table until any of the following occurs:

• All 5 Faerie Homes have been taken and placed in a Garden
• There are not enough Garden Tiles to create a full Tile Offer
• One player has placed all of their Kinship Tokens and they have none left in their Supply
• All Cards have been taken from the deck and there are not enough left to create a full Card Offer

When any of these occurs, continue the current turn until all players have performed the current Action. Perform End of Game Scoring, and end the game.

End of Game Scoring

Faerie Folk Areas

The player with the most Kinship Tokens in each Faerie Folk Area at the end of the game will score 1 Victory Point (VP) for each Kinship Token in that Area, regardless of which player color they are. The player with the second most Kinship Tokens in an Area will score 1 VP for each Kinship Token of THEIR color in that Area.

Garden

Each player will score the VP (Victory Points) from their Garden Player Board as follows:

All Plant Tiles that are connected to a Path Tile (have at least one edge adjacent to at least one edge of a Path Tile) will score 1 VP per square of that Plant Tile.

Example: A Plant Tile that has 5 squares is worth 5 VP as long as at least one square of the Plant Tile has one edge adjacent to at least one square of the Path Tile.

Plant Tiles that are not connected to a Path Tile score 0 VP.

All Plant Tiles that are adjacent to a Faerie Home Tile score double. Note: A Plant Tile that is adjacent to more than one Faerie Home Tile only scores double VPs one time. Path Tiles do not score.

To Win

The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game is the winner. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most Faerie Home Tiles is the winner. If it is still tied, those two players tie and share the magic of the Faerie Realm.

Starting Draft

For a faster start to the game, before starting, deal each player 4 Cards from the Faerie Card Deck. They will then each select a Card from those 4 and place it in their Draw Pile with their Starting Cards. All Players then pass their remaining 3 Cards to the player to their left. The process is repeated until all 4 Cards have been selected and placed in a Draw Pile.