Fluss der Drachen Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• Before the First Game
• Before Each Game
• Start of Play
• The Blowing Player and the Other Players
• Has the Player Reached the Mooring Point?
• Dragon Actions
• Other Things to Note
• End of the Game
• After the Game
• Variant for Super Dragons or for Playing with Adults

Components

• 1 three-dimensional river landscape
• 1 ship with mast and sail
• 1 ship card
• 8 straws
• 48 gemstones in 4 colours
• 1 treasure chest
• 27 cave cards
• 20 dragon figures in 4 colours
• 4 dragon cards
• 1 landscape die
• 1 sheet of stickers (5 landscape stickers, 6 die stickers, 20 figure stickers)

Object of the Game

Blow the ship skilfully and think carefully about which mooring point you aim for — that way you can win valuable gemstones for your dragons!

The dragon player who first fills a cave (made of two halves) with the matching gemstones is the King of the Dragons and wins the game.

Before the First Game

Ask an adult to help you prepare the game:

• Carefully punch out all pre-cut parts from the frames.
• Slide the mast through both openings of the sail. Then insert the mast into the hull of the ship.
• Take five dragon figures of one colour and stick under each figure one of the small round stickers with the motif in the matching colour — for example, the stickers with the dark-blue motifs go under the dark-blue dragons. Do the same with the dragon figures of the other colours.
• Stick the large round stickers with the landscape cut-outs onto the six sides of the die.
• Punch out the five large, colourful landscapes from the sticker sheet and stick them onto the river landscape. Look together at the five landscapes and the mooring points for the ship that belong to them. A mooring point is recognised by the two small stone heaps on the edge of the river and by the pebbles on the bottom of the river. The mooring points are:
  1. Mooring point at the bright green flower meadow
  2. Mooring point at the colourful autumn forest
  3. Mooring point at the grey mountains
  4. Mooring point at the dark green forest
  5. Mooring point at the yellowish steppe landscape

Before Each Game

• Take the green river landscape out of the box and place it on the table. Ask an adult to carefully pour about 0.75 litres of water into the river channel.

• Place the ship in the water in the harbour. The harbour is the round bay in front of the bright green flower meadow.

• Together the players decide which cave cards they want to play with:

  • For younger players or a shorter game: the cards with three gemstones.
  • For older players or a longer game: the cards with four gemstones.

  The remaining cards are not needed and go back into the box.

• The cards each show half a cave: there are left cave cards and right cave cards. Stack them separately and shuffle each stack face down, so that the gemstones cannot be seen.

• Each player draws one left cave card face down from its stack and may look at the gemstones on the front. They then place the card face down in front of them. The remaining left cave cards are not needed and go back into the box.

• The right cave cards are placed face down as a stack next to the river landscape.

• Each player receives a straw.

• The ship card is placed next to the river landscape, so that all players can see it well.

• The treasure chest is filled with gemstones. Then one player holds the opened treasure chest so that a fellow player can see the chest from behind — but not the gemstones inside. That fellow player reaches around the lid and takes six gemstones out of the chest and places them on the ship card. The chest is then closed and set aside.

Start of Play

Are you ready? Here is how it goes:

The youngest player is first to blow. Play then continues clockwise. The player whose turn it is tries to blow the ship to a certain mooring point. If they succeed, they may perform an action with the dragon standing there. The other players try to prevent this: while the blowing player blows, they roll the die and try to end the blowing player's turn early.

ATTENTION! From now on you may only look under a dragon when you have reached a mooring point — that is, when you are performing an action with that dragon!

The Blowing Player and the Other Players

The blowing player:

1. The player points to the mooring point they want to blow the ship to — for example the grey mountains.

2. Any other player calls the command "On your marks, to the treasure — GO!" The player whose turn it is then blows, using the straw against the sail, and so drives the ship forward.

   Game tip: Turn the straw so that its bend is at the lower end — this lets you steer better while blowing.

3. The player whose turn it is must blow the ship so that it comes to a stop at the mooring point. At that moment the sail must be over the pebbles on the bottom of the river. If it is, the player calls out: "RATZFATZ — here with the treasure!"

   (Picture: "VALID" — the sail is over the pebbles at the mooring point. "NOT VALID" — the sail is not over the pebbles.)

   ATTENTION: The mast must stay over the pebbles until this call has been made! If the ship leaves the mooring point area beforehand, the player must blow it back and call "RATZFATZ — here with the treasure!" again.

The other players:

1. The left-hand neighbour of the blowing player takes the die in hand and gets ready.
2. The other players also start at the command "On your marks, to the treasure — GO!" They do not blow, but roll the die — in turn and as quickly as possible. Five sides of the die show the landscape cut-outs of the five landscapes. All other players try to roll the landscape to which the blowing player wants to blow the ship — in the example, the grey mountains.
3. The other players keep rolling in turn until either the blowing player reaches the mooring point and has called "RATZFATZ — here with the treasure!", OR another player rolls the correct landscape. A player who rolls the correct landscape (in the example, the grey mountains) calls out: "STOP!" If they manage this BEFORE the blowing player has called "RATZFATZ — here with the treasure!", the turn of the blowing player ends immediately and they may not blow any further. The ship stays where it is, and the left-hand neighbour of the blowing player is next to blow.

Further rules for blowing:

• The straw may only be blown through. The straw may not touch the ship or the sail.
• You may only blow against the sail of the ship — not into the water!
• If the ship is at a mooring point when the next player is due to blow, that player must choose a different mooring point and blow the ship there.
• The ship may not be lifted out of the water or turned during play. You may blow it from the front and from the back.

Has the Player Reached the Mooring Point?

If the player reaches the mooring point, they carry out the following tasks one after another:

1. Perform a dragon action
2. Rest for a moment: place the dragon on the dragon card
3. Refill the ship card with gemstones
4. All gemstones collected? Fill a cave card

The player's turn then ends, and their left-hand neighbour is next to blow.

1. Perform a dragon action. If the player reaches the mooring point, they may take the dragon of their colour that stands on the landscape of that mooring point — in the example, the dragon in the grey mountains. They look under the dragon, see which picture is hidden there, and show it to all players. The player then performs the dragon action that the picture shows (see below).

Dragon Actions

The picture under a dragon shows one of the following four actions:

• Single gemstone: Take any one gemstone from the ship card and place it next to your dragon card.
• Two gemstones: Take any two gemstones from the ship card and place them next to your dragon card.
• Giving: Take any one gemstone from the ship card and give it to any other player, who places it next to their own dragon card.
• Stealing: Steal one gemstone from any other player and place it next to your own dragon card.

ATTENTION: Gemstones on open, filled cave cards are safe — they may not be stolen!

Each player must collect the gemstones pictured on their cave card. During the game a player may look at their face-down cave card at any time.

Game tip: Where possible, take gemstones in the colours you need to collect.

2. First rest: place the dragon on the dragon card. Once the player whose turn it is has performed their action, their dragon must rest a little: the player takes this dragon from the landscape and places it on their dragon card.

ATTENTION: As soon as the dragon stands on the dragon card, the player may no longer look at the picture on its underside.

3. Refill the ship card with gemstones. If the player has taken one or two gemstones from the ship card, the supply there must be refilled to six gemstones. The player's right-hand neighbour holds the treasure chest, and the player draws — without looking — the missing number of gemstones from it and places them on the ship card.

4. All gemstones collected? Fill a cave card. If, after several rounds, a player has collected all the gemstones pictured on their cave card, they turn the card face up. They then place the gemstones on the matching pictures of the cave card. These gemstones are now secured and may no longer be stolen!

The player then takes a right cave card from the face-down stack, looks at it, and places it face down in front of them. They must now also fill this second cave card to become King of the Dragons.

Other Things to Note

• All of a player's own dragons are on the dragon card: If all five dragons of a player are on the dragon card, the player may, at the start of their next turn, place them again on the five landscapes — without looking under the dragons again. Remember: only one dragon of the same colour may ever stand on each landscape!
• The player cannot reach their last dragon's mooring point: It can happen that the ship is at the mooring point of a player's last dragon when that player's turn comes. In this case the player places the ship exceptionally in the harbour and tries from there to blow the ship to the mooring point with their last dragon.

End of the Game

As soon as a player fills their second cave card — and thus a complete cave — the game ends. This player is the King of the Dragons and has won!

After the Game

Ask an adult or an older child to carefully pour the water from the river into a washbasin. Wash the straws by hand or clean them in the dishwasher. Put the game back in the box only once all parts are dry.

Variant for Super Dragons or for Playing with Adults

In the game for super dragons, the turn of the blowing player also ends when the side with the water motif is rolled — not only when the other players roll the correct landscape.

This variant can also be played when children and adults play together. In this case it applies only when an adult is the player blowing.