Gem Jam Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Player Setup
• Overview
• Gameplay
• Step 1: Start of Round
• Step 2: Distribution
  • Distribute Iced Gems
• Step 3: Collection
• Step 4: Invite
• Step 5: Placement
  • Play a Friend Card
  • Placing Iced Gems and Cookie Tokens
  • Best Friend Scoring
  • Mum's Note
• Step 6: End of Round
• Scoring
  • Lunch Tray
  • Pattern
  • Friendship
  • Pattern Rule
• End Game Example
• Iced Gem Scoring Example
• Mum's Note
  • Pattern
  • Friendship
• Mum's Note Scoring Example
• Extra Credit
• Extra Credit Scoring Example
• Round Overview

Components

• 4 Storefront Boards
• 4 Best Friend Cards
• 8 Best Friend Meeples
• 40 Friend Cards
• 30 Action Cards
• 3 Extra Credit Cards
• 10 Mum's Note Cards
• 35 Cookie Tokens
• 125 Iced Gem Tokens
• 4 Reference Cards
• 1 Rule Book

Game Setup

1. Place the 3 Extra Credit cards within sight of all players.
2. Randomly lay out the 4 Storefront Boards horizontally in the center of the table face up forming the game board.
3. Shuffle the Friend Cards to form a face-down Friend deck. Place the deck near the Storefront Board. Flip and reveal 4 Friend Cards and place 1 below each Storefront Board.
4. Randomly draw 4 Cookie Tokens and place 1 onto each empty slot on each Storefront Board.
5. Shuffle and place the deck of Action Cards beside the Storefront Boards. Flip over the top card from the deck such that 2 different Action Cards are visible (any side).

Player Setup

For 3 or 4 Players

A. Each player takes 1 Best Friend card and 1 Best Friend Meeple of their colour.

B. Randomly deal 2 Friend Cards to each player.

C. Randomly deal 1 Mum's Note Card and 1 Cookie Token to each player.

For 2 Players

A. Each player takes 1 Best Friend card and controls 2 Best Friend Meeples of their colour.

B. Randomly deal 3 Friend Cards to each player.

C. Randomly deal 1 Mum's Note Card and 1 Cookie Token to each player.

Shuffle the Best Friend Cards face down and reveal one card at a time. The first card revealed will be the starting player, the second card will be the second player and so on until all cards have been revealed.

Place each Best Friend Meeple above each Storefront Board from left to right starting from the first player. In a 2 player game, players alternate their position. This will be the turn order for the first round.

Example (3 or 4 players): Grey player is 1st, Blue is 2nd, Red is 3rd and Yellow is 4th.

Example (2 players): First player is 1st and 3rd. Second is 2nd and 4th.

Overview

Your goal is to earn the most Friendship Points by the end of 6 rounds. To do this, collect and place Iced Gems and Cookies strategically on your Friend's lunch trays, aiming to:

• Fulfill Friend's Iced Gem patterns to gain points.
• Achieve Extra Credit and Mum's Note conditions for bonus scoring.

Thoughtful placement and clever combinations will help you build stronger friendships and win the game!

Gameplay

Each round consists of 6 steps:

1. Start of Round
2. Distribution
3. Collection
4. Invite
5. Placement
6. End of Round

Step 1: Start of Round

At the start of each round except the first:

• Reveal new Friend cards from the deck and place them face up below each Storefront Board.
• Randomly draw Cookie Tokens from the Resource Tray and place them into each empty space on top of each Storefront Board.

The player whose Best Friend Meeple is currently in the leftmost Storefront Board is the start player for the round.

Step 2: Distribution

Distribute Iced Gems

Choose one of the two Action Cards and distribute Iced Gems according to the pattern on the chosen side. You may flip the card to the opposite side, which shows a mirrored sequence.

Take Iced Gems from the Resource Tray as shown on the Action Card and place them from left to right on each Storefront Board in the stipulated pattern.

Try to distribute your desired Iced Gem to where your Best Friend Meeple is!

Note: Always refill the display to 2 cards after each player's turn!

For 3 Players: Draw 1 card randomly from the bottom of the action deck and place Iced Gems according to that card as though it was a 4th player.

Once all players have taken their turn and there are exactly 4 Iced Gems on each Storefront Board, move on to the Collection Step.

Step 3: Collection

After all that hard work, it's time to collect your Iced Gems and Cookies.

All players each collect the 4 Iced Gems placed on the Storefront Board where your Best Friend Meeple is.

Next, starting with the first player, choose and collect one Cookie Token from the top of any Storefront Board. This does not have to be from the same Storefront Board that you took your Iced Gems.

Place these beside your Best Friend.

Once all players have taken a cookie, move on to the Invite Step.

For 3 Players: Discard all leftover Iced Gems and Cookies not collected.

Step 4: Invite

What better way to enjoy all these Iced Gems and Cookies than to share them with your friends! Invite them over!

Starting with the last player and going in reverse order, choose one of the four Friend Cards from the available Friends and place your Best Friend Meeple on the empty space above to take the card into your hand. The Friend you take will determine the turn order for the next round!

For 3 Players: Discard the leftover Friend card that was not invited.

Once all players have taken their Friend and placed their Meeple, move on to the Placement Step.

Step 5: Placement

All players simultaneously perform the following steps in order.

Play a Friend Card

Select and add 1 Friend card from your hand of 3 cards into your tableau. Place the card horizontally beneath either the left or right half of your Best Friend's lunch tray. Subsequent Friends will be placed adjacent to existing Friends in a 2 x 3 grid that is 2 cards wide and 3 cards deep.

For 2 Players: Choose and add 2 Friend cards from your hand into your tableau.

The tableau is a 2 x 3 grid. You may not place a card that causes the layout to exceed this grid.

Placing Iced Gems and Cookie Tokens

In this step, players simultaneously place all collected Iced Gems and Cookies (including all randomly drawn Cookie Tokens during setup) into corresponding empty lunch tray spaces on their tableau.

Once placed, you cannot move, remove, or swap any Iced Gems, Cookies or Friends in future rounds, so choose your placements carefully!

Best Friend Scoring

You may place Iced Gems and Cookie Tokens into your Best Friend's lunch tray. Your Best Friend's lunch tray is also part of your tableau, and you may place Iced Gems and Cookies in it! Items here will count the same as any Friend's lunch tray.

Gem Biscuits and Cookie Tokens placed here count towards any end game Friend scoring, including Mum's Note and Extra Credits.

Mum's Note

Mum's Notes can be found in some Cookie Tokens. Each Mum's Note increases your Mum's Note Friendship by 1 point.

Step 6: End of Round

Once all players have finished their Placement, prepare for the next round by placing all players' Best Friend Meeples to the top of the Storefront Board.

This will determine the turn order for the next round based on the new Meeple positions.

Example: Red player is 1st, Yellow is 2nd, Grey is 3rd and Blue is 4th.

The game ends when all players have 6 Friend cards in their tableau, completing a 2 x 3 grid. Proceed to scoring your Friendship Points!

Scoring

Lunch Tray

Each Friend has a lunch tray with empty and filled slots. Place Iced Gems and Cookies in empty slots to create patterns and fulfil objectives.

Pattern

Try to create the Friend's favorite pattern throughout your tableau. The more of these patterns you create, the more Friendship Points you will earn.

Friendship

Each matching pattern gains you Friendship Points as shown on the card.

Pattern Rule

The pattern must appear exactly as shown on your Friend card in your tableau.

• Diagonal connections do not count.
• Iced Gems must be adjacent in a continuous chain without gaps or interruptions.
• A Friend Card can be scored multiple times in a player's tableau. However, a single Iced Gem may only be used to score once per Friend pattern.
• A single Iced Gem may be scored for multiple Friend patterns.
• Patterns can span over multiple Friend cards as long as the chains are continuous.

Thoughtful placement is key to maximizing your friendships!

End Game Example

The page shows six example tableaux labelled A to F. The examples are diagrams with no printed text, so they are not transcribed here.

Iced Gem Scoring Example

• A: The pattern here appears exactly once. The pattern can span over multiple Friend Cards as long as they are in a continuous chain.
• B: The pattern here appears exactly 3 times and not 4, as a single Iced Gem cannot be scored multiple times for the same Friend.
• C: The pattern here appears exactly twice. The same yellow Iced Gem can be used to score for both A and C. Iced Gems in your Best Friend's tray also count towards end game scoring.
• D: The pattern here appears exactly 5 times. Don't forget that Iced Gems in your Best Friend's tray also count towards end game scoring.
• E: The pattern here appears exactly 1 once. Diagonal connections do not count.
• F: The pattern here appears exactly 4 times. Similar to B, an Iced Gem can only be used once to score the same Friend. Patterns can be scored throughout your entire tableau.

Mum's Note

Mum's Notes are personal objectives given to players before the start of the game. These are scored like a Friend pattern, and only for that player.

Pattern

Each matching pattern gains you Friendship Points as shown on the card.

Friendship

This value can be increased by obtaining more Mum's Notes. You may score this pattern anywhere in your tableau, including your Best Friend's tray.

Each Mum's Note increases your Mum's Note Friendship by 1 point (shown on the card as +1).

Note: the Friendship point values printed on the Friend cards and Mum's Note cards are graphic on the printed card, and are not repeated as text in the rulebook.

Mum's Note Scoring Example

• The Mum's Note pattern appears twice.
• Each pattern is worth 5 Friendship Points.
• For this particular example, 2 Mum's Note tokens are in play. Each Mum's Note token increases the value of your Mum's Note Friendship by 1 point.
• Patterns can be scored anywhere in your tableau, including your Best Friend's tray, as long as they are in a continuous chain.
• Each pattern is worth 7 Friendship Points (5 base + 2 Mum's Notes).
• The pattern appears twice in your entire tableau including your Best Friend's tray.
• 7 Friendship x 2 times = 14 total Friendship Points.

Extra Credit

Each game features 3 Extra Credit cards that all players can work toward. At the end of the game, you'll earn bonus Friendship Points for each Extra Credit condition you've fulfilled.

Extra Credit cards reward specific patterns, placements, or clever combinations. So plan ahead and make every Friendship Point count!

• Master Collector (Gain 3 Friendship Points): for each lunch tray with minimum 3 unique cookies. Each Friend's tray that contains 3 different unique Cookies scores 3 Friendship Points. This is scored per card, not across your whole tableau.
• Double-Maker (Gain 2 Friendship Points): for each adjacent pair of cookies in your tableau. Each adjacent pair of Cookies scores 2 Friendship Points. You may count an item multiple times in different pairs: for example, 3 identical Cookies in a row form 2 pairs, scoring 4 points.
• Cookie Hoarder: collect X of one cookie type. Each player counts 1 Cookie type they have the most of. Gain Friendship Points based on the total number of Cookies in your whole tableau. (X = 7 gains 7; X = 6 gains 5; X = 5 gains 4.)

Extra Credit Scoring Example

• A: Best Friend Lunch tray A scores 0 Friendship Points for not meeting any Extra Credit.
• B: Lunch tray B scores 3 Friendship Points for having at least 3 different Cookies.
• C: Lunch tray C scores 3 Friendship Points for having at least 3 different Cookies.
• D: Lunch tray D scores 4 Friendship Points for having 2 pairs of identical Cookies.
• E: Lunch tray E scores 3 Friendship Points for having at least 3 different Cookies.
• F: Lunch tray F scores 2 Friendship Points for having a pair of identical Cookies.
• G: Lunch tray G scores 4 Friendship Points for having 2 pairs of identical Cookies span across Lunch tray E and F.

Round Overview

1. Start of Round: Reveal new Cookie Tokens and Friends.
2. Distribution: Choose an Action and place Iced Gems on each Storefront Board.
3. Collection: Collect Iced Gems and Cookie Token(s).
4. Invite: Add a Friend Card to your hand.
5. Placement: Place a Friend, then all Iced Gems and Cookie Token(s) into your tableau.
6. End of Round: Use the new turn order for the next round.