Genji Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Object of the Game
• Preparation
• Playing the Game
  • Move
  • Judging a Poem's Beauty
  • Actions
  • When there is no opposing poem on the Princess
  • When there is an opposing poem on the Princess
  • Bonus Cards
  • Flower Cards
  • End of Turn
• Ending the Season
• End of the Game and Victory
• Things to Remember

Contents

Play Deck: 82 Poem Cards in four Seasons and three Fashions, 6 Bonus Cards, 12 Princess Cards, 4 Season Cards, 3 Fashion Cards, 6 Pawns, 6 sets each of 15 Livery Tokens and one Home Marker, these rules.

Object of the Game

You are a courtier in the court of Emperor Ichijo in a time in Japanese history when poetry and the arts reigned supreme. Your goal is to increase your reputation at court by secretly visiting Princesses and winning their hearts by writing them the greatest love poetry. At the end of the game, the player who has the most Reputation Points is the winner!

Preparation

Players: Each player takes a matching set of components consisting of a Pawn, a Home Marker, and 15 Livery Tokens to represent his "Courtier" during the game. Choose a starting player by taking turns telling a love story – tragic or heart warming – from your personal experience (or, in a pinch, someone else's). If everyone agrees you told the most romantic or moving love story, you get to choose who goes first. Alternatively, players may make a random Livery token draw. In either case, play always passes to the left (clockwise) from the first player.

The Play Area: Arrange the twelve Princess Cards randomly in a circle, face up, roughly corresponding to the twelve points of the clock - as illustrated on the facing page (Play Area Example: twelve Princess Cards placed randomly in a circle face up; Season Cards, Fashion Cards, Draw Pile and Discard Pile inside the circle). Place the four Season Cards in a pile in the center of the circle, with Spring face-up on top (underneath that put Summer, then Autumn and finally Winter). Draw a Fashion Card at random and place it face-up inside the circle as shown. Place the remaining Fashion Cards underneath this card.

Draw and Discard Piles: Shuffle the Play Deck well and deal a random hand of five cards to each player. Place the remaining cards, with room for a discard pile as shown, face-down inside the circle.

Home: Each Courtier has a favorite Princess—who also favors him. Beginning with the starting player and going clockwise, take the Home Marker and Pawn of your Courtier's color and place them on your favorite Princess Card to designate your Home. Your Home cannot be adjacent to nor share a card with another Courtier's Home. Finally, take the Livery Tokens of your color and keep them close at hand. Setup is now complete.

Playing the Game

The game is played over the course of four Seasons. You may play fewer Seasons for a shorter game. The game ends at the end of Winter unless a winner appears sooner. During each Season, Courtiers set off on their rounds of the Imperial Capital, Kyoto, visiting as many Princesses as prudent, offering beautiful poetry to them. When the first Courtier returns Home, marking the end of the Season, all Courtiers' romantic exploits are assessed. At the end of the year, their reputations are compared and one Courtier is declared to have the true spirit of Genji!

Taking your Turn: Your turn consists of two actions. The first action is always MOVE, the second is a choice between STUDY or WOO. When you have completed two actions, play passes to your left.

Move

You must choose which direction to travel at the beginning of each Season, and you must continue in that direction until next Season. Remember: while play always passes to the player to your left, the direction of travel for your pawn can be clockwise or counter-clockwise. Home Markers are designed to point in your direction of travel. Each turn, you can move one, two, or three cards in your direction of travel. If you are first Home this Season, you must stop there. This forces all other Courtiers to return home. As the first one home, you can still perform a final Study or Woo action. Arriving Home first confers other benefits at the start of next Season. These will be discussed in the "Ending the Season" section.

Judging a Poem's Beauty

The Poems in Genji all involve certain themes. All of the cards (except Bonus cards) indicate by Symbols the themes to which they relate. The themes and their Symbols are:

• Fashions
• Melancholy, Nature, Romance
• Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

In Genji, the Beauty of a Poem is dependent on the context in which it is read. A Poem about Spring is more beautiful when presented in the Springtime. A Poem about nature is more beautiful when presented to a Princess who loves nature. In other words, the more the Poem "fits" with the context, the more beautiful it is. To determine how beautiful a Poem is, match the symbols on your Poem Cards to the symbols on the following cards: the Princess Card being wooed, the Season Card, and the Fashion Card. The Beauty of a Poem increases by one for EACH INSTANCE of a symbol on those cards that matches a symbol on the Poem Card(s).

Imagine you play a Poem Card showing two Spring symbols, onto a Princess who likes Spring and during the Season of Spring. The first Spring symbol on your Poem Card counts once for the Princess' preference and once for the Season in play. The same goes for the second Spring symbol on the Card. In this instance, the Poem card has a Beauty of four. Remember: Beauty is only for Poems, it doesn't translate directly to Reputation Points.

Actions

STUDY: You can study the classics to gain insight into great poetry. Discard any unwanted cards from your hand into the Discard Pile and replace them with an equal number of cards from the Draw Pile.

WOO: To woo, you "write" Poems. To write a Poem, you place Poem Cards just outside the circle of cards, next to the Princess Card you are currently visiting. If you are on a Princess Card with another Courtier, ignore him—that is what bamboo screens are for! Poems are made up of one or two Poem Cards from your hand. Poem Cards are either "beginnings" or "endings." Beginnings have three lines of English verse. Endings are denoted by a red signature stamp on the Japanese section of the Poem Card, and have two lines of English verse. You may have a one-card Poem of either type of Poem Card, or a two card Poem that includes one beginning and one ending. Poems are rated by their Beauty.

Beauty is based on how well the symbols on the Poem Cards match the current court Fashion (represented by the Fashion Card), the current Season (on the Season Card), and the personal preferences of the audience (on the Princess Card). See the inset "Judging a Poem's Beauty" for details. Wooing can involve placing Poems, challenging other players' Poems, or both. You challenge the Poems of other players in order to remove them from play. This is because you cannot place a Poem on a Princess Card that bears another player's Poem. You can challenge as many Poems on one Princess Card as you are willing or able. If you can place a Poem once you have cleared all the others away, you may do so. Your turn ends when you place a Poem, or when you decline to place a Poem. Wooing is accomplished as follows:

When there is no opposing poem on the Princess,

• If there is no poem, you may write one.
• If there is one of your poems, you may improve upon it.

When there is an opposing poem on the Princess,

• If there is a two-card poem, you may challenge it.
• If there is a one-card poem, you may complete it.

When there is no opposing poem on the Princess

If there is no poem, you may write one: As long as the Poem has a Beauty greater than zero, you can place a Livery Token on the Princess Card and leave your Poem beside her card for all to see. You can place either a full Poem (one beginning AND one ending card) or a partial Poem (one beginning OR one ending card). You place only one Livery Token per Poem.

If there is one of your poems, you may improve upon it: You can give her another Poem that is more Beautiful than your previous Poem. This allows you to place another Livery Token on her, and make her less vulnerable to advances of other Courtiers (besides being just a nice and romantic thing to do for one of your cherished lovers)! Note: if the previous Poem you placed was a single-card Poem, you must complete that Poem before you can add any further Poems. This counts as your Woo action, and you must end your turn once the Poem is complete. The Princess will not receive an extra Livery Token because you complete your own one-card Poem. Additional Poems can only be placed on top of a previous two-card Poem, and they themselves must be two-card Poems. Single-card Poems cannot be stacked on top of another Poem, even if they have a greater Beauty.

When there is an opposing poem on the Princess

Princesses are fickle, and their hearts can stray easily, so now is the time to take brush in hand and get her to change her mind!

If there is a two-card poem, you may challenge it: You can challenge a rival's Poem by pointing out to the Princess how unfashionable it is. Place a beginning or ending Poem Card on top of the corresponding opponent's card as long as it causes the Beauty of the Poem to increase in value (see also Bonus cards). Then (1) discard both the card replaced and the one you played; (2) take the remaining card of that Poem into your hand, stealing your rival's material and; (3) remove his Livery Token from that Princess. If there is more than one Livery Token and Poem on the Princess Card, you may continue to challenge and remove Poems and Livery Tokens from the Princess in this manner until you run out of cards to play. If you finally clear all the Poems (and Livery Tokens) from a Princess Card in this way, and you still have cards to write a Poem, you may.

Example: Lord To no Chujo has placed a two-card Poem on Lady Ume. It has a total Beauty of three, one for the beginning card, and two for the ending card. Lord Genji arrives at Lady Ume's house and she tells him all about the wonderful Poem To no Chujo has written. Recognizing the weakness of the Poem's beginning card, Genji offers another card in its place that increases the Beauty of the Poem. Lady Ume sees the superiority of Genji's card in both fashion and Season, and is no longer impressed by To no Chujo's literary efforts. She gives the Poem cards to Genji, who promptly throws out both beginning cards (he wouldn't want to be caught using a verse he challenged), but pockets the ending card for later use. Now that he has proven his sophistication to Lady Ume, he removes To no Chujo's Livery Token and takes the opportunity to write another Poem for her. This subsequent Poem Genji writes can be written without any restrictions, as Lady Ume's card is now empty of Livery Tokens. (If Lady Ume had another of To no Chujo's Livery Tokens – and thus there was another Poem underneath the one just removed - Genji would have to challenge that before he could place one of his own Livery Tokens on Lady Ume.)

If there is a one-card poem, you may complete it: She is an easy win – her suitor hasn't even bothered to finish his courtship, so do it for him. You may lay down a card to complete the Poem, remove the other player's Livery Token, and replace it with your own. One proviso: the resulting Poem (counting both Poem Cards together) must be of greater Beauty than the previous (one card) Poem. You cannot directly challenge a one-card Poem; you must complete it in order to beat it. A bonus card (see text box) may not be used to assist in the completion of a single-card Poem.

Note: When challenging a Poem on your Home, the rule about beating an opponent's Poem is relaxed. Your resulting Poem only needs to match or beat the opponent's Poem to ruin it.

Bonus Cards

Bonus Cards are used when you can equal, but not beat, an opponent's card when challenging his Poem. Bonus cards are either "refined calligraphy" or "signature stamp." Only a maximum of one of each type of card may be used to add a bonus on one Poem Card. These are then discarded with the rest of the challenged cards as soon as they are played. A Bonus Card may not be used to assist in completing a one-card Poem.

Example: Lord To no Chujo has placed a two-card Poem on Princess Kiritsubo. It has a total Beauty of four, two per card. Lord Genji arrives at Princess Kiritsubo's pavilion and sees none of his cards can beat two Beauty. Genji lays down a card that equals the two Beauty of To no Chujo's beginning card, but then places a "signature stamp" along with it. The wonderfully carved signature stamp impresses Princess Kiritsubo so much that she doesn't notice the Poem card scores the same value as the previous one. She forgets all about To no Chujo, and Genji discards the signature stamp card, the Poem Card he played, and the Poem Card he challenged. He picks up the remaining Poem Card and now has the option to write a new Poem of his own for the starry-eyed Kiritsubo.

Flower Cards

A Flower Card is a special type of Poem Card. In Genji's time it was common to send cut flowers with a Poem to accentuate its Seasonal quality. Unfortunately, not all flowers are available year-round! Flower Cards show one Season symbol and two flower symbols. When "in Season," the two flowers count as though they were second and third Season symbols. Flowers are "in Season" during the Season marked on their card. When it isn't their Season, the flower symbols "wilt" and become worthless. Flower card Poems typically contain reference to a certain flower that blooms in the Season in question. When the Poem can be sent with (or simply coincides with the blooming of) a flower of that variety, the impact of the Poem is far greater. So a reference to plum blossoms works very well in the spring, but in midsummer it's completely gauche!

Example: Genji plays a two-card Poem and both beginning and ending cards are Flower Cards. Specifically, each Flower Card shows one Spring symbol and two plum blossom symbols. During Spring, the Poem will have a minimum Beauty of 6. This is because it scores 3 for each Poem Card: each card counts one for the Spring symbol, and two for the two plum blossoms. If the Princess' taste leans towards Spring, then the Poem's Beauty, when presented to her during the Spring, would be 12. On the same Princess, during the Summer, the same Poem would have a Beauty of only 2, as the plum blossoms have long since scattered from their branches, and only the Spring symbols can be counted.

End of Turn

At the end of a player's turn, when he has both moved and taken an action, he draws cards from the Draw pile to bring his hand back up to five cards. Play then continues clockwise.

Ending the Season

The Season ends immediately when one player returns to his Home and completes his turn by performing a final Study or Woo action. When this happens, put all other players' Pawns on their Homes – they are not allowed to take any further actions this Season.

Reputation Point Scoring: Players put their Livery Tokens into the game box when they score Reputation Points. The box top should be placed so that there is a small opening to put tokens into, but the actual number of tokens inside cannot be seen. Scores are applied in the following order:

1. Most Beautiful Poem: Players look for the most Beautiful Poem on the table. Whoever has the most Beautiful Poem removes the Livery Token and Poem from the Princess to whom it belongs, and puts the Livery Token into the game box along with a second Livery Token from his unused pile (two tokens in total). The Poem cards go into the discard pile. If there are two or more Poems tied for the highest Beauty, each of the tied players throw only the token from each Princess into the game box and discard their Poems. No second Livery Token is added in this case.

2. Cuckoldry Bonus: Any player who has a Livery Token on another player's Home (scandal!) removes that Livery Token from the Princess and places it into the game box. Discard the Poem once scored.

3. Season Card: The player who has the most Livery Tokens remaining on the board at the end of the Season – after the previous two bonuses have been scored - takes the Season Card and keeps it until the end of the game, as it is worth Reputation Points!

Ties for the Season Card: If more than one player has the same number of Livery Tokens on the board, tied players throw one Livery Token from their unused pile into the game box and place the Season card at the bottom of the Season card pile. This Season may be re-played if a tie-breaking round is necessary to decide a winner.

Starting the next Season: The Season Card proceeds to the next Season (from Spring to Summer to Autumn to Winter) and all players are set to begin again from their Homes. Poems not removed during end of season scoring remain on the board for next Season. Players make certain their hands are brought up to five cards. Select a Fashion Card at random to begin the new Season. The player who arrived Home first in the previous Season is then allowed to make one extra STUDY action before play begins again, and chooses who starts play in the next Season.

End of the Game and Victory

The game ends and a final Reputation Point tally is made when the Winter Season ends (alternately, a person who runs out of Livery Tokens automatically wins the game, no matter what Season it is). Count Reputation Points for the following:

• 1 point for each of your Livery Tokens in the box
• 3 points for each Season Card in your possession

In the case of a tie in total Reputation Points, most Season Cards wins. Alternatively, play can continue by using Season Cards that were unclaimed due to any earlier ties.

Things to Remember

• Beauty does not translate into Reputation Points: it is only to determine the strength of a Poem in defence and for the "Most Beautiful Poem" bonus.
• Only one Livery Token is placed for one Poem.
• A Princess Card cannot bear the Livery Token of more than one player: you must remove all opposing Poems (and therefore tokens) before you can place your own Poem on a Princess.
• Direction of travel and direction of play are two different things: when you finish your turn, the player to your left starts her turn. This does not apply to the directions pawns travel—you get to choose at the start of the Season whether your pawn travels clockwise or counter-clockwise. You adjust the orientation of your Home Marker accordingly.
• Poems that remain for another Season will most likely change in value: Many Poems will remain on the table for the next Season. The Beauty of each Poem may, therefore, increase or decrease. Japanese poetry is highly dependent on time and place. The Beauty of individual Poems must therefore be judged based on the current Season and Fashion. The Symbols from when the card was placed are irrelevant. Only the Symbols at the time Beauty is assessed actually count!