Graft Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Player Count Adjustments
  • Setup Game
• Card Details
  • Cargo Card Structure
  • Badge Card Structure
• Gameplay
  • On Your Turn
  • Ship Cargo
  • Refilling Hands
  • Busting
  • Claiming Badges
  • End of Game & Scoring
  • Special Effects
• Scoring Symbols & Effects
• Credits
• Contact

Components

• 1 Rulebook
• 90 Cargo cards
• 5 Guide cards
• 5 Ship Cargo Cards
• 11 Gold Badge Cards
• 13 Silver Badge Cards
• 25 Player Tokens (5 Per Player)

Setup

Player Count Adjustments

• 5 players: Use all cargo cards.
• 4 players: Remove cards marked 5+.
• 3 players: Remove cards marked 4+ and 5+.

Setup Game

1. Gold Badges: Shuffle the gold badge cards and draw 2, placing them in the center of the table.
2. Silver Badges: Shuffle the silver badge cards draw 3, placing them below the gold badges.
3. Ship Cargo Cards: Each player receives 1 of the 5 ship cargo cards. Set aside any left over cards depending on player count.
4. Cargo Cards: Shuffle all cargo cards (after removing player count-specific cards).
5. Starting Hands: Deal each player 5 cargo cards.
6. Player Tokens: Finally, each player should take 5 player tokens of their chosen color, and their matching guide card.

Note: Players should now have 6 cards in their hand: 1 ship cargo card and 5 random cargo cards.

Card Details

Cargo Card Structure

Each cargo card can have up to 4 key elements:

1. Card Type: Each card has a type, specified by their icon, and color.
2. Restrictions: Lists types of cards that cannot be played after this one.
3. Scoring Effects: Defines how the card will generate Zenith points.
4. Special Effects: Some cards have an effect to perform once revealed.

Note: Players may be required to look through their discarded cards (the compost pile) and play a number of them. If any of these newly played cards have a special effect, they are resolved immediately upon placement.

Badge Card Structure

Each badge card can have up to 3 key elements:

1. Badge Type: Each badge has a type, specified by their icon, and color.
2. Goal Condition: If conditions are met after shipping cargo, players claim badges by placing their player marker on (first to claim) or below the card.
3. Scoring Tiers: The first player to claim a badge earns the larger amount of Zenith points. All following players claim the lower amount of Zenith points.

Note: No goal conditions require exact order of card types (this also includes conditions that require adjacency).

Gameplay

On Your Turn

Each turn, players select 1 card from their hand and play it face down in front of them. Once all players have chosen, they simultaneously reveal their cards and pass their remaining hand to the left.

Cards are played left to right in a row on top of each other, slightly offset to reveal the restriction and scoring icons. You must follow all restriction rules from previously played cards in your row or you will bust.

Ship Cargo

At any time, a player may send their cargo to Zenith by playing their ship cargo card. This signals the end of their current row and locks in those cards for scoring.

• Once this card is revealed, the ship cargo card returns to the player's hand.
• The player then replaces it with a card from their hand to finish the row. This card must also follow all restriction rules of the row.
• The completed row is moved up for scoring at the end of the game.
• The player may now claim 1 badge if they meet its conditions.

Notes:

There may be a case where you play the ship cargo card without having played any card prior to ship only a single card. This is allowed.

If all players only have the ship cargo card remaining in their hand, all current rows are immediately shipped to Zenith. Then all players draw up to a full hand.

Refilling Hands

Whenever any player ships their cargo, all players draw back up to a full hand of 6 cards (including the ship cargo card) immediately after picking up their new hand. If the deck will run out, ensure all players draw an equal number of cards.

Busting

If a player reveals a card that cannot be legally played due to any of the restriction rules on cards already played in the active row, they bust.

If this occurs:

1. Discard all cards that are currently part of the row to your compost pile under your guide card.
2. Then play your new card, starting a new row.

Claiming Badges

After a player ships cargo, they have an opportunity to claim a badge. If the cargo row shipped matches any badge card goals, they may claim the badge.

• The first player to claim a badge places their token on the top of the card (worth the full amount of Zenith points).
• Any subsequent players place their token below the card (worth fewer points).
• A player may only claim 1 badge when shipping their cargo, even if they qualify for multiple.
• A player may not claim the same badge twice.

End of Game & Scoring

The game ends when a ship cargo card is played after draw pile is empty. All players then ship their current card row and determine their final score:

1. Score all completed cargo rows using card scoring effects.
2. Score badges based on claimed positions.
3. Score 1 point for every card in your compost.
4. The player with the most Zenith points wins. If players are tied, the player with the least cards in their compost (discard pile) wins.

Special Effects

Energy Bar: When Energy Bar is played it has no immediate effect. On the following turn, you may return it to your hand. If you do, play 2 cards face down that turn instead of 1. You can only do this if it hasn't been covered by another card. Energy Bar scores -2 points when shipped.

Recycle: When Recycle is played on a row and successfully shipped, each card in your compost is worth 1 additional point.

Replant: When Replant is played on a row and revealed it's effect is immediate. That player takes up to 2 compost cards from their discard and places those cards in any order to the right of Replant. These cards must follow restrictions.

Z-Coin: When Z-Coin is played in a row, all card restrictions to the left of Z-Coin are ignored.

Scoring Symbols & Effects

A. An amount of Zenith points. B. An amount of cards in a row. C. Card types in a row. D. References all cards to the left or right of the played card (not itself). E. References a specific cargo card by an image. F. Or - awards less Zenith points if requirements are not met. G. If - requires a specific card in the row to be present. H. Per Unique - requires unique card types in the row. I. Multiplies point values by the amount of this required type of card. J. Requires the next card to be a specific type. K. If the shipped row has an even amount of cards, points are awarded.

Credits

Game Design Zac Dixon, Austin Harrison, Max Anderson

Creative Director Zac Dixon

Illustration & Graphic Design Kelly Nakamura

Graphic Design Zac Dixon, Dane Baudoin

Production Samuel Cowden, Kirk Dennison, Dane Baudoin

Community Management Lilly Quach

IV Studio Zac Dixon, Samuel Cowden, Austin Harrison, Max Anderson, Kirk Dennison, Lilly Quach, Dane Baudoin, Pauline Comar

Lead Playtester Zach Storme McCollough

Playtesters Adrian Parente, Ben "Contra" Cyphers, Ben Cuff, Ben Guan-Kennedy, Benton Keene, Brian K., Brian Schival, Brigid Wahl, Chad Keene, Charlie Boritzki, Cozco, Dan Roberts, Eric Martin, Geet Kumar, Geoff Thomas, Ian Blankenbeker, Ilia Silantev, Isaac Kandel, James C., JeckFrost, Jeremy Rozenhart, Jon Doctor, Kent Jenkins, Mason Hughes, Matthew LeHew, Moonbrin, Robert Hovakimyan, Scuzzy19, Shawn Marshall, Stephen "SBS" Sobansky, Van Tuan Tran, Victor Kalil, and Yong Shan

Contact

graft.iv.studio

If you need to get in touch with the team at IV Studio regarding Graft, you can contact us by scanning the QR code on the back cover, or email [email protected].