Kalua
Kalua Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
Make your religion the one and only by converting families from other religions to your own. Victory is achieved once this condition is met.
Game Components
- 1 board featuring Kalua and a Happiness Track
- 50 action cards (21 Bonus, 19 Local Disaster, 10 Global Disaster)
- 5 player help cards
- black meeples, each representing 5 families
- grey meeples, each representing 1 family
- 5 coloured cubes to keep track of the Happiness (1 of each colour)
- 5 coloured meeples, each representing one of the Leaders (1 of each colour)
- red cubes, each representing 5 Praying Points, and white cubes, each representing 1 Praying Point
- 1 six-sided die
- 1 full-colour rule book
Game Dynamic
On Kalua there are two important factors: Happiness (the flower icon) and Praying Points (the black-and-white circle icon). In order for a God to reward or punish their people or the other Gods' families, they will have to spend Praying Points.
When your families are happy because nothing bad is happening to them, they no longer pray as often as they used to. So, the unhappiest religion will be the one getting the most Praying Points from their families.
Meanwhile, big events take place on the island and some families from each God start pondering if there is any God at all.
Happiness
A religion's happiness will increase and decrease during the game. If any player reaches the 0 mark in the track, they will stay on 0 and will not go any lower. If any player reaches the 10 mark in the track, they will remain on 10 and will not go any higher.
Initial Setup
Shuffle the Local and Global Disaster cards and create a disaster deck. Once finished, repeat the process with the Bonus cards to create a bonus deck.
Each player draws a total of 5 action cards. You can choose from both the disaster deck and the bonus deck when drawing cards.
Each player also receives 10 families, 1 leader of their colour, 5 Praying Points and places their Happiness marker at the 5 mark on the Happiness track on the board.
On the Kalua board, place 3 families per player, e.g. if it is a 5-player game, place 15 families. These will form the pool of atheists that can be converted to any religion.
Choose a starting player randomly and play!
Sequence of Play
Each turn is made up of five phases, played in this order.
1) Draw Cards
If the active player has less than 5 cards, he must draw cards until they have 5 in his hand. He can choose from both the disaster deck and the bonus deck when drawing cards.
If the player already has 5 or more cards in his hand, he must only draw 1 card from a deck of their choice.
2) Activate Leader
Commencing with the active player and going clockwise, each player with a a Leader may activate it.
The available actions are:
- a) Give a speech: Increase the Happiness by 1.
- b) Convert atheists: Take 2 families from the Kalua board.
- c) Convert believers: Take 1 family from another God.
- d) Give a massive speech and sacrifice himself: Remove your Leader from play and add up to 5 Families to your religion from the Kalua board.
3) Play Action Cards
The active player can play as many action cards as he wants, one by one. When the active player plays a card, he puts it in front of him, pays the Praying Points needed by the cost symbol and puts them on top of the card. Then, each of the other players in clockwise order may be able to play 1 card of his own. Then, starting from the active player, resolve all these cards in the order they were played. After a card is resolved, discard it.
There are 3 types of cards:
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Bonus: You only play these cards on yourself and they give you benefits.
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Local Disaster: They punish one specific player. The player is chosen when the card is resolved. Choosing yourself is also allowed.
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Global Disaster: They punish everyone on the island, so it affects all the players. Its cost is 0, but can be played paying 6 or 12 Praying Points. By paying 6 Praying Points you will be protected from all effects. If you pay 12 Praying Points you double the effects of the card but you do not get the protection.
The effects of the cards can be:
| Effect | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Praying Points (black-and-white circle icon) | Praying Points that the affected religions will get due to an increase in praying. |
| Happiness modifier (flower icon) | Happiness modifier to the affected religions. |
| Death of a family (family icon) | Death of a family, remove it from the game. |
| Keep card (blank card icon) | Keep this card on the table until used or destroyed. |
| One of your families converts to atheism (family icon) | One of your families converts to atheism. Put it on the Kalua board. |
| One atheist converts to your religion (family icon) | One atheist converts to your religion. |
| Discard (X icon) | Discard a card. |
| Recover your leader (meeple icon) | Recover your leader. |
Once the active player no longer wishes to play any more action cards, he should shout "Convert!" and phase 3 is ended. He may shout "Convert!" before playing any card.
4) Convert Families
Families will change religion according to these rules:
- a) If all the religions have the same happiness, nothing happens.
- b) The unhappiest religions will place 2 of their families into the convert pool.
- c) Religions that are not the unhappiest nor the happiest one will place 1 of their families into the convert pool.
The convert pool is then divided as evenly as possible between the happiest religions (up to a maximum of 3 families each).
If it is not possible to divide the convert pool evenly among all happiest religions, the remainder (or all of the families if too few) will go to the Kalua board as atheists.
5) Praying
At end of the turn the players will gain Praying Points.
All players will receive 1 Praying Point for every 5 families (rounded up). Players receive no Praying Points for having 0 families. In addition, the unhappiest religion will receive 4 extra Praying Points and the religions that are neither the happiest nor the unhappiest will all receive 2 extra Praying Points.
At this point in the turn sequence, end game conditions are checked. If they are not met, the next player in clockwise order will become the active player and a new round will start.
Players are allowed to draw additional cards from any deck at any time by paying 5 Praying Points for each card.
Special Cards
"Temple": this card will remain face up in front of that player until it is destroyed by a "Temple destroyed!" card. The benefits of the temple will occur during phase 5 (Collect Praying Points).
"Amulets": this card will remain face up in front of that player until it is used. Discard it to avoid losing any families by the effect of any one card.
"New Leader": one of your families becomes your Leader. Recover your Leader meeple and remove one of your families.
Player Elimination
A religion is not completely eliminated from the game until all its families have left and their Leader has self-sacrificed. For example, if a Leader has lost all of his families, he can still increase the happiness by 1 every turn by giving a moving speech. This means that if by chance that religion happens to be the happiest one, it will lure some new families and resurrect the religion once again. Do not forget that the Leader, during phase 2, can also convert 2 atheist families back to his religion or 1 believer from a different religion into his own.
End Game Conditions
If at the end of any round (just after phase 5), there is only one religion with families left (with or without Leader), this religion will be declared the winner, even if there are other religions with only their Leader.
If at any time, a new Global Disaster is played and every religion is out of families, the religion with more families before the card was played is declared the winner. If religions are tied, both players win.