Living Forest: Kodama Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• Game Turn
  • The Guardian Animals' Phase
  • The Action Phase
  • The Element Tiles
• The Actions
  • Call a Kodama (Action icon: chevron and lotus)
  • Move Forward on the Circle of Spirits (Action icon: chevron and spiral)
  • Plant a Protective Tree (Action icon: chevron and sprout)
• End of the Game
• Precisions on Basic Actions and Bonus Actions
• Solo Mode
  • Goal of the Game
  • Setup
  • Game Turn

Contents

32 cards:

• 22 Kodama cards: 6 Flower Kodama cards, 6 Tree Kodama cards and 6 Water Kodama cards. Each Kodama card shows the Kodama symbol (K), which can be used during the Action phase; the Elements the Kodama provides, used to perform Actions; and, in the bottom right, its cost in Flowers (N). The background of the card varies depending on its type.
• 4 starting Kodama cards, one for each of the four Spirits of Nature.
• 5 Level 2 Guardian Animal cards.
• 5 Level 3 Guardian Animal cards.

The 5 new Level 2 Guardian Animal cards all work the same way: with them, you can perform twice the same basic Action shown on the card, when you normally have to perform two different actions.

The 5 new Level 3 Guardian Animal cards all work the same way: they allow you to perform a Bonus Action of the type shown on the card, in addition to your basic Actions.

Other components:

• 4 Forest Help mini individual boards.
• 1 Kodama board, with a front side (normal mode) and a back side (solo mode).
• 2 Call a Kodama Rock tiles.
• 1 Onibi standee.
• 16 Element tiles (front/back).
• 12 Kodama-specific Protective Tree tiles.
• 1 Protective Tree dispenser to be put together.
• 1 Onibi tile (solo mode).
• 1 Onibi's Wrath token (solo mode).

The new Kodama-specific Protective Tree tiles. There are 12 new Protective Trees, of 6 different types, available on a new dispenser. Those Trees are specific to the Kodama and are different from all Trees in the base game.

Symbols used in this rulebook. The Element symbols are: L (sun), W (water drop), P (sprout), S (spiral) and N (lotus, the Sacred Flower). The Kodama symbol is written K. The solitary symbol is a grey circle showing a figure.

Goal of the Game

Just like in the base game, you play a Spirit of Nature trying to save the forest. The three ways to do so also do not change: planting Protective Trees that are all different or collecting Sacred Flowers or extinguishing the Fires. However, to win the game, you will now need a minimum of 13 Fires, or 13 Trees or 13 Flowers – and not only 12 like in the base game. Depending on certain conditions detailed below, you might need 15 Fires, Trees or Flowers to win the game.

Setup

1. Start by setting up the base game as you would usually do with one exception: shuffle the new Level 2 and Level 3 Guardian Animal cards into their respective stacks before you reveal the first 4 cards of these stacks.

2. Take the Forest Help mini individual board and the starting Kodama card associated to the Spirit of Nature you're playing. Shuffle that card with the rest of your starting Guardian Animal cards. Put the mini-board on the left of your Forest board.

3. Put the Kodama board, front side up, next to the Circle of Spirits.

   Sort out the Kodama cards depending on their type: Flower, Tree or Water. For each type, take 6 cards and:

   • in a 4-player game, remove 1 at random;
   • in a 3-player game, remove 2 at random;
   • in a 2-player game, remove 3 at random.

   Put the cards you removed back in the box without looking at them; they won't be used during this game. Shuffle each stack and place them, face up, on the matching spot of the Kodama board. The cards' backgrounds match the illustration on the board.

   Put the Element tiles next to the Kodama board.

4. Place the Kodama-specific Protective Tree tiles in the new dispenser, by increasing order of value, from left to right, and put the dispenser next to the other two.

5. Put the 2 Call a Kodama Rock tiles on the 2 Rocks of the Circle of Spirits showing the Action (hand and cross icon), located between the Rocks (sun) and (water drop).

   Put Onibi's standee on the Rock following the Spirit who will be the last to play during the first turn.

   In this setup, Autumn is the last Spirit of Nature to play during the first turn. Onibi's standee should be placed in front of Autumn clockwise.

Game Turn

The phases in a game turn are the same as in the base game, with just a few modifications.

The Guardian Animals' Phase

You now have a starting Kodama card in your personal deck and will be able to gather more during the game. During the drawing phase, when drawing a Kodama card, you add it to your Help Line just like you add any other Guardian Animal.

The Kodama symbol has no effect during this phase.

The Action Phase

At the beginning of your Action phase, add up the number of Kodama symbols (K) you have on your Help Line and your Forest. If you have at least 2 Kodama symbols, you get different advantages depending on the number of visible Kodama symbols (K):

• With 2 visible Kodama symbols (KK), you can take 1 Fragment tile. Put it next to your Forest.
• With 3 visible Kodama symbols (KKK), you can take 1 Element tile. Put it next to your Forest.
• With 4 visible Kodama symbols (KKKK), you can perform an additional basic Action (see explanations on page 9) during this turn.

You can take as many benefits as you want for a total cost that is equal or lower to the number of visible Kodama symbols (K).

Example: Jon has 6 Kodama in his Help Line. He decides to perform a third basic Action (4K) and to take a Fragment tile (2K). He could have chosen to take 2 Element tiles (2x 3K) or to take 3 Fragment tiles (3x 2K) or to only use 5 K by taking 1 Fragment tile (2K) and 1 Element tile (3K).

The Element Tiles

These tiles can only be used once and grant you a bonus of your choice: +2 L (sun) or +2 W (water drop) or +2 P (sprout) or +1 S (spiral) or +1 N (lotus).

A same tile only increases the value of a single Element. Several tiles can be assigned to one Element or to different Elements.

If you use several tiles during a same turn, you can therefore increase the value of one or more Elements.

During the Action phase, at your turn, when using an Element tile, put it at the end of your Help Line after the chosen Element, on its corresponding side. It will stay there until the end of the game turn. The bonus chosen is valid during your whole Action phase and your whole End of Game Turn phase. It can make you win the game if you chose the Element N.

At the end of the game turn, when you move your Guardian Animal cards from your Help line to your discard stack, put any Element tiles used during this turn back in their reserve.

You can immediately use the Element tiles you obtain during a turn, or keep them for a later turn.

The Actions

Call a Kodama (Action icon: chevron and lotus)

This new Action comes with the Kodama extension.

Add up the number of visible N on the cards of your Help Line, your Forest, your Victory tiles and on the Element tiles you may choose to use during this turn. Please note that the cost of Kodama cards is not to be taken into account in this calculation.

Take from the top of one of the 3 stacks of the Kodama board, only one Kodama card whose cost – shown on the bottom right part of the card – is equal or lower to your number of visible N.

Put this card on top of your personal deck, face down.

When taking the last Kodama card from a stack, that spot stays empty until the end of the game and the corresponding victory condition permanently goes from 13 to 15.

Then move Onibi's standee clockwise on the Circle of Spirits:

• by 1 Rock in a 4-player game;
• by 2 Rocks in a 3-player game;
• by 3 Rocks in a 2-player game.

Onibi skips Rocks with other Spirits' standees; the same goes in the other way.

For each Spirit standee jumped over by Onibi's standee, add 1 Fire tile of value 2 in the middle of the Circle of Spirits.

Just like in the base game, you can never have more than 7 Fire tiles on the Circle of Spirits.

Move Forward on the Circle of Spirits (Action icon: chevron and spiral)

When moving on the Circle of Spirits, if you encounter Onibi, jump over Onibi just as you do with the other Spirits.

Plant a Protective Tree (Action icon: chevron and sprout)

Six new types of Trees are available, the Kodama-specific Trees. You can only plant one tree of each type, so at most six different new Trees.

Five Trees instantly grant you as many additional Elements (L, W, P, S or N) as the number of Kodama symbols (K) visible in your Help Line and your Forest. Double-check the K during each turn as their number can vary depending on the cards you draw.

The Tree of value 8 permanently grants you 1 K. It instantly can be taken into account if you have Kodama-specific Trees in your Forest, but it cannot be taken into account this turn towards the benefits granted by the Kodama symbols (see page 6) at the beginning of your Action Phase as this moment has already passed.

Example: Alice has 4 K: 3 K in her Help Line and 1 K in her Forest. She uses one of her 2 Actions to call Guardian Animal. She has 11 L: 7 L from her cards and 4 L from the new Kodama-specific Tree granting L.

End of the Game

The game ends after a complete Action phase when one of the Spirits of Nature has managed to collect:

• 13 different Protective Trees (or 15 if the stack of Tree Kodama cards is empty);
• 13 Fires (or 15 if the stack of Water Kodama cards is empty);
• 13 Flowers (or 15 if the stack of Flower Kodama cards is empty).

Precisions on Basic Actions and Bonus Actions

The game has 2 kinds of Actions: basic Actions and Bonus Actions. Basic Actions must be different, no matter the Bonus Actions you have.

You typically have 2 basic Actions during your turn. But:

• With 3 solitary symbols in your Help Line, you lose 1 basic Action.
• With 4 K in your Help Line and your Forest, you can gain 1 basic Action.

Let's assume your Help Line makes it possible to perform at least 2 basic Actions:

• The Tree with a cost of 11 P from the base game makes it possible to perform 2 identical basic Actions.
• The new Level 2 Guardian Animals make it possible to perform 2 identical basic Actions, provided that they are of the type shown on the card.

The effects of the Tree and the Level 2 cards do stack up.

For example, if you have both that Tree and a new Level 2 Guardian Animal, and that you can perform 3 basic Actions, then those 3 Actions can be identical as long as they are from the type shown on the Level 2 card.

In other words, the Tree costing 11 P and the new Level 2 cards do not grant you an additional Action, but free you from having to perform different basic Actions.

Independently from your basic Actions, you can obtain Bonus Actions that can be identical or different from the basic Actions, through:

• the Circle of Spirits;
• the corners of your Forest board;
• the new Level 3 Guardian Animals.

Solo Mode

Goal of the Game

You win the game if you can collect 13 Flowers (N) on your Help Line and your Forest.

You lose the game if:

• you must take a Fire Varan card from the Fire Varan board and the deck is empty,
• OR you must put an eighth Fire tile on the Circle of Spirits,
• OR you must remove a Victory tile from the Kodama board and there are none left.

Setup

Choose a Spirit of Nature and take all the components related to it, except for their Victory tiles that should be left in the box.

The game is set up like in the Kodama expansion, except for the following:

• Put only one Protective Tree tile of each type in the 3 dispensers. Put all the remaining Tree tiles back in the box.
• Only put 7 Fire Varan cards on the Fire Varan board and put the remaining cards back in the box.
• On the Circle of Spirits board:
  • Take the 3 standees of the unplayed Spirits of Nature and put them on the starting Rocks for a 3-player game.
  • Put Onibi's standee on the Rock (chevron and lotus) with the white pawn in 3rd out of 4 position.
  • Put the Spirit of Nature's standee you're playing on the Rock (chevron and lotus) with the white pawn in 4th position.

Put the Kodama board on the Solo Mode side.

Shuffle all the Kodama cards – apart from starting Kodama cards – and put them face up on the Kodama board, on their respective spot.

On the first column of the Kodama board, put the 3 Victory tiles of the unplayed Spirit of Nature closest to Onibi, clockwise, on the Circle of Spirits board.

Put in the second column the 3 Victory tiles of the following Spirit, and then in the third column, put the 3 Victory tiles of the unplayed Spirit farthest from Onibi.

Put Onibi's tile on the side with 2 (spiral symbol) next to the Kodama board.

Put the Onibi's Wrath token on one of the 9 Victory tiles of the Kodama board depending on the difficulty level you have chosen. There are 9 levels, 1 being the easiest.

The 9 Victory tile positions on the Kodama board are arranged in three rows: 9, 8, 7 across the top; 6, 5, 4 in the middle; 3, 2, 1 along the bottom.

In this setup, you're playing Winter and the difficulty level chosen is 3.

Do not put a level 2 Fire tile in the middle of the Circle of Spirits.

The game can start.

Game Turn

In the Solo Mode, all the rules are the same as when playing with other players, except for:

• Do not move Onibi when performing the Action (chevron and lotus).
• During the game, when jumping over Onibi on the Circle of Spirits, remove the Fire tile of your choice from the center of the Circle of Spirits, if any.

In the Solo Mode, all the Fire tiles removed from the Circle of Spirits are put back in the reserve.

At the end of a game turn, step 2 Onibi is attacking the Sacred Tree! is modified as follows:

Do not add Fire tiles to the Circle of Spirits, even if you took Guardian Animals during this turn.

1. Move Onibi's standee by 2 Rocks clockwise on the Circle of Spirits.
2. Every time Onibi jumps over a Spirit that you are not playing, remove that Spirit's next Victory tile from the Kodama board. Remove those tiles from top to bottom. If Onibi jumps over your Spirit, add 1 Fire tile of value 2 to the middle of the Circle of Spirits.
3. If the Victory tile with Onibi's Wrath token is removed, also remove that token and turn Onibi tile on its 3 side. Starting next game turn and until the game ends, Onibi will now move forward by 3 Rocks instead of 2.
4. For each line of the Kodama board, add on the Circle of Spirits 1 Fire of the highest value shown on that line. If no Victory tile has been removed from a line, no Fire tile will be added for that line.

Example: The game turn is over and Onibi is attacking the Sacred Tree. Move his standee by 2 Rocks; he jumps over Spring. Remove from the Kodama board Spring's last Victory tile on which there was Onibi's Wrath token. Since you have removed this token, turn Onibi's tile on its side showing he will now move by 3 Rocks. Add 2 Fire tiles of value 4 and 1 Fire tile of value 2.