Maple Valley Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Board Setup
• Player Setup
• Gameplay
  • A few general rules
  • On your turn
  • Step 1: Play a card
  • Step 2: Travel
  • Step 3: Activate your location
  • Step 4: Craft favours
• Patches
• Friend Abilities
• Dawdle Turns
• What are these?
• End of the Round
• Final Scoring
• The Winner!
• Solo Play
• Maple Valley at a Glance
  • The Locations
• Credits and Thanks

Components

1 Game Board — showing the Sun Track, and the locations of Maple Valley: The Bluffs, The Lodge, Outpost Spots, Groves, The Clubhouse, Grove Token Spots, The Lookout, Curiosity Site Spots, The Village, and the Water Trail, Forest Trail, and Rocks Trail connecting them.

72 Favour Cards — Spending resources to complete Favours to bring to the party is where most of your score will come from. Each Favour belongs to a category: Decoration, Entertainment, Food, or Gift. Each card shows a Name, Cost, a Category, a Score, and sometimes Bonus scoring.

7 Festivity Cards — Put your Favours to good use supplying the night's Festivities! Each card shows a Scoring Event, a Player Count indicator, and Favour Spots.

6 Outpost Cards — Interesting locations that vary from game to game. Each shows a Name, a Market, and an Outpost Effect.

7 Sun Tiles — These show which Good is the current Sun Good, meaning it is plentiful at the moment.

5 "Pack" Player Mats — Organize all your stuff on and near your Pack. Up to three Favours you are preparing (still working on) are kept to the left. All Favours you are bringing (you have completed them) are kept to the right. Patches are kept below your mat. There is a score track on the back. The Pack also has spaces for Maps & Player Cubes, Curiosities, Tired Friends, and Patches.

40 Patch Cards — Collectible badges that indicate your unique wilderness skills! Each shows a Name, Skill, Goods, and Score.

36 Friend Cards — Make Friends by offering them Curiosities, so that they can help you with their different travel types and special abilities! There are three different Travel types: Water, Rock, and Forest. Each card shows a Name, Special Ability, Score, and Curiosity Cost.

5 Starter Friend Cards — This is "you". Your Starter counts as a Friend card for all purposes unless a game effect says otherwise. Your Starter can travel along all three Trail types... but only one type per turn!

5 Critter Pawns — Rabbit, Porcupine, Raccoon, Fox, and Squirrel.

50 Player Cubes — Ten for each player.

1 Worm — The first-player marker.

12 Dawdle Cards — Dawdling leads to finding stuff in the woods.

20 Map Tiles — Use them to travel paths your Friends are unprepared for.

13 Grove Tokens — These show Goods on their fronts, and determine what can be foraged in each Grove. There are four backs: General (6×), Oak (2×), Maple (2×), Beech (3×).

6 Curiosity Sites — These show Curiosities on their fronts, and determine which trails Curiosities are found on. There are two backs: Black (3×), White (3×).

126 Goods Markers — These seven resources are called Goods. Curiosities (see below) are not Goods. Whenever you see the "any Good" symbol, it means "any Good". There are 18 each of Acorns, Berries, Birch, Cattails, Clay, Herbs, and Honey.

54 Curiosity Markers — These three resources are called Curiosities. Curiosities are not Goods (see above). Whenever you see the "any Curiosity" symbol, it means "any Curiosity". There are 18 each of Bugs, Flowers, and Pebbles.

12 Multiplier Planks — If you run out of resources in the supply, use these to make change until more resources are freed up. A plank with one resource on it counts as three or five of that resource, depending on which side of the plank you use. For example, one side counts as three Honey, and the other side counts as five Bugs.

Board Setup

1. Place the game board in the table center.
2. Shuffle the Outpost cards. Place one random Outpost face up in both Outpost spots, then return the rest to the box.
3. Shuffle the Festivity cards. Place three random Festivities above the board, and return the rest to the box. Use player cubes of unused colours to cover the rows of Favour spots that are numbered higher than your player count, which you won't be using in your game.
4. Shuffle the Favour, Patch, and Friend cards separately. For each type, make a deck and a display of four face up cards as shown. Leave space for a face-up discard pile beside each deck.
   • If any display ends up with a duplicate card, discard the duplicate and draw a replacement until all four cards in each display are unique.
5. Shuffle the Dawdle cards; make a deck near the Friend deck.
6. Place the six black and white Curiosity sites randomly face down on their matching trail spaces on the board, then flip them face up.
7. Shuffle the Grove tokens face down. Place the Beech, Maple, and Oak tokens randomly on the matching Grove spots, then flip them face up. Then place the general tokens randomly on the remaining spots; there will be one general token left over. One by one, flip the general tokens face up. If you ever end up with two of the same Good at a Grove, swap the duplicating general token with the leftover general token. When you are done, each location will have two different Goods, and there will be one leftover token; return it to the box.
8. Shuffle the Sun tiles face down and make a stack beside the board. Draw a Sun from the stack and place it face up in the first (leftmost) spot of the Sun track. The Good that is showing on the tile is this round's Sun Good.
9. Make supply piles of all seven Goods, all three Curiosities, and the Maps.

Remember to only use the correct rows for your player count. Each row has a number beside it. Use player markers of unused colours to cover all the spots in rows with a higher number than your player count. For example in a four-player game, you would cover only row 5. This will remind you that those spots aren't in play.

Player Setup

1. Pick an Early Bird (first player) and give them the Worm. Then each player does the remaining steps:
2. Pick a player colour. Take the Pack, critter pawn, player cubes, and Starting Friend of your colour. Place the cubes in your Pack, and your pawn in the Village.
3. Collect one Map and one of each Curiosity (Bug, Pebble, and Flower) from the supply. Store everything in your Pack where it belongs.
4. Draw a Friend from the deck and add it to your hand along with your Starting Friend.
5. Draw three Favours from the deck. Choose two to keep and discard the third into a Favour discard pile near the deck. Place the two you kept face-up to the left of your Pack. These are the Favours that you are currently preparing.

When everyone is ready, it's time to begin the game!

Gameplay

The game is divided into five rounds called hours. Beginning with the Early Bird, play goes clockwise around the table; each player must play a Friend (or Dawdle) card from their hand to start their own turn. If you have no card to play at the start of your turn, you must pass. Turns continue until all players have passed, then the round ends.

A few general rules

• Whenever you collect or gain something, it comes from the supply and is stored in your Pack. Whenever you spend or pay something, it is spent from your Pack back into its supply.
• An unplayed Friend in your hand is Fresh. An already-played Friend (Friends are played into your Pack) is Tired. Don't worry... at the start of each hour, all of your Tired Friends will return to your hand and become Fresh again!
• Any card display is filled immediately when a card is taken from it for any reason. To fill any card display, slide all remaining cards in the display into the spots farthest from the deck, and then add new cards from the deck into the empty spots closest to the deck. If any display ever ends up with a duplicated card, discard the duplicate and draw a replacement until all four cards in each display are unique. Discarded cards of each type go into separate discard piles; reshuffle the discard pile to make a new deck if any deck runs out.

On your turn

Step 1: Play a Card — Usually a Friend (sometimes a Dawdle, which makes you skip Steps 2 and 3).

Step 2: Travel — Move along trails using your Friend's Travel type and Maps.

Step 3: Activate Your Location — Do the thing your location does!

Step 4: Craft Favours — Spend resources to make Favours, and assign them to Festivities.

Step 1: Play a card

Play a Friend from your hand face up into the Tired Friend space of your Pack. The card you play will determine what type of trails you may travel along this turn, and can bring special Friend Abilities into play.

You may instead play a Dawdle card, if you have one. A Dawdle Turn skips Steps 2 and 3 of a regular turn. This is explained in detail in the Dawdle Turns section.

For example, you could play a Chipmunk card onto your Pack.

Step 2: Travel

Your Friend card displays a travel type on it: Water, Rock, or Forest. Your Starting Friend shows all three travel types, and you must select one of the three when you play it.

You must leave your starting location, and you must use your Friend's travel type. Move your pawn from location to location, traveling as many trails of the correct type as you want.

Maps — Before and/or after you use your Friend's travel type, you may spend Maps for extra movement. For each Map spent, move your pawn along one trail of any type. To be clear, your Friend's travel type may never be interrupted by Map travel:

1. First you may spend any number of Maps.
2. Then you must travel using your Friend's travel type.
3. Finally you may spend any number of Maps.

For example, you are at the Village. Since you played your Chipmunk card, you may travel along Forest trails this turn. You could travel up to the Lookout and stop there, or continue past it to reach the nearby Grove. You decide to head for the Grove, and move your pawn along those Forest trails. Since you pass over a Flower Curiosity site along the way, you collect one Flower! If you had a Map, you could then spend it to travel along any of the trails leading away from that Grove (except the one you entered by)... for example, you could travel along the Water trail leading up to the next Grove, and pick up a Bug Curiosity along the way! Note that you could also have spent your Map before using your Chipmunk's Forest-traveling capabilities.

Curiosities on trails — Whenever you travel along a trail with a Curiosity site, collect the matching Curiosity (from the supply).

Backtracking & sharing locations — You may not travel along the same trail more than once in a single turn. You may return to the same location you started in (if you can get there without using the same trail more than once). Pawns may share locations with no restrictions.

Step 3: Activate your location

When you are done all movement for your turn, you may activate the location your pawn occupies. You will (usually) only activate one location on your turn. The locations all have useful functions:

Groves — There are three types of Groves: Maple (red), Oak (orange), and Beech (yellow). Grove type is relevant during Setup, but doesn't usually matter during play.

When you are at a Grove, you may forage for Goods. Each Grove's two tokens determine the two types of Goods that can be found there in this game. When you forage, you may collect one of each type, or two of one type.

When foraging, if you collect at least one Good matching the Sun Good, collect an additional Good of that type.

For example, at a Grove you could forage for two Clay, or two Berries, or one of each. If you foraged at least one Clay while Clay was the Sun Good, you'd gain an extra Clay.

The Village — You may make one Friend by spending Curiosities. Each Friend in the display shows which Curiosities you must spend to make that Friend.

Spend those Curiosities, then place the new Friend in the Tired slot of your Pack (not in your hand). Place the new Friend beneath any cards already there, so that your played card remains visible on top. Fill the display immediately.

For example, you could make a Muskrat Friend from the display by spending two Pebbles.

The Lookout — Collect two Maps, and one Favour of your choice from the display. Fill the display immediately.

The Clubhouse — Do all of the following, in any order:

• Collect one Favour from the deck.
• Add one of your player cubes to any Favour spot on any Festivity (see Festivities below for details).
• Collect one Patch of your choice from the display (see Patches below for details). Fill the display immediately.

The Lodge — Collect one Favour from the deck, and one Favour of your choice from the display. Fill the display immediately.

Outposts — There are two Outposts in each game. Outposts vary from game to game, but they work similarly to each other. Activate an Outpost by following these two steps in order:

1. You may use the Outpost's market. Each outpost shows a number of trades that it is willing to make with you. You may make as many of the available trades as you wish, in any order; specific trades are unlimited unless the trade indicates that it has a maximum limit per turn.
   • To trade, spend the indicated item(s) and gain the indicated ones. Discard any spent cards into their respective discard piles.
2. You may use the Outpost's effect. Follow the Outpost's instructions to benefit from its unique effect.

For example, at the Book Wagon, you could first make the following trades in any order: discard a Favour to gain any two Curiosities, unlimited times; spend a Clay or a Herb to gain a Sun Good or Past Sun Good, up to twice; spend any Good to gain a Map, up to twice. Then you could spend up to three Curiosities to draw that many Patches from the deck, look at them, and keep one.

The Bluffs — Collect three Sun Goods, then immediately zoom to the Village. You may then activate the Village as if you had travelled there normally.

• Collecting these Sun Goods does not count as foraging.
• Zooming is moving your pawn directly from one location to another. Zooming does not count as traveling along trails.

For example, if the Sun Good was currently Honey, you would collect three Honey and then zoom to the Village.

Step 4: Craft favours

If you have the correct resources to craft any of your unfinished Favours, you may spend those resources to craft them now. To craft a Favour:

1. Spend the displayed resources.
2. Move the crafted Favour from the Preparing side of your Pack to the Bringing side.
3. Each Favour displays its category on the top left. If any Festivity has an empty Favour spot of that category, choose one such spot and supply the Festivity by placing one of your own cubes there.

For example, if you have the Acorn, Birch, and Bug needed to complete a Tambourine, you spend those resources, and move the card from the Preparing side to the Bringing side of your pack. The Tambourine shows that it is from the Entertainment category. You place a cube on an empty Entertainment spot on the Square Dance Festivity... this puts you in the lead for most there!

Festivities — When you supply a Festivity, your cube must go into an empty Favour spot of the correct category. If there are no eligible spots left, you may not place a cube.

Each Festivity is scored separately at the end of the game, awarding points to the players with the most cubes on it. Consider this when placing!

If you fill the final empty slot on a particular Festivity, its event is immediately triggered! Events usually involve some sort of benefit for all players, with the Finisher (the player who placed the final cube) getting an extra benefit. To carry out an event, follow the instructions on the Festivity.

For example, if that had been the final cube on a Festivity, the Square Dance's event would have been triggered... but there are still two empty spots. Maybe later!

Favour bonus scoring — Some Favours indicate that they work well with particular other ones; try to bring Favours that combine to create fun activities for the party!

Some Favours indicate that they will score bonus points at the end of the game for particular resources "stored here". You may freely move resources between your Pack and these cards during the game however you like; resources are not committed to a card until final scoring.

For example, a Tambourine would score bonus points if you "form a band" by also bringing a Fiddle. A Bug Jar will score bonus points for every set of Bug and Herb you store on it.

Three-Favour maximum — If you have more than three Favours in your Preparing section when your turn ends, you must discard down to three. You may have more than three during your turn.

Patches

Each Patch describes its effect. Some Patches affect final scoring, some provide persistent benefits, and some may only be activated a specified number of times per hour.

• When you activate a Patch that has limited uses, mark it with one of your cubes as a temporary reminder. Cubes will come off your Patches at the end of each hour.
• Patches that allow you to travel work like Maps... you may only use them before or after you use your Friend's travel type to travel.
• Keep your Patches below your Pack. You may hold (at most) four Patches at once. If you gain a fifth, you must discard one of your existing Patches.
• You may not have two of the same Patch. If any game effect ever results in you gaining a Patch that is a duplicate of one you already have, discard the duplicate and draw a new one from the deck.

For example, Beekeeping says that you can spend a Flower and Bug twice per hour to gain one Honey. When you use this power, you would spend those Curiosities, gain the Honey, and mark the Patch with a cube so that you'll remember you already used it once. If you use it a second time you'd place a second cube, which is the maximum for this Patch per hour.

Friend Abilities

Each Friend describes what its ability does and when it may be used on the turn it is played.

• Many Friend abilities only activate if you take a specific action on your turn; try to play Friends when you can get the most benefit from their unique skills!
• If a Friend doesn't describe specific timing for its ability, it may be used at any point on your turn.

For example, you foraged on your turn, collecting a Clay and a Berry. Since you played the Chipmunk and foraged on this turn, its ability allows you to collect an extra Acorn!

Dawdle Turns

A Dawdle turn is when you play a Dawdle instead of a Friend to start your turn. Dawdle turns are very simple:

Collect the two resources shown on the card (this does not count as foraging). Then discard the resolved Dawdle card directly to the bottom of the Dawdle deck (there is no Dawdle discard pile).

You may then complete Favours, as in a normal turn. That's it; you may not travel or activate any location.

For example, if you played a Dawdle card, you would collect an Acorn and a Flower. You could then complete any Favours as usual, and your turn ends.

What are these?

You'll notice symbols on a lot of things. Here's a handy glossary so you'll always know what means what!

• Any Good, Any Curiosity, Any Resource, Two matching Goods, Two different Curiosities, Three points.
• The Current Sun Good, Any Past Sun Good, Any Current or Past Sun Good, A Favour, A Friend, A Patch, A Dawdle.
• A Favour from the display, A Friend from the display, A Patch from the display, Zoom from one location to another as instructed.
• A player cube, Add a cube to any Festivity spot, Add a cube to a Food spot on a Festivity.

End of the Round

If the fifth hour just ended (the Sun is on the rightmost space of the Sun track), dusk has arrived and the game is over; proceed to Final Scoring. If not, follow these steps in order to end the hour:

1. Advance the Sun — Draw a new Sun tile from the stack to place face up in the next spot of the Sun track. Flip over the previous hour's Sun tile, and place a Good from the supply on it matching the Sun Good on its front (some game effects reference Past Sun Goods, so it's nice to have a reminder).

2. Cycle the Card Displays — For the Favour, Friend, and Patch card displays, discard the card farthest from the deck, then fill the display.

3. Refresh Your Friends and Patches — Pick all of your Tired Friends from your Pack back into your hand, where they are now Fresh again and available for the next hour. If you have any player cubes on your Patches, clear them off.

4. See Who Is Dawdling — All players announce how many Friends (including their Starting Friend) they have in their hand. Then, everyone except the player (or players) with the most Friends must draw Dawdle cards from the deck until all players have the same number of cards in hand.

5. Pass the Worm — Pass the Worm to the next player clockwise, which makes them the new Early Bird. Then begin a new hour!

Dawdling example: You (Red) have four Friends in hand (including your starter). Purple has three, and Yellow has only two. Purple must draw one Dawdle card, and Yellow must draw two. Now all players have the same number of cards to begin the next hour!

Final Scoring

Discard any Favours that you are still preparing. Flip your Pack over to reveal a score track that you can use to record your score, using your pawn as a score marker (each time your score passes the end of the track, place a cube in the +50 space and wrap your pawn around to the beginning).

Scoring comes from Favours, Friends, Patches, Leftovers, and Festivities, as described below:

Favours — Each one shows a score value. Many of them also describe some sort of bonus scoring.

• If a Favour says you will earn bonus scoring if you "also have" something, having one of that thing will satisfy multiple Favours. For example if you have two Tambourines (which each earn bonus points for also having a Fiddle) and one Fiddle, having the single Fiddle will satisfy both Tambourines.
• Some Favours allow you to store resources on the card for bonus scoring. You can reorganize your resources on such Favours to make sure you have the best score now, but each resource may only be used to score one card. Resources stored on Favours are not considered "leftover resources" for scoring below.

For example, a Bug Jar earns you 5 plus 4 for the two sets of Bug and Herb you've stored there. Two Tambourines each earn you 4 plus 2 because you also have a Fiddle. The Fiddle earns you another 7 itself. Your Friends earn you 10 in total.

Friends — Each Friend (except your Starter) shows a score value.

Patches — Each one shows a scoring value. Some of them may also describe some sort of bonus scoring.

Leftovers — Honey, Maps, and batches of three resources (Goods and Curiosities) are worth one point each (batches may consist of any blend of resources). Ignore remainders.

For example, Patches earn you 3 as marked, and a Water Safety Patch earns you a bonus 6 for your three Water-traveling Friends. Leftovers earn you 5 total.

Festivities — Assess each Festivity separately. For each one:

• The player (or tied players) with the most cubes on the Festivity earns one point per cube of theirs, plus four.
• The player (or tied players) with the second-most cubes on the Festivity earns one point per cube of theirs, plus two.
• Any other player with cubes on the Festivity earns one point per cube of theirs.
• Cubes of unused player colours that are blocking off rows do not count; do not include them in any calculations.

For example, for the Square Dance, you (Red) and Yellow are tied for the most cubes there with three each, so you both earn 7 (and Blue would earn 4 for placing second with two cubes). For the other two Festivities you earn 4 for placing second on one of them with two cubes, and 1 for having a single cube on the other. Your final score is 64. Are you the one that brought the most joy to this year's Spring Festival?

The Winner!

Once all Final scoring is complete, the player with the highest score (the one who brought the most joy to the festival) is the winner!

In the event of a tie, all tied players win and it's an even better win than winning alone!

Solo Play

Maple Valley plays very smoothly as a one-player game, with barely any rules changes!

• Do not set up the Festivities; they are not part of the Solo game, so when you craft Favours, you don't get to supply any Festivities. Ignore any game effects that involve supplying Festivities.
• When checking to See Who is Dawdling at the end of the round, draw one Dawdle if you didn't add at least one Friend in the round.

Play the game as normal, then check your end results against these four questions. Each answer will give you a word. String the four words together to discover your title. For example, you might end up as a Delightfully Enthusiastic Rambler of the Running Rivers!

1. Which Favour type did you craft the most of? If it's a tie, choose the tied type you want.
   • Decorations: Imaginatively
   • Entertainment: Delightfully
   • Food: Heartily
   • Gifts: Generously
2. What was your final score?
   • 0-25: Sleepy
   • 26-50: Nonchalant
   • 51-75: Enthusiastic
   • 76-100: Exuberant
   • 101-125: Festive
   • 126+: Spectacular
3. How many Patches do you have?
   • 0-1: Rambler
   • 2: Scout
   • 3: Tripper
   • 4: Ranger
4. What Travel type do you have the most of? If two types are tied, choose the tied type you want. If three types are tied, you are a Three-Way Tie of Maple Valley.
   • Water: of the Running Rivers
   • Rock: of the Rolling Hills
   • Forest: of the Woodlands

Maple Valley at a Glance

The entire game explained on one simple page.

Setup — Lay out the game board; add two Outposts and three Festivities. Create four-card Favour, Patch, and Friend displays with decks nearby, and a Dawdle deck. Randomize the black and white Curiosity sites. Randomize the Grove tokens as marked (so that no Grove has two of the same Good). Shuffle the Sun tiles and flip one into the Sun track. Make supply piles of Goods, Curiosities, and Maps. Pick an Early Bird and give them the Worm. Each player takes the Pack, cubes, and Starter Friend in their colour, and puts their pawn in the Village. Each player collects one Map, one of each Curiosity, and a random Friend from the deck. Each player draws three Favours, keeps two beside their Pack, and discards one.

On Your Turn (Go clockwise from Early Bird until everyone passes.)

• Step 1: Play a Card — Either a Friend to your Pack, or a Dawdle (see Dawdle Turns) to the deck.
• Step 2: Travel — Move along trails using your Friend's travel type (and Maps, before and/or after).
• Step 3: Activate Your Location — Do the thing(s) your new location does (see The Locations, below).
• Step 4: Craft Favours — Spend your resources to craft Favours, which you then assign to Festivities.

Festivities — If you place the final cube on a Festivity, trigger its Event.

Patch Powers and Friend Abilities — Use them as described during your turn.

Dawdle Turns — Skip Steps 2 and 3. Collect the Dawdle's displayed resources.

Round End (Unless the game is over; proceed to Scoring if so.)

1. Advance the Sun track.
2. Cycle the Favour, Patch, and Friend displays.
3. All players gather their tired Friends, and clear cubes off their Patches.
4. Players with fewer Friends draw Dawdles to match the leader's hand size.
5. Pass the Worm clockwise, then start a new round.

Scoring (Score points for...)

1. Your Favours as marked, plus their bonus scoring.
2. Your Friends as marked.
3. Your Patches as marked, plus their bonus scoring.
4. Your Leftovers; 1 per Map, Honey, and batch of three Resources.
5. Most cubes on each Festivity: Most scores 4, plus 1 per cube. Second-most scores 2, plus 1 per cube. Others score 1 per cube.

The Locations

Groves — Forage for Goods; either a pair, or one of each type. +1 Sun Good if you foraged any.

The Village — Spend Curiosities to choose a new Friend.

The Lookout — Gain two Maps and choose one Favour.

The Clubhouse — Draw one Favour, add a cube to any empty Festivity spot, and choose one Patch.

The Lodge — Gain two Favours; draw one and choose one.

Outposts — Make trades, then use the Outpost's effect.

The Bluffs — Gain three Sun Goods, then zoom to the Village and activate it.

Credits and Thanks

Game Design: Roberta Taylor. Illustration: Shawna JC Tenney. Graphics & Rulebook: Joshua Cappel. Development: KTBG. Communications Director: Sean Jacquemain. Project Management: Helaina Cappel.

Patch Name/Image Ideas: Cloud Watching by Laura Chew/Alyssa Andreas, Rock Skipping by Jen Lazenby/Gabriel Lamer, Campfire Cookin' by Jamie Daggers/Suzanne Brownbill, Whittling by Todd Corson/Anabiyeni, Fossil Findin' by Ethan Hyatt/Anabiyeni.

Published with love by KTBG. www.kidstablebg.com. ©2023 All rights reserved.