Memorinth
Memorinth Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
But, which is the shortest way back? You're in luck... The fairy tale characters decide to show you. But your friends are constantly changing the path in their attempt to get home the quickest. However, with a bit of luck and memory, you'll be the first to get out of the forest labyrinth!
Setup
All forest cards and the clearing card have a bright side (Sun) and a dark side (Moon) on the other. Note that the trees on all cards must always point in the same direction at all times throughout the game. If you notice that a card is incorrectly orientated, align it correctly and continue playing.
Place the clearing card in the middle of the table with the bright (Sun) side face-up. Shuffle the remaining forest cards and lay them out in a 5 x 5 square with the clearing card in the centre. When setting up, make sure that light and dark sides of the cards always alternate, i.e. no identical sides are next to each other.
Shuffle the fairy tale character cards face down and place 2 randomly drawn cards face up on either side of the forest. It does not matter where the cards are, as long as it is clear which side of the forest they are on.
If playing the advanced version 'Master Memorinth', you will need the lucky clover tokens and the action card. These tokens can be returned to the box until you have some experience with Memorinth and wish to try the 'Master Memorinth' variant. Until then, ignore any goblins that are shown on forest cards.
Each player now selects a player piece, places it on the clearing card and takes the matching colour overview card. The last person to have read a fairy tale becomes the starting player and receives the starting player card, which is placed with the bright (Sun) side face-up next to the game board. They immediately start the game and after taking their first turn, play continues in clockwise player order.
The game ends when one player manages to leave the forest.
How to Play
On your turn, you always carry out the following 3 steps. You may not skip performing your actions and must always move your character when possible in accordance with the rules.
- Select a forest card. This card can be any card in the forest and does not have to be adjacent to the card where you are currently located.
- Take the card, turn it over and place it back in the same place in the forest. Ensure that the trees are still aligned.
- Now check which fairy tale character can be seen on the revealed forest card and find the corresponding character on the edge of the playing area. Move your player piece 1 forest card in the direction of the fairy tale character - but only if there is a path leading to it! Otherwise you cannot move and you stay where you are. There may be several characters on a forest card. You always end your movement at the next possible intersection.
Example: The revealed forest card shows Little Red Riding Hood. The fairy tale character card with Little Red Riding Hood is on the right-hand side of the forest. In Example 1, the yellow figure can be moved one card to the right because there is a walkable path. In contrast, movement is not possible in Example 2 because the path to the right does not continue..
(Example 1 and Example 2 are diagrams in the printed rulebook.)
You may only turn over forest cards without a character on it - neither your own nor that of the other players.
The starting player card shows you which forest cards you can turn over during your turn. If the starting player card has the Sun face-up, you may only choose a forest card with the light side face up. If the starting player card shows the Moon, you may only turn forest cards with the darker side face up. You may never turn the same card twice in succession.
From the second round, after the starting player has completed their move, they flip the starting player card so that the reverse side is visible.
End of the Game
The first player to leave the forest on any side immediately wins the game.
Master Memorinth
Setup
The game is set up as normal, but only one randomly drawn fairy tale character is placed on each side of the forest. In addition to the forest setup, the action card is also placed so it is clearly visible to all players. Each side of the action card shows 4 symbols which are 4 possible actions available to you in the advanced game. The 4 remaining fairy tale cards are placed around the action card so that there is a different character on each side of the card.
Both goblins and lucky clovers have no meaning here. Put the lucky clover tiles back in the box and ignore any goblins on the forest cards.
If the fairy tale character shown on the flipped forest tile is next to the action card, you do NOT move your player piece. Instead, you must perform the action adjacent to the fairy tale character. You may not skip this action. (The printed rulebook reads "adjected"; corrected here to "adjacent".)
All actions are in relation to your view of the playing area.
The four forest-shift actions, each shown with a picture of the shifted row or column, read as follows:
- Remove a forest card from the bottom and slide it back into the same column from above. The remaining cards in this column therefore move down one place.
- Remove a forest card from the top and push it back into the same column from below. The remaining cards in this column move up one place.
- Remove a forest card on the left side and slide it back into the same row from the right. The remaining cards in this row move one place to the left.
- Remove a forest card that on the right side and move it back to the same row from the left. The remaining cards in this row move one place to the right.
When inserting the cards, make sure the trees are aligned correctly.
Any player pieces on forest cards being moved remain on the card so it is possible that your player piece can be moved with the card.
Each player receives a lucky clover tile at the start of the game and places it in front of themselves. The remaining tiles are placed in a general supply. Now the goblins on forest cards are also important! Whenever you want to walk past a goblin, you must return one of your lucky clover tiles back to the supply.
If you no longer have a lucky clover and you must hand one in, you cannot move this turn. If there are several goblins on your way to the next intersection, you only have to hand in 1 lucky clover tile. If the fairy tale character shown on the flipped forest tile is next to the action card, you do NOT move your player piece. Instead, you must perform the adjacent action. You may not skip this action.
The four actions on the action card, each shown with its symbol, are:
- You receive a lucky clover tile from the supply. If the supply is empty, you can take a tile from another player instead.
- Secretly look at the bottom of any forest card without showing it to the other players. The chosen forest card must not have any player piece on it - neither your own nor one of the other player's pieces.
- Swap any 2 forest cards. The cards do not have to be adjacent. The chosen forest card must not have any player piece on it - neither your own nor one of the other player's pieces.
- Swap the position of 2 fairy tale cards with each other. You can choose any fairy tale card and thus swap cards from the playing area with a card next to the action card.
(The symbols and the fairy tale character card art are images in the printed rulebook; the eight character cards' flavour captions are not transcribed.)