My Little Scythe Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• How to Play
• Move
  • Delivery
  • Portals
• Pie Fight
• Base Camps
• Quests
• Seek
• Make
• Trophies
• How to Win

Components

• 7 pairs of Seeker sibling miniatures, each pair representing an animal kingdom (2 per player). Both of your Seekers are functionally identical; differences are purely cosmetic.
• 6 Player Mats (with Move, Seek, and Make sections).
• Game board showing Castle Everfree at the center and 6 distinct regions of Pomme where apples and gems are discovered: tundra (white), mountains (grey), forest (green), desert (yellow), red rock (red), and swamp (blue).
• Castle Everfree — the ancient castle at the center of the map, a special portal space that only accepts deliveries of gems and apples.
• Portals — pink-bordered spaces; all portal spaces are considered adjacent to one another, providing quick travel across the map.
• Friendship Track — tracks each player's friendship level. All players start at level 3. If your friendship drops too low, you can't earn trophies.
• Pie Track — tracks each player's apple pies. All players start with 3 (max 10). Seekers use their pies to start pie fights.
• Trophy Track — where earned trophy tokens are placed. Only 1 of each type of trophy may be earned per player. The tournament reaches its grand finale when a player earns their 4th trophy.
• 30 Magic Spell Cards — magic spells help players win pie fights. 1 magic spell may be used for each of a player's Seekers involved in a pie fight. Used magic spells go to the discard pile.
• 12 Quest Cards and 12 Quest Tokens — quests challenge players with difficult decisions but often provide big rewards.
• 24 Apples and 24 Magic Gems (resource tokens).
• 2 Pie Fight Dials used to resolve pie fights.
• 1 Setup Tile used to populate the map at the start of the game.
• 16 Power Up Tiles used to improve certain actions (Move & Make piles).
• 8 Personality Cards used to help you with trophies.
• Action Tokens (1 of each color) — used to select actions on your player mat.
• Pie Tokens, Friendship Tokens, Trophies (1 or 4 of each color) — used to track pies, friendship, and trophies on their respective tracks.
• 5 Search Dice — red for apples, blue for gems, and gold for quests; used to locate resources and quests in the various regions.
• 7 Base Camp Tiles (1 of each color) — used to assign base camp positions.

Setup

1. Select an animal kingdom and place your Base Camp Tile on a base camp position according to player count (see "Base Camp Positions"). Any unused base camp sites are considered inactive and are not used in the game.
2. Claim a player mat, matching Seeker miniatures (2 per player), and 1 Action token.
3. Place your 4 Trophies on the trophy spaces of your player mat.
4. Place your Friendship Token on level 3 of the Friendship Track.
5. Place your Pie Token on level 3 of the Pie Track.
6. Shuffle all Quest cards into a deck and place it on the board.
7. Shuffle all Magic Spell cards into a deck and place it on the board. Give 1 Magic Spell card to each player (keep it a secret).
8. Shuffle the Power Up Tiles in their respective piles (Move & Make), then place each pile face down on the board.
9. With the Setup Tile face down, randomly orient it on the center Castle Everfree space of the map. Turn the Setup Tile over, aligning it with the space's edges. Populate the sets of 3 spaces in front of each active player's Base Camp Tile with the resources depicted on the tile, then discard the tile. Sets of spaces in front of inactive base camp sites are not populated.
10. Place both of your Seekers on your Base Camp Tile.
11. Shuffle the 8 Personality Cards and give 1 to each player (keep it a secret). Extras are placed in the box.

First player: Randomize the action tokens to determine the first player.

Base camp positions are provided on the board for 1-6 players. (For the 1-player game, see the Automountie solo rulebook.)

How to Play

On your turn, you must select and execute an action on your player mat. To select an action, place your action token on a different action than the previous turn. You may use the same section of your player mat (Move, Seek, or Make) on consecutive turns, just not the exact same action.

• Move: Move both of your Seeker miniatures.
• Seek: Roll dice to discover (generate) apples, gems, and quest tokens on the map.
• Make: Spend apples and gems to gain pies, magic spell cards, or power ups.

On some turns, you may also earn a single trophy (see "Trophies"). After you've taken 1 action and possibly earned up to 1 trophy, play proceeds clockwise.

Move

When you place your action token on the Move section, you may move both Seekers in one of two ways (each Seeker's type of move is independent of the other). Each Seeker may either:

• Move without carrying apples or gems: Move your Seeker up to 2 spaces. Stop if you move your Seeker onto a space occupied by an opponent's Seeker (see "Pie Fight").
• Move to carry apples and/or gems: Move your Seeker up to 1 space while transporting any number of apple or gem tokens. Any/all resources on the Seeker's space are eligible to be transported.

A "space" is a hexagon-shaped area on the map. Sometimes moving your Seekers will result in a delivery, pie fight, portal jump, or quest.

Delivery

You may deliver a total of exactly 4 gems or 4 apples onto the center Castle Everfree space in a single turn to earn the corresponding trophy. To complete a delivery:

• A Seeker may only move onto Castle Everfree to complete a delivery. Otherwise it is inaccessible.
• You must move your Seeker(s) so they transport a total of exactly 4 gems (gem delivery trophy) or 4 apples (apple delivery trophy) onto the Castle Everfree space.
• Your Seeker(s) may deliver their 4 resources by moving onto Castle Everfree from an adjacent space, through a portal (see "Portals"), or a combination of both. Delivery requirements may be split between your two Seekers only if their moves are coordinated to deliver a total of 4 resources onto Castle Everfree in a single turn.
• The delivery happens immediately when the 4 gems or apples are with your Seeker(s) on Castle Everfree, even if you've only moved one Seeker so far this turn.
• Delivered resources are removed from the map. All excess apples or gems that were not part of the delivery must remain on their originating space, which means you may lose control of them.
• Once you earn either a gem or apple delivery trophy, you may not later repeat the same type of delivery.
• Place a trophy from your player mat on the Trophy Track on the correct level (see "Trophies").

Once your Seeker(s) successfully completes a delivery onto the Castle Everfree space, the Seeker(s) involved is immediately teleported back to your Base Camp. When at least one of your Seekers is returned to Base Camp following a delivery, you are rejuvenated (see "Base Camps").

Portals

The spaces with pink borders are portals and are considered adjacent to one another for movement. Moving Seekers from one portal to any other portal is equivalent to moving a single space. While Castle Everfree is also a portal, jumping to this space is only permitted when making deliveries (see "Delivery").

Pie Fight

If you ever move a Seeker onto a space occupied by an opponent's Seeker(s), your Seeker's movement ends. After you have moved both of your Seekers (but before quests on any space), a pie fight ensues. To resolve a pie fight:

1. The attacking player immediately loses 1 friendship.
2. The attacking and defending players each use separate Pie Fight Dials to secretly determine the number of pies to throw at one another. 0 to 7 pies may be chosen by rotating the numbers on the dial to line up below the pie logo. The number must not exceed a player's total pies shown on the Pie Track. It is acceptable to throw 0 pies.
3. For each of their own Seekers involved in the pie fight, a player may also secretly attach a Magic Spell Card onto the pie fight dial. The value of each player's magic spell(s) is added to the number of pies they choose to throw, resulting in each player's total pie fight score.
4. Both players simultaneously reveal their pie fight scores. The player with the higher score wins, with ties going to the attacker. The winner earns a pie fight trophy if they have not already done so.
5. Seekers losing the pie fight must relocate to their Base Camp, leaving all resources behind.
6. By returning to Base Camp, the losing player is rejuvenated (see "Base Camps").
7. All pies used during the pie fight are deducted from each player's Pie Track. Used Magic Spell cards are placed face up on the discard pile.

Base Camps

Your base camp is where your Seekers begin the tournament, and it continues to act as a source of rejuvenation. Base camps are not considered spaces and cannot be entered through normal movement. Seekers are only returned to your base camp when they are involved in a pie fight loss or a successful delivery. When at least one of your Seekers is returned to base camp, you are immediately rejuvenated (max once per turn):

• Immediately gain either 1 magic spell or 2 pies, and
• Remove your action token from the player mat, giving you access to any action next turn.

Quests

After completing a Move action (and after any pie fights that ensue, even if they're not on the same space as a quest), if either of your Seekers are on a space containing a quest token, remove the quest token and draw 1 quest card. If both your Seekers have quests on their spaces, you choose which to view first.

You must immediately choose whether to resolve the quest using 1 of the first 2 options or choose "No Thanks." If you resolve a quest by choosing either the first or second option, keep the quest card beside your player mat. If you choose the "No Thanks" option, the quest is not considered resolved and is returned to the bottom of the quest pile, face down.

A few additional rules apply to quests:

• If a quest results in you paying gems or apples, you may pay them from ANY space where you have a Seeker. If you don't control enough gems or apples, you cannot choose this option.
• If a quest results in you gaining gems or apples, place the resources on ANY space where you have a Seeker.
• If a quest results in you paying apples or gems to another player, pick up those tokens from either of your Seekers' spaces, select a space occupied by another player's Seeker, and place the tokens on that space.
• You may select quest options that would lower your friendship level below 0 (though your friendship token remains at 0) (see "Trophies / Low Friendship").
• If the Quest deck is empty, immediately collect resolved quest cards from players who have completed the "2 Quests" trophy. Shuffle these cards to create a new deck of quest cards.

Seek

When you place your action token on the Seek section, you call upon your Seekers' innate ability to detect apples, gems, and quests throughout the 6 regions of Pomme.

To seek, roll a combination of 4 dice as shown next to the selected action — red dice for seeking apples, blue for gems, and gold for quests. The dice results determine the region where tokens are discovered: tundra (white), mountains (grey), swamp (blue), forest (green), red rock (red), or desert (yellow).

You must place all tokens you discover. While the dice results determine the regions in which resources are discovered, you determine the exact space within each region where the tokens are placed. Placement differs slightly by token type:

• Apple & Gem Tokens: Once discovered in a region, place each token on any space within that region, including empty spaces; spaces with existing apples, gems, or quests; spaces occupied by your own Seekers; and spaces occupied by opponents' Seekers (this gains you friendship; see below).
• Quest Tokens: Once discovered in a region, place a quest token on a space unoccupied by Seekers and other quest tokens (no space may have more than 1 quest token). If this isn't possible, ignore the quest token placement.

Gaining Friendship: When you place an apple or gem on a space occupied by an opponent's Seeker(s), immediately gain 1 friendship for each resource placed on that space. No friendship is gained by placing resources on spaces occupied by your own Seekers.

Portals: Portals are not considered regions. No gems, apples, or quests may be placed on these spaces via the Seek action.

Exhausted resources: In the rare event that gems, apples, or quest tokens are used up, no further tokens of that type may be placed on the map until they are made available through deliveries, Make actions, or quests.

Make

When you place your action token on an action in the Make section, you pay resources to gain something. For each of these actions, you must pay the full cost and gain the full benefit:

• Bake Pies: Remove 2 apples from any space(s) occupied by your Seekers to gain 2 pies (track this using your token on the Pie Track, which has a max of 10).

• Conjure Spell: Remove 2 gems from any spaces occupied by your Seekers to gain a Magic Spell card from the top of the magic spell deck. There is no limit to the number of Magic Spells in your possession.

• Power Up: Remove 1 gem and 1 apple from any spaces occupied by your Seekers to purchase a Power Up Tile for the Move or Make actions (Seek cannot be powered up):

  1. Select the top 3 tiles from either Power Up deck and select 1 tile, returning the rest face down to the bottom of the deck.
  2. Place your chosen tile on top of the corresponding section on your player mat.

  This tile permanently improves the action for the remainder of the game (max 1 tile per section, and you may only upgrade each section once). If you power up the Make section, replace your action token on the Power Up action of your new tile.

Trophies

Players prove their worth by quickly earning trophies:

• You may only earn each trophy once. Indicate this by placing 1 of your trophy tokens on the Trophy Track, even if other players have already earned the same trophy.
• Once a trophy is placed on the Trophy Track, it may never be removed.
• You may earn only 1 trophy on your turn until the tournament's grand finale (see "How to Win"). Only the Pie Fight Victory trophy may be earned outside of your turn.
• During an opponent's turn, if you successfully win a pie fight (as the defender), you may immediately earn the Pie Fight Victory trophy if you haven't already earned it.
• If you've met the criteria for a trophy and you haven't yet earned a trophy on your turn, you must place a trophy token.

To earn a trophy on your turn, place a trophy from your player mat onto the corresponding space of the Trophy Track once you've met the specific criteria:

• 8 Friendship: Reach 8 on the Friendship Track. Losing any friendship from this point forward does not undo the trophy.
• 2 Power Ups: Have 1 of each Power Up tile (Move & Make).
• 3 Spells: Have 3 or more magic spell cards at one time. Using these magic spell cards from this point forward does not undo the trophy.
• 2 Quests: Resolve 2 quests. You may continue to draw quest cards even after earning this trophy.
• Apple Delivery: Deliver 4 apples to the Royal Castle. This may only be earned on the turn it was completed.
• Magic Gem Delivery: Deliver 4 gems to the Royal Castle. This may only be earned on the turn it was completed.
• Pie Fight Victory: Win a pie fight as either an attacker or defender. This may only be earned on the turn it was completed.
• 8 Pies: Reach 8 on the Pie Track. Using any pies from this point forward does not undo the trophy.

Your ability to earn trophies may be affected by Personality Cards, Low Friendship, and the Trophy Limit:

• Personality Cards: Your Seekers' personality card defines the unique personality type of your Seeker siblings. Their unique trait makes it easier for you to earn 1 of the 8 possible trophies. When a trophy is fulfilled based on the reduced requirements of your personality card, reveal your personality card and place your trophy on the corresponding level of the Trophy Track.
• Low Friendship: Being unfriendly is frowned upon by tournament judges. When your friendship is below 3, you may not earn trophies even if you've met the criteria. When your friendship is restored to 3 or higher, you may once again earn trophies at a rate of 1 trophy per turn (until the grand finale).
• Trophy Limit: Until the grand finale, you may only earn up to 1 trophy on your turn. If you qualify for more than 1 trophy, you must choose 1 and defer the others to be earned on a future turn (assuming you still meet the criteria).

How to Win

Grand Finale: When a turn ends with one or more players having earned their 4th trophy, the tournament enters its grand finale:

• Continuing in turn order, each other player without 4 trophies takes 1 final turn.
• Players taking final turns are no longer limited to 1 trophy per turn.
• Once all final turns are resolved, the player with 4 trophies is crowned the winner, and the new ruler of Pomme!

Resolving Ties: If after the grand finale there are multiple players with 4 trophies, the winner is determined by whoever has more friendship. If a tie still exists, whoever is currently holding the most gems and apples on the map wins. If a tie still exists, all tied players are crowned winners. Ties are not uncommon in My Little Scythe.