Natives
Natives Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Base Game Contents
- 52 Native cards: 28 men (7 of each of the 4 tribes), 24 women (2 colors each)
- 7 Totem cards: 1 of each type
- 1 notepad (for scoring)
- 4 player boards
- 39 Food cards: 18 corn, 9 bison, 12 salmon
- 12 Ritual cards: 2 of each type, except "Sacrifice Ritual" (4 of them)
- 1 First Player card
- 1 "Winter Is Coming" card
Soul of the Prairie Expansion Contents
- 13 Big Food cards: 6 corn, 3 bison, 4 salmon
- 4 Ritual of Knowledge cards
- 8 War and Peace cards
- 1 "Totem of Malice" card
- 9 Legendary Native cards: each card is unique
Seasons Expansion Contents
- 9 Season cards: 3 unique cards of each season
- 2 Season Change cards
- 18 Curse tokens
Strangers Expansion Contents
- 4 tribeless Native cards
- 1 "Totem of the Stranger" card
Setup
- Separate the "Winter Is Coming" card and the First Player card from the deck.
- Shuffle the rest of the cards and place the resulting deck face down in the center of the table.
- Count out 10 cards from the deck and place the "Winter Is Coming" card face down on top of them. Place this resulting stack under the deck.
- Take the top 5 cards of the deck and place them face up next to it. This space next to the deck, where cards will be laid out for the rest of the game, is the prairie.
- Deal each player a player board. As the game goes on you will place cards above and below the player boards, so lay them out with room for cards.
- Place the notepad and a pen nearby. You will need them at the end of the game to tally victory points.
- Randomly choose the player who will start the game (make the first turn) and give them the First Player card.
Setup for four players: an illustration in the printed rulebook shows the table layout for a four-player game — the deck and prairie in the center, and one player board on each side, with each player's professions visible to everyone.
Turn Order
Players take turns in order. A player's turn consists of three phases: two mandatory and one optional.
Phase 1. Replenish the Prairie
Take 1 card from the top of the deck and lay it face up in the prairie.
Phase 2. Scout Action
This is an optional phase. Add more cards from the deck to the prairie (see the scout profession).
Phase 3. Profession Action
Choose one profession (other than scout) on your player board and take from the prairie the cards that can be obtained through that profession. You cannot take more cards than you have natives of the chosen profession.
Play then passes to the player on the left, who takes their turn, consisting of the same three phases.
Important: all cards above and below every player board must be visible to all players at all times.
Profession Actions
At the start of the game every player already has one native of each profession. They are shown on the player board. On their turn, players take cards from the prairie using a profession of their choice. You may take as many cards of one type as you have natives in the chosen profession, but if the prairie has fewer cards, you take however many there are.
Elder
Take from the prairie as many native cards as you have elders in your tribe, or fewer. Place the native cards under whichever professions you think need developing.
Natives are very important for the tribe! The more natives you have, the more useful cards you can take on your turn. Native cards can be placed under the elder profession, so that you can take more native cards from the prairie on your turn. You may take and place under the player board native cards of any color. They perform their function the same way. Men are loyal to one tribe and are colored in that tribe's color. Women have two colors, since they are born into one tribe and marry into another. You may place all the native cards gained on your turn under one profession, or split them between different ones.
Shaman
Take from the prairie as many ritual and totem cards as you have shamans in your tribe, or fewer. Immediately play the ritual cards, in any order.
Thanks to shamans you can take cards of two types: totems and rituals. Rituals are played immediately. If there is more than one ritual, the player decides for themselves in what order to play them. Totems bring extra victory points at the end of the game.
Place ritual and totem cards above the shaman profession. See page 8 for more on ritual and totem cards.
Warrior
Take from the prairie as many native cards as you have warriors in your tribe, or fewer. Flip these native cards over and place them above the warrior profession. These are the scalps of defeated enemies.
Scalps bring victory points. Using the warrior action is also useful to deny other players the chance to take cards belonging to their natives.
Hunter, Fisherman, Farmer
Take from the prairie as many bison, salmon, and corn cards (these are all food cards) as you have hunters, fishermen, and farmers respectively in your tribe, or fewer.
Hunters let a player take bison cards, fishermen let you take salmon cards, and farmers let you take corn cards. Stack food cards above the professions they belong to.
Scout
In the second phase of your turn, lay out from the deck as many cards as you have scouts in your tribe, or fewer.
Scouts let you increase the number of cards in the prairie and give more choice of actions for your other professions. But by doing this you risk giving other players more options as well. Lay out cards one at a time. You may stop at any moment and lay out fewer cards than your number of scouts. The scout action can only be played in the second phase.
Rituals
Any ritual a player took from the prairie on their turn must be played before the start of the next player's turn. Rituals are played one at a time, in any order. If two identical rituals are played, a situation can arise where the second ritual has no effect any more, because the conditions for its effect have changed by the time it is played.
Ancestor Summoning Ritual
Every player who has more native cards than you must choose one native card of their own color in their tribe and discard it to the box. That native card no longer takes part in the game. If none of the players have native cards, nothing happens. At the end of the game, this ritual is worth 1 victory point.
Rain-Calling Ritual
Every player who has more food cards than you must choose one of their own food cards and discard it to the box. That food card no longer takes part in the game. If none of the players have food, nothing happens. At the end of the game, this ritual is worth 1 victory point.
Sacrifice Ritual
Choose one native in your own tribe and move its card to your scalps. If you have no native cards, nothing happens. At the end of the game, this ritual is worth 1 victory point.
Clear-Sight Ritual
Every player whose combined total of totem and ritual cards is greater than yours must discard one totem card of their choice. That totem card no longer takes part in the game. If a player has no totems, nothing happens. At the end of the game, this ritual is worth 1 victory point.
Clear-Sky Ritual
Immediately add 3 cards from the deck to the prairie. At the end of the game, this ritual is worth 4 victory points.
Totems
Totems bring victory points at the end of the game. Totems that award victory points for natives in your tribe also count natives that have been on your player board since the very start of the game. Totems that award victory points for food cards give 1 to 2 victory points for every food card above your player board at the end of the game.
End of Game and Scoring
As soon as one of the players reveals the "Winter Is Coming" card, the game is heading to its end. Once "Winter Is Coming" is revealed, set it aside; it does not reduce the number of cards that should still be added to the prairie. Players keep taking turns until the turn order reaches the holder of the First Player card. That is, the player sitting to the right of the first player takes the last turn. Then everyone moves on to tallying victory points.
While tallying victory points, do not remove or move your laid-out cards until every player has tallied victory points for their own tribe. This matters because some card properties are interlinked. Take the notepad and pen to record victory points.
Victory Points for Natives in Your Tribe
Tally victory points for the men and women cards in your tribe. Men of your tribe's color are worth 2 victory points each, while men of another tribe's color subtract 2 victory points each. If a woman card shows two colors and one of them is yours, that card is worth 1 victory point; if neither color is yours, it subtracts 1 victory point. Natives drawn on your own player board do not score victory points.
Victory Points for Natives in Other Tribes
Native cards of your own color score victory points even when they are in another player's tribe. Every man of your color in another tribe is worth 2 victory points. Every woman is worth 1 victory point to each of the two players whose tribes she belongs to.
Victory Points for Food Cards
Add up the victory points on all your food cards and record the resulting number in the notepad. Each bison card is worth 4 victory points, each salmon card is worth 3 victory points, and each corn card is worth 2 victory points.
Victory Points for Scalps
Count your scalps. Each scalp is worth 1 victory point.
Victory Points for Rituals
Every ritual card, except the Clear-Sky ritual, is worth 1 victory point. The Clear-Sky ritual is worth 4 victory points.
Victory Points for Totems
Tally victory points according to the totems' properties.
The player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie, the winner is whoever has fewer total natives in their tribe.
Scoring Example
In this worked example from the rulebook, a player tallies: scalps +3, food +19, rituals +5, Totem of Strength +6, natives in their own tribe +4 (broken down as elder +0, shaman +1, warrior +0, hunter +3, fisherman +2, farmer -2), and natives of their own color in other tribes +5. The total for this example is 42 victory points.
Soul of the Prairie (Expansion)
Setup
- Remove the "Totem of Strength" card from the base game and put it back in the box.
- Shuffle all the cards of the "Soul of the Prairie" expansion into the common deck of cards.
- Carry out setup according to the base rules of Natives.
The game follows the base rules. New cards bring the changes described below.
Card Descriptions
War and Peace Cards
If, during the game, a player reveals and lays a War and Peace card (from here on, a WP card) into the prairie on their turn, they must immediately decide: make peace or make war with the tribe whose symbol is shown on the card. To do this the player takes this card for themselves, placing it above their player board with the "Peace" or "War" side up. If the WP card was revealed at the start of the game, first apply all of its effects, and only then proceed to Phase 1.
War. To start a war, the player must have more warriors than their opponent. The opponent is whoever is indicated by the symbol on the WP card. If that tribe is not in the game, it is treated as having 2 warriors (as if the absent opponent has a warrior on the player board and one warrior card). The player takes the card and places it "War" side up above their warriors; the player will gain 3 victory points at the end of the game. In case of a tie in warriors, the player making the move is considered to have more.
Peace. If a player does not have the required number of warriors, or does not wish to make war, they place the card "Peace" side up above their elders. In this case it will be worth 1 victory point to both players at the end of the game — that is, to the player who revealed the card, and to the player whose symbol is shown on the WP card.
Important: if you reveal a WP card and it shows the symbol of your own tribe, simply discard this WP card to the box. In place of the discarded WP card you do not take a new card.
Legendary Native Cards
These cards do not belong to any of the tribes in the game. They always subtract victory points from you under the base rules of Natives. At the same time you may also use them as ordinary native cards, and even take them as scalps from the prairie. However, if a player fulfills their conditions, they will reward the player with additional victory points at the end of the game.
Six of the legendary native cards share the same principle of effect. This applies to the cards:
- Elder Big Brother.
- Shaman Rattlesnake.
- Warrior Angry Club.
- Hunter Keen Little Finger.
- Fisherman Sharp Eye.
- Farmer Giant Corn Cob.
Each of these will bring you 8 victory points if you have more cards of the indicated type than every other player. In case of a tie by card count, you do not gain victory points for these legendary natives.
Scout Quick Hand
Is a legendary native just like the cards above, but when it is added to the prairie it immediately goes to the player with the greatest number of scouts. If there is more than one such player, whoever is taking their turn decides which of them receives the card. The card is placed immediately under the scout profession.
Big Merrymaker
This card is worth 6 victory points at the end of the game, but you may no longer use the profession under which you place this card. In addition, from then on you may not place or move other native cards into that profession.
Brothers Ah and Oh
Is a native card that cannot be taken as a scalp. Unlike ordinary native cards, it counts as two native cards at once. When using a profession, it counts as two native cards.
Ritual of Knowledge
Used as an ordinary ritual under the base rules. It lets you move up to two natives to other professions within your own tribe.
Example: a player swaps two cards. Starting from the next turn, they will have 3 warriors (1 on the player board + 2 cards) and 2 fishermen (1 on the player board + 1 card).
Big Food Cards
These are ordinary food cards and take part in scoring for the land, water, and air totems, but on their own they are worth more victory points at the end of the game than ordinary food cards. In a single turn a player cannot take more than one big food card. This does not apply to the other food cards.
Example: on a player's turn the cards shown below lie in the prairie. The player decides to use the fisherman profession, in which they have two native cards. The player takes one "Giant Salmon" card and one "Salmon" card. They cannot take two big food cards in a turn.
Totem of Malice
Used under the base rules of Natives. Gives 1 victory point for every scalp in your tribe at the end of the game.
Seasons (Expansion)
Choose one card of each season for the current game. You may choose seasons at random, agree on specific seasons, or use one of the recommended sets at the end of these rules.
Setup
- Separate the "Winter Is Coming" card and the First Player card. Shuffle the rest of the cards of the base set, and all cards of the "Soul of the Prairie" expansion if you are playing with it, together.
- Count out and place 10 random cards face up in the prairie.
- Count out 10 random cards and place them face down next to the prairie.
- Place the "Winter Is Coming" card face down on top of these 10 cards.
- Divide the remaining deck into 3 roughly equal stacks.
- On top of the 11 cards in the center of the table (10 + "Winter Is Coming"), place the first of the three stacks face down.
- Next, on top, place the "Autumn Has Come" card face down.
- Next, on top, place the second of the three stacks face down.
- Next, on top, place the "Summer Has Come" card face down.
- Finally, on top, place the remaining third stack face down.
Use the example on the next page.
Turn Order
The game follows the base rules. But active season cards can affect your turn, either granting an additional action or requiring you to apply a certain effect. Season cards whose effect you are required to apply are marked with a star symbol.
From the start of the game, the active season is considered to be "Spring," until a season change card comes out of the deck. As soon as a season change card comes out of the deck, the current season continues until the start of the first player's turn. If the first player revealed the season change card, then the current round is still played under the current season. After that, flip the season card. Now the active season becomes the next one. Summer follows spring, and autumn follows summer. The "Winter Is Coming" card, as usual, ends the game — after it is revealed, players may still use the properties of the "Autumn" card in the final round. Upon revealing a season change card or the "Winter Is Coming" card, set it aside; it does not reduce the number of cards that should still be added to the prairie.
Season "Spring"
Spring Bountiful ★
At the start of their turn, a player is required to add 2 cards to the prairie instead of one. This card replaces the base rule for Phase 1 of each player's turn.
Spring Red
This season card lets you additionally take 1 native card from the prairie (if there is one) and place it under one of the professions. This can be a card of any tribe, or even a legendary native. This effect can be applied after the player's Phase 3.
Spring Kind
This card lets you take 2 any cards from the prairie instead of carrying out Phase 3 — without using a profession. Exception: you cannot take two big food cards.
Season "Summer"
Summer Hospitable
This season card lets you additionally take 1 food card from the prairie (if there is one) and place it above the corresponding profession. This effect can be applied after the player's Phase 3. Exception: you cannot take a big food card if you have already taken one this turn.
Summer of Change
Before Phase 1, a player may move one native in their tribe from one profession to another.
Summer of Prayers
This card lets you take a ritual from the prairie (if there is one) before Phase 1 and immediately apply it. Exception: this effect cannot be used to take the "Clear-Sky" ritual.
Season "Autumn"
Autumn Windy ★
This card requires the player, on their turn, after Phase 3, to discard one food card (including a big food card) or take a curse token. A curse token subtracts 2 victory points at the end of the game.
Autumn Harvest
On their turn, after Phase 3, a player may add exactly 3 cards from the deck to the prairie. If there are food cards among them, they may take one of those food cards for themselves and place it above the corresponding profession. Exception: you cannot take a big food card if you have already taken one this turn.
Autumn Wrath of the Gods ★
This card requires the player, on their turn, after Phase 3, to discard one scalp card or take a curse token. A curse token subtracts 2 victory points at the end of the game.
If a season card has a star symbol, the player is required to apply its effect, and if they forget to do so, the other players must remind them. If a season card has no star and the player forgets to apply its effect, that effect is no longer available to them on the current turn.
Recommended Season Sets
Set 1. A Midsummer Night's Dream
The kindest mode. Recommended for players who like a calm, easy game.
Spring Kind, Summer Hospitable, Autumn Harvest.
Set 2. Feast in Time of Plague
An aggressive set. Will make players stock up on scalps.
Spring Kind, Summer of Prayers, Autumn Wrath of the Gods ★.
Set 3. No Place for Old Men Here
The most conflict-driven set, which will make you change your strategy.
Spring Kind, Summer of Change, Autumn Harvest.
Strangers (Expansion)
Setup
Shuffle all five cards into the deck during the second step of setup.
These natives do not belong to a tribe. They do not subtract or grant victory points at the end of the game. But you can defeat them with your warriors and recruit them with your elders, assigning them to any professions. The base rules of Natives apply to them.
The Totem of the Stranger grants 2 victory points at the end of the game for every stranger native in your tribe. Natives not of your own color in your tribe count as strangers for this purpose.
Credits
The game was made by:
- Game designers: Anatoliy Shklyarov, Alexey Paltsev, Alexey Konnov.
- Developer: Ivan Lashin.
- Proofreader: Alexander Petrunin.
- Designer: Viktor Zaburdaev.
- Chief editor: Maxim Vereshchagin.
- Production director: Sergey Morozov.
- Art director: Viktor Zaburdaev.
- CEO: Mikhail Pakhomov.
Thanks from the authors: Anatoliy Kopylov, Andrey Ionov, Sergey Afanasyev, Slim Slam Snaga.
Thanks to the base game testers: Anastasia Efremova, Andrey Aristov, Anna Astakhova, Anton Kravchenko, Anton Parinov, Vadim Tsyganov, Valeriy Novikov, Evgeniy Semagin, Evgenia Ibragimova, Oleg Meleshin, Pavel Kharchenko, Roman Gaffarov, Savva Firsov, Sergey Grafchikov, Sergey Kaptsov, Sergey Pritula, Stanislav Snopok, Yulia Tkachenko, Delli Arieri, Loerglil Meflizh.
Thanks to the expansion testers: Alexey Epikhin, Konstantin Malygin, Margarita Nagornaya, Vasiliy Redinskiy, Igor Ganzha, Sergey Morozov, Filipp Ivanov, Yulia Ilyinskaya.