Oziland Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• The Game
  • Land of Oz tiles
• First Game Mode: "The Land of Oz"
  • Set up
  • Object of the Game
  • How do you play?
  • 1. Place a tile and draw another one
  • Character tokens
  • 2. Draw two tiles
  • 3. Use the ability of a character
  • End of the Game
  • Scoring
  • Variant without the abilities of the characters
• Second Game Mode: "Escape from Oz"
  • Set up
  • Object of the Game
  • How do you play?
  • 1. Draw two tiles
  • 2. Place tiles
  • Getting Character tokens
  • Taking tiles with Character icons
  • End of the Game

Components

• 6 start tiles (with a little hexagon in the center).
• 63 common tiles (the rest).
• 63 common tiles (with its six triangles of the same type).
• 6 character tokens.
• 1 drawstring bag.
• This rulebook.

Note: the source rulebook prints "63 common tiles" twice in its component list, as reproduced here. It does not list the Special tiles in the component list, although the rules refer to them.

The Game

Oziland is a tile placement family game, colourful and quick, with two different game modes. In the first mode, each player builds their own Land of Oz in their playing areas with the help of the abilities of the characters from the popular book. In the second mode, all players build Oz in the middle of the table, being a race to see which player is the first to get rid of all the tiles in their hands. Read the following instructions and choose the mode you prefer.

Land of Oz tiles

Each tile has six triangles, each of which has one of the six types of landscape of Oz, represented by distinctive colours:

• Poppy fields (red)
• Desert (orange)
• Yellow brick road (yellow)
• Mountains (grey)
• Sea (blue)
• Woods (green)

First Game Mode: "The Land of Oz"

Set up

1. Take all the tiles out of the bag and separate the Special tiles and the Start tiles, as well as the Character tokens.
2. Place the Special tiles facing up in the middle of the table, creating a common pool.
3. Give a random Start tile to each player, which is placed facing up in their playing areas.
4. Put the Common tiles and the remaining Start tiles (if any) back into the bag and mix them.
5. Place the Character tokens in the middle of the table, creating another pool.
6. In order, each player draws 3 random tiles from the bag, without showing them to the other players. This will be their initial hand.

Object of the Game

The object is to get the most points by playing the tiles and the characters. From your Start tile, you should build your own Land of Oz by placing the tiles from your hand, which you are going to draw from the bag. Also, you should try to create the biggest adjacent area of each colour, which will grant you extra points. The characters from Oz will provide you with points and special abilities that could help you in this task.

How do you play?

You can choose the starting player randomly or by following the next method: everyone draws a tile from the bag and the one who has the most yellow brick triangles will be the starting player. In case of a tie, tied players will draw another tile and check them until the tie is broken. Then, put all the tiles back into the bag and mix them.

Beginning with the starting player, you play your turns in clockwise order until the game ends.

In your turn, you choose one of the following three actions:

1. Place a tile in your kingdom and then, draw a tile from the bag.
2. Draw two tiles from the bag.
3. Use the special ability of one of the characters you have previously got.

1. Place a tile and draw another one

Pick a tile from your hand and place it in your playing area. It has to be adjacent to another tile already on the table, with the only restriction that at least one of its sides must be in contact with a triangle of the same type (no matter if its other sides don't match with the other tiles).

As the tiles are placed in this way, areas of each different landscape (colours) will be created. The number of triangles in each area represents their size, and it will be used when scoring (this is explained later on).

An area is a number of adjoining triangles of the same type (colour). Triangles are only considered as adjoining when they are adjacent by one of their sides and not by their corners.

Once the tile is placed, draw a new tile from the bag and add it to your hand. Now it is the turn of the next player.

Character tokens

Some tiles have a character icon. If you manage to enclose an area of two or more triangles with one of these icons, you may get the corresponding character token as long as it is still in the middle of the table.

An area is considered enclosed when it is completely surrounded by triangles of other colours.

You cannot take a character from another player, only the ones in the common pool.

2. Draw two tiles

You may choose this action during your turn to get more tiles. Draw two tiles from the bag and add them to your hand (there is no limit in the number of tiles you can have). Then, it is the turn of the next player.

3. Use the ability of a character

Note: If you are playing with children and you think this rule is too complicated, later on there is a variant you may prefer to play.

If you got any character token (see "Place a tile" action), you may choose this action during your turn to use their ability.

The six characters of Oz have special abilities and, in order to use them, you have to eliminate a tile from your Land of Oz and put the character token back in its pool. You cannot split your kingdom in two as a consequence of eliminating a tile. Remove the eliminated tile from the game, don't put it back into the bag.

Once you have done that, play the corresponding ability of the character:

• Dorothy – Draw 1 Special tile and place it immediately in your kingdom.
• Scarecrow – Draw 3 tiles from the bag and perform a free action (any of the three available).
• Tin Man – Place up to 3 tiles from your hand in your kingdom.
• Cowardly Lion – Steal 1 character from another player or draw 2 characters from the pool (it CANNOT be the Cowardly Lion again).
• The Wicked Witch of the West – Eliminate 1 tile from another player. You cannot pick a tile that splits the kingdom in two or that is surrounded by other 6 tiles. Also, you cannot eliminate a tile when it is the only one in a player's kingdom.
• Glinda – All characters return to their pool.

Then, it is the turn of the next player in clockwise order.

End of the Game

When a player draws the last tile from the bag, a final round will be played (it finishes with the player who drew the last tile, including them). Then, the game ends and players score victory points.

Scoring

Points are scored as follows:

• Each player scores 1 victory point for every tile in their kingdom.
• Each player scores 2 victory points for every character token they keep.
• For every type of landscape (the six types), each player counts the triangles of their biggest area.
  • The player with the biggest mountain area scores 3 victory points.
  • The player with the biggest sea area scores 3 victory points.
  • The player with the biggest woods area scores 3 victory points.
  • The player with the biggest desert area scores 3 victory points.
  • The player with the biggest yellow brick area scores 3 victory points.
  • The player with the biggest poppy field area scores 3 victory points.
  • In case of a tie in any area, none scores the points of that type of landscape.

The tiles from a player's hand don't score points.

Scoring examples from the rulebook:

• Nico: 12 tiles = 12 pts; 0 characters = 0 pts; + Mountains = 3 pts; total 15 pts.
• Eva: 10 tiles = 10 pts; 0 characters = 0 pts; + Sea and Poppy = 6 pts; total 16 pts.
• Alba: 8 tiles = 8 pts; 3 characters = 6 pts; + Desert = 3 pts; total 17 pts.

Variant without the abilities of the characters

If you play with this variant, the third action will not be available ("Use the ability of a character"). Here, characters are only useful to score 2 points at the end of the game. However, playing this variant will let you steal a character from another player. In order to do so, you have to manage to enclose a character icon into a bigger area than the other player's enclosed area with that icon.

And of course, if that player doesn't have the character icon in an enclosed area anymore (because they have to eliminate any tile), you can also steal that character. But, if that player has more than one area, you will have to surpass the biggest of them.

Second Game Mode: "Escape from Oz"

Set up

1. Take all the tiles out of the bag and separate the Special tiles and the Start tiles, as well as the Character tokens.
2. Choose a random Special tile and place it in the middle of the table. Put the remaining tiles back into the box; they won't be used during the game.
3. Give one Start tile to each player. If there are any left, put them into the bag.
4. Put the Common tiles into the bag too and mix them.
5. Each player randomly draws from the bag:
   • 10 tiles if you are 2-3 players.
   • 8 tiles if you are 4-6 players.

These tiles will be your starting hand and they cannot be shown to other players.

Object of the Game

To win this game mode, you need to be the first player without tiles in their hand and with the most Character tokens. Unlike the first game mode, here you should place the tiles in a Land of Oz mutual to all players, which will be created in the middle of the table.

How do you play?

You can choose the starting player randomly or by following the method from the first game mode. The game is played by turns in clockwise order.

During your turn, you may choose one of the two following actions:

1. Draw two tiles from the bag.
2. Place tiles in the Land of Oz.

1. Draw two tiles

If you cannot or don't want to place tiles during your turn, you may draw two random tiles from the bag. After that, it is the turn of the next player.

2. Place tiles

Choose one of the landscapes available in the Land of Oz (the middle of the table) and place a tile in order to extend its area, at least, by one more triangle.

Then, you may keep placing tiles, as long as you extend the same area. There is no limit in the number of tiles you can place during your turn and it's not obligatory to place all the tiles you can. You may place the number of tiles you prefer.

Getting Character tokens

As in the previous game mode, if you enclose an area with at least two triangles of the same type and which contains a character icon, draw that Character token (whether it is in the middle of the table or a player has it). Remember this area needs to be completely enclosed.

Taking tiles with Character icons

If you completely enclose another tile with a character icon (in any of its triangles) by placing a tile, you may take that tile with the icon and put another tile from your hand in its place. This action will allow you to get tiles with character icons, which gives you the opportunity to draw their tokens.

The tile played to do the exchange cannot have a character icon and it should have at least a matching triangle, so you can place it in contact with another triangle of the same type. If you don't have a tile to do the exchange, you cannot take that tile.

Once you finish placing your tiles, it is the turn of the next player.

End of the Game

The game only ends when there are no characters in the common pool; that is, when the players have all the Character tokens. From that moment, the game continues until one player achieves the following victory conditions:

• To be the player with the most Character tokens.
• To be the player without tiles in their hand.

The first player to achieve these conditions (after all the Character tokens have been taken) is the winner.

If a player has no more tiles in their hand to place, but they are not the one with the most Character tokens (or there are still tokens in the pool), the game continues as usual. That player has to choose the "Draw two tiles" action during their next turn.