Riverwood Town
Riverwood Town Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components and Preparation
To set up a game, start by flipping all the tiles over and grouping them into three piles based on their backs, then place the starting tile (the only one with a different color on its back) in the center of the table. Shuffle all the mission cards and lay out three so that all players can see them. The score board is not needed for normal games, you can leave it in the box. Finally, you can now choose the starting player and the turns will pass clockwise.
Tiles
In Riverwood Town there are 46 tiles: the starting tile and three types according to its back; forests, rivers and towns. Those three types define the main element of each tile. Other elements can still appear on every one of them.
Cards
The cards contain the missions that you must complete during the game to win in Riverwood Town. There are 24 mission cards distributed among the three biomes and they are also divided into 3 difficulty levels.
How to Play
ATTENTION! Only groups that have been modified with the last piece placed will be considered to complete the missions. Groups that have been formed in previous turns and have not been affected in the current turn are not considered for completing missions.
If you manage to complete all the missions, you won the game. If you run out of tiles before that happens, you lost. During the game you can talk, discuss strategies or advise each other what to do, BUT as soon as the active player draws a tile, the other players cannot tell him what to do with it or where to place it. The decision must be made solely by the active player.
Form Groups and Complete Missions
In Riverwood Town there are three biomes with which to form groups: Forests, towns and rivers. To form a group of forests, you will have to count the trees that make them up. With the towns you will have to count the houses, and with the rivers, the amount of fish in the river.
When checking whether or not the group you have formed completes a mission, you will have to count all the trees, fish or houses that are adjacent to the group you have just formed and see if the number is equal to or greater than that of the mission you want to accomplish.
Quests that have a specific number will require you to form groups with an exact amount, while those with the + symbol next to them can be completed with the exact amount, or with larger groups.
(Illustration examples: groups of 3 houses, 12 trees, 3 fish, 3 trees, 2 houses.)
Mountains
Mountains are special tiles that will help you complete the most difficult missions. There are only three mountains, one in each group of tiles.
Mountains don't need to respect the placement rules like the rest of the tiles, and once they are surrounded in all directions, active player can discard a mission of it's choice and it will be considered completed.
ATTENTION! On both the front and back of the cards, you will be able to see a compass with one of three symbols. These symbols correspond to the difficulty of the mission. The green circle is for easy missions, the yellow triangle is for medium ones, and the red square for difficult ones.
It is important to keep this in mind when playing so you would not waste tiles trying to solve a single difficult mission, or on the other hand to not waste a mountain on an easy mission. Tiles are limited, so choose your targets wisely!
Difficulty Levels
The setup above corresponds to a normal difficulty game; however, depending on whether you want a simpler or more complicated experience, you can make various adjustments to the components of the game.
| Difficulty | Missions | Tiles | Mountains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very easy | 20 | 45 (face up) | YES |
| Easy | 22 | 45 | YES |
| Normal | 24 | 45 | YES |
| Difficult | 24 | 45 | NO |
| Very difficult | 24 | 45 (remove one random tile from each pile) | NO |
Game Variants
In addition to the normal game and its difficulty variations, Riverwood Town can be played in many different ways. Below you will find different ways to play depending on the number of players and the style of play you are looking for.
Random Game (1-5 players, Coop)
To add more randomness to the games, instead of dividing the tiles according to their backs, shuffle them all together and make a single pile. During the game, you can only take tiles from that pile. You can also apply any difficulty rules to adjust it even further, although be careful; not being able to choose the type of tile will make the games difficult by itself.
Competitive (2-5 players, VS)
In turns, each player (or team) will place a tile. Each time one or more missions are completed, they will be discarded and taken by the player or team that completed it. When the missions or tiles run out, the player or team with the most points wins. Easy missions are worth one point, normal are two points, and difficult ones are worth three points.
Marathon (1-5 players, Coop)
Set up everything as for a normal game, but then remove all the tiles from the piles, leaving only four of each type. Those will be all the tiles you start playing with. To get new ones, you will have to complete missions.
Completing easy missions will allow you to add one tile of your choice to the corresponding pile, the normal missions will allow you to add two (from the same pile or different ones) and the difficult ones give you three. As in the standard game, if you run out of tiles you will lose the game, and you will only win if you complete all the missions before that happens.
Construction (1-5 players, Coop)
Place the starting tile in the center of the table. Shuffle the rest into a single tower and place the scoreboard in front of the players. In turns, each player will place a tile trying to create completely enclosed towns, forests, and rivers. The groups that you manage to close on all sides will add points based on their size. At the end of the game, all those that have remained open will subtract the points.
In the construction variant, the mountains are also used to complete the most difficult parts: The tiles that are adjacent to a mountain will be considered closed on the side that connects with the mountain. In addition, at the end of the game they will add one point for each tile adjacent to them, up to a maximum of 6 points per mountain.
Every time you close a group, count the number of trees, houses or fish that make it up and add that number of points on the board. Once you have placed the last tile, the final count will be made:
- Count all the tiles adjacent to the mountains and add one point for each of them (the mountain itself does not count!)
- Add the fish of all the incomplete rivers and subtract the number from your score. Then do the same with the forests, and finally with the towns.
(Illustration examples: +4 points, -6 points, +5 points, -2 points, -3 points.)
If the resulting number is less than zero, you lost. On the other hand, if the resulting number is greater than or equal to zero, you have won.
ATTENTION! If at any time during the game you detect that one or more tiles are incorrectly placed, remove them and deduct three points for each removed tile. Additionally, if when removing a tile one or several groups become incomplete, points will be subtracted in the final count.
FAQ
What happens if we detect a misplaced tile from a previous turn? In standard game mode there is no penalty. Simply remove the misplaced tile and set it aside, that tile cannot be used again. In construction mode it will subtract 3 points in the final count.
A mission has come out and there is already a group on the board that completes it. Do I consider it completed? If that group has been modified in the current turn, yes. If it's a group that was created in previous turns, no. Only groups that have been altered in the current turn are counted for missions.
If I place a mountain next to a group completing a quest, does it serve to complete the quest? No, neither the mountains nor the wasteland modify the number of trees, houses or fish in the groups created, therefore they will not be considered for completing quests.
Can a tile with 5 houses/forests be used to complete the 5 houses/forests mission? Yes, as long as placing it doesn't form a larger group, placing that loose tile will complete the quest.