Seasons of Rice
Seasons of Rice Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
18 cards with paddies (green fields) on one side and ancestors on the other.
Provide your own: 2 coins or tokens per player to track score using their ancestor card.
Setup
Shuffle the deck paddy side up and deal each player 2 cards.
- Each player will simultaenously choose 1 card to use as their personal ancestor, which will provide them an additional way to score, placing it in their play area, ancestor side up.
- Players then place their second card in front of them paddy side up to begin their landscape.
- Flip the deck ancestor side up, deal each player a hand of 7 paddy cards from the 14 that remain and proceed to the Wet Season phase.
Wet Season | Draft Phase 1
The game begins during the Wet Season. Each turn during this season, players will simultaneously select 2 paddy cards from their hand: 1 to immediately place into their landscape (A) and 1 to place into a communal row of Dry Season cards (B).
Players then exchange their hands and repeat. This continues until each player has a single card left in hand. This card is placed into the owner's landscape. After all cards have been placed, the Dry Season begins.
Players should leave enough room for the Dry Season row, which at the start is empty but will later be made up of 6 cards.
A player's landscape is separate from, and will never connect with, an opponent's.
Dry Season | Draft Phase 2
In the Dry Season, players take turns. The player who is trailing at the end of the Wet Season goes first. In the event of a tie, the player with fewer farmers goes first. In the event of a tie, the younger player goes first.
In turn order, players will select 1 card from the Dry Season row and immediately place it into their landscape. The second player then does the same. Alternating turns, players select and place cards until the Dry Season row is empty. Players then proceed to end-of-game scoring.
Example: Maya selects 1 card from the Dry Season row and places it immediately into her landscape (A), closing a paddy, which she scores for 6 points (B).
Expanding Your Landscape
The following placement rules apply during both the Wet and Dry seasons:
Cards may be oriented either horizontally or vertically (including your first card).
At least 1 side of the card you are placing must at least partially touch the side of an adjacent, previously placed card. Corners touching diagonally do not count as adjacency.
Cards cannot overlap each other.
Paddy paths and gridlines that extend to the border of an adjacent card must connect with other paths or gridlines.
When closing a paddy, the paddy may not contain extra paths that end inside the paddy.
Paddies, Paths, and Gridlines
On paddy cards, "paths" are the thick tan lines and "gridlines" are the thin dark lines that delineate the grid of squares that a player's landscape must always adhere to.
A "closed" paddy is a green area completely surrounded by paths. It is scored upon completion. An "open" paddy is an area that has yet to be completely surrounded. "Landscape" always refers to a player's entire network of open and closed paddies.
Gaps
Gaps: A gap is any uncovered space within your landscape that is completely surrounded by paddy cards. While gaps are allowed, an enclosed paddy containing a gap is considered to be an open paddy and will not score (including features within), no matter how small the gap is.
Scoring Closed Paddies
As each paddy is closed, it is scored based on its size, as well as for features contained within it. Multiple paddies can be closed on the same turn. Closed paddies score for the following:
Paddy Size (squares+houses): Count the squares in a closed paddy, increase size +1 for each house in the paddy, and score as follows:
| Size | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pts. | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 11 |
Farmers: 1/3/5/8 points for a set of 1/2/3/4+ farmers in a closed paddy.
Buffaloes: 2 points per buffalo in a closed paddy.
Ancestor Bonus Symbols
Some ancestor cards also provide an opportunity to score bonus points in-game, either throughout both seasons (those with the circular-arrows symbol) or else just during the Dry Season (the circular-arrows-with-slash symbol).
End-of-Game Scoring
Once all Dry Season cards have been placed, end-of-game scoring takes place:
-1pt. per buffalo "stranded" in an open paddy.
Ancestor cards with an arrow-to-line symbol.
The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player with more farmers wins.
Credits
Design: Corry Damey Art: Jerome Damey, Corry Damey Rules Editing: Stefan Lorenzutti
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