Slate Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Gameplay
  • i – Rolling the actions
  • ii – Executing the actions
  • Actions
  • Developments
  • iii – Round end
• End of the Game
  • Scoring

Setup

Each player chooses a colour and takes 8 markers as her personal supply; the other markers in that colour form a reserve. Each player takes 3 money. A player is chosen at random and takes the first player marker. The score track is not needed until the end of the game.

Gameplay

A round of play consists of the following 3 phases. Players all complete one phase before the next begins.

i – Rolling the actions

In turn, each player uses 3 dice to allocate 3 markers from her personal supply to the actions corresponding to the numbers rolled. For 1 money she can reroll 1 die, and can continue paying to reroll as many times as she likes. For 3 money she can change 1 die to a number of her choice, once per round.

If a player has fewer than 3 markers then she still rolls 3 dice and chooses which numbers to allocate to her remaining markers. A player can choose to refrain from selecting actions, even if she has enough markers.

ii – Executing the actions

Actions are executed from lowest number to highest. If multiple players have markers allocated to the same action, the first to perform the action is the player with the most markers there. However, she only performs the action once, then each other player present also performs the action once, before it returns to the player with the most markers for her second performance of the action, and so on.

After the execution of an action, the marker returns to the player's personal supply. A player may at any time forfeit performing an action and instead simply take back her marker into her personal supply. If an action requires spending further markers from the player's personal supply (e.g. Open a slate mine), she may choose to use pay with tokens from her personal supply or from those allocated to a pending action.

Special case: If a player no longer has any markers in her personal supply and also has no opportunity to buy one, she sits out the rest of the round and takes 1 marker from the reserve into her personal supply.

Actions

Editor's note: in the source, each action is headed by a dice-face icon rather than a number. The face value is written out below in words so that each action can be matched to a die result; the mapping follows the printed icons.

• Die showing 1 – Gain supplies: The player takes 1 marker from her reserve into her personal supply.

• Die showing 2 – Gain supplies OR Open a slate mine: The player chooses either Gain supplies (see die 1) or Open a slate mine (see die 3).

• Die showing 3 – Open a slate mine: A separate marker (i.e. not the one assigned to the action space) is placed on an unoccupied tunnel entrance. In each valley, players must always take the first available mine along the course of the river which is closest to the estuary. There cannot be gaps between occupied mines. When opening a slate mine, the player must return to the reserve as many markers from her personal supply as indicated on the tunnel entrance (1-3), one of which is placed on the board to mark her ownership of the mine.

• Die showing 4 – Open a slate mine OR Sell slate: The player chooses either Open a slate mine (see die 3) or Sell slate (see die 5).

• Die showing 5 – Sell slate: A player can only initiate selling slate from one of her own open mines (no black marker present); she must then put a black marker on the mine to mark it as closed. When selling slate, the player takes as many coins from the bank as indicated in the yellow circle on the mine (4-6). She then distributes these coins as evenly as possible between all closed mines in that valley, starting with the just-closed mine and moving along the river towards the estuary. If there are coins left over, she starts the process again from the just-closed mine, repeating until all coins have been dispensed. Players take the money awarded to their mine(s).

  Example: Blue sells from a mine with value 5. She distributes in the order shown by the arrow. Blue receives 2 money, red 2 money, and green 1 money. (See diagram.)

• Die showing 6 – Develop: The player places a marker from her personal supply on an available development space. There cannot be more than 2 markers on any given development space, and each must be from a different player. (2 player game: there cannot be more than 1 marker on any given development space.)

Developments

Developments for gameplay:

• Improved selling: When a player chooses the Sell slate action, she receives 2 additional money, directly from the bank. Note: This bonus applies only when she takes the Sell slate action herself, not when she receives a payout from another player's Sell slate action.
• Extra supplies: The player can, at any time during her turn (once per turn), buy a marker from the reserve for the price shown and add it to her personal supply. Move the marker to the right to show that the ability has been used for this turn.
• Modify 1 die: After rolling the dice, the player may, once per turn, increase or decrease one of the rolled dice by 1 (including looping round from 6 to 1 or vice versa). Move the marker to the right to show that the ability has been used for this turn.

Developments for scoring:

• Value for money: At the end of the game, score 1 point for every 2 money instead of every 3.
• Different valleys: At the end of the game, score 1 point for each valley in which you own at least 1 mine.
• Half the mines: At the end of the game, score 2 points for each valley in which you own at least half of the mines – only with 3 or 4 players.
• Alone in the valley: At the end of the game, score 3 points for each valley in which you are the only mine owner – only with 2 players.

For development spaces which refer to scoring valleys, the same valley can score in different spaces – e.g. the same valley can score for both Different and Alone.

iii – Round end

When all the markers on action spaces have been used (or taken back unused), the first player marker moves to the next player clockwise, and a new round begins.

End of the Game

The game ends once all of the mines are owned by players. The current round is played to completion and all actions are performed as normal.

Scoring

Total each player's points using the score track. Each player receives:

• 2 points for each mine (with or without a black 'closed' marker).
• 1 point for every 3 money (or every 2 money if so modified by a development space).
• Valley points based on the development spaces she occupies.