Snowcrest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Setting up the Game
  • Preparing to Play
• About Buildings, Cards and Gold
• How to Play
  • 1. Activate a Card Already in Your Village
  • 2. Add a New Villager to Your Village
  • 3. Rest
• List of Actions Found on Cards
  • Gain Resources/Scrolls/Omens/Cards
  • Gain Juniper
  • Pay
  • Construct a Building
  • Restock Buildings
  • Veneration
  • Meditation
  • Remove an Omen
• Achievements
• Game End
  • Determining a Winner
• Variant: Playing the Game with the "Basic" Rules
  • Differences When Setting Up the Game
  • Differences to Gameplay
• Variant: Playing the Game Solitaire
  • Adjusting the Difficulty
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • Specific Card Questions...
• Icon Reference Guide

Game Contents

• 1 central cloth mat to hold resources and cards
• 210 Resource tokens (50x Barley, 44x Offering Bowls, 44x Prayer Bells, 36x Juniper, 36x Gold)
• 52 Building tiles (21x Farm, 16x each of Shrine & Forge)
• 51 Scroll tokens
• 24 Omen tokens
• 35 Common Villager cards (with white backs)
• 12 Guardian cards (brown)
• 10 Achievement cards (yellow)
• 6 Forest cards (green)
• 4 Omen tracking tokens (1 per player)
• 4 Rest tokens (numbered 1-4, for the solitaire variant)
• 1 Start Player token

And in the 4 player colours (red, blue, green and yellow):

• 4 cloth player mats
• 56 cards:
  • 4 Starting Villager cards per player (with Starting Card icon)
  • 9 Villager cards per player (with matching backs)
  • 1 Player Aid card per player

Note that Resource tokens are not meant to be limited - If you run out, please use a substitute.

Setting up the Game

Note: Rules for setting up and playing the "Basic" game and solitaire game are found at the end of these rules.

1. First, place the central cloth mat on the table. This mat will be used to "hold" the different cards and resources in the game.

2. Place the required number of Scroll tokens (as shown in the table below), on the Scroll area, placing the rest outside of the play area or back in the box. (Note: These extra Scrolls may be needed for the final round of the game, but should not be touched by players until then.)

   No. of Players	No. of Scrolls
   2	20
   3	25
   4	30

3. Place the Barley, Offering Bowls, Prayer Bells and Gold in their areas below the Scrolls, and the Building tiles (Farms, Forges and Shrines) in the area set aside for them. The black Omen tokens can be left to the side or in the box until needed.

4. Shuffle the Guardian cards. Place them in a face-down deck on their place on the mat.

5. Do the same with the Forest cards, but add 3 Juniper tokens per player on top of the Forest deck (6/9/12 for 2/3/4 players). Place the remaining Juniper tokens in a supply away from the playing area for later. (Note that during the game players can never take Juniper tokens from the general supply, only from the top of the Forest deck.)

6. Shuffle the white Common Villager deck and place it face-down on its space on the mat. Then reveal 5 Villager cards, placing them face-up in a row in the spaces below the deck.

7. Shuffle the Achievement cards and reveal cards equal to the number of players plus 1 (e.g., 5 cards in a 4-player game), placing them in the yellow spaces at the top of the mat. Place the remaining Achievement cards back in the box.

See the image to the right showing how to set up the game. If you are unsure what each component is, please see the list of icons on the back page.

Preparing to Play

8. Each player takes a player mat and a Village deck (13 cards each, designated by their differently coloured card backs), as well as an Omen tracking token and a Farm Building tile. Players must place their Farm tile in the first Building space on their player board, and the Omen tracking token on the designated (0) space of the Omen track (as shown in the image above).

9. Above each player's Omen track is space for a 3x3 "grid" of 9 cards to be placed during the game. This grid will be referred to as a player's "Village" from now on.

   Each player must then find their 4 Starting Villager cards (with the Starter Card icon in the top-left corner). Shuffle them, and place them randomly in the four corners of their Village. Then, each player shuffles their remaining 9 cards and places them in a face-down deck to the left of their player board.

10. Players may keep their Player Aid cards nearby to remind them of the game's main actions.

11. Each player draws a hand of 3 cards from their personal deck to form their starting hands. (Hands should be kept secret from other players throughout the game, but players may always ask how many cards each player has in their hand.)

12. The coldest player will be the starting player, taking the Start Player token (or you may choose this randomly). The token is placed in front of them and will not move during the game.

13. Each player receives a number of Barley tokens depending on player order, and stores them on their player mats. The starting player receives 3 Barley, the second player receives 4 Barley, the third and fourth player (if playing a 3 or 4 player game) receive 5 and 6 Barley respectively.

14. Beginning with the starting player, and proceeding to the left (clockwise), players must use their Barley tokens to "purchase" one of the 3 Villager cards in their hand, paying its cost in Barley (placing spent tokens back in the Barley supply) and placing the card in the central position of their village grids, face-up. If a player does not have enough Barley to purchase the card they wish to "buy," they must move their Omen tracking token to the right (negative) for each Barley they do not have. Players may not choose to gain Omens instead of spending Barley, they only gain Omens if they have run out of Barley and need to pay more.

    (Note: This requirement to gain Omens to pay the difference for a card only occurs during this setup step, and cannot be done during the game.)

Players should now have 5 cards in their Village grid, a variable number of Omens and Barley (if any), and 2 cards in their hands. You are now ready to start the game!

This game was made on Cadigal and Wangal Land.

About Buildings, Cards and Gold

In Snowcrest, players will need to pay Resources to attract new villagers, construct buildings and perform other actions. Most of the time, players will return Resource tokens they had previously acquired back to the supply in order to do so. It is important to know, however, that most cards can be used in place of one or two resources, and the Building tiles all produce one of a type of resource. This means players aren't always certain what a player can or can't afford to do, and likewise, a player is almost always able to do something on their turn! How this functions is described below.

Cards: Villager cards all have similar uses and layout. They can be placed in a player's Village (by paying its cost in Barley), making its action available to that player; or, they may be used as a resource (as mentioned above). Each card shows what resource(s) it may be used in place of (if any) in their top-right corner. Importantly, Villager cards can only be used as resources at the time that resource is needed by the player (i.e., you cannot use cards to gain Resource tokens to stockpile for future turns or actions).

Here is an example of the information found on a Villager:

• Villager name — This card costs 4 Barley to Add to your Village.
• This card can be used in place of up to 2 Juniper.
• This box shows the action this card gives the player when Activated.
• This Villager allows the player to choose one of two different actions.

If a player decides to use a card as a resource while it is face-up in their Village, it is flipped face-down (its action is no longer available). If a card is used as a resource while in a player's hand, it is placed in the player's discard pile (face-up and to the right of their player mat).

Building tiles: Buildings may be constructed during the game with certain Villager card actions. Whenever a building is constructed, take the correct Building tile from the supply and place it on the player's mat in the left-most available Building space. If a player wishes to build a building and they have no Building spaces remaining, they must first return a previously built Building tile to the supply. Building tiles may be rearranged at any time, but there should be no gaps left between them.

Buildings can provide a single resource to the player. To acquire the resource from a building, flip the Building tile face-down. As with cards, resources can only be gained from Buildings at the moment the resource is required to buy a card or perform an action—a player cannot gain resource tokens from buildings to be stockpiled for future turns or actions. Building tiles may only be flipped face-up (to be used again) by certain card actions (explained later).

A Farm produces 1 Barley. A Forge produces 1 Prayer Bell. A Shrine produces 1 Offering Bowl.

Example 1: On his turn, Phil wants to place a Villager card from his hand into his Village. The card costs 4 Barley, but he only has 3 Barley tokens. Phil pays the remaining 1 Barley by flipping one of his Farms to its "used" side. (He could have also used the "Farmer" card already in his Village for its Barley, but he doesn't want to flip that card face-down at this time.)

Example 2: Dierdre performs a Meditation action with 2 Prayer Bells. Phil wants to present more Prayer Bells (and gain a Scroll token), but he has no Bell tokens. Instead, Phil flips his Forge to the "used" side to gain 1 Prayer Bell, and discards the "Priest" card from his hand to gain 2 more Prayer Bells. Now he has 3!)

Gold: Gold is a wild resource that can be spent in the place of any other resource (Barley/Juniper/Prayer Bells/Offering Bowls) at any time!

How to Play

Beginning with the starting player and proceeding to the left (clockwise), each player takes one main action per turn. This main action may trigger card effects that give the player other actions to perform.

On their turn, a player must perform 1 of the following 3 main actions:

1. ACTIVATE a Villager card that is face-up in your Village,
2. ADD a new Villager card to your Village, then Activate it,
3. REST by acquiring resources and turning your Villagers face-up again.

These main actions will now be described in detail...

1. Activate a Card Already in Your Village

• Choose one of the face-up cards in your Village and perform the card's action as listed at the bottom of the card. (The various actions found on Villager cards are listed later in the rules.)
• Then, flip the card face-down.

Villager cards represent the citizens of your Village as they work, learn, live and pray on the mountains of Snowcrest.

2. Add a New Villager to Your Village

• Choose a card from your hand, or from the face-up row of white Common Villager cards, pay its cost in Barley, and add it to your Village, face-up.
• Then, perform the action on the new card.
• Then, flip the card face-down.

(If the new card came from the Common Villager row, replace the card you bought with a new one from the white Common Villager deck.)

The new card being Added to your Village may be placed in any empty space of your 3x3 Village grid, or it may replace a card already in your Village. If it replaces a card from your Village, the card you are replacing must be face-up at the time you Add the new card. If the old card was a Common Villager, place it at the bottom of the Common Villager deck. If the old card was a Villager from your personal deck (including Starting cards), place it in your personal discard pile at the right of your player board.

Note: Starting Villager cards may be replaced in this way, but beginner players should be wary of doing this, as the Starting cards ensure you can perform almost any action in the game. Losing these abilities may have consequences! For advanced players, removing the sluggish Starter cards is all part of the strategy!

Players may never have more than 9 cards in their Village, and Villager cards must always be placed in the 3x3 grid.

Performing this action represents new Villagers joining your neighbourhood. They will add to your community's expertise, knowledge and devotion. Over time they will help you thrive!

3. Rest

If, at the start of your turn, you have three cards in your Village face-down in a row (whether vertically, horizontally or diagonally), you MUST take the Rest action.

Resting has two parts: gathering resources and flipping all of your Villagers face-up.

In detail:

• Look at all the cards in your Village that are still face-up. Receive a resource token for each Resource icon in the top-right corner of these cards.
• Then, flip all the face-down cards in your Village face-up once again. You may not rearrange the positions of cards in your Village, simply flip them all back over so they may be used again on a future turn.

When you Add and Activate Villager cards you must flip them face-down, so deciding when to use particular cards is a big part of the strategy in Snowcrest. Resting affects the tempo of your turns, and the Resources you will be collecting when you Rest are important to consider when planning ahead.

Important: Starter cards work slightly differently to other Villager cards. These cards only gain a player resources when Resting if they are face-down! This is denoted by the Barley icon in their top-right corners being on the back of these cards. Mechanically, this is so players will consider Activating these cards more often. Thematically, this represents Barley growing in your Village over time. (Note: This does not mean that a Starter Villager card can be used to earn 1 Barley by a player and then flipped face-up! The Barley is only earned when you Rest. Only after Resting are all face-down cards flipped face-up to use again.)

Resting one's mind and body is important no matter where you live: whether in a hustling, bustling city, or the frozen fields of Snowcrest. Those who are never still will never find peace.

After a player has completed their main action, play proceeds to the next player clockwise around the table. This continues until the game is over—at the end of the round when the last Scroll token has been claimed (see Game End later in these rules).

List of Actions Found on Cards

After Adding a card to your Village, the action on that Villager card will then be available to perform. No card action is mandatory, but players should complete a card's action in full if they can. If a card offers an action that is impossible (e.g., pay Juniper to place a Building, and the player has no Juniper), the card action will be skipped over, but then the card will be flipped face-down, anyway. Note that this is probably an inefficient way to play!

Following is a list of the various actions that are made available to a player once different cards have been Added to their Village. Also check the icon reference list on the back page ...

Gain Resources/Scrolls/Omens/Cards

Whenever you see one of these icons, simply gain the items in the amounts shown. Sometimes you will need to "pay" something else in order to gain the resources, as explained later.

When an action requires you to gain an Omen: move your Omen tracker to the right (negative). If you are already at the -5 space on your Omen track when you gain Omen(s), gain an Omen token(s) instead (these are worth -1 point at the end of the game and can never be discarded.)

When an action earns you a Scroll token: the Scroll(s) must come from the supply of Scrolls set up at the start of the game. When this supply is exhausted, the game will soon end! Only then may Scrolls be taken from what is left in the game box.

When an action allows you to draw a card: this comes from your personal deck. If your deck has run out when you need to draw, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck. If you do not have enough cards in your deck even after doing this, you simply draw as many as you can to complete the action. If you have no discard pile or draw deck remaining, you will not gain a card.

Gain Juniper

Gaining Juniper works differently to how a player gains the other resources. Any time you collect Juniper, the amount you need to take is taken from the supply of Juniper tokens on top of the Forest deck (not from anywhere else)! If you take the last Juniper token from on top of the Forest deck, reveal the top Forest card and resolve its effects. (You may not choose to collect fewer Juniper tokens than your action indicates to avoid doing this.) Juniper is needed to construct buildings and keep warm in your Village in Snowcrest, but destroying woodland angers the Spirits of the Forest. This means you and your opponents will have negative effects to resolve on the Forest card. You must give up the displayed items to please the Forest Spirit. This can be done by discarding the indicated tokens and cards (including by flipping Building tiles or discarding/flipping cards to use them as resources). Then, you (the active player) will receive the reward indicated at the bottom of the card (gain 1 Scroll token). After resolving it, place the Forest card face-down at the bottom of the Forest deck and fill the new top Forest card with Juniper tokens (according to the player count).

An example of a Forest card:

• Forest Spirit name
• First, you (the active player) must appease the Forest Spirit's curse. (In this case, give up 1 Barley and 1 card from your hand, or gain 1-2 Omens instead.)
• Then, every other player must appease their curse. (In this case, 1 Resource of their choice, or gain 1 Omen.)
• Finally you (the active player alone) gains the Reward (1 Scroll token).

As shown by the icons on the card, players may always take an Omen for each curse they cannot (or choose not to) appease. If you are already at the -5 space on your Omen track when you gain Omen(s), gain an Omen token(s) instead.

Note: If you would have collected more Juniper than is available on the Forest card, take what is available, resolve the Forest card, place it at the bottom of the Forest deck, refill the Juniper tokens on the card that is now on top of the Forest deck, and continue to take Juniper up to the total you are owed.

Pay

Whenever you see an arrow icon on a card, you must give up the resources (by spending tokens, or by flipping cards/buildings or discarding cards from your hand) denoted on the left of the arrow to gain what is on the right.

Construct a Building

Add the indicated Building tile to the left-most open space on your player mat. Usually, this will cost Juniper, but not always. If the icon shown is the "wild" Building icon (the grey icon with the "?"), you may select the Building of your choice to construct. Whenever you gain a new Building tile, it is placed on your player mat face-up (ready to use).

If your building track is full, you may construct a new building by first discarding an existing building tile and sliding all remaining tiles to the left. Building tiles may be rearranged at any time, but you must fill spaces from left to right (don't leave any gaps). If a type of Building tile runs out, that Building is no longer available to the players.

Restock Buildings

Flip all your used Building tiles face-up, back to their active side. Now they may be used again to supply a resource when needed.

Veneration

This action must be taken to reveal the location of hidden knowledge. To do this, players must give an offering to one of the Guardian Spirits that reside in the Snowcrest temples, overlooking the villagers. This action usually costs Offering Bowls.

• Reveal the top Guardian card. At the top-left you will see the offering required by the Guardian. You must give up these items to please the Guardian. This can be done by discarding the indicated tokens and cards (including by flipping Building tiles or discarding/flipping cards to use them as resources). If you cannot (or choose not to) make some or all of the offerings, you must pay the equivalent in Omens as shown beneath each requirement, adjusting your Omen track accordingly. If you run out of spaces on the Omen track (you need to move the Omen tracker beyond -5), you must take an Omen token for each required space you could not move along the track. (Omen tokens count as -1VP at the end of the game. They can never be discarded by the player.) Note that some offerings require you to take an Omen!
• Next, all your opponents suffer a penalty (listed at the top-right of the card), because they have not visited the shrine and have made the Guardian Spirit angry. They must satisfy this penalty just as you did.
• Finally, you alone collect the rewards listed at the bottom of the card. This will be a combination of Scrolls, cards from your deck, or Gold.
• Once these steps are complete, place the Guardian card on the bottom of the Guardian deck, face-down.

An example of a Guardian card:

• Guardian name
• First, you (the active player) must make an offering to the Guardian Spirit. (In this case, discard any 2 Resources and discard any 2 Buildings, or gain 1-4 Omens instead.)
• Then, every other player must appease the Guardian's curse. (In this case, discard 1 card from their hands and discard 1 face-up card from their Villages, or gain 1-2 Omens.)
• Finally you (the active player alone) gains the Reward for making the offering. (In this case, draw 3 cards and take 2 Scrolls.)

Meditation

To find secret knowledge through meditation, you must focus. To Meditate, you must ring Prayer Bells and determine your total meditation effort. To perform the Meditation action, follow these steps:

• Place any number of Prayer Bell tokens you have (and wish to use) off your player mat. Add to this total any Prayer Bells you wish to gain by flipping Forge Buildings, discarding Villager cards from your hand with the Prayer Bell icon(s) and flipping cards in your Village with Prayer Bell icons face-down (you do not have to spend all the bells you have access to). Announce your total meditation effort to the other player(s). If this total includes Prayer Bells gained from cards and buildings you do not have to flip or discard those yet.
• Proceeding to the left (clockwise), each opponent in turn may offer Prayer Bells to demonstrate greater powers of meditation. To be successful, they must pay one more Prayer Bell than you did (discarding these resources and/or flipping/discarding tiles and cards). If they do this, they take one Scroll token from the supply. If they are unable to Meditate with more prayer bells than you (or they choose not to), you collect a Scroll token. Then the next player may attempt to pay more Prayer Bells than your total.
• After everyone around the table has had a chance to have a greater Meditation total, any player (including you) who did not earn at least one Scroll token may keep their Prayer Bells. All players (including you) who earned at least 1 Scroll must now discard their Prayer Bells if they haven't already (including flipping/discarding tiles and cards as needed).

Note: Once the active player announces their Meditation effort total, this number is set for the turn and they cannot add to it later (upon realising another player can offer more Prayer Bells than they had anticipated, for example).

Important: In a 2-player game the player with the highest Meditation total receives 2 Scrolls.

Remove an Omen

For this action, move your Omen tracker the indicated number of spaces to the left (positive). Your omen marker can never exceed the "+5" space. If you earn the ability to remove more Omens than this, the effect is lost. Remember: If you have gained Omen tokens (by going below -5 on your Omen track), these cannot be removed with this action. Players must keep these tokens until the end of the game. They will subtract 1 point from your score.

Achievements

At any time on a player's turn, if they satisfy the goal on one of the Achievement cards that are face-up on the table, the Achievement is flipped over and the player receives the listed award (2 Scroll tokens) from the supply. The Achievement may not be completed by anyone else and is now considered out of the game.

Game End

The game ends at the conclusion of the round during which the last Scroll token was claimed from the Scroll supply. (In other words, if the starting player takes the final Scroll, the other players will have one turn before the end of the round/game. However, if the player to the right of the starting player takes the final Scroll, the game will end at the conclusion of their turn.) Every player will therefore take the same amount of turns. If players need to gain Scroll tokens after the final Scroll has been taken, use the leftover Scroll tokens from the box.

Determining a Winner

To determine the winner, add up your points in the following way:

• Each Scroll token you have collected during the game is worth 1 point.
• Add to this total any bonuses you may have earned from building 6/7/8 Building tiles: 1/3/5 points (as denoted on your player mat).
• Add or subtract your bonus or penalty points from the Omen track (including any collected Omen tokens that are worth -1 point each).
• Finally, players flip over all Villager cards and Building tiles that are still face-up in their Village at the end of the game, and discard any Villager cards still in their hand. Add the resources gained by doing this to any Resource tokens still remaining in the players' personal supplies. (Starter cards will not earn any resources as this is not the same as Resting!) For this end of the game scoring step, do not trigger Forest cards. Simply take all Juniper tokens as needed without effect. Determine which player has the most of each type of resource (Barley, Juniper, Offering Bowls, Prayer Bells and Gold). The player with the most of each type gains 1 point. (If more than 1 player ties for the most of a Resource type, all tied players gain the point.)

The player with the highest total score is the winner! If there is a tie, the player with the most total resources wins.

All the surrounding villages will bow before your great knowledge and thirst for inner peace.

Scoring example: Annie has collected 11 Scroll tokens at the end of the game. She built 7 buildings which earns her 3 points. Unfortunately, her Omen tracker ended on the -1 space, so she loses a point. Annie did not end the game with many resource tokens, but after flipping all her remaining face-up Villagers and discarding her 3 cards in her hand, she is found to have the most Barley and Gold out of all the players, so she earns another 2 points. Annie's final score is 15 points!

Note: if it is too much to keep your running total in your head, simply award players Scroll tokens from the box as each scoring category is awarded.

Variant: Playing the Game with the "Basic" Rules

Instead of using the rules as written above, players may choose to play Snowcrest with the following changes to simplify the game…

Differences When Setting Up the Game

Setup remains the same, except for the following:

• The Guardian cards are not used.
• The Achievement cards are not used.
• Instead of using the entire Forest deck, place one Forest card face-down and fill it with Juniper (3 per player, as usual).
• The amount of Scroll tokens placed in the supply is less: 14/17/20 tokens for a 2/3/4 player game.

Differences to Gameplay

The game remains the same except for the following changes…

• Whenever the Forest card is emptied of its Juniper, the card is not flipped over and resolved. Instead, the player who emptied the card gains 1 Scroll token and every other player gains 1 Omen (moves their Omen tracker to the right or gains an Omen token if they are already at -5 on the track). Then the Juniper is refilled.
• Whenever a player takes the Veneration action (visits the Shrine), instead of resolving a Guardian card, that player gains 2 scrolls and every other player gains 1 Omen.
• Starter cards may not be replaced by other Villager cards.

There are only two rule changes:

• When performing the Meditation action, you earn 1 Scroll token for every 6 Prayer Bells you spend.
• At the end of the game, you do not earn points for leftover resources, just for Scrolls, Buildings and Omens.

Simply take your turns one after the other, choosing one of the three main actions as usual. Use the solo Rest tokens (numbered 1-4) to track how many times you have used the Rest action (flip one each time you Rest).

Variant: Playing the Game Solitaire

Snowcrest may be played by a single player. Set up the game as for a regular multiplayer game, using two Achievement cards and 10 Scroll tokens. Place 3 Juniper tokens on the Forest deck. Take 3 Barley as your starting amount. Remove all "Mystic" Villager cards from the game.

In the solo game, there is no race to complete the Achievements. Simply take 2 Scrolls if and when you complete them. Opponents' Curses on Guardian and Forest cards do not trigger.

To win, you must earn all the Scroll tokens before your Village "Rests" for the fourth time, and have at least 10 points after end game scoring. If you earn the final Scroll before your fourth Rest action, the game ends immediately.

Determine your final score using the table below:

Score	Result
Less than 10 points	BEGGAR - You earned enough Scrolls but had bad Omens at the end of the game! You lose and your Village is cursed!
10 points	FARMER - You won! (...just! There is a long winter ahead!)
11-13 points	SCHOLAR - Congratulations, your Villagers have worked hard and earned a rest.
14-16 points	PRIEST - Your Village has earned renown across the valleys and peaks of Snowcrest!
17-19 points	TERTON - Your fame will outlive you, and your family will be blessed.
20 points	MYSTIC - You have attained inner peace!

Adjusting the Difficulty

These rules are considered difficulty level 1 for the solo game. If you wish to increase the solo mode's difficulty, change the setup as follows. Your win condition changes as the number of Scrolls to earn increases (you must have at least that number of points at the end of the game to win).

Difficulty Level	No. of Scrolls to Earn/Points to Win	Starting Barley
2	11	3
3	12	3
4	13	3
5	13	2
6	13	1
7	13	0
8	14	0
9	15	0
10	15	0 (AND you have to earn all the Scrolls before you Rest 3 times.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use my starting Farm tile or cards with Barley icons in my hand to help pay for my first Villager during setup?

When players select their fifth Starting card during setup, they can only pay for it with their Barley tokens, taking Omens for any Barley they don't have. This is different to when you pay to Add a card during the game!

Can I take the Rest action before I have 3 face-down cards in a row in my Village?

No!

After Resting, do I only flip face-up the cards that were in the face-down row that triggered my Rest action?

No, flip over ALL your face-down cards when you Rest.

Can I use a Starter card that is face-down in my Village to pay for something (using its visible Barley icon) and then flip it back face-up?

No! Once a card is face-down in your Village it is no longer available to you until you Rest and they all get flipped face-up again.

If a Guardian or Forest card's curse requires me to give up a Resource token, can I use a building or card to pay for this?

Yes! (Though sometimes you may have to "overpay" when you do this.) Also, if a curse requires you to pay both a resource and a card (for example), you cannot use the same card to pay for both of these requirements.

If a Guardian or Forest card's curse makes me discard a card can I get the resources depicted on that card's top-right corner?

No! You can only gain those resources at the moment you are paying to place a card, or use an action. You can never gain those resources as tokens to store up for later.

If a card, such as "Nun" lets me take a card from my discard pile and I have no discarded cards, what do I do?

Either choose another action, or spend your turn flipping the card over but without performing an action. Actions may be skipped over... but this could be a wasted turn.

When a Forest or Guardian's curse requires me to pay buildings or a face-up Villager from my Village grid, do I really have to give these up? I worked hard to build these things!

No, you can take an Omen instead :) If you do choose to pay these costs, return any Resources and tiles to the supply. Cards used to pay in this way are sent to your personal discard pile or to the bottom of the Common Villager deck.

If I can't pay off a Guardian or Forest card's curse do I avoid the curse?

No - you always take Omen(s) for curses you cannot pay for.

Specific Card Questions...

How does the Gardener card work?

When performing this action, immediately take 2 Barley from the supply for every face-up Farm Building you have. The Building tiles do not get flipped over.

How does the Merchant card work?

The Merchant allows you to make one trade action, starting at either set of icons depicted, and following the arrows in one direction (left or right) as far as you wish. For example, you might trade 5 Barley for 3 Juniper or for 1 Scroll, or 1 Scroll for 3 Juniper, or 3 Juniper for 5 Barley, or 1 Scroll for 5 Barley. Any items spent or received in this way are taken from, or returned to, their respective Stepping Stone tiles, except for Juniper. Return any Juniper you trade away to the out-of-game supply, but if you use this card to gain Juniper, take it as normal from the top of the Forest deck (which may trigger the top Forest card being turned over).

How does the Officer card work?

The Officer allows you to discard as many cards as you wish from your hand to your personal discard pile, then draw from your personal deck the same number of cards as you discarded. If this causes you to run out of cards to draw, shuffle your discard pile to make a new draw deck.

How does the icon on cards like Poet, Abbot and Great Abbot work?

When the Poet is Added to your Village, Activate it (flip it over) for no effect. If a card like Poet is face-up in your Village at the time you need to pay a curse or make an offering (on a Guardian or Forest card), you may flip it over to avoid paying for one required item of any type. (The Abbot and Great Abbot may also be flipped over for a Prayer Bell, or, their Prayer Bell may be used to pay for a curse as normal, potentially allowing you to cover two items of an offering or curse.)

How does the Recruiter card work?

When this card is Added to your Village, Activate it (flip it over) for no effect. Once the card is face-up again, you may Activate it by removing it (to the bottom of the Common Villager deck) and then Adding any card from your hand or the common row, for free, to its old position. Then Activate the new card.

How does the Scholar card work?

When this card is Activated, turn it face-down as usual, but use the effect on another player's face-up Villager card of your choice. Do not flip the card you are copying face-down, just the Scholar.

In the solo game: When Adding or Activating the Scholar, use an effect on one of the face-up Common Villager cards, then place that card on the bottom of the Common Villager draw deck.

Icon Reference Guide

• Barley - Used to Add cards to your Village.
• Prayer Bells - Used to perform (or compete with) the Meditation action.
• Offering Bowls - Used to perform the Veneration action.
• Juniper - Used to construct Building tiles.
• Gold - Can be used in place of any of the above resources.
• Wild resource - When you see this icon, you may use any of the above Resources of your choice.
• Gain an Omen - Move your Omen tracker one space to the right.
• Lose an Omen - Move your Omen tracker one space to the left. (This cannot be used to remove an Omen token.)
• Avoid a Curse - Decline from meeting the requirements for a single item of any type on a Guardian or Forest card. Do not gain an Omen.
• Scroll - Scroll tokens are worth 1 point at the end of the game. When all Scroll tokens have been collected, the game ends at the conclusion of the current round.
• Draw a card from your personal deck.
• Discard a card - Choose a card in your hand and place it face-up in your personal discard pile.
• A face-up Villager card. A face-down Villager card.
• Starter card - This icon is found on the 4 cards each player starts the game with.
• Farm - Used to provide 1 Barley when flipped face-down.
• Forge - Used to provide 1 Prayer Bell when flipped face-down.
• Shrine - Used to provide 1 Offering Bowl when flipped face-down.
• A Building tile of your choice. (If an action requires a particular type of building to be built, it will show either a Farm, Forge or Shrine.)
• Restock your Buildings - Flip all your face-down building tiles face-up again.
• Meditation - Perform the Meditation action (usually using Prayer Bells).
• Veneration - Perform the Veneration action (usually using Offering Bowls).