Tang Garden: Ghost Stories
Tang Garden: Ghost Stories Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Game Rulebook
- 20 Garden Tiles
- 2 Large Landscape Tiles
- 2 Small Landscape Tiles
- 5 Decoration Cards in 5 different languages
- 3 Decorations
- 4 Spirit Animal Boards
- 4 Spirit Animal Markers
- 4 Character Cards in 5 different languages
- 4 Character Miniatures
- 1 Fox Spirit Token
- 1 Scenario Die
- 1 Engineer Metal Token
- 8 Large Landscape Tokens
- 8 Small Landscape Tokens
- 24 Lantern Tokens
- 4 Solo Lantern Tokens
- 1 Drawstring Bag
Landscape Tiles
Before Set-up: Add all 4 additional Landscapes to every scenario.
Phoenix: The Phoenix icon on the Landscape can be considered as any Landscape icon and gives coins based on the preferences of the Character that sees it.
Ghost Village: Replace a Landscape tile already in play with a Ghost Village, then remove the replaced tile from the game.
Desolate Land: This Landscape tile has no Landscape icons.
Special Garden Tiles
Haunted Temple: The edge does not need to match the edges of the adjacent tiles when placed. Additionally, all edges of the Haunted Temple enclose terrains. When placed gain one coin + one track advancement of your choice in the player board for each adjacent footpath.
Decoration Cards
Decoration Card Iconography: Icons on decoration cards are scored at the end of the game.
Cat: At the end of the game put the Cat card on your Character card to cancel the effects of the Demon. Gain 1 coin.
Spectral Tree: All decorations in a Character's line of sight lose their value if placed in the 8 tiles around the Spectral Tree. Note: The Spectral Tree counts for the base game Tree set collection.
Scenarios
Roll the die to select a random scenario to play.
The following scenarios have been tested, but the rules can be mixed and matched.
To create your own set-up follow the instructions and advice in the Craft Scenario section.
七 Scenario: Dusk in the Garden
- Tiles: Draw 15 tiles per type among all of the available tiles, discard the other tiles without looking at them.
- Decorations: Add Butterfly, Duck, Cat, Spectral Tree.
- Characters: Add Princess, Geomancer, Demon and Ghost Soldier.
- Lanterns: Four lanterns, shown as icons in the scenario table (the booklet does not name them in text). They must all be switched off at the beginning of the game.
八 Scenario: Uninvited Guest
- Tiles: Draw 15 tiles per type among all of the available tiles. Discard the other tiles without looking at them. Place one of the two cat figurines on the unoccupied character spot. Remove the other cat from the game.
- Decorations: Add Sancai Vase, Bonsai, Ninfea and Spectral Tree.
- Characters: Add Emissary, Tao Priest, Fox Spirit and Ghost Soldier.
- Lanterns: Use all 4 base game lanterns.
- *You can use the "Character Move" lantern to move the Cat on any available space on the board (but you do not get the 2 additional coins).
- Special Rules: Players have the option to move the Cat figure onto a new available space after the main action, getting 2 coins. To move the Cat there must be an unoccupied Character spot on the last placed Garden tile or the last placed Decoration (Bridge or Pavillion) and it must be in a straight line with the current Cat position. The spot occupied by the Cat cannot be occupied by Characters at the same time.
九 Scenario: The Haunted Temple
- Tiles: Draw 15 tiles per type among all of the available tiles. Discard the other tiles without looking at them. Make sure that the Haunted Temple is among the Tao tiles.
- Decorations: Add Cat and Spectral Tree.
- Characters: Add Fox Spirit, Ghost Soldier, Demon and Medium.
- Lanterns: Use all 4 base game lanterns.
- Special Rules: It is possible to draw face-down Garden tiles. If a face-down Garden tile is drawn, it must be placed in the garden, otherwise the player will have to remove the tile from the game and skip its turn. When the Medium is taken by any player, reshuffle the Characters, excluding Spirit Characters on display so that all the remaining Spirit Characters are on top of the pile. Draw cards to fill the display if needed.
- Final Scoring: At the end of the game, all Spirit Characters on the 8 tiles surrounding the Haunted Temple gain 2 coins.
Imperial Palace Scenario
Tiles: Draw 13 tiles per type among all of the available tiles. Discard the other tiles without looking at them. Add 4 Palace tiles to each corresponding pile, so that each pile is composed of 17 tiles. Shuffle each pile. Place the Spirit Animal boards around the game board. Start by placing the Azure Dragon Spirit Animal board in front of the first player. The first player indicates the east, where the sun rises. Proceed placing the rest of the Spirit Animal boards in clockwise order, following this sequence: The Vermilion Bird (south), The White Tiger (west), Green Turtle (north). Place all of the Spirit Animal markers on the first step of their respective path (first on the left).
Decorations: Add Cat and Spectral Tree.
Characters: Add Demon, Ghost Soldier, Medium and Fox Spirit.
Lanterns: Use the following 4 lanterns, shown as icons (the booklet does not name them in text).
When a Palace tile is picked, players have two possible actions:
- Advance 1 step on the Spirit Animal board corresponding to the symbol on the tile. Place the tile in front of you to begin building the Palace. Later, you may add new tiles to continue building the Palace, matching one gold or wood side. Each player may have a maximum of 4 palace tiles, and they must be placed in a grid of maximum 2x2 tiles. IMPORTANT: If a Spirit Animal marker must advance 1 step forward on its board, being already at the end of the path, the Spirit Animal gets discarded from the game, losing its ability.
- Discard the palace tile from the pile and choose one of the two Spirit Animal boards adjacent to the pile to advance 1 step forward with a Spirit Animal marker. Finally, get 1 coin.
After picking or discarding a Palace tile, players may spend 3 Landscape tokens (4 Landscape tokens in a 2-player game) to advance 1 marker on any Spirit Animal board.
Final Scoring: According to where the Spirit Animal marker is standing at the end of the game, each player will get additional coins. The Blue Dragon will score coins for each complete Wood icon on your Palace, the White Tiger will score coins for each complete Gold icon on your Palace; while the Vermilion Bird will score for each of your remaining active Lanterns, and the Green Turtle will score for each Bridge icon on your Decoration cards.
Note: the set-up text names the Azure Dragon board, while the final scoring text names the Blue Dragon. Both are printed this way in the booklet and are transcribed as printed; they refer to the same Spirit Animal board.
Imperial Palace: Board Set-Up
[Diagram of the Imperial Palace board set-up, with the Spirit Animal boards placed around the central board. Not transcribed; the placement is described in the Imperial Palace Scenario text above.]
Imperial Palace: Complete Palace (4 Palace Tiles)
[Diagram of a completed palace of 4 Palace tiles.] The diagram's symbols are numbered:
- White Tiger symbol
- Vermilion Bird symbol
- Green Turtle symbol
- Azure Dragon symbol
- Complete Gold icon
- Complete Wood icon
Imperial Palace: Vermilion Bird track
[Diagram of the Spirit Animal track, numbered 1 to 4.] The track is numbered:
- The Vermilion Bird will score for each of your remaining active Lanterns
- Spirit Animal icon
- Spirit Animal marker
- At the end of the game each active Lantern will score 2 coins.
Craft Scenario
Tiles: Always use between 14 and 17 tiles per type, or from 16 to 17 tiles if you wish to play with the Imperial Palace tiles, you must also include the Spirit Animal boards. You can include the Haunted Temple freely.
Characters and Decorations: Always include the Ghost Soldier. Cat and Demon must be added or removed together, and can never be separated. Medium, Fox Spirit and Spectral Tree can be added or removed independently, based on how much interaction you desire in the game.
Lanterns: Make sure to play with four Lanterns if you want to play with the Medium and/or the Demon, and especially if you are playing with the Imperial Palace. The "character/landscape choice" and the "character exchange" Lanterns ensure more interaction between players. Two lantern icons are pictured in this section and are not named in the text.
Landscape Tiles: Always play with all of the landscape tiles from Ghost Stories, but remove the Ghost Village from the game if you dislike direct interaction.
Spirit Characters
Demon
Character Skill: All the other players will need to pay you one coin to refresh exhausted Lanterns. If the player is unable to pay, the lanterns can't be refreshed. If players use the Butterfly ignore this Character Skill.
Sight Preference: Gain six coins. When the Demon infests the garden all Characters lose one coin, or three coins if they are in his sight line, unless they have a Cat. This power is only valid for characters influenced by other players.
Fox Spirit
Character Skill: The Fox Spirit token can be placed on any Character influenced by any player, acquiring its skills and sight preference.
Medium
Character Skill: Gain one coin every time a player (including yourself) uses the special ability of a Lantern.
Sight Preference: Gain eight coins. All characters surrounding the Medium in a perimeter of 8 tiles lose one coin.
Soldier
Character Skill: Once per turn the player can spend a coin to eliminate a Decoration from the board, removing it from the game without affecting the score of the player who placed it. Decorations with Characters on them, cannot be removed.
Sight Preference: Gain three coins if the Ghost Soldier does not see any Wall icon in the active Landscape. Gain seven coins if the Ghost Soldier sees at least 1 Wall icon in the active Landscape.
Note: the small card-value icons printed beside the Soldier heading are images and are not transcribed.