Tessen
Tessen Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Decide the length of the game. A standard game is a match of five rounds, but you may set a greater or smaller number of rounds.
Each player receives a deck of cards. Shuffle your deck and place it face down on the table to your left.
Playing the Game
In Tessen both players act simultaneously. You do not need to wait for your opponent to take a turn!
When you are both ready, say the word "Tessen!" out loud and begin drawing cards from your decks. You may hold no more than 5 cards in hand, but you do not have to refill your hand to five cards before you start playing them. The moment you have five cards in hand, you MUST either play or discard one of the cards before drawing a new one.
Throughout the game you may draw cards from your own deck OR from your opponent's face-up animal discard pile (see the game layout), but remember that you may never hold more than five cards in hand. You may NEVER draw cards from your own animal discard pile.
Animal Cards
Each deck contains an identical set of animal cards, consisting of 8 kinds of cards, 4 copies of each.
Animal cards can be placed in one of five places in front of you, but cards of one kind may be in only one pile, the start of which is determined by the first card of that kind. A place holding one or more animal cards of the same kind is called a pile. Attention! If you accidentally place animals of one kind in different piles, you must immediately combine them into one pile.
When a pile contains three or more animal cards of one kind, you may keep this set by placing it in the score deck to your right. Say "Kept!" out loud to indicate that this pile of cards has joined your score deck. After a set of animal cards has been kept, you may begin collecting a new set in the place that has just been freed. Animal cards in the score pile are out of the game and will bring their owner points at the end of the round.
If you have five cards in hand, you may discard any animal card face up onto your discard pile. Each player discards animal cards so that they end up in the centre of the table slightly to the right of that player - within reach of the opponent. You may NOT discard animal cards from piles on the table.
Warrior Cards
Each deck contains 9 warrior cards and 1 super-warrior card. These cards are used for attacking, defending and yielding.
Game Layout
Each player's area contains: a deck, a warrior discard pile, an animal discard pile, a score pile, and 5 places for animal cards. You may draw cards from the opponent's animal discard pile.
Attack
(A1), (B1) To attack, place a warrior card in front of one of your opponent's piles of animal cards, or in an empty place if there are no cards yet in one of the piles, saying "Attack!". If you are attacked, you MUST IMMEDIATELY respond to it by defending or yielding. The attacker may continue to take other actions!
IMPORTANT! When you are attacked, you CANNOT draw cards, play cards or discard cards until you have answered the attack. If you had ALREADY BEGUN some action when the attack occurred, you must finish the action you started before responding to the attack.
Defence
(A2) When you are attacked, you may defend by saying "Defend!" and placing a warrior card from your hand on top of the attacking warrior.
(A3) Then you must place both warriors (both the attacker and the defender) face up in the common warrior discard pile in the centre of the table.
Yielding
(B2) If you cannot or do not want to defend, you must yield all the animal cards in that place to your opponent. Push the lost animal cards toward your opponent AND place the attacking warrior in their place. No more animal cards may be placed in this place until you clear it.
The animal cards you yielded must be taken immediately by your opponent and placed in one of their suitable places (empty, or holding the same animal cards) OR in their animal discard pile. The opponent may NOT put animal cards lost in this way into their hand.
Clearing
You may clear a place of an enemy warrior by saying "Clear!" and placing a warrior card from your hand on that place. Place both warriors in the warrior discard pile. Now you can again place animal cards in the freed place.
Super-Warriors
These cards show warriors in full battle armour and have a blue fan drawn in the upper left corner. If you are attacked by an opponent's super-warrior, you can defend only with a super-warrior. In all other cases a super-warrior counts as an ordinary warrior, that is, it can defend against ordinary warriors, block a place for animal cards, and be removed from such a place by ANY warrior.
End of a Round
The round ends as soon as one of the players draws the last card of their deck. Say "Tessen!" to let the other player know the round is over. Both players immediately stop playing cards. The players count the animal cards in their score decks; the number of sets does NOT matter, only the number of cards. The player who kept more animal cards becomes the winner of the current round. In case of a tie, the player who drew the last card from their deck, thereby ending the round, wins.
Serving the Shogun: The winner of the round must remove any one warrior card from their deck until the end of the game. The remaining cards are distributed to their respective decks, and a new round begins.
End of the Game
Play until one of the players wins the number of rounds you decided on at the start of the game. In a standard game, the first to win 3 rounds becomes the winner.
Variants
Play with expansions! This game has 2 expansions that you can add to bring something new to it (see below).
Handicap
You may need to even the odds in the game because one of the players is less experienced. Remove one or more warriors from the more experienced player's deck.
Tournament
Quick tournaments can be held in Tessen! Two additional decks may be useful for them, but this is not required. Prepare for battle and play knockout! For example, you can hold a tournament for four at the start of a game night to find out who gets to choose first what to play tonight!
Expansion: Dragon
This expansion can be added to the base game of Tessen.
The Tessen contest became very popular, as civilians stopped dying in bloody wars. For many years people lived in peace and praised the shogun. But one not-so-fine day the ancient dragons awoke from sleep and discovered that the mystical animals in Japan were becoming fewer and fewer. The dragons scattered across Japan to put an end to the Tessen contests and protect the animals at any cost.
Setup
Place the dragon card in the play area between the players. The dragon is ready to come to the animals' defence!
Gameplay
Gameplay remains almost the same, but instead of attacking the opponent or defending, players may say "Attack!" and attack the dragon. Place a warrior card on the dragon card. Warriors placed on it remain there UNTIL THE END OF THE GAME. Warriors are NOT removed from the dragon card at the end of a round.
After each round, the player who has fewer warriors on the dragon card removes 5 animals from their score deck before points are counted. If both players have the same number of warriors on the dragon card, neither player removes animal cards from their score deck. A super-warrior counts as two warriors on the dragon card.
Expansion: Sacred Animal
This expansion can be added to the base game of Tessen.
The people of Japan grow ever more fond of the Tessen contest, but suddenly one of the animal species becomes more prestigious to catch than the others. Each clan tries to send as many warriors as possible to catch these sacred animals. Because of this, the clan leaders decide that sacred animals should be valued higher when determining the winner of the contest.
Setup
Take the sacred animal card and place it in the play area between the players.
Gameplay
During the game, either player may place any animal card from their hand onto the sacred animal card (on top of other cards, if there are any). At the end of each round, the kind of the top animal card on the sacred animal card determines which animal is sacred in the current round. Each card of that kind in both players' score decks is worth 2 points instead of 1. All other rules of the game remain the same.
Animals
Green Pheasant
Also known as the Japanese pheasant. Lives on the islands of Japan. Pheasant hunting is one of the most popular kinds of game-bird hunting. It is considered the national bird of Japan.
Sika Deer
Also known as the Japanese deer. Found in East Asia and a few other corners of the globe. One of the rare species of deer whose spots do not disappear with age. The mainland subspecies have brighter, larger spots, while the spots of the subspecies living in Japan are barely visible.
Japanese Macaque
Also known as the snow monkey, since it lives in areas covered with snow for most of the year. No other primates (except humans) in the world live in such a cold northern climate. Their fur is very dense and thick, which allows them to survive low temperatures.
Japanese Marten
The Japanese marten is omnivorous - it eats almost anything. It lives in tree hollows or empty burrows. According to legend, anyone who dares to kill a Japanese marten will inevitably meet with fire.
Japanese Crane
One of the rarest species of crane in the world. Also known as the red-crowned crane because of the red patch on the top of its head. According to legend, the Japanese crane lives 1,000 years. Unfortunately, their life cycle is in fact much shorter... about 30-40 years.
Red Fox
This well-known animal lives in several places around the globe. Foxes use urine to mark territory. Despite this, they are known to share a burrow with animals of other species.
Japanese Black Bear
Lives on the Japanese islands of Honshu and Shikoku. A subspecies of the Asian black bear. Although these bears are herbivorous, sudden attacks on people are known. In Japanese culture the black bear is traditionally associated with the spirit of the mountains.
Leopard Cat
The Iriomote cat is a subspecies of the leopard cat and lives on the Ryukyu islands. Unlike most other cats, the leopard cat does not have the habit of "playing" with its prey. Having caught its victim, it keeps clamping it in its teeth until it dies.