Tiny Woodys
Tiny Woodys Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Cards
- Woody cards: 92
- Event cards: 20
- Role cards: 6
- Rule cards: 2
Woody cards are divided into six types of Woodys:
- leaves
- mushrooms
- herbs
- minerals
- trees
- forest fruits
Event cards are recognized by the swirl symbol.
Preparations
Sort all the cards, except for the role cards and rule cards, by their backs and shuffle each pile well. The piles represent each season. Lay them out on the game table as follows: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
Then shuffle the role cards and give each player a role card. Each player may only look at their own role card, which they lay face down in front of them. The role card tells you which role you have and which type of Woody you must collect to win. For example, if you have the squirrel role, you must collect 4 different forest fruits: acorn, chestnut, walnut, and so on. There are a total of 6 different forest fruits in the game, but you only need 4 to win. Try to keep your role secret from your fellow players for as long as possible!
Move the spring pile a bit forward so it's easy to see that you're starting with this pile, and leave enough room for the discard pile. Then each player takes 2 cards from the spring pile and places them in his or her hand. The starting player is the last person to have taken a walk in the forest. If you took a walk together, the youngest player starts.
Example setup with three players: each player has hand cards and a role card; the season piles are placed to the side of the table, with the draw pile and the discard pile in the middle.
Playing field
Each player's board is divided into two areas. There is the collection area and the hiding area.
The collection area has 6 free places. This is where you can place your Woodys. The collection area can be influenced by all cards in the game.
The hiding area has 3 free spaces and is the place where you hide the Woodys you want to protect from your fellow players.
Goal of the game
The goal of Tiny Woodys is to be the first to collect 4 Woodys of different types (acorn icon). These can be found in each season and must either be found by the player or swaped from other players.
Gameplay
Players take turns in clockwise order. Each player may perform any two of the following three actions per turn:
- Draw cards
- Place a Woody
- Hide a Woody
Actions may be performed in any order, but not twice. For example, you may "draw cards" and "place a Woody" in the same turn. However, you may not "draw cards" and then "draw cards" in the same turn.
You may also play one event card per turn.
Your turn ends after you take your second action, and you don't want to or can't play any more event cards. Finally, you must check to see if you have too many cards in your hand and discard any extra cards. Each player is normally allowed to keep 4 hand cards in their hand. The discarded cards are placed face up in the discard pile.
When your turn is over, the player to your left takes over.
Tip: To speed up the game, it is recommended to let the next player start his turn already, while you discard your excess hand cards.
Actions
Draw cards
Each player gets to draw 3 cards. Cards are always drawn from the current season pile.
If the season pile is empty, the next pile is used and the discard pile is distributed back to the season piles. Go through the seasons in order. If you go through the winter pile in a game, start again in the spring. Shuffle the season pile before changing seasons.
Place a Woody
To do this, take a Woody from your hand and place it on an empty space at your collection area. If there is no room for an additional Woody at the collection area, the player may return any Woody already at the collection area to the discard pile. Returning the Woody is not an extra action.
Hide a Woody
A Woody must be placed at the collection area before it can be hidden. Take the Woody and place it on an empty space in your hiding area. If you already have too many Woodys in your hiding area, you must return a Woody from the hiding area to the collection area. Woodys in the hiding area are protected from most event cards.
Example "Hide a Woody": an acorn card is moved from the collection area into the hiding area.
Play an event card
Event cards are always marked with the swirl symbol. "Swap" or "Lightning" are such event cards, and they allow you to interact with other players. For example, you can try to prevent them from combining their Woodys, or you can use the event cards to get better access to your Woodys.
Played event cards are returned to the discard pile.
Collect and combine Woodys
If you place a Woody and you already have an identical Woody either in your collection area or in your hiding area, you can combine them. Woodys only unleash their powers when you combine two of them. (page 9)
Combined Woodys take up only one space at the collection area or in the hiding area.
Example "Combine Woodys": Peter already has a combined Acorn Woody in his collection area and a combined Rock Crystal in his hiding area. If you place another Woody of the same type, it will not combine with the already combined Woodys. In this example, Peter places another Acorn Woody. Since he already has a combined Acorn Woody, he must place the new Woody in its own space in his collection area.
Additional powers
Additional powers are always described on the bottom half of the card and come into play (permanent effect) each time a corresponding action is performed:
- +1: The player draws an additional card.
- +2: The player draws two additional cards.
- Arrow icon: The player may lay out one additional Woody.
- Event icon (+1): The player may play one additional event card.
- Paw icon (+1): The player may keep one additional card in his hand.
Tip: You can also use the additional powers of Woodys that you don't actually need to collect. Example: You are the squirrel and you have to collect 4 forest fruits. But you can also lay out the birches, combine them and activate their powers. Use all the powers to get to your goal faster and at the same time hide your role from your opponents.
Remember that your combined Woodys can also be swaped by other players. So try to hide your precious Woodys.
If you swap a Woody and you already have an identical Woody, you can combine them.
Combined special abilities
There are also Woodys that unlock special abilities when combined. This effect can only occur once per Woody and happens immediately.
These effects are indicated by the following symbol: (1x swap symbol)
Card explanation
The example card is a Mushroom-type Woody (the Toadstool). The diagram labels the Woody type, the card name, and the additional powers at the bottom of the card.
- The toadstool has the +1 event symbol, which allows you to play an additional event card.
- In addition, the special effect "Swap a Woody" is marked on the card with the 1x symbol. This effect occurs only once when you combine the Woody.
- This number, on the stone icon, tells you how many times that card is in the game.
- Each Woody is only found in a certain season. For example, acorns are only found in spring, and fool's gold is only found in winter.
The season icons are: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
Example moves
It is Miriam's turn, and she currently has the following Woodys in her hiding area and collection area: in her collection area a Peppermint card and a combined Rose Quartz; in her hiding area a combined Fluoride and a Pine Cone.
Miriam decides to take the "Draw Cards" action. She counts the number of +1 and +2 symbols on her combined Woodys. Both rose quartz and fluoride are combined and each has a +1 symbol. Her pine cone and umbrella mushrooms both have the +1 symbol, but are not yet combined. Miriam can draw a total of 5 cards:
3 (Standard) + 1 (Fluoride) + 1 (Rose Quartz) = 5
After drawing the cards, she chooses the "Place a Woody" action. Unfortunately, Miriam has no combined Woodys with the arrow symbol, so she can only place one Woody. She chooses a second pine cone she drew and combines it in her stock.
Her hiding area and collection area now look like this.
Miriam does not want to end her turn yet and plays the event card "Sun". The "Sun" allows her to look at a player's hand cards and take one of them. She looks at Peter's hand cards and takes one of them. Theoretically, Miriam could even play another event card because she now has a combined Pine Cone with the +1 event symbol.
However, she ends her turn with 7 cards in her hand. She must now return the cards in her hand to the discard pile until she has only the maximum number of cards in her hand. Both the fluoride and rose quartz are combined, and both bear the paw +1 symbol.
This means that Miriam can have a maximum of 6 cards in her hand at the end of her turn:
4 (Standard) + 1 (Fluoride) + 1 (Rose Quartz) = 6
Since she has 7 cards in her hand, she discards one of them and it is her left player Peter's turn.
The collection area and Peter's hiding area look like this.
He decides to start with the action "Place a Woody" and may place 2 Woodys. The combined rock crystal has the arrow symbol, so the number of Woodys he can place increases by one:
1 (Standard) + 1 (Rock Crystal) = 2
He places a porcini mushroom and then an umbrella mushroom. The umbrella mushrooms are combined, and his collection area and hiding area have changed.
The umbrella mushrooms have the Lx (swap) symbol. This means that the special Woody effect "Swap a Woody" will be performed immediately. Peter swaps the acorn Woody at his collection area with the rose quartz Woody at Miriam's collection area. Peter's collection area and hiding area now look like this, and Miriam's collection area and hiding area have also changed.
For his next action, Peter chooses "Hide a Woody", which moves the newly exchanged rose quartz from its collection area to its hiding area.
Since he does not want to play an event card, Peter ends his turn and must go down to his hand card limit. Since the rose quartz has the paw +1 symbol, he can have a maximum of 5 hand cards at the end of his turn:
4 (Standard) + 1 (Rose Quartz) = 5
He only has 3 cards left in his hand, so he doesn't have to discard anything. His turn is over and it is the turn of the player to his left.
Game End
When a player has 4 different Woodys on his board that he or she must collect, that player wins the game. It does not matter if the Woodys are combined or not. If two players reach the required number of Woodys at the same time, they count the number of their combined Woodys. The player with the most combined Woodys wins the game. The second and third place winners are the players with the second and third most Woodys of their type.
Expert mode
If you are familiar with the game and want a greater challenge, increase the number of Woodys needed to 5. The game becomes more strategic, but also takes longer.
Event cards
The following list should help you get an overview of the event cards and their effects. Look here if you are not sure how a particular event card works during the game.
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Swap: This event card allows you to swap a Woody from your collection area with another player's Woody. You can only swap Woodys with other players that are in their collection area. You can also swap combined Woodys. When swapping, all combined Woody cards count as one card.
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Sun: The sun allows you to look at a player's hand cards and take one of those cards. The other players are not allowed to see the hand cards.
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Gust of wind: When you play this event card, you can move a Woody from its hiding area to the front of the player's collection area. Gust of wind is one of the few cards that can also interact directly with Woodys in their hiding area. If the player runs out of room for this Woody in his collection area, you must move another Woody from that player's collection area to his hiding area. The gust of wind can also be used alternatively to move one of your own Woodys to the hiding area (see also the Hide action).
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Rain: When a player plays rain, each player must place all of their hand cards on the discard pile. Then each player (starting with the player who played the Rain) may draw 2 new cards from the current season pile.
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Snow: For the snow event card, each player must select 3 cards from his hand and pass them to the player to his right. If a player has less than 3 cards in his hand, he must pass all of his remaining cards.
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Storm: The storm card is only once in the game and can really mess up a player's collection area and hiding area. When you play this event card, choose one player. That player must move all of his Woodys from his hiding area to the front of his collection area. If he doesn't have enough room, he must move other Woodys from his collection area to his hiding area.
Special Woodyeffects
Woodys can have the following special abilities. These will take effect exactly once when the Woodys are combined:
- Toadstool: Swap a Woody with another player. The same is true for umbrella mushroom and fool's gold. See also event card Swap.
- Oak leaf: The Oak Leaf allows you to view another player's Role card.
- Witchweed: You may search a season pile of your choice for a card and put it directly into your hand. The same is true for chestnut or morel. See also event card dig.
- Fir needle: When the fir Needle or fir is combined, you may swap two Woodys between two players of your choice. You can also swap your own Woodys. The same is true for fir.
- Maple leaf: When the Maple Leaf or Hazelnut is combined, you may immediately draw 4 additional cards. The same is true for hazelnut.
- Oak: A combined Oak allows you to return one of a player's placed Woodys to the discard pile. See also event card lightning strike.
- Clover: Once you have combined the Clover or Chanterelle, you may look at a player's hand cards and take one of them. The other players are not allowed to see the hand cards. The same is true for chanterelle. See also event card sun.