Torii Valley Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Gameplay
• Contents
• Setup
  • Example objective cards
• How to Play
  • Wheels
• Tiles
• The Paintbrush
• Tile Placement Rules
• Paint Board Spaces
  • Parchment Tokens
  • Seal Tokens
• Seal Effects
• End of Game
• Scoring
• Variant
• Solo Mode
  • Setup
  • How to Play
  • Compare Your Score to Your Opponent's

Gameplay

A game is played clockwise over several turns. You take on the role of Artists and collect Landscape tiles to place on your Paint board. The tiles must be arranged to score Victory Points (VP) through Objective cards and Torii collections. The game ends when an Artist places a tile on the highest row of their board.

Contents

• 4 Paint boards
• 108 Landscape tiles (Bamboo, Cherry Blossom, Mountain, Water, and Village) — ×24 of each fan-shaped tile, ×12 of the Village tiles
• 24 Paper tiles (for the variant)
• 2 wheels (1 big, 1 small)
• 5 Seal tokens
• 1 starting token
• 4 Parchment tokens
• 1 Paintbrush token
• 16 Objective cards (A, B, or C)
• 1 scorepad
• 1 cloth bag

Setup

1. Place the 2 wheels and the Paintbrush token in the middle of the play area.
2. Place all Seal tokens near the play area.
3. Take a number of Parchment tokens equal to the number of Artists and stack them in ascending order, with the highest value on top (5/4/4/3 for 4 Artists; 5/4/3 for 3 Artists; and 5/3 for 2 Artists).
4. Each Artist receives a Paint board.
5. Randomly select 1 Objective card for each type of Landscape: Mountain, Village, Bamboo, Water, and Cherry Blossom. For your first game, we recommend playing with the A Objectives. Return the remaining cards to the box; they will not be used during this game.
6. Shuffle the Landscape tiles in the bag (do not add the Paper tiles used for the variant; see the Variant section).
7. Draw enough tiles to fill the notches of the 2 wheels, one at a time.
8. Then draw one final tile and place it in the middle of the large wheel on the designated space. Finally, place the bag near the play area.
9. The Artist who painted most recently goes first. Give them the starting token.

Example objective cards

The 16 Objective cards use symbols to describe how each Landscape scores. Examples from each Landscape's card set:

• Mountain (card A): 3 VP per Mountain tile alone on a line, or 0 VP otherwise.
• Village (card C): 2 VP per Village tile surrounded by tiles of different types (Village excluded).
• Bamboo (card B): 4 VP per group of 2 Bamboo tiles in an L or line shape; 12 VP per group of 3 Bamboo tiles in the indicated shapes; 20 VP per group of 4 Bamboo tiles in the indicated shape. A group must strictly be in the shapes indicated.
• Water (card B): 4 VP per isolated Water tile touching the sides of the board.
• Cherry Blossom (card B): 3 VP per column with at least 1 Cherry Blossom tile.

How to Play

On your turn, choose one of the tiles available around the wheels, then place it on your Paint board.

Wheels

A tile on the wheels is available if:

• it is on one of the spaces indicated by the arrows,
• or if it is adjacent to an empty space.

As Artists take tiles from the wheels, new tiles become available.

When the last tile on a wheel is taken, immediately refill the wheel with new tiles. Draw them one at a time and place them around the wheel clockwise, starting at an arrow (do not refill the second wheel until it is empty).

The next Artist can then choose a tile from either wheel per the rules above.

Full wheel: All the notches on the wheel are filled. Only the two tiles indicated by the arrows are available.

Partially filled wheel: There are empty notches around the wheel (because of the Paintbrush; see The Paintbrush below). Available tiles are those indicated by the arrows and those beside the empty spaces.

Tiles

There are 5 different types of Landscape tiles: Cherry Blossom, Mountain, Bamboo, Water, and Village.

Select and place these tiles wisely on your Paint board to score Victory Points.

Torii: There are 5 colors of Torii and 7 Torii of each color, distributed differently across the Landscape tiles.

At the end of the game, you score Victory Points (VP) based on the number of different Torii you have collected on your Paint board.

NOTE: You can score points from multiple sets of different Torii. Each Torii can only count toward one set.

Number of different Torii in a set	1	2	3	4	5
VP	0	2	4	7	10

EXAMPLE: At the end of the game, Ophélie has 8 Torii: 1 set of 5 different Torii (10 VP) + 1 set of 2 different Torii (2 VP) + 1 set of 1 Torii (0 VP). She therefore scores 12 VP for all of her Torii.

The Paintbrush

If you place a Bamboo tile with a Paintbrush on your Paint board, immediately take the Paintbrush token and place it on your board. While it is there, it cannot be taken by another Artist.

On your turn, you can use the Paintbrush to take any Landscape tile around either wheel, without restriction! Then return the Paintbrush to the middle of the play area: it is once again available to all Artists.

If you haven't used it, at the start of your next turn, remove the Paintbrush from your board. It still belongs to you; however, it can now be taken by another Artist if that person places a tile with the Paintbrush icon on their board.

There are 7 Paintbrushes among all the Landscape tiles. They appear exclusively on Bamboo tiles. Note that you might not see every tile during a game.

NOTE: If you have the Paintbrush at the end of the game (whether it's on your Paint board or not), you score 2 Victory Points.

Tile Placement Rules

The first Landscape tile you take must be placed on the bottom row of your Paint board. To place a tile on a higher row, it must be fully supported by the tiles below it.

EXAMPLE: The Mountain tile cannot be placed in this spot because it rests on only one tile and is not fully supported.

EXAMPLE: You can place the Mountain tile here, as it rests on 2 tiles and is fully supported.

NOTE: The edge of the board also provides support for tiles. Therefore, 2 tiles are enough to support tiles placed in the left and right columns.

Tiles that touch along any side are adjacent. Two or more adjacent tiles of the same Landscape type make up a group.

Paint Board Spaces

On your Paint board, there are two types of special spaces marked with the parchment symbol and the not-equal symbol.

Parchment Tokens

The tile placed in the middle of the large wheel at the start of the game determines the type of Landscape that allows you to take a Parchment.

If you place a tile of that Landscape on the parchment space of your Paint board, immediately take the Parchment token with the highest remaining value.

It will score 5/4/3 VP at the end of the game.

EXAMPLE: There is a Water tile in the middle of the large wheel. Alexia places a Water tile on the Parchment space of her Paint board and takes the Parchment token with the highest remaining value.

NOTE: If you place a tile of a different Landscape on this space, nothing happens.

Seal Tokens

Your Paint board's second row and fourth row have 3 not-equal spaces. If you place 3 different Landscape tiles in the spaces of the same row, you may take an available Seal token from the middle of the play area. This token must correspond to one of the 3 Landscapes placed on the row. Seals allow Artists to perform special actions, described in Seal Effects, below.

EXAMPLE: Valérie has placed a Cherry Blossom tile and a Bamboo tile on the second row of her Paint board. She then adds a Village tile. Since all the tiles are different, she may immediately choose a corresponding Seal.

Seal Effects

A Seal you own can be used one time. You can collect up to 2 Seals in a game, because there are 2 Seal rows on your Paint board. Return Seals to the middle of the play area as soon as they are used.

WATER: On your turn, before selecting a tile, this Seal allows you to swap the positions of 2 tiles on the same wheel.

BAMBOO: On your turn, this Seal allows you to place a tile on your Paint board with 1 missing supporting tile. Note: You cannot end the game this way.

MOUNTAIN: As soon as a wheel is refilled, you can use this Seal to reserve an available tile (indicated by the arrows) and place it on this Seal. On one of your future turns, you may place this reserved tile on your Paint board instead of taking a tile from a wheel. Return this Seal to the middle of the play area as soon as you place the reserved tile on your board.

VILLAGE: On your turn, instead of taking a tile from a wheel, use this Seal to draw 3 random tiles from the bag. Choose 1 and place it on your Paint board per the usual rules. Return the other 2 drawn tiles to the bag.

CHERRY BLOSSOM: At the end of the game, before scoring Victory Points, return the tiles around the wheels to the bag. Then draw 4 random tiles, choose 1, and replace one of the tiles on your Paint board with it. The tile it replaced (the one you removed) does not count for scoring.

The Cherry Blossom Seal has an effect at the end of the game. Once taken, it is never returned to the middle of the play area. You can collect a Parchment using this Seal (and replacing a tile that got you a Parchment never makes you lose it).

End of Game

The end of the game is triggered as soon as an Artist places a tile on the top row of their Paint board (on one of the darker spaces).

Complete the current round (stop just before the Artist with starting token, which might be immediately after your turn!).

Scoring

Take a score sheet and add up:

• +X VP as depicted on the Parchment you might have
• +2 VP if you have the Paintbrush token
• points scored from the Objectives of each of the 5 Landscapes
• points scored from your Torii collections

Tip: You may remove Torii tiles from your Paint board to form and count your sets.

In case of a tie, the tied Artist with the most Torii painted wins. If still tied, the tied Artist with the Paintbrush wins. If the tie persists, the tied Artists share the victory.

Variant

Discover a new way to play by changing your Paint board using the Paper tiles! Go to the Origames website to find new Paint board templates that you can print and place inside of your Paint board: www.origames.fr/lvdt-variante

Place the Paper tiles on the indicated spaces. These spaces are placement restrictions: You cannot place Landscape tiles there.

The rest of the rules remain unchanged, but all Artists must play with the same board configuration.

You can also agree to create your own boards!

Solo Mode

Take part in the Torii Valley competition and outshine your opponents to show off all your talent as an Artist!

Setup

1. Take 2 Paint boards: one for yourself and one for your virtual opponent.
2. Place the large wheel on its SOLO side. Fill its notches with Landscape tiles and place a tile on the space in the middle of the wheel, just like in a multiplayer game. The small wheel will not be used.
3. Choose Objective cards A, B, or C and place them near the boards.
4. Place 2 Parchment tokens (5/3) near the Objectives.

Seals and the Paintbrush will not be used.

How to Play

Choose tiles and place them one by one on your Paint board, following the usual rules.

If a tile is linked to another by a line, place the linked tile on your opponent's board in the same space as your tile. If the tile is not linked to any other, draw a random one from the bag for your opponent and place it on their board in the same space as your tile.

When the wheel is empty, refill it.

The game ends when you place a tile on the top row of your Paint board. Place the last tile on your opponent's board and total your points to calculate your score.

Compare Your Score to Your Opponent's

Choose your difficulty level. Your opponent receives a bonus added to their score:

• Easy: +30 VP
• Medium: +50 VP
• Hard: +70 VP

If your score exceeds your opponent's, you win the game!