Treehouse Diner Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup - Basic Game
• Game Flow
• 1. Go to the Pantry or to the Phone
  • A) Go to the Pantry to Fetch Ingredients
    • Pushing Orders Off the Starting Lane
  • B) Go to the Phone to Accept New Orders
  • Anatomy of an Order
• 2. Assign Ingredients to Orders and Deliver Completed Orders
  • Ingredient Jokers
  • Delivering Orders
• End of the Game
  • Tiebreakers
• Refilling a Shelf Row
• Refilling the Ingredient Bag
• Optional Modules
• Module "Save the Bees"
  • Setup Changes
  • Game Flow
  • Mastering Challenges
• Module "Secret Ingredient"
  • Setup Changes
  • Chili Orders
  • Soup Stew Orders
  • Action Cards
• Symbol Overview

Goal of the Game

As a kitchen helper, take orders from your hungry customers on the phone and snatch the best orders away from the other kitchen helpers!

As soon as you have accepted an order, things have to move fast: you deliver the matching ingredients to the chefs, then the menu is cooked, packed for transport and delivered as quickly as possible by flying squirrel.

Every move has to be right - because if you skillfully pick the right ingredient combinations in the pantry, you can complete your orders faster than the competition. For every finished order you receive satisfaction points, and whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins!

Components

• 6 game boards: 4 kitchens, 1 pantry (with 2 additional shelf columns), 1 phone tray (with 2 additional tray spaces)
• 159 cards: 46 Basic orders (green leaf canopy), 46 Chili orders (orange leaf canopy), 8 Starting orders (blue leaf canopy), 44 Action cards, 15 Challenges
• 98 ingredients: 20 Dandelions, 18 Acorns, 16 Blueberries, 14 Radishes, 12 Mushrooms, 10 Daisies, 8 Chilis ("Secret Ingredient" module)
• 1 ingredient bag
• 4 mood markers
• 22 bees ("Save the Bees" module)
• 1 compost box

Modules: "Secret Ingredient" and "Save the Bees".

Setup - Basic Game

1. Each player takes a kitchen and a mood marker. Place the kitchen in front of you and the mood marker on space 0 of the mood track.
2. Deal each kitchen helper one Starting order (blue leaf canopy) with 4 minutes and one with 6 minutes at random, and place them on your 4-minute and 6-minute kitchen spaces in your kitchen. The remaining Starting orders are put back in the box.
3. Put the ingredients Daisy, Mushroom, Radish, Blueberry, Acorn and Dandelion in the bag and mix them well. The 22 bees and 8 chilis are not used in the basic game. They are put back in the box.
4. Each player draws 3 random ingredients from the bag and places them in their personal supply.
5. Place the pantry in the middle of the table, turned to the side for the basic game. Depending on the number of participating kitchen helpers, add more shelf columns. With three players, add the puzzle piece with the corresponding symbol to the pantry. With four players, you add two shelf columns.
6. Place one random ingredient from the bag on each empty circle of the pantry. The dashed areas show the shelf spaces (there are shelf spaces with 1, 2, 3 or 4 circles).
7. Lay out the phone tray below the shelves and, depending on the number of kitchen helpers, add additional tray spaces (according to the labels on the spaces). For example, with four players all 5 spaces are needed.
8. Take all Basic orders (with the green leaf canopy) and shuffle them well. The orders with the orange leaf canopy belong to the "Secret Ingredient" module; they are not needed for the basic game and stay in the box. Then lay one random order face up on each space of the phone tray and place the stack of remaining orders next to the phone tray.
9. Place the compost box next to the shelves.

Game Flow

Whoever last helped someone cook begins the game. On your turn you always carry out the following 2 phases:

1. Go to the pantry OR go to the phone
2. Assign ingredients to orders and deliver completed orders

Then your turn is over. Play proceeds clockwise until the end of the game is reached. Whoever then has the most satisfaction points wins.

1. Go to the Pantry or to the Phone

Choose one of the two actions:

A) Go to the pantry to fetch ingredients. or B) Go to the phone to accept new orders.

Sometimes you have no choice: If you have no orders left in your kitchen, you must go to the phone and accept new orders.

A) Go to the Pantry to Fetch Ingredients

Be a diligent kitchen helper and fetch the required ingredients from the pantry. But plan ahead, because you can only do this once per turn.

Choose a shelf space whose ingredients you want to put completely into your personal supply. For each ingredient in the chosen shelf space, one minute passes. For each passing minute you must move one order in your kitchen one space to the right, before you may take the ingredients.

The following rules apply:

• The kitchen space onto which an order is moved must be free. Skipping is not allowed.
• Orders can be moved multiple times.
• Orders can also be pushed out of the kitchen (see page 7 - Pushing orders off the starting lane).
• You may not leave ingredients lying in the shelf space. If you do not have enough orders to make the time pass in your kitchen, you must choose a shelf space with fewer ingredients.

If after taking the ingredients a row of the pantry is completely empty, you must refill it and receive a bonus (see page 9 - Refilling a shelf row).

Example: Rita moves one order in her kitchen one space to the right (+1) and another order 2 spaces to the right (+1, +1) = 3 minutes. That means she may take 3 ingredients. She then takes all ingredients from a shelf space, which in this case must contain exactly 3 ingredients, and puts them in her personal supply.

Pushing Orders Off the Starting Lane

If an order lies on the 1-minute kitchen space, you can push it down out of your kitchen. You thereby gain one minute for the pantry visit (and can fetch one ingredient for it), but you also get a complaint. Move your mood marker immediately 1 space to the left.

Place this order on a common discard pile for unfulfilled orders (not on your delivery space) and the ingredients lying on it into the compost box.

B) Go to the Phone to Accept New Orders

The phone is ringing again! Who answers it and takes care of the new orders?

When you go to the phone, carry out the following steps:

1. Choose one of the face-up orders from the phone tray and lay it in your kitchen according to its preparation time. Then immediately carry out the order effects (top right) of the new order (see page 12 - Symbol overview).
2. Then the other kitchen helpers, clockwise, also each take an order of their choice from the phone tray. They too lay the new cards in their kitchen according to the preparation time and then carry out their order effects.
3. Finally, you must take the last remaining order from the phone tray and also lay it in your kitchen (and carry out the effects accordingly).
4. Passing is not possible - when someone goes to the phone, all orders lying on the phone tray must be taken in turn.
5. Now refill the phone tray with new orders from the draw pile.

Note the following:

• All kitchen helpers who received new ingredients through effects may not add them to their orders immediately - this only happens in Phase 2 of their own turn (see below - 2. Assign ingredients to orders and deliver completed orders).
• If the kitchen space matching the new order is already occupied, the order lying there must be moved one kitchen space to the right (to make room). If further cards lie directly to the right of the order already lying there, these must all be moved to the right as well. It can happen that an order is thereby pushed out of the kitchen (if it would have to be moved further right from the 1-minute kitchen space). You must then place this order on the discard pile and all its ingredients into the compost box. You immediately receive a complaint for it (move your mood marker 1 space to the left).

Important: If you go to the phone on your turn, you may not go to the pantry to fetch ingredients in this turn.

Anatomy of an Order

An order card shows: the order effects (top right), the preparation time (top left), the required ingredients (left column) and the satisfaction points (bottom right).

2. Assign Ingredients to Orders and Deliver Completed Orders

After you have in Phase 1 either fetched new ingredients from the pantry or accepted new orders, in Phase 2 you must assign all ingredients available in your personal supply to the orders in your kitchen. You do this by laying the ingredients on matching symbols of your orders.

Do not leave ingredients lying around! All your ingredients that can be assigned to orders must be assigned in this phase. If, for example, a radish can be assigned, you may not keep it for the next round. Only ingredients that cannot be assigned remain in your personal supply and can be used in your next turn.

Ingredient Jokers

You may replace missing ingredients during assignment using an ingredient joker. To do so, lay either:

• 2 Daisies or
• 4 arbitrary ingredients

stacked on the desired symbol of the order.

Who doesn't know it? If you are missing an ingredient to complete an order, simply replace it with 2 Daisies or mix 4 arbitrary ingredients together. The customer surely won't notice... Bon appetit!

Delivering Orders

All orders that are now completely covered are delivered.

To do so, place the ingredients of the delivered order in the compost box and the order face down on the delivery space at the right end of your kitchen. The order was picked up by the flying squirrel and delivered. Congratulations! The satisfaction points on your delivered orders are only added up at the end of the game.

Now your turn is over and the next kitchen helper is up!

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered as soon as a kitchen helper has delivered a certain number of orders. The number depends on the number of kitchen helpers:

Participating kitchen helpers	2	3	4
Delivered orders	8	7	6

Shorten or lengthen the playing time: Before the game you can agree on a different number to shorten or lengthen the playing time.

When the end of the game has been triggered, the current round is played to the end, so that all kitchen helpers have had the same number of turns.

Now add up all satisfaction points (bottom right) on your delivered orders and then add (or subtract) your mood points - depending on the position of the mood marker on your mood track.

Whoever has the most points is the most successful kitchen helper in the Treehouse Diner and thus wins the game.

Tiebreakers

In case of a tie, go through the following list until one of the tied players can decide the game for himself with a higher value:

1. Number of delivered orders
2. Number of unfinished orders in your own kitchen
3. Number of ingredients on unfinished orders in your own kitchen
4. Number of remaining ingredients in your personal supply

Refilling a Shelf Row

As soon as you have taken the last ingredients from a shelf row (all spaces in this row are completely empty), you must immediately refill this shelf row. To do so, place one random ingredient from the bag on each empty circle of the corresponding shelf row.

As a reward for refilling you receive the shelf bonus shown on the left in the corresponding row (see page 12 - Symbol overview).

Example: Ingelis has emptied the last shelf space of the top shelf row and must now refill the shelf row. As a reward she may carry out the "Recycle an ingredient" effect.

Note: All other shelf rows are only refilled when they have been completely emptied.

Refilling the Ingredient Bag

If at any point in the game the ingredient bag is empty, it is immediately refilled with all ingredients from the compost box.

Optional Modules

For the first game we recommend playing without the modules. As soon as you know the rules, you can add the "Save the Bees" module. If you are professional kitchen helpers and want the game to be even trickier, try the "Secret Ingredient" module!

Tip: Combine both modules! The modules "Save the Bees" and "Secret Ingredient" can also be played combined to get the full enjoyment of Treehouse Diner. Note, however, that the playing time is lengthened accordingly.

Module "Save the Bees"

Spring has arrived and sometimes industrious bees stray into the pantry. Help them find their way back to the beehive! In this module you can also accept exciting challenges to show that you are the best kitchen helper in the Treehouse Diner!

Setup Changes

1. Put the 22 bees together with the ingredients into the bag, mix everything well and fill the pantry as usual.
2. Shuffle the Challenges face down. Draw 3 random Challenges each and lay them face up above your kitchen. Remaining cards are put back in the box.

The remaining setup corresponds to the basic game.

Challenge cards (examples): "Manage the stock! You emptied the 1er or 2er shelf row this round."; "Specialize! You have at least 3 identical ingredients in your supply."; "Bring all three together! You have at least 3 orders from different chefs in your kitchen." (Further challenge cards are not reproduced in the rulebook.)

Game Flow

If in the pantry you choose a shelf space containing a bee, you put it into your supply just like an ingredient and in Phase 2 place it centered on an order in your kitchen. If this order is delivered, the flying squirrel brings the bee back to the beehive and you were able to save a bee!

Note the following points during the game:

• Collecting the bees costs you one minute each (just like the ingredients).
• Assign the new bees at the end of your turn to your orders as evenly as possible. Always place new bees only on your orders with the fewest bees.

Example: Jutta has 3 orders and receives 3 bees. At the end of her turn she assigns the 3 bees evenly to the orders, i.e. she places one bee on each order. Later in the game Jutta receives another bee. Since at this point all orders already have the same number of bees, Jutta may choose on which order she puts the bee she just received.

• If you deliver an order on which bees lie, put the bees at the beehive at the top right of your kitchen. You have successfully saved these bees!
• If an order with bees is not fulfilled but pushed out the bottom of the kitchen, the bees, like ingredients, end up in the compost box. They do not come to your beehive.

Note the following points at the end of the game:

• For every bee you saved you receive 1 satisfaction point. However, only those bees count that lie in your beehive at the end of the game. For bees on unfinished orders you receive nothing.
• Whoever has saved the most bees receives an additional bonus of 3 satisfaction points. In case of a tie, all players involved in the tie receive the bonus.

Bees are not ingredients:

• Bees may not be recycled.
• Bees may not be used as ingredient jokers.
• Bees do not go into the soup pot (if you also play with the "Secret Ingredient" module, bees may not be used as ingredients on the plate symbols).

Mastering Challenges

If at the end of your turn (after Phase 2) you have mastered one or more Challenges, you may announce it. To do so, read the text aloud and show the other kitchen helpers how you mastered the Challenge. Turn the corresponding Challenge card over and immediately receive 2 praise, whereby you move your mood marker 2 spaces to the right.

Note that your mood can never rise above +8; surplus praise is lost. It can therefore sometimes make sense not to fulfil a Challenge immediately, in order not to "waste" praise. For this, leave the Challenge lying face up above your kitchen. You can then fulfil it in a later turn to receive the praise only then.

Announcing mastered Challenges always ends your turn. Action cards (from the "Secret Ingredient" module) may not be played afterwards.

Module "Secret Ingredient"

The chili has been discovered as a new ingredient in the Treehouse Diner and your customers are crazy about the fiery-hot taste experience... So make sure you have enough chili in supply, because it can quickly be sold out. In addition there are new exciting orders and with Action cards you can now improve your skills as a kitchen helper!

Setup Changes

1. Build the pantry as in the basic game, but turn it to the side for the "Secret Ingredient" module (chili symbol at top left).
2. Put the 8 Chilis together with the other ingredients in the bag, mix everything well and fill the pantry as usual.
3. For this module you use the Chili orders with the orange leaf canopy instead of the Basic orders (green leaf canopy). Use them exactly as you would use the Basic orders in the basic game, but leave all Basic orders in the box.
4. Before the game begins, shuffle all Action cards (blue back) and place them face down as the Action card draw pile next to the pantry. Each player now draws 1 random Action card from the pile.

The remaining setup corresponds to the basic game.

Chili Orders

Some orders of this module require a special ingredient: the fiery-hot Chili.

Treat the chili like all other ingredients; no special rules apply to it. Note, however, that the chili is a very rare and coveted ingredient, since there are only 8 of it in the ingredient bag.

Soup Stew Orders

In this module you also find new Soup Stew orders with plate symbols instead of ingredients. Here it does not matter which ingredient you use, as long as you adhere to the right mixture. For some soups it is important to use the same ingredient several times. For other soups different ingredients are needed.

Observe the following rules when you lay a Soup Stew order in your kitchen:

• Bees may not be used as ingredients here either.
• Identical plates of one order must be filled with identical ingredients.
• Different plates need different ingredients.
• All ingredients must be placed on plate symbols if they may lie there. Holding back ingredients is, just as in the basic game, not allowed. Only ingredients that cannot be placed on any order may be stored. So it can happen, for example, that you must place a Daisy on an empty order.

Action Cards

You may play Action cards at any time during your turn. They give you one-time special abilities that may help you out of a tight spot.

You may also play several Action cards one after the other in one turn. If you want to play an Action card, read it aloud to all kitchen helpers and carry out the action immediately and completely. Then place the card on a common discard pile for Action cards.

If the Action card draw pile is used up, shuffle the discard pile face down and form a new Action card draw pile from it.

Note: If you use the Action cards and the Challenges (both modules), you may no longer play Action cards after announcing mastered Challenges.

Example Action card: "Take a shortcut! Take 1 arbitrary ingredient or bee from the pantry. Refill the space that became empty."

Symbol Overview

• Draw a random ingredient from the bag and put it into your personal supply.
• All other kitchen helpers each draw a random ingredient from the bag and put it into their personal supply.
• Discard an ingredient from your personal supply and put it into the compost box. If you have no ingredients in your supply, nothing happens.
• All other kitchen helpers must discard an ingredient from their personal supply and put it into the compost box.
• You may recycle an ingredient. If desired, put an ingredient from your personal supply into the compost box and immediately draw a new random ingredient from the ingredient bag. If you have no ingredient in your supply, you cannot recycle. Bees cannot be recycled.
• Receive 1 praise: Move your mood marker one space to the right. If your marker is already on the value 8, your mood cannot rise further.
• Receive 1 complaint: Move your mood marker one space to the left. If your marker is already on the value -8, your mood cannot fall further.
• All other kitchen helpers receive 1 complaint and move their mood marker one space to the left.
• Draw a new order from the order pile and lay it in your kitchen according to the rules. Then immediately carry out the order effects on the new order.
• Draw a new Action card from the draw pile and take it into your hand. If it is your turn, you can already play the new Action card in this turn.
• Move any order in your kitchen 1 space to the left onto a free space (skipping is not allowed). An order lying on the 6-minute kitchen space cannot be moved further to the left.