Trollland Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• Turn Structure
  • Secret Choice
  • Troll Tales ("Histoires Trolles")
  • Banishment ("Les bannis")
  • What happens if the chosen cards cannot be placed under the loading rules?
  • Example: loading the Zoms
  • Special Symbols on Loaded Cards
  • Example: loading the Bimbos
  • What happens when a vehicle is complete?
  • End of Turn
• End of Game and Scoring
  • Example: Final Score
• FAQ
• Player Aid (Troll Powers)

Components

• 110 cards in total, made up of:
• 90 "People" cards (green back), distributed as follows:
  • 10 "Troll" cards ("haut TROLL"), numbered 1 to 5, 2 copies of each
  • 16 "Bimbo" pest cards, numbered 0 to 15
  • 16 "Zom" pest cards, numbered 0 to 15
  • 16 "Zelf" pest cards, numbered 0 to 15
  • 16 "Nin" pest cards, numbered 0 to 15
  • 16 "Gob" pest cards, numbered 0 to 15
• 14 "Vehicle" cards (brown back), each with 1 cage (carts), 2 cages (caterpillar tracks) or 3 cages (dragons). Each cage can hold 1 to 4 people.
• 5 "Bonus" cards (yellow back)
• 1 "Departure Dock" card (double-sided)

Note: the numbered cards 1 to 15 represent the characters of each people, while the cards numbered 0 represent their companion animals!

Note: the printed rulebook's component heading for the Vehicle cards carries a crossed-out joke wording ("charters", corrected to "Véhicules" in the printed text); the English heading here is "Vehicles".

Setup

• Shuffle the Vehicle cards, place 5 of them face up (1) and make a face-down draw pile with the rest (2).
• Shuffle the Bonus cards, reveal the first 2 (3) and return the others to the box. (These two cards designate the peoples that award a bonus to the player who has banished the greatest number of characters from them at the end of the game.)
• Shuffle the People cards carefully and deal 5 to each player (4). Make a face-down draw pile with the remaining People cards (5).
• Departure dock: place the Dock card as shown in the example (6), then draw the first People cards and place them face up in the centre of the table, near the vehicles, to form a departure dock, until 5 pest cards have been revealed (7). If Trolls were revealed in addition to these 5 pest cards, remove them from the dock and shuffle them carefully back into draw pile (5).

Example set-up for 4 players is shown on the printed sheet.

Playing the Game

The players look at the cards that were dealt to them. Then, on each turn, they simultaneously select two cards from those in their hand. These cards are then revealed, people by people, to gradually fill the vehicles ready at the departure dock with the characters banished from TROLLLAND.

Be careful: a vehicle generally only leaves when it is completely full, and all the merit (that is, the full total of the corresponding zeal points) goes to the player who manages to make it leave by placing the last character on it.

... And so on, until there are no longer enough vehicles at the departure dock.

Turn Structure

Secret Choice

Each player selects 2 cards from their hand and places them face down in front of them.

Important: the King of the Trolls (1) cannot be selected together with another Troll!

Troll Tales ("Histoires Trolles")

The players reveal the Trolls they may have selected this turn. The special powers (described on the back of this rulebook) are applied immediately, in increasing order of number, then the cards are discarded.

Note: when the effects are resolved, if several Trolls of the same number have been played, they are simply discarded without their effect being applied.

• Example 1: the effect of Troll 2 is applied first. Then the two Trolls 4 are discarded (they cancel each other out).
• Example 2: the effect of Troll 1 is applied first: it captures the 3 other Trolls. The effects of the captured Trolls are not applied.

Banishment ("Les bannis")

The other peoples are then called in turn to be banished, in an unchangeable order:

Bimbo > Zom > Zelf > Nin > Gob (the famous Troll alphabetical order)

The loading related to one people is completed before the next people is called.

When a people is called, the players reveal the card or cards of that people present among the two cards they selected for this turn. These cards must be placed into the vehicles one by one, starting with the card of smallest number and then in increasing order of numbers. Players must respect the following loading rules:

• In one vehicle, there are 1 to 3 cages, each of which can contain from 1 to 4 cards.
• In one cage, there can only be pest cards of one same people (same colour).
• In one vehicle, two different cages must necessarily hold pest cards of different peoples (different colours).

Once all the cards of one people have joined a vehicle or a refugee camp, the next people is called, and so on until all the cards selected at the start of the turn have been played.

What happens if the chosen cards cannot be placed under the loading rules?

Dura lex, sed lex: because of the drastic loading rules, it sometimes happens that pest cards cannot be placed in the vehicles present. In that case, the players take back, face down in front of them, the cards that are impossible to place, forming a refugee camp (called the Trollgat). Each card stored this way scores 2 Malus points at the end of the game.

Example: loading the Zoms

Example: it is time to load the ZOMs, and only 2 vehicles remain available. Player A, who played the card of smallest number, boards and chooses to place his card on the Dragon, in the cage that holds only one card. That cage is now full. Since a vehicle may not hold cards of the same people in different cages, players B and C are obliged to welcome their Zom into their refugee camp.

Special Symbols on Loaded Cards

What happens if a player loads a card bearing a particular symbol?

These cards trigger an effect when they are loaded:

• Circular-arrow symbol: forces the player to immediately load an additional Bimbo, Zom, Zelf, Nin or Gob card from their hand, then draw a replacement card. If this pest cannot be placed while respecting the rules, it joins that player's Trollgat. If that player has only Trolls in hand, they reveal their hand to their opponents and the effect is not applied.
• Question-mark symbol: the player has the choice, EITHER to load this card normally, OR to place this card on the departure dock (see set-up) and load in its place any other card present on that dock (while of course respecting the loading rules).

Example: loading the Bimbos

Example: it is time to load the BIMBOs. The player who played the BIMBO bearing the question-mark symbol has the choice:

• A: either load it into one of the two free cages of the Dragon;
• B: or place the BIMBO on the Dock and load instead another character present on that Dock. Here, for example, this may allow them to finish filling the Caterpillar vehicle and therefore earn the corresponding zeal points.

What happens when a vehicle is complete?

As soon as a vehicle is full, it leaves the country, and the merit goes to the zealous player who managed to place the last pest card in it. That player places face up in front of them all the cards present in this vehicle:

• Pest cards: they make one pile per colour, always keeping the card of highest number on top. If they later recover other cards of the same people, they add them to that pile, taking care always to place the card of highest number on top of the pile.
• The number of suitcases on the highest-numbered card represents the number of zeal points obtained for that group.
• Vehicle cards: they are stacked, each shifted so that all the medals they carry remain visible.
• Each medal scores one additional zeal point at the end of the game.

End of Turn

Each player draws two new cards.

If 2 or fewer vehicles remain face up, the first cards of the "vehicles" draw pile are revealed until there are again 5 available on the table.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends at the end of a turn when there are no longer enough vehicles to rebuild a row of 5.

Bonus cards: for each of the two peoples designated at the start of the game, the player who owns the most cards of that colour receives the bonus. In case of a tie, the player holding the card of lowest number wins.

Zeal points: for each pile of cards they have in front of them, players score a number of zeal points equal to the number of suitcases shown on its highest-numbered card.

Warning: the Troll administration particularly rewards those who succeed in sending individuals off together with their companion animals. For each colour, the player who holds the card numbered 0 has their score in that colour doubled!

Medals: to the score thus obtained, players add one point for each medal they possess (medals are found on vehicle cards, on captured Troll cards, and on bonus cards).

Refugees: finally, players who have refugees in front of them lose 2 points for each refugee card.

The player with the highest total is named Minister of National Ugliness (Ministre de l'Hideosité Nationale).

Example: Final Score

The printed example shows a player's final score:

• Refugees: 3 cards = -6 points
• Captured Trolls: 4 medals = 4 points
• Vehicles: 4 medals = 4 points
• ZOMs: 2 suitcases + Zom companion animal (x2) + Zom bonus (3 medals) = 7 points
• ZELFs: 2 suitcases = 2 points
• NINs: 3 suitcases = 3 points
• GOBs: 2 suitcases = 2 points

Total = 16 zeal points

FAQ

• Can a player have more than 5 cards in hand? Yes. If a player plays a TROLL of value 1 and chooses the action of drawing cards, they will therefore end the game with one extra card in hand.

• Suppose 3 TROLLS are played, of values 1, 1 and 3. What happens? The two TROLLS 1 cancel each other out and are discarded without effect. The player who played the TROLL 3 applies its effect.

• What happens if there are no longer enough cards to deal 2 to each player at the start of a turn? In that case, the game ends and the players calculate their scores immediately.

Player Aid (Troll Powers)

The printed player aid, on the back of the rulebook, summarises the turn structure and the powers of the Troll cards.

1. Secret choice: select 2 cards, face down.

2. Troll Tales: reveal the Trolls and apply their effects. Trolls are resolved in increasing order of number.

• King of the Trolls (1): cancels and imprisons all the Trolls played this turn (on a technicality of form). The player makes a pile in front of them with the imprisoned Trolls, offset so that the medals remain visible. Each medal gives 1 zeal point (so 1 additional victory point) at the end of the game. OR draws 3 cards, adds them to hand, then discards 2 cards from hand, which they shuffle into the draw pile.

• Express Troll (2): immediately expels one pest card present on the dock (this card joins the pile of the corresponding colour in front of the player). OR transfers the entirety of their refugee camp to an opponent.

• Troll 3: steals from an opponent the first card of a pile of at least 2 cards.

• Troll 4: steals from an opponent all the cards of a pile of at least 2 cards, except the first.

• Troll 5: immediately makes depart the vehicle of their choice, even if it is incomplete. The player is awarded all the corresponding zeal points (they place the vehicle card and pest cards in the appropriate piles in front of them).

3. The banished ("Les bannis"): boarding of the peoples in the following order, each from the smallest to the largest number:

1. BIMBOs
2. ZOMs
3. ZELFs
4. NINs
5. GOBs