Voice of the Woods
Voice of the Woods Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 110 tree cards (including 12 starting cards)
- 90 player cubes (18 each in 5 colors)
- Note sheets of the voice of the woods
- Sand timer (1 minute)
- 5 pencils
- Druid staff card
Game Setup
Each player chooses a color, then takes the cubes of that color, a note sheet and a pencil. Put the remaining cubes (if any) back in the box; they are not needed in the game. In a 2-player game each player needs 14 cubes, in a 3-player game 16 cubes, and in a 4- or 5-player game all the cubes.
Form the playing field. To do so, take the 12 starting cards with the light back (in a 2-player game do not use the 4 cards marked with a mark on the back), then add to them 4 random cards with the dark back in a 2- or 3-player game, 8 cards in a 4-player game, and 13 in a 5-player game. Shuffle the resulting deck, then lay out the cards to form a playing field of the following size:
- 2 players: 3 rows of 4 cards;
- 3 players: 4 rows of 4 cards;
- 4 players: 4 rows of 5 cards;
- 5 players: 5 rows of 5 cards.
After playing the first few games, you may change the ratio of starting and ordinary cards during setup as you see fit.
Shuffle the remaining tree cards and form a stack from them. Then stand the druid staff card upright next to this stack and put back in the box the cards that exceed the line for your number of players. Place the resulting deck face down next to the playing field and leave room for a discard pile.
The first player is the one who last touched the bark of a tree. Give this player the sand timer; it also serves as the first player marker.
Game Round
The game is divided into rounds, each consisting of 4 phases:
- Composing words
- Placing cubes
- Checking control
- Refresh
1. Composing Words
The first player turns over the sand timer, starting a 1-minute timer. Before the time runs out, all players must compose a word from the letters located on the playing field and in front of them, and write it on their sheet. Try not to show which word you are writing.
Conditions for composing words:
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It must be a common noun in the nominative case and singular number (or plural, if the singular of that word does not exist);
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Each letter on the field and in front of the player may be used only once. If there are several identical letters on the field, each of them may be used;
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You may not repeat words (your own or other players') from previous rounds if they did not violate the conditions for composing words. During a single round, words may coincide.
However, you may use a word that was written in previous rounds but not accepted because it violated the conditions for composing words. For example, a player wrote the word "ЯСЕНЬ" (ash tree) but did not notice that the letter "Н" is not on the field. This word is not accepted in this round, but if in later rounds the conditions for this word are met, "ЯСЕНЬ" may be used.
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Homonyms are considered the same word when composing (for example, "замо́к" and "за́мок", or "коса" as a tool and "коса" as a hairstyle).
2. Placing Cubes
First, the players simultaneously reveal their sheets and, starting with the first player, take turns reading the written words aloud.
Then, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, the players place their cubes on the tree cards with the letters of the words they composed. On a turn a player may not place more than 1 cube on one card. If the player already has a cube on the card from previous rounds, they may use that letter without adding a new cube, or may add one; the decision is up to the player.
If a player did not come up with a word within 1 minute or did not meet the conditions for composing a word (for example, used letters that are not on the field, or made a spelling mistake), then instead of the usual placing of cubes on letters they must place 1 of their cubes on any face-up tree card on the field.
EXAMPLE. The purple player composed the word "ЧАЩА", blue wrote the word "ЛАК", red wrote "ЛЕС". The purple player places cubes on the letters "Ч", "А", "Щ" and "А", then blue on "Л", "А" and "К", and then red on "Л", "Е" and "С".
Tip: it is better to place cubes so that they do not cover the letters.
In the course of the game a situation may arise in which all of a player's cubes are already on the field, and they need to place a cube on a tree card to use a letter. In this case the player may move their cube from any other tree card, even a face-down one. If the letter on a card was used to compose a word this turn, at least one cube of this player must remain on it at the end of the placing phase.
3. Checking Control
For each of the cards on the field, check the following conditions:
- The number of cubes of one player is equal to 5, OR
- The number of cubes of one player exceeds the number of cubes of each other player by 2 or more.
If a player meets at least one of these conditions, they are declared the Leader on this card. They take it from the field and lay it in front of them face up, and all the cubes from this card return to the players' supplies. In its place on the playing field the Leader lays a new card from the top of the deck face down and may place one of their cubes on it. If the deck is empty and you need to lay a card face down, take the top card from the discard pile.
EXAMPLE. In this round the purple player will take the cards "Ч" and "Щ", blue the card "К", and red the card "Н". New cards will be laid face down in the places of these cards.
If a group of 3 face-down cards with cubes of one player forms on the field, this player is declared an Elder. The cards in this group must be adjacent to each other vertically or horizontally. The Elder may return all their cubes from these cards to their supply in order to take a card from the top of the deck and lay it in front of them face down. This card cannot be used when composing words, but it will be useful when counting points.
EXAMPLE. The purple player may take their cubes from 3 adjacent tree cards and receive for it a card from the deck, which will bring a victory point at the end of the game.
A player may use the face-up tree cards lying in front of them to compose new words in phase 1, but no more than 2 such cards at once (even if the player has more), and they do not need to place cubes on them in phase 2.
If on any card there are simultaneously 5 cubes of at least two players, then all the cubes from this card return to the players' supplies and the card is turned face down. Nobody places a player cube on it.
4. Refresh
Check whether the end-of-game conditions are met:
- The tree deck has run out, OR
- The number of face-up cards on the field at the beginning of this phase is less than twice the number of players. For example, fewer than 4 cards for two players, fewer than 6 cards for three players, and so on.
If at least one end-of-game condition is met, proceed to determining the winner.
If the game is not over, the first player takes 3 cards from the top of the tree deck, or, if fewer than 3 cards remain in the deck, takes all the remaining ones. They choose one of them and lay it face up in any part of the field so that at least one side of the card borders one side of any other card. The other cards are discarded face down.
In addition, if in every vertical row or in every horizontal row there is at least one face-down card without a cube, the first player may remove one such card from each of these rows to the discard pile, and then close up the field so that no gaps remain between the tree cards.
EXAMPLE. In every horizontal row there is at least one face-down tree card without cubes. These cards are sent to the discard pile, and the field is closed up.
The sand timer is passed to the next player clockwise, who becomes the new first player. The current round ends.
Determining the Winner
Players count all the tree cards in front of them, including those lying face down. The player who collected the most tree cards is declared the winner and becomes the High Druid. If there are several such players, the winner among them is the one with fewer cubes left in their supply. If the tie remains, the players win together.
Advanced Variant
To make the game harder and the struggle for tree cards more tense, players may receive victory points depending on the value of the letters, shown right on the tree cards. For each face-up tree card in front of a player, receive the number of victory points given by its letter value (below). For each tree card lying in front of the player face down, receive 2 victory points.
Letter values:
- 1 point: А, В, Е/Ё, И/Й, К, Л, Н, О
- 2 points: Д, М, П, Р, С, Т, and face-down cards
- 3 points: Б, Г, З, У, Ъ/Ь, Я
- 4 points: Ж, Х, Ч, Ш, Ы
- 5 points: Ф, Ц, Щ, Э, Ю
If several players scored the same number of victory points, the winner is the one who collected the most tree cards. If there are several such players, the winner is the one with fewer cubes left in their supply. If the tie remains, the players win together.