Wonder Tales
Wonder Tales Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
17 Character Cards
1 Reference Card
Setup
One player tosses a card into the air. The color shown when it lands, Red or Blue, is that player's color. The remaining color is the other player's color.
Shuffle all of the Character Cards and deal 2 to each player's Supply. The remaining cards form a Draw Pile.
Each player has a Supply of cards flipped to show their player color. Supplies are kept on the table visible to both players.
Place the Draw Pile and Reference Card on the table to one side between the two players.
The Blue player plays first in round 1.
Gameplay
The game takes place over three rounds. Each round, players place cards into the Story Grid: an arrangement of cards that forms the shape for that round, as shown below.
Round 1: a 5-wide by 3-tall rectangle (15 spaces).
Round 2: a 4-wide by 4-tall rectangle (16 spaces).
Round 3: a stepped pyramid — 1 card in the top row, 3 in the next, 5 in the next, and 8 in the bottom row.
Every turn, the active player draws a card (if available) into their Supply, then they place a card from their Supply into the Story Grid.
Players take turns placing cards until they complete that round's Story Grid. Their scores are then tallied to determine the winner of that round.
Placing a Card
Every new card added to the Story Grid must:
- be placed showing the active player's color,
- fit within the shape specified for that round, and
- touch at least one other card side-to-side or top-to-bottom (except for the first card played each round).
Once the new card is placed, resolve its special action if any.
When a card is placed, the shape requirement is satisfied as long as every placed card will still fit within the boundary of the shape. The first cards placed aren't tied to any particular location within the shape, but additional cards restrict where future cards can be placed.
Example: if the Grid is 5 cards wide, once the 5th card across has been placed, the grid has reached it's maximum width and cards cannot be placed any further to the left or right.
Scoring
Once the Story Grid is complete each player adds up the points earned by the cards of their color, scoring each card one by one. Many cards will score based on neighbors or connections. A neighboring or connected card is a card directly adjacent to another card (but not diagonally).
Frog Prince +3 Princess -2 Witch
The blue player would receive 3 points if the Frog Prince is neighboring (adjacent to) the Princess. They would lose 2 points if the Frog Price is adjacent to the Witch.
The player with the most points wins that round. If players tie, tiebreakers are determined based on the round:
Round 1: Tie goes to Red
Round 2: Tie goes to Red
Round 3: Tie goes to Blue
If neither player has won two rounds, shuffle all 17 Character Cards together and begin the next round.
Round 2: Red player Starts
Round 3: Blue player Starts
Winning the Game
The first player to win two rounds wins the game!
Scoring Example
The diagram at the left shows a part of the completed Story Grid. The players would score these cards as follows:
RED PLAYER
Goldilocks scores 0 points as she is connected to Mama Bear.
Mama Bear scores 4 points as she has two Blue neighbors.
Frog Prince scores -2 points as he is connected to the Witch.
Papa Bear scores 2 points as he has one Red neighbor.
Big Bad Wolf scores 2 points as he is connected to Little Red Riding Hood.
BLUE PLAYER
Baby Bear scores 5 points as Baby Bear, Mama Bear, and Papa Bear are all connected.
Little Red Riding Hood scores 0 points as none of her connections were made.
Witch scores 0 points as she doesn't have any scoring opportunities on her card.
Card Notes
The cards used in the Scoring Example above read as follows:
Goldilocks — +1 if not connected to Mama Bear, Papa Bear or Baby Bear.
Mama Bear — +2 per BLUE neighbor.
Baby Bear — +5 if Mama Bear, Papa Bear and Baby Bear are connected.
Little Red Riding Hood — +2 Grandma, +1 Woodcutter.
Frog Prince — +3 Princess, -2 Witch.
Witch — After playing, swap this card with a neighbor.
Papa Bear — +2 per RED neighbor.
Big Bad Wolf — +2 Little Red Riding Hood, +1 for each connected Little Pig, -5 Woodcutter.
Credits
Design: John Kean
Art: Marty Cobb
Rules Editing: Michael Lee
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