Wonderland
Wonderland Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Play Area
The play area is divided into a 4x4 grid. The Red Queen owns the column on the edge. Alice owns the row on the edge. No one owns the space where both edges overlap. In total, each player has three spaces on their edge. The remaining 3x3 grid is called Wonderland. Players will compete to claim this area with their cards.
Components
One player is Alice and the other is the Red Queen. The Alice player takes the seven blue cards into her hand. The Red Queen takes the seven red cards into her hand. Each deck has cards ranked 1-7, representing the strength of the different Wonderland characters.
- 18 Cards, including:
- 7 Alice Cards (numbered 1 through 7)
- 7 Red Queen Cards (numbered 1 through 7)
- 4 Wonder Cards: The Wonder cards are only used if you play with the Wonders variant, which is detailed at the end of these rules.
- 1 Velvet Bag
Gameplay
The first three rounds of the game are called the Arrival Phase. The remaining rounds make up the Placement Phase.
Arrival Phase: Players alternate turns, starting with the Red Queen. On your turn, play a card from your hand FACE DOWN into an unoccupied space on your edge. When all spaces on both player's edges are occupied, the Arrival Phase is over.
Placement Phase: Players continue alternating turns. On your turn, play a card from your hand FACE UP into an unoccupied space in Wonderland. You may orient your card upright or rotated 180º upside-down. (You may not rotate your card sideways.)
Continue taking turns until you've each played your last card. After Alice's last turn, the game is over and players score points. (Note: there will always be one unoccupied space in Wonderland at the end of the game.)
Magic Items
Cards may feature magic items along their edge, which change the rank of neighboring cards.
- Potion will make the rank of the adjacent card zero. If a card is adjacent to multiple Potions, its rank is still zero.
- Cake will double the rank of the adjacent card. If a card is adjacent to multiple Cakes, their doubling effects are cumulative.
If a card is adjacent to a Cake and even just one Potion, its rank is still zero, no matter how many Cakes may be adjacent to it.
Cakes and Potions in Wonderland have no effect on the rank of edge cards, and vice versa.
End-of-Game Scoring
When the game is over, reveal all of the face-down cards in both players' edges. Each of these cards indicates the point value of the corresponding column or row.
To see who scores each row or column, check to see who has the highest total value by adding together the ranks of each player's cards in that row or column. If the players are tied for total value in a row or column, neither player scores those points.
We recommend playing twice, with each player getting a chance to play once as Alice and once as the Red Queen. Total scores across both plays, and the player with more points wins!
End-of-Game Scoring Example
The columns are labelled A, B, C (left to right) and the rows D, E, F (top to bottom).
Column Worth:
- A is worth 6 points. Red 0 vs. Blue 11. Blue scores 6 points.
- B is worth 2 points. Red 6 vs. Blue 0. Red scores 2 points.
- C is worth 5 points. Red 14 vs. Blue 7. Red scores 5 points.
Row Worth:
- D is worth 7 points. Red 14 vs. Blue 4. Red scores 7 points.
- E is worth 2 points. Red 6 vs. Blue 1. Red scores 2 points.
- F is worth 1 point. Red 0 vs. Blue 13. Blue scores 1 point. (The cake on the Red 1 card does not affect any card in Wonderland.)
Note:
- Red 4 is adjacent to one Cake, so its rank is "8."
- Red 5's rank is "0" because of the Potion to the left.
- Red 3 is adjacent to one Cake, so its rank is "6."
- Blue 3 is adjacent to one Cake, so its rank is "6."
RED QUEEN WINS 16 TO 7!
Expansion: Wonders
After the Arrival Phase, Alice chooses one Wonder to include in this game. This Wonder will be played into the remaining unoccupied space in Wonderland at the end of the Placement Phase. Each Wonder slightly modifies how points are scored.
- Tugley Wood: The card of highest rank in this row or column is doubled. This can affect the edge card, thereby doubling the point value of that row or column. This is cumulative with Cake effects.
- Tea Party: Ignore the magic item effects of any ONE card (chosen by Alice) above, below, to the left, or to the right of the Tea Party.
- White Rabbit: Swap the two edge cards from this row and column.
- The Maze: The player with the lowest total value in this row or column scores the edge card's points.
Controlling the eventual position of the Wonder adds an additional layer of strategy to the game. It also gives Alice a little bit of extra power to compensate for the Red Queen's first-turn advantage.