TulpenMania

It's Holland, 1636. The center of world trade and tulips are hot. The nobility just can't get enough of these Turkish gems and any moment now, tulips are going to explode across Europe. At least, that’s what you think.

As a well connected merchant, it's time to secure your share of the fortune that awaits. But the spring selling season is still months away, and the rarest tulips need to be planted now. So if you hope to sell out in the coming season, you will have to secure your stock of flowers in the recently invented tulip futures market.

Over a series of weeks, you will bid against your rivals for first pick among the batches of tulips available and hope that they contain the right breeds to create the exotic flowers your customers demand. Bid carefully though and plan accordingly, because with so much hype in the market place, prices are prone to bubble out of control at any time. Welcome to TulpenMania.

Components

• 24 Tulip Futures cards
• 48 Exotic Tulip cards
  • 12 1k Guilders Back
  • 12 2k Guilders Back
  • 12 4k Guilders Back
  • 12 8k Guilders Back
• 12 Tulip Dice
  • 4 Black (R,R,Y,Y,W,M)
  • 4 White (B,B,R,R,Br,M)
  • 4 Gray (Y,Y,B,B,W,Br)
• 80 Bid Tokens (20 x4 colors)
• 1 Million Dutch Guilders (denominations of 20k, 10k, 5k, 1k notes)

Setup

• Give each player a set of bid tokens and 50k worth of Dutch Guilder notes.
• Shuffle the Tulip Futures cards, place four face up along a line in the middle of the table and form a draw pile at the end.
• Turn the top card of the tulip futures draw pile face up.
• Separate the Exotic Tulip cards into four piles by the number on their back and shuffle each pile.
• Form an exotic tulip draw pile by placing the 1k pile on top of the 2k pile on top of the 4k pile on top of the 8k pile.
• Deal each player three exotic tulip cards.
• The player with the largest flower garden bids first in the first week.

Object of the Game

Earn the most money by the time the tulip craze collapses.

Weeks

At the beginning of each week (round), roll the number and type of tulip dice listed on the futures contract card at the end of the line. Then determine the turn order for the week based upon the bid tokens on top of it. Play proceeds from the player with the most bid tokens to the player with the least. If you have no bid tokens on the futures contract, you go last and you may only place bids on your turn. Once everyone has taken a turn, discard the current futures contract and place the top (face-up) card of the futures contract draw pile at the beginning of the line of contracts. Then, turn over the next card of the futures draw pile and advance the futures contracts. Then a new week begins. If the futures draw pile is ever empty, shuffle all the discarded futures cards and form a new draw pile.

On Your Turn

When it is your turn, first you may place up to five or your bid tokens on any combination of the three non-mature futures contract cards in play provided that the total number of bid tokens you have on any card is different than the number of bid tokens on that card of each other player. You may place less tokens than the highest bid, you just may not place the same number of tokens as another player. Then, you must choose to either pay 1k guilder to each other player with bid tokens on the current futures contract card for each bid token that player has on the card, or end your turn. If you pay for your bid, you may perform any and/or all of the following actions (once each) in any order. Regardless of whether you pay or not, reclaim your bid tokens from the card.

1. Plant Tulips - If the type of tulips required to plant an exotic tulip on one of the cards in your hand matches the regular tulips currently in the tulip futures dice pool, you may remove those tulip dice from the pool and play your card in front of you. If there are not enough of the right kind of tulips in the pool to match one of your cards, you cannot perform this action.
2. Sell Tulips - You may sell any one batch of exotic tulips in front of you. A batch of tulips is any single exotic tulip or set of the same type of exotic tulips. When you sell a batch of exotic tulips, check to see how many of the last ten exotic tulips sold are the same type. If there are no other similar tulips among the last ten, then you receive the first (highest) value for each exotic tulip card you sell in the batch. If there is already one similar tulips, then you receive the second value for each tulip in the batch. If there are two matching tulips, the third. And three or more, the final value. So, for example, if you sell a batch of three Semper Augustus tulips and one of the last ten exotic tulips sold is also a Semper Augustus, you would collect 12k x 3 = 36k guilders for them. Collect your earnings from the bank and place the cards you sell into the market history pile.
3. Find New Customers - Draw the top card from the exotic tulip draw pile and pay the bank the value of guilders written on the back of the card.

Updating the Market History

If there are ever ten or more cards in the market history pile after a sale of tulips, discard all the cards in the market history pile and start a fresh one.

End of the Game

Keep performing weeks of bidding, planting, selling and looking for new customers until either a futures contract matures and there are no bid tokens on it or the exotic tulip draw pile runs out of cards. At the end of the following week, the game ends. Count up the guilders you have collected. The player with the most wins.

First Week

During the first week, skip all actions except bidding on futures. Starting with the player with the largest flower garden, in clockwise order, each player gets one turn to place up to ten bid tokens on any of the futures contracts in play. Then play as normal.

Clarifications

• You do not have to pay for your bid if you do not want to.
• If you do not have enough money available to pay for your bid, you must rescind your bid.
• If two or more players both have no bid tokens on the current futures contract, the player closest to the lowest non-zero bidder in clockwise order goes first.

Exotic Tulips

Exotic tulip cards require anywhere between 2 and 4 types of regular tulips to plant and each has a different diminishing value in the market. The rarity also influences their prevalence in each stage of the draw pile. More rare tulips are generally found in the more expensive stages. There are a total of 8 different exotic tulips:

Tulip Futures

Tulip futures cards provide anywhere between 6 and 12 dice to the pool. At the end of each week, all used and unused tulip dice are returned to pool so that there are always enough dice for the futures roll. Each of the 24 tulip futures cards is different.

Birds of Pair o' Dice

3-5 players 20+ minutes

"Do you see it?"
"Where?"
"Over there on the oak tree."
"Ah, the first Robin of Spring!"

Overview

Welcome to Birds of Pair o' Dice. Players take the role of bird watchers in a race to be the first bird watcher to sight each bird as it returns in the Spring.

Components

5 player boards (1 for each player)

40 dice (5 colors - red, blue, green, black, and white)
- 2 of each of the following types in each color: d6, d8, d10, and d12
25 track markers (translucent bingo chips)
1 privilege token

Setup

Each player takes one set of dice of any one color and a player board. Place a track marker on the 0 space for each bird track and one on the 5 space of the influence track. Players will place their d6s on the right hand side of their board to indicate that these are their currently available dice. The remaining dice will be placed on the left hand side of their board as stock (these dice will be available for purchase as the game progresses).

Randomly select a single player to start with the privilege token before the first round. That player places the privilege token in the spot indicated on their player board.

Game Play

The game is played in rounds. During each round players will perform the following steps:
1. Determine who has privilege.
2. Roll dice and form pools.
3. Use dice.

1. Determine who has privilege

If a player has the privilege token on their player board then they will have privilege during the current round. If no player has the privilege token on their board, then the player with the most influence gains the privilege token and it goes in front of their board. If there is a tie for most influence, then the privilege token stays in control of the player who currently has it in front of their board.

2. Roll Dice and form pools

Simultaneously, all players will roll their colored dice. Dice are then placed in the center of the table organized into groups by type (all d6s together, all d8s together, etc.). This forms the dice pools from which dice may be used.

3. Select pairs of dice

When selecting dice players must observe the following rules:
- At least one of the dice must belong to the player using the dice. If a player has no dice left in any of the pools, that player is done for the current round and is skipped.
- Dice are always paired by type (d6s with d6s, d8s with d8s, etc...).
- When using someone else's dice you must pay them an amount of influence equal to the value of the die used and you must pay before selecting their die.

Starting with the player with the privilege token and proceeding clockwise, each player will select dice to perform one of 2 actions depending on the values of the dice chosen. These actions are:

1. Gain and Spend Influence: To gain influence you must select a pair of dice where both dice are either even or odd in value. Once selected the player calculates their increase in influence by adding the values together and dividing by 2 (i.e. a 4 and a 2 would be worth 3). If the pair of dice are doubles then the gained influence is also doubled (i.e. double 4s are worth 8 not 4). Once the player has determined their influence they may (but are not required to) spend their influence in one of two ways. They may purchase a new set of dice by spending an amount of influence equal to the maximum sum of the pair (i.e. to purchase the d8s a player must spend 16 influence). Or they may spend all of their influence to purchase the privelege token and place it on their board (Note: Be careful! Other players can still buy it off your board later in the round).

2. Move a marker along a bird track: To move along the bird tracks the player must make a pair of the appropriate type of dice for the track where one die is even and the other is odd. Once an even-odd pair is selected, the player moves the marker on the appropriate track a number of spaces equal to the lower of the 2 values in the pair (For instance, with a pair of 2 and 5 the marker will be moved 2 spaces).

End Game

The game ends immediately when one player's markers have all reached the end of each bird track. That player is declared as the winner.

Busy Bees

Babbling brooks, dew-laden valleys, fawns bounding in the glen - Spring has arrived in the Meadow! It’s time for you and your fellow Bees to amass a delicious store of pollen in your Hive to raise this year’s little ones. But who can build their Hive the quickest?

Objective:

Race to complete your Hive by taking turns Collecting Pollen from the Flowers in the Meadow.

Components:

• (60) identical “Flower” dice - with six different Flowers on each die: Orange Lily, Yellow Daisy, Purple Thistle, Pink Verbena, Red Penstemon, Blue Bluebell.
• (3) “Drafting” dice per player - just like the Flower dice, but used for rolling
• (2) “Busy-Bee” dice as player tokens - one black, one yellow - Four of the faces show a Bee with a number: 0, 1, 2 and 3.
• (1) “Drone Bee” token
• (2) 8-sided “Location” dice, one numbered 1-8, one lettered A-H
• (1) “Flying” die - with sides reading 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3
• (1) “Bee-Battle” die - used by the victor of a Bee-Battle - 1 side with a generic flower; 2 sides with hives; 3 three sides with bees.
• (1) “Hive” Board per player, with 15 open spaces forming a large triangle, 6 spaces per side, each space large enough to hold a Flower die.
• 8x8 “Meadow” chessboard, marked with standard chess 1-8/A-H grid locations.

Setup:

Roll Location dice four times, to set Meadow starting locations of all Bees and one open space, then randomly place the remaining 60 Flower dice on squares in the Meadow. Place the two Busy-Bee dice with the “3 Bee” face up, and give each player a Hive board.

Winning:

A player wins when their Hive has all spaces filled, and each side has one of each Flower type.

Turns:

On each player’s turn, that player rolls their Drafting dice, then chooses if they want to re-roll all, any or none of them once more. Then they must choose one play (if possible) from the result.

If no play is possible, they become an “Idle Bee” for that turn, and their opponent may initiate a Bee-Battle if they wish (described below).

Plays:

[Descriptions of the play types are given below.] Triples (3 of a kind) allow Busy-Bee to choose ONE play:

• Hive Attack
• Replant a Flower
• Fly a Bee
• Collect Pollen

Doubles (2 of a kind) allow Busy-Bee to choose ONE play:

• Fly a Bee
• Collect Pollen

Singles (1 of a kind):

• Collect Pollen

Play Descriptions:

Hive Attack: The attacking player selects one Flower from their opponent’s Hive and places it back in the Meadow, on any vacant square.

Replant a Flower: Change any one Flower die in the Meadow to a different Flower type.

Fly a Bee: Roll the Flying die and the Location dice. First, swap the Drone with whatever is currently in the square marked by the Location dice, then move any Bee (even the Drone) along as many open squares (horizontally, vertically or a combination) as there are honeycombs on the Flying die. If any Busy Bee ever ends a turn orthogonally adjacent to the Drone, roll the Location dice and swap whatever is in that space with the Busy Bee.

Collect Pollen: Take one Flower die in any diagonally or orthogonally adjacent Meadow square that matches any one Drafted die. Place the Flower in any open square in your Hive.

If your Hive is full, you must remove one die from your Hive first, then place the collected Meadow Flower in its place - then place the removed Flower die back on the Meadow in any open location.

Bee-Battle:

There are three types of Bee-Battles:

Automatic Battle: Occurs whenever a turn ends with both Busy-Bee dice in orthogonally adjacent Meadow squares.

Optional Battle: Player may initiate a Bee Battle against their opponent’s Idle Bee.

Wild Battle: If on a player’s turn, after their Draft, they decide that they don’t like any of the playing options available or do not wish to become an Idle Bee, they may spend one of their Wild Battles. That player then rotates their Busy-Bee to denote that they have one fewer Wild Battles available (once they reach zero, they may not use another Wild Battle for the rest of the game). Then, a Bee-Battle ensues!

The Bee-Battle goes as follows:

Both players Draft their dice. The player with the most matching Flowers on their dice is the victor. If tied, re-Draft until a victor is declared. Victor Rolls the Bee-Battle die once. If the victor rolls:

1. Bee: Victor moves any Bee to any open Meadow square.
2. Hive: Victor performs a Hive Attack.
3. Flower: Victor Replants a Flower.

If, after the Bee-Battle is resolved, the two Busy-Bee dice are still adjacent, another Bee-Battle ensues, until the Busy-Bee dice are no longer adjacent.

Diced Veggies

It's Springtime again and every week, the farmer's market is bustling. Diced Veggies is a game of dice-drafting and set collection for 3-5 players. Players will be competing to grow the best garden and turn their produce into fresh green cash. The player with the most profit will win the game.

Mechanics

• Drafting
• Resource Management
• Set Collection

Components

• Crop dice (d4)
• Labor dice (d4)
• Planted seed tokens
• Grown plants
• Garden Grids (3X3 grids)
• A weather die (d6)
• Color-coded Drafting trays
• Coins

Crop Dice each have four different types:

• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Asparagus

Labor dice each have four different types:

• Planter
• Grower
• Harvester
• Seller

How to Play

The game is played over the 3 months of Spring with 12 rounds consisting of one week each. To start each player should be given a drafting tray, 5 crop dice, 4 labor dice, and 5 coins.

In each week, players will: - Draft seeds and laborers - Grow their crops - Sell their harvest at the market

Drafting seeds and laborers

At the beginning of each month, players will roll all of their dice.

Each player will choose a die and put it into their tray without changing the face up side.

Once all players have selected a die, everyone will pass the tray to their left.

Each player will now choose a die in front of them and put it in the tray in front of them without changing the face up side.

Once all players have selected a die to put into their opponent's tray, everyone will pass to the right, so that they have their original tray in front of them.

They will select another die for themselves and then pass to the right again, so that the opponent on the other side of them can choose a die for their tray.

This will continue back and forth on either side of each player until the trays are full (9 slots). So each player will have drafted 5 dice for themselves, and given 2 dice to each of their neighbors.

Growing a garden

Each player has a garden grid with 9 spaces. 1 plant can be grown in each of the 9 spaces. Players will take turns Planting seeds, and Growing and Harvesting plants.

Planting seeds

Players may plant up to one seed of each type into any open spot in their garden, but must discard a matching crop die to do so. Alternatively, if they have a Planter die, they can pay 1 coin for each crop type of their choice to plant unlimited seeds of that type, but still must discard a matching crop die from their drafting tray for each seed they want to plant.

On a player's garden grid, Planted seed tokens of the appropriate type are placed to represent the planted crop types.

Growing plants

Players may grow up to one plant of each type of seed planted in their garden, but must discard a matching crop die to do so. Alternatively, if they have a Grower die, they can pay 1 coin for each crop type of their choice to grow unlimited plants of that type, but still must discard a matching crop die from their drafting tray for each plant they want to grow.

On a player's garden grid, Planted seeds tokens are replaced with Grown plant tokens to represent grown plant types.

Harvesting plants

Players may harvest up to one of each grown plant type in their garden, but must discard a matching crop die to do so. Alternatively, if they have a Harvester die, they can pay 1 coin for each crop type of their choice to harvest unlimited plants of that type, but must remove a matching crop die from their drafting tray for each plant they want to harvest.

On a players garden grid, Grown plant tokens are removed and set aside for the Selling crops phase.

The Weather dice

The weather dice is rolled, if the result is a 3 or a 6, then the market is rained out and no sales are made. Any harvested crops are lost.

Selling crops

Players may sell crops in up to two lots, with the following possible combinations:

• 1 crop of any type by itself will earn the player 2 coins
• 2 crops of different types together will earn the player 5 coins
• 2 crops of the same type together will earn the player 7 coins
• 3 crops each of a different type together will earn the player 7 coins
• 3 crops of the same type together will earn the player 10 coins
• 4 crops each of a different type will earn the player 10 coins
• 4 crops of the same type together will earn the player 15 coins

If the player has any Seller dice, they may use them to stand in as a crop die of their choice, but they must pay 1 coin for each Seller they use.

Any harvested plants that are not sold, go bad and the tokens are discarded.

Winning the game.

Whoever has the most coins at the end of three months is the winner.