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A Fistful of Seeds
by Thibaut Devigne and Martin Raue
4 players / ~30 min
Board game developed at the Berlin Mini Game Jam Nov 22nd 2014 (@BerlinMiniJam)
Testers: Ivan Garde, Alexander Shestakov, Moe Vevvino
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Introduction
It is time for your grandfather to retire from his farm, but he has a hard time to choose a successor among his offspring. He throws a sack of seeds on the ground, points at an old dusty field and proclaims: “The one who makes the most of the seeds on this field before winter comes will inherit my farm.” Left with a fistful of seeds, you have spring, summer and autumn to prove yourselves and beat your siblings to the inheritance.
Material
Gameboard
OOOOO
OOOOO
OOXOO
OOOOO
OOOOO
O=empty plot
Cards
24 Seed card: 6 Carrots / 6 Wheat / 6 Apple / 6 Potatoe
4 Produce cards: 1 Carrot / 1 Wheat / 1 Apple / 1 Potatoe
~20 Sack cards
Assets
Art by Demezou.
Or on dropox:
Rules
Setup
- Shuffle the 24 seed cards
- Deal face down 6 seed cards to each player (hand)
- Shuffle the 4 produce cards
- Deal one produce card to each player
- Each player picks up her hand and her produce card
The player who most recently visited a farm starts the game.
Seasons
The game is played in three seasons (spring/summer/autumn).
Each season consist of a planting and a harvesting phase:
Planting (Filling the board)
Planting plays in several rounds. Each rounds consists of:
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Planting
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The first player places a seed card from her hand on a free plot on the game board.
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The next player clockwise does this as well, and the this continues until every player has placed a seed card on the board.
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Swapping
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Each player secretly chooses one seed card from her hand and places on the table on her left.
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When every player has placed a card, the players pick up the card on their right and add it to their hand.
This concludes a round. The next round is started by the next player to the left of the player who started the last round.
The planting phase ends when there are no free plots left on the board.
Harvesting (Counting Points)
Now it is time to count the points. Each player receives points for the produce indicated by their produce card.
There are four different produce:
Wheat (Fields)
- For each wheat on the board the player receives 1 point
- For each wheat on an adjacent plot to a wheat the player received on point (diagonal do not count)
Example: W = 1 point, WW = 4 points, WWW = 7 points
Apples (Trees)
For each non-apple on a plot adjacent to an apple the player receives one point (diagonal do not count).
Example: WW AW
CAA = 3 points PA = 4 points
Carrots (Lines)
For carrots planted in a line (that is two or more) the player receives (line length) x 2 points. Diagonals count!
Example: CC = 4 points CCC = 6 points CC C = 0 points
CW = 12 points
Potatoes (Multiples)
The player receives 1 point for each plant in an adjacent plot which occurs more than once
Example: WPA = 0 points, WPW = 2 points, PPP = 2 points WPW = 3 points
W
The player(s) with the most points wins the season and receives three sack markers. The player(s) with the second most points receives two, the player with the third most points one sack marker.
Winning
The player with the most sack markers after three seasons wins the game.
Alternative Rules
3 Player Game
(1) Randomized Start
For a three player game deal 8 seed cards to each player at the beginning of each season and don't distribute the produce card until the beginning of the 3rd round (i.e. the first two rounds are played without knowing your own winning condition).