Gamehelptirnanog

Overview

The game is played over 5 rounds, with 3 phases per round: Journey, Saga, and Cleanup. Each round players take turns placing storytellers, drafting cards from the Otherworld, and playing cards into their tableau.

Journey phase:

Each player has 3 storytellers (pawns). Starting with the first player, and moving left (clockwise), players take turns placing a storyteller on a group of encounter card(s) in the Otherworld (rectangle of available cards) they'd like to draft, until all storytellers have been placed.

Otherworld grid size is determined by player count:

1 player = 3x3

2 player = 3x3

3 player = 3x4

4 player = 3x5

5 player = 3x6

-Saga Phase:

Starting with the player on the right of the 1st player marker moving counterclockwise, on their turn, each player performs 2 actions:

1. Select one of their storytellers, draft 1 encounter card adjacent to their storyteller, and then add that card to their hand.

2. Play a card from their hand onto their 3x5 tableau, minding placement rules dictated by the geas card (rules/scoring card) to the left of the row. Maximum of 5 cards per row, unless a card/game effect allows violation of that rule. Cards must be placed in the first available spot in the row from left to right. If there are any gaps between cards, from a previous game effect, the next card played to the row must fill that gap. If a legal play is not possible, a card must be discarded.

If there are no cards left next to a storyteller, the storyteller becomes "lost" and is passed until all players have finished drafting and placing their cards. The player(s) with lost storyteller(s) then embark, moving counterclockwise from the 1st player, on an Echtra Quest, by selecting any 1 remaining card, adding it to their hand, and playing a card.

-Clean Up Phase:

At the end of each round, each player discards a card from their hand. The cards in the Otherworld are also discarded and refilled.

-Card Anatomy and Icons:

The number in the top left is the value of the card. A small plus sign in a white circle under that number is called an Ailm, which is used in certain game effects. Following the masthead across to the right, the color symbol indicates the card's color. Below the color symbol are subplots expansion icons. If the card has an effect, the description will be at the bottom of the card, along with when/frequency the effect takes place. Color and value changes from a game effect are indicated with a token placed on the card. When a card is moved, any tokens previously placed travel with it.

-Scoring:

At the end of the 5th round, geas cards are scored, followed by Regions scoring. For the purposes of scoring, blank spaces in row(s) simply do not count. A blank space in the middle of a row disrupts connections and runs for all Geas cards, including the Regions of Tír na nÓg Geas card. Each of the largest connected (orthogonally adjacent) color cards using the Regions of Tir na nOg Geas card. For each color, the player with the largest 1st connected field of cards receives 8 points, the player with the 2nd largest gets 3 points. Ties are split by tied level and rounded down. For example:if 2 players tie for first place, 8 points divided by 2 players would be 4 points each for first place, and 3 points divided by 2 players is 1 point each - no second place is awarded.

--SOLO Mode:

Balor, the automa, is controlled by his card. On each of his turns, a card is drawn, checked for the presence of an Ailm (plus sign under the card value), and if present, his control card flips over. One one side the highest values are used, on the opposite side of his control card, the lower values are used. The control card is shown next to the Otherworld grid of cards. Balor does not create a grid, but rather cards are placed side by side.

--SOLO Mode Scoring:

Your score for Geas cards are calculated normally. Balor scores the points located in the lower right of each of the three Geas cards.

Balor's cards are revealed at the end. Choose and discard a number of cards from Balor’s scoring pile based on the difficulty setting you want to play.

When comparing color regions, Balor’s connected region size is the number of all cards of that color remaining in his scoring pile after discarding.

Points are awarded like normal for a two-player game: 8 points to the player with the largest region of that color, 3 points to the player with the second largest region, and 0 points to players with regions of 0 or 1 cards. Ties split the first and second total 11 points evenly rounded down, so 5 points each.