Gamehelpdicedtomatoes

GOAL OF THE GAME

The goal of the game is to seed, grow and harvest the best tomatoes from your tomato vines while trying to prevent other gardeners from doing the same. You accomplish this by seeding (placing a die on one of your open tomato tokens) your vines with the best/highest-scoring dice you rolled and giving the low-scoring dice to your opponents.

GLOSSARY

Bushell - the designated space to hold available dice that are not currently in play, on the score tracks or tomato vines.
Tomato Token - the tomato shaped token on which seed dice are placed.
Seed Dice - a dice that is placed on an empty tomato token.
Tomato Vine - tomato token with a seed dice on it plus any attached dice that form a sequence or set of numbers.
Karma - the amount of gratitude points earned by helping opponents score points - completing their tomato vine.
Karma Heart - the token to mark the current karma level.
Karma Track - the track showing current karma level.
Score Track - the "diced" tomato track on which players place the seed dice from a completed tomato vine.

SETUP

Each player receives:

 11 red dice
 2 black dice
 3 tomato tokens
 1 karma heart
 1 karma track
 1 score track

All players roll a single die to determine the first (and last) player. The player with the lowest die value will the last player and receives the last player marker - ketchup splatter. The next player in the order of play (usually to the left) becomes the first player.

All dice are transferred to the Bushel.

Each player places the karma heart on karma track in position 3.

The first player starts the game.

GAMEPLAY

The game play is simple. On their turn, active players pick 3 dice from the bushell and roll them. All rolled dice need to be distributed - either placed on an empty tomato as a seed or add to an existing vine. Dice can be placed in their play area or in the opponents' play areas. Players are allowed to try to influence the active player's placement decision. Dice that cannot be placed are passed to the next player as additional dice to roll. Completing opponent's tomato earns the active player karma. The number of karma earned depends on the value scored by the opponent (see Karma). Karma can be spent immediately after earning them or at any time during active player's turn. Game continues until a 6th tomato of any player is completed. That triggers the final round which means that after the last player had their turn the game will end.

DICE PLACEMENT RULES

All rolled dice have to be placed if there is a valid spot for them to go to. They can be placed on any player's tomato vine either as a seed dice - placed on an empty open tomato token - or added to the tomato vine - must follow number sequence or set. Black dice can only be added to a vine, they cannot be used as seed dice.

Example:

Token 1: empty
Token 2: 1
Token 3: 1,2

Player rolls 1,2,3

Player can add 1 to Token 2 to form a set of 1s.
Player can also place 1 on Token 1 as a seed dice.
Player can place 3 on Token 1 and add 2 and 1 to form a sequence.  The order could also be reversed or the seed could be a 2 with 1 below and 3 above the seed.
Player could also add 2 and 3 to Token 2.
Lastly, player can add 3 to Token 3.

COLLECTING POINTS

Main source of points in the game are the tomato vines. Additional points are scored at the end of the game from unused karma and unfinished tomato vines.

Points from tomato vines - When a tomato vine has 4 dice it can be harvested - the owner of the vine transfers the seed dice from the tomato token of the vine onto their next available score spot and the remaining dice back to the bushell. The score is adjusted by number of black dice on the vine.  Each black dice lowers the score by 1 point.

Points from unused karma - each 2 unused karma points earn 1 end game point

Points from unfinished tomato vines - each tomato vine with 3 dice on it earns 1 point

Points for finishing the 6th tomato fist - 2 points.

KARMA

Karma is the amount of gratitude players earn by helping other players score points. When an active player completes opponent's tomato - places the 4th dice on the vine - they earn karma points based on the score earned by the receiving player.

1 & 2 points earn 1 karma
3 & 4 points earn 2 karma
5 & 6 points earn 3 karma

Karma can be used to:

Shift rolled dice value - costs 2 karma
Clean the vine - costs 3 karma
Roll over dice ( from 1 to 6 or from 6 to 1) - cost 4 karma
Shift seed dice - cost 5 karma

Each 2 karma earns 1 point at the end of the game.

BLACK DICE

The "rotten" black dice can be used offensively and defensively. Players can use them to lower opponent's score by adding a black die to the tomato vine following the placement rules. They can also use them defensively to cancel/clear a tomato vine - if a tomato vine is worth 0 points at the end of active player's turn, that vine can be cleared ( all dice, including the seed dice, return to the bushell ). So if player has a seed dice worth 1 point, they can add black dice with value of either 1 or 2 which will lower the vine score to 0.

Black dice can only be added to a vine, they cannot be used as seed dice.

GAME END

The final round is triggered when a 6th tomato of any player has been harvested. Game continues until the last player finishes their turn. When the last player distributes all their rolled dice the game ends. It is possible to end the game in a tie.

WINNER

The winner of the game is the player with the most points from the tomato score track, unused karma and unfinished vines.