Overview

Whilst maintaining a fixed hand positioning, draw, replace, and play cards in order to create desired card placements in both your Line and your Hand

Turn

Take one of the following actions:

Develop

Impose

Recall

Declare

Develop

First pick a card from either your hand or line and discard it

Next take a card from the River which shared the same position as the discarded one and put it in that same location e.g. if you discarded far left hand or line, then you draw far left River

Replenish the river

If you have an Emissary token, then before or after the main Develop step you may take a bonus action

One Bonus Action is to discard the top card from two draw piles in the River

The other Bonus Action is to switch the position of 2 cards, these can be 2 cards in the River, or 2 cards in your Hand/Line, you can use this to switch the position in your Hand/Line or transfer a card from your Hand to your Line or vice versa, but you CANNOT trade a hand/line card with the River

Impose

There is only one space for this action, so it can only be taken once by a single player

Place an emissary on this space, then either exchange a Hand card with the opponent in the same position, or Exchange a Line card with the opponent in the same position

Recall

Retrieve Emissaries already sent out, but you CANNOT retrieve the emissary on the Impose space

Declare

This action is only unlocked once one of the draw piles is depleted

This action ends the game, giving your opponent one final turn

Game End

The game end is triggered either when someone takes the Declare action or when 2 River piles are depleted

If two piles are depleted, then complete the current round ending with the 2nd player, which means if 2nd player triggered it then there is no extra turn for 1st player unlike Declare

Both players reveal their hands and, without altering them, place them in the same positions but in a new row under their Line

If the Ninja is out, at this time it decides which card to copy

Each player scores the points each card provides them based on its conditions

The player with the most points, wins!

If tied, the player with the most varied colours wins!

Base Game Cards

White Mountains score 5vp if only 1, lost 5vp if 2 or more

Pink Naishi scores only if in the central column, 12 points for Line row and 8 points in Hand row

Purple Advisor scores based on its position, 2vp for positon 1 or 5, 4VP for position 2 or 4, 3VP for position 3. In addition, score 4VP per adjacent Naishi

Brown Fort scores 6VP if it is on an edge (position 1 or 5)

Green Sentinel scores 3VP if NOT adjacent to another Sentinel, and scores 4VP per adjacent Fort

Red Torii loses you 5VP for 1, loses nor gains anything for 2, and scores 30VP for 3

Orange Monk scores 5VP if in Hand row, plus 2VP per adjacent Torii

Yellow Rice Field scores 10VP for 2 adjacent, 20VP for 3 adjacent, and 30VP for 4 adjacent

Light Blue Banner scores 3VP if alone in Line row, or 8VP if with a partner in Line row

Deep Blue Horseman scores 3VP if in Hand row, plus 10VP if a Banner shares the same position in Line row

Turquoise Ronin scores for unique card types (excluding Ninja and Mountain), 8VP for 8 unique, 15VP for 9 unique, and 45VP for 10 unique

Black Ninja copies another card with a square icon in the coner, these are characters (so not hexagon in corner or nothing in corner)

Legend Cards

Pink Naishi scores 10 points if in the center or at the extremities of the line; 10 points if in the center of your hand.

Purple Advisor: if there is no Naishi in your territory, score 5 points per advisor.

Green Sentinel scores 5 points if not adjacent to another Sentinel; +3 points per rice field or fort in the same line.

Orange Monk scores 2 points per adjacent character. This card counts for both a monk and a torii.

Deep Blue Horseman scores 4 points per adjacent structure and 4 additional points per adjacent banner. (A banner would score 8 since it counts as both a structure and a banner.)

Turquoise Ronin scores on the longest set of identical cards: 3 identical cards score 8 points; 4 score 15 points; 5 or more score 25 points.

Black Ninja: at the end of the game, copy one character card (not a legend or traveler) from the opponent. If the opponent has no character card to copy, this card does nothing. If the legendary ninja copies a character that isn't in your territory, it counts as a different character for the ronin.

Traveller Cards

The Ryokan card begins the game in a neutral position. When a traveller enters your territory, you may take the Ryokan card from your opponent or from the neutral position and place it near your territory with the 4 point side facing up. If you take a traveller while you have the Ryokan card, you may flip it to the 7 point side.

Traveller cards do not score and have no icons. They are not considered characters for ninjas or legend monk scoring. They are only useful for their effects and for claiming the Ryokan card. Some effects (marked with river icon and arrow pointing down) trigger when the traveller enters your territory (row or hand) from the river. Others (marked with red X and arrow pointing up) trigger when the traveller leaves your territory to the discard pile. There are four possible effects based on the icon on the card:

• Swap 2 cards anywhere in your territory.
• Recall your emissaries. A token on the Impose space cannot be recalled.
• Take the Ryokan card and flip it to the 7 point side. If you already have the Ryokan card, flip it to the 7 side.
• Immediately develop an additional card. Note: the next river card is revealed only after resolving this effect.