Board Game For Northwood!

A fast-paced solo card game with a bribe mechanic about uniting a divided forest kingdom.

This is a subtle tactical game in which you will have conversations with magical forest rulers. You are offered three levels of difficulty and a bunch of story scenarios that will make you think hard. In each game, you will use 12 of the 24 ruler cards, each time facing new challenges. If you like solving all kinds of puzzles, then PlayTale guarantees that you will enjoy this game.

A single-player bribe game

In the solo game, you try to unite the divided forest kingdom peacefully. To do this, you visit eight fiefdoms and negotiate with the local rulers (play bribes), convincing them to listen to you.

At the beginning of the game, lay out 8 fiefdom cards in a row in order from 0 to 7, and on each of these cards - one ruler. Below this row, lay out 4 allies. Shuffle the dialogue cards and take 8 cards into your hand.

Gameplay

Each time, the player chooses an unvisited fiefdom for a visit. If he wants, he can replace the allies with friendly rulers. Then he conducts dialogues with the ruler of the selected fief to win the required number of bribes. If at the end of the visit he has won the required number of bribes, then this ruler becomes friendly. The player repeats the previous steps until he has visited all the fiefdoms.

Conducting dialogues

After choosing a fiefdom and deciding which 4 allies (or friendly rulers) you will need, you conduct dialogues (play bribes) with the ruler of this fiefdom until one of you runs out of cards. 
In each individual dialogue, the ruler plays 1 card, and the player plays 1 card in response. Each ruler also has a favorite topic for conversation, i.e. his suit.

1. In each dialogue, you can apply the property of only 1 inactive ally by turning over his card (activating him).
2. Take the top card of the dialogue deck and place it face up in the discard pile. This is the ruler`s bid.
3. Choose 1 card from your hand to play in response. You must respond with a card of the same suit as the ruler`s bid (if possible). If you cannot play a suit, you play any card. 
4. You win the trick if:

• you play a higher card of the same suit as the king`s bid in response, OR
• the king`s bid does not match the suit of the king`s card, and your card matches that suit. 

5. If you win the trick, place your response card in the trick pile (face up), otherwise place it in the discard pile.

Ending the Visit

A visit ends when a player`s hand or deck is exhausted. The player counts the number of cards in the bribe pile: 

• If this number is equal to the number on the fief card, then its ruler becomes friendly to you. 
• If the number of cards in the bribe pile does not equal the number on the fief card, then the visit has ended in failure. This ruler must be removed from the game and the fief card turned face down. 

The player removes all the rulers involved from the game as replacements (it does not matter whether he used their properties or not). The cards of all activated allies must be returned to a vertical position. 
The player shuffles all the dialogue cards into a deck and takes 8 new cards. Then he chooses the next fief to visit.

End of the game

The game ends after the player has visited all 8 fiefs. Each friendly fiefdom gives him as many victory points as the stars on his card. The player counts the total points to determine his final score. He wins if he scores 16 or more points. You can also choose a difficulty level before starting the game to set the minimum number of points needed to win.

Scenarios

Once you have mastered the regular game, you can choose any scenario from the booklet. They are all self-contained. They are listed in order of increasing difficulty. Each scenario has its own preparations and an additional victory condition. Before starting the game, decide whether you want to play with the additional condition or not. After the preparations, play the regular game (visit 8 fiefdoms, score 16+ points, etc.), following all the special rules of the scenario.