Welcome to the World of Shifting Stones!

Hey there! Have you heard about Shifting Stones? It’s a super cool puzzle game brought to you by Gamewright in 2020. Prepare yourself for an exciting adventure, where you’ll shift and flip stones to create the most awesome patterns. And guess what? If your patterns match the cards in your hand, you’ll score some major points! It’s all about strategy and making the most of each turn.

What’s Inside?

Get ready to dive into the world of Shifting Stones with its fantastic 72 unique pattern cards. These cards are the key to shifting and flipping stones to create awesome patterns. But that’s not all! They also help you score points. Depending on the card, you can earn 1, 2, 3, or 5 points. So keep an eye out for those high-scoring cards!

The 9 Stone tiles are the star players of the game. They are the center of attention, flipped and shifted to create matching patterns on the playing cards. And guess what? Each tile has two sides!

So here’s the deal – you’ve got these cool reference cards that show you exactly what you can do when it’s your turn in the game, and they also tell you all about the different Stone tiles. Pretty handy, right?

SETTING UP THE GAME

First things first, let’s get the game set up. We’re going to start by shuffling the Stone tile cards. There are a total of 9 cards, and we want to arrange them in a 3×3 grid. Make sure all the cards are facing the same way.

Next, we’ll shuffle the Pattern cards. Each player will receive 4 cards, which they can look at but should keep hidden from their opponents. The remaining Pattern cards will be placed face down as a draw pile, with a discard pile next to it.

Each player will also get a reference card. One of these reference cards will be dark, which designates that player as player one.

It’s important that all players have the grid orientated in the same direction. The top of the grid, determined by the position of the draw and discard piles, will be the top for all players, no matter where they are sitting.

The Game

Okay, here’s how the game goes: The person who has the dark reference card gets to take the first turn. It can be any of us! When it’s your turn, you have a few different options for what you can do. If you want to perform certain actions, you’ll need to discard a card. Just remember to put the discarded card face up on the discard pile.

Move Stones

If you want to switch the places of two Stone tiles, you can do that! But first, you have to discard a card. The two cards you pick should be right next to each other. And remember, no moving diagonally. Just pick up the two cards and switch them around.

Flip Stones

Here’s another option for you. If you discard a card, you can flip one of the Stone tiles over to its other side. Just make sure to keep the orientation the same.

Score a Card

If you have a card that matches the pattern created by the Stone tiles, you can score it. Just place the card face up on the table next to you, where everyone can see it.

Wrap Up Your Turn

When you’re done with your turn, simply draw enough cards to make a hand of four.

Skip Your Turn

If you don’t want to shift, flip, or score, you can choose to skip your turn. Instead, draw two cards from the deck, which will give you a total of six cards in your hand. After drawing, your turn ends immediately. Remember, you can’t skip your turn two times in a row.

Keep playing until the end-game is triggered.

Scoring

When you play the game, you’ll notice that each card has its own unique pattern and point value. Once you’ve scored a Pattern card, you need to place it face up near you. Remember, you can’t score the same card more than once, and if you discard a card, it’s out of the game and can’t be scored. The only time a card is worth points is when it’s placed face up on the table.

To score a pattern card, you have to make sure that the tiles in your grid match both the color and pattern shown on the Pattern card. If you have any grey tiles, they can represent any tile and can be used to help you complete the pattern.

Now, here’s an interesting twist! The player who collects the most 1-point cards not only earns those points but also gets a special bonus: 3 extra points! However, if multiple players tie for the most 1-point cards, each of them will earn the 3-point bonus.

WINNING

The game comes to an end when a player has collected a certain number of cards, which depends on the number of players in the game. For example, in a game with 2 players, the end is triggered once one player has obtained 10 cards.

When it comes to the number of cards each player receives in this game, it’s important to understand how it varies based on the number of players. In this game, the number of players directly affects the number of cards each player gets:

• 3 players = 9 cards

• 4 players = 8 cards

• 5 players = 7 cards

As a player, once I have obtained the number of cards needed to trigger the end game, every remaining player in the turn order gets one more turn. This is done to ensure that everyone has an equal number of turns. Once it’s my turn again, and I have the dark reference card, that’s when the game ends.

At the end of the game, the player with the most points is declared the winner. However, if a tie occurs, victory is shared among the tied players.