Discover the ancient art form of Tea Dragon caretaking within this enchanting world of friendship and fantasy. Create a bond between yourself and your Tea Dragon that grows as you progress through the seasons, creating memories to share forever.
Each player's deck represents their own Tea Dragon. From turn to turn, players will choose to draw a card, triggering effects and strengthening their position, or buy a card, improving their deck or scoring points.
The game takes place over four seasons, starting in spring and ending in winter. At the end of winter, the player who has the most points is the winner.
Components
- 4 Player Aid cards
- 4 Tea Dragon cards
- 1 Mentors card
- 24 Memory cards
- 28 Market cards
- 48 Starter cards
- 1 Comic Quick-Start Comic Guide
- Rulebook
Setup
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Take Dragon Cards and Starter Decks. Each player takes a Tea Dragon card and places it in their hold.
Then, each player takes the matching Starter deck and shuffles it. Return all unused Tea Dragons and Starter decks to the box.
In this game, players do not have hands of cards. Instead, each player keeps their cards face up on the table in their hold next to their deck.
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Prepare Market Tableau. Shuffle the Market deck, draw four cards, and place them in the center of the table to form the Market tableau.
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Shuffle Memory Decks. Separate the Memory deck into its four seasons, shown by the card tops of different colors, and shuffle each season.
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Remove Memory Cards. Remove Memory cards from each season depending on the number of players, and return them to the box without looking at them.
- Two players: Return 3 Memory cards from each season to the box.
- Three players: Return 2 Memory cards from each season to the box.
- Four players: Return 1 Memory card from each season to the box.
Memory Cards: use in this order:
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Prepare Memory Tableau. Flip all Memory cards in the spring season face up to make the Memory tableau. Set aside the Memory cards of the other seasons, to be used later in the game.
For a more strategic game, players may reveal the winter Memory cards after this step. This will allow the players to plan more for the endgame scoring cards.
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Choose First Player. The player teaching the game or the oldest player will take the first turn. Give the Mentors card to the player to their right.
Then, begin play, starting with the first player.
Example Three-player Setup:
Cards
Most cards in The Tea Dragon Society Card Game share a few common parts.
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The growth you gain by discarding the card from your hold.
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The cost in growth you must spend to buy the card. (Starter cards, marked with
, have no cost).
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The effect of drawing this card or drawing another card while this card is in your hold.
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The points you score by having this card at the end of the game.
You'll find a detailed description of the cards in the Card Glossary in the back.
Game Play
On your turn, you can choose to do one of three actions:
- Draw a card
- Buy a Market OR Memory card
Once you finish your action, your turn ends, and the player to your left begins their turn.
Drawing a Card
Draw a card from your deck, and add the card to your hold. If your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck.
A card may have an effect that triggers when it is drawn or when another card is drawn. The effect of a card can only be triggered once per turn.
Buying a Market Card
To buy a Market card, you must discard cards from your hold whose combined growth equals or exceeds the growth cost of the card you want to take.
You don't get change for discarding more growth than you spend, and you don't keep excess growth from turn to turn.
When you take a card from the Market tableau, add it to your hold.
Then, draw a new Market card to replace the empty space in the Market tableau. (If the Market deck is empty, reshuffle the Market discard pile to make a new Market deck).
Two Market cards, Brick and Fickle Dragons, have effects that trigger when the card is revealed on the Market tableau.
Buying a Memory Card
To buy a Memory card, you must discard cards just the same as when buying a Market card.
When you buy a Memory card, place it in your discard pile, and then shuffle your discard pile and deck together to make a new deck.
Then, if only one card remains in the Memory tableau, the seasons change:
- Discard the remaining Memory card.
- Flip up all of the Memory cards in the next season to make a new Memory tableau.
- Discard all cards in the Market tableau and draw four new cards for the Market tableau. "
Card Glossary
Growth Cards: Feeding, Entertaining, Sleeping, and Grooming are the Growth cards. These cards are discarded to buy cards from the Market or Memory tableau.
The Mentors Card: You can spend the growth on Mentors as if you discarded a Growth card. When you spend this growth, though, don't discard Mentors. Instead, pass it to the player to your right.
Item Cards: Many Market cards are Items. Some cards will allow you . . to discard an Item for an effect, or will score you points depending on the number of Items you have.
Mischief Cards: Bite, Bored, Picky, and Grumpy are the Mischief cards. When you draw one, you immediately discard it and may discard a listed Growth card if you have it in your hold. You choose which Growth card to discard if you have multiple of the same name. Mischief
Protection Cards: Feeding Clock, Gloves, Wind Chime, and Incense are the Protection cards. When in your hold, a Protection card prevents the listed Mischief card from discarding the listed Growth card.
Tea Dragon Cards: Chamomile, Jasmine, Rooibos, and Ginseng are the Tea Dragon cards. Your Tea Dragon card is always in your hold.
Your dragon is paired with a starting deck matching your dragon's personality. Your Tea Dragon card has an effect that triggers when you draw its most common Growth card but have none of that card in your hold.
Vulnerable Cards: Sugary Treat, Milk, Book, and Necklace are the Vulnerable cards. When you draw the listed Mischief card, the Vulnerable card is discarded. Protection cards do not prevent this effect.
End of the Game
The game ends when only one Memory card remains in the winter season.
Players tally up the points on cards in their deck, and the player with the most points wins.
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