Dorfromantik: The Board Game

Prepare the table

This is the cooperative original board game, not The Duel, Sakura or the video game. For a fresh campaign keep all five unlock boxes closed. Shuffle the twenty-five task tiles face down. Separately shuffle the forty-eight landscape tiles, secretly remove three, and stack the remaining forty-five. Sort and shuffle task markers face down by their five types. Choose a starting player and keep the score and campaign sheets nearby.

For an existing campaign, include its recorded unlocked components and read their cards before starting. Remove the three ordinary landscape tiles before adding unlocked special tiles. The instructions below teach the initial game; component cards govern later additions.

Play a turn

Take clockwise turns. On each of the first three turns draw a task tile, reveal a matching type of task marker and place them together. Thereafter, if fewer than three unresolved task markers remain on the map, draw another task tile; otherwise draw a landscape tile. If task tiles are exhausted use landscapes. Discuss placement, but the active player makes the final decision.

Every new hex must share at least one full edge with the existing map. Rotate it freely. Rail and stream edges must match their own type across every adjoining edge. Forest, grain, village and meadow edges may mismatch. A connected territory follows matching edges of its own type.

A task's number is the exact count of tiles required in its connected territory, track or stream. On reaching that count, move the marker to the completed-task area; the tile stays and may continue growing. A new task cannot be placed already over its target or closed off below its target. An ordinary tile may overshoot or close an existing task below target, but discard that failed marker. One placement may resolve several tasks. Restore fewer than three active tasks on subsequent turns, one tile per turn.

Finish and score

End immediately when you must draw a landscape and none remains. If the last landscape completes or fails a task, continue placing the required task tiles until a landscape would again be needed. Sum the numbers on completed task markers. Each flag in a fully enclosed matching territory adds that territory's tile count; an open territory's flag scores zero. Add one per tile in the longest continuous track and one per tile in the longest stream. Add any unlocked scoring prescribed by its cards.

This is one team score. Enter it on the campaign sheet at the highest threshold you reached; mark the corresponding number of adjacent white progress circles, starting at the hiker. Green hexes cost no circle and unlock the named box or card. Record unlocked components, read their instructions and use them in later campaign games. Compare this score with earlier games at the same unlock stage.

Host the first game

Keep completed and failed markers in different places. A recent Reddit Dorfromantik discussion describes the appeal as relaxed collaborative placement and gradual unlocks; the task owner still chooses the final placement so a louder planner does not take every turn. Plan table space before the map reaches an edge.

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Ideas & Twists

Choose a variation together before you start.