Chronocritters

Setup

• Place the main board in the middle of the table with the central disc oriented so the beige section with 4 action slots aligns with the spring season (p. 24). Place the round marker on the starting space of the dam track (p. 24).
• Roll the appropriate amount of standard artifacts/dice (17 for 2 players, 26 for 3 players, 34 for 4 players) and place them randomly around the outer circle of the central disc in spaces matching their color (p. 24, 28). Place all seasonal berries in their matching season areas, and sort/shuffle seasonal docking quests into 4 separate seasonal decks, placing 3 face up for each season (p. 28).
• Shuffle value and color hard disc quests, placing 4 of each on the main board with the rest in side decks (p. 24, 30). Shuffle bonus docking tiles (level I and level II separately) and place 3 face up of each type on the main board with the remaining tiles in face-down decks (p. 24). Sort all year goals into piles according to their type and shape (p. 30).
• Each player chooses a color, takes the corresponding player board, transmission portal, and components, and sets their wood tracker, hourglass marker, portal dice, and level 1 critters on their starting spaces (p. 22). Each player also places one standard die of each color diagonally in the central 3x3 grid of their transmission portal with values of 2, 3, and 4 (p. 22).
• Determine a first player (the person who has most recently seen a beaver is selected, or chosen at random) and set player order on the player order track (p. 6, 19). Players receive starting adjustment tokens based on their seating position, and choose initial hard disc quests from the common offer (p. 19).

How a Turn Works

• The game is played over 7 rounds, with each round consisting of an action phase and a clean-up phase (p. 20). During the action phase, players alternate taking turns (p. 9).
• On your turn, you execute one main action by moving a critter from your player board onto an available action space on the game board and performing the associated action (p. 20).
• Additionally on your turn, you can execute several free actions, such as building a time portal, upgrading a critter, modifying a die value, or completing a hard disc, seasonal docking quest, or year goal tile (p. 17).
• Once a player has placed all of their critters (3 each, or 4 if they have unlocked the peacock), they take no further turns until the next round (p. 4, 9).

How the Game Ends

• The game ends after 7 rounds of play, at the end of the 2nd round of the winter season (p. 3).
• After the final round, players calculate their final score using final scoring steps (p. 3, 4). The player who has gained the most victory points is the winner, with tie-breaking rules applied if necessary (p. 3, 20).