So Clover!

Setup: Give each player a Clover board and erasable marker, then shuffle the Keyword deck. Secretly draw four cards and randomly place them in the four recessed spaces. Each card bears several words, but clue writing uses only the eight outside-edge Keywords. Each side has a pair beneath its Clue Zone, formed by the neighboring cards; a card space is not a separate one-clue slot. Keep the arrangement hidden until that player’s resolution.

Writing clues: All players work simultaneously and privately. Look at the eight outside Keywords across the four pairs and write one clue word for each pair in its matching Clue Zone. A clue must be one word, although compound words are allowed. The rules allow common nouns, proper nouns, acronyms, numbers, and onomatopoeia. A clue may not be a Keyword itself, its translation, a word from the same word family, or an invented word. It should connect the pair rather than simply copy one answer.

Adding the decoy: After all four clues are written, remove the original four Keyword cards from the Clover board. Draw one new card without looking at it, then shuffle it with the original four to make a five-card face-down pile. The fifth word is a decoy. Do not tell the team which four cards were originally on the board; inferring the extra card is part of the puzzle.

Team resolution: Choose one player as the Spectator for the current round; everyone else is the team. The Spectator lays out their board and five Keyword cards face up, then cannot communicate in any way. Teammates use the four clues to discuss and restore four cards to the correct spaces and orientations. They may test arrangements on the board and explain their reasoning. If the team cannot agree, the player seated to the Spectator’s left makes the final placement decision.

Checking and scoring: After the team commits to its first arrangement, the Spectator checks the cards. Four correctly restored cards score four points plus a two-point first-try bonus, six total. If there is an error, silently remove the incorrect cards to the table center and leave correct cards in place. The team gets one second and final attempt. Remove cards still wrong and score one point per correctly restored card, zero to four. Do not score individual words or restore the lost first-try bonus. Record the round score on the board back and discard the five used cards.

Rotation and game end: The player to the current Spectator’s left becomes the next Spectator. The game ends once every player has served as Spectator once. Add the individual round scores and record the team total in the Record of Legends. The score is a shared high-score record, not a ranking of individual players. The rulebook also offers an optional difficulty challenge: after learning the standard game, agree to add the same number of extra Keyword cards for every player before resolution.