The White Castle

Rounds and dice: Play three rounds, taking three main turns per player each round in turn order. Take one die from either end of the coral, black, or white bridge, never directly from the middle. If central dice remain, slide the nearest one to the vacant end without changing its value.

Placement and lanterns: Place the die in a legal space and first compare it with the printed value or top die. Gain coins for a higher value, pay the difference for a lower value, or exchange none for a match. A left-end die then grants every visible reward in your Lantern Area; resolve the space’s actions afterwards.

Castle and domain: A castle room provides only actions matching the placed die’s color; a missing color cannot be placed there. On your domain, coral, black, and white correspond to the courtier, gardener, and warrior rows. Collect that row’s uncovered rewards before its action-card action. Outside the Walls accepts any color and offers one of the space’s two actions.

Warriors and gardeners: Pay iron to send a warrior to any training yard and immediately resolve its rewards; yards have no population limit. Pay food to send a gardener to a garden card and resolve its action, with at most one gardener of your clan per card. Always take the leftmost member remaining in the relevant domain row.

Courtiers: One action can pay two coins to send one courtier to the gate and/or pay two mother-of-pearl to raise one courtier one floor, or five to raise one courtier two floors. Each part is allowed once, and movement cannot be split. Ending on floor one or two moves your old action card into the Lantern Area, takes the room card, resolves one light-background action, and refills the room. If no replacement card exists, resolve the light action without exchanging cards. At the top floor, gain lantern rewards, then claim an available favor.

Resources and seals: Food, iron, and mother-of-pearl each have a limit of seven; excess is lost. Store up to five Daimyo Seals. At any time, exchange one seal for one coin or two seals for one resource of your choice. Advancing past a seasonal checkpoint on the Passage of Time track requires its indicated seal payment.

Round end: Reorder turns by influence on the Passage of Time track; the top marker wins a tied position. After rounds one and two, each gardener beneath a bridge still holding dice activates once, then reroll the dice for the next round. After round three, update turn order and proceed directly to final scoring without garden activations.

Final scoring: Add one point per five coins and seals combined; each resource scores one point for three to six remaining, or two for seven. Courtiers at the gate and floors one, two, and three score 1/3/6/10 each. Multiply your warriors’ total yard value by your courtiers inside the castle, score gardeners by their cards, and add Passage of Time points. The earlier final turn position breaks a total-score tie.