RULEBOOK

Introduction
The inhabitants of the Halfling Realm closed their borders decades ago when war erupted on the continent. With
the success of Caveborn and Merchants Cove as multicultural cities, the Halfling High Council unanimously voted
to open their borders to the other denizens of the Five Realms.

Within the Halfling Realm there are many famous cities, like Tallywood (the birthplace of Halfling Democracy) and
Halfhearth (the Capital City). None, however, comes close to the legends told about Bardwood Grove. The Bardwood
trees have lumber that makes the best instruments on the continent. The crystalline Bardstones that naturally
spring forth from the ground have unique sound-related properties, a resource that forms the backbone of all
Tellphone technology. With their storied history, Bardwood Grove was the artistic center of the Five Realms for
nearly a hundred years before the Halflings closed their borders.

Bards from across the continent sang songs of joy when they heard the news, followed by securing transport to
the fabled city. Before long, the city once again hummed with music as it did in ancient times. Just as in those
times, the sounds from the grove rumbled through the surrounding forest, twisting like the darkwood branches
they passed by. These dissonant sounds whip the local fauna into a frenzy causing them to seek its source.

As a newly arrived bard, you’ll find a myriad of ways to make a name for yourself. Play sold-out venues to gain
new fans. Soothe enraged creatures with harmonious melodies. Tell long-forgotten Legends that shape public
opinion. Hone your craft with new skills and improvisations gained from paid lessons. Challenge other Bards to
musical showdowns, develop motifs, control your tempo, and effectively use the power of Bardstones to help
secure your musical Legacy!
COMPONENTS
 4. For your fourth game, use the two remaining Winter events from your
UNLOCKING CONTENT constructed event deck.
When to Open the Tuckboxes • After this game, unlock the Winter tuckbox and integrate its content.
• Return the two used Winter events to the general supply of events,
Bardwood Grove contains extra content that will roughly double the amount not to the constructed Event deck.
of cards and components in the game. All extra content is contained • Separate all of your Events into 4 shuffled piles based on their
within 5 tuckboxes. To unlock the content, we recommend you observe seasonal card back.
one of the following unlock paths. Once content has been unlocked, it is
meant to be integrated into the game for all future plays. The new content
presents additional options and scoring opportunities, as well as a bit more In ALL Subsequent games, we recommend selecting events in one
complexity. of the following manners, either:
• Both events come from the same Seasonal deck.
Express Unlock (2 Games) • Event 1 comes from any Seasonal deck, Event 2 comes from
1. Play your first game without any locked content. the season directly after Event 1.
• After this game, open the four seasonal boxes and integrate their (Spring Summer Autumn Winter Spring)
content.
2. Play your second game with all of the content from the seasonal boxes.
• After this game, open the Muse box and integrate the content. 5. For your fifth game, you will be able to use all unlocked content from the
four seasonal tuckboxes.
Normal Unlock (5 Games)* *Recommended • After this game, unlock the Muse tuckbox and integrate its content.
Create a deck of 8 Event cards.
• Separate the Event cards into 4 face-down, shuffled piles based on In ALL subsequent games, players should decide whether or not
their seasonal card back. to use the Muse content. Unlike the Seasonal content, the Muse
• Create a deck of events by taking 2 events from each season, and content isn’t necessarily meant to be used in every game, especially
placing them on top of each other. with new players.
• Starting with Winter at the bottom, then Autumn, then Summer,
and finally Spring on the top.
• These events will be used for your first 4 games, so preserve this Delayed Unlock (8 Games)
deck and its ordering. Follow the instructions for Normal unlock with the following changes:
3 1 • Create the event deck with all four starting event cards from each
season.
Spring Summer Autumn Winter 4 2 • Do not integrate a new seasonal tuckboxes content until you’ve
played two games, using all starting events from the season in
1. For your first game, use the top two Spring events from your constructed
question.
event deck.
• Play two games once you’ve unlocked all content before opening
• After this game, unlock the Spring tuckbox and integrate its content.
and integrating the Muse tuckbox contents.
• Return the two used Spring events to the general supply of events,
not to the constructed Event deck.
2. For your second game, use the top two Summer events from your Integrating Content
constructed event deck. Content is unlocked at the end of games, and components should be packed
• After this game, unlock the Summer tuckbox and integrate its away with the rest of the game, near components of the same type. This will
content. allow it to be easily used at the start of the next game.
• Return the two used Summer events to the general supply of events,
not to the constructed Event deck.
3. For your third game, use the top two Autumn events from your Resetting the Game
constructed event deck. We do not recommend taking unlocked Seasonal content out of the game to
• After this game, unlock the Autumn tuckbox and integrate its play with new players. However, if you are trading, gifting, or selling the game
content. you may wish to reset the game. To do this, just refer to the components list
• Return the two used Autumn events to the general supply of events, contained in each tuckbox.
not to the constructed Event deck.
3
 Initial Setup / Packing Instructions
These steps should be taken before your first game, and after each game. Concepts in the Setup section are covered here, such as: starting deck, basic /
non-basic card, boss / small creatures, and legend tiers.

Starting Decks
Create a starting deck for each Bard. Each starting deck is composed of the following basic cards, each of which share an Instrument icon with each other,
as well as a “Super Fan“ fan card.

x 1 Bard
Card x 1 Instrument
Card x 1 Improv
Card x 1 Super
Card
Fan

x 6 Skill
Cards
4
 Skill Cards, Improv Cards, Fan Cards
Separate all unlocked Skill, Improv, and Fan cards into 3 separate decks containing all non-basic cards of their type. Non-basic cards have a Musical note
icon instead of an instrument icon, and have 1 in their top-right corner.

VP Icon

Musical
Note

x12+ Skill Cards x12+ Improv Cards x12+ Fan Cards

Creature Cards
Separate all unlocked Creature cards into 2 separate decks, boss creatures and small creatures. Boss creatures can be identified in 3 ways. By
their Boss Creature icon, they have 3 in their top-right corner, and they have a Soothe value of 7+.

Boss Creature Small Creature

VP Icons

Soothing
Value
Icons

Event Card Decks Legend Cards

Separate all unlocked event cards into four separate decks based on their Separate all unlocked legend cards into three separate decks based on
card back. their card backs, each of these decks is referred to as a tier.

5
SETUP 7
Perform the following steps in order:
1. Place the game board on the table between all
of the players. 1
2. Place the indicated number of Green Gem
tokens into the Gem Pools on the game board: 10
a. 5 per player into the Pool I.
b. 7 per player into the Pool II.
3. Place the Box of Booming and all of the
Rangestone, Soundstone, Coin, and remaining
Gem tokens near the game board within reach 2
of all players. 8
4. Shuffle all unlocked Fan cards into a deck and 11
place 12 cards from this deck face-up onto
the Moss Pit location. Return unused cards
d
to the box. 6
5. Create two shuffled face-up decks of the
non-basic Improv cards, each containing
6 cards and place them into the indicated
spaces. Return unused cards to the box. 11
6. Create two shuffled face-up decks of the
non-basic Skill cards, each containing 6
cards and place them into the indicated 5
spaces. Return unused cards to the box.
7. Place 5 Legend cards from each stack
face-down above the game board. Flip
over the top Legend card from each stack, 11
placing it next to that stack. Return any
remaining Legend cards to the box.

8. Place the Market token on the left-most

Market Stall on the Market track on the
game board.

10
6
 9. Shuffle the Motif tokens and place 6 of them on the Motif
spaces. Ensure that the green gem icons are facing down.
If less than 6 Motif tokens have been unlocked, then place
all unlocked Motif tokens onto the track. Return any excess
Motif tokens back to the box.
9 10
10. Select 2 Events for this game and place them onto the
indicated Act I and Act II spaces. To select events either:
• Both events come from the same Seasonal deck.
• Event 1 comes from any Seasonal deck, Event 2 comes
from the season directly after Event 1.
2 Note: While you are still unlocking content for the game,
refer to the Event instructions on page 3 instead.
11 11. Create the 5 Creature stacks by performing the following
in order:
d a. Shuffle all non-Boss Creature cards and then place 2
5 face-down onto each of the 5 locations indicated.
b. Shuffle all Boss Creature cards and place 1 face-down
onto each of the 5 Creature card stacks.
c. Flip all 5 stacks of Creature cards so that they are face-
11 up and only the top card is visible.
d. In a 1 or 2 player game, remove 1 Creature from the top
6 of the stack directly under each VP pool and return it to
the box.

7
PLAYER SETUP 8. Take a Starting deck and place it near their player board.
9. Take the Bard card associated with the Instrument icon on
Each player does the following: their Starting cards and place it face-up on the indicated
spot of their player board.
1. Take a player board and place it in front of themself. Then 10. Take the Bard meeple associated with their Bard card and
select a player color. Steps 2-7 should be performed with place it into the designated space on the game board.
components of the chosen color.
11. Remove the Super Fan card from their Starting deck and
2. Place a Tempo Wheel on the left side of their player board so place it face-up in their discard pile.
that the Indicator is in the top-right quadrant.
12. Remove the Instrument card from their Starting deck and
3. Stack 2 Rune tokens on top of each bonus spot in the four place it face-up to the right of their player board.
quadrants around the Tempo Wheel.
13. Shuffle the remaining 7 cards in their Starting deck and place
4. Place their Song tracker on the shelf icon directly above the it face-down on their player board as a draw deck.
Tempo Wheel.
14. Draw 2 cards from their deck. If an Improv card was drawn,
5. Place their Volume tracker on the “0“ location of the Volume immediately place it to the right of their Instrument card and
track. draw another card.
6. Place a Badge token onto the 7 indicated locations on their 15. The player who can hold a note the longest will perform the
Badge track. first turn of the game.
7. Place their Boat token onto the left-most spot of the River of
Legends on the game board.
11 Discard
pile
7 Quadrant
Boasting
area
5
Song
Draw area
4 pile

2 9
13 12 14
3
6 Badge
1 track

10 14
Starting 10
Location
8
 GAME CONCEPTS GAMEPLAY
This page is intended as a teaching tool. This page does not Each Bard has a song tableau that extends from their player
contain any rules, instead it is meant to quickly explain important board. It begins with an Instrument card, and can contain a
concepts that will help players to better contextualize and variable number of Improv and Skill cards. Each turn, you
understand the rules. will have 2 Skill cards in your hand. You must decide which
one is played into your song tableau, while the other is discarded
for tempo and volume.
THEME
Your discarded card will cause your Tempo
In Bardwood Grove players assume the role of Bards looking to Wheel to rotate. When your Tempo Wheel makes
make a name for themselves in the musical city of Bardwood a complete rotation (which usually takes several
Grove. As your Bard moves around the Grove, you will craft turns), you will be able to perform a Song.
increasingly complex song tableaus which are used to earn new
cards, resources, and victory points. Locations and free actions can only be activated
during a Song. During each Song, you can activate
all locations that are adjacent to your bard.
OBJECTIVE
You may spend the resources on the left of this
A game of Bardwood Grove takes place over a variable number arrow to gain the benefits to the right of it.
of turns. Once all green VP gems on the board are depleted, the
end of the game is triggered. The player with the most victory Melody is primarily used to assist or soothe
points after Final Scoring is declared the winner. creatures, and to take badges from other bards.
Melody cannot be saved between Songs.
Green VP represents physical victory points
tokens. They are primarily earned from singing at Lyrics are used at performance locations and
performance locations, telling legends, rewards when telling legends. By paying the indicated
from soothed creatures, motif tokens, exchanging amount of Lyrics, you can place a circular Rune
other player’s badges, and from various events. token onto a performance location or legend
card. Lyrics cannot be saved between Songs.
Blue VP are printed victory points. They are
earned by removing badges from your badge track, Volume is primarily used to activate locations
accomplishing criteria on told legends, and are and to unlock additional effects on Skill cards.
printed in the top-right corner of every card that is
added to your deck during gameplay, such as skills, Coins are used to purchase new Skill and Improv
improv, fans, and creatures. cards.

Bardstones grant various effects when spent.

Soundstones can be spent as Melody or Lyrics.
Rangestones let you interact with creatures and
other bards from distant spaces.

9
 Cards diagram

Skill Creature
card card

Song Benefits Soothe Value

Volume cost to gain

Soothe Value Discount
Extra Song benefits
Assist Soothe Value
Extra Song benefits
Place Badge

Immediate Benefits
Discard Benefits

Instrument card Fan card Improv card

Permanent Song Benefits Discard Benefits Song Benefits
(Gain 1 of 2)

10
 PLAYER TURN STRUCTURE Composition Phase
Players take turns in clockwise order, starting with the first Players will always begin their Composition phase with 2 Skill
player. A player’s turn consists of three phases that must cards in their hand. They must add one of these cards to their
be done in order: Composition phase, Singing phase, and Song and discard the other in order to gain benefits. After this,
Downtime phase. During their Composition phase, the player they may spend their accrued Movement points to move their
will decide how to allocate the Skill cards in their hand. Bard and/or Boat.
During their Singing phase, the player activates their Song in
order to spend resources and visit numerous locations on the Add Card To Song
board. During their Downtime phase, the player will draw new
cards from their deck. Each player has a Song that is represented by the face-up cards
to the right of their player board. Songs always begin with an
Composition: Instrument card, and all cards added to the Song must be placed
1. Add 1 Skill card to your Song. face-up next to other cards already in the Song. The order of
2. Discard 1 Skill card to: cards in a Song is not important.

• Gain Volume During this phase, the active player must choose one of the
two cards in their hand and add it to their Song. There is no
• Adjust Tempo Wheel immediate effect from adding this card, but it may be used
• Potentially gain a Bonus for unlocked Rune spaces during a Singing phase.
ng
3. Move your Bard and/or Boat based on your Tempo Wheel Add to a So
position.

Singing:
During their Song, players can:
• Activate adjacent Locations.
• Challenge opposing Bards to take their Badges .
• Spend opponents Badges for benefits.
• Interact with certain Events.

Downtime: Discard Card For Benefits

Draw cards from your deck until you have 2 Skill cards.
While Drawing: After adding a card to their Song, the active player must discard the
other card in their hand. Once the card is placed on their Discard
• Discard Fan cards and select 1 of 2 benefits to gain
pile, they gain all benefits indicated in the bottom area of the card.
from them.
• Place Improv cards into your Song. Gain Volume
• Place Creature cards into your Boasting area Each player board has a Volume track in the top-right. Move
and gain the benefits on the bottom of them. their Volume tracker by the amount shown on the bottom of the
discarded card, but not exceeding the track’s maximum number.

11
Adjust Tempo Wheel Tempo Benefits
The active player must rotate their Tempo Wheel a number Once the Tempo Wheel has stopped rotating, the active
of times equal to the icon shown on the discarded card. Each player gains all benefits shown in the quadrant that the Indicator
rotation will spin the Tempo Wheel 90 degrees clockwise, on the Tempo Wheel is pointing toward.
moving the Indicator into a new quadrant. Movement Points
Rune Token There will always be a movement icon with a numerical
efits value, and these may be spent later in this phase.
Discard Ben
Rune Bonuses
Once two Rune Tokens are removed from a quadrant, an
additional benefit will be unlocked when the Tempo Wheel
stops there.
• If the icon shows a Coin or Songstone icon, then
the player gains one of the associated token.
Move Volume
Tracker • If a movement icon is revealed, then this adds the
Adjust indicated amount of movement to the player’s movement
Tempo Wheel
total for this phase.
• If a volume icon is revealed, increase the player’s
Volume tracker by the indicated amount, not exceeding
the track’s maximum.
Song Tracker These bonuses are only gained from Tempo Wheel movement
If the Indicator on the player’s Tempo Wheel ever rotates during the Composition phase. If their Wheel moves during
past their Song tracker at the top of the Wheel while going another phase, they do not gain the bonus.
clockwise, then remove that tracker. Place it on top of the player’s
f its
Tempo Bene
Instrument card as a reminder that they must perform a Singing
phase this turn. This effect can occur if they gain Tempo during
their Downtime phase as well. In that case, they still move their
Song tracker to their instrument card, but do not sing until after
their next Composition phase. If they pass their Song Tracker
space with Tempo gained during their Singing phase, or while the
Tempo Wheel is moving counter-clockwise, do not trigger a Song.
Movement Indicator
Points
Place Song
Tracker

Rune Benefit Quadrant

12
Movement
After gaining all benefits from discarding a card, the player may
spend any movement points they have gained this turn. Each
movement point may be spent to do either of the following:

Move Bard
Move the player’s Bard token into an orthogonally adjacent
Region. A Region is defined as an area surrounded by dark green
border lines. Any number of Bards may be within the same Region,
and they do not interact with each other’s movement in any way.

Bard Regions

Legal Moves
= 2
+ 1

Note: Players cannot move their Bard outside of the Composition Players choose how to spend their movement points.
Phase. All gained movement outside of their Composition Phase For example: A player has 3 Movement points .
must be used to move their Boat. One option they could choose is to move their Bard
orthogonally 2 times and spend their remaining
Move Boat movement point to move their Boat once on the River
Move the player’s Boat token one space to the right on the River of Legends.
of Legends. The Boat may not be moved if it is already on the
right-most spot. Any number of Boats may be on the same spot,
and they do not interact with each other in any way.
The River of Legends

Boat Movement
13
 Singing Phase Song Cards
If the player’s Song tracker is still on their player board, they skip Each benefit on cards in the active player’s Song may be
this phase and proceed directly to their Downtime phase. If their activated once, in any order of their choice. Some Skill cards
Song tracker is on their Instrument, they will perform a Singing are broken into two sections, and each section may be activated
Phase this turn. In this case, give them the Box of Booming. separately. Players always gain all benefits shown on the top
portion of the card. To gain the benefits on the bottom portion
During this phase, the active player may activate as many of their
of the card, players must spend the indicated amount of Volume
Song cards as they want, gain the specified benefits, and activate
(as shown in the middle of the card).
Locations adjacent to their Bard. Once they have completed all
Location activations, they must discard all cards in their Song
to their Discard pile except for their Instrument card, which will
Gaining Melody & Lyrics
always stay face-up in their Song. The active player will gain all Melody and Lyrics from
their Song, and these may be spent only during this phase.
They may use the Box of Booming to track the amount of each
they have remaining.
e fits
Song Ben Note: Unspent Melody and Lyrics
each Singing Phase (use it or lose it!).
are lost at the end of

Song Benefits

Top Portion
1 (Song Benefits)
Volume
Cost
Bottom Portion
(Extra Benefits)

Gaining
Extra Benefits

14
Activate Locations Spending Melody & Lyrics
Each time the player pays Melody or Lyrics , they reduce
On their turn during Singing phase, the active player may activate the associated dial on the Box of Booming by the amount paid.
ALL Locations that are on the perimeter of the Region where
their Bard is positioned. They may activate each Location once
per turn. If a location has a stack of cards, they are only allowed
to interact with the top card from that stack, unless otherwise
specified.
By using Rangestones, a player may interact with non-adjacent
Bards and Creature locations, but can still only interact with each
ing
of them once per song. This is explained on page 20.
Box of Boom
Spending Volume
Each time a player pays Volume , they must reduce their
Volume tracker by that amount on their player board.

Example: The player pays 6

Volume and reduces the tracker
from “6” to “0” location.

Gems - Victory Points

There are two types of Gem icons in the game, green and
Activated Locations blue . This icon indicates that the player should gain a
Costs & Benefits green Gem, and this icon is only used during Final Scoring.

The players will spend resources on the left side of this Green Gem icons indicate a number of Gem tokens that are
arrow to gain the benefits on its right side. If there is a red gained from a Gem Pool on the board. Players must always take
number shown , then the player must pay that amount of the Gems from the lowest value Gem Pool (I, II, then the off-board
associated resource in order to proceed with the effect. If there supply) that has any remaining.
is a green number shown , then this means the player gains
that number of the associated benefit. If there are no red/green
numbers shown, then they will spend/gain 1 resource/benefit
respectively. 2

Example: Spend 2 Coin

to Gain 4 Volume.

15
Types of Locations
There are a number of different effects that can be found at
Locations, and each can only be activated once per turn unless
otherwise specified.

1 Creature Locations 3 Bank Location 5 Tell a Legend locations

2 Shop Locations 4 Performance Locations 6 Conversion Locations

6 6 6
1 6 3 1

2 2 5
5 4

1 1
6 6
6 2 2

1 4 4
4

16
Creature Locations Soothing a Creature
The player may either Assist or Soothe the top Creature card
of the pile on a location. If there is no Creature card,
they may pay 5 Melody to gain 1 Gem instead. They may 5
spend Rangestones to Assist or Soothe Creatures outside of
their Bard’s region, and this is explained on page 20. A player 1
can Soothe or Assist the top Creature card of multiple piles of 3
the board in the same turn.
Assist
Spend 1 Melody to Assist in soothing a Creature .
2
Then, remove the left-most Badge from the active player’s 4
board and place it on the Creature card. A player can only have
1 Badge on each creature.
5. Take the Creature card and place it face-up onto
Assisting a Creatu either Creature Spot in the Boasting area along the top
re
edge of their player board. If there is already a card on
both spots, then stack the new card on top of one of them.
Creatures remain here until the player takes a Boast
action , which allows them to place the Creatures in
their Discard pile. Boasting is explained on page 19.

+
Soothe the Creature
The active player must do the following steps in order:
1. Spend Melody equal to the Soothe value in the top- Example: The Blue Bard wants to soothe a creature with
left corner of the card. The Soothe value is reduced by 1 Soothing Value of 4 Melody. There is one Badge on the Creature
for each Badge on the Creature card. card from the Yellow Bard who previously took the Assist action,
thus lowering the Soothing Value by 1 Melody. The Blue Bard
2. Gain all benefits shown at the bottom of the card. now pays 3 Melody to Soothe the Creature.
3. All other players who have a Badge token on the
Creature immediately gain all benefits shown at the
Note: Players can only interact with each Creature Location once
bottom of the card.
per Song. (In a single turn it is not possible to Assist and then Soothe
4. Gain all Badges from the Creature card, removing a Creature, or to Soothe 2 Creatures that are located on the same
any of their own Badges from the game and placing the Location.) Players may interact with distant Creature Locations by
opponents’ Badges on top of their Bard card. spending one or more Rangestone (see page 20).
17
Shop Locations Bank Location
The top card may be purchased by spending Coins equal to The player may either gain Coins equal to the position of the
the current price indicated by the Market token . The active Market token, or they may gain all Badges at the High Note
player may pay one extra Coin to purchase any other card within Bank. Whenever the active player gains a Badge from the
the stack. If a player purchases a Card that was not the top card, game board, they must remove it from the game if it matches
then the stack is shuffled. All players may look at all cards their color.
in the Skill and Improv stacks at any time, but they must If the player chooses to gain Coins, they must place the leftmost
not change the order of the cards. Badge from their Badge track into this space.
If a player has no Badges , they cannot take Coins from
this Location.
Performance Locations
The active player must do the following steps in order:
Market Token 1. Pay the amount of Lyrics shown on any uncovered
Gem reward below this location.
2. Gain a number of Gems shown on the spot associated
with the Lyrics they just paid.
3. Gain the top card from the Fan stack and place it face-
down on top of their deck. If there are no Fan cards left,
then gain 1 Gem instead.
4. Remove any 1 Rune Token from around their Tempo
Wheel and place it onto the spot associated with the
Buying a Card Lyrics they just paid. The removed Rune Token
doesn’t need to come from the quadrant where the
Indicator on the Tempo Wheel is pointing toward.

If a Skill card was purchased, immediately move the Market Placing a Rune Token
token one space to the right. This may change the price for
cards purchased later during the same phase. Players cannot
buy more than one card from the same Location during their turn.
If the Location’s card stack is depleted, the player may activate 3
the location’s effect of paying the current price indicated by the
Market token and gaining one Gem . 4

Important: Unlike many other deck-building games, newly

purchased cards are placed face-down, on top of your deck.
Lyrics Cost
1
Gems Gained
2
18
Tell a Legend locations 4. Remove any 1 Rune Тoken from around their Tempo
Wheel and place it onto an empty space on a face-up
The active player must do the following steps in order: Legend card of the selected tier. This will activate an
1. Select a Legend card stack and pay the number of endgame scoring condition for ALL players. The removed
Lyrics as shown on the top card. If the active player’s Rune Token doesn’t need to come from the quadrant
Boat on the River of Legends is in a space with a where the Indicator on the Tempo Wheel is pointing toward.
Discount, they may reduce the Lyric cost of the card
by the amount associated with their Boat’s current 2 3
location  (to a minimum of 0). If the player used their
discount, then they reset their Boat, moving it back to
the left-most space  on the River of Legends track.
The Boat must be reset if they used any of their discount, 4
even if they did not use it all. If you did not use any of
your Discount, your Boat remains where it is.

Telling a Legend Conversion Locations

Gain Coins
Pay 2 Melody or 2 Lyrics , depending on the location, in
1 order to gain 2 Coins .
Convert Volume
Pay 3 Volume in order to gain one of the indicated benefits
explained below. This may be performed multiple times during
Discounts the same visit, as indicated by the infinity symbol below the
3 arrow .
4 Boast
The active player may boast about the Creatures
they’ve Soothed, moving all Creatures from their Boasting
area onto their Discard pile.

Discount Example: The Blue Bard wants to tell a Tier 1

Legend , which costs 4 Lyrics .Their Boat position
on the River of Legends allows a Discount of 1 Lyrics ,
so they pay 3 Lyrics instead.

2. Gain the number of Gems on the back of the top card of

the selected stack.
3. Flip the top card of the stack that was selected and place
Boasting action
it face-up near the other cards from this stack.
19
 Coin Challenge a Bard
The active player gains 1 Coin.
Rangestone The active player can Challenge Bards that are in the same
The active player gains 1 Rangestone. region as their Bard. They may spend 1 or 2 Rangestones to
Challenge Bards outside of their Region. They must pay
Activate Motifs Melody equal to the number of revealed Melody icons
on the Challenged opponent’s Badge track on their player
Pay 2 Melody or 2 Lyrics , depending on the location, in
board. Then, they gain the Challenged opponent’s left-most
order to activate a Motif . The active player can do one of the
Badge from their Badge track. A player can challenge multiple
following:
Bards that are in and out of their Region on the same turn.
• Gain the indicated benefit on the activated
Motif and then flip it over.
2
• Gain 1 Gem for every Motif that is
showing only the Gem icon . Then, flip over
every Motif showing a Gem icon.
1
Bardstones - Soundstones and Rangestones
The active player may spend 1 Soundstone as either
1 Melody or 1 Lyric . Example: The Yellow Bard  challenges the Blue Bard 
Rangestones can be spent to Assist or Soothe Creatures whose Badge track is displayed. The Yellow Bard spends 4
and to Challenge Bards outside of their Bard’s Region Melody to take the other Bard’s badge.
perimeter.
The active player may spend 1 Rangestone to interact with
Creatures and Bards from 1 Region away.
The active player may spend 2 Rangestones to interact with
Creatures and Bards from anywhere on the board.
Gaining & Spending Badges
Any Badges a player gains are placed on top of their Bard
card. At any time during their Singing phase, and as often as they
want, the active player may spend Badges that are on top of their
Bard card in order to gain the indicated immediate benefits:

1 Badge 1 Coin or Soundstone

2 Badges Activate 1 Motif token

Rangestone Cost 3 Badges 4 Gems

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Whenever the active player gains a Badge from the game b. Some Event effects happen when an Event ends. This
board, they must remove it from the game if it matches their color. means it happens after the current player has ended
their turn, and before the next Event or player’s turn has
happened.
dge
Gaining a Ba a b

c. Some Events change the rules of play while they are active.
d. Some Events may be interacted with a single time, and only
during a Song. After interacting with this event, players
place any 1 Rune token from their player board into the VP
Pool associated with the event as a reminder.

Events c d
There will always be two Events during each game.
At the beginning of the game, and while there are any green
Gems remaining in VP Pool I, the first event is considered to
be active.
Once VP Pool I does not have any more Gems , that event is
considered over. When the current active player has finished their
Downtime phase, the Event associated with VP Pool II will begin.
Once VP Pool II does not have any more Gems , the end of
the game is triggered. Give the active player 2 Gems from the e. Once an Event card is removed from the game board, any
general supply as a reward for ending the game. Ongoing effects no longer function.
The second Event is not considered active during Swan Songs
(page 22).
Each Event card has effects that activate at a certain time
indicated on the card itself.
e
a. Some Event effects happen when an Event begins. This
means it happens before any players take their turn with
the Event being active.
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 Downtime Phase Endgame
The next player in clockwise order should begin their turn once Swan Song
the active player begins their Downtime phase, unless either
Gem Pool on the board is close to depleting. The end of the game is triggered when the last Gem from VP
Pool II is taken. That player receives 2 additional Gems from
During their Downtime phase, the player must perform the
the general supply as a reward for ending the game. Then, every
following steps in order:
player except for the player who caused the game to end will take
1. If the active player had a Singing Phase this turn, a Swan Song final turn. During a Swan Song turn, the player must
they return their Song tracker to the top of their perform a Singing phase even if their Tempo Wheel rotation
Tempo Wheel , and count the number of all their does not move past their Song tracker.
Bardstones and Coins . If this number is more
than 12, then they must discard tokens until they have
12 total.
Final Scoring
2. Draw cards from the top of their deck until they have
exactly 2 Skill cards in hand. If they must draw a card,
Once all Swan Song turns are complete, it is then time to calculate
but their deck is depleted, then they immediately shuffle
each player’s final score. Victory points are awarded to players in
their discard pile and place it face-down to create a new
the following ways:
draw deck. Each time a non-Skill card is drawn, they reveal
it and immediately perform an effect that depends on that 1. Each Green Gem token is worth 1 victory point.
card type:
2. Each Blue Gem icon revealed on a player’s Badge track,
as well as on any cards within their Song, deck, discard,
Improv Card
hand, or Boasting area , is worth 1 victory point.
Place this card into the player’s song.
3. Each Legend card with any player’s Rune Token on
Creature Card it will give the indicated victory points to all players who
Gain all benefits shown at the bottom of the card meet its conditions.
and then place it face-up into the Boasting area
above their player board. The player with the most victory points will be the winner.
If multiple players are tied, then the tied player with the most
Fan Card combined Coins and Bardstone tokens will be the
They choose one row at the bottom of the card winner. If there are still multiple tied players, then they all share
and gain all of its indicated benefits. They then the victory.
place this card face-up into their discard pile.

If the next clockwise player has not already begun their turn, then
they must do so now.

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 Credits
Game Design by: Carl Van Ostrand Rules by: Jonathan Cox
Development and Additional Design by: Drake Villareal Editing by: Drake Villareal and Toni Toshevski
Solo Mode Design and Development by: Drake Villareal Rulebook Layout by: Aleksandra Sofronieska
Art by: The Mico Production: Maja Denkov, Ivana and Vojkan Krstevski,
Toni Toshevski
Additional Art by: Marija Savikj and Aleksandra Sofronieska
Publication: Final Frontier Games
Graphic Design: Bojan Drango
Worldbuilding: Drake Villareal and Final Frontier Games
Additional Graphic Design by: Naum Jamovski,
Marija Savikj, Special Thanks: Larry Bogucki, Jeremiah Cole-Kelly, Doug Hettrick,
Aleksandra Sofronieska Oliver and Angie Van Ostrand, Skyler Villareal

Reference

Badge. Refers to one of the Badges that begins the game Skill Card. Designates a card as a Skill card, of which
on each Bard’s Badge track. you draw 2 during each Downtime phase.

Non-Basic Card. Indicates that this card doesn’t belong Improv Card. Designates a card as an Improv card,
which is immediately played to your Song when drawn.
to a specific Bard’s starting deck.
Small Creature Card. Designates a card as a Small
Banjo Duelist Basic Card. Indicates that this card belongs Creature card, which is immediately played to your
in the Banjo Duelist starting deck. Boasting Area for benefits when drawn.

Brass Baritone Basic Card. Indicates that this card Boss Creature Card. Designates a card as a Boss
belongs in the Brass Baritone starting deck. Creature card, which is immediately played to your
Boasting Area for benefits when drawn.
Bongo Bopper Basic Card. Indicates that this card
Fan Card. Designates a card as a Fan card, which you
belongs in the Bongo Bopper starting deck. immediately discard for benefits when drawn.

Elven Harpist Basic Card. Indicates that this card belongs Instrument Card. Designates a card as an Instrument
in the Elven Harpist starting deck. card, which is a permanent part of your Song.

23
 Lyrics. Primarily used to place Runes Place Badge. Place your leftmost Counter Tempo. Causes your Tempo
by Telling Legends or Performing. Badge on your Badge track here. Wheel to rotate 1 quarter-turn
Cannot be saved between songs. counter clockwise.
Take Badge. Take all Badges here.
Melody. Primarily used to Soothe If you take a Badge matching your Remove. Remove the paired
Creatures or Take Badges from other color, remove it from the game.
resource from your Tempo Wheel or
Bards. Cannot be saved between
songs. Boast. Move all Creature cards from Badge Track.
your Boasting area into your Discard
Volume. Primarily used to unlock pile. Options. Gain one of the indicated
additional effects on Skill cards, and options.
to activate certain locations. Rune Token. Refers to one of the
circular Rune tokens that begin the Options. Gain one of the indicated
Coin. Primarily used to purchase new game placed around a Bard’s Tempo options.
Skill and Improv cards. Wheel.
Soothe Value. The cost in Melody to
Movement. Used to move your Bard Place Rune Token. Place any 1 Rune
Soothe a Creature card.
and/or Boat. If gained outside of the of your choice from around your
Tempo Wheel into this location. Soothe Discount. Reduce the cost to
Composition phase, must be used to
move your Boat. Revealed Rune Bonus. Gain this Soothe this creature by 1 Melody for
bonus if it is revealed during your each Badge on it.
Tempo. Causes your Tempo Wheel Composition phase and your Tempo
to rotate 1 quarter-turn clockwise. Wheel Rune points to it after rotating. Melody Defense. The cost in Melody
Cannot be ignored if gained during to take a Badge from another Bard
the Composition phase. Shop Icon. Indicates that you can is equal to the number of these
buy a card from this location using revealed on their Badge Track.
Conversion. Spend the resources Coins equal to the current position
from the left side of the arrow to gain of the Market Token. Legend Card. Indicates that you
the benefits on the right side of it. may tell a Legend by spending the
Green Gem. Worth 1 Victory Point,
taken from the lowest VP pool with indicated amount of Lyrics and
Infinite Conversion. Spend the placing a Rune.
any remaining. Pool I > Pool II >
resources from the left side of the
Supply
arrow to gain the benefits on the Legend Discount. Reduces the Lyric
right side of it. You can perform this Blue Gem. Worth 1 Victory Point. cost to tell a Legend by the indicated
action as many times as you afford. Given by all cards that are added to amount. Reset your Boat to the
your deck, on your Badge track, and beginning of the track after using
x2 Conversion. Spend the resources from Legend cards.
any of this discount.
from the left side of the arrow to gain
the benefits on the right side of it. Soundstone. Can be spent as either
a Lyric or Melody during a Song. Activate Improv. Allows you to
This Conversion can be done up to
activate an Improv card in your Song
2 times.
Rangestone. Allows you to interact again, or to activate the top Improv
with Creature cards and/or Challenge card in a Shop (if it is accompanied
Gain. Gain the indicated amount of
Bards from a distance. 1 Rangestone by the text “From a Shop.”)
the paired resource. for 1 Region away, 2 Rangestones
for anywhere. Market Token. Indicates the current
Cost. Spend the indicated amount of
the paired resource. Motif. Allows you to take a Motif cost in Coins to purchase a card at
tile bonus and flip it, or to gain all one of the four Shop locations. If a
Shuffle. Shuffle your Discard pile and revealed VP, and flip them to their Skill card is purchased, the Market
Deck together to form a new Deck. bonus sides. Token advances to the right 1 Space.
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