Shifting Seasons

Shifting Seasons is an abstract tile-shifting game in which players move season tiles and strategically place them on their player boards.

 

In more detail, tiles come in four colors — one for each season — and each player has a season board divided into four quadrants, with each quadrant being a 3x3 grid with the number of the quadrant (1-4) occupying of the spaces. Some of the tiles are marked as "precious" tiles. To set up, place all of the tiles in the bag, then draw 16 of them one by one and place them in the four intersecting lanes on the game board. Finally, place three tiles on the central display, and reveal two scoring cards of each type.

 

On a turn, take one of the tiles from the display, place it on an arrow, then push it into the grid, ejecting a tile at the opposite side onto a number (1-4). Place this ejected tile in the matching quadrant on your player board, either adjacent to the matching number or adjacent to another tile in that quadrant. Refill the display. If you fill the eighth space in a quadrant, take a bonus tile, which allows you to move a tile on your game board to another space or shift a tile in the grid twice.

 

Keep taking turns until everyone has claimed 24 tiles, then count your points based on how well you matched the scoring cards. Every player board matches the color of a season, and each tile on your board of this season — as well as each precious tile — is worth 1 additional point for each of the scoring cards that it's a part of, in addition to the points for the card itself. Whoever scores the most points wins.