fo r e st s o f

Pangai
T H E R U L EBO O K
v0.9.11

Forests of Pangaia
2 to 4 players from 12 years (40-60 minutes)
By Thomas Franken

Before the dawn of time, Gaia, the primal goddess of our world, gave birth to the first trees. Deeply rooted and with
mighty crowns they slowly spread over the continent of Pangaia. In their mission to make the barren land fertile, the trees
grew without ceasing and cherished the timeless Rituals of Gaia. Since then, a ferocious force has been flowing through
their roots and veins, bringing life to the highest heights and deepest depths.

Note to our backers: This is the content of the Core Edition at the start
GAME COMPONENTS of the KS campaign. Its content will evolve during the campaign.

16 Land Tiles 40 Trees 24 Cards

24 Treetops 40 Resource Tokens

16 Seeds

4 Player Boards
40 Life Tokens
4 Spirit Pawns

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OVERVIEW
You are a young spirit of the forest, sent out by the goddess Gaia to bring the first life to the world. While you are growing
your trees across the vast and barren lands of Pangaia, you must complete a series of Rituals to honor mother nature. A
successful Ritual gives you Life Energy and the game ends after all Rituals have been completed. The player with the most
Life Energy wins.

Land Types & Resources Land Spaces

Rain lands Snow lands 3 Land spaces
(to place seeds & trees)
Rain Snow

Wind Sun
Water space
Land type (for spirits only)

Wind lands Sun lands

Achievements
Rewarded
Life Energy
Trees & Growth
Treetops

Achievement
condition
Seed Level 1 Tree Level 2 Tree Level 3 Tree

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 F
SETUP OF THE GAME

For each player place a snow, rain, sun and wind

land tile in the middle of the play area. All players
A
E
randomly assemble the tiles into a continuous
map, while each tile placed must touch a previ-
ous tile on at least 4 sides.

Each player receives a set of 10 Trees, 6 Treetops,

B 4 Seeds, 1 Spirit Pawn and a Player Board in one
color of their choice.

Each player places 3 of their Seeds and all 6

Treetops on the corresponding slots of their
C Player Board. Keep your Spirit Pawn and the last
Seed on the left hand side on your Player Board.

Place the Life Tokens and all Resource Tokens to

D the side, sorted by type.

Shuffle all Ritual cards and deal one to

each player face up. Place the remaining A
E deck of Ritual cards near the map, then
place the top three cards face up in a
row next to the deck.

Shuffle all Achievement cards and place

the top 3 cards face up near the deck of Ritu-
F als. They will be awarded at the end of the game.
Put the remaining Achievement cards back
inside the box.

The youngest player begins.

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 Example Setups

2-Player Example
D

3-Player Example

C 4-Player Example

4
THE RITUALS example
There are 14 Rituals the Spirits can perform to unleash A B
Gaia’s Life Energy (shown by the symbol). The goal of
the game is to earn the most by fulfilling the require-
ments of these Rituals. The game ends when the last
Ritual card is taken by any player.

There are Trail Rituals, Star Rituals and Peak Rituals.

In A the only path connecting your trail endpoints is
by going through 1 opponent Tree.
Trail Ritual In B you would select the longer path because it
contains no Trees belonging to another player.
A Trail Ritual is defined by 2 land types, representing the
beginning and the end of a trail. To fulfill a Trail Ritual you
need to own a Tree on each of those 2 lands and between Scoring: You receive 1 for each of your Trees on the
them there must be a continuous path of trees belong- trail and for each opponent Tree of level 1. Opponent
ing to any player. Trees of level 2 or higher are not counted. Instead their
owners receive 1 Resource matching their Tree’s land
A path of Trees reaching type.
from a snow land to a
wind land.

Path Selection: First choose two of your Trees, one on

each land type defined by the Ritual. Connect those In this example, you choose a trail of 5 Trees. You
receive 3 from your own Trees and 1 from an-
Trees by following the path using the fewest Trees be-
other player’s level 1 Tree.
longing to an opponent. If there are multiple ways to
The player with the level 2 Tree receives 1 .
connect, choose the shortest path. If there is a tie, you
choose which path.

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Star Ritual Peak Ritual
A Star Ritual is defined by 1 land type, representing the A Peak Ritual is defined by 1 land type. To fulfill a Peak
center of a star. To fulfill a Star Ritual you need to own a Ritual you need to own a Tree on that land and grow it to
Tree on that central land and have at least 1 and up to 6 level 2 or higher.
other Trees adjacent to it.
Scoring: You receive 1 for each level of that Tree.
A star-shaped forma-
tion of Trees around a
sun land.
A single Tree of level
2 or higher on a wind
land.

Scoring: You score for all Trees adjacent to the central

Tree. As before you receive 1 for each of your Trees
and for each opponent Tree of level 1. Opponent Trees
Level 3 Tree
of level 2 or higher are not counted. Instead their owners
receive 1 Resource matching their Tree’s land type.

A wind land

You choose one of your Trees on a wind land to

fulfill your Peak Ritual. Then you receive one for
each level of your Tree, in this case 3. All other Trees
are ignored and have no effect.
In this example, you choose one of your Trees on
a sun land as the center of your Star Ritual. You
receive a total of 4 for the Trees adjacent to it,
where 3 are your own Trees and one is a level 1 Tree
of another player. Your central Tree is not counted.

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Resources PHASES OF A TURN
In the course of the game you plant Seeds and let them The youngest player begins and turn order proceeds
grow. Every time you grow a new Tree you also gain a Re- clockwise.
source equal to the Tree’s land type. Those Resources can
be spent to grow your Trees to higher levels and unlock Your turn is divided into 3 phases that you play in se-
additional Seeds on the way (see Add Treetops) quence. After you complete the last phase, pass the turn
to the next player.

Sun Wind Rain Snow 1 Grow Seeds

When paying the cost of growing a Treetop you need to
compose Resources of different land types. 2 Spirit Action
A cost of 3 Resources can be payed
by a combination of e.g. 3 Add Treetops
3 but not .

During the Grow Seeds phase you check your Seeds you
Planting Seeds is central to maintain a healty flow of Re-
planted during previous turns and evaluate if they are
sources and one way to do that is by growing larger Trees
able grow and become new Trees.
that spread new Seeds. On the other hand, performing
Rituals will cause your Trees to decay and leave Seeds
behind (see Decay). Both mechanics will be covered in the During the Spirit Action phase you can choose between
following sections. different actions of your Spirit and plant new Seeds on
the map or play a Ritual card.

Designer’s Note: Like growth, decay is a central part In the last phase you may Add Treetops from your Player
of nature. But as with many things it’s important to Board to your Trees by spending your Resources.
find a good balance between those two forces.

While growth will give your forest more map con-

trol, decay is the key to open up room and start a
new life cycle.

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 1 GROW SEEDS examples
During the Grow Seeds phase, the Seeds you planted
during previous turns may grow and become new Trees. You have a single Seed on an other-
wise empty land. During the Grow
Seeds phase your Seed grows and you
replace it by a level 1 Tree. For growing
on a wind land you receive 1 .

Apply the following rules to all your Seeds placed on the

map and check if they are allowed to grow. There is a tie between your Seed and
a Seed of another player. During the
A single Seed on an empty land can always grow. Grow Seeds phase your Seed does NOT
grow and remains dormant until next
If there’s a tie between Seeds of different players, only the round. Alternatively you can pay 1 to
player controlling the most Trees adjacent to that land can still grow this turn.
grow. The Spirit Pawn is counted as a Tree as well.

If one player has more Seeds on the same land than oth-
There is a tie between your Seed and
ers, only the player with the most Seeds can grow.
a Seed of another player. During the

In all other cases the Seeds remain dormant and stay on Grow Seeds phase you have the ma-
the map! However, you may spend during this phase jority of adjacent Trees and your Seed
to still let your Seed grow against all odds. Spend 1 for will become a new Tree. Both players
every Seed missing to either reach a tie or have the most receive 1 .
Seeds on the land space.

When your Seeds grow, take all Seeds back from the land
space and instead place one level 1 Tree from your inven- You have the majority of Seeds on a
tory. Every player who had at least one Seed on the land land. During the Grow Seeds phase
gains one Resource matching the land type. your Seeds grow and are replaced by a
level 1 Tree. For growing on a wind land
Note: You can only grow your Seeds when you still have
both players receive 1 .
Trees left. If all your 10 Trees are on the map you can’t
grow any further unless some of your Trees decay (see
section Decay).

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 2 SPIRIT ACTION Decay
In the second phase of your turn, use your Spirit Pawn by All of your Trees that were involved in a Trail Ritual or
choosing one of the 3 following Spirit Actions. Star Ritual will partially decay and lose one level.

If a Tree has one or more additional Treetops you remove

A Plant the topmost one and place it back on your Player Board
on an empty slot of your choice.
Move your Spirit Pawn to any empty lake space on the
map and put any number of Seeds on a single land adja-
If a Tree has no additional Treetops and would decay to
cent to your Spirit. There can never be two Spirits on the
level 0 you simply put the Tree back in your inventory.
same lake space.
Then place one of your Seeds on the land instead. If you
have no Seeds left the land remains empty.

All your Trees decay by

one level. Higher Trees
lose a Treetop.
Level 1 Trees
leave a Seed.

B Gather
Move your Spirit Pawn to your Player Board and receive
1 Resource of your choice.
A Tree invloved in a Peak Ritual will fully decay and is
moved back to your inventory including all it’s Treetops.
C Pray Place a number of Seeds equal to the former Tree’s level
on the land space or to one or more land spaces adjacent
Move your Spirit Pawn to your Player Board and play your to it.
Ritual card.
Finally discard your current Ritual card and draw one
from the three faceup cards next to the map or from the
Depending on the type of Ritual card you play, point out
top of the deck (blind draw). If drawing a faceup card, im-
the Trees that fulfill the Ritual and apply the scoring rules
mediately replace it with a new card taken from the top
explained in the The Rituals section. Then all of your Trees
of the draw pile.
that were involved in the Ritual Decay.
Keep your new Ritual card faceup in front of you.

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 3 ADD TREETOPS
Now you may spend your Resources to unlock additional
Treetops and let your Trees grow taller. The six Treetops
on your Player Board are placed on different slots which
vary in side effects and cost. Some slots allow you to
You decide to take a Treetop for 3 Resources and
place additional Seeds on the map, others reward you
spend . After placing the Treetop on
with extra at the end of the game.
one of your Trees you are allowed to place 2 of your
Seeds on the lands adjacent to your Tree.
The slot indicates that by the end of the game you
will earn 1 unless the slot will be covered by a
Treetop again.

Unlocking Seeds
You start with one single Seed that can be used each
round to plant a new Tree. To be able to plant more
The cost to take a Treetop from the Player Board is a
than one Seed per round you need to unlock additional
combination of different Resources. These Resources
Seeds from your Player Board.
can’t be the same but must be a of different land types.
You may at any point spend your and use it as a Re-
On the Player Board you have 3 additional Seeds that
source of any land type.
are locked by one or more Treetops. To unlock a Seed,
you first need to grow all Treetops connected to it.
The cost to place The additional
Once unlocked you move the Seed to the left side of
this Treetop on one you gain
your Player Board. The Seed stays unlocked for the re-
of your Trees. 3 when this slot is
free by the end of mainder of the game.

The number of Seeds

1 the game.

you can place around

1
This Seed is locked by You can take the Seed once
the Tree receiving this the 2 connected Treetops
2 Treetops.
Treetop. are placed on your Trees
and both slots are empty.

Note: In the course of the game you are often allowed

to place a Seed when all your Seeds are already planted.
Whenever this happens, you may retake any of your At the end of this phase, pass the turn to the next player.
planted Seeds and place them again.

10
END OF THE GAME
When a player takes the last Ritual card, the game ends You’ve come to a far and ancient world,
after the current round and all players had an equal num-
Of rampant life and mellow sounds.
ber of turns.

At the end of the game, all players take one last turn and Where the elements in timeless tides,
grow their Seeds by following the rules of the Grow Seeds Shape rocks and nourish the mossy ground.
phase. Except you may not collect Resources or spend
to enforce the growth of your Seeds.
Where gentle lights touch the deepest dark,
First total all your indicated by the Life Tokens re- And countless arms embrace the soil of old.
ceived during the game.

Thunder. Wind. Silence. Behold

Award the 3 Achievements selected for this game.
In case of a tie for an Achievement, the tied players re- As the roots of Gaia’s children unfold.
ceive 1 each.

Score your unplayed Ritual card if you fulfilled the Ritual’s

requirements and receive the . Don’t decay your trees.

Finally, add for unlocked Treetops as indicated on the

CREDITS
free slots of your Player Board.
Author: Thomas Franken
Graphic Design: Thomas Franken
The player with the most wins the game and gains the
Illustrations: Chris Karbach, Florian Moncomble
blessing of Gaia.
Character Concepts: Marcel Domke
Cover Art: Anna Anikeyka
In the event of a tie, the tied players share the victory.

A special thanks to all those who helped playtest the

game through all it’s countless iterations: Sonja, Julia,
Life Unplayed Treetop Mamader, Tobi, Rainer, Lutz, Simon, Martin, Anne, Daniel,
Achievement Kelvin, Schubi, Nancy, Andre & Thymos, Benno, Marco &
Tokens Ritual Slots
Sean from Spielwiese, Aaron from Paperweightgames,
my dear family and many many others.

+ + + © 2021 Pangaia Games • www.pangaia.games

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