The Rules

Setting up

The format

Geopals is played by two players. A full match is best of three games and takes about 80 minutes.

If you want a shorter game, agree best of one before you start. That is a normal way to play, not a house rule.

What each player needs

• A deck of up to 70 cards. There is no minimum, but around 60 cards plays well and much below 50 is not recommended.
• Tokens to represent your Geopals on the map.
• A separate Terrain deck of at least six Terrain cards. You can only have one card of each region, so you cannot include two Forest cards.

How many copies of a card you can run

The limit is different for each type of card.

• Geopal cards. One of each. You cannot run two Injis.
• Stamina cards. As many as you like.
• Action, Item, Terraform and Trap cards. Up to two of each.

Orb cards count as Items, so you can run at most two of them.

These limits are for your playing deck. Your Terrain deck is separate and follows its own rule of one card per region.

How to set up

1. Take every awakened Geopal out of your deck. Stage 1 and Stage 2 Geopals are never shuffled into your deck. Put them face up next to where your deck will sit.
2. Search your deck for the Geopal you want to start with. Put that card in your Play Zone.
3. Put the token for that Geopal on the map, at your starting end.
4. Shuffle your deck and put it down as your Deck pile.
5. Shuffle your Terrain deck separately. It never mixes with your playing deck.
6. Take turns laying Terrain cards into the space between the two players. Each player lays two cards, so the finished map is always four Terrain cards long.
7. Draw six cards into your hand.
8. Play scissors, paper, rock to decide who goes first.

Where everything goes

Each player has their own playmat in front of them. The map is not on either playmat. Terrain cards are laid on the table between the two players.

• Trap Zone. The long strip along the top of your mat. Trap cards go here face down.
• Play Zone. Your active Geopals, with their Stamina cards and Items stacked on them.
• Deck. Your draw pile.
• Discard. Cards you have used or thrown away.
• Awakened forms. The blank space directly above your Deck and below the Trap Zone. Your Stage 1 and Stage 2 Geopals wait here face up until one of your Geopals awakens.

Taking a turn

Every turn has three phases, and they always happen in this order.

1

Action

Play cards onto your Geopals, or discard cards. Use abilities. You can do these in any order.

2

Movement

3 tiles

Choose which of your Geopals move. Each one that moves goes the full distance its Stamina cards allow.

3

End

6 in hand

Draw until you have six cards in your hand. If your deck runs out, shuffle your discard pile and carry on.

1. Action phase

• You can play as many cards from your hand as you like, or you can discard as many cards as you like. You cannot do both in the same turn.
• You can use the abilities of your Geopals. Each ability can only be used once per turn.
• You can do these things in any order.

2. Movement phase

• You choose how many of your Geopals move. Any number, from none of them to all of them. Moving one does not oblige you to move the others, even if they could move.
• If you move a Geopal, it must move the full distance its Stamina cards allow. See Moving for how that distance is worked out.

3. End phase

• Draw cards until you have six cards in your hand.
• If your deck runs out, shuffle your discard pile. It becomes your new deck.

Moving ends your turn. As soon as one of your Geopals moves, you cannot play cards, discard cards, or use abilities. Do everything else first.

Using an active ability and moving in the same turn

Some active abilities move your Geopal. You can use one of these and still take your normal movement phase afterwards, so a Geopal can move twice in one turn.

You have to do it in that order. Use the active ability during your action phase, then move normally. If you move normally first, your turn ends and the ability is wasted.

Moving

Stamina cards are your movement

A Geopal moves one tile for every Stamina card attached to it. A Geopal with no Stamina cards cannot move at all.

Max Stamina is the number printed on the Geopal card. It is the most Stamina cards that Geopal can ever use. It is not how far the Geopal moves today.

You must move the full distance. A Geopal with three Stamina cards and a Max Stamina of 3 must move exactly three tiles. You cannot choose to move it one or two tiles instead. You can choose not to move it at all.

Stamina cards stay where you put them

Once a Stamina card is attached to a Geopal, it stays there. You cannot take it off, and you cannot move it to another Geopal.

The only exceptions are a Geopal ability or an Action card that specifically lets you do it.

Carrying more Stamina than you can use

You can put as many Stamina cards on a Geopal as you like. Max Stamina only limits how many spaces it can move.

The extra is there to be spent. Active abilities cost Stamina cards, and awakening costs three, so a Geopal with a Max Stamina of 1 can still do both if you have stocked it up.

A Max Stamina of 0 is deliberate on some cards. That Geopal never moves in its own movement phase. It moves only when something else moves it, and its value is what it does for the rest of your team while it sits still.

Paying for an active ability

An active ability costs Stamina cards. The berries printed beside the ability show how many.

You spend them. The Stamina cards come off the Geopal and go to your discard pile.

A Geopal may hold more Stamina cards than its Max Stamina, because Max Stamina only limits how many it may use to move. Carrying extra is how a Geopal pays for an ability and still takes its movement phase in the same turn.

Where Geopals can stand, and who blocks whom

Any number of Geopals can be on the same tile at once, whether they are yours or your opponent’s. Tiles are not exclusive.

A Geopal can move straight past another Geopal. Standing in the way does not block anybody. The only exception is a card that says otherwise.

Neighbouring means one space behind, the same space, or one space ahead. That is three tiles, counting the Geopal’s own. Whether two Geopals are neighbouring is checked before the movement phase starts, so you cannot move into position and use the benefit in the same movement phase.

Going backwards

A Geopal never moves backwards on its own. Its own movement only ever goes forward.

It can be moved backwards by another Geopal’s ability or by an Action card. That is the only way it happens.

It is also the way out of trouble. Being pulled by an ally or moved by an Action card can drag a Geopal off a Trap tile, or back out of a region it is weak in and stuck at.

Regions

Every Geopal belongs to one of eight regions. Those regions are Mystic, Shadow, Mountain, Forest, Ocean, Volcanic, Ice and Desert. Every Terrain card is one of those regions too.

Each Terrain card shows the regions that are weak against it in its top right corner. Check there before you move.

Getting a stuck Geopal moving again

There are two common ways to do this.

• Play a Terraform card. It turns every Terrain card on the map into one region for two turns, so ground your Geopal could not cross becomes ground it can. Two turns means one of your turns and one of your opponent’s, not two of yours.
• Use a Geopal ability that says it lets allies through. An ability will not carry a Geopal into a region it is weak in unless the card explicitly says so.
• Use an Item that connects your Geopal to a neighbouring ally. The ally moves and pulls your Geopal along with it.

Winning

A match is best of three games. Win two games and you win the match.

You win a game by getting enough of your Geopals to the far end of the map. There is nothing to guess and nothing to turn over at the end.

The last tile is not the end. Your Geopal has to step off the final Terrain card completely, so you need enough movement left to walk clear of the map.

How many Geopals have to finish

Setting up the next game

1. Put everything left on the field, including Traps, into the discard pile.
2. Put your discard pile back into your deck and shuffle it.
3. Take back your Terrain cards.
4. Move your Geopals back to the starting end. They keep their Stamina cards and their Items.
5. Build a brand new map the same way you built the first one.

The player who did not win the last game goes first in the next one.

Awakening a Geopal

Awakening changes a Geopal into its next form, which is usually stronger. There are two ways to do it, and either one works.

Take the awakened form from the cards you set aside above your deck and swap it for the card in play. Any Stamina cards and Items stay where they are. Put the old card to one side.

Once a Geopal has awakened, it stays in that form for the rest of the game.

Terms

Turn

One player finishing their three phases.

Round

Both players finishing a turn each.

Tile

One space on a Terrain card. Movement is counted in tiles.

Neighbour

Two Geopals standing within one space of each other.

Ally

One of your own Geopals.

Opponent

Any Geopal belonging to another player.

Discard

Putting a card from your hand or from the field into your discard pile.