Arboretum

Based on the game by Dan Cassar

A deceptively cutthroat game about planting trees. A careful balance of planting and holding.

Setup

• 2 players: Choose any 6 suits. From each, take ranks 1-8. 48 cards total.
• 3 players: Use all 8 suits. From each, take ranks 1-8. 64 cards total.

Shuffle all cards together. Deal 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining deck face-down as the draw pile. Each player also has a personal discard pile (face-up, starts empty) and a personal arboretum: a grid of cards on the table that starts empty and grows as the game goes on.

Gameplay

Pick a player to go first however you like. On your turn, do these three things in order:

1. Draw 2 cards

Draw 2 cards total from any combination of: the face-down draw pile, or the top face-up card of any player's discard pile (including your own). Both from the draw pile, one from each, both from an opponent's discard — any mix is fine. You should now have 9 cards in hand.

2. Play 1 card to your arboretum

Take one card from your hand and place it face-up in your arboretum, orthogonally adjacent (up/down/left/right, not diagonal) to a card already there. Your very first card starts the grid; after that, every new card must touch an existing one.

3. Discard 1 card

Discard 1 card face-up to your own personal discard pile. You're back to 7 cards in hand. Anything on top of a discard pile is fair game for anyone to draw next turn, so think about what you're making available.

Play continues around the table. The game ends when the draw pile runs out: the player who drew the last card finishes their turn, then you score.

Scoring

Scoring happens in two phases. First everyone reveals their hands to determine who has scoring rights for each suit. Then, for each suit you have rights to, you find and score the longest qualifying path in your arboretum.

Scoring rights

All players reveal their hands. For each suit, add up the ranks of the cards of that suit still in your hand. The player with the highest total earns exclusive scoring rights for that suit. If tied, all tied players score it.

Special rule: If one player holds the 8 of a suit and another player holds the 1 of the same suit, the 8 counts as 0 when computing scoring rights for that suit.

You can have the scoring rights for a suit that you don't even have in your arboretum (i.e, you're only holding it in your hand). You get 0 points for that suit, but it does keep other players from scoring that suit.

Scoring paths

If you have the right to score a suit, look at your arboretum for the longest path that:

• Starts and ends with a card of that suit, and
• Moves through orthogonally adjacent cards (no diagonals), and
• Has strictly ascending ranks along the way (any suit may appear in between).

So a path must be at least 2 cards (one tree isn't a path).

Score 1 point per card in the path.

If every card in the path is the same suit as the one you're scoring and the path is at least 4 cards long, score 2 points per card instead.

You also get an 1 extra point for the path if it begins with a 1. You get 2 extra points for the path if it ends with 8.

It's okay to use 1 card in several paths of different suits. If you have several paths of one suit, you must choose just 1 to score.

Example 1 — mixed-suit path

You have scoring rights for Hearts♥. The longest ascending-rank path starting and ending on a Heart♥ runs 1♥ → 3♣ → 5♥. The ranks go 1 → 3 → 5 (strictly ascending), the endpoints are both Hearts♥, and the 3♣ in the middle is allowed because any suit can appear between the endpoints.

Example 2 — all-same-suit bonus

Now consider a different arboretum where you have scoring rights for Spades♠. Your longest ascending path that begins and ends with Spades is 2♠ → 4♠ → 6♠ → 8♠ — four Spades♠, all orthogonally adjacent, strictly ascending. Since every card in the path shares the scoring suit, you score 2 points per card.

Winning

Highest total score wins.