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You manage a railroad. To run a train and deliver goods, you need a locomotive (Moon suit), and a power source: either steam (Water suit), which is consumed when you run a train, or solar (Sun suit, not consumed). In the first half of the game, steam is more abundant than solar.

You score points for goods (Leaf, Wyrm, and Knot suits) delivered. You also score if you run one of the last stream trains.

Setup

Each player starts with five points. The person most recently on a train is the start player. Turns go clockwise.

Remove from the Decktet the Excuse, which is not used. Remove for the first half: the Ace and Crown of Suns; the two cards with three suits, one of which is Sun (so include the other two three-suited cards). Shuffle the resulting forty-card deck.

Start a face-up “river” with the first four cards from the deck. Place the deck, face-down, at one end of the river.

First Half

On your turn, you must either take cards or run one of your trains. You may at any point on your turn discard from your trains. You may not have more than two trains, or more than five cards in a train..

When you take cards, either:

• Take two from the river. River cards furthest from the deck are cheaper: the first two are free, then costs are 1, 2. Refill the river from the deck after taking cards (i.e. not after each card). For each card, either: add to a train, subject to the five-card limit; start a train, subject to the two-train limit.
• Take one card from the river and rearrange the cards in your trains. Refill the river.

Move cards not taken “downriver”, and fill the river back to four cards, if there are enough cards in the deck.

When you run a train, choose one of your trains that has at least one locomotive (Moon), is powered by either steam (has at least one Wave) or sun (has at least one Sun), and has at least one good (Leaf, Wyrm, or Knot).

For each Leaf, Wyrm, or Knot symbol on the train, you may deliver a good; you must deliver at least one. Score a point for each good delivered. If you deliver more than two of the same good, take an extra point for each good more than two (so you would score 4 for three Wyrms, 6 for four).

Then discard every card used as part of a delivery or for steam power. If your train was powered by steam, this means discarding a card with a Wave. If the train has more than one Wave, you need only discard one. The same card may be used for multiple discards. You discard whole cards, not parts of cards!

For example, if your steam train includes a Wave/Leaf card, and no other Waves, you must discard it, since steam is consumed. You would score 1 for the Leaf. If your solar train includes a Sun/Wyrm card, you have a choice: discard it, and score 1 for the Wyrm; or don’t score the Wyrm and keep the card as part of the train, which would have solar power for its next run.

The first half ends when the river cannot be refilled from the deck. Leave the cards in the river for the second half.

Second Half

Shuffle together the four “sunny” cards and the discard to form the deck for the second half. Fill the river if necessary. Make a stack of two Wave tokens, and another “stack” of one.

The player to the left of the player who finished the first half starts the second half.

Rules for the second half are the same as for the first half, with the following changes. When you use steam power, take the stack of two Wave tokens. If another player has it, take it from them and give them the single Wave token; this may involve taking the single Wave token from the player who has it. Hence the last player to use steam gets two tokens, and the second to last, one.

End of Game and Scoring

The end is triggered when a player takes cards and the river cannot be refilled from the deck. Each player, including that one, takes one more turn.

Add to your chip score two points for each Wave token.
Tiebreaker: most unshipped goods.

Credits

Designed by Andrew Watson (andwat on BGG), who thanks the playtesters.

Next Steps

• New deck; so, for this game at least, say thanks and goodbye to the Decktet.
• New name: Steam to Solar.

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