Section 9

The Crown's Guidance

Every rule of Evergreen in plain words - and the Crown's ruling on the one question the printed materials leave open.

How the thirty-two turns are counted

Each noble takes eight turns per season and thirty-two turns across the year. The season advances only when every House has taken its eighth turn of that season, so no House is ever short-changed by seating order.

Eight turns each, every season

Every noble takes eight personal turns in each season. Over four seasons that is thirty-two turns for each noble - the thirty-two-turn schedule the clarifications name - and every House receives exactly the same number of turns.

ADOPTED by the Crown's Guidance. It is the only reading in which 'eight turns a season', 'thirty-two turns' and 'equal turns for all' are simultaneously true.

Eight turns shared around the table

The season ends after eight turns have been taken in total, shared between all the nobles at the table. A four-House game would give each noble two turns a season.

NOT ADOPTED. At most tables it cannot divide evenly, so it breaks the clarifications' own requirement that every noble take an equal number of turns.

The printed clarifications assert three things at once: a season is eight turns, the game is thirty-two turns, and all nobles take equal turns. Read as turns-per-noble, all three hold at any table size. Read as turns-shared-around-the-table, the third fails for most player counts. The Crown therefore counts per noble. The alternate reading remains selectable in Rules Studio for tables that prefer a shorter year; it is a table choice, not a correction.

The year at a glance

8 turns each per season · 32 turns each across the year

SeasonYour turnsIncome at start
Spring1–81600 Crowns
Summer9–161800 Crowns
Autumn17–242000 Crowns
Winter25–322200 Crowns

The shape of a turn

Source
  • Every turn runs Journey, then Path, then Duty, in that order and never out of it.
  • Journey: roll the die and move clockwise. One reroll is permitted per turn, and only one.
  • Path: resolve the space you land on - a Proving, an Ordeal or a Decree.
  • Duty: take exactly one of Save, Give, Invest or Wait. One Duty per turn, never two.

The four Duties

Source
  • Save - place 500 Crowns in your Vault and take one Vault Token.
  • Give - give 500 Crowns to the Charity chest and place one House Gem, hidden, unless a Virtue changes the cost.
  • Invest - buy one Market item, if the Market is open to you and you can pay the full price.
  • Wait - take no action, and keep your Crowns.

How the thirty-two turns are counted

Crown's ruling
  • Each noble takes eight turns per season and thirty-two turns across the year. The season advances only when every House has taken its eighth turn of that season, so no House is ever short-changed by seating order.
  • The printed clarifications assert three things at once: a season is eight turns, the game is thirty-two turns, and all nobles take equal turns. Read as turns-per-noble, all three hold at any table size. Read as turns-shared-around-the-table, the third fails for most player counts. The Crown therefore counts per noble.
  • The alternate reading remains selectable in Rules Studio for tables that prefer a shorter year; it is a table choice, not a correction.

Income at the turn of each season

Source
  • At the start of every season each noble receives base income for the previous season's efforts: 1,600 Crowns in Spring, 1,800 in Summer, 2,000 in Autumn and 2,200 in Winter.
  • The Spring income is granted as the year is set up; there is no separate starting stipend and no midseason payment.
  • Card and Virtue effects that change income still apply on top of the base amount.

Virtues stand above the cards

Source
  • A House Virtue is permanent, unlimited and always active. It is never spent and never runs out.
  • Where a Virtue and a card disagree, the Virtue is applied first and the card takes effect around it.

Ordeals fall upon the whole realm

Source
  • An Ordeal is global. The active noble resolves it first, then the others in clockwise order.
  • A payment must be made in full - there is no part-payment, no credit and no borrowing.
  • A noble who cannot meet an Ordeal surrenders the next turn entirely: no Journey, no Path, no Duty.
  • At most one Vault Token may be converted for any single required payment, at 500 Crowns.

What is seen and what is hidden

Source
  • Public to all: Crowns, Vault Tokens and any Market items purchased.
  • Hidden until the Gala: the number of House Gems a noble has given.

The Gala counts two things only

Source
  • Final score is House Gems given plus Vault Tokens held. Nothing else is counted.
  • Crowns left over, Market items and Virtues score nothing at all.
  • A tie is broken by the most House Gems given; if still level, the victory is shared.

What the Crown has not settled

Crown's ruling
  • The exact order of spaces around the board is not recoverable from the printed materials; the seeded loop is provisional and editable.
  • Several older Market items remain withheld from play until their current wording is confirmed.
Set the tablePlay a solitary year