Sapling Scramble is a set-collecting card game that takes 3 minutes to learn and 10 minutes to play! Play as an adorable Sapling, Scrambling about the forest floor collecting Ingredients in a race to brew Potions. But watch out! Berrybombs are hidden in peoples' hands to spice up the game!
2-5 Players | Ages 6+ | 10-15 minutes
Forage for ingredients
You and your friends are adorable Saplings scrambling about the forest floor collecting ingredients in a race to brew Potions. Collect acorns, mushrooms, leaves, flowers, beetles, and crystal wild cards from under the Tree, or by plucking them right out of other players’ hands!
Cause a Scramble
But be careful! Taking cards from another player might help them more than it helps you! Pick up Berrybombs to set traps for your opponents, Shake the Tree and collect Crystal wild cards, and cleverly make deals or deceive your opponents as you race to brew 3 Potions and win!
HOW TO PLAY
Setup
Shuffle the Potion Cards and deal each player 4 cards face-up.
Shuffle the Ingredient cards and place the cards face-down in the center of the table. This deck is known as the Tree. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​
"Shake the Tree", causing Ingredients to fall to the forest floor. Reveal 8 cards from the top of the Tree deck and lay them around the Tree.
Deal each player 2 Ingredient cards. The youngest player, or the Sapling of the group, goes first!
*When you "Shake the Tree", reveal new cards from the Tree deck into any of the empty spaces around the Tree.
**"Shake the Tree" when a Berrybomb is pulled from someone's hand, when a Berrybomb is played on someone's turn, or when the last card is taken from under the Tree.​
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***Crystal Ingredients are wild cards that can be used as any Ingredient type to brew a Potion.
on your turn
take 1 of 3 actions
ACTION 1 Take a Card from an Opponent's Hand
Reach into an opponent's hand and take 1 of their cards. That player replaces their card with any face-up card from beneath the Tree.
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*If the card you pulled from an opponent's hand was a Berrybomb, discard the Berrybomb and "Shake the Tree" before that player replaces their card with a face-up card from under the Tree.
ACTION 2 Play a Berrybomb
"Shake the Tree" then take any face-up card from under the Tree.
ACTION 3 Brew a Potion
Discard the Ingredients from your hand that matches 1 of your Potion Cards and flip the Potion over to brew. If you have 0 cards in hand, take 1 face-up card from under the Tree.
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The first player to Brew 3 Potions wins the game!
Global Game Jam 2021
This game is a continuation of our submission to the Global Game Jam in 2021. The theme for the jam was "hide-and-seek". It was this idea that inspired the mechanic of revealing your cards to all players, then hiding them away as players try to collect specific ingredients in a race to Brew Potions.
Take a look at the original submission of Sapling Scramble!
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