Dragon Swoop

## Introduction

### Designer(s)

Richard Lenherr inspired by "Year of the dragon" by Daniel Solis in "Book of Dragons"

Beware of the Dragon Swoop! The Master Dragon tours the land for 12 months to recruit underlings, send away rivals, and eventually choose a successor. Score as many points as possible by discarding sets of cards, and emptying the grid.

## Setup

1. Use all 36 tiles.
2. Shuffle 5 tiles from each symbol and arrange them in a 3x3 grid of face down stacks. The top row should have 5 tiles in each stack, the middle row 3 tiles in each stack and the bottom row 2 tiles in each stack. Flip the top tile of each stack face up.
3. Shuffle the 6 remaining tiles and reveal the top tile. This is called the “master”. Place this stack above the left column.

## Gameplay

### Overview

You will take one turn at a time, representing one month in the Year of the Dragon. Each turn, you may do one of the following actions: **Recruit**, **Fly** or **Rest**. After that, you execute the end of turn actions.

### Recruit

You may do this action **ONLY TWICE** throughout the length of the game. Take one tile from a row or column that the master currently occupies into your hand. Tiles in your hand are called “underlings.”

### Fly

Take a set of matching tile as noted in the list below using a card in the master’s row or column, and then place them in their own separate pile in front of you, face down, except if you used the master, in which case, place the pile face up. They will be scored at the end of the game, so keep your won piles separate.

**IMPORTANT**: You can **ONLY** collect the listed set below. You are not allowed to create other combinations in a turn like 3x two pair or 1x 3-of-a-kind and 1x one pair or any other combination.

* Your set **MUST** include a tile from the row or column that the master currently aligns to. In case of collection 2 sets, there must be 1 card from **EACH** set.
* Your set **MAY** include the master, or any underlings if they match.
* Your set **MAY** include matching tile anywhere in the grid.
* If you cannot make a set, you must Recruit, if you cannot Recruit, you must Rest.

If you used the master, place it in your won pile face up. Then reveal the top tile of the remaining pile to become the new master. Place it face up in the same space as the previous master. If there are no more remaining master tiles, then choose any remaining face up card in the grid to become the new master. Place the new master in the same space as the previous master.

### Rest

If you cannot do either a Recruit or Fly action, you take a Rest action. This action can only be taken if you have no other possible actions (so if you can make a pair, you must). When you take the rest action, you may **SWAP** the master tile for any other face up tile.

It may happen that there a now tiles in the master's column or row. In this case, this is and empty turn. You may play the Rest action and then the end turn actions.

*Note: Sometimes figuring out how to rest is the most powerful way to increase your final score.*

### End of turn

To end the turn, do the following steps in order:

1. **Falling tiles**: After you have performed an action, check if a field has been cleared. If so, slide the top card from the pile above the empty space down to fill that space. At some point, a field will be cleared and there will be no cards left in the field above it to fill it. If this is the case, you get bonus points for it at the end of the game.
2. **Reveal new tiles**: Flip over any face down tiles so they’re now face up.
3. **Move the Master**: The master moves to the next space clockwise around the grid. The master always stops at the next column or row, never at the corners. Thus there are 12 spaces around the grid where the master stops, as noted in the this diagram.

## Game end and scoring

The game ends immediately after the 12th turn, a full “Year!” You should now determine your score.

Score points based on the type of set. This score is modified by whether the master was included in that set. You may NOT create sets except for those listed here (no Three Pairs, no Full House, no Three 3-of-a-kind etc.):

If you collected **ALL** tiles including all masters you get an additional bonus of +100 points.

If you emptied space you get additional bonus points:

 If there is no tile in the space above, this space remains empty and you score 10 points.
 If there is no tile in the space above, this space remains empty and you score 15 points.

Now you're ready to determine your score:

1. First add up your points for any spaces you emptied; 5 for each top pile, 10 for each middle and 15 for each bottom pile.
2. Look at each of your piles and score them. For each pile that is face up because a master was used, score the bonus points for using a master.
3. For any unrevealed master (still tiles under the master) you get a penalty of -12 points.

Total your points from spaces, piles, and penalties to gain your final score. The first time you play, write down/remember your final total score. For all future games, you win if you find a way to score higher than your previous top score!

## Variants

You can play Dragon Swoop without scoring by using one of the following variants:

·        **Easy**: Completely clear the whole top row by the end of the game to win.

·        **Hard**: Completely clear a whole column by the end of the game to win.