HOW TO PLAY YOZ

THE LEGEND OF YOZ

It is said that many years ago a wealthy cleric buried a chest full of gold coins beneath the castle of Yoz. You and your traveling party will set out on a distant and perilous journey to lay claim to the treasure ... before a cunning thief gets to it first!

GOAL OF THE GAME

1 to 4 players can play Yoz. All players must navigate through the land and collect each of their three coinciding gems in order to build up powers. Once all three gems have been collected a player can pass into the castle of Yoz. All members of the party must enter the castle in order to win the game. If the thief arrives first the game is lost. Therefore the entire group must help each other, and the party either wins or loses as a whole.

CHOOSING CHARACTERS

Before setting up the board each player must first choose one of the following four characters, each of whom has a special power.

- The Knight has great strength and rolls twice on any dragon attack.
- The Runner can travel up to two extra spaces on every turn.
- The Wizard can roll twice on a transport roll and choose their preferred number.
- The Miner can dig through any tunnel by rolling a ten, eleven, or twelve.

SETTING UP THE BOARD

Board Tiles
- First shuffle the sixteen board tiles.
- Lay the tiles out in a four-by-four grid.
- There are over twenty trillion possibilities of board layout combinations!
- Make sure the north arrow in the top right corner points upwards on all tiles.

Characters & Gems
- Place each participating character in their stone cottage.
- Put each of the three gems on their respective colored spots (only for participating characters).
- Place the thief on the white circle that corresponds to the number of players.

Dragons
- Roll the twelve-sided die and place the first dragon piece on the transport circle indicated by the roll.
- Do the same for the second and third dragons.
- Each dragon can only occupy one transport spot, so re-roll for subsequent dragons if necessary.

INITIAL STRATEGY

Take time to clearly look at how the board is laid out.
- Consider placement of dragons, tunnels and transport spots.
- Plan the best journey to retrieve your three gems.
- Discuss with the party how players can best help each other through the journey.
- A lot can change during the game, so team strategy should be reassessed as the game progresses.

TURNS

Begin Playing
- Decide which player will go first.
- Proceed taking turns clockwise.

Each player turn consists of three phases:
1. A move OR a transport (phase 1 can be skipped)
2. A dragon attack or a tunnel pass (if applicable)
3. A board action

These phases are noted on the bottom of each character card as a reminder.

DECLARATION

On each turn a player must first decide if they want to move OR transport.
- A player cannot do both on a single turn.
- The player must declare out loud if they intend to transport before rolling.
- Note that characters cannot transport until they have at least one gem.

MOVING

The player rolls the twelve-sided-die on a move.
- The character can move up to the number of spaces rolled.
- The character can choose to move fewer spaces if desired.
- The runner travels longer distances, adding up to two spaces on every move roll.
- Two characters may occupy the same spot or cross paths.

TRANSPORTING

Benefits and Risks
- Transporting can move a character long distances quickly.
- It can also take a character to areas they might not be able reach on foot.
- However, transporting is much less predictable than a standard move.

In Order To Transport
- The character must possess at least one gem in order to transport.
- The player must declare out loud that they are transporting before rolling.
- If no transport declaration is made, the roll will be considered a move roll.

Transporting
- The twelve-sided die is rolled on a transport roll.
- The character then transports to the correlating numbered transport spot.
- The Wizard possesses stronger magic and can roll twice, choosing which of the two spots to go to.

Spots
- A character may transport to a spot that contains another character.
- If a player transports to a spot that is occupied by a dragon they must immediately battle that dragon.

Special Transport
- Special transport can only be done when a gem is in a completely unreachable spot.
- If gem is reachable by standard transport spot or tunnel, special transport cannot be used.
- Player must first declare that they are doing a special trasport.
- Player rolls twelve-side-die.
- If roll is a one or two, player can move to the spot with the isolated gem.
- Player can then move back to their original spot on the subsequet turn.

ACTION CARDS

Preparation
- Shuffle action cards before playing.
- Place action cards face down in a pile.

Turns
- At the end of every turn a player must take an action card.
- Follow the corresponding direction on the action card.
- Place used action cards in discard pile.
- Reshuffle action cards after every four full player rotations (1-2 players).
- Reshuffle action cards after every two full player rotations (3-4 players).
- Characters who have arrived in the castle no longer take action cards.

THE THIEF

A thief has also gotten word of the treasure and is attempting to get to it before you and your party.
- The thief makes way to the treasure via board actions.
- Occasionally the thief has setbacks and will move backwards on the path.

GEMS

Characters must retrieve all three of the gems that match their character color.
- Gem spots are also labeled with the first letter of each character title (i.e. K for Knight).

As characters retrieve more gems they become increasingly more powerful.
- With no gems a character can only move space-by-space and through tunnels.
- With 1 gem - a character can transport
- With 2 gems - a character can gather others players' gems (see more below)
- With 3 gems - a character may enter the castle of Yoz
- Gem powers are noted on the character cards for quick reference.

Passing Gems to Players
- With fewer than two gems a character can only retrieve gems of their own matching color.
- Once a character retrieves at least two gems they can collect a gem for another player.
- To pass that gem to another player both characters must be on the same spot.
- A player can only pass a gem to another character if it is of their matching color.
- A player can never carry more than one gem that is not of their own corresponding color.
- Gems can be passed on any spot on the board, but not within the castle.

DRAGONS

Characters cannot pass through a spot that is occupied by a dragon. To get by they can either:
- Battle the dragon
- Look for an alternate path around the dragon
- Wait in hopes that the dragon eventually transports elsewhere (this could take a while!)

BATTLING DRAGONS

Battle
- A character can battle a dragon on their turn if they are within three spaces of the dragon.
- A character must immediately battle a dragon if they transport or land on they same spot as the dragon.
- If a dragon transports on to a spot that a character occupies, the character must immediately battle that dragon.

The character rolls the twelve-sided-die to battle a dragon.
- If one of the numbers indicated on the character card is rolled the dragon is defeated.
- If any other number is rolled the character loses the battle.

If the dragon is defeated:
- The dragon is removed from the board for the rest of the game.
- The player can proceed through the now unblocked path on their following turn.

If the player loses the battle.
- The player returns to their cottage.
- The dragon remains in the same spot.

Multiple characters can team up to battle a dragon together.
- All attacking characters must be within three spots of the dragon.
- The player whose turn it is rolls the twelve-sided-die.
- If any of the attacking characters is the knight, the player can roll twice.
- If any of the numbers indicated on any of the attacking characters' cards are rolled the dragon is defeated.
- If another number is rolled only the player whose turn it is must return to their cottage.

DRAGON TRANSPORT

Dragons can transport as well when indicated to do so on a board action.
- Dragon transport is achieved by rolling the twelve-sided die as performed during game setup.
- If a single dragon transports, the player whose turn it is selects which dragon to transport.
- The dragon must be selected before the dragon transport roll.
- Two dragons cannot occupy the same space.
- Roll again if necessary until the dragon can transport to an empty space.
- A dragon can transport to a spot that it is already on.

If a dragon transports to a spot that a player is on:
- The player must immediately battle that dragon, even if it is not currently their turn.
- If other characters happen to be within three spaces of the dragon, they can help in the battle.

TUNNELS

Tunneling
- Tunnels are indicated on the board with dotted lines.
- They connect paths through underground passages.

Tunneling occurs after a move if a player lands on a tunnel spot.
- Tunneling is still part of the players turn.
- A player can choose to skip the move or transport stage.
- This occurs when additional attempts are made to pass through a tunnel on subsequent turns.

To pass through a tunnel a player rolls the eight-sided-die.
- If either of the two numbers indicated directly on the board is rolled, the character passes through.
- If any other number is rolled, they must wait till their subsequent turn to attempt to pass again.
- The Miner is adept at digging and can roll a seven or eight to pass through any tunnel.
- Tunnels can be passed through either direction.
- If a player fails to pass through a tunnel on two subsequent turns, they can automatically pass through it on their third turn.

HELPING YOUR PARTY

There are many ways a character can help the party complete the journey:
- Planning strategy to effectively navigate through the land.
- Defeating a dragon that is blocking another player.
- Teaming up with another player to battle a dragon.
- Collecting another player's gem and passing it to them.

SOLO PLAY

Yoz can be played by a single individual player and provides a different exciting experience every game with varying board tile layouts. There are two ways to play solo: single character or multiple character.

Single Character Solo Play
- The player chooses and manuvers one single character.
- All standard rules apply except for collaborative stategy (see section above).
- The game moves more quickly.

Multiple Character Solo Play
- All standard rules apply.
- Collaborative character stategy still applies but is driven by the solo player.

ENTERING THE CASTLE

- Once a character has retrieved all three of their own gems they can enter the castle.
- A character no longer takes turns once they are in the castle.
- A character no longer takes board rolls once they are in the castle.
- A character can leave the castle once they have entered and resume taking turns.

WINNING THE GAME

Winning and Losing
- The party wins the game if all characters arrive in the castle before the thief!
- If the thief arrives at the castle and no characters are in the castle the game is lost.

If any characters are in the castle (but not all of them) when the thief arrives, they have one last chance to save the game and block the thief. One of the players in the castle rolls the twelve-sided die a single time.
- Roll 1-7, the game is lost.
- Roll 8-12, the thief moves back two spots and gameplay continues.

MORE!

Here are some of the rules translated into Korean by one of the gameplayers:
- Components
- Rulebook
- Introduction
- More