A pattern-making game for the piecepack by Jay Cormier and Don Kirkby Version 1.1, 2 Jan 2010 Copyright © 2010 Jay Cormier and Don Kirkby 2 to 4 players, 30 minutes Licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License

Equipment needed: one piecepack

Competing farmers are all trying to use the same farmland to grow their crops. They realized that in order to keep the pests away it's best to mix the crops they grow onto the same field. The challenge is that the farmers can't agree on who should plant which crops.

Players use seeds (coins) or dice to move their tractors (pawns) around the board while trying to form patterns with the seeds. Successful patterns are rewarded with prizes from the county fair, and collecting enough prizes wins the game. The seeds grow four different crops: arms are almonds, crowns are corn, moons are melons, and suns are sunflower seeds.

Find the ace and null tiles, then place the other tiles grid side up. Place 9 of those 16 grid tiles in a 3×3 square to make the main board.

Place one ace tile near each side of the board to make the direction indicators. These tiles are not part of the board, so leave a small gap. Place the matching die near each direction indicator.

Make a row with the four null tiles suit side up where everyone can see them. Take one of the grid tiles and place it grid side up with the null tiles to make five prizes for the county fair.

You won't need the six remaining grid tiles, so put them aside. If you're playing with three players, use three grid-side-up tiles to make a total of seven prizes.

Let each player choose a tractor pawn and place it in one of the corner spaces. For a four-player game, the players opposite each other will play as partners.

Place all the seed coins in a bag and let each player draw three seeds. Keep the seeds hidden from the other players. If you don't have a bag, just place them in the box and draw without looking.

Roll the dice to choose the starting player.

On your turn, choose whether you're going to move using a seed or a die.

• Seed - Pick a seed from your hand, and show the value to the other players. Play the seed suit side up on the board space under your tractor, and move the tractor. The seed's suit tells you which direction to move (towards the direction indicator of the same suit), and the seed's value tells you how far to move. If you move over the edge of the board, wrap around to the opposite side of the board and continue the rest of the move. If you play a null value seed, then roll the matching die and follow the rules in the next section.
• Die - Choose the die for the direction you want to move. Roll the die to determine how far you move in that direction. If you roll a null, choose a value between one and five and move your tractor that many spaces.

If you finish your move on a space with a seed, pick it up and place it in your hand.

If you finish your move on another player's tractor, pick it up and place it in any empty space on the board.

Red and Blue have already made their first moves. On Red's next turn, Red chooses to use a 3 in the direction of the arms suit. Red shows Blue that it is indeed a 3 and then places the seed, suit side up, where Red's tractor currently is. Then Red moves the tractor 3 spaces in the direction of the arms suit. In this case Red must wrap around the board and continue moving from the top of the board.

If you created a diagonal, vertical, or horizontal line with three seeds of one suit, take the prize tile of that suit from the county fair. A line of four seeds with one of each suit collects the grid tile as a mixed harvest prize. Each prize is only awarded once per game, so if the corn prize (crowns) has already been taken, for example, creating a line of three crowns doesn't collect any prize. The seeds may be part of a larger pattern, but they must all be together with no empty spaces or other seeds between them. If you create a pattern but immediately land on one of the seeds in that pattern, you must pick up that seed, break the pattern, and not collect the prize. Once you've collected a prize, however, it doesn't matter if anyone breaks the pattern.

If you played a seed, draw another one from the bag and place it in your hand. If you played a seed and picked one up from the board, you still draw and end up with one more seed than you started with. However, any player with more than five seeds in hand must choose one of the seeds and put it back in the bag. Once the bag is empty, the only way to get seeds is by landing on them.

Collect three prizes to win. In a four player game, play as partners with the opposite player and collect three prizes as a team to win. Partners cannot discuss which seeds they hold. The only thing they can discuss is whether they want to get landed on. This ensures there isn't too much “table talk” during the game.