Advanced Rules

Game Overview

• Goal: score the most Joy Points (JP).
• Score tracking: pen & paper, or the Happiness scorekeeper app.
• Two difficulty modes — Easy and Hard — change Silver behavior and whether scores can go negative.

Difficulty Modes

Setup

• Deck: fixed 60 cards — 15× 1JP, 15× 2JP, 15× 3JP, 5× 4JP, 10× Bummers.
• Starting hand: deal 5 cards to each player.
• Board: 7×7 grid. First card goes in the center.
• Each player begins with 1 Echo token (charged).

What's On a Card

• 4 Triangles on each edge (Top, Right, Bottom, Left).
• 5 Triangle Colors: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Silver. Silver's behavior depends on difficulty mode (see above).
• Word: the concept shown on the card — the subject of your story.
• Joy Points (JP): 1–4 for Happiness cards, 0 for Bummers.

Placement Rules

• Cards must be placed adjacent (orthogonal) to existing cards.
• All adjacent triangles must match colors (per the current difficulty mode's Silver rule).
• Bummers cannot start new islands.
• New islands are only allowed when no legal adjacent play exists for any card in your hand.

Turn Flow

1. PLAY — select a card and place it (60-second play window in the online portal).
2. STORY — tell a brief story about the card's word (30-second window online).
3. ECHO WINDOW — for 5 seconds, any other player may spend an Echo token. Bummer plays skip this window.
4. DRAW — automatically draw one card from the deck.

Echo Tokens

When a Happiness card is played, the 5-second Echo Window opens. Any other player may spend their Echo token to echo the storyteller's word — adding their own brief story or insight.

Bummer plays do not open an Echo Window.

Euphoria (Plus Pattern)

When you play a card that completes a plus shape — center card surrounded on all 4 sides, all triangles matching:

• Score: (Total JP of all 5 cards) × 2.
• All 5 cards move to your Euphoria Pile.
• Echo tokens: if any of your tokens are discharged, recharge them. If all your tokens are already charged, gain 1 token (maximum of 3).

Islands (Reconnection Bonus)

If a Bummer play splits the playing area into separate islands (groups of connected cards), play continues normally. When a later card placement reconnects two islands:

• +5 JP per reconnection.
• One placement that joins multiple separated islands scores per island bridged.

Bummering

Bummers require all adjacent triangles to match. When played, all adjacent cards are bummed out — both the Bummer and the bummed-out cards go to your Bummer Pile.

Bummed Out JP = total Joy Points of the cards bummed out.

A 0-bummer play is only legal if no other play exists for any card in your hand — including cross-card checks against existing islands.

Game End & Final Hand Scoring

The game ends when the deck is empty and every player has drawn down to 3 cards. The final hand is then scored:

Echo token reckoning: −1 JP per still-charged token at game end; +3 JP bonus if you have zero charged tokens.

Scoring Summary

Tiebreakers (in order)

1. Most Joy Points wins.
2. If tied: most cards in Euphoria Pile.
3. If still tied: most cards in Bummer Pile.
4. If still tied: most Bummers in final hand.
5. If still tied: shared victory.