Quaking Aspens

Quaking aspen is a species of trees that often propagates through its roots to form large, clonal colonies that all share a single root system. In this game, you will play as an aspen tree, spreading its roots to grow clones in order to become the best grove of Quaking Aspens.

In Quaking Aspens, players will draft dice and use their values to connect leaves on their individual game mats. Each connected leaf offers various rewards that can improve future turns, or offer scoring opportunities. The game ends when a player reaches four out of the six goal leaves.

To set up the game, give each player a game mat, tracking mat, and a marker. Select a single sun card to use for the game and place it in the middle of the table. Each player rolls 2 dice and connects 2 leaves to their start space, using the corresponding paths on their board (see how to play for more details). Select a first player and give them the active player token and all 3 dice. Now you're ready to play.

Each round, the active player will roll 3 dice and claim one of the dice. The player to the left of the active player will claim one of the remaining 2 dice. All other players (if any) will use the final third die.

Once all players have a die value assigned to them, they will all simultaneously use their value to connect a new leaf to any already connected leaf on their board, using a path matching their die value. They will circle the new leaf they connected and gain its benefit, using the tracking board to track their rewards.

Once all players are done, the dice and active player token are passed to the left, and another round begins.

Each leaf shows an icon that provides a reward for the player. Here's a brief overview of the rewards.

Icon	Benefit
	Reaching this leaf gives you a plus/minus bonus, which can be used in the future to increase or decrease a die value by 1.
	Reaching this leaf gives you a dashed bonus, which can be used in the future to take a dashed path on your game mat.
	Reaching this leaf gives you a times two bonus, which can be used in the future to use a die value twice.
	When you reach the watering can, you can immediately connect any leaf to an already connected leaf using any solid path.
	When you reach the sun icon, you will receive a reward from the sun card selected for the game. There are multiple sun cards, and one is used each game to add variability between plays.
	Each beetle is worth 1 point at the end of the game, but that may be increased to 2 or 3 by reaching certain goal leaves. There are yellow, red, and purple beetles.
	Each set of beetles (one of each color) is worth 1 point. Reaching this icon increases the value of each set by 1.
	Fossils increase in value the more of them you find, so you will score more points if you collect more of them.
	When you reach a worm, you immediately roll a die and score that many points.
	When you reach this icon with a value in it, you immediately score that many points.
	Bones score at the end of the game, and are worth 1 point for each adjacent leaf that is circled when the game ends.

When any player reaches any four of the six goal leaves, the game ends at the end of that round. Players will then calculate their score using the tracking mat.

Icon	Scoring
	Multiply the number of beetles of each color by their point value. Each color of beetles scores independently.
	Multiply the number of sets of beetles by the set point value.
	Use the largest point value reached based on the quantity of fossils circled.
	Add all points earned from worms.
	Add all points earned from point icons.
	Find each circled bones icon on your game mat. For each of these leaves, count the number of circled leaves that are adjacent to it and score that many points.
	Score 5 points for each shaded area that has all 7 leaves circled.

Players should add all of their points from the above categories, and the player with the most points is the winner!

Quaking Aspens supports solo play with very few rule changes.
- Use the Solo Mode sun card.
- Roll only two dice, picking one to use each turn.
- Play exactly 30 turns and then calculate your score.
How high of a score can you reach?