Pondscape
Pondscape is a strategic card game for 2-4 players, lasting around 30 minutes. In this game, players create their own vibrant pond by carefully placing cards featuring various frog species and pond environments while collecting different insect types.
The core mechanisms involve grid building and card management, with pond construction as a spatial puzzle. In each round, players choose cards from a shared display and add one card to their pond, aiming to fulfill specific conditions set by different frog species to earn points, with larger groups of the same frog type yielding even greater rewards.
A unique shared mechanism revolves around the "jumper frog", a central figure that hunts insects and other food. All players influence the jumper frog's actions and compete to gather insects that can provide bonus points during the final scoring. Careful planning and resourceful play will lead to the most balanced and flourishing pond!
Number of players: 1 - 4
Game duration: 15 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Pondscape and 1342 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
OBJECTIVE
Achieve the highest score by creating an optimal pond of frogs and habitats in a grid over the course of 15 rounds.
GAMEPLAY
Each player builds their own grid consisting of a total of 15 cards. (3 rows of 5 cards each)
Gameplay
- Choose one card from the card display (the row of 3 face up frog/habitat cards) and put it in your hand.
- Move the jumping frog clockwise along the display according to the movement card above the chosen card. (0, 1 or 2 spaces)
- Play a card from your hand into your grid. Cards can be placed anywhere in the grid. Cards can be placed face down as a water card.
- Resolve any effect from the card.
Card Types and Effects
- Instant Effects: Icons next to a lightning bolt or on a leaf symbol on the bottom right of the card are resolved immediately when played.
- Jumping Frog Action: Allows you to move the jumping frog around the central food cards. The cards that the jumping frog is touching show which of the your food cards may then each have one card tucked under them from your hand.
- Water Cards: The symbols on the water card are shown on the top right corner of the face up side as a preview.
- Food symbols: The food types in the pond are on the top left of each card.
- Habitat Cards: These have a leaf in the top left of the card.
END OF GAME
The game ends once all players have placed 15 cards in their grid. In the event of a tie, the player with the most remaining hand cards wins.
SCORING
At the end of the game, points for the following conditions:
- Frog Clusters: For each group of frogs has its scoring condition met, score points based on the size of the cluster.
- Solitary Frogs: These frogs don't score in clusters. They have their own scoring conditions, based on their adjacent cards.
- Water Cards: The points are shown in a yellow circle on each card.
- Habitats: Grant points based on the number of unique habitat cards.
- Tucked Cards: Each tucked card grants 1 point for every matching food symbol visible throughout your entire pond.
FROG SCORING CRITERIA
Solitary Frogs (Desert Rain Frogs)
These cards have individual conditions checked at the end of the game:
- Either 3 points per adjacent water card or for each water card in the same row.
- Either 3 points per adjacent habitat card or for each habitat card in the same row.
- Either 2 points for each adjacent unique food symbol or each adjacent frog card
Frog Clusters
Non-solitary frogs are scored in clusters (orthogonally connected groups of the same species). The larger the group, the more points are awarded.
- Ornate Horned Frog: Needs four different food types in the pond.
- Red-Eyed Tree Frog: Needs 3 species or fewer in the pond.
- Tomato Frog: Needs at least four water cards in the pond.
- Blue Poison Dart Frog: The cluster needs to be adjacent to at least two habitat cards.
- Clown Tree Frog: The cluster needs to be adjacent to at least three other frog species.
- Panamanian Golden Frog: Needs at least four cards tucked under a single food card.
- Indian Bullfrog: The cluster needs to be adjacent to a water card, habitat card and a frog card.