Components
The card game consists of:

Setup

The Fairy cards are shuffled and placed on the table as a face down deck.
The Object cards are well shuffled and each player receives 5 of these cards face down from the dealer. 5 more of these cards are laid out face up in a row on the table. They represent the exchange market.

The rest of the Object cards are placed face down as a deck next to the exchange market.

Goal of the Game

Among the young Fehjenjhara at all times courtship is pursued by the presentation of gifts to the fairy ladies. Each of the players takes on the role of a Fehjenjhara and tries by collecting and exchanging objects to assemble a collection able to correspond to the wishes of a fairy lady. The acceptance of such a collection by a fairy lady counts as the highest honor and the chosen Fehjenjhara receives outstanding status in the tribe. The first to succeed in persuading a certain number of fairy ladies with the most beautiful collections wins the Feenbalz [courtship].

What is a Collection?

A collection consists of at least 3 cards. These must either be of the same color or of the same category or neutral objects. Thus a collection of flowers cannot contain any stones and yellow collections cannot include any red cards.

Course of the Game

The player with the wisest expression on his face begins the game; after him the rest of the players follow in clockwise order.

The player whose turn it is can can only choose from 3 possible options: collect, exchange or court.

1. Collect

A player choosing this option draws 2 cards from the deck.

2. Exchange

The player swaps a hand card for a card from the exchange market. He must determine, which characteristic is employed for the exchange. Cards can be exchanged based either on the category, the color or the value. However, all cards must be picked up which correspond to the named characteristic. After the exchange the exchange market is filled back up to 5 with cards from the deck.

Example: in the exchange market are

yellow flower 1

red stone 1

blue feather 3

green feather 1

red beetle 1

red feather 1

The player places the red feather having value 1 in order to exchange. If he chooses the type property (feather) as the basis for exchange, he must take the blue and green feather cards into his hand. If he exchanges according to the color property (red), then he receives the red stone and the red beetle. He could also choose the rating property (1) and take the yellow flower, the red stone, the green feather and the red beetle.

3. Court

Courting is an attempt to present a collection to a fairy lady and thereby win her for himself. To do this the player places a collection of at least 3 cards face down in front of himself, which interrupts the normal course of play. Opponents can each decide in turn order whether to take part in the contest and discard a face down collection as well or whether to instead simply draw a card from the deck. After all the players discard a collection or draw a card the top fairy card is revealed. This card shows dislikes and preferences of the courted fairy lady.

On the basis of this fary card each player now computes and declares the value of his collection beginning with the player who opened the courtship.

Fairy Cards [see picture at bottom right of page 1] Modifications [shown at the tops of the cards] indicate which characteristic a Feen lady definitely treasures. A collection's value is changed accordingly. On the illustrated card the fairy lady has a dislike of shells. Should any of these cards be present in a collection, they each have a value of 0. If there is an object with value 0 that is treasured by the fairy, then it counts as an additional preference. Preferences are the properties that the fairy lady values. The courted fairy lady shown in the picture likes blue cards and beetles [see the mirror and the clothing parts of the card]. The value of all blue cards and all beetle cards therefore increase in value by 1. Cards which fulfill both properties receive the bonus twice. If the mirror is empty or the fairy lady's clothing is white, this preference is not used.

Example: Ulf offers the following green collection:

green shell 4

green beetle 2

green beetle 3

The value of the collection is calculated (according to the above shown fairy card). The shell in this collection has value 0. The two beetles count their values (2+3) and the bonus for beetles (each +1). So the collection has a value of 7.

The most valuable collection is the one with the highest point count. In case of a tie, it is the one that was first laid out.

Increasing the Value of a Collection

If more than one player participates in a courtship and after the evaluation of all of the collections, each player who offered a collection has once chance to improve it. The player who started the courtship goes first. To increase the value of a collection, the player places as many additional qualifying cards as he likes next to his collection. Should the collection thereby exceed 5 cards, as many cards as necessary to return the number to 5 can be taken from the table back into the hand. After this the collection must be the highest current point count; otherwise the player has to pass.

After a player either does or does not increase the value of his collection, it is the turn of the next player in order.

Example: Olli's collection is worth 11 points. Now it's Ulf's turn to increase the value of his collection. He has the following 3 green cards in hand:

green stone 3

green feather 1

green beetle 1

He adds all of the cards to the collection, making 6 cards, so he can take one card back into his hand. He takes the shell because this is not worth any points to the current fairy. His collection now consists of the green stone (3 points), the green feather (1 point) and three green beetles (1, 2 and 3 points), for each of which he also receives a bonus. Now Ulf has 13 points and is permitted to so increase it as he now has the most valuable collection.

The player who at the end of the increases round has the highest valued collection wins the fairy lady card for himself and places it before him on the table.

Then all of the collection cards used migrate to the discard pile -- including those belonging to players who did not win the courtship round. The game is continued by the player to the immediate left of the player who began the courtship round.

Game Variant: To increase the luck factor, increasing the value of collections can be performed before the fairy card is revealed.

More Than 9 Not Allowed

As the Fehjenjhara are not very strong, none of them can own more than 9 objects. If at any point a player has more than 9 cards in hand, an opponent of his choice may draw one of these cards from him at random and keep it. This is repeated until all players have at most 9 cards. If no player has fewer than 9 cards, the drawn card is placed on the discard pile.

The Card Deck

The discard pile is always newly shuffled to create a new deck when the deck is emptied or the exchange market consists exclusively of cards having value 0. Only in the latter case is the exchange market itself re-shuffled and newly placed.

The Horseshoe Cards

Horseshoes have no color and can only be exchanged on the basis of their values. Horseshoes fit into every collection, but a collection may contain at the most two of them as a rule. The exception are collections consisting exclusively of horseshoes (see Special Collections below).

The Game Ends

Depending on the number of players, the fairy courtship ends when a certain number of fairy ladies have been won by a single player:

The Black Fairy Lady

The black fairy lady is the most obstinate among all her kind companions and can not be conquered by anyone. If she is revealed, all collections migrate to the discard pile. The black fairy is removed from the game and the next round begins without this fary lady having been won.

Special Collections

With special collections it is possible to win 2 or 3 fairy ladies at a time.

• At the end of the courtship round the collection there is a collection whose points are worth 10 or more than any other: The winner receives 2 fairy ladies (the face up one and the next one that isn't the black fairy lady).
• At the end of the courtship round there is a collection worth 10 or more and is the only one offered: The winner receives 2 fairy ladies (the face up one and the next one that isn't the black fairy lady). The value is calculated right after the fairy card is revealed! Note: when the only one offering during a courtship round, the collection's worth cannot be increased.
• The winner of a courtship has no cards in hand: The winner receives 2 fairy ladies (the face up one and the next one that isn't the black fairy lady).
• The collection consists of all 4 shells or all 4 fly agarics: A player who lays out such a collection wins automatically regardless of the values of other collections (exception: 5 horseshoes, see below). He receives 2 fairy ladies (the face up one and the next one that isn't the black fairy lady). There cannot be any horseshoes in his collection. In the improbable event that players have both of these collections in the same round, each player wins a fairy lady. It is possible that the collection does not contain all four shells or fly agarics until after the increases.
• The winner has a pure horseshoe collection: He receives 2 fairy ladies (the face up one and the next one that isn't the black fairy lady). Such a collection does not automatically win!
• The collection consists of 5 horseshoes: This collection wins automatically. He receives 3 fairy ladies (the face up one and the next two that are not the black fairy lady). This collection is more valuable than pure fly agaric and shell collections.

To increase the interaction between the players the 10 magic berry cards are brought into the game. They are mixed in with the object cards before the start of the game. If a magic berry card is revealed to fill up the exchange market, it migrates to the discard pile and is replaced by the next card. Thus these cards can only be drawn directly into the hand.

Players shift magic berry cards from the hand in order to perform additional actions. If the remarks on the magic berry card do not contradict it, these actions can be started at any time, even if it is not the player's turn.

Magic berry cards count as hand cards and may not raise the number of cards over 9. A player whose turn it is may in addition to collecting, exchanging or courting, place an option [presumably meaning a magic berry card --translator] card on the discard pile and draw a new object card.

When a Magic berry card is played, it is afterwards removed from the game!

And now we wish you lots of fun courting!

Game Development: Gerd Deininger and Andreas Michaelis

Illustrations: Andreas Mätzing

Realization and Distribution: Drachenland-Verlag, Amselweg 12, 51503 Rosrath
www.drachenland-verlag.de; ulf@drachenland-verlag.de

Distribution also by: Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste, c/o Mark Sienholz, Barerstraße 65,
80799 München; www.krimsu.de; info@krimsu.de

Please send rules questions and comments to the Drachenland-Verlag address.

English Translation: Rick Heli