Kanaloa
Notes for Hawai'ian gods and their followers

Fri May 3 15:16:40 PDT 2002

Easily Missed Rules

  1. Restrictions on Kanaloa's activities when changing a fish between two islands:
  2. The player who begins the game with the Lono card cannot place a second pawn until he sacrifices to Lono at least once, or until he loses the Lono card, thereby receiving the Lono protection card and the right to place the second pawn.
  3. The player who begins the game with the Pele card is not immune to being immobilized by the volcano until he sacrifices to Pele at least once. Of course he can trivially avoid this by placing the volcano further away.
  4. The Dolphin may only be summoned if the pawn has no move.
  5. To thank the Dolphin, the tile claimed upon landing on the island must be given to the Dolphin (i.e. removed from the game).
  6. When using the Dolphin, the pawn must be moved off the Dolphin as soon as possible. It may not left on the Dolphin indefinitely, by say, moving one's other pawn or making a sacrifice.
  7. When traveling to a new island using the Dolphin, it is not allowed to use any powers, e.g. the Ku player may not rob, etc.
  8. Ku's theft occurs after the move and before the pick up of an offering; thus, a player moving onto the Ku player's island cannot lose the offering he picks up on that turn.
  9. White tiles are "wild" for sacrifice purposes, but if using them for a different god, at least one of that god's tiles must be part of the sacrifice.
  10. Cannot receive a gods or protection card if have sacrificed more to Kane than to the god in question.
  11. If a player's sacrifices to Kane exceed sacrifices to those of a god for which he holds a card, he must give up the card.
  12. Even if a player should hold multiple gods cards, only one gods action is permitted each turn. The complete list of actions:
  13. On the second turn of a volcanic eruption, the Pele player may use the action from a different god, but still may not move onto the volcano island.
  14. When a player acquires the Lono card, he may place a second pawn at the end of his turn if he has not already used another action.
  15. Neither a second pawn nor the volcano can be placed where there is already a pawn.
  16. No one can enter the Volcano island, not even the player who has the favor of Pele.
  17. If a player has two pawns on the board and only one of them is adjacent to the volcano, the player still gets a turn with the other one.

Hints from the Designer

  1. Using the basic setup, one of the red fish points in the wrong direction. It's the red fish nearest the top of the map and to the left of the island having six connections. The map has been corrected at the Bambus Spiele website and you may like to print out a color version from there.
  2. Actually, when I explain the game I never use the standard setup. It's made for playings in which all four players are new to the game. I explain that it's important to lay fish so as to create a circle and to use both sides of the fish (coloured and non-coloured) and I explain why.
  3. In placing fish, because you need two fish connected to an island (one to arrive and one to depart), first place a fish at an islands with four connections. In most cases this will preserve an unused connection on this island, because only one more player will place there. A third player wouldn't do it because he would have no way to get a a second connection there.
  4. At the start of the game, each player also receives the protection card corresponding to his gods card. This helps remind players that upon losing the gods card, the player receives the protection card.
  5. The players' tiles are always face up and visible to all.
  6. Resolving ties in assigning cards: The gods protection card is a tie breaker for getting the gods card, but there is no tie breaker for a protection card. If there is there no way to determine who should get a card, i.e. a tie in which neither player has the tie-breaker, then nobody gets it.
  7. The first player to join a tie for the lead in a particular color receives the gods protection card (unless rendered ineligible due to too many offerings to Kane). Should subsequent players also join the same tie, they receive nothing.
    Example: Andreas starts the game with the Pele gods card.
    Later he sacrifices 2 to Pele.
    Now Babu sacrifices 2 to Pele.
    No one else has sacrificed to Pele.
    What happens?
    Andreas keeps the gods card and Babu gets the protection card.
    Now Charlie sacrifices 2 to Pele. As the second to join the tie, he receives nothing.
  8. When using the Lono power, consider not placing the second pawn right away, instead keeping it as handy reserve. For one thing, it keeps other players in doubt and for another, it makes you less likely to be robbed. But when your on-board pawn has no easy way to leave an island, it will be a good time to place the second pawn.
  9. The inaccessibility of the volcano island is taken into consideration for Kanaloa's power. For example, Andreas has the Pele protection card and one of his pawn's has 2 paths off its current island. Now the volcano erupts and is placed on one of the two islands to which the pawn can move. Now the Kanaloa player has a turn. The Kanaloa player may not turn the other fish that this player could use as it is the last way off the island.
  10. The offerings in the game represent fruit, herbs, etc.
Publisher: Bambusspiele
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