(7-22-18) Created in collaboration with

“Spring Forward” Everdell designer James Wilson (greycloak).

Pending official endorsement as an official

Everdell - BEGINNER VARIANT

variant. Further play testing needed.
See on BGG Forum.

Greetings traveler,

If you’re looking to teach the Everdell to new players (or those just newer to board games), and
want to ease them into the game play, card synergies, and strategy, then you’ll love this beginner
variant.

I have personally tested this variant when teaching friends to play, and it really helped them ease
into the massive (and gorgeous) 128+ card deck, get addicted (in a good way) to card synergies,
and ultimately had them craving for the full game experience. But don’t take my word for it. Give
it a try, and please report all feedback to me so we can make this the best it can be.

Instructions
1. Give each player a copy of the Farm in their starting hand. (follow all normal hand size rules)
2. Have each player gain the following resources based on a dice roll (use include 8-sided die).

1) 3 wood
2) 2 wood. 1 Resin
3) 1 Wood. 2 resin.
4) 2 wood. 1 berry
5) 1 wood. 2 berries.
6) 1 wood. 1 stone.
7) Draw 1 card. 1 stone.
8) Draw 1 card. 2 wood.

3. Remove all copies of the following 54 cards from the deck (* = found in Collector’s Edition).
• Clock tower • Monestary • Chapel
• Historian. • Monk • Dungeon
• Ever Tree • Gazette* • Ranger
• Scurrble Stadium* • Town Crier* • Doctor
• Scurrble Champion* • Bard • University
• Juggler* • Theater
• Carnival* • School
• Woodcarver • Teacher
• Storehouse • Shepherd

Last Updated: 9-13-18 by Patrick Kerwin (pkerwin) 1

Everdell - “Spring Forward”
BEGINNER VARIANT

4. Remove all special events except the following:

+ Croak Wart Cure

+ The Everdell Games
+ Tax Relief
+ Under New Management
+ A Brilliant Marketing Plan
+ An Evening of Fireworks

The remainder of the game, and set up, play per normal rules.

Happy gaming and may your seasons be bountiful!

-Patrick

Notes:
1. NEW STARTER DECK: In total I Removed 58 cards: The decisions were based on card complexity,
preserving deck color balance, and omitting any cards from the Collector’s Edition.

2. MODIFIED CARD RATIO: While 54 cards were removed to create the starter deck, the math and ratios
remain comparable to the original. The original game ratio of cards was 19 tan, 18 red, 21 blue, 18 purple,
and 52 green. So there were almost 3x the amount of green cards compared to other colors. The "starter
ratio" I've found that works best (after 6 play throughs) is 13 tan, 12 red, 13 blue, 12 purple, and 39 green.

3. "SPRING FORWARD:" I did find that beginning with a Farm AND starter resources (via dice roll mentioned
above) allowed at least 1-2 more cards to be purchased before spring began (allowing a clearer strategy and
sense of an "engine" to be developed). Also, with the first play of any game, I feel it's important to provide
new players some "quick good feelings" from seeing results from their actions. This helped with that a lot.

4. THE GATEWAY GAME EXPERIENCE: With the deck now thinned in this way, you friends REALLY get to
experience more card combos (and feel the joy of that), get exposed to more cards in the deck, and gain a
better sense of the true power of some of the more "core" cards.

5. SPECIAL EVENTS: Even if only one person activated a special event during their first game, they still get
exposed to the benefit, and it gives them a reason to come back for another round.

6. PAIRINGS AND THE FULL CITY: One thing I did notice, as a result of a much smaller deck, was myself and
others were able to activate the "free card" ability of our constructions twice as much as with the full larger
deck. By the end of the game, about half of my cards all had an occupied token on them - Felt awesome. It
also saw a LOT of cards being grabbed from the Meadow, with an increased sense of competition over cards
(which is hard to experience when new players don't know one card from the other, or which one's they
should be clamoring over).

Lastly, I noticed that MOST people had full cities, with 14-15 cards by end of the game. One person even
rolled into Autumn with 14 cards and spend most of their last turn playing the Ruins card they had been
saving, or going after bonus points and events. This shows new players (through direct experience) just how
important every card decision can be with a 15 card limit.

Last Updated: 9-13-18 by Patrick Kerwin (pkerwin) 2