With Pilzfest, we bring one of the most beautiful and clever mushroom board games to the German-speaking table. Originally released under the name „Mycelia“ by British designer and game developer J. J. Neville at Split Stone Games, the game is now available in a German edition lovingly translated by us. In this article, we'll tell you what makes Pilzfest special, why nature conservation is part of every game box, and how the game actually works.

Nature conservation included

With every Pilzfest sold, we support the UNESCO World Heritage site Wilderness Area Dürrenstein-Lassingtal in Lower Austria. Per game, up to five square metres of the surrounding forest area are protected for eighty years from forestry use. Thus, every batch of Pilzfest becomes a small contribution to the protection of Central Europe's oldest ecosystem.

Wilderness area Dürrenstein-Lassingtal is home to the Rothwald, one of Europe's last primeval forests, in which no tree has been felled since the last Ice Age. Old, deadwood-rich stands are a habitat for countless species of fungi, including mycorrhizal fungi, saprobes, and parasites, which have long since vanished from managed forests. Trees rotting on the ground are decomposed by fungi and returned to the nutrient cycle. This very principle of decay and new beginnings is also the central game mechanic of Pilzfest.

Game Instructions: How Pilzfest Works

In the box you will find 69 illustrated mushroom cards, 50 triangular tiles in five colours, 4 mother mushroom game pieces (one per person), 20 mushroom game pieces (5 per person), 120 spore tokens (30 per person), 20 spore markers (5 per person), 20 player boards (5 per person), 20 insect tokens, 1 wind direction dice, 1 endgame token, 4 game aids, 10 automata cards and 2 automata reference cards for solo play.

Structure

Mix the triangular tiles and place them face down in two piles. From each pile, take the top 6 tiles and build a star shape in the middle of the table. Leave enough space, as the playing field grows in all directions during the game. If a tile shows the insect symbol place an insect token on it. Also give each person an insect token to start.

Shuffle the 69 mushroom cards and deal 3 cards face down to each person. Each person lays 5 coloured player boards in front of them, ordered from 1 to 5 points, and places the mushroom game pieces on the corresponding boards. The spore marker come into the left space. Keep the spore tokens next to it. Whoever last saw a mushroom in nature starts the game. Before that, everyone places their mother mushroom in reverse order on one of the 6 central tiles (excluding the black tiles). Mother mushrooms may never be on the same tile. Whoever places their mother mushroom on a tile with an insect tokens takes it immediately. After all mother mushrooms have been placed, the top three cards of the draw stack are uncovered and laid out next to it. Then the game begins.

Mushroom cards

Each of the 69 mushroom cards features a hand-drawn illustration of a real mushroom species, along with its German and scientific name. In the golden diamond at the top right is the score, which the fungus produces when fruiting. Shown in the bottom left are coloured symbols which indicate which spores on which tiles are necessary to grow this mushroom. The more complex the requirement, the more points is the mushroom worth. In addition, each card has a number of spores, which determines how many spores the fungus spreads during sporulation (bottom right), and a decomposition action, which is initiated by the decomposition of the fungus. A lowercase letter on some cards refers to the mushroom facts in the game manual, where surprising mushroom insights can be discovered about the illustrated species.

Insect tokens

Insects play an important role in real mushroom life: when they crawl over fruiting bodies, spores stick to their bodies and are thus spread further. In the game, insect tokens function as versatile bonus resource. You collect them by moving your mother mushroom onto or over a field containing a token. Alternatively, you can discard three hand cards to gain a token.

Playing insect tokens does not count as an action and can be done at any time during your turn. You can use one token to swap the three face-up mushroom cards. You can use two tokens to move the mother mushroom of another player to any unoccupied field. When counting points at the end of the game, you get one point each two insect tokens. One token does not give you any point.

Turns: Six actions, two per turn

On your turn, you perform two different actions out of six possible actions: Move, Explore, Sporulate, Fruit, Decompose and Discover. After your turn, the game proceeds clockwise to the next person.

Move

The mother mushroom is the only piece you can move across the board. You may move it up to two tiles at a time, always along a straight edge. It may never land on or be moved across a tile occupied by another mother mushroom. The mother mushroom is your most important tool. With it, you gain access to coloured tiles for spore dispersal, collect insect tokens, and can block other players by placing it on a tile with an opponent’s mushroom piece. A blocked mushroom can neither spread spores nor be decomposed until the opposing mother mushroom moves away.

Explore

Turn over the top triangular tile from one of the face-down piles and add it to the playing field. It must touch at least one other tile along a straight edge. If the new tile shows an insect symbol, immediately place an insect token on it. There are four coloured tile types (red, green, brown, and yellow), which represent different nutrients and minerals. In addition, there are special black tiles, which can be used as any colour when fruiting. The symbols on the tiles are designed in a way that people with colour vision deficiency can also distinguish the colours.

Sporulate

During this action you spread spores from one of your mushrooms or your mother mushroom. First, announce aloud which game piece you want to sporulate from. Then roll the wind direction dice, which determines the direction in which the spores spread. Just like in nature, you don't know beforehand where the wind will carry your spores.

The first spore is always placed on the same tile as the chosen mushroom. The remaining spores spread in the rolled wind direction, always moving across straight edges. The number of spores is indicated on the respective mushroom card in the bottom right corner. Your mother mushroom disperses two spores by default. An important difference: mother mushrooms can spread spores an unlimited number of times, whereas mushroom game pieces can only sporulate twice. You track this using the spore counter on your player board, moving it one space forward after each sporulation. If there are not enough tiles at the edge of the board for the spores to spread, any remaining spores are not placed.

Fruit

Fruits means you let a new mushroom grow on the field. To do this, you play a mushroom card from your hand. Each card indicates which spores are required, meaning how many spores must be present on specific coloured tiles. These spores must all be connected, forming part of the same mycelial network.

Your network consist of all your coloured game pieces (spores, mushrooms, and mother mushrooms) on adjacent tiles. If an opponent's game piece separates your network, you cannot use the spores separated from the network for fruiting.

If you have the required spores, remove them from the game board and take a free mushroom token from your player board. Place the mushroom card onto the now-empty space. Then place the mushroom token onto one of the tiles from which you removed a spore. Only one mushroom may occupy a tile at a time, but you may place a mushroom on the same tile as your mother mushroom. The points shown in the golden diamond on the card are yours from that moment on. In general, the more spores a mushroom requires to grow, the more points it is worth.

A tactical detail:larger game pieces always have control over all spores on their tile. If your mother mushroom or a mushroom game piece shares a tile with foreign spores, you may treat those spores as your own.

Decomposition

If a mushroom token has spread spores twice, you may let it decompose. This process takes place in four steps.The mushroom card is removed from the top of the board and slid underneath. The mushroom game piece returns from the field of play to your board. The spore counter is reset. At the end, you carry out the decomposition action shown on the card.

There are three types of decomposition actions. Instant actions are performed once, for example “Remove all spores from a tile” or “Move an opponent’s mother mushroom to an empty tile.” Game improvements apply for the rest of the game, such as “Your mother mushroom can now move three tiles.” Mushroom improvements apply to all future mushrooms on the same board, for example “Every mushroom on this board produces an additional spore.” Important: Improvements cannot be stacked. Two identical game improvements do not have a cumulative effect.

Discover

Take one of the three face-up mushroom cards or draw a face-down card from the draw pile. There is no limit to the number of cards you may hold in your hand. After your turn, refill the face-up cards to three.

Gameplay and Scoring

The game ends immediately once at least one mushroom has been decomposed on each of the five player boards. The player who triggers the end of the game receives the end game token, worth 5 points. Then each player adds up their points from all foraged and decomposed mushrooms, plus any insect points and, if applicable, the end game token.

The player with the highest total score wins and is crowned ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. In the event of a tie, the player who has grown more mushrooms overall wins. If there is still a tie, the player with more insect tokens wins.

Game variants

For shorter games, you can play with only 3 or 4 player boards per person. The end game token is then worth 3 or 4 points accordingly. In a two player game, the second player receives one additional card in their starting hand.

For solo play, or as an additional optional opponent in games with 2 or 3 players, you can use the automata, a virtual opponent controlled by its own deck of cards. The automata follows a fixed priority order: Fruiting, Decomposing, Sporulating, then Moving, and can challenge even experienced players. The automata cards have a green side for medium difficulty and a yellow side for a harder challenge.