Beardsmith

Beardsmith is a fast-paced tile placement game. Players are dwarven beard stylist apprentices. Watch the mayhem unfold one tile at a time when an important customer comes in and all the apprentices scramble to show their master that they deserve to take his place! Make the best impression by having the least number of open ends in your color at the end of the game, but watch out for the other apprentices who might try to sabotage you with a snip of their shears or some bubble gum! Do you have what it takes to outwit your opponents and claim the title of Beardsmith?

In Beardsmith players take turns playing tiles on a start tile, which is the face of a customer. Most tiles have regular braided sections of beard on them and these must match neighboring tiles as they are played. The players each have their own draw pile, and color. A player will have three tiles, played open hand, and on their turn will draw a tile and play one of their four tiles. There are some special tiles that can help a player out, or give another player a headache. These are scissors, gum, and the wild tile.

The game ends when all the tiles have been played. Each player adds up their score by gaining one point for each visible tile in their color, and losing a point for each open end (a section of braid that leads to nowhere) and any braided ends that touch a gum tile. The player with the highest score wins!