Seven Waters

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. End of the game
6. Tips for beginners
7. Variants

Overview

Seven Waters is a game for two about building rival water parks. Between you lies a pyramid of cards, the resources you both draw from. On each turn you either draft a card from the pyramid, discard cards, or build part of your park: water slides, a lazy river, a wave pool – and once per game you give your park a secret theme. When the pyramid is empty, the parks open and the better park wins.

• Players: exactly 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck with 2 jokers – all 54 cards are used – and paper and pencil for the final score.

Seven Waters was designed by Kevin Privalle for the 2021 Traditional Deck Game Design Contest on BoardGameGeek, where it came second overall. These are our own words for his rules; the original rulebook is linked under History.

Card values

• Ace = 1, 2 to 10 as printed, Jack, Queen and King = 10.
• A joker in your hand can stand for any card – any value from 1 to 10 for a slide, any rank for the river, any suit for the pool – when you build with it.

Setup

1. Shuffle all 54 cards.
2. Build the pyramid in the middle: 7 rows, with 1 card in the top row, 2 in the next, then 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the bottom row – 28 cards in all. Each card overlaps the lower half of the two cards above it. Rows 1, 3, 5 and 7 are face up, rows 2, 4 and 6 face down. The bottom row lies between the two players.
3. Each player builds their rope lines on their side of the table: first 1 card, then 2 cards, then 3 cards, then 4 cards, each group face up and slightly spread so that all values can be seen. Lay them sideways, so they aren't mixed up with other cards. Each rope line belongs to one water slide you may build (see below).
4. Deal 3 cards to each player as their hand. Keep your hand secret.

All 54 cards are now out: 28 in the pyramid, 2 × 10 in the rope lines, 2 × 3 in the hands. The player who was in a swimming pool most recently goes first.

Playing a turn

Take turns. On your turn you do one of these three actions:

Draft one card

Take one available card from the pyramid into your hand. A card is available if no other card lies on it – at the start, only the 7 cards of the bottom row. If taking a card uncovers a face-down card, turn it face up at once; it is now available too, if nothing else covers it.

You may hold at most 7 cards. With 7 cards in your hand you can't draft; you have to discard or build.

Discard cards

Put any number of cards from your hand face down on your own discard pile. Each discarded card costs 2 points at the end – a last resort.

Build one attraction

Play cards from your hand to one attraction of your park – as many cards as you like, but only one attraction per turn:

• Water slide. Choose one of your rope lines that has no slide yet and add up its values (a joker in a rope line counts 10). Play cards from your hand whose values add up to exactly that total, and lay them next to the rope line. A slide must be complete when you build it; you can't start one and finish it later. Each time you complete a slide, you take one extra action at once – draft, discard or build again (even another slide, with another extra action).
• Lazy river. Your one river is a run of consecutive ranks in any suits: A 2 3 … 10 J Q K. Start it with any number of cards in sequence (one card is enough). On later turns add any number of cards to one end of it per turn.
• Wave pool. Your one pool is a pile of cards of one suit. Start it with any number of cards of one suit; on later turns add more cards of that same suit.
• Theme. Once per game, you may instead lay one card face down as your park's theme. Its suit is your theme suit. A joker can't be your theme.

Seven slides only: the whole game has room for only seven water slides. As soon as seven slides are built – by both players together – nobody may build another one.

Example: Anna holds K♦, A♣ and 6♥. Her second rope line is 8♣ 3♠ = 11. She builds a slide with K♦ (10) and A♣ (1) = 11. Because she completed a slide, she takes an extra action and drafts the J♥ from the pyramid.

End of the game

The end comes when the last card of the pyramid is drafted. After that turn, each player has one more turn – first the opponent of the player who took the last card, then that player. Then the parks open and you score:

• Theme: turn your theme card face up. Count every card of that suit in your park: in your slides, river and pool, all four of your rope lines and the theme card itself. Jokers never count.
• Wave pool: if both pools are equally large, nobody gets the 5 points.
• Rope lines score nothing by themselves (except through the theme); nor do unbuilt slides.

The higher total wins. If it's a tie, the player with the larger wave pool wins. Still tied? Play again!

Example: Anna built three slides with 2, 2 and 3 cards (7 × 2 = 14), a river of 6 cards (6), the larger pool (5) and has 10 hearts in her park with the theme card 3♥ (10). She has one card left in hand (−1) and one discarded card (−2): 14 + 6 + 5 + 10 − 1 − 2 = 32.

Tips for beginners

• Watch what you uncover. Drafting a card may turn up a face-down card for your opponent.
• Slides give tempo. The extra action after each slide lets you chain actions – building two slides in one turn is a strong move.
• Don't rush your theme, but don't forget it. It counts your rope lines too, so look at them first: a suit that is common there is a good theme.
• Start the pool early so your opponent sees they would have to chase you, or keep it small and hidden in your hand until late.
• Keep your hand small near the end. Every card left in hand costs a point; discarding costs two.

Variants

• Contest version: the first version of the rules had no limit of seven slides – each player may build all four. The designer added the limit at the end of 2021.

Clarifications from the designer (BoardGameGeek thread): a slide must be completed in one go; the extra action after a slide can chain; jokers may also be used in the river and the pool. The rule for a tie between pools and "one extra turn each, the opponent first" are our reading of the rulebook.