Fountains

Gameplay Overview

Fountains is a highly tactical, three-dimensional tile-drafting and pattern-building game where players compete as master fountaineers constructing magnificent water features. Each player builds a vertical, tiered fountain using physical, interlocking tiles. You must carefully connect internal water jets to ensure a continuous fluid flow throughout your structures. Leaving a layer disconnected cuts off lower sections, creating stagnant dead zones that fail to score.

The drafting economy relies on a central basin board holding three colored pawns (white, blue, and green). On your turn, you move a pawn one to three open spaces clockwise around a circular track and claim the corresponding tile or bonus feature next to it. Crucially, these pawns dictate mid-game scoring intervals. Volleying back and forth, if a pawn lands on its matching colored basin space, it instantly triggers a table-wide scoring evaluation for its specific criteria: lilypads, separate pools connected by water jets, or stocked koi fish. Points scale significantly based on vertical elevation, meaning elements on your second or third tiers yield much higher returns. This setup demands a delicate balance between drafting the exact tiles you need and trying not to gift your opponents an early, highly lucrative scoring trigger.