Learn Skud Pai Sho

The Goal

Be the first player to form a Harmony Ring — a connected chain of your own harmonies that fully encloses the center of the board. Other endings exist (last basic flower planted, no legal move, resign) and are covered below.

The Board & Your Tiles

• The board is a circle inside a 19×19 grid with four Gates on the cardinal edges (N, S, E, W). Flowers enter play through your Gates. A tile may pass through an open Gate while moving, but a move may never end on one.
• The playing surface is split into Red, White, and Neutral gardens. A red flower may not end a move on a white garden space, and a white flower may not end on a red one; passing through is fine. The center space itself cannot be occupied.
• Each player's set contains 3 of each Basic Flower (red: Rose R3, Chrysanthemum R4, Rhododendron R5 — white: Jasmine W3, Lily W4, Jade W5), 1 White Lotus and 1 Orchid, and 4 chosen Accent Tiles out of 8 available (Rock, Wheel, Knotweed, Boat — up to 2 of any one type; the default choice is one of each).
• The Guest (Player 1) moves first. To start, a basic flower begins growing in both players' Gates — or the game can start informally, with no tile pre-placed.

The Circle of Harmony

The six basic flowers relate to each other on a circle. Adjacent flowers can form a harmony with each other. Flowers opposite on the circle (same number, opposite colour) clash.

Your Turn

On each turn, take one of the following actions:

• Plant — place a basic flower from your reserve onto one of your own open Gates.
• Arrange — move a basic or special flower already on the board in a straight line (no diagonals, no jumping over tiles) up to its movement range.

A flower is Blooming once it has left its Gate and is standing on a legal garden space. Only blooming flowers participate in harmonies and most interactions. Freshly-planted flowers on their Gate are growing, not yet blooming.

Flower Moves

Harmonies

Two of your blooming basic flowers form a Harmony when:

• They are neighbours on the Circle of Harmony (see diagram above), and
• They share the same row or column, with nothing between them (no flowers, accent tiles, or disabling effects).

Harmonies belong to you and appear on the board as a coloured line linking the two tiles.

Harmony Bonus

Whenever an Arrange creates a new harmony (a pair that wasn't in harmony before your move), you get one optional bonus action: place an accent tile from your reserve, plant a special flower (White Lotus / Orchid) onto an open Gate, or — only if none of your flowers are currently growing — plant a basic flower onto an open Gate. You may also skip the bonus. Forming several harmonies at once still earns only one bonus, and a bonus never earns another bonus.

Clashes

Two basic flowers clash when they sit opposite each other on the Circle of Harmony (same number, opposite colour: Rose↔Jasmine, Chrysanthemum↔Lily, Rhododendron↔Jade). Clashing flowers cannot form a harmony on a line that runs through the other, regardless of who owns them.

Clash Traps

A clash trap happens when a flower ends up on a line with an opposing clash partner such that it can't move without colliding further. Use clashes to block your opponent's intended harmony lines.

Captures

You may capture an opposing basic flower by landing on it if the two flowers clash. A wild Orchid (see below) may capture any opposing flower tile, and a wild Orchid may itself be captured by any opposing flower tile. Accent tiles and growing (not-yet-blooming) tiles are never captured. Captured tiles are removed from the game for good — they do not return to a reserve.

Accent Tiles

Accent tiles are placed as a Harmony Bonus. Each accent has its own placement rules and effect:

• Rock — an immovable obstacle placed on an open point. It cancels harmonies (of either player) that run along its row or column. Cannot be placed on a Gate, and a Wheel can never move a Rock.
• Wheel — placed on an open point, never one that is next to a Rock. When placed, it rotates the eight surrounding tiles one step clockwise around it. The whole rotation must be fully legal — no tile may be pushed off the board, into a Gate, out of a Gate, into the wrong-coloured garden, or into a clash — otherwise the Wheel cannot be placed there at all.
• Knotweed — placed on an open point; it drains harmonies for any flower (of either player) on its 8 surrounding points. It does not move them, only mutes them.
• Boat — placed on any blooming flower or any accent tile, yours or your opponent's. On a flower, the Boat replaces it and the flower moves to one of the 8 surrounding empty points. On an accent, both the accent and the Boat are removed from the game, leaving the point open.

Special Flower Tiles

Special flowers are not in your starting reserve in play; you deploy them via a Harmony Bonus (place onto one of your open Gates, like planting a basic flower).

White Lotus

Moves up to 2 spaces. The White Lotus may form a harmony with any basic flower on the same row/column (with nothing in between), regardless of whom the basic flower belongs to. A harmony that involves an opponent's basic flower still belongs to the owner of that basic flower — use carefully.

Orchid

Moves up to 6 spaces — the longest range in the game. The Orchid traps the opponent's flower tiles on any of its 8 surrounding points: those tiles cannot be moved by an Arrange (an accent can still move them). While its owner has a blooming White Lotus on the board, that player's Orchid becomes wild: it can capture any opposing flower tile ("raging"), and it can itself be captured by any opposing flower tile ("vulnerable"). Without a blooming Lotus, an Orchid can only be captured by an opponent's wild Orchid.

Winning the Game

You may never make a move that leaves your opponent with no legal move on their next turn. The game ends by one of these:

1. Harmony Ring — a connected loop of your own harmonies that fully encloses the center space. The player who completes it wins immediately. If both players complete a ring on the same move, it's a tie.
2. Last Basic Flower — the moment a player plants their last basic flower onto the board (their basic-flower reserve becomes empty), the game ends. The winner is the player with more midline-crossing harmonies — harmonies whose two tiles lie on opposite sides of one of the four lines that divide the board into quadrants (row 9 and column 9); a harmony with a tile on a midline doesn't count. If both players have the same count, the game is a tie.
3. No Legal Move — if a player would otherwise have no legal move, the game ends and is scored the same way as Last Basic Flower (midline-crossing harmonies).
4. Resign — a player may resign at any time; the opponent wins.

Full original rulebook and variants at skudpaisho.com.