Teach the Game

Plant peppers, harvest cross-breeds, and fulfill the town's orders.

How you win

Earn the most points by completing market orders, claiming recipes, collecting award plaques and keeping some money until the end. Scoville is a 2–6 player game about timing your planting and movement so that the peppers you need will grow.

The boards

The main board has a field of plots separated by walking notches, a Farmers’ Market, the Chili Cookoff, City Hall award plaques, and spaces for turn order. Your planted peppers are shared across the field: everyone can harvest from them.

A round

Each round has five phases:

1. Auction: In turn order, take one visible auction card and its pictured peppers. In later rounds, first bid coins secretly for turn order.
2. Plant: In turn order, plant one pepper from your supply beside a planted plot. A bonus tile may let you plant once more.
3. Harvest: In reverse turn order, move your farmer along the notches and collect peppers where your path crosses two planted plots.
4. Fulfill: In turn order, visit the market, claim a recipe and sell peppers, each at most once, in any order.
5. Check the display: Refill the cards and determine whether the game continues into the afternoon or final round.

How the game ends

The morning gives way to the afternoon when the market display is low. Depending on how many cards remain after afternoon fulfillment, players either play one final round or finish immediately. The scoring page explains the exact trigger.

Ways to score

Market cards, recipe cards and City Hall plaques award their printed points. Unused bonus tiles are worth four points each; every full $3 is worth one point. Highest score wins, with remaining money breaking ties.

What each resource is for

Pepper tokens are planted, harvested, traded for market rewards or recipes, and sold. Coins pay turn-order bids and recipe costs and also convert to points at game end. Bonus action tiles provide a one-use extra planting, extra harvest step or reverse movement.

Teaching tips

Explain cross-breeding with the chart before the first harvest. Players share the same pepper field, so a planting can help an opponent too; look at the recipes and market before choosing where to plant.