Turn and Dice
How a turn of The White Castle works — taking a die from a Bridge, placing it, paying or earning coins, stacking — plus coins, Seals, Resources, turn order and the end of a round.
Overview
The game lasts 3 rounds. In each round every player takes 3 turns, in the order of the Heron tokens on the Turn Order track. A round ends when only 3 dice are left on all the Bridges together.
[Matcha] With the expansion each player takes 4 turns and the round ends at 4 dice (Matcha).
Turn order
The player whose Heron is at the top of the Turn Order track plays first, then down the track. The order changes only at the end of a round.
A turn
You take one die and use it. The steps always go in this order — you can’t come back to a step later.
Taking a die
Take a die from either end of any Bridge; dice in the middle are not available. If dice remain in the middle, slide the nearest one into the gap, without changing its value, so the next player can reach it.
If you take the die at the left end (by the lantern), you gain your Lantern Reward.
Placing the die
Put the die on any space with a die symbol — on the main board or your Domain board — where its colour is allowed. It always covers a value: the one printed on the space, or a die already there.
- Die higher than the value below: gain the difference in
coins. - Die lower: pay the difference. You must be able to pay all of it.
- Equal: nothing changes hands.
Stacking
- With 3–4 players, one die may be stacked on top of another, only on the main board.
- With 1–2 players, dice are never stacked.
- Never on your Domain board.
Taking the action
Then the Lantern Reward (left-end die), then the action or actions of the space, in any order you like. All actions are optional. The locations explain each space.
Coins, Seals and Resources
- A black number next to an icon means gain that many; a red number with a coin or Seal means pay it to do what the arrow points to.
- Coins are unlimited; make change with the 5-value coins whenever you like.
- Daimyo Seals: at most 5.
Resources
Your Domain board has a track 0–7 for each of 
Food, 
Iron and 
Mother-of-Pearl. You can never hold more than 7 (extra is lost) or go below 0. 
means one Resource of your choice (with a number: that many, in any mix).
End of the round
When only 3 dice remain on all the Bridges, the round ends:
- New turn order — the player farthest on the Passage of Time track plays first next round; on a tie, the token on top goes first. Arrange the Herons to match.
- Gardens (rounds 1 and 2 only) — each Bridge that still holds at least one die activates the Garden cards beside it: in turn order, every player uses each of those Garden actions where they have a Gardener once, in any order.
- Prepare the next round (rounds 1 and 2) — reroll all dice and lay them on their Bridges in ascending order; move the Round marker.
After round 3, set the turn order and go straight to Game End and Scoring.