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Glimmerkreis

Click Print / save as PDF above. Nine A4 pages, black and white is enough. Cut out the place cards, weather cards, standees and markers along the dashed lines — about eight minutes, once. After that all you need is a die, a few buttons and four coins.

Free for private use. Giving it away is fine, selling it is not.

Wompfel Print & Play · Edition 1
A game from the Wompfel valley

Glimmerkreis

Everyone sits. One speaks. The light is coming.

Co-operative 2–6 people ages 8+ 15–25 minutes ~8 min of cutting
Explained in 60 seconds

The light travels round the circle. If a Wompfel is sitting where it lands, it glimmers — but only as long as it stays seated. When all four glimmer at the same time, we win together. The weather keeps shoving everything about, and the weather deck is our clock. Oh, and: only the player whose turn it is may talk. Everyone else hums.

What you print

  • 12 place cards (one of them the Sonnenstein)
  • 20 weather cards (+ backs, optional)
  • 4 fold-up standees
  • 4 ability cards, 2 quick-rule sheets
  • Glimmer light, courage bowl, Hodge slip

What you need as well

  • 1 ordinary die
  • 5 buttons or coins as courage buttons
  • 4 coins as glimmer
  • a pair of scissors
  • If you own real Wompfel, use them instead of the standees

The game is played with the paper figures supplied — it is suitable from age 8. The collector Wompfel from the shop are collector figures, made in Germany and finished by hand, for ages 14 and up and expressly not toys; adults may use them in place of the paper figures. · Free for private use. · wompfel.com

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How it begins

Setup and the five rules.

That is all you need to start playing. Pages 3 and 4 answer the rest.

At the end of every summer the glimmer light rises over the valley and sets the places right. This year it has not come. Instead something small and close to the ground moves from place to place — nobody explains what it is. Nobody asks, either.

  1. Lay the circle. Lay out the 12 place cards in a circle, clockwise in the order of the printed numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Matching numbers then always end up opposite each other.
  2. Place the Wompfel. Each figure goes on the place card it is pictured on.
  3. Set the light. The glimmer-light star starts on the Sonnenstein and later travels clockwise.
  4. Prepare the courage. Courage bowl in the middle of the circle, 3 buttons on it — or the number for your chosen difficulty (page 4). The remaining buttons lie beside it; during play they move into the bowl and out again. There are only these five — nobody has their own. The 4 glimmer coins and the die go beside it.
  5. Shuffle the weather. Place the 20 weather cards face down as a deck. That deck is your clock.
  6. Lay it out. The 4 ability cards face up beside it, the quick rules on the table. Whoever stood up last begins.
Setup diagram · numbers clockwise · matching numbers opposite
Arrow = direction the light travels

The five rules

  1. Whoever's turn it is turns over one weather card and carries it out.
  2. Then you decide alone: one Wompfel stands up and moves up to 2 places — that costs 1 courage button (only possible if there is one). Or everyone stays seated — then you put 1 courage button into the bowl (5 at most).
  3. After that the glimmer light moves 1 place clockwise. If its step ends on a Wompfel, that Wompfel is glimmered: put a coin down in front of it. If it later leaves its place — for any reason — the glimmer is gone again.
  4. Only the player whose turn it is may speak. Everyone else wompfels: humming means “good”, squeaking means “rather not”, buzzing means “look at this”. Pointing is forbidden. Staring intently is expressly allowed.
  5. If all four are glimmering at the same time, you have won immediately. If the weather deck runs out first, night falls — and you lose together.

A turn in three steps

Weather → decision → light. Always in that order. Then it is the next person's turn, clockwise. The last weather card is played out in full — so the light takes one final step. Hence all the close finishes.

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Look it up

The weather and the four arts.

No need to read this in advance. Look it up when it comes up.

Sitting alongside — always applies

At most one Wompfel sits on each place; everyone has their own. If two are meant to end up on the same place, there is no argument: whoever is pushed by the weather slides on clockwise to the next free place — with 4 figures on 12 places there always is one. And a freezing Wompfel with both directions equally near settles into neither: it stays seated until the ground has made up its mind. The ground is never in a hurry.

The four abilities — once each per lap of the light

Turn a used ability card sideways. All four refresh as soon as the light enters or skips over the Sonnenstein. No ability costs courage.

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The rest

Special cases and difficulty.

Who decides · the guest in the valley · and how hard you want it.

Who decides?

Every decision in a turn is made by the active person alone — including abilities and the direction of movement. The others may squeak as loudly as they like; they cannot outvote anyone. The only exception is Hodge.

Hodge

Guest in the valley: Hodge optional

Once per game, any person — expressly including someone whose turn it is not, and entirely without speaking — may place the Hodge slip on a weather card that has just been turned over. Hodge withholds consent: the card has no effect but counts as used. The clock keeps running. Whoever places the slip decides alone and is not asked. That is simply how Hodge is.

“Can withhold consent without being asked.” — Hodge, Pocket Wompfel

Choose together beforehand: the difficulty

All three levels need exactly the same material — only one small thing changes.

Comfortable wompfellingStart with5 courage. The “Träge Stunde” card is discarded with no effect — the Wompfel merely yawn.
Wompfel chaosThe standard game. Start with3 courage, all rules apply exactly as described.
Utter glimmer catastropheStart with2 courage. “Sonnenfleck” no longer gains courage. And: a Wompfel only glimmers if someone is sitting on a neighbouring place.

When it gets tight

If a glimmering Wompfel loses its glimmer, you do not have to wait for another full lap: move it for 1 courage — or free of charge with Mork — one or two places ahead of the light. After one or two steps of the light it glimmers again. That is exactly what the courage is for.

And once you have won?

Then you sit there. All four of you. Glimmering. For a Wompfel that is already the very best an afternoon has to offer — standing up now would be quite unnecessary.

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Cut out

The twelve places.

Lay them out in a circle, numbers clockwise 1–6 and then 1–6 again. Four cards carry aStart mark; on the other eight sits somebody else who is not playing.

— — — cut along the dashed lines — — —

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Cut out

The twenty weather cards.

Shuffle, stack face down. That deck is your clock.

— — — cut along the dashed lines — — —

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Optional

Backs of the weather cards.

Only needed if you print double-sided. Otherwise simply leave this page out.

For double-sided printing: pages 6 and 7 on the same sheet, binding on the long edge.

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Cut out and fold

The four Wompfel and the bits and pieces.

If you own real Wompfel, put those on the circle — they give no advantage.
Courage bowl
Sitting +1 · standing up −1 · max. 5
This bowl was not dug.
It was sat.

Glimmer light

Starts on the Sonnenstein and moves one place clockwise after every turn. Wherever its step ends, that Wompfel is glimmered.

Four coins from your purse work as glimmer markers; five buttons, pebbles or beans work as courage buttons.

Hodge

Hodge Hodge · No

For the optional guest rule on page 4. Once per game, without a word, by whoever.

Who else sits in the valley

Four Wompfel play along. The others only live on this sheet — on the place cards and in the weather. They are all available individually at wompfel.com.

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Cut out

Ability cards and quick rules.

Lay out the ability cards face up · quick rules on both sides of the table.

Quick answers — if things stall at the table

Does a glimmering Wompfel lose its glimmer if we move it? Yes. Whether by choice, by ability or through the weather — whoever leaves their place loses the glimmer. Sometimes that is exactly the right, bitter decision.

What if there is no courage left? Then everyone stays seated — that is always allowed and gains 1 courage. There is a legal move in every turn.

The light ends on an empty place — now what? Nothing. It has a brief look around and moves on next turn.

Fnug makes the light jump 2 places. Is the place it skips glimmered? No — only the place where the step ends is glimmered. A skipped Sonnenstein still counts as passed, though, and refreshes the abilities.

May I move through an occupied place? Through, yes; stopping there, no. You must end on a free place.

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