Riverfolk Company turn — Tabletop Companion

Birdsong

Protectionism (if Payments is empty)

Check your Payments box. If it is completely empty, place two warriors from your supply into it now.

Hint This is your safety net for turns when nobody bought any services. Two warriors is a thin cushion, but it ensures you always have something to move into your Funds box and can take at least a couple of actions.

Score Dividends

If you have at least one trade post anywhere on the map, score one victory point for every two warriors currently in your Funds box. Round down.

Hint You score zero dividends if you have no trade posts on the board, no matter how many funds you have accumulated. Getting your first trade post placed early is critical to turning fund accumulation into points.
Hint Dividends are scored from the Funds box before you gather payments into it. Only warriors already in Funds count — the warriors about to arrive from Payments do not score this turn.

Gather Funds

Move all warriors currently sitting anywhere on your faction board — Payments and Committed boxes — into your Funds box. These are now available to spend or commit during Daylight.

Hint Warriors in your Committed box from last turn also return to Funds now. Nothing is lost — everything cycles back into your available pool each Birdsong.

Daylight

Services (other players buy before your turn)

At the start of each player's Birdsong — including yours — that player may purchase your services. For each service bought, the buyer places into your Payments box a number of warriors from their supply equal to that service's current price.

Each player may buy one service per turn, plus one additional service for each clearing on the map that has both a Riverfolk trade post and at least one of that player's pieces.

The three available services are:

Hand Card — the buyer takes any one card from your face-up hand.
Riverboats — the buyer treats rivers as paths until the end of their current turn.
Mercenaries — during the buyer's Daylight and Evening, they treat your warriors as their own for the purposes of ruling clearings and initiating battles.

Hint Your hand is always face-up and visible to all players. Everyone can see what Hand Cards are available before deciding whether to buy. Keep cards in hand that others will want — a hand full of useful cards drives purchases.
Hint A player with pieces in three clearings each containing a Riverfolk trade post can buy up to four services in a single turn. Placing posts in clearings where active factions already operate dramatically increases how many services you can sell per round.

Take Actions

Spend or commit warriors from your Funds box to take actions in any order and any number of times. You may take as many actions as your funds allow.

Most actions commit one fund — move the warrior to your Committed box:

Move — commit one fund to move any number of your warriors from one clearing to an adjacent connected clearing. You may use rivers as paths.
Battle — commit one fund to initiate combat in a clearing where you have warriors.
Draw — commit one fund to draw one card from the shared deck.
Craft — commit fund warriors to the craft slots on your faction board. Each slot is labeled with a suit; commit one warrior per crafting symbol the card requires of that suit.
Recruit — spend one fund (return it to that warrior's owner's supply) to place one Riverfolk warrior in any clearing on a river.
Establish Trade Post — spend two funds belonging to the faction that currently rules the target clearing (return those warriors to that faction's supply), then place a trade post token and one Riverfolk warrior from your supply in that clearing. Score victory points as shown on your faction board for that post's position. You may have at most one trade post per clearing.

Hint Committing a fund moves it to your Committed box, where it returns to your Funds box next Birdsong. Spending a fund returns it to the original owner's supply permanently. Spend only when the action specifically requires it — like Recruit or Establish Trade Post — to preserve your fund pool.
Hint The two funds you spend to establish a trade post must come from warriors that belong to the faction ruling that clearing. Check whose warriors are in your Funds box before committing to a build target — you need the right faction's warriors on hand.
Hint You always move along rivers as if they were normal paths. This is not a purchased service — it is a permanent ability. Plan your trade post placement around the river network so your warriors can reach and reinforce posts quickly.

Evening

Discard to Hand Limit

If you have more than five cards in hand, discard down to five. Choose which cards to keep carefully — your hand is public, so the cards you hold directly influence which services other players will want to buy.

Hint Bird cards and highly useful items tend to attract buyers for your Hand Card service. If your hand is full of low-value cards nobody wants, you may draw fewer buyers next round — consider that when deciding what to discard.

Set Service Prices

Move each of your three service markers to any position on its track. The position determines how many warriors a buyer must place in your Payments box to purchase that service. You may change all three prices, lower some, raise others, or leave them unchanged.

Hint A service priced too high will simply go unsold. Watch what other factions need — if someone is racing to move across the map, Riverboats at a low cost will sell. If a faction is about to fight a critical battle, Mercenaries becomes suddenly valuable. Adjust prices to meet the current moment.
Hint Whatever you set now stays fixed until your next Evening. You cannot adjust prices mid-round in response to what happens at the table, so try to anticipate what the other players will want on their upcoming turns.