Umbrella

About this board game

Umbrella is a puzzle game for 1–4 players that takes about 30 minutes, in which players orchestrate a colorful dance of umbrellas across a street crossing.

Each player begins with a 4×4 square containing four umbrellas of each of four colors. Umbrellas also occupy waiting zones around the board: to the left and right, in the center, and below each player’s personal board. The side zones are shared with neighboring players, while the central zone is shared by everyone.

On your turn, take an umbrella from an adjacent waiting zone and slide it onto your board from that direction. The incoming umbrella pushes another umbrella out from the opposite side, sending it into the corresponding waiting zone. Every move changes the arrangement, creating opportunities to complete the patterns shown on your figure tiles.

• Start with two stacks of figure tiles, each showing a single-color umbrella arrangement to create.
• When your board matches a visible figure tile, place a scoring token on an empty space of the matching color.
• Pass the completed figure tile to the player on your left, who adds it to the first empty figure space in the correct orientation.

The game continues clockwise until a player has no figure tiles, someone has ten scoring tokens, or the final scoring token is taken. Each other player then takes one more turn before the scoring begins.

Players score two points for every scoring token, additional points for groups of tokens according to their scoreboard, and points based on the number of umbrellas in their personal waiting zone. With shared spaces, shifting rows, and passing objectives, Umbrella turns every slide into part of a constantly changing pattern.