How to Play Cascadia: Rolling Rivers
Learn Rolling Rivers setup, its six special-die effects, habitat purchases, Completion Card timing, and official solo and family rules.
Rolling Rivers lasts exactly 20 rounds. In each round, roll the shared and personal dice, collect wildlife and optionally complete one Habitat Card. The Rivers special die changes the collection step; its printed maps and Completion Cards change how purchases pay off.
Official Rivers rulebook PDF · Environment marking and scoring
Setup without importing Hills effects
- Give everyone two different Personal Dice, a Tally Sheet, player aid and writing tool. Agree on one environment and give everyone that matching sheet. The ordinary tally starts with one of each animal and two Nature Tokens.
- Place Rivers’ three Central Dice and Central Special Die in the shared area.
- Divide Habitat Cards by tier. Remove one of each habitat type from each tier, shuffle the remaining ten in each, and stack Tier 1 above Tier 2.
- Reveal one Habitat Card in the first of four display positions.
- Select four Completion Cards and assign one to each position. Use the Beginner cards for a first game. Place discounts above and bonus cards below the positions.
The initial display has one habitat card. Completion Cards remain fixed while the Habitat Cards move. If you deliberately combine versions, follow the mixing setup in the Hills, Rivers and original Cascadia comparison; do not simply shuffle both complete habitat decks into a longer game.
Read the six Rivers special-die effects
| Result | What it permits |
|---|---|
| Wild animal | Add one animal to a species you are already collecting; it does not independently unlock another type. |
| Dice Action discount | Reduce a standard Dice Action’s Nature Token cost by one. |
| Plus 1 Other | After selecting your collection, gain the animal from one other unused die. A wild result selected this way may be any animal. |
| Use 1 Personal Die Twice | Duplicate one of your own dice before collection; your other personal die is still available normally. |
| Bear / Double Salmon | Choose one bear or two salmon. |
| Hawk / Elk | Choose one hawk or one elk. |
The duplication is limited to a Personal Die. Plus 1 Other is a special-die effect, not an instruction to pay a Nature Token for it. Do not substitute Hills’ personal rerolls or “any three dice” effect when playing with the Rivers central set.
Example: Your selected wildlife is foxes and one eligible die outside that collection shows a bear. With Plus 1 Other, collect the foxes and that one bear. You have gained two species because of the special effect, without buying the standard Take Two Types action.
Collect animals and use at most one standard Dice Action
Normally collect every instance of one chosen species among the shared results and your Personal Dice, resolving the special result first. A split face contributes one chosen printed option. Update your current totals rather than keeping a running score for animals collected.
Nature Tokens buy a one-step down-conversion for one token, a one-step up-conversion for two, or collection of two species for three. The order is bear → elk → fox → hawk → salmon. A standard turn permits one such Dice Action, with any special-die cost reduction applied. Leave the shared dice physically unchanged.
Conversion example: Two usable salmon faces and one hawk face can yield three hawks if you spend two Nature Tokens to up-convert salmon. Check any duplicated personal result before totaling the species. The special effect and one paid action can work together.
Buy and resolve a habitat
Choose a visible card, optionally use its position’s discount, and subtract the animal cost from your tally. Resolve the habitat’s Nature Token reward and its position’s bonus, then mark your selected environment and resolve sheet rewards. Consult the map reference before writing: the habitat number has a different meaning on each map.
A completed card stays in the display. Other players can use it too, and you can repeat it in a later round. Standard Rivers play permits one Habitat Card completion per round. Mixing in another version’s modifiers can introduce exceptions, so follow the actual card selected during setup.
Completion Card timing: important Rivers clarifications
- Card 5: permits marking a different habitat type from the one on the completed card.
- Card 6: uses your tally after you pay the habitat cost and before you mark the environment. Later map rewards do not increase this bonus.
- Card 8: habitat and Completion Card bonuses may be taken in either order. Read the bonus before collecting the habitat’s Nature Tokens.
- Card 9: its optional two-animal reward arrives after completion. Those animals cannot pay for the same purchase. Nature Tokens just earned from that habitat can pay for the optional bonus.
- Card 11: can be used with a one-habitat reward, but then no habitat progress is marked; Nature Token rewards can still be gained.
- Card 12: permits spending any number of Nature Tokens to reduce the cost by that many animals.
The numbers here identify Rivers cards. A card with the same number from Hills can have a different effect.
Round end, victory and official modes
After all players finish, move habitat cards one position right, discard any beyond the fourth position, and reveal the next card at the left. At the end of round 20, no next card remains; score your environment. Ties favor the player with more unused Nature Tokens, then share victory.
Solo: keep the same procedure. For a scenario, use its named map and exact four-card arrangement, then satisfy the score threshold and all extra goals. Rivers scenarios 13–20 require Hills cards.
Family: omit the special die, select Beginner Completion Cards and use the simple player-aid side. Replace the three standard token actions with paying one token per extra animal taken from another available die showing a different species. The optional Abundance variant starts with three of each animal and four Nature Tokens. It is an optional stock increase, not the default.
Sources and scope
- AEG English Rolling Rivers rulebook — turns, environments, Completion Card clarifications and official modes.
- AEG Rolling Rivers product page — player count, duration and standard contents.
- Flatout Games Rolling Rivers page — standalone content and Kickstarter-only mini-expansion distinction.
Checked October 4, 2026. Researched guide to the standard English game. Tactical suggestions and worked examples are editorial reasoning from the rules, not a claim of firsthand playtesting or measured win rates. Follow the printed tables on your selected sheet for individual scoring values. Editorial policy and corrections.