A printable Tzolk'in log lives or dies on the one record nobody keeps: what each player actually held after the fourth Food Day, because Tzolk'in ends suddenly — the gear has made one complete revolution, the final feeding and god-track scoring are done, and the winner is not the player ahead on the track but the player ahead after every leftover commodity is converted and every monument is scored — and the final total is not the score track alone but the track plus three separate endgame additions, each scored by its own rule and each easy to score wrong. Nobody at the table argues about the game they played; they argue about whether gold was converted at the stone rate, whether a crystal skull was worth one point or three, whether a monument paid for buildings it does not count, and whether corn left over was rounded up to whole points. The only evidence is the log: a line for each commodity, each skull, and each monument, or a single number on the track that was written at the end and can be defended by nobody.
The conversion table is the first trap the sheet is built to catch, because it turns four different commodities into one number and every rate is different. All resources are converted to corn first, at the market exchange rate: wood is worth 2 corn, stone is worth 3 corn, and gold is worth 4 corn — and only then does each corn score a quarter of a victory point, so four corn make exactly one point. A player who writes down "leftovers: 12" with no split between wood, stone, gold, and corn on hand has written down a number nobody can re-add, because 12 corn from wood is not 12 corn from gold, and a total that is not divisible by four is not a rounding error to be waved through but a conversion error to be found. The log records wood, stone, gold, and corn on hand on four separate lines, converts each at its own rate in writing, and only then divides by four, so a gold block counted at the stone rate or a stone block counted at the wood rate shows up as a line that does not match the rate printed beside it.
Crystal skulls are the second trap, because they look like just another commodity and they are not converted at all. Each crystal skull a player still holds scores 3 victory points outright — not one point, not a quarter point, and not the corn value of anything else on the table. A player who sweeps skulls into the corn conversion, or who remembers "two skulls, two points," has undercounted by four points in a game where four points is the whole margin. The log therefore has a skull line kept far away from the commodity lines, with the count and the times-three multiplication written out, so that a skull is never divided by four by accident and never mistaken for a resource block.
Monuments are the third trap, and they are the one that decides games, because each monument pays only for what its own tile says and nothing else. Monuments score only at the end of the game, their effects are depicted on the tile, and a monument that pays for one kind of building pays nothing for any other kind, however impressive the rest of the table looks. A player who writes down "monuments: 12" with no note of which tile paid, what it counts, and how many of that thing the player actually built has written down a total nobody can audit. The log records, per monument, the tile's rule in words, the count it pays for, and the multiplication, so the monument total is a calculation anyone can repeat rather than a total anyone has to trust — and it records workers left on the gears beside it, because that is the tiebreaker if the totals still tie.
The worked tally is where the sheet earns its price, because it shows the exact arithmetic a buyer will have to defend at their own table. Player A finished with 61 victory points on the track, plus 7 for converted corn (4 wood worth 8 corn, 2 stone worth 6 corn, 1 gold worth 4 corn, and 10 corn on hand, for 28 corn in total, and 28 divided by 4 is 7), plus 6 for crystal skulls (2 skulls times 3), plus 12 for a monument paying 4 victory points for every tan building, of which A built 3, for 61 + 7 + 6 + 12 = 86. Player B finished with 65 points on the track, plus 6 for converted corn (2 wood worth 4 corn, 4 stone worth 12 corn, no gold, and 8 corn on hand, for 24 corn in total, and 24 divided by 4 is 6), plus 3 for crystal skulls (1 skull times 3), plus 8 for a monument paying 4 victory points for every gold building, of which B built 2, for 65 + 6 + 3 + 8 = 82, so A wins by 4 despite trailing B on the track by 4. The counterfactuals are printed beside the tally because they are the arguments the sheet prevents: if A counts each skull as 1 point instead of 3, A scores 82 and ties a game actually won by 4; if B counts each corn as a full point instead of a quarter point, B scores 100 and falsely flips the result, because 24 corn is 6 points, not 24; and if A forgets the monument entirely, A scores 74 and loses a game actually won by 4. Every one of those errors is a single line the log either records or does not.
That is the product: not a rules summary, but a scoring log a seller can print, a buyer can fill in after the fourth Food Day, and a table can trust when the winner is announced. The sheet lists the score-track total, wood, stone, gold, and corn on hand with each conversion rate beside it, the skull count with its times-three multiplication kept separate from the corn, each monument tile with its rule, its count, and its multiplication, and the workers left on the gears as the tiebreaker, so that the final total is the sum of lines anyone can re-add, and the game-end trigger is recorded alongside it in case anyone disputes when scoring stopped.
A buyer who has lost a game to a skull counted as one point or a pile of corn counted as whole points will pay for a sheet that makes both visible before the totals are announced, and a seller who has watched that argument ruin a game night will buy the sheet that ends it. Sell the log, not the lesson: the buyer already knows how Tzolk'in scores, and what they are missing is the record that proves it.
This log is a printable download for personal table use. It is not affiliated with the publisher or the designer, and it does not replace the rulebook: where the log and the rulebook disagree, the rulebook wins, and the sheet should be checked against the commodities, skulls, and monuments actually in play before the game starts.
Top comments (0)