Built to be broken. Yours to customize.
A free card game template about planting, collecting and harvesting sets, built as a starting point rather than a finished game.
Ready to see where it goes? Play it as it is, rebalance it, or tear the whole thing apart. Cultivator is yours to grow into whatever comes next.
You can also download Tabletop Creator app first. That’s where the actual magic happens, whether you want to play around with a template or build your own game from scratch.
As for Cultivator, downloading it from this page is totally optional. We like putting some of our designs out into the wild, but you’ll also find it waiting for you right inside Tabletop Creator, alongside other templates inspired by classic games and more generic designs. So if you’d rather skip this download, just grab the app and jump straight in.
If you do decide to download Cultivator separately, getting it open is easy. Launch Tabletop Creator, head to Projects, click Open, find the folder you downloaded, and open the .tcp file inside.
And there you go. The project will open with its different blueprints and components ready to explore. From there, Cultivator is yours to edit, pull apart, remix, or turn into something completely different.
If some of this feels familiar, there’s a reason. Cultivator is inspired by Bohnanza, a game we love, and its wonderfully simple idea of planting, collecting and harvesting sets.
But we wanted to play around with that idea.
Instead of harvesting your peppers for coins alone, Cultivator introduces different resources. Some peppers are great for scoring, while others can help you grow faster, get rid of unwanted cards or give you a little more control over what you plant next.
Is it perfectly balanced? Probably not. Does it have gaps? Almost certainly. And that’s kind of the point.
We didn’t create this template to give you a completely finished, airtight game. We created it as a starting point: a set of characters, components and mechanics that you can pull apart, rebalance, expand or turn into something completely different.
There are six different Pepper characters in the deck, each appearing a different number of times. The number at the top of the card tells you how many copies of that Pepper exist in the deck, so you always have an idea of how common or rare it is.
On your turn, you’ll plant Peppers into your fields and try to build sets of matching characters.
As a starting rule, try this: collect 3 matching Peppers to harvest them. When you harvest a set, discard those three cards and collect the four rewards shown at the bottom of that Pepper’s card.
That’s where the different characters start behaving differently.
Coins: Score
Coins are your victory points. Keep every Coin you earn. At the end of the game, the player with the most Coins wins.
Milk: Hold
Sometimes you really don’t want to plant the card in your hand just yet. Spend 1 Milk to set that Pepper aside and save it for a later turn.
Watering Cans: Grow
Spend 1 Watering Can to plant one additional Pepper during your turn. Useful when you’re close to completing a set or simply want to clear your hand faster.
Shovels: Dig
Spend 1 Shovel to remove one Pepper from one of your fields without harvesting the whole set. Sometimes gardening means admitting you planted the wrong thing.
And they’re not supposed to be.
Cayenne is all about Coins, making her one of the most valuable Peppers to harvest.
Serrano produces Milk, giving you more control over the cards you don’t want to play immediately.
Jalapeño is great at producing Watering Cans, helping you plant faster, with a little Coin on the side.
Habanero gives you Shovels, making it easier to clean up and reorganize your fields.
Chile de Árbol gives you a little bit of everything.
And Piri-Piri sits somewhere between utility and scoring, with a mixed set of rewards.
Because each Pepper also appears a different number of times in the deck, deciding what to keep growing and what to give up on becomes part of the game.
If you want to actually play with the template before changing anything, here’s a simple version to start from:
Three Peppers might be too easy to harvest. Maybe Cayenne should require four. Maybe Milk should let you trade a card instead of holding one. Maybe Shovels should work on another player’s field. Maybe you want trading between players to become the whole point of the game.
Try it. The rules above are deliberately just a base to work from. There may be balance issues, edge cases and interactions we haven’t solved, because Cultivator isn’t meant to be a finished game. It’s a playable template designed to give you something more interesting than a blank page.
Open it in Tabletop Creator, change the numbers, duplicate some cards, create a seventh Pepper, rewrite what the resources do and see where it takes you.
Create your own board game, make your dreams come true, and ruin your friends’ patience. With Tabletop Creator you’ll have the essential tools to do it easily.
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Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Tabletop Creator needs a little more room to work its magic. Download it from your computer and start creating. ✨
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
Drop your email and it’s yours. Instantly.
