Three Sisters

Three Sisters is a traditional companion planting technique where corn, climbing beans and winter squash (e.g. pumpkins) are planted together, and each of them provides benefits to the other two. The game Three Sisters is a roll-and-write game about agriculture and farming. Everyone has his own player sheet. Dice are rolled every round to determine the possible actions. You take turns drafting dice. What you take determines how you can check boxes on your player sheet. This is how you score points. The game ends after 8 rounds. 

There is a small game board to keep track of the rounds. On the left there is a circle of actions, and a farmer pawn which moves around the circuit. 

Every round when you roll dice, they are grouped according to value and the groups of dice are placed on action spaces from the farmer's space onwards, each group on a different space. The farmer is then moved clockwise to the next empty space. This is how only a subset of actions will be available every round. The die value determines where on your player sheet you can plant or water. The position from which you remove the die determines the board action you can take. All actions are related to different ways you check boxes on your player sheet. 

The pumpkin is the start player marker. That mini leather dice tray doesn't come with the game. That's Jon's dice tray. 

This is your player sheet

On the left you can see one of the garden sections numbered 3. Each garden section has a main area where corn (height 4) and beans (height 2) are planted, and a perimeter area where pumpkins are planted. To check the first box in any column of boxes, you must perform the plant action. For the remaining boxes, you must perform the water action. One plant action lets you mark one column, while one water action lets you mark all columns in a garden section which already have at least one box checked. One interesting restriction is you can plant a bean only when the neighbouring corn is at least two checkboxes high. 

The blue ribbon icons are point values. You gain points when you check those positions. You don't get points for pumpkins, but you get to mark the goods section (orange box icon). The goods section gives you benefits in various ways. In between pumpkin patches you will see single circles. These are perennials (long-lasting plants). When you complete adjacent pumpkin patches, you get to mark these perennial circles, which in turn lets you mark the specific perennial type in the perennial section of your player sheet. Perennials give you various benefits, depending on the perennial type. 

You have an apiary section and also a fruit trees section. As you can see, the common mechanism of roll-and-write games is being used here. A big part of the fun is creating chain reactions, where checking one box triggers others to be checked, and you gain multiple benefits. 

This is the shed section. Generally these are abilities you can gain to help you with other sections. They are investments. Some of these give points too (see the blue icons). Choosing which shed tools to invest in will drive your strategy and lead you to focus on certain areas. There are many boxes and sections on your player sheet. You can't do everything and you need to choose which areas to focus on. You want to be able to check as many boxes as you can, because in general that translates to more points. You want to create good combos to help you check boxes efficiently. 

All this is influenced by what your opponents are trying to do. Although there is no direct aggression, sometimes you compete for the same dice. If you watch what your opponents are trying to do, you can deny them the dice they need. 

If you enjoy the gardening and farming setting, this will be fun. There are many aspects represented in the game. The strategy space is wide enough that you have meaningful decisions to make and you need to be disciplined and consistent.