First we have Ways. There are 20 of these. Okay so. They're landscape cards like Events and Landmarks and Projects. You deal them out the same way, except, don't use more than one Way per game (that's my advice anyway). A Way gives an alternate use to all Action cards that game. When you play an Action card, pick, do you want its normal function, or do you want the Way. If you want the Way, you just do what the Way says, that's that. It's like Action cards all say, "Choose one: that Way thing, or what this normally does." We turn the Action card sideways to remember which ones did the Way. Stuff below a dividing line is unaffected; if it's like, "While this is in play, something something," that will still happen.
Ways work any time you play an Action card. This means for example that if you play Sheepdog via its reaction, that can still use a Way if you want. If you Throne Room a card, it could be the Way the first time, not-the-Way the second time, or any combination. As always there's a rulebook, you'll get to see it eventually.
Way of the Ox is a simple one: +2 Actions. In games with this, every Action card can instead be used for +2 Actions. Your hand is nothing but Smithies? Play one for +2 Actions and away you go. Or, what was that thing from two days ago? Horses, that's right. Way of the Ox lets you play a Horse for +2 Actions, and still have it for later. And a Necropolis, well, uh, maybe the next one will be better for Necropolis.
Way of the Mole is also simple, there are a bunch of simple ones.
Way of the Turtle is a trickier one. It lets you play any card to set itself aside and replay it next turn. Way of the Turtle says "this" on it, but that's the card you played, it's not Way of the Turtle itself. You don't want your Moneylender this turn, so you Turtle it, and play it at the start of your next turn. I hear you asking, but wait, when you play it next turn, can't you just use Way of the Turtle again to save it for the turn after that? Yes, of course you can. If you want, it can be Turtles all the way down.
Online, you can click on a button on an Action card to instead do the Way with one click. You can also click on the Way itself, highlighting it, then click on an Action in hand. Cards like Throne Room and Vassal pause to give you a chance to use the Way on the extra play.
Menagerie also has 20 Events. They're just like the ones in Adventures and Empires, only new. In your Buy phase, you can use a Buy and pay the cost to generate the effect. Some of the Events involve Horses or Exile, but many don't, including these three.
Toil gives you a way to turn cash into playing Action cards from your hand. It's a secret village, for certain kinds of things. And if you just have $2 left you can't do anything useful with, you can Toil ironically.
Commerce makes some amount of Gold, depending on the variety of cards you've gained this turn. Scrap an Estate for a Silver and a Horse and you're well on your way.
Populate is a big one. You gain one card from each Action supply pile. Foosh! That's potentially 10 cards in a game without Ruins or Young Witch, though some piles may not be Actions, and if a good pile ran out, tough luck. And you can't say, "no I don't want that Beggar and that Ruined Library." You get to pick the order they show up, or online can click on a "random order" button when you don't care.