Abstract Academy
Abstract Academy Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Teacher's Pet card
- Canvas deck (54 cards)
- Instructor deck (7 cards)
- Inspiration deck (12 cards)
- Blue Assignment deck (5 cards)
- Red Assignment deck (5 cards)
- Yellow Assignment deck (5 cards)
- Player aids (4)
- Rulebook
Object of the Game
Score the most points after 3 game rounds by playing canvas cards to create colour and spatial patterns.
Setup
- Separate and shuffle the card decks. Place them in an area accessible to all players.
- Each player takes 3 canvas cards into their hand.
- The player who most recently attended a workshop takes the Teacher's Pet card.
Gameplay
A game of Abstract Academy lasts 3 rounds.
At the start of each round, each player draws 1 Inspiration card and adds it to their hand. Then the Teacher's Pet draws the cards listed below and places them face up to form the scoring conditions in the play area:
- Round 1. Colour Theory: 1 Assignment of each colour (draw and place in any order).
- Round 2. Composition: 2 Instructor cards.
- Round 3. Final Project: 1 Instructor card and 2 Assignment cards of any colour (draw and place in any order).
After the scoring conditions are revealed, the Teacher's Pet takes the first turn, then play passes clockwise.
On your turn you must:
- Place a canvas card from your hand onto the shared canvas.
- Draw a canvas card. If the canvas deck has run out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
Except for the first card, each subsequent canvas card must be adjacent by a side to previously played cards and must be in the same orientation (portrait or landscape).
Canvas cards must fit within a 4x4 grid. The edges of this grid are not set at the start of the round. As soon as a fourth card fits in any row or column, that axis is locked. The cards in that row or column define the edges of the grid for the rest of the round. Once the grid's edges are set, canvas cards may not be played outside of it.
Example 1 (illustration): Legal placements. Playing a card in certain positions will set the grid's edges vertically; playing a card in other positions will set the grid's edges horizontally.
Colour Areas
A canvas card is divided into 4 quadrants, each coloured 1 of 3 colours: blue, red or yellow.
Each set of same-coloured quadrants that touch each other by their sides forms a single colour area.
The size of a colour area equals the number of quadrants in it. A colour area can be of any size, from 1 to 10 or more quadrants.
- A canvas card consists of 4 quadrants.
- A colour area can span several cards.
- Same-coloured quadrants merge into a single colour area.
Example 2 (illustration): Quadrants and colour areas. The size of the yellow colour area shown is 5 quadrants.
Home Row and Scoring Areas
Once the axis between players is locked, special rules for the rows come into effect:
- The row closest to you is your home row. Only you may place cards in your home row. Exception: you may place cards in other players' home rows if you have no other legal move.
- The two rows closest to you are your scoring area. You may use only quadrants from your scoring area to satisfy the conditions of Inspiration, Instructor and Assignment cards.
Example 3 (illustration): A completed 4x4 grid at the end of a round. Each player's scoring area is 2x4 cards; each player's home row is 1x4 cards.
End of Round and Scoring
The round ends when you fill the 4x4 grid with 16 cards. At the end of each round, your scoring area is used to determine which cards you may claim. Scoring is done in the following order:
- Inspiration card: You may show 1 Inspiration card from your hand. If there is the same pattern as on the card in your scoring area, you gain 2 points. The colour of the area (blue, red or yellow) does not matter; only the pattern must match. An Inspiration card may be rotated so that the pattern matches.
- Assignment cards are considered in order, left to right. The player with the best match to the goal on each card, which uses only one colour, in their scoring area, gains 3 points.
- Instructor cards are considered in order, left to right. The player with the best match to the goal on each card, which uses one or more colours, in their scoring area, gains 5 points.
Your played cards are placed face down next to you.
In case of a tie, if you have the Teacher's Pet card, you must give it to your opponent and take the contested card. The Teacher's Pet card can be passed several times in a round.
After scoring, discard the current canvas cards.
The game ends after 3 rounds. Count your points on Inspiration, Instructor and Assignment cards. The player with the most points is the star of the class and wins the game!
In case of a tie, the winner is the one who has fulfilled the most Instructor cards. If it is still a tie, the winner is the one holding the Teacher's Pet card.
Instructor Card Notes
Longest Colour Path: Count the number of quadrants on a single path of a single colour in your scoring area. The path may not pass through the same quadrant twice, and when it forks, only the longer of the two branches is counted.
Balanced Composition: Count the number of quadrants of each colour in your scoring area (all blue, all red and all yellow). Subtract the smallest number from the largest. The player with the smallest result has the most balanced composition.
Example 4 (illustration): Instructor card notes. Player A has the most balanced composition with a result of 4 (12 yellow minus 8 red). Player B's result is 10 (17 blue minus 7 red). Player B has the longest path, of 16 blue quadrants. The short branch on the bottom right card, marked X, is not counted.
Changes for 4 Players
In this variant the scoring areas become shared, which brings chaos to the game! The rules are the same except for the following:
- The canvas grid is now 5x5. Rows and columns lock when 5 canvas cards have been placed on each axis.
- At the start of each round, the shared canvas begins with the top card of the canvas deck. The Teacher's Pet must play their card by placing it next to the starting card.
- A scoring area still consists of the 2 nearest rows, but each player shares the 4 canvas cards in each corner with their neighbours on both sides.
- When more than two players are contending for an Instructor or Assignment card and one of them has the Teacher's Pet card, that player must give the Teacher's Pet card to one of the contending players and takes the contested Instructor or Assignment card.
- When there is a tie among players contending for an Instructor or Assignment card and none of them has the Teacher's Pet card, nobody gets the contested card, and it is simply discarded.
Example 5 (illustration): A completed round with 4 players. The card marked X is not part of any scoring area.