Anno Domini: Lifestyle
Anno Domini: Lifestyle Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's in the Box
In this box you will find 340 cards. The front (black) names an event of world history, not always a world-shaking one; the back (colored) names the year of our Lord, ANNO DOMINI, in which this event took place.
ANNO DOMINI is an expandable game. You can buy further series and mix them with this one. Indeed, we warmly recommend the Wild Mix! Every new color added to the mix increases the fun. But of course ANNO DOMINI can also be played with the cards of a single series alone.
Dealing
Deal 9 cards to each player now. Randomly, of course — hand-picking is strictly forbidden. And one more thing is strictly forbidden: looking at the backs of the cards.
Everyone lays their cards face up in front of them, with the black-printed event side showing. The rest of the cards are placed as a stack in the middle. Here too: events face up, the colored solution year (the back) not visible.
Important: leave the cards on the table during play! If you need to move a card, slide it — don't wave it around in the air, or your fellow players will unintentionally learn solution years that you'd rather keep secret.
A Chain of Ill-Fated Events
A chain begins with the top card from the stack. Event 1 is read aloud, and the card is placed on the table visible to everyone — the back stays secret from everyone. The owner of the game begins.
He picks one of his own cards, reads it aloud, and places it above the first card if he believes his event 2 happened before event 1; he places it below the first card if he believes people will again be on the moon at that later date.
Around the table the players each add one of their cards to the chain of events in this way. They may insert their card anywhere in the chain, including between cards already laid out, if they believe their event fits there chronologically.
Doubt
is often better than blind trust. Whoever's turn it is and believes they've spotted an error in the existing chain of events may correct it before inserting their new card and passing the chain on.
But they may also decide not to add another card at all, and instead publicly cast doubt on the chronological order of the events. In this case, a round of play comes to an end. All the cards in the chain are turned over from top to bottom.
If the chronological order is correct, the doubter is punished by having to take four new cards from the stack (as always: without looking at the backs). If the chain of events shows any error at all, then the predecessor of the doubter — the one who most recently laid down an event — must pick up two new cards from the stack.
Be it even a single little year, and regardless entirely of who laid the chronologically faulty card: the last one bites the dust.
So whoever raises no doubt and lays a card into the row thereby accepts the whole chain of events, and under certain circumstances takes on responsibility for it toward the next, suspicious player.
After the round of play, the cards of the chain are put aside. They have done their duty for today; they may go (after Schiller — 1783).
A New Round
begins with a new starting card from the stack. The first player is now the doubter. Then it continues nicely around the table.
Special case: it's a bit harder for the new beginning for a player who has only a single card left. Instead of one, they must take two cards from the stack right away, sort them, and insert their last card.
The reversal of the direction of play happens immediately, and only once, as soon as a player has only two cards left.
Winning
is achieved by whoever gets rid of their last card first — in a correct chain, of course. No doubt the successor will voice doubt once more. If an error comes to light, there are two new cards, and the game goes into extra time.
Explanations and Examples
The Decisive Year
is printed clearly and in bold on the back of the card. Supplementary comments, including month and day information, have no influence on the game.
Some cards offer time spans as the solution, such as "1903 – 1907" or "5th century BC."
Explanations:
- "Jh." means century. Such a century runs from year 01 to year 00. Example: the 20th century began in 1901 and ends with the year 2000.
- "um" ("around") means that the event cannot be pinned down precisely in time. For the purposes of the game, 5 years before and after are recognized as correct. Example: in the case of "around 1900," the years 1895 to 1905 count as correct.
The first occurrence of a thing, the beginning of an event, is decisive, unless a time span is explicitly asked for.
Examples:
A) "Humans on the moon" asks about the first moon landing of Apollo 11 — an answer like "2025" is wrong, even though it cannot be ruled out that people will once again be on the moon at that later date.
B) "Sweetened condensed milk on the market" asks about its market introduction. That it is still available today is nice, but beside the point.
Simultaneous and Overlapping Events
are handled according to the principle "in dubio pro reo." The chain counts as correct.
Examples:
A) One event took place in the 8th century BC, a second in 805 BC, the third in the 1st millennium BC. No. 2 took place before No. 1, because the 8th century BC ran from 800 – 701 BC, while No. 3 overlaps in time with both of the other events and may be inserted anywhere among them.
B) Two events took place in 1987, the third "around 1990," a fourth in 1991. If No. 4 was inserted after No. 1 and No. 2, the order is correct. No. 3, called "between 1985 and 1995," therefore overlaps with the other three events and may be inserted anywhere among them, including between the two 1987 cards. Month and day information within the year 1987 is irrelevant; the two cards are equivalent.
Location References
without a direct connection to the event are simply place names and not cryptic hints toward the sought-after year.
Example: "Neanderthals dwell in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf" does not mean that in the sought-after era, Düsseldorf already existed as a fashion center.
Tactical Hints
Well — confidence is a virtue, especially when you don't know anything. Your successor will think twice about whether to doubt your chain if you declare your event a clear-cut matter and insert it decisively and more or less sensibly.
As an underhanded variant, you can also play the uncertain one now and then, while placing a rock-solid event into a correct chain...
Psychology and a certain feel for sequences of events are far more important in ANNO DOMINI than historical expertise. Don't let your ignorance discourage you! You can safely assume that your fellow players also haven't stored all the dates of these strange events in their little gray cells, and, just like you, often have to guess.
Use your common sense, sell your solutions well. Never forget: what you lay down doesn't necessarily have to be correct — above all, it has to seem credible to the tablemate playing after you.
If you've completely lost track in the face of a long chain, go ahead and cast doubt. There's usually a nasty surprise hidden somewhere in there.
If possible, hold back an event that you can place well chronologically as a safe closing card. Conversely, insert cards that worry you greatly, to the best of your knowledge and belief, into short chains, which are certainly doubted less often than the tapeworms.
Who Plays Anno Domini?
In principle, the game is suitable for 2 – 10 players, with the ideal number being 3 to 6. For large groups, we recommend dealing out fewer than 9 cards at the start.
Children can join in as soon as they can read fluently. Experience shows that they soon make up for their lesser historical knowledge with clever tactics — and they learn quickly. Once the used cards are mixed back into play, that learning ability pays off. The playing group can also decide to deal fewer cards to participating children at first.