Atelier daVinci Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Goal Of the Game
• The Game
  • 1. Take Colors
  • 2. Paint
    • Completing a painting
  • 3. Claim a Mastery Card
  • Leonardo Action
  • Help of the Maestro Card
• End of the Round
• The End of the Game

Contents

• 55 small cards in 5 different colors, valued 1 through 4 (the "Color deck")
• 27 standard cards:
  • 8 Painting cards
  • 6 Mastery cards
  • 1 Help of the Maestro card
  • 6 Achievement cards
  • 5 Esteem cards (scorekeepers)
  • 1 Leonardo card
• 1 plastic base and 5 score markers
• These rules

Setup

Push the Leonardo card into the plastic base to form the Leonardo token.

Prepare the Color deck (small cards) depending on the number of players: If playing with 2 players, remove the cards marked for 3, 4, or 5 players from the deck; if playing with 3 players, remove the cards marked for 4 or 5 players; if playing with 4 players, remove the cards marked for 5 players; and if playing with 5 players, use the whole deck.

• Shuffle the prepared Color deck and put 2 cards for each player face up in the middle of the table: that is, 10 cards if playing with 5 players, 8 if playing with 4, 6 if playing with 3, and 4 if playing with 2.
• Deal 1 card from the deck face down to each player. Each player may look at their card but keeps it secret. Create a face-down deck with the rest of the cards.
• Shuffle the 8 Painting cards and discard out of play without looking at them: 3 cards if playing with 2 players; 2 cards if playing with 3; 1 card if playing with 4; or none if playing with 5. Draw 2 cards from this deck and place them face up in the middle of the table, spaced slightly apart. Keep the rest handy.
• Place the Help of the Maestro card face up nearby.
• Set all of the Mastery cards near the Help of the Maestro card, face up.
• Shuffle the Achievement cards, draw 2 of them and place them face up on the table. Remove the rest from the game.
• Each player receives an Esteem card (scorekeeper) and one score marker, which they place next to the card.
• The player most skilled in drawing becomes the first player and takes the Leonardo token.

Example. Set-up with 5 players. (The diagram is not reproduced here.)

Goal Of the Game

The players are apprentices of Leonardo da Vinci, competing to earn the most Esteem points by painting or completing paintings and by gaining achievements. They collect colors that they use to paint the paintings or to acquire Masteries that help them to become Leonardo's new pupil.

The Game

The game is played in turns in clockwise order. The player with the Leonardo token begins.

On your turn, you must choose and carry out one of the following three actions:

1. Take Colors
2. Paint
3. Claim a Mastery Card.

If one of the actions is not possible, you must choose a different one. The player with the Leonardo token must also carry out the Leonardo Action after completing their normal action.

1. Take Colors

Take one or more color cards from the table whose total value does not exceed 4 and add them to your hand (look at the card values: you can draw one card worth 4, or one card worth 3 plus one card worth 1, or two cards worth 1 plus one card worth 2, and so on). You may draw less than 4 if you wish. Alternatively, you can draw the top card from the deck (in this case, you only draw one card though). If you hold the Help of the Maestro card, you may draw a total value of 5 instead of 4 (see "Help of the Maestro Card," below).

You may not have more than 5 cards in your hand.

After taking this action, discard any excess card(s) of your choice.

Example. Diana takes the blue and red colors, each worth 2.

2. Paint

You may play from 1 to 4 cards from your hand, regardless of their value, by placing them adjacent to one or more paintings (each card adjacent to only one painting, of course!) matching the colors marked on the borders of the paintings. You may add colors to more than one painting on your turn. You may not place two different color cards adjacent to each other on the same turn, nor on a border that already has a color next to it.

Then it's time to score points: move your score marker on your Esteem card as many squares as the sum of the values on the color cards you used to paint. Exception: do not score points for any color cards you use to complete a painting nor for those used during the Leonardo Action (see "Completing a Painting" and "The Leonardo Action," below).

Example. Mark plays a brown 4-card and a yellow 3-card. He gains 7 points and advances the marker on his Esteem card.

If Diana completes the painting on her turn with a red and a yellow card, she will collect the Painting card, however she will not score points for the color cards she uses.

Based on the location of the score marker on your Esteem card, you may gain bonus points each time you paint (regardless of how many cards you use). The bonus points are shown on the right side of your Esteem card.

Example. Mark gained 7 points with his last action, putting him in the first bonus level. The next time he paints, he will gain 1 additional bonus point. Once he reaches 11 points, he can get 2 bonus points when he paints. After 21 points, it becomes 3 bonus points. If he has at least 31 points, he can earn 4 bonus points (see the back of the card).

Completing a painting

A painting is complete when it is surrounded by all of its required colors.

If you complete a painting, the color cards you used during the action to complete it do not score any Esteem points. However, you take the completed painting and keep it in front of you, face down, in your scoring pile. Each completed painting is worth the number of points shown on it at the end of the game. All color cards used to paint that painting are discarded to a discard pile. You may complete multiple paintings in the same turn.

The completed painting is immediately replaced by a new one drawn from the Painting deck, and you may continue your paint action by playing on the newly drawn painting if you wish. But keep in mind to respect the limit of 4 cards for the entire action.

3. Claim a Mastery Card

If you hold in your hand a combination of color cards that matches one shown on a Mastery card that is still available, you may show the combination to the other players (you don't have to discard any cards!) to claim that Mastery card and keep it face up in front of you. A Mastery card allows you to gain 1 bonus point each time you paint one of the colors depicted on that card. Once claimed, a Mastery card is no longer available: it stays in front of the player who claimed it for the remainder of the game and can no longer be claimed by the other players.

Leonardo Action

The Leonardo Action is an extra and mandatory action that must be carried out by the player with the Leonardo token after their normal action. After their action (take colors, paint, or claim a mastery card), this player must choose 1 color card from the table and use it to paint a painting. The player gains no Esteem points for this action. Also, it is not possible to complete a painting with this action.

If the player cannot carry out this action (e.g., there are no color cards matching those required by the paintings), they must draw a card from the deck and use it: if the drawn card is also not needed, the card is discarded and the Leonardo Action is skipped.

Help of the Maestro Card

This card allows you to take a total value of 5 instead of 4 when you take color cards during a "take colors" action. This card is assigned to the player with the fewest color cards in their hand at the end of each round. If multiple players tie for the fewest cards in hand, then the tie is broken in favor of the player with the fewest Esteem points. In case of a further tie, the card is not assigned and stays with whoever has it.

End of the Round

Once all players have had a turn, the round is over: replenish the color cards in the middle of the table, up to the number established during set-up, by turning over cards from the deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discards to form a new deck.

Each player now counts the color cards in their hand: the player with the fewest cards gets the Help of the Maestro card.

The Leonardo token then passes to the player to the left, and they start a new round.

The End of the Game

The game approaches its end when the last painting is completed. The current round is still played to the end, then the players tally their scores.

Add the points marked on your Esteem card to the points provided by any paintings you have completed. Then, check the two Achievement cards revealed at the start of the game: any player who fulfills the requirements on any of these cards gets the number of points shown.

The player with the highest score wins! Ties are broken in favor of the player with the highest number of completed paintings. In case of a further tie, Leonardo is not able to choose his pupil and invites you all to his atelier again!

Example.

• Achievement: "At least 2 Cards of the same color."
• Achievement: "At least any 2 Mastery cards."

	Diana	Peter
Esteem	28	36
Paintings	10	4
Achievements	0	3
Total	38	43

Neither player earns points from the achievement that requires at least two Mastery cards, since both players have only one each. Peter fulfilled the one requiring two cards of the same color in hand at the end of the game. Peter scores 43 points and wins!