Composition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Set Up
  • Center Stage
  • Personal Player Space
  • Start the Game
• Game Play
  • Phase 1: The Composition
  • Phase 2: Composing a Word
  • Phase 3: Showcasing the Performance, Activating Abilities, CHAOS & Prizes
  • Phase 4: End of Round!
• Game End
• Solo Mode
• Common Questions

Set Up

Center Stage

In the center of your community play area, set up the following:

1. Shuffle Ovation cards & Award cards separately. Reveal (lay out) this many of each, depending on number of players:
   • If 2-3 players, reveal 5 of each card type.
   • If 4 players, reveal 6 of each card type.
   • If 5 players, reveal 7 of each card type.
2. The Composition! Reserve space on your table to place cards in this area for drafting!
3. Shuffle Note & Crescendo card decks. Place next to The Composition area for convenience in drawing and placing cards each round.
   • Start with face-up Note cards equal to the number of players.
   • Start with 2 face-down Crescendo cards.
4. Place Ghost Note here for drafting each round.
5. Place extra Roses here. Red Roses = 1 Rose. Blue Roses = 5 Roses.
6. The Composition tracker card should be placed near the drafting area. This card keeps track of how many Note cards to lay out in The Composition at the start of each round. To track this, place a Rose on the circle equal to the number of players at the start of the game. Advance the Rose by one for every Ovation card purchased. At the start of each round, lay out the number of Note cards equal to the number indicated by the tracker.

Personal Player Space

In front of each player, set up the following:

1. Place your brilliant Maestro in the bottom center of your personal play area. Use your Maestro as a divider for Locked Letter cards (right) and your Chorus (left).
2. Each Maestro comes with 3 unique Starting Letter cards (except Masked Maestro—see card for details). Begin by placing your Maestro's Starting Letter cards here. These cards and others throughout the game are Locked Letter cards, as indicated by the banner on their card. Locked Letter Cards are permanent cards that never enter your Chorus and are never discarded. As you gain a variety of additional Locked Letter cards during the game, keep them in this space to the right of your Maestro when not in use. See how many you can earn!
3. Leave room in your play area for your Chorus slots. Your Chorus holds non-permanent cards you'd like to save for use in future rounds.
4. Make space above to create your Performance, which is where you will build your words!
5. Each player should keep a Cheat Sheet nearby to remind them of card costs and symbol bonuses!

Start the Game

To begin, players shuffle Maestro cards. Each player draws a Maestro at random. Put unused Maestros away. Players should note their Maestro's unique abilities!

Players then take the 3 Starting Letter/Locked Letter cards associated with their Maestro and place them face-up to the right of their Maestro. Use these Locked Letter cards throughout the game as needed!

Each player begins with 1 Rose, unless playing as SUN, who begins with 5 Roses. Give each player a Cheat Sheet. The player who most recently saw a live musical event starts with the Baton card!

Game Play

Phase 1: The Composition

The Player with the Baton sets up/lays out cards in The Composition at the start of each round.

Attention: The number of Note cards revealed each round in The Composition increases by 1 for each Ovation card taken by a player. To reflect this, advance the Rose by 1 on The Composition tracker card any time an Ovation is taken!

Starting with the player holding the Baton, players take cards from The Composition in clockwise order, taking 1 at a time until there are no longer cards available. This means players can potentially take multiple cards from The Composition each round. All cards taken or drawn become public knowledge and should be placed face-up! Keep drafted cards in your Performance area during this phase. See the front of the Cheat Sheet for card costs:

• Note cards: Free to take. (Look for cards with Symbols to earn Symbol Bonuses!)
• Ghost Note: Costs 1 Rose to take unless there are no Note cards in The Composition, in which case it's free.
• Crescendo cards: Cost 5 Roses to take—these remain here if not purchased, always replenishing back to 2 at the start of each round. These can be POWERFUL cards!
• Ovation cards: Cost 20 Roses to take—each player can only purchase 1 per round.
• Award cards: Earned at ends of rounds by accomplishing goals on the Award cards—these cannot be earned by a player who purchased an Ovation card in the same round, as only 1 Applause Badge can be taken per player each round.

What is the Ghost Note? A wild card! Use Ghost Note as any letter. Ghost Note must return to The Composition at the end of each round and is never discarded.

Players cannot skip taking a card. If a card has a cost to take, the player does not have to purchase the card, but must take a free card if available. If a player cannot or chooses not to purchase a card, and no free cards are available, Phase 1 ends.

Phase 2: Composing a Word

Each player simultaneously uses their own cards to form one word. This word (or words, in special cases) is your Performance.

Card Abilities: You'll often play letter cards with abilities. These abilities activate when used in the Performance unless stated otherwise. Abilities without a pay cost activate automatically if the conditions are met!

• Cards with 2 letters count as 2 letters.
• To activate an ability with a pay cost, place the required amount of Roses on the card before confirming the performance is finished. You can always use the letter without activating the ability!
• Abilities that activate as soon as the card is taken from The Composition. These abilities do not activate if the card is drawn directly from the deck.
• Beware Tomato cards—some are quite dastardly! When revealed, immediately read the ability aloud to all players. These abilities cannot be copied by other cards.

Players may spell words with any combinations of letters in their possession, including their Maestro's 3 unique Starting Letter cards. Repeat words as often as you'd like! Abilities on cards do not activate until used in a player's Performance unless the card specifically states otherwise or has the hand symbol. Abilities may be activated in any order.

Players should use an agreed-upon dictionary as a reference tool if needed. Proper nouns should be banned from play. For the purpose of this game, only A, E, I, O and U are vowels, and all other letters are considered consonants. Need help spelling? Pay a willing player 1 Rose!

Starting with the player holding the Baton, players confirm they have finished creating their performance. Once you've confirmed your word, you can no longer make changes! Players place unused cards in their available Chorus slots (*see Chorus explanation on next page) and discard any remaining unused cards.

Chorus: Players must place leftover unused cards in their Chorus if an open slot is available. Players may swap out a card from the Chorus with another gained card if they wish to save a different card between rounds. Unless an ability states otherwise, new cards do not enter a player's Chorus until they have confirmed their performance in Phase 2. However, cards may still be discarded or exchanged due to other abilities that might activate. While IMP has 1 Chorus slot and HOG has 3, all others have 2 Chorus slots unless otherwise stated!

Example: A player created a Performance by spelling the word MUD. After finalizing their Performance, the player must fill any empty Chorus slots with remaining unused letters. This player chooses to keep K and O for possible use in future rounds, adding them to their Chorus. All extra, unused cards are sent to one central discard pile, off to the side of the game. In this instance, the letter F is discarded. Locked Letter cards are held to the right of the Maestro when not in use.

Phase 2 ends.

Phase 3: Showcasing the Performance, Activating Abilities, CHAOS & Prizes

Now that players have spelled their words, let the CHAOS ensue! Beginning with the player holding the Baton, players now:

• Read their Performance aloud.
• Activate abilities on cards used in their Performance.
• Activate any additional abilities (such as Maestro abilities) in their Performance.
• If able, collect an Award card earned by their Performance.
• Calculate the number of Roses earned from their Performance, but don't collect Roses just yet.

Is your word a word? If a player confirms and spells a word that's not in the agreed-upon dictionary, another player may contest it. If so, the player gets one opportunity to change their word. If their next word also does not meet the requirements, that player earns no Roses this round and their cards may be returned to a Chorus slot if any are available.

Calculate your Performance score by adding the following:

• Rose values (numbers on red banners)
• Symbol Bonuses (using letters with same symbols in a Performance can earn more Roses or cards! See your Cheat Sheet for details!)
• Card Abilities (these can impact your Performance score)

Example: The player has locked in and presented their Performance, THINGS. Let's calculate their winnings.

1. The player first adds together all Rose values found at the tops of the red banners. In this example, the cards and their values are as follows: "T" (0) + "H" (1) + "I" (1) + "N" (2) + "G" (3) + "S" (1) = 8 Roses.
2. Symbols are the last icon on red banners. Not all cards have Symbols. But pay attention: using letters with identical symbols in the same word equals bonus Roses or extra cards! See the back of your Cheat Sheet for all possible Symbol bonuses! In this instance, the player has 2 matching Symbols, which earns them either 2 additional Roses or the option to draw 1 card from the Note deck. This player chooses to take the bonus Roses and earns a total of 10 Roses this round!

Doubling or Tripling your Performance Score? Throughout the game, there are chances to earn wild bonuses, such as doubling your card's Rose value or your entire Performance score! When using multipliers such as these, you may only double, then triple the score of the Rose value or Performance score. They cannot be multiplied higher than this. If you have two or more double Performance scores, you earn a triple Performance score. Multipliers do not affect card abilities that allow you to gain extra Roses or Symbol bonuses. However, Roses gained from these do count as part of your total number of Roses earned from your Performance.

Phase 3 ends.

Phase 4: End of Round!

Players collect all Roses earned for the round. Players discard non-permanent letters used in their Performance. The Ghost Note returns to The Composition. The player holding the Baton passes it to the next player in the rotation.

Phase 4 ends.

Game End

The game enters its last round when either all Ovation cards are purchased or all Award cards are earned. On the same round when one of these events occur, players may continue to earn Roses and additional Awards and Ovation cards if able.

At the end of the final round, players tally the number of Applause Badges they've earned, found on the Award and Ovation cards. Whomever has the most Applause Badges altogether WINS! If there's a tie, the player with the most Roses wins!

Game ends!

Solo Mode

For 1 Player. Choose the Masked Maestro and use her ability to shuffle the unique Locked Letter cards associated with each Maestro to draw and create your own set of 4 starting Locked Letter cards. Make sure you have at least 1 vowel and no repeat letters!

Reveal all Ovation and Award cards face up.

Remove all Tomato cards and [icon] cards from the Crescendo and Note decks. (The icon that appears in the printed rule is not reproduced in the text layer of the source PDF.)

Shuffle and place the Note and Crescendo decks next to The Composition area.

Begin with 1 Rose.

At the start of each round, draw 2 Note cards, 1 face-down Crescendo card (never more than 1) and the Ghost Note. The Crescendo card costs 5 to purchase and use. The Ghost Note always has a cost of 1 Rose to use in Solo Mode. You still have 2 Chorus slots available to save unused cards for later use. You may buy Ovation cards during this phase.

Once you have all the letters you'll need, build a word! In Solo Mode, there is no limit to how many Award and Ovation cards you can earn or purchase for a round. Try to build words that meet multiple award conditions! After you make and confirm your word, activate any abilities used and take any Award cards you've earned, along with Roses. (Cards that have powers based on other players have no effect.) Then, turn either 1 Ovation card or 1 Award card that you have not earned face down. You can no longer earn this card for the rest of the game.

The game ends once all Ovation and Award cards you have not earned are face down. Count the number of Award and Ovation cards you've earned compared to how many are face down. Subtract the number of face-down cards from those you own. For example, if you earned 11 Award and Ovation cards and there are 10 face-down cards, your final score would be 1. Your final score will determine whether or not you won and how well you won:

• 0 or under: You didn't win, but that's okay! Try again!
• 1-2: You won, technically speaking!
• 3-4: You won hard mode!
• 5+: You won SUPER hard mode!

While this is a solo game, feel free to team up with friends and family to put your brains together and blow this game out of the concert hall! Keep playing to try beating your highest score!

Common Questions

I have a card in my performance that lets me create 2 words. Does this card count as being used twice?

The card must be used in both words but only counts once, so it does not provide 2 of the same letter. For example, if an M card joins the words ME and MAT with the M being used as the start of both words, the only letters/cards used in your performance are M, E, A and T respectively. This means the performance only uses 4 letters.

Can MUD's ability cause a card to be 2 different letters simultaneously in a Performance?

When MUD changes a letter, it cannot be 2 different letters simultaneously in a Performance. The card can only be the selected letter the player has chosen.

Do the Hot Tomato and Fiery Tomato cards enter a Chorus slot before passing between rounds?

No, they do not.

Can REX use any X card to put under a card in another Maestro's Chorus?

No, only REX's starting letter X may be used for this power. Also, other Maestros cannot use REX's X as a card in their Performance. REX can force a player to lose a Chorus card at the end of the round if they don't use it in their Performance. If that card somehow gets discarded before the Performance is made, the X still returns at the end of the round.

Do the Roses CAT places on cards stay between rounds? Do they increase the cost of the card?

These Roses do stay on the cards between rounds until the card is taken. They do not increase the cost of a card, but are added to a player's Rose total when the card is taken.

What happens when a Crescendo card is placed in the Note deck?

When Crescendo cards are placed in the Note deck, they function as Note cards when placed in The Composition. In this instance, they are played face up and are free to take.

What happens when the Note deck runs out of cards?

Shuffle all discarded cards and remaining Crescendo cards together to create a new Note deck. Continue to play as normal.