Il Trono di Mortadella
Il Trono di Mortadella Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Each player takes on a role in the fantastic Bologna of Il Trono di Mortadella. To decide which role each player has, each player draws a role card. The role must never be shown to the other players for any reason until the end of the game.
Through the dice, turn after turn, the players will accumulate wealth and resources or will unleash devastating effects on their opponents (or even on themselves!). The whole strategy of the game depends on your role and your own experience!
Tokens
The tokens are chips on which the symbols described below are shown. At the start of the game they are all in the centre of the table (the reserve). During the game, tokens may be acquired by players to count towards the victory conditions, or discarded (or made to be discarded). In that case the tokens in question return to the reserve in the centre of the table.
| Symbol | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| People figure | PEOPLE (Popolo) | Indicates the inhabitants of the city, such as artisans, merchants and soldiers. |
| Tower | TOWER (Torre) | Indicates possessions such as houses, palaces, mills, towers and castles. |
| Book | BOOK (Libro) | Indicates knowledge, culture, academic learning and oratory skill. |
| Mortadella | MORTADELLA | Indicates food, well-stocked larders and a taste for the good life. |
| Wine bottle | WINE (Vino) | Indicates wine and the drunkenness brought on by reckless consumption of alcohol. |
| Rat | RAT (Ratto) | Indicates diseases and catastrophes that may break out. |
Roles
Prince of Tortellini. He is devoted to the pleasures of the flesh (in every sense) and has completely made his own the motto: "Tomorrow there is no certainty..." He has subjects and possessions but does not worry about them in the least; the only thing that concerns him is being able to take his five meals a day in perfect peace. Or war.
Magnificent Rector. A man of unquestioned moral rigour and boundless wisdom, he has refused luxury goods in order to devote himself to enriching and expanding the University, bringing wellbeing to the students, his future subjects. If only he had studied it properly!
Lord of Silk. Through a life devoted to work he has become the most powerful merchant in the city, and he is the only one who knows the secrets of industrial silk production inside the mills scattered along the dense network of canals.
Mercenary Captain. He is a condottiere who leads companies of ruthless mercenaries, ready to kill and to be killed for the highest bidder. Sacking and raiding are the daily bread of these characters, who prefer adventure to a fixed home. Content they are...
The Cardinal. In an age of saints and hermits he is instead a politician who redeems sins that are not his own. He represents the earthly power of the Church and does not hesitate for a second to take advantage of every occasion to accumulate new faithful and riches.
Master of the Innkeepers (for games of 3 players and up). He plots in the shadows, knows the secrets of the whole city and knows that he can reach power only by exploiting his acquaintances and blackmailing the most illustrious people. His inn holds all sorts of company indeed! He has a more complex victory condition than the other players.
Brigand (for the 7-player game only). He always seems alone but is at the centre of a dense network of criminals who inform him and help him. He seems the worst of villains, but he is no worse than the others; indeed, he has often been caught while doing favours for the poorest! He is the only role whose identity is revealed at the first roll of the dice.
Playing the Game
The rules that follow concern groups of 3 to 5 players. For 2, 6 or 7 players see the "Variants" chapter at the end of the rulebook.
The game is played in single turns that proceed clockwise.
To determine who starts, each player rolls the five dice: whoever totals the highest sum of Mortadella and Wine goes first.
- PHASE 1 - The first player rolls the five dice and chooses three of them.
- PHASE 2 - The effects of the three chosen dice are activated, one at a time, in the order set by the player.
- PHASE 3 - The two remaining dice pass to the player on his left.
The new player begins his PHASE 1 with the two results discarded by the previous player. If he likes them he may decide to keep both and roll only the other three dice (choosing at this point only one result to add). If he finds them disgusting he may refuse them and roll all five dice, continuing the game as described above.
| Dice result | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 People | Acquire 1 People token. |
| 2 People | Acquire 2 People tokens, or use them to stage the Revolution: make one Tower token or one Book token be discarded by a player of your choice. |
| 1 Tower | Acquire 1 Tower token. |
| 1 Book | Acquire 1 Book token, or use it as a Joker: convert the Book token into any other symbol of your choice. |
| 1 Mortadella | Acquire 1 Mortadella token. |
| 1 Wine | Drunkenness: make one People token be discarded by a player of your choice. The affected player may cancel the effect by discarding 1 Mortadella token. |
| 2 Wines | Inebriation: make the next turn of a player of your choice be skipped; that player takes the Skip Turn token as a reminder. The affected player may cancel the effect by discarding 2 Mortadella tokens. |
| 1 Rat | Plague: all players discard 1 People token. Each player may avoid discarding the People token by discarding 1 Tower token instead. |
| 2 Rats | Black Death: all players discard 1 People token and 1 Mortadella token. The rule that a People token may be avoided by discarding a Tower token remains valid. |
Additional Rules
The following rules apply to the game in all cases, but it is advised to play a couple of games before using them.
Lombard Company Token
Segnalino Compagnia dei Lombardi
The player who holds this token may use it after a dice roll (whether of 3 or of 5 dice) to re-roll the same number of dice. This token is assigned to the last player to start. After it has been used it passes to the player on the holder's right, unless it has been used to re-roll the throw of an opposing player, in which case the token goes to that player.
7 Deadly Sins - Too Much Is Too Much!
No more than 7 tokens of each symbol may be held. If a player reaches 8 tokens, even of only one symbol, he loses the game and is eliminated. Even in this case he may not reveal the role he held.
Porchetta Festival - Let's Eat!
If the dice roll shows 5 identical symbols of People, Tower, Book or Mortadella, all players immediately acquire 1 token corresponding to the symbol of the dice. If this creates the victory conditions for a player, that player wins the game even if it is not his turn. If more than one player could win, the one who should have played first wins, following the clockwise order of turns.
Earthquake - Rrrrrumble!
If the dice roll shows 5 symbols from Rat and Wine (for example 3 Rats and 2 Wines), all players discard all their Tower tokens and all their Book tokens in play. If this creates the victory conditions for a player, that player wins the game even if it is not his turn. If more than one player could win, the one who should have played first wins, following the clockwise order of turns.
Carnival - Every Prank Counts!
If the dice roll shows 5 different symbols, the player chooses 3 of the symbols and, instead of acquiring them from the common reserve, steals them from one or more opposing players.
Victory Conditions
A player wins when the victory conditions are met during his turn.
| POPOLO (People) | TORRE (Tower) | LIBRO (Book) | MORTADELLA | NOTE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince of Tortellini | 2+ | 2+ | 2+ | 5+ | - |
| Magnificent Rector | 4+ | 2+ | 5+ | - | - |
| Lord of Silk | 4+ | 6+ | - | 0 | - |
| Mercenary Captain | 5+ | - | 0 | 4+ | - |
Notes:
- When a number is followed by "+" it means the player must have AT LEAST that number of tokens.
- When a number is given alone, without mathematical signs, it means the player must have EXACTLY that number of tokens for the victory conditions to be met. This also applies to 0.
Master of the Innkeepers: he wins if, in addition to the tokens listed in the table, he guesses the role of another player (other than the Brigand). If he does not guess it, he loses the game and is eliminated.
Variants
Variant for 6 Players
In a 6-player game all players start with 1 People token and 1 Mortadella token.
Variant for 7 Players
In a 7-player game all players start with 2 People tokens and 1 token of their choice. The special role of the Brigand also enters the game; he plays with his role card face up.
The Brigand
The Brigand rolls the dice normally, but the People, Tower, Book and Mortadella symbols he rolls do not get acquired from the reserve in the centre of the table: he steals them from the other players. Moreover, the Brigand is not subject to the limit of the 7 deadly sins, and he is the target of the Master of the Innkeepers.
Victory conditions (Brigand): the Brigand wins by acquiring at least 8 tokens of the same symbol of his choice among People, Book and Mortadella, while keeping the other two symbols at 0.
Variant for 2 Players
Remove the Master of the Innkeepers and the Brigand from the Role cards.
In addition to the victory conditions of each player, add one more: the player wins if he guesses the role of another player. If he does not guess it, he discards all his tokens, the Role card is removed from the game, and the player draws a new Role card and restarts the game, passing the turn.