La Stanza
La Stanza Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 game board
- 4 player boards
- 12 large coins (5 florins)
- 16 small coins (1 florin)
- 12 artwork tiles (4 each in values of 2, 3, and 4)
- 40 character tiles (8 per discipline)
- 20 starting character tiles (4 per discipline)
- 4 financier tiles
- 20 bonus tiles
- 6 cover tiles
- 64 books, 16 each in 4 colors (green, blue, white and yellow)
- 35 meeples, 7 each in 5 colors (red, green, blue, white and yellow), representing favors owed by players' patrons
- 1 game round marker
- 1 start player marker
- In each of the 4 player colors: 1 figurine, 1 sailboat, 8 discs, 5 pillars
Player Board Setup
Each player chooses a player color and takes:
- 8 discs of their chosen color
- 5 pillars of their chosen color
- A player board
- A single meeple in each of the 4 basic colors (red, green, yellow and blue)
- The financier tile of their chosen color. This should be placed on the leftmost space of the worker track.
- One starting character tile for each discipline. These should be arranged randomly, face up, on the remaining open spaces of the worker track, although experienced players may choose to arrange these tiles on the 5 rightmost spaces as they like.
During the game, when acquiring artwork tiles and bonus tiles, these should be placed next to your player board, on the Museum and Bonus Tiles spaces. These 8 spaces are not limiting in any way, just put extra tiles next to your player board.
These symbols can be found on both the player boards and on the game board. The symbol depicting 3+ means that the related rule only applies to 3- and 4-player games, while the 4 symbol means that the related rule only applies to a 4-player game.
- The player who has visited the most countries starts the game. Give that person ƒ 10,- and the start player marker.
- The 2nd player receives ƒ 11,-.
- If applicable, the 3rd player receives ƒ 12,- and the 4th player receives ƒ 13,-.
Game Board Setup
Sort the books by color and place them into their matching spaces in the Literature room.
For 2- and 3-player games, randomly select 5 of the 6 cover tiles. Assign one to each discipline room, covering its matching Masterpiece space with a pillar of an unused player color. The rightmost (17 PP) space will never be covered in this way.
Place each player's sailboat on the ƒ 7,- space of the money track in the Discoveries room.
Place each player's figurine onto the Bonus Tiles space.
Place one disc from each player into the Religion box in the Religion room.
Shuffle the character tiles and place one face-up on each space of the movement track (do not place any character tiles in the Bonus Tiles room).
Place one statue, script, and painting per player on the appropriate spaces of the Arts room.
Sort the meeples by color and place them on their matching chairs in the Politics room.
Place the game round marker on the first space of the round track, underneath the bonus tiles.
Sort the bonus tiles and randomly select 3 from each discipline (note that there are no Politics bonus tiles). Place these 12 bonus tiles onto the grid in the Bonus Tiles room, in any order.
Overview
La Stanza is played over a number of rounds equal to one more than the number of players. Once those rounds have been completed, each player will have 3 more turns before the game ends. At that point, the player with the most Prestige Points (PP) will be the winner!
Your Turn
Beginning with the start player, play will move clockwise around the table. On your turn, you must move your figurine 1-4 spaces clockwise; this movement must end on a character tile (exception: Bonus Tiles Room, see below). That tile is then added to the leftmost space of your recruitment track. If that space is already occupied by a tile, you must make room for the new character by sliding your tiles one space to the right. If a character tile "falls out" of the recruitment track, it is discarded.
NOTE: When moving, ignore spaces without character tiles and/or those occupied by other players' figurines. Other than the Bonus Tiles space, players may not share a location. Always count the Bonus Tiles space when you move onto or over it, even if it is occupied by another player's figurine.
EXAMPLE: The blue player's move can end on John Calvin, Charles V, or Vasco da Gama, who are in the Discoveries room, or Paracelsus, who is in the Literature room.
After moving and taking a character tile, you must then select ONE of the actions below (except for when you end your movement on the Bonus Tiles space):
- Activate a Discipline
- Receive money
- Pass
Activate a Discipline
To activate a discipline, you must meet two conditions:
- Your figurine must be located in that discipline's room (i.e., if your figurine is in the Discoveries room, you can activate the Discoveries discipline) OR you must spend (discarding to the Politics room) 1 meeple whose color matches the discipline you wish to activate.
- You must hire at least one character of the appropriate discipline (even if there is already one on your worker track).
To hire a character, move its tile from your recruitment track to any spot on your worker track and pay the hiring cost indicated above that spot. Hiring a character is likely to result in another character becoming displaced; the displaced character is either removed from the game (if it is a starting character tile) or placed into the discard pile (if it is a character tile). You may not displace your financier.
Then, check to see how many characters on your worker track match the activated discipline; this represents the Strength of the activation to be taken. Activations of Strength 1-3 provide progressive rewards that vary by discipline. If your activation has a Strength of 4+, you have created a Masterpiece and will receive Prestige Points for it at the end of the game. Please see the Masterpieces section below for rules regarding Masterpieces.
NOTE: If you don't want to create a Masterpiece, or if you have already created one in the active discipline, you may instead perform the regular activation at Strength 3. If you do not create a Masterpiece, you may not receive more than the Strength 3 reward. You may always perform activations of a lower Strength than what is represented on your player board (characters and specific bonus tiles).
Expert Variant
Instead of hiring at least one character of the appropriate discipline (condition 2), you may fire (discarding from your worker track) a character of that discipline. By firing a character, it can happen that you activate a discipline at Strength 0. This has no benefit on its own, but you may increase your Strength through the use of bonus tiles or by spending your discs in the Religion room.
EXAMPLE: The blue player's figurine is in the Discoveries room. He has already hired one Discoveries character (Massimiliano de la Luce). He has two more characters of the same discipline available, and decides to hire both. He replaces Soledade & Bizarro and Maria Nobelli with Vasco da Gama and Amerigo Vespucci, paying ƒ 5,- to hire both (ƒ 4,- + ƒ 1,-, as noted on the player board). He can now execute a Discoveries activation at Strength 3.
Receive Money
To receive money, move your financier one space to the right (this may displace your rightmost character) and get UP TO the amount marked on the money track by your sailboat (e.g., if your sailboat is on ƒ 13,- and you still have ƒ 3,-, you receive ƒ 10,-). If your sailboat is on one of the PP spots, you will still receive UP TO ƒ 15,-.
You may take money even if your financier is on the rightmost spot of your worker track. If this happens, turn your financier over (to the side showing "-5 PP") and place it onto the leftmost space of your worker track. If you need to make room for your financier there, slide characters in your worker track to the right. You may not flip your financier a 2nd time (i.e., if it is already on the side showing "-5 PP").
Pass
After moving your figurine, you are not required to activate a discipline or receive money. You may simply pass the rest of your turn.
Discipline Rooms
Discoveries
As the New World offers plentiful business opportunities, your Discoveries there will increase your income. Discoveries activations with Strength 1-3 will move your sailboat a matching number of spaces (1-3) along the money track; multiple sailboats may occupy the same space.
The maximum amount of money depicted on the money track is ƒ 15,-. If your sailboat advances past this amount, you will earn additional Prestige Points at the end of the game. Whenever your sailboat reaches or passes a space showing a white meeple icon (ƒ 11,-, 1 PP, and 11 PP), you will receive a white meeple from the Politics room.
Literature
The Literature room provides players with the opportunity to write books on the different disciplines. Players that write two or more books in a given discipline will earn bonuses, as described below.
A Literature activation of Strength 1-3 will provide you with a matching number (1-3) of differently-colored books; place these on the Bookshelf spaces of your player board.
- Religion books: place a disc in any non-Religion box in the Religion room / place a disc in the Religion box / receive 3 PP at the end of the game
- Politics books: receive one non-white meeple of your choice / place a disc in the Religion box / receive 3 PP at the end of the game
- Arts books: receive 2 PP at the end of the game / place a disc in the Religion box / receive an additional 5 PP at the end of the game
- Discoveries books: move your sailboat 2 spaces along the money track / place a disc in the Religion box / receive 3 PP at the end of the game
Religion
As you acquire influence in the church, you may temporarily improve the Strength of your activations. Religion activations allow you to place discs into boxes corresponding to the other disciplines. A Religion activation of Strength 1-3 allows you to place a matching number (1-3) of your discs into that many different boxes in the Religion room (but never in the Religion box itself).
Every disc you have placed in a particular discipline's box may be spent (discarded to your supply) to increase the Strength of a matching activation by 1, no matter what room your figurine is in. You may spend multiple discs to improve a single activation (+1 Strength for each disc spent).
NOTE: All players begin the game with one disc in the Religion box. Discs can only be added to the Religion box through certain Literature activations or by obtaining certain bonus tile(s); discs may NOT be added to the Religion box through the use of Religion activations.
Arts
The Arts room is where you will create art to exhibit in your personal museum; you will earn Prestige Points at the end of the game according to the total value of those artwork tiles. The type of art you create depends on the Strength of your activation: Strength 1 provides a sculpture (value 2); Strength 2, a script (value 3); and Strength 3, a painting (value 4). Artworks are limited; if necessary (or desired), you may take art of a value lower than that earned by your activation.
NOTE: The values given to artwork tiles are not equivalent to Prestige Points. See the Scoring section below for an explanation of how museums are scored.
Politics
The Politics room is where you can petition politicians for help in activating disciplines. Activations of Strength 1-3 here will provide you with a matching number (1-3) of differently-colored, non-white meeples, which represent the favors politicians are willing to do for you.
Meeples have the power to activate disciplines even if your figurine is not in that discipline's room. The colors of the meeples indicate the disciplines to which they are connected. White meeples are wild - they can activate ANY discipline, including their own. You may never have more than 7 meeples. If you ever have more than 7 meeples, you must choose which ones to discard back to the Politics room.
Bonus Tiles Room
The Bonus Tiles space is different from other spaces on the game board, as any number of players may occupy this space at the same time. When you end your movement on this space, you must acquire exactly one bonus tile and MAY NOT choose one of the regular actions. Therefore, you can not end your movement on this space if you cannot (or do not want to) acquire a bonus tile. The Bonus Tiles space allows you to acquire immediate, permanent, or game-end bonuses. Bonus tiles are associated with the different disciplines, and you may acquire more than one bonus tile from each discipline, but to do so you must meet particular conditions. To earn your 1st/2nd/3rd bonus tile in a given discipline, you must:
- Discoveries: reach the 1st/2nd/3rd white meeple space on the money track.
- Literature: have 1/2/3 complete columns of books on your bookshelf.
- Religion: have at least 2 of your discs in 1/2/3 different discipline boxes.
- Arts: have a total artwork value of at least 5/10/15 in your museum.
If you meet a condition and wish to take a bonus tile, you must spend a meeple matching that tile's color (remember, white meeples can represent any color).
Put the tile on your player board and then place one of your discs onto the space formerly occupied by that tile. If you have run out of discs, you may take one of yours from any box in the Religion room (and forfeit its advantage). Descriptions of individual bonus tiles can be found in the Bonus Tiles Overview section below.
Masterpieces
Masterpieces represent extraordinary achievements across the various disciplines. While challenging to accomplish, they provide significant Prestige Point rewards. Creating a Masterpiece allows you to place one of your pillars onto the Masterpiece space that matches the color and Strength of that activation. Each Masterpiece space can only hold one pillar, and a player may only create a Masterpiece in each discipline once. Masterpieces can only be created with an activation of Strength 4+.
Stronger activations provide greater rewards: activations of Strength 4/5/6/6+1 will respectively provide 5/8/12/17 PP. To claim the most valuable Masterpieces (worth 17 PP each), you must also have at least a Strength of 1 in another discipline, as noted below.
To claim the 17 PP Masterpiece for Discoveries, you must also have 1 Strength in Politics. To claim the 17 PP Masterpiece for Literature, you must also have 1 Strength in Discoveries. To claim the 17 PP Masterpiece for Religion, you must also have 1 Strength in Literature. To claim the 17 PP Masterpiece for Arts, you must also have 1 Strength in Religion. To claim the 17 PP Masterpiece for Politics, you must also have 1 Strength in Arts.
Refill
As soon as 2 rooms on the game board have been completely emptied of character tiles, the game board must be refilled. Place a new character tile on every space of the game board that does not already have one, including any spaces already occupied by figurines. Refill character tiles starting from the rightmost space of the Discoveries room and continuing clockwise around the game board. If necessary, shuffle the discard pile to form a new face down draw pile. If there are not enough character tiles to fill every space on the game board, take 1 starting character tile (that was previously removed from the game) from each discipline, shuffle them together, and place them on the remaining empty spaces. After refilling the game board, move the game round marker one space forward.
End of the Game
After a number of rounds equal to one more than the number of players, the game will be close to ending. From this point onwards, the game board will no longer be refilled. Continue as normal until play returns to the start player, at which point each player may take up to 3 more turns. Instead of taking an action, a player may instead choose to pass to end their game and place their figurine onto the highest-valued, unoccupied spot of the Bonus Tiles room. If a player passes in this way, their game has ended and they may take no further actions. Any remaining players continue as described until everyone has taken their 3 final turns OR has passed.
Scoring
At the end of the game, players receive or lose Prestige Points (PP) for:
- Masterpieces
- Position on the money track
- Books on bookshelf
- Passing
- Specific Bonus Tiles
- Flipped financier
- Bonus Tile Majority, according to the number of discs placed by each player onto the grid in the Bonus Tiles room.
- Museum Majority, according to total value per player, where sculptures have value 2; scripts 3; and paintings 4. Add up the values of all artwork tiles remaining on the board (those NOT taken by players). This value is assigned to a Dummy Player for scoring purposes.
NOTE: If you have not taken any bonus tiles (and have not placed discs in the 2x6 grid as a result) or created any works of art, you are not eligible to score bonuses in those areas. Resolve ties for Museums and discs in the Bonus Tiles room by adding up the Prestige Points that would normally be awarded outside of a tie and then dividing them evenly among the tied players, rounding down.
EXAMPLE: At the end of a 4-player game, Paul's Museum has a value of 15, while Nuno's has a value of 9; Max and Arno did not collect any artwork tiles. The art remaining on the board has a total value of 12. For scoring purposes, this is assigned to a Dummy Player. We will distribute PP (17/12/8/5) as follows: Paul 17 PP, Dummy Player 12 PP, Nuno 8 PP. Arno and Max, with no artwork, receive no PP. So in this case, no player receives 5 PP.
The player with the most PP wins the game! In case of a tie, the winner is the tied player whose financier is farthest to the left on their worker track. Note that an unflipped financier always beats a flipped one, regardless of its position on the worker track. If still tied, the winner is the tied player who passed earlier (for more PP)!
Bonus Tiles Overview
Discoveries bonus tiles
- Permanent +1 Strength in Discoveries
- Permanent +1 Strength in Politics
- Immediately receive ƒ 5,-
- Immediately take any character tile from the game board and place it onto any space of your recruitment track
- At the end of the game, receive 5 PP if your sailboat is farthest along the money track (3 PP if tied)
Literature bonus tiles
- Permanent +1 Strength in Literature
- Immediately move your sailboat 3 spaces along the money track
- At the end of the game, receive PP equal to the florins value of the space where your financier is located
- Immediately place your sailboat into the same position as the player furthest along the money track (gain white meeples if applicable)
- Each time you write a book of any color, receive ƒ 1,-
Religion bonus tiles
- Permanent +1 Strength in Religion
- Immediately place 2 of your discs into the Religion box
- Immediately write 2 different books of your choice & at the end of the game, this tile counts as an extra disc for Bonus Tile Majority scoring
- Once per turn you may pay ƒ 3,- to add +1 Strength when activating a discipline
- Immediately write one Religion book & at the end of the game, receive 5 PP if you wrote the most Religion books (3 PP if tied)
Arts bonus tiles
- Permanent +1 Strength in Arts
- This tile counts as an artwork tile of value 4 for Museum Majority scoring
- Immediately place 2 of your discs into 2 different non-Religion boxes & at the end of the game, receive PP equal to the number of characters on your worker track
- Immediately write one Arts book & move your financier to the leftmost position of its track (slide characters to the right as necessary to make room for your financier)
- Immediately receive 2 white meeples
Credits
Game Design: Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro & Paulo Soledade
Artwork: Konstantin Vohwinkel
Character Art: Luka Arh, Loïc Billiau, Sébastien Caiveau, Kevin Hill & José van den Helder
Rulebook: Konstantin Vohwinkel & Max van den Helder
Editing: Michael Schemaille
Development: Arno Quispel, Max van den Helder & Paul Mulders
Copyright © 2019 Quined Games bv, P.O. Box 1121, 3260 AC, Oud-Beijerland, The Netherlands. www.quined.com