Masterline
Masterline Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Shuffle the deck and deal 4 cards to each player. Place the rest of the deck face down on the table. Turn over the top card of the deck and place it in the middle of the table.
Starting the Game
The youngest player starts the game. In subsequent games, the player who lost the previous game starts. The starting player chooses a gear colour (silver or copper). That colour stays with the player until the end of the game.
Goal
The goal of the game is to complete five full gears of your colour.
Turn Structure
Each turn you must do both of these two phases, in this order, and neither may be skipped:
- Take one card from the stack.
- Place one card on the table. The placed card must touch at least one previously placed card, either vertically or horizontally.
Special Cards
- Padlock (замОк): once placed, these cards cannot be turned by rotation cards or even by joker cards.
- Rotation: cards with arrows. A rotation card lets the player turn one adjacent card (vertically or horizontally) a quarter turn in the direction of the arrows.
- Joker: purple cards containing double gears. There are 4 joker cards in the deck. Jokers contain both colours and may be used by both players, so they can be part of each player's gears. Jokers also let the player turn any card except a padlock a quarter turn to the left or to the right.
Colour Matching
When placing a card, the colours of the gear parts must always match between adjacent cards. When a player uses a rotation, the gear colours of the played card and of the card being turned must match both before and after the turn. However, a rotation may break any gears on other cards.
Repeat Play
Since games are quick, a series of games can be played to determine the best player.
The rules sheet does not state what happens when the deck runs out, nor how a winner is decided beyond completing five gears. No rule has been added for these points.