Matryoshka Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setting Up the Game
• How to Play
  • Phase 1: Draw
  • Phase 2: Trade
  • Phase 3: Display
• End of the Game
• Credits

Components

• 70 matryoshka cards, forming 10 complete sets of 7 (one card of each of the 7 doll sizes, in each of 10 colors)
• 5 reference cards (one per player, summarizing the turn order and scoring)
• 5 pairs of score cards (one pair per player, used to tally points at game end)

Setting Up the Game

1. Shuffle the matryoshka cards into a single face-down deck.
   • With 5 players, use all 10 sets.
   • With 4 players, remove 2 complete sets before shuffling.
   • With 3 players, remove 4 complete sets before shuffling.
2. Deal each player 6 cards from the deck. Players take these cards into hand without showing them to anyone else.
3. Each player then chooses 2 cards from their hand and places them face-down in front of themselves as the start of their own display. Once everyone has done this, all of these cards are turned face-up together.
4. Each player arranges their own display so that dolls of the same color line up in a row and dolls of the same size line up in a column.
5. Give each player a reference card and a pair of score cards.
6. Randomly choose a starting player.

How to Play

The game runs for four rounds. Each round has three phases, always in this order: 1) Draw, 2) Trade, 3) Display.

Matryoshka is a game of negotiation as much as card management: try to talk other players into trades that help you, and remember that a doll you don't need can still be valuable as a bargaining chip to offer someone else in exchange for a better one later.

Phase 1: Draw

Every player draws 2 cards from the deck and adds them to their hand.

Phase 2: Trade

Players take turns in clockwise order starting with the starting player. On your turn, follow these three steps in order:

1. Choose one card from your hand (not from your display) that you're willing to trade, and place it face-up in the middle of the table.
2. Every other player must choose a card from their own hand (not from their display) and place it face-down in front of themselves as a secret offer for your card.
3. Reveal all of the offers and pick whichever one you want. Take that card into your hand, and give the player who offered it your face-up card from the table. Everyone else takes their unused offer back into their own hand.

For example: it is Ingrid's turn, so she puts a matryoshka face-up in the middle of the table for everyone to see. Each of her opponents secretly chooses a card to offer and places it face-down. Once the offers are revealed, Ingrid decides she likes Gabriel's offer best and takes it into her hand. Gabriel takes Ingrid's card from the middle of the table into his hand, while Sofia and Yusuf simply take their own offered cards back into their hands.

Phase 3: Display

Each player picks their whole display back up into their hand, then chooses which cards to put back out on display. The number of cards required in the display grows every round:

• Round 1 → 4 cards
• Round 2 → 6 cards
• Round 3 → 8 cards
• Round 4 → 13 cards

Once everyone has chosen their cards for this round, all of them are flipped face-up together. As in setup, arrange your display so that dolls of the same color share a row and dolls of the same size share a column.

For example: it's the display phase of round 2. Yusuf picks his four previous display cards back into his hand, giving him ten cards total, from which he must set aside six for his new display. Not wanting to reveal too much about his hand, he selects all four of his old display cards again, plus two others, and places all six face-down. Once every player has made their selection, Yusuf flips his six cards face-up and sorts them into rows and columns.

That ends the round. The player seated to the left of the current starting player becomes the starting player for the next round.

End of the Game

After the fourth round, every player has 13 cards on display and 1 card left in hand.

Everyone now scores their display using the score cards. Points come from two sources: each column with at least two cards, and each unbroken run of at least two cards of the same color within a row, using the table below. Bonus points are awarded on top of that for long unbroken runs within a row — these row bonuses do not apply to columns.

Cards in a run	2	3	4	5	6	7
Points	2	4	7	10	13	16
Row bonus	—	—	—	+1	+2	+3

Whoever has the most total points wins. If there's a tie, it goes to whichever tied player has the longest unbroken run within a single row; if that's still tied, compare each player's second-longest run, and so on. Players who remain tied after exhausting every comparison share the win.

For example, Sofia's final display breaks down as follows:

• Columns: column 1 has 1 card (0 points), columns 2–6 each have 2 cards (2 points each), and column 7 has 1 card (0 points), for 12 points total from columns.
• Rows: row A's run of 2 cards is worth 2 points; row B's runs of 2 and 3 cards are worth 6 points; row C's run of 5 cards is worth 10 points plus a +1 row bonus, for 11 points. That's 19 points total from rows.

Sofia's grand total comes to 31 points.

Credits

• Game Design: Sérgio Halaban
• Illustrations: Eduardo Bera
• Graphic Design: Martijn Haddering
• Rulebook Development: Jeroen Hollander
• Rulebook Editing: Dustin Schwartz
• Project Manager: Jonny de Vries

This rulebook is adapted from the official Matryoshka rules sheet, © White Goblin Games / Terra Nova Games.