Pastiche: The Birth of a Masterpiece
Pastiche: The Birth of a Masterpiece Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 49 Story cards. There are 7 types of 7 cards each. The 7 types are: MYTHOLOGY, LOVE STORY, SCIENCE FICTION, HORROR, MYSTERY, FANTASY and MAGIC REALISM.
- 34 Novel cards. Each Novel card shows the name and description of the hand to make, along with the points gained. Each card has 2 sides: "Published" and "Masterpiece!". For details about the card composition and hands, see "Novel Card Description".
- This rule sheet. During the game, fold it up and keep it in the box.
Setup
- Divide the Novel cards by type and arrange them in the center of the table.
- Shuffle the Story cards to form a face-down deck. Place the deck in the center of the table, next to the Novel cards. Leave space for the discard area next to the deck. At this point, there is not any card in the discard area.
- During the game, players each publish and place their novels in front of themselves. Make sure to have enough space in front of you.
- Determine the start player in whatever way you like. For example, the person who has most recently read Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, or the person who loves literature the most may be the start player. You may also determine the start player by rock-paper-scissors.
- Beginning with the start player, take turns clockwise to draw cards from the Story card deck as your initial hand. The number of cards to draw from the deck is 3 cards for the start player and the 2nd player, 4 cards for the 3rd and 4th player, and 5 cards for the 5th player.
- At the start of the game, you have 3 cards each as your hand. Beginning with the 3rd player, take turns to choose 3 cards to keep in your hand, and discard the other card(s) face down in the discard area. (Thus, the 3rd and later players can choose the cards for their initial hands in return for going later in turn order.) The game starts with the cards discarded by the last player in the turn order placed at the top of the discard pile.
Sample Initial Layout (for 3 players) — the layout diagram labels: Discard area; Story card deck; Novel cards; Publication space.
How to Play
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn, perform only one of the following 3 actions. You cannot pass if you can perform any one action.
- Write
- Publish
- Read
1. Write
This is an action to increase the number of cards in your hand. Take one of the following 2 actions.
① Draw 2 cards from the top of the deck, add one of them to your hand, and discard the other card face up in the discard area.
② Add the top card of the discard pile to your hand.
In either case, you add one card to your hand. If the deck runs out, the next player to draw a card from the deck shuffles the discard pile to form a new deck before drawing the card.
2. Publish
This is an action to use the cards from your hand in order to get a Novel card. You can publish only one novel per turn.
First, reveal from your hand the Story cards required to get the Novel card. Place these Story cards face up in line in front of you. Next, take the Novel card from the play area and place it with its "Published" side face up. Make sure to place the Novel card at the front end (as the novel's cover) of the Story card line. When placing the cards, be careful not to mix them up with other novels that you have published.
The Novel cards can be taken on a first-come-first-served basis. Note that each player cannot take multiple cards of the same Novel.
For more information on publication, also see "Pastiche".
Publication Sample Layout — the layout diagram labels: Jerome's hand; Jerome's play area; Ernest's hand; Ernest's play area; Card; Masterpiece!; Card; Published.
Example: Jerome publishes a "5 Cards" novel. As a token of gratitude for having "pastiched" Ernest's 2 novels, Jerome gives Ernest "MYTHOLOGY 6" and "SCIENCE FICTION 9" from his hand.
3. Read
This action can be performed only if someone has any novel "Published" in their play area.
From a "Published" novel that includes 2 or more Story cards, you can take any one Story card and add it to your hand. You can read any novel published by anyone, including yourself.
Each well-read novel with only 1 Story card left is recognized by the world as a "Masterpiece". If this happens, flip the Novel card from the "Published" to "Masterpiece!" side face up. The novel's value is recognized in this manner with victory points to earn. Such completed "masterpieces" can be "pastiched".
Pastiche
When you perform the action to publish a novel, you can imitate the established "masterpieces" in the play area. This action is called "pastiche". You cannot "pastiche" a novel that is still in the "Published" status.
When you publish novels, you can use the remaining Story cards of Masterpieces. Thus, with the help of the Masterpieces in the play area, you can publish your novel(s) with fewer Story cards than required. (Incorporating pastiches from masterpieces makes your novels more well-accepted by readers around the world.)
When you imitate another player's novel, you must give them a card from your hand for each novel you "pastiche" as a token of gratitude. If you cannot give any card, you cannot "pastiche" the novel. On the other hand, you can "pastiche" your own novel at no cost.
Example of the Publish action: Jerome has a novel with "SCIENCE FICTION 7" remaining in his play area, and Ernest has a novel with "HORROR 7" and another novel with "MYTHOLOGY 7" remaining in his play area. All of them are already established "Masterpieces!" Jerome plays from his hand "MYSTERY 7" and "FANTASY 7" cards into the play area and publishes a "5-card" novel. Since "SCIENCE FICTION 7" is Jerome's own novel, Jerome could "pastiche" it at no cost. Meanwhile, for having "pastiched" two of Ernest's novels, Jerome chooses 2 cards (that seem difficult to use for Ernest) from his hand and gives them to Ernest as a token of gratitude.
Jerome has reduced a total of 4 cards from his hand. Jerome's newly-published novel will be recognized as a "Masterpiece!" after it is read once more.
If the cards to play in the play area is reduced to 1 card as a result of "pastiche", your novel becomes a "Masterpiece!" without performing the Read action.
You cannot Publish a novel by "pastiche" alone, i.e. without playing any card from your hand. (If your novel lacks originality, it is a mere imitation of another Novel.)
End of the Game and Victory Conditions
At the end of your turn, if any of the players has "Masterpiece!" novels worth 15 pt or more in total in their play area, the game end condition is met. The player who has fulfilled the game end condition takes the "End Flag" Novel card at the end of their turn and places it in their play area along with any one of the cards from their hand.
If the player does not have any card in their hand, they cannot take the "End Flag" card. Nonetheless, the game end condition is fulfilled all the same. The "End Flag" card missed in such a manner cannot be taken later.
The game does not end immediately after a player meets the game end condition. The game ends after two rounds of turns beginning with the turn just completed by the player who met the game end condition. The last turn is taken by the player to the right of the player who met the game end condition. Thus, the player who met the game end condition has one more turn, and other players have two more turns each.
At the end of the game, the player with the most points in total from their novels wins the game. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the least "Masterpiece!" novels wins. If that is also a tie, the tied players share the victory.
In some rare cases, you may not be able to perform any action on your turn. If this happens, you must pass. If everyone passes in succession, the game ends immediately. The player with the most points earned from their "Masterpiece!" novels wins. (There should not be any "Published" Novel card.) In the case of a tie, the tied player with the least number of completed novels wins.
Novel Card Description
Each Novel card lists its hand name, the points gained, the number of cards, and the description (condition for acquisition). As printed in the source, the points and number-of-cards entries appear only for the 5-Card Straight entry; the other entries print a hand name and description only.
| Hand name | Points gained | Number of cards | Description (condition for acquisition) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-Card Straight | 1 pt | 4 cards (as printed; see note) | 5 cards of sequential rank *1 |
| 7-Card Straight | not printed | not printed | 7 cards of sequential rank |
| 9-Card Straight | not printed | not printed | 9 cards of sequential rank |
| 11-Card Straight | not printed | not printed | 11 cards of sequential rank |
| 3 of a Kind | not printed | not printed | 3 cards of the same rank *2 |
| 5 of a Kind | not printed | not printed |
Note (as printed): the 5-Card Straight entry gives "4 cards" in the number-of-cards field while its description reads "5 cards of sequential rank". Both are transcribed as printed; the source does not resolve the discrepancy.
Notes on the Novel card hands:
- *1 Sequence: For example, each run of "5, 6, 7, 8" and "7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13" is a sequence. 1 and 13 are not connected.
- *2 Rank: The value on each Story card indicates its rank. For example, each set of "4, 4, 4" and "8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8" is cards of the same rank.
- *3 For example, "4, 4, 10, 10, 12, 12", "5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7", etc.
- *4 For example, "2, 10, 12, 12, 13", "4, 5, 5, 7, 7, 9, 12", etc.
Notes
Notes on the Write action
When you discard cards, stack them in the order they are discarded. Do not change the order of the cards in the discard pile until it is reshuffled.
When you draw 2 cards from the deck and choose one of them, if there is only one card left in the deck, draw the last card from the deck, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck, and draw the top card of the deck. Then choose and add one of these two cards to your hand, and discard the other card in the (empty) discard area.
Even if the deck runs out, do not immediately reshuffle the discard pile.
If the cards in the deck and discard pile only add up to 1 card, only add that card to your hand.
Notes on Passing
Even if you pass, you can perform actions as usual on your next and subsequent turns.
If you can Write or Read, you cannot pass. Even if you can Publish a novel, you can pass by announcing that you could not find a combination that allows you to Publish a novel.
Others
If a player fulfills the game end condition, you cannot choose not to end the game. The player meeting the game end condition must take the End Flag card unless they lack the card to add to it from their hand. It is an honorable item so the player cannot refuse to take it.
When you Publish a novel, you cannot place in the play area any cards not related to the hand you play. If you Read all the novels Published by another player, you will be able to Write the Novels with exactly the same content, but this is not a problem in the rules.
If you come up with an idea for a new hand, try to incorporate such new hand to the game.
Tips
The "pastiche" action is important. If you manage to reduce your cards by "pastiche", your novels will be recognized more quickly as "Masterpieces!" Consequently, it will also make your novels "pastiched" more frequently. Thus, make great use of prior novels.
Furthermore, shorter novels with lower points tend to be "pastiched" more frequently, because they can be completed more quickly. While you might like to publish a long novel from the start, it would be advisable to start with shorter ones and try longer ones step by step.
We hope that your novels will be appreciated by many people.