Phraya Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Resources in Phraya
• Goal of the Game
• Set Up
• The Turn
  • Playing a Card
  • Movement
  • Actions
• The Boat
• The Merchant
• Market Stalls
  • Owning Stalls
• The Royal Barge
  • Royal Offerings
  • An Example Turn
• End of the Game
  • End-Game Scoring Example
• Advanced Optional: Starting Boats
• Card Icons Reference
• Credits

Components

• 4 Main board parts (with 4 clips to assemble them)
• 1 Tracks board
• 25 Market Cards
• 1 Merchant (piece)
• 1 Royal Barge
• 36 Goods (9 meat + 9 fruit + 9 vegetable + 9 fish)
• 4 Market cubes (in the same colors as the goods)
• 8 Rower tiles
• 20 Restaurant order tiles
• 18 Basket tiles
• 28 Flower tokens
• 16 Royal Favor tokens
• 42 Coins (of value 10, 5 and 1)
• 1 Score Pad
• 1 Cloth Bag

In each of the 4 player colors:

• 1 Personal board
• 5 Basic cards
• 1 Boat
• 7 Stalls
• 15 Disks

Resources in Phraya

Fruit (Carambola), Fish, Vegetable (Thai eggplant), Meat, Flower (Plumeria rubra), Coin, and Victory point (VP from now on).

Goal of the Game

Players alternate turns until 2 of the 3 possible end-game conditions are met: the Royal Tithe is completed, Buddha is properly worshiped, or Market supremacy is achieved. When this happens, the game ends immediately, and the players then tally victory points to determine the winner.

Set Up

1. Assemble the 4 main board parts into a square using the clips to pin them in place. You may arrange the parts in any orientation you like, as long as the intended sides face inward once assembled. Place the Royal Barge on the central water crossing.
2. Place the Tracks board beside the main board, leaving room between them for the card market.
3. Place the market cubes on the third (shadowed) section of their matching row on the Market Price Chart, and place the Merchant on its initial space (marked with an asterisk).
4. Place the Rower tiles in a stack in their designated space, and do the same for the Royal Favor tokens.
5. Give each player a personal board and all of their matching pieces (1 boat, 5 cards, 7 stalls, and 15 disks). In a 3-player game, each player returns 1 stall to the box. In a 4-player game, each player returns 2 stalls instead.
6. The player who has eaten Pad Thai most recently is the first player. Give that player 8 coins, and give each other player 1 additional coin per seating position after the first player (9 coins to the second player, 10 to the third, and so on).
7. Shuffle the 25 market cards to form a deck and place it on its designated space beside the Tracks board. Draw from the top of the deck and place 1 card face-up on each of the marked spaces next to the deck.
8. Shuffle all the basket tiles, randomly place one face-up (showing its price) on each basket stall on the main board, and put the rest in the cloth bag.
9. Sort the Restaurant Order tiles by their type (1 to 4), shuffle each stack separately, and leave them beside the board, face down. In a 2-player game, remove 1 tile from each stack. Place one face-up tile from the first stack (numbered 1) in each of the 4 Restaurant stalls on the main board.
10. In playing order, players place their boats on a channel section connected to the outside of the main board. Then, in reverse playing order, players place 1 of their stalls on a vacant goods stall (one of the stalls with a stall silhouette depicted).
11. Create a general supply, accessible to all players, holding all remaining goods, flowers, and coins.

The Turn

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player takes a turn, then gives way to the next player. Turns are carried out successively in this way until the conditions for the end of the game are met.

On your turn, you must perform the following 3 phases, in this order:

1. Play Card — play a card and resolve the effect depicted on it.
2. Movement — move your boat.
3. Actions — interact with adjacent stalls.

Playing a Card

At the beginning of the game, you get 5 basic cards of your color to form your hand. Every turn you must choose and play a card, resolving its effect. Some cards let you modify market prices, some let you move the Royal Barge, and others give you a variety of advantages. You can always choose the card you want to play from the ones in your hand (except if you are blocked — see Movement below).

You must always carry out the effects shown on the card. Once a card is resolved, leave it on a discard pile near your personal board. You cannot play a card from your discard pile, only from your hand.

One basic card lets you count the cards in your discard pile (including this one), take them all back into your hand, and gain 1 coin per card retrieved. In exchange, you do not perform the other 2 steps of the turn (you don't move and don't carry out any actions). Additionally, you may refresh the card market by putting the played card on the first market slot back onto the bottom of the deck; if you do, slide the remaining market cards to the left and draw a new one to fill the gap.

During the game you may acquire new cards, called market cards. Put them directly into your hand, ready to be played on a future turn.

Movement

In this phase you must move your boat at least 1 channel section, up to as many sections as the number of rowers on your personal board (2 at the start of the game). Keep in mind the following rules when moving:

• A boat moves from channel section to channel section, where a section is the water channel space between two crossings.
• You cannot retrace your movement: if you enter a section from one crossing, you must leave it through the other.
• You may move over other players' boats if you have enough movement, but you cannot stop in the same section as another boat — only 1 boat can occupy a given channel section at a time.
• The Royal Barge blocks all movement through the crossing it occupies.
• You must move at least 1 channel section. If you start your turn blocked (the Royal Barge sits in the only crossing you have access to), you must play a card that moves the Royal Barge so that you are able to move.
• There is no movement outside the main board. Channel sections that connect to the exterior are, for game purposes, dead ends.

Actions

In this phase you may interact with the stalls to both the left and right of your boat. If the Royal Barge is in an adjacent crossing, you may also interact with it. Keep in mind the following rules when interacting:

• You cannot interact more than once with each stall per turn. That means you cannot, for example, make more than one temple offering, buy more than one basket, acquire more than one market stall, or deliver more than one restaurant order in a single turn on the same stall. However, you may buy or sell as many goods of the same type at a goods stall as you want, as long as you do it all at once, in a single action.
• You may interact with the stalls in whichever order you like, even using goods or coins acquired from one interaction to fund another (or to interact with the Royal Barge).

For example: you could interact with 2 stalls and the Royal Barge in the same turn — buying a vegetable, delivering it (along with a meat) to fulfill a restaurant order, and then using the coins you just earned to make an offering to the King.

See Market Stalls below for what you can get from each type of stall.

The Boat

Your personal board represents your boat, which starts with 2 rowers and room to hire 2 more during the game.

The number of rowers on your boat determines how many channel sections you can move. Until you hire more rowers, your movement is limited to 1 or 2 sections (remember that you must move — you cannot stay in your current section).

Your boat also has 2 starting baskets and room to add 4 more. Each basket holds 2 goods, 1 of each of the two types represented on the basket tile itself. When you buy goods, you cannot take more than the number you can accommodate in your baskets, even if you intend to use or sell them that same turn. If you want to carry more goods, you need to purchase new baskets.

The Merchant

The Merchant is foreign to the floating market, but very important to it, since his large-scale buying and selling decisions make the prices of the local goods fluctuate.

The Market Price Chart shows the current price of each of the four goods: vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat. The indicated price is both what players must pay to acquire a unit of that good and what they receive when selling it.

Some cards let you modify those prices. To do so, the first thing you do when playing such a card is move the Merchant according to the value shown on the card. You may move him in either direction along his route, but he must move exactly the indicated number of spaces. Only when a card offers more than one movement option (such as "1-2 spaces") may you choose which value to use.

Once you have moved the Merchant, the space he lands on indicates which goods you may change the price of. Choose one of the price modifications shown on the card, apply it to one of those goods, then apply the second modification to the other good. Increase or decrease a good's price by moving its marker to the right (increase) or left (decrease) on the Market Price Chart the number of spaces indicated on the card. Some cards allow only one modification; in that case you modify the price of just one of the two goods, and the other remains unaltered.

Prices cannot go higher than the rightmost box or lower than the leftmost. Any move beyond that point is simply ignored — meaning you may end up choosing to "move" a good's price in a way that doesn't actually change it (for example, lowering a price that is already at its minimum).

Market Stalls

Each Market Stall offers a different interaction, but remember: you may only interact once per stall each turn.

Goods Stall (vegetable, fruit, fish, or meat) — Here you may buy or sell goods of the indicated type. Pay the price shown on the Market Price Chart for that good, or receive that many coins, multiplied by the number of goods traded, depending on whether you are buying or selling. In a single action you may buy as many goods as you can transport, or sell as many as you possess, but you cannot both buy and sell at the same stall in the same turn, nor split buying or selling into separate actions on the same stall in the same turn. Important: if you trade with a stall belonging to another player (it has a stall piece on it), that player receives 1 flower token from the supply.

Basket Stall — Here you may buy the basket tile present on the stall. Pay the indicated price, flip the basket, and place it in an empty basket space on your personal board; from then on you have room for the 2 extra goods shown on that basket tile. Replace the tile on the stall by drawing a new one from the basket bag (every basket stall should always have an available basket on top of it, unless the bag runs out). Instead of buying a basket, you may hire an extra rower by giving up 1 meat or 1 fish. Take a rower tile and place it on an empty bench on your personal board; from then on you may move 1 further section each turn.

Restaurant Stall — There is always 1 Restaurant Order tile visible at this stall. You may deliver the goods depicted on the tile (returning them to the general supply) to fulfill the order. Gain the displayed number of coins immediately, and keep the tile face down near your board so you can count its VP at the end of the game. Remember to replace the order tile with a new one from the lowest-numbered stack still available.

Temple Stall — Here you may make an offering. Choose a good you carry in your boat and find the leftmost empty space of that good's type on the Temple Chart. Return the chosen good and pay the number of flowers shown in that space to the general supply, then place a disk of your color there. At the end of the game you earn VP for the number and type of offerings you made.

Scribe Stall — Here you may purchase market cards from those displayed beside the Tracks board. Pay the cost in either coins or flowers, and place the chosen card in your hand. Slide the remaining cards to the left to cover the empty space, and fill the last space with a face-up card drawn from the deck.

Administration Stall — Here you may acquire a new stall. Choose any empty goods stall (one with a stall silhouette on top) anywhere on the board, pay 10 coins, and place one of your stalls there. This earns you flower tokens during the game and VP at the end of the game, depending on how many stalls of each type you own.

Owning Stalls

At the start of the game each player owns 1 stall (the one with a stall piece of their color on it), and through the Administration Stall — by paying 10 coins each time — a player may acquire new ones. Only goods stalls with a stall silhouette on top may be chosen.

Owning stalls gives you several advantages:

• You get 1 flower every time another player interacts with one of your stalls.
• You receive a King's blessing when the Royal Barge moves to a crossing adjacent to your stall.
• You gain VP at the end of the game depending on how many stalls of each type you possess.
• When you place your last stall piece in play, you trigger one of the three end-game conditions.

The Royal Barge

The King likes to navigate the market in his magnificent barge, dealing blessings, receiving offerings, and giving favors in return.

The Royal Barge starts the game in the central crossing, and moves from crossing to crossing only when a player plays a card that indicates it should. As with the Merchant, the Barge must move the exact number of crossings shown on the card, and cannot move through the same channel section twice during a single movement. Players' boats do not block the Barge's movement.

Once the Barge's move is complete, the King gives blessings to the owners of all stalls in the 4 channel sections adjacent to the crossing he now occupies. Usually this blessing is 1 flower token (as with all basic cards that move the Royal Barge), but some market cards grant different blessings, as shown on the card itself. The King blesses every stall in range no matter who owns it or who played the card — multiple players can receive blessings at the same time, and some may receive more than one.

Royal Offerings

If you end your move in a channel section adjacent to the Royal Barge, then besides interacting with the two nearby stalls, you may also give an offering to the King. Choose any empty space on the King's Chart, pay the cost shown there (this can be coins, flowers, or goods), and place a disk of your color on the chosen space. When you do, you also receive a Royal Favor token.

A Royal Favor token can be discarded when:

1. You are making an offering to the temple, to skip paying any flowers (you still need to discard the offered good).
2. You are buying goods from a stall, to get one for free. If you are buying more than one, you may either pay for the rest or discard more favors.
3. You are about to buy a basket or hire a rower, to get it for free.

Giving an offering to the King is just another turn action, so it can be performed before, after, or in between interacting with the stalls.

An Example Turn

The purple player starts her turn with 6 coins, 2 fish, and 1 meat. She wants to fulfill a restaurant order, but she is short of the resources needed for either of the two orders she can reach (the third is out of reach, blocked by the white boat): she lacks a fruit for the first order and 2 vegetables for the second.

So for this turn she chooses to play a Merchant card. First she resolves its effects: she moves the Merchant 1 space to the right, then increases the price of fish by 2 spaces (up to value 8) — so she can speculate with the fish she's holding later — and decreases the price of vegetables by 2 spaces (down to value 4), which will help her this turn. Finally, the card grants her 2 coins, bringing her total to 8.

Next she moves, choosing to move 2 sections to reach the restaurant stall with the order she's aiming for, passing through the space the orange boat occupies (allowed, since she doesn't stop there).

Now she can interact with the stalls on either side of her. Thanks to the 2 extra coins and the lowered vegetable price (now 4 coins each), she buys 2 vegetables for 8 coins (the black player, who owns that stall, gets a flower token). She then delivers those 2 vegetables along with the meat she already had to fulfill the restaurant order, immediately receiving 13 coins, and keeps the order tile to count its VP at the end of the game. (She was able to buy the 2 vegetables because she had enough basket space to carry them.)

Finally, because the Royal Barge sits in an adjacent crossing, she gives it an offering: she pays 8 coins (the lowest available cost) to place one of her disks on the King's offering chart and receives a Royal Favor token in return, which she can use on a future turn.

Because she has now made an offering of every good type, this will earn her VP at game end, in addition to a share of the current majority on that track. Her turn ends with 5 coins, 1 Royal Favor, and 2 fish (now worth more), plus a fulfilled restaurant order.

End of the Game

There are 3 conditions that can trigger the end of the game:

• The Royal Tithe is completed — one of the rows of the King's Chart is full of players' disks.
• Buddha is properly worshiped — there is at least 1 player disk in the last (rightmost) section of the Temple Chart (i.e., the last two columns).
• Market supremacy is achieved — a player has placed all of their stall pieces on the main board.

As soon as 2 of these 3 conditions are met, the game ends immediately.

At that moment, sell all the goods on your boat (regardless of where they are located) to earn coins at the current market values on the Market Price Chart, and gather all your purchased market cards, including any still in your discard pile.

Next, take the score pad and record in each player's column the points earned in each of the following categories:

1. Coins — gain 1 VP for each complete set of 5 coins you have left.
2. Temple Chart — gain VP for your offerings on the Temple Chart, depending on the good type offered: 5 VP per Meat offering, 4 VP per Fish offering, 3 VP per Fruit offering, and 2 VP per Vegetable offering. Then determine the majority of disks in each of the Temple Chart's 3 sections. If you hold the majority in a section, earn that section's listed VP (10 VP for the first section, 7 VP for the second, 4 VP for the third), splitting the points among tied players (round up) if there's a tie for the majority. If you have no disk at all in a section, take that section's penalty instead (-7, -4, and -2 VP respectively). If you have no disks anywhere on the Temple Chart, you take all 3 penalties.
3. Restaurant Orders — reveal your fulfilled Restaurant Order tiles and gain the VP shown on each.
4. Market cards — show any market cards you own that grant end-game VP and calculate the bonus for each.
5. King's Chart — gain 12 VP if you have the most disks on the King's Chart, or 6 VP if you are second. If there is a tie for first place, split 18 VP among the tied players (no VP is awarded for second place in that case). If there is a tie for second place, split 6 VP among those players (round up in both cases). Additionally, earn 8 VP for each complete set of 3 disks you have across different rows of the King's Chart (i.e., a combination of a Coin, a Flower, and a Good offering row).
6. Stall majorities — calculate the majority of player stalls in each type of goods stall: Vegetable stalls award 14 VP to the majority holder and 7 VP to the runner-up; Fruit stalls award 12 VP and 6 VP; Fish stalls award 10 VP and 5 VP; Meat stalls award 8 VP and 4 VP. If there is a tie for first place, add the first- and second-place values together and split the total among the tied players (no points for second place in that case). If there is a tie for second place instead, just split the second-place value among those players. Round up in both cases.

Add all of a player's VP together to determine the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most Royal Favor tokens left is the winner. If the tie persists, the player with the most flower tokens wins. If it is still a tie, determine the winner by playing another game.

End-Game Scoring Example

The game has just ended, so the orange player automatically sells all her goods for the current market value. She receives 14 coins for a total of 17 (she already had 3), which gains her 3 VP (1 per complete set of 5 coins).

On the Temple Chart, she counts VP for every disk based on the type of good that was offered: with 2 Meat offerings she gains 10 VP (5x2), with 2 Fruit offerings she gains 6 VP (3x2), and with 1 Vegetable offering she gains 2 VP. Looking at the sections' majorities, she wins the first section with 3 disks there, gaining 10 VP. She has 2 disks in the second section, but neither gains nor loses VP there because the white player holds the majority with 3 disks. She did not manage to place a disk in the last section, so she takes a -2 VP penalty — for a Temple Chart subtotal of 8 VP (10-2).

On the King's offering chart she has 4 disks, tied with the white player, so they split the 18 VP for first and second place, gaining 9 VP each. She also gains another 8 VP for her one complete set of 3 disks across different rows.

She then reveals her 3 fulfilled Restaurant Order tiles, gaining a total of 12 VP.

She holds 3 cards with end-game bonuses. The first grants her 2 VP for each of her disks on the King's offering chart — she has 4, for a total of 8 VP. The second grants her 1 VP for every complete set of 5 coins again, gaining another 3 VP.

Regarding stall majorities, she does not have enough Vegetable or Fish stalls to score anything with them. However, she holds second position in the Meat stalls majority, gaining 4 VP. Finally, she has the same number of Fruit stalls on the board as the purple player, but her third bonus card also counts as an extra Fruit stall, giving her first position and 12 VP.

Her final score is 85 VP. Very good!

Advanced Optional: Starting Boats

If you want players to have an asymmetrical start, flip the boats to their empty-basket side. Then shuffle the basket tiles and deal 2 randomly to each player to place in their boats. Add the printed cost of both of a player's tiles and divide the total by 2 (round up). Comparing each player's value against the player with the highest value, the rest of the players get extra initial coins equal to the difference.

Card Icons Reference

Immediate Effects — resolve these effects immediately when you play the corresponding card, before your movement step.

• Move the Merchant the indicated number of spaces (a range such as 0-2 lets you choose). Increase and/or decrease the prices of the goods present in his space according to the values shown on the card.
• Gain 1 flower.
• Move your boat 2 spaces before you resolve your normal movement step.
• Move the Royal Barge the indicated number of crossings (a range such as 1-3 lets you choose). The King then gives the shown Blessing to the owners of all adjacent stalls.
• Gain 2 coins. / Gain 5 coins.
• Discard any number of goods to gain 1 flower for each one discarded.
• Discard any number of flowers to gain 3 coins for each one discarded.

Passive Effects — these effects take place if you interact with the appropriate type of stall during the actions phase of your turn.

• When purchasing the corresponding good this turn, you pay the lowest market value for it regardless of the current price.
• When fulfilling a Restaurant Order this turn, you may ignore one unit of the shown good.
• When making an offering to the Temple this turn, you may pay 2 flowers less than indicated.
• When buying a market stall this turn, you pay 5 coins instead of 10.

Endgame Bonus — cards with this extra section grant you personal scoring conditions at the end of the game.

• This card counts as a Stall of the corresponding type regarding its majority and other card bonuses.
• Gain 2 VP for each of your fulfilled Restaurant Orders.
• Gain 2 VP for each of your disks in the King's offering chart.
• Gain 2 VP for each of your disks in the Temple's offering chart.
• Gain 3 VP for each of your Vegetable Stalls. / Gain 3 VP for each of your Fruit Stalls. / Gain 3 VP for each of your Fish Stalls. / Gain 3 VP for each of your Meat Stalls.
• Gain 2 VP for each of your Stalls (of any kind).
• Gain 1 VP for each Flower you have left.
• Gain 4 VP for each Royal Favor you have left.
• Gain 1 extra VP for each 5 coins you have left.

Credits

Designer: Alberto Millán. Art: Michael Menzel. Graphic Design: Dossom Studio. Development: Pau Carles & Javi Caparrós. Publishers: DMZ Games / Nice Game Publishing.