Printing Press Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Component List
• Game Preparation
• Game Description
• Sequence of Play
• Initiative – Player Order During Each Step
• 1. Select Orders
• 2. Select Cards (6 times)
  • Card placement rules
  • Bonus Markers
• 3. Close Frames
• 4. Final Scoring
• Solo Variant
  • Changes to Game Preparation
  • Solo Board Setup
  • Changes to the Sequence of Play
  • End of the Game
  • Setting the difficulty level of the solo variant
• Printing Plate Additional Conditions
• Printing Frame Conditions
• Character Abilities
  • Johannes Gutenberg
  • Helena Ungler
  • William Caxton
  • Charlotte Guillard
  • Yolande Bonhomme
• Credits

Component List

1. 1 double-sided time track
2. 16 printing plates
3. 16 printing frames
4. 13 bonus markers
5. 5 character tiles
6. 4 character ability tokens
7. 48 symbol tokens
8. 90 printing cards
9. the cat's paw (time marker)
10. 7 initiative cubes
11. score pad
12. bag
13. solo board for the solo variant

Symbol tokens:

• 4 letters: a, i, o, u
• 4 inks: blue, red, yellow, grey
• 4 specialties: typesetting, woodcutting, binding, illuminating

Each card is a rectangle of 3 × 1 squares; most squares have a symbol.

Manicule — In medieval manuscripts, manicules (lat. manicula - "little hand") were frequent. They found their way from manuscripts to the first printed texts. They indicate important places in a text. In this manual, manicules are used to indicate particularly important rules.

Game Preparation

1. Place the time track on the table (side A for the basic variant, side B for the advanced variant).

   A. Put the paw on the first space (upper left) of the time track.

   B. Put the initiative cubes in easy reach.

2. Shuffle these components face down and put them in easy reach:

   C. printing frames (from now on called frames),

   D. printing plates (from now on called plates),

   E. printing cards (from now on called cards).

3. Put the symbol tokens (from now on called tokens) into the bag and mix them.

4. Shuffle the character tiles and give a random tile to each player. Return the others to the box; they won't be used. Each player chooses which side of their character tile to put face up.

   Manicule: Players should familiarize themselves with the special rules of each of their selected characters. Each character tile has its own initiative and one-time ability, in two variants. Detailed descriptions of the characters are on page 18.

5. Each player takes:

   F. 3 random tokens from the bag and places them face down (i.e. with initiative icons visible) near themselves (a player can always look at their own tiles' printing symbols without showing them to opponents),

   G. 3 double sided bonus markers with values 1/2,

   H. their character's ability token (except Gutenberg, who takes the 1/3 bonus marker).

6. The player with the highest initiative value on their character tile becomes the first player.

Game Description

Printing Press is a game for 1-4 players in which you will become printing pioneers. During the game, you will fulfill orders, represented by a printing frame and plate. To fulfill an order, you will take cards and place them into your tableau. Each round ends with placing your frame around 3 × 3 squares of your tableau to score. After 3 rounds, the player with the most fame points is the winner.

Sequence of Play

The game lasts 3 rounds, which are divided into steps. To help track this, players will move the cat's paw to show the current step.

At the end of each step, advance the paw to the next space to the right.

At the end of a round, move the paw to the first step (i.e. Select Orders) of the next round.

Each round has the following steps, in order:

1. Select Orders (plate and frame)

2. Select Cards (6 times)

In each round, there are 6 steps of drawing cards, used to create a tableau. In each round, players will place a bonus token during one indicated step (see the Bonus Markers section below).

In the advanced variant, there are only 5 steps of drawing cards.

3. Close Frames

After players close their frames, they add up their fame points for that round.

4. Round Scoring

After 3 rounds, the game is over: add up all the fame points, and the player with the most fame points wins!

Manicule: Creating 3 closed frames may require a lot of table space, so plan accordingly when starting the game.

Initiative – Player Order During Each Step

In each step, players act in order determined by initiative. The higher a player's initiative, the earlier that player acts in a step. The player with the highest initiative is first, then the player with the second-highest initiative is second, and so on.

A player's initiative is the sum of:

• the number of their initiative cubes,
• the number of initiative icons visible on cards and tokens in their current tableau this round,
• the number of initiative icons visible in their already closed frames from previous rounds.

If players are tied for initiative, the tied player with the higher initiative value on their character tile wins the tie.

Manicule: At the start of the game, players are all tied with 0 initiative, since they have no cards, tokens, or cubes. So the initial player order is determined by the initiative values on their character tiles.

Example: Anna has initiative = 2 (from 1 cube + 1 icon on a card). Tom has initiative = 0. Kate has initiative = 1 (from 1 cube). John has initiative = 1 (from 1 icon on a token).

So the current player order is:

• Anna (she has the highest initiative)
• Kate (she's tied with John, and her character's initiative value is higher than John's character's initiative value)
• John
• Tom (he has the lowest initiative).

1. Select Orders

Each order consists of a frame and a plate.

To set up the available orders, randomly draw and place frames face up, then randomly draw and place a plate above each frame.

The number of available orders = the number of players + 1.

Orders cannot be separated: once a plate is added to a frame, they stay together for the rest of the game. From now on, an "order" always refers to two linked pieces: a frame and a plate.

In order from highest initiative to lowest initiative, each player selects and takes one order.

Return the last unselected order to the box; it will not be used.

The last player to select an order also takes an initiative cube. This may change the player order in the next step!

Example: A 3-payer game has just begun. Pat, playing as William Caxton (initiative = 3), is first to select an order (frame + plate) and take it (1). Then Kate, playing as Helena Ungler (initiative = 2), selects and takes an order (2). Then Walter, playing as Johannes Gutenberg (initiative = 1), selects and takes an order (3). Since Walter was last, he also takes an initiative cube (4).

2. Select Cards (6 times)

Draw from the top of the pile and deal cards face up onto the table, orienting them consistently. The number of cards = the number of players + 1.

Manicule: Orient the cards consistently so that each card's number is in its lower left corner. Some cards are a horizontal row of 3 squares; other cards are a vertical column of 3 squares.

From highest to lowest initiative, each player selects and takes one card and adds it to their current tableau. The last player to select a card in a given step also takes an initiative cube. This may change the player order in the next step! Return the last unselected card to the box; it will not be used.

In a round, this step repeats 6 times; in each of the 6 steps, each player will take a card. But after the last (6th) step, the last player to take a card does not take an initiative cube.

Card placement rules

A. Orient each card correctly: place horizontal cards horizontally; place vertical cards vertically.

B. Your first card starts your tableau. All subsequent cards must touch a previously placed card or token in at least one of these two ways:

• Beside: A square of the new card touches the side of a square of a previous card or token.
• On: A square of the new card covers a square of a previous card or token.

C. A player's tableau is unbounded; it can grow freely in all directions.

D. Discarding a card

If none of the available cards is a good choice for the player, they can discard it, draw 3 tokens from the bag, and choose one of them (the remaining 2 should be put back into the bag).

The player adds this new token to their tableau, following similar placement rules: the token must go beside or on an existing card or token. Each token has a printing symbol on one side and an initiative icon on the other side; the player chooses which side to place face up.

If a token would be covered by a card or another token, discard the covered token and return it to the box.

Manicule: Keep in mind that only a 3×3 part of your tableau will fit into your frame at the end of the round.

At any time during a round, even just before closing their frame, a player may place one or more of their 3 tokens received during game preparation. Placing these tokens follows the same rules as above.

Players can place cards and tokens only beside or on previously placed ones – never under a previously placed card or token.

Once a card or token is placed, it cannot be moved.

Manicule: Placing cards and tokens with initiative icons increases a player's initiative accordingly, but there are not additional physical initiative cubes to represent initiative printed on cards and tokens. Simply add the number of printed icons to the number of physical initiative cubes.

Bonus Markers

In each round, one card selection step per round has a thicker border on the time track: after this step, each player places a bonus marker.

After the indicated step of card selection, each player puts one of their bonus markers onto frame selected at the beginning of the current round.

Each frame has 2 slots at the bottom for bonus markers. Once placed, a marker stays there until the end of the game. Normally, a bonus marker is placed with the "2" side up. At the end of the game, count the marked bonus symbol (a specialty or an ink) in all 3 of the player's frames; each instance of that symbol gives 2 bonus fame points.

If a player places a bonus marker to mark a symbol that already has a "2" bonus marker (from a previous round), then this second bonus marker is placed with the "1" side up. Then each instance of that symbol will give 2+1 = 3 bonus points at the end of the game.

3. Close Frames

After the paw reaches the last step of the current round (after 6 card selection steps), all players close their frames:

A. Players return all initiative cubes to the center pool. (They'll be used again in the next round).

B. Each player puts their frame onto their tableau, to frame the most favorable 3 × 3 array of symbols. It is legal for some framed squares to be empty.

Then calculate the points scored from each player's tableau. Record these points on the note pad.

Manicule: Remember that you can add some of your 3 setup tokens to your tableau.

Each plate has 2 conditions that can give a player more points:

• Main: If all the indicated letters are visible in the frame, the player gains the indicated points.
• Additional: If the player fulfills the main objective and the additional objective, they gain the indicated additional points.

Example: John gains 4 points because his frame has the letters A, A, U, I. He additionally gains 2 points because the letter U appears in his center row.

Each frame has 2 separate conditions at the top: one for inks and one for specialties.

A. If a player fulfills a condition, they gain the indicated points.

B. These conditions are independent: a player may fulfill one, both, or neither of them.

Example: John gains 3 points because his bottom row has gray ink, and he gains 4 points because his frame has typesetting and woodcutting symbols.

Each frame also enables earning additional points: the condition is to fulfill the main objective on the plate and accomplish both objectives indicated on the frame. The player receives these additional points even if they did not fulfill the additional condition from the plate.

Example: John gains 2 points because he fulfilled both of his frame's conditions as well as his plate's main condition.

Each round, write each player's points on the note pad.

4. Final Scoring

After scoring round 3, players then add up their bonus marker points. Each bonus marker gives 2 or 1 points for each instance of the marked symbol in the player's 3 frames.

Sum each player's total points; the player with the highest score wins!

If there is a tie for highest score, the tied player who had the largest score from a single round wins the tie. (Bonus points from bonus markers are not part of the last round's score.) If there is still a tie, the tied player who went earlier in the last card selection step wins.

Solo Variant

The solo variant is similar to a 2-player game. The player's opponent is an automa (robot player).

The goal of the solo variant is to finish with more fame points than the automa.

Changes to Game Preparation

Place the solo board (with the side showing points value 4, 3, 2, 1) beside the time track. The solo board has spaces for symbol tokens that determine the automa's choices in each round. These are called the first, second and third choices (from left to right).

Solo Board Setup

Take 4 symbol tokens with inks in 4 different colors. Shuffle them face down, then place 1 token face up onto each of the 3 spaces with ink symbols on the solo board. Return the 4th token to the bag.

Take 4 symbol tokens with 4 different letters. Shuffle them face down, then place 1 token face up onto each of the 3 spaces with letter symbols on the solo board. Return the 4th token to the bag.

Take 4 symbol tokens with 4 different specialties. Shuffle them face down, then place 1 token face up onto each of the 3 spaces with specialty symbols on the solo board. Return the 4th token to the bag.

Choose the character you want to play. Take that character tile, choose which side you'll play, and take that character's token.

The rest of the setup is the same as for a standard 2-player game.

Changes to the Sequence of Play

Player Order

The automa has initiative, just like a normal player.

The automa takes an initiative cube when it goes last, just like a normal player.

The automa does not receive additional initiative printed on cards or tokens, unlike a normal player.

Each card the automa places above the fourth (rightmost) space of the solo board is also worth 1 initiative point.

The automa's character has initiative = 0, so the player wins all ties for initiative.

1. Select Orders

The automa does not take an order.

The player chooses 1 of the 3 available orders and returns the other 2 to the box.

Although the automa does not take an order, it is considered the "last player" in this step and takes an initiative cube. (So in the first round, the automa will take the first card in the following card selection step.)

2. Select Cards

On the automa's turn, it takes one of the available cards, based on its preferred choices for the current round. The automa takes a card with its first choice symbol, if possible. If there is none, then it takes a card with its second choice symbol, if possible. If there is none, then it takes a card with its third choice symbol, if possible. If no card has any of its preferred symbols for the current round, then the automa takes the leftmost card and puts it in the rightmost column above the solo board (worth 1 point and 1 initiative).

If there are multiple eligible cards, the automa takes the leftmost eligible card. When the automa takes a card matching one of its choices, put the card in a column above that choice of the solo board. For example, place a card with the first choice symbol in the leftmost column (worth 4 points.)

As usual, at the end of each step, discard the third (untaken) card, and the player (human or automa) who takes a card last also takes 1 initiative cube.

Place Bonus Markers

The automa does not place bonus markers; only the human player does.

The automa does not gain bonus points at the end of the game. (It will typically earn more points per round.)

3. Close Frames

The automa does not close frames; only the human player does.

4. End of the Round

After the human player closes their frame and records their points, compute the automa's points:

• Each card in the first column gives 4 points.
• Each card in the second column gives 3 points.
• Each card in the third column gives 2 points.
• Each card in the fourth column gives 1 point.

Then return the automa's collected cards to the box.

Return the automa's symbol tokens from this round's row to the bag. The next set of tokens will determine the automa's choices in the next round.

End of the Game

After scoring the third round's points, the player adds their bonus points. Then the high score wins!

Setting the difficulty level of the solo variant

After winning the solo game with each character, you can increase the difficulty in 3 different ways:

• During setup, you get only 1 symbol token instead of 3.
• The automa wins ties for initiative.
• Use the higher-scoring side of the solo board (5, 4, 3, 1).

You can use any combination of these 3 options, as you like.

Printing Plate Additional Conditions

• The indicated letters are adjacent (horizontally or vertically) in your closed frame.
• The indicated letter does not appear in your closed frame.
• The indicated letter appears in the indicated corner in your closed frame.
• The indicated letter appears in the middle column in your closed frame.
• The indicated letter appears in the middle row in your closed frame.

Printing Frame Conditions

• The indicated color of ink appears in the indicated row or column in your closed frame.
• The indicated specialty appears somewhere in your closed frame.

Character Abilities

Each character tile has two sides; a player chooses which side to play during setup, and uses that side's ability for the whole game.

Johannes Gutenberg

During setup, replace one of your 1/2 bonus markers with the 1/3 bonus marker.

During setup, take the additional 1/3 bonus marker. When you place one of your normal bonus markers, you may additionally place this one at the same time, but only with its 1 side up. This means that two bonus markers will be placed on one of the frames.

Helena Ungler

During setup, take her character ability token. Once per game, when you add a card to your current (still open) tableau, you can discard her ability token to slide one or more squares of the card under already occupied squares.

During setup, take her character ability token. Once per game, when you add a card to your current (still open) tableau, you can discard her ability token to freely orient the card, e.g. placing a row card as a column card.

William Caxton

During setup, take 1 additional symbol token.

During setup, take his character ability token. Once per game, you can discard his ability token to exchange 2 symbol tokens from your hand for a symbol token of your choice from the bag.

Charlotte Guillard

During setup, take her character ability token. Once per game, you can add it as a token to your current (still open) tableau and declare what color ink this token represents for the rest of the game.

During setup, take her character ability token. Once per game, you can add it as a token to your current (still open) tableau and declare what specialty this token represents for the rest of the game.

Yolande Bonhomme

During setup, take her character ability token. Once per game, when determining player order for a step, you can discard her ability token to automatically have the highest initiative and go first in that step.

During setup, take her character ability token. Once per game, at the start of a round, you can discard her ability token to take 1 initiative cube, thus increasing your initiative by +1 for all steps in that round.

Credits

Game designers: Przemek Wojtkowiak, Łukasz Woźniak Artist: Rafał Szłapa Graphic design: Małgorzata Parczewska Graphic assistance: Michał Moskalewicz Project assistance: Bartłomiej Napieraj Editing: Krzysztof Jurzysta, Aleksander Redwan, Joanna Wójtowicz English translation: Russ Williams

© 2023 Granna. All rights reserved. Made in Poland. Imported and exclusively distributed in North America by Portal Games Company.