Quo Vadis? Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
  • The Board
• Setup
• Sequence of Play
  • Action: "Place a Senator"
  • Action: "Move a Senator"
  • Action: "Move Caesar"
• End of the Game
• Examples of Negotiations
• Variants

Contents

For 3–5 players, ages 12 and up. Playing time: approx. 45 minutes.

• 40 senator pieces (8 pieces each in 5 colors)
• 1 game board, showing:
  • the Senate
  • laurel storage spaces
  • laurel spaces
  • paths
  • one-seat bodies
  • five-seat bodies
  • three-seat bodies
• 62 laurel tiles:
  • I — 18x
  • II — 8x
  • "II Caesar" — 6x
  • III — 15x
  • IV — 9x
  • V — 6x
• 1 Caesar tile
• 2 cloth bags

The Board

The board shows bodies, paths, and laurel spaces. There are one-seat bodies with one space, three-seat bodies with three spaces, and five-seat bodies with five spaces. The paths connect the bodies. The path between two bodies is not itself a space, only a connection — meaning a player moves their senator piece directly from one body to the next. There are laurel spaces on the paths, except on the paths leading out of a one-seat body.

Setup

For the sake of simplicity, the playing pieces are called "senators," although only the 5 pieces that end up in the Senate actually become senators.

The board is placed in the middle of the table. Each player receives 8 senators in one color and sets them down in front of themselves. Any surplus pieces go back in the box.

The laurels marked "I" are placed face up on the storage space marked "I." All remaining laurels (II–V) are shuffled face down and then placed in small stacks on the other storage space of the board. They form the face-down supply. From this supply, 10 laurels are taken and placed face down on the laurel spaces provided for them on the board. These spaces are marked with a laurel wreath in a square. Once all ten laurels are on the laurel spaces, they are turned face up so that the Roman numerals are visible. Then the Caesar tile is placed on the laurel tile that lies directly beneath the Senate.

Sequence of Play

A starting player is determined. Play proceeds clockwise. On their turn, the active player must choose one of three actions:

• Place a Senator
• Move a Senator
• Move Caesar

The following always applies: only a player's own senators may be placed or moved. A senator may never be moved backward, i.e., downward. Bodies may not be skipped over — not even if all the spaces of the next body are occupied. From any body, any upward-leading path may be taken; it does not matter which space within the body a senator occupies.

Action: "Place a Senator"

One of a player's own senators that is not yet on the board may be placed on any free space of the four lowest bodies.

Action: "Move a Senator"

If a senator is in a one-seat body, the player may move that senator along the path leading out of that body into the next-higher body. The only requirement: at least one space must be free in the next body.

If a player wants to move their senator out of a three-seat body, they need the consent of exactly one other senator — or rather, that senator's owner — who must, of course, be in the same body. This second senator may belong to the player themselves or to a fellow player. If a three-seat body is occupied by only one senator, no further move is possible.

If a player wants to move their senator out of a five-seat body, they need the consent of exactly two other senators — or rather, their owners — who must, of course, be in the same body. These two senators may be of the player's own color, or belong to one or even two fellow players. Naturally, a combination of one of the player's own senators and one belonging to someone else is also possible. If a five-seat body is occupied by only one or two senators, no further move is possible.

Example: Red is in a one-seat body and may therefore move up one body without needing any further consent. If Blue wants to move out of the three-seat body, they need one further consent, from Black or Red. If Black wants to move out of the five-seat body, they need the consent of two senators. Since Black themselves owns two other senators there, they naturally give themselves that consent.

Normally, a player will not receive consent to move on without giving something in return. Negotiations must therefore take place. Deals and counter-deals of various kinds are described on the second-to-last page of this rulebook.

When a senator moves on from a three-seat or five-seat body, they cross a laurel space on the way to the next-higher body. The player takes the laurel(s) lying there and places them face down in front of themselves. A new tile is immediately drawn from the face-down laurel stack and placed face up on this laurel space.

Each player keeps the total number of laurels they have won secret by placing them face down in front of themselves.

If the consent for a senator's move comes from one or two other players, those players each receive one of the face-up "1" laurels for their consent. If more players than are actually needed offer their consent, the moving player decides who receives the "1" laurels for their consent. These "1" laurels are only available as long as the supply lasts.

Example: Blue moves upward with Red's consent and receives the "3" laurel. The "5" laurel drawn from the face-down stack is placed on the now-empty space. Red receives a "1" laurel for their consent.

Action: "Move Caesar"

Caesar may be moved from his current position onto any other laurel. Moving Caesar is normally its own action, an alternative to the other two possible actions.

An exception is formed by the six "2" laurels that additionally bear an image of Caesar. If a senator receives such a laurel while moving up from one body to the next, that player may, after completing their move, additionally move Caesar as well.

Caesar has two effects. On the one hand, his presence on a path means that the body below it may be left without any consent from other senators whatsoever. On the other hand, he covers the laurels — meaning that along this path, there is nothing to be harvested in laurels, neither for the moving senator nor for anyone else, as long as Caesar remains there.

End of the Game

The game ends immediately when the Senate, the topmost body of the board, is occupied by five senators.

The player who has won the most laurels wins, provided they also have at least one senator standing in the topmost body, the Senate. If a player has no senator in the Senate at the end of the game, they cannot be scored, even if they hold the most laurels.

If there is a tie in the number of laurels among the leading players, the player whose senator reached the Senate earlier wins. To determine this, the seats of the Senate are filled over the course of the game from upper left to lower right, so that in the event of a tie, it is immediately visible which senators arrived in the Senate first.

Examples of Negotiations

Here follow a few examples of negotiations between players, aimed at obtaining the consent of another player's senators for one's own move into a higher body. Naturally, negotiation offers may be declined. In that case, one must negotiate with other players, or, if no "deal" comes about at all, move Caesar or bring a new senator into play instead.

In all the examples below, it is assumed that Black lets Red move on from a three-seat body, if…

1. Promise: …Red promises to also give Black their consent to move on during one of Black's next turns.
2. Payment in laurels: …Red gives Black a laurel that Red had already collected previously. Black receives this in addition to the "1" laurel that they get anyway for their consent.
3. Moving Caesar: …Red moves Caesar to wherever Black wants it. Here it is additionally assumed that Red receives the "2" laurel with Caesar on their move to the next body.
4. Package deal: …Red promises to also support Black at some point, and additionally promises not to support White for a while, and on top of that pays Black a "1" laurel. Such a large demand is appropriate when Red can harvest a "5" laurel, reach a good position, or something similar.
5. Splitting: …Red splits the entire laurel haul with Black. Red receives, for example, a "3" laurel, and Black a "1" laurel for their consent. Together this makes four laurels, which Black wanted split. "Exchanging" laurels from one's own holdings is therefore permitted.

Negotiations can be about anything. "Will you pay me a laurel if I don't put Caesar in front of this body?" or "Support me for free, since you're up right after me and can place a second senator of your own on the space that opens up!" and so on and so forth. Feel free to join in on other players' negotiations as well. There are no limits to imagination.

All negotiations are subject to this rule: agreements that can be carried out within the current turn must be honored. Agreements (promises) extending beyond the current turn are not binding.

Variants

A few variants that can be added to the game:

Limit the number of "1" laurels: With three players, only 10 are available; with four players, 14; and with five players, all 18 laurels are available.

Reveal the players' laurels from time to time: Immediately after the first, second, and third senator has arrived at the top of the Senate, any player may demand that everyone briefly reveal their laurels.

Call for a consular election: Play three games in a row. After the first game, note the number of laurels each player who qualified for scoring has collected. The senators in the Senate are returned. Then, in turn, starting with the player currently in the lead, each player removes any one of their own senators from the board, until every player has only two senators left on the board. After the second game ends, proceed the same way, and after the third game, the player who has collected the most laurels overall has won.