Saint Petersburg FAQ
69 questions players ask · Updated Nov 13, 2026 · Full rulebook
Preparation
Playing the Game
- Can you pass in the first worker phase before you have bought two workers?
- Can you add a card to your hand and play a card from your hand in the same turn?
- If you pass, can you act again later in the same phase?
- Can you buy a card of another phase's colour, such as a worker during the building phase?
- Is scoring done before or after new cards are added to the board?
- Can you discard a card from your hand at any time?
- Can players count how many cards remain in a draw stack?
- Can players look through the discard pile?
- In building scoring, when is a Pub used relative to the money and points from buildings?
The Trading Card Phase and the End of the Round
Game End and Final Scoring
- Do rubles spent on victory points at game end still count as a tiebreaker?
- When the last card of a stack runs out, does the game end immediately or after the current round?
- Is there a bonus for each aristocrat past ten in the base game?
- Do duplicate aristocrats score in final aristocrat scoring?
- At game end, is anything besides the aristocrat bonus rescored, such as workers and buildings?
Other Important Details: Cost Reduction
- Does the Czar and Carpenter reduce the cost of other cards, or count as a craftsman for discounts?
- Do you get the 1-ruble lower-row discount when you play a card you took into your hand earlier?
- Do cost reductions apply when you play a card from your hand?
- Does an upgraded card count toward the same-card discount for the card it replaced?
- Do the Carpenter Workshop and Gold Smelter discounts apply to upgrade cards?
- What does a Weaving Mill cost when you trade in a shepherd, and what does a second one cost?
The Trading Cards
- If a trading card costs less than the card it replaces, do you still pay anything?
- Can you upgrade a card that is already an upgrade, or put a trading card over a card of another kind?
- Can you buy an upgrade card from the board or from your hand in any phase?
- Can you buy an upgrade card if you do not own the card it would replace?
- When you upgrade one of two copies of the same card, are both copies discarded?
- Does the Taxman collect for green trading cards like the Wharf, or only for worker cards?
- Is every trading card, such as an aristocrat trading card, paid for as an upgrade?
Trading and Special Cards
- Can you upgrade an Observatory in the same phase you used its draw?
- Does a turned-over Observatory still give the $1 discount on a second Observatory?
- Can you use two Observatories in the same phase?
- Can an Observatory take the last card of a stack?
- Can you use an Observatory in the same phase you buy it?
- Can a card drawn with the Observatory go into your hand, and what if your hand is full?
- If an Observatory draws a face-down card that you take into hand, must you show it to the other players?
- Does a Pub score any points if you do not spend rubles on it?
- Can you own and use two Pubs in the same blue phase, buying up to 10 points?
- In the blue phase, can you use a Pub at any time as an action, or only after blue scoring?
- Can you upgrade the Warehouse while holding four cards, and must you discard down to three?
- How much do you pay to upgrade a Potemkin's Village?
- Can you play a purple special card immediately after you take it?
The Elements of the Game
Saint Petersburg: New Society & Banquet ExpansionExpansion
- Does Pickpocket make you the starting player for one phase or for the whole round?
- Are the three non-purple Banquet cards also part of the New Society expansion?
- Can you play a purple Banquet card right after taking it, including when taken with an Observatory?
- Does a flipped Observatory or Debtor's Prison still count for the Mayor's $1 per blue card?
- What can Debtor's Prison and the Black Market take from the discard pile?
- When Debtor's Prison takes a card and your hand is full, which card is discarded?
- Can Debtor's Prison be used in every building phase?
- How many cards are set out at the start of a 5-player New Society game?
- Can the New Society expansion be played with fewer than five players?
- Why do the starting markers pass two seats instead of one in the 5-player game?
- Does the disc starting player score 2 victory points on the first turn of a 5-player game?
- Does the expansion score 10 points for each distinct aristocrat past ten at game end?
- How do the cost-2 Pubs in the New Society & Banquet expansion score?
- Can the Trading House be used more than once per round?
- If your hand is full, what happens to a purple card drawn with the Observatory?
- Can purple Banquet cards be played from hand in any phase?
- Can you discard the Away with It card itself to open a hand slot without discarding another card?
- Can the Jester or Banquet be played on a card that has only points or only rubles?
- Can the Jester or Banquet be played on a card in a phase other than the one it scores in?
- Can the Jester and the Banquet both be applied to the same card, and does their order matter?
- How does the fifth player's starting disc work in later rounds of the New Society & Banquet expansion?