The Wondrous Museum Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
  • Solo Game Components
• Game Setup
• Aim of the Game
• Game Play
  • 1. Acquire
  • Pay the Cost
  • Placing a New Exhibit into the Museum
  • Open Market
  • Black Market
  • 2. Show Time!
  • 3. Exchange
  • Day Off
• Game End
• Final Scoring
• Themes Introduction and Rules
  • Theme: Botanical Specimens (suitable for first game)
  • Theme: Sculpture Art (suitable for first game)
  • Theme: Ancient Weapons
  • Theme: Paintings
  • Theme: Decorations
  • Theme: Scrolls
• Solo Rules
  • Solo Game Setup
  • Aim of the Solo Game
  • Solo Game Play
  • Winning the Solo Game
• Solo Game Challenges
  • Grand Opening
  • Diversity
  • Renovation
  • Collector
  • Hall of Fame
• Exhibit Card Icon Reference

Game Components

• 114x Exhibit Cards
  • 45x Regular Exhibit Cards
  • 11x Special Exhibit Cards
  • 58x Traveling Exhibit Cards (6 themes)
• 5x Gate Cards
• 5x Reference Cards
• 25x Rune Tokens (5 sets, each set of 5 colors)
• 5x Commission Tokens (+1, +2, +2, +3, +3)
• 60x Admiration Tokens
• 1x First Player Token

Solo Game Components

• 4x Solo Upgrade Gate cards (back of Gate cards)
• 5x Solo Special Exhibit Cards: Monument cards
• 10x Traveling Exhibit Cards: Ancient Weapons

Game Setup

1. Before each game, choose two themes and take the corresponding traveling exhibit cards. The remaining traveling exhibit cards will not be used in this game and should be returned to the game box.
2. Shuffle the regular exhibit cards with the traveling exhibit cards selected from step 1, to create a face-down deck and place it in the center of the table.
3. Draw 5 exhibit cards from the deck and line them face-up next to the deck. This is Open Market. Starting with the lowest value, place the commission tokens above the exhibit cards farthest from the deck until all commission tokens have been placed. The other side of the deck is the discard pile.
4. Shuffle the special exhibit cards. Draw 5 from them and place them below the regular exhibit cards to form the Black Market. The remaining special exhibit cards will not be used in this game and should be returned to the game box.
5. Take a number of gate cards equal to the number of players (the "Mysterious Museum Curator" must be included). Shuffle them all and randomly give 1 to each player. The player receives the Gate Card with "Mysterious Museum Curator" logo will be the First Player. All players place the gate cards in front of themselves.
6. Each player takes one set of 5 different color rune tokens and turns them to the charged side. Place them in front of their gate card.
7. Place the admiration tokens next to the deck to form a supply. Each player takes 2 tokens with value 1 and places them on their gate card.
8. Each player draws 5 cards from the deck as their starting hand, and takes 1 reference card.

The printed setup page includes a diagram of the table layout (numbered steps 1 to 8 placed on the deck, Open Market, discard pile, Black Market, rune tokens and gate cards).

Aim of the Game

Players act as museum curators and earn ratings for their Museum collection. The player with the highest rating (shown by the trophy icon) for their Museum wins.

(The printed rulebook reads "Musem" here; corrected to "Museum".)

Game Play

The game begins with the first player and proceeds clockwise. When all players take a turn, a round is completed.

Before the first round begins, starting with the first player, players may choose to discard any number of exhibit cards from their hand face-up into the discard pile, then draw back to 5 cards from the deck. Each player can only perform this action once at the beginning of the game.

During a player's turn, they must perform 1 of the following actions:

1. Acquire: acquire a new exhibit card
2. Show Time!
3. Exchange: exchange exhibit cards

1. Acquire

Select an exhibit card from your hand or from either of the two markets, pay the cost, and then add the card into your Museum.

The printed page labels the parts of an exhibit card as follows:

• Type: the icon(s) on the card's upper left, identifying its theme (see Themes below).
• Price: the number in the upper left corner.
• Name
• Flag: Regular (purple), Traveling (dark red) or Special (black).
• Art
• Base Rating: the number in the upper right corner.
• Activation Rune: the colored rune(s) on the card's upper edge, which determine when the card's effect is activated during Show Time!.
• Effect: the card's text.
• Value of admiration token on this exhibit card: each admiration token on the card is worth the value shown in the bottom area (the example card shows a token worth 2).

Pay the Cost

If the exhibit card is from your hand or the Black Market, you only need to pay the listed price on the card.

If the exhibit card is from the Open Market, you must pay an additional commission. The commission is determined by the commission token above the exhibit card, with higher commission for cards closest to the deck.

You can discard admiration tokens on the exhibit cards in your Museum to pay for the cost. The worth of each admiration token is determined by the effects described on each exhibit card. Players don't get any change during the game.

You can also discard cards from your hand as part of the cost paid, and each card is worth 1. Discarded cards are placed face-up into the discard pile.

Placing a New Exhibit into the Museum

Each player's Museum has 9 spaces to place exhibit cards. Each new exhibit must be placed adjacent to an existing card (including Gate) in the Museum, either to the left or right, without leaving any space. Once placed, the card cannot be moved unless specified by the card's effect.

Example: Kitty wants to acquire Starry Stone from the Open Market. They need to pay 3 for the card and a commission of 2. They discard 2 admiration tokens worth 4 and discard 1 card from their hand worth 1, totaling 5. Kitty decides to place Starry Stone to the left of Gate.

Open Market

The Open Market will only be refilled after a player completes their turn. Slide exhibit cards to the right. Then flip new exhibit cards from the deck to fill empty slots from right to left, until there is one exhibit card below each commission token.

If the deck ever runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. If the discard pile is also empty, just slide cards and do not refill.

Black Market

The special exhibit cards in the Black Market will not be refilled after being acquired by players.

Each player can only acquire one special exhibit card from the Black Market throughout the entire game.

(Flavour note printed on the page: "They are all too powerful to be traded publicly.")

2. Show Time!

Flip one rune token to the consumed side, and then activate the effects of exhibit cards with the same activation rune in the Museum, in order, from left to right.

An exhibit card can have more than one effect, and the order to resolve them is determined by the player. Players may skip the effect if they are unable or do not want to perform all effects on the card. The effect of each card must be fully executed or skipped before executing the next card's effect.

Golden Rule: If there is a conflict between the exhibit's effect and the rules, the exhibit's effect prevails.

Example: Mirror of Starry Nights has 2 effects. The second one is: when the exhibit cards on either side of this exhibit gain an admiration token, it gains 1 admiration token. Mirror of Starry Nights has a special activation timing and is not restricted by the activation order rules.

(Flavour note printed on the page: "Once exhibits come to life, they each have their own temperament.")

Example: Perform the "Show Time!" action and flip over a green rune token. Then activate the effects of the exhibits with the same activation rune from left to right.

• Dragonscale Breastplate does not have the green rune, so it does not activate.
• Starry Stone has the green rune, so it activates its effect: choose to gain 1 admiration token and place it on the Starry Stone.
• Gate has the green rune, so it activates its effect: choose to gain 1 admiration token and place it on the Gate.
• Undone Golem has the green rune and has 2 effects. It activates the first effect: choose to gain 1 admiration token and place it on Undone Golem. Then it activates the second effect: move the admiration token that was just gained on the Gate to Undone Golem.

3. Exchange

Draw 3 exhibit cards from the deck to hand, then discard 1 exhibit card face-up to the discard pile. Players can discard the cards they drew this turn, or from their original hands.

Note: The hand limit is 8 cards. At the end of the player's turn, if there are more than 8 cards in hand, discard down to 8 cards.

Day Off

When a player flips the fourth rune token, after activating all exhibit card effects, and at the end of the turn, execute the following steps:

1. This player flips all their rune tokens to the charged side. This means that the rune tokens can be used again starting in the next round.
2. Put the exhibit card in the Open Market under the +1 commission token into the discard pile and refill the Open Market.

Game End

The game end is triggered either when:

• a player has 10 cards (including Gate) in their Museum, OR
• a player's Museum has admiration tokens that are worth a total of 20 ratings.

Completing the current round, make sure that each player has the same number of turns after the current round has been completed. Then play an additional round. Once the additional round is completed, start scoring.

Example: After performing "Show Time!", Nice chooses to flip a rune token, and both Little Wooden Block That Won't Be Lost and Longevity Burger each gain 1 admiration token. Count the ratings from the admiration tokens on the exhibit cards:

• Longevity Burger has 4 admiration tokens, and Nice has 3 cards of the matching type, so each admiration token is worth 3, totaling 12.
• Venus with Hands has 3 admiration tokens, and Nice has 2 cards of the matching type, so each admiration token is worth 2, totaling 6.
• Merlin's Fake Beard has 1 admiration token, totaling 2.

Example (continued): At the end of Nice's turn, her admiration tokens sum up to 20, so the end of the game has been triggered. Nice was the starting player, so the other players get to take one more turn, followed by an additional round. After the additional round is completed, start scoring.

Final Scoring

Players add up the rating of their Museums, including:

1. the basic rating on the exhibit cards;
2. the rating from the admiration tokens on the exhibit cards;
3. the rating provided by the effect of special exhibit cards.

The player with the highest total rating wins. In case of a tie, the player with fewer exhibits wins. If the number of exhibits is also tied, the victory is shared among the tied players.

Final Score for Nice's Museum (example):

• The total rating from the exhibit cards is 15.
• The rating from admiration tokens on the exhibit cards is 20.
• There are no additional ratings from special exhibit card effects.
• The total rating for Nice's Museum is 35.

Themes Introduction and Rules

Each game uses two themes, chosen in setup. Themes determine which traveling exhibit cards are shuffled into the deck.

Theme: Botanical Specimens (suitable for first game)

Botanical specimens are more interactive with regular exhibits, bringing a lot of wealth to players' Museums.

Theme: Sculpture Art (suitable for first game)

Sculpture art is more interactive with regular exhibits, bringing a lot of ratings to players' Museums.

Theme: Ancient Weapons

Ancient weapons affect other players' exhibit cards. If the card effect includes more than one target, the player who activates the ancient weapon chooses the target(s). This is a theme with a high level of interaction.

In a Solo game, ancient weapons have another effect.

Example (Legendary Spear, the printed card on this page): the basic side reads: "from [All other players' Museums icon]'s one Exhibit with corresponding Rune that activate this Exhibit". The Solo side (shown beside it on the page) reads: "[discard-a-card-from-hand icon] OR [admiration token icon] from any Exhibit then [three icons]". The icon-only parts of the Solo side are not fully legible in the scanned rulebook, so consult the printed card for the exact wording.

Theme: Paintings

Paintings often have card effects that can be executed upon acquiring, immersing the player in the scene depicted at first sight. The timing of buying is a key for this theme.

Theme: Decorations

Decorations can reset rune tokens before the fourth rune activation. If there are powerful exhibit cards, consider acquiring a Decoration.

Theme: Scrolls

The scroll card with the Scroll icon can be played beneath existing exhibit cards (except Gate). Some scrolls can only be played beneath designated exhibit cards, and the admiration token effects of the scroll and the original exhibit card will stack.

The effect of a scroll exhibit which is played beneath an existing exhibit card is invalid. This scroll exhibit does not count as one of the ten exhibits that trigger the end of the game. At the end of the game, its own rating and type are ignored.

Example (printed on this page): a Scroll of Invisibility (Replica) is shown played beneath a Robe That Can't Be Looked At (Replica); the Robe's effect and the scroll's effect are printed on the two cards.

Solo Rules

Urgent! A VIP will be visiting your Museum! You have four days to prepare your Museum to the highest standard to welcome the VIP.

Solo Game Setup

The solo game setup is the same as the basic game, with the following exceptions:

• Choose the challenge you want to play from the solo game challenges (see the Solo Game Challenges below).
• Take the associated monument card according to the challenge you chose. This monument card will form the Black Market.
• If the theme Ancient Weapons is chosen, use the solo version of the Ancient Weapons cards instead.

In the solo game, the Black Market is not randomly selected: it consists of 1 monument card associated with your challenge. The monument card is considered a Special Exhibit Card for card effects and game end scoring.

Aim of the Solo Game

The player needs to successfully acquire the monument card from the Black Market and meet the requirements on the monument card at the end of the 4th rune reset (whether due to Day Off or card effects).

Solo Game Play

Different from the basic game, the solo game has the following rules:

• Just like in the basic game, the player will still choose 1 action out of 3 to perform. But the player needs to flip one rune token per turn unless the player chooses the Show Time! action, in which case they do not need to flip an additional rune token.
• Day Off occurs after the 5th rune token is flipped, instead of the 4th rune token in a basic game. After refreshing all rune tokens, discard all exhibit cards from the Open Market.
• Whenever rune tokens are reset (whether due to flipping the 5th rune token or due to a card effect), set an admiration token aside to record the date.
• When the fourth admiration token is taken, or when the player has 10 cards (including Gate) in the Museum, the game will end immediately.

Note: Unlike the basic game, the solo game will not end when the player has admiration tokens worth 20 ratings.

Winning the Solo Game

At the end of the 4th rune reset, the player only wins if they have acquired the monument card and fulfilled the requirements listed on it; otherwise, the VIP stormed out of the Museum and the player loses.

Solo Game Challenges

Grand Opening

It's the grand opening of the Museum! You will be hosting a large number of visitors, including many celebrities from the city! You must tidy up the Museum before the opening to welcome the guests who will come to visit.

Victory Conditions and Special Rules: At the end of the game, the Museum must have at least 4 different types of exhibits and have at least 25 ratings.

Diversity

After the opening, the Museum also hosted several private groups for visits. In the opinion collection form, you see that some people have started to complain about the lack of novelty in the exhibits. This won't do! You need to set up more exhibits before the next group of guests arrives.

Victory Conditions and Special Rules: At the end of the game, the Museum must have at least 5 different types of exhibits and have at least 20 ratings.

Renovation

You received a letter from the mayor's wife, who wishes to visit the Museum alone before the opening hour. This is a great publicity opportunity. However, since the opening, the Museum has been visited by a constant stream of guests, and it has started to become dilapidated, which is not how you should entertain an important guest. Renovation requires funds, and perhaps you should consider temporarily lending some exhibits to other Museums to generate income.

Victory Conditions and Special Rules: At the end of the game, the Museum can have at most 4 different types of exhibits and must reach 20 ratings, and the Gate card must be upgraded to the highest level.

Note: In this mode, Gate Lv.1 starts with 3 admiration tokens instead of 2 with value 1.

Gate Upgrade: A special action newly added in this challenge. In addition to the usual 3 actions, the player can choose to perform the Gate Upgrade action. Pay the cost to upgrade the current main Gate to the next level, replacing the current main Gate card with the next level Gate card.

Gate upgrade costs (as printed):

• Gate Lv.1 to Gate Lv.2: 6
• Gate Lv.2 to Gate Lv.3: 6
• Gate Lv.3 to Gate Lv.4: 12

Collector

Today, a strange guest came to your office. You could not see his face as he pressed down the brim of the hat. You only heard him tell you in a deep voice that he was looking for a few exhibits. Then, he handed you the blueprints of the exhibits he was looking for. He promised to donate to the Museum if successful. You thought about it and saw no harm in it, so you accepted. He smiled and added: "I'm in a hurry."

Victory Conditions and Special Rules: At the end of the game, the Museum must have at least 3 of the following 6 exhibit cards, and have at least 20 ratings.

(The six blueprint exhibit cards are pictured on the printed page: two each of Crimson Chalice, Turquoise Chalice and Yellow Chalice. The monument card's own text reads: "must have at least 3 (Turquoise, Crimson, Yellow) Chalices, can be the same".)

Hall of Fame

After receiving a special commission donation, the Museum has more funds for operations. You look out the window and see a construction site. The sign indicates that a museum is being built. The success of the Wondrous Museum has attracted the envy of many. New competitors are coming.

Victory Conditions and Special Rules: In the first challenge, as long as you can purchase Hall of Fame, it counts as a victory. The Hall of Fame records each successful challenge and sets a new baseline for your next challenge. In the next challenge, the rating must be higher than the last challenge to count as a victory, and you write the ratings on the next line of Hall of Fame for record.

(The monument card's own text reads: "must reach higher record of [rating icon] than the last one".)

We encourage you to exchange this card with other friends who have the Wondrous Museum and challenge each other.

Exhibit Card Icon Reference

(Printed reference on the final page. Icons are described in words.)

• Take 1 admiration token from the supply pile and place it on this exhibit card.
• Take 1 exhibit card from the Open Market with the lowest commission token into your hand.
• Your Museum
• X number of other player's Museum.
• All other players' Museums
• Can stack admiration token value with other exhibit cards.
• At the end of the game
• Remove 1 admiration token from the exhibit card.
• Discard a card from your hand to the discard pile.
• Move an admiration token from one of your exhibit cards to another of your exhibit cards.
• Within X cards left of this exhibit card.
• Within X cards right of this exhibit card.
• Within X cards left and right of this exhibit card.
• On the left / right of this exhibit card.