Trajan FAQ
101 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Components
- Do players place their action markers before the Trajan tiles are revealed at setup?
- How do I pick my three starting Trajan tiles?
- How are the Trajan tiles sorted into the six stacks at setup?
- Can the three starting commodity cards come from the discard piles?
- Is an empty commodity discard pile refilled during the game, or only at setup?
- Where do the extra forum tiles go for 2, 3 or 4 players at setup?
- Do the three demand tiles removed at setup get revealed?
- Why are there 15 people's demand tiles when only 12 are used?
- Why does the box contain 24 +2 markers when far fewer can ever be used?
- What are the quarter year tiles for?
- What if I run out of small player tokens?
- Are my commodity cards in hand hidden from other players?
- Is there a limit on how many commodity cards I can hold?
- Is there a limit to how many tiles I can collect, and can I stack duplicates?
- Are all 54 Trajan tiles used in 2- and 3-player games?
- Do the rules differ between Trajan editions and printings?
Turn Structure and the Action Wheel
- Does the Senate stacking at quarter end change turn order?
- Who starts the next round after a round ends?
- How do I redistribute action markers on the wheel?
- What if I pick up more than six action markers?
- How far does the time marker move, and who moves it?
- When exactly does a game round end?
- What if the time marker passes the start space twice in one turn?
- Do all players get the same number of turns, or does the game stop immediately at the end?
- Is performing the action on my target tray optional?
- Can I end my marker movement on a tray whose action I cannot perform?
- Can I perform the same action several turns in a row?
- Can the last marker placed complete the matching Trajan tile?
Seaport and Commodities
- Can I ship cards already in my personal display?
- Do shipped cards stay in my display and still count for bonus tiles?
- What is the difference between playing 1-2 cards to my display and shipping them? Do I refill my hand?
- At the Seaport, which card can I discard after drawing two cards?
- After a ship tile flips to its gray side, can it be used again?
- Do the two cards in a ship 'pair' have to be identical?
- How does the commodity wild tile work?
- What happens if the commodity draw pile runs out?
- Can the Trajan tile's 'draw 2 commodity cards' take from the discard piles?
Forum and Construction Actions
- What is the wild demand tile?
- Can the construction wild tile fill an empty slot or be used during the game?
- What happens if the forum tiles run out?
- Are extra action tiles guaranteed to be available each quarter?
- Where can I place workers on the construction district?
- When do I score a construction tile I collect?
- How do first-of-type construction bonus actions chain when I build several times?
- Can a worker or legionnaire move once it is deployed?
Military Action
- Do I score points for moving my military leader?
- How many points does a legionnaire score when other players' legionnaires are in the province?
- Can I have more than one legionnaire in the same province?
- Can I send a legionnaire to my leader's province regardless of distance, and do legionnaires move later?
- Can the military leader move onto the unnamed areas of the map, or into a province occupied by another leader?
- When are new forum tiles placed in provinces?
Trajan Tiles
- Can I accomplish more than one Trajan tile in a turn, or one from a different tray?
- Can I take a Trajan tile with the Trajan action and accomplish it on the same turn?
- Does a Trajan tile showing two markers of one colour need two of that colour?
- Must I use the full benefit of a Trajan tile, such as moving all the figures it shows?
- What do the Trajan tiles with worker or legionnaire figures do?
- Are Trajan demand tiles (bread, games, religion) used up when they meet a demand?
- Can a Trajan demand tile count before I have accomplished it?
- Can I hold several Trajan tiles of the same type, and do duplicates all count?
- What if all my Trajan slots are full?
- After setup, can I take several tiles from the same Trajan stack?
- Can extra action tiles or +2 markers boost a Trajan tile's special action?
Senate
- Does the starting space of the Senate track give any votes?
- Can I keep taking the Senate action once I reach the 8 VP space?
- How is a tie in Senate votes broken?
- Do Senate vote tiles move my disc, or require me to advance on the track?
- Are the two Senate bonus tiles awarded even if nobody has any votes?
- Are Senate vote tiles removed at the end of a quarter, used or not?
- Are Senate tiles still lying in the provinces removed at quarter end?
- What happens to the Senate discs after the quarter's vote?
People's Demands and End of Quarter
- If I can meet a people's demand, must I do so?
- In what order do I use Trajan demand tiles, forum tiles and wilds to meet demands?
- What do unmet demands cost, and can my score go below zero?
- What happens to the tiles used to meet demands?
- Do the demand tiles carry over to the next quarter?
- When are demand tiles revealed and when are they met?
- Which tiles are removed and refilled at quarter end?
- Do extra action tiles and unused forum or wild tiles on my mat get removed at quarter end?
Extra Action Tiles and +2 Markers
- How many extra action tiles can I use in a turn?
- Does the extra action tile have to match the action I just took?
- Can I use an extra action tile on the turn I take it?
- Can I use an extra action tile on the action granted by my first construction tile of a type?
- Is a +2 marker discarded when I use the extra action tile?
- Does a +2 marker do anything without an extra action tile?
- What does the wild extra action tile do?
- Do I have to use an extra action tile?
- What is the most actions I can take in one turn?
Bonus Tiles
- Does the '3 VP per yellow bonus tile' tile count gray tiles or itself?
- How do the commodity bonus tiles score: per card or per set?
- Does the 9 VP forum tile bonus score once or per matching tile?
- Which tiles count for the 9 VP forum bonus?
- Can a leftover wild demand tile score a 9 VP forum bonus?
- Can a leftover commodity wild tile count for the bonus tiles?
- How does the legionnaire bonus tile score?
- What is the most the worker bonus can score?
- When are bonus tiles scored?