Art Decko Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Definitions
  • Market Rating Board
  • The Galleries
  • The Banks
  • Gold Cards
  • Exhibitions
  • Exhibition Bonuses
• Setup
• Sequence of Play
  • Haggle — Spend 1 card to draw 2 cards
  • Acquire — Buy 1 available card
  • Acquire Example
  • Show — Exhibit a Painting in the Museum
  • Exhibition Example
• Additional Information on Actions
  • Special Abilities on Gold Cards
  • Overpayments
  • Advancing a Genre Market Rating Marker
• End of Turn
• Additional Example
• Winning the Game
  • Scoring Example
• Exhibition Bonus Tiles
  • Player Bonus Tiles
  • Museum Bonus Tiles
  • Gold Bonus Tiles
  • Exhibition Bonus Tile Scoring Example
• Gold Card Special Abilities
  • Gold cards with a printed value of 1 or 2 gold
  • Gold cards with a printed value of 3 gold
• Easily Forgotten Rules
• Credits

Components

75 Painting Cards

• 15 in each art genre
• 3 unique Painting cards for each genre; each painting appears 5 times.

Each Painting card shows a genre icon and name, and the painting's title.

42 Gold Cards

• 10 5-Gold cards
• 12 3-Gold cards
• 20 Starting Gold cards (9x 1 Gold, 11x 2 Gold)

Each Gold card shows its face value. The 1-, 2-, and 3-Gold cards also carry a special ability box (see Gold Card Special Abilities, page 18).

4 Player Boards — each with an "Action 1" and "Action 2" space above a draw pile, discard pile, and a summary of the three possible actions (haggle, acquire, show) and the game-end conditions.

20 Cost Tokens

• 8 Starting tokens (values 1-8)
• 12 Regular tokens (1x of 9, 10, 11, 16, and 2x of 12, 13, 14, 15)

1 Market Rating Board (Double-Sided) — one side is a traditional track, the other a serpentine track. Both sides are functionally the same; only the layout of the track differs. The board has a PAINTINGS section and a GOLD section, tracking both the current gold value/point value of each genre and the Gold-to-VP ratio.

16 Exhibition Bonus Tiles

1 Gold Market Rating Marker

46 Painting Genre Markers

• 20 for Player boards (4 of each genre)
• 5 for Market Rating board (1 of each genre)
• 21 Invitation markers for Museum Exhibitions (3 each of the 5 genres — Art Nouveau, Renaissance, Surrealism, Pop Art, Impressionism — plus 6 gray wild markers)

1 Museum Game Board

40 Player Ribbons — 10 each of 4 colors

1 Rulebook

1 Draw Bag

Definitions

Market Rating Board

The Market Rating board is used to track the value of the various genres of Painting cards during the game. Actions taken by the players will increase the value of the Painting cards, and the changes for each genre are tracked using the Genre markers.

The current value of the Painting cards is indicated by the gold-value icon located to the left of the track. Each row on the track has a value associated with it. For example, if the marker for the Pop Art genre is on the space marked "36," then the current gold value for all Pop Art Painting cards is 4 gold each.

This board also shows the possible point values for each genre at the end of the game. The point value is indicated by the point icon, just to the left of the gold value. Using the same value of 36 as an example, for the Pop Art genre, as shown above, any Pop Art Painting cards left in the players' possession at the end of the game would be worth 3 points each.

The end-game value of Gold cards is tracked using the Market Rating board as well. Each time a Gold card is purchased, the Gold Market Rating marker is increased. The final position of this marker at the end of the game will indicate the value of Gold cards. This value is a ratio that will be used to convert the total value of the Gold cards remaining in the players' possession at the end of the game to points. This ratio is shown at the right edge of the board for each row.

In the example above, the Gold Market Rating marker is in the space marked "66." In this case, the ratio of the remaining gold value to points is 2 to 1. Every 2 points of gold value (using the face value) would be worth 1 point (rounded down) (see Gold Cards, below).

The Galleries

The Gallery section on the Museum board is used to hold the Painting cards that are available for purchase. Players will have the opportunity to buy these cards during the game.

Each gallery has a place for a cost token (A), the Market Rating Increase value (B), and icons that indicate how many paintings each gallery can hold (C).

The cost tokens and the method to purchase Painting cards are explained in detail later (see Acquire action, below). The Painting card limit for each gallery is used during the Refill step at the end of each player's turn (see Refill the Galleries, below).

The Banks

The Bank section on the main game board is used to hold the Gold cards that are available for purchase. Similar to the Painting cards, players will have the opportunity to buy these cards during the game.

Each bank shows a cost (A), the Gold Market Rating Increase value (B), and icons that indicate how many Gold cards are available for sale each turn (C). There are usually two 3-value Gold cards for sale in the Cadmium Bank. Players are free to choose which one they purchase (see Acquire action, below). All of the 5-value Gold cards are the same, so there is only 1 available for purchase at any given time.

Gold Cards

Gold cards are used to pay for actions while playing Art Decko. Each player starts with 5 Gold cards as part of their initial deck. Which deck they receive is indicated by the player number shown in the upper right corner of each starting Gold card (see Setup, below, step 10.2).

Each Gold card has a face value, which is represented by the large number in the center of the card. It is also shown in the upper left corner of the card.

The box at the bottom of the value 1, 2, and 3 Gold cards indicates that card's special ability. This ability may be used instead of the face value during the game. All of these abilities are explained in detail later (see Gold Card Special Abilities, below).

Exhibitions

Players can pay to have a Painting card put on display in the Exhibitions. This awards points to the player and increases the value of the genre shown on the Painting card.

The Museum contains 5 different Exhibitions. Each Exhibition has a space for putting the cards on display (A) and spots for Invitation markers (B). These markers indicate which genres of Painting cards are allowed to be exhibited in each Exhibition.

The cost to exhibit a Painting card is shown just below the name of the Exhibition (C), along with the Market Rating Increase value applied to the genre that matches the card (D). The number of points awarded for each Exhibition is shown on the pillar just to the left of the Exhibition space (E) (see Show action, below).

Exhibition Bonuses

The Museum board also has a space for an Exhibition Bonus tile for each Exhibition (A). These tiles may award bonus points at the end of the game if activated (see Winning the Game, step 4, below).

Finally, there are 4 spaces in between the Exhibition tile spaces that indicate the possible New Exhibitor bonuses (B). These bonuses are available to be claimed by a player the first time they exhibit a Painting card (see Show action, step 1, below).

Setup

1. Place the Museum board in the middle of the table.

2. Shuffle all of the "3-Gold" cards, reveal the top 2 cards, and put them face up on the Cadmium Bank space. Place the remaining cards to the right of the board next to the Sienna Bank space.

3. Place all of the "5-Gold" cards face up in a stack on the Sienna Bank space. (All 5-Gold cards are identical.)

4. Determine the initial market values:

   1. Place the orange "1" cost token in Gallery Teal.
   2. Select 3 of the remaining orange cost tokens at random. Place these 3 tokens, face up, in each of the other 3 galleries, in ascending order from left to right.
   3. Place the remaining 4 orange cost tokens face up on the track above Gallery Cerulean, in ascending order from left to right.
   4. Place the 12 yellow cost tokens face up on the matching yellow spaces above the galleries in ascending order from left to right.

5. Place the Market Rating board next to the game board. Place a set of the 5 different Painting Genre markers plus the Gold Market Rating marker (orange disc) on the 0 space.

   Please note that the Market Rating board has 2 sides: one side is a traditional track and the other is a serpentine track. Both sides are functionally the same, but the configuration of the tracks is different. Players should feel free to use whichever side they are most comfortable with.

6. Randomly place one Exhibition Bonus tile face up in each of the 5 Exhibitions. Do not use the Bonus tiles related to Gold cards (marked with the gold icon) if there are any players who are playing Art Decko for the first time.

7. Put 3 sets of Painting Genre markers (i.e., 3 of each Genre marker—a total of 15 markers) and 6 gray wild markers in the bag. Draw markers one at a time from the bag and place them in the 19 Exhibition Invitation spaces. These represent the genres of paintings that each Exhibition wants to display. Please note that there will be 2 markers left in the bag when this step is complete.

8. Distribute the Painting cards:

   1. Shuffle the Painting cards to make a face down deck of 75 cards.
   2. Deal Painting cards face up to all galleries until there are 3 in each gallery.
   3. Deal 5 Painting cards face down to each player.
   4. Place the remaining Painting cards face down next to the game board.

9. The start player is the player at the table who is considered to be the best artist or who has the most artistic talent. If this cannot be determined, then feel free to use whatever method the players choose to decide who is the starting player. The player on their left will be the second player and so on around the table. This will be used to assign the Starting Gold cards in step 10.2 below.

10. Each player now takes:

    1. A Player board.
    2. The 5 Starting Gold cards with their player number as shown on the upper right of each card. The first player takes the cards with the "1," the second player takes the cards with the "2," and so on until each player has a set of Starting Gold cards.
    3. All Player ribbons of the color that matches their player board. They place one of them in the 0 VP (Victory Point) space on the game board. The 9 remaining markers should be kept by their Player board.
    4. A set of 5 Painting Genre markers. They place each marker in the "1 gold" value space at the bottom of their Player board. These markers reflect the gold value of the matching genre on the Market Rating board. This provides the player with a personal reference to keep track of the Market Rating of each genre of painting.

    Please note: Near the top of each Player board, there are 2 spaces labeled "Action 1" and "Action 2." The spaces hold the cards that are used for each of the 2 possible actions taken during the player's turn. The cards used for the first action are placed above the Action 1 space. The cards used for the second action are placed above the Action 2 space.

11. Each player should carefully review their Painting cards to determine their starting strategy. After this, players shuffle their Painting and Gold cards together and place them face down to the left of their Player board. Each player then draws 5 cards into their hand.

Return any unused components to the box.

The game is now ready to begin.

Sequence of Play

Play begins with the start player and progresses clockwise around the table.

Each player's turn consists of taking 2 actions.

The same action can be performed twice (if possible). After those actions are completed, play passes clockwise to the next player.

If a player has no cards left in their hand after performing their first action, they must forfeit their second action, and their turn ends. Otherwise, they must perform an action. Passing an action voluntarily is not permitted. The possible actions are:

Haggle — Spend 1 card to draw 2 cards

The player chooses any card in their hand and places it face up above the corresponding action space of their Player board. Then they draw 2 cards from their draw pile and add them to their hand.

The cards that were drawn as a result of the Haggle action may be used in the next action if the player used Haggle as the first action of their turn. The type of card spent has no effect on the Haggle action.

IMPORTANT: If a player needs to draw a card and their draw pile is empty, they must first shuffle all cards in their discard pile to form a new draw pile.

Acquire — Buy 1 available card

The player acquires a Painting or Gold card from a location by paying the cost shown on that location. The player may choose any card available in a given location to acquire. The location options include the 4 galleries on Art Gallery Avenue or either Bank in the Financial District.

1. The player pays the cost by placing the Painting and/or Gold cards from their hand above the corresponding action space:
   • The cost to be paid is just below and to the left of the location name.
   • The gold value of Painting cards in the player's hand is based on the current gold value of the matching genre, as shown on the Market Rating board. All genres start the game with a gold value of 1.
   • Gold cards are worth their printed value unless the special ability of the gold card is being used for this action (see Gold Card Special Abilities, below).
   • Players may overpay for purchase, but they do not get the difference back as "change."
2. After paying the cost, the player takes the acquired card and places it in the same action space just above their Player board.
3. The player advances the Market Rating marker on the Market Rating board corresponding to the genre or type of the acquired card:
   • The amount of the increase in Market Rating value is shown to the right of the location name.
   • If it is a Painting card, the player increases the Market Rating marker on the Market Rating board that matches the genre of the Painting card that was just acquired. If a painting genre's gold value increases as a result, all players increase the gold value of that genre on their Player boards.
   • If it is a Gold card, the player advances the position of the Gold marker on the Market Rating board.
     • The Gold marker always advances in increments of 3, following the small coins shown on the track.
     • Buying a "3-Gold" card will advance the marker by 3 spaces.
     • Buying a "5-Gold" card will advance the marker by 6 spaces.

Example: Purchasing the Pop Art card from Gallery Teal requires 3 gold and increases the Market Rating value of Pop Art by 2.

IMPORTANT: The position of the Gold Market Rating marker on the Market Rating board never affects the value or special abilities of the Gold cards during the game.

IMPORTANT: When taking 2 Acquire actions on the same turn, the player must make their second purchase from a different location. The 2 Banks (Cadmium and Sienna) are considered to be different locations.

Acquire Example

It is Mary's turn. For her first action, she wants to buy a Renaissance (orange) painting from Gallery Indigo. The cost to purchase the painting is 7, as shown by the cost token at the left of the card slot in the gallery. Mary pays the cost by paying two 3-Gold cards and one 1-Gold card from her hand. She places the cards she used to pay and the Painting card she just acquired above the Action 1 space shown on her Player board.

She now adjusts the Market Rating of Renaissance paintings. The Market Rating of Gallery Indigo is 6, so she increases the Market Rating marker of Renaissance paintings by 6 on the Market Rating board. The gold value of each Renaissance painting is increased from 4 to 5 and her own board since the rating value increased from 38 to 44.

For her second action, she wants to buy a 3-Gold card from Cadmium Bank for a cost of 5. The cost to purchase the card is shown on the board to the left of the Cadmium Bank name.

Mary has a Renaissance painting still in hand. Because each Renaissance painting now has a value of 5, she pays for the new 3-Gold card by placing the Renaissance Painting card from her hand to the Action 2 space shown on her Player board. Then, she takes one of the two available 3-Gold cards from the display and puts it in the Action 2 space.

As a result of buying the Gold card, the Gold marker on the Market Rating board is advanced 3 spaces from 12 to 15.

Show — Exhibit a Painting in the Museum

Players can put their paintings on display in the Museum to increase the Market Rating for all of the paintings of that genre. The genres that are required are indicated by the markers shown in each Exhibition.

To exhibit a painting, the player pays the cost associated with the Exhibition and then places a Painting card from their hand into an Exhibition with a matching Invitation marker. To do this, the player performs the following steps:

1. The player checks to see if they qualify for a New Exhibitor bonus. If this is the first time the player exhibits one of their paintings during the game, they may claim one of the available New Exhibitor bonus spaces by putting one of their Player Ribbons on the corresponding bonus space. The bonus space must be empty, and the player must not already have a Player Ribbon of their color on any of the bonus spaces.

   There are two types of New Exhibitor bonuses:

   • A cost discount, which is applied when paying for the Exhibition. If the discount is chosen, the amount of the discount is applied before the payment is made.
   • A VP bonus, which is immediately scored on the scoring track.

2. The player pays the cost by placing Painting and/or Gold cards from their hand in an action space:

   • The cost to exhibit a painting is shown below the Exhibition name in the small gold circle to the left.
   • The gold value of the Painting card(s) used for payment is based on the Market Rating of the genre (as shown on the Market Rating board) before any adjustment to value as a result of the Exhibition. The Market Rating is increased after the payment is made, in step 6. Gold cards are worth their printed value.
   • The Painting card that is being placed in the Exhibit may not be used to pay the Exhibition's cost.

3. The player takes a Painting card from their hand and places it on the board under the appropriate Exhibition. The genre of the Painting card must match one of the available Invitation markers in the chosen Exhibition. A gray marker is considered to be wild: Any Painting card can be placed where a gray marker is available.

4. The active player places one of their ribbons on the upper-right corner of the Painting card to signify ownership.

   IMPORTANT: The player must have an available ribbon in order to use this action.

5. The player takes the Invitation marker that matches the genre of the painting and places it on the highest available VP space on the column to the left of the Exhibition. They advance their score marker forward on the score track by the amount shown on the VP space.

   If there is a matching Invitation marker and a gray (wild) Invitation marker, the player may choose which one to use to mark the VP space.

6. Advance the Market Rating marker that matches the genre of the Painting card exhibited. The Market Rating is increased by the value shown below the Exhibition name.

Exhibition Example

Paul decides that he wants to exhibit one of his Renaissance paintings. He notices that the "Textures in Time" Exhibition wants to show a Renaissance painting. This is indicated by the matching Renaissance marker shown in the exhibit area.

This is the first time that Paul has exhibited a painting in the Museum. Therefore, he qualifies for the one-time New Exhibitor bonus. He chooses the -2 cost bonus and places one of his player ribbons on the spot to show that it has been claimed. This reduces the cost to exhibit the painting from 15 to 13.

Paul pays the cost from the remaining cards in his hand and places the cards used to pay in the corresponding action space.

He takes a Renaissance Painting card from his hand and places it on an empty space under the Exhibition. He places one of his ribbons on the painting to show that he is the owner of the painting. Because he is the first to place a painting in that exhibit, he collects the largest value on the left, in this case, 11 VP. He places the Renaissance marker on the 11 space to show it has been claimed.

As a result of Paul exhibiting a Renaissance Painting card in the Museum, the Market Rating value is increased by 8, as indicated by the Market Rating icon shown just below the Exhibition name.

Additional Information on Actions

Special Abilities on Gold Cards

Each of the 1-, 2-, and 3-value Gold cards have a special ability printed at the bottom of the card. These abilities may be used instead of the regular gold value shown on the card. More information about these abilities can be found in Gold Card Special Abilities, below.

If the special ability of a Gold card is used, the card is removed from the game and returned to the game box.

Overpayments

When paying costs for an action, a player may pay more than the listed cost, but they do not receive any change or benefit from the overpayment. Any remaining amount that may have resulted from overpaying in Action 1 cannot be applied to a payment required for Action 2.

Advancing a Genre Market Rating Marker

When a Market Rating marker of a genre advances to a higher row, the gold value of all paintings in that genre may increase.

• All players should advance the respective Genre marker on their Player boards for reference.
• If the change in value occurs during a player's first action, then this higher value applies during their second action.

End of Turn

After completing their actions for the turn, the active player does the following steps:

1. Discard and draw cards

   • Move all cards from the Action 1 and Action 2 spaces above their Player board to their Discard Pile.
   • Discard any number of cards from their hand to their Discard Pile. A player may choose not to discard any cards. There is no limit on the number of cards a player may have in their hand at the end of a turn.
   • Draw cards from their Draw Pile until they have 5 cards in their hand if they have fewer than 5 cards in their hand.

2. Refill the Galleries

   • If all of the galleries have at least one painting left, skip this step. Otherwise, if one or more galleries have no paintings remaining, then do the following for each empty gallery:
     • Remove the cost token for that gallery from the game, then replace it with the next available cost token with a higher value than the one that was just removed.
     • Refill ALL galleries up to the number of painting icons shown under the name of the gallery. Gallery Teal and Gallery Cerulean are refilled to 3 paintings each, while Gallery Cobalt and Gallery Indigo are refilled to 2 paintings each. Draw the new Painting cards one at a time and refill the available spots from left to right (starting with Gallery Teal).
   • If two or more galleries run out of paintings on the same turn, replace the cost tokens in order from left to right, starting with Gallery Teal.
   • In the unlikely event that it becomes necessary to replace a cost token for a gallery and there are no more cost tokens available, leave the current cost token in place and do not refill the affected gallery.

   Example: The current cost of the depleted gallery is 8 gold, and there are 7-gold and 9-gold cost tokens still available. The 9-gold cost token must be used to replace the 8-gold token. It can only be replaced with a cost token that is higher than the current one. The 7-gold cost token remains in the game.

3. Refill the Cadmium Bank

   If the Cadmium Bank has fewer than 2 face-up cards available, then reveal additional 3-Gold cards until there are exactly 2 face-up cards showing. (The Sienna Bank is never refilled. It starts the game with ten 5-Gold cards in a face-up stack. Once all of those cards have been acquired, no more are available.)

4. Check for End-of-Game Conditions

   The game end is triggered when any one of the following three conditions is met:

   • 12 or more Painting cards are being shown in all of the Exhibitions combined in the Museum.
   • The Painting cards deck has no cards remaining.
   • A Market Rating marker (Painting or Gold) has reached 70 or higher.

   If one of the end-of-game conditions has been met, finish the round so everyone has had the same number of turns in the game. If the game did not end, play continues with the player to the left of the active player.

Additional Example

It is Mary's turn. For her first action, she wants to buy the Impressionism (Blue) card from Gallery Cobalt. The current cost to buy a Painting card from Gallery Cobalt is 5 gold. Mary decides to pay for the new Painting card by:

• Removing one 2-Gold card from her hand to activate its special ability (worth 4 gold to buy one painting). This card is removed from the game and returned to the game box.
• Playing one Pop Art card. It currently has a value of 2 gold based on the Market Rating of all Pop Art paintings.

This is a total of 6 gold. The Impressionism card only costs 5 gold, but there is no change. Any extra value is lost and cannot be used in the next action.

She then places both the new Impressionism card and the Pop Art card that was used to pay for it next to the Action 1 space above her Player board.

Finally, she increases the Market Rating marker for the Impressionism genre by 4 spaces, from 8 to 12. All Impressionism Painting cards are now worth 2 gold instead of 1, as soon as she starts her next action.

For her second action, she decides to buy a 3-Gold card from the Cadmium Bank. The cost to buy this card is always 5 gold. The price of Gold cards (unlike Painting cards) never changes during the game. Mary decides to pay for the Gold card using:

• One Impressionism card, which is now worth 2 gold.
• One Surrealism card, which is currently worth 2 gold based on its Market Rating.
• One 1-Gold card.

This is a total of 5 gold, which is the exact price of the card she wants to purchase. She takes the 3-Gold card and places it, along with the 3 cards she used to pay for it, next to the Action 2 space above her Player board.

Finally, she increases the Gold Market Rating marker by 3 spaces, from 9 to 12.

Mary has successfully taken two actions. To complete her turn, she:

• Moves all cards from her Action 1 and Action 2 spaces into her Discard Pile.
• Draws back up to 5 cards.
• Refills the Cadmium Bank by revealing the next card from the face-down stack of 3-Gold cards.

Her turn is now over.

Winning the Game

Once the game has ended, all players calculate their final scores:

1. Final Value of Paintings and Gold Cards:

   Move the Market Rating markers for each genre next to the hexagonal Victory Point (VP) space on the left side of the Market Rating board. The position of this marker indicates the VP scored for each Painting card of that genre in a player's deck.

   Move the Gold Market Rating marker next to the hexagonal VP ratio space on the right side of the Market Rating board. The position of this marker indicates the VP ratio for the Gold cards in a player's deck.

   IMPORTANT: Two Exhibition Bonus tiles affect final scoring for Gold cards (Good as Gold and The Gold Bug.) If any of these Exhibition Bonus tiles are in the game, please check to see if they meet the requirements for activation for scoring (see #4, below) before proceeding with accessing the final value of the Gold cards.

2. To assist with scoring Painting and Gold cards, players may use the back of their Player boards, as follows:

   • Remove the Genre markers from the Player board, then flip it to the reverse side.
   • The players then take all cards from their hand, draw pile, and discard pile.
   • Place all Gold cards, with their gold value showing, to the left of the Player board next to the space with the gold icon.
   • Place Painting cards around the Player board based on the VP for their genre, as indicated on the Market Rating board.

3. Each player calculates the score for each card in their deck and adds this to their score on the score track. Remember to round down when calculating the points using the gold ratio.

   IMPORTANT: Any Painting cards that are on display in the Museum are not included in this scoring!

4. Players now review and score any possible Exhibition Bonus tiles. There are two possible ways for an Exhibition Bonus tile to be activated for scoring at the end of the game:

   1. If all of an Exhibition's invitations have been fulfilled (no more Invitation markers are available), then the Exhibition Bonus tile that is associated with that Exhibition is scored at the end of the game. Multiple Exhibitions can score this way. Any remaining Exhibition Bonus tiles are ignored.
   2. If no Exhibitions qualify based on the requirement above, then the Bonus tile for the Exhibition with the most paintings in its display is scored. If two or more Exhibitions are tied for the most paintings, score the bonus tiles for all tied Exhibitions. Any remaining Exhibition Bonus tiles are not scored.

   In most games, at least one Exhibition bonus tile will be scored. However, if there are NO paintings in the Museum, none of the Exhibition bonus tiles will be scored.

   Multiple Exhibitions may meet the requirements to score their tiles at the end of the game. If this is the case, score the GOLD bonuses first, followed by MUSEUM, then the PLAYER bonus. When scoring within each of those types, score from left to right, starting with the "Poetic Patterns" Exhibition.

5. The player with the highest VP total wins the game. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most paintings in the Museum wins. If the score is still tied, then the tied players share the victory.

Scoring Example

The Market Rating marker for the Impressionism genre is on space 41. It is moved to the 4 VP space on the left. Each blue Impressionism Painting card in a player's hand, draw pile, or discard pile is shown by the amount that is shown on the left column of the Market Rating board is worth 4 VP.

The VP value of Gold cards is determined by the ratio that is shown on the right column of the Market Rating board.

At the end of the game, Mary has the cards shown above left in her hand, discard pile, and draw pile. She turns her Player board over to the opposite side to use the scoring aid. She separates her cards into different piles by genre. She puts them around the edge of the board based on the number of points each genre will score at the end of the game, as indicated by its final position shown on the Market Rating board. She places her remaining Gold cards to the left of the board next to the Gold icon.

She can now easily calculate her score for her Painting cards:

• 1 Surrealism Painting card x 1 point per card = 1 VP
• 2 Pop Art Painting cards x 2 points per card = 4 VP
• 3 Art Nouveau Painting cards x 4 points per card = 12 VP

Next, she calculates her score for her Gold cards:

• The total value of her remaining Gold cards is 14.
• The final VP ratio for Gold cards is 3 gold value to 1 point, rounded down to the nearest point.
• Her Gold cards are worth a total of 4 points (14 / 3 = 4.66, rounded down to 4 VP.)

The total points for the cards in her deck at the end of the game is 21 VP, which is added to her score on the score track.

Exhibition Bonus Tiles

There are three different types of Exhibition Bonus tiles. These tiles are only activated if the conditions are met (see Winning the Game, #4, above).

Player Bonus Tiles

If activated, Player Bonus tiles reward players for having the most Painting cards of a certain genre both in their deck and those owned by the player on display in the Exhibitions in the Museum.

• The player with the most Painting cards of the genre scores 6 VP
  • The player with the second-most scores 3 VP
  • The player with the third-most scores 2 VP
  • In case of a tie for the most, all tied players score 6 VP, and the next player scores 3 VP. (Similarly, players tied for second would all receive 3 VP, and players tied for third would both receive 2 VP.)
• The scoring remains the same for games with fewer than 4 players. All possible positions are awarded.
• Players who do not have Painting cards of a genre do not qualify for the bonus.

Museum Bonus Tiles

If activated, Museum Bonus tiles score for all paintings in the Museum, not just the Exhibition where the Bonus tile is placed.

• For bonuses related to the most (or fewest) paintings of a genre in the Museum, if multiple genres are tied for most (or fewest), then all tied genres qualify for the full bonus.
• For bonuses related to the fewest paintings in the Museum, a genre must have at least one painting in the Museum to qualify for the bonus. Genres with no paintings in the Museum are not considered.

Gold Bonus Tiles

If activated, Gold Bonus tiles score for all Gold cards left in the player's possession at the end of the game.

• These tiles are not recommended for use in the first few plays of Art Decko.
• Gold cards that were removed from the game do not count toward these bonuses.

Clarifications for these Bonus tiles:

Money! Money! Money!:

• A "starting" Gold card is defined as one of the 5 Gold cards given to each player to make up their initial deck. These are labeled with the player number in the upper right corner. These must still be in the player's deck at the end of the game. In the case of a tie, all tied players receive the bonus.

As Good as Gold:

• "Value" means the numeric value of the spots on the Market Rating board (e.g., 52).
• If two or more genres are tied as the most valuable, then use the genre that has the next lowest value.
• If all genres have the same value, then the Gold Rating marker is moved to that space.

Exhibition Bonus Tile Scoring Example

The Museum board has five Exhibitions, each with its own Exhibition Bonus tile: Poetic Patterns (a Player bonus, for Painting Cards in the Museum), Swatches of Symbolism (a Player bonus, for Painting Cards in the Museum), Mixed Media Masterpieces ("How Mucha You Got?" — a bonus for Most Art Nouveau), Textures in Time (a bonus for Painting Cards in the Museum), and Iconic Imaginations ("The Importance of Being Ernst" — a bonus for All Surrealism).

Three example distributions of Painting cards on display are compared:

• 2 Art Nouveau, 2 Surrealism → +3 (2 Art Nouveau, tie for 2nd) for Most Art Nouveau; +6 (Surrealism x2) for All Surrealism.
• 2 Art Nouveau, 3 Surrealism → +3 (2 Art Nouveau, tie for 2nd) for Most Art Nouveau; +9 (Surrealism x3) for All Surrealism.
• 4 Art Nouveau, 1 Surrealism → +6 (4 Art Nouveau, most) for Most Art Nouveau; +3 (Surrealism x1) for All Surrealism.

In this example of the Art Nouveau scoring, assume that the players have no Art Nouveau cards left in their deck at the end of the game.

At the end of the game, the players must determine which of the Exhibition Bonus tiles is activated for scoring. If all of an Exhibition's invitations have been fulfilled, then the Exhibition Bonus tile that is associated with that Exhibition is activated. (This can be true of multiple exhibitions.) The other Exhibition Bonus tiles are not activated and are removed from the game.

In this example, the Mixed Media Masterpieces Exhibition has 4 available invitations, and all of them have been fulfilled. As a result, the "How Mucha You Got?" Exhibition Bonus tile is activated. The same is true for the Iconic Imaginations Exhibit. So, the "The Importance of Being Ernst" tile is also activated.

The "How Mucha You Got?" Exhibition Bonus tile gives bonus points based on how many Art Nouveau Painting cards each player has left in their deck and on display in the Museum. In the example, the purple player has four Art Nouveau Painting cards on display, while the blue and gray players have two each. The purple player has the most, so they get 6 Points. The gray and blue players get 3 points each because they are tied for second place.

For the "The Importance of Being Ernst" Exhibition Bonus tile, players get bonus points based on how many Surrealism Painting cards each player has on display in the Museum. In the example, the purple player has 1 Surrealism Painting card on display, the blue player has 3, and the gray player has 2. The blue player gets 9 points (3 points per painting). The gray player gets 6 points, while the purple player gets 3 points.

Gold Card Special Abilities

Each of the Gold cards with a value of 1, 2, or 3 has a special ability described on the bottom of the card. These abilities may be used instead of the regular gold value shown on the card. When the ability on the card is used instead of the regular gold value, the card is removed from the game immediately and returned to the game box.

Gold cards with a printed value of 1 or 2 gold

These cards have the ability to increase the card's gold value by 2 (to 3 or 4 respectively) when buying a Painting card. There is no limit to how many of these cards may be used per action.

This ability cannot be used to buy another Gold card.

Gold cards with a printed value of 3 gold

These cards have a variety of abilities, depending on the specific card:

• The "Fancy Noble" card allows the player to use the card as a value of 8 gold when buying Painting cards from a gallery. It also allows the player the option of buying two Painting cards from the same gallery, as one action, when using this ability. The special ability of the 1- or 2-Gold cards may be used when using Fancy Noble.
• The "Seeds of Wealth" card allows the player to use the card as a value of 8 gold when buying one 5-Gold card. Note that normally only one card may be purchased per action; therefore, only one of these cards may be used during an Acquire action.
• The "Prosperity" card allows the player to use the card as a value of 8 gold when exhibiting a Painting card in the Museum. More than one "Prosperity" card may be used to pay for the cost of the action.

Easily Forgotten Rules

Setup

• Be sure to fill all galleries with three paintings during setup, even though Gallery Cobalt and Gallery Indigo have a painting refill limit of two. (Setup, step 8.2)

Acquire

• When buying a painting, ALL paintings in the galleries may be purchased, not just the Painting card on top of the stack.
• When buying paintings using both actions, the Painting cards must be bought from two different galleries. This is also true for buying Gold cards. (See Acquire action, Important box)
• The special abilities of 1-Gold and 2-Gold cards may not be used to buy a Gold card. These abilities can only be used to buy Painting cards. (See Gold Card Special Abilities)

Exhibit

• The Painting card that is being placed in the Exhibit may not be used to pay the Exhibition's cost. (See Show action, step 2)

End of Round

• The galleries are not refilled at the end of every turn. They are only refilled when one or more galleries are out of paintings. (See End of Turn, step 2)
• If any gallery needs to be refilled, then all galleries are refilled up to their painting limit, even if they were NOT empty. (See End of Turn, step 2)
• The cost to buy a Painting card from a gallery can only go up, never down. A cost token may only be replaced by one that has a higher value. (See End of Turn, step 2)

End of Game

• Exhibition Bonus tiles must be activated to score. It is normal that some of the Bonus tiles will not score. (See Winning the Game, #4)
• Note that the ratio for calculating the score for Gold cards declines as more Gold cards are purchased. It reaches an optimal value (1:1) in the 50-59 range, but starts to increase again after that. (See Winning the Game, #2, also see Market Rating board, right column)

Credits

Game Design Ta-Te Wu — is a game designer living in Los Angeles, originally from Taiwan. He graduated from the University of the Pacific with a degree in psychology and works as an IT technician. When not designing and playing board games, he enjoys painting and watching movies. His favorite artist is Van Gogh.

Art Direction & Graphic Design Brigette Indelicato — is a full-time graphic designer, art director, and creative consultant specializing in board games and logo design. Other roles include theme party planner, extrovert, cat lover, and science fiction enthusiast.

Product Management & Rules Editing Ken Hill

Assistant Pun Masters Gary Gentry, Mirko Suzuki, Wei-Hwa Huang, Evangelos Foskolos, George "Bud" Sauer, Doug Tanner, Robin Hill

The Artists

Art Nouveau: Lauren Brown — is a professional artist who works in games by day, and...also games by night, as a freelance fantasy artist. She is an avid succulent collector, a gamer, a D&D nerd, and a herder of cats.

Surrealism: Alex Eckman-Lawn — is an illustrator whose work appears in comic books, on album covers, book covers, music videos, magazines, and in galleries. He is currently hard at work trying to pull the sun out of the sky to cloak the world in eternal darkness.

Impressionism: Kwanchai Moriya — is a freelance illustrator with a passion for making vibrant, playful art for tabletop games. He can also be found tinkering away in his woodshop or peering through binoculars at birdies.

Pop Art: Heather Vaughn — is an illustrator and game artist. When she isn't drawing, she's spending time with her partner and tending to her ever-growing collection of snakes and lizards.

Renaissance: Alison Parks — is a self-employed artist who aspires to someday bathe in a chocolate fondue fountain. She lives in Austin with her fiance, cats, and an undisclosed number of snakes.

Rio Grande Games PO Box 1033 Placitas, NM 87043, USA [email protected] www.riograndegames.com

© 2020 Ta-Te Wu © 2020 Rio Grande Games All rights reserved