Art Society Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Overview
• 1. Preparing the Auction
• 2. Placing Bids & Acquiring Paintings
• 3. Placing Tiles
  • Gallery Wall Placement Rules
  • Matching Frames and Acquiring Decor Tiles
  • Faux Pas (Avoiding Matching Painting Types)
  • Using Your Assistant
  • Running Out of Space
• 4. Increasing Prestige
• 5. Round End
• Game End
• Prestige Rankings
• Final Scoring
  • Tiebreaker
  • Scoring Example
• Credits

Contents

• 116 painting tiles
• 108 decor tiles
• 4 starting bid cards
• 20 bid cards per player
• 4 prestige markers (one for each painting type)
• 1 auctioneer gavel
• 7 painting value tokens (numbered 3-9)
• 2 player score markers per player
• 4 complete wall bonus tokens (one in each player colour)
• 1 museum board
• 4 player aids
• 4 player boards

Setup

1. Score Track: Place the museum board in the center of the table. Leave some space on either side for discarded paintings. Place the 4 prestige markers next to it.
2. Painting Tiles: Sort all of the paintings in the box insert or on the table based on their size.
3. Decor Tiles: Place all of the decor tiles into a pile on the table within reach of everyone.
4. Player Components: Each player chooses a player board and takes the matching 2 score markers and 20 bid cards (see icon on back of player board). Each player places their markers next to the museum board (these will only be used at the end of the game). All 20 of each player's bid cards start in their hand.
5. Auction Area: Place the value tokens in a pile in the auction area.
6. Starting Paintings: Shuffle the starting paintings (2x3 tiles marked with a gold back and a star) and deal 1 to each player. Each player must place their painting face up on their gallery wall, such that it covers one or both star spaces in the center. Any remaining starting paintings are set aside and will not be used during the game.
7. Starting Bids: Shuffle the 4 starting bid cards (white cards marked with a star) and deal 1 face up in front of each player. The player with the starting bid card of the lowest value takes the gavel and becomes the first Auctioneer. Each player leaves their card face up to start their bidding stack.

Overview

The game is played in rounds. Each round has 5 steps, which are detailed over the following sections.

1. Prepare Auction: The Auctioneer (holder of the gavel) selects paintings equal to number of players +1 to bid on, and places them face up where players can see them.
2. Place Bids: Each player simultaneously chooses 1 card as their bid.
3. Acquire and Place Paintings: In order from highest to lowest bid, each player takes a painting and places it on their board.
4. Increase Prestige: The painting that is left behind is moved to the museum, and the prestige of that painting type increases.
5. Round End: The auctioneer gavel passes clockwise and a new round begins.

The game continues until any 1 player has filled their gallery wall or, one player has 2 excess paintings (see Running out of Space) or, all players have played all of their bid cards (see Game End).

1. Preparing the Auction

At the start of each round, the Auctioneer selects a number of paintings from the supply equal to the number of players plus one, looking only at the back of each tile. They may select multiple tiles with the same number.

Once the Auctioneer finishes selecting tiles, they pick the value tokens corresponding to the numbers on the back of the chosen paintings and place the tiles underneath them.

Example: In a 3 player game, the Auctioneer chooses 4 paintings from the box.

Then they flip them face up to start the auction.

2. Placing Bids & Acquiring Paintings

After the Auctioneer selects paintings, each player (including the Auctioneer) simultaneously selects 1 bid card from their hand and places it face down on top of their previously played bid card (on the first turn, on top of the white starting bid card they were dealt during setup) in front of themselves. Once everyone is ready, all players flip their cards face up to reveal their bids.

In order from highest to lowest bid, each player selects 1 painting tile from the auction area and places it according to the placement rules (see Placing Tiles). Each player may take as long as they need to decide on a painting, and may "try out" any of the paintings on their gallery wall before committing to taking one. The next player may not take a painting until the current player has confirmed their selection.

The size and prestige value of a painting don't reflect its point value at the end of the game. All paintings of the same type will score the same points, regardless of size (see Final Scoring).

If two or more players play the same bid card, they each reveal the card underneath the one they played, and use this card to break the tie. If there is still a tie, the tied players compare the next card in their bidding stack, and so on until the tie is broken. (Remember that each player treats the white starting bid card they were dealt during setup as the first card in their bidding stack.) Players may not check each other's bidding stack otherwise.

3. Placing Tiles

Whenever a player takes a new painting or decor tile, they may choose to either place it on their gallery wall following the tile placing rules below, or place it on their assistant to hold for later.

Gallery Wall Placement Rules

When a player places a painting or decor tile on their gallery wall:

• It must be fully inside the grid.
• It must touch at least 1 other tile along a flat edge (corners don't count).
• It must be oriented so the artwork is the right way up so that the type label is at the bottom (it can't be rotated).

Example showing one legal and 4 illegal tile placements.

While deciding where to place a new tile, you may move it freely on your gallery wall, and may continue to do so until the end of the round. The Auctioneer may not reveal the next set of paintings until each player has finished placing. Once they do, you may no longer move any previously placed tiles. The light area between the eye icons is called the eyeline. Paintings in the eyeline area may score additional points at the end of the game (see Final Scoring).

Matching Frames and Acquiring Decor Tiles

If a newly placed painting touches one or more other paintings with the same style of frame, the player receives a bonus decor tile, worth points at the end of the game. They must immediately take a decor tile and place it on their wall following the normal placement rules or give it to their assistant (see Using Your Assistant).

They must choose any decor tile with a point value (number of shields) equal to or less than the number of matching frames that directly touch the new painting. If they place a new painting touching 4 or more other paintings with the same frame, they choose any combination of decor tiles that add up to the number of touching paintings. Do not count the newly placed painting towards this total; only count the paintings it touches.

If you gain a decor tile in the same round you complete your wall, you do not gain or score the extra decor tile, and it does not count as an excess painting (see Final Scoring).

Wall decor can be used to fill gaps where paintings won't fit. In particular, there are no 1x1, 2x1, or 3x1 paintings in the game.

Example: The painting outlined in yellow touches 2 matching frames, so this player may take and place a decor tile of size 2 or smaller.

In the rare event that all decor tiles of a certain size have been taken, players must free up tiles of that size by exchanging adjacent decor tiles on their walls for different size tiles from the supply. (For example, if the 1x1 tiles run out, a player could exchange 3 adjacent 1x1 tiles for a single 3x1 tile, returning the 1x1s to the supply.)

Faux Pas (Avoiding Matching Painting Types)

Paintings come in 4 different types: City Life, Portrait, Still Life, and Landscape.

If a newly placed painting touches a side of one or more other paintings of the same type, the player has committed a faux pas! Each offending painting will score no points for prestige at the end of the game (see Final Scoring).

Example: These 2 City Life paintings won't be counted when scoring prestige.

Using Your Assistant

If a player can't or doesn't want to place a painting or decor tile on their gallery wall, they may give it to their assistant. A player's assistant can hold 1 tile at a time (either a painting or a decor tile).

Whenever a player places a new tile, they may also place their assistant's tile, either before or after they place their new one. (This means they may place their assistant's tile first, then give the new tile to their assistant.)

If a player's assistant is holding a tile at the end of the game, it scores no points. However, it does not count as an excess painting. Once a painting has been given to the assistant, it can only be placed onto the wall and may not be exchanged in the museum (see Running Out of Space, below).

Example: This player wants to avoid a faux pas, so they give this City Life painting to their assistant. In the following round, they decide to 1. place the painting they won at auction and 2. their assistant's painting.

Running Out of Space

If a player takes a painting size that doesn't fit on their gallery wall, they must immediately take the following steps:

1. They may give the painting to their assistant (see above).
2. If they don't want to give the painting to their assistant (or can't because their assistant is already holding a painting that doesn't fit on their wall), they may exchange their new painting for 1 painting of the same type (ex. Landscape for a Landscape) that was discarded to the museum piles (see Increasing Prestige), which they must then place normally. This exchange does not affect the prestige of that painting type on the museum board.
3. If they can't exchange the new painting (because there are no matching painting types in the museum that will fit on their gallery wall), they must store the painting beside their board as an excess painting. They then take a 1 point decor tile and place it normally. Each excess painting a player has, costs them -2 points at the end of the game. If a player stores their second excess painting, the end of the game is triggered (see Game End).

Example: This player has been forced to take a Landscape that won't fit! Luckily, they're able to exchange it for a smaller Landscape from the museum piles, and avoid gaining an excess painting.

4. Increasing Prestige

During the game, the prestige of each painting type within the art community is tracked by advancing its prestige marker on the score track on the museum board. At the end of the game, the 4 painting types will be ranked based on their prestige scores. The higher the prestige ranking of a painting type, the more points each painting of that type will score (see Prestige Rankings).

Example: Currently, the art community holds Landscape paintings in the highest regard.

After each auction, one painting will be left unsold. This painting will be acquired by the museum and cause paintings of that type to increase in prestige. Place the unsold painting beside the museum board, in the designated area for paintings of that type (colour). These 4 areas will form a pile of unsold paintings of that type.

Determine the unsold painting's prestige value (shown on the back of the tile and the value token it is under) and advance the prestige marker of the matching type on the score track by that amount.

Prestige markers may never be tied on the score track. If a marker would advance to the same space as another marker, the advancing marker instead moves backwards to the first empty space it can occupy (see below). Paintings exchanged with the museum do not affect the prestige of that painting type. If a prestige marker passes 50 on the score track, flip it to its black side, and keep advancing from 1 on the score track. Black markers are valued at +50.

Example: A 4-value Portrait is left after the auction, so the red Portrait marker advances 4 spaces. It lands on the blue City Life marker, so it moves back 1 space (i.e. space 3). If the City Life prestige marker is still ahead of the Portrait marker at the end of the game, City Life paintings will be worth more points than Portraits.

5. Round End

At the end of the round, the Auctioneer passes the gavel to the player on their left, who becomes the new Auctioneer. They begin the next round by selecting new paintings.

Game End

The end of the game is triggered when any of the following happen:

• A player has no empty space left on their gallery wall; or
• A player stores their second excess painting; or
• Players have no bid cards left in hand.

Finish the current round, then count up final scores (see Final Scoring). The player with the highest score is the winner.

Prestige Rankings

Before players count their scores, determine the final prestige rankings of the 4 painting types, based on the order of their prestige markers on the score track. Move the prestige markers up to the ranking spaces track at the top of the museum board to show their rankings. The most prestigious painting type (furthest on the track) is placed on (x5), the next-most prestigious type is placed on (x4), and so on, until all 4 types have a ranking.

In the rare case that one or more painting types don't make it to the museum, they will each score (x2).

Final Scoring

Before scoring, each player checks with the player on their left whether they have committed any faux pas. Then each player scores the following points using their player score markers on the museum board:

1. Painting Prestige: Each player scores points by counting the number of paintings of each type multiplied by the prestige ranking of that type. Paintings that are part of a faux pas (touching a painting of the same type) are not counted.
   • Recognized: 2 pts per painting
   • Admired: 3 pts per painting
   • Popular: 4 pts per painting
   • In Vogue: 5 pts per painting
2. Decor Bonus: Each player scores the point value (number of shields) on each decor tile on their wall.
3. Eyeline Bonus: Each player scores +3 points for each painting of the most prestigious type (x5) that is partly or fully in the light region between the eye icons on their wall. All paintings of the correct type are counted, even if they are part of a faux pas.
4. Full Gallery: Each player with no empty space on their wall scores +5 points.
5. Exposed Corners: Each player loses 2 points for each corner of their wall that is not covered by a tile.
6. Excess Paintings: Each player loses 2 points for each excess painting they have (ignoring any painting held by their assistant).

Tiebreaker

If two or more players tie for victory, the tied player with the highest total value on the bid cards left in their hand wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared.

Scoring Example

In the example, the player scores the following:

• Still Life: 4 paintings x 2 pts each = 8 pts
• Portrait: 3 paintings x 3 pts each = 9 pts
• City Life: 4 paintings x 4 pts each = 16 pts
• Landscape: 3 paintings x 5 pts each = 15 pts (2 Landscapes create a faux pas (red box), so those paintings don't score)
• Decor Bonus: 11 shields = 11 pts
• Eyeline score (area between yellow dotted lines): Landscapes are the most prestigious so 3 Landscapes x 3 pts = 9 pts (the 2 faux pas Landscapes above also count towards the eyeline score)
• Full Gallery: 0 pts
• Exposed Corners: 1 corner x -2 pts = -2 pts
• Excess Paintings: 1 painting x -2 pts = -2 pts

TOTAL = 64 pts

Credits

Designed by Mitch Wallace

Project Lead, Art Direction and Product Design: Mark Casha

Art: Giacomo Vighi, Sofia Rossi, Veronica Grassi, Angelica Regni, Doris Shermadhi, Max Kosek

Graphic Design: Max Kosek and Mark Casha

Developed by Mighty Boards

Project Manager: David Chircop

Rulebook Editor: Jeff Fraser

Marketing: Eveline Foubert

Test Lead: Aphrodite Andreou. Testers: Emma Wallace, Felipe Sanchez, Matt Wolfe, Andy North, David Marron, Ed Shubert, Quentin Burleson, Mark McGee, Taun Curtis, Emily Zucker, Clarence Simpson, Bob Schall, Susan Lupton, Joel Salda, Jeremy Baker, Jonah Klever, Wesley Tolliver, Anne Lupton, Juli Bierwirth, Elaine Wallace, Chris Wallace

Rulebook version 1.1. © 2023 Mighty Boards Ltd.