Café Melange
Café Melange Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Content
92 reservation cards, 28 action cards, 124 different wooden markers in 6 colours, 40 visitor tiles (24 guests and 16 personalities), 1 steward, a game board, these rules.
Goal of the Game
Players receive victory points by cleverly placing different visitors in specific locations within the Cafe. Before a visitor can be seated at a table, they must first reserve their seat. Some want to sit at a round table while others may like the grey table or the olive green chair. As the game progresses, each visitor's seat preferences will be narrowed until there is only one location that meets their needs.
With the help of reservation cards and the related markers that are placed by the players during the game, the number of chairs a visitor can be seated in is reduced. For example: If a visitor wants to sit at a round table and at a turquoise chair, a player can attempt to reduce the number of possible locations available until there is just one marker left and the seat of the visitor is determined. Action cards can also be used by players during the game to assist with the seating of a visitor or score additional victory points.
Once 21 visitors are seated within the Cafe, the game will end with a final scoring. Combinations of guests and personalities seated at the same table can lead to additional victory points. The player with the most points wins the game.
Game Board
The game board shows different types of tables (shapes and colours) and chairs (colours).
Around the left and top of the board is the score track for keeping track of victory points, with the starting space in the bottom-left corner.
Located on the bottom of the board is the visitor track. The steward is used to display the current number of seated visitors as well as the current game section and the end of the game.
Markers
The blue, yellow green and red markers are used to mark reserved seats of guests while the grey and the white (neutral markers) are used to mark reserved seats of personalities. The shapes and colours of the markers used during a game depend on the number of players (see Preparation below).
4 cylinders (one per colour) will be used by the players to keep track of the victory points on the score track. The extra yellow and the blue cylinders are only used for the 2 player game (described below).
Steward
The steward is used to keep track of the number of seated visitors in the café on the visitor track and indicates the current game phase.
Visitor Tiles
The visitor tiles are used to indicate the final seat of a guest or a personality.
Guests
There are 24 guest tiles in 4 colours. Every player plays with one set of 6 guests in one colour.
Placing Victory Points: For placing a guest tile during their turn, the player receives the number of victory points shown at the top left of the tile.
VIP Multiplier: The VIP multiplier is shown at the bottom left side of the tile. At the end of the game, each player receives victory points equal to the VIP multiplier on each of their guest tile multiplied by the VIP-score shown on each personality tile that is seated at the same table (see final scoring below).
Personalities (Neutral Persons)
There are 16 personality tiles in the game (e.g. Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Stefan Zweig etc.). Unlike guest tiles, the personality tiles do not belong to any particular player. Every player is allowed to place these tiles during the game.
Placing Victory Points: For placing a personality tile during their turn, the player receives the number of victory points shown at the top left of the tile.
VIP Score: The VIP score is shown at the bottom left side of the tile. At the end of the game, each player receives victory points equal to the VIP-score on each personality tile times the VIP-multiplier on each of their guest tiles seated at the same table (see final scoring below).
Reservation Cards
The reservation cards indicate the guests and personalities seating preferences. These cards allow the placing and removing of markers and the placing of guests and personalities.
There are three different types of reservation cards: Chairs (purple, orange, turquoise, and olive), shapes of the tables (large, square, and circular) and table colour (grey, brown, and white).
Action Cards
There are 2 different types of action cards: bonus action cards and bonus scoring cards. During the game, each player is allowed to play a maximum of three action cards (one card per phase of the game as shown on the visitor track). Once an action card has been played, it is no longer used in the game. To help keep track of action cards played, each player should keep any action card they played during a phase in front of them until the steward moves to the following phase. Once that occurs, the card can be discarded from the game.
There are four types of bonus action cards:
- Swap the place of two personalities on the board (for playing this card the player has to discard one additional arbitrary reservation card)
- Swap the place of two of your guests on the board (for playing this card the player has to discard one additional arbitrary reservation card)
- Remove one of your personality markers on the board
- Remove one of your guest markers on the board
There are 10 types of bonus scoring cards:
- If there is at least one personality seated on a purple chair, score 1 point
- If there is at least one personality seated on an orange chair, score 1 point
- If there is at least one personality seated at a square table, score 1 point
- If there is at least one personality seated at any kind of brown table, score 1 point
- If there are two personalities sitting together at the same table, score 2 points
- If at least one of the player's own guests is seated on a turquoise chair, score 2 points
- If at least one of the player's own guests is seated on an olive chair, score 2 points
- If at least one of the player's own guests is seated at a round table, score 2 points
- If at least one of the player's own guests is seated at any kind of grey table, score 2 points
- If two of the player's own guests are sitting together at the same table, score 3 points
The player will get the victory points immediately after playing an additional scoring card by moving his score marker ahead on the score track. The player is only allowed to play the card if the indicated condition is fulfilled. If the condition is fulfilled more than once, the player only scores the points once.
Preparation (game for 3 and 4 players)
Each player receives all of the markers and guest tiles of one colour, as well as one cylinder of his colour to display his victory points on the score track.
- Randomly select a start player.
- Place the score marker of each player on the starting space on the board.
- Shuffle the reservation cards and deal 4 face down cards to each player which they can view but should keep hidden from the other players.
- Place the rest of the reservation deck face down next to the board.
- Draw four reservation cards from the deck and lay these cards face up next to the deck.
- Shuffle the action cards and place these cards face down next to the board.
- Every player draws one face down action card which they can view but should keep hidden from the other players.
- Shuffle the personality tiles and put them in a face down pile.
- Some personalities begin the game seated in the cafe. The number of the seated personalities depends on the number of players: with 3 players, place a randomly drawn personality on every chair with the numbers 2/3 and 2/3/4 (a total of 4 personalities); with 4 players, place a randomly drawn personality on every chair with the numbers 2/3/4 (a total of 3 personalities).
- The start player then draws two personality tiles and puts them next to the board face-up. Then he draws one reservation card for each personality tile (keep drawing until two different types of reservation cards are exposed and discard any duplicates) and places the first reservation card on the first personality tile with the white marker and the second reservation card on the second personality tile with the grey marker. Finally, he should place the markers of these personalities on the chairs according to the reservation card assigned to the tile (e.g. for a reservation card with an orange chair the player places one marker on each of the orange chairs; for a reservation card with a large table the player places one marker on each of the chairs at the large tables). No markers should be placed on any chairs where personalities have already been placed.
- Put the steward on the space equal to the number of placed personalities on the visitor track.
Figure 1 shows an example for a game set up for 3 players. For "Erwin Schrödinger" the start player has drawn the card "olive chair" and has placed the white markers on all olive chairs. For "Gustav Klimt" the card "white table" has been drawn and the grey markers have been placed on each chair around the white tables.
The Game
The start player chooses one of the two following actions and then play continues clockwise thereafter.
A). The player plays 1 to 3 cards (max. of one action card) and then draws one new reservation or action card at the end of the turn
B). The player draws 3 reservation cards (or 2 reservation and one action card)
A.1. Playing of Reservation Cards
The player is allowed to play a maximum of three cards each turn (one of which can be an action card). For each reservation card played, the player decides if he is playing the card for one of his own markers or for a neutral marker (grey or white).
If the reservation card is played for his own marker, it will be placed in front of him as part of a new or existing card row (described in more detail below). The maximum number of card rows a player may have at any time is two (one for each type of marker).
If the reservation card is played for a neutral marker, he adds the card to the card row of one of the personality tiles.
Starting a new card row placing markers
If a player has one or fewer card rows, he may start a new one by selecting one of his unplaced types of marker and placing them all onto the newly played reservation card. He then places one of the selected markers on every (unoccupied) chair that corresponds to the reservation card played.
Rules for placing markers
- No markers are placed on chairs that are already occupied by visitors.
- No more than 4 markers (of different colours and/or shapes) can be placed on the same chair on the board. If, due to this rule, no markers can be placed, then the reservation card cannot be played.
- All unplaced markers remain on the reservation card. At least one marker must remain on the card.
Example 1: The GREEN player plays the reservation card "purple chair" and chooses one type of marker (cubes). He places one green cube marker on every purple chair (he needs a maximum of 6 markers). Chairs that are already occupied by visitors do not get a marker. Any unused markers should remain on the reservation card.
Extension of an existing card row — remove markers
- If a player places a reservation card on an existing row of cards (either his own or one of the personalities) he now removes all of the markers of the corresponding type on the board that do not meet the condition of the new reservation card. Thus, the markers that remain on the board are the ones that satisfy all of the reservation cards in that card row.
- Each card row can only have one reservation card of each type (i.e. 1 colour of chair, 1 colour of table, 1 shape of table). A reservation card cannot be added to a row if that same type of card is already there.
- Also see Special Rules below for restrictions on reservation cards added to card rows.
Rules for removing markers
- After removing applicable markers from the board, at least one marker has to be left on the board (otherwise the card is not playable).
- All of the markers that are removed from the board should be placed back with the markers of the same type on the appropriate card row. All neutral markers (white or grey) have to be placed on the applicable personality tile.
Example 2 (removing markers): The green markers lay on the unoccupied purple chairs on the board. The GREEN player plays the reservation card "grey table" adding it to his existing card row. He then removes all green markers from the board that are not on chairs at grey tables and places them back on this card row.
Rules for placing a visitor tile
If, at any time, only a single marker of any type remains on the board, then a visitor tile (guest or personality) must be placed on this chair. Remove all markers on this chair (of any type) and return them to the card row (or owner) as appropriate.
Every time a visitor tile is placed on the board, the steward should be moved one space ahead on the visitor track. Once the steward reaches the space marked 21, the game is in the final round (see end of game below).
Placing a guest tile
When only a single player-owned marker remains on the board, that player must place a guest tile at the chair the marker is located at. The player can choose which of his (not yet placed) guest tiles he wants to place. The player discards all the reservation cards from the card row associated with that marker type onto the discard pile and places the markers next to him.
Example 3 (placing a guest tile): The Green player plays the reservation card "round table" and places this card to his card row with "purple chair" and "grey table". There are two markers on purple chairs at grey tables left. Now he removes the marker at the large table which leaves just one marker of this type on the board (the only marker that fulfils the requirements of all the reservation cards in this row). He removes this marker and places a guest tile of his choice on this chair. Then he puts the three reservation cards on the discard pile and the 10 green markers can be used for a new card row.
Placing a personality tile
When only a single neutral marker of one type (white or grey) remains on the board, the related personality tile should be placed at the location of the remaining marker. All reservation cards of this personality should be put on the discard pile and the markers will be used to reserve chairs for another personality (see end of a turn below).
After placing any visitor tiles on the board, players should check the board to see if there is only one marker left for any other type of marker. If so, another visitor tile has to be placed according to the above rules.
Example 4 (removing markers): The BLUE player plays the reservation card "round table" for the personality "Erwin Schrödinger". The reserved places are marked with white markers. The player removes all white markers from the board that are not on chairs at round tables. The removed markers are placed on the personality tile of "Erwin Schrödinger".
Example 5 (placing a personality tile): The YELLOW player plays the card "white table" for Erwin Schrödinger and removes the marker at the grey table. Since there is just one marker left, the personality tile "Erwin Schrödinger" will be placed at the location of this last marker. The grey marker has to be removed, too. The player puts this marker back with the other grey markers next to the board. Then he discards all three of the reservation cards that were played next to Erwin Schrödinger onto the discard pile. At the end of his turn he draws another new personality tile and a reservation card and places the white markers on the appropriate chairs.
Victory Points for placing visitor tiles
When the active player places any of his own guests and/or any personalities, he receives the "placing points" depicted on the tile(s) by moving his score marker ahead on the score track by the points awarded. Only the active player gets the "placing points" for his own guests and any placed personalities. If one or more guests of other player(s) are placed during the active player's turn, the owner of those guests chooses which guest tile to be placed but no points are awarded to any player for the placement of such guest(s) (at the end of the game every player will get the VIP multiplier for every own guest on the board).
Special Rules
To ensure that two visitors cannot end up being placed on the same chair, there can be no more than two card rows in the game at any time which have the same two reservation cards (see example 6).
Example 6 (special rules): The RED player and the BLUE player have each played the reservation cards "purple chair" and "round table". It is therefore currently not allowed for any other card row to have the cards "round table" and "purple chair" since that would be the third card row with the same set of cards.
Joker
A player is allowed to play two identical reservation cards as a joker – i.e. a reservation card of any other type. The two identical cards should be replaced by the card the player wants them to represent by replacing them in the discard pile with the appropriate reservation card. If one is not in the discard pile, it can be pulled from the draw pile which should then be reshuffled. Although these two cards are being replaced by one, they still count as two played cards so the active player is allowed to play a maximum of only one additional card this turn.
A.2. Playing of Action Cards
One of the played cards on a player's turn can be an action card. The game is divided into three phases, as designated by the visitor track on the board. The location of the steward on the track indicates which phase the game is currently in. In each game phase, each player is allowed to play a maximum of one action card (for a maximum of 3 action cards per player per game).
Note that some action cards require an additional (arbitrary) reservation card to be discarded in order to be played. This card should be counted as one of the three cards the player can play this turn.
The player places the played action card in front of him. At the end of the section he discards the action card.
A.3. End of the Turn
At the end of the turn, the active player ensures that there is a face-up personality tile next to each of the neutral markers. As at the beginning of the game, if necessary, he draws a new personality tile and a new reservation card for each set of markers that no longer has a personality tile, and then places the markers (white or grey) onto the applicable chairs.
He then draws one new reservation card (from either the row of exposed cards or the face-down pile) or draws one action card and adds it to his hand. Note that there is no hand limit in the game.
The next player clockwise then takes his turn.
Reservation card row
At the end of a player's turn, the active player draws cards from the face-down stack of reservation cards until there are once again four face-up cards in the reservation card row.
If there are 4 cards of the same type in the reservation card row (e.g. shape of tables), all of these cards should be placed in the discard pile and be replaced by new reservation cards.
If the face down reservation deck is empty, the discard pile is shuffled and used to form a new deck.
If the action card deck is empty, then no additional action cards can be drawn for the remainder of the game.
B.1. Drawing of Three Cards
The active player takes three reservation cards from either the face-up cards or the face-down stack, or he takes two reservation cards and one action card. Refill the reservation card row if needed as indicated above. Note that there is no hand limit in the game.
The next player clockwise then takes his turn.
End of the Game
The game ends once one player places the 21st visitor tile on the board (i.e., the steward moves to the space marked 21 on the visitor track). Finish the current round so that each player has had the same number of turns in the game.
Now the final scoring will take place (as described below).
The player with the most points wins the game. If two or more players have the same points, the player among those tied who has the most of his guests on the board wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.
Final Scoring
At the end of the game the players are awarded points for each personality that is sitting at the same table as each of their guests. The VIP-scoring of the personality is multiplied by the VIP-multiplier for each guest a player has at the same table. Notice that "Karl Lueger" has negative VIP points, so try to avoid having any of your guests at his table.
Example 7 (final scoring): These visitors sit together at a table — 9 points for the YELLOW player. These visitors sit together at a table — 3 points for the BLUE player. These visitors sit together at a table — 6 points for the RED player. These visitors sit together at a table — 6 points for the GREEN player.
Game for 2 Players
The game for 2 players is nearly the same as for 3 or 4 players but with the following changes.
The players play with the colours blue and yellow and they get 3 different types of markers and one extra cylinder for keeping track of victory points on the score track.
At the start of the game, 5 randomly selected personalities are placed on the board in all chairs marked with the number 2.
The steward starts on space 5 of the visitor track.
A.1. Playing of Reservation Cards
The players are allowed to have up to 3 different card rows for their own guests (one for each type of marker).
End of the Game
The game ends when (a) one player places the 21st visitor tile (the steward moves to the space marked 21 on the visitor track) or (b) one player has all 6 of his guests on the board. Finish the current round so that each player has had the same number of turns in the game.
Historical Appendix
Characters who take part in the game (Source: Wikipedia)
Victor Adler (24 June 1852 – 11 November 1918) was an Austrian politician, a leader of the labour movement and founder of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP).
Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine at the University of Vienna in 1881, and then carried out research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital.
Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body; his works are marked by a frank eroticism.
Karl Kraus (April 28, 1874 – June 12, 1936) was an Austrian writer and journalist, known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright and poet. He is regarded as one of the foremost German-language satirists of the 20th century, especially for his witty criticism of the press, German culture, and German and Austrian politics.
Emanuel Lasker, PhD (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years (from 1894 to 1921). In his prime Lasker was one of the most dominant champions, and he is still generally regarded as one of the strongest players ever.
Karl Lueger (24 October 1844 – 10 March 1910) was an Austrian politician, mayor of Vienna, and leader and cofounder of the Austrian Christian Social Party. He is credited with the transformation of the city of Vienna into a modern city. The populist and anti-Semitic politics of his Christian Social Party are sometimes viewed as a model for Hitler's Nazism.
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he abandoned the aesthetic principles of the Vienna Secession. In this and many other essays he contributed to the elaboration of a body of theory and criticism of Modernism in architecture.
Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. Mahler's œuvre is relatively small; for much of his life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor, but he devoted as much time as he could to his compositions, faithfully reserving his summer months for intense periods of creative concentration, supplemented as time permitted during his active concert seasons with the tasks of editing and orchestrating his expansive works.
Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel (born Alma Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was a Viennese-born socialite well known in her youth for her beauty and vivacity. She became the wife, successively, of composer Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius, and novelist Franz Werfel, as well as the consort of several other prominent men. Musically active from her teens, she was the composer of at least seventeen songs for voice and piano. In later years her salon became an important feature of the artistic scene, first in Vienna, then in Los Angeles.
Egon Schiele (June 12, 1890 – October 31, 1918) was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism.
Carl Schlechter (2 March 1874 - 27 December 1918) was a leading Austrian chess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for drawing a World Chess Championship match with Emanuel Lasker.
Arthur Schnitzler (15 May 1862 – 21 October 1931) was an Austrian author and dramatist.
Arnold Schoenberg (13 September 1874 – 13 July 1951) was an Austrian composer and painter, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. He used the standard German spelling Schönberg until after his move to the United States in 1934, whereupon he altered it to Schoenberg "in deference to American practice". Schoenberg's approach, both in terms of harmony and development, is among the major landmarks of 20th-century musical thought; at least three generations of composers in the European and American traditions have consciously extended his thinking or, in some cases, passionately reacted against it.
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961) was an Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics: he formulated the wave equation (stationary and time-dependent Schrödinger equation) and revealed the identity of his development of the formalism and matrix mechanics.
Otto Koloman Wagner (13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.
Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881 – February 22, 1942) was a novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.