Dance of Muses Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setup
Game Flow
Game End and Scoring
Victory and Tiebreakers
Credits

Components

x9 Muse tiles; x1 Mnemosyne tile; x4 purple dice; x4 orange dice; x4 white dice; x6 Divinities tokens; x9 Sun tokens (x7 Bronze, x1 Silver, x1 Golden); Rulebook, Game Variants and Solo booklet, each in English and Italian.

Setup

Shuffle the 9 Muse tiles (Mnemosyne is considered a "Variant": see Game Variants booklet) and distribute an equal number randomly to each player.

In a 2-player game, each player has 4 Muses;
in a 3-player game, each player has 3 Muses;
in a 4-player game, each player has 2 Muses.

Players or teams of players are called a Company, and they choose the color of their dice.

In 2-player and 4-player games, there will be one Muse left over, which should be immediately placed face down on the table (in a 2-player game) or face up (in a 4-player game). Place 1 die of the unchosen color on this Neutral Muse, placing it so that the value of 1 is showing.

Each Company takes a number of dice in their chosen color, equal to the number of Muses they have in hand.

In a 4-player game, it's 2 players against 2. Each Company shares the same dice, and Company members must not sit next to each other at the table. They can make decisions together, but they can never reveal their Mysterious Muse.

Each player rolls a die. The player with the highest value becomes the First Player, chooses the first Muse from their hand and places it on the table.

One – and only one – of each player's Muses (not necessarily the first one) MUST be played face down. This will be a Mysterious Muse, which can never be revealed before the end of the game, not even by the player who played it.

Strategic tip: remember your Mysterious Muse's Will of Apollo (the number of Suns next to her name)!

After playing a Muse, the First Player places one of their dice in the dedicated space on the Muse they just played, so that it's showing the value of 1.

The remaining players continue in a clockwise direction. Each player must play a Muse from their hand, and then place one of their dice on them, showing the value of 1.

Any Muse played after the first must always be placed orthogonally or diagonally to a Muse already in play.

Placement tip: leave some space between Muse tiles so it's easier to move them around during the game.

Once all 9 Muses are placed, the dance can begin!

Game Flow

Each player's turn is divided into two actions:

The Dance step (mandatory)
The Muse's Power (optional)

The Dance Step (mandatory)

During their turn, a player must make a move with ANY MUSE IN PLAY, regardless of the die placed on them, in the following way:

Move a Muse by 1 step horizontally or vertically. A "step" is a hypothetical "square" in an imaginary grid composed of squares with dimensions equal to those of a Muse tile. After this move, all Muses must remain adjacent and in a single group – instead of isolated. It's like they are holding hands!

The Muse who took the step can also push the Muses in front of her (in the same direction). This also can only be executed if after the step, all Muse tiles remain adjacent and in a single group.

After the dance step, the player must increase the value of the dice placed on every Muse involved in the movement by 1 (the one they moved, and any that were pushed).

Practical tip: Use the + and - signs on the dice to find the correct value.

The Muse's Power (optional)

BEFORE or AFTER a Muse has done a dance step (but not a Mysterious Muse), the player can use the Power of the Muse that moved or is about to move, and apply it to one of the Muses located in the Area of Effect.

The Muse using the Power is considered the center of the Area of Effect, and the Power can be applied in any orange-colored square.

Note:

You cannot use the Power of a Muse who was not able to perform her dance step!
The Muse who took the dance step (and pushed the others) is the only one who can use her Power.

Dance steps examples: Polyhymnia (A) cannot move in the directions indicated in red or she will detach from the rest of the group. Similarly, Calliope (B) cannot move at all, because moving upwards would detach her from Polyhymnia (A), moving to the right would create two separate groups, and moving downwards would leave Euterpe (C) alone.

Dance steps with push examples: Calliope (B) cannot make a dance step by pushing Clio (D) to the left, because this would leave Euterpe (C) and Polyhymnia (A) alone. But Clio (D) can dance to the right, pushing Calliope (B), because Urania and Thalia would still remain in the group. Also Thalia (E) could dance down and push both Clio and Urania.

Powers examples: Thalia (E) can increase the value on the die on Calliope (B) by 1, while Euterpe (C) has no Muses in her Area of Effect, so she can't use her Power (but she can after dancing).

Power Examples

This Muse can increase the value of a die by 1 on a Muse placed in any of the four squares vertically or horizontally adjacent to her.
This Muse can decrease the value of a die by 1 on a Muse placed in any of the four squares diagonally adjacent to her. Note: a value of 1 cannot be decreased.
This Muse can swap the value of her die with that of one on a Muse placed in any of the squares adjacent to her. Note: you cannot physically exchange the dice themselves!

Game End and Scoring

As soon as at least 1 die on any Muse (including the Mysterious Muse or the Neutral Muse) reaches a value of 6, the game ends immediately, meaning that any remaining dance steps or Powers cannot be completed.

Players reveal their Mysterious Muses, then they check every Muse to see which one has performed the Will of Apollo: if a die on a Muse has the same value as the Suns pictured next to her name, that die is set to the value of 6.

The Neutral die (the one not chosen by players in a 3-player game) is removed from the game. Then, the dice of the same color are arranged horizontally, in descending order of value.

By aligning the 2 or 3 rows of dice (depending on the number of players), players compare the values by column and award 1 Bronze Sun to each Company for each column in which the die has the absolute highest value.

The Company with the HIGHEST winning value (i.e., won in the leftmost column) receives the Silver Sun token instead of the Bronze one.

In this example with three Companies:

In the first column there is a tie of two 6s: there is no absolute highest value, so no one gets a Sun.
In the second column, the Orange 5 is the absolute highest value; it beats the tie of 4s and wins a Sun.
In the third column the Purple Company wins with a 4.
The Orange and Purple Companies score 1 Sun each, but the Orange Company gets the Silver Sun token, because their winning die (the 5 in the second column) is higher than the Purple Company's 4.

Victory and Tiebreakers

Each Company counts the Suns pictured on the tokens they won (if there are not enough tokens, players can use the side with 2 Suns of their Bronze tokens).

The Company with the most Suns is the winner.

In the event of a tie, the winner is the Company that won the Silver Sun token (note: the Golden token is never used in the base game).
If no Suns have been awarded at all, the Company with the highest sum of all their dice wins.
If the tie persists, the player who triggered the end of the game loses.
With three players, if the two remaining Companies are still tied, the one next to the one that triggered the end of the game, in a clockwise direction, wins.

Credits

Game design: Marco Baglioni & David Trambusti (Tanuki Board Games). Artist: Sara "Sbilemi" Marino. Editor: Francis Green. Art director: Giulia D'Urso. Tiles layout: Beatrice Lenzi. English Translation & copy editing: Amaia Wilson Frade, Fiona Gray (Board Game Circus).

Thanks to: Giacomo Campagni, Marco Paoletti, Lorenzo Papi, Claudio Semeraro, Niccolò Varini, all the Kickstarter backers (especially Adem!)