Dinner Party Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Guests
  • Hitler
• Overview
• Phases
  • 1. Invite a Guest
• Modifiers
  • Arrows
  • Drinks
  • Guest Abilities
  • 2. Visit the Bar
  • 3. Host
• Turn End
• Charm Guests
  • Entertaining a Guest
• Inviting Guests from other Tables
• Game End
• Dinner is served!
• Glossary
• FAQ

Setup

1. Put the Hitler card in the middle of the play area, with the side showing the corresponding player count (bottom left) face-up.
2. Separate the other Guest cards by their backs to form five decks, and shuffle each individually. From each, take 3 more cards than there are players (5 cards for two players, 6 for three players, 7 for four players, 8 for five players, and 9 for six players). Put these cards in the middle of the play area to make five face-down Guest stacks, one for each back. Return the other cards to the box. This area with Guests (including Hitler) is called the Lobby.
3. Reveal the top card of each of the five Guest stacks and put it in front of the stack face-up.
4. Put the Drink tokens aside as the Bar.
5. Each player needs some room in front of them where their Guests will go, called their Table.
6. Each player also gets three Envelope cards (a). Set the remaining ones aside (b).
7. The player who looks most like a starting player becomes starting player and gets the white Overview card (a). The others get black ones (b).

Guests

Any dinner party's success depends on its Guests:

Demand – Shows how hard it is to successfully invite and entertain the Guest.

Arrows – Affect rolls for neighbours (see later).

Ability – Many Abilities are ongoing, but there are also immediate Arrival Abilities and Scoring Abilities, which trigger only after the game ends. Unless stated otherwise, Abilities are mandatory and only apply if that Guest is at your Table!

Occupation(s) – You'll get more Points at the end of the game if you have a larger variety of Occupations at your Table. The Occupations are: Politics, Art, Science, Economy and Religion.

Hitler

Hitler is an unwelcome Guest who somehow still shows up in every game. He doesn't provide an Occupation, is worth no points, and makes it harder to invite other Guests. When you invite him, you can place him at either side of another player's Table to ruin their day. You're welcome!

Hitler card text: "You may place him at another player's Table with at least one Guest." Hitler's card is two-sided; the side showing the corresponding player count is placed face-up during setup.

Overview

Dinner Party is played in turns. During each turn, you try to invite a Guest to your Table. Initially, you'll be inviting Guests from the Lobby, but later on you can charm your opponents' Guests away, too. The game ends when a second Guest stack is empty. Complete the round, then score Points for the number of Guests at your Table, Occupations, and Scoring Abilities.

Phases

During your turn, you can do the following, in order:

0. Charm Guests (optional and not on the first turn)
1. Invite a Guest
2. Visit the Bar
3. Host

1. Invite a Guest

Choose a Guest in the Lobby you want to invite.

Then, roll the three dice. After your first roll, you may choose any number of the dice (even none) to roll a second time. Finally, you may choose any number of dice (even dice you didn't just roll) for a third roll.

Choose the Spot at your Table the Guest should sit in. Your first Guest will just go in front of you. If there are already Guests at your Table, the newcomer must go either to the very left or very right of all your other Guests. You can't place a new Guest between two old ones.

Now calculate the roll result by adding up the dice. Drink Icons add nothing. Modify your result for any Modifiers that apply. (At the start of the game, there are no Modifiers – we'll explain them in a bit.)

If your (modified) result is lower than the Guest's Demand, you fail to invite them; proceed to the "Visit the Bar" Phase. Otherwise, you successfully invited them; place the Guest in the chosen Spot, then if they have an Arrival Ability, resolve it.

Arrival Ability: This icon shows that a Guest has an Arrival Ability. Resolve this Ability immediately after you place a Guest you invited at your Table.

Example: When you place this Guest, you may remove all cards from his Guest stack that are still in the Lobby from the game. You have to make that choice right then and can't do it later. (Card text: "You may remove all cards from his Guest stack that are still in the Lobby from the game." – "Extreme times, extreme profits.")

Hitler's Arrival Ability allows you to place him at another player's Table. As the other player did not invite him, they cannot use his Ability to pass him on.

After you place a Guest, refill the Lobby by revealing a new card from each Guest stack that has no face-up card in front of it and placing it in front of the stack.

Modifiers

The Demand of a Guest cannot be altered in any way. However, there are three Modifiers that can affect the result of rolls:

Arrows

Green or red Arrows signify that a Guest is a pleasant or unpleasant person to sit next to. After you choose the Spot at your Table you want to invite a new Guest to, your result is increased by 2 if that Spot is next to a Guest with green Arrows, and decreased by 2 if it's next to a Guest with red Arrows. Arrows only affect direct neighbours.

Example: Lincoln's green Arrows increase the result enough to place Freud next to him. Capone's red Arrows would reduce the result instead. (Worked example on the page: Result 9 − 2 = 7 is crossed out; Result 9 + 2 = 11 is correct for Sigmund Freud, Demand 10.)

Drinks

Drinks are tokens you can get from certain Guests and from the Bar during the "Visit the Bar" Phase. After you choose the Spot you want to invite a new Guest to, you may treat that Guest to one Drink from your Stash to increase your result by the Drink's value: Water gives you +2, and Wine gives you +4. If you treat a Guest to a Drink and successfully invite them to your Table this way, place the Drink on the Guest. It stays with them.

Example: Wu Zetian, Demand 8. Roll 7 + 2 (Water) = 9, so the invitation succeeds.

Guest Abilities

Some Guests have Abilities that can affect roll results depending on who is trying to do what. Abilities can increase the result (green) or decrease it (red). Most will affect yourself, but some affect opponents.

Example card text: "You get [+ die icon] to invite Guests with a Demand of 12 or more."

2. Visit the Bar

After trying to invite a Guest (successful or not), check how many Drink icons your dice show now, without re-rolling them. You can use these icons to take Drinks from the Bar and add them to your Stash, separate from your Table. Use your Drinks on later turns to improve your rolls (see previous page)!

• 1 icon gets you 1 Glass of Water.
• 2 icons get you 2 Glasses of Water OR 1 Glass of Wine.
• 3 icons get you 3 Glasses of Water OR 1 Water and 1 Wine.

3. Host

Before you end your turn, you can place Drinks from your Stash on Guests at your Table that do not have one yet (e.g. from inviting them).

Each Guest can only have one Drink and you can't take placed Drinks back to your Stash. You may return Drinks on Guests back to the Bar at any time.

Example card text shown on the page: Marie Antoinette – "If she has no Drink, entertaining her automatically fails." Dante Alighieri – "+2 Points if you have all five Occupations at your Table."

Turn End

If you are the last player in turn order and the game end condition has been triggered (two Guest stacks have been emptied, see later), go to Scoring. Otherwise, it's the next player's turn now.

Charm Guests

(Optional, and not on the first turn.)

As soon as at least one opponent has any Guests at their Table, there is an additional thing you can do right at the start of your turn: charm a Guest. Charming may give you a chance to invite a Guest from another player's Table instead of the Lobby.

To charm a Guest, discard one of your Envelopes back to the supply, choose a Guest that is at another player's Table, and pass the dice to that player. That player now has to entertain that Guest. If they fail, you'll get a shot at snatching them away!

Example: The player to the left has started their turn. They discard an Envelope to charm Lincoln, who is at another Table.

Entertaining a Guest

Entertaining means rolling for a Guest that's already at a Table, to make sure they can't be taken away. The entertaining player rolls the dice up to three times, just like when inviting.

Check whether the result meets or exceeds the Guest's Demand. As usual, Drink icons count for 0.

Modify the result for all Modifiers that apply:

• +2 or +4 if there is a Drink on the Guest
• Arrows of their direct neighbours
• Any Guest Abilities that affect "entertaining" or rolling in general.

If the result reaches or exceeds the Guest's Demand, the entertaining player succeeds. If not, they fail.

Example: Lincoln is being charmed. The dice show 7. The result gets increased by 2 for the Water on him, but Hitler's red Arrows reduce it by 2. The player fails to entertain Lincoln. (Result: 7 + 2 − 2 = 7; Demand 8.)

While trying to entertain, players can't place Drinks on Guests nor get Drinks from the Bar.

Look out: Some Guests reduce the result when trying to entertain them or other Guests, and some Guests of the charming player may make it harder to succeed in one way or another. (Card text example: "When you charm another player's Guest, they roll one fewer time to entertain. (They roll at least once.)")

If the other player fails to entertain the Guest, you as the charming player have got an opportunity now! Continue with the "Invite a Guest" Phase, but instead of choosing a Guest in the Lobby to invite, you roll to invite the charmed Guest.

Otherwise, if the other player successfully entertained their Guest, you have two options:

• You continue with the "Invite a Guest" Phase and try to invite a Guest from the Lobby, as usual.
• OR you discard another Envelope to charm another Guest, whom you didn't charm this turn. You can do this until you run out of Envelopes.

Remember: If the other player successfully entertains their Guest, you can still invite a Guest from the Lobby. Charming is low risk, high reward!

Inviting Guests from other Tables

Inviting a Guest from another Table works just like inviting them from the Lobby:

• You still roll to reach the Guest's Demand.
• You still have to choose the Spot you want to invite them to and apply any Modifiers, such as Arrows pointing to the chosen Spot, or Abilities that affect inviting the Guest.
• You still can treat the Guest to a Drink (even if they already have one at their current Table).
• You still resolve the Arrival Ability (if any) of the Guest after you place them at your Table.

The Arrows and Drinks of your opponent do nothing while you invite their Guest. Those already had their chance when they were trying to entertain the Guest.

If you reach or exceed the Guest's Demand, take them and place them at your Table as usual. Otherwise, they stay where they are.

When taking a Guest from another player's Table, there are two special cases:

• If you take a Guest that has a Drink on them, return it to the owner's Stash.
• If you take a Guest from somewhere in the middle of the Table, immediately move the other Guests together to close the gap. Tip: This also applies if an Ability moves a Guest (such as Hitler) away from a Table.

Whether you succeeded or failed to invite the Guest, continue to the "Visit The Bar" Phase.

You can only invite a single Guest each turn. If you roll for a Guest you charmed, you can't also invite a Guest from the Lobby.

Game End

Once at least two of the five Guest stacks are empty (without even the face-up card left), the game end is triggered. Finish the round so all players had equally many turns, then score. If the last player triggers the game's end, do not play another round.

Important: Once two stacks have been emptied, no player can charm Guests anymore. Use your Envelopes before that!

Dinner is served!

At the end of the game, each player scores Points:

• 1 Point per Guest at their Table, except Hitler.
• Points for different Occupations (not Hitler) at their Table:
  • 1 Occupation: 1 Point
  • 2 Occupations: 2 Points
  • 3 Occupations: 3 Points
  • 4 Occupations: 5 Points
  • All 5 Occupations: 8 Points
• Points for Scoring Abilities. This icon shows that a Guest has a Scoring Ability which gives (or costs) the respective player Points.

Example: 7 (Guests) + 8 (Occupations) + 2 (Curie) = 17 Points. (The example shows Marie Curie: "+2 Points if she sits next to a Guest.")

The player with the most Points wins. Ties are broken by highest total Demand. Or a duel, your call.

Glossary

• After your last roll: Directly after a player stops rolling the dice, to invite or entertain, voluntarily or because they ran out of rolls.
• Arrival: Ability that triggers immediately after a Guest you invited has been placed at your Table (before the Lobby is refilled, if they came from the Lobby).
• Bar: The central supply of Drinks: Water and Wine.
• Charm: Spending an Envelope, forcing an opponent to entertain one of their Guests. Allows you to invite the Guest in the "Invite a Guest" Phase if they fail.
• Demand: The value you need to reach or exceed to invite or entertain a Guest.
• Discard: Returning Drinks or Envelopes back to the supply (or Bar). If not stated otherwise, you discard things you own yourself.
• Entertain: Trying to reach/exceed the Demand of a charmed Guest.
• Envelope: Cards you discard to charm another player's Guest.
• Guest stack: The Lobby contains five of these, separated by card backs.
• Invite: Trying to reach or exceed a Guest's Demand to place them at your Table, from the Lobby or another player's Table.
• Lobby: The central supply of Guests, whether face-up or still face-down.
• The rolled total after all Modifiers have been applied.

FAQ

• What if a Guest contradicts the rules? Guest Abilities take priority over rules.
• Are Drinks and Envelopes limited resources? No, use suitable replacement.
• Can a result go below 0 through Modifiers (like red Arrows)? Yes.
• What if my Guests do things at the same time? You pick the order.
• Which Abilities apply while I invite the Guest themselves? Only those that explicitly say so. Examples are Beethoven, Buddha, Lincoln and Sartre.
• Is Hitler a Guest? Sadly yes. He does not count as a Guest stack, however.
• What happens if I give Hitler a Drink to pass him on? Discard it to the Bar.
• How can I get Hitler to leave my Table? The only way to do that is via the Abilities of other Guests. Close any gap he leaves by pushing Guests together.
• What happens if I just can't do an Ability, e.g. place Hitler with Riefenstahl after Wu Zetian removed him from the game? Skip over the part you can't do.
• How do H. Ford and Mother Teresa work? The opponent has to entertain the Guest twice to succeed, otherwise they fail. Ford & Teresa do not stack.
• Why would I give an opponent a Drink with E. Perón? The bonus you get from her Ability stacks with the bonus you may get from another Drink.