Festo! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Game Overview
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Preparation Phase
  • Phase 2: Shopping Phase
  • Phase 3: Action Phase
    • Character actions
    • Grocery Store actions
  • Phase 4: Cooking Phase
• End of the Game
• Character Abilities
• Magical Dishes Variant

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 1 Start Player Card
• 3 Dice
• 3 Cover Tiles
• 24 Victory Point Tokens (10x worth 1, 8x worth 2, 6x worth 5)
• 5 Player Boards
• 14 Event Cards
• 34 Dishes:
  • Drinks (6x)
  • First Courses (6x)
  • Roasts (5x)
  • Desserts (6x)
  • Side Dishes (6x)
  • Main Courses (5x)
• 90 Ingredients:
  • 14x Meat
  • 14x Honey
  • 14x Spices
  • 14x Mushrooms
  • 14x Fruit
  • 14x Potatoes
  • 6x Salt
• 30 Helpers (6x in each of 5 colours)
• 5 Player Aids
• 10 Special Discs (2x in each of 5 colours)

Setup

A. Place the Game Board in the middle of your playing table. Select the side corresponding to the number of players, as depicted on the lower right corner of the board.

B. Place 14 Ingredients of each colour on the Supply of the matching Character. Add the Salt (white cubes) to the Supply of the Magician; always place 1 more Salt than there are players in the game (e.g. 5 Salt in a 4-player game). Note: all Ingredients are limited!

C. Sort the Drinks, Desserts, First Courses, and Roasts Dishes according to their shape. Shuffle each type of Dish separately and place them facedown as 4 draw piles at the end of each appropriate row, next to the Game Board. Then draw 3 Dishes of each type and place them face up from left to right on each row.

D. Take the Side Dishes and Main Courses Dishes, and place 1 for each player on each corresponding field (e.g. 2 x 4 Dishes with 4 players). Place any leftover Side Dishes and Main Courses Dishes back in the box.

E. Each player takes 1 Player Board, 1 Player Aid, 6 Helpers and the 2 Special Discs of their colour.

F. Randomly determine a start player; that player takes the Start Player Card, the 3 Dice and the 3 Cover Tiles. Attention! If you play with 5 players, only use 2 Dice and 2 Cover Tiles.

G. Place the Victory Point (VP) Tokens next to the board.

H. Shuffle all the Event Cards. Draw 4 of them and place them facedown in a draw pile next to the Game Board. Return the other cards to the box.

The board is divided into areas for each Character: a Supply (where that Character's Ingredients wait), the Character space itself, the Market (where Ingredients are offered for that round), an Ability Die Field, and a Helper Area. The board also has a Grocery Store and a Grocer, and the Dishes Area where the drawn Dishes are displayed.

Game Overview

Festo! is played over 4 rounds. Each round consists of 4 phases:

PHASE 1: Preparation Phase: Players fill up the Markets and reveal the topmost Event Card.

PHASE 2: Shopping Phase: Players roll the dice to determine which shops are open or closed, and place their Helpers.

PHASE 3: Action Phase: Players gain Ingredients and use the abilities of the Characters.

PHASE 4: Cooking Phase: Players spend their Ingredients to prepare Dishes.

The game ends after 4 rounds (when all 4 Event Cards are used). Players will then add up all their Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points is named Master Cook!

Gameplay

Phase 1: Preparation Phase

Start a round by adding from the Supply:

• 3 Ingredients (or 4 in a 5-player game) to each Character's Market, up to a maximum of 5 Ingredients per Market.
• 1 Ingredient to each Grocery Store shelf, up to a maximum of 3 Ingredients per row.

Example: In this 4-player game, add 3 Ingredients to each Market, except for the Elf's Market which already has 4 Ingredients and only gets 1 extra.

If there are empty fields in the Dishes Area, move the remaining Dishes to the left. Then, add new Dishes from the appropriate draw piles to the empty fields. Roasts and Main Courses are never replenished.

Then, reveal the topmost Event Card and place it face up next to the board. Apply the effect of the Event Card during the current round. (See the Event Cards Overview on a separate sheet.)

Finally, the player holding the Start Player Card may choose a new start player by giving the Card to any player of his choice (or he may keep it for himself). That player now takes the Dice and the Cover Tiles.

Phase 2: Shopping Phase

The Shopping Phase is split up into 2 parts: the Morning and the Afternoon.

In the Morning, the start player rolls the 3 Dice and places the Cover Tiles on the matching Die Fields. These Characters are now considered unavailable. If identical numbers are rolled, the Cover Tiles are stacked on the matching Die Field.

Remember: if playing with 5 players, use only 2 Dice.

Example: Sarah is start player; she rolls the dice, and rolls 4, 5, and another 5. She places 1 Cover Tile on the Magician's Die Field and 2 Cover Tiles on the Elf's Die Field.

Beginning with the start player, and then following in clockwise order (this is what we call player order), every player has 1 opportunity to place any number of their Helpers (0 to 6) on any Helper Area(s) of the available Characters and/or on the Grocer.

• You are not allowed to place Helpers on the Helper Areas of unavailable Characters.
• You can always place Helpers on the Grocer.

Hint: If you are done placing your Morning Helpers (or choose not to place any), announce this to the other players to keep the game flowing smoothly.

Example (continued): In the Morning, Sarah places 1 Helper on the Troll, Pixies and Orc, Toby places 2 Helpers on the Pixies, Joy places 2 Helpers on the Troll and 2 on the Grocer, and Tom decides to not place any Helpers.

After the Morning part of the Shopping Phase, players perform a similar process in the Afternoon:

The start player rerolls the Dice and moves the Cover Tiles to the new matching Die Fields.

Then, players must place all of their remaining Helpers in their turn. You may place your Helpers on the same Helper Area(s) on which you placed Helpers in the Morning (if still available).

When all players have placed all of their Helpers, remove the Cover Tiles from the game board and give them back to the start player. From now on, all Characters are available again for the rest of the round.

Example (continued): Sarah now rerolls the dice, and rolls 1, 2 and 6. This means that in the Afternoon part of the Shopping phase, the Troll, Pixies and Dwarf are not available. It's good news for Joy and Toby, who now have guaranteed majorities on the Troll and Pixies!

Sarah adds 1 of her Helpers to the Orc, to have 2 present there, and she places her last 2 on the Elf. Toby decides to place 3 Helpers on the Magician, and 1 on the Grocer. Joy has 2 Helpers left, and decides to place them on the Elf. Tom still has all of his Helpers, so he decides to place 3 of them on the Orc, and 3 on the Grocer, getting a majority on both of those areas.

Phase 3: Action Phase

Starting with the Troll, and then proceeding with the other Characters from left to right, players will perform actions at each of the 6 Characters and the Grocery Store.

At each Character and the Grocery Store, first check in which order players may perform their actions. This depends on the number of placed Helpers:

• The player with the most Helpers on the Helper Area goes first (taking Ingredients and/or using Character abilities), followed by the player with the second most Helpers, etc.
• In the case of a tie, the tied players do their actions in player order.

Example: Joy has the most Helpers present on this Helper Area. She will perform actions first. Sarah and Tom are tied for second place, but Sarah is first in player order, so she will be second to perform her action, followed by Tom.

Character actions

If a player has an absolute majority of Helpers in the Helper area of a Character (i.e. more Helpers than any other player), this player MAY use all of their Helpers to take all Ingredients from the Market of this Character (without using the Character's ability).

Then, all players with at least 1 Helper on this Character (including the player with absolute majority if they didn't take all ingredients) MAY use exactly 1 Helper to use the Character's ability once. (See explanation on page 7.)

Finally, for each of their remaining Helpers, the players MAY take 1 Ingredient from the Character's Market (if still available).

It may happen that you have to withdraw 1 or more Helpers without performing any action.

All used Helpers are returned to the Player Boards.

Example: Tom and Sarah both have 3 Helpers on the Orc's Helper area. No one has an absolute majority to take all 4 Spices at once. Sarah is first in player order and uses her 3 Helpers to take 3 Ingredients. Tom moves 1 of his Helpers onto a Dish, takes the 1 remaining Ingredient for his 2nd Helper and withdraws his last Helper without any action.

Grocery Store actions

First, if there is at least 1 Helper on the Grocer, the player with the most Helpers receives the Start Player Card.

In case of a tie, the tied player who is first in player order will receive the Start Player Card.

If there aren't any Helpers at the Grocer, the Start Player Card stays with the same player.

The player who possesses the Start Player Card will be first to prepare a Dish (see next phase) and will decide who will be the start player in the next round.

Then, players take Ingredients from The Grocery Store. The following rules apply:

• For each of your Helpers, you may take 1 Ingredient.
• The Ingredients you take must all be of the same colour. You can thus never take more than 3 Ingredients.

Example: Tom has a majority here, so he gets the Start Player Card. Although Tom has 4 Helpers, he's only allowed to take 3 Ingredients, as they all have to be of the same colour. He chooses the 3 Mushrooms. Joy takes 2 Honey jars and Toby takes 1 Fruit.

Phase 4: Cooking Phase

This phase is played in player order, starting with the player that possesses the Start Player Card at the beginning of this Phase.

On your turn, simply choose 1 available Dish, and place the indicated Ingredients back in their Supply. Take the Dish and place it face up in front of you. You may gain more than 1 Dish in this phase, but only 1 per turn.

If you can't or don't want to cook any more Dishes, you must pass.

The Drinks, Desserts, First Courses, and Roasts Dishes in the 4 lower rows display 1 colour of which you have to spend the specified amount of Ingredients. Additionally, you have to spend the specified amount of other Ingredients from exactly 1 other colour.

When cooking Dishes from the 2nd/3rd column, you must spend 1/2 extra Ingredients, respectively, in 1 of the 2 colours that you already used.

Example: For this Dish you have to spend 3 Honey and 2 Ingredients of 1 other colour. For example, you could spend 2 Spices additionally.

Example: This Dish would cost you 2 Mushrooms and 2 Ingredients of your choice, plus 2 extra. For example, if you cook the Dish with 2 Mushrooms and Meat, you would have to pay either 4 Mushrooms and 2 Meat, or 2 Mushrooms and 4 Meat.

For the Side Dishes you must spend 6 Ingredients of the same colour.

For the Main Courses you must spend 1 Ingredient of each colour.

The Cooking Phase ends when all players have passed, and a new round begins. If this was the 4th round, it's the end of the game.

End of the Game

The game ends after the 4th round. This is the round in which you flipped the last Event Card.

Now players add up:

• Victory Points displayed on the Dishes they cooked.
• Victory Points for the number of different types of Dishes (score each set separately).
• 1 Victory Point for each Ingredient they still have.
• Victory Points from any VP tokens they collected during the game.

The player with the most Victory Points is considered the Master Cook, and wins the game!

If there is a tie, the player with the most Dishes wins. If there still is a tie, the player with the most Ingredients left on their player board will be the winner. If there is still a tie, those players share the victory.

Example: Sarah scores 58 VP for the 6 Dishes she cooked. She receives an additional 10 VP for having 4 different types of Dishes and another 3 VP for the remaining 2 different types of Dishes. She also receives 2 VP for the 2 Ingredients she has left. And finally, she gets 5 VP for the VP tokens she earned throughout the game. She ends up with 58+10+3+2+5 = 78 Victory Points.

Character Abilities

Troll: You may move 1 Ingredient from 1 Market or the Grocery Store to another Market or the Grocery Store. In the Grocery Store, the maximum number of Ingredients is 3 per colour. You have to respect this limit. If another player moves an Ingredient, you are not allowed to move that same Ingredient again this round.

Pixies: You may move 1 of your Helpers (or a Special Disc) from the Pixies' Helper Area to another Helper Area to the right OR to the Grocer. The Helper that you move is the same Helper that you used to perform this action.

Orc: You may move 1 of your Helpers from the Orc's Helper Area to an unoccupied Drinks, Desserts, First Courses, or Roasts Dish. This Dish is now unavailable for your opponents, and when you cook this Dish, you have to spend 1 fewer Ingredient. The Helper that you move is the same Helper that you used to perform this action. If you don't want to (or can't) cook the reserved Dish in the Cooking Phase, just leave your Helper on it until you can, or pay 1 Ingredient to take back your Helper.

Magician: You may take 1 Salt (white cube). You can use it as any colour when cooking Dishes. You can possess as much Salt as you wish.

Elf: Place 1 of your Ingredients back into its Supply and take any 2 Ingredients (except for Salt) from the Supplies in return. The Ingredients that you take can be of the same colour as the Ingredient that you paid.

Dwarf: You may immediately place your 2 Special Discs in the Helper Area of 1 or 2 Characters. They are treated as regular Helpers in the next round. You may place Special Discs on the Helper Area of the Dwarf, but not on the Grocer. In the 4th round, take a 2 VP token instead of placing your Special Discs.

Magical Dishes Variant

To spice up your game of "Festo!" a little, you can play the game with the following change: when you gain a Drinks, Desserts, First Courses, or Roasts Dish, immediately flip the Dish to the side that shows its benefit. For the rest of the game, you may use that benefit. The different types are:

Drinks: Each time you cook a Dish, spend 1 Ingredient fewer of the indicated colour.

Desserts: Each time you spend at least 1 Ingredient of the indicated colour to cook a Dish, take a 1 VP token.

Appetisers: Each round in which you receive 1 or more Ingredients of the indicated colour from a Character, take a 1 VP token. In each round, you can receive up to 1 VP at each Character; you cannot get VPs at the Grocer.

Side Dishes: Each time you have an absolute majority at a Character, take a 1 VP token. In each round, you can receive up to 1 VP at each Character; you cannot get VPs at the Grocer.