Impression Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Action Phase
    • A. Shop
    • B. Reset
  • Shop Actions (Action Phase)
  • Trade
  • Typesetting
  • Travel
  • Technology
  • Building Rules for Factories and Technologies
  • The Effects of the Assistants
  • Optional Actions
  • Order and Contract Phase
  • Production Phase
  • Preparation Phase
  • Game End
• Scoring
• Contracts
• Iconography
• Factories
• Technologies Giving You Victory Points

Components

• 1 travel board, 1 trading board, 1 city board, 1 typesetting table board
• 4 workshops / player boards, 4 composing stick boards, 16 shops, 54 lead letters
• 4 workforce markers, 1 capacity marker, 4 player order markers (in all 4 player colours: blue, green, purple, yellow)
• 48 technologies, 36 factories, 36 trading tiles, 5 meeples per player (2 tradesmen, 2 agents, 1 director)
• 36 orders, 24 contracts, 24 city discs, 56 coins in 1 and 5 mark values
• 12 city markers, 5 assistants and 1 score marker per player (before your first game, attach the correct colour stickers to the assistants and score markers)
• 20 paper, 20 lead, 20 ink
• 4 production lines (printers), 1 resource storage

Setup

Place the 4 game boards (typesetting board, travel board, trading board, city board) on the table within easy reach.

1. Trading tiles. Shuffle the trading tiles and form a draw pile at the designated spot on the trade board. Draw 3 tiles and place them face up on the supply spaces. Trading tiles let you buy and sell during your trade action.

2. Technologies. Separate the technologies by type (I, II, III, IV) and shuffle each deck. Place the draw piles on their designated spots, then draw 3 technologies from each deck and place them face up in the respective columns for each type. During the game you can acquire technologies and build them into your workshop for immediate rewards.

3. Factories. Separate the factories by type (I, II, III, IV), shuffle them, and place the draw piles on the travel board in their designated spots, facing up. When you travel, you can build factories and place them into your workshop; factories usually give continuous bonuses for specific actions.

4. City discs. Randomly place a city disc face up on every city marked with grey. Return the remaining discs to the box. City discs give an advantage to the player who reaches that city first — each city holds a single disc for the whole game.

5. Orders. Separate the orders by type (I, II, III, IV) and shuffle them. Remove some from the game based on player count: in a 2-player game remove 5 of each type; in a 3-player game remove 3 of each type; in a 4-player game remove 1 of each type. Form 4 draw piles from what remains, then draw 5 tiles from the type I deck and place them face up on the travel board next to the order track. You may collect new orders at the end of (and sometimes during) each round, then fulfil them by spending resources and capacity.

6. Contracts. Shuffle the contracts, form a draw pile, draw 5 of them, and place them face up next to the available orders. Contracts are a way to score points — you acquire them the same way as orders, and they award victory points at game end according to the icons printed on them.

7. Lead letters. Form a draw pile from the lead letters facing down (grey letter side up), then reveal 4 lead letters on the assigned spaces of the typesetting table. Lead letters show resources and a letter on their front and only a letter on their back; they let you gain resources, special actions, or even victory points.

8. Money and resources. Place the money and the 3 resource types (paper, lead, ink) into the resource storage on the typesetting table. Marks are the game's currency.

9. Shops. Select the shop tiles needed for the current player count (e.g. for a 3-player game keep the 2+ and 3+ shop tiles) and place them in the city facing up according to this scheme (return unused tiles to the box):

During the game you manage your own workshop, tracking your workforce, capacity, and resources. You fulfil orders, travel, acquire technologies, build factories, and gain further rewards on your composing stick board.

Gameplay

The game is played over rounds, each broken into four phases: Action phase, Order and contract phase, Production phase, and Preparation phase.

Action Phase

Every Action phase consists of 2 rounds, during which players take turns in player order. On your turn you must carry out a Shop action or a Reset action, plus any number of optional actions.

A. Shop

Move your upright tradesman to a room in another shop, passing only through orthogonally adjacent shops. Wherever your tradesman stops, lay it down and immediately take the action of that room.

Rules:

• Your tradesman may only move vertically or horizontally between two tiles.
• The number of steps you must take is set by your current order marker.
• You may pass through a tile occupied by one of your other tradesmen; each player can have only 1 tradesman per shop regardless of room, and players don't block each other's movement. If two tradesmen end up in the same room, the player who arrived there earlier receives 1 mark from the common supply (this also applies during a Reset action).
• You cannot visit the same shop twice during a move, so you can never end where you started.
• Your tradesman takes exactly as many steps as the movement points on your order marker, but you may pay for fewer or more steps at any time by adjusting your capacity: for each step of difference, reduce your capacity by 1. If you run out of capacity you can no longer adjust the step count.
• Assistants may appear on the streets during the game; they help move your tradesmen and can provide additional resources (see "The Effects of the Assistants").
• You may only move a tradesman that is standing in a room II. If none of your tradesmen are standing in a room II, you must choose the Reset action instead.

B. Reset

Choose and take a lead letter from the typesetting desk. You then choose to discard it to the discard pile (gaining the resources shown on it) or keep it (placing it on the left side of your workshop). You may have at most 2 letters on the left side of your workshop; if there's no free space, you must cover a previous tile — you cannot use a covered letter until you remove the tile above it with a typesetting action. Immediately replace the removed lead letter from the typesetting desk with a new one from the draw pile.

With either choice made, all of your tradesmen standing in room I's now move down to room II of the same shop. Then lay down one of your upright tradesmen on the city board (whether or not it moved). Finally, carry out the action of the room II entered by tradesmen that moved during this Reset action — tradesmen that were already in room II do not provide an action. You may choose Reset even if you have no tradesman in a room I; in that case you only gain the lead letter or its resources.

Shop Actions (Action Phase)

• Gaining resources. If your tradesman moves to a room showing resource icons, gain those resources from the common supply.
• Lead letter. Take the resource(s) from one of your lead letters on the left side of your workshop, if you have any. If several letters are stacked, you may only choose the one on top.
• Increasing capacity. Move your capacity marker up your capacity track. If the marker reaches the end of the track, gain 1 mark for each further capacity gain.
• Increasing your workforce. Move your workforce marker up your workforce track. If it reaches the end of the track, gain 1 victory point for each further workforce gain. If your workforce reaches 3, place 1 assistant of your choice onto a street where there is no assistant yet (see "The Effects of the Assistants"); the 6th workforce point gains you another assistant. Important: whenever you increase or decrease your workforce, increase or decrease your capacity by the same amount.
• Trade. Perform a trade action on the trading board (see "Trade" below).
• Typesetting. Move one of your lead letters on the left side of your workshop under one of your active contracts or onto your composing stick board (see "Typesetting" below).
• Travel. Perform a travel action (see "Travel" below).
• Technology. Buy a technology from the trading board (see "Technology" below).

Trade

You may carry out a 1:2 conversion once — discard 1 of any resource, then take 2 resources of any other type from the supply — or choose a face-up trading tile and perform the conversion shown on it. A conversion may be one-way (always gain the reward on the right by paying the resource on the left) or two-way (carry it out in either direction). The used trading tile goes to a discard pile and is instantly replaced from the draw pile (reshuffle the discards to form a new draw pile if it runs out). Some tiles let you repeat the conversion multiple times, but this still counts as a single trade action.

In addition, once before your trade action you may spend 1 mark to discard all 3 face-up trading tiles and draw 3 new ones. You may then choose one of the newly revealed tiles or still perform the 1:2 conversion.

Typesetting

Move one of your lead letters on the left side of your workshop under one of your active contracts, or onto your composing stick board.

• If you place a lead letter under an active contract, the victory points that contract awards at game end are doubled. You may place only 1 lead letter under each contract.
• If you place it on your composing stick board, choose one of your 3 composing sticks and place the letter on one of its empty spaces. If the letter shown on that space matches the lead letter, you get a bonus action per the icon; if the letters don't match, nothing happens. At game end, each fully filled composing stick (all 3 spaces) is worth 5 victory points, regardless of which letters it contains.

The 4 contract slots at the bottom of your workshop start inactive. If you complete the depicted formation on your composing stick board, the corresponding slot becomes active (only the relative position of the lead letters matters — they cannot be rotated). Before or after your actions in a turn, you may add a bought contract to an active contract slot, gaining the bonus action shown on that slot at the same time.

Travel

During a travel action, distribute movement points freely between the map and the order track. You get as many movement steps as your current workforce value.

Moving on the order track. For each movement point spent here, move your agent forward 1 section on the order track, always occupying the rightmost free slot in that section. Advancing here reduces the cost of buying orders and contracts for you later, and sets your turn order for next round (the Order and contract phase is carried out in reverse order, so advancing here means acting later in that phase).

Moving on the map. Each coin or city space costs 1 movement point. Moving onto a coin costs 1 mark to the supply — or to another player if you land on or pass their agent. Moving into a city has no cost. If you travel along a road where you already hold your own city markers on both ends, you pay no marks to anyone. Depending on where you stop:

• Stopping on a coin allows only 1 trade action.
• Stopping in a city lets you take that city's disc (if still available); if you haven't visited the city before, place your leftmost city marker there. Move your director in your workshop right by 1 space and take the reward it lands on. You then may perform a trade action, following the normal trade rules, or build a factory: choose a type (I–IV), draw 3 factories from that stack, keep one and return the other two to the bottom of the pile, then discard your rightmost city marker as payment. Place the factory in your workshop following the building rules. Each player may only place a city marker in a given city once per game — if you already have your own marker there, you cannot place another (and the director does not advance for that visit).

If you run out of city markers, you can no longer place any on the map (so your director stops advancing) and can no longer build factories — you can still take city discs and trade. Advancing on the map outside of a travel action (e.g. via a technology) still lets you claim a new city's tile, place a city marker, and advance the director, but does not allow trading or factory building, since it is not a real travel action.

Technology

Choose 1 technology from the trading board, pay the resources shown on its row and the money shown on its column, then build it into your workshop. You gain the action of the slot you cover with the new technology, then perform the action of the technology itself. Immediately replace the purchased tile with a new one from its draw pile.

• Chain (blue) technology. Building one starts a chain reaction: follow a single trail from right to left, performing every action along it. Perform the newly built technology first, then follow the trail left, carrying out each action until you reach one of your lead letters on the left — the resource gain on that letter is the chain's final action. If there is no lead letter to the left of your board, the chain ends at column 1 of your technology tree.
• Instant (green) technology. These only grant victory points and never start a chain reaction, nor can they be part of one. When built, immediately gain the indicated victory points and mark them on the scoring track.

Once during your action, you may pay 1 mark to discard the 3 available tiles in a chosen column and draw 3 new ones, then choose from the new options. Place the discarded tiles at the bottom of the draw pile in an order of your choice.

Building Rules for Factories and Technologies

The building rules are shared by factories and technologies:

• The level of the technology/factory (I, II, III, IV) must match the level of the space where you build it.
• When building, you must form a continuous path from the left side of your workshop toward the right, following the printed technology drawing — 2 technology spaces are connected by 1 line.
• The action printed on a space is gained every time something is placed on it, face up or face down.
• If all spaces in your workshop are occupied, you can no longer build a factory or technology.

You can reduce the effective level of a space by 1 using one of these methods:

• Place the purchased technology/factory face down on a space 1 level higher than itself, at any time and without needing a continuous route. You immediately gain the covered action.
• Place the purchased technology/factory to replace a tile built earlier in the game, moving the replaced tile face down to any location 1 level higher — you only gain the newly covered action, not the one from the replaced tile. If there is no room to place the replaced tile, you cannot perform this action.

More than 1 level of change is never possible (e.g. a level IV space cannot be covered by a level II tile), and a space may hold only 2 tiles total: 1 face down and 1 face up.

The Effects of the Assistants

During the game you can bring assistants into play to help during the Action phase. When you cover an assistant icon, place an assistant of your choice between 2 shops — only 1 assistant may occupy a given gap between 2 shops, regardless of colour.

If you have your own assistant between 2 shops, you may move between them without spending movement points (this is optional; you may still count the step if you prefer). When another player finishes their move in a shop adjacent to one of your assistants, you immediately receive the reward marked on that assistant (1 paper / 1 lead / 1 ink / 1 mark / 1 capacity) from the common supply. This does not affect the other player's movement or actions.

Optional Actions

Before or after your Shop or Reset action, you may carry out any number of optional actions, in any order:

• Signboard action.

  • White signboard: gain 1 workforce.
  • Red signboard: use up 2 red signboards to carry out a travel action without paying for movement on the map (otherwise follow the normal travel rules).
  • Blue signboard: use up 2 blue signboards to carry out a technology action without paying for the technology (otherwise follow the normal technology rules).

  Turn used signboards face down. Regardless of whether they were used, signboards still count toward victory points at game end.

• Activating a contract. If you have an active contract slot, you may place a previously bought contract into it and gain the covered action. You may replace an already-activated contract with another (you can reactivate the replaced one later), but you do not gain its covered action again on replacement.

• Use a city disc. A city disc need not be used immediately — use it for its reward on any of your turns, then turn it face down.

Once the Action phase ends (both tradesmen of every player in the city are lying down), the Order and contract phase begins.

Order and Contract Phase

Each player may buy 1 order and/or 1 contract. Price and purchase order are both determined by your position on the order track.

• Buying happens in reverse player order — the player whose agent is on the leftmost space picks first. An order or contract from any position may be bought.
• On the first (leftmost) player order space, each order or contract costs 1–5 marks depending on its position. Each section you've advanced on the order track during the round reduces the cost by 1; on the rightmost section, tiles are free. Orders and contracts are paid for separately.

Spend the required marks, then take the desired tiles and place them next to your workshop. You may buy at most 1 order and 1 contract per phase, or pass if you choose not to buy. Once all players have passed, the Production phase begins.

You may keep up to 2 orders on the left side of your workshop; there is no limit on the number of contracts you may hold, but only 4 can be active at game end, if you have unlocked all your contract slots.

Production Phase

During the production phase, advance your orders simultaneously based on your capacity and available resources. You may advance orders by as many stages as your capacity at the start of production. Each order takes 5 stages to complete.

To advance an order to its next stage, pay the resources shown on its current stage, then reduce your capacity by 1. Advancing to the first stage costs no resources but still uses 1 capacity. The phase continues as long as you have capacity available. Once an order moves out of stage 4, it is completed and you gain the victory points shown on its top-left corner. Starting with your next Action phase, you may spend any signboards the order carried — only completed orders count toward endgame signboard points.

Rules:

• For each step your capacity marker moves, gain the reward printed on the space it enters.
• You may have at most 2 orders waiting next to your workshop; while you have 2, you may not buy more until one enters the first stage of production.
• Only one order may occupy each production stage, for a maximum of 4 orders in your line at once — a stage must be vacated before the order behind it can advance. Orders can be advanced in any order but can never overtake the one ahead of them.

At the end of production, each player pays their workers a wage based on workforce: for every 2 workforce you must pay 1 mark, rounded down (e.g. 5 workforce costs 2 marks). If you cannot pay in full, your workforce drops by 1 step for each unpaid mark, and any benefits gained from that workforce level are lost until it's regained.

Preparation Phase

If this was not the last round, perform the following:

• Set next round's player order. The player at the front of the player-order section moves to last position; the others keep their relative order. Players who advanced on the order track move down into the player-order section, keeping their relative order. Rearrange player order markers accordingly.
• Refill orders and contracts. Check the remaining orders and contracts next to the order track. If fewer empty spaces were created this round than the number of players, discard from the cheapest spaces as needed. Push remaining orders and contracts to the cheapest spaces and refill the empty spots, drawing from the next level (I, II, III, IV) if a pile runs out. If the contract pile runs out at this step, reshuffle its discards into a new pile. If no orders remain next to the board after preparation, go to Game End.
• Stand all tradesmen upright on the city board.
• If your capacity marker is lower than your workforce marker, move it up to match; if it is higher, leave it as is.

Game End

The game ends when there are no orders left for players to buy. If at least one order remains after preparation, a full round is played. When no orders remain, the preparation phase is aborted, and in player order every player gets one more chance to perform optional actions — spending unused signboards and/or city discs and activating contracts, which may trigger further chained actions. Once everyone has acted and passed, final scoring begins.

Scoring

• Every set of 3 different signboards is worth 5 points (only completed orders' signboards count; signboards from city tiles also count, even if already used for optional actions).
• Every fully completed composing stick is worth 5 victory points.
• Every active contract scores as many points as its printed rule states; contracts with a lead letter placed under them score double.
• Unfinished orders still in production are worth 1 victory point each. Bought orders that never entered the workshop are worth negative victory points, per the figure on their top-left corner.
• Directors in the workshop score as many points as the figure shown above their position.
• Add together your remaining resources and remaining cash; you gain victory points equal to that total divided by 5, rounded down. (Example: 2 lead + 1 paper + 9 marks = 12, worth 2 victory points.)

The player with the most victory points wins. Ties are broken first by most completed orders, then by most cash remaining; if still tied, the tied players share the victory.

Contracts

Contracts award victory points for conditions such as: 1 point per 5 marks held; 1 point per technology of an indicated level (or 1 point per 2 technologies of a given level); 1 point per assistant on the city board; 1 point per signboard of a shown colour; 1 point per set of 2 city tiles / 2 finished orders / 2 workforce / factory; 1 point per activated contract or unlocked contract slot; 1 point per shown letter on your composing stick board; 2 or 3 points per column or diagonal line of lead letters on your composing stick board.

Iconography

• Resource icons — gain the depicted resources from the common supply (or 1 resource of your choice, for the generic version).
• Move-down icon — move your tradesman down to a room II and take its action; shown twice means take the reward twice.
• City tile icon — get a city tile from a city of your choice; your director does not move.
• Technology icon — carry out a technology action; some variants waive the resource and/or money cost.
• Free technology icon — take a technology of the indicated level for free.
• Factory icon — gain a factory of any level; discard your next city marker from your workshop as its cost.
• Assistant icon — place an assistant of your choice into any free street space.
• Typesetting icon — perform a typesetting action.
• Capacity/workforce icon — decrease or increase your capacity or workforce by 1 (remember: workforce changes also change capacity by the same amount).
• Travel icon — perform a travel action; a marked variant means you don't pay money while moving.
• Signboard icon — perform 1 signboard action of your choice (workforce, travel, or technology).
• Capacity-gain icon — gain 1 capacity, plus the reward the capacity marker steps onto.
• Trade icon — perform a trade action.
• Steps icon — gain 1/2/3 steps on the map and/or order track. If your agent stops on a city, you gain its city tile and may place your next city marker, but you cannot trade or build a factory this way, since it is not a real travel action.
• Discard-letter icon — discard a lead letter from the typesetting table to the discard pile and gain the resources shown on it.
• Advance-order icon — advance one of your orders by 1 stage without moving your capacity marker; a marked variant waives the resource cost.
• Buy icon — buy 1 order or contract, refilling it from the draw pile afterward; a marked variant waives the money cost.
• Gain-letter icon — gain 1 lead letter from the typesetting table; a marked variant also grants the resources on it.
• Reposition-letter icon — reposition one of your lead letters to an empty space on your composing stick board, regardless of whether the letters match.
• Pair icon — pair a city tile with a lead letter on your composing board at any time (1 city tile per lead letter); during a typesetting action you may substitute the paired city tile to perform a covered action even if the letters differ (e.g. a spot "A" with lead letter "B" and city tile "A" becomes "AB"). Paired city tiles also count toward composing-stick victory points during and at game end.

Factories

Factories grant recurring bonuses, such as: 1 mark whenever an order completes stage 1/2/3/4; 1 lead/ink/paper/mark whenever you choose the Reset action; 1 mark whenever you take a lead letter into your workshop; 1 capacity whenever an order completes stage 1/2/3/4; 1 mark whenever you gain a workforce; 1 mark less whenever you perform a travel action; 1 mark whenever you perform a trade action; 1 mark less whenever you perform a technology action; 1 capacity whenever you perform a Reset action; a free trade action (without discarding the tile) whenever an order completes stage 1/2/3/4; 1 mark less whenever you buy an order; 1 resource of your choice whenever you discard a lead letter during Reset; 1 resource of your choice whenever you gain a city disc; 1 mark less whenever you buy a contract; 1 capacity whenever you take a lead letter into your workshop; 1 victory point whenever an order completes stage 1/2/3/4; 2 victory points whenever you complete an order carrying a blue/red/white signboard; 1 victory point whenever you perform a Typesetting or Trading action.

Technologies Giving You Victory Points

Some instant (green) technologies award victory points based on your current standing when you build them: half your capacity (rounded down); the number of your assistants on the city board; your current workforce; the number of your level I–III technologies; or the number of A/B/C/D/E/F lead letters on your composing sticks, including any paired city tiles collected from the map.