Magical Library

Magical Library Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

30 wooden wizards
110 cards in 5 colours (blue, yellow, purple, red, green)
1 scoring pad
5 mysterious boxes

Overview and Goal

Over 5 rounds, each player places 3 cards and 1 wizard in their personal display (Auslage). At the end of the game you score victory points (VP) for connected areas of identical rooms or symbols in your display, provided one or more wizards are located in those areas.

Card Layout

The cards show two kinds of scoring features:

Colour (room): Each card shows a room in one colour. The colours are blue, yellow, purple, red and green.
Symbols: Each card can show a symbol. The symbols are the inkwell, the candelabra, the owl, the book and the astrolabe.

Some cards also show a printed apprentice (Zauberlehrling) or a magic circle (Bannkreis). Cards with an apprentice or magic circle show no symbol.

(Illustration on page 2 of the rulebook: a blue room with a printed apprentice and an owl symbol, next to a yellow room with a magic circle. Below it are the five symbols: inkwell, candelabra, owl, book, astrolabe.)

The mysterious boxes are not opened at the start. Each box is unlocked by reaching its field on the Path of Knowledge (see Badges below). Stickers found in a box are placed in the rulebook at the place indicated.

[Sticker Box 5 is placed here, on page 3 of the rulebook, as a reminder of the setup change for the Golden Wizards module.]

Setup

Shuffle all cards and form a face-down draw pile.
Each player draws 1 card from the draw pile and places it face up in front of them. This starting card is their display.
Each player takes 5 wizards and places them in their personal supply.

Round Sequence

All of the following steps are carried out simultaneously. Move on to the next step only when everyone has completed the current one.

1. Receive New Cards

Each player draws 3 cards from the draw pile into their hand. You may exchange these cards completely. In that case, place the 3 cards on the discard pile and draw 3 new cards from the draw pile. You may not exchange these new cards again.

2. Distribute Cards

You must now distribute your cards:

Keep one card in your hand. Place one card face down to your left and one card face down to your right seating neighbour. Finally, take into your hand the cards you received from your neighbours.

2-player game: Keep one card and pass 2 of your 3 cards to the other player.

3. Place Cards

Place your 3 cards in any order in your display. The following placement rules apply:

Each placed card must share at least one edge with a card already in the display.
It is allowed to place a further card onto a card placed in the same round.
There is no limit on how high or wide your display may become by the end of the game.
Each card may in principle be placed next to any other card, but it is advantageous to place cards of the same colour and/or identical symbols next to each other.
Cards may not be kept back for later rounds.
Cards must be placed so that their symbols all have the same orientation.
Cards placed in earlier rounds may not be moved or rebuilt.

4. Place Wizards

Then you must place 1 wizard on one of your cards. The following rules apply:

At most 1 wizard may be placed on each card.
On cards adjacent to an already placed wizard, no other wizard may stand to the left, right, above or below. Diagonal is allowed.

Note: Wizards already placed may no longer be moved. Wizards may also be placed on cards from earlier rounds. Wizards may also be placed on cards with a printed apprentice.

Start the next round. When everyone has placed their last wizard at the end of round 5, the game ends.

End of Game and Scoring

Areas are scored for all colours and all symbols. An area consists of one or more cards of the same colour, or with the same symbols, that lie next to each other (sharing at least one common edge).

For each area, multiply the number of rooms (for a colour) or symbols (for a symbol) in that area by the number of wizards and printed apprentices in that area.

Example: This blue area consists of 4 cards. It contains 2 printed apprentices and 1 placed wizard. The area is therefore worth 4 × 3 = 12 victory points.

Score the areas of each colour and each symbol one after another, following the scoring pad, and finally score the magic circles.

Each magic circle is worth 3 victory points at the end of the game. The position of the magic circles and of your wizards does not matter for this.

(Sticker Box 1 is placed here, on page 5, next to the magic circle scoring.)

(Sticker Box 2 is placed here, on page 5, next to the magic circle scoring.)

Example score sheet from page 6 of the rulebook (an excerpt of a full game, which the rulebook gives as a complete table):

Colours: red 15, yellow 6, green 1, blue 12, purple 0. Subtotal 34.
Symbols: inkwell 3, candelabra 15, owl 2, book 2, astrolabe 15. Subtotal 37.
Extra (magic circles): 6 × 3 = 18.
Total: 89.

The worked examples on page 6 show: red, two areas: (2 × 3) + (3 × 3) = 15; yellow 3 × 2 = 6; green 1 × 1 = 1; blue 4 × 3 = 12; purple 3 × 0 = 0; inkwell 3 × 1 = 3; candelabra 5 × 3 = 15; owl 2 × 1 = 2; book 1 × 2 = 2; astrolabe 5 × 3 = 15; magic circles 6 × 3 = 18.

Modules (Mysterious Boxes)

The following rules cover the new components you can unlock in the 5 mysterious boxes. Once you have unlocked a component, you may use it in all following games.

STOP: The following sections contain the rules for the 5 boxes. Read on only once you have unlocked the corresponding boxes.

Rules for all modules with cards: Shuffle all new cards into the draw pile together with the other cards at the start of the game.

Box 1

Module 1: Shared Rooms

These 10 cards each show 2 different colours and 1 symbol. Each half counts for its own colour in the final scoring as a full room. All symbols on these cards count for the whole card and are considered adjacent to identical symbols in all directions. Each colour, by contrast, is adjacent in only 3 directions.

Module 2: Variety Scoring

Stick the sticker from this box onto the field "Sticker Box 1" on page 5 of this rulebook.

From now on, you also receive additional victory points if, in at least 9 of the 10 categories (5 colour and 5 symbol scorings), you have scored at least 1 victory point in each.

We recommend playing with this rule as soon as you have unlocked this box.

Box 2

Module 3: Neighbour Cards

Each of these 5 cards gives you victory points (VP) equal to the number of symbols that your left or right neighbour (you decide which) has in their display at the end of the game. In a 2-player game, score these cards automatically for the symbols of your opponent.

The card illustration shows the owl symbol next to the victory-point icon. The module text refers to "symbols" in general.

Module 4: New Scoring for Magic Circles

Stick the sticker onto the field "Sticker Box 2" on page 5 of this rulebook. It reminds you to take these points into account in the scoring.

If you play with this module, magic circles give victory points only when they are part of a group of at least 3 magic circles (then still 3 VP each).

Box 3

Module 5: Magic Portals

The 5 Magic Portals are special cards. They have neither a colour nor a symbol, but they draw in all the surrounding knowledge with great force. You receive 1 victory point (VP) for each surrounding card (including diagonal ones). In addition, each Magic Portal itself gives you 2 victory points.

(Magic Portals may also be placed next to each other.)

Box 4

Module 6: Barrier Cards

These 5 cards contain barriers as well as double symbols. Adjacent cards that are separated by a barrier do not count as connected in scoring. In addition, each of these cards gives you 1 victory point (VP).

Box 5

Module 7: Extra Cards

These 5 cards give you victory points for certain features in your display.

You receive 1 victory point (VP) for each card that lies to the left, right, above or below this card in the entire row or column. The extra card itself does not count.
You receive 1 victory point (VP) for this card and an additional 1 VP for each printed apprentice in your display. (Wizards do not count for this.)
You receive 1 victory point (VP) for this card and an additional 1 VP for each magic circle in your display.
You receive 1 victory point (VP) for each symbol of the kind you have most often in your display. The symbols do not have to be connected. In a tie, you choose one of the most frequent symbols.
You receive 1 victory point (VP) for each room of the colour you have most often in your display. In a tie, you choose one of the most frequent colours. Shared rooms (Module 1) count for both colours.

Module 8: Golden Wizards

Stick the sticker from this box onto the field "Sticker Box 5" on page 3 of this rulebook. It reminds you of the change to the setup.

During setup, each player receives 4 wizards and 1 golden wizard. The remaining wizards stay in the game box. You decide yourself in which of the 5 rounds you place your golden wizard. It follows the same placement rules as your normal wizards. In the final scoring, the golden wizard counts as 2 wizards.

Example: In a group of 4 candelabra, there is 1 wizard and your golden wizard. The golden wizard counts as 2. The scoring for the candelabra is therefore 4 × 3 = 12 victory points. The blue rooms in this example give 4 × 5 = 20 VP.

Tip: Think carefully about when you place your golden wizard. If you place it early, it may not end up on the most valuable spot at the end of the game. If you wait too long, the placement rules may no longer let you put it where you want.

Badges

At the end of the game, check whether anyone has fulfilled one or more of the badges listed below. If so, choose one of them and tick it off. Then tick the next free field on the Path of Knowledge (Pfad der Erkenntnis) and advance 1 step. If this takes you to one of the 5 boxes, you may open it.

Per game you may tick off at most 1 badge and 1 field on the Path of Knowledge, even if you have fulfilled several badges at the same time. Each badge can be used only once. Once you have unlocked all the boxes, try to fulfil the last badges and reach the 3 medals.

The badges are:

The symbol badges are illustrated in the rulebook with their symbol icons. In the order listed above they are: owl, candelabra, astrolabe, book, inkwell.

Path of Knowledge

The Path of Knowledge runs from START through the fields to Box 1, Box 2, Box 3, Box 4 and Box 5, and then on to the final three medal fields.