MasterSweets
MasterSweets Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The game contains a total of 121 cards, 16 of which are role cards, 15 special cards and 90 ingredient cards. There are 9 types of ingredient cards, each of them has 10 copies in the game.
Role card — Shows the role's Name, its Starting hand size, and (on some roles) a Special ability.
Ingredient card — Shows its Victory points value in each corner.
Special card — Shows its Special ability, plus a Special ability used only in the game variant "Clash of sweets".
Setup
- Shuffle the ingredient cards and the special cards together and place them face down. The deck that you get is called drawing deck.
- Create the cookbook. According to the number of players place cards from the drawing deck face up on the table (as shown in the picture for 2 players, 3 players, or 4 players):
If, while placing cards on the table you get a special card, put it back in the box. It won't be used in the current game. Replace the card with another one from the drawing deck. Thus placed, the cards represent the cookbook. In the cookbook, at any time, there can only be ingredient cards. Every row or column from the cookbook represents a separate recipe.
- Determine who the starting player will be (the one who last cooked some pastry). The player on his right is the last player. Shuffle the role cards. Depending on the number of players, randomly set apart face up 3, 4 or 5 role cards (the number of players plus one). Put these cards face up on the table. Return the rest of the role cards into the box. The last player is the first to choose one of the roles which were set aside earlier for himself. The player who stands on the right side of the last player chooses one of the remaining roles. The players take turns in choosing roles until the first player remains with the two roles that nobody has chosen so far. One of the roles, the first player chooses for himself, the other one – he returns in the box. The players keep the role they have chosen during the whole game.
- Give each player as many cards from the drawing deck as the number written on the role they have chosen.
- Create the market – Draw cards from the drawing deck equal to the number of the players plus one. Place them face up right next to the drawing deck.
Game Goal
In MasterSweets each player strives to cook recipes from the cookbook. Each recipe gives a certain number of points which equals the sum of the points of ingredient cards that compiles the recipe. At the end of the game the player who has collected the most victory points, wins.
Gameplay
Beginning with the starting player, players take turns in clockwise order. On his turn the player has to take one of the following actions:
- Take a card from the market into his hand. Its place in the market is replaced with a new card from the drawing deck.
- Take the top card of the drawing deck into his hand.
- Exchange one of the ingredient cards in his hand with a card from the cookbook.
- Play a special card from his hand.
- Perform the special skill of his role. It is listed on the role card as: "As an action…".
- Cook a recipe. If the player has in his hand the complete set of ingredient cards corresponding to the given recipe (row or column in the cookbook), he can, as an action, play the ingredients from his hand (they should be put into the discard pile), in order to cook this recipe. Place the ingredients from the recipe which has just been cooked next to his role card in his "completed sweets" deck.
Example: In his hand, a player holds 2 "eggs" cards, 4 "flour" cards and 1 "milk" card. One of the recipes in the cookbook contains 2 "eggs", 1 "flour" and 1 "milk". To cook this recipe the player must take 2 "eggs", 1 "flour" and 1 "milk" from his hand and put them into the discard pile. He must take the corresponding recipe cards (2 "eggs", 1 "flour" and 1 "milk") from the cookbook and put them into his completed sweets pile.
When cooking a recipe, the player has the right to give three ingredients of the same type instead of any card from the recipe that he doesn't have in his hand.
The player can also play two ingredient cards of the same type instead of a card from the recipe that he doesn't have in his hand. In this case, the card from the recipe is not placed in his completed sweets but into the discard pile.
Example 1: A player can play 1 "milk", 1 "nuts" and 3 "cream" cards from his hand in order to cook a recipe that contains 1 "milk", 1 "nuts" and 1 "fruits". He will take 1 "milk", 1 "nuts" and 1 "fruits" into his completed sweets.
Example 2: For the same recipe as in Example 1 a player can play only 1 "milk", 1 "nuts" and 2 "cream" cards. In this case, he will take only 1 "milk" and 1 "nuts" into his completed sweets. He must place the "fruits" card from the recipe into the discard pile.
After you have completed a recipe, move sequentially, with one position, the remaining columns/rows in the cookbook so that it has no empty columns/rows. When moving the cards, do not break the order of the cards in the cookbook, just shift the required rows or columns with one position.
After the player has finished the action he has chosen, his turn is over and it's the next player's turn.
Game End
Whenever a player completes a recipe, the cookbook becomes smaller. When the last recipe from the cookbook is completed (there are no cards left in the cookbook) the game is over. The winner is the player who has collected the most victory points from the cards in his finished sweets.
First Game
For your first game, we recommend that you play only with ingredient cards. In the next few games, you can play both with ingredient and special cards. After each player has been familiarized with the mechanics of the game, you can add the role cards. If you play without the role cards each player should receive 3 cards in his hand at the beginning of the game.
Additional Rules
When the drawing deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down. It becomes the new drawing deck.
Some special cards and roles have instructions written on them "draw X cards". Whenever such instructions are given, the player has to draw these X cards from the top of the drawing deck.
Row or column that contains only one card also is considered to be a recipe and may be completed.
It is possible that there are empty spaces in a row or column of the cookbook. In this case, a whole row, or column that contains empty spaces is only one recipe. The empty spaces do not divide the recipe (row or column) to more than one recipe.
Clash of Sweets
Game for 2 to 5 players.
In this game variant, each player has his own unique cookbook. Each player's goal is to steal his opponents' recipes and to remain the only player whose recipes has not been stolen.
Components
In "Clash of sweets" you will only use the ingredient and the special cards. The role cards are not used in this game variant.
Setup
- Prepare a drawing deck and a market as in the "MasterSweets" core variant.
- Deal 12 cards from the drawing deck to each player (10 cards if you play with 5 players). If a special card is drawn, place it in the game box, and give the player a new card instead of it. Each player must place his 12 (10) ingredient cards face up, on the table in front of him. This is the player's cookbook. It could be arranged in any form that the player chooses.
- Each player starts the game without cards in his hand.
Goal and End of the Game
In this game, everyone tries to steal a recipe from his opponents' cookbooks. This way, he reveals other players' culinary secrets and their unique cookbooks decreases. After the last recipe from a player's cookbook is stolen, the player must leave the game. The last surviving player with recipes that have not been revealed is the winner.
Gameplay
On his turn the starting player has to take one of the following actions:
- Take a card from the market into his hand (the market is filled with a new card from the drawing deck).
- Take the top card of the drawing deck.
- Improve a card. The active player could play two ingredient cards of the same type in order to improve a card of his cookbook that is of the same type. He should place one of these cards in the discard pile, and the other one (improving card) - face down, under the improved cookbook card.
Whenever an opponent wants to steal a recipe containing an improved card, he should give one more card of the improved card type. The improved card cannot be improved for the second time. In the example above a recipe contains one improved "milk" card and two "cream" cards. The player that wants to steal this recipe must play 2 "milk" and 2 "cream" cards from his hand.
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Exchange an ingredient card from his hand with a card from another player's cookbook. An improved card can also be exchanged. The card you have exchanged for an improved card becomes improved itself. Place it at the same position like the old improved card, over the face down improving card.
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Steal an opponent's recipe. If the active player holds in his hand the full set of ingredient cards of an opponent's recipe (row or column in an opponent's cookbook), he can play the cards from his hand (place them into the discard pile) to steal this recipe. If the stolen recipe contains at least 3 cards, the active player must choose 1 card of them and takes it in his hand. The other cards from the opponent's recipe that has been stolen should be discarded. In "Clash of sweets" it is not allowed to use 3 ingredient cards of the same type instead of any other ingredient card when stealing a recipe, as opposed to "MasterSweets".
Example 1: The active player steals a recipe that contains 1 improved "milk" and 1 improved "cream" card. He must play 2 "milk" and 2 "cream" cards to steal this recipe. But the recipe contains only 2 cards and after stealing, they must be discarded. Discard also the improving cards under the "milk" and the "cream" card from the recipe. The player doesn't take any card in his hand.
Example 2: The active player steals a recipe that contains 1 unimproved "sugar", 1 unimproved "chocolate" and 1 unimproved "butter" card. The recipe contains 3 cards and after stealing, the active player must choose to take one of these 3 cards in his hand and must discard the other 2 cards.
- Play a special card from his hand. In "Clash of sweets" the special cards' text doesn't matter. When playing a special card the action indicated with an icon at the bottom of the card should be played. There are four types of action icons:
- Draw 4 cards from the drawing deck.
- Place the special card face down under a card from your cookbook. This card becomes improved.
- Place one card from the other player's cookbook into the discard pile. If the card is improved, it remains in the other player's cookbook but the card under it (the improving card) should be placed in the discard pile.
- Exchange up to 2 cards from your hand with up to 2 cards from your cookbook.
Important: If the active player has more than 10 (8 if you play with 5 players) cards at the end of his turn he must discard cards until he has only 10 (8) cards in his hand.
After the player has finished the action he has chosen, his turn is over and it's the next player's turn.
Sweets Workshop
Game for 2 to 5 players.
A royalty has noticed our masters of the sweets. She wants them to make incredible sweets for her birthday. Now the players must combine their efforts and team up in order to exactly fulfil all the royal's requirements.
Components
"Sweets workshop" is played only with the ingredient cards. The special and role cards are not part of the game.
Setup
- Prepare the drawing deck. Shuffle the ingredient cards face down.
- Build a cookbook with a square form and size 5x5 cards. When building a cookbook, if an ingredient card is drawn and already there are 5 cards of its type in the cookbook, shuffle this card back to the drawing deck and draw a new card instead of it. If you want the game to be more difficult, build a cookbook with rectangular form and size 5x6 cards.
- Deal cards to each player according to the number of players. For a game with 2 players – 7 cards per player, 3 players – 6 cards, 4 or 5 players – 5 cards. Important- the players must not look at their cards when they are dealt. Each player must hold his cards facing the other players. Thus, each player can see the other players' cards faces but cannot see the cards faces in his hand.
Game Goal
The goal in "Sweet workshop" is to succeed, as a team, in completing all the recipes from the cookbook.
Gameplay
During the game, all the played (discarded) cards are placed aside and are no longer in the game. On his turn, the active player has to take one of the following actions:
- Point a card from the cookbook and then discard a card from his hand. If the discarded card is of the same type as the one that has been pointed at, turn the cookbook card face down.
- Discard a card from his hand and exchange the position of 2 cards from the cookbook.
- Discard 2 cards from his hand in order to discard a card from the cookbook. Replace the discarded cookbook card with a new card from the drawing deck. This action is not allowed when the drawing deck is empty.
- Discard a card from his hand in order to give a clue to another player, what cards he holds in his hand. The active player must indicate – by pointing – which cards he is offering a clue about. Two types of clues are allowed:
A) A clue about one, and only one value. He must choose a value – 1, 3 or 5, say this value and indicate by pointing which cards of one team-mate has the same value. For example: "You have '5' point cards, here and here and…".
Important – the player must give a full clue: If the player has three '5' point cards the clue-giver must indicate all three cards.
B) Point a row or a column (recipe) in the cookbook. Afterwards, the active player should point out all cards from one team-mate hand that are of the same type as at least one card from the selected row or column. For example: "Here and here and here… you have the same cards like in this recipe".
Important – the player must give a full clue. If the player has four cards of the same type like the cards in the recipe, the clue-giver must indicate all four cards.
At the end of his turn, the active player must draw cards from the drawing deck (without looking at them) until he fills up the starting amount of cards in his hand. If the drawing deck is empty do not draw cards. Once discarded a card can not be used again in the game.
Game End
There are two possible endings of "Sweets workshop" game:
- All cards in the cookbook are face down, then the queen is happy and all players win together.
- The drawing deck is empty and the players don't have any cards in their hands, but in the cookbook, there are still cards face up, then all players lose together.
Alone in the Kitchen
Game for only 1 player.
To be a true master of the sweets, you need a lot of workouts. The best workout is when you are confronted with your own best achievements.
Components
"Alone in the kitchen" is played with all game cards.
Setup
The setup is the same as the setup in "MasterSweets" for two players. The only difference is that the player can choose whichever role card he wants.
Game Goal
The goal in the "Lonely in the kitchen" is the player to collect more victory points than George "The cake" (his fictional opponent) at the end of the game.
Gameplay
The player starts the game. After his turn, the player and George "The cake" alternate their turns.
- During the player's turn, he can take any action that is allowed in the core game variant "MasterSweets".
- When it is George's turn:
First - discard the rightmost card from the market. Move the other cards from the market one position to the right. For the leftmost position draw a new card from the drawing deck.
Second - draw the top card from the drawing deck. If it is a special card discard it and draw a new card instead. George "The cake" places a card from the cookbook that is of the same type as the drawn card in his completed sweets. If in the cookbook there are more than one card of the same type like the drawn card, the player can choose which card George "The cake" should take. If there is no card of the same type in the cookbook, the player must choose another card that gives the same amount of victory points. If there isn't a card that gives the same amount of points, the player can choose any one card from the cookbook to place in George's completed sweets.
Example: The drawn card is "sugar". The player must look for the "sugar" card in the cookbook. If there are "sugar" cards he must choose one of them to give to George. If there isn't any "sugar" card the player must look for another "5" point cards. If there are "chocolate" or "butter" cards, he must choose one of them. If in the cookbook there are no "sugar", "chocolate" and "butter" cards, the player can choose any card that he wants to pick in George's completed sweets.
Game End
When the last recipe is completed (there are no cards left in the cookbook), the game ends. If the player has more victory points in his completed sweets than George "The cake" has in his completed sweets, the player wins. Otherwise, George once again [text clipped by the page's border in the source rulebook — the line reads "...George once again" then resumes "his nickname."] his nickname.