Merchants Cove: Master Craft Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
• Concepts
• Gameplay - Faction Festival
• Gameplay - New Features
  • Paladins
  • Paladin Card
  • Paladin Good
  • Advertisements
  • Display Shelves
  • Enchantments
  • Framing
  • Honor Tokens
• Rogue Cards
  • 15 Conspirators
  • 16 Union Buster
• Townsfolk Cards
• Paladin Cards
  • Oath of Honor
  • Oath of Glory
• Differences from the Production Rulebook

Setup

1. Place the Faction Festival board into the designated position below the main board. a) Each player places 3 Assistants of their color at the starting position. b) Place the Glory, Paladin goods, Display Cases, Advertisements, and Enchantments nearby.
2. Place the Paladin faction hall token onto the main board in its designated position.
   • This will take the normal spot for Townsfolk cards. a) Place the Townsfolk deck face-up below the left-most Townsfolk card.
3. Place a random (or chosen) Paladin card face-up above the Rogue card.
4. Place 3 Paladins into the Paladin faction Hall, and place the other 4 into the Adventurer bag.
   • Remove 1 of each color of Customer and return them to the box.

Concepts

(The printed "Concepts" flavour paragraph is reproduced in the Table of Contents above.)

Gameplay - Faction Festival

Each time you spend 1 or more Hours while taking an action, you may additionally move your assistants.

[The printed page shows a diagram of the Festival tracks with arrows indicating assistant movement along each path.]

You can move your assistants a total number of spaces equal to the Hours you spent. You can divide the movement between multiple assistants, or use all of it on a single assistant.

At any point during your turn (that is, before moving your timepiece on the clock), you may reset an Assistant back to the starting position of the festival in order to gain the reward from the space they occupied.

If you have an assistant standing on an Honor space, you may optionally spend 1 Honor token to advance them 1 or 2 spaces forward on that track.

If you cross into the final space of a given track, you will receive an immediate reward (as detailed between the final, and second to final space in the track). The final space on any given track will allow you to gain any 1 previous reward when you reset the position of that assistant.

Gameplay - New Features

Paladins

Paladins are a new type of adventurer that act sort of like a "Wild" customer.

• When a Paladin is on a dock, each player may treat them as a different color of Customer of their Choice.
  • For example, I could treat the Paladin as a Warrior, while another player treats them as a Bard, while a 3rd player also chooses Warrior.
  • Your choice has no impact on other players.
  • Paladins count as a multiplier for the chosen color of adventurer.

Paladin Card

• This card is placed above the Rogue card, and gives the Paladin meeples additional effects.
• If the Paladin docks, the player who caused it receives a personal reward.
• If the Paladin is sent to the Faction Hall, all players receive the reward.

Paladin Good

• Paladin goods are sizeless, and can be sold at any Pier.
• When you sell a Paladin good, choose a single color of Adventurer to sell it to as a single Pier.
• Paladin goods are worth 5 gold as a base value.

Advertisements

• When you gain an Advertisement, place it near your board.
• You will gain Market Phase Sponsorship for it.

Display Shelves

• When you gain a Display Shelf, place it into your supply.
• You may set 1 Good (of any size) onto the Display Shelf when the Market Phase starts.
• Goods sold from on top of a Display Shelf gain +2 base value.

Enchantments

• Attach an Enchantment token to a Good of the indicated size.
• The next time that good is sold, it is worth 2x base value.
• Remove the Enchantment after selling the good.

Framing

• Framing is similar to discarding Corruption.
• When you gain this action, you may discard 1 Corruption.
• Then, all other players lose Gold equal to the penalty from the discarded corruption.
  • Example: If there are 3 Rogues in the Lair, and 2 Wizards in the blue faction Hall - and you use this action to discard a 2-Corruption/1-Blue Icon - then other players would immediately lose 4 Gold (2x3) - (1x2) = 4

Honor Tokens

Honor tokens are a new resource that merchants can gain.

• Any time you are awarded with a sword-symbol, gain one of these tokens.
• Additionally, if a player would be able to discard a Corruption card (usually through a townsfolk or staff effect), but they do not have any Corruption to discard, they instead take 1 Honor token for each card they couldn't discard.
• At any time during play, you may discard an Honor token to discard a Corruption card.

Rogue Cards

15 Conspirators

• Game Setup: 4 in Bag, 3 in Lair
• Round Setup: May be placed on Boats
• Effect: When a Rogue docks, all players can Frame the player to their left.

16 Union Buster

• Game Setup: 3 in Bag, 3 in Lair
• Round Setup: May be placed on Boats
• Effect: When a Rogue docks, all players Fire a Staff member and instantly score their Faction Icons.

Note: the Russian production text for this card differs; see "Differences from the Production Rulebook" below.

Townsfolk Cards

• Exemplars: Gain 1 or 3 Honor
• Pets - (Kickstarter Exclusive): Hiring them costs 1 hour less.

Note: the Russian production text gives Exemplars as "gain 1 or 2 Honor"; see "Differences from the Production Rulebook" below.

Paladin Cards

Oath of Honor

• Game Setup: 5 in Bag, 2 in Paladin Faction Hall
• Effect: When docked, gain Honor. When sent to Faction, all players gain 1 Honor.

Oath of Glory

• Game Setup: 5 in Bag, 2 in Paladin Faction Hall
• Effect: When docked, activate 1 Staff Action. When sent to Faction Hall, all players may activate 1 Staff action.

Differences from the Production Rulebook

Compared against the official Russian production rulebook (Faction Festival, Фабрика игр, 2025, which calls the module "Guild Festival" and the halls "Guild Halls"). Where v0.92 and the production text disagree, the production text is the newer version. Items marked "English only" are printed here but do not appear in the production text reviewed.

• Paladin Good base value: v0.92 says 5 gold; production says 2 gold. Production also says a Paladin good counts as both a small and a large good, rather than being sizeless.
• Union Buster (16): production says that when a ship carrying at least one Rogue docks, all players immediately receive Guild funding (as at end of game) for one of their hired Townsfolk, then discard that Townsfolk to the bottom of the Townsfolk deck. No Corruption penalty applies at that moment. v0.92 instead says all players Fire a Staff member and instantly score their Faction Icons.
• Exemplars: v0.92 says gain 1 or 3 Honor; production says gain 1 or 2 Honor.
• Framing: production says the other players lose gold equal to the number of adventurers in the Rogue Lair. v0.92 says they lose gold equal to the penalty from the discarded Corruption, with a worked example. Production also says the action is "choose and discard 1 Corruption" (v0.92: "you may discard").
• Assistant rewards and Honor spaces: production allows taking a reward, and spending an Honor token on an Honor space, during the Market Phase as well as on your turn. v0.92 allows these only during your turn (for rewards, "before moving your timepiece").
• Honor token to discard Corruption: production says this may be done during your turn; v0.92 says "at any time during play".
• Setup: production places the Honor tokens nearby, alongside the Glory, Paladin goods, Display Cases, Advertisements and Enchantments. It also puts the Festival start token under the clock, with each player's three Assistants placed on that token. v0.92 does not list the Honor tokens in setup step 1b and says only "starting position".
• Advertisements: production says that when you gain one, you choose one of the remaining Advertisement tokens, you may hold several of the same type, and the module requires the Festival module. v0.92 does not state these points.