Monasterium Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Materials
Set-Up of the Game
Course of the Game
Building a Church Window
Additional Novices
Fulfilling a Mission
- 3. End of the Round
  - End of a Year
Final Scoring
Appendix
- Missions of the Categories A and B
- Category C Missions

Game Materials

1 large double-sided gameboard
1 Hourglass marker
1 Chalice marker
40 Church Window tiles (8 for each monastery)
10 neutral dice
12 Book tiles*
20 Tool tiles*
30 Soup tiles*
30 Rosary tiles*
36 Influence tiles*
15 Mission cards
4 overview cards

The tiles marked with an * are not limited. If the supply has been used up, you can make do with any substitute parts.

For each player (in 4 player colors):

1 two-part player board (consisting of an Action area, a Church Window area, plus 5 Action tiles and 1 Reroll tile)
1 messenger
24 novices
1 "100-points" tile
3 personal dice
7 marking disks

Put the gameboard in the middle of the table according to the number of players (2 players or 3–4 players).

In the three-player game, you need to cover a few areas in the monasteries. To do so, take novices in the color that is not in play and place them on all the spaces that are marked with a "4." These spaces are then blocked and cannot be occupied by the players' novices.

Set-Up of the Game

Sort the Church Window tiles by color and put 2 tiles per player (i.e., 4, 6 or 8 tiles for 2, 3 or 4 players) on the corresponding spaces in the monastery chapels. The remaining tiles are removed from the game.
Put the Hourglass marker on the first space for the first monastery year.
Lay the Influence tiles, Rosary tiles, Soup tiles, Tool tiles, and Book tiles in separate stacks as the general supply below the Dice spaces of the gameboard (in keeping with the symbols).
Sort the Mission cards by their backs (A, B, and C) and shuffle each of the three piles separately. Then draw 2 cards from each pile and place these cards face up above the gameboard. The remaining Mission cards are removed from the game.
Each player takes the game materials in his chosen color. Put the two parts of your player board together (with the Action area on the left and the Church Window area on the right).
- Then place the Reroll tile – with the active side showing the die – above the Church Window area.
- Lay the Action tiles (send novice – soup – influence – rosary – messenger – joker) – with the standard side (white background) facing up – in the slots of the Action columns (A–E) from left to right in an ascending order: Action tile on the very left (column A), Action tile to its right (column B), and so on, up to column E where you lay the Action tile.
- Put 20 novices on the accordingly marked Action spaces of the Action area and another 4 on the spaces to the right of the rows.
- Place your messenger on the first space of the road.
- Put one of your marking disks on space "0" of the Prestige track; keep the remaining 6 marking disks next to you.
- Take 1 personal die (in your color) and keep it next to you (it will be available to you from the first round on). Put the other two dice next to the gameboard. (You can obtain these additional dice during the course of the game – every time your messenger reaches the last space of the road).
- Distribute the neutral dice among the players according to the number of participants, so that everybody gets the same number of dice (5 dice each in the 2-player game, 3 each in the 3-player game, and 2 each in the 4-player game). Keep these dice with your personal die. Any leftover neutral dice are removed from the game.
- Each player takes 2 Influence tiles, 2 Soup tiles, and 1 Rosary tile from the general supply and keeps them next to his Action board.
The player who last visited a monastery becomes the starting player and gets the Chalice marker as the starting player token. Alternatively, if nobody has done so or can't remember, the youngest player becomes the starting player.

Course of the Game

Monasterium is played over the course of three monastery years, and each year consists of as many rounds as there are players. A monastery year ends when each player has been the starting player once. Consequently, a monastery year consists of 2 rounds in the 2-player game, 3 rounds in the 3-player game, and 4 rounds in the 4-player game.

Each round consists of three phases:

Dice Placement phase → 2. Action phase → 3. End of the round

Game turns are conducted in turn and in clockwise order.

1. Dice Placement Phase

In the dice placement phase, the dice are placed on the Dice spaces of the gameboard. The starting player begins, then the others follow clockwise.

On your turn, you roll exactly once all neutral and personal dice available to you. After that, you choose one number and put all dice showing that number on the corresponding Dice space.

After that, the next player has his turn. Every time it's your turn, you roll your remaining dice anew and place at least one die (skipping a turn is not allowed) – even if all the other players have already placed their dice. This continues until everybody has placed all the dice available to him.

Once all dice of all players have been placed, the Action phase follows.

Example: Barbara rolls a "1" and a "2" with the neutral dice and a "2" with her personal die. She puts the two dice showing a "2" on Dice space "2." It doesn't play a role that there are already dice lying there; the dice with the chosen number are simply added to these.

Using the Reroll Tile

If you are not content with the result of your dice roll, you may use your Reroll tile. To do so, you turn the tile over and reroll as many dice from your last dice roll as you want.

The tile may be used only once per round!

2. Action Phase

This phase also begins with the starting player, and the other players follow in clockwise order. On your turn, you choose one Dice space that contains at least one of your personal dice or a neutral die. You take dice from there, deposit them at the top of the Action tile of your Action area, and then use these dice to carry out actions, one after another. In doing so, you put one die aside for each carried-out action, indicating that this die has been used up for this round. When you have used up all the dice you took, it's the next player's turn. This continues until all dice from all Dice spaces of the gameboard have been taken and used up.

The following rules apply:

You may never take a personal die of another player.
Whenever you choose a Dice space that contains at least one of your personal dice as well as a neutral die, you have to first take all your personal dice from there.
Per turn, you may take a maximum of 3 dice from one of the Dice spaces (numbered 1 through 5). You are allowed to take less than 3 dice, even if you would be able to take 3 dice.
You may take only 1 die per turn from the Dice space showing the "6" (joker).
During a round, you may take dice from the same Dice space even multiple times, provided that, on one of your subsequent turns, there is still either at least one of your personal dice or a neutral die lying there.

For each die you have taken, you can carry out exactly one action. For this, you can always use the standard action of the respective Action column. The standard actions are depicted on the Action tiles and on the Dice spaces of the gameboard. You can activate other action possibilities by sending out novices. As soon as you have activated additional actions in an Action column, you can also use these actions immediately.

Example: The Dice space "5" contains 5 dice in total: 3 neutral ones, plus one of Blue's personal dice and one of Red's personal dice. First, Red chooses this Dice space; he may take up to 3 dice. Since a player always has to take his personal die first, Red takes the red die and 2 neutral white dice and puts them on the Action tile in column "E" of his Action area. Then, Red uses these 3 dice to carry out 3 actions. After that, Green also chooses Dice space "5." Since there are just one blue die and one neutral die left on this space, he can only take the one neutral die. The blue die can only be taken by Blue later on.

Note: If you are not able to carry out any action with one of the dice you have taken, the action goes to waste; that means you have to put the die aside as "used up" without having used it for an action. Forgoing a possible action voluntarily is not allowed.

You can always use the following standard actions:

For each die you use for this action, you may send a novice to a monastery. To do so, you have to observe the rules for the sending of novices (see "Sending out novices").
Take one Soup tile for each die you use for this action.
Take one Influence tile for each die you use for this action.
Take one Rosary tile for each die you use for this action.
For each die you use for this action, you may advance your messenger 1 space on the road (see "Moving your messenger").
Put the "6" die on any Action tile of your Action area. The "6" die is not assigned to any specific action. However, you may use a "6" die to carry out any possible action.

Moving Your Messenger

You may advance your messenger on the road. The messenger moves always in one direction: Starting from the first space, he moves from the very left to the right, until he arrives at the last space. If the messenger moves on from the last space, he is put on the first space again and continues from there.

The messenger gives you benefits: First, you need him to present himself at a monastery so that you are allowed to send novices there. Second, every time the messenger enters or passes a Bonus space, you immediately get this bonus.

Presenting at a monastery: In order for you to be allowed to send novices to a monastery, the messenger first has to present himself there, which means that the messenger has to stand on a Road space connected to the desired monastery.

Note: Once you have sent a novice to the chapel of a monastery, this novice takes over the role of the messenger; that means you may send novices to this monastery anytime, regardless of the messenger's current whereabouts.

As soon as your messenger enters or passes a Bonus space, you immediately get the following bonuses:

You may immediately carry out any possible action (standard action or activated action).
You may immediately take either an Influence tile or a Rosary tile from the general supply.
You may take a Soup tile, or exchange a Soup tile for a Tool tile, or exchange a Tool tile for a Book tile.
You may immediately take a Church Window tile from any monastery. To do this, you don't have to be represented with a novice at the monastery where you take the tile from.
You may immediately take an additional personal die (a die in your player color) and may use it in the current round. Roll this die immediately and place it on the corresponding Dice space of the gameboard. If you haven't yet used your Reroll tile, you may use it even now in order to reroll the die. If you are not able or willing to take the personal die, you may instead advance 5 spaces on the Prestige track.

Sending Out Novices

By using the "Sending out novices" action, you can send out novices from the Action area of your player board to the monasteries on the gameboard and place them there in different areas.

You may principally send out any novice from one of your own Action spaces. Each row stands for a specific monastery area and has different conditions.

Novices can be sent out to a monastery only if one of the following conditions is met:

Your messenger presents himself at a monastery; that means, at the time when the novice is sent out, the messenger has to stand on a Road space that is connected to the monastery where you want to place the novice.
You have already placed one of your novices in the chapel of the monastery. Regardless of your messenger, you may send a novice to such a monastery.

Novices from the top two rows (I and II) can only be sent to buildings. Novices from row III are intended for the chapel, and novices from row IV are placed in the cloisters.

Example: Dennis chooses the novice from row I, column E. He can place the novice at monastery C or monastery E, since his messenger is standing on a Road space that is connected with both of these monasteries. But since he has already placed a novice in the chapel of monastery A, he may send his novice also to monastery A. He chooses monastery A. Since Dennis' novice comes from row I, Dennis may place him only in a building.

Sending Out Novices to a Building (Rows I and II)

There are three types of buildings: Secular buildings (soup), Workshops (tool), and Community rooms (book).

To send out a novice to a secular building, you have to give up a "proponent" in the form of 1 Influence tile and Soup tiles: 2 (for the top row) or 3 (for the second row).
For a workshop, you have to give up 1 Influence tile, too, plus 2 or 3 Tool tiles, depending on the row.
To accommodate a novice in a community room, you have to give up 1 Influence tile and 2 or 3 Book tiles, depending on the row.

You put the required tiles in the common supply and place the novice on a corresponding unoccupied Building space of the chosen monastery. Each building may hold a maximum of one novice. If there is no applicable building free anymore, you may not carry out the action.

Sending out a novice to a building grants you an immediate bonus as follows:

A novice in a secular building gives you 1 immediate point and 1 Tool tile.
A novice in a workshop gives you 2 points and 1 Book tile.
A novice in a community room gives you 3 points and 1 Church Window tile from the monastery where he was placed. (If there is no Church Window tile left in that monastery or if the tile cannot be built in immediately, this bonus goes to waste).

The overview card shows an overview of the bonuses.

Sending Out Novices to the Chapel (Row III)

To send out a novice to a chapel, you choose a figure from row III. When you send out a novice to a chapel for the first time, you need only one "proponent," which means you give up 1 Influence tile from your personal supply. For the second novice you send out to a chapel, you have to give up 2 Influence tiles; and from the third novice on, 3 Influence tiles.

Each chapel may hold several novices, your own and/or those of other players also. However, there is a maximum number, depending on the number of players: In the 2-player game, a chapel may hold 4 novices maximum; in the 3-player game, up to 6; and in the 4-player game, up to 8 novices.

Activating Actions (Rows I, II and III)

As soon as novices from the first, second or third row have been sent out, the actions of the respective space are activated. That means, from now on, the actions of a space without novices can be chosen alternatively to the standard action of the column. So you can always choose whether you want to use your dice for the standard action or an activated alternative action of the respective Action column.

If you have several dice at your disposal, you can distribute these in any way among different actions (standard actions and activated actions) of the respective column. You need to consider, though, that you can use each of the activated actions of the second and the third rows only once per turn.

However, standard actions and activated actions of the first row can be chosen as often as you like.

Alternative Actions of Row I

Advance your messenger 1 space on the road for each die you use for this action.
Take 1 Rosary tile for each die you use for this action.
Take 1 Soup tile for each die you use for this action.
Take 1 Influence tile for each die you use for this action.
For each die you use for this action, you may exchange 1 tile: either a Soup tile for a Tool tile, or a Tool tile for a Book tile.

Alternative Actions of Row II

Actions of this row may be carried out only once per turn.

Take 1 Tool tile.
Send out a novice. To do so, you give up 1 Influence tile less than usually required (the number of Influence tiles that have to be given up can go down to 0).
Take 2 Soup tiles or 2 Influence tiles or 2 Rosary tiles.
Advance your messenger 2 spaces on the road.
You immediately get 3 points. Advance accordingly on the Prestige track.

Alternative Actions of Row III

Actions of this row may be carried out only once per turn.

The alternative action of this row is the same for all dice: Take 1 Church Window tile from a chapel where you have already placed one or more of your novices. If you have placed novices in several chapels, you can choose from where you take the Church Window tile. You always have to build a Church Window tile into the Church Window area of your player board immediately (see "Building a church window").

Note: The activated actions of rows II and III can be carried out multiple times during a round, but only once per turn. If, for instance, you have chosen 3 dice showing a "5," you may carry out the "Get 3 points" action only once. If you have another turn in the same round and choose this Action column again (with another "5" die or with a "6" die you place there), you may carry out another "Get 3 points" action.

Sending Out Novices to the Cloister (Row IV)

Novices who are placed in the cloister are particularly pious people; therefore, they don't need a "proponent" in the form of Influence tiles. Instead, they need a "proponent" at the monastery itself. You can place novices on an unoccupied space of the cloister only if another one of your novices already occupies an adjacent building.

Here, in addition to the condition that either the messenger presents himself at the monastery or one of your own novices has already been placed in the chapel, you need to make sure that you already have one of your own novices in a monastery building and that one of the two adjacent Cloister spaces is yet unoccupied.

To send out a novice to the cloister, you choose a figure from the bottom row and give up Rosary tiles. The first novice you send out costs 1 Rosary tile. For the second novice you send out to a cloister, you have to give up 2 Rosary tiles; and from the third novice from row IV on, you have to give up 3 Rosary tiles. Then you place the chosen novice on an allowable space of the cloister.

After sending out a novice to a cloister, you turn the Action tile of the respective column over, so that the side with the yellow background is visible.

The spaces of row IV are not alternative actions. Consequently, when you send out novices from this row, you don't activate any additional alternative action. Instead, a permanent effect is triggered.

Effects of row IV: You get 1 point for each die that you'll use in the respective column from now on. This is indicated by the turned-over Action tile. If there are any dice left on the Action tile when you turn it over, you immediately get 1 point for each of these dice as well.

Building a Church Window

Church Window tiles are made at each monastery, depicting the imagery that is characteristic for this monastery. One of the tasks at the cathedral school is building the church window for its own cathedral. This is done in the Church Window area of your player board.

You can obtain Church Window tiles in three different ways:

By entering or passing the applicable space on the road. In this case, you may take any tile – no matter whether or not you are represented with a novice at this monastery.
By sending out a novice to a community room. In this case, you may take the tile only from the monastery where you have just sent the novice.
By carrying out the alternative action of row III. In this case, you may take a Church Window tile from a chapel where you are represented with one of your own novices. If you are represented in several chapels, you may choose among these.

To build a Church Window tile into the Church Window area, you need to observe the following rules:

A Church Window tile always has to be built into the Church Window area immediately.
You may choose the row where you want to build in the tile (the first, second or third row). You always have to place the tile on the leftmost unoccupied space of the chosen row. That means, to begin with, always in the first column.
There may not be more than one tile on each space of the Church Window area. Stacking tiles is not allowed.
Once placed, a tile stays in place until the end of the game.
Each row and column may contain only different tiles. That means there may be only one tile from each monastery in each column or row.
If you can't take any tile (e.g., because there isn't any left) or can't build it in (e.g., because there already is a tile from the same monastery in the column or row), this action (or partial action) goes to waste.
When you place a tile in your Church Window area, you get an immediate bonus. The bonus is shown to the left of the row or above the column where the tile was placed. You can choose one of these bonuses (from the row or from the column).

These are the immediate bonuses:

Top row: Immediately take 1 Influence tile.
Middle row: Immediately take 1 Rosary tile.
Bottom row: Immediately advance your messenger 2 spaces.
Column 1: Immediately take 1 Soup tile.
Column 2: Immediately take 1 Tool tile.
Column 3: Immediately take 1 Book tile.

When you complete a row or column in the Church Window area, you get – in addition to the chosen bonus – the points indicated to the right of the row or below the column.

Note: If you manage to cover all nine spaces with Church Window tiles, you gain 3 benefits for placing the ninth tile that completes the church window: 1x the immediate bonus, plus 4 points for completing the column, plus 5 for completing the row (thus, 9 points in total).

Additional Novices

Initially, you have placed one additional novice to the right of each of the rows I–IV in your Action area. If, during the course of the game, you manage to activate a complete row (i.e., send out all 5 novices in that row), you may additionally also immediately send out the novice standing to the right of the row. In doing so, you can freely choose whether you want to send out the novice to a building, to the cloister, or to a chapel. You don't need to give up any tiles for that. However, you have to observe the other rules for sending out novices.

Fulfilling a Mission

If you manage to fulfill one of the six laid-out missions during the course of the game, you may immediately put one of your marking disks on the corresponding Mission card and score for that. For missions of the categories A and B, you get all the more points the earlier you fulfill such a mission. If you fulfill the mission during the first monastery year, you put one of your marking disks on the left space showing an hourglass and immediately score the number of points indicated there. In the second monastery year, you put the marking disk on the Hourglass space in the middle and record the points indicated there. In the third monastery year, you put the marking disk on the right Hourglass space and record the number of points of this space.

The condition of category C missions is that you need to fulfill them at any time before the end of the game in order to score points for them. When you fulfill a category C mission, you place your marking disk in the upper area of the card.

Each player may fulfill every mission once. Consequently, marking disks of several players can be placed on one space.

The missions are explained at the end of these instructions (see Appendix).

3. End of the Round

When there are no dice left on the Dice spaces of the gameboard and all possible actions have been carried out, the round ends. If it has not been the final round of the third monastery year, the next round is prepared as follows:

If you have used your Reroll tile, you turn it back onto its "Reroll" side.
As in the initial set-up, distribute the neutral dice according to the number of players, so that everybody gets the same number of neutral dice.
Take all personal dice that are at your disposal (at least one die, plus additional activated dice, if applicable).
The starting player passes the Chalice marker to his left neighbor.

End of a Year

A monastery year ends when everybody has been the starting player once. Then, in addition to the preparation of the next round, the Hourglass marker is moved forward to the space for the next monastery year.

At the end of the third monastery year, players don't prepare another round. Instead, the game ends and the final scoring takes place.

Final Scoring

After the third monastery year, the game ends. Now, at the final scoring, players determine their points as follows, in this order:

1. Monastery Scoring

Determine for each monastery, one after another, who sent out the most novices there. All novices in buildings, in the cloister, and in the chapel count. The player who provided a monastery with the most novices scores 5 points. In case of a tie, all players with the same highest number of novices score 5 points.

2. Chapel Scoring

Each player totals the number of different monasteries where he has at least one of his novices in the chapel. Depending on the number of different monasteries, a player scores: 1 monastery: 1 point, 2 monasteries: 3 points, 3 monasteries: 6 points, 4 monasteries: 10 points, 5 monasteries: 15 points.

3. Cloister Scoring

The Cloister scoring is determined for each individual monastery and for each player as follows: Add up the number of your novices in the cloister and multiply this number by the number of your novices in the chapel. Then the result is doubled.

Example: At monastery A, Robert has 3 novices in the chapel and 3 in the cloister. He scores 18 points for that (3 novices in the chapel x 3 novices in the cloister = 9 x 2 = 18 points.)

4. Resource Scoring

Finally, you score for your remaining unused resources.

Each Tool tile counts 1 point.
Each Book tile counts 2 points.
Soup tiles, Influence tiles, and Rosary tiles are added up and divided by 2. The (rounded-down) result is the number of points you score for that.

The player with the highest overall score may extol his cathedral school as the most prestigious one. In case of a tie, all tied players are declared winners.

Appendix

Missions of the Categories A and B

For each mission of the categories A and B, you need to send out 3 novices to specific areas. The card indicates which area (chapel, building, and cloister) in what monastery (graphic) needs to be covered.

Category C Missions

Send out at least 12 novices (included any activated ones).
Send out at least 3 novices to community rooms.
Send out at least 6 novices to Cloister spaces.
Use Church Window tiles from all 5 monasteries for the church window of your cathedral.
Manage to get all 3 personal dice.

Author: Arve D. Fühler Illustration: Dennis Lohausen Graphic design and layout: atelier198 Editing: dlp games English translation: Sybille & Bruce Whitehill, "Word for Wort"

Monasterium Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Materials
Set-Up of the Game
Course of the Game
Building a Church Window
Additional Novices
Fulfilling a Mission
- 3. End of the Round
  - End of a Year
Final Scoring
Appendix
- Missions of the Categories A and B
- Category C Missions

Game Materials

1 large double-sided gameboard
1 Hourglass marker
1 Chalice marker
40 Church Window tiles (8 for each monastery)
10 neutral dice
12 Book tiles*
20 Tool tiles*
30 Soup tiles*
30 Rosary tiles*
36 Influence tiles*
15 Mission cards
4 overview cards

The tiles marked with an * are not limited. If the supply has been used up, you can make do with any substitute parts.

For each player (in 4 player colors):

1 two-part player board (consisting of an Action area, a Church Window area, plus 5 Action tiles and 1 Reroll tile)
1 messenger
24 novices
1 "100-points" tile
3 personal dice
7 marking disks

Put the gameboard in the middle of the table according to the number of players (2 players or 3–4 players).

Set-Up of the Game

Sort the Church Window tiles by color and put 2 tiles per player (i.e., 4, 6 or 8 tiles for 2, 3 or 4 players) on the corresponding spaces in the monastery chapels. The remaining tiles are removed from the game.
Put the Hourglass marker on the first space for the first monastery year.
Lay the Influence tiles, Rosary tiles, Soup tiles, Tool tiles, and Book tiles in separate stacks as the general supply below the Dice spaces of the gameboard (in keeping with the symbols).
Sort the Mission cards by their backs (A, B, and C) and shuffle each of the three piles separately. Then draw 2 cards from each pile and place these cards face up above the gameboard. The remaining Mission cards are removed from the game.
Each player takes the game materials in his chosen color. Put the two parts of your player board together (with the Action area on the left and the Church Window area on the right).
- Then place the Reroll tile – with the active side showing the die – above the Church Window area.
- Lay the Action tiles (send novice – soup – influence – rosary – messenger – joker) – with the standard side (white background) facing up – in the slots of the Action columns (A–E) from left to right in an ascending order: Action tile on the very left (column A), Action tile to its right (column B), and so on, up to column E where you lay the Action tile.
- Put 20 novices on the accordingly marked Action spaces of the Action area and another 4 on the spaces to the right of the rows.
- Place your messenger on the first space of the road.
- Put one of your marking disks on space "0" of the Prestige track; keep the remaining 6 marking disks next to you.
- Take 1 personal die (in your color) and keep it next to you (it will be available to you from the first round on). Put the other two dice next to the gameboard. (You can obtain these additional dice during the course of the game – every time your messenger reaches the last space of the road).
- Distribute the neutral dice among the players according to the number of participants, so that everybody gets the same number of dice (5 dice each in the 2-player game, 3 each in the 3-player game, and 2 each in the 4-player game). Keep these dice with your personal die. Any leftover neutral dice are removed from the game.
- Each player takes 2 Influence tiles, 2 Soup tiles, and 1 Rosary tile from the general supply and keeps them next to his Action board.
The player who last visited a monastery becomes the starting player and gets the Chalice marker as the starting player token. Alternatively, if nobody has done so or can't remember, the youngest player becomes the starting player.

Course of the Game

Each round consists of three phases:

Dice Placement phase → 2. Action phase → 3. End of the round

Game turns are conducted in turn and in clockwise order.

1. Dice Placement Phase

In the dice placement phase, the dice are placed on the Dice spaces of the gameboard. The starting player begins, then the others follow clockwise.

On your turn, you roll exactly once all neutral and personal dice available to you. After that, you choose one number and put all dice showing that number on the corresponding Dice space.

Once all dice of all players have been placed, the Action phase follows.

Using the Reroll Tile

If you are not content with the result of your dice roll, you may use your Reroll tile. To do so, you turn the tile over and reroll as many dice from your last dice roll as you want.

The tile may be used only once per round!

2. Action Phase

The following rules apply:

You may never take a personal die of another player.
Whenever you choose a Dice space that contains at least one of your personal dice as well as a neutral die, you have to first take all your personal dice from there.
Per turn, you may take a maximum of 3 dice from one of the Dice spaces (numbered 1 through 5). You are allowed to take less than 3 dice, even if you would be able to take 3 dice.
You may take only 1 die per turn from the Dice space showing the "6" (joker).
During a round, you may take dice from the same Dice space even multiple times, provided that, on one of your subsequent turns, there is still either at least one of your personal dice or a neutral die lying there.

You can always use the following standard actions:

For each die you use for this action, you may send a novice to a monastery. To do so, you have to observe the rules for the sending of novices (see "Sending out novices").
Take one Soup tile for each die you use for this action.
Take one Influence tile for each die you use for this action.
Take one Rosary tile for each die you use for this action.
For each die you use for this action, you may advance your messenger 1 space on the road (see "Moving your messenger").
Put the "6" die on any Action tile of your Action area. The "6" die is not assigned to any specific action. However, you may use a "6" die to carry out any possible action.

Moving Your Messenger

As soon as your messenger enters or passes a Bonus space, you immediately get the following bonuses:

You may immediately carry out any possible action (standard action or activated action).
You may immediately take either an Influence tile or a Rosary tile from the general supply.
You may take a Soup tile, or exchange a Soup tile for a Tool tile, or exchange a Tool tile for a Book tile.
You may immediately take a Church Window tile from any monastery. To do this, you don't have to be represented with a novice at the monastery where you take the tile from.
You may immediately take an additional personal die (a die in your player color) and may use it in the current round. Roll this die immediately and place it on the corresponding Dice space of the gameboard. If you haven't yet used your Reroll tile, you may use it even now in order to reroll the die. If you are not able or willing to take the personal die, you may instead advance 5 spaces on the Prestige track.

Sending Out Novices

By using the "Sending out novices" action, you can send out novices from the Action area of your player board to the monasteries on the gameboard and place them there in different areas.

You may principally send out any novice from one of your own Action spaces. Each row stands for a specific monastery area and has different conditions.

Novices can be sent out to a monastery only if one of the following conditions is met:

Your messenger presents himself at a monastery; that means, at the time when the novice is sent out, the messenger has to stand on a Road space that is connected to the monastery where you want to place the novice.
You have already placed one of your novices in the chapel of the monastery. Regardless of your messenger, you may send a novice to such a monastery.

Novices from the top two rows (I and II) can only be sent to buildings. Novices from row III are intended for the chapel, and novices from row IV are placed in the cloisters.

Sending Out Novices to a Building (Rows I and II)

There are three types of buildings: Secular buildings (soup), Workshops (tool), and Community rooms (book).

To send out a novice to a secular building, you have to give up a "proponent" in the form of 1 Influence tile and Soup tiles: 2 (for the top row) or 3 (for the second row).
For a workshop, you have to give up 1 Influence tile, too, plus 2 or 3 Tool tiles, depending on the row.
To accommodate a novice in a community room, you have to give up 1 Influence tile and 2 or 3 Book tiles, depending on the row.

Sending out a novice to a building grants you an immediate bonus as follows:

A novice in a secular building gives you 1 immediate point and 1 Tool tile.
A novice in a workshop gives you 2 points and 1 Book tile.
A novice in a community room gives you 3 points and 1 Church Window tile from the monastery where he was placed. (If there is no Church Window tile left in that monastery or if the tile cannot be built in immediately, this bonus goes to waste).

The overview card shows an overview of the bonuses.

Sending Out Novices to the Chapel (Row III)

Activating Actions (Rows I, II and III)

However, standard actions and activated actions of the first row can be chosen as often as you like.

Alternative Actions of Row I

Advance your messenger 1 space on the road for each die you use for this action.
Take 1 Rosary tile for each die you use for this action.
Take 1 Soup tile for each die you use for this action.
Take 1 Influence tile for each die you use for this action.
For each die you use for this action, you may exchange 1 tile: either a Soup tile for a Tool tile, or a Tool tile for a Book tile.

Alternative Actions of Row II

Actions of this row may be carried out only once per turn.

Take 1 Tool tile.
Send out a novice. To do so, you give up 1 Influence tile less than usually required (the number of Influence tiles that have to be given up can go down to 0).
Take 2 Soup tiles or 2 Influence tiles or 2 Rosary tiles.
Advance your messenger 2 spaces on the road.
You immediately get 3 points. Advance accordingly on the Prestige track.

Alternative Actions of Row III

Actions of this row may be carried out only once per turn.

Sending Out Novices to the Cloister (Row IV)

After sending out a novice to a cloister, you turn the Action tile of the respective column over, so that the side with the yellow background is visible.

Building a Church Window

You can obtain Church Window tiles in three different ways:

By entering or passing the applicable space on the road. In this case, you may take any tile – no matter whether or not you are represented with a novice at this monastery.
By sending out a novice to a community room. In this case, you may take the tile only from the monastery where you have just sent the novice.
By carrying out the alternative action of row III. In this case, you may take a Church Window tile from a chapel where you are represented with one of your own novices. If you are represented in several chapels, you may choose among these.

To build a Church Window tile into the Church Window area, you need to observe the following rules:

A Church Window tile always has to be built into the Church Window area immediately.
You may choose the row where you want to build in the tile (the first, second or third row). You always have to place the tile on the leftmost unoccupied space of the chosen row. That means, to begin with, always in the first column.
There may not be more than one tile on each space of the Church Window area. Stacking tiles is not allowed.
Once placed, a tile stays in place until the end of the game.
Each row and column may contain only different tiles. That means there may be only one tile from each monastery in each column or row.
If you can't take any tile (e.g., because there isn't any left) or can't build it in (e.g., because there already is a tile from the same monastery in the column or row), this action (or partial action) goes to waste.
When you place a tile in your Church Window area, you get an immediate bonus. The bonus is shown to the left of the row or above the column where the tile was placed. You can choose one of these bonuses (from the row or from the column).

These are the immediate bonuses:

Top row: Immediately take 1 Influence tile.
Middle row: Immediately take 1 Rosary tile.
Bottom row: Immediately advance your messenger 2 spaces.
Column 1: Immediately take 1 Soup tile.
Column 2: Immediately take 1 Tool tile.
Column 3: Immediately take 1 Book tile.

When you complete a row or column in the Church Window area, you get – in addition to the chosen bonus – the points indicated to the right of the row or below the column.

Additional Novices

Fulfilling a Mission

Each player may fulfill every mission once. Consequently, marking disks of several players can be placed on one space.

The missions are explained at the end of these instructions (see Appendix).

3. End of the Round

If you have used your Reroll tile, you turn it back onto its "Reroll" side.
As in the initial set-up, distribute the neutral dice according to the number of players, so that everybody gets the same number of neutral dice.
Take all personal dice that are at your disposal (at least one die, plus additional activated dice, if applicable).
The starting player passes the Chalice marker to his left neighbor.

End of a Year

At the end of the third monastery year, players don't prepare another round. Instead, the game ends and the final scoring takes place.

Final Scoring

After the third monastery year, the game ends. Now, at the final scoring, players determine their points as follows, in this order:

1. Monastery Scoring

2. Chapel Scoring

3. Cloister Scoring

Example: At monastery A, Robert has 3 novices in the chapel and 3 in the cloister. He scores 18 points for that (3 novices in the chapel x 3 novices in the cloister = 9 x 2 = 18 points.)

4. Resource Scoring

Finally, you score for your remaining unused resources.

Each Tool tile counts 1 point.
Each Book tile counts 2 points.
Soup tiles, Influence tiles, and Rosary tiles are added up and divided by 2. The (rounded-down) result is the number of points you score for that.

The player with the highest overall score may extol his cathedral school as the most prestigious one. In case of a tie, all tied players are declared winners.

Appendix

Missions of the Categories A and B

Category C Missions

Send out at least 12 novices (included any activated ones).
Send out at least 3 novices to community rooms.
Send out at least 6 novices to Cloister spaces.
Use Church Window tiles from all 5 monasteries for the church window of your cathedral.
Manage to get all 3 personal dice.

Author: Arve D. Fühler Illustration: Dennis Lohausen Graphic design and layout: atelier198 Editing: dlp games English translation: Sybille & Bruce Whitehill, "Word for Wort"