Mooncake Master (2019 Edition)
Mooncake Master (2019 Edition) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- A. 72 Mooncake tiles
- B. 12 Customer cards
- C. 6 Scoring guides
- D. 6 Scoring tokens
- E. 1 Scoreboard
Play time 20-30 minutes. 2-6 players. Ages 10+.
Setup
- Each player chooses 1 Scoring token in their colour and places it on the 0 space on the Scoreboard.
- Give each player one Scoring guide.
- Shuffle the Mooncake tiles face-down and place them in the centre of the table in reach of all players.
- Shuffle the Customer cards to form a deck. Flip over 1 Customer card face-up into the middle of the playing area in view of all players.
- You are now ready to play Mooncake Master!
Flow of the Game
Each round will consist of 4 turns. In each turn, all players will play simultaneously. The turn unfolds in 3 phases:
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Draw 3 tiles: All players draw 3 tiles face-down from the draw pile.
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Choose and Share: Players each choose one tile to keep face-down, one tile to pass to their left neighbour and one tile to pass to their right neighbour. They are encouraged to look at their neighbours' already placed tiles to make their decision.
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Pick and Place: When all players have received their tiles, fit them together to form mooncakes. See placement restrictions below for more details.
Placement Restrictions
4 tiles fit together to form 1 mooncake circle. Tiles may not be moved once placed. On a turn, you may place your 3 tiles in up to 3 different mooncakes. You may also place two tiles diagonally across from each other in the same mooncake.
Once all players have placed their 3 tiles, the turn is over. Once 4 turns are over, you will have completed your 3 mooncakes.
End of the Round and Scoring
The round ends when all players have exactly 12 tiles and 3 mooncakes formed in their playing area. All players will now score their mooncakes in two steps, (a) Taste scoring and (b) Customer scoring.
(a) Taste Scoring
First, for (a), tally the Taste Value for all players. The Taste Value is calculated by the following table (icons are rendered as words):
- 1 flavour (blue "1" icon): 3 taste
- 2 flavours (blue "2" icon): 1 taste
- 3 flavours (blue "3" icon): 0 taste
- Each yolk (salted egg yolk icon): 1 taste
- No half yolks (half yolk icon crossed out): 1 taste
- Each complete pair (hazelnut + watermelon seed): 1 taste
Note that all of the scoring conditions above apply per mooncake. For example, if you have 3 seeds in one mooncake and 3 nuts in another mooncake, your Taste Value is 0.
The player(s) with the highest Taste Value at the end of the round scores 2 Festive Points.
The player(s) with the lowest Taste Value scores 0 Festive Points.
All other players score 1 Festive Point.
Whenever a player gains Festive Points, mark this on the scoreboard using their Scoring tokens.
Taste Scoring Example: In a 5 player game, the Taste Value are 15, 15, 13, 12 and 12. The players with a Taste Value of 15 score 2 Festive Points each, and players with a Taste Value of 12 both score 0 Festive Points. The player with a Taste Value of 13 scores 1 Festive Point.
Taste Scoring Example illustration: three mooncakes, each with a Taste Value of 5, for a total Taste Value of 15.
(b) Customer Scoring
For (b), players look to see if they have satisfied any customer(s) in order to sell them mooncakes for Festive Points. Each player looks to see if any single mooncake can satisfy a customer by matching the conditions stated on the Customer card. If they can do so, they may obtain 1 Festive Point per satisfied customer.
Important Note: You can only score ONE mooncake per ONE customer. Therefore, to satisfy 3 customers, you will need to assign 3 different mooncakes to 3 different customers.
Once scoring is complete, the round is over. Flip another Customer card from the deck face-up and place it next to the existing Customer card(s). You should have 2 customers to start round 2 and 3 customers to start round 3. Once the third round is over, proceed to Game End and Scoring below.
The fillings key printed alongside the scoring conditions is:
- Lotus seed paste
- Red bean paste
- Green tea paste
- Hazelnut
- Watermelon seed
- Salted egg yolk
Customer Example: The Customer card asks for a total number of watermelon seeds and hazelnuts = 5, with only 1 flavour.
Game End and Scoring
The game ends after 3 rounds of gameplay. The player with the most Festive Points after 3 rounds wins the game! In the case of a tie, the player with the highest Taste Value in the last round wins the game. If that is tied, then all players share in the victory.