Shakespeare: Backstage Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Backstage Set Up
• New Rules
  • Objectives
  • New Actor Powers
• Special: 2-Element Costumes
• Backstage Cards

Contents

9 Character cards (actors), 5 Objective cards, 4 Theater cards, 32 Backstage cards.

Backstage Set Up

• Each player draws 1 Theater card and places it by their individual board.
• The 5 new Objective cards are shuffled together with those from the base game.
• The 9 new actor cards are shuffled together with those from the base game. 9 cards are removed randomly to form the Lord's deck, which is placed face up next to the main board. The remaining actor cards are shuffled together with the other Character cards to form the game's deck.
• The 32 Backstage cards are shuffled to form the Backstage deck. Backstage cards are revealed the same way as Character cards (at the beginning of the game and at each maintenance phase; 4 for 1 & 2 players, 5 for 3 players, 6 for 4 players; the discard pile is shuffled and re-used as a new deck if needed).

New Rules

Phase 1 (Wager): The players wager normally, then all unwagered cylinders are placed on the Backstage deck. For solo games, the player uses their cylinders freely between the activation and Backstage cards.

Phase 2 (Placement & Activation): On their turn, instead of recruiting or activating a character, a player can use a Backstage card. To do so, they move a number of cylinders from the Backstage deck to an available Backstage card (with no cylinders) equal to the card's cost. A player can use this action multiple times per day.

Recruitment Card: To use a Backstage card, a player can move their Recruitment card to it in place of 1 cylinder. The player can do this in combination with other cylinders from the Backstage deck.

Objectives

The player scores 1 prestige point per Assistant card owned (this functions just like a base game Objective).

The objectives can be played at the beginning of the ambiance phase. They have an immediate effect and are then discarded.

• The player may take (non-yellow) costume and set dressing elements from the discard pile whose total value is 6 or less.
• The player may immediately move their ambiance token forward 3 spaces.
• The player may take 1 yellow costume element or scenery piece from the discard pile.
• The player may immediately move forward 1 space on each of the three acts.

New Actor Powers

• Each other player moves back 1 space on the act of their choice.
• The player draws 3 Objective cards, adds 1 to their hand, and places the rest on the bottom of the deck (with Prospero, they draw 6 cards instead of 3).
• The player takes a "+3" token from the reserve.
• The player who owns this actor automatically performs the first action of the day, regardless of their position on the order track. Then turns proceed as normal.
• Each other player loses 1 coin.
• The player moves back 1 space on their own ambiance track.

Special: 2-Element Costumes

Actors with these costumes have no rehearsal powers. When their costumes are complete (made up of 2 elements, scored normally), they can be activated either for an additional quill (Shylock, Mercutio, Hermione) or negative ambiance (Richard III).

Note: 2-element costumes do not count toward the complete costumes objective.

Backstage Cards

• Architect: The player may place 1 set dressing element available that day on the lowest available space on their Theater card (the color of the element depends on the number of cylinders moved to this card). The player applies the effect of the placed element, as well as that of each other element on the Theater card. If the player covers a candle symbol, they immediately score 1 prestige point.

Example: On their turn, Red places a Pink element (2 cylinders) on the second level of their Theater card. They take 1 Pound (effect of the pink element) and each other player lowers their ambiance by 1 (effect of the purple element below).

• Hatter: The player may place a hat on 1 actor (1 cylinder) or 2 actors (3 cylinders). A hat can be any 1 (non-yellow) costume element available that day. It is placed above the actor's leftmost costume space (even if the space is empty). At the end of the game, for each hat, if the values on it and the element below it add up to exactly 6, its owner scores 1 prestige point.

Note: A hat's value does not count toward a costume's value. A player does not have to fill costume spaces from left to right. Actors with 2-element costumes can have hats.

• Double: The player may immediately activate 1 of their value 1 actors (1 cylinder), value 3 actors (2 cylinders), or value 5 actors (3 cylinders), even if the actor is not empty. This allows a player to place their disc on the Initiative track if it was not already there. Shakespeare and Falstaff cannot be activated this way.

• Lord Chamberlain: The player gains 2 Pounds and recruits the top actor card of the Lord deck (1 cylinder) or an actor card of their choice from the Lord deck (2 cylinders). The player cannot turn the actor into an extra.

• Director: The player may place 1 fewer rest token during the next Rest phase (1 cylinder).

• Jeweler: The player may take a yellow scenery element or costume from among those available that day (2 cylinders).

• Barkeep: The player may increase their ambiance by 1 (1 cylinder) or 3 (2 cylinders).

• Kit Marlowe: The player moves 1 space on an Act of their choice (1 cylinder) or 1 space on each Act (3 cylinders). This does not allow a player to place their disc on the Initiative track.

• Merchant: The player may take 1 of the set dressing elements available that day (the color of the element depends on the number of cylinders moved to this card).

• Prompter: The player may recruit this Prompter (1 cylinder). It does not activate. During a rehearsal, for each track, the player can spend 1 Pound to not suffer penalties on that track.

Note: The Prompter and Rag-picker count toward the non-actor character objective.