Starving Artists
Starving Artists Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Make it as a world-famous, paint-by-cube artist by selling enough paintings before anyone else.
Components
Your game includes this booklet and the following pieces:
- 8 colors of paint cubes. These will be the paints you use to finish your masterpieces. There are 150 cubes in the following quantities: 30 blue, 20 black, 20 yellow, 20 green, 20 orange, 15 red, 15 violet, and 10 clear (wild).
- 38 Canvas Cards. Canvases have the paintings, a number of squares to place paint, the painting's relative value score, and information about the painting.
- 4 Player Reference & Studio Cards. Each player gets a studio card that includes your current nutrition, which you can track with a yellow progress marker, and a player reference.
- 1 orange carrot for the first player marker.
- 1 parts bag to store the paint cubes.
The Canvas Cards
Canvas Cards are where you will paint. Each Canvas Card has real life information and the following game information:
- Food value, shown by the fork icon.
- Paint value, shown by the brush icon.
- A series of colored boxes, showing which color paint to apply to that part of the canvas to complete it. A reference for paint colors and quantity is included at the bottom of the card.
- Star value, in the upper right corner.
Wild paints
The game contains ten clear paint cubes ("wild"). These cubes can be used as a substitute for any one cube on a canvas.
The Studio Cards
You will have one Player Reference and Studio Card. Along the right, you can track your nutrition (from five to one). The middle features a basic player reference for turn actions: paint, work, buy, and sell. There is also a repeat of the paint colors to help sort your collected paint cubes. Use the two carrot places to track the turns when you are the first player.
How to Set Up the Game
At the start of each game:
- Give the youngest player the carrot. He or she is the first player.
- Give each player a yellow marker and a studio card. Place the yellow marker on the highest nutrition level (i.e., five) on your studio card.
- Put all of the paint cubes in the bag. Starting with the first player, each player draws six paint cubes from the bag.
- Shuffle the Canvas Cards and place them face down in the middle of the table.
- Turn over three Canvas Cards and place them in a line as follows: this is the Canvas Market. As you buy Canvases, the Canvases are shifted to the right and a new one is turned over and placed in the place nearest the deck.
Get Started
You're now ready to play. The game is divided into a series of rounds which represent days.
At the start of each day
Payday pile. The first player adds four paint cubes from the bag to the "payday pile." The payday pile is how much the market will pay for paintings when it is time to sell. You will add to the payday pile when buying Canvases and take from it when selling your completed paintings.
Nutrition level. At the start of every day, except the first, lower your nutrition level by one. If your nutrition goes below 1, you are out of the game, and the remaining players have only one more opportunity each as the first player before the game ends. If you are out of the game, return your paints to the bag. In the case that the "first" player is eliminated, pass the carrot immediately to the next player clockwise and continue as if it is the same day.
Lives of Painters: Player Actions
Each day consists of two rounds of player actions. On the first round, starting with the first player, each player chooses to take one of the following three actions; during the second round, each player chooses again which one of the following three actions to take. The Studio Card has a place to keep track of which number action you are currently taking. Choose one of the following three actions to take on your turn:
Work. You may draw three new paints from the paint bag and add it to your studio, no looking.
Paint. You may apply up to four paints onto any number of Canvases in your studio. On your turn, you do not have to paint all the squares you can, but you must apply a paint color that matches the square. For any square that shows more than one paint color, you can apply either of the colors.
Buy a Canvas. You may purchase one Canvas from the Canvas Market using paints in your studio. The Canvas Market is arranged so that the cost to purchase the Canvas is equal to its position from the deck, from three paint cubes to one paint cube. For example: place any paint cubes you spend to purchase a Canvas Card into the payday pile. Then, shift the canvases down and turn over a new one.
Free actions
In addition to the three actions above, one time during a day you may do one of the following:
Trade for paint cubes. You may trade paint cubes from your studio for paint from the payday pile as follows:
- Two paint cubes for one
- Five paint cubes for two
- Nine paint cubes for three
You may do this at any time so long as it is still your turn, including after you have drawn paint cubes from the bag as part of the work action. Paint cubes you trade are placed in the payday pile. Note, while you may use wilds to trade into the market, you may not trade for any wild paint cubes in the market.
Reset the Canvas market. You may also pay two paint cubes from your studio to the payday pile to reset the Canvas market. In this case, take the three face-up canvases, return them to the bottom of the pile of canvases, and turn over three new ones. You may do this at any time so long as it is still your turn.
Selling Your Paintings
At the end of the day, you may sell any completed paintings. A completed painting is a Canvas with a cube in all of the color squares. You do not have to sell your paintings and can wait for a more lucrative market.
Announcing your decision to sell. Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, players announce whether they are selling one or more of their completed paintings and, if so, which ones.
Selling. If you do decide to sell your painting on this day:
- First, feed yourself. Adjust your nutrition indicator up towards "full" (i.e., 5) by the number of food on the painting. You cannot exceed full. Instead, collect four paint cubes from the bag for each "excess" food.
- Second, return used paint cubes to the bag.
- Third, collect earned paint cubes from the payday pile. Starting with the highest paint value painting and going from highest to lowest value, players take turns collecting paint cubes from the payday pile up to their paint value as follows: (1) the most valuable painting earns its painter four cubes, (2) the second most valuable painting earns its painter two paint cubes, and (3) everyone else takes 1 cube per painting. This process continues until the payday pile is exhausted or you have taken your painting's value in paint. On your turn you may choose whichever paint cubes you want from the payday pile.
Ties. If two or more paintings have the same paint value, the tied players take up to the full amount they can, but the player nearest the first player (in player order) takes first.
Wild Paint Cubes. You may only collect one wild cube per collection turn. Example: You are the only one to sell a painting this round and it is for 8 paints. Only 2 of those paints may be wild. If had sold a painting worth 9 - you may have takes 3 wilds from the market, because you would have had 3 collection turns.
Selling More Than One Painting. If you are selling more than one painting, you take paint cubes from the payday pile for each painting separately, in separate collection actions.
Finally, score your painting. Place your completed painting under your studio so you can see the Star Value for easy tallying of points at the end of the game.
End of the Round
Once every player has sold their paintings, the round ends and a new round begins. Pass the carrot clockwise to the next player.
End of the Game
If any player's nutrition marker moves below one, then that player starves. Once a player starves, the surviving players play one additional day. If the starved player would be the first player, just pass the carrot to the next player. At the end of this additional day, the player with the highest score wins, which could be the player who starved.
If no player starves, the game ends when a player becomes a famous Master Painter by earning the most points (depending on player count):
- 2 players: 20 Star Points or 10 Paintings
- 3 players: 18 Star Points or 9 Paintings
- 4 players: 15 Star Points or 7 Paintings
In the case of a tie based on points, the player with the most completed canvases wins. In case there is still a tie, the player who earned the most food wins.
Considerations for Colorblind Players or Low-Light Conditions
For players who are colorblind, the following helps alleviate any issues players might have:
- Sort the payday pile. Keep the payday pile sorted in rainbow order as it is shown on both the Studio cards and on the Canvases: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and black. As paint cubes are drawn from the bag or paid into the payday pile, sort them in lines.
- Identify the paint colors drawn from the bag. If there's a question about a color, help the other player identify the paint cube. It can then be tracked on the player's Studio card.
- Don't worry about the specific boxes. As long as the player places the proper number of each paint cube on the Canvas, do not worry about whether they're in the proper boxes.
Optional Rules
The following are optional rules:
Color Study. As your free action in a day, you may turn in four paint cubes of the same color in exchange for any color of your choice from the bag. You may do this action instead of your standard trade.
Last Supper. If you would otherwise starve at the start of the next turn (your nutrition is at one), you may discard one completed painting and raise your nutrition level by that painting's star value. You will not count that painting as completed at the end of the game.
Player trades. Once per day, as a free action, you may make a single trade offer to the table. You must trade with the first player to accept your offer. If no one accepts your offer, you may not make another player-trade offer until the next day.
Starving Artists Solo Variant
You are an artist working in the fast-paced world of art. Various art patrons are commissioning great works of art and you must hurry to get them.
Object: Complete 10 paintings or earn 20 points before the commissions run out or you run out of food.
Setting Up a Single Player Game
- Take a studio/player reference card.
- Take a nutrition marker and place it on the five position.
- Place all of the paint cubes in the bag, shake.
- Draw a starting two paint cubes from the bag.
- Shuffle the Canvas cards.
- Set aside 15 cards as they will not be used in this game.
- Place the remainder of the Canvas cards facedown in a draw pile.
- Turn over the top three cards from the Canvas deck.
Game Play
Like the regular game, the solo variant is played over a series of days in which you will take the same sort of actions. The biggest difference is the Canvas market will be continually advancing and, as Canvas Cards are removed, matching paint cubes from the payday pile are returned to the bag.
At the start of each day:
- Lower your nutrition by one (except on the very first day).
- Draw four new paint cubes from the bag and place them in the payday pile.
During the day. As in the regular game, you will perform two of the following actions in any combination, in any order or multiple times:
Work. Draw three new paint cubes from the bag and add them to your studio.
Buy a Canvas. Buy a Canvas from the market. Pay the paint used to buy the Canvas into the payday pile.
Paint. Apply four paint cubes to any canvas you own in your Studio.
Selling a Painting. If you complete a painting, you may sell it at any time. This does not use up any of your actions. Feed yourself by increasing your nutrition by the food value of the painting. You take as many of the available paint cubes from the payday pile as you can, up to the paint value of the painting.
In addition, for a free action, once per day, you may trade two paint cubes for one paint in the market.
At the end of the day. The lowest-cost canvas is removed from the market. For example, if a canvas remains in the one-paint slot, it is removed from the game. If there is not a Canvas Card in the one-paint slot and a painting is in the two-paint slot, the two-slot painting is removed. Any paint cubes in the market that match a space on the removed canvas are returned to the bag. For example, if there are 2 green squares on the canvas and two green cubes in the market, the two green cubes are removed. Player's choice if a square is ¼ colored. Shift canvases remaining in the market to the right until they fill the 1-value slot. Turn over Canvas Cards until there are three face up in the Canvas Market. Now, start the next day.
The Game Ends When…
- You have completed 10 paintings or earned 20 points -- you win.
- You have run out of food -- you lose.
- There are no more Canvas Cards to purchase -- you lose.