Tanto Cuore: Romantic Vacation
Tanto Cuore: Romantic Vacation Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Credits
- Game design: Masayuki Kudo
- Developpers: Naoki Kubouchi, Youhei Morizono, Jun-ichi Itoh, Yosito Huruta
- Art direction: Kazuna Shizukuishi
- Graphic design: Jun-ichi Narusawa (Media desk N)
- Translation: Simon Lundstrom
0. Game overview
Tanto Cuore Romantic Vacation is a sequel to Tanto Cuore and Tanto Cuore Expansion and is a deck building card game for 2–4 players. It can be played separately or used together with the Tanto Cuore, Tanto Cuore Expansion or both.
The players take the roles of "masters of house", who have moved out from their mansions to a summer vacation on a southern island. Even here, they employ a lot of cute maids, are served by them while slowly filling out their house (card deck).
When the game ends, the player who has most victory point (VP) gaining maids and (introduced in this set) reminiscence cards is the "perfect master" and the winner of the game.
Go for a maid harem!
- Note: Tanto Cuore means "Much heart" in Italian.
Recommended selection for the first game
| Hyacinth Arrow | Riya Naragasi |
| Evita Catala | Caldina Alley |
| Margareta Torrente | Cynthia Lakes |
| Daphne Coraille | Lydia Leon |
| Fea Primrose | Clorinde Si |
Set-up example
The middle of the table holds the town, from which each player's house draws. A player's house layout consists of: the town in the center, holding the draw deck area, the general maid stacks, and the three face-up Reminiscence cards (with the Reminiscence 1 and 2 draw stack, face down); and each player's house around the table, each with its own draw deck, Beatrice or Sofia maid chief stack, general maids in play, and 1 Love, 2 Love and 3 Love card stacks.
1. Game components
This game consists of this rule book and 278 cards.
- 206 Maid cards
- 32 maid chiefs (green frame) of 2 kinds
- 174 general maids (blue frame) of 16 kinds
- 16 reminiscence cards (yellow frame) of 10 kinds
- 56 love cards (pink frame) of 3 kinds
2. Setup and terminology
Players sit around the game table. In the middle of the table, all available cards are placed; this is called the town. Each player should have enough table space before him to play his cards. This is called the player's house. Each player's house consists of the player's personal draw deck, called the waiting room, discard pile, called the kitchen entrance, play area (where cards are played) and the player's private quarters (an area for cards that you own but that are set aside).
- First, sort out the maid chiefs "Sofia" and "Beatrice" and place them in one stack each in the middle of the table (in the town).
- Secondly, sort out the three Love cards "1 Love", "2 Love", "3 Love" and place them in one stack each in the town.
- Thirdly, sort out the 16 Reminiscence cards, shuffle the "reminiscence 1" and "2" separately, place both in one single face down stack so that the reminiscence 1 are on top, then draw the top three cards and put them beside the draw stack.
- Lastly, select 10 of the 18 General Maids, randomly or by choice, and place them in ten stacks in two rows of five each in the town, preferrably in cost order (the top right figure on each card). Any combination of General Maids is okay. The unused General Maids are put back in the box and not used in the game.
Each player now takes 7 "1 love" cards, and 3 "Beatrice" cards, shuffles them thoroughly, and places them in a face down stack before him – his waiting room. He then draws the top 5 cards and keeps in his hand. This is the staff that stands by his side. To draw cards from the draw deck into one's hand is called to call staff – "staff" being generally "cards". To play cards from his hand onto the playing area is to be served by that staff. Each player's discard pile, where the player discards cards, and also where newly bought cards end up, is called the kitchen entrance. To discard cards is generally called to dismiss staff. To get rid of, or fire staff means to return it to the town. To send staff into your waiting room means, to put the card on top of your draw deck. To send staff to the back of the waiting room means to put it at the bottom of the draw deck.
3. The flow of the game
Decide starting player in any suitable fashion.
Players take turns, with the starting player taking the first turn. Each turn consists of the following four phases (described in detail later in the rules):
- Starting phase (aka "The start of your turn". Certain set-aside cards activate their effect here)
- Serving phase (main game: playing maid cards)
- Employ phase (play love cards, employ new staff)
- Dismiss phase (dismiss used staff, call new)
When the player has finished all four phases, turn goes to the next player in clockwise order. This continues until the game ends, at which point Victory Points are calculated and the winner is determined.
4. The cards
There are three types of cards in this game: Maid cards, Love cards and Reminiscence cards.
Maid cards
There are two types of maids in this set: Maid Chiefs and General Maids. There is also a third kind, called Private Maids, that are not included in this set.
Maid Chiefs (green frame) mostly only generate Victory Points and have little effect during the game.
General Maids (blue frame) are the cards that form the game. You play these during the Serving Phase.
Playing a maid card from your hand (being served by a maid) costs one "serving". Each player has one serving per turn, so basically, the player can only be served by one maid per turn. (However, certain maids generate more "servings" and will thus allow the player be able to be served by more maids).
Maid card anatomy:
- Title – The maid's title
- Name – The maid's name
- Employ cost – The amount of Love required to employ this maid from the town.
- Victory Points – The number of Victory Points this maid is worth.
- Symbol: Callings – The number of extra staff the player will call (number of cards the player must draw from his deck) when being served by this maid.
- Symbol: Love – The amount of extra Love this maid generates when she serves.
- Symbol: Servings – The number of extra Servings this maid generates.
- Symbol: Employments – The number of extra Employments this maid generates.
- Maid category
- Maid effect – A text describing the effect the maid has.
- Flavour text – The maid's standard phrase.
Please note: "Maids" in these rules means collectively general maids and maid chiefs and (if you use cards from other sets) private maids. Love cards are not maids, however, they are part of the staff.
Love cards
Love cards generate Love that is used to employ new staff (buy new cards), and are mostly played during the Employ Phase, but can generally be played at any time.
During a turn, the player may play as many Love cards as he wishes to add to his amount of Love (he might have gained some Love from the maids he played during the Serving Phase). No Servings are needed to play Love cards.
A "1 Love" card will give 1 Love, a "2 Love" cards will give 2 Love and a "3 Love" card will give 3 Love. Obviously enough.
Love is not kept between turns. Any unused Love is lost when the player's turn ends.
Love card anatomy:
- Name – card name
- Employ cost – The amount of Love requires to employ this card from the town.
Reminiscence cards
Reminiscence cards never enter your deck, but are, when acquired, immediately put in your Private Quarters. They generate Victory Points and a one-time powerful effect, but they are not employed by normal means – instead they require you to dismiss a certain combination of staff in order to acquire them.
Reminiscence card anatomy:
- Card name
- Victory Points
- Reminiscence category – either 1 or 2.
- Staff requirement – A list of what staff you must dismiss in order to acquire this card.
- Card effect – The effect you gain when you acquire this card.
When a player is served by a maid, he first receives the bonuses described by the symbols on the card – Servings, Callings, Love and Employments. Of these, Callings are used immediately; the player must call the specified number of staff from his waiting room (draw cards from his deck) as soon as he receives Callings. If there are any maids among the staff the player calls, they may serve the player during this same Serving Phase (provided the player has Servings left).
Servings, Love and Employments, though, are stacked. Servings must be used during the Serving Phase, and Employments and Love are used during the Employ Phase, but they do not need to be used immediately. However, no Servings, Love or Employments carry over into the next turn – they are all lost in the players' Dismiss Phase.
Any text on the maid card is resolved after the player has received the symbol bonuses.
Certain maids may, instead of serving the player, become chambermaids. To chambermaid a maid means to set her aside from the playing area, in the player's Private Quarters (the area beside the play area, reserved for set-aside cards). Chambermaids will not be dismissed during the Dismiss phase, but the player retains ownership. For details, see "6. Chambermaids".
Any time during the serving phase, but only once per turn, the player may acquire one of the three face-up Reminiscence cards. This is done by dismissing staff (discarding cards) that fit the description on the Reminiscence card. Please note only staff by your side (in your hand) may be dismissed, not maids that have already served you (been played). Reminiscence cards are placed directly in your Private Quarters and stay there until any card effect forces them away. As soon as a Reminiscence is acquired, its effects are applied and a new one is drawn to replace it (as long as the draw deck allows.)
If nothing else is stated, the serving phase ends when the player decides to end it. Usually, it ends when the player has no more Servings or maids by his side. Strictly spoken, however, the phase does not end just because the player runs out of Servings; any effects that must take place during the Serving phase may still be applied even if the player has no Servings left. As stated earlier, no Servings are carried over to the next turn.
5. Phase details
5-1 Starting phase
If you have a Valencia as a chambermaid, her chambermaid bonus effect may be applied now if you wish. Also, if you are using Private Maids and/or events from other Tanto Cuore sets, some of those effects are applied in this phase, please refer to those rules.
5-2 Serving Phase
The main phase. It's during this phase that the player plays (is served by) General Maids (sometimes even Maid Chiefs) to gain their effects.
Being served by a maid costs (unless anything else is stated) one (1) "serving", and each player gets only one serving at the start of his Serving Phase. This means that each player can only be served by one maid per turn, unless he is served by a maid that generates more servings. (Please note that only playing maid cards from your hand costs servings. Gaining effects from chambermaids (see later) does not cost Servings).
5-3 Employ Phase
After the player has been served by his maid(s), he may employ staff from the town, i.e buy a card from the town. A player can only employ 1 staff member per turn, unless maid effects have increased this number.
To employ a card, the player must have the necessary amount of Love to give to the new staff member. The player may, in the Employ Phase, play any amount of Love cards from his hand to add to any Love he might have gained from being served by maids during the Serving. It does not cost any Servings to play Love cards.
Employing one staff member also costs 1 Employment. Each player gets only 1 Employment at the start of each of his Employ Phases, which means he may employ at least 1 staff member per turn. However, if the player has gained more Employments from maid effects, he may employ as much staff as his number of Employments allow, but he must have enough Love to give to all of the employed staff.
Newly employed General maids and Love cards go to your kitchen entrance. Please note that newly employed staff doesn't go into your waiting room (draw deck) or to your side (hand), nor into any other player's kitchen entrance, unless specifically stated.
Also note that Reminiscence cards cannot be gained this way. They are gained during the Serving phase, and not by giving Love, but by dismissing staff.
The Employment Phase ends when the player runs out of Employments or Love, or, strictly spoken, when he decides to end it.
5-4 Dismiss Phase
The final part of a player's turn. All staff that served the player, and all staff still by his side, are dismissed (all played cards and cards left in hand are put in the player's discard pile). However, the staff in the player's Private Quarters (Private Maids, Chambermaids, Reminiscence cards etc) stay where they are, they are not dismissed.
Next, the player calls five staff members from the waiting room (draws five cards from his deck). If the waiting room runs out of staff (no cards in the draw pile), the player calls as many as he can, then all staff in the kitchen entrance rush in total disorder to the waiting room (shuffle the discard pile and form a new draw deck) and then the player calls those missing.
As mentioned earlier, all excess Love, Servings and Employments are lost at this point. They do not carry over to the next turn.
Generally about the reshuffling the deck:
The staff doesn't reorganize just because the Waiting Room is empty. They don't notice anything until the master Calls and no one is there. When that happens, they run so chaotically to the Waiting Room that they're all mixed up and the ones who happen to end up closest to the door go to their master's side.
Technically spoken, this means that you don't reshuffle your discard pile until you must draw a card and your draw deck is empty.
6. Details: Chambermaids
Certain maids have the title Chambermaid or Chambermaid chief. These may become Chambermaids, which means they can be set aside of the playing area, in the player's Private Quarters, instead of serving the player. None of their bonuses or effects will happen and they and will not be dismissed in the Dismiss phase. They will stay in the player's private quarters until the end of the game or some effect forces them away. The player retains ownership and any Victory Points are still valid.
To chambermaid a maid usually costs 1 Serving, but chambermaiding a maid chief can cost 2 Servings – it's noted on the card.
Some Chambermaids have a so-called Chambermaid Bonus. The Chambermaid bonus is not applicable unless the maid is a chambermaid, and can thus not be activated if you are served by her normally or, in the case of end-game Victory Point bonuses, she is in your waiting room when the game ends. However, gaining this chambermaid effect doesn't cost any servings.
7. Details: Private Maids
Private Maids are not included in this set, but are part of the Tanto Cuore base set and Tanto Cuore Expansion. They can be seen as instant chambermaids. Once employed, a private maid goes straight to your private quarters and will generate her effect once (and only once) each turn. Some private maids are sent to other players' private quarters instead and might generate bad effects.
For details, please refer to the respective rule books of the sets that contain Private Maids.
8. Details: Reminiscence cards
Reminiscence cards are, strictly spoken, Victory Point cards that do not enter your deck. Instead, when acquired, they are put in your Private Quarters and will sit there for the remainder of the game unless some card effect forces them away.
Reminiscence cards are acquired during the Serving phase, by dismissing staff that meets the requirements on the Reminiscence card.
As soon as a Reminiscence card is acquired, its effects are applied and a new reminiscence card is drawn to replace it (if possible). There should always be three face-up Reminiscence cards.
A player may only acquire one of the three face-up Reminiscence cards, and only one Reminiscence card per turn.
9. Example of play
Raoul, Baron and Claris are playing the game. It's Raoul's turn.
Raoul has Clorinde, Beatrice, Evita, Hyacinth and "3 Love" by his side.
Raoul has no Valencia as chambermaid, so nothing happens during the Starting Phase.
Serving phase: Raoul gets one Serving, and uses it to be served by Clorinde. Her bonus is 1 Calling and 2 servings. Raoul immediately calls 1 staff member (draws one card) and it turns out to be Sofia. Raoul is happy. Of course, Sofia is of no use during play, but Raoul likes Sofia even more than he likes Lilac (from Expansion) so he gets all happy anyway.
Among the face-up Reminiscence cards, there is the Scary Night, so Raoul dismisses Evita and Hyacinth from his hand to acquire that card and he places it in his Private Quarters. (What happens is that Raoul, Evita and Hyacinth had this scary night together, which is like awesome and might make Raoul be crowned as the King of Maids.)
As an effect of Raoul's Scary Night, Baron and Claris has to dismiss staff so they only have 3 staff members left by their sides. Take that!
Raoul has 2 servings left and he uses both to chambermaid Beatrice.
Now he doesn't have any Servings left, so he ends the Serving phase and goes to the Employ phase.
Raoul gets 1 Employment, and plays a "3 Love" card. He may employ 1 staff member and he employs one Margareta, and sends her to his kitchen entrance. That took the only employment he had, so being unable to employ more staff, he ends the phase.
Time for the Dismiss phase. Raoul dismisses Clorinde and the "3 Love" that served him. He also dismisses Sofia from his side, though he'd really like her to stay, useless as she might be.
However, the Beatrice that he chambermaided, and the Scary Night that he acquired are in his Private Quarters and are thus not dismissed.
He then calls five new staff members (draws five cards). His turn is finished, and it's Baron's turn.
10. Game end and victory
When two maid piles in the town has run out, the game ends when the current player has finished his turn.
Please note that Reminiscence cards and Love cards are not maid cards. However, the game also ends immediately if a player acquires the "Camp Fire" Reminiscence card.
Each player counts his number of Victory Points on all his cards. Victory points are marked in the top right of each card. Some cards have a '?' mark there – their victory points only count if the requirement is met. Also, even cards that have a fixed VP number may have bonuses or penalties – don't forget to check the end game bonuses.
- For easiness sake, all staff still standing by their master's side, and in the Kitchen Entrances, go to their respective Waiting Rooms to match up (put all cards in hand and in the discard pile into the draw deck).
- If you're playing with the Event cards from the Tanto Cuore base set, then remove all your Private/Chambermaids that are ill.
- Then count all Victory Points from the maids and reminiscence cards in your Private Quarters, not forgetting any Chambermaid end game bonuses.
- Then add to that all Victory Points from the maids in your Waiting Room. Don't forget any final bonuses that apply to both your Private Quarters and your Waiting Room.
- Finally, if you're playing with the Event cards from the Tanto Cuore base set, subtract any penalties you get from Bad Habits.
The player with the most Victory Points is the winner. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most non-VP generating maids win. If it's still a tie, then it's a tie. The winner is crowned the King of maids.
11. Rule notes
How much staff are left in each waiting room, how many maids left in each pile in the town, and any face-up cards in player's private quarters (chambermaids et al) are always open information to all. However, the players' kitchen entrances are not. Only the top card should be visible, and players are not allowed to walk into any one's kitchen. For holiness' sake, a master of house doesn't walk into the kitchen!
For a speedier game when playing 2 players, remove 3 cards from each stack of General Maids and Maid chiefs, and also remove all duplicates from the Reminiscence cards, leaving you with only 10 Reminiscence cards.
Combining Vacation with the base Tanto Cuore set and/or Tanto Cuore Expansion
- Use all the set-special cards from the sets your using: Event cards from the base set, Building cards from Expansion and Reminiscence cards from Vacation.
- Use the set of 2 maid chiefs from one of the sets you're using: Colette/Marianne from the base set, Aline/Claudine from Expansion or Beatrice/Sofia from Vacation. (If you use Claudine instead of Sofia, Raoul is going to… well, you don't want to know.)
- Use one set of Love cards from any set (unless you're playing 5 or more players).
- Use all Private Maids from the sets your using, shuffled into one pile.
- Select 10 General Maids, randomly or intentionally, in any combination, from one or several of the sets you're using.
- Game end condition doesn't change.
For playing 5 or more players
You need to use two sets of Love cards, from any Tanto Cuore sets. Also, game end condition changes to when three (not two) maid piles are exhausted.
FAQs and others can be found at the Arclight website http://www.arclight.co.jp/tc/
Art credits
Inugami Kira, Onineko, Kuramoto Kaya, Sato Satoru, Natsuki Koko, Harada Takehito, Matoki Misa, Yasuyuki, Yukiwo, Ekusa Takahito, Kinoshita Ichi, Ko~cha, Samba Sou, Nishida, Fujii Rino, Miyashita Miki, Yamda J-ta, Ruchie, F.S, Kusaka Souji, COMTA, Tatekawa Mako, Poyoyon Rock, Miyasu Risa, Yamadori Ofu, refeia
Cover illustration: Inugami Kira