Trencadís: A Mosaic of Words
Trencadís: A Mosaic of Words Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 49 letter cards scoring 1, 2 or 3 points each
- 1 special letter card
- 1 hourglass card
- 5 landmark cards
- 110 prompt cards
- 60 building tokens (12 per landmark)
- 1 answer pad
- 1 sand timer (30 s)
Game Objective
Build your landmark, one tile at a time.
The game is played over 6 rounds. Each round, build a word and place your tokens on the matching letter cards. At the end of rounds 1, 3 and 6, you win the letter cards where you have the most tokens. After 6 rounds, the player with the most points wins the game and puts the final piece of their trencadís mosaic in place!
Setting Up the Game
- Decide which language you want to play in.
- Take a landmark card, its 12 tokens and 1 answer sheet. Every player also needs a pen or pencil (not included).
- Place the hourglass card in the center of the play area. Put the sand timer on top of it.
- Depending on the language you want to play in, place the special letter card next to the hourglass card with either the ñ side or the ç side face up. If playing in English, leave that card in the box.
- Draw letter cards at random and place them face up next to the hourglass card, creating a mosaic in any shape you like. Use the following number of letter cards (including the special letter card):
- 2 players: 10 cards
- 3 players: 12 cards
- 4 players: 14 cards
- 5 players: 16 cards
- Shuffle the remaining letter cards into a deck and place it face down next to the play area.
- Draw 6 prompt cards at random and place them in a face-down stack on one side of the table. You will use these prompts during the game. Put the remaining prompt cards back in the box.
Round Overview
Six rounds to complete your landmark! Each round of the game includes a word-building phase and a placement phase. Rounds 1, 3 and 6 also include a card-claiming phase.
Word-Building Phase
Design a stunning mosaic for your landmark!
The player with the most colorful outfit flips over the top prompt card and reads it out loud. All players then secretly write a word related to that prompt on their answer sheet.
Try to use as many letter cards on the table as possible, or go for the higher-scoring letters (worth 1, 2 or 3 points). Feel free to use letters that aren't on the table.
Whoever writes their word first flips the sand timer and places it next to their landmark card. After flipping the timer, that player can no longer change their word, and everyone else has 30 seconds to finish writing. Keep your answer sheet hidden at all times.
You must finish writing your word before the timer runs out. If you don't, your word won't count this round.
Example: This round's prompt is FLIGHT. Marina wrote the word AVIATION.
Placement Phase
The best tiles are up for grabs!
The player to the left of whoever flipped the sand timer starts this phase. They flip over their answer sheet, read their word out loud, and place one of their tokens on every letter card that appears in their word without covering the letter. Tokens must be placed in the order the letters appear in the word (see the example below). The other players do the same in clockwise order. The fastest player goes last, allowing them to see where everyone else placed their tokens. Tip: You may stack the tokens if necessary.
Speed Bonus
If you finish writing your word first, you turn over the sand timer and get a special bonus: find the first letter of your word that appears on the table and place 2 tokens (instead of 1) on that card.
Efficiency Bonus
If you write a word that only uses letters that appear on the letter cards (a "perfect word"), you get a 4-point bonus. Mark this on your answer sheet: "+4" in the Efficiency column.
Special Rules
- If a letter in your word appears on multiple cards, you may place your token on whichever of these cards you choose.
- If your word contains the same letter more than once and there are multiple cards with that letter, you may split your tokens between them as you see fit.
- If you don't have enough tokens in your supply, you may pick up tokens you have already placed and reuse them, continuing to follow the order of the letters in your word.
Example: Placement Phase
This round's prompt is FLIGHT. Marina is sitting to the left of Laia, who was the fastest player. She wrote the word AVIATION. She places her tokens on the letters A, V, I, A, T and I. She could have put 2 tokens on the same A card, but instead chose to place them on different cards to increase her chances of winning one.
Robert is the next person to Marina's left. He wrote AIRSPACE and places tokens on the letters A, I, S, A, C and E. He chose to put two tokens on the same A card.
Laia was the first player to finish writing her word (SKYDIVE). Thanks to her speed bonus, she puts 2 tokens on the letter S card. If Laia had written the word PILOT, she would have put 2 tokens on the I card, since I is the first letter in that word that appears on the table.
Card-Claiming Phase
Your landmark takes shape!
This phase occurs at the end of rounds 1, 3 and 6, as indicated on the answer sheet.
Start by counting the tokens on each letter card.
Claim any cards where you have more tokens than any other players. Place the letter cards you won under your landmark card, keeping them hidden until the end of the game. All players take back the tokens they had on those cards and return them to their supply.
In case of a tie, no one wins the card and it stays in place for the next round, along with all tokens on it.
Card-Claiming Bonus
Write the number of letter cards you claimed on the answer sheet. In round 1, each letter card earns a 1-point bonus. In round 3, each letter card earns a 2-point bonus. In round 6, each letter card earns a 3-point bonus!
Example: Card-Claiming Phase
Marina wins the I card, where she has more tokens than the other players, as well as the T and A cards, where she is the only player who has placed tokens. Two players have the same number of tokens on the V card, so they tie and their tokens remain on that card. Marina, Robert and Laia pick up their tokens from the I card, and Marina picks up her tokens from the T and A cards. Marina also scores 3 letter card bonuses.
Robert wins one of the A cards, where he has more tokens than Marina. He also wins the C and E cards. Marina and Robert pick up the tokens on these cards and put them back in their supply. Robert also scores 3 letter card bonuses.
Laia wins the S card — thanks to being the fastest player, she was able to place two tokens there. She also wins the high-scoring K card (3 points), since no one else used that letter, as well as the D card and one of the E cards. Laia and Robert pick up their tokens from those cards and return them to their supply. Finally, Laia scores 4 letter card bonuses.
Getting Ready for the Next Round
Construction continues!
- If the card-claiming phase just happened, place new letter cards in the empty spaces – one letter card for every removed card.
- If there are still prompt cards in the stack, start a new round with the word-building phase. If you have already played through all the prompt cards in the stack, the game ends.
End of the Game
Who will complete their landmark first?
The game ends after the 6th round. Count points as follows:
- Add up the points on all letter cards won.
- Add any efficiency bonuses (+4 for every perfect word).
- Add the bonuses from the card-claiming phases.
The player with the most points wins. In case of a tie, the player who has collected fewer letter cards wins. If there's still a tie, the tied players share the victory.
Example: Laia's answer sheet at the end of the game shows the words Skydive, Plant, Sweat, Eye, Match and Po, with totals of 21 (letter card points), 8 (efficiency bonuses) and 14 (card-claiming bonuses), for a total of 43.
Valid Words
Even Gaudí had to follow the rules.
- You can only write 1 word.
- If you misspell a word, it still counts, but you must place your tokens as if it were spelled correctly.
- You cannot write a word that is a variation on the prompt, like "Beachgoer" for the prompt "Beach."
- All words must be in the language you picked at the beginning of the game, except for any proper names that are not translated.
- Words must be in the singular form where one exists.
- Verbs must be in their base form.
- You may not repeat a word that anyone has already used in a previous round.
- Words that break any of these rules do not score points.
- Important: You cannot use dictionaries or technology during the word-building phase, but you can use them to check spelling in later phases.
Challenging a Word
If you believe another player's word breaks the rules, you may challenge it and explain why. The player whose word was challenged must explain why they chose that word. After that explanation, count down from 3. All players, including the challenged player, vote – thumbs up to accept the word or thumbs down to reject it.
- If the majority of players decide the word is valid, the player who challenged it must remove half of their tokens from the letter cards.
- If the majority decides the word is not valid, the challenged player cannot place any tokens or receive any bonuses this round.
In a 2-player game, or in the event of a tie in the vote, if players cannot agree, the result is decided at random.