| Designed by | Cristyn Magnus |
| Players | 2 |
| Length | 30 minutes |
| Extra Material | dice and tokens |
a game of city building
The Grand Duke, who has no heirs, has decreed that his throne will go whoever does the most to lift up and develop the duchy. You are a successful but common merchant, aiming to buy a noble title by impressing the Grand Duke. His health is failing, so you need to hurry.
Components
In addition to an extended Decktet, the game requires resource tokens and several dice.
Tokens: Resource tokens represent goods of various kinds that can be used to secure deeds or develop property. In the game, there are six kinds of resource: one for each of the six Decktet suits. You'll need about 10 or so of each kind. See below for some suggestions regarding tokens.
Dice: You'll need two ten-sided dice (d10s) and one six-sided die (d6).
Setup
Separate the Pawns and Crowns from the deck.
Set the four Pawns and the Excuse in the middle of the table. Each represents a district of the duchy.
Shuffle the Crowns and deal three to each player. These represent your personal resources. Each player starts with three resource tokens, one matching each of their Crowns.
Deal three cards to each player. The first player takes a turn, and play alternates.
Game play
Each turn, do the following in order: (a) roll for and collect resources, (b) play a card, (c) draw a card. Along the way, you may trade resources and/or develop properties to which you have a deed.
a. Roll the dice
Roll both ten-sided dice. If either die is a 1, immediately resolve taxation. Then, both players collect resources based on the higher of the two dice.
Taxation: Roll the six-sided die to determine which resource is taxed: 1 Moons, 2 Suns, 3 Waves, 4 Leaves, 5 Wyrms, 6 Knots. (These are the suits in the usual order of priority.) Any player who has more than one of that resource must immediately discard all but one. Note that resources already spent to develop properties are not affected. Resolve taxation before collecting resources.
Collect resources: Look at the greater of the two die rolls; if the dice are doubles, you still just collect resources once.
If a 10 is rolled, each player collects one resource matching each of their Crown cards; three resources in all.
If a number between 2 and 9 is rolled (as the higher die) you collect resources for each property of that rank that you have in play. If the property is fully developed, you collect a resource matching each of its suits. If you own a deed to the property but it is not fully developed, you collect one resource token matching one of its suits; your choice. Your opponent collects resources similarly. A player who has no properties matching the number rolled collects no resources.
If a 1 is rolled (a pair of 1s) then players collect one matching resource for each Ace property they have in play.
b. Play a card
Either completely develop a new property, buy a deed for a new property, or sell a card. You must do one of these each turn, and you cannot do more than one.
Completely develop a property: In order to play and complete a property on the same turn, you must discard a number of resource tokens equal to the rank of the card. All the resource tokens must match one of the card's suits, and at least one of each suit must be included. For example, 4
could be developed with 1 resource and 3 resources, 2 and 2 , or 3 and 1 .
When you develop a property, you must put it in one of the five districts of the duchy. When it is your first property in the district, the property card must share at least one suit symbol with the Pawn that represents that district. If you already have a property in that district, then the new property must share at least one suit symbol with the immediately previous property. You may play any card as your first property in the district represented by the Excuse; subsequent cards must still match the previous property.
Once you have placed a property, you may not move it to a different district. If there is no district in which you could place a property, then you may not develop it at this time.
Developing an Ace costs 3 resources that matches the suit of the Ace.
Note that you may not develop a new property in a district if you have the deed to a partially-developed property in that district; you must complete development on that property before you can develop a new one there.
Purchase a deed: If you cannot afford to completely develop a property this turn, you may purchase the deed for it and develop it over time. The property will not count toward victory if it is not completed before the end of the game. In order to buy a deed, you must spend two resources; one matching each suit on the card. These resource tokens are paid to the bank.
A deed must be placed in a district, with the same restrictions as developed properties; the deeded property must share at least one suit symbol with the Pawn (if it is your first property in that district) or the previous property (otherwise). Once you have a deed to a property, you may not put another deed in that district or develop another property there until the deeded property is fully developed.
You may spend resources to partially develop a property on the same turn you purchase the deed.
Buying a deed can be a good idea for high rank cards. The property may provide some income while you are developing it, and resources spent on it will be safe from taxation. However, buying a deed ultimately adds two to the resource cost of the property. You should not purchase a deed for a rank 2 card, because you could fully develop the property for the same cost.
If you buy a deed for an Ace, it costs one resource matching the suit of the Ace.
Develop properties: At any time after collecting resources, you may spend resources that match one of the card's suits to develop a deed. If the resources are not enough to complete development, put them on the card. When the total spent in development equals the rank of the card, then the property is fully developed.
Example: A deed for the Mill (8
Resources placed on a deed when it is partially developed are not affected by taxation.
Sell a card: You may discard a card from your hand and collect two resources tokens, one matching each suit on the card. If you discard an Ace, then you collect two tokens matching that Ace.
Note that you must play exactly one card on your turn. As such, you may not sell a card in the same turn that you develop a property outright or buy a deed. Conversely, if you do not have the space or resources to buy any of your cards as properties or deeds, then you must sell one of them.
Trade: At any time during your turn, after resolving die rolls but before drawing a card, you may trade resources with the bank. 3 of any one colour of resource may be traded for 1 of any other colour. You may make multiple trades if you have the resources and desire to do so.
c. Draw a card
Draw one card; this ends your turn.
The first time the draw pile is exhausted, shuffle the discard pile and draw from that. The second time the draw pile is exhausted, each player gets one final turn. After that, the Grand Duke dies and the game ends.
Victory
When the game ends, discard the cards remaining in your hand (you should have two left). Discard any deeded properties which you did not finish developing and any resources spent to partially develop them.
In each district, each player totals up the ranks of their developed properties. An Ace counts as one per property with its suit that you have in that district.
Example: Shar has built the Ace ofand it is the only
in another district where she also has the 3, 5, and 8 of
The player with the higher total for that district scores 1 victory point. If the totals in a district are the same, neither player scores for that district. The player with more districts becomes Grand Duke and wins the game.
If there is a tie in districts: Each player totals the ranks of their developed properties in all districts. The player with the higher total wins.
If there is a tie in total properties: The player holding the greatest number of remaining resources wins.
If this is still a tie, then the game is a draw. Both players get to be the next Grand Duke, on alternate days.
The extended deck
Courts: If you decide to use the Court cards, shuffle them into the deck as additional property cards. A player may sell a Court to collect three resource tokens, one matching each suit on the Court card. A player may develop a Court as a property by spending 10 resource tokens matching any of the three suits, with at least one matching each of the three suits. A developed Court card never provides income, but it counts as rank 10 for purposes of determining victory at the end of the game. A deed for a Court would cost three resource tokens, one matching each suit on the Court card.
Appendix: Resource tokens
- There are Decktet suit chips available for purchase.
- Alternately, you can use any tokens that come in six different colors. For a long time, we used plastic stacking counters that come in the Decktet suit colours. Before we got those, we used poker chips.
- You can print and cut out resource tokens [PDF], but cut paper won't be very substantial.
- With just one kind of token - such as go stones or a single color of poker chip - you can let token placement indicate which kind of resource each token represents. You can print out game mats for this purpose.
- With just one kind of token and no extra equipment, you can set up in this way: Line up your Crowns in the middle, to the right of the Pawns (see below). Placing a token next to a Crown then indicates that you have a resource in that suit.
Credits
Original design and development: Cristyn Magnus
Additional development: P.D. Magnus
Playtesting: Nathan Brown, David Van Slyke, Jorge Arroyo
We just played a game of Magnate tonight and both enjoyed it. I've never played Settlers, so I can't really compare them, but I liked how the game uses the decktet components well, taking advantage of its special characteristics.
The way resources are produced, the higher cards have much better chances of producing than the lower ones, but the lower ones are much easier to place on the board, so our game saw many turns where nothing was produced. I can see how placing deeds for high cards can be useful because you at least get one resource for the card. Also, it's better to have your resources as cards on the board where they're not affected by taxation (Twice in the game I had to pay 4+ resources to the taxman just when I was about to use them to play a higher card!). In this game I was the only one to place a deed, but I think it was worth it in the end, as it won me the district at the end of the game.
Also, it seems that it's easy to score the same number of VPs, as there are just four districts. Our game was decided by the total ranks of the cards as my gf managed to steal a district from me on the last turn. But in the end I totaled 40 vs. her 37. It was pretty close though.
So we both liked the game and will be playing it again. I'm not sure, but maybe I'd like to see cards on the table producing more, as it seems most of the resources (especially at the beginning and middle of the game) come from lucky 10 rolls and selling cards. I'm thinking different ways to do that, maybe if the highest dice doesn't produce anything, let the other die produce, or maybe just rolling one die (did you try this? if so, how did it go?). Of course, if the cards on the table produce more, players will play more cards and sell less cards, so the game will probably end up being shorter…
Anyway, I think it's a good game and these are just random thoughts :D we'll try the game as it is some more times before trying any changes…
I have the rules printed out on this one and I'm looking forward to trying it out, probably this weekend. If it's not solitaire, I have a hard time finding an audience over here for it. Regardless, I want to get a test solo play in before I teach it.
Somewhat off-topic, but is there a vassal module that features the Decktet? I haven't researched it, but it might be handy for playtesting this kind of thing out.
A Vassal module would also be nice to play online… :)
One other thought (having not played the game yet)…
Does it make sense for the districts to instead start with the Aces instead of the Pawns? That would give you 6 districts. The other thing that might be worth doing is not counting the poorest district…. this would give you an odd number and remove some of the tie-breakers. A downside (among others) would be that if you are playing with same-color tokens, you don't have an easy way to track them.
Again, have to tinker, but interesting game concept….
Regarding a Vassal module: Nathan Morse (zefquaavius on BGG) was talked about making one a while back. I don't know if he made any progress on it.
We tried this at one point during development. This would make the game shorter, by taking more cards out of the deck. And there would still be an even (although larger) number of districts. The idea with Pawns is that, with three suits, they give you lots of options as to what you can play there— but with only four districts you can end up unable to develop a property you have a card for in the end game, depending on what you've built so far.
Although calling district control "victory points" may suggest otherwise, the game often ends up as a tie on districts. The first tie-breaker (total rank of developed property) decides many if not most of our games. This is really the only reservation I have about the current design. Your idea of having one of the districts not count is interesting. Another possibility is to use the Excuse as a fifth district.
I don't think one die would work. If all numbers were equally probable and number didn't make any difference for resource production, then there would be no reason to build higher number cards at all (rather than lots of lower number cards). As it is, lower numbers are a better buy with 25 or fewer turns left. (I calculated the expected profit from a property against the cost of developing it, and the expected profit depends on how many turns you'll be able to hold it.)
Allowing the lower die to produce if neither player gets anything from the higher die is an interesting suggestion. You might then buy a deed to catch high rolls if your opponent has a monopoly on a lower number. (But maybe you should buy the deed on the high card anyway. One strategy is to buy a deed for a 9 early in the game but then not develop it. It will give you a trickle of resource, and you can concentrate on building in the other three districts.)
I've started working on a vassal module (very very simple): http://decktet.wikidot.com/forum/t-118560/vassal-module
Another possibility is to use the Excuse as a fifth district.
This idea is worth trying. Elegant, simple and doesn't mess with the core rules.
I assume any suits could be use to build on that district then…
We will give this a go next time…
Yeah, my thought was that your first property in the Excuse district could be anything. After that, it would follow the usual rule: A subsequent property must share a suit with the immediately previous property.
Of course, I haven't tried the game with five districts. Cristyn is sceptical of the idea and suspects that the fifth district would open the game up too much. So let us know how it turns out.
Tonight we played a couple of games of Magnate with 5 districts. Our first impression is mostly positive as both games were won without the need to use a tie breaker. This time we both bought deeds more often (even for cards as low as 6-7) and the game felt very tight although in the end the game wasn't so close, we felt it was so while actually playing.
I'm not sure the fact that there were more districts really affected the game that much. It did feel a bit more open in that we had more options to start building, but as a player has to get 3 points for a sure win, players will still have to fight over at least one district (and in both our games it felt like more). The decision of what districts to fight for and which ones to let go is (I think) harder with this change.
I'd say you should at least give it a try…
We have now tried two games with the Excuse as a fifth district. It changes the strategy, maybe making it richer. I need to try it more before I decide.
I think that five districts might genuinely make games tighter. Even if you have one or two unassailable districts, your opponent might always try to get ahead in the others.
I tried this with my 6-year-old tonight. It was a fun game, although we were both stumped in the beginning and didn't build our resources properly at all. We both pretty much ran out of cubes and had a lot of tax draws.
We played with the Excuse. In the one game we did, we tied on one district (competing Aces) so it didn't matter as we split the other two. I had 7 cards to her 6 cards, however, she's a kid so she gets extra points and I lost.
We put an extra set of colored cubes in the bag, so it was fun, too…
After having played with the new rule several times, 5 districts is now the official rule for Magnate. I've changed the official page.
One suggestion to remove a bit of arbitrariness from the middle district. How about a rule that only aces can be placed next to the Excuse? Makes it a little bit harder but not overwhelmingly so.
It is possible that a player just wouldn't draw any aces, and then they couldn't contend for the middle district at all.
Having played it a lot, I don't feel that there needs to be more restrictions on placement. What you call arbitrariness with the Excuse I think of as freedom!
Obviously, you have played a lot more, and I should play this more myself before suggesting house rules. But I would consider myself lucky not drawing an ace during a whole game of Magnate even with the house rule in place. Thought experiment: We draw from different piles, one has the aces removed. Would you rather play the other deck, monopolizing the Excuse in return for drawing fewer income generating cards?
If there were was a separate pile for Aces and I needed an Ace to start on the Excuse, of course I'd draw an Ace. Giving up the Excuse would be terrible, since there are only five center cards in contention.
In play, the restriction on placing next to a Pawn doesn't really make too much difference. After you have placed your first card there, the Pawn doesn't matter any more. So it is just something to break the symmetry at the very beginning. Since the Excuse can take any first card, it makes sense to save it for last. Similarly, though, once you've played a card at the Excuse then you are constrained by the last card you played there.
I didn't suggest there was a separate deck with only aces to draw, only one complete deck and one with aces removed (and you choose your deck only once per game). Even given my lack of experience with the game I'd gladly take the deck with aces removed over a deck with aces only. My point is that I might even choose it over a complete deck, forfeiting one of the districts in return for generating a higher expected income.
You gave a good explanation why I felt like adding this house rule. "It makes sense to save the Excuse for last". That's one decision which is obvious, and I felt like adding a decision which is non-obvious (build on Excuse with ace or wait for an ace which fits your hand better).
Not being a native speaker but doesn't that mean that one token would have to have three colours?
EDIT: wrong reference to message, should have beesn starting a new thread on the rule wordings.
Hmm… As I read the English phrase "at least one matching each of the three suits", it's ambiguous between requiring three tokens (one for each suit) or one tri-coloured token. That's the grammar of it. Since tokens only represent one suit each, context fixes it to mean three tokens.
Maybe I'll take a crack at rewording it.
Sorry, I am new card gaming and board game scene. I just found out this game, but it's hard to understand the rule. Is there any video out there showing how to play Magnate? Really appreciate any help.
There are two listed at BoardGameGeek; unfortunately the wiki won’t let me link them.
It is easier to pick up new games when you have experience with other games, as game mechanics tend to show patterns between different games. This game has similarities to Settlers of Catan, but also Machi Koro, in that dice decide which cards create wealth in this round. The goal of the game is something which can be described as "majority rule", as not the total value of your cards is counted but the majority at each plot. Think best-of-five match. A game classic using this condition is El Grande.
These are the core elements of the game. You may be able to work out the rules with these elements in mind. It is hard to start on rules if you have no idea what the game is about.
Taxation is used to deter players from hoarding goods (otherwise playing deeds were inefficient).
The set-up is the same as the two-player game, except that the automa opponent doesn't use any tokens. You take all the turns. When you roll a 10 you collect tokens on your three crowns as usual but the automa opponent doesn't.
When you sell a card to gain more tokens, instead of discarding it, you play it as a developed property on your opponent's side. You can choose which district to play it on, but it must match suit as in the regular game. You'll want to put most of the cards in one district and write that one off as a loss, but sometimes the suits won't let you.
If you want to sell a card that can't be placed with either suit you may discard it.
You only run through the deck once since there are no (or very few) discards. Scoring is the same as usual.
To make the game harder:
If one of the suits on your discard is one of your automa opponent's crown suits, you must place it using that suit if possible. If not, you can place it using the other suit. This mimics the two-player game where your opponent is more likely to be able play cards with suits from their crown cards. It makes the game more difficult because it limits where you can play the opponent's cards.