Town Crier

Set in the village of Rothenburg Germany, The Town Square is where Artisans meet to hear the information given from the local Town Crier. He declares that the King is seeking the most influential patron of the city, which will be one of you. Using the 6 influential guilds in town, players compete to gain the most influence points and become the next leader.

Town Crier is played over 3 rounds, which represents the expansion of the village. Each round, players will have a number of phases where they will:

1. Recruit Artisans (draft dice)
2. Use guilds (buy cards from the various guilds to use in a number of ways)
3. Compete in a tournament
4. Check for area control.

Here is a more detailed overview of the phases:

1. Recruit artisans: There are a total of 36 dice, 6 each of 6 different colors. The color or the dice are their primary skill, the number representing their secondary skill. The courtyard board has 16 spaces in a 4x4 square. On a player's turn, they will move the town crier to one of the 4 sides of the courtyard board to shift all Artisans in the chosen direction, attempting to group together dice sharing similar attributes. The board is filled in with random dice form the bag, then the player chooses a group of adjacent dice which share either the same color or same number. Taking this group leave a void on the board which the next player will consider when choosing the new direction to shift the dice using the Town Crier. After all dice have been drafted, the play goes to the next phase.

2. Use Guilds: There are a total of 6 guilds, each represented by the 6 colors of the dice. These guilds are made of a small deck of cards each with their own abilities and purpose:

Building (Green): These buildings give players abilities to create additional artisans or manipulate their color or numbers. When purchased, players have this ability available for the remainder of the game. Buildings also allow the players to place building tokens on the map in attempts to control the various districts.

Apprentices (White): Work similar to buildings, but give players more rule-breaking abilities and also place meeples on the map to help with area control.

Characters (Yellow): This are the paid adventurers who will compete in various tournaments for your gain. Each character has 3 attributes to use for the various tournament events: Strength, Speed, and Accuracy. which range from 1-5.

Weapons (Red): These are used to boost your characters during their competition in the tournaments by adding to their attributes.

Market (Blue): This is the location where you can purchase various tokens, which may replacements for Artisans, victory points, or other small abilities, which do not need to be used and can be stored for later use.

Underground (Black): This guild provides players with one time abilities to manipulate the other players, benefit all players or hinder opponents progress.

During this phase of the game, players will spend their Artisans in exchange for the cost listed on these cards to gain the card for the rest of the game. This represents the artisans working to help complete the cards project. The numbers on the dice also represent their secondary abilities, which can be used for various effect like skills tokens for the tournament, etc.

1. Tournament phase. Each round, 3 tournaments are conducted to give players points. In order, the first event always tests a single attribute. Players each choose a character and optional weapon and attribute tokens. All are revealed at the same time and points are awarded to players in order of their placement in the event. The player who receives the win for the event retires their character and weapon used from the game, and all others may keep their characters and weapons for upcoming events. The second event combines 2 of the 3 attributes for a total and is worth more points. The third event in each tournament adds a slight variation, like combining all three attributes, highest single attribute or each attribute separately for the most points.

2. Check for area control. The final phase is when players gain points for controlling the various areas in the town. The first round, players will score points for controlling the center of town and the oldest part of the town. Each round after, the town grows a bit more for for control options, until the final round which scores the entire map.

After 3 full rounds of play, the player who has accumulated the most points through the game will emerge as the winner!