Dance of Muses

This game will be on Kickstarter from April 23: https://bit.ly/DoMBGA

Rules version 2.1

SETUP Shuffle the 9 Muses and distribute them randomly in equal numbers to each player. • In a 2-player game, each player will have 4 Muses; • in a 3-player game, each player will have 3 Muses; • in a 4-player game, each player will have 2 Muses.

Players or Teams of players are called a “Company”.

In 2-players and 4-players games, there will be one Muse left over, which should be immediately placed face down on the table (in a 2-players game) or face up (in a 4-players game). Place 1 die of the unchosen color on this “Neutral” Muse, on the side with the value 1.

Each player chooses a color and takes a number of dice of that color equal to the number of Muses they have in hand.

In a 4-players game, it’s 2 players against 2. The Company shares the same dice, and Company members must not sit near to each other at the table.

Players must decide at this point if they want to play a single hand or 2 hands.

Each player rolls a die: the player with the highest value becomes the First Player and places the first Muse on the table, chosen from their hand.

One - and only one - of each player’s Muses (not necessarily the first one) MUST be played face down: this will be a Mysterious Muse. A Mysterious Muse can never be uncovered or revealed before the end of the hand, not even by the player who played it.

After playing a Muse, the First Player places one of their dice in the dedicated space on the Muse they just played, setting it to the value 1.

Continue with the other players in clockwise order: each player must play a Muse from their hand, and then place one of their dice with a value of 1 on them. Muses placed after the first one must always be positioned adjacent orthogonally or diagonally to a Muse already in play.

Once all 9 Muses are placed, the dance can begin!

GAME FLOW

The turn of each player is divided into two actions: - The Dance step (mandatory); - The Muse’s ability (optional).

THE DANCE STEP (mandatory) In their turn, a player must make a move with ANY MUSE IN PLAY, regardless of the die they have on them, in the following way:

1. Move a Muse by “1 step” horizontally or vertically. A “step” is a hypothetical “square” in an imaginary grid composed of squares with dimensions equal to those of a Muse tile. After this move, all Muses must continue to be adjacent and in a single group - never isolated.

The Muse that makes the step can also push all the Muses that stands before them (respect to the movement direction). This is called a “Group Move”. Also the Group Move can be executed only if, after the movement, all Muses remain adjacent and in a single group.

2. After executing the dance step, the player must increase by 1 the value of the dice placed on every Muse involved in the movement: the one that they moved, and the ones that got pushed (if any).

THE MUSE’S ABILITY (optional) BEFORE or AFTER a dance step by a Muse (but not a “Mysterious” one), you can use the ability of the Muse that you moved or you are

about to move, and apply it to one of the Muses that may be within the relevant area of effect.

The Muse using the ability is considered the center of the ability pattern, and the positions where the ability can be applied are colored.

Please note: • It is never possible to apply the ability of a Muse who is unable to perform their dance step! • In the case of a Group Move, the Muse that can use their ability will be the one making the dance step (and pushing the others).

ABILITY EXAMPLES + [+1] This Muse can increase by 1 a die on a Muse set in any of the four orthogonal spaces relative to their position.

X [-1] This Muse can decrease by 1 a die on a Muse set in any of the four angles relative to their position.

◻ [⟳] This Muse can swap the value of their die with the value of one of the die on a Muse set in any of the adjacent spaces relative to their position. Please note: the dice themselves must not be physically exchanged!

END OF THE HAND AND SCORING As soon as the die of any Muse (even if Mysterious, or the Neutral one) reaches a value of 6, the hand ends immediately, meaning that any remaining dance steps or ability activations are not completed.

The Mysterious Muses are revealed, and then the players proceed to check which Muse has performed the ‘Will of Apollo’: if a die on a Muse has the same value as the Suns drawn next to the name of the respective Muse, that die is set to the value of 6.

The Neutral die (the one not chosen by players, if present) is removed from the game. Then, the dice of the same color are arranged in descending order.

By aligning the 2 or 3 rows of dice (depending on the number of players), players compare the values by column and award one point to each Company for each column where their die has the absolute higher value.

The team with the HIGHEST score (i.e., wins on the leftmost column) receives 1 additional bonus point.

In this example with three Companies:

Company 1: 6 4 3 Company 2: 6 4 4 Company 3: 5 5 3

• in the first column there’s a tie of two 6’s: no absolute higher value, so no one scores a point. • In the second column, the red ‘5’ is the higher absolute value; it beats the tie of 4’s and scores 1 point. • In the third column the 2nd Company scores with a 4. • The 2nd and 3rd Company score 1 point each, but the 3rd Company also scores 1 bonus point, because their winning die (the 5 in the second column) is higher than the 4 of the 2nd Company.

SCORING IN THE 2nd HAND If two hands have been played, at the end of the second hand the Company with the highest score receives 2 additional bonus points instead of 1 - or only 1 if the bonus point from the first hand was not awarded.

VICTORY AND TIEBREAKERS The Company with the most points at the end of the decided hands (1 or 2) is the winner.

• In case of a tie, the winner is the Company who received the 2 bonus points in the 2nd round or - if they were not awarded - the single bonus point in the 1st or 2nd round.

• If no points have ever been scored, the Company with the highest sum of their dice in the last hand (1st or 2nd) wins.

• In case of another tie, proceed with a new hand, or the victory is shared.

CREDITS Game design Marco Baglioni & David Trambusti (Tanuki Board Games)

Artist Sara “Sbilemi” Marino

Editor Francis Green

Art director Giulia D’Urso

Tiles layout Beatrice Lenzi

A game © by Space Otter Publishing 2024, all rights reserved. www.spaceotter.it