The Great Library

About this board game

The Great Library is a strategy board game for 1–4 players, with play lasting about 180 minutes, set in the legendary Library of Alexandria.

As a Librarian serving within the Mouseion, you help fulfill Ptolemy I’s vision of gathering and preserving the world’s knowledge. Ships arrive at Alexandria’s bustling port carrying relics, scholars, and wisdom from distant lands, while the Chief of Librarians oversees the organization of the growing collection.

During the game, you must manage resources carefully, including the most important resource of all: Time. Your work centers on several vital pursuits:

• Researching Great Works
• Delivering Crafts to the kingdom
• Training Scribes to translate Manuscripts
• Sending Manuscripts, Great Works, and Crafts to the Library
• Attracting the great Scholars of the time to work with you

Contributing these achievements to the Great Library can earn Renown, Improvements, and other benefits. As Scholars perform their work, Generations pass, triggering Events while the Library steadily fills with the collected works of the ancient world.

The game’s end is triggered when the second Event occurs or when two or fewer empty spaces remain in the Library. The player with the most Renown is named the Greatest Librarian and wins. With its focus on research, translation, resource management, and the preservation of knowledge, The Great Library invites players to shape a lasting legacy at one of history’s most celebrated centers of learning.