Murano

By Inka & Markus Brand
2–4 players, ages 10 and up
About 60–75 minutes

Idea of the Game

Murano seeks the most glorious of merchants! There is a lot going on in the Venetian lagoon: glassblowers are creating breathtakingly beautiful pieces of art, which are sold to discerning customers by the businessmen of various shops.

Various and esteemed personalities visit the small islands of Murano in search of treasures to acquire. If your work lives up to their high standards, fame and glory shall be yours and you shall achieve victory in this game.

Goal of the Game

Collect the most Victory Points (VP) and become the most prestigious businessman of this island renowned for its glassblowing. Some of your VP will come from the Buildings you build, but most of them will be scored from the Character Cards. During the course of the game, you can determine what you will score points for by collecting specific Character Cards. At the end of the game, you can assign those cards to the Islands that will score the most points for them.

Components

• 1 Game Board
• 8 Ships (1x red, 7x black)
• 40 Character Cards
• 1 Bag
• 4 “50+” Tokens
• 47 Coins (26 of value 1, 21 of value 5)
• 42 Street Tiles
• 12 Glass Factory Tiles
• 12 Shop Tiles
• 12 Palace Tiles
• 12 Special Building Tiles
• 30 Glass Beads (10 each of red, green, and blue)
• 32 Gondoliers (8 each of white, brown, orange, and grey)
• 60 Markers (15 each of white, brown, orange, and grey)
• 15 Special Building Cards

1. Game Board & Ships: Place the game board in the middle of the table. In 2- and 3-player games, use the reverse side of the game board, where “Sacca Serenella” is just a space for placing cards. Place one Ship on each Action Space on the game board with an anchor (it does not matter which space the Red Ship is placed on). Place the Ships such that they are facing in the depicted direction, i.e. counter-clockwise.
   

   

2. Player Components: Each player receives 8 Gondoliers and all the Markers of one color.
   • Place 1 Gondolier on space “5” of the Victory Point Track.
   • Place 2 Gondoliers in the general supply on the game board.
   • Keep the remaining 5 Gondoliers and place them in front of you – you can use them right away.

   

3. Adjustments for 2- and 3-Player Games: Remove the two Character Cards for the “Sacca Serenella” Island as well as the following components:
   • 1 Shop of each color (3 in total)
   • 1 random Palace
   • 3 Special Buildings
   • 1 Glass Factory
   • 3 Street Tiles with one Customer (1 of each color)
   • 4 Street Tiles with no Customers

   

4. Tiles: Sort the remaining tiles by type. Shuffle the stacks of Shops (white), Palaces (yellow), and Streets (grey), and place them on the appropriate spaces of the “S. Giacomo e S. Maffio” Island on the game board. (Split the stack of Street Tiles into two separate stacks.)
   Do not shuffle the Glass Factories and Special Buildings — the tiles of the respective type look all the same.
   

   

5. Cards: Shuffle the Character Cards and the Special Building Cards separately. Then remove 5 Character Cards and put them back into the game box without looking at them. Put the remaining Character Cards and the Special Building Cards next to the game board. (In 2- and 3-player games, you can place the cards on the designated space on the game board.)
6. Gold & Glass Beads: Each player receives 5 Gold. Put the remaining Gold as a supply next to the game board. Put the glass beads into the bag and place the bag next to the game board.
   

   

Randomly determine a Start Player. Play goes around the table in clockwise order. When you finish your turn, the player to your left may take his turn. On your turn, you must either choose one Action Space that you can reach with one of the 8 Ships or pass.

Carry Out an Action on an Action Space

You can only carry out its action if the Action Space:

1. is not occupied by another Ship, and if it
2. can be reached with a Ship without moving past other Ships.

You can move a Ship more than one space, though it may not enter a space with another Ship.

• If the action you would like to take is occupied by another Ship, you may move more than one Ship to free the Action Space.
• The first movement is free. You can move a second Ship for 1 Gold. Every additional movement on the same turn costs 1 more Gold than the previous one.
• Regardless of the number of Ships you move, you can still only take one action.

Example: You want to take the “Build” action, which is currently being blocked by two Ships. So you move the Ship at the front for free, then you move the second Ship for 1 Gold. The “Build” action is no longer occupied now, so you can move the third Ship there for 2 Gold and use the action.

Each Ship you move must follow the above rules (a and b).

Tip: Of course, it is better to use an action for free than to pay Gold for it. However, sometimes it may be worth it to pay a little Gold to carry out the action you need most – timing is key in this game.

After you have finished moving Ships, carry out the action of the most recent Action Space you moved to. Then the player to your left may take his turn. He will be faced with a different set of options due to your moving ships.

Pass

If you cannot or do not want to carry out an action, you can pass. When you do, take 1 Gold from the supply and move a single Ship onto another Action Space according to the above rules (a and b) without using the action.

Take 2 Gold (1x on the game board)

Take 2 Gold from the supply.

Buy a Glass Factory (2x on the game board)

Pay 1 Gold to the supply. Then take a Glass Factory Tile and put it in front of you.

Buy a Shop (2x on the game board)

• EITHER: Pay 2 Gold to the supply. Then take the topmost tile from the stack of Shops and put it face down in front of you.
• OR: Pay 4 Gold to the supply. Then look through the stack of Shop Tiles, choose one and put it face down in front of you. Shuffle the remaining stack and place it back on the game board.

You can look through your face-down tiles at any time.

Buy a Palace (2x on the game board)

• EITHER: Pay 2 Gold to the supply. Then take the topmost tile from the stack of Palaces and put it face down in front of you.
• OR: Pay 4 Gold to the supply. Then look through the stack of Palace Tiles, choose one and put it face down in front of you. Shuffle the remaining stack and place it back on the game board.

You can look through your face-down tiles at any time.

Buy a Special Building (1x on the game board)

Pay 2 Gold to the supply. Then take the topmost tile from the stack of Special Buildings and put it in front of you.

Recruit a Character (2x on the game board)

The cost depends on the number of Character Cards you already have. The first Character Card you buy costs 1 Gold, the second one costs 2 Gold, the third one costs 3 Gold and so on. There is no limit to the number of Character Cards you may have.

When buying a Character Card, draw 3 cards from the stack (if available; otherwise draw whatever number is left) and choose one of them. Return the other cards to the bottom of the stack. If you do not like any of the drawn cards, you can put them all back and keep your Gold. (Your turn ends though, and you do not receive 1 Gold from the supply, because you did not pass.)

Place a Gondolier (2x on the game board)

• EITHER: Pay 2 Gold to the supply and place a Gondolier on a gondola of your color at one of the Islands,
• OR: Pay 5 Gold to the supply and place a Gondolier on a gondola of any color.

Important: Once placed, the Gondolier remains in that position until the end of the game. You need to place Gondoliers to score your Character Cards at the end of the game (more on that later).

Build a Street/Glass Factory/Shop/Palace/Special Building (3x on the game board)

You may place up to 3 tiles on unoccupied spaces on the Islands. A Street can only be placed on a paved space. A Building must be placed on a brown space that is orthogonally adjacent to a Street Tile (regardless of when the Street Tile was placed). Consequently, the tiles must share an edge with each other. Some street tiles shows customers; others are blank.

Once placed, a tile remains on its space until the end of the game. There is no way to remove or exchange tiles.

Build a Street:

You may draw a Street Tile from the face-down stack and place it on an unoccupied Street Space of your choice. Street Tiles do not cost Gold, but you do not receive any VP for building them. (However, every Street Tile you build counts towards your limit of up to 3 tiles you may build with one “Build” action.)

Build a Glass Factory, Shop, Palace, or Special Building:

Except Streets, you can only build tiles you have in front of you, i.e. that you have bought on previous turns.

• Glass Factory: You receive 1 VP for building a Glass Factory. (Move your Gondolier on the Victory Point Track one space forward.) Put a Marker on the Glass Factory you built to indicate it is yours.

• Shop: When building a Shop, put a Marker on it and gain 2 VP.

• Palace: When building a Palace, gain 3 VP.

• Special Building: When building a Special Building, you do not get any VP, but instead you receive a Special Building Card. Draw 3 cards from the stack of Special Building Cards and choose one of them. Place it face up in front of you and return the other ones to the bottom of the stack. Every Special Building Card has an effect that you can use until the end of the game, beginning with your next turn. See page 10 for details on those cards.

Do not put Markers on Palaces and Special Buildings.

Example: On your turn, you decide to build three tiles. At first, you draw a Street and build it. Then you place the Shop and the Palace that you have in front of you on spaces that are adjacent to the Street you just placed. You place a Marker on the Shop. You receive a total of 5 VP (2+3). Then your turn is over and the player to your left may take her turn.

Income (1x on the game board)

You receive Gold for the Shops you have on one Island. Shops sell to the Customers depicted on adjacent Street Tiles. There are red, blue, and grey Customers. A Shop can only sell to Customers of one color. The color is indicated by the flag and sunblind of the Shop.

When you use this action, choose an Island and then up to 3 of your Shops on that Island – but only one Shop of each color. You receive 1 Gold from the supply for each Customer those Shops sell to.

Example: The grey player carries out the “Income” action on the depicted Island. She receives a total of 6 Gold from the supply: 4 Gold for her red Shop and 2 Gold for one of her blue Shops. The orange player does not receive any Gold, because it is not her turn.

Production (1x on the game board)

You can produce glass in the Glass Factories that you have already built. First you must decide which Glass Factories you want to use for production. You may use any of your Glass Factories anywhere on the game board. You may draw 1 glass bead from the bag for each producing Glass Factory.

Glass production causes pollution via smoke and heat. People do not like that, which is why you lose prestige for causing it. You lose 2 VP for each Glass Factory you use to produce glass. Move your Gondolier on the Victory Point Track backwards accordingly. You may not fall below 0 VP. If you have no VP left to produce, you may not produce until you gain some VP.

After production, you may sell 1-3 glass beads of one color:

• 1 glass bead: 5 Gold from the supply
• 2 glass beads: 12 Gold from the supply
• 3 glass beads: 20 Gold from the supply

Return the sold glass beads to the bag, and keep your remaining glass beads in front of you.

IMPORTANT: You can only sell glass beads of one color.

You can use the “Production” action just to sell glass beads that you have in front of you. You are not required to produce new glass beads.

Example: The brown player has 3 Glass Factories, one each on Sacca Mattia, Sacca Serenella, and San Donato. She takes the “Production” action and decides to use only 2 of her Glass Factories. She loses 4 VP, marking the loss on the Victory Point Track. Then she draws 2 glass beads from the bag. She is lucky, because she has drawn 2 green glass beads. She has 1 green and 1 blue glass bead left in her supply, so she decides to sell the green ones. She puts the 3 green glass beads back into the bag and receives 20 Gold from the supply.

Gondolier (1x)

• Dismiss: You may dismiss a Gondolier from your supply. Return the Gondolier to the general supply and take 3 Gold from there. (Even though the illustration only shows 6 gondolas, there may be any number of Gondoliers in the general supply.)
• Hire: Alternatively, you may hire a new Gondolier. Pay 3 Gold to the general supply and take a Gondolier of your color from there. You cannot have more than 7 Gondoliers.

The Character Cards

Keep your Character Cards face down in front of you. You may look at them at any time. They will be scored at the end of the game.

IMPORTANT: Each Character Card you want to score requires a Gondolier on a gondola. You cannot assign more than one Character Card to the same Gondolier.

For instance, if you have 5 Character Cards at the end of the game but only 4 Gondoliers on gondolas, you will only be able to score 4 of your 5 Character Cards, and only for the Islands that they are at.

Game End Trigger & Final Turns

The end of the game is triggered when two different stacks of tiles are empty (Streets, Shops, Glass Factories, Special Buildings, Palaces). The player triggering the end may finish his turn as normal, which is considered his final turn.

Then each other player may take one final turn.

SPECIAL RULE: When you buy a Building during your final turn (including the triggering player), you may place it on the game board immediately and without further cost. You receive VP as usual. (This is not to be confused with the “Build” action, which allows you to place 1-3 tiles.)

Scoring Character Cards

After the game is over, score your Character Cards beginning with the player triggering the end. When it is your turn to score, reveal your Character Cards one by one. For each Character Card you reveal, choose an Island and move a Gondolier from the gondola onto the Island (to indicate you have already scored that Gondolier).

Then determine the number of VP you get for that Character Card and move your Gondolier on the Victory Point Track accordingly. Do so until you run out of Character Cards or Gondoliers. Then the next player in clockwise order may score.

Example:

• The orange player reveals the depicted Character Card. She receives 4 VP for each red Shop on the chosen Island – for a total of 8 VP. It does not matter whose Shops these are. Then she moves her Gondolier from the gondola onto the Island and advances 8 spaces on the Victory Point Track.
• Next she reveals the card that is worth 12 VP because she is the only player who has built Glass Factories on the island. She then moves her second Gondolier onto the island.
• She would also like to score her third Character Card on this island (VP for her own and the other players‘ buildings). However, she has no more Gondoliers on the island, so she must score the card on another island.

Final Scoring & Winner

Finally, you receive 1 VP for each Gondolier you could not assign a Character Card to (except for those in the general supply). After this, the player with the highest score wins. In case of a tie, the player with more Gold left wins.

You receive 4 VP for each Shop of the depicted color on the scored Island, regardless of whose Shop it is.

You receive 2 or 3 VP for each Shop (regardless of color), Palace, Glass Factory, or Special Building on the scored Island, regardless of whose Buildings they are.

You receive 12 VP if you are the only player to have built a Shop or Glass Factory on the scored Island. The Island may contain other Buildings.

You may exchange up to 8 Gold for VP at the end of the game according to the table.

Example: You have 5 Gold left at the end of the game. You can pay 4 Gold to receive 3 VP.

PLEASE NOTE: You can only use the Character Card if its requirements are met.

• For the first card, there have to be at least 2 blue Customers, 1 grey Customer, 1 Palace, and 1 Special Building on the scored Island.
• For the second card, there have to be at least 2 red Customers, 1 grey Customer, 1 Palace, and 1 Special Building on the scored Island.

You receive 10 VP if the combined number of red and blue Customers on the scored Island is equal to or lower than 3.

You receive 12 VP if the scored Island contains at least one of each type of Building and Customer.

You receive VP for the combined number of Customers on the scored Island according to the table.

You receive VP for the number of Customers of a given color on the scored Island according to the table. There may be Customers of other colors on the Island.

You receive 1 VP for each Crest on the Palaces of the scored Island. Each Palace shows at least 1 Crest and can show up to 3 Crests.

You receive 1 VP for each of your own Buildings on the scored Island and 2 VP for each of your opponents’ Buildings (or vice-versa). Palaces and Special Buildings do not count, because they have no Markers on them.

You receive 12 VP if the number of Special Buildings on the scored Island is equal to the number of red/blue/grey Customers on that Island. There must be at least one Special Building on the Island.

You receive 12 VP if the number of Crests on the scored Island is equal to the number of Glass Factories/Shops on that Island. There must be at least one Crest on the Island.

You receive 16 VP if the numbers of Glass Factories, Shops, and Palaces on the scored Island match. There must be at least one of each of these Buildings on the Island.

You receive 12 VP if you have the same number of Buildings on the scored Island as all of your opponents combined. Palaces and Special Buildings do not count, because they have no Markers on them.

You receive 12 VP if there is exactly 1 Crest on the scored Island.

You receive 10 VP if you have at least 3 Buildings (Glass Factories and Shops) on the depicted Island, which must be where you score this card. Palaces and Special Buildings do not count, because they have no Markers on them.

You receive 10 VP if you placed at least 2 Gondoliers at the depicted Island, which must be where you score this card. The Gondolier used to score this card counts towards those 2 Gondoliers.

You may return up to 3 glass beads of the given color to the supply. You receive 7 VP for each glass bead you return. You must score these cards at the depicted location.

Bank: If you have the Bank, you receive 2 more Gold every time you use the “Take 2 Gold” action.

Inn (Tavern): If you have the Inn, you pay 2 fewer Gold every time you use the “Recruit a Character” action. You do not receive 1 Gold when you use the Inn to buy your first Character Card.

Dockside Bar: If you have the Dockside Bar, you receive 1 VP every time you place a Gondolier on a gondola.

Construction Crane: If you have a Construction Crane, you receive 1 VP every time you build the depicted Building.

Harbor: If you have the Harbor, you only pay 1 Gold for placing a Gondolier on your own gondola and 3 Gold for placing a Gondolier on an opponent’s gondola.

Guild Hall: If you have the Guild Hall, you receive 1 VP after producing at least one glass bead. You only receive 1 VP, regardless of the number of Glass Factories used during production. You do not receive the VP if the only thing you do is sell and not produce.

Hostel: If you have the Hostel, you may choose from 5 instead of 3 cards every time you use the “Recruit a Character” action. Keep one of them and put the rest back at the bottom of the stack.

Basilica: You receive 5 VP immediately when building the Basilica.

Studio: If you have a Studio, you can change the color of your glass beads. You can use this ability both when selling glass beads as well as during the scoring of specific Character Cards.

Example: If you have this Studio, you can use any number of red glass beads in place of green ones and vice-versa.

Trading Station: If you have the Trading Station, you may draw one more glass bead when producing glass. At the end of your turn, you must return a glass bead to the bag. You cannot circumvent this by selling all of your glass beads – you must keep at least 1 glass bead that you can return to the bag. Consequently, the Trading Station only increases your chance to get specific glass beads but not their number.

Lighthouse: If you have the Lighthouse, you may move the Red Ship onto an occupied Action Space and use its action. You may not move the Red Ship past other Ships. Consequently, if you use this ability, you can only move the Red Ship onto the first occupied Action Space it encounters. The other players may use the Red Ship like any other Ship according to the normal rules. If there are two Ships on one Action Space, you may choose which one to move.

Assembly Hall: If you have the Assembly Hall, you receive 5 Gold for dismissing a Gondolier and you only pay 1 Gold for hiring one.

It was their love for board games that has brought Inka (born in 1977 in Aurich) and Markus (born in 1975 in Beckum) together. Since then they share their love for board games. While Inka is working on new game ideas full time, Markus can only help in the evening, when he returns from his daily job as an insurance salesman. Together with their kids Lukas (14) and Emely (12), Inka and Markus live in Gummersbach/Niederseßmar in Germany. If you would like to find out more about their work, check out www.inka-und-markus-brand.de.

The designers would like to thank their play-testers for many, many sessions of Murano. In particular, they would like to thank Ela and Stefan Hein, Anke and Steffen Müller, Florian Giebeler, Patrick Zylka, Kerstin and Jens Krobbach, Christian Hassel, and Boris Rath.

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