Masons - General game info
Masons
2-4 players, 8 years and older
AuthorLeo Colovini
IllustratorFranz Vohwinkel
Published byHans im Glück
Rio Grande Games
Online since 2006-11-27
Developed byKay Wilke (Sparhawk)
Boardgamegeek21791
Yucata.de owns a license for the online version of this game. A big "thank you" to the copyright owners (publisher and/or author and illustrator) who make it possible to have this game for free online here!
Masons - Rules

Some of the text of these rules have been taken from a posting at Boardgamegeek.com

Objective of the game

The wall-builders try to establish towns on the board according to their ideas. In doing so the guild cards give each player the structural measures for the towns which will bring them profit. Whenever a town is completed, there is a scoring and each player is allowed to score 1 or 2 cards from their hand. It may be beneficial to hold back with scoring as the players lying behind will be aided by changing their cards. Only the player who risks jumping forwards at the right moment will be the most successful wall builder.

Playing the game

Draw lots to decide who starts the game. On your turn, you carry out the following steps in this order:

  • Build a wall: The player takes a wall from the supply and places it on a free wall line on the board.
  • Roll the dice and build towers, houses and palaces: The player rolls all three dice. Depending on the result and the position of the wall, he must now place 0, 1 or 2 towers as well as 1 or 2 houses.
  • Score: If the player completed a town with the wall, a scoring takes place. Afterwards each player draws 1 guild card and the players lying behind can change their cards.

Build a wall

The wall can be placed on any unoccupied wall line. It cannot be built in the same place as an already placed wall. Walls can never be placed inside completed towns!

Roll the dice

  • Towers: The tower die indicates which tower the player must put at one end of the placed wall, on a tower space. If there is also no tower at the other end, he must take a tower of his choice from the supply and put it there. If a tower colour is no longer available, he must take a tower of another colour. If the wall was placed between two already standing towers, then the tower die is left out of the dice roll.
  • Houses: The two house dice indicate which two colours of house the player must place on the two landscape spaces on either side of the wall. If the wall was placed at the edge of the board, the player still rolls both dice and then has a greater choice for the single landscape space. If the question mark is rolled, the player can freely choose the colour. If a house of the rolled colour is no longer available, the player chooses a house of any other colour.
  • Palaces: Whenever there are 2 houses of the same colour in a completed town, these houses are immediately put back in the supply and replaced with a palace of the same colour. This happens before the scoring. If a palace of this colour is no longer available, the two houses remain standing on the space.

Score

As soon as a wall has been placed so that one or more landscape spaces are completely enclosed by walls (i.e. a town has been completed), there is a scoring. If at the start of scoring there are free-standing walls or towers within the scoring town, immediately put them back in the supply.

If the town just completed is directly adjoining (i.e. at least 1 wall in common) one or more already completed towns, the player is allowed, if he wishes, to merge one of the adjoining towns with the town just completed. To do this he removes all the walls that separate the newly completed town from the town which he has chosen, and puts them back in the supply next to the board. A player is never allowed to merge together more than 2 towns.

Scoring now takes place: Beginning with the player who completed the town, each player in turn must now lay in front of himself 1 or 2 cards from his hand. He receives points for this. Afterwards the played cards go on a discard pile and each player draws 1 card. That means that the number of cards in your hand is reduced if you play 2 cards.

Alternatively to scoring cards, a player may discard one card of his choice from his hand. This player will then not collect any points but is allowed to draw 2 cards.

Once the last card from the deck is drawn, the discard pile is shuffled and forms the new draw pile.

End of the game

The game ends once the last wall or the last palace or the last house or the last tower has been used up. If, when the last piece has been placed, a town has been finished, this town will still be scored. If, when the last piece is placed, a town has not been finished, each player is allowed to select a town and still play and score 1 or 2 cards for this one town. Naturally you can choose to score 1 or 2 cards that do not relate to a completed town.

Whoever has now collected the most points wins the game. With a tie, the winner is the one who still has more cards in their hand. If they are still tied, there are several winners.

The Guild cards

Within the game, the meaning of each guild card is shown in a little help window. Here you'll get an overview of which cards exist. There are three types of cards: cards relating to a just-completed town, cards relating to objects (towers, houses, walls) outside of towns and one card which is related to the number of towns.

Cards for closed towns

The following Guild cards relate to the town that has just been completed and only to this town:

   If the town covers exactly 1 or 2 or 3 spaces, you receive 6, 7 or 8 points, respectively. If the town covers 7 or more spaces you receive 9 points.
If the town contains houses or palaces of 2 or 3 different colours, you receive 4 points. If it contains 4 or 5 different colours you receive 7 points.
  For each white or grey or black tower within the town you receive 2 points.
For each tower within the town, regardless of the colour, you receive 1 point.
You receive 1 point for each palace in the town, but none for houses.
    For each palace of the indicated colour you receive 3 points, for each house of the indicated colour 1 point.

Cards for objects outside of towns

The following Guild cards relate to the houses, towers and walls on the entire board that are outside of all the completed towns (i.e. they are not part of any completed town):

    For each house of the indicated colour you receive 1 point.
  For each house in the indicated region you receive 1 point.
For each tower you receive 1 point.
  For each white, grey or black tower you receive 2 points.
For each tower which is located at the coast you receive 2 points.
For each wall you receive 1 point.

Town card

This card is not related to the just-completed town but to the number of towns.

For each closed town you receive 1 point.
 
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