Obsession rules refresher

Read the refresher

You are trying to finish with the most victory points by restoring your family's country estate and standing in Derbyshire society. You do that by hosting social activities at your estate with the guests in your gentry deck. Those activities earn you money, reputation and new guests. You spend the money on improvement tiles from the Builders' Market, and you compete each season to court Charles or Elizabeth Fairchild.

For setup, give the purple first player pawn to the starting player. Then choose player boards clockwise, beginning with the player on the first player's left. Each family has one bonus. Asquith gets a fifth family card, the Dowager Countess. Cavendish starts its reputation marker on position four instead of one. Ponsonby starts with three hundred pounds. York starts with a second footman.

On each board, put the reputation counter showing one on the wheel, with the marker on position one, and keep the other counters nearby. Place the five starting servants in Available Service: the Butler, Housekeeper, Valet, Lady's Maid and Footman. Put the five START improvement tiles in your Country Estate Organiser, building icon side up. Your gentry deck is your four family cards plus two randomly dealt Starter Guests. Deal each player five objective cards; everyone keeps all five.

In the middle, the Servants for Hire area always gets both underbutlers. It also gets two footmen per player, plus one valet and one lady's maid per player. Shuffle the leftover starter guests into the casual guest deck, and set out the prestige guest deck. Put every improvement tile in the bag except monuments and unused START tiles, then add monuments by player count. With two players, add the Sculpture Garden plus two others of your choice. With three, add the Sculpture Garden plus three others. With four, add any five monuments.

Put the white pawn on the first space of the sixteen round side of the round track. Set the shuffled victory point cards and theme cards on the track, with one reminder tile per player nearby, and place the two Fairchild cards beside it. To fill the Builders' Market for the first time, only certain tiles qualify: tiles with a prestige rating of one, two or three, plus four service tiles, the Brushing Room, Barn, Butler's Pantry and Servants' Quarters. Draw until all six market spaces are filled, stacking duplicates and returning non-qualifying tiles to the bag. Then arrange them left to right in ascending Tile Sorting Number, the small number on each tile.

Now the flow of play. The game runs four seasons of four rounds each. At the start of each season, reveal a theme card. It names one of the five organiser categories: Essentials, Service, Estate, Prestige or Sporting. The first three rounds of a season are activity rounds. In each one, every player in clockwise order either hosts one activity or passes, and then the white pawn advances. The fourth round is a courtship round, on rounds four, eight, twelve and sixteen. Nobody hosts anything in a courtship round; you just score courtship.

After each courtship, every player discards one objective card to the bottom of the objective deck. After the first three seasons, the first player pawn passes counterclockwise, though turns always go clockwise. The track also triggers the tile reserves, which I'll explain in a moment.

Some round spaces show special events. At a Village Fair, anyone who has flipped their Private Study gains two reputation and three hundred pounds. At an Objective Card draw, everyone draws two objectives and keeps both. On the Builders' Holiday, round eleven, you may buy as many tiles as you can afford, including from the reserves. On the National Holiday, reputation does not limit you, so you may host any activity and invite any guests as if you were at Max. On a courtship round, service does not rotate, no activity happens, Servants' Halls do not gossip and monuments give no reputation.

A normal turn follows the eight steps printed on your board.

First, rotate service. Servants in Servants' Quarters move to Available Service, then servants in Expended Service move to Servants' Quarters to rest. Skip this on the very first turn.

Second, check the round track event, then gain one reputation for each monument in your organiser, then use your Servants' Hall if you have one. To use the Hall, place any available servant on it: a player you target loses one reputation and you gain one, and that servant goes to Expended Service. You cannot use the Hall once step three begins.

Third, host an activity. Choose an improvement tile from your organiser and place it on your Activity square. Your reputation level, the big number on your wheel, must be at least the tile's prestige rating at the start of this step. The servant pictured on the tile must be in your Available Service. Instead of a social activity, you may play the Butler's Room tile to hire any two valets, lady's maids or footmen from the supply, using the butler or an underbutler. Its flipped side instead recruits one valet, lady's maid or footman from anywhere on another player's board. Butlers, underbutlers and housekeepers can never be recruited. Newly hired or recruited servants go into Expended Service alongside whoever did the hiring. No gentry are played with the Butler's Room.

Fourth, invite guests. The tile tells you exactly what to bring: a number of gentry, family, gentlemen, ladies, or a particular type of guest. You must supply exactly that from your active hand; your discard pile is off limits. Each guest's prestige rating, the top left number, must be no higher than your reputation level. Family and the Fairchilds count as prestige one and can attend anything.

Fifth, provide service. Every servant pictured on the tile and on the guest cards must come from Available Service. Service is mandatory; if you can't staff someone, they can't attend. There are three stand-ins. The Housekeeper may cover a lady's maid when no lady's maid is available. An Underbutler may cover any male servant at any time. A footman may cover a valet when no valet is available, but only if you own the Brushing Room.

Sixth, enjoy favours, in this order: money, then reputation, then invitations and dismissals.

Paupers cost you one or two hundred pounds, and you must be able to pay, either from this activity's money or by borrowing. Otherwise they cannot attend.

Reputation moves your marker clockwise around the five positions of the wheel. Each time you cross the top from five back to one, swap in the next higher level counter. Penalties move you counterclockwise and can drop you a level. If you are at level one, position one, you ignore penalties. Otherwise you pay as much of a penalty as you can.

Invitation icons draw the top casual or prestige guest into your active hand. The lady of each house lets you choose: either look at two casual guests and keep one, sending the other to the bottom, or dismiss a guest. Dismissal is the only optional favour. You can dismiss any non-family guest, even one who just attended, from your hand or discard pile.

A few guests give a victory point card, and gossips attack another player's reputation. Each family's young lady gains extra reputation only when she attends alongside a male prestige guest.

Seventh, buy from the Builders' Market. Outside of courtship rounds you may buy one tile per turn, or save your money instead. Pay the price printed above its space, adjusted by the plus or minus modifier on the tile. You can never own a duplicate tile, but you may buy any tile you can afford, regardless of reputation. Place it face up in the matching column of your organiser, with no rose showing.

After a purchase, slide the remaining tiles left and draw a new tile into the rightmost space. On the Builders' Holiday, make all your purchases first, then slide left and fill the gaps in Tile Sorting Number order. Duplicates stack, and buying one leaves the other available. Never leave a market space empty. If you buy a monument or the Servants' Hall, take a reminder tile if you don't already have one.

Eighth, clear your board. Every servant who worked goes to Expended Service and the guests go to your discard pile face up. The tile returns to your organiser. The first time a tile is used, flip it to its rose side. After that it never flips again, except hybrid tiles, which flip every time they're used and move to the category shown on the new side.

Passing is how you get everything back. You still do step two, including events, monument reputation and the Servants' Hall. Then all your servants return to Available Service and your discard pile rejoins your hand. Next, either collect two hundred pounds in rents or refresh the Builders' Market for free. After that you may buy one tile.

At any time during your turn you may also take special actions by spending reputation. Borrowing costs two reputation per hundred pounds. Service help refreshes a servant to Available for three reputation each. Refreshing the market costs four reputation, and only once per turn. To refresh, set the six market tiles aside, draw new ones in Tile Sorting Number order with duplicates stacked, then return the set-aside tiles to the bag. The reserves are never touched by a refresh.

About those reserves. After the first courtship, the Service Tile Reserve activates. Every service tile in the market moves to that reserve, and any service tile drawn for the rest of the game goes there too, with a replacement drawn. After the second courtship, the Prestige Rating One Reserve does the same for every tile with a prestige rating of one. You can buy from either reserve on your turn.

A few tiles are worth remembering. Service tiles and monuments never leave your organiser. The Butler's Pantry is the only way to get an underbutler, who arrives in Expended Service. The Barn gives one reputation whenever you host an Estate tile. The Private Study's Village Fair Planning can be hosted once, which flips it for the fair bonus. If you never host it, you keep the three points on its front instead. The Queen's Suite hosts one prestige guest from your hand, who needs service, and doubles one of that guest's favours. The Lionheart Suite brings in the top prestige guest from the supply with no service needed, doubles all of that guest's favours, then sends the guest to your discard pile. Both suites become monuments after one use. The Main Library draws an extra objective card on its front and a victory point card on its back. Extra objectives from the Library or from victory point cards are scored in addition to your normal three.

Courtship works like this. In each of the first three courtship rounds, total the victory points on the improvement tiles in your organiser under that season's theme. Before scoring on rounds eight and twelve, whoever holds a Fairchild returns it. The highest total takes Charles or Elizabeth into their active hand for the next season, where they're invited under normal guest rules. The winner also takes a victory point card face down. Each victory point card is worth its points at the end, or you can reveal it during your turn and give up the points to take its favour instead. If courtship is tied, every tied player takes a victory point card and nobody gets a Fairchild.

The final courtship on round sixteen begins with the returning of any Fairchild. Then it totals your tiles under all four revealed themes, counting a repeated theme twice. The winner adds a Fairchild of their choice to their deck for scoring and takes a victory point card. A tie here goes to the highest reputation. If still tied, nobody gets a Fairchild, but all tied players draw a victory point card.

After that final courtship the game ends and you score seven categories. First, the points on every improvement tile in your organiser, monuments included. Second, the points on every card in your gentry deck, hand and discard together, negatives included. Family cards total eight, or nine for Asquith. Third, each completed objective. By the end you'll have held seven objectives, discarded four and scored three, plus any extras. Fourth, reputation, which grows in a triangular sequence: one point at level one, three at level two, six at level three, up to twenty one at level six and twenty eight at Max. Fifth, two points for every servant you have, of any type. Sixth, one point for every full two hundred pounds. Seventh, the victory point cards you still hold. The highest total wins. If tied, the player with a Fairchild card in their gentry deck wins. If none of them has one, the highest reputation wins, and if still tied, the victory is shared.

A turn, played out

It is round 6, the second activity round of season 2, and the theme card revealed this season is Estate. You sit at reputation level 2, marker on position 4. You hold 300 pounds. In your organiser you own the Barn and the Butler's Pantry, and your underbutler, who arrived two turns ago from the Pantry, is resting in Servants' Quarters. First you rotate service. The underbutler steps into Available Service beside your Butler, Housekeeper, Valet and Footman, and the servants in Expended Service move to Quarters. This round space shows no event, you own no monuments and no Servants' Hall, so step 2 passes quietly. Now you host. You choose an Estate tile with a prestige rating of 2. Your level is 2, so that is allowed. It pictures a footman and asks for exactly 2 gentlemen. Your hand holds three. One is a prestige 3 gentleman, and at level 2 he simply cannot come. So you invite the other two. One is a prestige 1 casual guest who needs a valet and gives 200 pounds. The other is a prestige 2 pauper who needs a footman, costs 100 pounds, and gives 2 reputation. Now service. The tile wants a footman and the pauper wants a footman too, but you only have one. The underbutler covers any male servant, so he takes the second footman's place, and your valet attends the casual guest. Favours go money first. You collect 200 pounds, and the pauper's 100 comes straight out of it, so you are up 100, at 400. Then reputation: 2 from the pauper, plus 1 from the Barn because you hosted an Estate tile. Your marker moves from 4 to 5, crosses the top back to 1, where you swap in the level 3 counter, and ends on position 2. Next turn that prestige 3 gentleman can attend. Now the market. The Service Tile Reserve has been active since the first courtship, and it holds a service tile for 200. You pass on it. Instead you take an Estate tile whose space is priced 400 with a minus 100 modifier on the tile. You pay 300, keep 100, and place it in your Estate column with no rose showing. It will count toward courtship on round 8. The market slides left and a new tile is drawn for the rightmost space. It is a service tile, so it goes straight to the reserve, and you draw again, this time a prestige tile, which stays. Finally you clear. Footman, underbutler and valet go to Expended Service, both gentlemen go face up to your discard pile, and the Estate tile returns to your organiser, flipped to its rose side because this was its first use. The player on your left is next.