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HOW TO PLAY -
ARTIFACT
- GAME
RULES
BASIC RULES
Objective: Be the first player to travel around the board
and make it back to the start square.
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Each player takes 8 coins and 15 pieces of one color.
Each player then places one piece on the start square.
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Shuffle the Artifact cards and deal each
player 8 cards face down. Place the remaining stack of
Artifact cards in the middle of the board. All players
should take a Legend card as a reminder of actions they can do on
each turn. Choose a player to start the game. Play
continues clockwise.
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Follow steps A through C. (See
TAKING A TURN for more details.)
A. Either SPEND COINS -OR- EARN COINS.
B. Either TRADE ARTIFACT CARDS WITH 1 PLAYER -OR- TRADE
ARTIFACT CARDS WITH THE DECK.
C. ROLL THE DICE to see which, if any players get to draw
Artifact cards from the deck. Rolling the dice is always the
LAST thing you do, ending your turn.
* Additionally, at any time during your turn, you may return
matching Artifact cards or play Informant cards as explained in MOVING
SPACES on page 4.
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After the dice are rolled, play moves to
the next player.
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The winner of the game is the first player
to move around the board and land on (or pass) the start square.
Note 1: If you advance past the start square with another
player, the winner is the player who finishes farthest ahead.
Note 2: To avoid losing, make sure your turn does not
advance another player ahead of you.
TAKING A TURN
A. SPENDING COINS: You can
spend coins to buy Informant cards and/or to build ARTeams.
1. INFORMANT CARDS:
There are 24 Informant cards, costing 2 coins each. Keep the
information on the card secret until you are ready to play the card.
After playing the Informant card, return it to the bottom of the deck,
unless otherwise stated.
2. ARTIFACT RECOVERY TEAMS (ARTeams): You may spend 3
coins to build and ARTeam in vacant country. ARTeams are important
because they must first be built in a country in order for artifacts to
be returned.
OR
EARN COINS:
You start with a budget of 8 coins.
To earn additional coins draw 1 Challenge card from the deck.
B. TRADE ARTIFACT CARDS WITH 1 PLAYER:
On your turn, you may make a trade with one player. The
terms of the trade depend on your negotiating skills. You can
choose to trade any number of cards, coins, or anything else you can
think of with the one player of your choice.
OR
TRADE ARTIFACT CARDS WITH THE DECK:
If you are unable to negotiate a trade with or choose not to trade
with another player, you may exchange Artifact cards with the deck.
The only rule is that you must first discard to the bottom of the
Artifact deck. You may draw the same amount of Artifact cards from
the deck after your discard.
Note 1: You can only hold
up to 10 cards in your hand at one time. Immediately discard any
cards above this amount. Note 2: You do not
have to trade Artifact cards.
C. ROLL THE DICE: Roll the
dice at the end of your turn to see if anyone draws Artifact cards.
Match the sum of the roll to the country numbers on the board where
ARTeams are built. The players who built the ARTeams on the
countries with the matching numbers draw one Artifact card for each
match. For example, if the sum of 8 is rolled, any players who
built ARTeams on USA, Mexico, Armenia, or Canada get to draw an Artifact
card. If you draw an Artifact card at the end of your turn, you
cannot play the card that you draw until your next turn.
Note: Always draw Artifact cards
starting with the player who rolled the dice and move clockwise.
Towards the end of the game, there may not be any Artifact cards left,
so you will not need to roll the dice anymore.
BUILDING ARTeams
On your turn, you may build an ARTeam on any vacant country.
There are three easy steps to building an ARTeam.
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Decide the country or countries in which
to build ARTeams
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Pay 3 coins for each ARTeam you want to
build
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Place your piece on the stone circle below
the country name
MOVING SPACES
Players can move around the board by returning matching Artifact
cards and playing Informant cards.
RETURNING AN ARTIFACT: You
may only return artifacts during your turn. You need 3 matching
Artifact cards in order to have an "artifact." There are six
things you must do when returning artifacts:
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Make sure an ARTeam is built in the
country matching the artifact
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Lay the Artifact cards face up in front of
you to indicate you are returning the artifact
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Stack your piece on top of the ARTeam
piece in the matching country
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Move the number of spaces around the board
that is indicated on the Artifact card.
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Draw 1 new Artifact card from the deck
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At this time, the player who built the
ARTeam in the matching country will also move forward 3 spaces
PLAYING YOUR INFORMANT CARDS:
Informant cards can be played at any time during your turn.
Certain cards allow you to move forward spaces or move other players
backward spaces.
ARTIFACT CARDS
Collect Artifact cards to move around the board
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There are a total of 24 artifacts (3
matching cards equal 1 artifact).
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The country names and numbers on the
Artifact cards match the names and numbers on the board.
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The number of spaces you move is indicated
on the Artifact card, below the name of the artifact.
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You are dealt 8 Artifact cards at the
beginning of the game. You can obtain more by trading, returning
artifacts, or by the luck of the dice.
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You can only hold up to 10 cards in your
hand at one time. Immediately discard any cards above this amount.
CHALLENGE CARDS
Draw 1 Challenge card to EARN COINS (on your turn)
MEMORY: You have 15 seconds
(use the timer) to turn the card over and memorize the list. When
time is up, pass the card to another player to check your answers as you
recite the answers back to them out loud. Each correct answer is
worth 1 coin.
QUIZ: Similar to Memory,
where you have 15 seconds (use the timer) to look at the back of the
card and memorize the answers. When time is up, pass the card to
another player and have them quiz you on all the questions.
Each correct answer is worth 2 coins.
SURPRISE: Random dice
challenges where you usually earn coins for yourself.
CREATIVE PLAY OPTIONS
TWO-PLAYER: For a two-player
game, we recommend reducing the number of artifacts played in the game
to 12. Place unneeded color pieces on countries that will not be
built on to help identify which 12 artifacts are not being played.
EASIER PLAY (ages 8 & up):
(Option 1): Simply play the
Surprise cards and bypass the Quiz & Memory challenges.
(Option 2): Earn coins by
rolling 1 die instead of taking a Challenge card. Earn the number
of coins equal to your roll.
MEMORY GAME (ages 3 & up):
You can play a memory game with the Artifact cards. Remove 1
Artifact card from each set. Turn the remaining 48 Artifact cards
face down. After two cards are matched, the player puts a piece on
the matching country on the board and keeps the set of cards. If a
players match, it stays his/her turn. The player with the most
matches wins. For a harder memory game, try matching a set of 3
cards!
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Countries are strategically numbered and
given a value based on probabilities of rolling numbers between 2 and
12.
For example, the Artifact cards with the
numbers 2 or 12 are worth 5 spaces because it is harder to roll these
numbers. There are more chances of rolling a 7 or8, therefore,
these Artifact cards are worth 3 spaces.
However, the last action in your turn is
rolling the dice. Remember, you roll the dice to see if you can
earn Artifact cards. Since the number 7 and 8 have a higher
probability of being rolled, you have better odds of earning Artifact
cards if you build an ARTeam on these number.
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