Teach the Game
Build a magical book collection that earns the town’s highest library score.
How you win
“Every shelf tells a story; yours must impress the Mayor’s inspector.” Collect book cards, build a connected bookshelf in alphabetic order, and balance the categories that the town rewards. The player with the highest score after the final inspection wins.
The boards
Each player has a library tile with three home spaces and room to grow a shelf up to three rows high. The center table holds scoring references and a growing set of village location tiles.
A round
- Reveal temporary locations until there is one for each player, then deal any cards specified by those locations.
- In turn order, place one assistant at a time on an open location space or one of your home spaces. Resolve instant effects as soon as you arrive.
- Once everyone has placed all assistants, resolve locations in number order. Apply delayed effects, discard cards left there and take assistants back.
- Move the lowest numbered temporary location into the permanent row. It stays for the rest of the game.
How the game ends
When someone shelves the player-count threshold shown on the setup summary, play one final round. Then inspect the libraries: cards must follow alphabetic and within-letter order, and misplaced cards are flipped. Score the category awards, penalties, variety, focus and stable shelf rectangles.
Ways to score
| Source | Score |
|---|---|
| Largest stable rectangular group touching the bottom row | 1 point per card, for a rectangle at least 2 wide and 2 tall |
| Prominent Works | 15 / 9 / 4 points for first / second / third in the selected category; ties share the tied awards |
| Banned Books | −1 per book in the selected category |
| Categorical Variety | 3 × your smallest count among the five non-banned categories |
| Library Focus | 2 × books in your secret category |
| Alphabetical errors | Flip the out-of-order card; its books stop scoring, though it still counts for shelf stability |
What each resource is for
| Piece | Use |
|---|---|
| Book cards | Add books to your shelf, trade at locations, and fuel some location effects. |
| Assistants | Visit village locations or take a home action to draw or shelve. |
| Location tiles | Offer actions; new ones join the permanent row over time. |
| Category cards | Set the public bonus and penalty categories, plus your hidden focus. |
Teaching tips
- Show how a card’s letter and number order work before players shelve their first books.
- Remind everyone that cards must connect by an edge and the shelf can be at most three rows tall.
- Keep all five non-banned categories alive; the lowest one controls the variety bonus.
- Explain that taking a banned book can still be worthwhile when its other books are valuable.