Gameplay
How Maestro is played: the two Workshops and their Characters, Artwork and Resources, Galleries, the five phases of a round, Gossip turns and your turn.
Overview
Two Workshops — Leonardo da Vinci’s and Michelangelo’s — compete over 4 rounds. Each Workshop is one player or a team of two. You create Artwork, move it to the regions with Galleries, influence the Collectors who decide which colours are in fashion, and win patron cards with Publicity. The Workshop with the most victory points after round 4 wins.
Workshops and Characters
Each Workshop has two Characters: the master (Leonardo or Michelangelo) and his Assistant. In a team each player takes one Character tile; alone, you take both and play them in turn. The Tools tile on the Sideboard points at the active Character and turns clockwise after every turn, so the order is always da Vinci side, Michelangelo side, da Vinci side, Michelangelo side.
Artwork
You only ever use your own Workshop’s Artwork.
- Da Vinci has one type:
Paintings. - Michelangelo has two:
Statues for Michelangelo and 
Busts for
his Assistant. The active Character may only use its own type — but for majorities in a region,
all of Michelangelo’s Artworks count together.
Cards and Workshop boards add more Artwork to your supplies over the game.
Resources
Resources come in four colours — 
orange, 
blue, 
green and
purple — matching the colours of the regions and of the Collector Lodge areas.
- Your available Resources are those in the Sideboard section of your active Character.
- Everything the active Character gains goes to the other Character of the Workshop — the section the wooden end of the Tools tile points at. You can’t spend what you gain this turn.
- Exception: Resources from Benefactor cards go to the active Character’s own section.
What each Workshop does with them is on the Workshops page.
Galleries
Gallery tokens on the map show where art is exhibited. Popular Galleries (3 new ones each round) score more than Secondary Galleries (last round’s Popular ones). Hold more Artworks than the other Workshop in a Gallery’s region and your Artwork becomes its Centerpiece — see Move. How much each Gallery pays depends on the Collectors: Gallery scoring.
A round
Each round has five phases, in order:
After the Exhibition phase of round 4, skip Cleanup and go to Final scoring.
Planning phase
Only for a Workshop played by a team. Teammates may discuss their plans now and only now. From the end of this phase until the next round, nobody may share what cards they hold or what they mean to do.
Communication variant
If everyone agrees at the start, teams may talk freely all game: skip the Planning phase. The cards in your hand still stay secret.
Preparation phase
Both Workshops at once:
- Team player: draw 5 cards from your Workshop deck, discard 2, keep 3.
- Alone: draw 5, discard 2 and set the other 3 aside face down. Then draw 5 again, discard 2 and keep 3 in hand. When your hand runs out during the Action phase, pick up the 3 set aside.
Action phase
A round has 12 turns, 6 per Workshop, alternating. The active Character is the one the Tools tile points at.
Your turn
Resolve, in either order:
- one Main Action — play a card from your hand, and
- your Workshop Action.
Then turn the Tools tile clockwise by one: the next Character is active.
Gossip turns
In rounds 1 and 2, the first 4 turns (one per Character) are Gossip turns. Each Character plays a card face down to any Action space — no Main Action, no Workshop Action. The cards are revealed in the Exhibition phase and count only for Major Publicity.
Playing a card
Play the card on your Workshop’s side of the Action space. Each card shows:
Effort — how strong the action is (Action Points);
Publicity — counted in the Exhibition phase for that Action’s patron card;- a special effect you may resolve before or after the Main Action.
You may also put 1 Publicity token from your supply on the card (Publicity tokens). Each side of an Action space holds at most 3 cards.