Learn Opera Magna

Learn the game in 5 short steps. Everything links to the full rules.

Supply the cathedral

You run a Renaissance workshop. Over 9 rounds you buy raw materials in three trading cities, refine them, and use them to build Buildings that improve your shop and to supply the Worksites of Florence’s cathedral. Points come from your Buildings, your Certificates and your share of the Opera.

Change a City, then use it

Each turn you move one Merchant into a City’s Cost or Profit Area and play a Trade Card from your hand there, pushing the oldest card out. Then you pay every Raw Good in that City’s Cost Area and gain every Good in its Profit Area. A Merchant in the Cost Area also unlocks the City’s Power.

Raw Goods, Refined Goods, Certificates

Lead, Wood, Marble and Sand refine into Bell, Planks, Column and Glass. Raw Goods stay on your Shop Board and push your Certificates up as you gain them. Refined Goods must be used in the same turn: on your Buildings, at the Opera, or converted back.

Build left or right

You always have two Buildings under construction. Fill one with Refined Goods of its colour and slide it under your Shop Board: on the left for a permanent discount and a Conversion, on the right for its special effect and a Cart. Each Cart sends one Refined Good to the Opera per turn.

The Opera and the end

A Worksite takes a Refined Good only if your Certificate is high enough and the Worksites below it are filled; the first player there gets its effect. When the Market decks run out, the 9th round is the last. Then score Buildings, Shop positions, Certificates, Worksites and the Opera majority.