Teach the Game

A table-ready introduction to Trickerion: Anniversary Edition, its weekly planning puzzle, performances and scoring.

How you win

“You are illusionists competing to become Magoria’s most famous performer. Over seven weeks, learn increasingly grand tricks, assemble the components and crew to prepare them, and build shows that earn Fame, Coins and Trickerion Shards. The most famous magician after final scoring wins.”

You score Fame by advertising, performing tricks and building links between tricks on performance cards. At the end, leftover resources, special assignments, Level 3 tricks and the Academy renovation can add more. The Anniversary Edition combines the revised core game with all released gameplay expansions and the Secret Workshop promo; each optional module has its own page.

The boards

• Main board: the Downtown, Market Row, Dark Alley and Theater. The Dark Alley is used in the full seven-turn game and is required by several modules.
• Your player board: your magician, team, assignment cards, components, learned tricks, trick markers and shards.
• Your Workshop: the trick-preparation area on your player board. The Manager’s extension adds two multi-component spaces.
• Performance cards: shared shows in the Theater. You place markers on them in advance; a magician later performs one whole card.
• Expansion boards: Academy, Contraption boards, and the Arcanist board appear only with their modules.

A round

The game lasts seven turns with the Dark Alley. Each turn follows seven phases:

1. Roll dice to set the available tricks, hires and bank amounts.
2. Set initiative from least Fame to most; skip this in turn one.
3. Advertise: each player may spend Coins equal to their initiative position for 2 Fame.
4. Assign: secretly place location cards under the characters you want to use.
5. Place characters: reveal assignments, then place one character at a time in initiative order. Their Action Points come from their character type plus the slot modifier. Spend them immediately.
6. Perform: in weekday order, each magician on a Theater slot chooses one performance card containing their marker and performs every trick on it. Owners of the tricks collect their yields; the performing magician receives links, specialist and card bonuses.
7. End turn: pay wages, return characters, deliver orders, move performance cards, return posters, advance the turn marker, move prophecies and discard used special assignments.

Actions in brief

• Downtown: learn a trick, hire a character, take Coins, reroll a die or set a die.
• Market Row: buy up to three matching components, bargain during a buy, order a component for next turn or quick-order one for this turn at a surcharge.
• Workshop: prepare a learned trick once you own its required components.
• Theater: place one of your prepared trick markers onto an open performance slot. Matching symbols can link; links pay their owners when the card is performed.
• Dark Alley: draw one-use Special Assignment cards or shift pending prophecies.

How the game ends

After the seventh turn, score unspent Shards, Coins, Special Assignment cards and eligible Level 3 trick bonuses. The Academy module adds renovation scoring; Dawn of Technology changes Shard scoring. The most Fame wins; initiative order breaks a tie. See Game End and Scoring and the module pages for their adjustments.

Ways to score

Source	When it scores
Advertising	2 when you pay the turn’s initiative-position cost.
Trick yields	When a performance card is performed; each trick owner receives its printed , or yield.
Links	Creating one immediately pays 1/2/3 or by the placed Trick’s level; a shard link also awards a to each connected owner. The performer later gains 1 per link on the card.
Theater specialists	An Assistant, Manager or Engineer behind your magician adds its printed end-of-performance bonus.
Performance card	The magician who performs receives the card’s bonus.
Final scoring	Unspent Shards, leftover Coins, Special Assignment cards and eligible Level 3 trick conditions.
Academy	End-game bonus for contribution banners, with player-count rankings.

What each resource is for

Resource	Why you need it	How you get it	How you use it
Fame	Raises your score and unlocks higher-level tricks.	Advertising, trick yields, links and bonuses.	Learn tricks at your Fame threshold; Coins can cover a shortfall.
Coins	Pay for components, wages and some actions.	Performances, Bank, links and actions.	Buy components, advertise, pay wages and cover trick-level shortfalls.
Trickerion Shards	Buy one extra Action Point at most once per character placement; some effects spend them.	Trick yields, links and Theater Engineers.	Buy an Action Point; leftover Shards score at game end unless a module changes this.
Components	Meet each trick’s requirement.	Buy, order or receive them through effects.	Prepare tricks; each type has a limit of three, including Manager extension bonuses.
Action Points	Pay for actions at a location.	Character base value plus slot modifier; one Shard may add one.	Spend immediately on that character’s location actions.
Characters	Carry out actions.	Start with a team and hire from the Inn.	Assign one location card, then use their available Action Points.

Teaching tips

• Teach the engine in order: learn → buy → prepare → place in a show → perform.
• Explain the simultaneous assignment phase before the location actions; the puzzle is planning the team and then adapting to placement order.
• Walk through one performance card. Distinguish the trick owner’s yield from the performing magician’s link and card bonuses.
• For a first game, the core rulebook recommends leaving out the Dark Alley. That short variant ends after turn five and changes setup and scoring; the included expansion modules generally expect the full game.
• Add modules individually. Arcane Arts requires the Dark Alley; Dawn of Technology also requires it. See each module page for compatibility notes.