Merchants Cove: Game Maker — Rules Manual

Johann S. Pach is a game maker. Cleverly build your tableau of possible actions, as you meld and rotate domino cards to create games. You’ll need to keep a close eye on the boats, because as they dock your campaigns will lock down and stop you from adding any more content to them.
Setup
1. Place the three Stall cards in front of you horizontally.
2. Place your two starting Action cards (marked with a checkered flag) and one starting Staff card (marked with a checkered flag) in front of you horizontally.
3. Construct the Building Pile by combining the remaining Action and Staff cards into a face-up deck, set it nearby.
4. Shuffle your Design cards into a face-down deck and set it nearby.
5. Draw and place 2 Design cards into the Logistics Stall (leftmost). Do not flip or re-orient them.
6. Add the 4 Closed Campaign cards (closed dock) above the corresponding Open Stalls (docks).
Concept
The Game Maker operates on a tight budget and is desperately trying to get games to market before their campaigns close. By drawing, laying, flipping, and melding their domino-size design cards, they will be able to target specific games to markets of customers at each pier.
Terminology
• Stall cards: These cards form the basic structure where you will be laying and melding cards onto.
• Stalls: Stall refers to one of the six vertical columns of cards that have been placed below the Stall cards. For the purposes of Melding, the Stalls on either far end are considered adjacent.
• Open Stall: A stall that has not yet Closed is considered to be Open. The stalls on either end can never be Closed.
• Closed Campaign: Cards may not be added to Closed Campaigns except through the use of Staff Actions.

---

• Action cards: These cards create action spaces for the player to place their Merchant Figure on in order to take actions.
• Staff cards: These cards form a pseudo-staff board where Townsfolk can be recruited to, and Staff actions can be taken from.
• Design cards: These are the cards that players will be directly drawing, playing, melding, and manipulating to create their “goods” and earn sponsorships.
• Elements: These are the individual halves on each Design card.
Meld
Many of this character’s actions involve Melding.
Melding refers to layering cards on top of other cards, such that the top-half of the newly laid card covers the bottom half of an existing card.
Players may not change the orientation/rotation of cards played in this way.
When Melding cards as part of a Draw & Meld action, you may start by placing cards into any open stall.
When Melding as part of a Move & Meld action, your first card must be placed into a stall adjacent to the one they were taken from, and every card after the first must be placed in an adjacent stall to the previously placed card.
If you reach a closed campaign when Melding, skip that stall and continue in the same direction to the next one.
Open / Closed Campaign Stalls
At any given time, each of the middle four stalls can be considered either Open or Closed. The two stalls on either far end (Develop and Hype) cannot be closed.
A closed campaign cannot have new cards added to it or taken from it (except with Staff Actions). If a card would need to be added to it, instead skip it continuing in your same initial direction, and go to the next adjacent Stall.
A Campaign Stall with a Late Pledge element in it is never considered to be Closed.
Closing a Campaign Stall
When a Boat docks, it causes the corresponding Campaign to close.
When a Boat docks, slide the corresponding Campaign Closed card down so that the bottom half of it covers the half of the Stall card directly below it.
Then, immediately draw and meld a number of cards as shown on the Campaign Closed card. You must start this meld adjacent to the newly closed Stall. If necessary, you may need to skip spaces if there is another closed campaign adjacent to this one.
Hype Stall
This stall specifically allows players to score Market Phase Sponsorships from Faction Icons placed here (right-side up).

---

Logistics Stall
This stall operates a little differently than the others. It begins each round with a few cards, and cards from
this stall are not cleared during Cleanup. When a card is placed here, it is immediately rotated 180°.
Actions
Actions marked with * are available on your Starting Action cards. Other Actions must be built using the
Build action, before they can be taken on subsequent turns.
* ? Hours: Recruit Townsfolk
* 2 Hours: Activate Staff OR Build
• Activate Staff operates like normal, allowing you to perform Staff actions for each recruited Townsfolk.
• Staff Actions do NOT follow normal restrictions on Melding, Placing, and Moving cards, they may always
operate regardless of whether or not a Stall is closed.
• Build allows you to put a new Action or Staff card into play, horizontally adjacent to the existing cards of
the same type.
* 2 Hours: Draw & Meld 3
• Draw 3 Design cards, and Meld them without changing their orientation.
• You may place your first card into any Stall that is not Closed.
• Subsequent cards must be placed into adjacent Stalls to previously placed ones.
* 2 Hours: Move & Meld 1-5
• Select a Stall, and take the top 1-5 cards from it.
© Each card taken into your hand must be the topmost card from that Stall.
© You cannot take cards that have another card on top of them (unless you take the covering card,
thereby making the new card the topmost one).
• With your cards in hand, select a Stall adjacent to the one you took cards from, and begin to Meld your
cards.
© If the Stall you chose is on one of the far ends, you may select the other far-end Stall as your starting
point, as they are considered adjacent.
1 Hour + 1 Corruption: Draw & Meld 2
• Same as “Draw & Meld 3” except you only draw 2 cards.
1 Hour + 1 Corruption: Move & Meld 1-3
• Same as “Move and Meld 1-5” except you can only select up to 3 cards to move.
1 Hour: Recruit Rightmost Townsfolk
• Recruit the rightmost Townsfolk in the Town Square into a Staff action space.
1 Hour: Activate 2 Staff
• Activate the effect of 1-2 Staff actions that have recruited Townsfolk in them.

---

Design Card Elements
Design cards will comprise your Stalls, and are how you score points. Each design card is composed of two distinct Elements. Only the Element that is rotated properly is considered.

Games
• These are your Small and Large Good equivalents.
• These can be sold during the Market Phase, but only to the matching Pier.
example: Goods in your 2nd Stall can only sell to the left-most Pier.

Ding & Dent Games
• These are your Small and Large Good equivalents.
• However, they have a lower value than normal.
• When selling these, you must choose one of the Goods to sell (not both).
• These can be sold during the Market Phase, but only to the matching Pier.
example: Goods in your 2nd Stall can only sell to the left-most Pier.

Pirated Games
• These are Small and Large Rogue Goods.
• They can be sold to Rogues that arrive on the proper pier like a normal good.
• NOTE: Paladins may not be considered as Rogues when selling.

Sponsorships
• If these are in the right-most stall, “Hype”, then they award Market Phase Sponsorships.
• If you see a Rogue faction icon, that means you lose Gold equivalent to the number of Rogues in the Lair.

Super Backers
• Super Backers are treated as customers that arrived at the corresponding dock.
• Other players do not benefit from Super Backers, only you.
example: You have a Blue Super Backer in your 3rd Stall. There are 2 Blue Customers at the middle pier. When you sell a small blue good, you gain x3 base value.

Late Pledge
• A stall with this Element is not considered Closed.
• If it was already Closed, you may now consider it open.
• If a Boat docks that causes the campaign to close, follow all normal steps, however, the campaign will still be legal to play cards into (due to this card).

Royalties
• If this element has a Good on it, it will give you +2 Gold for each Good of a matching size that you sell from a shared stall.
• If this element only has Gold, it must be placed into the Hype stall in order to gain the depicted amount of Gold (during Market Phase Sponsorship).

Staff Actions
This merchant is unique in that they start with only 2 staff slots available to them, and can add 4 more by using the Build action. Starting Staff actions are marked with a *.

---

Move & Meld 1
• Select any top card and place it at the bottom of any other stall.
Discard 1 Corruption
Move 2 Top Cards Together
• Move the top 2 cards from one stall to any other stall
Swap any 2 Cards
• These cards do not have to be the topmost card in their stall.
• Do not change their orientation when swapping them.
Move & Meld any Card
• Take any card from one of your stalls and place it into another stall like normal.
• Adjust the stall you took from to fill the gap if one is left behind.
Rotate any Top Card
• Select the top card of any Stall and rotate it 180°.
Gaining Goods Rules
If you recruit a Townsfolk, or gain another effect that allows you to gain a free Small or Large good, you will
instead gain the following benefit:
• Small Good: Draw & Meld 1
• Large Good: Draw & Meld 2

---