Merchants Cove: Master Craft — Rules Manual

This expansion contains four new Merchants: the Detective, the Pastry Chef, the Mushroom Farmer, and the Treasure Diver. A copy of the
Merchants Cove base game is required. Master Craft also contains various modules that you can mix and match. Some of them have restrictions on
what modules are compatible, necessary, or incompatible. For module compatibility with other modules you can find that information where that
module is described in this rulebook. For module compatibility with Merchants Cove: check the Module Compatibility sheet that comes with the game
to see what adjustments or restrictions should be followed.

COMPONENTS

1 Faction Festival board

1 Paladin Faction Hall token

1 Festival Start tile

5 Part-Time Staff tiles

1 Rulebook &
• 4 Merchant rulebooks
• 1 Module Compatibility
sheet
• 1 Solo rulebook
• 1 Scenario book

48 Townsfolk cards

7 Paladin meeples

12 Enchantment tokens

8 Paladin cards

9 Beast of the Bay cards

15 Assistant meeples

12 Display Case tokens

16 Advertisement tokens

24 Honor tokens

7 Paladin Good tokens &
7 plastic standees

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FACTION FESTIVAL

Celebrate the arrival of the Paladins guild with the Faction Festival.
While you spend time in your shop, your Assistants help out at the
festival, earning powerful rewards from the Faction Halls the more they
volunteer.

Faction Festival setup:
1. Place the Faction Festival board below the main board.
2. Place the Festival Start tile below the clock. Then, each player places
the 3 Assistants of their color onto the Festival Start tile.
3. Place the Honor, Paladin Good, Display Case, Advertisement and
Enchantment tokens nearby.
4. Place the Paladin Faction Hall tile on its designated position on the
main board. It goes on the usual space of the Townsfolk cards.
4a. Place the Townsfolk deck face up onto the leftmost
Townsfolk space in the Town Square.
5. Place a random (or chosen) Paladin card face up above the Rogue
card.
6. Remove 1 Customer of each color from the Adventurer bag and return
them to the box.
7. Place 3 Paladins onto the Paladin Faction Hall, and place the other
4 into the Adventurer bag.

Faction Festival gameplay
The Faction Festival board is composed of 6 different colored tracks,
containing 7 Track spaces each. Most Track spaces show a reward, which
can be gained when you recall an Assistant from that space.

Advancing Assistants: Each time you move your Timepiece 1 or more
spaces on the Clock, you may additionally move your Assistants the
same number of spaces on the colored tracks. You may divide the
movement between multiple Assistants, or use all of it on a single
Assistant.

Honor spaces: On your turn or during the Market Phase, if you
have an Assistant on an Honor space, you may spend 1 Honor
token to advance them 1 or 2 spaces on their track.

Gaining rewards: At any point during your turn (before moving your
Timepiece on the Clock) or during the Market Phase, you may gain
reward from a space occupied by one of your Assistants. If you do, recall
them to their starting position.

Final space: If you arrive on the final space of a given track,
you receive an immediate reward as shown on the right of the
crossed signpost. It allows you to gain any 1 previous reward
when you recall that Assistant.

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EXAMPLE

1. During their turn, the Black player returns their Assistant from the blue track to the Festival Start tile,
immediately gaining the reward of their previous Track space (Wizard Faction Hall Sponsorship).
2. After resolving their main action and this reward, they advance their Timepiece 2 Hours forward on the Clock.
Then, they advance one of their Assistants 2 spaces on the green track.
3. The Orange player takes an action that costs them 2 Hours. After moving on the Clock, they move 2
different Assistants one space each on different tracks.
4. The Blue player spends an Honor token to advance their Assistant on the red track by 2 spaces. Then, they
take a 1 Hour action and advance their Assistant on the red track 1 space to reach the final space of the track,
granting them the signpost reward of Warrior Faction Hall Sponsorship.

New gameplay features
(Many of these features may be used independently of the Faction Festival gameplay. Those that cannot will be marked.)

Paladin cards
One of these cards is placed above the Rogue card, giving the Paladin meeples additional effects.
If you cause a Boat containing a Paladin to dock at a Pier, you receive the reward indicated on
the card. If a Paladin is sent to the Paladin Faction Hall, all players receive the indicated reward.

Paladin Adventurers and Paladin Faction Hall
(Paladin cards required ~ If playing with the Paladins, and not with the Faction Festival, follow steps 4-7 below
the Faction Festival setup before beginning the game.)
Paladins are a new type of Adventurers. During the Market Phase, when selling Goods at
a Pier with one or more Paladins, select an Adventurer color and treat all Paladins at that
Pier as having that color. This will increase your scoring multiplier. Each player makes this
decision independent of each other when selling Goods, and makes it each time a Pier
contains a Paladin.
Playing with the Paladins also introduces a new Faction Hall and Faction icon that players
can interact with. These function in the same way the other four Faction Halls do in terms of
Sponsorship and how Adventurers enter them.

3.

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Honor tokens
(Faction Festival recommended but not required.)
Gaining Honor: Any time you receive this icon, gain 1 Honor token from the supply. If a player is able to discard a Corruption card,
but they do not have any Corruption cards to discard, they instead take 1 Honor token for each card they couldn't discard.
Spending Honor: At any time during your turn, you may discard an Honor token to discard a Corruption card. Honor tokens may
also be discarded at certain "Honor spaces" on the Faction Festival tracks to advance 1 or 2 spaces.

Paladin Goods
Paladin Goods count as both small and large Goods,
and may be sold at any Pier.
Paladin Goods have a base value of 2 Gold.
When selling one, decide which type of Adventurer
at the chosen Pier to treat as a multiplier for it.

Advertisement tokens
(Faction Festival required.)
When you gain an Advertisement, select any
remaining Advertisement token and place it near your
board. You gain Market Phase Sponsorship for all
Advertisement tokens in your supply. You can have
multiple Advertisement tokens of a single type.

Activate 2 Staff effect
Select 2 Staff actions that have recruited Townsfolk
cards on them, and perform them in the order you
want.

5th STAFF ACTION MODULE
Setup:
1. As a group, decide which side of the 5th Staff Action tile to use.
2. Each player places their 5th Staff Action tile face up on the selected
side, on either side of their Staff board.

Gameplay
Townsfolk can be recruited onto these spaces like normal Staff spaces.
Townsfolk recruited to these spaces allow you to use the printed
abilities when taking an Activate Staff action.

4.

Side A:
(Faction Festival required.)
Advance one of your Assistants
1 space on any Faction Festival track.

Enchantment tokens
(Faction Festival required.)
After gaining an Enchantment, immediately attach it
to a Good of any size on your Sale Shelf.
The next time that Good is sold, it is worth twice its
base value. Return the Enchantment to the supply
after having sold the Good.

Frame effect
Framing is similar to discarding Corruption cards.
When you gain this action, select and discard
1 Corruption card from your supply. Then, all other
players lose Gold equal to the number of Adventurers
in the Lair.

Display Cases
(Faction Festival required.)
When you gain a Display Case, place it near your Sale
Shelf, where it stays until the end of the game. When
you would move one or more Good(s) from your
supply to your Sale Shelf, and have a Display Case
available, you may immediately place one of the
produced Goods onto the Display Case. Each Display
Case can hold only 1 Good. Goods sold from the top
of a Display Cases gain a +2 base value.

Side B:
Gain Sponsorship from the Faction icons of the Staff in
this space. You do not lose Gold for Rogue icons.
Then, you may move the Townsfolk from this Staff space
onto a different empty Staff space.
You can immediately use the Staff ability of the new space
it is in, if you are eligible to do so.

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PART-TIME STAFF MODULE
Before first use
Setup:
1. Each player is given a Part-time Staff tile, with the gold side face up.
2. Each player places that tile next to the bottom left corner of their Staff board.

Gameplay
Both sides of the Part-time Staff tile have a new action space where you can
move your Merchant figure.

ACTIVATE 2 STAFF (1 HOUR / 1 HOUR + CORRUPTION)
Select 2 Staff actions that have recruited Townsfolk cards on them, and
perform them in the order you want.

After first use
Each time your Merchant figure leaves the Part-time Staff tile, immediately flip
it to its opposite side and place it to the other bottom corner of your Staff board.

BEASTS OF THE BAY MODULE
(Not compatible with the Dragon Island Festival.)
A whole host of monsters have been known to live in Serpents Bay. Something must have upset them, because they have taken several Adventurers
hostage, and these people need to be rescued.

Setup:
1. Create a deck of 3 Beast of the Bay cards, each showing one of
these icons:
1 II III
2. Place them into a face-up stack on Dragon Island with III on the
bottom and 1 on the top.

Arrival Phase
1. Draw Adventurers from the bag and place 1 of them on each of the
4 sections of the Beast of the Bay card.
2. The Beast follows the Arrival rule of the current Rogue card. If it
allows Rogues to be placed on Boats during the Arrival phase, Rogues
may also be placed onto the Beast. If not, then Rogues cannot be
placed onto the Beast.

Production Phase
During your turn, you may send your Merchant figure to the Beast of the Bay card in order to take the Rescue Adventurer action that is printed there.
Any number of Merchants can occupy the Beast of the Bay card at the same time.

RESCUE ADVENTURER (1 HOUR)
Select an Adventurer on the Beast of the Bay card and rescue them. To rescue an Adventurer, you must have Faction icons among your
Staff matching all of the Faction icons in the quadrant containing the chosen Adventurer. If a Faction icon is shown multiple times, you
must have at least that many matching icons.
After rescuing an Adventurer, immediately gain the reward shown on the Beast of the Bay card.
Then, place that Adventurer onto the Clock, onto the next Adventurer Indicator space your Timepiece is due to cross.

Load the Boats - Rescued Adventurers
Any time you pass an Adventurer Indicator, and would draw an Adventurer from the bag to load onto a Boat, you may instead select any Adventurer
from the Clock to place, provided that your Timepiece has moved beyond them on the Clock.

Cleanup
Return any Adventurers remaining on the Beast of the Bay card or on the Clock to the bag, and remove the top Beast of the Bay card from the game.
Merchant figures that were placed there remain on the same spot, on the new Beast of the Bay card.
5.

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Paladin cards
(Some Paladin cards may require certain modules to be in play.)

All Paladin cards have the same initial setup (5 Paladin meeples in the bag and 2 in the Paladin Faction Hall), and are always able to be placed onto Boats during the Arrival Phase.

Paladin Adventurers trigger all Paladin card abilities in the same way. If a Paladin Adventurer is on a Boat when it docks, the player who caused it to dock gains the indicated reward.

If a Paladin is sent to the Paladin Faction Hall, all players gain the reward (starting with the current player, and resolving it in turn order).

Resolving these rewards is not compulsory (you may choose to ignore a reward gained this way).

1) Oath of Honor
Gain 1 Honor token.

4) Oath of Hard Labor
Remove any 1 Good from your Sale Shelf, and place 1 Paladin Good onto your Sale Shelf.

7) Oath of Exaltation
Gain immediate Sponsorship from the Paladin Faction Hall.

6.

2) Oath of Vengeance
Discard a Corruption card of your choice, framing the other players.

5) Oath of Glory
Activate any 1 Staff ability.

8) Oath of Virtue
Spend 1 Honor token and discard 3 Corruption cards of your choice.

BEASTS OF THE BAY
(Some Beasts may require certain modules to be in play.)

1
Nessie
Move a small Good of any color to your Sale Shelf.

1
The Sea Dragon
Return an Adventurer on a sailing Boat to the Adventurer bag.

1
The Kraken
Select and discard a Corruption card from your supply.

11
The Cyclops
Gain 1 Honor token.

11
Kfuwu
Send an Adventurer on a sailing Boat to their matching Faction Hall.

3) Oath of Wisdom
Advance an Assistant 1 space on a Faction Festival track.

6) Oath of Assistance
Immediately recruit a Townsfolk, do not gain their ability, then refill the Town Square as usual.

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ROGUE CARDS

The Mermaid
Move a large Good of any color to your Sale Shelf.

The Megalodon
Frame 1. Discard a Corruption card of your choice from your supply, then all other players lose 1 Gold for each Adventurer in the Lair.

The Leviathan
Select 2 Adventurers on 2 different sailing Boats and swap them.

Henry
Immediately gain Sponsorship from the Faction Hall matching the rescued Adventurer.

15) Conspirators
4 bag / 3 Lair
Arrival: Boat
Effect: When a Boat with one or more Rogues docks, all players may use the Frame action, the penalty only applies to the player on their left.
Recommended Townsfolk: Legends + ?
Peddler: The Peddler will use the Frame effect.

16) Union Busters
3 bag / 3 Lair
Arrival: Boat
Effect: When a Boat with one or more Rogues docks, all players immediately score the end-game Faction icons on one of their Staff, then discard the chosen Townsfolk to the bottom of the Townsfolk deck. Do not lose Gold for Corruption icons at this time.
Recommended Townsfolk: Underworld + ?
Peddler: The Peddler will use the effect with their most recently recruited Townsfolk.

17) Sirens
3 bag / 3 Lair
Arrival: Bag
Effect: When you load a Rogue onto a Boat, immediately move any non-Rogue on that Boat to their matching Faction Hall. This occurs before a Boat would be forced to dock.
Recommended Townsfolk: Sailors + ?
Peddler: The Peddler will not engage with this effect.

18) Witches
5 bag / 2 Lair
Arrival: Boat
Effect: When a Rogue enters the Lair, all players may draw a Corruption card to exchange a Good on their Sale Shelf with one from their supply of the same size but of a different color.
Recommended Townsfolk: Artisans + ?
Peddler: The Peddler will not engage with this effect.

19) Un-Fairies
5 bag / 2 Lair
Arrival: Boat
Effect: Goods sold at a Pier with one or more Rogues have their base value lowered by 1.
Recommended Townsfolk: ? + ?
Peddler: This penalty applies to the Peddler as well.

20) Loan Sharks
5 bag / 3 Lair
Arrival: Boat
Effect: When you place an Adventurer onto a Boat with a Rogue, you may draw 1 Corruption card to score the Faction Hall of the placed Adventurer.
Recommended Townsfolk: Exemplars + ?
Peddler: The Peddler will activate this effect if there are more Adventurers in the designated Faction Hall than in the Lair.

21) Fence
1 bag / 4 Lair
Arrival: Bag
Effect: When a Boat with one or more Rogues docks, all players may draw 1 Corruption card to sell any 1 Good from their Sale Shelf at three times its base value.
Recommended Townsfolk: Lawyers + ?
Peddler: The Peddler will activate this effect and sell their highest base value Good. In case of a tie, they sell their rightmost tied Good, and slide all remaining Goods to the left.
7.

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TOWNSFOLK SETS

APPRENTICES
(Faction Festival only.)

Advance a single Assistant 2 spaces
on the depicted track if possible.

Advance an Assistant 1 space on each
depicted track if possible.

EXEMPLARS
(Must use Honor tokens.)

Gain 1 Honor token.

Gain 2 Honor tokens.

INSIDERS

Move an Adventurer from the indicated
Faction Hall onto a Pier of your choice.

These Insiders immediately gain Market
Phase Sponsorship, instead of only during
Final Scoring.

LAWYERS

Frame 1. Discard 1 Corruption card, all
other players immediately lose Gold equal
to the number of Adventurers in the Lair.

Frame 2. Discard 2 Corruption cards, all
other players immediately lose Gold equal
to the number of Adventurers in the Lair,
twice.

Original game by: Carl Van Ostrand, Jonny Pac, and Drake Villareal
Expansion by: Drake Villareal and Carl Van Ostrand
Artwork: Mihajlo Dimitriievski - The Mico
Additional artwork: Marija Savikj
Development: Drake Villareal and Boris Momic
Graphic design: Naum Jamovski and Aleksandra Sofronieska
Production: Final Frontier Games, Maja Denkov, Toni Toshevski,
Vojkan Krstevski, and Ivana Krstevska

3D renders: Ana Trajkovska
Rulebook layout: Naum Jamovski and Aleksandra Sofronieska
Solo scenarios: Drake Villareal
Rulebook: Drake Villareal and Boris Momic
Insert: Game Trayz

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