The Ultimate Guide: How to Play The Gallerist and Dominate the Art Market!

Hey there, future art mogul! Ready to dive into the glamorous and competitive world of galleries? In The Gallerist, you're not just a dealer, but a curator, entrepreneur, and visionary, ready to build the most profitable gallery on the planet. Grab your coffee, adjust your monocle, and let's uncover the secrets of this amazing game!

Game Objective

In The Gallerist, your main goal is to accumulate the most Money possible to win the game! To do this, you will discover and promote Artists, buy and sell their Artwork, hire Assistants, increase your Reputation in the international market, and, of course, attract Visitors from all over the world to your gallery. In the end, your secret collections and influence will also convert into money. Whoever has the greatest fortune takes the victory!

Setup

Let's set up the table for your grand debut in the art world! Follow these steps to prepare your gallery:

1. Place the Main Board in the center of the table.
2. Position the Player Boards around the Main Board, next to the Galleries of the corresponding color.
3. Place all Visitors in the Cloth Bag (for 4 players).
4. Position each player's Influence Marker (disc) on the "10" space of the Influence Track.
5. At the ticket booth, place 20 Tickets of each color (for 4 players). The color of the tickets does not matter, only the quantity.
6. Sales Office:
   • Shuffle the Contract Cards and place them face down.
   • Draw 4 cards and place them face up in the four contract spaces.
7. Artist Colony:
   • Shuffle the 16 Artist Tiles and place them, one by one, in the appropriate spaces (color and art type). Artists that cannot be placed return to the box.
   • The first blue Artist revealed must be face up and their initial Fame marked with a White Cube in the brown space.
   • All other Artists start face down. Shuffle the Artist Bonus Tokens and randomly distribute one to each of these Artists.
   • Place 1 White Visitor (Collector) from the Cloth Bag on each red Artist.
   • Place the 2 Signature Tokens of each Artist in the appropriate space next to them.
   • For each Art type, shuffle the Artwork Tiles and form a face-up pile. Remove the first tile from each pile and set them aside (for step 11).
   • On each tile at the top of the Artwork piles, place a number of Visitors (drawn randomly from the Cloth Bag) equal to the quantity of Tickets stamped on the tile.
8. Media Center:
   • Place the Promotion Tokens in piles, in the designated spaces according to the numbering.
9. International Market:
   • Randomly separate 12 Reputation Tokens and place them in each space of the 4 upper rows.
   • Shuffle the 4 Artwork Tiles previously set aside (step 7) and place them displayed on the 3 Wooden Easels. These will be the Internationally Renowned Artworks, auctioned at the end of the game.
10. Randomly draw 4 Visitors from the Cloth Bag and place them in the Central Plaza. Randomly place 1 Visitor in each player's Hall (the Hall is between the player's Gallery and the Central Plaza).
11. Randomly take 4 remaining Reputation Tokens and place one in each Location on the Main Board.
12. Choose a Starting Player and they will start with the Starting Player Token. In reverse order, each player places their Gallerist piece in one of the 4 Locations, receiving the Reputation Token from that space and defining it as their starting space.
13. Position the remaining components near the Main Board.

Individual Player Setup:

1. Place 8 Assistants in the unhired queue spaces.
2. Place the 2 remaining Assistants on your office desks.
3. Place the Reputation Token (received in step 14 of the board setup) in the third Art space of your Individual Board.
4. Take $10 of Money from the bank.
5. Shuffle and deal to each player one Art Dealer Card and one Curator Card (kept secret).

The Game Turn

The game unfolds in a series of rounds, starting with the Starting Player and proceeding clockwise. On your turn, you will perform the following steps:

1. Move your Gallerist:
   • You MUST move your Gallerist to a different Location than where they were.
   • If your Gallerist was in their own Gallery, you can choose to go to any Location.
   • Leaving an Assistant Behind: When moving, you can leave one of your Assistants in the space of the Location from where your Gallerist moved. This Assistant can come from your office or another Location.
   • Expulsion Action: If you move your Gallerist to a Location where another player's Gallerist or Assistant already exists, that piece is "Expelled." The expelled player can perform an Expulsion Action after you finish your turn.
2. Perform a Location Action:
   • Once your Gallerist arrives at a Location, you MUST select one of the two possible Location Actions. The 4 Locations are:
   • Artist Colony:
     • Discover an Artist: Choose a face-down Artist, gain the bonus, flip them face up, mark their initial Fame, and move a Signature Token to your Commission Contract space. If it's a red Artist, move the Collector to the Central Plaza.
     • Buy and Exhibit an Artwork: Choose an Artist with an available Signature Token (or commission). Pay the cost (equal to the Artist's current Fame, or initial Fame if commissioned). Increase the Artist's Fame, take Tickets, move the Artwork to your Gallery, and the Signature Token to your sale value record. Move the Visitors from the Artwork to the Central Plaza and place new Visitors on the next Artwork in the pile.
   • Sales Office:
     • Secure a Contract: Take one of the available Contract Cards and place it on your Individual Board. You can reveal 4 new cards before choosing.
     • Sell an Artwork: If you have a Contract and a corresponding Artwork in your Gallery, receive Money according to the sale value, remove the Artwork, return the Signature Token to the Artist, move a Visitor from your Gallery to the Central Plaza, and flip the Contract Card face down.
   • Media Center:
     • Hire Assistants: Hire up to 4 Assistants for your office, paying the cost and gaining bonuses.
     • Promote an Artist: Spend Influence to increase an Artist's exposure level, gaining bonuses and increasing their Fame.
   • International Market:
     • Take a Reputation Token: Choose an available Reputation Token, gain Influence, place the token in your reputation record (gaining the space's bonus), move a Visitor from your Hall to the Central Plaza, and place an Assistant in the token's space.
     • Bid in the International Renowned Art Auction: Choose a row, pay the offered amount in Money, gain Influence and bonuses, and place an Assistant in the space.
3. Perform an Executive Maneuver (Optional):
   • You can perform an Executive Maneuver before or after your Location Action. There are two options:
   • Move Visitors by offering Tickets: Discard Tickets to move Visitors (of the same color as the ticket) towards your Gallery.
   • Use a Contract Card Bonus: Place an Assistant on a Contract Card on your Individual Board to activate its bonus (single use).
4. Expulsion Action (if applicable):
   • If your Gallerist or Assistant was expelled, you (the expelled player) can perform an Expulsion Action after the active player finishes their turn. The options are:
   • Reduce your Influence to the nearest previous star to perform one of the Location Actions from where you were expelled.
   • Perform an Executive Maneuver.
   • Use a Contract Card bonus.
   • After the Expulsion Action (or if you choose not to do it), the expelled Gallerist/Assistant returns home (their Gallery on the main board for the Gallerist, or their office for the Assistant).

Important Resources:

• Fame: Determines the sale price of Artwork. Increases when buying Artwork and promoting Artists.
• Influence: Spent to promote Artists, use Location Actions in Expulsion Actions, and gain additional Fame and Money. Gained by performing actions with the influence icon or in the International Market.
• Money: Used to buy Artwork, hire Assistants, and bid in the auction. Gained by selling Artwork or performing actions with the money icon.
• Visitors: Come in 3 types (brown Investors, pink VIPs, white Collectors). They are moved with Tickets to your Gallery, where they yield Money and Influence and increase Artists' Fame.

End of Game and Scoring

The game approaches its end when at least 2 of the following conditions occur:

• All Tickets are exhausted.
• Two or more Artists become Celebrities.
• There are no more Visitors in the Cloth Bag.

When two or more of these conditions are met, the current round is completed until the Final Player takes their turn. Then, each player (starting with the Starting Player and following turn order) performs a Last Turn. There are no Expulsion Actions in this last round (the expelled piece simply returns home without performing the action).

The Final Scoring then begins, and the player with the most Money wins the game!

Mid-Game Scoring:

At the end of the turn in which the last Ticket of one of the colors is removed from the Ticket Booth, a Mid-Game Scoring occurs (only once per game):

• You gain 2 Influence for each VIP and 1 Influence for each Collector in your Gallery.
• You gain 2 Money for each Investor and 1 Money for each Collector in your Gallery.

Final Scoring (Step-by-Step):

1. International Market Control:
   • Each column of the International Market is scored separately. The player with the most Assistants in the first column (upper and lower together) receives $6, the second $3, and the third $1. In case of a tie, sum the prizes and divide (rounded down).
   • Repeat the process for the second and third columns, with the prize values illustrated.
2. Reputation Token Scoring:
   • Players receive Money and/or Influence for each Reputation Token in their Reputation Record.
3. Exhibition Scoring:
   • For each Artwork displayed in your Gallery, you receive an amount of Money equal to its sale value.
4. International Renowned Art Auction:
   • The Artwork on the Easels are auctioned. Sum each player's value based on the Assistants in the auction area of the International Market (each Assistant is worth 1, 3, or 6, depending on the position).
   • The player with the highest total bid chooses one of the Renowned Artworks. In case of a tie, the tie-breaker is the highest bid in the third column, then the second, and so on.
   • The second highest bid chooses from the remaining, and so on.