The Bottom Line
Palazzo is an auction and drafting game that is suitable as a medium weight game for gamers, but, because of some fiddleyness and poor theme to mechanics integration, is not the best choice for non-gamers or as a gateway game. I recommend it only if you have gamers to play with, and need to add variety in the middle weight, forty-five minute niche.
The Rules
In Palazzo players represent renaissance era architects attempting to build the highest and best Palazzos that they can. Palazzos are considered better, and are awarded more points, if they are constructed out of a homogenous material (there are three construction materials available: marble, brick, and limestone), if they have a lot of windows and doors, and if they are at least three stories tall. In the end, the player with the most points wins.
Players are given money in four different suits with which to buy the components of their Palazzos. Three of the suits each represent a different currency, the fourth is wildcards which can be any currency. Money may only be spent if it is all of a matching currency (wildcards can be added to any currency). One exception is if three money cards are played each from a different suit but of a matching denomination, in this case the three cards together are worth 15 regardless of their denomination. Such a “15 point set” can also be created by playing 3 wildcards together.
Money is spent on “stories” which are used to construct the <PERSON>. Stories come in one of three materials and with one to three windows. Additionally, each story is numbered from between one to five. The stories must be placed on a Palazzo in ascending order. In other words a Palazzo may start out with story one, then have story three, then story five, but it can’t have story one then story three then story two. The maximum height a Palazzo can achieve is thereby five stories. The material of a Palazzo may be mixed and matched but there is a point bonus for making homogeneous Palazzos.
Game play is as follows:
On a players turn he may choose to take one action from the following three options.
1) Take Money – If a player opts to take money he deals, face up, a number of money cards equal to the number of players plus one. The active player then selects any two of the money cards to add to his hand. The remaining players select, in turn order, one money card each. 84
There is no limit to the number of money cards a player can have nor to how many times in a row this action may be taken (at least until the money deck runs out).
2) Build – If a player opts to build he turns over one tile from the appropriate tile deck (there are three tile decks of increasingly valuable stories. In this way the stories come out in a reasonable progression) and places it in the central market place (see picture below). He then takes a second tile and adds it to one of the quarries on the periphery. This is done by counting the number of windows on the tile and then counting that number of quarries ahead the Master Builder pawn. In this way more valuable tiles are place further from the Master Builder.
The active player then must decide if he wants to buy from the central market or from the quarries. If he opts for the central market then he may buy one or two tiles and each one costs ten minus the number of tiles that were present in the market at the beginning of his turn. So, for example, if there are three tiles in the central market a player may purchase one for seven, or two for fourteen. When a player pays he may overpay, but he may not make change for his payment.
If the player decides to buy from the quarries then he advances the Master Builder pawn one quarry clockwise, and all of the tiles in that quarry will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The active player gets a free bid of three. Bidding proceeds in turn order with each player either increasing the bid or dropping out until only one player is left. That player pays his bid and takes the tiles in the quarry. Once again, players may add to their bid but cannot pick up their previous bids and make change.
There is one exception if there are four or more tiles in the quarry. In this case there is no auction. Players take turns selecting one tile from the quarry for free, any excess tiles are discarded.
After a player acquires some tiles he must add them to his Palazzos. He may add a tile to an existing Palazzo as long as the story number of the new tile exceeds the highest story on the Palazzo. A player may also start a new Palazzo simply by placing a lone tile in front of him. 84