Dominion

Donald X. Vaccarino

Rio Grande Games

You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.

But wait! It must be something in the air; several other monarchs have had the exact same idea. You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them off along the way. To do this you will hire minions, construct buildings, spruce up your castle, and fill your treasury. Your parents wouldn't be proud, but your grandparents, on your mother’s side, would be delighted.

Goal

This is a game of building a deck of cards. The deck is your Dominion. It contains your resources, victory points, and the things you can do. It starts out a small sad collection of Estates and Coppers, but you hope by the end of the game it will be brimming with Gold, Provinces, and the inhabitants and structures of your castle and kingdom. The player with the most victory points VP in his Deck at game end wins.

Contents

Before the first game, remove the five sets of cards from their wrappings and place them in the card tray. One side of the included inlay suggests a way to organize the cards. The opposite side allows players to create an organization that fits their needs.
500 cards
130 Treasure cards
60 Copper 40 Silver 30 Gold
48 Victory cards
24 Estates 12 Duchies 12 Provinces
30 Curse cards 32 Randomizer cards
1 Trash card
252 Kingdom cards
24 Action cards (10 of each)


In the accessible version, the braille on the base Victory point cards only reads the first letter of the type and the point value.

the braille on the base Treasure cards only reads the first letter of the type and the amount of money produced.

the braille on the curse cards only reads the first letter and minus 1 victory point.

The kingdom cards themselves will only have the title of the card. Included in the accessibility kit is a reference sheet that will have the full text of every kingdom card. These should be kept in play ready for any blind players to use as needed.

The labels for the randomizer cards will have a prefix of R in front of the title of the card.

Preparation

Place the Treasure cards, Victory cards, Curse cards, and the Trash card in every game. TREASURE CARDS
Copper, Silver, and Gold cards are the basic Treasure cards, and they are available in every game. After each player takes 7 Copper cards, place the remaining Copper cards and all of the Silver cards and Gold cards in face-up piles in the Supply. VICTORY CARDS
Estate, Duchy, and Province cards are the basic Victory cards, and they are available in every game. After each player takes 3 Estate cards, place 12 each of the Estate, Duchy, and Province cards in face-up piles in the Supply in a 3 or 4 player game. In a 2 player game, place only 8 of each of these Victory cards in the Supply. Place unused Victory cards back in the box. CURSE CARDS & TRASH CARD
Place 10 Curse cards in the Supply for a 2 player game, 20 Curse cards for 3 players, and 30 Curse cards for 4 players. Return unused Curse cards to the box. Curse cards are used most often with specific Action cards (e.g. Witch). If a player buys a Curse card (0 cost), it goes in his own discard pile, like any other gained card. This, of course, will not often occur. The Trash card marks the place where players place cards trashed in the game.

Note: Curse cards are present in every game, however, they are rarely used in the basic game other than with the Witch card.

each player starts with 10 cards:

Each player starts the game with the same cards: 7 coppers &3 estates.

Each player shuffles these cards and places them (his Deck) face-down in his play area (the area near him on the table).

Now, each player draws 5 cards from his Deck. These cards are the player’s hand.

Place 10 sets of the 25 different Kingdom cards next to the Treasure, Victory, Curse, and Trash cards to start each game. Thus, each game can have a different set of 10 cards.

KINGDOM CARDS

In addition to the Trash, Treasure, Victory, and Curse cards that are used in every game, the players also select 10 Kingdom cards and place 10 of each in face-up piles on the table.

Exception: Kingdom Victory card piles (e.g. Gardens) have the same number as the Victory card piles (12 for a 3 or 4 player game and 8 for a 2 player game). For the first game, we recommend using the following 10 Kingdom cards: Cellar, Market, Militia, Mine, Moat, Remodel, Smithy, Village, Woodcutter, and Workshop. At the end of the rules, we list more suggestions for sets of 10 Kingdom cards. Return Kingdom cards not chosen for the game to the box.

In later games, players can choose the 10 Kingdom cards using any method they agree on.

For example, the players can shuffle the Randomizer cards for all Kingdom cards and draw 10 to select the cards for the game. Or, players can take turns selecting cards. Players may also use the Randomizer cards as Placeholders to mark the card piles so empty piles are easily seen.

Playing the game

Starting Player
Randomly determine the starting player. When playing multiple games, the starting player is the player to the left of the winner of the last game. If there was a tie in the previous game, randomly choose the starting player from the players that didn’t win. Players take turns in clockwise order.

TURN OVERVIEW
Each turn has three phases (A, B, and C) in the order shown: A) Action phase - the player may play an Action.
B) Buy phase - the player may buy a card.
C) Clean-up phase - the player must discard both played and unplayed cards and draws five new cards.

After a player completes all three phases, his turn ends.

ACTION PHASE

In the Action phase, the player may play one Action card. Action cards are the Kingdom cards that say “Action” at the bottom of the card. Since players do not start the game with any Action cards in their initial Decks of 10 cards, a player will not have any Actions to play during his first 2 turns. Normally, a player may play only one Action card, but this number may be modified by the Action cards that the player plays.

To play an Action, the player takes an Action card from his hand and lays it face-up in his play area. He announces which card he is playing and follows the instructions written on that card from top to bottom. The player may still play an Action card even if he is not able to do everything the Action card tells him to do; but the player must do as much as he can. Furthermore, the player must fully resolve an Action card before playing another one (if he is able to play another Action card). Detailed information about card abilities can be found in the card descriptions at the end of these rules. Any Action cards played remain in the player’s play area until the Clean-up phase of the turn unless otherwise indicated on the card.

The Action phase ends when the player cannot or chooses not to play any more Action cards. Generally, a player can only play Action cards during the Action phase of his turn. However, Reaction cards are an exception to this rule as they can be used at other times.

Common terms used on the Action cards:

"+X Card(s)" – the player immediately draws X number of cards from his Deck. If there are not enough cards in his Deck, he draws as many as he can, shuffles the Discard pile to form a new Deck, and then draws the rest. If he still does not have enough cards left after forming a new Deck, he just draws as many as he can.

"+X Action(s)" – the player may play X number of additional Actions this turn. +X Action(s) adds to the number of Actions that can be played in the Action phase. It does not mean play another Action immediately. The instructions on the current Action card must be completed before playing any additional Actions. The player must complete all of his Actions before he moves on to the Buy phase of his turn. If a card gives the player more than one additional Action, he may keep track of the number of Actions he has remaining out loud.

"+ X$ " – the player has X number of additional coins to spend in the Buy phase. The player does not take additional Treasure cards for these coins.

"+1 Buy" – the player may buy an additional card from the Supply during the Buy phase of his turn. +1 Buy adds to a player’s potential Buys, it does not allow the player to buy a card during the Action phase.

"Discard" – unless otherwise specified, discarded cards are from the player’s hand. When a player discards a card, he places the discarded card face-up onto his Discard pile. When discarding several cards at once, the player need not show all cards he is discarding to his opponents, but player may need to show how many cards he is discarding (for example, when playing the Cellar). The top card of a player’s Discard pile is always visible.

"Trash” – when a player trashes a card, he places it in the Trash pile, not his Discard pile. Trashed cards are not returned to the Supply and are not available for purchase.

"Gain” – when a player gains a card, he takes the gained card (usually from the Supply) and puts it onto his Discard pile (unless the card says to put it elsewhere). The player does not get to use the card when he gains it.

“Reveal” – when a player reveals a card, he shows a card to all players and then returns it to wherever it came from (unless instructed specifically to put it elsewhere). If the player is required to reveal cards from the top of his Deck, and he does not have enough cards, he shuffles in order to reveal the required number of cards.

“Set Aside” – when a player sets aside a card, he places it face-up on the table (unless otherwise indicated) without following any instructions on the card. An Action that requires a player to set aside cards will instruct him on what to do with these cards.

BUY PHASE

In the Buy phase, the player can gain one card from the Supply by paying its cost. Any card that is in the Supply may be purchased (Treasure, Victory, Kingdom, and even Curse cards). The player may not purchase cards from the Trash pile. Normally, a player may buy only one card, but he may buy more if he played certain cards earlier in his Action phase.

The cost of a card is in its lower left corner. The player may play some or all of the Treasure cards from his hand to his play area and add to their value the coins provided by Action cards played this turn. The player may then gain any card in the Supply of equal or lesser value. He takes the purchased card from its Supply pile and places it face-up on his Discard pile. He my not use the ability of the card when it is gained.

If the player has multiple Buys, he combines Treasure cards and any coins available from Action cards to pay for all of the purchases. For example, if Tyler has +1 Buy and 6 coins provided by two Gold cards, he can buy a Cellar costing 2, placing it face-up in his Discard pile. Then, he can buy a Smithy with the remaining 4 coins and place that face-up in his Discard pile. If he wants to use all 6 coins to buy one card, he can buy a Copper (for free) with his second Buy or not buy a second card. Players do not have to use any or all of their Buys.

The Treasure cards remain in the play area until the Clean-up phase. Treasure cards will be used multiple times during the game. Although they are discarded during the Clean-up phase, the player will draw them again as his Discard pile is shuffled into a new Deck. Thus, Treasure cards are a source of income, not a resource that is used up when played. When played, Coppers are worth 1 coin, Silvers are worth 2 coins, and Golds are worth 3 coins.

CLEAN-UP PHASE

All cards gained this turn should already be in the player’s Discard pile. The player places any cards that are in his play area (Action cards that have been played in the Action phase as well as Treasure cards that have been played in the Buy phase) and any cards remaining in his hand onto his Discard pile. Although the player need not show the cards remaining in his hand to his opponents, since he places the cards in the Discard pile face-up, his opponents will always be able to see the top-most card of his Discard pile.

Then, the player draws a new hand of 5 cards from his Deck. If there are not enough cards in his Deck, he draws as many as he can, shuffles his Discard pile to form a new face-down Deck, and then draws the rest of his new hand.

Once the player has drawn a new hand of 5 cards, the next player starts his turn. To speed play, players may begin their turns while previous players are completing their Clean-up phases. When someone plays an Attack card, the players must complete their Clean-up phases in order to properly resolve the Attack.

Game End

The game ends at the end of any player’s turn when either:
1) the Supply pile of Province cards is empty or
2) any 3 Supply piles are empty.

Each player puts all of his cards into his Deck and counts the victory points on all the cards he has.

The player with the most victory points wins. If the highest scores are tied at the end of the game, the tied player who has had the fewest turns wins the game. If the tied players have had the same number of turns, they rejoice in their shared victory.

Additional Rules

Each player has his own Dominion, which he builds from cards in the supply. During the game, a player’s cards are usually in three parts: his Deck (which he draws cards from), his hand, and his Discard pile. The player draws cards from his own Deck and discards cards to his own Discard pile. When his Deck is exhausted and the player needs to draw or reveal cards from his Deck, he shuffles his Discard pile to reform his Deck. He does not shuffle his Discard pile until he needs to reveal or draw a card from his Deck and cannot. At any point in the game, if a player has to draw or reveal more cards than are remaining in his Deck, he must draw or reveal as many as he can and then shuffle his face-up Discard pile to form a new face-down Deck. Then, he draws or reveals the remaining number of cards from his newly shuffled Deck.

A player places cards he Buys or otherwise acquires during the game on his Discard pile unless he is specifically directed to place them elsewhere.

At the end of a player’s turn, he places all the cards he played and those still in his hand on his Discard pile. A player is allowed to count how many cards are left in his Deck, but not in his Discard pile. A player may not look through his Deck or his Discard pile. A player may look through the Trash pile, and players may count the number of cards left in any pile in the Supply.

If an ability of a card affects multiple players, and the order matters, resolve that ability for each affected player in turn order, starting with the player whose turn it is.

During each turn, a player is allowed 1 Action and 1 Buy, but may be entitled to more based on Action cards played. The instructions written on all the action cards alter the rules of the game by, for example, allowing the player to draw more cards from his Deck, play more Action cards in the Action phase, use more coins for the Buy phase, Buy extra cards in the Buy phase, and so on. When an Action card allows a player to gain a card costing up to a certain value, he may not add coins from his hand or other action cards to gain a higher-valued card.

Kingdom Card Description

Adventurer – If you have to shuffle in the middle, shuffle. Don't shuffle in the revealed cards as these cards do not go to the Discard pile until you have finished revealing cards. If you run out of cards after shuffling and still only have one Treasure, you get just that one Treasure.

Bureaucrat – If you have no cards left in your Deck when you play this card, the Silver you gain will become the only card in your Deck. Similarly, if another player has no cards in his Deck, the Victory card he puts on top will become the only card in his Deck.

Cellar – You can't discard Cellar to itself, since it isn't in your hand any longer when you resolve it. You choose what cards to discard and discard them all at once. You only draw cards after you have discarded. If you have to shuffle to do the drawing, the discarded cards will end up shuffled into your new Deck.

Chancellor – You must resolve the Chancellor (decide whether or not to discard your Deck by flipping it into your Discard pile) before doing other things on your turn, like deciding what to buy or playing another Action card. You may not look through your Deck as you discard it.

Chapel – You can't trash the Chapel itself since it isn't in your hand when you resolve it. You could trash a different Chapel card if that card were in your hand.

Council Room – The other players must draw a card whether they want to or not. All players should shuffle as necessary.

Feast – The gained card goes into your Discard pile. It has to be a card from the Supply. You cannot use coins from Treasures or previous Actions (like the Market) to increase the cost of the card that you gain. If you use Throne Room on Feast, you will gain two cards, even though you can only trash Feast once. Gaining the card isn't contingent on trashing Feast; they're just two things that the card tries to make you do.

Festival – If you are playing multiple Festivals, keep a careful count of your Actions. Say how many you have left out loud; this trick works every time (i.e. "I'm playing the Festival and now have two Actions remaining. I play a Market and have two Actions remaining. I play another Festival and now have three Actions remaining….").

Gardens – This Kingdom card is a Victory card, not an Action ° card. It does nothing until the end of the game, when it is worth 1 victory point per 10 cards in your Deck (counting all of your cards – your Discard pile and hand are combined with your Deck before scoring). Round down; if you have 39 cards, Gardens is worth 3 victory points. During set-up, place 12 Gardens in the Supply for a 3 or 4 player game and 8 in the Supply for a 2 player game.

Laboratory – Draw two cards. You may play another Action card during your Action phase.

Library – If you have to shuffle in the middle, the set-aside cards are not shuffled into the new Deck. They will be discarded when you have finished drawing cards. If you run out of cards even after shuffling, you just get however many there were. You are not obligated to set aside Actions – you just have the option to do so. If you have 7 or more cards in hand after you play the Library, you don't draw any cards.

Market – Draw a card. You may play another Action card during your Action phase. During your Buy phase, you may buy an additional card from the supply, and add one coin to the total value of the Treasure cards played.

Militia – The attacked players discard cards until they have only 3 cards in hand. Players who had 3 or fewer cards in hand when Militia was played do not discard any cards.

Mine – Generally, you can trash a Copper card and gain a Silver, or trash a Silver card and gain a Gold. However, you could also trash a Treasure to gain the same Treasure or a cheaper one. The gained card goes in your hand; thus, you can spend it the same turn. If you don't have a Treasure card in your hand to trash, you can’t gain anything.

Moat – An Attack card is one that says "Attack" on the bottom line (usually, "Action - Attack"). When someone else plays an Attack card, you may reveal the Moat by showing it from your hand to the other players and then returning it to your hand (before the Attack card resolves). You are then unaffected by that Attack card. You won't gain a Curse because of a Witch or reveal a card to a Spy, and so on. It's just like you aren't in the game for purposes of resolving that Attack. Moat doesn't stop anything an Attack does to other players or to the player of the Attack; for example, if everyone else Moats a Witch, the person who played it still gets to draw 2 cards. Moat can also be played on your turn as an Action to draw 2 cards.

Moneylender – If you do not have a Copper in your hand to trash, you don't get the +3 coins to spend in the Buy phase. Remodel – You cannot trash the Remodel as it isn't in your hand when you resolve it (you can trash a different Remodel card from your hand). If you do not have a card to trash, you cannot gain a card from the Remodel. The gained card goes in your Discard pile. You can only gain cards from the Supply. The gained card need not cost exactly 2 coins more than the trashed card; it can cost that much or any amount less. You cannot use coins from Treasures or previous Actions (like the Market) to increase the cost of the card you gain. You can trash a card to gain a copy of the same card.

Smithy – Draw three cards.

Spy – Spy causes all players, including the one who played it, to reveal the top card of their Deck. Note that you draw your card for playing Spy before any cards are revealed. Anyone who does not have any cards left in their Deck shuffles in order to have something to reveal. Anyone who still has no cards to reveal doesn't reveal one. If players care about the order in which things happen for this, you do yourself first, then each other player in turn order. Revealed cards that aren't discarded are returned to the top of their players' Decks.

Thief – A player with just one card left reveals that last card and then shuffles to get the other card to reveal (without including the revealed card); a player with no cards left shuffles to get both of them. A player who still doesn't have two cards to reveal after shuffling just reveals what he can. Each player trashes one Treasure card at most, of the attacker's choice from the two revealed cards, and then you gain any of the trashed cards that you want. You can only take Treasures just trashed—not ones trashed on previous turns. You can take none of them, all of them, or anything in between. Put the Treasures you decided to gain into your Discard pile. The ones you choose not to gain stay in the Trash pile.

Throne Room – You pick another Action card in your hand, play it, and play it again. The second use of the Action card doesn't use up any extra Actions you have. You completely resolve playing the Action the first time before playing it the second time. If you Throne Room a Throne Room, you play an Action, doing it twice, and then play another Action and do it twice; you do not resolve an Action four times. If you Throne Room a card that gives you +1 Action, such as Market, you will end up with 2 Actions left afterwards, which is tricky, because if you'd just played Market twice you'd only have 1 Action left afterwards. Remember to count the number of Actions you have remaining out loud to keep from getting confused! You cannot play any other Actions in between playing the Throne Roomed Action twice.

Village – If you're playing multiple Villages, keep a careful count of your Actions. Say how many you have left out loud; this trick works every time.

Witch – If there aren't enough Curses left to go around when you play the Witch, you deal them out in turn order – starting with the player after you. If you play Witch with no Curses remaining, you will still draw 2 cards. A player gaining a Curse puts it face-up into his Discard pile.

Woodcutter – During your Buy phase, you add two coins to the total value of the Treasure cards played, and you may buy an additional card from the Supply.

Workshop – The card you gain is put into your Discard pile. It has to be a card from the Supply. You cannot use coins from Treasures or previous Actions (like the Market) to increase the cost of the card you may gain.

Recommended Sets of 10

You can play Dominion with any set of 10 Kingdom cards, but these sets are intended to highlight some interesting card interactions and game strategies.

First Game: Cellar, Market, Militia, Mine, Moat, Remodel, Smithy, Village, Woodcutter, Workshop.

Big Money: Adventurer, Bureaucrat, Chancellor, Chapel, Feast, Laboratory, Market, Mine, Moneylender, Throne Room

Interaction: Bureaucrat, Chancellor, Council Room, Festival, Library, Militia, Moat, Spy, Thief, Village

Size Distortion: Cellar, Chapel, Feast, Gardens, Laboratory, Thief, Village, Witch, Woodcutter, Workshop

Village Square: Bureaucrat, Cellar, Festival, Library, Market, Remodel, Smithy, Throne Room, Village, Woodcutter



Illustration: Matthias Catrein
Developers: Valerie Putman & Dale Yu
Our thanks to our playtesters:
Kelly Bailey, Dan Brees, Josephine Burns, Max Crowe, Ray Dennis, David Fair, Lucas Hedgren, Michael M. Landers, W. Eric Martin, Destry Miller, Miikka Notkola, Molly Sherwin, Sir Shufflesalot, P. Colin Street, Chris West, the 6am Gamers, the Cincygamers and the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society.

Rio Grande Games

Accessible rules transcribed by Richard Gibbs for 64 Oz. Games accessibility kit in accordance with copyright law, 17 U.S.C. § 121: