Luthier

Welcome to Luthier, a game that transports players back to the height of classical music in Western Europe, where you compete to earn prestige by satisfying patrons, performing music, building fine instruments, and making necessary repairs (p. 7).

Here is how to set up, play, and end the game:

Game Setup

1. Place the main board in the center of the table and set up public award tiles at the top (use 4 tiles for a 4-player game and 3 tiles for 2–3 players) (p. 3).
2. Shuffle and place the patron, instrument, performance, and repair decks face down on the main board, filling their respective slots based on player count (p. 3). Place the round track token on round 1 (p. 3).
3. Give each player a workbench board, award markers, worker chips (numbered 1–5 plus 3 specialty chips), apprentice chips, family crest tokens, cubes, a market cart token, a prestige point tracker, and various tokens (p. 20).
4. Each player chooses a luthier family tile, takes starting resources, selects two personal goal cards, chooses one instrument card, and chooses one starting patron card to place on their workbench board (p. 16).
5. Arrange turn order markers on the main board based on the numbers printed on the chosen luthier family tiles, with the lowest number going first (p. 16).
6. Place general resources (coins, animal/wood/metal materials, and inspiration tokens) and the five performance dice within reach of all players (p. 26).

How a Round Works

The game takes place over six rounds (p. 11). Each round is structured as follows:

• Start of Round: At the start of each round, players perform start-of-round workbench steps, advance active patrons' patience cubes to claim gifts, and place up to two instrument cards from their hand onto their roughing bench (p. 6).
• Planning Phase: In turn order, players take turns placing exactly one available worker chip face down on a location space on the main board or their own workbench board (p. 23). Players may also place up to three apprentices with a worker to increase that worker's skill for priority and bonuses (p. 23).
• Resolution Phase: Locations are activated one at a time, allowing players to perform actions in priority order (such as acquiring cards, performing, repairing, or crafting instruments) (p. 11). Players can also independently visit the Market during this phase to buy or sell materials, hire apprentices, and invest in training without using a worker chip (p. 19).

End of Round and Game End

• End of Round: Update the turn order track based on worker priority at the Balcony, retrieve leftover worker chips, allocate specialty workers if gained, and advance the round marker (p. 10, 11).
• Game End: The game ends after the sixth round is completed (p. 12).
• Scoring: Players score additional prestige points from occupied First Chairs in the Orchestra, completed endgame patron powers, instruments left on finishing benches, personal goals, specialty worker cards, and leftover resources (p. 4, 12). The player with the most prestige wins, with ties broken by remaining money after resource conversion (p. 12).