NOTRE DAME

OBJECT OF NOTRE DAME: The objective of Notre Dame is to be the player who has the most prestige points after nine rounds of gameplay have been completed.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 5 players

MATERIALS: Five Board Sections, Three Tiles, Forty-Five Action Cards, Fifteen Person Cards, Seventy Influence Markers, Black Markers, Five Trusted Friends, Five Carriages, One Bell-ringer, Twenty Messages, Twenty-Five Gold Coins, Eighty-Four Prestige Tokens

TYPE OF GAME: Strategic Board Game

AUDIENCE: 10+

OVERVIEW OF NOTRE DAME

In Notre Dame, you will be playing the role of an influential family in Paris in the late 14th century. Maximize your wealth and your prestige through the use of action cards to spread your influence throughout your borough.

Take advantage of your opportunities when you can to win the game! Influence the banks to allow more access to money and force your citizens to spend more to increase your prestige. The player with the most prestige points wins the game!

SETUP

Place the gameboard in the middle of the table so that all players have easy access. If there are three players make it have three sides, four players have four sides, and five players have five sides. Players will then choose a section of the board to be theirs. Place the prestige tokens and gold coins next to the board.

After players choose a color to represent them throughout the game, they gather a trusted friend, a carriage, four influence markers, ten other influence markers, four messages, and nine action cards in their color. Players will also get three gold coins and one rat marker.

To prepare the person cards, shuffle the brown person cards and place them face down near the board. Sort the gray person cards depending on the letters found on the back. Shuffle each set, A, B, and C and place them on top of one another next to the persons card. The C cards should be on the bottom and the A cards should be on top.

The first player is determined by the group, and they get the bell-ringer.

GAMEPLAY

The game has three periods, A, B, and C. Each of these periods consists of three rounds. Each round has five phases played in order.

Phase 1

The first round consists of laying out three different person cards. Two of them come from the brown person cards and one from the gray person cards. These are placed facing up next to the other two card stacks.

Phase 2

Each player will draw the three cards from the top of their action card stack, choosing one to keep and discarding the other two by passing them to the player on their left. Once all players have passed cards in their hand, they may look at the cards, choose one to keep, and pass the other to the player on their left. The passed card is then added to their hand.

Players should not look at the cards they received until they have passed cards. Players may not pass cards that have been previously added to their hand. Cards should be kept secret from other players at all times throughout the game.

Two of the three cards the player has in their hand are used in phase three.

Phase 3

Beginning with the first player, gameplay will continue clockwise around the board. Each player will choose one action card and place it facing up in their play area. They must then complete the action found on the card.

After everyone has completed their first action, the steps are repeated with the other card they have in their hand. After all actions have been completed, cards are discarded in a discard pile, with all of them face up. The third card that was not used is hidden under the second card.

Phase 4

After players have completed two actions and discarded one, they may hire one of the people from the persons cards to complete a special action. The start player will begin and it will continue clockwise around the group.

To hire a person, it costs one gold coin. After payment, the player may use the special ability provided by the person hired. Players may pass on hiring a person, or they may hire all three if they wish.

Phase 5

This phase determines the health of those in each player’s borough. Plague values are determined and the players must move their rat marker along the plague track. They must move it by the number of spaces determined by the plague value.

END OF GAME

At the end of a round, the three person cards will be placed facing up on the needed stacks. The player to the left of the start player receives the bell-ringer. The new round begins in the same manner as the last.

After all nine rounds have been completed, the markers are scored and the game comes to an end. The player who has the most prestige points wins the game!

Nakoa Davis
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