Art Major is a competitive card game based around matching the paint cards in your hand with the required paint cards for your next masterpiece.
Acquiring paint is a slow process, trickling in at a rate of one paint a turn. You need to either trade for the paint you need … or sell one of your masterpieces. Each painting can be sold for paint, rather than kept for victory points.
Art Major 1st Edition Rules
Additionally, the more paintings you can get in a gallery, the more prestige you receive. The first player to collect ten points is recognized as the master painter.
Art Major has a nice blend of strategy, bluffing, and trading. Players are encouraged to trade anything they want, and with only two simple moves, the game can really begin moving at a quick pace.
One interesting piece of Art Major is that paint only comes in primary colors (Red, Blue, Yellow), but most paintings require secondary colors (Orange, Green, Purple) to be complete. This means players must “mix” paints, and use extra cards to paint their masterpiece.
Welcome Art Majors, to a new year!
Art Major has all new artwork, crafted from the ground up in collaboration between Monster Bash artist Robert Fike and Andak designer, Andrew Sears. Not only does the third edition include new artwork, but also a new set of optional rules and some much requested rule clarifications.
Building your gallery
The core gameplay of Art Major remains unchanged. Players, as struggling Art Majors, are attempting to build a portfolio that will take them onto fame and fortune. To do this, players must complete paintings and submit them to galleries. Each pair of paintings you’ve placed in a gallery builds more renown for you. In gameplay mechanics, what this means is that each painting has a gallery ‘frame’. For each paintings claimed that share a frame, players will score one additional point.
Art supplies, or lunch money
As a poor Art Major, you do not have enough money to purchase extra supplies. This means that each turn you are limited by what paint you can pickup, and when you use it to paint a painting, it is discarded. On your turn, one of the actions you can take is to purchase paint. To buy paint you may select up to two ‘brushes’ worth of paint from the art store (the paint supply pile), or your can select a single random paint from the draw pile.
Note, this is one of the rule changes introduced in third edition. In previous editions players were only allowed to draw a single paint each turn and it was random from the draw pile. Introducing the art store reduces the randomness, while also giving your opponents some indication into what paint you are going for.
The colors of paint available are the primary colors; red, blue, and yellow. To get the colors green, purple, and orange players need to mix two of their primary colors together to make the required secondary colors. When you claim a painting, turn in all the color cards you’re using, including both primary cards if mixing them. Premium paint (worth 2 brushes) may be mixed with two other paints, used by itself, or used as a primary color and a mixing color. Once you claim a painting, place it face up in front of you.
Players are allowed to trade paint with any other player during their turn.
Becoming the ultimate artist
Each painting has a reputation [victory point] associated with it. Players will keep a running total of reputation for each painting they’ve claimed. When that number (plus any gallery bonuses) is equal to or greater than 10, play is immediately and that player is declared the winner.
In an alternate victory scenario, introduced in third edition, players play until all paintings are claimed. Once all the paintings are claimed, add up your reputation (plus gallery bonuses) and 1 point for every 2 ‘brushes’ in your hand. The player with the highest total points is declared the winner. This may introduce ties, in which case, the player with the highest total reputation printed on the cards (not counting gallery bonus or brushes) is the winner.
Art Major is a competitive color matching game you don’t have to be an art major to play
Stellar Empire is a 15 minute 2 player strategic card game, requiring critical thinking and clever bluffing.
You take the role of a fleet admiral, and your goal is to capture as many planets along your stellar border as you can with the expedition fleet at your disposal. Some planets along the border are more ideal than others, but even a barren rock can be mined for resources.
Welcome Fleet Admiral
You will lead either the Royal Expedition Force of the Wami Kingdom, or the 3rd Fleet of the Neupert Prefecture.
Each turn, the opposing fleets engage over one of the contested planets, and players select a vessel to engage. As the more powerful ship prevails, the system will join the victors stellar empire.
If the ships fight to a draw, as they skulk away to lick their wounds, the following battles become more important, as the victor of the next battle will be able to lay claim to each system where combat was unresolved.
Once both players have exhausted their entire fleet, cooler heads will prevail and an armistice will be signed.
While both stellar empires may have made territorial claims, only the empire with the more worthwhile conquest can justify the skirmish and be called the victor!
Unlocked Bonus!
The Kickstarter successfully unlocked the Mercenaries expansion, so all games now include Mercenary and Corporation cards. This addition necessitated a larger box, which also opened up room for the First Contact expansion (sold separate).