Board Game The Taverns of Tiefenthal

A tavern management economic strategy with deckbuilding and dice drafting mechanics.

Development of the hotel industry in medieval Europe

The game takes place in the German village of Tiefenthal, famous for its taverns. Players become owners of local inns. Over the course of eight rounds, they try to bring their establishments to prosperity.

The game consists of several modules. Modules are added sequentially.

• Module #1 is the basic game in which participants try to serve as many distinguished guests as possible.
• Module #2 allows you to use bonus actions at the expense of schnapps.
• Module #3 adds a reputation counter.
• Module #4 allows you to start with different starting conditions.
• Module #5 introduces a guest book with new bonuses.

Before the game starts, participants assemble their taverns from tablets and environment tiles. They shuffle the starting cards into personal decks. Each player takes 4 white dice and places them on a round stand.

Gameplay

The game lasts exactly 8 rounds. Each round is divided into 7 phases.

1. New Tavern Night

The round marker advances. In module #2, players receive bonuses when the marker reaches the schnapps symbols.

2. Guests Arrive

Players play this phase simultaneously. They reveal cards from their personal decks and place guests in taverns until all tables are occupied. If the draw deck is empty, the cards from the discard pile are mixed into it.

3. Waitress appears

For each waitress card, the player takes a die of his color, rolls it, and places it next to the tavern.

4. Taking orders

The players take their white dice, roll them, and place the values ​​on the stands. They choose one die at a time, place them next to the taverns, and pass the stands with the dice clockwise. They choose the dice again, and pass the stands again. This continues until each player has chosen 4 dice.

5. Planning actions

Players place their white and colored dice on the action cells. The phase can be played simultaneously.

6. Serving guests

Players take turns performing all planned actions. After performing an action in the tavern, the player removes the used dice - white ones to the stand, and colored ones to the reserve.

After serving a guest, the player receives the number of doubloons indicated on his card. The cashier also brings coins. Suppliers and beer sellers give beer. More beer can be obtained from a keg of home-brewed beer. The monk advances the marker on the monastery track. 

• By spending doubloons, you can buy a beer seller, beer supplier, dishwasher, waitress or table card and place it on top of your personal selection deck. 
• You can also use doubloons to improve your tavern by flipping over the selected tile (in addition, the player adds a nobles card to your personal deck).
• By spending beer, you can add guest and nobles cards from the market to your personal deck. 

7. Closing

Players discard all cards placed in the tavern.

End of the game

The game ends after the 8th round. Participants add up the victory points on all their cards - in the draw deck and in the discard pile. The player with the most points wins.