Gamehelptheactsoftheevangelists

Overview

It is the first century. You are an evangelist: you travel the cities of the Roman Empire, gather tradition cards about Jesus, interview the eyewitnesses behind them, and write the traditions onto the codex leaves of your gospel. The best mix of eyewitness testimony, literary craft, and faithfulness to your theme wins.

1 to 5 players. 2 to 4 players play 6 rounds; 5 players play 5 rounds; solitaire plays 6 rounds (see below).

Setup (done for you)

• Each city has four face-down tradition cards; the color on each back shows one of that card's themes.
• Each city has one eyewitness disc. The bag holds 6 white ("alive") and 2 black ("dead") status cubes.
• Each player is dealt one theme card, face-up, and starts with 3 codex leaves (6 empty slots).
• Players place their pawns in different cities. The first player is the stenographer. Every player except the first gets one follow token; the last player gets two.

Your turn

You have 3 action octagons. Each action has a weak version (1 octagon) and a strong version (2 octagons). End your turn whenever you like; unspent octagons are lost.

After each of your actions, the other players may follow it:

• To follow a weak action, a player gives you one of their follow tokens.
• Following a strong action is free.
• Each opponent may follow each of your actions at most once.

Travel (once per turn)

• Weak: move up to 2 spaces along the lines. Cities (red circles) and waypoints (black circles) each count as a space.
• Strong: move to any city.
• Follow: move 1 space.

Boat (free, once per turn)

If your pawn shares a space with a boat, you may move up to 2 spaces and take the boat with you. A boat may stop on a city or a waypoint, and anyone whose pawn is on that space can take it later. If you sail onto a space that already has a boat, that boat is moved to the closest city without one (your choice if tied).

Tradition (once per city per turn)

• Weak: look at the four tradition cards in your city and keep one (or none).
• Strong: keep a second card (pay 1 more octagon).
• Place each kept card in an empty slot of your codex. The cards you return go back face-down, except one you choose to leave face-up.
• Follow: take the matching copy of one kept card from the secondary deck. If two followers want the same card, the one closest to the active player on the board gets it, then the next in turn order.

Interview (once per witness, ever)

Take the interview card of the eyewitness in your city. You can't interview a witness whose card you already hold, or when that witness's cards have run out. If the witness has no status cube, draw one from the bag (a black cube drawn is replaced from the supply, so the bag always holds two black cubes).

Count the cards in your gospel with a circle in this witness's color:

• Weak: 3 tally marks per card if the witness is alive (white cube), 2 if dead (black cube).
• Strong: 5 per card if alive, 3 if dead. You may decide on strong after seeing the cube.
• Follow: 2 tally marks if you hold this witness's interview card, plus 1 per matching card in your gospel.

Rearrange (once per turn)

• Weak: move one codex leaf (with its cards) to a new position, or flip one leaf (swap its two cards).
• Strong: do that as many times as you like.
• Follow: one weak rearrangement.

Cards are never removed or moved between leaves.

End of round

The time marker moves down one space. White cubes come off the witness discs and go back to the bag, and one white cube is removed from the game, so witnesses die as the game goes on. Twice during the game (after rounds 2 and 4, or rounds 1 and 3 with 5 players) every player adds a codex leaf to the left or right end of their gospel.

Literary devices

Empty slots don't break a run: cards separated by empty slots still count as next to each other. A card can be part of several devices.

• Inclusio: 3 or more cards in a row that share an eyewitness, and you hold that witness's interview card. One per witness.
• Emphasis: a motif symbol that appears on 4 or more cards anywhere in your gospel. One per motif (so at most 5).
• Chiasm: 4 cards in a row where the 1st and 4th share a motif and the 2nd and 3rd share a different motif (ABBA). The same four cards count only once.
• Chronology: your longest run of cards whose numbers increase from left to right (minimum 3; a run of 10 counts the same as 9).

Scoring

• Tally marks: 1 point each.
• Each literary device track: only players with a cube on it score. The highest player scores 15; each space behind the leader drops one level: 15 / 11 / 8 / 6 / 4 / 2 / 0.
• Theme cards: count your cards matching your theme. Most scores 15; each card fewer drops one level on the same ladder. With no matching card you score 0.
• Theme bonus: +5 if at least half of your cards match your theme.
• Tie penalty: −1 for each other player's cube that shares a space with one of your cubes on the device tracks.

Highest total wins. Tie-breaker: most tally marks.

Solitaire (the designer's rules)

• No follow tokens and no secondary deck. In each city, one tradition card starts face-up.
• An eyewitness deck holds one interview card per witness. At the start of each turn, flip the top card: that witness gets a status cube from the bag, unless it already has a black one.
• 6 rounds. Fixed scoring:
  • Inclusio, emphasis, chiasm: 1 / 2 / 3+ score 8 / 11 / 15.
  • Chronology: 3 / 4 / 5 / 6+ score 6 / 8 / 11 / 15.
  • Theme cards: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5+ score 4 / 6 / 8 / 11 / 15, plus the 5-point bonus.
• You win with 100 points or more. BGA records a loss as how far short you fell (77 points is recorded as −23).

Official rules

The full official rulebook (English PDF) is linked on this game's page under Game rules.