It's a momentous time. Art has been revolutionized by the invention of "perspective", and also of "funding". A picture used to be worth a dozen or so words; these new ones are more like a hundred.

Oil paintings have gotten so realistic that you've hired an artist to do a portrait of you each morning, so you can make sure your hair is good. Busts have gotten better too; no more stopping at the shoulders, they go all the way to the ground.

Science and medicine have advanced; there's no more superstition, now they know the perfect number of leeches to apply for each ailment. You have a clock accurate to within an hour, and a calendar accurate to within a week. Your physician heals himself, and your barber cuts his own hair. This is truly a golden age.

This is the 12th expansion to Dominion. It has 300 cards, with 25 new Kingdom cards. There are tokens that let you save coins and actions for later, Projects that grant abilities, and Artifacts to fight over.

Dominion: Renaissance is an expansion, and cannot be played by itself; to play with it, you need the Basic cards and rulebook (Dominion provides both). Dominion: Renaissance can also be combined with any other Dominion expansions you have.


Components

  • 250 Kingdom cards
  • 25 Randomizer cards
  • 20 Project cards
  • 5 Artifact cards
  • 35 Coin tokens
  • 6 Coffers / Villagers mats
  • 12 cubes in 6 player colors
  • 1 Plastic organizer tray
  • 1 Organizing Inlay
  • 1 Rule Booklet

Setup

Before the first game, remove the three sets of cards from their wrappings and place them in the card tray. The included inlay suggests a way to organize the cards.

Renaissance includes 25 randomizer cards (one for each Kingdom card). Players will need the Treasure cards, Victory cards, Curse cards, and Trash mat/card from either Dominion or Base Cards (or older editions of Intrigue) and the rules from Dominion to play with this expansion.

As with previous Dominion games, players must choose 10 sets of Kingdom cards for each game. If players choose the random approach for choosing sets, they should shuffle the randomizer cards from this expansion with those of any other Dominion games they choose to play with.

Projects can be shuffled into the randomizer deck (despite having a different back). They are not part of the 10 Kingdom cards used in a game; when a Project is turned over, put it on the table but keep turning over cards until you get 10 Kingdom cards.

For normal play we recommend using at most two Projects per game. When using Dominion: Adventures or Dominion: Empires, we recommend using no more than two total from Projects, Events, and Landmarks.

Skip any further Project cards turned over. Also skip Projects when using a randomizer card to determine whether or not to use Platinum/Colony (from Prosperity), or Shelters (from Dark Ages) in a game.

Projects cannot be Young Witch's bane (from Cornucopia). Another approach some people may prefer is to shuffle Projects (and Events and Landmarks) separately into their own deck, and always play with one or two of them. In games using Projects, each player takes two cubes of one color at the start of the game.

In games using a card that refers to Coffers or Villagers, give each player a Coffers / Villagers mat, and put the Coin tokens in a pile near the Supply. In games using Border Guard, Flag Bearer, Swashbuckler, or Treasurer, get out the Artifacts the cards refer to and put them near the Supply.


Coffers and Villagers

Renaissance has mats for tracking Coffers and Villagers, which let you save and Actions for later.

  • Cards say "+1 Coffers" to mean, add a token to the Coffers side of your mat. A token there can be removed in your Buy phase, before buying anything, for +

  • Cards say "+1 Villager" to mean, add a token to the Villagers side of your mat. A token there can be removed in your Action phase for +1 Action.

  • Any number of tokens can be removed at once, each giving another + or +1 Action.

  • Coin tokens are provided. They are not component-limited; players may use a substitute if they run out. The same tokens are in Dominion: Seaside, Dominion: Prosperity, and Dominion: Guilds; they can all be mixed together.

  • Tokens being used other ways, such as on the Pirate Ship mat for Dominion: Seaside, cannot be removed for + or +1 Action; just tokens on the Coffers / Villagers mat.

  • Tokens come from the supply of tokens, and return there; they are not taken from other mats or other players.

  • Dominion: Guilds also has a Coffers mat, and uses tokens on it the same way. Early printings of Guilds said "take a Coin token" instead; in later printings, this is "+1 Coffers", and should be played that way.


Projects

Project cards are abilities that players may buy. You buy a Project in your Buy phase; it uses up a Buy, and costs a certain amount of , indicated on each Project in the corner.

When buying a Project, place one of your cubes on it. For the rest of the game, you have that ability. For example when Fair is in the game, you can pay to put a cube on it; then for the rest of the game you will get +1 Buy on each of your turns.

  • Normally there should be no more than two Projects in a game. If there are more, you still only get to place two cubes.
  • You cannot place two cubes on the same Project.
  • You cannot remove a cube from a Project once you have placed it.
  • Any number of players can have the same Project ability at once.
  • Paying for a Project is not "buying a card"; it is not made cheaper by cards like Inventor, and does not matter for cards like Exploration.
  • You cannot pay for a Project while you have debt (from Empires).

Artifacts

Artifact cards are abilities that players may acquire somehow due to a particular kingdom card. When taking an Artifact, if another player has it, you take it from them; only one player will have a given Artifact at once.

If no other player has it, you just take it. While you have the Artifact, you have its ability, and you lose that ability when someone else takes the Artifact.

For example when playing Treasurer, you can choose to take the Key, which will give you + at the start of each of your turns until someone else takes it.


Durations

Renaissance has two Duration cards. Duration cards are orange, and have abilities that affect future turns. Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something.

Additionally, if a Duration card is played extra times by a card such as Scepter, that card also stays in play until the Duration card is discarded, to track the fact that the Duration card was played extra times.

Keep track of whether or not a Duration card was played on the current turn, such as by putting your cards into two lines.



Sample Turn

At the start of Avery's turn, she has a hand of Inventor, Inventor, Improve, Scepter, and Estate, with a cube on Innovation and 5 tokens on Villagers.

She plays Inventor and gains a Flag Bearer, taking the Flag from Ethan, who has it. Due to Innovation, she plays the Flag Bearer, and gets +.

She uses a Villager token so she can play another Action card. She plays the other Inventor, gaining Spices, which now costs . Gaining Spices causes her to add two tokens to her Coffers. She uses another Villager token to continue. She plays Improve, for +.

Now it is her Buy phase. First she plays Scepter, choosing to replay the first Inventor. She gains a Duchy. She has total: from Flag Bearer, from Improve. She turns in a token from her Coffers for +, putting her at .

She buys a Province, which costs , due to the three plays of Inventor. She discards everything, using Improve to trash an Inventor and gain a Duchy to replace it - while Inventor costs now, Duchy costs , which is exactly more.

She draws a new hand of 6 cards, due to the Flag.






Recommended Sets of 10

Players can play Dominion with any set of 10 Kingdom cards, but these sets have been specially picked out to be entertaining and show off card interactions and strategies.

Renaissance Alone:

Overture: Fair • Acting Troupe, Experiment, Flag Bearer, Hideout, Improve, Inventor, Lackeys, Old Witch, Seer, Treasurer.

Prelude: Citadel, Star Chart • Border Guard, Cargo Ship, Ducat, Mountain Village, Priest, Recruiter, Sculptor, Silk Merchant, Swashbuckler, Villain.


Renaissance & Dominion:

It Takes a Villager: Road Network • Acting Troupe, Cargo Ship, Recruiter, Seer, Treasurer • Market, Merchant, Mine, Smithy, Vassal

Capture the Flag: Barracks, Pageant • Flag Bearer, Lackeys, Scholar, Swashbuckler, Villain • Cellar, Festival, Harbinger, Remodel, Workshop


Renaissance & Intrigue:

Memento Mori: Citadel • Experiment, Flag Bearer, Patron, Recruiter, Silk Merchant • Ironworks, Lurker, Patrol, Swindler, Upgrade.

Clockwork Court: Fleet, Sinister Plot • Acting Troupe, Inventor, Research, Scepter, Scholar • Courtier, Mining Village, Nobles, Replace, Steward.


Renaissance & Seaside:

Free Shipping: Innovation • Acting Troupe, Cargo Ship, Lackeys, Research, Spices • Embargo, Island, Outpost, Smugglers, Wharf.

Digging for Treasure: Crop Rotation, Silos • Border Guard, Flag Bearer, Inventor, Sculptor, Swashbuckler • Caravan, Native Village, Salvager, Tactician, Treasure Map.


Renaissance & Alchemy:

Peek-a-boo: Cathedral • Cargo Ship, Improve, Lackeys, Patron, Sculptor, Silk Merchant • Alchemist, Apothecary, Golem, Scrying Pool


Renaissance & Prosperity: (use Platinum/colony)

Dreamers of Dreams: Academy • Cargo Ship, Old Witch, Priest, Scepter, Scholar • Expand, Monument, Vault, Watchtower, Worker's Village.

Movers and Shakers: Capitalism, Citadel • Hideout, Patron, Research, Treasurer, Villain • Bank, City, Grand Market, Loan, Rabble.


Renaissance & Hinterlands:

Sweetened Deals: Silos • Flag Bearer, Lackeys, Mountain Village, Silk Merchant, Spices • Cartographer, Develop, Farmland, Haggler, Spice Merchant

A Penny Saved: Barracks, Guildhall • Ducat, Patron, Scepter, Seer, Swashbuckler • Cache, Crossroads, Noble Brigand, Oasis, Trader


Renaissance & Dark Ages: (use Shelters)

Stargazing: Star Chart • Border Guard, Patron, Seer, Silk Merchant, Swashbuckler • Hermit, Mystic, Procession, Sage, Wandering Minstrel.

Sewer Rats: Crop Rotation, Sewers • Flag Bearer, Improve, Lackeys, Mountain Village, Research • Count, Counterfeit, Cultist, Graverobber, Rats.


Renaissance & Guilds / Cornucopia:

Combo Corner: Canal • Ducat, Experiment, Hideout, Sculptor, Seer • Herald, Horn of Plenty, Horse Traders, Jester, Stonemason.

Filling the Coffers: City Gate, Star Chart • Priest, Recruiter, Spices, Swashbuckler, Treasurer • Baker, Butcher, Menagerie, Merchant Guild, Plaza.


Renaissance & Adventures:

Progress: Piazza • Training • Experiment, Improve, Recruiter, Seer, Silk Merchant • Hireling, Ranger, Raze, Swamp Hag, Transmogrify.

Once Upon a Time: Innovation • Ferry • Acting Troupe, Lackeys, Priest, Sculptor, Spices • Distant Lands, Duplicate, Haunted Woods, Royal Carriage, Storyteller.


Renaissance & Empires:

Exploring the City: Exploration • Battlefield • Cargo Ship, Experiment, Mountain Village, Priest, Sculptor • City Quarter, Farmers' Market, Groundskeeper, Sacrifice, Wild Hunt.

Navigating the Sewers: Sewers • Ritual • Acting Troupe, Flag Bearer, Improve, Old Witch, Scepter • Chariot Race, Enchantress, Gladiator, Patrician, Villa.


Renaissance & Nocturne:

Becoming a Monster: Exploration • Experiment, Mountain Village, Old Witch, Research, Spices • Devil's Workshop, Monastery, Shepherd, Skulk, Tragic Hero.

True Believers: Cathedral, Piazza • Border Guard, Cargo Ship, Scholar, Sculptor, Villain • Blessed Village, Crypt, Faithful Hound, Sacred Grove, Secret Cave.


Nocturne Cards

Renaissance Kingdom Card Descriptions.

Renaissance Project Notes.


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