Traders of Osaka Game Rules

Welcome, fellow traders! I am here to guide you through the exciting world of the Traders of Osaka. This game, set in ancient Japan, will take you on a thrilling journey as you navigate the intricate world of trade routes, strategy, and negotiation. So, grab your merchant hat and let’s dive in!

Objective

The goal of Traders of Osaka is to become the most successful merchant in all of Japan. To achieve this, you must accumulate the most valuable goods and earn the most profit by the end of the game. The player with the highest total value of goods and money wins!

Gameplay

Traders of Osaka is a game of strategy and cunning. Each player starts with a set number of goods and money. These goods can be bought, sold, or traded with other players to maximize your profits. The game is played over several rounds, with each round consisting of three phases: Market, Trading, and Assessment.

Market Phase

In the Market phase, new goods are added to the market. This is where you can choose to buy or sell goods. Keep a close eye on the current market prices and adjust your strategy accordingly. Remember, timing is everything!

Trading Phase

The Trading phase is where the real action happens. Here, you can negotiate with other players to buy, sell, or trade goods. Use your powers of persuasion to strike the best deals and gain an advantage over your competitors. Remember, a good trader knows when to be generous and when to be shrewd!

Assessment Phase

The Assessment phase is your opportunity to evaluate your progress. Count up your goods and money to determine your current total value. This will determine your position in the game and give you an idea of how well you are doing compared to your opponents. Stay sharp!

Conclusion

Traders of Osaka is a game that brings out the inner merchant in all of us. It challenges your strategic thinking, negotiation skills, and ability to adapt to changing market conditions. By following these rules and mastering the art of trade, you can become a legendary trader in ancient Japan. Good luck!

Back in the Edo period, a time before modern Tokyo was known as Edo, trading ships called higaki kaisen sailed down the waters to deliver goods. These ships carried all sorts of specialty items from Osaka, which was a bustling hub of commerce in Japan, to the political center of Edo.

Now, imagine yourself as one of these traders. Your mission: to transport these rare and valuable goods safely to Edo, contributing to the prosperity of Japan. Your journey will be filled with risks as you navigate through treacherous waters, but the reward will be worth it.

However, there’s a catch. The Black Tide looms over the sea, a perilous threat that can wreak havoc on your cargo. To safeguard against this, a smart trader invests in insurance to minimize the potential losses. And for each successful delivery you make to Edo, you’ll be generously rewarded.

So, who among you will excel in this tireless and challenging endeavor? Will it be you?

Components

• 1 Game board
• 4 Ships
• 108 Cards
• 48 Achievement tokens
• 4 Trader pieces
• 4 Reservation pieces

Object of the Game

In this game, your goal is to become a successful trader in Edo. You need to sell as many goods as possible to earn Victory Points (VPs). At the end of the game, the trader with the most VPs will be declared the winner.

Setup

1. First, I’ll put the game board right in the center of the table.
2. Next, I’ll mix up all the cards and put them face down on the board’s designated space to create a draw pile.
3. Then, I’ll organize the Achievement tokens by color and set them aside for later.
4. I’ll place all 4 ships in Osaka on the board.
5. Now, I’ll draw 5 cards from the draw pile and line them up face up to the right of the Market. I’ll also draw 3 cards and line them up face up to the right of the Farm.
6. Lastly, each player will pick a color and take the Reservation and Trader pieces in that color.

How to Play the Game

Hey there! Let me show you how to play this awesome game. It’s super fun, I promise!

1. First, each player will draw cards one at a time from the draw pile. Keep drawing until the sum of your cards’ values reaches 8 or higher. These cards will be your initial hand.
2. Next, keep your hand of cards a secret from the other players. But don’t worry, they can still ask you how many cards you have.
3. The player who drew the smallest total value of cards gets to start the game. If there’s a tie, the player with the fewest cards becomes the start player. And if there’s still a tie, just decide randomly among the tied players. Easy peasy!

What the Cards Can Do

Oh, and let me tell you about the awesome things these cards can do in the game:

• The Attack Card deals damage to another player. Ouch!
• The Defense Card protects you from attacks. Phew!
• The Heal Card replenishes your health. Feeling better already!
• The Power-Up Card increases your strength. You’ll be unstoppable!
• The Special Card has a special ability. It’s a surprise!

So, now you know how to play and what the cards can do. Are you ready to have a blast? Let’s get started!

A. Value – How many coins this card is worth when you play it from your hand to purchase goods.

B. Goods Type – The category of goods that this card represents when you buy it from the market.

C. Insurance Icons – The number of goods of the same color as this card that can be insured when you discard it from your hand.

Game Play

When playing the game, each player takes turns performing different actions. The starting player goes first, followed by the other players in a clockwise direction.

On your turn, you can choose one of the following three actions. Once you complete your action, it’s the next player’s turn to go.

1. Purchase Goods
2. Collect Coins
3. Reserve Cards

A. Purchase Goods

This hand is worth 12 coins. Discard these cards to buy goods.

Spend coins from your hand to purchase goods in the Market, excluding goods reserved by other players.

The total value of your coins must be equal to or higher than the total value of the goods available in the Market, not including goods reserved by other players.

Cards used for purchasing are placed face up in the discard pile. There will be no change given if you overpay.

Goods obtained from purchases are placed face up in front of you. Arrange them by color for easier organization.

Goods in front of you are now part of your merchandise. You can have as many merchandise cards as you want.

Important: Purchasing goods will cause the corresponding ships to move forward.

Advancing Ships

When you buy goods, the ships that match the colors of those goods move forward one or two spaces.

If you bought only one good of a particular color, then the corresponding ship moves forward one space. But if you bought two or more goods of that color, the corresponding ship moves forward two spaces.

Every time a ship reaches Edo, you have to make a payment for the goods it represents.

B. Get Coins

Choose a card from the Market (except for a card that another player has reserved) and add it to your hand. This card now becomes coins that you can use to buy goods.

There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your hand.

C. Reserve Cards

If you have your Reservation piece in front of you, you can place it on a card in the Market or Farm to reserve that card.

Hey, there! Let me break down the rules for reserving cards for you. It’s pretty simple, but there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind.

First off, you can’t reserve a card that’s already been reserved by someone else. Makes sense, right? Gotta leave some cards for the others!

Now, if you’ve already used your Reservation piece to reserve a card, you can’t use it again. So, no reserving more than one card at a time, buddy. Gotta be fair.

Here’s the deal, though. If you end up buying the card you reserved or taking the coin you reserved, you can get your Reservation piece back. That’s the only way to do it, so make sure you remember!

The Catch

Now, listen up. When you reserve a card, only you can buy it or take it. No stealing someone else’s reserved card. Hands off, my friend!

Buying Goods

Hey there! I want to talk to you about a cool game called Unreserved Goods. Let’s start with the basics:

When playing Unreserved Goods, it’s important to buy all the cards that are not reserved, including your own reserved card. The cards that other players have reserved will stay in the Market.

Now, let’s talk about taking coins:

When it comes to taking coins in Unreserved Goods, there are a few important things to keep in mind:

When playing the game, you’ll need to make a decision between choosing an unreserved card or using the one you have saved. The choice is yours.

Keep the Market and Farm Fresh

It’s important to refresh the Market and Farm under two specific circumstances:

I can buy goods from the Market or I can wait until my turn and see if the Market has any cards that other players have reserved.

When it’s time to refresh the Market and Farm, I must first move all the cards in the Farm to the Market. But remember, any cards that have been reserved by other players will stay reserved.



So here’s what you do: First, I want you to take a good look at those 10 cards in your hand. Take your time and think about which ones might be the best to use right now. But don’t forget, you can only play one Attack card and one Treasure card each turn, so choose wisely.

Alright, now that you’ve got a plan in mind, it’s time to take action. Go ahead and play your chosen cards from your hand. Lay them out in front of you, face up, so we can all see what you’ve got.

Once you’ve played your cards, it’s time to see what’s in store for you. Grab those dice and give them a good shake. Now roll them onto the table, and let’s see what numbers come up. Remember, the number you roll will determine what happens next in the game.

Now that you’ve rolled the dice, it’s time to consult the Rulebook. Look for the Chart of Outcomes and find the number you rolled. It will tell you what happens next in the game. Each number on the dice corresponds to a different action or event, so make sure you choose the right one.

Next, draw 2 cards from the draw pile and add them to the Market. These cards will be available for all players to purchase on their turns, so make sure they’re good ones!

Alright, now that you’ve added the new cards to the Market, it’s time to move on to the next player’s turn. Remember, the goal of the game is to earn the most Victory Points by the end, so choose your actions carefully and strategize your moves.



So here’s how it goes: I draw 3 cards from the draw pile and put them in the Farm.

Once I’m all refreshed, I can keep going. But if the draw pile is empty, I just shuffle the discard pile and make a new draw pile.

Time to Pay up!

Whenever one or more ships arrive at Edo, it’s time for me to pay.

1. Scoring

First things first, I gotta sell all the stuff I bought. You know, the merchandise in front of me. And here’s the good part — I score some Victory Points (VPs) for every sale.

If multiple ships show up in Edo at the same time, I get to make a separate payment for each one.

Okay, so here’s the deal. All the goods I got that are the same go into a set. And the price I can sell them for is the highest valued card in that set. But wait, there’s more! I then take that price and multiply it by the number of cards I have in the set. And guess what? That’s the total value of all my merchandise. But here’s the twist, I round it up to the closest 5 or 10.

So, here’s the deal: every five points you earn, you get to snag a card from the set as a VP. Now, here’s the catch – you gotta grab the cards with the lowest value in the set. Sneaky, huh? Keep those VPs a secret by sticking them under your Trader piece. Oh, and don’t forget to toss out the rest of the goods in the set. Clean up, people!

Now, when it’s time to pay up, everybody’s got to sell off their goods. And I mean all the goods – doesn’t matter if they’re insured or not. It’s a clean sweep, folks!

Check this out: let’s say you’re paying for red and yellow merchandise. Sell ’em all!



Get a Bonus with Achievement Tokens

When you make a payment, your Achievement tokens of the same kind as the set you’re selling increase the value of that set. Just add the number of Achievement tokens you have of that color to the value of the highest card you’re selling.

This bonus might mean that you don’t have enough cards in your set to keep track of your Victory Points. If that happens, you can take cards from the draw pile to make up for any missing points.

Don’t worry, you never lose or spend Achievement tokens.

Step 2: Get Achievement Tokens

After scoring, you earn 1 Achievement token of the corresponding color for each payment that gave you Victory Points.

If there aren’t enough Achievement tokens, you can use something else instead.

Step 3: Overwhelmed by the Black Tide



When it’s time to pay, the wild waves of the Kuroshio Current (also known as Black Tide) crash into any ships sailing on the Enshunada sea, causing them to sink.

Here’s what you should do: get rid of all items of the same color as the sunken ships, as long as they’re not insured.



Insurance

Insurance Icon Value ‘2’ cards have 2 icons. Value ‘3’ cards have 1 icon.

Hey, did you know that you can use cards with Insurance icons to protect your goods from sinking? It’s pretty neat! Let me explain how it works.

First things first, let’s talk about the active player. That’s the player who moved the ship(s) to Edo. Got it? Good. Starting with the active player and going clockwise, each player gets a chance to insure their goods.

Now, in order to insure a good, you need to discard a card that has one or more Insurance icons. The number of icons on the discarded card determines how many goods you can insure. Easy, right?

Here’s the important part: when you insure a good, you need to rotate it 90 degrees to mark it. This way, everyone knows that it’s protected and can never be lost to sinking. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh, one more thing. During the payment phase, your insured goods are sold just like normal goods. So don’t worry about missing out on any profits!

4. Bring Back the Ships

When ships in Edo need to return, they head back to Osaka. And when a ship sinks, it finds its way back to a special place called Anori, which is marked by an anchor icon.



Game Over

Once we reach Step 2 of a payment and a player has collected 8 or more Achievement tokens, the game comes to an end immediately.

And here’s the best part: the player with the most VPs under their Trader piece is the winner!

But hold your horses, there’s more to consider. Any remaining merchandise and cards in hand are worthless. Now, in the off-chance of a tie, the player with the largest number of Achievement tokens prevails. And if there’s still a tie after that, well, we all win! Talk about a thrilling climax!