The time has come. Nine Muses is available for purchase at The Game Crafter (physical version) for $35 USD + shipping and itch.io (print-and-play version) for $5 USD. Will you mark your place in the history books as a great scholar, or be reduced to a mere footnote? Find out by competing against your rivals in a game of Nine Muses.
Fun fact: In most Ancient Greek calendars, May 29th is Thargelion 9th, a day of the month that the Greeks paid tribute to, you guessed it, the Nine Muses! That’s why this date was selected for the release.
Want to see if Nine Muses is the right game for you before launch? You’re in luck. You can get the Nine Muses mod for Tabletop Simulator for free by clicking the button below.
Nine Muses will be available on May 29th at thegamecrafter.com (physical version) and itch.io (print-and-play version).
Call upon the Nine Muses of Ancient Greece to harness the three types of knowledge defined by Aristotle and earn your place in the history books as a great philosopher, or your rivals will take your place!
Separate and shuffle the Muse and Philosopher cards into decks.
Place the following amount of Knowledge tokens in a pile for everyone to reach based on the number of players and put any leftovers in the box, out of play: •Two players: 10 Craft, 6 Science, 2 Ethics •Three players: 12 Craft, 8 Science, 3 Ethics •Four players: 14 Craft, 8 Science, 4 Ethics
Set out the Aristotle card face-up for everyone to see.
Deal five Muse cards in a row face-up for everyone to see.
Deal three Philosopher cards to everyone.
Deal a Tens and Ones Place scorecard (set scores to 0) and a Reference card to everyone.
Give two Craft to everyone from the central pile.
You’re all set up! Whoever most recently read a philosophy book gets to go first.
Gameplay
Nine Muses is a game of strategy, balance, and thievery played over five rounds. You must know when to spend Knowledge and when to hold onto it to prevent your Muse cards from being stolen.
On your turn
You must perform these actions on your turn in the following order:
Collect muse benefits: Gain any Knowledge or Victory Points from any Muses in your possession with abilities that are activated at the start of your turn. –THEN–
Select a Philosopher card and do one of the following: •Exchange Knowledge: Perform one of the trade/gain options shown on the card, then discard it •Call Muse: Discard the card to take a qualifying Muse card from the central area or an opponent and place her face-up in front of you •Demonstrate to Aristotle: Discard the card and select one type of Knowledge you have (Craft, Science, or Ethics), then trade as much of it as you want for the Victory Points per token shown on the Aristotle card •Toil: Discard the card and gain a Craft
Playing a round
You’ll take turns playing one Philosopher card at a time to perform an action. Once all players run out of Philosopher cards, it’s time to start a new round.
To start a new round:
Deal three new Philosopher cards to everyone.
Deal a new Muse card to the central area.
Rotate the starting player to the left (clockwise).
Winning & ending the game
Once the final Muse card has been revealed, play through one last round and then the game is over. Whoever has the most Victory Points at the end of the game is the winner and greatest sage of all time!
Knowledge
There are three types of Knowledge: Craft, Science, and Ethics—which can be gained or traded using Philosopher and Muse cards.
Keep the following in mind:
You’ll always gain from or pay to the central pool of Knowledge first but when that runs out, you may pick any number of players to steal the remainder (yes, you may even ironically steal Ethics)
Knowledge in Nine Muses is purposefully limited and you may not substitute it for other assets or attempt to collect the remainder of a transaction on a future turn
Philosopher card actions
After collecting any potential Muse card benefits, you’ll select a Philosopher card and take one of four available actions, all of which involve discarding the Philosopher card.
Exchanging Knowledge
Choose one of the options shown on the Philosopher card to gain or trade different types of Knowledge, then discard the card.
Calling a Muse
Discard a Philosopher card to take a qualifying Muse card from the central area or another player, placing that card face-up in front of you.
Keep the following in mind:
You must meet the condition in the box to be able to Call that Muse
You need only meet the condition at the time of Calling the Muse and will still keep that Muse when you no longer meet the condition (unless she’s stolen)
You may Call a face-up Muse from the central area or steal an opponent’s Muse
To be able to Call a particular Muse, you must be the only person who currently meets the condition. When multiple players meet the condition, that Muse can’t be Called; she must remain where she is
There is no limit to the number of Muses you may have under your possession at the same time
Demonstrating to Aristotle
Discard a Philosopher card to trade any number of one type of Knowledge for Victory Points. Select one type of Knowledge you have and trade as much of it as you want for the number of Victory Points per token as shown on Aristotle.
Toiling
Discard a Philosopher card to gain a Craft. Toiling is a last resort but good in a pinch!
Keeping Score
When you gain Victory Points, you can keep track of your score using the two scorecards provided. Place the Tens Place card over the Ones Place card and align the two numbers, as shown.
Credits
Design, art, & rules
Shaine Greenwood
Special thanks to
Bhit Doug Beyers dAVE Inden Trevor Harron Stepan Opalev E.S. Ott Katie Paul Shirley Rodríguez John Zošák Quinn Washburn Antony Wyatt Break my Game Playtest NW
Check out this walkthrough video with an in-depth look at Nine Muses. In this video, you’ll get to see how to set up the game, get a look at what gameplay is like, and you’ll get a peek at how the physical version of Nine Muses looks!
Nine Muses will be available on May 29th at thegamecrafter.com (physical version) and itch.io (print-and-play version).
The wait is almost over. Exchange knowledge with great thinkers and use the power of the muses as you compete to earn your place in the history books as a sage.
Nine Muses will release on May 29th!
Nine Muses is a 2-4 player board game where you’ll trade and steal Knowledge and employ the aid of real Ancient Greek philosophers, and compete against other players to have the most points at the end.
Over the month of April, I’ll be sharing more details as the final stages of development wrap up but I wanted to talk about where to purchase and pricing. You’ll be able to buy a high-quality physical copy of Nine Muses, as well as a print-and-play version.
Physical Version
The physical version of Nine Muses will be available for purchase on May 29th from the Game Crafter for $35.00 USD, plus shipping. Orders take about 3-4 weeks to fulfill, so keep that in mind when purchasing as a gift.
Here are some photos of what you’ll be getting in the physical version.
Print-and-Play Version
The print-and-play version will be available for purchase on May 29th from itch.io for $5.00 USD. This will be a PDF download, so there isn’t a shipping cost or delay in order fulfillment; the file will immediately unlock for you to download and print at your leisure!
Note that with the print-and-play version, you’ll be able to print out the individual tokens but there will be recommendations included for you to use existing assets to represent the Knowledge resources: 4 green meeple for Ethics, 8 blue cubes for Science, & 14 yellow coins or disks for Craft.
Other Considerations
These are not guarantees but things that may also be made available within the launch window: • A digital Tabletop Simulator mod (likely free) • When you buy the physical version, a code to download the print-and-play version for free
