Welcome to the Museum…
Museum: Pictura is the next opus in the Museum range, created by Olivier Melison and Eric Dubus. In this standalone set collection game, you take on the role of an aspiring curator in an art museum.
Set within the lavish art-deco paradise of the roaring 20’s it’s been spectacularly illustrated by Loïc Muzy providing justice to the 180 classic works of art featured in the game.
In Museum: Pictura, players take on the role of aspiring museum curators! Their goal: to acquire the most Prestige points in order to make their establishment the greatest in the world.
This is done primarily by assembling Collections of some of history’s greatest paintings. The larger these Collections grow, the more points they’re worth when organising Temporary Exhibitions, as well as at the end of the game.
But that’s not all…
Savvy curators will also need to navigate the upper echelons of society, attracting wealthy patrons, exploiting the ever-changing art market and calling in favours where necessary…
Picture Cards…
Painting cards are the main component of the game. 180 stunningly detailed cards represent historical masterpieces and display relevant in-game information…
- Painter – name and numbered icon
- Painting Period – name & colored background
- Painting Domain Icon
- Painting Title & information
These cards are shuffled together at the start of the game and split into multiple decks in order to form the Art Market.
The Turn…
The structure of a turn is simple yet players will regularly find themselves confronted with important choices that will determine how their strategy (and Prestige) evolves over the course of a game…
Acquisition phase
The player’s turn starts with the Acquisition phase where new Painting cards are acquired from the Art Market by drawing two cards from any of the decks.
Action Phase
Once new painting are acquired you have the choice of 1 of 3 actions including Exhibiting Paintings, Perform an Inventory or host a Temporary Exhibition
Free Action
Alongside standard actions you can also Call in a Favour with one off abilities or even Acquire new Patrons for additional prestige
Acquisition Phase…
The player will exchange a Painting card from their hand with one of the four International Museums on the central board.
In Pictura, Painting cards have no fixed value.
Just like in the real world of art, the value of a piece is subjective and can depend on changing fashions and opinions, which is where Trend cards come in.
These are used in multiple instances throughout the game, but in this case each of the four museums is attributed their own Trend card randomly during setup. This card represents what kind of Paintings that establishment is looking for.
Trend cards assign a value -in Prestige points- to a certain Period (header colour), Style (icon) and Artist (number). When exchanging paintings you place a Painting card from your hand into an International Museum of your choice before taking another one from them. If you give them a Painting card with criteria present on their Trend card, you’ll gain Prestige. If you take a painting card with one of those criteria though, you’ll lose Prestige points.
Once the active player has performed their mandatory exchange, each of the other players may also exchange a card if they so wish.
It’s up to players to navigate this constantly changing pool of available Painting cards, exchanging paintings so as to strike a balance between gaining Prestige and acquiring paintings that best suit their strategy
Action Phase…
Once they have acquired their new cards, players may perform one of these three actions
Exhibit the Paintings
The core of Museum: Pictura, and your main source of Prestige, are the Collections of paintings that you’ll be building within the halls of your establishment.
Each player has their own Museum board, onto which they’ll be arranging their Painting cards. In order to exhibit a card, you simply discard any other card from your hand to pay for it. Discarded cards can be recovered by performing an Inventory action. However, cards in your Discard pile can be taken by other players, so pay attention to what you discard!
Exhibited cards can then be arranged to form collections of Periods or Styles. The bigger these collections get, the more Prestige points they’re worth.
Exhibiting a card into your museum doesn’t earn points. However, there is a Public Trend card that changes each round and represents the public’s current preference. If you exhibit a card with one of the criteria shown on that Trend card, you will gain Prestige points!
Perform an Inventory
If your Hand is getting a little sparse, you may decide to perform an Inventory during your turn instead of placing cards. This allows you to take cards back from your Discard pile into your Hand. This is great way to replenish your Hand and prevent your opponents from getting your discarded cards!
It also allows you to draw a Favour card and refresh the Patron cards currently on the board.
Even though this action doesn’t (directly) earn you any Prestige, it is great for managing your Discard pile and getting back into the game with fresh resources.
Organise a Temporary Exhibit
The final type of action a player can take is to organise a Temporary Exhibition. In Pictura, your museum is always open to the public but you can organise special events, galas and private viewings which take the form of Temporary Exhibitions.
When you perform this action you get to score one of your current collections. This will earn you Prestige as well as the advantages of one of six bonus abilities shown on your player board which can come into effect during or at the end of the game.
However, each player can only do a Temporary Exhibition for each Period or Style once during the game. Additionally, the first player to organise an event for a Period or Style scores bonus Prestige points to represent their visitors’ enthusiasm for something new! The next person to organise an Exhibition on that theme still scores that collection but gains no bonus points. However, after the second one, the public will lose interest and no more Temporary Exhibitions of that type can be organised.
This lends a timing element to these events – they can represent a lot of Prestige points but waiting until your collections reach optimal sizes could leave you without a public that’s interested in them!
Free Actions…
On top of performing one of the three mandatory actions, a player can also perform the following free actions during their turn
Call in a Favour
Favour cards are one shot ability cards with a variety of effects. You start the game with one and can play one during each of your turns. More Favour cards can be acquired by gaining more Prestige, as well as performing other actions.
Acquire New Patrons
During a game of Museum: Pictura, you’ll be able to gain additional Prestige by attracting the attention of influential Patrons! The Patron board will show what they’re looking for. If you have the Paintings requested by one of these Patron cards exhibited in your Museum, they’ll reward you!
