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In the card-driven board game Rialto, the goal is to earn the most victory points (VPs), which are awarded for a variety of things. The game board displays the six districts of Venice, and players earn VPs for placing council members into these, for building bridges and placing gondolas to connect the districts with one another, and for building advantageous buildings.
The game is played over six rounds, with each round consisting of three phases:
1. Acquire cards: Each player takes a set of cards.
2. Play cards: Players use cards to perform certain actions.
3. Activate buildings: Players may take advantage of their buildings and use their powers.
In phase 1, sets of eight cards are displayed (with six cards face-up and two face-down). Each player takes one set, then reduces his hand to seven cards. A card shows one of six specific characters (Architect, Merchant, etc.) or is a wild card.
Phase 2 consists of six sub-phases in a fixed order, one for each character. In each sub-phase, players choose whether or not to play one or more cards of that specific character. Each card allows them to perfom that character's action, for example:
Take one piece of gold for each Merchant card you play.
Place one council member into the current district for each Council card you play.
Take a building with a value equal to or lower than the number of Architect cards played. The higher its value, the better its function.
Whoever plays the most cards in each such sub-phase receives a bonus of one free action of that type. In case of a tie, whoever is farthest along the "Doge" bar gets the bonus – and of course to advance on the Doge bar, players need to play Doge cards.
Finally, in phase 3, players may take advantage of their buildings. For each piece of gold paid, a player may use one of his building's ability.
Players collect VPs both during the game – from special buildings and by building bridges between districts – and at the end of it – for majorities of council members in each district. The value of each district evolves during the game: Each district is adjacent to four other ones, and at the end of the game, they will be connected either via bridges or gondolas. A bridge increases the value of the adjacent districts by 3-6 victory points, whereas a gondola increases this value by 1 point. The player with the most council members in a district earns VPs equal to the district's total value, the player with the secondmost council members earns half this value, and so on. While it's important to establish majorities in the districts, it's also crucial to control their values by cleverly placing those bridges and gondolas.
Arigato Review: Gozaimasu
- Engaging engine-building feel through character-driven actions and flexible planning
- Novel twist on card drafting with strategic long-term placement decisions
- Temple/offering system adds a meaningful end-game scoring layer
- Variable player powers add depth and replayability
- Clear sense of progression as you replace lower-performing characters with stronger ones
- Symbol/iconography can be hard to interpret at first; requires frequent reference to the rulebook
- Initial learning curve; mastering the interaction between passing cards and triggering abilities takes time
- Potential analysis paralysis as players weigh which characters to activate and which to replace
- Some actions feel constrained by slot availability, which can slow down early rounds
- craftsmen and artisans creating goods, balancing resource production with cultural significance, temple offerings and scoring
- historical Japan; a village of artisans where Shogun influence and temple-building shape the town
- lightly thematic, with modular worker-placement-like actions driven by unique character powers; narrative emerges from resource choices and placement availability
- Alisium
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Each round you view five cards, pick two to keep, and pass the remaining three to the left; the chosen cards determine your village's actions and available resources.
- card drafting and passing — Each round you view five cards, pick two to keep, and pass the remaining three to the left; the chosen cards determine your village's actions and available resources.
- end game bonuses — Match goals on the central board to gain tokens that convert to bonus victory points; other characters may contribute to final scoring.
- end-game scoring via goals and tokens — Match goals on the central board to gain tokens that convert to bonus victory points; other characters may contribute to final scoring.
- offering tokens and temple scoring — Spent resources activate offering tokens on characters; tokens are moved to the temple and award five points at end-game; you can replace characters with a temple offering but must manage tokens.
- Resource management — You collect red and purple resources (as described in the playthrough) to activate effects, fulfill goals, and build totems or offerings.
- resource management and conversion — You collect red and purple resources (as described in the playthrough) to activate effects, fulfill goals, and build totems or offerings.
- worker placement — Every time you add a craftsman to your board, they occupy a restricted slot and grant a persistent special ability that affects future resource generation or scoring.
- worker placement with limited slots and role-specific powers — Every time you add a craftsman to your board, they occupy a restricted slot and grant a persistent special ability that affects future resource generation or scoring.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a card management game, but has a unique twist that I haven't seen before.
- What makes this game, I think, unique is the fact that you are fulfilling these characters for points.
- I like this one.
- A 7.5 out of 10.
- When you send them to the temple, you no longer have them, but they're also worth points at the end of the game.