Note: All artwork is not yet final

Welcome to the Rococo era. You are the owner of a distinguished tailoring business. In just a few weeks, Louis XV is hosting a Grand Ball and everyone is clamoring for you to provide them with an elegant frock coat here, a sumptuous gown there, or even a small sum to fund the great fireworks display. You quickly realize that it’s not just about your tailoring business anymore – it’s about creating a presence at the most prestigious ball of the era and the chance to gain everlasting fame and prestige.

Each turn, you will play an employee card that allows you to perform a task, such as hiring a new employee for your staff, tailoring exquisite gowns and frock coats to rent or sell, or funding some of the many decorations. However, employees are not always able to perform all tasks, so you must plan carefully how you direct them, especially as each employee grants a unique Bonus — including some that generate prestige.

The Grand Ball will end after 7 rounds with a huge fireworks display and final scoring. You will gain prestige points for the gowns and frock coats you have rented out to guests at the ball, certain employee Bonuses, and the festive decorations you have funded. Whoever has collected the most prestige at the end of the game wins.

In Rococo: Deluxe Edition, each player starts with an identical deck of Employee cards, each turn players simultaneously select 3 to use for the round. Choosing which cards to use will determine which actions are available to take. Masters can take any of the actions while Apprentices and Journeymen will be limited in the actions they can take.

The 6 different actions in the game are:

Claiming the Queen’s Favor, which can only be done with a Master or Journeyman, and grants the player 5 Livre. The player claiming the Queen’s Favor also becomes the start player for the next round.

Acquiring Resources can be done by any Employee, and allows players to stock up on the silk, lace and thread that will be needed to create various gowns and coats.

Tailoring a Garment is done by Masters and Journeymen. They will choose from one of the nine Design patterns, paying the cost of that design pattern and using the appropriate silk, lace and thread. After tailoring a garment the player will choose whether to rent out the garment to a patron at the Ball or sell the garment for income. If a player chooses to rent the garment it’s placed rental side face-up on any vacant guest space in one of the five Halls on the board. The player who has the most patrons in a Hall will be awarded victory points at the end of the game.

Deputing an Employee allows a player to permanently remove one of their employee cards from the game. Not only does this help thin a players deck, it also grants a financial reward of 4/7/10 Livre depending on the level of employee as indicated on the card.

Hire a New Employee. Each round 4 new employees are available for acquisition, and can only be acquired by using a Master. These employees will offer additional bonus actions when used during the game. The cost varies from 0 – 5 Livre and is based on the number of Employee cards remaining. The card goes directly into a player’s hand, so it can be used during the same round.

Funding a Decoration can be performed by any employee. There are numerous decorations in the palace that can be funded. Doing so will earn the player prestige points at the end of the game. Funding the fireworks decoration spaces on the balcony can be especially advantageous, as players will be able to move patrons to these locations at the end of the game and earn a considerable amount of prestige points.

A round ends with players collecting income, which has a base of five, but can increase by funding certain Decorations. Having a steady flow of income is necessary in order to accomplish the making of dresses, funding of decorations, and acquisition of resources and new employees. New Garment design patterns will be revealed along with new employee cards for the round. Players will choose 3 new cards from their draw deck to start the next round and play will continue in the same fashion.

After the 7th round, the game ends and a final scoring is conducted. Points are scored for remaining Livre, certain employee cards and last but not least; having majorities in the halls with patrons wearing your suits and dresses. The player with the most victory points is declared the winner.

NOTE: Contents shown on this page are for visual representation only.
Objects portrayed may vary slightly in final form and appearance.

Includes:

• 42 Garment tiles
• 28 Employee cards
• 25 Starting Employee cards
• 1 double-sided Game Board (1-3 players / 4-5 players)
• 1 metal Gold Thimble Start Player token
• 16 polyresin Lace tokens
• 16 polyresin Thread tokens
• 3 Cloth Bags (for Garments, Resources, Jewelry)
• 50 punchboard Coins (20 Value-1, 10 Value-5, 10 Value-10, 10 Value-20)
• 5 wooden Prestige Point counters
• 1 Queen’s Favor tile
• 2 Employee Card Reference sheets
• 48 Resource tiles
• 100 wooden Trademark tokens
• 5 Player Boards
• 5 Tile Racks for Material Tiles
• Jewelry Box expansion: 1 Jeweler Game Board, 24 Jewelry tiles, 28 Employee cards (10 specialized Apprentices, 9 new Journeymen, & 9 new Masters)
• Madame du Barry Solo expansion: 25 AI Employee cards for solo play
• Fancy Dresses expansion: 4 additional Garment tiles and 5 Resource tiles
• Festivity Dresses expansion: 4 additional Garment tiles
• Rulebook

Also Available in the Rococo: Deluxe+ Edition:

• Expert Tailors expansion: 6 new Garment Tiles
• Queen Figurine
• 32 Alternate Garment Tiles for Festivity Dresses from around the World

This game is actually quite solid in its mechanisms, everything works together really well and that’s something I like a lot. This is a game that has so many good options and you can only do a few of them each turn, and that’s the kind of game I like quite a bit and that’s the kind of game Rococo is.
– Tom Vasel, The Dice Tower

This is definitely a very sharp very cool game, lots to think about, lots going on. Very cool theme, very fresh and very original. I think Rococo is actually pretty darn cool, it’s an area control game where the area control is actually fun!
– Richard Ham, Rahdo Runs Through

In Rococo I really enjoy feeling like I’m being pulled in all sorts of different directions at once when I’m making my choices and Jewelry Box definitely adds to the temptations. I love Rococo and so having more to do and more variations every time you start a game is fantastic for me. I would definitely recommend it.
– Tom Heath, slickerdrips

My gaming group really loves this game because you don’t ever feel rushing and you can go at your own pace to determine what you want to do. Overall, dress making is indeed fun! Overall, I give Rococo a solid nine and a half out of ten, proving that dress making can be a great theme to a board game if using the proper mechanics! 
– Antonio Guerra Gerdel

I think this game is superb. It has so much in it, so many choices and variance of how things will turn out. Now that I’ve played Rococo loads of times, I can say that I love this game and definitely think this is one of those games that I’ll always have and bring out multiple times per year. 
– Ken Savage (boardgamegeek.com)

This was a pretty fun game. I really thought the theme was fun, and I enjoyed the way the board looked at the very end with all of the dresses and brightly colored discs. The gameplay was fun because it combined a little of deck building, some area control, and even some economic gameplay in terms of deciding which investment is the most worthwhile.
– Brian Schwartz (boardgamegeek.com)

I adore games that present players with an abundance of choices, and Rococo excels in this department. There are tough choices involved in nearly every facet of the game 
– Greg Schloesser (boardgamegeek.com)

2014 Lys Passioné Finalist

2014 Kennerspiel des Jahres Nominee

2013 The Golden Elephant Award Finalist

2013 Meeples’ Choice Nominee

Rococo: Deluxe Edition – $95 USD

Rococo: Deluxe Edition (msrp $110) contains the previously released Jewelry Box expansion, the Festivity Dresses expansion, and the Fancy Dresses promo, as well as a new “Madame du Barry” solo mode expansion.

Rococo: Deluxe Edition features premium components including custom polyresin lace and thread miniatures; gold foil heat-stamped, wooden player markers; velveteen cloth bags for garments, silk and jewelry tokens; a metal “golden” thimble marker; and upgraded punch boards for the garments, silk, and coins.

Rococo: Deluxe Edition is available in English, French, or German versions with rulebooks, player aids and box backs in each of these languages through this Pre-Order Campaign.

Rococo: Deluxe Edition will also be available in Spanish, Korean, and Chinese language versions with rulebooks, player aids and box available in each of these languages. These versions are available by pre-order directly from each of their respective publishers from January 22, 2020 through March 13, 2020. See the ”Additional International Versions” section below for details on how to pre-order these during the 7 weeks which coincide with this Pre-Order Campaign.

We also expect Rococo: Deluxe Edition to be available in the English language version, with rules online (and possibly printed at the choice of the distributor) for the following languages: Japanese, Polish, Czech, and Portuguese (also for Brazil).  You will find details about this in the ‘Additional International Versions’ section below and this information will be updated as final arrangements are made with distributors in each of these countries (and maybe others) over the next 7 weeks.

Rococo: Deluxe+ Edition – $110 USD

Rococo: Deluxe+ Edition (msrp $128) contains everything listed above in the Deluxe Edition PLUS: the new Expert Tailors expansion; a multi-colored, polyresin Queen Figurine, and 32 Alternate Garment tiles for Festivity Dresses.

Includes:

• Rococo: Deluxe Edition
• Expert Tailors expansion
• Queen Figurine (multi-colored polyresin)
• 32 Alternate Garment Tiles for Festivity Dresses representing 8 additional countries

Available in English, French, or German language rulebook and player-aids.

Additional language editions are available, see the ‘Additional International Versions’ below for details.

 

 

Matthias Cramer has been designing games since 2010 and is known for titles such as Glen More and Lancaster among others. He lives in Germany and works in IT. In his free time he enjoys playing wargames and historical games.

Stefan & Louis Malz live in Germany and have been designing games as a father and son team since 2008. When Rococo first released in 2013, it was nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres.

Ian O’Toole is a prolific graphic designer and artist from Perth, Australia. He is an avid boardgamer and relishes the opportunity to make a great game even better. His work can be seen in such games as Lisboa, Vinhos Deluxe, The Scarlet Pimpernel, On Mars, and Age of Steam Deluxe. You can see more of his work at his website: www.ianotoole.com

Eagle-Gryphon Games was established in 2001 and has produced some of the best-known and most highly regarded board games of all time, including On Mars; Escape Plan; Lisboa; Vinhos Deluxe; Age of Steam; The Gallerist; Railways of the World; Empires: Age of Discovery; Struggle of Empires Deluxe, Conquest of the Empire, Attack! and the Defenders of the Realm Series. Eagle-Gryphon Games also publishes the Gryphon Bookshelf Series (21 titles and still growing!); and the EGG series (small box games–16 titles and still growing too!)

• We pledge to supporters of this pre-order campaign that those of you who have paid in advance will be sent their copies before any others who have not paid in advance. This means that your game(s) will be shipped, before or at the same time as, retailers who have backed via POC or PIP and paid in advance; and international distributors who have backed and paid in advance.
• We pledge to you that, for a period of at least 90 days after the scheduled shipments are made (pursuant to the pledge above) to any of those who have paid in advance for the game, we will only sell this game: 1) at full retail MSRP on our own Eagle-Gryphon website; or any other website–e.g. Amazon or eBay, controlled by Eagle-Gryphon Games; 2) at conventions which occur at the time of release of the game or within 90 days of the release of the game.
• In other words, we pledge to do our best, within reason, to insure that you will be among the very first owners of this game and that you will have purchased this game at a price less than you will be able to buy this game for at least the first 90 days after it is released to the public.