How to play
Five duck painters, Dabble, Plume, Reedy, Coral and Inky, have paintings for sale, and you start with 100 coins. On your turn, put a painting from your hand up for sale. Whoever pays the most gets it, and the money goes to you. If you buy your own painting, you pay the bank instead.
Each card says how it’s sold:
- Open: anyone can raise the bid, in turn, until everyone else drops out.
- Once round: everyone gets one chance to bid higher, the seller last.
- Sealed: everyone bids in secret at the same time, and the highest bid wins. A tie goes to the seller, or to the first player round from them.
- Fixed price: the seller names a price, and the first player round the table to accept buys it. If nobody does, the seller must buy it from the bank.
- Double: sell it together with another painting by the same painter from your hand, in that card’s way. Without one, it sells alone as an open auction.
If nobody bids, the seller keeps the painting for free.
As soon as a painter’s fifth painting of the round comes out, the round ends and that painting isn’t sold. The three painters with the most paintings out are worth 30, 20 and 10 (ties go to the painter higher on the board), plus whatever they were worth in earlier rounds. The bank buys back every painting you bought by those three at that price; the rest are worth nothing. Then everyone gets more cards and the next round starts.
After four rounds, the most money wins. Nobody sees anyone else’s money until the end.
Tips
A painting is only worth what it will sell back for, so watch the board: a painter who scored in earlier rounds is worth more if they score again. Selling paintings by a painter you’ve bought helps push them up the board, and playing the fifth one yourself ends the round when it suits you.