Talavera
Talavera is an 18-card game inspired by Azul.
Players compete to decorate a flight of stairs according to customer specifications.
Components
Print the cards double-sided on card stock or single-sided to put in card sleeves.
One side represents an order card. Each of the four colors has a number, which represents the customer’s order for that type of tile.
The other side of the cards have four squares (tiles) grouped by color. Players will take turns drafting these cards in order to fulfill their customer’s order.
Two player rules
Talavera consists of 4 rounds of two phases. Shuffle the cards and give each player an order card. Randomly decide on a first player for the first round. Each round, swap who drafts first so that each player drafts first twice over the course of the game.
Draft phase
Deal four cards in the center of the table with the order side up. The first player flips two cards and selects one to keep. The second player flips the other two cards and selects one of the three cards remaining in the market.
Players take turns drafting one card until the market is empty. Each player will have two cards to place.
Placement phase
When you have two cards, you must decide which color tiles to keep. Tuck each card under one corner of the order card to show which color of tile was placed. Be sure to leave the corresponding tiles visible.
Note: Only the tiles of that color count toward your score.
You may place both cards on the same color or different colors. You may also add tiles to a color you have already placed. You must add a card to a color represented by at least one tile on that card.
Continue drafting and placing tiles until all the cards have been drafted. (Don’t forget to swap who drafts first!)
Winning
When all the cards have been drafted and both players have tucked a total of 8 cards under their order card, the game is over and each player evaluates how well they completed the orders.
In order to fill an order, there must be at least as many tiles of that color as indicated by the number on the order. Score each order separately and add up the total score.
- Each fulfilled order is 3 points.
- Subtract 1 point for each excess tile. Orders can’t go below 0.
- If there are fewer of a color than required, the order is worth 0 points.
Example: The first order is for 3 yellow tiles. The player placed 4 yellow tiles, so they completed the order with one excess tile. That order is worth 2 points (3 - 1).
The next order is for 2 red tiles, but the player didn’t place any red tiles on the order. That’s worth 0 points because the order wasn’t fulfilled.
The third order was for 4 sky blue tiles and the player had exactly that. It’s worth 3 points for fulfilling the order exactly.
Finally the 1 azure (dark blue) tile was ordered. The player placed 5 tiles of that color and scored 3 points for filling the order and lost 4 points for excess tiles. Since the score for an order can never go below zero, it scores 0 points.
Add the total score for all four orders and highest score wins.
In case of a tie, play a second game!
Solo rules
As in the two-player game, solo Talavera consists of 4 rounds of two phases. However, instead of completing specific orders, the goal is to decorate a flight of stairs with 4 different colors.
Shuffle the cards and randomly select an order card to organize placement. Ignore the numbers on the order card.
Draft phase (solo)
Deal two cards from the bottom of the deck with their tile side face up. Select one card and discard the other. Repeat the process with two more cards so that you have a two tile cards to place.
Once per game: Instead of taking one of a pair of cards, discard both cards and randomly draw a card from the deck to keep. You must place that card no matter what you turn up.
Placement phase (solo)
Unlike the two-player game, tuck both cards you selected that round under one corner of the order card. Each round you must select a single color order to fill and you may not add to it in future rounds. You may, however, place a card that does not have a corresponding tile.
Example: If you have a card with one red tile and the other has no red tiles, you may place both cards on the red corner to claim one red tile.
You may ignore the order number in the solo game. As long as you have sets (1, 2, 3, and 4) of four different colors, you can win the game.
Winning (solo)
The only way to win is to place sets of exactly 1, 2, 3, and 4 tiles of different colors.
If you place any excess tiles, you have lost the game.
Example: Starting the fourth and final draft phase, you have placed 2 yellow, 3 reds, and 4 azure tiles. In order to win, you must draft exactly 1 sky blue tile.
Extra special win: place exactly the customer’s order according to the numbers on the order card. (Warning: this involves quite a bit of luck!)
Design notes
I designed this game for the second Decision Space Jam — 18 Cards. Talavera was inspired by my all-time favorite game, Azul. I’ve tried to maintain the design principles that I like best from Michael Kiesling’s classic:
- Open information: All players see the same things on the table.
- Interactive draft: Each time a player selects tiles, it alters the state of the draft for other players. Players can manipulate the market to ensure their own plans succeed or to thwart the plans of other players.
- Placement puzzle: Deciding where to place tiles changes the relative value of tiles in future drafts. A partially completed color represents a risk that the color might not be available when your next turn to draft comes.
- Efficiency rewarded: Nothing feels better than filling a color exactly. Nothing feels worse than being forced to take excess tiles that drop to the floor.
Dan R, on the Decision Space Discord server, helped me solve some of the problems I originally had with the draft. He suggested putting tiles on all 18 cards to avoid card counting. He also came up with the idea for giving the first player to draft a choice of two cards instead of all four.
Wojts, also from the Decision Space community, gave me an idea for arraigning the tiles on the cards so that they spay nicely and unveiled the illusion of decision that I’d carried from an early version of the rules. He graciously play-tested the new rules and gave me confidence they are an improvement.
Based on player feedback, I added a simple scoring system to encourage a more relaxed way to play. It’s still a zero sum game, but scoring makes it possible to lose by a small amount. Often a close game feels better for the loser than a binary win or lose end state.
I’m considering an explicit cooperative mode. One of the things I like about Azul is that people naturally play in the interest of their own goals without worrying too much about other players. Cutthroat play comes with experience.
Drafting games resist a satisfying solo mode. There is a fan-made solo mode for Azul, but Azul shines when another player’s decisions impact yours. A puzzly solo mode that takes 5 minutes from setup to completion seems like a decent accomplishment.
Speaking of which, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to make my card representation of tiles enjoyable to arrange on the table. I took inspiration from the splaying mechanism of Innovation to design the tile cards. An early version of the game required splaying tiles, but the current version allows players to fiddle with their cards as much or as little as they like.
I’m not entirely happy with the simple color squares. I used Talavera tiles to decorate our front steps. (See the image at the top of this page.) At some point I might replace the solid squares with authentic tile designs. This would have the added advantage of avoiding problems for colorblind players.
Technical notes
To create the title image, I used:
magick steps.jpg -gravity south -font Palatino -pointsize 600 -stroke black -strokewidth 10 -fill gold2 -annotate 0 'Talavera' talavera.jpg