How to Play

The Voyages of Marco Polo

2-4 players 40-100 min 7.8 Board Game Geek Rating

Players recreate Marco Polo's historic journey to China using unique character abilities. Over five rounds, roll personal dice and place them on actions to collect resources, acquire contracts, and travel eastward from Venice to Beijing. Higher dice values unlock better options but cost more when opponents occupy spaces. Victory comes from reaching Beijing, completing contracts, and establishing trading posts in secret goal cities.

Published 2015

The Voyages of Marco Polo

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Prepare goal cards
Shuffle the 18 Goal Cards and place in a face-down stack
2
Set up goods supply
Place gold, pepper, and silk as a general supply by the board (larger pieces = value 3, smaller = value 1)
3
Place small town bonuses
Put the 6 Small Town Bonus tiles by letter on the 6 small towns on the board
4
Distribute large city bonuses
Shuffle the 10 Large City Outpost Bonus Tiles, place 1 on each of the 7 large cities, return rest to box
5
Set up city cards
Shuffle 31 Large City Cards and place one face-up on each of 9 city spots, return rest to box
6
Prepare contract tiles
Set aside 6 Starting Contract Tiles, shuffle remaining Contract Tiles and divide into 5 stacks of 6 each, place 1 stack face-up on Contract Tile spots, remaining 8 tiles form the "special" stack
7
Display characters
Place the 10 Character Tiles face-up by the board
8
Position black dice
Place the 5 black dice on the board above the Grand Bazaar
9
Distribute player components
Each player receives a Player Board, 5 dice, 9 Trading Posts of a color, and 1 starting contract tile placed in an active contract space
10
Give starting resources
Each player takes 2 Camels; start player takes 7 Coins, each clockwise player takes +1 coin
11
Select characters
Players choose a Character or assign by player number (1st = Sinan, 2nd = Matteo Polo, 3rd = Khan, 4th = Tabriz)
12
Place player figures
Each player places 1 figure on the 50 space of the scoring track and 1 figure in Venezia
13
Draw goal cards
Players draw 2 Goal Cards and keep them hidden
14
Adjust for 3 players
Only use 4 black dice; place 1 unused color die showing "1" in the 1st spot of Khan's Favor
15
Adjust for 2 players
Only use 3 black dice; place 2 unused color dice showing "1" in 1st and 2nd spots of Khan's Favor; place 1 unused color die in Take 5 Coins space

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Begin each round
Determine start player (whoever took last Travel action), collect small city and character bonuses, retrieve all player dice from board, simultaneously roll them
2
Compensate low rolls
If total dice value is less than 15, take camels and/or coins equal to the difference
3
Take one main action
Move 1+ dice from player board to an action space; must place dice if available
4
Perform additional actions
Before or after your main action, perform any number of optional additional actions
5
Pay for occupied spaces
If a blue space is occupied, pay coins to supply equal to lowest die face being played, then stack dice on top
6
Respect brown spaces
If a brown space is occupied (large city tiles, Khan's Favor), cannot place there this round
7
Use large city tiles
Available only to players with a Trading Post in that city; execute action number of times equal to die value
8
Take 5 Coins action
Place 1 die of any value to receive 5 coins
9
Grand Bazaar action
Place dice and receive goods/camels based on lowest-numbered die placed
10
Khan's Favor action
Place 1 die with value greater than or equal to any current die onto leftmost available space; take 1 good of choice plus 2 camels
11
Get Contracts action
Place 1 die and take 1 or 2 contracts from spaces with values less than or equal to die value
12
Travel action
Place 2 dice, pay coins shown for lowest-numbered die, move figure up to maximum spaces shown while paying route costs
13
Place Trading Posts
When ending on a Large or Small City, must place a Trading Post there; first player on a Large City takes the bonus tile
14
Complete 1 Contract (additional)
Pay goods on left side to gain rewards on right side, place face-down on Player Board
15
Take 3 Coins (additional)
Put 1 die on coin bag to take 3 coins with no placement cost
16
Re-Roll 1 Die (additional)
Return 1 camel to supply to re-roll any 1 die
17
Adjust Die Value (additional)
Return 2 camels to adjust 1 die value by +1 or -1 (cannot wrap from 1 to 6 or 6 to 1)
18
Take 1 Black Die (additional)
Once per turn, return 3 camels to take, roll, and use 1 black die

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
End the game
The game ends after 5 rounds (after the round where all Contract Tile stacks have been placed)
2
Score completed goals
Gain VPs for completed Goal Cards
3
Convert coins
Gain 1 VP per 10 Coins
4
Score Beijing Trading Post
Gain VPs based on spot occupied for Trading Post in Beijing, plus 1 VP per 2 Goods if in Beijing (camels are not goods)
5
Award contract bonus
Gain 7 VP for having the most completed Contracts
6
Determine winner
Player with the most VP wins
7
Break ties
In case of tie, player with the most Camels remaining wins

watch & Learn

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

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