Episode 235: Lacrimosa

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is dead. His final conscious action on his deathbed was composing the Lacrimosa movement of his Opus Requiem. You, as one of his sponsors, will meet with his widow in order to participate one final time in the funding of the works of the Austrian genius. You will reminisce and retell all your memories alongside Mozart in order to make sure that the window portrays you under the best light when writing her memoirs in order to enter history as Mozart’s most important patron.

In Lacrimosa, players take the roles of Patrons of the late musician, contributing their fundings to the composers works, one last time. Each round PATRONS play two cards, the first represents one of six actions focused on commissioning the missing parts of the requiem from other composers. While the second card will gain players story points, one of the games currencies, as well as an occasional prestige point or four.

Commissioning talented composers requires hours of travel, countless resources and gobs of story points – Patrons amass the needed funding by cleverly changing together the following actions:

DOCUMENTING MEMORIES allows you to choose a memory card from the story board, documenting the experiences you lived alongside Mozart, hereby upgrading one of your cards.

If a Patron were to COMMISSION AN OPUS they would be given an Opus card that leads squarely to the next couple of actions –

PERFORM OR SELL MUSIC. When Patrons perform or sell music, they have a choice to make – Do they simply perform the piece, earning money for the performance? Or do they sell the opus, earning long term finance gains as well as great prestige!

Alternatively, players may select to TRAVEL between the principal courts of Europe to perform before the nobility and elite, sometimes gaining money or story points – sometimes learning from other maestros – earning additional prestige.

Finally, Patrons may CONTRIBUTE TO THE REQUIEM by commissioning one of two composers to finish the final FIVE measures of the Requiem. Composers are expensive and extremely competitive. Patrons will all have their own agenda when it comes to deciding which of the two composers will be backed, as the timing of their selecting may very well determine which composer wins each measure. The composer with the most support will be responsible for completing their measure, earning their financial backers great prestige at the end of the game and through the annals of time.

Lacrimosa is played over 5 Epochs, which last 4 rounds each. At the conclusion of the 5th Epoch, Patrons will tally Royal Court Tiles obtained from their traveling performances, and determine which composers will finish each of the 5 measures of the requiem. Patrons who backed the winning composer for each measure, will score large amounts of prestige while the backers of the losing composer will be recognized with a lesser amount of prestige.

Whichever Patron ends the game with the most Prestige is the winner of Lacrimosa! Congratulations, through great financial investment you have ensured that Mozart’s deathbed wishes have been met and one of histories FINEST and most important classical pieces has been completed.