Designers: Wolfgang Penning (Fresco, Maharani, Ole!), Marco Ruskowski (Fresco, Parfum), Marcel Subelbeck (Fresco, Parfum)

Artists: Patricia Limberger (12 Thieves, Alhambra, World Monuments), Oliver Schlemmer (Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Wallenstein 2nd Edition)

Publisher: Queen Games (Alhambra, Amerigo, Aton, Chicago Express, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Lancaster, Merlin, Roma, Shogun, Thebes, Wallenstein First Edition, Wallenstein Second Edition)

Genre/Mechanisms: action queue, grid movement, set collection, simultaneous action selection

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Fresco MegaBox is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 13x the initial funding goal with 11 days left to go on the campaign!

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  In Fresco, players are master painters, working to restore a fresco in a Renaissance church. The new Mega Box version of Fresco includes everything from the Big Box version (the base game and 10 expansion modules), plus 3 new expansion modules, a Fresco: The Dice Game, and Fresco: The Card Game.

How It Works: Gameplay in Fresco lasts for a number of rounds, with each round consisting of a Choose Getup Time & Adjust Mood Phase, and a Planning & Performing Actions Phase. The player lowest on the victory track starts the Choose Getup Time & Adjust Mood Phase, placing their Master Painter on one of the 5 wake-up times. This affects the Market Price, determines player order for phase 2, and may affect the player’s Mood. Only one Master Painter may occupy each Getup time, so the player choosing last (who is leading on the victory track) will have few Getup times left to choose from. After choosing a Getup time, the player adjusts their place on the Mood track if applicable. If their Master Painter on the Mood track occupies one of the “+1” spaces, they take the natural-colored Apprentice from theat column to gain an extra action during the subsequent phase. If their Master Painter on the Mood track occupies one of the “-1” spaces, they forfeit one of their own Apprentices from play, placing him outside of their player screen, and losing a worker action during the subsequent phase. Market prices and player turn order are also adjusted.

During the subsequent Performing Actions Phase, players plan their actions from behind their player screen, assigning their 4-6 workers (normally 5, but adjusted by the “+1” and “-1” spaces) to the 5 different locations on the game board. Then, in the new turn order and beginning with the first Getup time, players takes turns using all of their workers assigned to any one location to carry out actions at that location. It is possible, depending on Getup time and other players’ location assignments, that a player could end up locked out of one or more of their intended locations. Location actions include: Market, Cathedral, Studio, Workshop, and Theater.

During the Market action, a player can either Buy Paints or Close Down the Booth. If the player chooses to Buy Paints, they purchase 1 market tile for the cost associated with their Getup time. If they Close Down the Booth, all of the booth’s tiles are returned to the bag. A player can choose an action for each Apprentice assigned to the location, unless of course the booth has already been closed down. During the Cathedral action, a player can either Restore One Segment of the Fresco or Restore the Altar Once. To Restore One Segment, the player selects one of the 25 Fresco tiles on the board, pays the associated paint tiles, gains the associated victory points, and removes the Fresco tile from the board. To Restore the Altar Once, the player either pays 1 Red, 1 Yellow and 1 Blue paint tile to gain 2 points; 1 Purple, 1 Orange, and 1 Green paint tile to gain 6 points; or, following the 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue formula, the player may substitute 1 Purple, 1 Orange, or 1 Green paint tile for any/all of the primary-colored paint tiles, scoring an additional point for each substitution, up to a total of 5 points. A player can choose an action for each Apprentice assigned to the location. During the Studio action, the player Paints Portraits, receiving 3 Thalers for each of their Apprentices deployed. During the Workshop action, the player Blends Paints 2x for each of their Apprentices deployed; this is how primary-colored paint tiles are combined into secondary-colored paint tiles. During the Theater action, the player may favorably adjust their mood on the Mood track up to 2 spaces for each Apprentice deployed.

If a round begins with 6 or less Fresco tiles remaining on the board, that round becomes the final round and players flip their action sheet over to the reverse side. The reverse side has no Theater action column, but instead has two separate Cathedral action columns. Upon completing the round, players receive 1 victory point for every 2 Thalers in their possession, adding the total to their current victory points, and then the player with the most points wins.

Comparisons:  Fresco is a medium-weight simultaneous action selection (with worker placement elements) & set collection game. In theory, Race For the Galaxy isn’t too far off, being a similarly-weighted game with simultaneous action selection as a central mechanic. But Race is more centered on card play, whereas Fresco veers into worker placement. Rococo is another painting-themed game, but Rococo is more complex and instead features deck building as a central mechanic along with card drafting, hand management, and set collection.

What Should I Pledge?:
$40 Fresco Expansion 3: includes just the new expansion modules, 11-14.
$40 Fresco the Card and Dice Game: just Fresco: The Dice Game and Fresco: The Card Game.
$78 Fresco Bundle: include both items from the pledges listed above.
$135 Fresco Early Bird Mega Box – Gold Edition: the Fresco Mega Box at a discounted price. It includes everything from the Big Box version (the base game and 10 expansion modules), plus four new expansion modules, Fresco: The Dice Game, and Fresco: The Card Game.
$150 Fresco Mega Box – Gold Edition: the Fresco Mega Box. It includes everything from the Big Box version (the base game and 10 expansion modules), plus four new expansion modules, Fresco: The Dice Game, and Fresco: The Card Game.
$179 Fresco Early Bird Mega Box – Diamond Edition: the Fresco Mega Box at a discounted price. It includes everything from the Big Box version (the base game and 10 expansion modules), plus four new expansion modules, Fresco: The Dice Game, and Fresco: The Card Game. The Diamond Edition also includes upgrade, Acrylic Tiles and Acrylic Color Tokens, and many other upgraded components via stretch goals..
$184 Fresco Early Bird Mega Box – Diamond Edition: the Fresco Mega Box at a slightly-less discounted price. It includes everything from the Big Box version (the base game and 10 expansion modules), plus four new expansion modules, Fresco: The Dice Game, and Fresco: The Card Game. The Diamond Edition also includes upgraded Acrylic Tiles and Acrylic Color Tokens, and many other upgraded components via stretch goals.
$200 Fresco Mega Box – Diamond Edition: the Fresco Mega Box. It includes everything from the Big Box version (the base game and 10 expansion modules), plus four new expansion modules, Fresco: The Dice Game, and Fresco: The Card Game. The Diamond Edition also includes upgrade, Acrylic Tiles and Acrylic Color Tokens, and many other upgraded components via stretch goals..

Add-Ons:
None, as the campaign does not use a Pledge Manager.

KS Exclusives:
None.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $200 for the Fresco MegaBox – Diamond Edition (assuming you don’t make the Early Bird deals), plus $19 in shipping, for a total of $219.

Fresco Mega Box completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, November 5th and tentatively ships in September 2020.