Overview

Each player has a number of Servant meeples, a set of Improvement tiles in front of them (representing areas of their estate's house and grounds), and a hand of Gentry cards. They also have a Reputation value, starting at 1.1; an amount of Money starting at £0; and a number of Objective Cards (some of which will be discarded as the game progresses).

Your Servant meeples are:

Meeple	Name	Effect
	Butler	Supports prestigious events and can hire new servants.
	Valet	Supports male guests.
	Lady's Maid	Supports female guests.
	Housekeeper	Supports dining events and may also serve as a Lady's Maid.
	Footman	Supports outdoor events.
	Underbutler	Can serve as a Butler, Valet or Footman.
With Upstairs Downstairs expansion:
	Cook	Increases the family’s reputation by one when used. Permits guests with prestige ratings 1 or 2 levels above family’s rep to attend activity.
	Hall Boy	Duties as Butler when required for a gentry guest, even if Butler is present. May be used on any gentry card to increase the monetary favour by + £100.
	Head Housemaid	Duties as Housekeeper for required female gentry guest (card), even if present, but may not screen guests acting in this capacity. On invite card or tile, may look at 1 additional (“see 2/keep 1” becomes “see 3/keep 1” ; “5/2” etc.).
	Useful Man	Play onto Village Fair to increase by +£200; play onto a tile when buying to reduce cost by -£100; play onto an improvement tile to temporarily decrease its prestige rating by 1; Remove the Useful man from the game to refresh the builders' market; Remove the Useful man from the game to locate any tile (monuments excluded) and place it in the £800 place in the market. To do this, the tile currently in the cheapest space (£300) is returned to the bag, the remaining five tiles are moved to the left, and the new tile is placed in the £800 space, where it can then be purchased normally.

The game consists of players taking turns to host events at locations on their estate: each event requires a number of Servants to attend, and a number of Gentry to be played from the hand as guests to it. The outcome of an event will be a gain (or loss) of Reputation and/or Money, and/or the acquisition of new Gentry cards. After hosting an event, you may optionally buy one Improvement from the Builder's Market.

When your hand is running low, you can pass your turn to pick your discard pile back up - optionally taking either £200 or refreshing the Builder's Market.

Each turn

On your turn you can either:

Take a standard turn

A standard turn consists of the following steps:

• 1. Rotate service: Move all your Servants one box to the right. (Only those in the "Available Service" box will be available for use on your turn.)
• 2. Host activity: Choose tile from your estate to use this turn. Its bottom-left number must be equal to or lower than your family's Reputation.
• 3. Invite guests: Play a number of Gentry cards from your hand that match the event.
• 4. Provide service: Expend Servants to satisfy the event's Estate tile and Gentry cards. (If you do not have sufficient servants, you must go back and choose a different Estate/Gentry combination, or give up and pass your turn.)
• 5. Enjoy favours given by the event tile and the played gentry cards. These are all compulsory, with the exception of "Dismissing".
• 6. Optionally buy an Improvement tile from Builders' Market
• 7. Clean up

Pass

When you choose to pass:

• • All of your servants move into the "available" box
• • You take your discard pile of Gentry cards back into your hand
• • You may either collect £200 or refresh the Builders' Market
• • You may optionally buy from the Builders' Market

Special rounds

Rounds 3 and 9 (Extended Game: 4, 9 and 16) are Village Fairs: players who have flipped the Study tile receive £300 and 2 Reputation at the starts of these rounds.

Round 11 (Extended Game: 13) is the Builder's Holiday: players may buy any number of Improvement tiles during this round.

Round 14 (Extended Game: 11) is a National Holiday: player Reptutation does not limit actions this round. Players may host any event and invite any guest, irrespective of their Reputation.

Rounds 4, 8, 12 and 16 (Extended Game: 5, 10, 15 and 20)are Courtship rounds. No regular turns are taken: instead, whoever has the highest score for that courtship's current Theme colour (shown by the most recent upturned card at the top of the board) may take either the Charles or Elizabeth Fairchild card into their hand, and draw a Victory Point Card. The final Courtship round is scored on the total for all four Theme colours, rather than just the fourth. (If a colour appears multiple times, it is counted multiple times.)

End Game Scoring

Add up:

• • Improvement Tile VP
• • Gentry Card VP
• • Objective Card VP
• • Service VP: 2 VP per servant
• • Wealth VP: 1 VP per £200
• • VP Cards
• • Reputation VP

*Maximum in Standard Play