Rule Clarifications & Errata for Obsession 2E, Upstairs, Downstairs, & Wessex 2E

Obsession 2nd Edition

IMPROVEMENT TILE COUNTS

Game Components, Rulebook Page 2: There have been several inquiries about the tile counts by category (Essentials,
Service, Estate, Prestige, and Sporting). In the rulebook, I count each category without including specialty tiles
(monuments, suites, and hybrid). Because specialized tiles may also share an organiser category, the counts seem off.

 There are 80 tiles in Obsession 2E (five punchboards with 16 tiles each). If you have all five punchboards
without any missing tiles, your tile count is correct.

OBJECTIVE CARD RULES

Objective Cards (step 10), Rulebook Page 3: The new objective card rule is thoroughly developed in the Upstairs,
Downstairs rulebook (pages 2 and 8), but it is only lightly discussed in the Obsession 2E rulebook. Here are the
objective card rules:

 Setup: For a standard game, players are dealt five objective cards, keeping them all. For an extended game,
players are dealt four objective cards, keeping them all.
 During the Game: At the end of each courtship, players discard one objective card.
 Round Track: During rounds featuring an objective card draw, players draw two objective cards, keeping
both.

In standard play, players acquire a total of seven objective cards, discarding four, scoring three. In extended play,
players acquire eight objective cards, discarding four, scoring four.

Notes

 Discarding: Objective cards discarded at the end of each season by all players should be shuffled and then
placed at the bottom of the objective card supply deck. This will ensure sufficient objective cards are
available for higher player counts and extended play.
 Objective Cards from the Main Library (Obsession 2E rulebook, page 11): The Main Library objective card
draw differs from the draw(s) on the round track in that the player only takes the top objective card from the
supply. This card is an additional scoring objective.
 Objective Cards from VP Cards (Glossary, page 27): The VP card objective card draw differs from the draw(s)
on the round track in that the player takes two objective cards from the supply and keeps one. This card is an
additional scoring objective.

HOW TO HANDLE SUITES TILES DURING SETUP

Improvement Tiles (#6), Rulebook Page 4: Suites tiles are not explicitly mentioned in the setup of the game, although
it states that “except for monuments, place all improvement tiles in the purple tile bag.” However, since two of the
Suites tiles (and additional tiles from expansions and promotional materials) convert to a monument when flipped, it
should be noted that only two-sided monument tiles qualify when adding monuments based upon player count.

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 Rule Clarifications & Errata for Obsession 2E, Upstairs, Downstairs, & Wessex 2E

WHEN TO SORT IMPROVEMENT TILES USING THE TILE SORTING NUMBERS

Builders’ Market and Tile Sorting Numbers, Rulebook Pages 5 and 11:

 The entire market is only sorted during initial population and when the market is refreshed.
 When filling a single open space in the market, the market is NOT resorted (existing tiles slide to the left and a
new tile is placed in the rightmost open space).
o If the new tile drawn is a duplicate of a tile in the market, it is stacked on top of the existing tile and
another tile is drawn to fill the open space.
o If the new tile drawn is removed by the tile reserves, another tile is drawn to fill the open space.
o The market never has open spots (unless players run out of tiles); when refilling the market, draw
tiles until it is filled.
 If multiple tiles are purchased during a turn (on the builders’ holiday round or with the use of a VP Card), only
the new tiles are sorted, left (lowest) to right (highest).

BUILDERS’ HOLIDAY RULE CLARIFICATION

Builders’ Holiday, Rulebook Page 6 and Glossary Page 5: When purchasing more than one tile on the builders’
holiday, the remaining tiles are not moved until all purchases are complete. Only then are the remaining tiles moved
to the left, opening up spaces on the right side of the market. The incoming tiles are then sorted in tile sorting number
order.

MAX REPUTATION COUNTER DETAILS

Standard vs. Extended Play, Rulebook Page 7: The rule regarding the value of the Max reputation wheel counter is
not intuitively placed, so I will call it out here.

 The counters showing 1, 3, 5, and 7 are two-sided with 2, 4, 6, and 8 on the reverse sides. The Max tile (with
the flag) is the same on both sides and represents 7 in the standard game and 9 in the extended game. It is
placed after the highest number as the final tile.
 Once a player reaches Max, she may still gain reputation up to the 5 position on the wheel.
 A player may use Special Actions at any time during her turn, thereby not wasting reputation gained while at
the Max.5 position. For example:
o A player is at the Max.5 reputation.
o She hosts two guests in the Cabinet of Curiosities. Neither guest confers reputation (both grant
money), but the tile generates six reputation.
o The player takes the money favour from the guests.
o Before taking the reputation favour from the Cabinet of Curiosities, the player uses special actions,
spending six reputation to collect an additional £300.
o Then the player takes the reputation from the Cabinet of Curiosities and finishes the turn where she
started at the Max.5 position.

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 Rule Clarifications & Errata for Obsession 2E, Upstairs, Downstairs, & Wessex 2E

INVITATIONS ON ESTATE IMPROVEMENT TILES

Invite/Dismiss Gentry, Rulebook Pages 9 and 10:

 A single or double fluer-de-lis (connoting a casual or prestige guest) on an estate tile informs the player which
deck to draw from on the supply board. If the fluer-de-lis is accompanied by text referring to the number of
guests (e.g., See 2, Take 1 or Take 2), this provides additional detail on the number of guests to invite.
 However, whenever the word ‘Dismiss’ is used, it is unrelated to the fluer-de-lis and is a separate, optional
action that can be taken. For example, this tile…

…permits the player to examine three casual guests, keeping two. Optionally (dismissal is the only optional
favour), the player may choose to dismiss any one guest.

SPECIAL ACTIONS AND REFRESHING THE MARKET

Special Actions, Rulebook Page 12:

 The Special Action for refreshing the market can only be used once per turn, but this does not apply to
market refresh actions that are available as part of the pass action or as an optional favour on a VP card. As a
result, multiple market refreshes are possible, but only one may come via Special Actions.
 Keep in mind that any market refresh should not be used punitively (to remove purchase options that would
otherwise be available to another player).

MONUMENTS, SERVANTS’ HALL, AND ROUND TRACK EVENTS ON A PASSING TURN

Passing, Rulebook Page 13:

 When passing, a player gains reputation from any Monuments and may use the Servants’ Hall, if he has one.
The player also benefits from any rounds featuring an icon on the round track (i.e., Village Fair, Objective
Card draw, etc.).
 A player may use Special Actions during a passing turn.

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 Rule Clarifications & Errata for Obsession 2E, Upstairs, Downstairs, & Wessex 2E

WHICH SIDE OF THE ROUND TRACK TO USE FOR SOLO PLAY

Solitaire, Rulebook Page 14:

 The Obsession 2E Solitaire opponents use the standard play side of the round track.
 The Wessex expansion Solitaire opponents use the extended play side of the round track.

INTENSIVE SERVICE VARIANT ERRATA

Variations, Glossary Page 26: The Intensive Service variant is a holdover from Obsession 1st Edition and should have
been removed. Disregard this entry.

Upstairs, Downstairs Expansion

SERVANT COUNTS
What’s in the Box, Page 1: The total number of servants is given, but the number of each type of servant is not
specified. These counts are as follows:

Butler: 2 Housekeeper: 2 Valet: 3

Lady’s Maid: 3 Footman: 4 Cook: 5
Hall Boy: 5 Head Housemaid: 5 Useful Man: 5

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS SERVANTS AS ESSENTIAL SERVANTS

New Service Concept: Supplemental Service, Page 3: The four Upstairs, Downstairs servants (cook, hall boy, head
housemaid, and useful man) all perform non-essential or supplemental service. There are select situations where the
hall boy and head housemaid can stand in for an essential servant (the hall boy for the butler and the head housemaid
for the housekeeper on gentry cards only), and in such situations the rules state their supplemental service ability is
inactive.

This holds true for all the crowdfunding stretch goal tiles and promotional tiles where the Upstairs, Downstairs
servants are used as essential servants, unless otherwise spelled out in a rule (the Ice House promotional tile rule state
that the cook’s supplemental service abilities of generating one reputation and enabling guests up to two levels higher
to attend are active when she is used as the essential servant on the tile).

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 Rule Clarifications & Errata for Obsession 2E, Upstairs, Downstairs, & Wessex 2E

USEFUL MAN RULES

Useful Man, Page 5:

 The Useful Man cannot reduce the cost of an improvement tile to £0 (the lowest a tile can be reduced to is
£100).
 If a player discards (back to the box) a Useful Man to take advantage of his one-time abilities, the player
cannot hire another Useful Man to replace him.

HIRING ON A PASS
Hiring Servants on a Pass Turn, Page 6: Upstairs, Downstairs introduces the ability of players to hire servants on a pass
turn. Note that when using this ability, the Butler’s Room is used just as under the previous rule: it is placed on the
player board, servants are selected, and then the butler and new servant(s) are placed into Expended Service
normally.

TABLEAU OBSESSION ERRATA

Tableau Obsession, Page 11:

 The objective card rule for Tableau Obsession is omitted; it is the same as for Solo Estate Challenge:
o The players do not begin the game with objective cards, and
o Remove all the group bonus objectives from the objective card deck when setting up the central play
area
 In the Grand Ball section near the bottom of the page, it states that the ball takes place at the beginning of
round 6, which is a typo. The Grand Ball takes place at the beginning of round 5.

© Kayenta Publishing, 2020, no part of this product may be reproduced without permission.

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