1. Shuffle the 120 profession cards together to create a deck. Set the deck face down where everyone can reach it. Leave some space for a discard pile.
2. Shuffle all of the VP cards, and deal 5 out in a line, face up, in the center of the table. This is called the center row. Set the rest face down nearby.
3. Place the VP tokens in a pile where everyone can reach them.
4. Deal 9 profession cards to each player. Choose a player to go first. Starting with the first player, discard as many cards as you like to the discard pile (in any order) and draw back up to 9 cards. Then, place 3 cards face up onto the table to your right. No cards can be duplicates here (with the same color and profession). This is your guildhall. Group cards of the same profession together. These groups are called chapters. All cards in a guildhall must be visible to all players.
5. After the first player, setup proceeds in clockwise order. Each player in turn discards any number of cards, draws up to 9, and places 3 cards. This completes setup.

Keep the area to your left open. This is your action area, where cards are played and held before you move them to the guildhall.

Each card has abilities based on its profession and the number of cards of that profession already in your guildhall. If the number of cards in your chapter is below the lowest number listed, you gain no benefit from that professional’s ability.

You do not have to use a card’s full effect when you play it. You may choose to use its effect at a lower level (as if you had fewer professionals in your chapter), or you may choose not to use the effect at all. However, you may not choose to use only part of a card’s effect.

Example: You already have two Weavers in your guildhall. You play a third into your action area. This allows you to use the “2” ability on the Weaver: Place two cards from your hand into your guildhall, and take one card from your guildhall and put it into your hand.

If you do not have two cards you want to place into your guildhall, you may use the “0” ability and place only one card from your hand, or place no cards at all. However, you cannot place two cards into your guildhall and then choose not to put a card into your hand. You must do all of an ability at a given level or none of it.

You cannot play a card of a given profession and color if that same card is already in your guildhall.

Example: If you have a blue Farmer in your guildhall, you cannot play a blue Farmer with the Play 1 Card action.

You cannot play more than one card of a given profession during a single turn.

Example: If you played a Dancer for your first action, you cannot play another Dancer for your second action that turn.

Discard any number of cards from your hand, placing them on the discard pile in any order. Then draw cards from the top of the deck until you have six cards in your hand. Although this always results in a hand of six cards, there is no hand limit if you gain cards some other way.

If you need to draw a card from the deck and it is empty, shuffle the discard pile and place it face down to form a new deck. Draw the remaining cards from the new deck.

The big number on the VP card is the number of VP it is worth at the end of the game. The number of chapter icons shown on the top of the card is the number of your completed chapters you must discard to buy that VP card.

Place the VP card into your action area face up. Some VP cards have abilities that take place immediately when they are bought. As with abilities on profession cards, you may choose not to use them.

When you buy a VP card, immediately place the top card of the VP card deck into the center row. There are always 5 VP cards available to buy in the center row.

When all five colors of a single profession are in your guildhall, you have completed the chapter. Immediately turn them all face down in a stack. They now exist only as a completed chapter. They no longer affect or are affected by other cards. You may use completed chapters only to buy VP cards.

You can have a maximum of 3 completed chapters in your guildhall at once. If you ever have 4 or more completed chapters, you must discard chapters until you have only 3.

Example: You have a red, blue, yellow, and green Trader on your guildhall, and a red Trader in your hand. Since you have a red Trader in your guildhall already, you cannot play another one. However, if you play a blue Historian and take a purple Trader from the discard pile and place it into your guildhall, you immediately complete the Trader chapter, and turn them face down. With no Traders in your guildhall, you may play the red Trader on your next action (even if it’s on the same turn) to start a new Trader chapter.

Two profession cards of the same color can never be in a single guildhall at the same time. You cannot play or place cards that duplicate a card already in your guildhall, and cannot place a duplicate card in another player’s guildhall. If an ability lets you move an entire chapter to your guildhall, but one card in that chapter duplicates a card you already have in your guildhall, you cannot move the chapter.

However, you can swap two identical cards (such as two red Weavers) between your hand and guildhall or between your guildhall and another player’s guildhall. You can place a given profession and color in your guildhall if that same card is already in your action area.

If for some reason you find a duplicate card in a guildhall, discard duplicates until only one of the card remains.

When all of your actions and card abilities are resolved, move all cards from the action area to your guildhall. If this would move a duplicate card (i.e., same color and profession) into your guildhall, discard the duplicate card instead.

Arrange your cards into chapters by profession.

Score your points. All players must be able to see your total VP. If you have fewer than 20 VP, play passes clockwise. If you have 20 VP or more, the game ends.