Overview

Byzanz is an auction and set-collection card game for 3-6 players. Players are merchants in the Byzantine market, bidding on bundles of goods cards using cards from their own hand. After all auctions in a round, players draft goods from a central market. Players sell sets of three matching goods for profit, keeping the highest-valued card and discarding the other two. The player with the most points from sold sets wins.

Components

• 96 goods cards (6 types of goods, with values from 1 to 4)
• Merchant cards (wild cards, worth 5 points when sold as a set of 3)
• Rules sheet

Setup

1. Shuffle all goods and merchant cards together.
2. Deal starting hands to each player (hand size varies by player count).
3. Prepare the auction lots for the first round by dealing cards from the deck.

Turn Structure

Each round consists of two phases:

Phase 1: Auctions

One auction is held per player in the game. The first auction has the most cards; subsequent auctions have fewer.

1. Reveal the auction lot – a bundle of cards from the deck.
2. Bidding starts with a designated player and continues clockwise. Each player must either increase the current bid or pass. Bids are made by playing cards from your hand (combining their values).
3. The highest bidder wins the lot, adds those cards to their hand, and pays their bid cards (which are discarded/removed).
4. The winner of each auction leads the next auction.

Phase 2: Market Draft

After all auctions in a round are complete, players draft goods from the central market.

• Starting with the player who won the last auction, each player drafts one type of good and takes all cards of that type from the market.

Actions

Bidding

Players bid by playing cards from their hand. The combined values of played cards form the bid amount. Each subsequent bid must exceed the current highest bid. Players who pass are out of that auction.

Selling Sets

At any appropriate time, players may sell sets of 3 matching goods cards (same type):

• The lowest 2 cards in the set are discarded from the game.
• The highest card is kept face-down in a scoring pile.
• Merchant cards act as wilds and can substitute for any goods type.

Hand Limit

Players have a 7-card maximum hand size. Excess cards must be discarded or sold.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Game End

The game ends when all goods cards have been auctioned.

Final Scoring

After the final round, players may sell any remaining eligible sets. Each player totals the values of cards in their scoring pile (from sold sets).

The player with the highest total value of profit cards wins.

Tiebreaker

If players are tied, the player with the most goods cards remaining in hand wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Cards serve dual purpose: they are both bidding currency and scoring resources, creating tension between spending and collecting.
• Merchant cards are wild and worth 5 points when sold as part of a set of 3.
• The number of auctions per round equals the number of players.
• Auction lot sizes decrease throughout each round (first lot is largest, last is smallest).
• Hand limit of 7 cards forces players to sell or discard.
• When bidding, all cards played as a bid are lost regardless of whether you win.

Player Reference

Round Structure: Auctions (1 per player) → Market Draft

Selling: 3 matching goods → discard 2 lowest, keep highest face-down for scoring

Hand Limit: 7 cards

Winning: Highest total value of sold sets (face-down scoring pile)

Tiebreaker: Most goods cards remaining in hand