Tapestry: Plans & Ploys Expansion – Stonemaier Games

Tapestry: Plans & Ploys Expansion

Tapestry: Plans & Ploys

  • Designer Jamey Stegmaier
  • Artist Andrew Bosley
  • Sculptor Rom Brown

Adds a new card type, new miniatures, new civs, and more!

Expansion (requires base game)
90-120 minutes mins Game Length
5 mins Setup Time
(with base game)
1-5 Players
Medium Game Weight
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Choose from a variety of new civilizations, pursue individual achievements to add landmarks to your capital city, and sneakily interact with the opposition in this first expansion for Tapestry.

Components

  • 1 game box (204x204x53mm)
  • 7 landmark miniatures
  • 5 landmark cards
  • 10 civilization mats
  • 15 tapestry cards
  • 4 new space tiles (and 1 replacement)
  • 12 landmark tiles for advancement tracks
  • 1 bag for territory tiles
  • 4 Automa cards
  • 1 core rulebook
  • 1 Automa rulebook

Media

Release Details: Tapestry: Plans & Ploys was available to preorder from Stonemaier Games on September 2, 2020, with all preorders being shipped in September from fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK.

Product Details: The SKU is STM151, the MSRP is $30, and retail release date was October 30, 2020.

Copyright 2019 Stonemaier LLC. Tapestry is a trademark of Stonemaier LLC. All Rights Reserved. This content is not authorized for posting on Steam.

FAQ

Will everything fit in the Tapestry box? 

If you remove the original insert, you should be able to fit all components (core game and both expansions) in the original box.

Are the core game civilization adjustments noted in the expansion?

Yes, we’ve included those tweaks (found here) on the back page of the expansion rulebook. Why not reprint the civs themselves? Because we’re going to continue to collect data about the game, and it’s possible—unlikely, but possible—that those civs might need minor tweaks in the future. Any adjustments we make will always happen at the beginning of the game, so it’s not something you need to remember after setup.

The Aliens start with space tiles in their supply, and one of the abilities on the Spies is to copy the ability of a space tile in an opponent’s supply. What happens if one of those space tiles has an ongoing effect (e.g., gain 5 VP every time you advance on the tech track)?

The Spies only gain the benefit of a space tile (or territory tile) “in a neighbor’s supply.” As soon as the neighbor has played the tile (which for the Aliens means placing it on their civilization mat) then the tile is no longer in their supply and is no longer any benefit to the Spies. The effect is temporary.

When in the Plans and Ploys scenario, The Fall of Atlantis, you repeat the benefit of the AI Singularity space, e.g. using Academic Research, do you move your player token to the starting space of a track?

No, you only gain the resources.

Design Diary

August 18: The Rulebooks and Watch It Played

Now that we’ve revealed the contents of Tapestry: Plans & Ploys, it’s time to share the rulebooks! Both the core rulebook and the Automa rulebook are available here.

We also commissioned Rodney at Watch It Played to make one of his wonderful rules videos; it’s available here: https://youtu.be/ep-Q3teZiA0

You’ll soon see coverage of the expansion from other media outlets, including reviews starting on August 26. The preorder from Stonemaier Games will go live on September 2, with shipping to follow throughout September.

If you have any questions about the rules, feel free to ask them below!

August 17: Automa and the Fate of Atlantis

Morten Monrad Pedersen wrote this post about the solo mode for Plans & Ploys.

In Viticulture we made a solo “campaign” of 8 very simple scenarios that tweaked the rules a little bit to force you to rethink your strategy. Over the years a lot of people have said that they liked it and asked us to do something similar again for another game.

When Plans and Ploys landed in my lap, I decided that now was the time to do it and that we should go beyond a few small rule tweaks and scenarios that had no thematic connection to each other.

I decided that I wouldn’t restrain myself by aiming for perfect balance and high replayability. This might sound weird, but it gave me the freedom to present the player with challenges that force them to shake up their strategy and present them with varied challenges.

The most never-existing civilization of them all

This time I wanted an overarching thematic connection between the scenarios so that they told a story. Well, “story” is a very strong word for what’s going on here and some will call it pasted on, but nevertheless a story is where I started.

Since Tapestry is about building civilizations that never existed, I thought it could be interesting to visit the most never-existing civilization of them all: Atlantis.

I quickly got the idea for one of the scenarios, The Fall of Atlantis, that would turn the game on its head, but more on that later. From the idea for that scenario I built the small story.

Scenarios 1 and 2: Rise and annihilation

At the beginning Atlantis rises to preeminence and you must be a part of this by excelling at one discipline.

With the Atlantean civilizations risen to the top in scenario 1 and the whole continent explored they look for places to expand in scenario 2 and boy do the grass look green on their neighbor’s terrain tiles. This leads your neighboring Automa civilization to take a somewhat inappropriate interest in your tiles.

As you can possibly predict war is inevitable.

This is where we meet the first thematic disconnect, because you can’t really start a game of Tapestry where the previous one left of – you’d quickly run out of things to do. So, everything is reset, except that during setup terrain tiles are placed face up on all unexplored map spaces to represent the fully explored Atlantis.

In this scenario the Automa will focus single-mindedly on military and exploration. Well, not really on exploration, because all exploration actions are replaced by conquer actions and your exploration actions are similarly replaced. To be able to use all those conquer actions you each have outposts of an unused color. From then on out, it’s World War Atlantis and the winner is the civilization that controls the most territories at the end.

Scenario 3: Utopia

After a world war, it makes some kind of thematic sense that you’re starting from scratch again. So, the story works a bit better here.

The Atlantean civilizations have learned from their self-inflicted Armageddon and swear to make peace and create a Utopia.

Therefore, no progress can be made on the military track and if you in any other way would do a conquer action you instead explore and you can explore as far as you want without conquering.

With warfare out of the picture you must compete for out-doing each other in building landmarks and gain extra VP for that.

Scenario 4: The Fall of Atlantis

With utopia achieved we get to the scenario idea that got me started, the fall of the Atlantean continent.

In this scenario you all start at or close to the ends of the advancement tracks and regress instead of advance as the continent falls apart.

As you might imagine getting this scenario to work without things going wonkily haywire required quite a bit of tuning, but it was a fun ride and you really have to rethink your strategy.

This is where I again have to admit that we have a hole in the coupling of what happens in the game and what happens in the story, because the continent is falling apart and your technology is regressing towards the stone age while you are building a big capital with fabulous landmarks and an ever increasing production.  That’s a hole that’s big enough that a Scythe Legendary box could pass through. Easily. With its family. Extended family. All riding on Polania mechs.

That aside, you play as the Historian civilization and document what happens, which in this case simply means that at the end of the game you write down which tapestries are on your mat and where they’re placed.

Scenario 5: ForeShadow

Having escaped the continent that’s now an exhibit to be enjoyed by the marine life of the Atlantean Ocean you start to rebuild, and you want to follow in the footsteps of your forebears.

To do so you start with the same Tapestry cards placed on your mat as you played in the previous scenario and you “play” them during the appropriate income turns.

Your civilization of forced choice is the Mystics who make four predictions of what will happen for them during the game. To win the game you must get at least get 3 of those predictions right.

The idea behind these special rules is to give a feeling of having a specific destiny you strive towards – a destiny foreshadowed by your Atlantean ancestors.

August 16: The New Civilizations

While the original 16 civilizations in Tapestry can offer plenty of replayability, I set out to expand that aspect of the game even more in Plans & Ploys. Plus, they’re fun to design!

My design process for civilizations is brainstorm a lot of ideas, then cut/combine any that are too similar. At that point in the design process, I had around 15 civs. Then I prototyped the remainders and playtested them, continuing to cut/combine as needed.

As was the case for the original game, these civs went through a gauntlet of blind playtesting. We actually ran 6 waves of blind playtesting for the expansion, with over 140 total blind playtests. Unlike the original game, however, I also brought in data analyst Jeremy Kaemmer to look at each wave of data to see if I was missing anything hidden in the various matchups, combinations, and player counts.

The end result is that there are 10 new civilizations in the expansion. They’re intended to be shuffled into the core game civs, but you can absolutely play a few games with only the new civs.

I already discussed the Utilitarians on a previous design diary, so I’ll share the core concepts of the civs shown in these photos.

–Treasure Hunters: This civ was directly inspired by a fan expansion for Tapestry by Sam Gray (this credit is noted on the back of the rulebook). I’ve wanted a civ that looks at the different types of terrain on the map, and this one combines that with the fun of dice rolling.

–Spies: One of the overall design goals I mentioned was to add more player interaction, and the Spies are all about benefiting from things your neighbors have accomplished. Also, a fun little twist with the Spies is that whenever they activate one of their abilities (during income turns) to target a neighbor, they get to look at the neighbor’s hand of tapestry cards.

–Islanders: This was one of my favorite civs to design, as it uses territory tiles off of the main map as you try to complete an island on your civ mat.

–Tinkerers: This was a playtester favorite, and very difficult to balance without removing the fun of their advancement track manipulations. So as a balance mechanism, the Tinkerers actually give each opponent a tech card at the beginning of the game.

As noted previously, the original civ adjustments (which were made earlier this year) comprise the last page of the expansion rulebook for easy reference. Why not reprint the civs themselves? Because we’re going to continue to collect data about the game, and it’s possible—unlikely, but possible—that those civs might need minor tweaks in the future. Any adjustments we make will always happen at the beginning of the game, so it’s not something you need to remember after setup.

Which of the new civilizations are you the most excited to try?

August 15: New Space Tiles and a Few Playtester-Suggested Additions

One of the design goals I mentioned for the Tapestry expansion was more ongoing benefits, particularly those that are easy to remember. I realized that space tiles would be a great place for a few of these benefits.

As a result, the expansion features 3 new space tiles that give you 5 VP whenever you advance on a specific track (the exploration track isn’t one of them, as you will almost have completed it just to play a space tile). It’s not a huge addition, but it’s just another twist on engine building in Tapestry that hopefully will add to the fun of going into space.

I also included a replacement space tile for the tile in the first print run that had the prototype icon for “conquer” instead of the final icon.

I’d also like to share two additions that were entirely inspired by our amazing blind playtesters around the world.

The first is that several playtesters mentioned that they wished there were a bag in the game for the territory tiles. The tiles are a bit fiddly to flip onto one side and mix together; a bag makes this much easier. So we’ve included a drawstring bag in the expansion.

The second is that some playtesters wished there were visuals on the advancement tracks to show which landmarks were available and which had been taken. Of course, there is already a visual for this–if any player’s advancement token is on or beyond the first space of each tier, the landmark is no longer available–but I understand that some people might like more of a direct visual cue. We had room on the punchboard, so I asked artist Andrew Bosley to make small tiles to place on the tracks during setup. They’re completely optional.

I’m going to take a break tomorrow, but I’ll be back Monday to discuss the quantity, design process, and nature of the new civilizations! Have a great weekend. :)

August 14: Putting the “Ploy” in “Plans & Ploys”

One of my design goals for the Tapestry expansion was to add more interaction to what players do on the map, specifically in terms of conquering. I liked how the original trap cards made players feel sneaky, but all 7 trap cards are identical. We needed something new.

So I sat down and designed a dozen unique trap cards. Some were cards you could play if someone tried to conquer your territory; others were cards you’d play in response to someone playing a trap card against you.

Through playtesting, some of those cards simply didn’t work out. In the final expansion box, there are 15 new tapestry cards, and 5 of them are new twists on traps. I know that’s not a big percentage of cards after the new tapestries are shuffled into the original deck, but I didn’t want to skew the percentage too much, and just knowing your opponent *might* have one of these cards in hand may make you approach conquering in a new way.

Here’s an example: Stolen Plans reads, “You may discard this from your hand if an opponent plays a trap against you. If you do, cancel their trap and gain a random tapestry card from their hand.”

If you instead decide to play Stolen Plans as a normal tapestry card on your income turn, it says, “Gain 8 VP and a tech card.”

You can also see the Retreat card in the photo here; I’ll leave the others as a surprise.

These cards aren’t the only example of increased interaction in Plans & Ploys. Most of the new civilizations have you interacting with opponents in a new way. One of my favorites is the Advisors civilization, which has you dispensing unsolicited advice in the form of tapestry cards from your hand whenever an opponent would draw a tapestry card.

I’ll go more in depth into the new civs either tomorrow or Monday! Thanks for joining me for these first few posts.

August 13: Landmark Cards, Landmark Abilities, and More

The landmark miniatures are one of the most distinct components in Tapestry. In the original game, there were two primary ways to gain them: On the advancement tracks and via tech cards.

In the expansion, I wanted to add a few new ways to add landmarks to your capital city. I started with a tapestry card designed around gaining a specific landmark, and then I added a space tile for another landmark.

But then I ventured into a new card type, both to accomplish the aforementioned goal and to give players a sense of direction early in the game. Each player starts with a different landmark card with a short-term goal (like upgrade a tech card to the top row), and when they accomplish that goal, they get to place that specific landmark in their capital city. These are completely new landmark miniatures, and the only way to gain them is via the corresponding landmark card.

These landmark cards playtested VERY well, with playtesters liking that they had a landmark for which they didn’t need to compete with other players. We hope to add more in the future, either as promos or in another expansion.

That brings me to landmark abilities, though I need to provide some context that you’ve probably heard me say before: We’ve tested the concept of giving landmarks ongoing abilities, and they’ve never gone over well, because it’s rather difficult to remember such abilities when there’s so much else happening Tapestry.

So I decided to design a civilization specifically around the concept of ongoing landmark abilities. That way, if you want to experience what it’s like, you’re welcome to choose that civilization as often as you’d like. It tested fine, though there were definitely some playtesters who said, “I’ve always wanted ongoing landmark abilities…but now that I’ve played with them, I don’t need to use them again.”

Regardless, I’m excited for you to play with the landmark cards, the space tile and tapestry card that each give landmarks, and the Utilitarians civ!

August 12: Design Goals, Box, and Name

The Tapestry expansion is here!

Over the next week I’m going to share what’s in the expansion and some stories behind the components and mechanisms. The expansion’s production is complete, and it’s current en route to fulfillment centers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. We’re looking at an early-September preorder, followed by shipping throughout that month.

I’m excited for old and new Tapestry players to try the expansion, and today I’ll start by revealing the name, the box, and the design goals.

Design Goals

I started working on the Tapestry expansion last year after people started playing the final version and sharing their thoughts. There was some feedback that stood out that I wanted to address (while making the expansion very easy to integrate with the core game):

–improved balance

–more interaction between players, particularly in the context of conquering

–more ways to get landmarks at higher player counts

–more direction early in the game

–landmarks that actually DO something on an ongoing basis

–landmarks that fit better in capital cities

In addition to this, I wanted to add some new civilizations that felt distinctly different than the originals and more tapestry cards.

I considered adding a 6th player, but I think Tapestry plays a little long at 5 players—6 would just be too much.

Also, while the balance tweaks to the original game happened before the expansion through the civilization adjustment guide, we’ve included those tweaks on the back page of the expansion rulebook. Why not reprint the civs themselves? Because we’re going to continue to collect data about the game, and it’s possible—unlikely, but possible—that those civs might need minor tweaks in the future. Any adjustments we make will always happen at the beginning of the game, so it’s not something you need to remember after setup.

Mission Accomplished?

You can decide for yourself over the next week if I accomplished those goals, but I’m very confident that’s the case, and largely through unique twists on existing components. I’ve called this a “more stuff” expansion, but you’ll see new tapestry cards, civ mats, and space tiles that are very different than the originals. You’ll also see a new card type that helped us accomplish two of the goals mentioned above.

Please note that one of the goals wasn’t “fit all expansion content into the original box.” That would have completely eliminated the possibility of new landmarks. However, if that’s really important to you, you can remove the insert from the original box, and then everything should easily fit.

As a result of those goals, I decided to name the expansion Tapestry: Plans & Ploys. Andrew Bosley returned as the artist, and the box—shown here—is one of my favorite illustrations. Rom Brown also returned as the sculptor, and due to the order of operations (me creating the capital city grid first, then commissioning the minis), the new landmarks due indeed fit perfectly into the capital cities.

I’ll see you tomorrow to discuss how we accomplished some of these goals! Let me know what you’re the most curious to know first. :)

195 Comments on “Tapestry: Plans & Ploys Expansion

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  1. Hi, I am looking to buy the Plans and Ploys expansion, but notice a reprint is due. Please can you let me know what, if anything is changing.

    Also I notice in the various threads on the main game that an upgrade pack is being considered. Would that replace any of the content of this expansion, if I go ahead and purchase before the re-print hits the U.K stores?

    Thanks.

        1. We typically fix small typos between printings, just very minor stuff. The version on our webstore now is the newest printing.

  2. Blueprint cards are mirror images of what the landmarks actually are. Are there replacement cards? Thank you.

    1. Yes, we include replacement cards for free in copies of Tapestry: Fantasies & Futures; you can see a photo of them and more information here: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/tapestry/tapestry-fantasies-futures-expansion/

      This is the Plans & Ploys plan; just for clarity, the mirrored cards are in the Arts & Architecture expansion. The landmark minis themselves are correct, so the correct configuration on the cards is helpful but not entirely necessary.

    1. The preorder launched a few minutes before that, as 9:30 am is when we send the preorder launch notification–the links must be live before that message is sent.

  3. Will the Plans & Ploys be available to order from the new EU store from Dec 1 as well (together with the new Arts & Architecture expansion)? Currently it says sold out. :(

      1. Unfortunately it still says sold out. Should I wait a little longer (and hope Arts & Architecture won’t sell out), or just make a separate order as soon as it will be available again? THX. :-)

        1. We’re expecting it to arrive early next week. I think you’re safe to wait until then to order both expansions.

  4. Hi Jamey, Hopefully others agree with me, but I would love to see the solo campaign rules adapted to include multiplayer games. I saw this when looking at the front of the automa rulebook included with this expansion. I think Tapestry is a perfect game to see a campaign, and I think the Atlantis campaign is a great start. Are they are plans to do so if enough people desire it?

    1. After making the solo campaign we made a multiplayer version of it, but it will need additional work before we know whether it’s good enough and I don’t know whether we’ll have the time to finish it. Also, IIRC it doesn’t support 4 or 5 players, so it may not be what you’re looking for.

      1. This is great news! Hopefully you will be able to finish it. Most of my tapestry games are 2-3 players anyway so that part doesn’t particularly affect my group! If you need extra playtesters I know we’d be happy to help!

        1. A very belated thank you for your offer, I appreciate it. I’ve made a note of this comment and will reach out to you if needed.

          Thanks.

  5. Hi Jamey, is there any card descriptions (Civs, tapestry cards) available for download? I’ve bought Dutch version and have some struggles to understand all features clearly. It’s it possible to get the descriptions in English somehow please?
    Thanks and best regards,
    Ruslan

    1. Thanks for asking! While we don’t make that type of content available for download, we’re happy to answer any questions in the Tapestry Facebook group.

      1. Thank you, Jamey. Sure I’ll ask in the FB group if any doubts/misreadings will appear (today Plans & Plots just arrived – looking forward to playing it on the upcoming weekend:-) ).

  6. Hello.

    I have another odd question from a recent game.

    How would Surprise Party work if your opponent is both more and less advanced than you on the Military track, courtesy of the AI Singularity?

    Thanks again

    1. This is noted on page 4 of the core game rulebook: “When considering the relative
      position on a track, only look at your most advanced token.”

    2. Hi, first: thanks for your games in general! I love all that I have played and especially love that I have both multi-player and solo options in most of your games.
      Question re playing Scenario 2: World War against the Automata in Plans and Ploys Tapestry expansion. The goal is stated of having more territories that the Automata. Is that instead of point scored? (In which case I assume one would ignore anything that gives you or the Automata points), or is it in addition to Points scored in order to win the scenario. Also when the Automata gets a conquer action because of the Income turn Equalizer civ card, does it still need to fallen outpost icon on the tiebreaker card on the most recent pair of Automata cards. It seemed like it might be hard for the Automata to conquer Neutral otherwise. Thanks

      1. The goal of having more territories in scenario 2 is __in addtion__ to scoring the most points, see the last bullet of the Scenario Rules section on page 3:

        “To win a scenario you must __win the game as normal__ while following the scenario rules
        and accomplish the scenario goals, if any. Otherwise the Automa wins.”

        The extra advances gained by the Equalizers are handled exactly the same way as normal Automa advances.

        A toppled outpost icon is required for Automa to conquer next to one of your territories, but it’ll also conquer without a toppled outpost icon, just not next to you (assuming you haven’t managed to completely surround it).

        I hope this clears things up.

  7. Hello,

    I have another ruling question.

    If the Monolith space tile is still in an opponent’s supply, can the Spies civilization copy it during an income step, and play the monument?

    Thanks.

    1. They can copy it, but they can’t take the Monolith from the opponent (even if they haven’t placed the Monolith yet).

    1. I think those cards reference cancelling traps, right? Surprise Party, Retreat, and Surrender don’t have the word “trap” on them, so they can’t be cancelled by cards that cancel traps.

  8. I love the new expansion, but the Advisors being able to infiltrate every earned tapestry card of advancement turns became very OP. I feel like there should be a limit to how many times it can be done i.e. equal to income turn number. Otherwise it’s been really fun exploring the new civs and content!

    1. When I played with them they seemed pretty balanced. Since you have to give the player you are giving a tapestry card to before you draw a replacement, you have to decide from your current hand which is worth it to give away. Sometimes its easy, you may have a pretty sucky hand of tapestries. But there were times where no matter which one i gave, they were bound to get something useful, which in turn could have (and one time was with me) better than the card they would have gotten.
      With the fact your hand is culled down to 4 tapestries when you do an income turn, it can be hard to make sure you always have a bad tapestry to hand out to people (especially if you end up with a bunch of trap cards)

  9. […] stars. We would explore the world and stamp our mark on it. We were ready to make a reality of our Plans & Ploys by Stonemaier […]

  10. Hello, In plans & Plys rules you are talking about mulit-players scénarios we can find on stonemaiergames.com. I am very sorry to ask this but I could not find those. probably you can help me ?

    1. In rules, it says “We might create a set of suggested rule changes to play the scenarios
      multiplayer. If so, we’ll likely put them up as a free download on stonemaiergames.com.” so may be, in the future, but not for the moment ;)

  11. We noticed that there appears to be a typo on the treasure hunters civilization, for one of its ability it says to “roll the research die twice and gain one benefit of your choice”. Just want to confirm that this was to supposed to say “science die” instead? (it is minor, but did cause a little debate during play). In addition I want to confirm when doing that ability above, assuming that it is indeed the science die, is the benefit to be advancing on one of the rolled tracks but gaining no actual benefit of the space you advanced to?

    Thank you and overall very nice expansion :)

        1. Choose one of the rolled results and then advance on that track, you then gain the benefit and optionally pay for the bonus of the space.

  12. What happens if ‘Spy’ copies the new space tiles, that gives 5 victory points every time they advance at specific track?
    If this victory point bonus last til end of the game, the game totally brokes.
    If Alien has these kind of space tiles in their supply and the Spy copies this tile at the start of 2nd era????
    This is totally balance break, or some kind of rule mistake.

    1. The Spies only gain the benefit of a space tile (or territory tile) “in a neighbor’s supply.” As soon as the neighbor has played the tile (which for the Aliens means placing it on their civilization mat) then the tile is no longer in their supply and is no longer any benefit to the Spies. The effect is temporary.

        1. We typically only add questions to the FAQ that are frequently asked, but sure, if that helps you, I’ll do that now.

  13. Rules question: when playing with the Riverfolk faction, when all impassable land in a district is covered the player receives a wild resource. Does the Riverfolk player also receive a wild resource when a complete 3×3 district is full (with income buildings/landmarks/impassable land as normal)?
    Thanks.

  14. Hey!
    On Minute 4:54 min we can see a newer version of the civilization adjustments. Is it a later version then 1.2 from June 2020? When will it be available for download here on the website?

    1. By Looking at the futurists, you don’t need to lay back 1 civilization by getting the futurists (beginning or during the game) anymore?

    2. Hi Thomas! I’m not seeing any difference between the current adjustment sheet (June 2020) and the last page of the Plans & Ploys instruction book. All adjustments only apply to the beginning of the game, and if you start with Futurists, lose one culture and one more resource of your choice.

  15. […] Plans & Ploys, prévue pour cet automne (précommande début septembre sur son site, localisation française par Matagot d’ici la fin […]

  16. Finally got this to the table (totally awesome) and we ran into the same issue with the Aliens Civ. The wording seemed off though it seems we played it correctly. But it stopped the game during 2nd income.

    My real question would be how to read the Star tiles with “Track logo=5VP”? We went with “tier of track” x 5= VP.

    This gave the Aliens a hefty point jump that we almost caught back up to.

    On the whole we enjoyed Plots and Ploys, added interaction was fun, personal Landmarks were cool and minis look great. Thanks

  17. Hi, played Tapestry last night and used the plots and ploys for the first time. I had a question about one of the new civilisations. The Alien, we just couldn’t figure out how they were supposed to work. On the mat is says ” start with 4 space tiles in your supply (not mat) then at beginning of your income turns 2-5 if there is a tile on this mat , discard it then choose one of the 2 options.
    1: explore 1 space tile from your supply placing it on the mat, if you discarded a space tile from mat the pay a resource.
    2: gain a resource.
    Now my question is how do you get the tiles onto mat to begin with.
    To do the actions you need to discard a tile from your mat, but you can’t put a tile on mat without doing the action ? Now to me and others at table this didn’t seem to make sense.
    Now maybe we are interpreting it wrong so a little clarification would be appreciated ?
    Thanks
    Adam

    1. Hi Adam. You start without space tile on your mat but in a supply. On income turn 2-5, if you have a space tile on your mat, you discard it. Then you choose one of the two options even if you didn’t discard a space tile (it’s not a condition, it’s another sentence).
      So for epample you choose 1 and explore 1 space tile from your supply placing it (anf not placed) on the mat. then, if you discarded a space tile, you must first pay 1 ressource.

    2. Hi Adam! Ebi is correct, but I’ll reiterate. You don’t have to remove a tile from your mat to take one of the two listed options, it only says “if there is a tile on this mat, discard it…” It doesn’t say “first discard a tile from this mat to choose of these two options.” On your second income turn you will not have a tile on your mat and so you can choose option 1 to explore a space tile and put it on your mat, or you can choose option 2 to gain a resource. On your 3rd income turn, if you put a space tile on your mat, option 1 would cost resource because you already have a space tile on your mat.

  18. I ordered Tapestry: Plans and Ploys using Champions as I’m a Stonemaier Champion on 03-Sep-20 and it was suppose to ship mid September and still nothing or tracking or anything. Order # 90734 and I was wondering what is going on? I do live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Has anyone else been able to receive their shipment in Vancouver?

    1. Youssef: I’m sorry you haven’t received your order yet. Your order definitely should have shipped by now, and we’ll look into it ASAP and let you know what happened.

    2. Hi Youssef! I’ve copied you on an email with our Canadian fulfillment center. They’ll help track down your order. Thank you for your patience!

  19. Just a comment on shipping options. My expansion was shipped on September 11th (I’m a Stonemaier Champions). It was scheduled to deliver on 9/22. This has been revised to 9/25. The expansion has been to 7 states and 10 cities so far. It was in two different Oregon cities (I live in Oregon) but was then sent to Washington. Hopefully it makes its way back tomorrow.

    I present this not to complain, but in support of different shipping options being available. I’m not sure about other people’s experience, but in mine the Fedex Smartpost is not living up to the “smart” moniker. :)

  20. A bit confusing with Infiltrators civilization mat. Two choices to choose from. Regarding the pictures on the Infiltrators mat. (which makes it a bit confusing). First choice, “place an outpost token on any territory with exactly 1 opponent outpost and nothing else.” It would be helpful if the picture had one black outpost and one grey outpost. Both black outpost makes it look like both from one player’s. Same thing with second choice, since the picture has both black outpost, assume both are opponent’s. I was trying to figure out what “capital city territory” is… finally figure out, it means placing two outposts on the map at the begging of the game, that is called “Capital City Territory”; this term is not mentioned in the base rulebook. It would be very helpful to add a note to the expansion rule book for this civilization. (Note: The space where two outposts are placed during setup is called “Capital City Territory”)

  21. Matagot seems to announce 16th october in retail for the french version of Tapestry P&P. So it would be available before the english version ?

    1. Thanks for asking, Ebi! While we generally have a worldwide release date, we do give our localization partners some latitude to adjust their language release date around local conventions, holidays, and the such.

  22. Any news on when plans and ploys is getting to the preorder champions? I’m seein other people get it and I’m super jealous :,(

    1. We’re still operating with accuracy based on the shipping chart on this page (all Champion orders will ship in mid-September).

  23. […] namens Tapestry: Plans & Ploys angekündigt und nun kann man diese bei Stonemaier Games bestellen. Diese soll noch im September ausgeliefert […]

  24. I’m a big believer of saying thank you to folks and letting people know they’ve done an awesome job, so here’s a lil THANK YOU from my partner and I.

    The postman has just dropped off Plans and Ploys way sooner than I expected it. We immediately dropped everything to spend some time with the expansion (really ill-advised in terms of our schedules).

    Dang, we’re stunned by the production quality and how *much* the expansion adds… It seriously expands the diversity, replyability, variability, and immersiveness of the game and takes it to an amazing next level. It’s literal genius and I’d love to write a dang essay about the game mechanics. I’ve got a lot of appreciation for a publisher that’s willing to take changes and feedback on board so quickly and openly. And the art! Oh man, the art! Big props to you and you’ve got our support. Super excited for Viticulture + T and Wingspan now.

    I’m relatively new to the gaming hobby. A second-hand copy of Tapestry was among my first purchases and it’s easily been the game that we’ve enjoyed the most. It captures everything I ever loved about Sid M’s Civ videogames as a kid and goes way beyond. The mechanics coupled with the fundamentally-integrated art and minis all come together to make such an awesome brain food experience; I always finish a game on a creativity high, wanting to go write or draw or read something.

    It’s kind of funny how one part of the gaming commnity is put off by the generic beigeness of a lot of otherwise mechanically-awesome euro games and how others take issue with the alleged over-production of Tapestry. Even though I know I’m a bit of a components magpie, I gotta say I find the art and minis to be a huge motivation drive mechanism and it surprises me that there isn’t more conversation around how higher production values contribute to the playability and player-motivation of a game. The same way a game that accommodates the needs of players with colour blindness, I have a deep appreciation for a game as mechanically wonderful as Tapestry (and the entire Stonemaier range actually) that accommodates for players with serious ADHD and short term memory issues like myself by using art and tactile elements in subtly strategic ways. I see your design genius folks and I appreciate it!

    Good job folks; your hard work has made us gals real dang happy.

    1. Yana: Thank you so much for this comment! It made my day to hear your enthusiasm for Tapestry (including the landmarks–after all, if you’re going to make a civilization, shouldn’t it look big and colorful? :) ). I hope you continue to have fun with the expansion!

        1. Our projected shipping estimate was that the expansion will ship in September, and we’re definitely on track for that estimate.

          1. Perfect! Thanks Jamey. Looking forward to getting this. My wife has been playing Tapestry more with me and this looks like a great expansion. Need Aliens!

    1. Currently, Tapestry and the expansion fit into the core game box if you remove the original insert. Beyond that, perhaps after we know for sure what the future of Tapestry holds, we may consider a big box option.

  25. Sorry if I missed this somewhere obvious, but will the first edition of the expansion box be numbered like the base game was? If so how many were printed?

    1. Thanks Luke! We didn’t individually number the expansion. Typically we just do that for first print runs of new games.

      1. Awesome! My OCD probably would have kicked in if the numbers didn’t match. Looking forward to trying out the solo campaign.

    1. Sorry for the slow reply, Daniel. Unless you order Wingspan, anything you order from our webstore is in stock and will not slow down the order.

  26. This week release just in time for my birthday! I’m not seeing a price anywhere online. How much will it be?

  27. Does this expansion have replacement components for all of the errataed civilizations?

    1. I think there might be a slight misunderstanding here. As noted in the FAQ:

      “Are the core game civilization adjustments noted in the expansion?

      Yes, we’ve included those tweaks (found here) on the back page of the expansion rulebook. Why not reprint the civs themselves? Because we’re going to continue to collect data about the game, and it’s possible—unlikely, but possible—that those civs might need minor tweaks in the future. Any adjustments we make will always happen at the beginning of the game, so it’s not something you need to remember after setup.”

  28. In the above, it says the Dice Tower link is a solo review, however in the video he doesn’t even touch on the solo “campaign” or anything really to do with solo, just a general expansion review. Just wanted you to be aware it appears to be misleading.

    Either way, I’m looking forward to it!

    1. Thanks! I haven’t watched it, so I appreciate you clarifying, and I’ll adjust the description here.

    1. Tomorrow is indeed when advance-copy reviewers may start sharing their reviews of the expansion, yes. :)

    1. The expansion includes all of the components noted on this page (see above); the core game does not have those components. You need the core game to play the expansion.

  29. Just out of curiosity, what is the reasoning behind waiting until the date of release before providing the cost of a product?

    1. Because we want anyone who is going to sell the product (namely, retailers and Stonemaier Games) to start selling on the same day. If we release the price early, some stores who find that information will start selling right away.

  30. I have always some trouble sorting the landscapes back into the inlay.
    I first wanted to solve this with some labels under the landscape miniatures and a corresponding label in the inlay.
    Now it seems that this was solved (by accident?) with the 12 landmark tiles for the advancement tracks.
    I will keep them in the inlay with the landmark and during setup they will remain in the inlay.

    So sorting back should be easier for me.

    Looking forward to get the expansion on the table as soon as possible :)

    1. There is a sorting guide on the side of the box as well just in case you didn’t know it was there :) SM has a guide on all their boxes since Scythe I believe but possibly before.

    1. Originally, I intended to do that. But 5-player Tapestry takes a long time–almost too long–and it would overstay its welcome (in my opinion) with 6. Also, the landmarks don’t scale all that well for 6 players (fewer are available). So there’s not much of a chance we’ll add a 6th player.

  31. Now knowing the pre-order date, could you lift the veil for when shipping for European Champions is expected to begin? Some of us have a marriage anniversary get-away from the 23rd of September, and would love to know if I can keep my fingers crossed for this.

  32. […] Die erste „Tapestry“ Erweiterung erscheint bereits im September, zumindest für Vorbesteller*innen bei Stonemaier Games. Jedoch lediglich auf englisch. Feuerland Spiele lässt verlauten, dass eine deutsche Version aufgrund mäßiger Verkäufe zusammen mit einer kleinen frischen Auflage des Grundspiels im 1. Quartal 2021 erscheinen wird. Anfangs hieß es noch, dass sie eher nicht kommt, dann ging jedoch alles ganz schnell und alle Fans dieses durchaus guten Spiels dürfen sich auf eine lokalisierte Erweiterung freuen. Weitere Bilder zur Erweiterung findet ihr direkt bei Stonemaier Games. […]

    1. Jamey – Are you ever going to print the revised civs? I think there’s enough interest to warrant a print run.

      1. Good question! Why not reprint the civs themselves? Because we’re going to continue to collect data about the game, and it’s possible—unlikely, but possible—that those civs might need minor tweaks in the future. Any adjustments we make will always happen at the beginning of the game, so it’s not something you need to remember after setup.

  33. Congratulations on a solid expansion! It looks like a very nice variety of materials to add to the base game. I am very much looking forward to gettting my hands on a copy. Do you know what the release date in the Netherlands is going to be?

  34. Hi Jamey and Joe,
    Can you provide a screenshot/description of the 9 new Tapestry cards?… didn’t see a shot in Rodney’s vid. thx.

    1. Thanks John! We’ll leave those as something to discover when you open your copy of the expansion. :)

  35. Jamey, I was wondering why the monolith is a 2×2. Normally, the space tiles have a strong benefit because it has taken so much work to get down the exploration track. By that point, you’ve passed the 2×2 landmarks long before.

    I absolutely love this game. I play games with a lot of people, and Tapestry has joined Azul as the game that everyone who plays REALLY likes. Haven’t heard a negative review from my friends.

    1. Great question! The reason is that later in the game, small landmarks can actually be more helpful than big landmarks, as you’re less likely to be able to fit a big landmark into your capital city.

  36. Hey Jamey. Bit of an off topic question, but when you designed Tapestry (or whenever you design a game), do you get the core concept significantly fleshed out and then later build in cards that can break those core concepts? Or do you design the core ideas and any mechanic breaking cards at the same time? I find i do the latter, but i wonder if that’s causing a lot of distractions when designing a new game.

    1. Joshua: I definitely focus on the core concept first. In fact, in early versions of Tapestry, each player had the same 4 tapestry cards that they played in the same order, simply to track their progress through the income turns. I eventually realized that I could do a lot more with those cards, and that’s when I started designing cards similar to what ended up in the final version.

      1. Cool, that definitely makes sense. I’ll have to do my best to stick with the core concept in my own designs. Thanks!

  37. Does the new retreat card mean that the attacking player does get to place his outpost (and role the dice)? And that his conquer action is unsuccessful since no outpost is toppled (so it does not count towards the extra goal on the game board)?

    1. Yes, it doesn’t cancel the conquer action, so the attacking player proceeds with that. They don’t topple the defender’s outpost.

  38. We’ve been playing Tapestry quite a bit during the pandemic; playing long distance via Facetime with our friends who also have the game. One thing we’ve noticed is that the technologies get pretty thin by the end of the game. Hoping there will be more technology cards to add to the deck with the expansion. Thank you.

  39. Hello, Jamey!

    There are some questions from the Tapestry fan : )

    1) Are you going to put into the expansion the fixed space tile (there was the one “broken” in the base game)?

    2) In your design diary you write that this expansion should improve the “interaction between players”, but what`s about these two things:
    2a) The replayability (because the tracks are still the same and we interact with the same actions from game to game)
    2b) The tapestry card balance aspect (You`ve told about balance improving in your diary, that nevertheless would be amazing if you can comment on it. Because the random from this game part has a huge influence on the whole game. That could be frustrating sometimes…)?

    1. 1. Indeed, the space tile with the wrong icon is included in the expansion. :)

      2a. I think the core game is very, very replayable due to the number of civs, tapestry cards, and the order in which you advance on some tracks and not others. With the addition of more civs and tapestry cards, it’s even more replayable now.

      2b. I’ve designed the tapestry cards so that they all serve a purpose at any time in the game. However, they can help you more at different times depending on strategies you’ve pursued, so I recommend that players draw tapestry cards early and often and plan ahead so they can maximize those cards.

  40. Hey Jamey, I know talk of ongoing benefits for the landmarks is all the rage, but if you do another expansion maybe consider using immediate benefits for them? To me that’s all that would be needed to make them really shine. Basically a “when gained” kind of thing.

    Either way my wife and I are absolutely loving Tapestry and pretty much every other SM game. Thanks for continuing to make great games.

    1. Thanks David! We *could* consider that in the future, but because placing landmarks often already results in a player completing a district and immediately gaining a resource of their choice, it would probably make the landmarks even more powerful if you gained another benefit too. :)

      1. Maybe each landmark could have a unique benefit that you may choose to gain instead of the resource when you complete a district with that landmark?

        I’m really looking forward to playing the new stuff in this expansion though :).

  41. I have Tapestry on its way, should arrive next week. I’ve waited so long because I was and still am on the fence regarding some gameplay aspects, but it’s SM, so I had to give it a shot.
    But boy oh boy, are you getting me excited about this expansion…

      1. Thank you for all the wonderful designs, and for being such a good and positive influence on the board game industry.

  42. I love Tapestry and I’m really excited about this expansion!

    I would definitely buy a second expansion to get more Civ Cards and more Landmarks!

    I really think you found an elegant solution to the issues you were tried to address!

    So, so excited!

  43. Hi Jamey,
    I love Tapestry (It’s the only Game I rated 10 on BGG from around 300 Games I played) and I love the way how you slowly unveil Infos about your products, even if it drives me Nuts ;o)

    But I would really like if you could give a timeline, when you will Announce what, without Details.
    Like Design Diary 1 will be about xxx
    Diary 2 will be about xxx
    … and so on

    So I will know a little bit better, when I get know what.

    Otherwise someday it will drive me too much nuts ;)

    1. I like that concept, but I select these topics and write the posts each morning–they’re not planned out in advance. :)

  44. I am a big Tapestry fan and even though it has swingy elements the gameplay is fun whether you win or lose. In our group, I’ve started using the house rule when drawing tapestry cards of look at 2, chose one. It’s mitigated some of the feel bad moments. If it seems to be too strong a mechanic I might adjust it to “When drawing tapestry cards at the beginning of an era look at 2, chose one”. Thanks for a great game, Jamey! Looking forward to the expansion.

    1. Thanks for your question! There are no new civ cards, but we’ve included the same small tweaks noted on our website to the last page of the expansion rulebook.

  45. > due to the order of operations (me creating the capital city grid first, then commissioning the minis), the new landmarks due indeed fit perfectly into the capital cities.

    But, the old landmarks still won’t fit? Or will there be new capital city boards that will fit the old and new landmarks?

    1. The capital city mats are the same; it’s just that the sculptor used the mats to design the expansion landmarks so they fit more precisely.

  46. Tapestry is one of my favourite games and I’m really looking forward to the player interaction part of the expansion!

  47. This game doesn’t see a lot of play here partially due to the original balance issues, and partially due to a couple of bad pulls from the Tapestry deck ruining what would have otherwise been a well played game. I don’t mind some random elements in my games as long as there as ways to mitigate those risks. In Tapestry it seemed the only mitigation was to try to move up tracks to pull another Tapestry card and hope it pays off (unlikely) when those actions could be used better elsewhere.

    I don’t see anything in your notes about balancing this part of the game out. Has there been any? It’s been at least six months since we’ve pulled this off the shelf and is actually in the “headed to the next FLGS auction” pile, so I may have messed up some terminology or things I remembered here. I’m willing to pull this game out of that pile and give it another spin with this expansion if I think it will fix it.

    1. Bill: I’m sorry you’ve had that experience with Tapestry. The tapestry cards are–and still are–random draws, but the core idea is that you get enough of them during the game (including 1 free during every income turn) that you should be able to play them to your benefit at the right time (or plan around them and save them to play at the right time). I tried to design every tapestry card so it has at least some use throughout the game.

      Please remember that if you’re solely relying on random tapestry cards to determine your fate in the game, you might get into trouble. You have control in the game to draw more tapestry cards and strategize around them–it’s not like you’re drawing a card and instantly failing/benefiting as a result.

      However, based on the way you’ve described this mechanism, it doesn’t sound like the Tapestry expansion is going to give you what you’re looking for. I hope your copy finds a good home! :)

      1. Except with the Heralds. In that case, you are drawing a card and instantly failing/benefiting as a result. I love the game but there is that one situation where there is just the one card draw and no choice to draw more to deal with it being a crappy card. Its a fun civilization to have in the game so I still pick it when it comes up as a choice. but wow can it start out bad.

    2. Hi Bill, personally I decided to add a house rule for the drawing of tapestry cards. Whenever you can draw a card, you draw 2 and choose 1 to keep. It helps a bit in mitigating your luck with the cards..

      1. This is how we fixed that issue as well. Drawing one was way too constrictive. Draw 2 choose 1 should really be the rule.

    3. Bill – Our group had a similar experience but we created a house rule of doing a snake draft for civ and starting tapestry card and then allowing people to draw two and keep 1 tapestry card in the first income turn. It has worked fairly well for those in the group that felt the randomness was too impactful. I never had a problem with the original rules though.

  48. Thanks for such an enjoyable game Jamey! When I have the time for a meatier solo game, Tapestry is always one of my top choices (along with Terraforming Mars, A Feast for Odin, and Maracaibo). For some reason I really struggle running the Scythe automata (so I save that for purely multiplayer now) but the Tapestry one is so elegant! (as is the Wingspan one I should add)

    I am also very glad to hear that – with some tinkering – it should be possible to fit this into the base game box. I did have one question that I am hoping you can answer (I’m not looking for any secret reveals or anything LOL): How much will the expansion up the complexity and teach time? Or I guess another way to put it, for at least moderate level gamers, is it perfectly feasible to just start everyone off with the expansion included?

    1. Thanks Michael! Plans and Ploys doesn’t add complexity or teaching time at all (maybe 20 seconds at most for the new mechanism/component). I’ve shuffled my expansion components into the core game, and they’ll stay there for all future plays.

  49. There are aspects of the original game I really like and while inbalance was a bummer, that is something that should be allowed to evolve to a better state as the game ages. Is it possible to have a digital printable version of the civs that we can download and use That would allows players to have the physical civs in their hand without an extra sheet to incorporate balance changes and just play with those.

    1. Ajit: I appreciate you asking about that, but we don’t have plans to make the civs downloadable. There are no revisions to the printed civs–the adjustments are a separate component.

    1. The preorder is just for Stonemaier (so, only English). You’ll be able to order the expansion from Matagot when they’re ready to accept preorders.

  50. I have high hopes that this will be too tapestry what Tuscany was to viticulture. Looking forward to the details!

  51. Seeing the artwork from the box, it’s making me curious if there is going to be a component which takes airspace, like the airships do in scythe

    1. That’s a good guess, though the artwork is intended more to show the increased interaction between players during some conquer actions.

      1. > That’s a good guess, though the artwork is intended more to show the increased interaction between players during some conquer actions.
        That’s the designer diary entry I am most excited to read!

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