Designed by:
In Villa Paletti players represent architects trying to complete a tower that is doomed to fall!
The game consists of several wooden ‘towers’ in three point values (1,2 and 3), a set of floors to build them on, and a metal hook for removing them from the floors below. At the start of the game all the towers are laid out randomly on circular cardboard base, making sure they are reasonably mixed up (i.e. don’t have all towers of one colour around the edge or clustered in the middle). Then each player rolls the Master Builder Seal to decide what colour towers they’ll play. The last player takes the last available colour and begins the game by placing the next floor on top of the towers.
On your turn your job is to remove one of your own towers from any level beneath the current one and add it to the top level. If you think you can’t remove a tower without the whole structure collapsing, then you announce as such to your fellow players. If one of them disagrees, they have to prove it by removing a tower themselves – and having successfully done so, that tower is now out of the game. If they agree, then you can add the next floor to the structure and continue building on that.
The game continues either until everyone agrees no further building can be done or the whole thing has fallen down as a result of a failed move. The winner is the player holding the Master Builder Seal – which goes to whoever has the highest score of towers on the top floor. If that player has caused the structure to collapse however, the winner will be whoever the previous Master builder was – which is kept track of by keeping the previous owners’ colour face-up on the seal.
It’s a fun game that is more than just simple stacking.
I've played this twice so far, and really enjoyed it - if you like Jenga, you'll love Villa Paletti.
It's possible for the floor placement to limit your options - and if the other players see your towers advantageously positioned naturally they can try and negate that. But the game can also be played in a friendly or more random manner.
Low
Very low. For kids it's a great learning tool in terms of balancing, weight distribution, cantilevering and so on. But it's all wrapped up in a friendly bundle.
Simple rules - once you get your head around the winning conditions of the Master Builder Seal - and fast gameplay make Villa Paletti rather more-ish.
2-4
Players
6+
Years
30
Mins
Sam says
A great combo of fun and tension for all ages. I think Villa Paletti is a good 'un.