Ex Libris - A Photostory

Ever wonder what it would be like to take the role of Madam Irma Pince, the Hogwarts’ librarian? Wonder no more! In Ex Libris, you compete for the title of the Grand Librarian of a magical library that contains tens of thousands of books sitting on thousands of shelves.

Ex Libris is an excellent, challenging, and very thematic worker-placement game by Renegade Game Studios in which you play a collector of rare and magical books who competes against other collectors for the renowned position of the town Grand Librarian.

To win the coveted title you have to expand your personal bookshelf by sending your assistants out to acquire the most desired books in the village. Only certain locations in the village are available on each turn; some remain at the end of the turn, some are discarded, and with every turn you discover new ones. This mechanism makes every game of Ex Libris different than the previous one and allows you to explore different strategies with every game. The locations themselves are well thought-out and the actions you can perform at each location serve the theme of the game and the location (e.g., in the book swap you have to give books in order to get books).

Each collector has her/his a special assistant with an extra ability that is unique to each player (you get a cool-looking meeple to represent this unique assistant). This extra asymmetric worker’s ability adds another subtle level of strategy to the placement of your workers and further enhances game play.

You have limited time before the mayor sends the official inspector to judge your book collection with form B-7C, also known as the Official Library Inspection Form. The official inspector grades you on several criteria, including alphabetical order of books, shelf stability, inclusion of prominent works, and variety. You also lose points on any banned book you own.

Be clever and crafty when placing your books (it’s like a fun puzzle), leverage the uniqueness of each village location, explore the many strategies of scorings and don’t forget to read the original and funny book titles. Get ready to become a Grand Librarian, because this game is magical.