Game rules

Obsession rules: how to play and how to score

Reviewed on 21 October 2026 against the publisher’s rulebook. How we check

Obsession plays 1 to 4 players over four seasons: you restore the estate of a Victorian Derbyshire family, host prestigious guests and try to court Charles or Elizabeth Fairchild. Here are the essential rules, setup and end game scoring, based on the official rulebook.

Players: 1 to 4
Play time: About 90 minutes
Winner: Most points; tie: Fairchild, then reputation

Obsession quick rules

The goal: You lead an aristocratic Derbyshire family in the nineteenth century. You restore your estate, host prestigious guests and try to court Charles or Elizabeth Fairchild. After four seasons, the most victory points wins.
Seasons and the round track: Each season has three game rounds, followed by a courtship round. In each round, every player takes one turn, clockwise. Some spaces show an event: during the Builders’ Holiday, you may buy as many tiles as you can afford; during the National Holiday, you may ignore prestige ratings.
Hosting an activity: On your turn, you host an activity or pass. You place an improvement tile from your tableau on your family board: your reputation level must be at least its prestige rating. You play the exact number and type of gentry the tile requires from your hand, each with a prestige rating no higher than your level. Your family and the Fairchilds have none.
Servants: The tile and many guests require servants: an available servant of the right type on each service icon, or you can’t host the activity. A servant you use rests for your whole next turn. To hire, you host the Servant Hiring activity at your Butler’s Room, with no gentry: your butler takes two servants.
Favours and reputation: You enjoy the favours on the tile and on each guest: money, reputation, new guests. Dismissing an undesirable guest is the only optional favour; negative favours are resolved last. After five positions of reputation, your reputation level goes up by one.
Special actions: During your turn, you may spend reputation: 2 to borrow £100, 3 to bring a resting servant back, 4 to refresh the Builders’ Market, once per turn. You can’t at minimum reputation.
Buying and upgrading: At the end of your turn, you may buy one tile: the price of its space, plus or minus the modifier printed on the tile. Never two copies of the same tile. The first time you use a tile, you flip it to upgrade it: it is often worth more points. Each monument gives you one reputation on each of your turns.
Passing: When you pass, all your servants return to Available Service and you take your whole discard pile back into your hand. Then you collect £200, or refresh the Market instead, and you may still buy a tile.
Courtship and end of season: At each courtship, everyone adds up the VP of their tiles in the theme category. The winner draws a VP card and takes Charles or Elizabeth Fairchild until the next courtship; in a tie, each tied player draws a VP card, with no Fairchild. Then everyone discards an objective, the Market is refreshed, a new theme is revealed and the first player marker passes to the right.
Final courtship: The fourth courtship scores the categories of all four revealed themes, doubled when a theme was revealed twice. The winner keeps their Fairchild, worth 8 VP; in a tie, the highest reputation level wins.
Solo mode: You go first against an automated opponent: after each of your turns, a twenty-sided die makes them remove tiles from the Market. At each courtship, you compare your total with their card. Their final score is their base value, plus their VP cards and their Fairchild, if any; in a tie, you win.
Beginner pitfalls: Plan your servants two turns ahead. The gentry you play stay in your discard pile until you pass. Upgrade every tile after its first activity, and remember your monument reputation at the start of each turn.
Expansions: Wessex adds a family, guests and tiles. Upstairs, Downstairs adds four new servants, hiring when passing, five- or six-player games and milestones. Characters adds three sideboard characters to invite when you pass, and second chance servants, worth no points.

How to score Obsession

Improvement tiles: The VP on all tiles in your tableau, monuments included; tiles with negative VP reduce your score.
Gentry cards: The VP on all your cards, in hand and discard pile. Your family is worth 8, or 9 for Asquith; guests with negative VP reduce your score.
Fairchild from final courtship: 8 VP if you claimed Charles or Elizabeth during the final courtship. A Fairchild claimed earlier was returned.
Objective cards: The VP of your completed objectives: three cards to score in a standard game, four in an extended game.
Reputation level: Based on your final level: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, then 28 at Max in a standard game; 36 and 45 in an extended game.
Servants: 2 VP per servant in your employ, of any type.
Wealth: 1 VP per £200, rounding down.
VP cards: The VP on the cards you did not discard for their benefit.
Milestones (Upstairs, Downstairs): 8 VP for each milestone you claimed first, 4 for each you claimed second.

Worked example

Emma has 45 VP of tiles and 22 VP of gentry cards, including 8 for her family. She claimed Elizabeth during the final courtship (8) and completed objectives worth 19. She ends at reputation level 6 (21), with 9 servants (18), £1,300 (6) and two VP cards worth 4 and 5 (9). Total: 45 + 22 + 8 + 19 + 21 + 18 + 6 + 9 = 148 VP.

Common mistakes

Counting your reputation position: only the level scores.
Counting a Fairchild claimed before the final courtship: it was returned.
Forgetting servants: 2 VP each, butler and housekeeper included.
Rounding money up: £500 is only worth 2 VP.
Forgetting guests with negative VP in your discard pile.

How to set up Obsession

Setup takes about 15 minutes. Set up each family first, then the central play area; the number of servants for hire and monuments depends on the player count.

Each family

Randomly choose the first player, who takes the purple first player marker.
Starting to the left of the first player and going clockwise, each player chooses a family board.Only the family bonus differs; the first player chooses last.
Each player places a tableau organiser below their board, or uses the side of the board with the organiser printed on it.Leave space: the columns grow.
Each player stacks their reputation level counters in the center of their wheel, 1 on top and Max at the bottom, and places their marker on position 1.In an extended game, add the 7 and 8 counter.
Each player places their five starting servants in Available Service: butler, housekeeper, valet, lady’s maid and footman.
Each player places their five starter tiles below their organiser, starter icon face up.
Each player takes their four family member cards into their hand.
Deal two starter guests to each player, then shuffle the rest back into the casual guest deck.They are marked with a crown at the top left.
Deal five objective cards to each player, kept secret.Four in an extended game.
Family bonuses: Asquith takes the Dowager Countess, Cavendish starts on position 4, Ponsonby gains £300, York adds an extra footman.

The main board

Place the main board. In Servants for Hire, place two footmen, one valet and one lady’s maid per player, plus two underbutlers.With 2 players: 4, 2, 2 and 2; with 3: 6, 3, 3 and 2; with 4: 8, 4, 4 and 2.
Place the objective deck and a supply of £100 and £500 coins.
Separately shuffle the casual guest deck and the prestige guest deck.
Choose one monument per player, plus one, and return the rest.At most one of the two Estate monuments, the Sculpture Garden and the Garden Maze.
Put the chosen monuments and all other tiles, except starter tiles, into the draw bag.
Draw six different tiles with a prestige rating of 3 or lower, excluding the Servants’ Hall and monuments, and arrange them on the Builders’ Market by sorting number, starting at the £300 space.Return the others to the bag; stack duplicates.

Alderley Hall

Place the Alderley Hall board standard side up and the round marker on the first space.Twenty-space side in an extended game.
Place one reminder token per player near the board.
Shuffle the theme cards and the VP cards, then reveal one theme card.
Place Charles and Elizabeth Fairchild on the Alderley Hall board.

Solo mode

Place four footmen, two valets, two lady’s maids and one underbutler in Servants for Hire, and choose three monuments.
Don’t reveal a theme card: solo mode uses closed courtship.
Choose a solo opponent card and place it with the solo AI card and the twenty-sided die.

Frequently asked questions

How many objective cards do you start with in Obsession?

Five in a standard game, four in an extended game. You discard one at each courtship, leaving three to score in a standard game.

Who goes first in Obsession?

A random player. At the end of each season, the first player marker passes to the player on the right.

How much is reputation worth at the end of Obsession?

It depends on your final level: from 1 VP at level 1 to 28 at Max in a standard game, and up to 45 in an extended game.

Ludingo’s Obsession sheet was last reviewed on 21 October 2026, based on: supermeeple.com, rulebook 1 (PDF), rulebook 2 (PDF), BoardGameGeek.