Urban Sketchers

2025 · Card Game

Urban Sketchers

Players travel to cities, gather materials and inspirations, and build illustrated sketchbooks to publish reports for money and prestige. Each round uses a communal dice roll; players take turns selecting dice to perform actions like moving between locations, acquiring resources, buying or playing illustration cards into their sketchbook, or publishing a report. Players manage resources to enable further travel and publishing, and rounds repeat until a set number of reports have been published. Scoring is based on published reports and accumulated prestige; the player with the most prestige at the end wins.

Players
2–4 best 3
Playing time
60–90 min
Age
12+
Complexity
2.8 / 5
7.3 on Ludoyafrom $36.93DiceEconomicPoint to Point MovementEnd Game BonusesOpen Drafting

About the game

Publisher

Photos from Ludoya tables

All photos in Ludoya
  • Urban Sketchers on the table, photo by Jugar y Leer
  • Urban Sketchers on the table, photo by David Vicente
  • Urban Sketchers on the table, photo by David Vicente
  • Urban Sketchers on the table, photo by David Vicente

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya
35
Plays logged
61
Players
1h 34m
Average play
18
In collections
4
On wishlists
2
Pre-ordered

7.3/10

from 7 Ludoya reviews

  • Boogyman7.5

    Four games with two players; I'll update this review when I've tested it with more players. With two players, it was an acceptable and entertaining experience. At first, it might seem a bit confusing until you learn the name of each aid. After one game, it becomes very intuitive, fun, and has a fair level of difficulty—not easy, which makes it replayable. I love everything Jorge does

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Rules questions

Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.

If I place a white die on a color action, do I have to pay and who gets the money?

Yes — using a white die on a color-coded action requires you to pay the cost shown; if another player already used that color this round you pay that player the difference in die values (1 money per pip), otherwise you pay the bank (p.5).

Can I sketch more than one card in a Sketch action, and how do the extra card costs work?

Yes, you may sketch as many cards as you want in the same sketchbook during a Sketch action, but you pay 1 money for the second card, 2 for the third, etc., tracked separately per sketchbook; resource costs and any discounts still apply for each card (p.6).

Can I place any die on the Supply action and do I have to pay to use it?

The Supply action is colorless and any die may be placed in an empty supply space; it is always free and you receive resources equal to the net difference between the die you placed and the die tile above that space (p.5, p.6).

What exactly do I gain when I publish a sketchbook, and what is discarded?

When you publish you gain victory points (based on card count), money equal to the number of cards, the theme tiles shown on the cards, advances on the Published and Prestige tracks (including any bonuses), and then you discard all cards and bonus tiles from that sketchbook (pp.6–7, p.10).

How do theme tiles work during the game — how many can I flip and what do they give during Funding?

You may flip pairs of different theme tiles on your turn to gain the benefit shown between them, each tile can only be flipped once but you may flip as many pairs as you wish; during a Funding action you may flip matching theme tiles to gain +3 money per tile flipped (p.8).

What triggers the end of the game and what happens to unpublished sketchbooks at the end?

The game ends after the round in which the Total published sketchbooks token reaches the player-count target (6/9/12 spaces); then unpublished sketchbooks are discarded but score as if published for victory points only (no money, theme tiles, or Prestige), followed by theme-set and track scoring (p.9).

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