Review: Bohemians

Introduction & Overview

Step into the picturesque streets of Paris where, in the name of art, you will embark on romantic escapades, seek inspiration, and try to keep your life from turning into misery. Step into the shoes of a struggling bohemian artist trying to make a name for yourself; your head full of dreams, but your belly empty. You romanticize poverty and reject the norms of conventional society to achieve artistic freedom, aiming to change the world through your work. Will you attain fame or be forgotten by history?

This is the premise behind Bohemians, designed by Jasper de Lange (Art Society). First published in 2025 by Portal Games in an English edition. The artwork is handled by Hanna Kuik (Neuroshima Hex, Imperial Miners), Roman Kucharski (Imperial Settlers, Overbooked), and Tomasz Jędruszek (Tyrants of the Underdark, Dominion).

It is published in Spanish by Devir (the game has some language dependence on certain card effects). It accommodates 1 to 4 players, with a recommended minimum age of 14 and an approximate playing time of 30 to 60 minutes. The MSRP is €35. For this review, we used a review copy of the Spanish edition kindly provided by the publisher.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 25×25×6 cm (a square box similar to Blue Lagoon), we find the following components:

• 4 Routine Boards (punchboard)
• Workshop Board (punchboard)
• 4 Workshop Markers (1 in each color) (punchboard)
• 165 Cards (63×88 mm):
  • 40 Starting Cards (4 decks of 10 cards)
  • 40 Habit Cards
  • 10 Revolution Cards
  • 21 Muse Cards
  • 29 Hardship Cards
  • 13 Milestone Cards
  • 12 Solo Variant Cards
• 4 Job Tiles (punchboard)
• 4 Reminder Tokens (punchboard)
• First Player Token (punchboard)
• 3 Scenarios
• Rulebook

How to Play

Bohemians is a card game set in picturesque bohemian Paris, where players take on the role of emerging artists who must manage their inspiration to achieve fame. Across a series of rounds divided into three phases (Awakening, Day, and Dream), participants plan their day by drawing Habit cards to assemble a daily routine of up to four activities or balance their art with Job tiles to avoid penalties. During the Day phase, players calculate the Inspiration generated by completing icons, achieving color harmonies on their board, and leveraging Muse cards, using this resource as currency to purchase new abilities from the market or invest in the workshop. The workshop allows players to activate effects by spending accumulated points. The game ends when a player manages to claim their fifth Milestone (or fourth in a 4-player game), at which point the current round is completed and the artist with the most Milestone cards is crowned the winner.

Key Concepts

Let’s begin with the Habit Cards. These depict the various activities a bohemian artist carries out in daily life and are differentiated by colors that symbolize discipline, romance, curiosity, or celebration. They display icon halves along their edges which, when properly aligned with neighboring cards or board borders, generate inspiration points. They are played directly into the time slots of the routine board and serve as the main engine to gain the necessary resources to purchase milestones or advance in the workshop. Each player starts the game with a unique ten-card deck featuring symbols without special effects. Players can acquire new habit cards by spending inspiration points to pay their cost. Some cards feature effects resolved during the planning phase, while others trigger during the resolution phase.

Each player receives a Starting Deck tailored to one of four artist types: composer, poet, sculptor, or painter. These cards differ from the rest by displaying a symbol corresponding to their artist type along their bottom edge.

The Routine Boards provide the personal player area where each participant defines their artist’s lifestyle. Physically, the board features four central slots to organize the day’s activities, lower slots to place muses, and an upper area reserved for hardships. Its purpose is to serve as a layout for scheduling the day, allowing players to calculate the total inspiration generated based on card combinations and color bonuses provided by the board itself. Each slot corresponds to a specific time of day and offers a bonus when matching habit card types are placed in the outer columns.

The Muse Cards portray individuals who accompany and inspire the artist, granting unique abilities and showing purchase costs. Uniquely, these cards must be tucked underneath a habit already placed on the routine board. Their role is to enhance the daily activity to which they are linked, granting bonus inspiration or allowing the player to trigger special actions depending on the synergy between the muse and the chosen habit. Certain muse cards require the attached habit card to be of a specific type. Whenever a player draws a muse card, it is immediately placed in their play area and a replacement card is drawn.

The Hardship Cards illustrate the struggles and setbacks haunting the artist, such as hunger or anxiety, featuring rules text outlining penalties or gameplay restrictions. These cards gather in the upper area of the routine board and, unlike habits, provide no benefits. Their function is to represent the burdens of bohemian life, forcing the player to lose inspiration or adhere to tighter constraints to complete their artworks. Much like muses, they do not take up space in hand; whenever a hardship card is drawn, an immediate replacement card is drawn.

The Job Tiles indicate the artist’s temporary day job. Each tile details setup rules and the benefits of using it. Mechanically, they can be placed into the daily routine instead of a habit. Their purpose is to guarantee the character’s financial stability, preventing the player from gaining hardship cards at the end of the day in exchange for sacrificing a slot that could have held an artistic activity.

Your overarching goal is to collect Milestone Cards. These mark progress toward fame and are kept in a shared deck arranged by cost. Each card shows a title, an inspiration requirement, and an ability that typically offers permanent discounts on workshop actions. Functionally, they represent the game’s victory condition; players race to become the first to acquire a set number of these milestones to trigger the end of the game and prove their artistic success.

Finally, the Workshop Board is a shared component featuring a workshop track with spaces numbered 0 to 20 (markers are double-sided to allow for two full laps) and a menu of special actions with their associated costs. Players move their markers along this board, which functions as a reservoir storing any inspiration not spent on cards, turning it into points that can later be spent to trigger powerful effects—such as wiping the market, drawing extra cards, or removing hardships.

That is enough to get started.

Setup

1. Form the Habit deck by shuffling the Habit cards alone for a 2-player game, or together with the Revolution cards if playing with 3 or 4 players.
2. Place this deck face down in the center of the table and reveal the top 4 cards to form the market.
3. Shuffle the Muse card deck and reveal another 4 cards face up alongside the previous display.
4. Shuffle the Hardship card deck and set it aside face down.
5. Assemble the Milestone deck, removing cards based on the player count. Stack all remaining cards face up in ascending cost order, ensuring “First artwork shown to friends” is at the top.
6. Place the workshop board within reach and have each player choose a color, placing their matching marker on space zero.
7. By consensus or at random, each player receives a Routine board, a Job tile, and a 10-card starting deck corresponding to their chosen artistic discipline: Painter, Poet, Composer, or Sculptor.
8. Each player places their Routine board in front of them and arranges their play area, leaving space for Muses below the board, the draw deck and Job tile to the left, the discard pile also to the left, Hardships above, and Milestones to the right.
9. Choose a starting player at random, giving them the first player token.
10. The player to their left advances their marker to space 2 on the workshop board, the next player to space 3, and so forth for any remaining players.
11. Finally, each player carries out any additional setup instructions indicated specifically on their chosen Job tile.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Bohemians plays over an indefinite number of rounds. Each round represents a typical day in the life of an artist chasing recognition. Rounds are split into three phases.

Phase I: Awakening

This phase is resolved simultaneously by all players as follows:

1. Draw Cards. Each player draws from their deck until holding 5 Habit cards in hand. Hardship and muse cards do not count toward this limit; whenever one is drawn, set it aside and immediately draw another habit card. If the draw deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw deck and continue drawing.
2. Plan the Routine. Players structure their day following this sequence:
   • Activate Habits. Resolve abilities on Habit cards showing the “Sun” icon.
   • Face Hardships. All hardship cards currently in hand must be played to the board.
   • Structure the Day. Players choose between playing up to 3 Habit cards and 1 Job tile, or playing up to 4 Habit cards, placing each card into a slot of their choice.
   • Seek Inspiration. Play Muse cards beneath habits. Each habit may host only one muse (unless specified otherwise), which must match any required color and respect placement restrictions.
   • Discard. Any remaining Habit or Muse cards left in hand are placed into the discard pile.

The phase concludes once all players have completed their layout and discarded leftover cards.

Phase II: Day

During this phase, players take individual turns, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise:

1. Narrate the Day. The active player briefly narrates their artist’s daily experience based on the cards played to provide thematic context.
2. Tally Inspiration. Calculate the total points earned:
   • Complete Symbols. Each fully formed inspiration icon across habits and the board provides 1 point. Partial symbols grant nothing (certain cards feature complete self-contained icons that score regardless of placement).
   • Color Harmony. If a habit matches the favored color of the slot it occupies, it scores 1 bonus point. White cards act as wildcards and count as any color.
   • Card and Muse Effects. Add extra points granted by abilities on habits and attached muses.
   • Penalties. Deduct points indicated by active hardships. The final score can never drop below zero.
3. Spend Inspiration. Accumulated points can be used to:
   • Buy Cards. Purchase as many Habits or Muses from the market as can be afforded. The market is replenished immediately. Acquired cards go directly to your personal discard pile.
   • Claim Milestones. A maximum of 1 Milestone card can be acquired per round.
   • Invest in the Workshop. Unspent inspiration is converted onto the workshop track for future turns.
4. Daily Dues. Players who did not use their Job tile this round must draw a hardship card and add it to their discard pile as a consequence of neglecting day-to-day living expenses.

This phase concludes once every player has completed their turn.

The workshop is a shared area allowing players to take special actions by spending banked points, provided each action is resolved during its proper phase. Available effects include:

• Clear Market (Cost 3, Day phase): Discards and replaces all 4 cards of one type in the market.
• Ignore 1 Hardship (Cost 4, start of Day phase): Cancels the effect of one hardship for the current round.
• Draw 2 Cards (Cost 5, Awakening phase): Allows drawing extra cards during the Awakening phase.
• Dismiss 1 Card (Cost 6, Dream phase): Permanently trashes one played card from the game.

For each Milestone a player owns, the cost to trigger a workshop effect is reduced by 1 point (once per round).

Phase III: Dream

Each player carries out the following steps:

1. Cleanup. Retrieve your Job tile and discard all played Habits, Muses, and Hardships. Milestones remain in play.
2. Pass the First Player marker to the player on your left.
3. Refresh the Market. The new first player may choose one card in the market to trash and replace with a fresh one before the next day begins.

A new round begins immediately afterward.

Game End

The final round is triggered when a player claims their fifth Milestone card (or fourth in a 4-player game). The round is played out to completion (if the Milestone deck is depleted and a player needs one to conclude the round, any spare card is used as a proxy with a cost of 15 Inspiration points), and the artist with the most Milestone cards wins.

Should multiple players tie for the required number of milestones, the player with the most banked points on the workshop board claims victory. If a tie persists, tied players share the win.

Variants

Solo Mode. You must obtain five Milestones before your draw deck runs out. All thirteen Milestone cards are used while Revolution cards are removed. The primary twist requires discarding the top card of the Milestone deck after each turn, whether you acquired one or not. You may also trash one card from the Market per round. The difficulty can be adjusted by adding hardship cards to your starting deck or using tokens to delay discarding milestones.

Personal Opinion

Portal Games is one of those publishers that constantly drags controversy in its wake. The imprint helmed by Ignacy Trzewiczek has caused digital ink to flow for ages with virtually every release that hits store shelves. At times over accusations of plagiarism, at others for endlessly rehashing the same idea, and elsewhere for questionable production quality.

Nevertheless, the studio continues to release titles steadily, and today we look at one of their 2025 offerings. Let’s see how Bohemians performs on the table, published in Spanish by Devir, whom we thank for the review copy that makes this lengthy write-up possible.

In Bohemians, players take on the role of 19th-century Parisian artists leading an unconventional lifestyle—stepping away from societal norms, often in the company of like-minded individuals with few lasting ties, and usually pursuing musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual passions.

Your objective? To transcend history and be remembered through your masterworks. To do so, however, you will have to seek inspiration in every conceivable corner to claim the milestones that lead to fame and prestige. Yet this path will be far from effortless.

Mechanically, this is a deck-building game where players manage hands of cards primarily featuring habits that represent the artist’s daily routine during their creative process.

These habit cards display complete or partial symbols along their side margins. At the start of each round, players hold five cards in hand, from which they can play up to four into a row on their board, trying to complete as many symbols as possible by connecting adjacent card edges.

There are four types of symbols representing inspiration drawn from focus, desire, curiosity, or social connections. Based on their type, symbols always appear at the same height on each edge, meaning you only need to assemble a deck with matching icons on opposite sides to facilitate these connections.

Each complete symbol yields one point of inspiration, which is spent primarily on acquiring new cards. These can be new habits, muses, or milestones, the latter being paramount since the main goal of the game is to be the first to reach a set milestone threshold (scaling with player count). These milestones carry an escalating cost in inspiration points as players purchase them.

Muse cards are a special card type that takes up no hand size; whenever drawn, a muse is simply placed under your personal board and a replacement card is immediately drawn. These muses can be paired with habit cards to create synergies, keeping in mind that they impose restrictions regarding which slots they occupy and which cards they can combo with.

Life, however, isn’t quite that carefree for these starving artists. Bread must be put on the table somehow. This is modeled via a job tile that covers one of the habit slots, leaving room for only three habits that day.

Being true bohemians, going to work is entirely “optional”. If you see fit, you can dedicate an entire day solely to unleashing your creative drive. The trouble is that choices like that carry consequences. Fail to spend time earning a livelihood, and hardships will quickly flood your deck.

These misfortunes are also represented by cards with negative effects that, like muses, do not take up space in hand. Whenever drawn, they go to the top section of your board, triggering their penalties for the round.

Inspiration points can also be funneled into workshop actions, which essentially provide deck management. By spending workshop points, you can nullify penalties from hardships, draw extra cards during planning, cycle the market, or even trash cards from your deck (the ideal way to purge lingering troubles).

Players alternate turns in this manner until the final round is triggered once someone secures the target number of milestones. If no one matches that tally, they win outright. Otherwise, leftover workshop points serve as the tiebreaker to determine the victor.

Turning to feel and table dynamics, Bohemians is a highly tactical deck-builder where success naturally hinges on trimming your deck to pump out more inspiration each turn. You achieve this by acquiring superior habits, triggering clever synergies with muses, and avoiding the buildup of hardships.

The core conceit lacks novelty, feeling nearly identical to After Us (read its tocho-review here)—a race-oriented deck-builder (raced to victory points in that post-apocalyptic primate design) where abilities trigger by lining up card edges.

If After Us was already a game that barely made the grade, Bohemians not only fails to improve upon it, but falls into traps that Florian Sirieix’s design successfully steered clear of, most notably the impact of luck. In After Us, the card offer was divided by benefit categories. While not a static, predetermined market like Dominion (read its tocho-review here), you at least knew the general rewards of the cards you were buying since they were sorted by type. Here, we have a dual-row rolling market where raw draw variance reigns supreme, especially because card power levels vary widely, with certain cards being blatantly overpowered and streamlining deck progression far faster than others.

Monotony is another persistent issue that quickly sets in. Combos are extremely basic and overly rigid. In the end, each turn boils down to a small, few-piece spatial puzzle where the optimal arrangement is glaringly obvious. At least this planning phase is executed simultaneously, sparing players from adding downtime to an already lackluster experience.

Foregoing a habit card to avoid taking a penalty might sound like an interesting trade-off on paper, but it quickly becomes automated. By default, everyone defaults to playing just three cards, only playing a fourth on the rare turn where doing so clearly pays off—typically when that extra slot generates just enough inspiration to buy a milestone. The rulebook does not even account for running out of hardship cards. If players choose to play recklessly by refusing to work a single day, the deck will run dry, forcing you to override a fairly clear rule just to keep that mechanic functioning.

That is not to say the game is a total failure; rounds move along at a reasonable clip, and building your personal puzzle during planning keeps your attention engaged for a brief moment. Beyond that, there is very little substance to latch onto. A clear example of this is the attempt to coat the gameplay with thematic storytelling.

Narrating each day’s artistic exploits might bring a chuckle during the opening rounds, as odd combinations of habits can produce amusing situations. Come round three, however, the novelty wears off entirely, and players will drop the narration altogether because it stops being funny and merely inflates the play time unnecessarily.

The game clearly works best at two players, as player interaction is virtually non-existent outside drafting from the open market and the broader race dynamic. Since it is a race based on cumulative milestones, adding more players at the table brings no extra tension.

Replay value is rather lean. As mentioned, most cards function merely as static puzzle pieces, leaving the deck-building framework feeling flat. Add in that there is minimal variability outside the random order of market draws, and the desire to bring it back to the table fades fast.

Regarding production quality, the cards boast decent weight, linen finish, and good snap (sleeving is recommended if you expect regular table time). The punchboard pieces feel somewhat thin and poorly compressed. The rulebook is needlessly convoluted for a game of this weight, leaving key edge cases unaddressed (such as players ignoring work until the hardship deck empties). On BGG, the designer confirmed that in such cases, one must reshuffle any trashed hardship cards back into play.

Visually, the cover showcases an evocative, painterly aesthetic resembling watercolor and oil techniques with loose, expressive brushstrokes. Warm color tones convey a deep sense of romantic nostalgia. The subtle outline of the Eiffel Tower in the background paired with retro typography strengthens the Parisian art scene ambiance. It effectively draws the viewer into a dreamy, creative headspace. The cards carry this style consistently and remain quite evocative, easily standing as the game’s brightest highlight.

And let’s wrap this up. Bohemians offers a deck-building engine driven by edge-matching card connections to generate the inspiration needed to race toward artistic glory. Its spatial habit puzzles and muse synergies aim to create snappy turns, but market luck and on-rails decision trees drag down the experience. While the breezy round structure and accessibility allow for an easy teach, the lack of tactical depth and repetitive choices quickly lead to monotony. An overly rigid design where the best move is usually too obvious, even if the flavor of struggling through hardships provides some initial charm. For all these reasons, I give it a…