B Movies
B Movies Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 98 Popcorn tokens:
- 25 with a value of 0
- 28 with a value of 1
- 25 with a value of 2
- 15 with a value of 3
- 5 with a value of 4
- 86 Core Title cards
- 20 Spooky Expansion Title cards
- 18 Vote cards (6 sets of 3)
- 12 Studio cards
- 5 Clapboard tokens
- 1 Rulebook
Setup
- Remove all components from the box and place the bottom of the box (popcorn bucket) in the center of the table within reach of all players.
- Give each player 1 Studio card placing it faceup in front of them. Set the other Studio card aside away from the play area. They are only used in the Hidden Team variant.
- Give each player a set of 3 Vote cards (1 Yes, 1 Yes!, and 1 No). Players may look at their Vote cards at any time, but must keep them hidden from other players until revealed during a pitch.
- Shuffle the Title cards to form the title deck and place it facedown near the popcorn bucket. Then, deal 5 cards to each player.
- Randomize and place all of the Popcorn tokens facedown in the popcorn bucket.
- Randomly determine the First Player, and give that player a number of Clapboard tokens based on the player count:
- 3 Players: 5 Clapboard tokens
- 4 Players: 4 Clapboard tokens
- 5+ Players: 3 Clapboard tokens
- Remove any components not being used from the play area.
You are now ready to start playing!
Rounds
B Movies is played over a number of rounds determined by the player count. Each Round begins with the First Player discarding a Clapboard token. If they cannot, the game is over, proceed to the Final Cut. Then, all players draw cards until they have a hand of 5 Title cards. Starting with the First Player, players take their turns in clockwise order.
Player Turns
During a player's turn, they take on the role of the Screenwriter and make their pitch to the other players (Producers) who will vote to either reject their pitch or make it into a movie.
Pitch
During a player's turn, they are the Screenwriter, using the cards in their hand they pitch a movie idea to all of the other players, who are the Producers.
The Screenwriter selects 2-4 cards from their hand and places them faceup in front of them in any order they choose. The Screenwriter then says the title of the movie they are pitching based on the Title cards they played faceup. The Screenwriter is free to modify the card in their pitch by making any of their Title cards plural, adding articles (a, an, the), or prepositions (from, in, of, etc...) so that their pitch makes sense.
Vote
Once the Screenwriter has made their pitch, based on their personal criteria, each Producer votes to either reject the pitch or to make the pitch into a movie. Each Producer presents 1 of their Vote cards facedown, keeping it separated from the Vote cards they are not using. Once all of the Producers have selected their Vote card, it is time to see if the movie will be made. All Producers reveal their Vote cards and announce their vote in any way they choose. Feel free to get into the character of a movie Producer.
Once all Producers have revealed their Vote cards the votes are tallied.
NO
If the No votes are greater than the number of Yes votes, the pitch is rejected and the movie is not made. The Screenwriter discards all of the cards in their pitch.
All players that voted No draw 1 Popcorn token each and place it facedown in their play area.
YES
If the Yes votes are greater than or equal to the number of No votes the pitch is accepted and the movie is produced!
NOTE: Yes and Yes! Vote cards count as 1 Yes vote when totaling votes.
The Screenwriter gathers up all of the title cards in their pitch and places them in order in a pile in front of them, this is their movie. Players must keep their movies separate from their other movies.
All Producers that revealed a Yes Vote card, draw 1 Popcorn token and place it facedown in front of them. All Producers that revealed a Yes! Vote card, draw 1 Popcorn token for each Title card in the Screenwriter's movie.
NOTE: Players may look at their Popcorn tokens at any time.
End of Turn
Regardless of the outcome of the vote, all players that voted Yes! remove their Yes! Vote card from the game. All other players return their Vote cards to their play area facedown. The next player in clockwise order now takes their turn until all players have taken a turn, at which point the round ends.
Final Cut
All players reveal their Popcorn tokens and total their final score.
- Players gain points equal to the sum of their Popcorn tokens.
- Players gain 1 point for each Title card in their movies that were made.
NOTE: Player must keep their movies separated when totaling their score for the purposes of resoving a tie.
The player with the most points wins!
In the event of a tie, the player with the longest movie title reads it aloud and is declared the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied players share in the victory!
Hidden Team Variant
The hidden team variant plays the exact same way as the standard game with the following changes to setup and scoring.
During setup, select a number of studio cards based on the player count chart below. Shuffle and deal 1 Studio card facedown to each player. Players may look at their own Studio card at any time, but it must remain hidden from other players.
- 3 players: 2 copies of 1 studio and 1 copy of 1 random studio.
- 4 players: 2 copies of 2 studios.
- 5 players: 2 copies of 2 studios and 1 copy of 1 random studio.
- 6 players: 2 copies of 3 studios.
During Final Cut, when player reveal their popcorn tokens they also reveal their Studio card.
All players that reveal the same Studio card were secretly on the same team and combine their total score.
Any player that has a studio card that does not match any other player's, doubles their score.
The player, or team of players with the highest point total wins the game!
In the event of a tie, the player or team of players with the longest movie title reads it aloud and is declared the winner. If there is still a tie, the tied players share in the victory!