Bangkok Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Materials
• Set up
• Procedure
  • Action 1
    • Step 1: improving the player's hand
    • Step 2: completing the port
  • Second conditional action: completing the floating market
  • Exceptional action: renewing cards in the port
• End of the game
  • Counting of points
  • Example of counting points
• One-player version
• "Expert" version

Overview

For 1 to 4 players aged 9 and above. Each game lasts approximately 5 minutes per player. The game is also available in an "expert" version and has a one-player version.

Materials

• One "first player" token.
• One large "help with the game" card.
• 4 "pontoon" tiles, each printed with a personal objective on the back.
• 60 cards divided as follows:
  • 4 sets of 3 initial "boat" cards, each with 1, 2, 3, or 4 bamboos drawn on the back.
  • 16 "chilli" cards, with 2 chillies drawn on the back.
  • 32 "boat" cards, without chillies on the back.

There are 4 types of goods in the game:

• orange passion fruit
• green Thai zucchinis
• mauve blue peas
• grey fish

Set up

• Randomly appoint a first player and give him the "first player" token. He keeps it until the end of the game.
• Deal to each player:
  • 1 "pontoon" tile
  • 1 set of 3 initial "boat" cards: the 3 cards with one bamboo to the first player, the 3 cards with 2 bamboos to the second player and so on.
• Each player secretly reads his personal objective printed on the back of his "pontoon" tile. He then places the tile in front of him and takes his 3 initial "boat" cards in hand. The personal objective will allow him to maximize his points at the end of the game.
• Separate the "chilli" cards from the "boat" cards.
• Form a first deck at the center of the table by stacking the "chilli" cards face down. Shuffle this deck.
• Mix the undealt initial "boat" cards with the other "boat" cards.
• Form a second deck next to the first one by stacking the "boat" cards face down. Shuffle this deck.
• Draw the first 2 "chilli" cards and the first 7 "boat" cards. Shuffle these 9 cards and place them face up next to the 2 decks, forming a 3 x 3 square. This square is the port that the boats will leave from.

Procedure

The players take turns, starting with the first player and rotating clockwise. Most of the time, a player performs one action, and possibly a second, depending on the number of cards he holds in his hand.

Action 1

Step 1: improving the player's hand

The player places a card from his hand in front of a row or column of the port. This card must contain at least one of the goods present in the targeted row or column.

Example: The player places a card to the right of the first row of the port. This card contains Thai zucchinis and passion fruit. At least one card in the first row must therefore contain zucchinis or passion fruit, as is the case here.

To recover one or more cards in this row or column, the player must consider two criteria: the number of goods on the boat he has just placed, and the type of goods.

First criterion: the number of goods

• If the card placed by the player contains only one good, he must collect 1 card in the targeted row or column.
• If the card placed contains 2 goods, the player can collect 1 or 2 cards in the targeted row or column.
• If the card placed contains 3 goods, the player can collect 1, 2 or 3 cards in the targeted row or column.

Second criterion: the type of goods

• The player may collect a card from the port, provided that it has a good in common with the card he has just placed.
• He can only collect one card per good shown on his card.
• He can never refuse a card he is entitled to get.

For example, if there are two goods A and B on the card he has just placed, the player can pick up 2 cards provided that good A appears on one of the 2 cards and good B appears on the other card.

Example 1: The player places a card containing a basket of Thai zucchinis and a basket of passion fruit. He picks up the first and third cards in the row, which contain Thai zucchinis and passion fruit respectively.

Example 2: The player places a card containing a basket of Thai zucchinis and a basket of passion fruit. He picks up the first card, which contains Thai zucchinis, and one of the two others, which both contain passion fruit. He chooses the third one.

Example 3: The player places a card showing 2 baskets of passion fruit. He collects the second and third cards in the row, which each contain passion fruit.

Example 4: The player places a card showing 2 baskets of passion fruit. He only picks up the third card in the row, which is the only card showing passion fruit.

Step 2: completing the port

The player shifts all cards in the targeted row or column:

• If the player has placed a card to the left of a row, he shifts all the cards in that row to the right, including the card he has placed.
• Conversely, if the player has placed a card to the right of a row, he shifts all cards in that row to the left.
• If the player has placed a card at the top of a column, he shifts all the cards in that column downwards.
• Conversely, if the player has placed a card at the bottom of a column, he shifts all the cards in that column upwards.

Example: The player has placed a card to the right of the 1st row. He took the 1st and 3rd cards of that row. He shifts all the cards in the row to the left, including the card he has just placed.

The player then completes any empty slot(s) in the port:

• If the port contains more than one "chilli" card, the player completes the port by drawing from the "boat" card pile.
• Otherwise (i.e. if the port contains 0 or 1 "chilli" card), the player completes the port by drawing from the "chilli" card pile.
• If one of the piles is exhausted, the player completes the port by drawing from the other pile.

(In the illustrated example, the player draws only 1 card and fills the only empty slot in the port.)

Second conditional action: completing the floating market

If the player has more than 3 cards in his hand after performing the "improve your hand" action, he must complete his own floating market by laying down the excess cards. This is the building phase of the game, during which the player organizes his market so as to score as many points as possible.

A floating market is a personal square of 9 cards comprising "boat" cards and "chilli" cards:

• The "chilli" cards describe the main ways to score points.
• The "boat" cards are used to value the "chilli" cards. The valuation of the chilli cards is explained in the paragraph "End of the game" and on the "Help with the game" card.

On this occasion, the player is subject to the following placement constraints:

• The first card placed, immediately to the right of the "pontoon" tile, is the upper left corner of his market.
• With the exception of the first card, any card placed must be adjacent to a card already in place (cards side by side).
• A card in the market cannot be moved once it has been placed.
• Each row of the player's market contains a maximum of 1 "chilli" card.
• The player's next hand will again comprise exactly 3 cards.

Exceptional action: renewing cards in the port

If the player is not happy with the port cards, he may choose to change some of them instead of performing actions 1 and 2. The player chooses a column or a row in the port and replaces:

• Each "boat" card in the targeted column or row with the first card of the "boat" pile.
• Each "chilli" card in the targeted column or row with the first card of the "chilli" pile.

The replaced cards are placed under the appropriate piles and may be used again at the end of the game.

End of the game

The game ends when a player places the 9th card in his market. The round is completed so that everyone has played the same number of times.

Each player determines his score by adding up the points earned by his personal objective (printed on the back of his "pontoon" tile) and his "chilli" cards. A completed market (i.e. a 9-card square) scores 2 extra points.

The player with the most points is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the tied player who scored the most points on his personal objective wins the game. If there is a further tie, victory is shared between the players.

Counting of points

Personal objective. The player turns over his "pontoon" tile to reveal his personal objective. To calculate the points of the personal objective, he takes into account all the cards in his market and counts all the copies of the good shown on the objective. Each copy is worth 1 point.

Valuing a "chilli" card. When valuing a "chilli" card, the player does not take into account all the cards in his market. Only the "chilli" card itself and the cards orthogonally adjacent to it are taken into account. The following 3 cases can be encountered:

• "Chilli" card in a corner = 3 cards taken into account.
• "Chilli" card on one side = 4 cards taken into account.
• "Chilli" card at the centre = 5 cards taken into account.

There are 4 types of "chilli" card, resulting in 4 different ways to score points:

1. This "chilli" card earns 5 points, minus 1 point per indicated good appearing on all the cards taken into account.
2. This "chilli" card earns 1 point per indicated good appearing on all the cards taken into account.
3. This "chilli" card earns 2 points per pair of indicated goods appearing on all the cards taken into account.
4. This "chilli" card earns 2 points per indicated good present once on all the cards taken into account.

Example of counting points

• Personal objective: 6 blue peas in the market. 1 x 6 = 6 points.
• "Chilli" card in the 1st row: 1 blue peas good only. 2 points.
• "Chilli" card in the 2nd row: 3 fish and 5 blue peas, i.e. 3 pairs of blue peas and fish. 3 x 2 = 6 points.
• "Chilli" card in the 3rd row: 1 passion fruit good. 5 - 1 = 4 points.
• Completed market: 2 points.

	Points
Personal objective	1 x 6 = 6
"Chilli" card in row 1	2
"Chilli" card in row 2	3 x 2 = 6
"Chilli" card in row 3	5 - 1 = 4
Market completed	2
Total	20

One-player version

The player's aim is to achieve the highest possible score. The rules are virtually the same as in any other game; only the set-up is slightly different:

• The 2 decks are placed immediately above the first and third columns of the port.
• The "first player" token acts as a turn counter and is placed to the right of the third card in the first row of the port, as shown in the illustration (a track of 9 spaces around the port).
• If the player chooses to "improve his hand" (the most common choice), he places his card on a free slot around the port.
• He performs his action(s) as usual, and moves the "first player" token forward one space at the end of the turn.

And so on. The game ends at the end of the 9th turn.

"Expert" version

This version adds an additional constraint to the step called "Second conditional action":

• Each row AND each column of the player's market contains a maximum of one "chilli" card.

(The English text printed in the rulebook says only "column"; the French text says "each row AND each column".)