Big City: 20th Anniversary Jumbo Edition! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Overview and Setup
  • Set Up the Town
  • Rules for Neighborhood Placement
• Other Important Concepts
  • Adjacent Properties
  • Outskirts versus City Center
• How to Play
• The Turn in Greater Detail
  • Discard Useless Cards
  • a) Construct a Building
  • b) Construct a Park or Factory
  • c) Start/Extend the Streetcar Line
  • d) Place a New Neighborhood
  • e) Exchange Property Cards
  • f) Pass
  • Refill Hand to 5 Property Cards
• Redevelopment Phase
• Raise the Value of City Hall by 1 Point
• Pass the Starting Player Marker
• Game End

Contents

• 4 two-by-four (2x4) Neighborhood tiles
• 4 three-by-three (3x3) Neighborhood tiles
• 8 single Businesses, 6 double Businesses, 3 triple Businesses
• 8 single Residences, 6 double Residences, 3 triple Residences
• 2 Parks
• 17 Streetcars
• 2 Shopping Centers
• 3 Post Offices
• 3 Banks
• 2 Churches
• 3 Cinemas
• 1 City Hall
• 2 Factories
• 74 Property Cards
• 1 Starting Player Marker
• 2 City Hall Built/Not Built Markers
• 4 Point Markers
• 4 (or more) +100 Markers
• Player Aid Cards
• Score Track

Before the first game, carefully punch out and remove the cardboard components from their frames.

Game Overview and Setup

To set up for a game of Big City, do the following:

• Place all the Buildings and Streetcars on the table within easy reach of all the players. This forms the Building Pool.
• Place Neighborhood 1 (the one featuring Properties from 11 – 19) in the center of the table.
• The player who most recently had a factory built in their neighborhood takes the Starting Player Marker. Alternatively, players may choose a starting player through a random method.
• Place the Scoring Track on the table where at least one player can manage it and all players can see it easily.
• Each player chooses a player color and puts the corresponding Point Marker onto the Scoring Track. The Starting Player puts their Point Marker onto the "0" space and, starting with the player to the left and proceeding clockwise, each player, in turn, places their Point Marker at the next highest position on the track. So, for example, in a 4-player game, the Point Markers would be positioned on the "0", "1", "2", and "3" spots on the Scoring Track. Each player also puts the corresponding +100 Marker in front of themselves to show their player color to other players.
• Stack the two City Hall Built/Not Built Markers near the Scoring Track so that the "Not Built" Marker is visible on top. Place the City Hall Building directly below the "0" space of the Score Track.
• Separate all the Property Cards by Neighborhood number (the number on the back of the cards), shuffle each stack, and place them face-down onto the table in a Property Card Display.
• Each player draws 1 Property Card from each of the first 5 Neighborhoods (1-5). While the exact Property is kept secret from other players, the Neighborhood number on the back of each Property Card is public knowledge and must be shown to other players when requested.
• Position the Player Aid Cards around the table so that each player has access to one when needed.

Set Up the Town

At the start of a game of Big City, the city is just a small town. Neighborhood 1 always starts the game in the center of the table, but depending on the number of players a certain number of additional Neighborhoods will start the game in-play. Put the following Neighborhoods in the center of the table near Neighborhood 1 so that they are ready for positioning by the players:

• 2 Players – Neighborhoods 2-5
• 3 Players – Neighborhoods 2-4
• 4 Players – Neighborhoods 2-5

Starting with the player to the right of the Starting Player and proceeding counter-clockwise, each player chooses one of the available Neighborhoods and positions it in the City (following the "Rules for Neighborhood Placement" below). Continue placing Neighborhoods this way until the designated Neighborhoods are all placed. Neighborhoods not listed above are moved to the side near the Property Cards display for later use.

IMPORTANT: Initial Neighborhood placement is a good time to make sure that certain Properties are adjacent to others. Players should check which Property Cards they have drawn to help decide how and where to position their selected Neighborhood.

Rules for Neighborhood Placement

During Town setup and for the rest of the game, the following rules must be observed for placing a Neighborhood.

• Neighborhoods must be placed so that at least two Properties are orthogonally-adjacent with other properties in the City.
• Neighborhoods may not overlap.
• It is allowed to have empty table space in the center of the City, for example, when the city forms into a ring or donut shape (see "Outskirts versus City Center" for more information).
• It is allowed to turn the Neighborhood during placement. It is not necessary to have all the Property numbers on the Neighborhood facing the same way as other Neighborhoods.

Other Important Concepts

Adjacent Properties

Two Properties are considered adjacent if they are orthogonally-adjacent to each other, even if they are in different Neighborhoods. For example, Property 11 will always be adjacent to Property 12 because they are printed on the same Neighborhood tile. But it is possible that Property 81 will be adjacent to Property 11 too, depending on how the players position Neighborhood 8. It is very common for a Property to be adjacent to more than one other Property.

Outskirts versus City Center

In Big City, all Properties are considered to be either in the Outskirts or in the City Center. This can be an important requirement when trying to construct a new Building.

In order for a Property to be considered City Center, it must have no sides which touch the outside edge of the city. A Property which has one or more edges on the outside of the city is considered in the Outskirts. This is also true for 1x1 Buildings which sit on those Properties.

For Buildings which are larger than 1x1, both Properties are taken into consideration. If a single side of any of the Properties the Building is being constructed on "touch" the outside edge of the city, it is considered to be in the Outskirts.

If Neighborhoods are positioned in such a way as to "trap" empty table space in the center of the City, that empty table space is considered to be part of the City Center, and all Properties which have sides touching this trapped space may now be considered City Center, assuming all other sides do not touch the Outskirts.

IMPORTANT: The status of a Property being in the Outskirts or City Center will change over the course of the game. This is an important part of the strategy when placing new Neighborhoods. When placing a new Building, a player only needs to check the status of the Property at that moment. For example, if a Building scores a bonus for being in the Outskirts, it only matters at the moment the Building is placed. A player does not lose the bonus points if that Building is later part of the City Center.

How to Play

Big City is played over a certain number of rounds. Starting with the player with the Starting Player marker and proceeding clockwise, each player, on their turn, must do the following:

1. Discard Useless Cards
2. Take one of six possible actions:
   • a) Construct a Building
   • b) Construct a Park or Factory (only after City Hall is built!)
   • c) Start/Extend the Streetcar Line (only after City Hall is built!)
   • d) Place a New Neighborhood (only after City Hall is built!)
   • e) Exchange Property Cards
   • f) Pass
3. Refill Hand to 5 Property Cards

Once all players have completed these steps, the game enters a Redevelopment Phase.

Once the Redevelopment Phase is complete, raise the value of City Hall by 1 point if still unbuilt, and then pass the Starting Player Marker to the next player on the left, and begin a new round.

The Turn in Greater Detail

Discard Useless Cards

At the start of a player's turn, they must reveal, face-up, any numbered Property Cards which have been rendered "unbuildable/useless" through the playing of Factories or Parks. These cards will be replaced at the end of the player's turn.

Note that it is possible for a Redevelopment Phase to occur before a player has a chance to reveal their useless cards since revealing their own useless cards only occurs at the start of a player's turn.

IMPORTANT: A Property Card showing a Park or Factory is not considered "useless" even if there is no room left to play it. Players should be careful not to get stuck holding such a card as the Properties in the City fill up. It is acceptable, however, to make these cards another player's problem by trading them away during the Redevelopment Phase!

a) Construct a Building

Constructing Buildings is the heart of Big City and the way points are scored in the game.

To construct a Building other than a Park or Factory, a player must perform the following steps:

1. Ensure that the Building can be constructed. Many buildings have prerequisites which must be met before the Building can be placed. For example, most Buildings require that City Hall be constructed first. The full list of prerequisites, bonuses, and penalties can be found on the Player Aid Card.
2. Play Property Card(s) from their hand matching the locations they wish to place their Building. It is not possible to construct a Building without owning all the corresponding Property Cards.
3. Select the Building from those available in the Building Pool. If a desired Building is not available in the Building Pool, another Building should be selected.
4. Place the Building into the City, making sure to double-check that all prerequisites have been met.
5. Score the Building by using the Player Aid Card. To score a Building add the Building's base score (the score in the blue box) to any additions or subtractions listed in the Bonus Points section. Once all additions or subtractions are completed, make any multiplications listed in the Bonus Points section. Multiply only by the highest factor which applies – do not multiply more than once! Remember that any Building that has even a single side adjacent to the Outskirts is considered in the Outskirts.

EXAMPLE: Dave has placed the Bank next to City Hall. He scores a base score of 5 points, multiplied by 2 for a total score of 10 points. If Dave had waited until the Streetcar Line was adjacent to the Property before placing the Bank, his multiplier would have been 3, meaning a total score of 15. Dave needs to work on his strategy!

The Player Aid Card illustrates this example with the Bank's own reference box: BANK — Requires: City Hall must have been built somewhere in the city, and the Bank must be adjacent to at least two Businesses. Bonus Points: x2 if adjacent to the Streetcar Line OR City Hall; x3 if adjacent to both the Streetcar Line AND City Hall.

Record the Building score by moving the player's Point Marker up the Score Track. If the player's Point Marker ends up in the same space as another player's Point Marker, place it on top of any/all Point Markers in that space.

If a player's Point Marker passes the 99 space on the Score Track, move the marker back to 0 and place that player's +100 Marker near the Score Track as a reminder that they have more than 100 points.

6. Discard the Property Card(s) used. Since Buildings are never demolished, used Property Cards are discarded out of the game permanently.

IMPORTANT: If City Hall is to be built, follow all these same rules, but then immediately place the "City Hall – Built" Marker on top of the "City Hall – Not Built" Marker and leave it there for the rest of the game. From the start of the next player's turn, all Buildings can now be built, provided all prerequisites are met.

The Player Aid Card's City Hall box reads: CITY HALL — May be built at any time. May NOT be built in the Outskirts.

City Hall is worth between 0 and 5 points depending on where it sits on the Score Track. Award that many points to the player who built it.

Timing when to build City Hall is a critical element in Big City. Remember that the second phase of building cannot begin until City Hall is built, and it is possible for a game of Big City to end without City Hall ever being built at all!

The full prerequisites, bonus points, and penalties for every other Building type (Church, Cinema, Post Office, Shopping Center, Bank, Residences, and Businesses) are printed on the individual Player Aid Cards included in the box; they are not reproduced as running text in either official rules document this transcription is drawn from.

b) Construct a Park or Factory

This action can only be taken once City Hall has been constructed by any player on a previous turn.

While most Property Cards show a Property number, a few show a Park or a Factory. These Buildings have special rules which apply to them.

To Build a Park or a Factory, a player performs the following steps:

1. Play a single Property Card from their hand which shows a Park or Factory.
2. Take that Park or Factory from the Building Pool and place it in the City being sure to follow the specific placement rules listed on the Player Aid Card for that Park or Factory. It is not mandatory to place the Park or Factory into the Neighborhood corresponding to the back of the Property Card – instead these Buildings may be placed in any legal place in any Neighborhood that is in the city.

IMPORTANT: Parks and Factories do not score points for the player. Instead, they are used to create bonuses and penalties for nearby Properties, but also to ruin the Properties they are placed upon by making them into "Useless Cards" which must later be discarded. These cards themselves, however, are never discarded due to being unbuildable/useless, so be sure to use them or get rid of them (see "Exchange Cards" and "Redevelopment Phase"). Also note that a Streetcar or Building may not be removed to make room for a Park or Factory.

c) Start/Extend the Streetcar Line

This action can only be taken once City Hall has been constructed by any player on a previous turn.

The Streetcar is an excellent way to add lots of value to Properties that are about to have Buildings constructed on them. But starting the Streetcar line might give away your plans too, so use it wisely!

This action allows a player to build up to 2 segments of the Streetcar Line. To place a Streetcar, simply position it in the street between 2 Properties. Then, to extend the Streetcar Line, place another Streetcar in the street adjacent to the first Streetcar. Players taking the Streetcar action later in the game will then extend the Streetcar Line. Here are some important rules for the Streetcar Line:

1. The first player to place a Streetcar places only a single Streetcar. This is because they enjoy the advantage of deciding exactly where the Streetcar Line begins. After this initial placement, further placements will result in 2 Streetcars being placed at a time.
2. After the first Streetcar is placed, all other Streetcars must be adjacent to either "end" of the Streetcar Line. Branching is not allowed and the Streetcar Line may not "dead-end" into itself.
3. The Streetcar Line may run at the edge of the City. If a Neighborhood is later placed at this edge of the City, those Properties which are adjacent to the Streetcar Line immediately gain the same scoring advantages.
4. A single Streetcar is adjacent only to the two Buildings nearest the long sides of the Streetcar. Other Properties in the city must have a Streetcar directly adjacent to them in order to receive the scoring benefit.
5. A Streetcar Line may be adjacent to a Property more than once, but it does not offer additional scoring benefits.
6. A Streetcar Line potentially blocks construction of a Park, Factory, or large Building. Streetcars, once placed, may not be moved for any reason.
7. The number of Streetcars is a hard limit. Once all Streetcars are placed, this action may no longer be taken.

d) Place a New Neighborhood

This action can only be taken once City Hall has been constructed by any player on a previous turn.

Placing a new Neighborhood is the only way to expand the buildable space in the city and also the only way to use Property Cards from higher-numbered Neighborhoods.

The following rules apply:

1. The newly placed Neighborhood must have at least 2 Properties placed adjacent to 2 other properties already in the City. The 2 Properties in the City do not need to be from the same Neighborhood.
2. The placing player may select any available Neighborhood from the available Neighborhoods. It is not necessary to place the Neighborhoods in numbered order.
3. The Neighborhood may not overlap or be overlapped by other Neighborhoods.
4. The Neighborhood can face in any direction the placing player wishes.

IMPORTANT: It is wise to have spent some time acquiring Property Cards in the Neighborhood before placing it.

e) Exchange Property Cards

A player may exchange Property Cards with the Property Card Display. To do this, they first return any number of Property Cards from their hand to the bottom of the matching stack in the Property Card Display. This option allows a player to take up to 2 Property Cards from the same Neighborhood stack (rather than a limit of 1).

Players do not replace their "Useless Property Cards" with this action. Those will be replaced during the "Refill Hand to 5 Property Cards" portion of the turn.

f) Pass

A player may choose to pass their turn, doing nothing.

Though this is very rare to see at the start of the game, it may be a strategic option at critical moments or near the game end.

Strategy Tip: Near the end of the game, if another player is waiting for someone to build a certain Building to allow them to build a better Building, that player might want to Pass their turn.

Alternatively, if City Hall is not built and the last player to own a City Center Property Card is also winning the game, that player should Pass their turn until the game ends early (see below) or until they are in jeopardy of not being the leader in points.

IMPORTANT: If all players in a round choose to "Exchange Property Cards" or "Pass" consecutively, the game ends immediately! If you are not winning the game you should never allow this to happen!

Refill Hand to 5 Property Cards

At the end of a player's turn, they take Property Cards from the Property Card Display, if necessary, to refill their hand to 5 Property Cards with the following restrictions:

1. This is a mandatory action. A player may not have less than 5 Property Cards in their hand at the conclusion of their turn unless the Property Card Display has no cards left.
2. The player may not take more than 1 Property Card per Neighborhood stack unless no other option exists. In such a case, they must still take as few cards as possible from any one Property Card stack.

EXAMPLE: Stephanie needs to take 4 Property Cards (1 because it was made into a "Useless Card" by another player placing a Factory on her Property, and 3 because she played a size 3 Business). There are only Property Cards left in Neighborhoods 7 and 8 and so she can only take 2 from each Property Card stack. She is not able to take 3 from one stack and 1 from the other because it would mean she did not take as few cards as possible from any one Property Card stack.

3. If the player chooses to "Exchange Property Cards" this turn, those limits are separate from the limits during the Refill Hand to 5 Property Cards portion of the turn. For example, if the player already took 2 Property Cards from Neighborhood 2 during the Exchange Property Cards portion of the turn, they can still refill a single card from Neighborhood 2 if they then need to replace their Useless Card.

Redevelopment Phase

At the end of each round, after all players have taken their turn, the city decides to redevelop some Properties that have taken too long to be built upon. To do this, the mayor insists upon different players being given control of some Properties in the city.

Starting with the player in first place on the Score Track and continuing until the player lowest on the Score Track, each player must offer at least one, but as many as two, Property Cards from their hand face-up or face-down on the table in front of them.

Then, in reverse order, starting with the lowest player on the Score Track who chose to play their Property Cards face-up and continuing up the Score Track including only players who chose to play their Property Cards face-up, each player selects as many Property Cards as they offered to take back into their hand from amongst the Property Cards offered by other players.

Once all players who played their Property Cards face-up have chosen their new Property Cards, starting with the lowest player on the Score Track who chose to play their Property Cards face-down and continuing up the Score Track including only players who chose to play their Property Cards face-down, each player selects as many Property Cards as they offered to take back into their hand from amongst the Property Cards offered by other players.

IMPORTANT: Even though a player might be in first on the Score Track and be forced to pick last, they can "jump the line" by playing their Property Cards face-up. However, this gives much more information to the other players, who might also choose to play their own Property Cards face-up too.

Here are some important other rules for the Redevelopment Phase:

1. Any Property Card which cannot be legally played in the City at the time of offering, for any reason, can be offered in the Redevelopment Phase, but must be played face-down. This includes "Useless Cards", Parks or Factories that can no longer be played, or cards from Neighborhoods which are not yet in the City. Note that it is possible, due to turn order, that a player may still have "Useless Cards" still in their hand in the Redevelopment Phase. If a player chooses to offer a card which cannot legally be played in the city at the time of offering, it must be played face-down.
2. If a player offers two Property Cards during this phase, they must both be face-up or face-down. Since offering a card which cannot legally be played in the city at the time of offering means that card must be played face-down, that would force the second card to also be played face-down.
3. A player may never take back their own cards unless there are no other options.
4. A player may take Property Cards from different players if they offered two of their own.
5. Any tie in position on the Score Track is resolved by the order of the stacked Score Markers from top-to-bottom. For example, if the red Point Marker is on top of the blue Point Marker, the red player is considered to be ahead of the blue player and will have to offer Property Cards first.

EXAMPLE: 4 players have entered the Redevelopment Phase. The red player, who is in the lead, decides to offer one Property Card, face-up. The blue player who is in second place, wishes to secretly trade a Useless Card, but also wants to get rid of another Property Card, places both of them face-down (since an unplayable card must always be played face-down). The yellow player, in third place, plays a single Property Card face-up, because she wants to choose ahead of the red player. The green player, in last place, places two Property Cards face-down, because they are in Neighborhoods that the other players desire, but they're not particularly helpful Properties because a stinky Factory sits adjacent.

This means going in reverse order starting with those players who played their Property Cards face-up, the first choice of a single Property Card goes to the yellow player. Then the red player chooses one Property Card.

Now since only face-down card players remain, the green player, who is in last place, chooses two Property Cards, and the blue player takes the two remaining Property Cards, one or both of which might be his own.

Raise the Value of City Hall by 1 Point

If City Hall has not yet been built, move it 1 point higher on the Score Track to a maximum of 5 points.

Pass the Starting Player Marker

Pass the Starting Player Marker to the player on the left. That player begins a new round.

Game End

A game of Big City can end two ways:

1. All Neighborhoods have been placed and all Properties have Buildings on them, or
2. All Players in a turn Pass or Exchange Cards consecutively.

In either case, the game ends immediately and the winner is the player who has the highest score on the Score Track after taking into account any +100 Markers that were placed near the Score Track.

Ties on the Score Track are considered ties. Congratulate your opponent on a hard-fought tie!