Fabelland
Fabelland Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Material
Blue boxes in the guide are setup steps; orange boxes are rules.
- 1 central game board with 3 areas (D: Sand, E: Grass, F: Ice)
- 3 carousel boards A, B, C, each with 5 carousel edges in the player colours
- 3 carousels, each with 6 compartments
- 8 sheets of 2 plastic connector pieces
- 1 fabric bag
- 5 action wheels, each made of 2 parts in the player colours
- 5 action figures in the player colours
- Transparent barriers (not pictured)
- A tableau for the draw and discard piles (not pictured)
- 5 overview cards in the player colours
- 16 event cards, including 1 "Last Day of the Season"
- 38 attraction cards, including 12 starting attractions (the starting attractions have a "Start" banner on the back)
- 56 influencer cards (small cards), including 20 "failed photos" (the influencers with a green banner)
- 88 balloons (cardboard markers) in various values
- 60 guests (wooden figures): 20 Magic Fans (pink), 20 Tech Fans (black), 20 Nature Fans (turquoise)
Before your first game: Connect the 5 pairs of action wheel parts with the plastic connector pieces. Make sure the back of each action wheel matches its front. A letter must be visible through the viewing window. If you want to play with the transparent barriers, put them together as shown in the illustration.
Overview Cards
Each player's overview card summarises one round:
- One round:
- New guests and event
- Choose actions, place action figures
- Perform actions: A▶B▶C▶substitute action "Carousel"
- Turn
- Board
- Collect balloons
- Guest tumble D▶E▶F▶substitute action "Shopping"
- 2× Shopping
- Guest tumble Additionally, use up to 2 influencers.
Before the Game: General Flow
Using your action wheels, you choose your action for the current round. Each round, every player may perform 1 action. There are 2 different types of action: A–C and D–F. You will learn how these work shortly. Whoever has the most balloons at the end of the game wins.
Setup
1. Personal Material
Each player chooses 1 player colour and takes the matching action wheel and the matching action figure, 1 overview card, and 1 balloon marker with value 5 (i.e. "5 balloons").
If you play with two players, each chooses 2 colours, by additionally taking (only) the corresponding overview card.
Form a general supply from the remaining balloons. Return unneeded material to the box.
2. The Amusement Park
Place the central board in the middle. Puzzle the carousel boards onto the central board.
With two or three players, leave out carousel C.
Carousel C is used only if you play with four or five players.
3. Guests and the Bag
The youngest player takes the bag. Throw all guests into it.
Turn order: If turn order matters, whoever has the bag begins. Play then continues clockwise.
4. The Carousels
Place on each of the 6 compartments of each carousel 1 random guest from the bag.
5. Draw Starting Attractions
Each player draws 2 random starting attractions. If your two cards are the same, discard 1 and draw again, so that you have 2 different ones.
Afterwards, return the remaining starting attractions to the box.
Starting attractions are your first attractions. The number at the top left shows how many balloons the enthusiastic guests release during the "ride" once the attraction is completely full (1 for all starting attractions). Balloons are both your currency and your victory points at the end of the game, so collect as many as possible! The balloons printed on your own attractions also count towards your victory points.
An attraction "rides" as soon as all the guests depicted on it are standing ready on it. Each three-coloured guest stands for any one of the three guest colours (black, pink, turquoise).
Carousel edges are the coloured, highlighted edges of a carousel board. This is where you may place your attractions.
Two-player special rule: each of you has 2 colours. This simply means that each of you has 2 edges on the two carousels to which you may attach your attractions. In total, each of you can therefore have up to 4 attractions: 2 on one carousel and 2 on the other.
6. Build Starting Attractions
Place your 2 starting attractions face up on 2 arbitrary, different carousel edges of your own player colour. Whoever has the bag begins; play then continues clockwise.
Example: Red does not take part, so the red edge stays free.
Example with four players: Yellow has placed its starting attractions on the other carousels, so this yellow edge stays free.
Example: The starting attraction on the lilac edge stays there.
7. Build Neutral Attractions
Shuffle the remaining attractions into a face-down attraction deck. Keep it ready nearby. If applicable, place 1 attraction from the deck on each carousel edge of the colours that are not taking part in the game. With two players, this is only 1 colour.
Example: On the red edge lies the neutral attraction.
New symbol: Besides the normal guest spaces, some attractions additionally have spaces connected by "=". Guests of the same colour must be placed on these spaces. Whoever first occupies one of these spaces chooses the colour.
Attractions must always be filled as full as possible!
Now everything is set up that you need to understand how the attractions work exactly!
Action A–C: Turn a Carousel
The most important action of the game lets you turn 1 carousel. There is one action field A–C for each of the wheels A–C. To perform this action, you carry out the following 4 steps in this order:
- Turn
- Board
- Collect balloons
- Guest tumble
Perform them once while reading the explanation below, to see how they work exactly. They are easy to undo. An example is also shown on page 5.
Turn
Turn the carousel to any position in which the partitions match those on the carousel board. You may turn the carousel as often as you like until you are satisfied with the position you have set. Turning it back to its starting position is also allowed.
Board
Place as many guests as possible from the carousel onto the attraction that borders their compartment. You must fill both your own and foreign attractions as full as possible. Leave surplus or non-matching guests sitting in the carousel.
Collect Balloons
If there are fully occupied attractions (no free places), take immediately as many balloons as are printed on your own fully occupied attractions.
No matter who fills your attraction, and whenever, you receive the balloons!
In addition, you receive 1 balloon for each FOREIGN attraction that you fill completely.
Guest Tumble
Let all guests of fully occupied attractions tumble onto the central board (see below). Leave the remaining guests where they are.
Leave the attractions in their places. They may be filled again and again!
Guest tumble: When guests are to tumble onto a board, hold them slightly less than a hand's width above the centre of the corresponding board and let them drop.
If guests tumble off too often, hold them slightly lower or use the transparent barriers.
If you still do not enjoy guest tumbling, follow the "Alternative rule for tumble-haters" on page 1 of the reference book.
Example for Action A
On the green, red and yellow attractions there is already 1 guest each. Blue performs action A. It turns the associated carousel to the position shown.
The guests board their attractions in matching colours, so that the green, yellow and blue attractions are fully occupied. Yellow and green each receive 3 balloons. Blue receives 4 (own attraction) + 2 (foreign attractions) = 6 balloons.
Blue lets the 8 guests of the fully occupied attractions tumble onto the central board. The pink guest remains on the red attraction.
Normal Attractions
The top left again shows how many balloons you receive when the attraction is fully occupied and at the end of the game. These are also the cost of the attraction if you want to buy it using action D, E or F.
With these attractions, too, you receive only 1 balloon if you fill them for someone else!
Actions D–F: Shopping and Guest Tumble
Now we can look at the other actions as well! There is one action field for each of the areas D, E and F. To perform this action, you carry out the following 2 steps in this order:
- 2× Shopping
- Guest tumble
2× Shopping
Buy up to 2 cards from the display (Auslage) in the area of your action. Immediately after each purchase, place 1 new card face up in this display, so that there are always 2 attractions and 2 influencers lying there. For both purchases you may freely choose between influencers and attractions.
Depending on what you buy, follow the rules in the corresponding box below.
Guest Tumble (Actions D–F)
Let all guests of the area of your action tumble onto 1 arbitrary carousel.
Example for Action D
Red has 3 balloons and performs action D. It wants to buy this attraction from display D, with cost 4, and thereby replace the attraction that lies on the edge from carousel A and is worth 3 balloons. It pays the difference (1 balloon) to the supply, shuffles the old attraction back into the deck, and places the new attraction on this edge. Then it reveals a new attraction and places it in display D.
Red has 2 balloons left. It buys the green influencer from display D for 1 balloon and places it face up in front of itself. Then it reveals a new influencer and places it in display D.
Red lets all guests from area D tumble onto carousel A.
Buying Attractions
- Pay the cost of the chosen attraction and place it on one of your carousel edges.
- If an attraction is already lying there, replace it with the new one. The cost of the new attraction is reduced by the cost of the old one. So you do not need to be able to pay the printed price if you want to replace another attraction, only the difference!
- If the old attraction was a starting attraction, return it to the box. Otherwise shuffle it back into the deck.
Buying Influencers
- Pay the cost of the influencer.
- Place it face up in front of you.
- You may use it from now on.
- Instead of a face-up influencer, you may also buy the face-down top influencer of the deck for 3 balloons.
Influencers
Using Influencers
You may use your influencers at any time while you perform your action, but only at most 2 per action!
Each influencer has a different effect that brings guests towards your attractions (see the overview cards). Each influencer may be used only 1 time per game. Then turn the card 90° sideways to show that the influencer is exhausted.
You may combine the effects of the influencers with other effects.
Green influencers represent failed selfies and have no effect.
Scoring Influencers at the End of the Game
The cost at the top left is shown again. This time, however, these are not the balloons that you receive at the very end of the game.
How many balloons your influencers bring you at the end of the game can be seen on the banner below the illustration.
The numbers on the banner show how many balloons a set of 1, 2, 3, etc. cards of one colour is worth in total. The value of the sets of an influencer colour rises depending on the number of cards in the set.
You may collect and score as many sets per influencer colour as you like.
The number printed at the top right of each card shows how many influencers of that colour are in the deck. This tells you how many there are to collect!
Exhausted influencers also count towards scoring at the end.
Examples from the guide:
- 1 single orange influencer is worth 2 balloons. 2 are worth 8. If you have 3, that is already 2 sets, one of 2 influencers (8 balloons) and one with only 1 influencer (2 balloons). So 10 balloons in total.
- 5 orange influencers are worth 18 balloons (3 sets: 8+8+2).
- 1 blue influencer is worth 1, 2 are worth 4 and 3 are worth 10 balloons. 5 blue influencers are worth 14 balloons (2 sets: 10+4).
- 1 violet influencer is worth 1, 2 are worth 4, 3 are worth 8 and 4 are worth 14 balloons. 5 violet influencers are worth 15 balloons (2 sets: 14+1).
- 7 green influencers are worth 22 balloons (2 sets: 18+4).
Setup (Continued)
8. Guests into the Centre
Let 6 random guests from the bag tumble onto the centre of the central board. This distributes the guests over the 3 areas. (Whoever has the bag performs this step.)
9. Attractions for the Displays
For each of the areas D, E and F, form a display (Auslage) of purchasable cards. First place 2 attractions from the deck into each display.
These attractions still have to be built. Nobody can board there!
10. Influencers for You
Shuffle the influencers into the influencer deck. Keep it ready nearby and leave room for a discard pile.
Draw 2 influencers each and place them face up in front of you. Pay attention to the colour of the banners.
Discard green influencers, i.e. those with a green banner, immediately and draw again, until you have only non-green ones (only ones with a banner in orange, blue or violet).
The green ones are failed selfies and are useless at the start of the game!
Shuffle the discarded influencers back into the deck afterwards.
11. Influencers for the Displays
Afterwards, place 2 influencers from the deck into each display in addition to the attractions.
12. The Event Deck
Place the event "Last Day of the Season" face down. Shuffle the other events and, depending on how many of you there are, place further events on top to form the event deck:
- 2 players: 7 additional events. The game lasts 8 rounds.
- 3 players: 8 additional events. The game lasts 9 rounds.
- 4 players: 7 additional events. The game lasts 8 rounds.
- 5 players: 5 additional events. The game lasts 6 rounds.
Return the remaining events to the box.
The End of the Game
The game ends at the end of the round in which you have used up the event deck. Whoever then has the most balloons wins!
The round in which you reveal the event card "Last Day of the Season" is the last one.
At the end of this round, take additional balloons:
- according to the printed value of your attractions
- and according to the BANNER values on your influencers (see page 6), also for exhausted influencers.
Round Structure
Perform each round in the following 3 phases, in this order:
1. A New Day!
New guests come to Fabelland! If you have the bag, choose 1 of the carousels with the fewest guests. Let as many guests as there are players tumble onto this carousel.
A new event occurs! Reveal the top card of the event deck. Carry out the stated effect immediately, or apply it throughout the round.
2. What Are We Doing Today?
Lure new guests into your attractions!
Simultaneously and face down, set one action on your action wheel. Then reveal them all simultaneously.
Note: In a two-player or three-player game, action C is not available.
Place your action figures on the chosen action field on the board, in turn order, i.e. starting with the bag and then clockwise.
Attention: you may place at most 1 figure on each action field!
If your chosen action field is already occupied, you receive 2 balloons as a reward for good judgement of people, and you are skipped. As a reminder, this is also shown on your action wheels.
Once everyone has had the opportunity to place, everyone who was skipped places their figure, in turn order, on a free action or on one of the substitute actions at the entrance of Fabelland.
Example for action selection: Red has the bag. The window of its action wheel shows action D, so it places its figure on the symbol next to the associated carousel. Next is Blue. It has also revealed action D and therefore may take 2 balloons. It is skipped. Finally, Yellow: it has revealed action B and places its figure there. Blue places its figure on the carousel substitute action at the Fabelland entrance of the central board.
Unlike actions A–F, substitute actions may be chosen more than once.
3. Everyone Boards!
The carousels and attractions are open!
Carry out your actions in alphabetical order. Whoever chose action A begins, then action B, and so on. Look in the reference book if you are no longer sure how the actions work!
Take back your action figures after you have performed your action. Skipped actions are passed over.
- If you chose the carousel substitute action (at the main entrance, on the right), after action C perform 1 arbitrary one of the actions A, B or C.
- If you chose the shopping substitute action (at the main entrance, on the left), after action F buy 1 time in any display.
- If several players chose the same substitute action, carry them out in turn order, starting with the bag and then clockwise.
Continuation of the example: There is no figure on A, so this action is skipped. On B stands the yellow figure, and yellow performs the corresponding action. Blue has chosen the carousel substitute action and performs it next. On D stands the red figure, so red may perform that action. E, F and the shopping substitute action are unoccupied and are skipped.
Finally, pass the bag clockwise and begin a new round.
Let's Go!
Play the 1st round by selecting and performing 1 action each in turn. Tip: If everyone wants to turn, buy a few influencers! Discard the 1st action card without performing it. (Translator's note: the German says "Aktionskarte", which is printed as is; the guide does not otherwise mention an action card, so it may refer to the first event card.) From the 2nd round onwards, and in all further games, play as described on the next page.