Ladrillazo
Ladrillazo Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Aim of the game
In this game each player is the coordinator of a plot whose objective is to make money with the construction business during the real estate bubble. The components of the plot are represented by the cards that the players place before them face up on the table. The money is represented by chips that we will call envelopes.
Each envelope has its own characteristics, powers and limitations. Some of them, especially the projects, allow earning envelopes. Others allow saving them.
In the middle of the table the dispenser is placed, which will represent the money of Spain, in order to get the maximum amount of envelopes out of it before it runs out.
The essence of the game is to strategically lower cards from the hand to the table to build the plot. The characteristics of the cards can only be used when they are on the table. The hand can be understood as the potential contacts of the player and the plot as the relationships established between them, willing to collaborate on projects and do favors. The table is the set of frames during the game.
The plot of all players begins with their paradise card to evade the gains that will be obtained later in the game. Each player will take cards from the deck to his hand, and in his turn will try to form a profitable plot or make less advantageous that of his rivals.
The paradise card contains a summary of the steps that are followed each turn.
The Cards
Cards are of 6 types:
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Land and citizens are the raw material of the real estate bubble. They do not have requirements to go down to the plot.
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Politicians and builders are indispensable to carry out projects and are more powerful the more level they have, but also more difficult to lower.
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Projects are the cards that allow earning money. When a project goes down to the plot it is decided that it has been put into operation and from then on it will give money every turn.
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The "mamandurrias" (Spanish term that means: Salary that a person enjoys without deserving it or having worked little or nothing) are sponsorships. They are cards that have no requirements, but a cost in envelope that is paid to the dispenser. After use, the card is left in the discarded deck at the end of the turn.
The relationship between the salary that a person earns for doing nothing and sponsorships should be sought in an idiosyncratic fact of Spanish society. There are many projects carried out by Spanish politicians, whose main purpose is to enrich their immediate circle (friends, cousins, brothers-in-law ...) but which are presented to the public as projects for the progress and good functioning of the society.
Starting to play
Each player chooses a paradise card and places it next to it. The dispensary is placed in the middle of the table and each player inserts a handful of envelopes into the tube.
It is shuffled well, eight cards are dealt to each player, which will be his initial hand, and the deck is left face down next to the dispenser. As Spain is a gerontocracy, the oldest player starts the game. During your turn you can download cards from your hand to your plot, backing and withdrawing support, execute powers or actions of the cards that you already have in your plot, make money and save it.
Turn and lower
Lowering a card is always optional. From the beginning, the player can get out of hand to his plot, land and citizens, who have no requirements. These depend on the level icons in the already lowered cards. To download a card with requirements (left column), there must already be cards in the plot that together add the same values in their level (the filled icons in the upper right corner). They are turned 90 degrees and the new card is lowered.
This turn marks the use. Each card of the plot can only be used once per turn to download cards or perform actions. All the cards are straightened, ready to be used, and the column of requirements is no longer necessary. At the beginning of the next turn all the cards will be straightened to use them again.
Level and support
Some cards can level up if they are backed by land and citizens. The attenuated icons at the level indicate the type of card that can be placed behind as a backup. A card can go up as many levels as it has attenuated icons. If they have a padlock, it means that the card you are supporting cannot leave during the rest of the game. To put or remove backups, affected cards must be untapped. While one card supports another, it cannot be used independently.
Powers and actions
Many cards have powers that can give advantages or disadvantages to a player or his opponents. These powers can be permanent, used only once when downloading, or executed up to once per turn, in which case they are called actions.
The actions are indicated by circles. The number of circles indicates the level that the card must have in order to execute the action. When executing an action the card is rotated. You cannot use two actions of the same card in a turn.
Money
Making money is the project's own action. Each project card of a plot will allow the player to win as many envelopes as his own level indicates, turning the card to indicate the action and removing them from the dispenser.
The money must be saved in the card of the plot itself. Each card with a "ESCONDE" stamp (which means hide) can save up to the number of envelopes indicated on the stamp, placing them on top of it. Envelopes that do not fit in the plot cards will be returned to the dispenser at the end of the shift.
To put and remove envelopes of a card does not matter if it is rotated or backed. However, the cards they support lose their ability to save envelopes.
To complement the capacity of the plot, the cards with the "EVADE" stamp (which means evade) also allow the indicated number of envelopes to be brought to paradise. Paradise has no limit and money evaded cannot leave. Evading is an action and therefore it is marked with a turn in the card.
End of turn
At the end of turn, the player returns all the money that he has not been able to hide. Then he discards the cards in his hand that do not interest him, placing them face down next to the deck, and he will take the same number of cards from him that he has discarded and one more. Then the player on the right begins his turn, the first thing he will do is straighten the cards of his frame in the previous turn.
In case the deck is finished before the game, the discard deck will be the new deck.
Talks (Negotiations)
Ladrillazo is developed in a literal economic environment. Players are free to negotiate, exchange, sell or auction their cards and envelopes. They can also blackmail, agree or bribe.
When changing players, the cards have to maintain position and status: from plot to plot, from hand to hand, and if they were rotated, they will remain rotated. A card can only pass from one player to another in the turn of one of them.
If a card that has saved envelopes changes player, the envelopes are returned to the tube; if thanks to a power steals a card backed from the plot of another player, the backup stays in that plot.
End of the game
A Ladrillazo game ends at the end of the turn in which all the envelopes of the dispenser have been used up. The player of that turn does not need to hide his money. The player with the most envelopes wins in total.