Let's Make a Bus Route Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Set-Up
• Game Flow
• Round Flow
  • 1. Flip a New Bus Stop Card Over
  • 2. Draw Routes on the Map Board
  • 3. Add Checkmarks to Your Player Board
  • 4. Check Demand Cards
  • 5. Check Bus Stop Deck
• End Game

Game Contents

• 1 Map Board
• 1 Bus Board
• 5 Player Boards
• 12 Bus Stop Cards
• 6 Demand Cards
• 5 Route Planning Cards
• 5 Pens
• 1 Start Player Marker
• 2 Rulebooks (Japanese / English)

Set-Up

1. Place out the Map board and the Bus board. Each player takes 1 marker (pen) and 1 player board.
2. Randomly select 2 Demand cards. With the blue side up, place 1 on space "I" and the other on space "II."
3. Shuffle the Route Planning cards and deal 1 face-down to each player. Secretly look but keep it hidden. If a player can reach all 3 locations on this card by the end of the game, they will score 10 points. (Order reached doesn't matter.)
4. Determine a Start player and give them the Start Player marker.
5. Shuffle the Bus Stop cards (12 cards with the numbers 1-12 in the top left corner) and deal each player 2 face-down.
6. Starting with the Start player, going clockwise, each player will pick 1 of the 2 cards they have and circle the "Start Location" on the map that matches the number on the card picked. This is where that player will start the game.
7. Reshuffle all 12 Bus Stop cards and place the deck face-down at the top of the board.

Game Flow

The game is played over 12 rounds. Each round a Bus Stop card is flipped over, and in turn order, players will check their movement based on the color of the card flipped, mark the movement on the map, and make checkmarks on their player board based on intersections they reached during their turn (in the order they were reached).

When the Bus Stop deck runs out, the game is over and final scoring occurs, tallying positive and negative points.

Round Flow

1. Flip a New Bus Stop Card Over

The Start player flips over the top Bus Stop card to reveal this round's color (the number on the card no longer matters). All players check 1 of the 2 boxes at the top of this color on their player board (note the route pattern).

2. Draw Routes on the Map Board

• Starting with the Start player, going clockwise, each player draws their route on the map based on the color of the Bus Stop card. Routes are drawn on the roads between intersections and match the Movement Chart route.
• There are 6 types of movement: Straight, Curve, Straight/Curve, Move 1, Straight 3, and Curve 3.
• During round 1, all movement extends from a player's starting location. During subsequent rounds, routes begin where the last stop ended. (Routes can extend in any direction as long as there is room for them to fit.)
• Routes are drawn along road segments and are never drawn through intersections (it's easier to see).
• When you connect to an intersection for the 1st (and only) time, you are considered to have reached it.
• Each route must be traveled as shown on the movement chart, but it can be rotated as long as it meets the length requirement and matches the straight and/or curved pattern.
• Routes cannot branch off, nor can you start another route from your starting location. You can't back track on a segment you have already traveled, and you can't go back to an intersection you have previously visited.
• Traffic – You are allowed to travel a segment that other players have traveled, but you cause traffic. Regardless of how many other players have traveled a segment, for each road segment (not intersection) you travel where other players have gone, you must mark off the next traffic bus icon at the top of your player board. If your traffic counter becomes full, you can still cause traffic, but don't mark anything.
• Altering your Movement – After the Bus Stop card is flipped, if you want to alter your route for the round, you can by changing straights into curves or curves into straights (you can never alter the number of segments you must travel). For each alteration, you put a checkmark in the pink area (from top to bottom). You can even alter a single route multiple times (example: if you alter a Straight 3 twice, you must mark 2 boxes). If you ever must alter a route and all the pink boxes are full, you must, from now on, ignore all Bus Stop cards and Movement colors and simply move just 1 space per round!

3. Add Checkmarks to Your Player Board

There are many kinds of icons you can encounter at intersections: Tourists, Commuters, Students, Elderly people, Sightseeing areas, Stations, Universities, and Green Lights. Here is what they all do (if you reach an intersection with multiple icons, earn them both!):

• Tourists – Start with the top row going left to right, mark off 1 tourist for each one you reach. In order to start working on the next row, you must reach a "sightseeing area" in order to score the current row (unlocking the next lower row). If you reach a tourist and your current row is full, the tourist is ignored. You can only score this section 3 times in the game.
• Commuters – Works just like Tourists in terms of marking them off, but they need to reach "stations" to score.
• Students – Regardless of whether you reached a University or not, mark off Students when you reach one (max 6).
• Elderly People – Whenever you reach this icon, mark the next lower box in this area (max 8).
• Sightseeing Areas – The Red Shrine and the Purple Temple are identical in terms of functionality for the Tourists. If a Tourist line has at least 1 tourist and hasn't been scored yet, you must score it when you reach one of these 2 locations (whether you want to score it or not). Write the score (2/5/9/14) out to the side based on how many tourists on that line you had. This now unlocks the next line to use. If no more lines are available, then any future tourists are not tallied. Remember, order of when you arrive at an icon matters!
• Stations – Score the Stations very similar to that of the Sightseeing Areas, with 1 main difference. When you drop off 2 commuters, in addition to the 4 points, you also get an Elderly person immediately, and if you drop off 3 commuters, you get an immediate tourist. (This might be good or bad, so watch out!)
• University – When reached, mark off the next University (max 4). At the end of the game, Students and Universities score together.
• Green Lights – If, and only if, you end your turn reaching a Green Light, you MUST place 1 more road segment in any legal direction you wish. All rules must still be obeyed, and reaching any new icons are recorded.

4. Check Demand Cards

• After all players have drawn their routes on the map, players check to see if they have met the requirements of either Demand Card. If they meet the requirements, a player can possibly score both cards in a single round.
• If the card is blue, earn 10 points. If it is pink, earn 6 points. (Each card is the same on both sides except for points.)
• Turn order here doesn't matter. All players earn what the card is currently showing if they meet it this round.
• If a blue card was scored by any player this round, that card is turned to its pink side now. Pink cards remain pink for the rest of the game. Players can only score each card once in the game, as shown by the single box on their player board under "bonus."

5. Check Bus Stop Deck

If there is still a card in the Bus Stop deck, go back to step 1 and start a new round (12 total rounds in the game). If this was round 12 (no more cards left in the Bus Stop deck), go to End Game scoring now.

End Game

Each player computes their scores on their player board in the boxes provided. This is how points are tallied:

• Tourists – Add up the points from the 3 lines and write it in the larger box. (Check marks not scored earn 0 points.)
• Commuters – Same steps as the Tourists.
• Multiply the number of Students you have by the number of Universities you have. Record the points.
• Sum up the points earned from each Elderly person and record the points. (1+1+1+2+2+…)
• Add points together from the 2 Demand cards (if you earned any), and add 10 points if you fulfilled your Route Planning card.
• Subtract points from each line checked in the Pink area.
• Lastly, if you took absolutely no traffic, earn 3 points in that upper box in the traffic section. Then, figure out which player(s) had the most traffic, and in a 2/3/4/5 player game, this (those) player(s) lose 3/4/5/5 points.

Add up all points, and the most points is the winner. Ties are broken by the least negative points in the pink area. Still tied? Least traffic marks obtained.