Machi Koro: Life Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Anatomy
• Overview & How to Win
• Game Setup
  • 1: Prepare the card lineup
  • 2: Prepare the hearts
  • 3: Starting Player
  • 4: Gain starting cards
  • 5: Building your Portfolio
• Turn Order
  • Rolling dice
  • Gain Hearts from Life cards
  • Paying Hearts to other players
  • If payment to several players happens at the same time
  • Buying cards
  • Refilling the lineup
• FAQ
  • Prank
  • Stock Investment
  • Collectors Items
  • Summer House
  • Friend
  • Partner
  • Home
  • Elected Politician

Components

• 80 Life cards
• 56 Dream cards
• 2 D6 dice
• 80 heart markers

Card Anatomy

Dream Card: shows VIP Points, Card Cost, Gain Conditions, and Card effect.

Life Card: shows card type, Activation Number, Card Cost, and Card effect.

Overview & How to Win

Players will take turns rolling dice and activating cards that match the die rolls to gain hearts to buy more cards of their dreams in a race to finally feel fulfilled with the decisions they have made.

The player who first manages to reach 8 VIP Points on their Dream cards wins the game!

Game Setup

1: Prepare the card lineup

Shuffle the 4 decks of cards (Dream Card 1, Dream Card 2-6, Life Card 1-6, Life Card 7-12) and create 4 separate face down draw piles in a vertical row.

Then, from each pile draw and reveal cards, lining them up next to the corresponding draw pile. Any identical cards (cards with the same name) are stacked vertically (such as the Cafe in the example). Continue drawing until there are 5 unique cards in each row, until a total of 20 unique cards are face up.

2: Prepare the hearts

Each player takes 5 hearts and places them before them. The rest are placed in a pile where everyone can easily reach them (called the "stock").

3: Starting Player

Determine start player in any suitable fashion: Rock-paper-scissors, or roll a die.

4: Gain starting cards

Before the game starts, players will use their initial 5 hearts to buy their starting setup.

Starting with the start player, and clockwise around the table, players get to buy 1 card from the lineup by paying the cost of the card in Hearts. You can buy either Life cards or Dream cards, but you can only buy one at a time. Cards with a cost of 0 are free, but you can still only buy one at a time. This is repeated 3 laps around the table, so players can start the game with a maximum of 3 cards. You do not have to buy a card if you don't want to, or if you cannot (due to lack of hearts). You don't have to use up your hearts. If you have hearts left, you will begin the game with these hearts.

5: Building your Portfolio

When you gain a card you should take that card from its stack in the supply and add it to your "portfolio". Your portfolio will be all the cards you have acquired during the game. If you now have multiple copies of that same card, group those cards together, splaying them in a vertical column, so that all players can see how many copies of a card you have. It is recommended to arrange these cards in a row by increasing activation numbers to make it easier to play the game.

Turn Order

1. Card effects that happen "at the start of your turn" (like the Child card) are activated.
2. Roll one or two of the dice.
3. Cards whose Activation Number matches the rolled number trigger.
4. Collect Hearts from card effects, or gain 1 Heart if you have none.
5. You may purchase up to one card from the face up cards, then refresh the row.
6. If you have reached 8 points, you win!
7. Card effects that happen "at the end of your turn" (Investing Stock or Partner, for example).

Then it is the next player's turn.

Rolling dice

The turn player rolls 1 or 2 dice. This can be decided freely each turn. If you roll 2 dice, it's the rolled total that counts, not each separate die.

Gain Hearts from Life cards

The effect of cards whose trigger number matches the total of the dice roll happens.

In this step, all players (not just you!) can earn income from their establishments, based on the result of the dice roll. Each establishment has an activation number. When the result of the dice roll is equal to an establishment's activation number, that establishment is activated.

*Some Life cards have effects that don't involve Hearts.

There is no limit to how many Hearts you can have. If you need to exchange between the different values of Heart markers, do so when necessary and at will.

The text on the cards will say when and how you gain the effect, and it's also indicated by the color of the card. If several cards trigger at the same time, they happen in this order: RED > BLUE > GREEN > PURPLE.

• Red: Jobs. Activates on opponent's turns.
• Blue: Outdoor hobbies. Activates on anyone's turn.
• Green: Indoor hobbies. Activates on your turn only.
• Purple: Interaction with other players. Activates on your turn only.

Paying Hearts to other players

If you owe hearts to an opponent, but do not have enough to pay it all, pay what you can, then the remaining deficit is ignored. The player who you owed hearts to does NOT receive hearts from the bank to make up the difference.

(Example 1) Player A rolled two dice that totalled 8. Player B has a Speciality Shop. Player A must pay 2 Hearts. But Player A doesn't have any Hearts. No payment is done, and Player B doesn't get anything despite the fact that their Speciality Shop triggered.

Player A has a Home Party, so they gain Hearts from that card. But that happens after the Speciality Shop failed, so Player B still doesn't get any Hearts.

If payment to several players happens at the same time

Remember to follow the proper order for activating establishments! Because Red cards activate first, if you owe hearts to another player (because of their Red Cards), that payment is made before you earn income from your other cards.

(Example 2) Player A rolls 3 on his die. Player B has 2 Flea Markets, and Player C has one. Player A must now pay 2 Hearts to Player B and one to Player C, but Player A has only 2 Hearts.

Payment is done in counter-clockwise order, so first, Player C gets his one Heart. Then the last Heart goes to Player B. The second Heart that Player B should gain is lost.

Buying cards

If the turn player has no Hearts at this point, they gain 1 Heart.

*In this step, you can use your Hearts to buy new cards. There are also cards that cost nothing.

The active player can only buy one card from the lineup and add it to their portfolio. It can be either one Life card or one Dream card. The Hearts used for the payment are returned to the stock, and the newly bought card is placed in the area in front of the active player face up.

Unless specified on the card, a player can have several copies of the same card. Their effects will stack, meaning that the effect will happen twice if you have two cards, three times if you have three, et cetera. (If you have several copies of the same card, you can put them on top of each other to save table space. Splay the cards in such a way as it's clear how many copies you own.) Also, it may happen that a player cannot buy a card on their turn. In that case, you simply skip the step.

Refilling the lineup

If, after buying cards, there are less than 5 of any type of card, refill the row by drawing cards from the corresponding deck. Any cards that are identical (same name) to cards in the row are stacked on top of one another and you continue drawing until 5 different cards are available.

*If the corresponding deck runs out of cards, refill as many cards as possible and then stop. You will be limited on the number of cards of this type that are available. Never fill a row with cards from a different row.

FAQ

Prank

The effect is mandatory. You must exchange this for another player's card. It can be either a Life card or a Dream card. You can ignore any conditions to gain the card you take, but the "when you gain this" effect of the card does not happen.

You cannot take a card that has a Friend attached to it (because that counts as 2 cards).

Stock Investment

You must place a Heart (if you have) on this at the end of your turn, regardless of whether the card triggered on your turn or not. The Hearts on the card belong to no one, and they will not go away (but you can exchange the value of the markers when necessary). If this card is taken with Prank of Fate, all Hearts that are on this card are also moved.

Collectors Items

At any point during your turn, you can discard this card to gain 2 Hearts. The card goes out of the game (put it back in the box).

Summer House

This card permanently increases the income of every card in your portfolio.

(Example) If you have a Summer House when Bookworm triggers, you would normally gain 4 Hearts (2 for each Bookworm), but instead you gain 6 Hearts (3 for each Bookworm).

The timing for this is the same as the card it affects.

Friend

You must attach this to one of your Life cards when you gain the Friend. If you don't have a Life card, you cannot gain this card. If you have many cards of the same type, you can attach your Friend to only one of these cards. For ease of play it is best to remove the card you are attaching the friend to from the stack and keep it separated from the other identical card(s) that don't have a friend attached to them.

If you attach the Friend to a Red card, the extra income from the Friend comes from the stock, not from the player who rolled the dice. Even if you don't gain the Hearts from the player who rolled the dice, you will still get the Friend bonus from the stock. The card you have attached the Friend to cannot be stolen with Prank of Fate.

Partner

This effect does not stack. Even if you have several Partners, you can only do one reroll per turn.

Home

The first player who gains an A Home gains 1 Heart from each player. The fourth player who buys an A Home gains 4 Hearts from each player.

Elected Politician

The Purple cards of the player who owns Elected Politician will no longer trigger. Other players' purple cards cannot affect this player. (He doesn't pay money for "Home Party" or "Charity Work", and their cards cannot be targeted by Prank.)