Machi Koro Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Card Explanation
• Game Setup
• Game Flow
  • Roll Dice
  • Earn Income
  • Earn Income (Continued)
  • Coin Transactions Between Players
• Building New Establishments and Completing Landmarks
• Landmarks
• Ending the Game
• Credits

Components

• Cards (108)
  • Starting Cards (24): Starting Establishments (8), Starting Landmarks (16)
  • Supply Cards (84): Major Establishments (12), Establishments (72)
• Coins (78): 1 Coin (42), 5 Coin (24), 10 Coin (12)
• Dice (2)
• Game Rules (1): this document

Card Explanation

Establishments show the following information:

• The dice roll needed to activate the effect (top of the card)
• Type and Name
• Picture
• Effect
• Construction cost (lower left-hand corner)

Landmarks show:

• Type and Name
• Picture
• Effect
• Completion cost (lower left-hand corner)

Game Setup

Each player should place their two starting Establishments (one Wheat Field and one Bakery) face-up in front of their play area, and their four Landmark cards (Train Station, Shopping Mall, Amusement Park, Radio Tower) face-down (Under Construction). This is the starting area of each player's city. Any excess starting cards for a game of less than four players (Establishments and Landmarks) should be returned to the box as they will not be used in the game.

Next, create a marketplace for all of the Supply cards (Establishments and Major Establishments) by creating stacks of cards of the same type (e.g., all Wheat Fields in one stack, all Mines in another, etc.) arranged in order of their dice roll requirements (e.g., Wheat Field first and the Fruit and Vegetable Market last) as shown on the set-up image.

Finally, give each player three coins and form a bank with the remaining money. Determine a starting player and begin play.

Game Flow

Players take turns in clockwise order. A turn consists of the following three phases:

• Roll Dice
• Earn Income
• Construction

Game End: The player to construct all four of their Landmarks first wins the game!

Roll Dice

• To begin their turn a player rolls the dice. At the start of the game each player will roll a single die.
• Once a player has built their Train Station, they may roll one or two dice on their turn.
• When rolling two dice, the dice are always summed together.

Earn Income

• Players earn income based on the dice roll and the effects of the Establishments that they own that match the dice roll. The number in the top corner of each Establishment is its activation number.
• There are 4 different types of Establishments that earn income in different ways:
  • BLUE: Primary Industry — Get income from the bank, during anyone's turn.
  • GREEN: Secondary Industry — Get income from the bank, during your turn only.
  • RED: Restaurants — Take coins from the person who rolled the dice.
  • PURPLE: Major Establishment — Get income from all other players, but during your turn only.

Earn Income (Continued)

• It is possible that multiple types of Establishments are activated by the same die roll. In this case the Establishments are activated in the following order:
  1. Restaurants (Red)
  2. Secondary Industry (Green) and Primary Industry (Blue)
  3. Major Establishments (Purple)
• If a player owns multiple copies of a single Establishment, the effects are multiplied by the number of Establishments of that type owned.
• Special Note: The "Shopping Mall" Landmark affects each card. Example: a player owning multiple copies of the "Bakery" would see each copy of that card earn +1 income.

Coin Transactions Between Players

If a player owes another player money and cannot afford to pay it, they pay what they can and the rest is exempted (a player's coin total can never go below zero); the receiving player is not compensated for the lost income.

Example: Player A rolls a "3". Player B owns a Cafe in their town, so Player A is charged one coin. However, Player A has no coins, so they do not have to pay anything. Afterwards, Player A receives two coins from the bank for the two Bakeries in their town.

As a reminder, if multiple Establishments are activated on the same die roll, Restaurant (Red) Establishments are activated first, followed by Primary/Secondary Industry (Blue/Green) and finally Major Establishments (Purple). So payment to other players is processed prior to earned income from other Establishments.

If payment is owed to multiple players at the same time, payment is processed in reverse player order (counter-clockwise).

Example: Player A rolls a "3". Player B owns 3 Cafes, and Player C owns 2 Cafes. Player B charges 3 coins and Player C charges 2 coins, but Player A only has 3 coins. Payment is processed in counter-clockwise order. Player A first pays Player C two coins. He has one coin left, which he pays Player B. The remaining two coins Player A owes Player B are exempted.

Building New Establishments and Completing Landmarks

To conclude a player's turn, he or she may pay to construct one single Establishment OR pay to finish construction on a single Landmark by paying the cost shown on the lower left-hand corner of the card.

Once constructed, an Establishment is taken from the supply and added to the player's play area. When constructing a Landmark, the Landmark card is turned right-side up (full-color side) and the Landmark's effects are now active.

Landmarks may be constructed in any order the player chooses.

Players may not construct more than one of each type of card with the tower icon (Major Establishment) in their town. A player may construct as many unique tower-icon cards as they choose, but may never construct a second of the same tower-icon card.

Players may construct multiple copies of all other Establishment types as described in the Income section of these rules. Stacking the cards vertically on top of other cards of that type in the player's area may be a useful way to keep track of this.

Landmarks

Each player begins with all four Landmarks face-down (Under Construction) and completes them by paying their cost. The first player to complete all four wins.

• Train Station — Completion cost 4. You may roll 1 or 2 dice.
• Shopping Mall — Completion cost 10. Each of your Cup-icon and Bread-icon establishments earn +1 coin.
• Amusement Park — Completion cost 16. If you roll doubles, take another turn after this one.
• Radio Tower — Completion cost 22. Once every turn, you can choose to re-roll your dice.

Ending the Game

Play continues clockwise until one player wins the game by completing all four of their Landmarks first.

(REMEMBER: Landmarks can be completed in any order!)

Credits

Game Design: Masao Suganuma

Game Development: Nathan McNair and Molly Wardlaw

Product Development: Jerry Bennington and Nate Murray

Editing: Jerry Bennington, David Hedgecock, Nathan McNair, Nate Murray, Chris Ryall, and Scott Tipton

Art Direction: Robbie Robbins

Graphic Design: Taro Hino

Graphic Design by IDW Games: Sam Barlin

Logo Design: Sam Barlin

Photography: Delaney Mamer and Robbie Robbins

Cover Illustration: Noboru Hotta

Card Artwork: Noboru Hotta

Production Management: Kathy Cheong and Thomas Cho

Special Thanks To: Ted Adams, Greg Goldstein, Chris Ryall, and Robbie Robbins

Copyright © 2014 Grounding Inc. All rights reserved.