My Story
My Story Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Game board, Score sheets
- Life Story Cards x 37
- Occupation Cards x 25
- Project Cards x 22
- Bonus Resource Cards x 5
- Reunion Cards x 8
- Achievement Cards x 14
For each player (4 players):
- Age Marker x 1
- Personal Board x 1
- Resource Tokens x 6
- Starting Cards x 7
Starting Cards x 7 are two Salary cards, Hobby, Education, Best Friends, and two Young Heart cards.
Goal of the Game
In My Story, players will build the deck of their life by gaining new Life Stories, completing Projects, and potentially switching to a new Occupation. Each action will cost you precious time! The game ends when all players reach the age of retirement, and the player who lives the most gratifying life and scores the most victory points will win the game!
Setup
- Place the Game Board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a color and places their Age Markers in random order on space "22" of the Age Track.
- All players place the Personal Board of their color in front of themselves and put the 6 Resource Tokens on space "0."
- Shuffle all Occupation Cards with a Switching Year of 1 and deal 2 cards to each player. Each player chooses 1 of the cards as their starting Occupation and places it in their CV area to the left of their Personal Board. Then shuffle the other Occupation Card with 7 Starting Cards of their color and place them facedown to the right of their Personal Board as their Draw Deck.
- Shuffle all the remaining Occupation Cards together with all Project Cards to form the Occupation & Project Deck. Place it facedown on the indicated space on the game board. Reveal 5 cards from the deck and place them on the card slots.
- Shuffle all Life Story Cards to form the Life Story Deck. Place it on the indicated space on the game board. Reveal 5 cards from the deck and place them on the card slots.
Set up for Daydreaming and Lottery Ticket cards:
In 2-player games, after step 5, shuffle 2 Daydreaming and 2 Lottery Ticket cards into Occupation & Project deck and Life Story deck, respectively.
In 3-player games, shuffle only 1 of each card into their corresponding deck, and remove the rest from the game.
In 4-player games, remove all Daydreaming and Lottery Ticket cards from the game.
- Place Reunion Cards (Age 30 and 40), Achievement Cards, and Bonus Resource Cards in their individual piles next to the game board.
- The player whose Age Marker is closest to age 20 is the starting player (since s/he is the youngest in the game). The life adventure is ready to begin!
※ When refilling the card slots, if there is a VP icon on the newly revealed card, it must be placed on the leftmost slot, and all the other cards are slid to the right. Otherwise, place the revealed card to the right of the rightmost card with a VP icon (and slide other cards to the right, if needed) so that cards with VP icons always stay on the left of cards without VP icons.
Game Play
The first round of the game is played in clockwise order. After the first round, whoever has their Age Marker closest to age 20 (i.e., the youngest), is the active player to take the turn. So sometimes the same player will play several rounds in a row if s/he spends her/his time carefully. The game ends when all players' Age Markers reach or go beyond age 50.
Turn structure
On your turn, you must perform the following phases in the given order:
I. Planning (Play cards) II. Exploring (Choose 1: a. Gain a Life Story Card; b. Gain a Project or Occupation Card; c. Attend a Reunion) III. Self-Growing (Choose 1: a. Complete a Project; b. Switch to a new Occupation) IV. Refreshing (Discard all played cards and refill card slots)
You must perform at least one of the phases II or III. You may also perform both.
I. Planning Phase
- Play the top 4 cards from your Draw Deck in front of you, perform each card's effect in any order, and adjust the Resource Tokens to indicate the total amount of resources you may use this turn.
- When playing cards, if the played cards match the color(s) of cards in your CV, you will gain Bonus from those color-matched CV, resembling the benefits from your past experiences in the related activities. Colorless cards in your CV will also provide Bonus every turn. Gaining color-matched Bonus is obligatory.
- Apply your current Occupation's special ability, which might provide additional resources or other benefits. Applying the ability is optional.
※ In the beginning of the game you may only play 4 cards on your turn. But if you have "+1" ability then you will play more cards on a turn. ※ Colorless cards in your CV will automatically provide their Bonus every turn. ※ When you gain resources, simply move the corresponding Resource Tokens to the right to indicate the numbers you have earned. ※ Whenever you need to play more cards but your Draw Deck is exhausted, shuffle your discard pile to create a new Draw Deck.
The example in the rulebook shows: (1) Play 4 cards and gain Heart & Cross x 1, Money x 2, Smile x 1. (2) Due to the Bonus, gain House x 1, Book x 1 from the CV. (3) Colorless cards automatically provide Bonus, so gain Money x 1. (4) Organic Farmer's ability: "For each House you gain, you gain additional Money" can provide Money x 1. (5) Your total resources are: Heart & Cross x 1, Money x 4, Smile x 1, House x 1, Book x 1.
Tip: The more cards in your CV, the more Bonus you might get in your turn. That's the secret to success. Isn't it? :-)
Tip: When players get familiar with the rules, they may agree on performing the "Planning Phase" out of their turns, so that they can speed up the game, if they desire.
Resource symbols and color codes in the game
There are 5 different resource symbols in the game representing key elements in real life. Some of the cards also come with 4 different colors on the bottom resembling these elements.
- Money: Income and career growth. Yellow cards are associated with this element.
- Book: Knowledge and profession. Blue cards are associated with this element.
- Heart & Cross: Health and Hobby. Green cards are associated with this element.
- House: Family and society. Red cards are associated with this element.
- Smile: Interpersonal Relationships.
- Star: Wildcard. It can act as any one resource of the player's choice.
II. Exploring Phase (Optional)
You may acquire one new card in 3 different ways:
a. Take one Life Story Card from the Life Story track. The upper part of each Life Story Card and the slot where it is located show the combined requirement for that card. You must pay the required resources and time to take the card and place it on top of your personal discard pile.
※ If you're short of resource(s) when paying for the requirement, you may substitute the missing resource(s) with your precious "time", on a 1 Year = 1 resource ratio, up to 5 Years for 5 resources in a single payment. For example, you may spend 3 Years to substitute 2 Money and 1 Book that you're in short of.
Example: Pay 1 Year, 3 Money, and 1 Heart & Cross to take this card from the Life Story track. Put this newly acquired card on top of your personal discard pile. You may use it after it's shuffled into your Draw Deck.
When paying with resources, move your corresponding Resource Tokens to the left to indicate the amount used.
When paying with time, move your Age Marker in the direction toward age 54. If the space your Age Marker is landing on has other Age Marker(s) on it, place yours on the rightmost side (furthest away from age 20) among them.
b. Take one Occupation or Project Card from the Occupation & Project track. The slot where the card is located shows the requirement for that card. You must pay the required resources and time to take the card and place it on top of your personal discard pile.
Tip: Occupation Cards in your deck are like your friends of different professions. They will visit you from time to time and you get to learn something from them (in the form of resources in the game). Making friends is always a good thing, isn't it?
c. Take one Achievement Card by attending a Reunion (Available after age 30).
- When all players' Age Markers reach or go beyond age 30, shuffle all 4 "Age-30 Reunion Cards" and randomly reveal 2 cards faceup on the Reunion area on the game board. Then shuffle all 14 Achievement Cards and randomly reveal 6 cards faceup on the Achievement Card area on the game board.
- The resources shown on the Reunion Cards indicate the requirement that you must pay to attend the Reunion.
- After paying the requirement of one of the Reunion Cards, you may choose one of the Achievement cards still available on the game board and place it faceup in front of you. That's the goal of your life you just realized, after the long talks with old friends in the Reunions. :-)
Do not shuffle Achievement Cards into your deck!
- A player can attend Reunions as many times as he wants. As long as there are still Achievement Cards available, you may attend the Reunion to take additional Achievement Card(s).
※ You may choose to pay for the same Reunion Card every time you attend the Reunion. You may spend your time to substitute for missing resources when attending a Reunion.
- When all players' Age Markers reach or go beyond age 40, remove all Reunion Cards and Achievement Cards on the game board. Shuffle all 4 "Age-40 Reunion Cards" and randomly reveal 2 cards faceup on the Reunion area on the game board. Then shuffle the 8 remaining Achievement Cards and randomly reveal 6 cards faceup on the Achievement Card area on the game board. From now on players may attend Reunions by paying for the requirements shown on the new Reunion Cards.
Pay for the requirement shown on the Reunion Card, and take one Achievement Card on the game board.
Tip: Like it or not, there is always sparkles during the reunions. Maybe you will find a new direction of your life after all those chit chats. :-)
III. Self-Growing Phase (Optional)
Choose one Occupation or Project Card that you have played this turn, pay for the requirement, and put that card into your CV.
a. Complete a Project: If the chosen card is a Project, place it on the bottom of your CV to reveal only its lower part. You have completed a Project and expanded your CV.
b. Switch to a new Occupation: If the chosen card is an Occupation, place it on top to cover the upper part of the current Occupation. You have switched to a new profession and gained a new special ability to replace the previous one. There is no coming back to the previous Occupation in the game.
※ Along the game it's very likely that there are more and more cards stacking in your CV area. Be sure to spread them out so that each card's bottom part (Bonus icons and colors) must be visible.
Pay for the requirement to switch to a new Occupation, and place it on top of your CV.
A completed Project is placed on the bottom of your CV.
IMPORTANT: Although Exploring Life and Self-Growing phases are optional, players must perform at least one of them on their turn! You cannot do nothing in your life. You may at least play some board games at home, right?
IV. Refreshing Phase
- Remove all cards you played this turn to your discard pile. Move all Resource Tokens to space "0." (Unspent resources are gone.)
- Refill the card slot on the track (if needed).
- The player whose Age Marker is now closest to age 20 may begin his/her turn.
※ Remember to keep all cards with VP icons on the left of cards without VP icons when refilling the track. ※ Whenever you need to refill cards and the corresponding deck has been exhausted, then no more cards will be added to the track.
Once your Age Marker reaches or goes beyond age 30, your "Young Heart" (30) card must be removed from the game at the end of your turn that you played it. (Yes, you are not that young anymore.) "Young Heart" (35) must be removed from the game at age 35 in the same manner.
Game End
When a player's Age Marker reaches or goes beyond age 50, after finishing their current turn, they retire (we can all dream, right?) and won't take anymore turns. When all players retire, the game ends.
Give each player one score sheet to keep track of their VP, which are earned from the following areas:
- VP from their Achievement Cards.
- VP on Life Story Cards.
- VP on completed Project Cards in CV.
- Compare the number of the 5 individual resources icons in the decks and CV among all players. For each type of resource, the player with the highest number of the resource earns 5VP, and the second highest earns 2VP. If tied, all tied players earn the full VP. (Resource icons appearing in Occupations' special abilities are not counted.)
- Penalty VP from delayed retirement: -1 / -3 / -6 / -10 VP if retired at age 51 / 52 / 53 / 54.
The player with the highest VP wins the game! If tied, the player with the most cards in their CV among the tied players wins! If still tied, the player who can tell a more impressive story about their life in the game wins!
Daydreaming and Lottery Ticket
When either of these two cards is revealed, immediately remove it along with the rightmost two cards on the Occupation & Project track as well as the Life Story track from the game (a total of 4 cards on the tracks will be removed). And refill the tracks normally.
Iconography
There are a variety of special abilities provided by Occupation and Project Cards. This section will explain how you may use these abilities in your turn.
- Bonus Resource Card: Immediately take the corresponding Bonus Resource Card, choose a color you like, and place it on the bottom of your CV. It acts like a completed Project which will provide Bonus Resource when the color is matched.
- Money / House: You may choose to gain 1 Money or 1 House in your turn.
- Book: Money: During Planning Phase, for each Book you gain, you gain additional Money.
- Green card: Heart & Cross: During Planning Phase, for each Green card you played, you gain additional Heart & Cross.
- House + House → Star: During Planning Phase, you may convert 2 Houses into 1 Star as many times as you want if you have enough.
- +1: You must play one additional card from your Draw Deck.
- Smile card: +1: During Planning Phase, for each card with Smile icon you played, you may play one additional card from your Draw Deck.
- Empty card slots (4 slots, one dashed): You must play one less card in your turn. (Normally you can play 4 cards.)
Clarification for Achievement Cards
- Social Butterfly: Only the Occupation Cards in your deck are counted. Occupation Cards in your CV are not counted.
- Spirit of Focus: Cards with multiple colors are counted for all the colors on it.
- Colorful Life: Cards with multiple colors are counted for all the colors on it.
- Best of the Best: If you are tied for the most, you still earn 5VP.
- Chameleon: Occupation Cards with multiple colors are counted for only one color.
- Storyteller: Your Starting Cards are also counted except for the two Young Heart cards removed at age 30 and 35.