No Shelf Control
No Shelf Control Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Materials
- 90 shelf cards in five colours (per colour: 3x1, 4x2, 5x3, 4x4, 2x5 shelf sections)
- 16 tokens (1 token as a spare)
- 5 Decor cards (special cards)
- 8 Reading Break cards (special cards)
- 5 Unread Books cards (special cards)
Goal of the Game
You lay out bookshelves made of shelf sections, decor items and unread books in front of you. The challenge: you never know how long the game will last. If you stack too high, the entire shelf collapses. But if you stack too low, the others will have more valuable bookshelves at the end. Whoever has the most victory points at the end wins the game.
Setup
Each of you receives three tokens. Place two of them in front of you with the grey side up (passive) and one with the blue side up (active). Shuffle all cards very thoroughly and form a face-down draw pile in the middle of the table. Each of you draws five cards. Lay out the cards with shelf sections face up in front of you, sorted by colour and fanned out on top of one another, so that all shelf boards can be seen. Each card shows a certain number of 1-5 shelf sections in one colour (exceptions are the special cards). If a Reading Break is revealed while drawing, the person concerned draws a new card. Shuffle the Reading Break into the draw pile. The Unread Books and the Decor items (last) are placed according to the rules on the following page; see Special Cards.
Gameplay
Whoever bought a book most recently begins the game. Then play proceeds clockwise. You draw exactly one card from the draw pile and reveal it. You place the drawn card on top, adjoining the shelf section and matching in colour, or you place the special card. Per colour you may only build one shelf.
Alternatively or additionally, you can use an active token (blue side) to reject this card or to draw another card. If you use NO token in your whole turn, you may flip one of your tokens to its active side.
Option NO
If you do not want the revealed card, you can use an active token, if you have one. You lay the card face up on the draw pile, flip a token to its grey side and thereby end your turn. The next person must now either take the card you rejected or likewise flip an active token. In case a card has been rejected by everyone in turn, you put it on the discard pile and draw a new card.
(Illustration: if you don't like the drawn card, you can flip another token to reject this card (NO) and lay it face up on the draw pile.)
Option MORE
It may be that in your turn you want to draw more than just one card. You take the first card from the pile, lay it next to you and can decide to draw one more by flipping an active token. You can do this as often as you still have active tokens in front of you. However, as soon as you have said NO once, your turn ends and you cannot demand MORE.
Special Cards
Decor Items
The Decor item gives five points, but unfortunately you cannot stack anything more on it, because the beautiful decor would otherwise be broken. If you later have to lay a card (Decor, Unread Books or shelf section) above the Decor, the complete shelf of this colour collapses (see "Stacked Too High"). You must place your Decor item on your highest shelf that does not yet have a Decor item. If this applies to several shelves, you have the choice of which shelf you place it on.
Unread Books Pile
You have a whole pile of unread books. You place it on the shelf with the fewest shelf sections; at least one must be present. All shelf sections below the unread books bring no points. For the permitted number of shelf sections, however, the lower shelf sections do count. You can only get rid of the unread books by deliberately stacking too high.
Stacked Too High
Each shelf may contain at most 9 shelf sections! Decor items and unread books are not counted in this. If you would have to lay a card with which you exceed the permitted number, or lay something above a Decor item, the entire shelf of this colour collapses. Put all cards of this shelf on the discard pile. You can start a new shelf of this colour at any time.
Reading Break
If you reveal a Reading Break, it is laid in the middle of the table. If you have revealed as many Reading Break cards as there are people at the table, the game ends immediately. In a game of two, you play until the third Reading Break. If the game does not end with this card, you draw a replacement card for it and continue your turn.
End of the Game
If you have revealed the required number of Reading Breaks, the game ends immediately.
Count who has collected the most points. Each stacked shelf counts one point per shelf section. Each Decor item counts five points. All shelf sections lying below unread books give no points.
Whoever now has the most points wins! If several of you have the most points, check who has more active tokens in front of them. That person wins. If that is also identical, you share the victory.
(Example illustration: three shelves scoring 4 points, 3 points and 13 points.)