Plunderbund Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
  • Board & Play Area
  • Player Area
• Gameplay: Game Flow & Phases
  • Start Season
  • Start Month
    • Generate Demand
  • Prepare
    • A. Draw Cards
    • B. Repay Favors
    • C. May Fire a Guild Member
    • D. Plan Actions
      • D.1 Assign Favors
      • D.2 Use Gray Market
  • Player Turns
    • 1. Improve Competition Tracks
• End of Game Scoring
  • 1. Turf War
  • 2. Disfavor
  • 3. Boss of Bosses
• Additional Card Text
  • Guild Leader
  • Moll
  • Prospector
  • Recruiter
  • Ring Leader
  • Huckster
  • Money Launderer
  • Thief
  • Underboss
  • Trusted Advisor

Components

• Two-Sided Game Board
• Player Mats (1 double sided mat per player)
• Starter Deck (8 cards per player)
• Agent Deck (12 cards)
• Favor Deck (80 cards)
• Recruit Deck (39 cards)
• Supply Cubes (100 wooden cubes)
• Turn Tracker (1 acrylic gem)
• Agent Figures (8 wooden figures per player)
• Racketeer Figures (5 wooden figures per player)
• Player Cubes (7 wood cubes per player)
• Start Player Tokens (4 cardboard tokens)
• Demand Coins (100 cardboard chits)
• Closed Merchants (10 cardboard chits)
• Cloth Bag
• Tuck Boxes (2 card boxes)

Game Setup

Board & Play Area

1. Game Board. Place the two-sided Game Board based on number of players. The 2-3 player side has three columns for each competition track and the 4-5 player side has five columns for each competition track.
2. Place Agents. Starting with the player with the cheapest looking shirt, place Agents one at a time on one of the available Starting Merchants. (Refer to table below.)
3. Closed Merchants. Place Closed Merchant Tokens on the Game Board. (Refer to table below.)
4. Recruit Deck. Form then shuffle the Recruit Deck and place face down. (Refer to table below.)
5. Agent Cards. Create three face up piles with each Agent Recruit Card (Prospector, Trusted Advisor and Huckster).
6. Reputation Track. Place a Player Cube on the Reputation Track for each player.
7. Competition Tracks. Place a Player Cube on each Competition Track for each player.
8. Turn Tracker. Place the Turn Tracker Gem on JAN.
9. Demand Pool. Form the Demand Pool by filling the cloth bag with Demand Coins. (Refer to table below.)
10. Goods, Favors & Coins. Place Supply Cubes in a pile to form the General Supply, Favor Cards in stacks, and Unused/Generic Demand Coins within reach of players.
11. Start Player. Determine Start Player by distributing Start Player Tokens. (Refer to table below.)

	2 Player	3 Player	4 Player	5 Player
A. Starting Merchants	8 or 14	3 or 8 or 14	2 or 6 or 13 or 17	2 or 6 or 11 or 13 or 17
B. Closed Merchants	Place all	2-3p, 2-4p, 2-5p	2-4p, 2-5p	2-5p
C. Form Recruit Deck	Cards labeled 2-5p	Cards labeled 2-5p	Cards labeled 2-5p and 4-5p	Cards labeled 2-5p and 4-5p
D. Form Demand Pool	2-5p coins	2-5p and 3-5p coins	2-5p, 3-5p, and 4-5p coins	2-5p, 3-5p, 4-5p, and 5p coins
E. Determine Start Player	Each player takes two tokens randomly from the four Start Player tokens.

Player Area

12. Player Mat, Figures & Player Cubes. Each player receives a two-sided Player Mat and a set of matching Figures and remaining Player Cubes.
13. Starter Deck. Each player places shuffled Starter Deck cards in the Draw pile area.
14. Setup Player Mat.
    • Place a Player Cube on the starting Gray Market Ratio (4:1).
    • Place a Player Cube on Starting Hand Draw Limit (5).

Gameplay: Game Flow & Phases

Start Season

Play advances through 4 seasons, each containing 3 months. Each season has an assigned start player.

The start player is the player holding the current season's start player token. In January, the start player has the Winter start player token and will be the first to take his/her card actions. In subsequent seasons, the start player will begin both the recruiting and take action phases.

Start Month

Generate Demand

You begin each month by placing demand coins on merchants. Calculate demand from the four competition tracks. On each competition track note the demand value for the highest Player Cube.

Add the demand from the leader of all four tracks to determine the total demand. Demand is in the column under the gray disc for every track.

Draw demand coins equal to the calculated demand from the draw bag. Place each demand coin on its corresponding merchant as indicated by the number on the demand coin. This is the only purpose for the number on the demand coin. It is only there to assist players placing demand coins.

Merchants may accumulate multiple demand coins. It is possible for guilds to exhaust the supply of demand coins. In this case, additional demand is not placed on the map until the start of the next month.

Example: The Demand from the Price track is 1, 1 from the Quality track, Appeal track is 3, and 2 from the Ingenuity track. The total Demand is 7. Draw 7 demand coins from the cloth bag and place them on their corresponding merchant.

Prepare

A. Draw Cards

All players simultaneously draw their hand of cards from their draw pile and reveal them face up in their play area. In the first month each player draws 5 cards, or in later months, as shown on the player board.

If you would ever draw a card from an empty draw pile, then and only then immediately shuffle your discard pile to recreate your draw pile, then continue drawing cards. It is possible though improbable, late in the game, for you to run out of cards to draw. In this case, you simply do not draw any more cards.

B. Repay Favors

Any Favors drawn are immediately returned to a pile of Favor cards. The favor has been repaid permanently. You will not draw any Favor cards from your draw pile during January as you have not added favors to your discard pile.

C. May Fire a Guild Member

If you draw four or more Favor cards on your initial card draw, you may choose to lose 1 Reputation and Fire a Guild Member. Search your cards for any 1 guild member card and remove it from the game. Reshuffle the draw pile if you looked through it.

D. Plan Actions

All players decide which cards/actions they will take and identify how they will pay for those actions.

• You may play your guild members in any order. Order can matter.
• You may choose to skip any guild member and play none of its actions.
• If a guild member has multiple actions, such as the Footpad, you may only take one of those actions. Visually, actions are separated by lines with an associated favor cost.

D.1 Assign Favors

After choosing the cards and actions, decide how to pay the favor cost by assigning favors, by using the gray market to avoid taking favors, or with Synergy bonuses that help you avoid paying favors for Starter cards. It is possible to pay for a single action with a mixture of favors and the gray market.

To pay a guild member's favor cost, take Favor cards from the Favor pile equal to the cost, and place them face-up with that guild member.

D.2 Use Gray Market

With your Gray Market section of your player board, you may exchange goods for Actions.

• You may exchange goods to avoid taking favors. No limit per month.
• You may exchange goods in order to draw one and only one card and place it in your play area. This card draw does not count toward your ability to Fire a Guild Member. If you draw a Favor card, you immediately repay it to the Favor pile.

Example: A player can trade in goods to avoid taking favors or draw a single card at the Gray Market rate as shown on the Player Board.

Player Turns

Player Turns go around the table in clockwise order, starting with the player who possesses the current start player token. Once a player completes their turn, the next player may proceed.

Once you have determined the cards and actions you want to play, implement those actions by following the card action text. These actions appear on Guild Member cards.

Basic Card Actions: 1. Competition Tracks (pg 8-9); 2. Place/Move Agent (pg 10); 3. Place/Move Racketeer (pg 10).

Advanced Actions: 4. Card Synergies (pg 11); 5. Retire (pg 11).

1. Improve Competition Tracks

One of the most important things you can do in Plunderbund is to improve your black market goods. You do this by playing a card that allows you to move up on the competition tracks. When you improve on a competition track, move your Player Cube up that many rows on the relevant competition track.

When you move your cube up, it is moved to the leftmost available space on the new row. This is called a First Move Advantage. The default for actions that affect the competition track is first move advantage.

Example: The Blue player uses the Craftsman card's ability to improve the Quality Track by 1. The card requires 1 Favor card, which is placed under the Craftsman card. The Blue player moves their cube up by one on the Quality Track.

Your position on the competition tracks directly impacts your ability to win sales during end of season scoring. Leftmost and highest Player Cubes win competitions. See End of Season pg 14.

Competition Track Layout

The four competition tracks are Price, Quality, Appeal and Ingenuity. Each track shows:

• 1.1 Demand Generated (gray disc column, left side of each track)
• 1.2 Goods Earned (barrel column, right side of each track)
• 1.3 Quality Awards: modify player board when reached.
• 1.4 Gray Market Start: the Quality Track shows the starting gray market ratio (4:1).
• 1.5 Appeal Awards
• 1.6 Ingenuity Awards: modify player board when reached.
• 1.7 Card Draw Start: the Ingenuity Track shows the starting card draw size (5).

Last Move Advantage

Some cards have the text Last Move Advantage. This means any of that card's actions move the cube up and to the start of the line and other Player Cubes on that row are moved to the right. Once you reach the top row, your position is locked and you cannot be affected by a Last Move Advantage.

Competition Track Bonuses

Most competition tracks provide a bonus based on your cube's row.

• Ingenuity Awards: Draw more cards at the start of each month. Once you've reached this award level, adjust the cube on your player board accordingly. This bonus takes effect on the next month. (Awards of 6 cards and 7 cards appear on the track.)
• Quality Awards: Improve gray market ratio. Once you've reached this award level, adjust the cube on your player board accordingly. You may use the new ratio immediately. (Awards of 3:1 and 2:1 appear on the track.) Quality is the tie breaker for Turf War (end of game area control scoring).
• Appeal Awards: Add reputation (score points). Each player to land on or pass the award rows immediately scores on the reputation track one point per row. A player that reaches the final row will have scored a total of 6 reputation points from Appeal Awards. Appeal is the tie breaker after all end of game scoring is completed.

2. Place or Move Agent

To place an Agent, take an Agent Figure from your supply and place it on a merchant. To move an Agent, move one of your Agents from one merchant to another.

• You cannot have more than one of your own Agents on a merchant.
• You can place your Agent on a Merchant that has another player's Agent.
• You cannot have an Agent on a hangout or a closed merchant.
• You can place an Agent on a merchant that has any player's Racketeer, including your own.

Example: A Player chooses to "Compete" by taking 2 Favor cards, and placing their Agent on a Merchant Location.

3. Place or Move Racketeers

To place a Racketeer, take a Racketeer Figure from your supply and place it on an open merchant. To move a Racketeer, move one of your Racketeers from one merchant or hangout to another merchant.

• You can place or move a Racketeer to a merchant that has a rival's Racketeer on it. This chases the rival's Racketeer away. Place the rival Racketeer on the hangout in the same region.
• You cannot place or move a Racketeer to a merchant where you already have a Racketeer.
• Racketeers don't affect Agents on a merchant.
• You may have an Agent and a Racketeer on the same merchant.
• Racketeers on a hangout count toward the turf war bonus at end of game.
• You can move a Racketeer from a hangout to a merchant in any region.
• You cannot have a Racketeer on a closed merchant.

Example: A Player chooses to "Travel". No favors are required. The player moves a Racketeer from one Merchant to another. (Thug card: "Protection: Place Racketeer." / "Travel: Move Racketeer." / "Racketeers Chase Rival Racketeers to that region's hangout.")

4. Take Advantage of Synergy

If a Recruit card has Synergy with a Starter card, play a single action from the starter card for no favors when both cards are in your play area. When claiming a synergy bonus, overlap the two cards to show that you have used this. A single Starter card cannot be used more than once for synergy per month.

The order that you use cards doesn't affect synergy. You ignore the favor cost whether you take the synergy card's action before or after the other card's action, or even if you don't take any of the synergy card's actions.

Eight of the twelve Recruit with Synergy cards improve your status on the competition tracks.

Example: The Recruit card, Enchanter, has synergy with the Starter Card, Mad Scientist. If both cards are drawn in a round, you may claim the +1 Ingenuity from the Mad Scientist without incurring the 1 Favor cost.

Example: The Recruit card, Guerrilla Marketer, has synergy with two Starter Cards - Copper Pincher and City Guard. If this Recruit card is drawn with either or both of those Starter cards, then you may play one or both of the drawn Starter card(s) without incurring the 1 favor cost.

5. Retire

If you reach the top row of a Competition Track, you may retire guild members in your play area that impact that track. Cards are in play even if they have already been executed this month. Drawn cards are in play even if they have not been and will not be executed. Cards are in play if they are drawn but not kept (such as with the Guild Leader's Muster action).

To retire a guild member remove it from the game and score +1 Reputation. In subsequent months, when a guild member that impacts that same track comes into your play area you may immediately retire them.

Example: The Diabolical Genius can be retired since it may affect the Quality Track.

Cleanup

Once you have finished taking actions, place all cards from your play area onto your discard pile (the executed cards, unexecuted cards, and collected favors). Gray market goods used to avoid favors or draw a card are returned to the general supply.

Earn Goods

At the end of each month, for each guild, calculate the number of goods to take. The price and the quality tracks have goods indicators. Sum the two values for each guild and then you take goods from the general supply based on your individual sum and place them in your warehouse.

Example: Blue earns 8 goods based on their position on the Price + Quality tracks.

End Month

Pass the current Season Start Player clockwise and advance the turn marker to the next space.

• If the space is a Month then begin the Month phase again. See Pg 6.
• If the space reads "End Season", begin the "End of Season Scoring" phase. See Pg 14.
• If the space reads 'Spring - Recruit', 'Summer - Recruit' or 'Fall - Recruit', begin the Recruit phase. See Pg 16.
• If the space reads "End Game", begin the End of Game Scoring phase. See Pg 17.

Month Track Anatomy

Turn Marker; Start Season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, End Game); Start Month (JAN-MAR, APR-JUN, JUL-SEP, OCT-DEC); End Season (four End Season spaces).

End Season

At the end of the season, Extort and then Sell black market goods for demand coins.

1. Extort

In merchant order, go through each merchant in the Sprawl and allow the Racketeers that are present to remove a demand coin, if available, from their merchants. Racketeers in hangouts do not extort.

After completing this step, every guild sums up the demand coins won from protection rackets and immediately scores two points on the reputation point track for each extorted demand coin.

Demand coins earned in this way do not require a good to be supplied. These coins are returned to the cloth bag.

Example: The Blue Racketeer can pick between the ingenuity and quality demand coins as payoff for his protection racket.

Example: Blue will earn 2 points on the Reputation track per demand coin extorted during the End Season Scoring.

2. Sell

There are three possible outcomes that will occur during the Sell phase.

A. If there are no Agents on a merchant, any demand coins remain.

Example: There are no Agents present on Merchant 8, therefore all demand coins remain.

B. If there is only one Agent, its guild wins all demand coins present that it is willing to supply goods for as long as they are above the START level of the competition track associated with that demand coin.

Example: There is a single Agent on Merchant 2, therefore all demand coins go to the Blue Player.

C. If there are multiple Agents, then there is competition for the demand. Each demand coin is associated with one of the competition tracks Appeal, Ingenuity, Quality, or Price. Compare all rival players on the related competition track. If a player is higher on a competition track, they can take the demand coins they are willing to fulfill. Otherwise, the competition passes to the remaining players in track order.

To accelerate game play, you may resolve competition first and then resolve the uncontested demand coins.

Example: Blue and Black compete. Between these players, the player with the highest Appeal can win the Purple demand coin. The player with the highest Ingenuity can win the yellow demand coin. Black wins the Appeal coin and Blue wins the Ingenuity Coin.

A player must be above the START level of the competition track related to that demand coin. If no player claims a demand coin, it remains on the merchant.

As you fulfill demand, take the demand coin and put it in front of you, place a good from your warehouse on top of it. This good is now sold. If you do not have any goods, you cannot claim demand coins. This process occurs at every merchant with demand coins.

Hint: If you know you are short of goods, decide early what demand you will leave so others can claim it.

When all merchant demand is resolved, you earn +1 reputation for each of your sold goods. Return all sold goods to the general supply. Return generic demand coins to the generic demand coin supply. Return all other demand coins to the bag.

Recruit

Summary: At the beginning of Spring, Summer and Fall, all players may recruit two new guild members in the form of cards and place them on top of their draw pile. Recruiting happens in a snake draft format where players, starting clockwise from the first player, select one card - then the players, starting counterclockwise from the last player, select a second card. The players select cards first-to-last then last-to-first. After recruiting, all players will have two new cards added to the top of their draw pile to be drawn in the first month of the season.

A. First Recruiter: Recruiting happens at the beginning of Spring, Summer and Fall - please remove the old Season Start Player token from the game, it will not be used again. The player holding the current Season Start Player token is the first recruiter in the first phase of recruiting and the last recruiter in the second phase of recruiting.

B. Agents: Form three piles, one pile for each Agent (Huckster, Trusted Advisor and Prospector). These are always available until the piles are depleted. These three Agent cards are always available, until all have been taken.

C. Revealing Recruits: Reveal cards from the Recruit Deck equal to the number of players + 1 and place face up for all players to see. These face up Recruits, along with the Agents, are available to be recruited. (In a 2 player game, three Recruit cards are available.)

D. Recruiting Clockwise: Starting with the player with the Season Start Player token and going clockwise, each player may hire one Recruit or Agent, placing it on top of their draw pile.

E. Remove Unpicked Recruits: All cards revealed that were not picked are removed from the game. Unpicked Agents remain, however.

F. Revealing More Recruits: Reveal cards from the Recruit Deck equal to the number of players + 1 and place face up for all players to see. These face up Recruits, along with the Agents, are available to be recruited.

G. Recruiting Counterclockwise: Starting with the last player to recruit and going counterclockwise, repeat the recruit process. Each player may hire one Recruit or Agent by placing it on top of their draw pile.

H. Remove Unpicked Recruits: All cards revealed that were not selected are removed from the game. Unpicked Agents are put aside for recruiting in future seasons.

End of Game Scoring

After four seasons are completed, progress to end of game scoring.

1. Turf War

Reputation Points (5/3/1) are awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place based on the number of guild figures (Agents and Racketeers) in each region. Racketeers in hangouts still count in Turf War.

Guilds must have at least one guild figure in a region to score. If there is a tie in the number of guild figures in a region, rank the guilds based on their position on the Quality Track.

Example: Stacktown is being scored for a Turf War, which contains merchants 1, 2, 3, & 4 and the Hideaway all with dark red name plates. To score the Turf War count all figures in the region. Yellow has 5, Blue has 4, Black has 4 and White has 2. Yellow wins the region and scores 5 Reputation. Blue and Black tie, so they compare positions on the Quality track. Black is leading, so Black takes second place and scores 3 reputation. Blue takes third place and scores 1 reputation. White comes in fourth and scores no points.

2. Disfavor

A Reputation point is taken away for each Favor card remaining in your deck (draw pile and discard pile).

Example: Yellow currently has 62 reputation and Blue 58. Both players gather up all the cards from their draw and discard piles. The Yellow Player finds 8 unpaid Favor cards in their deck. Each unpaid favor costs 1 reputation. Yellow adjusts their score, subtracting 8 point, to 54 reputation. Blue adjusts their score, subtracting 1 point, to 57 reputation. Blue wins the game!

3. Boss of Bosses

The player with the highest reputation is announced the reigning guild of the Sprawl, the winner of Plunderbund, and wins the soul gem.

If necessary, the tiebreaker goes to the guild with the highest Appeal Track position. In the extremely unlikely event both players are on the START line of the Appeal track, the game ends in a tie.

Additional Card Text

Guild Leader

Bribe: Immediately move your Player Cube up two on the reputation track.

Muster: Draw 3 cards into your play area, repay favors, keep 1, discard the rest. Any favors drawn are immediately removed from the play area to the Favor pile. If you have 0 cards remaining after repaying favors, this action is complete. If you keep a card, you can choose to play it immediately. You may retire any card drawn provided it meets the retire conditions. All other cards are discarded.

Moll

Mollify: Draw 5 cards into your play area, repay favors, keep 1, discard the rest. Any favors drawn are immediately removed from the play area to the Favor pile. You may retire any card drawn provided it meets the retire conditions.

Prospector

Hunt: This only lets you place an Agent on a merchant that has no other Agents.

Hype: Add two generic demand coins to any one merchant where you have an Agent. The demand coins can be of different types. You can run out of generic demand coins. Generic demand coins act the same as regular demand coins, but they don't have a merchant number. When you would place a generic coin in the draw bag, you instead return it to the generic demand coin supply.

Recruiter

Mollify: Draw 3 cards into your play area, repay favors, keep 0, discard the rest. Any favors drawn are immediately removed from the play area to the Favor pile. You may retire any cards drawn provided it meets the retire conditions.

Poach: Remove a rival's Agent if that rival has more Agents on the map than you do. The rival removes their Agent to their supply. You place an Agent from your supply onto any merchant.

Ring Leader

Steal: Immediately take two goods from a rival and place them into your warehouse.

Cheat: After taking one favor to pay for this action, all subsequent actions you take this month can be paid for with 1 good per favor avoided. If you have not done so already, you may draw one additional card this turn for one good.

Huckster

Seek Demand: This lets you place an Agent on a merchant as long as it has at least one demand coin. Hint: Generate demand will happen at the start of the next month.

Money Launderer

Fence: Open a closed merchant by removing the closed merchant token from the merchant. Remove this token from the game. Immediately score the competition track bonus or reputation gain based on the icon of the merchant you opened. Retrieve all demand coins for the opened merchant from the pool of demand coins on the side of the game board and place them on the merchant. Place your Agent on the merchant. All players may now use this open merchant.

Thief

Steal: Immediately take two goods from the general supply into your warehouse. You cannot use the Thief to steal from a Rival.

Underboss

Reinforcements: Move all your Racketeers out of hangouts. They can be moved to a merchant as per Racketeer movement rules.

Whack: Remove a rival Agent from anywhere on the map and return the Agent to the rival's playing area.

Trusted Advisor

Expertise: You can place an Agent on any merchant you can move a Racketeer to and then move your Racketeer to that merchant. You cannot place an Agent on a merchant you already have a Racketeer.