Prime Time

Prime Time Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Overview

In Prime Time, each player takes on the role of an executive in a broadcasting network, in charge of prime time television, dealing with the most demanding audiences and competing with rival networks for ratings.

The game is designed for 2-4 players and takes about 30 minutes per player.

During each round, players use their Player tokens to determine their 3 actions. After all tokens have been placed, the players will use their actions to create the best possible prime time lineup. The game lasts for 6 rounds (each round representing 1 week), as players compete to gain the most viewers and generate revenue from selling commercial slots. At the end of each season (rounds 3 & 6), an Awards Ceremony will take place and players will gain victory points (VP). At the end of the game, the player with the most VP wins.

Components

2 Rulebooks (English and German)
Game Board
1 Drawstring Bag
55 Demographic Cubes (10 of each: Pink, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green and 5 Black)
4 TV Guides (Player Boards)
Money Tokens ($1, $5, $10 and $25)
Bond Certificates ($5 and $10)
17 Client Tokens
38 Talent Cards (Red)
48 Show Cards (Blue)
20 Re-Run Cards
12 Boardroom Cards
6 Variety Tokens
24 Player Tokens (6 of each colour: Purple, Orange, Grey and Blue)
1 Round Marker
1 First Player Marker

Show Card Anatomy

A Show card has: Title, Demographic Potential, Flavor Text (no effect on the game), Genre, Illustration, Duration and Min. Bid.

Duration types: Series, Mini Series, Single Show.

Talent Card Anatomy

A Talent card has: Title, Star Quality, Demographic Potential, Flavor Text (no effect on the game), Genre, Illustration, Min. Bid and Type.

Genre types: Sci-fi, Action, Reality, Comedy, Drama.

Talent types: Cast, Writer, Director, Producer, Actor.

Some Talents may work on different Shows and on different networks simultaneously - this is why some Talents have duplicate cards.

Setup - Game Board

Place the game board in the middle of the table. Place the Round token on the 1st round space on the round track.
Sort the Boardroom cards into 3 decks, one for each character. Shuffle each deck and place each of them face-down next to the game board. Turn the top card of each deck face up.
Shuffle the Show cards together and place the deck face down to the right of the game board.
Shuffle the Talent cards together and place the deck face down to the right of the game board.
Draw the top card from the Show deck and place it on the leftmost space that matches the color of the minimum bid (the Gold or Silver $ symbol). If there is no vacant space for the card, discard it and draw another. Repeat drawing cards until all spaces are filled.
Repeat the same process as in step 5, for the Talent cards.
Shuffle the Client tokens and place them in a pile next to the game board. Take two of them at random and place them on the matching spaces on the game board.
Arrange all Money tokens next to the game board.
Place all of the demographic cubes in the bag and shake the bag to mix them up.
Draw 3 demographic cubes at random from the bag and place them on the Monday daily pool. Repeat this process for each of the remaining daily pools.
Draw 15 demographic cubes at random from the bag and place them in the forecast section on the board - 1 demographic cube on each space.

Setup - Players

Each player selects a color and places the matching TV Guide board in front of themselves.
Each player receives their 6 Player tokens. Three of them are placed in front of the player. Another is placed on the '0' position of the VP track, another on the '0' space on the rating track and the last one is placed at random on the Turn order space.
Each player draws 3 Show cards from the deck and secretly chooses 2 of them to keep as their starting hand. The remaining card is discarded face up next to the Show deck.
Each player will receive starting funds equal to $30 minus the sum of the minimum bid value of the two Show cards they chose to keep.
Each player also receives bonus funds based on the Turn order card they were dealt ($0, +$1, +$3, or +$5).

Gameplay

A game takes place over 6 rounds, divided into two seasons of 3 rounds each.

Each round follows 4 Phases:

Development Phase - Players take turns placing their markers until each player has placed all 3 actions
Broadcasting Phase - Players set their TV guide and attract demographics
Awards Ceremony Phase (only in rounds 3 and 6) - Players score points
Income Phase - Get paid, clear the board and set up for the new round

1. Development Phase

The Development Phase is divided into three Subphases:

1.1 Place Player tokens and resolve actions
1.2 Resolve bidding spaces - buy new Shows and Talents
1.3 Change Turn order

1.1 Place Player Tokens

This Phase is conducted in Turn order. Each player will place one of their Player tokens onto an available space on the game board. The process is repeated until each player has placed all three of their Player tokens. There are two areas where tokens can be placed, action sections and bidding Spaces.

The following rules apply:

Players may only place one of their tokens per turn.
No space may have more than one Player token on it. There are no action spaces in the R&D and HR sections, so any number of Player tokens may be placed there.
Unless otherwise noted, the player may have more than one token in each Action section.
Tokens placed in the Action sections are resolved immediately, with the exception of R&D.
Bidding spaces are resolved after all tokens have been placed.
Additional rules for placing tokens on bidding spaces can be found below (Bidding Spaces).

Note: Red boxes like this include important notes or exceptions.

Action Sections and Action Spaces

With the exception of R&D, when a Player token is placed on one of the other actions, the action is resolved immediately and must be performed completely.

R&D

To place a token on this space, the player must pay $1 to the bank. Each player may have one token on this space and a token placed here is put on top of any tokens already on the space.

Tokens in R&D determine the new Turn order later in the round (see 1.3).

Archives

There are two available spaces in the Archive section. Each space allows a player to take a "Re-Run" card from the supply.

Golf Course

There are two spaces at the Golf Course (only one in a 2-player game). A Player token placed on one of these spaces earns the player 1 Victory Point; advance the Player token on the VP track.

Human Resources (HR)

There is no limit to the number of tokens that may be placed here during a round. By placing a token here, a player can "loan" one of the Talent cards in his hand to a smaller TV network (one that is not in the game) by placing it face-down in front of them. This card is no longer playable during the current season but will return to their hand at the start of the next season. For doing this, the player receives $1 for a Silver Talent card or $4 for a Gold Talent card.

Public Relations (PR)

There are three available spaces in PR (only two in a 2-player game). When placing a token here, a player performs one of the following actions.

Add demographic cube - Take a demographic cube from any of the forecast spaces or daily pool and add it to any daily pool (Mon - Fri)
Switch demographic cubes - Choose any 2 cubes in two different daily pools and swap them. The days do not have to be adjacent.

Example: Alex takes a black demographic cube from Monday and switches it with a green demographic cube from Tuesday.

Bidding Spaces

Each Show space and Talent space on the game board has a corresponding set of bidding spaces below it. There are 2 types: Gold and Silver, with Gold representing a more prestigious Show or Talent.

When placing a Player token on a bidding space, a player must follow these rules:

A bid must be at least the minimum bid value of the card on the space.
A bid must be higher than any previous bid on the same card.
A player cannot outbid their own Player token.
A bid cannot be higher than $16 for Gold and $7 for Silver.
The player making the bid must place an amount of money equal to the bid on the card that they are bidding for. That money is considered 'spent' and is no longer available to the player.
If a player is outbid, they take back the money used to bid, but leave the token on the space. That money is now available to the player again.

Example: Alex (orange) makes a bid of $8 for Amazon Run (the minimum bid). He places $8 alongside his Player token. Later in the Phase, Charlotte (purple) makes a higher bid of $12. Alex (orange) leaves his token on the space but takes back the money he bid.

1.2 Resolve Bidding

After all Player tokens have been placed, bids are resolved in order from left to right, Shows first, followed by Talents.

All winning bidders pay for the cards they won, using the money that was placed on the card.

Players take the cards that they won and add them to their hand. Player tokens used for winning bids are removed from the board and placed back in front of the respective players.

Then, left to right on the game board, starting with the Shows and then the Talents, all players with tokens which were outbid may now move the token to the lowest cost bidding space of a remaining Show or Talent on the game board. The player pays the cost on the bidding space ($1 for Silver, $4 for Gold) and takes the appropriate card into their hand. Note that this allows buying a card for less than the card's minimum bid.

Alternatively, a player may place their outbid token on a vacant Action space and carry out that action. If there are no cards left to take, and the player does not want to use an Action space, he can simply take the token without performing an action.

Example: Alex was previously outbid. Unfortunately, he spent all of his money on bidding for another card, so he currently has no money. He therefore cannot buy one of the other cards, or place his token on R&D (as this costs $1). Instead, he places it on the Golf Course and gains 1 VP.

1.3 Change Turn Order

The new turn order is determined by the order of the tokens in R&D, with the player at the top of the stack being the new first player, the player with the second token being the new second player, and so on. A player who does not place a token on R&D will move down in turn order below any player who did place a token in R&D. If no tokens are placed on R&D, then the turn order will remain the same.

Example: The current turn order is Alex (orange), Bridget (blue), Charlotte (purple), Dave (grey). Charlotte (purple) and then Dave (grey) place their tokens on R&D. At the end of the Phase, the new turn order is Dave, Charlotte, Alex, Bridget.

2. Broadcasting Phase

The Broadcasting Phase is divided into seven Subphases, each of which is followed in order.

2.1 Forecast Demographic Change - Move demographic cubes from Forecast to the relevant daily pools
2.2 Schedule Submission - Players submit their TV Guides
2.3 Ratings War - Resolve day by day Ratings
2.4 Check for Show cancellations
2.5 Gain Client tokens
2.6 Gain Variety tokens
2.7 Update Hotness track

2.1 Forecast Demographic Change

Each cube in the appropriate row of the Forecast section is added to its corresponding daily pool (From left to right, Monday to Friday). For Rounds 1 & 4, use the lower row. Rounds 2 & 5 use the middle row and Rounds 3 & 6 use the top row.

Note: Because of certain PR actions, some forecast slots may be empty, thus no new demographic cubes will be added for that day.

2.2 Schedule Submission

In turn order, each player submits a broadcasting schedule for the round by assigning Show cards and Talent cards to the daily slots on their Player board. After a schedule is submitted, it cannot be changed until the next round.

Tip: When submitting a schedule, try to match the Genre icons on Shows and the Talents assigned to them; this will help you gain more demographic cubes.

The following rules apply to broadcasting schedules:

A player may only broadcast one Show on each day.
Talents can only be hired on Series and Mini-Series, not on Single Shows.
Any number of different types of Talents may be assigned to a Series and Mini-Series (e.g. You cannot have 2 producers on the same Show, but you can have a producer and a writer).
A Re-Run card can be played on any daily slot and counts as a Single Show.

During this step, each player may also reschedule up to two of his face-up Shows on their TV Guide by moving them (along with any assigned Talents) to different days.

Example: Alex wants to reschedule his "Home and Away" Show to air on Monday (instead of Tuesday) because there is less opposition on that day. He also wants to broadcast a new Show he acquired, along with a Talent card, on Thursday.

2.3 Ratings War

During this step, players resolve the daily ratings. This is done for each day in order, starting with Monday. Resolution is done in 3 steps:

2.3.1 Determine primary demographic cube potential
2.3.2 Allocate primary demographic cubes
2.3.3 Allocate remaining demographic cubes

2.3.1 Determine Primary Demographic Cube Potential

Each player determines how many primary demographic cubes they are entitled to according to the following breakdown:

Each Star symbol on Show cards and Talent cards entitles the player to 1 primary demographic cube
Each Talent card that is attached to a Show card with a matching Genre icon entitles the player to one additional primary demographic cube

Example: Alex hires two Talents for his Show. Both Talent's Genres match the Show's Genre, entitling him to 2 primary demographic cubes. One of the Talents also has a Star symbol, entitling him to 1 more cube. Alex is entitled to 3 primary demographic cubes in total.

2.3.2 Allocate Primary Demographic Cubes

During this step, each player in turn order takes one demographic cube from a daily pool and places it on a matching demographic cube space on one of their Show or Talent cards for the corresponding day. A player who does not have any allocation of primary demographic cubes (no Stars or matching Genre icons) skips this step.

A player cannot take a demographic cube if there is nowhere that it can be placed.
Black demographic cubes are 'wild' and can be placed on any demographic cube space (on a Show or Talent).

The process is repeated, with each player in Turn order taking and placing one demographic cube, until there are no cubes left to take, or all players have used their allocation.

Example: On Tuesday, Alex (orange) is entitled to 3 primary demographic cubes and Bridget (blue) is entitled to 1. Alex (orange) first picks the black demographic cube and places it on the "Aged Teens" Talent card. Bridget (blue) then takes the blue demographic cube and puts it on her Show, "Space Quest". Alex (orange) is still entitled to two more primary cubes and takes the two green, placing one on the Show, "Home and Away" and the other on his Talent "Luke Watcher".

Tip: Try to place at least one demographic cube on each card you scheduled.

2.3.3 Allocate Remaining Demographic Cubes

Any demographic cubes remaining on the daily pool are then allocated in a similar way:

In turn order, each player may take one demographic cube from a daily pool and place it on a matching demographic cube symbol on the Show or Talent card for the corresponding day.
A player cannot take a demographic cube if there is nowhere that it can be placed, and must pass instead.
Black demographic cubes are 'wild' and can be placed on any demographic cube symbol (on a Show or Talent).
A Re-Run has one space which may have any demographic cube placed on it.

This process is repeated according to Turn order, with each player taking and placing one demographic cube, until there are no cubes left to take, or no player can take any of the remaining cubes.

2.4 Show and Talent Cancellations

Each player checks each of their Show and Talent cards to see if they need to be cancelled.

If a Talent did not attract any demographic cubes, that Talent is removed from the Show and the card is turned face-down and placed in front of the player for the remainder of this season. It is only returned to the player's hand at the start of the next season. Only then may the Talent be reallocated to another Show.

Note: When a Talent is turned face-down in this way, the player does not collect any money.

If a Show card did not attract any demographic cubes, the Show is canceled and must be discarded immediately. A player who has a Show cancelled in this way draws a Re-Run card.

If a Re-Run did not attract any demographic cubes, it is discarded and the player does not draw another Re-Run card to replace it.

A Talent card that was assigned to a Show that was cancelled and not turned face down (i.e., the Talent received at least 1 demographic cube), remains on the player's TV guide until the Clean Up Phase when it is returned to the player's hand.

Example 1: The Talent shown here did not attract any demographic cubes. The Talent is removed from the Show and the card is turned face down. The Show card stays in play.

Example 2: The Show is cancelled and discarded. The player receives a Re-Run card. The Talent that was assigned to the Show stays on the player board face up and is returned to the player's hand in the Clean Up Phase.

2.5 Client Tokens

Each Client has a specific requirement of demographic cubes. If a player meets that requirement with demographic cubes placed on their cards, they receive the Client token, place it in their playing area and take the money indicated on the token from the bank.

If more than one player meets the requirement for a Client token, check each player's TV Guide. The one who met the requirement earlier in the week gains the token. If there is still a tie, the player earlier in the Turn order gets the token.

Example: Alex (orange) and Bridget (blue) compete to take the "Krunchy Flakes" Client token. The Client required 4 brown demographic cubes and 1 green demographic cube.

Alex (orange) has 1 green demographic cube, 2 brown and 2 black demographic cubes. As black cubes are wild, he meets the requirements.

Bridget (blue) also meets the requirements by having 4 brown demographic cubes and 1 green demographic cube.

Bridget (blue) supplied the full contract earlier in the week (Wednesday) and wins the contract. She gains a one-off bonus of $6 and keeps the Client token in her playing area.

2.6 Variety Tokens

If a player has 5 Shows, one from each of the different Genres (Drama, Comedy, Action, Sci-fi and Reality), they take one Variety token from the supply and place it in front of themself. Re-Run cards are not considered to have any Genre.

2.7 Update Hotness Track

Each player looks at the the total number of demographic cubes placed on each day (on both Show and Talent cards). For each player, the day with the most cubes indicates their hottest show for that week and the number of cubes is the Show's hotness. This value is compared to the current position of their marker on the Hotness track. If the marker is on a lower position on the track, move it upwards to the space corresponding to the Show's hotness. If the marker is already on that number or higher, do not move it.

Example: In the previous round, Alex's (orange) hottest show had a hotness of 3. This week, his hottest Show of the week is on Tuesday (5 cubes), so he moves his hotness token from 3 to 5.

Note: if his hottest show this week only had 2 cubes on it, the hotness token would have stayed at 3.

When moving a player's token on the Hotness track, place it on top of any other tokens already there. The player whose token is on the bottom of a stack is considered to have the hotter Show (for the Awards Ceremony Phase).

3. Awards Ceremony Phase

This Phase is only conducted in rounds 3 and 6 (End of Season).

The industry celebrates the Season finale with some accolades and honors. Players are awarded Victory Points (VP) as follows:

1 VP for each other player's token behind them on the Hotness track (a token on top is counted as being behind).
The Show with the most Talent cards awards the owner 3 VP; the Show with the second most Talent cards grants 2 VP and 1 VP for the third most. If multiple Shows tie for the most Talents, add up the VP for each place and divide by the number of tied players, rounding down. E.g. If two Shows tie for the most, award each 2 VP (3 VP + 2 VP, divide by 2). If four Shows tie for the most, each gets 1 VP (3 VP + 2 VP +1 VP, divide by 4).
Each player submits their best Show. A player's best Show is the one with the highest primary demographic cube potential (stars and matching Genre icons). The best Show among all players gains 3 VP, second most gains 2 VP and third most gains 1 VP. Break ties the same way as above.
Each Variety token is worth 1 VP.
Each player scores points based on the current Boardroom cards (see Boardroom Cards below).

Note: If a Show or Talent did not receive any demographic cubes, it will have been discarded (Show) or turned face-down (Talent). It does not, therefore, count towards the awards.

4. Income Phase

This Phase is divided into three Subphases:

4.1 Return demographic cubes and earn money
4.2 Clean Up - remove all cards / bids
4.3 Setup for next round - draw new cards, tokens and demographic cubes (if needed)

Note: In Round 6, skip Subphases 4.2 and 4.3.

4.1 Return Demographic Cubes

Each player counts all demographic cubes placed on cards in their TV guide and collects $2 for each.

The cubes from each Show and Talent card are then returned to the corresponding daily pool. It is important that the cubes are returned to the correct daily pool.

Example: Alex managed to attract 5 demographic cubes on his TV guide, he will receive a total of $10 ($2 for each) in cash. Each cube is then returned to its corresponding daily pool.

4.2 Clean Up

Note: Skip this in Round 6.

Any Show or Talent cards remaining on the game board are discarded.

All Player tokens still on bidding spaces or in action sections are returned to the players.

Any face-up Talent card that is not attached to a Show card on a TV Guide is returned to the player's hand (one that was attached to a Show that was cancelled, but received at least 1 demographic cube itself). A face-down Talent card is left face-down until the start of the next season (Round 4).

All 'Single-Show' cards are discarded. Players receive a Re-Run card for each Show discarded in this way.

Any Re-Run cards used in this round are returned to the supply.

Clients tokens still on the game board are also discarded.

4.3 Setup The Next Round

Note: Skip this in Round 6.

Draw new Show and Talent cards to fill the spaces on the game board as per the rules for initial game setup. If either deck is empty, reshuffle all the discards to make a new deck.
Draw 2 new Client tokens and place them on the game board.
Advance the Round marker one space.

Also, at the end of round 3 (the Season 1 Finale), the following steps must be performed:

Refill the Forecast section by drawing 15 new demographic cubes at random and placing them onto the spaces.
Discard the 3 current Boardroom cards (the ones face up on top of the decks) and then turn over the top card of each deck to reveal the new boardroom objectives.
Any face-down Talent card is returned to the player's hand.
Each player discards all Client tokens.
Discard all Mini-Series Shows (returning assigned Talents to the player's hand) and give their owners a Re-Run card for each Show discarded.

Game End

After step 4.1 of the Income Phase in Round 6, final scoring takes place and then the game is over.

For every $3 a player has remaining, they score 1 VP. Leftover money is worth nothing. Example: Dave has $8 remaining. He scores 2 VP.

It is possible that players can exceed 50 VP. If this happens, just count beyond that point. The player with the most VP wins the game!

In a case of a tie, the player amongst those tied with the highest total value of their current Shows and Talents on his TV guide wins the game.

If there is still a tie then the winners will split the honors.

2 Player Game

Each round only consists of 4 days of broadcasting. The Friday space is not used.
Only use the leftmost four columns in the Forecast section.
Action spaces with the 2-player icon are not available for use.
Bidding spaces with the 2-player icon are not available for bidding and do not have cards placed on them.
When resolving the Hotness scoring during the Awards Ceremony Phase, the player who has the hotter show gains 2 VP instead of just 1.
A player only needs 4 different Genres in their schedule to gain a Variety token.

Advanced Rules

Two optional rules are listed here, you may use either or both for your games. The first one should be used once you are comfortable with the base game. The second one should be considered a variant.

Issuing Bonds

This rule allows a player to do things during the game that they would otherwise not be able to do because of a lack of money.

During setup, place all the Bond tokens next to the game board, near the bank.

Any time a player needs money to either use an action space or to make a bid, and they do not have enough money, they can issue bonds. When taking a bond certificate, the player also takes the same amount of money from the bank. A player may only take a Bond for the amount needed at the time.

Example: Alex has already made a bid for $3. The money is on the board, next to his Player token. He wants to make another bid on a different card for $6, but he only has $2 left. He takes a $5 bond from the bank, also taking $5 in cash. He now makes the bid, placing $6 next to his Player token, leaving him with $1. He was not allowed to take a $10 bond, because he did not need the extra money at the time.

Bonds cannot be repaid at any stage of the game and they give a player negative points during each Awards Ceremony Phase (-1 VP per bond, no matter what the value of the bond). At the end of the game, when final scoring occurs, the value of a player's Bond certificates are deducted from their total cash when determining VP for cash remaining.

Simultaneous Scheduling

During the Broadcast Phase, players submit their TV guides simultaneously and in secret. Use something appropriate as screens so that other players cannot see the schedules of other players. Once all players have finished, the TV guides are revealed.

Note: Using this rule changes the balance of the game in terms of the turn order, since the player last in turn order will have to submit his TV guide without seeing any of the other player's TV guides first.

Boardroom Cards

This is a list of all the boardroom cards. One from each deck is scored during the Awards Ceremony Phase. Each card gives the players VP based on certain criteria. When multiple players tie, evenly divide the VP of the respective places between the tied players (round down).

Market Trends (1) - Gain VP if you have at least one Show of the matching Genre: Comedy - 3 VP; Reality - 2 VP; Drama - 1 VP.

Market Trends (2) - Gain VP if you have at least one Show of the matching Genre: Reality - 3 VP; Sci-fi - 2 VP; Action - 1 VP.

Market Trends (3) - Gain VP if you have at least one Show of the matching Genre: Sci-fi - 3 VP; Action - 2 VP; Reality - 1 VP.

Market Trends (4) - Gain VP if you have at least one Show of the matching Genre: Drama - 3 VP; Action - 2 VP; Comedy - 1 VP.

Max $ - Gain VP based on cash available: Most - 5 VP; 2nd - 3 VP; 3rd - 1 VP. Example: Dave has $7, Charlotte and Bridget have $5 and Alex has $1. Dave gains 5 VP, Charlotte and Bridget get 2 VP each.

Min $ - Gain VP based on cash available: Least - 5 VP; 2nd - 3 VP; 3rd - 1 VP.

Min Re-runs - Gain VP based on number of Re-runs you have left in your hand: Least Re-runs - 5 VP; 2nd - 3 VP; 3rd - 1 VP. Example: Alex, Charlotte and Dave have no Re-runs in hand. Bridget has 2. Alex, Charlotte and Dave score 3 VP each. Bridget scores nothing.

Too Many Stars - For each Star Quality symbol on your face-down Talents, you gain: 1 Star - 1 VP; 2 Stars - 3 VP; 3+ Stars - 5 VP. Note: Some face-down talents have more than one star symbol.

More Clients - Gain VP based on the number of Client tokens you have: 2+ Client tokens - 5 VP; 1 Client token - 2 VP.

Most Stars - Gain VP based on the number of Star symbols in your TV guide: Most - 5 VP; 2nd - 3 VP; 3rd - 1 VP.

Min Bonds (use this card only with Advanced Rules) - Gain VP based on the total bond value you have: Least - 5 VP; 2nd - 3 VP; 3rd - 1 VP. Example: Charlotte and Dave have issued no bonds, Alex has issued $5 of bonds, and Bridget has issued $10 of bonds. Charlotte and Dave both score 4 VP, and Alex scores 1 VP.

Single Show Frenzy - Gain VP based on the number of Single Shows in your TV guide: 2 Shows - 1 VP; 3 Shows - 2 VP; 4+ Shows - 3 VP. Note: Re-runs count as a Single Show for this card scoring.