Rockband Manager Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Object of the Game
• Components
• Component Overview
  • Rockstar Cards
  • Career Debut Cards
  • Career Apex Cards
  • Plastic Guitars
  • Cash Envelope Tokens
  • Award Tokens
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
• Phase A: Rockstar Recruitment
  • Setup Stage
  • Career Stage
  • Award Stage
• Phase B: Career Debut
  • Setup Stage
  • Career Stage
    • 1. Determine First Player
    • 2. Select Cards
    • 3. Resolve Duels
    • 4. Acquire Cards
    • 5. Resolve Opportunity Cards
    • 6. Restock Rows
  • Award Stage
• Phase C: Career Apex
  • Setup Stage
  • Career Stage
  • Award Stage
• Winning the Game
• Opportunity Cards
  • Career Debut Cards
  • Career Debut/Career Apex Cards
  • Career Apex Cards
  • Notes

Game Overview

In Rockband Manager, 3–6 players take on the roles of managers willing to do anything to launch a rock band to stardom. Players recruit musicians, find gigs, and cut records. The competition is tough, cheap shots are expected, and opportunities are few and far between. Only one band can carve its name into the legend of Rock!

Object of the Game

The player with the most Decibels at the end of his band's career wins the game.

Components

• 40 Rockstar Cards
• 35 Career Debut Cards
• 35 Career Apex Cards
• 6 Plastic Guitars
• 54 Cash Envelope Tokens
• 9 Award Tokens
• This Rulebook

Component Overview

This section describes the various components in detail.

Rockstar Cards

These 40 cards represent the musicians that players can recruit for their bands. They are divided by instrument into five categories: vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard.

Career Debut Cards

These cards represent the venues the bands play in, the records they make, and the opportunities and setbacks they have at the beginning of their careers.

Career Apex Cards

These cards represent the venues the bands play in, the records they make, and the opportunities and setbacks they have at the height of their careers.

Plastic Guitars

Each player uses one colored plastic guitar to identify cards he is interested in acquiring during the game.

Cash Envelope Tokens

These tokens represent the funds each player has to finance his band. Each player has nine tokens ranging in value from $1,000 to $9,000. Cash envelopes are used to recruit Rockstars, and they provide Decibels at the end of the game (as indicated by the number near the Decibel icon).

Award Tokens

These tokens provide Decibels at the end of each phase to players with high-achieving bands.

Game Setup

Before playing, set up the game as follows:

1. Choose Player Colors: Each player selects one player color and takes the plastic guitar and cash envelopes of that color. Return the components of unselected colors to the game box.
2. Prepare Awards: Separate the award tokens into three piles according to phases (A, B, or C) and place them in the central play area.
3. Prepare Rockstar Decks: Separate the Rockstar cards (marked with an "A") by instrument into five decks (vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard). Shuffle each deck and place them in a row facedown in the central play area.
4. Prepare Career Decks: Separate the Career Debut and Career Apex decks (marked with a "B" and a "C," respectively). Shuffle each deck and set them aside for now.
5. Determine First Player: The player who owns the largest CD collection is the first player.

Playing the Game

A game of Rockband Manager consists of three distinct phases that chart the course of each band's career. Resolve each phase in the following order:

• A. Rockstar Recruitment
• B. Career Debut
• C. Career Apex

Phase A: Rockstar Recruitment

In this phase, players recruit Rockstars for their bands. Players bid on Rockstars until all players have a band composed of five Rockstars, one for each instrument. This phase consists of three stages:

1. Setup Stage
2. Career Stage
3. Award Stage

Setup Stage

During this stage, one player flips the top card of each of the five Rockstar decks faceup and places it adjacent to its deck. These faceup cards represent the Rockstars available for the players to bid on.

Rockstar Card Anatomy — each Rockstar card shows: Instrument, Name, Charisma Value, Talent Value, Opportunism Value, and Overall Characteristic Value.

Each Rockstar has three characteristics that indicate how capable the Rockstar is: Charisma, Talent, and Opportunism. These characteristics show a value between 1 and 5, and each characteristic corresponds to one of the three types of Career Debut and Career Apex cards: Concerts, Albums, and Opportunities (see the Opportunity Cards section). The sum of the Rockstar's characteristics is its overall characteristic value, and this value ranges from 3 to 10.

Career Stage

During this stage, the first player places his plastic guitar on the faceup Rockstar card for which he wants to start an auction. Bidding for that Rockstar then commences. Beginning with the player to the first player's left and continuing clockwise, each player bids on that Rockstar or passes.

Note: The values of each player's cash envelopes are kept hidden from other players, but not the number of cash envelopes each player has.

Each bid must be greater than the previous bid. In addition, players must be able to honor their bids with a single cash envelope. They cannot use multiple cash envelopes to pay their bids. When the winning bidder pays his bid, he discards the cash envelope by returning it to the game box.

Note: Players cannot examine cash envelopes that have been returned to the box.

The bidding ends with the first player (i.e., the player who placed his plastic guitar on the Rockstar card), who can either:

• Recruit the Rockstar by matching the highest bid and discarding a single cash envelope of at least that amount to pay the bid

or

• Pass, leaving the Rockstar to the highest bidder, who then discards a single cash envelope of at least that amount to pay his bid and recruits the Rockstar.

Example: Al, Ben, and Mimi are in the Rockstar Recruitment phase. During Al's turn, he places his plastic guitar on Jacky Bananas (vocals), making him the subject of the auction. Ben, who is on Al's left, opens the bidding and offers $1,000. Mimi goes next and ups the bid to $2,000. Al can let Mimi have Jacky Bananas for $2,000, or Al can recruit Jacky for himself for $2,000 (or more if he already spent his $2,000 cash envelope).

After a player recruits a Rockstar, he places the Rockstar card faceup in his play area. He then flips the next card in that Rockstar deck faceup and places it adjacent to its deck. Thus, there is always one Rockstar available for each instrument.

After the Rockstar has been recruited, the first player retrieves his plastic guitar, and the player to his left becomes the first player. The new first player chooses a new Rockstar card to be auctioned by placing his plastic guitar on it. The game continues in this manner until all players have formed their band of five Rockstars (one for each instrument).

Note: A player cannot start an auction for or bid on a Rockstar card of an instrument type that he already possesses. If a player already has five Rockstars and it is his turn to start an auction, the turn passes to the player on his left.

If a player starts an auction for a Rockstar and no other players bid (i.e., all pass), he can either:

• Spend one cash envelope of his choice, usually his lowest value one, to acquire the Rockstar (managers do not have a reputation for generosity!)

or

• Pass and dismiss the Rockstar to the bottom of its corresponding deck. In this case, the player must discard one of his cash envelopes (in this case also, he usually spends his lowest value cash envelope).

Each player can dismiss up to three Rockstar cards to the bottom of their decks (and thus discard up to three cash envelopes) during the Rockstar Recruitment phase, but that means he will have fewer cash envelopes to use throughout the rest of the game!

Award Stage

The Award stage begins after all players have completed their bands with five Rockstars (one for each instrument). During this stage, awards are given out for particular achievements. Each award provides the winning player with a certain number of Decibels. There are three different awards given during the Rockband Recruitment phase: Most Promising, First Rockband, and Best Rockband.

The Most Promising award goes to the player whose Rockstars have the lowest overall characteristic value total for the entire band.

The First Rockband award goes to the player who completed his band first. The player who wins the First Rockband award cannot win either of the other two awards.

The Best Rockband award goes to the player whose Rockstars have the highest overall characteristic value total for the entire band.

Note: In the event of a tie between two or more bands for an award, no one receives the award.

Shuffle all faceup Rockstars that were not chosen back into their respective deck. Set the Rockstar decks aside, in case they are needed later.

Players keep their unused cash envelopes facedown for later in the game.

After awards have been given out, players move on to the next phase of the game. Players and their bands now have two phases to try to reach the summit of fame or be forever forgotten in the depths of the Billboard charts.

Note: Before your big debut, do not forget to name the band (Atomic Kitten, Gluestick, The Vlads, Poison Pill, and so on)!

Phase B: Career Debut

During this phase, the bands kick off their careers with their first gigs, first records, first opportunities, and first setbacks. This phase consists of three stages:

1. Setup Stage
2. Career Stage
3. Award Stage

Setup Stage

During this stage, one player takes the Career Debut deck (set aside during Game Setup) and draws the top 10 cards, one at a time. He places each card faceup in two rows of five (forming five columns). The column nearest to the deck is the first column, while the one farthest from the deck is the fifth column.

Career Stage

During this stage, there are five rounds. During each round, players use their Rockstars to acquire Career Debut cards. Each round players can use only one of their Rockstars, and each Rockstar can be used only once during this stage. (At the end of five rounds, all players will have used each of their Rockstars, one per round.)

The player seated to the left of the player who recruited the last Rockstar during the Rockstar Recruitment phase becomes the first player for the beginning of this stage.

Each round of play follows these steps:

1. Determine First Player
2. Select Cards
3. Resolve Duels
4. Acquire Cards
5. Resolve Opportunity Cards
6. Restock Rows

1. Determine First Player

In each round (except for the first round), the player to the left of the last round's first player becomes the first player for this round.

2. Select Cards

Starting with the first player, and proceeding in clockwise order, each player places his plastic guitar on the Career Debut card he wants from the array of cards. Multiple players may place plastic guitars on the same card.

Before placing a plastic guitar on a card, the player must first identify his active Rockstar – the Rockstar in his band he is using to acquire the card. To identify his active Rockstar, he moves the card slightly forward in his play area. Exactly which card the player can use the active Rockstar to acquire depends on the characteristics of that Rockstar. The active Rockstar can acquire a card from either row, but can only acquire cards from a column that is equal to or less than the value of the characteristic that corresponds to the type of Career Debut card in that column.

• Charisma corresponds to Concert cards
• Talent corresponds to Album cards
• Opportunism corresponds to Opportunity cards.

Example: Murphy Malone has the following characteristics: Charisma 3, Talent 5, and Opportunism 2. He can be used to obtain:

• A Concert card in the third column or lower, or
• An Album card in the fifth column or lower, or
• An Opportunity card in the second column or lower.

After each player identifies his active Rockstar and places his plastic guitar on a card, there are two possible outcomes:

• All players have chosen different cards, so each player acquires a card without further difficulty (see step 4, Acquire Cards).

or

• Some players have chosen the same card and therefore have to resolve a duel (see step 3).

3. Resolve Duels

When more than one player has placed his plastic guitar on the same card, a duel occurs and an auction is held for the contested card.

To resolve a duel, the players involved must secretly bid with their cash envelopes. Each player involved secretly chooses up to one cash envelope and holds it in his hand for his bid. Players can choose to bid zero cash envelopes – in which case they would pretend to be holding a cash envelope in their hand. Then, all involved players simultaneously reveal their bid.

The player who bid the highest value cash envelope wins the duel. He discards the cash envelope he bid and leaves his plastic guitar on the contested card.

Players who lose the duel keep the cash envelope they bid. Then, in turn order beginning with the first player, they must place their plastic guitars on a different card where no other plastic guitar is present. This second placement is restricted by the active Rockstar's characteristics. If a player cannot legally place his plastic guitar (because all the cards within the active Rockstar's ability are occupied), then he does not place it. The player does not acquire a Career Debut card this round.

If several players bid the same amount, compare the active Rockstars to break the tie. The player who owns the Rockstar with the highest value in the relevant characteristic wins the duel. If the active Rockstars have identical relevant characteristics, the player closest to the first player in turn order wins the duel. If tied, a bid of zero can win a duel.

Example 1: Al and Ben placed their plastic guitars on the same Concert card, so they must resolve a duel to determine who gets the card. Each player chooses one of his cash envelopes and holds it in his hand. Then, both players simultaneously reveal their bids. Al chose $5,000 and Ben chose $3,000. Thus, Al gains the contested card and must pay his bid. Al discards his $5,000 cash envelope to the game box. Ben keeps his cash envelope, but must now place his plastic guitar on a different card where no other plastic guitar is present and within his active Rockstar's characteristics.

Example 2: Al and Ben placed their plastic guitars on the same Album card, so they must resolve a duel to determine who gets the card. Both players choose to bid zero. Because they both bid the same amount, they must compare their active Rockstar's Talent characteristic. Both Rockstars have a Talent value of "3," but Ben is closest to the first player in turn order, so he wins the duel and must discard his cash envelope to the game box. Al must place his plastic guitar on a different card.

Note: The value of cash envelopes remains secret, but not the quantity. Players may count the number of cash envelopes another player has at any time, except during an auction. During an auction, players may conceal their remaining cash envelopes so that other players do not know whether they are bidding one envelope or zero. If a player runs out of cash envelopes, he can only bid zero, which generally results in his losing the duel.

4. Acquire Cards

After resolving duels, each player takes the Career Debut card his plastic guitar is on and places it in his play area. Each player must arrange his Career Debut cards in his play area as follows:

• Concert cards must be placed faceup in a stack with only the most recently acquired card visible.
• Album cards must be placed faceup in a stack with only the most recently acquired card visible.
• Opportunity cards must be placed faceup where each of them is clearly visible to the other players.

Players may examine their own stacks at any time, but opponents may examine only the visible cards on top of other players' stacks. Players cannot rearrange the order of the cards in their Concert or Album stacks.

Flip the active Rockstar card facedown to indicate that it has been used. Remember, each Rockstar can be used only once during each phase.

Example Play Area — each player's area shows: Rockstars, Concert Stack, Album Stack, Cash Envelopes, and Opportunity Cards.

5. Resolve Opportunity Cards

During this step, players resolve the effects of their Opportunity cards, if necessary.

There are two types of Opportunity cards:

• Immediate: Cards with effects that resolve once and are then discarded.
• Continuous: Cards with effects that provide a continuous benefit and remain in play until the end of the game.

Resolve the effects of immediate Opportunity cards one card at a time, in turn order beginning with the first player.

Note: Immediate Opportunity Cards are the only card in the game that players discard after use. Players keep all other cards acquired over the course of the game.

Continuous Opportunity cards remain in effect for the rest of the game. Players keep these cards faceup in their play area. (See the Opportunity Cards section for a detailed explanation of the effects of Opportunity cards.)

6. Restock Rows

During this step, each row of cards is consolidated and restocked. First, fill any gaps in the row by shifting cards from higher numbered columns downward to fill empty lower numbered columns, until the only empty columns are at the high end of the rows. Then deal cards from the Career Debut deck to refill the central play area so that once again there are 10 total cards (two rows of five cards).

Note: After completing the end of the fifth round of this stage, skip this step because restocking is no longer necessary.

Award Stage

After five rounds, the Career stage is complete, and the Award stage begins. At this point, all players have already used their five Rockstars and have acquired five Career Debut cards (unless a duel has gone seriously wrong, in which case a player may have obtained fewer than five cards).

The awards for this phase are then given out. Players add the total points of their Album cards, and the three players with the highest totals receive awards. The player with the highest total receives the Gold Record, the second highest receives the Silver Record, and the third highest receives the Bronze Record (providing 16, 12, and 8 Decibels, respectively).

Note: Album card points are not Decibels, but they help players earn records which are worth Decibels.

In case of a tie, compare the total overall characteristic value of all tied bands and the higher total wins. If there is still a tie, all tied players receive Decibels equal to the best award they tied for, and the next lower award (if any) is not given out.

Note: There is only one of each award token, so players should use some sort of readily available token (or make a note on a piece of paper) to represent additional copies of the award.

Example: Players tally the points from their Album cards. Mimi has 14 points, and Al and Ben have 0 points each. Mimi receives the Gold Record. Al and Ben tie, so each player adds up the overall characteristic value of all his Rockstars. With a total of 12, Ben has the higher total and receives the Silver Record. Al, who has 9, must be content with the Bronze Record. (If the bands had the same totals, Al and Ben would have each earned a Silver Record, and the Bronze Record would not have been given out.)

Note: Some Opportunity cards affect the top card of the Concert or Album stacks, so players must keep the cards in those stacks in the order in which they were acquired.

At the end of this phase, return the Career Debut deck to the box, as it will not be used again during this game. Players then flip their Rockstar cards faceup in preparation for the next phase.

Phase C: Career Apex

During this phase, the bands reach the height of their careers, with their greatest concerts, hit records, opportunities, and tragedies. This phase consists of three stages: Setup, Career, and Award.

Setup Stage

The Setup stage of this phase is the same as that of the Career Debut phase, except Career Apex cards are used instead of Career Debut cards.

Career Stage

The Career stage of the Career Apex phase is played the same as that of the Career Debut phase, except the Career Apex cards are used instead of Career Debut cards. Players use their Rockstars to acquire Career Apex cards over the course of five rounds.

Award Stage

In the Award stage of this phase, awards are given out in the same manner as they were during the Career Debut phase, except the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Records are worth 32, 24, and 16 Decibels, respectively. To determine who receives awards for this phase, players count the points from all their Album cards (i.e., Album cards acquired during both the Career Debut and the Career Apex phases).

Winning the Game

After the Career Apex phase, the bands split up and the game ends. It's time to look at what you've accomplished! Players must tally up their total Decibels for the game.

Each player adds up his Decibels from the following sources:

• Concert Cards (amount indicated on the card)
• Awards (amount indicated on the token)
• Remaining Cash Envelopes:
  • 1 Decibel for each from $1,000–$2,000
  • 2 Decibels for each from $3,000–$4,000
  • 3 Decibels for each from $5,000–$6,000
  • 4 Decibels for each from $7,000–$8,000
  • 5 Decibels for each of $9,000 or more

The player with the most total Decibels has managed the most epic band ever!

If two or more players are tied for having the most Decibels, the tied player whose band has the lowest overall characteristic value total wins. If those players are still tied, they share the victory.

The band managed by the player with the fewest number of Decibels is booed off the stage and is best forgotten… until next game.

Opportunity Cards

This section provides detailed descriptions of the various effects of Opportunity cards, as well as some rule clarifications concerning them.

Career Debut Cards

The Opportunity cards in the Career Debut deck are as follows:

Immediate Effect Opportunity Cards (cards discarded after resolving the effect)

• Sabotage: Each opponent must discard the Concert card at the top of his Concert stack. Return the discarded cards to the box. If a player does not have any Concert cards, this card has no effect on him.
• Tax Audit: Each opponent must randomly discard one of his cash envelopes. Return the discarded cash envelopes to the box. If a player does not have any cash envelopes, this card has no effect on him.

Continuous Effect Opportunity Cards (cards kept throughout the game)

• Contacts: The owner's cash envelopes are worth an additional $1,000 each, and he automatically wins all ties in which he is involved. The increase of $1,000 is also taken into account at the end of the game, when the remaining envelopes provide Decibels (so an envelope of $2,000, for example, is considered to be $3,000 and thus provides 2 Decibels instead of 1).
• Quality Gear: Each of the owner's Rockstars increases its Talent value by one.
• Hardcore!: Each of the owner's Rockstars increases its Charisma value by one.
• Fans: Each of the owner's Concert cards increases its value by 2 Decibels.
• Cool Ads: Each of the owner's Album cards increases its point value by two.
• Bootleg Records: This card counts as an album of identical point value as its owner's best album.

Career Debut/Career Apex Cards

The following Opportunity card appears once in both the Career Debut and Career Apex decks.

Immediate Effect Opportunity Cards (cards discarded after resolving the effect)

• Golden Opportunity: The owner draws the first five cards from the deck, keeps one of his choice, and then discards the remaining four cards to the game box. If he chooses a Concert or Album card, he immediately places it on top of his stack. If he chooses an Opportunity card, he plays it according to the rules.

Career Apex Cards

The Opportunity cards in the Career Apex deck are as follows:

Immediate Effect Opportunity Cards (cards discarded after resolving the effect)

• Overdose: Starting with the opponent to the owner's left and continuing clockwise, each opponent must discard one of his Rockstar cards of the "Overdose" owner's choice (returning the Rockstar to the game box) and replaces it with one random unused Rockstar of the same instrument (i.e., one not chosen during the Rockstar Recruitment phase). In addition, the "Overdose" owner can only choose Rockstars for whom there is a replacement Rockstar of the appropriate instrument available.
• Piracy: Each opponent must discard the top Album card from his Album stack. Return the discarded cards to the game box. If a player does not have any Album cards, this card has no effect on him.

Continuous Effect Opportunity Cards (cards kept throughout the game)

• Groupies: Each of the owner's Concert cards increases its value by 3 Decibels.
• Media Coverage: Each of the owner's Album cards increases its point value by three.
• World Tour: The owner adds the total Charisma value of his band to his total Decibels.
• Compilation: The owner adds the total Talent value of his band to his total points from albums.
• Connections: The owner adds the total Opportunism value of his band to his total Decibels and to his points for albums.
• Private Concert: This card counts as a concert of identical Decibel value to the owner's best concert.

Notes

If a player has the "Fans" and "Groupies" cards, their effects are cumulative: each of his Concert cards increases by 5 Decibels (2+3). The "World Tour" card does not benefit from these bonuses because it is an Opportunity card, not a Concert card.

If a player has the "Cool Ads" and "Media Coverage" cards, their effects are cumulative: for the distribution of awards, each of his Album cards increases by 5 points (2+3). The "Compilation" card does not benefit from these bonuses because it is an Opportunity card, not an Album card.

If a player has the "Quality Gear" and "Compilation" cards, the bonus provided by "Quality Gear" (5 in total) counts when calculating the bonus from "Compilation."

If a player has the "Hardcore!" and "World Tour" cards, the bonus provided by "Hardcore!" (5 in total) counts when calculating the bonus from "World Tour."

If a player has the "Bootleg Records" and "Compilation" cards, the "Bootleg Records" card can either take the point value of the "Compilation" card or his best album, whichever has the higher value.

If a player has the "Private Concert" and "World Tour" cards, the "Private Concert" card can either take the Decibel value of the "World Tour" card or his best concert, whichever has the higher value.