ShutterBug Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Contents
• Setup
• Game Play
  • Step 1: Populate the Board (if necessary)
  • Step 2: Move Your Character and Perform Its Actions
    • A. Trade Tips
    • B. Draw Tips
    • C. Take a Photograph
  • Step 3: Discard to 7 Tips and Pass the Photo Draw Bag
  • Ending a Round
  • Your Secret Assignment
  • Side Jobs
  • Ending the Game and Winning
  • ShutterBug with Two Players

Objective

Crisscross America, gathering Tip cards to take photographs of hidden creatures in the wilderness. At the end of eight rounds, the winner is the player who provides the best quality photos in fulfilling their Secret Assignments and completed Side Jobs.

Contents

• 1 game board
• 48 Creature Photo tiles
• 48 Tip cards
• 8 Character pawns
• For 2 player games
• 24 Side Job markers (4 each in 6 colors)
• 72 Secret Assignment cards
• 6 Player Turn Order cards
• 1 Round token
• 1 First Player token
• 1 Photo draw bag

Setup

Place the game board in the center of the table with the Round token on the "1" space.

Shuffle the 48 Creature Photo tiles and place them blindly into the bag.

Shuffle the Secret Assignment cards and deal one face down to each player. All remaining Secret Assignment cards are removed from the game. Players may look at their Secret Assignments but must keep them hidden from other players—it's important that your Secret Assignment is never revealed until the end of the game.

Shuffle the Tip cards and deal three to each player to form their initial hand. The remaining deck of Tip cards is then placed next to the board with enough room beside it for a discard pile.

Each player receives the Character pawn, Player Turn Order card, and Side Job markers matching their Character color. Players each choose a starting City on the board and place their Character in that space; more than one Character can occupy the same City.

The player who has the most photographs on their phone receives the First Player token and Photo draw bag. (Now, please put your phone away; you will not need it for the remainder of the game.)

Game Play

The game takes place over eight rounds. A round consists of each player taking a turn as the Active Player. When you are the Active Player, you will perform the following three steps; once you complete them, the next player clockwise becomes the Active Player.

Step 1: Populate the Board (if necessary)

Draw Creature Photo tiles from the draw bag one at a time and place them on the board, silhouette side up, until 7 board spaces contain tiles. Creatures and terrain on the tiles and spaces must match.

If two of the same tile are drawn, place them both in the same space and continue drawing until 7 spaces are filled.

Step 2: Move Your Character and Perform Its Actions

One space at a time, move your pawn 1, 2, or 3 spaces on the board. You cannot return to any spaces you occupied previously on the same turn. You may perform the following actions as your pawn lands on each space:

A. Trade Tips

If you have Tip cards in your hand, when your Character moves to a space containing one or more pawns from other players, you may initiate a single trade with each of those players, in this sequence:

i. Choose a Tip card from your hand and place it face down in front of the player with whom you wish to trade.

ii. Randomly choose a Tip card from the other player's hand and add it to your own.

iii. The other player collects your face-down Tip card and adds it to their hand.

B. Draw Tips

When your pawn moves through a City space, draw one Tip card and add it to your hand; if your pawn ends its movement on a City space, draw two Tip cards instead. A player must finish all trading before drawing any Tip cards. Players do not draw Tip cards when moving through or ending their turn on a wilderness (non-City) space.

C. Take a Photograph

When your pawn occupies a space containing a Creature Photo tile, you may discard specific Tip cards to take the Creature Photo tile and add it to your Portfolio (a play space in front of you viewable by all players).

Each Creature Photo tile features a creature, its terrain, and its Photo Quality number. To collect a Photo tile in the space your pawn occupies, you must discard a number of Tip cards from your hand equal to the Photo Quality number shown on the tile.

The first Tip card you discard must show the creature matching the Photo tile you wish to take; if you do not have a Tip card matching the creature on the Photo tile you wish you take, you cannot take that tile. Any remaining Tip cards needed to reach the Photo Quality number must match either the creature or the terrain of the space in which the creature resides. Tip cards can be discarded either as their creature OR their terrain, but never both.

Tip card icon shows Terrain and Creature. Note: Terrain is also identified by a creature's background.

After discarding the required Tip card(s) for a Creature Photo tile, take the tile from the board, flip it over to its photograph side, and add it to your Portfolio. The tile's Photo Quality number now becomes the Scoring Value the photograph contributes to fulfilling a Secret Assignment.

Example: 3 point photo = creature + creature + terrain.

You may take only one Creature Photo tile per space, even if there is a duplicate present.

Step 3: Discard to 7 Tips and Pass the Photo Draw Bag

After you finish moving and performing actions, check to see how many Tip cards are in your hand. Choose and discard Tip cards until you have no more than 7 remaining in your hand.

Finally, pass the Photo draw bag to the next player clockwise, who becomes the new Active Player.

Ending a Round

Once all players have taken a turn and the player holding the First Player token is the Active Player again, move the Round marker one space forward on the track and begin the next round. The game will end at the conclusion of the eighth round.

Your Secret Assignment

Two competitive tabloids have hired you to provide specific collections of creature photographs. These collections are depicted on the Secret Assignment card you received at setup. Each Secret Assignment card shows the competing tabloids' requests: one on the left and another on the right. At the end of the game, you will have to choose between the two requests; which tabloid's needs can you best fulfill? The request you don't choose will be ignored.

A tabloid's request shows three creatures, with a minimum Scoring Value required for each. To score a particular creature at the end of the game, the combined Photo Quality of its Photo tiles in your Portfolio must add up to or exceed that creature's required minimum Scoring Value. If it does, you will score the creature's total Photo Quality as points; if not, you score zero for that creature's photos.

In the example above, you have chosen to score the right side of your Secret Assignment card:

• You surpassed the top creature's minimum Scoring Value of 5, so you get 7 points for its total photo quality in your portfolio.
• You will not score the middle creature, since its minimum Scoring Value of 4 was not reached.
• You met the bottom creature's minimum Scoring Value of 1, scoring you 1 point.

This Secret Assignment card has earned you 8 points in total.

Side Jobs

Who says freelance work doesn't pay? Mysterious third parties are seeking specific collections of photographs for their own purposes, as shown on the game board. If your Portfolio includes any such collections, you can score additional points for them! If you have collected a set of Photo tiles matching a Side Job's criteria, place one of your Side Job markers on it. You can fulfill each Side Job only once; multiple players can fulfill the same Side Job.

Side Job point values are shown on the board.

Ending the Game and Winning

Once all players have taken a turn in the eighth round, the game is over and scoring begins.

First, all players reveal their Secret Assignment cards and decide which tabloid request they wish to score: either the left or the right side of the card. Score the chosen side as outlined above in YOUR SECRET ASSIGNMENT, then add points for each fulfilled Side Job as shown on the board. Finally, if a player's Character pawn ended the eighth round in any City space, the player gains 2 Bonus points for punctuality (because tabloid editors hate holding the presses!).

To score, total all earned points from the Secret Assignment, Side Jobs, and Bonus; the player with the highest score wins! If there is a tie, the player with the highest total Photo Quality from all the photographs in their Portfolio wins. If still tied, the tied players share the victory—and possibly a Pulitzer Prize!

ShutterBug with Two Players

When taking on the exciting world of ShutterBug™ with two players, each player controls a team of two ShutterBug™ Characters. At setup, each player chooses two Character pawns of the same color (red or blue) and the matching set of Side Job markers. The teamed-up pawns must start the game on separate Cities. Each turn, you still move 1, 2, or 3 spaces, but you may split movement between your two pawns however you choose (including moving one pawn no spaces at all). As usual, a player draws one card for moving a pawn through a City space and two cards for moving a pawn into a City space to end their turn—making it possible to gain a maximum of four cards per turn in a two-player game. Character pawns belonging to the same player cannot occupy the same space at any time. At the end of the game, each Character pawn occupying a City space provides its owner 1 Bonus point.