Simplicity Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Content
• Game Setup
• Game Objective
• Gameplay
• End of the Round
• End of the Game
  • Links
  • Neighborhoods
  • Park tiles
  • Extra point tokens
• Special Rules
  • Two teams per player
  • Demolition
• Credits

Content

• 1 bag
• 1 score pad
• 1 planning board
• 4 park tiles
• 1 special terrain tile
• 32 building tiles: 8 blue Residential, 8 purple Commercial, 8 orange Office, 8 yellow Civic
• 1 demolition token
• 6 terrain tiles
• 5 extra point tokens
• 6 planning sets, each set represents a team, and contains:
  • 1 extra point tile
  • 5 wooden discs
  • 1 pawn

Game Setup

1. To form the city board, gather and shuffle, face down, the special terrain tile with as many terrain tiles as indicated on the table below. Place them on the center of the table, side by side, making sure they all have the same orientation (every tile should point in the same direction). If there are any terrain tiles left, return them to the box as they will not be used in this game.

2. Give each player a planning set. In Simplicity each set represents a team led by people in charge of planning the city. From now on we will talk about teams to refer to each set of tokens. Each team plays and scores independently, even if they are commanded by the same person.

   Note: For games of 2 or 3 players each person should take two planning teams. The extra point tile will help you remember which Planner has collected extra point tokens.

3. For games of 2, 4 or 5 players (4 or 5 teams in total), keep the demolition token in the playing area. For games with 3 or 6 players, leave the demolition token in the box as it will not be used in the game.

   Players	Number of terrain tiles	Teams per player	Teams in the game	Demolition
   2	4 + Special terrain tile	2	4	YES
   3	6 + Special terrain tile	2	6	NO
   4	4 + Special terrain tile	1	4	YES
   5	5 + Special terrain tile	1	5	YES
   6	6 + Special terrain tile	1	6	NO

   Note: at the end of the rulebook you will find the special rules for "Two teams per player" and "Demolition Token".

4. Place the planning board near the city board, with either side face up.

5. Put all the building and park tiles into the bag and shuffle them. Then draw seven tiles at random and place them face-up one at a time beside the planning board.

   Note: parks cannot appear in the first round. If one is drawn, return that tile to the bag and replace it with another. Parks are a special type of tile, they score differently at the end of the game (see "End of the Game").

6. Leave the extra point tokens near the play area.

7. To determine the order of the first round, gather up the team pawns. Randomly reveal a pawn and place it by the first space of the planning board. Then reveal a second pawn and place it by the second space. Repeat the process until all the pawns are arranged next to the planning board.

Game Objective

The goal of Simplicity is to plan the perfect city. To achieve this, each team must choose and strategically position the buildings, forming neighborhoods of buildings of the same type and generating links between their buildings throughout the game. The bigger the neighborhoods and the more connected they are, the more chance you have to win.

Gameplay

Simplicity is a game of exactly five rounds, where the player turn order changes from round to round according to the position of the pawns on the Planning board. First, it's the turn of the person who controls the team of the pawn that is at the top of the planning board, then the person who controls the second-place team plays, and so on. Whoever starts can choose any tile next to the Planning board and when taking it they must position their pawn where the tile was.

But beware! The order of play will depend on the position where each player places their pawn, and the best tile may force you to play later on the next round.

Example: Chito plays with the pink team. Since he is positioned in the first space he is the first to play. On his turn he chooses the last tile, so he will be the last to play in the next round.

On their turn, each player must take an available building or park tile, place it on the city board and mark it with a disc of their color.

To place a tile on the city board the following rules must be followed:

• The first, second and third spaces of the planning board have a single symbol: the building or park tiles that are next to them can only be placed on a space on the city board with the same symbol.
• The fourth, fifth and sixth spaces of the planning board have two symbols: building or park tiles in these positions may be placed on spaces on the city board with either of the two symbols.
• The last space on the planning board has no symbols: it is a wild space and the building or park tile next to it can be placed in any space on the city board. There is a blank space on the city board: this can only be filled with a building or park tile from the last space on the planning board.

Whenever you can place a tile, you must. In the rare event that no tile can be placed on the city board, you are free to place any tile on any available space.

Example: Fefa plays with the white team. She chooses the third building tile and leaves her pawn in its place. Then, she places the tile in a space on the board with a pentagon symbol. Finally, she places a disc of her color on the tile.

End of the Round

After each team has chosen and placed their first building tile, the first round ends. Then follow these steps to prepare for a new round:

1. Discard the remaining tiles next to the planning board. Then flip the planning board.

2. Draw 7 tiles randomly from the bag and place them on the available side of the planning board (where there are no pawns).

3. Give an extra point token to the team that came last in the turn order (whoever has their pawn lowest on the planning board). If playing with the demolition token, this token must also be given to the team that was last (see "Special Rules").

   Note: in games where there are two teams per player, whoever obtains the extra point token must place it on the corresponding extra point tile (see "Special Rules").

After the preparation, the next round begins. Following the new turn order, the steps described here must be carried out:

1. Take an available building or park tile and leave a pawn where it was.
2. Construct the building or park tile by positioning it on a valid space on the city board.
3. Place a disk on the newly constructed tile.

Once all the teams have chosen and placed a new building or park tile, the steps to prepare the new round are repeated until the fifth round is over.

End of the Game

After 5 rounds (when all teams have placed all of their color discs) the city of Simplicity is finally complete and it is time to see how each team has performed. Use a sheet from the score pad to make counting points easier.

Each team earns points in the following ways:

Links

A link is made up of two discs of the same color placed orthogonally adjacent to each other (horizontal or vertical, not diagonal). It doesn't matter if the building tiles they are on are the same or different. Each link between discs of the same team will score 3 points.

Example: JC, who plays with the yellow team, scores 9 points for links.

Neighborhoods

Each disc will score according to the extent of the neighborhood where it is located. You must count how many building tiles of the same type are placed next to each other orthogonally (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally). The points that each disk gives you will be the number of building tiles that make up the Neighborhood.

Example: Ismael, who plays with the brown team, scores 4 points for each of his discs in that neighborhood. Fran, who plays with the red team, also scores 4 points for each of his discs in that neighborhood. As Ismael has two discs, he scores 8 points, while Fran, having only one disc, scores 4 points.

Park tiles

Park tiles are a special type of tile. Unlike the other tiles, these are scored based on the number of different types of building tiles orthogonally adjacent to them (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally). Each park tile will score as many points as buildings of different types are adjacent to it, squared. That is to say:

Nº of different buildings	Points
1	1
2	4
3	9
4	16

For scoring this type of tile, another park tile does NOT count as a different building.

Example: Fefa, who plays with the white team, scores 1 point for her first park, since it is surrounded by only 1 type of building (commercial). Also, she scores 9 points for her second park, since it is surrounded by 3 different types of buildings (civic, commercial and residential). In total, Fefa scores 10 points for her park tiles.

Extra point tokens

Each extra point token gives 1 extra point to the team that obtained it.

The person with the most points will be the winner of the game. In the case of a tie, whoever is higher in the final turn order wins. In games where more than one team is being commanded, only the points of the team with the lowest score will count for each player.

Note: after scoring the links we recommend scoring by neighborhood, removing the discs as the scores are recorded.

Special Rules

Two teams per player

In games of 2 or 3 players, each player must control two teams instead of one, which will score independently. It can happen in these cases that a person has to play twice in a row with their different teams. The game proceeds in the same way, but at the end of the game only the points of the team with the lowest score will count for each player.

Demolition

In games with 2, 4 or 5 players, at the beginning of the round the person who manages the team that is last in the turn order receives the demolition token (in addition to the extra point token). That player immediately places the demolition token on one of the 7 building or park tiles available on the planning board, indicating that that tile will not be available during the next round.

Credits

Game design: David Brain

Cover illustration: Sergio Cháves

Components illustration: Rainer Petter

Edition and development: Jorge Larraín, Jose Manuel Álvarez

Graphic design: Laura Mena, Verónica Muñoz

Art direction: Jorge Larraín, Laura Mena

Rulebook: Jose Manuel Álvarez, Simón Weinstein

Game review: Manuel Warner

Gametest coordination: Eduardo Bravo

Published by Fractal Juegos (fractaljuegos.cl) and Gigamic.