Top Pop
Top Pop Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- A deck of 42 City Cards
- 5 Soda Company Boards
- 7 City Power cards (for variants)
- 75 Stackable Bottle Caps (5 different colored sets of 15)
The City Deck
- The deck consists of cards representing 7 different cities.
- Each card has a number (3 through 9) on the top left corner indicating how many cards of that city are in the deck.
- One card of each city is a night card, with a moon on the back. The rest are day cards, with a sun on the back.
- The City Deck is a constructed differently depending on how many people are playing. Make sure you have the appropriate cities included for the number of players.
| Players | Cards total | Cities |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Players | 18 | St. Louis, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas |
| 3 Players | 25 | Cards from 2-player plus Chicago |
| 4 Players | 33 | Cards from 3-player plus Seattle |
| 5 Players | 42 | Cards from 4-player plus New Orleans |
Soda Company Boards
These Soda Company Boards display your soda company logo and includes a reference of game rules and end-game scoring.
Set Up
- Shuffle the constructed City Deck (see The City Deck) and place it face down in the middle of the table.
- Give each player the Soda Company Board of their color.
- Put all 15 Bottle Caps of each player's color in the middle of the table. Any caps of colors that no player is using are returned to the game box.
- Give players their starting resources:
- 1st player: 1 cap of their color and a hand of 3 cards.
- 2nd player: 2 caps of their color and a hand of 3 cards.
- 3rd player: 1 cap of their color, a hand of 4 cards, and they select 1 card to place in front of them.
- 4th player: 3 caps of their color and a hand of 3 cards.
- 5th player: 2 caps of their color, a hand of 4 cards, and they select 1 card to place in front of them.
There are 4 places cards can be:
- In the deck
- In a player's hand
- On the table in front of a player
- In a player's score pile
There are 3 places bottle caps can be:
- In the middle
- In a player's supply
- On a card in front of a player
The player who most recently owned a soda company goes first, then play continues to the left.
On Your Turn
1. Win City Cards
Locate, in front of all players, all City Cards on which your stack of caps is the tallest stack. You have won these City Cards! (These caps were placed on previous turns, during step 4, so you will not have any on your first turn.)
For each card you won:
- Place the City Card face down in your score pile.
- Give all of the caps in the tallest stack to the player that the card was in front of. Unless you win a card in front of yourself, then the caps in the tallest stack go to the middle.
- Everyone else who has a stack of caps on the City Card gets them back.
- If you win your 6th card, you trigger the final round (See End of Game).
Skip step 2 if a player has already won 6 cards.
2. Place a City Card
Choose one of the City Cards in your hand and either:
- Place the card in front of another player. Take a cap of their color from the middle. This is the only way to get two caps this turn, which can be very important.
OR
- Place that card in front of yourself. If another player eventually wins this card, you will gain several caps, but you have to wait longer for them.
If you place a night card (with a moon on the back), you must place it face down. You still look at it, and if you put it in front of another player, they may look at it (and you still get the bonus cap of their color), but no one else can see what it is unless they win it. Choosing who you share a night card with (and who you don't) is as important as what the card is. Different players want different cards, so use this to your advantage.
3. Collect Caps
Take a cap from the middle, of any color you want. Since the color of caps matters when placing stacks (see step 4), think about what colors you need. If you are not sure, it does not hurt to take your own color.
4. Place Stacks
Using the caps in your supply, place stacks of caps on any number of City Cards you want (no more than 1 of your stacks of caps per card, though). These represent marketing resources you are committing to build your market share in that city.
Your stacks of caps must satisfy the following rules:
- Your stacks must always have a cap of your color on top to show they are yours.
- When you place a stack on a card, it must be the tallest stack on the card. If it is still the tallest on the card when your next turn starts, you win the card.
- If other players already have a stack of caps on a card you want to place a stack on, then identify the player who owns the tallest stack on the card (their color is on top of their stack), and your stack must contain at least 1 cap of their color. The other caps in your stack can be any colors you want.
- If you already have a stack on a card (from a previous turn), but your stack is not the tallest, then you may add caps to your stack until it is the tallest. One of the caps you add must be the color of the player who owns the current tallest stack, and you must also add another cap of your color on top of your stack. You may add any additional caps you want in order to make your stack taller. Do not move or adjust any of the caps that were already in your stack.
- After placing or adding to a stack, leave all other stacks on the card. They will remain until someone wins the card.
- If you do not have enough caps of the right colors, you may not place a stack.
Example: This card already had a stack on it from the yellow player. For the blue player to place their stack, they had to include an orange cap in their stack, a blue cap on top, and the stack had to be taller than the orange player's stack. This new stack will stay on the card with the existing stack until someone wins the card.
The orange player's existing stack on this card has been outdone by the blue player's larger stack. The yellow player may add caps to their stack if they want to beat the blue player. If so, they must add a blue cap (since blue is currently winning) and must also add another orange cap of theirs on top. They also could have added other caps if they had wanted, as long as an orange cap is always on top.
5. Draw a Card
If there are any cards in the deck, take the top card of the deck and place it in your hand. If the deck is empty, skip this step.
End of Game
As soon as a player wins their 6th card, they trigger the end of the game. All players return any remaining City Cards from their hands to the City Card deck and it is removed from the game. Without these cards step 2 (Place a City Card) and step 5 (Draw a Card) do not happen in this final round.
The player who triggered the end of the game completes this turn. Then each other player takes one more turn, and then the game ends.
After the last player's final turn, any City Cards still in front of players are won by whichever player has the tallest stack on them. Any City Cards with no stacks are removed from the game. No one wins them.
Scoring
The cards in your score pile are scored to determine the winner.
- If you have more cards of a city than anyone else, you get 2 points per card of that city.
- If you are tied for most cards of a city, you instead get 1 point per card of that city.
Example: If you have 4 New York cards and everyone else has 3 or fewer, gain 2 points for each New York card. You now have 8 points. If you have 2 Seattle cards, another player also has 2 Seattle cards, and everyone else has fewer, gain 1 point for each Seattle card. You now have 2 points.
Also score variety points for the number of different cities you have in your score pile:
| Different cities | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 city | 0 |
| 2 cities | 2 |
| 3 cities | 4 |
| 4 cities | 6 |
| 5 cities | 8 |
| 6 cities | 10 |
| 7 cities | 12 |
Example: If you have 3 New York cards, 2 Chicago cards, 1 Seattle card, and 1 St. Louis card, then among your 7 cards, you have 4 different cities, which is worth 6 points.
The player with the most points wins. If players are tied, the player with more caps wins.
Lite Version
The Lite Version of Top Pop follows the same structure, but removes some of the more complex or nuanced rules. It is more appropriate for new players. Use these modifications:
- You do not need to include a cap of the currently winning soda company when you place a stack on a card.
- Players do not have a hand of cards. Each turn, you draw 1 card at the beginning of your turn and choose where to place it.
- The game end is triggered when a player wins their 5th card instead of their 6th card.
Two-Player Version
When playing with two players, the players' roles shifts from being the soda company to being an advertising consultant working on behalf of all of the soda companies. Players earn interest in each of the companies they assist and will earn points based on how well each company performs.
1. Set Up
Set up the game for four players (e.g., four soda companies and 33 city cards). Each player will take a player board and flip it to the two-player side, which will show the pay outs for City cards played and cap values at the end of the game. For each company, place the stack of caps so that there is enough room for a columns of six cards that can be played beneath each stack of caps.
After shuffling the City cards, the first player is dealt five City cards and the second player is dealt six City cards. Place the remaining cards in a draw deck within reach of all players. Draw one City card and place it face-up under the first soda company. Flip a second City card and place it under the second soda company.
Starting with the second player, that player will select two cards from their hand and place them face-down one at a time under two of the four soda company cap stacks. These two cards will act as the seventh card for each of these soda companies, respectively. The second player will also discard a City card out of game leaving three cards remaining in their hand.
The first player will select two cards from their hand and place them face-down one at a time under the two remaining soda company cap stacks. With three cards remaining in their hand, the first player will take their first turn.
2. Game Play
Players will take turns playing a City card from their hand to one of the four soda companies. Depending on the number of cards previously played, the player will earn caps from that soda company (see below). If possible, the player will draw a City card to restore their hand back to three cards.
- 1st City Card - 4 caps
- 2nd & 3rd City Card - 3 caps
- 4th & 5th City Card - 2 caps
- 6th City Card - 1 cap
If the sixth card for a soda company has been played, the seventh card that was assigned is attached to the soda company face-down thereby closing the company to any further City cards. Any Night Cards are played face-down (note: any face-down card should be placed in the direction of the owning player so that they may inspect these cards later in the game).
3. Game End
When each company has received six cards from the players along with the attachment of the seventh City card, the game moves to scoring. The first phase is to determine how each soda company did. Scoring is conduct using the rules outlined in Scoring above. However, each of the companies will be scored independently based on majority and diversity scoring. The individual cap value will be based on how the company performed:
- 1st Place - 5 points per cap
- 2nd Place - 3 points per cap
- 3rd Place - 2 points per cap
- 4th Place - 1 point per cap
Any ties will shift down to the next lowest score (e.g. two companies tied for 1st will score caps at 2nd place; three companies tied for 2nd will score caps at 4th place). Players evaluate each of the caps they have earned during the game and will calculate their score based on the payouts above for each soda company.
Example: Meredith earned 7 caps from the 1st place soda company, R&R Root Beer. She earns 35 points (7 caps x 5 points per cap).
The player who has the most points, after scoring their caps, wins. If there is a tie, the player with the fewest caps wins. If there still is a tie, then the victory is shared.