Barrio
Barrio Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
54 Material cards
14 Wood, 13 Brick, 13 Stone, 3 Concrete, 3 Plants, 2 Wildcards (you can only use one of them to build), and 6 Rubble cards. The total quantity of each type is shown on its card.
Rubble cards are a type of card that cannot be used to build, but they add or subtract extra points at the end of the game, and their value changes each game.
39 House cards
There are 3 types of landscape: flower, moon, and star. 13 cards of each.
In the top-left corner there is a Moon, Star, or Flower icon that is used for combined construction, the points it grants at the end of the game, and the materials needed to build that house.
On the bottom of each card you will see symbols in both corners that tell you which type of landscape you can connect it to, to create your panorama. The same Moon, Star, or Flower icon will also appear there, along with the end-of-game score.
6 Scoring and help cards
On one side they show the points that each Rubble card will subtract at the end of the game, and how many points the Rubble cards add or subtract. You will use one per game, so you can vary them each time you play.
On the other side, they are help cards to remind you of everything you can do on your turn.
Overview
In Barrio you will compete by building houses to form the best panorama of all. The center of the table becomes a "Common Market of Materials" that everyone must contribute to in order to build houses. You will have to share your materials, weighing the risk of helping your rivals against the thrill that what you need is still there when your turn comes around.
The game is played in rounds until someone builds a set number of houses, which depends on the number of players. At that point the round is completed so that everyone plays the same number of turns, and then you move to final scoring.
| Number of players | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houses to end the game | 7 | 6 | 6 |
Setup for 2, 3, and 4 Players
- Shuffle all the house cards and deal 5 face-down to each player. Of those 5, each player may choose to keep as many as they want and discard the rest. Then reshuffle the house deck, including all the discards.
- Place the house deck face-down to one side of the table, and put 4 cards face-up next to it, forming a market we will from now on call the "House Market". Leave a space beside it for the discard pile.
- Shuffle all the material cards and deal each player as many face-down as needed until they have 5 cards in hand, counting the house cards they chose to keep.
- Then place the material deck face-down to one side of the table, and place 4 cards face-up next to the deck, forming a material market we will from now on call the "Stockpile". If, when forming the Stockpile, there is more than 1 Rubble card or 4 identical materials, discard those cards and place 4 new ones instead. Leave a space beside it for the discard pile.
- Choose 1 Scoring card and place it face-up. For your first games we recommend playing with the card marked A. Once you are familiar with all the mechanics, choose one at random so you can vary your games. Then deal each player one of the remaining scoring cards, since on their other side they are turn-help cards. Return any leftover cards to the box.
- The player who most recently used a pencil starts, and places the "Start of Game" card in their play area.
(A worked setup example for 2 players appears in the original rulebook: each player keeps some of their 5 dealt house cards, is dealt face-down material cards up to a hand of 5, and receives a help card. The center of the table is left with room for a 5x5 grid to become the Common Market of Materials.)
Game Turn
On your turn you may perform only 1 of these 4 actions:
- Draw a card, material or house. You may draw from the "Stockpile", from the "House Market", or directly from the decks.
- Discard one or several house cards from your hand. Place them on the house discard pile. If there isn't one, form a new pile. Afterward you may draw the same number of cards of any type, face-up or face-down, indistinctly. You can combine house and material cards.
- Place one material from your hand in the "Common Market". Afterward draw 2 cards of any type, face-up or face-down, indistinctly. You can combine house and material cards.
- Place 2 materials from your hand in the "Common Market". Afterward you may do only one of these 2 things:
- Either draw 3 cards of any type, face-up or face-down. You can combine house and material cards if you want.
- Or build one of the house cards in your hand (see the Building action in detail below) using an entire row or column of the common market of materials to add it to your Barrio's panorama.
Remember always:
If, when you go to draw, there are no cards left in the deck, shuffle the discard pile and form a new face-down deck.
When you draw face-up cards, they are only replenished at the end of the turn.
You can never draw from the discard piles or from the "Common Market of Materials".
You can never have more than 7 cards in hand. If you have to draw and would exceed the hand limit, you cannot keep drawing.
If at the end of your turn you have fewer than 3 cards in hand, draw face-down cards as needed until you have 3 cards in hand again. You may draw any type, including a combination of houses and materials.
The following pages describe the actions in detail.
Placing a Material in the "Common Market"
If there is no material card in the center of the table, choose one of the material cards from your hand and place it to start a new common market. If there are already cards, always place it next to another one already there, touching one of its sides. You can never place it diagonally or separated from the rest of the cards.
Remember that Rubble cards count as materials, and you can also place them in the common market.
At the end of your turn, the common market can never form a grid larger than 5x5, including empty spaces. You may exceed the limit of 5 cards in a row or column in order to build one of the house cards in your hand.
If, exceptionally, on your turn you complete the 5x5 grid with no empty spaces, you may immediately build a house from your hand for free. Afterward, discard all the cards of the common market. You do not keep any Rubble cards if there were any.
Example: Loli wants to place a Rubble card from her hand. Since there is already a Brick card in the "Common Market", she may only place it in one of the spaces touching that Brick card's sides. After placing it, she may draw 2 cards.
Building a House
Remember always that:
To build a house you must first place 2 materials from your hand in the common market.
The row or column you use to build the house does not have to be the one where you placed your material cards.
If any row or column of the "Common Market" contains the materials needed to build one of the house cards in your hand, you may take all the materials from that row or column to build one of the houses in your hand. You are required to take all of them even if you have more than you need.
The materials shown on the house card go to the discard pile. Afterward, if any cards are left over, including Rubble cards, place them in your play area, forming your rubble pile.
After building a house, there will be an empty gap left where the row or column you just took was. Gather the materials remaining in the "Common Market", respecting the rows and columns, so that no empty spaces remain and no card is left untouching the sides of other cards. If in doubt, the person who just built decides.
Example: Emma wants to build house card (A). In the "Common Market", the central row (B) already has 1 Stone, 2 Bricks, a Concrete, and a Rubble card. She decides to place 2 Stones, one (C) in the first row and another (D) in the central row. Then she takes all the cards from the central row (B) to build house (A). She discards the 2 stones and 2 bricks, and places the leftover Concrete and Rubble cards on her rubble pile. Before starting the next turn, the remaining materials in the "Common Market" are gathered together.
Forming Your Panorama
A panorama is a set of 1 or more built house cards that together continue the same landscape.
All house cards have two symbols in their bottom corners that indicate which cards you can connect them to, in order to form a panorama.
When two or more houses are joined forming a panorama, you can no longer separate them, but if you have two separate panoramas and you build a house that connects them, you may join them into one.
When you build a house you may:
- If it connects to either end of another card or panorama you already had built, you may connect it.
- If it doesn't connect to any of the houses or panoramas you already had built, leave it separate, forming a new panorama. Panoramas of only 1 card do not grant points at the end of the game! There is no limit to the number of panoramas you can form.
- If it connects to the opposite ends of 2 panoramas you already had built, you may join them into one.
At the end of the game, each panorama you have scores depending on the number of cards that form it:
| Number of cards | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 21 |
Example: Alba had 2 unconnected panoramas in her play area — panorama (A) of 3 cards, worth 4 points at the end of the game, and panorama (B) of 1 card, worth 0 points. On her turn she builds card (C), which joins the opposite ends of both panoramas, and now she has 1 panorama (D) that will be worth 9 points at the end of the game.
Combined Construction (Flower, Moon, Star)
If, when connecting a house card to a panorama, you end up with 3 different symbols or 3 identical symbols in a row (sun, moon, or star), you may immediately place, for free, 1 of the house cards in your hand that continues the panorama you just built into. You can only do this once per game.
Example: Esther builds card (A) into her panorama and, in doing so, ends up with 3 different symbols in a row. Since she has card (B) in hand, which does continue one of the ends of the panorama she just built card (A) into, she builds (B) completely free.
End of Game and Scoring
When someone reaches the house limit, the round is finished so that everyone plays the same number of turns.
| Number of players | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houses to end the game | 7 | 6 | 6 |
If on your last turn you make a combined construction, you may exceed the house limit. Afterward, move on to final scoring.
Each player adds up the points of their built houses, the points of their panoramas, subtracts the points of their rubble, if they have any, and adds or subtracts their Rubble cards according to the scoring card in play. The player with the most points wins the game.
In case of a tie, the player with the highest score and fewer houses wins. If the tie continues, the player with less rubble. If it still remains tied, the victory is shared.
Example: Rafa finishes the game with 2 unconnected panoramas in his play area. Panorama (A) of 4 cards gives him 6 points, and panorama (B) of 3 cards gives him 4 points at the end of the game. He also adds the value of each of his houses, which is 13 points. Since he has no Rubble cards or rubble, his final score is 23 points.
Solo Mode
The goal is to score more points than Klaus by the end of the game. On his turn, all he will do is respond to your actions by drawing a number of material cards that depends on how many cards you drew on your turn, or on whether you built a house.
In a solo game you will only have material cards in hand, which you will use to form your own "Material Market" in the center of the table, to build the house cards available in the "House Market".
Game Setup
- Select a difficulty level using one of these scoring cards: Card A (Medium, recommended), Card B (Easy), and Card C (Hard).
- Shuffle all the house cards, form a deck, and place it face-down. Then place 4 house cards face-up next to it, forming the "House Market". Leave a space for the discard pile.
- From the 4 cards in the "House Market", Klaus chooses the one with the highest score. If he can choose among several, you decide which he takes. Place it to one side of the table. This will be Klaus's play area.
- Shuffle all the material cards. Form a deck and place it face-down. Now place 4 cards face-up beside it, forming a material market we will from now on call the "Stockpile". Apply the same rules as for 2-to-4-player games when doing so.
- Then draw 3 material cards face-down, and you begin playing the first round.
On your turn you may do only 1 of these actions:
- Draw a material card, face-up or face-down.
- Place a material card from your hand in your material market. Afterward draw 2 material cards, face-up or face-down and of any type, indistinctly.
- Place 2 material cards from your hand in your "Material Market". Afterward you may do one of these 2 actions:
- Either draw 3 material cards, face-up or face-down, indistinctly.
- Or build a house. The same rules described previously apply, except that you may only build 1 of the 4 cards that are in the "House Market".
You can never exceed a 3x5 or 5x3 grid. If you do, Klaus builds a card and does not lose the material cards he has. Afterward you must discard the entire "Material Market".
At the end of your turn, if you have no cards left in hand, draw 2 material cards face-down. You can never have more than 7 cards in hand.
When you build a house, you may form a panorama following the same rules as in 2-to-4-player games.
Remember always that:
If, when drawing or replenishing, there are no cards left in the material deck, discard all the cards that are face-up in both "the Stockpile" and the "House Market". Then shuffle the entire material discard pile, form a new face-down deck, place 4 materials face-up, and 4 new house cards face-up. Afterward, if there were still cards to draw, you may continue drawing. This applies both on your turn and on Klaus's turn.
Cards drawn face-up are replenished at the end of the turn.
Before Klaus's turn you must replenish the face-up cards you drew or built with.
On his turn, Klaus will draw material cards
The number of face-down material cards he draws depends on what you did on your turn:
- If you drew 1 card, Klaus draws 1 card.
- If you drew 2 cards, Klaus draws 2 cards.
- If you drew 3 cards, Klaus draws 3 cards.
- If you built a house, Klaus draws 2 cards.
Exception: If, when Klaus draws, there is any Rubble card face-up in "the Stockpile", he will always draw it first. Place it face-down in his area. If he needs to draw more, it will always be face-down from the material deck.
Example: On your turn you built a house. You replenish the house card in the "House Market". On his turn Klaus draws 2 cards. After drawing he has 8 material cards, so he builds a house. Also, among the 8 cards he had face-down, he had 1 Rubble card, which he keeps and it will score at the end of the game.
How does Klaus build?
If, after drawing all the corresponding cards, Klaus has more than 7 material cards, he immediately builds a house card from the "House Market", in this order:
- The house card that gives him the most points, adding the points of the card and the points for the panorama.
- If there are several cards that give the same points, he will always choose the one that continues his longest panorama. If the tie continues, you choose.
- If it doesn't connect with any of the cards he has, he builds the highest-scoring one and starts a new panorama.
- In case of a tie, you choose which card he builds.
After building a house card, replenish the "House Market" with a new card face-up.
Remember always that: If, when drawing or replenishing, there are no cards left in the material deck, discard all the cards that are face-up in both "the Stockpile" and the "House Market". Then shuffle the material discard pile, form a new face-down deck, and place 4 materials face-up and 4 new houses face-up.
End of the Game
When you or Klaus build the 7th house, the game ends.
Your score will be: the sum of the points of your built houses, the points of your panoramas, and the points of your Rubble cards, if you have any. From this you must subtract your rubble, if you have any, and subtract 1 point for each material card left in your hand.
Klaus's score will be the sum of the points of his built houses, his panoramas, and his Rubble cards, if he has any. Klaus does not lose points for leftover material cards.
In case of a tie, Klaus wins.
Author's note: "Thanks to everyone who selflessly gave their time to test, improve, and make this game possible. Especially my wife, my family, and Rafa and Vicky for trusting me and making this game a reality."
Credits
Author: Jorge Tabanera Redondo Illustrations: J.T.R. @gatotonto Published by Cacahuete Games Rafael Álvarez Abengózar 06272540A Manufactured in Poland. © Cacahuete Games 2023. All rights reserved.