Beijing Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Components for the Basic version
  • Additional components for the Full version
• Setup
  • Setup for the Basic version
• How to Play the Basic Version
  • 1. Phase: Action
  • The actions in detail
  • 2. Phase: Person
  • 3. Phase: Event
  • 4. Phase: Scoring
  • End of the game for the Basic version
• Full Version
  • Setup – additions and changes for the full version
  • How to play – additions and changes of the full version
    • 1. Phase: Action
    • 2. Phase: Person
    • 3. Phase: Event
    • 4. Phase: Scoring
  • End of the game for the Full version

Components

Components for the Basic version

• 1 Beijing board
• 1 event board
• 12 event tiles (2 each of: calm, imperial tribute, drought, new year's festival, military service, plague)
• 6 Shaolin animal tiles
• 6 Shaolin animal figures & 6 stands
• 1 Stefan Feld figure & 1 stand
• 1 action board (front for 2 or 3 players — back for 4 or 5 players)
• 12 extra streets (front and back)
• 7 action tiles: harvest, military training, scriptorium, fireworks, bank, construction site, imperial audience
• 90 person tiles (movement / yield):
  • 10 bankers
  • 10 construction workers
  • 10 musicians
  • 6 young soldiers, 4 experienced soldiers
  • 6 young farmers, 4 experienced farmers
  • 6 young calligraphers, 4 experienced calligraphers
  • 6 young monks, 6 old monks
  • 6 young healers, 4 experienced healers
  • 6 young fireworkers, 4 experienced fireworkers
• 40 "yuan" coins (25 silver-colored and 15 gold-colored)
• 25 rice sack tiles
• 15 firework tiles
• 10 privilege tiles (small and large)
• In the 5 player colors (yellow, red, green, blue, white):
  • 10 person/score discs (2 per player color)

Additional components for the Full version

• 5 stands for the dragon figures
• 1 action tile (lantern)
• 20 person tiles: 10 lantern makers, 6 young paper dragon performers, 4 experienced paper dragon performers
• 2 additional cloud spaces
• Event tiles (2 of each): lantern evening, paper dragon battle
• 1 extra Beijing board section for insertion into the Beijing board
• 25 lanterns
• 15 dragon medallions
• In the 5 player colors:
  • 3 x 5 person cards: lantern maker, paper dragon performer and sage (3 cards per player color)
  • 5 dragon figures (1 per player color)

Setup

Setup for the Basic version

1. Place the Beijing board, the event board, and the action board matching the number of players (2/3 or 4/5) on the table.

2. The person tiles: Sort the person tiles by profession (color). Then further divide them into young and experienced. There is only one version of construction worker (beige), musician (purple) and banker (yellow) tiles. These count as young in the game.

   Depending on the number of players, you will need the following number of person tiles per profession:

   Players	Construction worker, musician, banker	Remaining persons: young	Remaining persons: experienced
   2	4	3	1
   3	6	4	2
   4	8	5	3
   5	10	6	4

   Place the bankers, construction workers, and musicians on the corresponding spaces in the middle of the Beijing board. Distribute the other professions onto the corresponding spaces, placing the young people above the experienced people. Any remaining person tiles are not needed for this game and go back in the box.

Person tiles: Each person tile shows 2 values: "movement" and "yield". Movement moves your person disc forward on the movement track. Yield gives you various resources, which play a role in actions and events.

How to Play the Basic Version

The game lasts exactly 12 rounds. Each round in turn consists of 4 phases in sequence:

1. Phase: Action
2. Phase: Person
3. Phase: Event
4. Phase: Scoring

1. Phase: Action

At the start of this phase, shuffle the 7 action tiles and lay them out as face-down stacks next to the action board, according to the following table:

Players	Stack 1	Stack 2	Stack 3	Stack 4	Stack 5
2	4	3	–	–	–
3	3	2	2	–	–
4	2	2	2	1	–
5	2	2	1	1	1

(Number of action tiles per stack.)

You then proceed stack by stack, revealing the tiles in each stack and placing them face up on a circle on the action board. Make sure that each stack belongs to its own circle and that you can easily tell which action tiles belong to which circle on the action board.

Now the player whose disc is furthest ahead or on top of other discs on the movement track chooses an action and places their Shaolin figure in the circle belonging to the chosen action. They then perform the action. Next comes the player whose disc is in second place on the movement track, and so on. So there is no seating order – you play strictly in the order of the movement track for the entire game.

All following players likewise choose an action and place their Shaolin figure in the corresponding circle. If at least one other figure is already there, you must pay 3 yuan into the supply. If you can't, you must place your figure in an empty circle and choose the corresponding action there instead. Then perform the action.

Once you have all performed your action, take back your Shaolin figures and stack the action tiles face down next to the action board.

Alternative: Instead of placing your figure on a stack and performing an action, you may skip phase 1 entirely and instead top up your yuan supply to 3 yuan. This means: you don't automatically receive 3 yuan, but only take enough that you end up with 3 yuan afterward.

The actions in detail

Bank: Perform this action to receive 2 yuan from the supply. You additionally receive 3 yuan for every banker you own.

Construction Site: Perform this action to receive 1 house from your supply. You additionally receive 1 more house for every construction worker you own.

You must build the new houses on open plots. You may build them on your player board and/or on extra streets you already own, or take a new street from the supply and attach it. You may start as many streets as you like.

Caution: You may only build with houses you just received; you may not rearrange houses you have already built.

Harvest: Perform this action to receive 1 rice sack from the supply. You additionally receive 1 more rice sack for every farmer you own.

Fireworks: Perform this action to receive 1 rocket from the supply. You additionally receive 1 more rocket for each rocket on every fireworker you own. (The printed rulebook reads "on the every fireworker"; wording normalised.)

Military training: Perform this action to receive 1 step on the movement track. You additionally receive 1 more step for each shield on every soldier you own. Move your person disc forward on the movement track accordingly. If there are already discs on that space, place yours on top.

Scriptorium: Perform this action to receive 1 victory point. You additionally receive 1 more victory point for each scroll on every calligrapher you own. Move your score disc forward on the victory point track accordingly. If you pass 50 points while doing so, place your score marker with the appropriate side up next to the event board to indicate that you already have urned that many of points. (Printed as "urned that many of points" – the intended word is presumably "earned"; kept as printed.)

Imperial audience (Privilege): Perform this action to buy a small or large privilege from the supply:

• A small privilege costs 2 yuan.
• A large privilege costs 7 yuan.

You may buy only 1 privilege per action, but you may own several privileges over the course of the game.

2. Phase: Person

Once you have all performed an action or topped up your yuan supply to 3 yuan, you each play, in the current order of the movement track, 1 person card from your hand face up onto your discard pile next to your player board.

Take the corresponding person tile from the Beijing board and place it on an open plot where you already have a house built. As long as one is available, you may decide for yourself whether to take a young or experienced person. That person moves into this house.

If all your houses are already occupied, you may exchange the new person for any person already living in one of your houses. The exchanged person is thereby dismissed from your service and removed from the game entirely.

Finally, move your person disc forward on the movement track by as many spaces as the movement value on the new person tile shows. If there are already discs on that space, place yours on top.

Notes on Phase 2:

• You do not move your person disc back on the movement track when you have to dismiss a person.
• New people do not immediately give you new rice sacks, rockets, yuan, victory points, etc. — they only improve your future payouts on the corresponding actions.
• If you play a "migrant worker" card, you may choose any person tile you like.
• As long as you still have space in your houses, you must house new people there. If all your houses are occupied and you don't want to exchange the new person, you may also remove the new tile from the game immediately instead. In that case, however, you receive no movement steps.
• If you play a card for which no matching person tile remains on the game board, you get nothing.
• In round 12, you skip this phase, since no one has a person card left.

3. Phase: Event

Once you have all played a person card, the monthly event occurs. Resolve the relevant event, then flip the tile to its back side. Events are resolved round by round, clockwise around the event circle.

Calm: Nothing happens.

Imperial tribute: Each of you must pay 4 yuan into the supply. If you can't pay in full, you must remove 1 person from your streets and return them to the box for every yuan you're missing. You may not voluntarily give up a person in order to keep yuan.

Drought: For each of your streets (the 3 on your player board plus every attached street) in which at least 1 person lives, you must return 1 rice sack to the supply. For every street for which you can't pay a rice sack, you must remove 1 person and return them to the box. You may not voluntarily remove a person in order to keep rice sacks.

New year's festival: The player(s) with the most rockets receive 6 victory points. The player(s) with the second-most rockets receive 3 victory points. Afterward, all players who received victory points must return half (rounded up) of their rockets to the supply.

Military service: In this event, all players receive as many victory points as they have shields in total across all their soldiers. Afterward, the player(s) with the fewest shields must each remove 1 person of their choice from a house and return them to the box (0 is always the lowest number of shields).

Plague: Each player must remove 3 people of their choice from their own houses and return them to the box.

However, you can protect yourself against the Plague with healers (blue): each mortar protects 1 of the 3 sick people from the Plague, and thus from removal. You therefore need 3 mortars to heal everyone affected and avoid having to remove anyone.

Note: If several players have to remove people because of an event, this happens in the order of the movement track.

Decay: After the current event has been resolved, you must all check whether you are affected by decay: For every one of your streets in which no person lives anymore, you must remove a house from that street and return it to your supply.

4. Phase: Scoring

Afterward, you receive the following victory points:

• 1 victory point for every street of yours with at least one house. No person needs to live on that street.
• 1 victory point for every musician you own.
• 1 victory point for every small privilege, and 2 victory points for every large privilege.

The round is over; a new round may begin.

End of the game for the Basic version

The game ends after the scoring of round 12. You now receive further victory points in a final scoring:

• For your people: Every person you own is worth 2 victory points.
• For your monks (brown): The number of buddhas across all of your monks is multiplied by the number of houses in the street where the monk(s) live, giving you that many victory points.
• For your remaining yuan: First sell your surplus rice sack and rocket tiles back to the general supply. You receive 2 yuan for every tile you give up. Then advance 1 space on the victory point track for every 3 yuan you have.

Whoever is furthest ahead on the victory point track is the most successful provincial governor and wins the game. In case of a tie, whoever's disc lies further ahead/higher on the movement track wins among those players.

Full Version

Once you know the game, it is time to change to the full version and experience the new strategic choices on offer. You still play over 12 rounds but have more to do and think about.

Setup – additions and changes for the full version

• Add the lantern action tile to the 7 action tiles of the basic version and shuffle it in.
• Each player takes the 3 new person cards in their color — lantern maker, paper dragon performer, and sage — into their hand. Every player now has 14 person cards in hand.
• Each player places their dragon figure, with its stand already attached, on the "0" space of the movement track on the game board.
• Each player places their score disc on the 10 VP space.
• Place the lanterns and the dragon medallions within easy reach of all players on the table, next to the coins, rockets, privileges, and rice sacks.
• Attach the extra event board section, with its 2 additional spaces, to the event board at the intended spot.
• Remove the 2 "calm" events from the game and return them to the box.
• Add the 4 new events to the other 10 events from the basic version. Then form 2 stacks of 7 different events each, shuffle the two stacks separately and face down, and place the first stack on the first 7 spaces of the event board, then the other 7 events on spaces 8–14 of that board.
• Insert the extra supply-tray section for the Beijing board in the middle, between the existing Beijing board sections.
• Place the new person tiles on the new board section, next to the corresponding symbols, alongside the other people.

How to play – additions and changes of the full version

General note: In the full version, person tiles are NOT removed from the game when they have to be taken off a player board ("taken out"). Instead, they go back onto their respective stacks on the person supply board.

1. Phase: Action

Players now have 8 actions to choose from, whose action tiles are divided evenly into 2 to 5 stacks depending on the number of players, see the following table:

Players	Stack 1	Stack 2	Stack 3	Stack 4	Stack 5
2	4	4	–	–	–
3	3	3	2	–	–
4	2	2	2	2	–
5	2	2	2	1	1

(Number of action tiles per stack.)

New this version is the lantern making action. Whoever chooses this action receives 1 lantern from the supply. You additionally receive 1 more lantern for every lantern maker you own.

Lanterns must be placed immediately on unlit plots (occupied or unoccupied, with or without a house). Once placed, lanterns can no longer be moved. Every plot has room for 1 house, 1 person, and 1 lantern.

2. Phase: Person

Players now also have the lantern maker, the paper dragon performer, and the sage available to choose from.

As soon as a player plays either the lantern maker or the paper dragon performer, they take the corresponding person tile from the Beijing board and place it, just like the other people, on an already-built plot next to an existing house. If they play the sage instead, they copy any face-up person card lying on top of another player's discard pile, and proceed accordingly (taking the corresponding person tile, etc.). Following the movement value of the person chosen this way, the player then moves forward on the movement track.

Example: Ulrich has played the "sage" person card and wants to copy Sophia's face-up "farmer" person card. He may now take an "experienced farmer" person tile and move 1 step on the movement track. He only receives the 2 pictured rice sacks later, once he chooses and uses the "harvest" action tile.

3. Phase: Event

Event: Paper dragon battle: For every 3 steps that a player moves back with their dragon figure on the movement track, they take 1 dragon medallion (optional). The dragon figure cannot be placed back beyond the 0 space.

Note: In phase 4, each player moves their dragon figure forward on this track again every round by as many steps as they have matching dragon-medallion symbols on their paper dragon performer person cards.

Dragon medallions can be used as a joker when paying for rice sacks, coins, or fireworks. 1 dragon medallion = 1 coin / 1 rice sack / 1 firework.

Caution: A player may use at most 1 dragon medallion per round when paying for an action.

Note: A player may use a dragon medallion even if they still own 1 of the required resource type.

Event: Lantern evening: Each player receives 1 VP for every lit house in their streets, or must give up 1 VP for every unlit house.

• Lit house = 1 VP
• Unlit house = −1 VP

4. Phase: Scoring

To close out each round, at the start of the scoring phase, players move their dragon figure forward on the movement track by as many steps as they have dragon heads across their own paper dragon performers.

End of the game for the Full version

1. Each player receives for each dragon medallion in their own supply = 1 VP.

2. Victory points according to the order of the dragon figures on the movement track. Players whose dragon figures are on the same space share the placement and gain full points:

   • 2 players: 4 – 1 VP
   • 3 players: 6 – 3 – 1 VP
   • 4 players: 8 – 5 – 2 – 1 VP
   • 5 players: 10 – 7 – 4 – 2 – 1 VP

   or 0, if no step was taken on the person-point track with the dragon figures.

3. Each player receives 3 VP for every street that is completely lit (i.e., with 3 lanterns).

Note: Empty plots (without houses, without people) can also be lit with lanterns, so streets with fewer than 3 houses can also earn 3 VP, as long as they have 3 lanterns.

Example (printed on the page): This player only receives 3 points, because only one street is completely lit.