Café Baras Rulebook

Table of Contents

Contents
Setup
On Your Turn
Understanding the Café Cards
Adding
Arranging Your Café
Serving
Special Guests
Gaining Regulars
Refilling
Game End
Credits and Acknowledgements

83 Café cards
12 Special Guest cards
4 Counter cards
Coin tokens (make change as needed)
- × 25 (1-value)
- × 8 (5-value)

Setup

Shuffle the Café cards into a face-down deck in the center of the play area; reveal four into a face-up display beside the deck. Leave room for a discard pile beside the deck.
Shuffle the Special Guest cards and deal five face up near the display; return the rest to the box.
Make a supply of Coins.
Each player takes seven Coins, draws four Café cards from the deck to form their hand (keep your hand secret), and gets a random Counter card to place on the table in front of themself, starting their café.
Choose a start player; we recommend the player that can balance an orange on their snout the longest, but any method will do. The game begins with the starting player's turn!

The play area consists of: the deck and discard pile, a display of four face-up Café cards, a Coin supply, and five face-up Special Guests. Each player has 7 Coins, a Counter card, and a hand of four Café cards.

On Your Turn

Choose one card from your hand, and either Add it to your café, or Serve its customer. Then Refill your hand from the display, and play passes to the next player clockwise.

Understanding the Café Cards

Each card is two things at once: The top part is something you can add to your café to make customers happier. The chalkboard on the bottom part represents a customer visiting your café. You will use each card as one thing or the other, never both. Which one is up to you!

The top of a card is something you can Add to your café. It shows a Food or Decor type, a card cost, a score action, foods the customer wants, and any special category.

The bottom of a card is a customer that you can Serve. It shows the foods the customer wants, the decor the customer prefers, and a "loved food" indicator.

Adding

Pay the card's cost (by spending Coins into the supply), and add it to your café (see Arranging Your Café below).

For example, you Add a Cookie card from your hand by spending its cost of three coins. Now you'll be able to satisfy a customer that wants a Sweet!

If the card has a white box with action text, follow its instructions (actions that bestow an ongoing effect are indicated by a special symbol).

For example, if a card features action text where the Table features an ongoing action, and you added it to your café, you would follow the instructions.

The banner on the top left indicates what kind of addition the card is.

FOOD — The banner shows something to eat or drink that your café provides: Coffee, Tea, Cold Drink, Snack, Soup, or Sweet.

DECOR — The banner shows a type of decor that your café features. Your café can include multiple different types. You need decor to gain regulars (see Gaining Regulars below): Rustic, Retro, or Modern.

Your café begins the game serving only the single Coffee or Tea displayed on your Counter card. As the game goes on, you'll continue adding cards... develop your café so that it features a winning blend of food and decor!

Arranging Your Café

We recommend a generally horizontal row beside your counter card, arranged however you like. You can overlap cards to save space, but make sure that you leave important information visible: Food/Decor symbols, scoring information, card names (and special categories), and ongoing actions!

Serving

The customer chalkboard displays the type of foods the customer wants, and their preferred decor. For each desired food, gain 1 Coin (from the supply) if you have a matching symbol in your café.

Customers don't want specific foods from their desired types. For example, a customer that wants a Snack will be happy with any Snack-type food.
If a customer wants more than one of the same food, you can't satisfy them all with just one symbol; each symbol can only fulfill one matching desire.
Some desires are marked with a loved-food symbol; the customer loves that food, and will buy all you've got! For loved foods, gain 1 Coin for every matching symbol in your café, instead of a single coin as usual.
You may serve a customer that would earn you zero Coins (because you can't provide anything they want); in some rare situations this might actually be your only option on your turn.
Decor symbols do not earn Coins even if you match them; foods only.

For example, a customer wants one Coffee, and any two Snacks. If you only have one Snack, you earn 1 Coin for that. Since the customer loves Coffee, they buy all the Coffee you have; two Coffees (including the one on your Counter card) earn you 2 Coins.

Special Guests

Each Special Guest card displays a score value of 6 points and describes a particular combination of food, decor, and money. If your café meets (or exceeds) a Special Guest's criteria at the end of the game, you score its points!

For example, if you have at least three Snacks in your café at the end of the game, you'll score the Big Eater!

When you serve a customer, discard the card into the shared discard pile... unless it has become a regular:

Gaining Regulars

If you satisfy all three of a customer's food desires and your café has at least one instance of the customer's preferred decor, tuck it under your Counter card with just the chalkboard showing; this customer has become a regular and will score you 4 points at the end of the game.

For example, a customer wants any Tea, any Cold Drink, any Snack, and prefers Rustic decor. If your café has all three symbols (earning you 3 Coins), and you have some Rustic decor, the customer becomes a regular, so you tuck it under your Counter card!

Refilling

Refill your hand to four cards by taking cards of your choice from the display. Then fill each gap in the display with a new card drawn from the deck; your turn is now over. If the deck ever runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

Game End

If during your turn you gained your third Regular (fourth in a two player game) and/or if the deck has been shuffled for the second time, the game end is triggered. Each other player gets one more full turn, and then the game ends.

Tally your scores for the following items (a pen and paper will be helpful):

1 point for every two Coins you have, rounding down.
Score value on each Café card. Each Café card displays a score value. While many have a fixed value, some of them describe conditions that will affect their score value.
4 points for each regular you have tucked under your Counter card.
6 points for each Special Guest that your café satisfies.

The player with the highest score has the happiest capybara customers, and wins! If it's a tie, share the win!

Credits and Acknowledgements

Game Design — Roberta Taylor

Illustration — Cindy Monroy

Graphic Design — Chip Cole

Graphics, Development & Rulebook — Josh Cappel

Communications Director — Sean Jacquemain

Project Management — Helaina Cappel

Roberta says: Thanks to the KTBG team, my family, and all the amazing folks I have the joy of knowing in the gaming community. Your support, encouragement, and friendship mean the world to me!

KTBG says: Thanks to all of our Maki Master backers for helping to make this game a reaility, to Roberta as always for trusting us with her wonderful designs, and to playtesters Aubrey Cappel, Jory Cappel, Rowan Cappel, Sam Cappel, Ruth Cappel, and the Jacquemain Crew!