Circus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Game Setup
  • Setup for Advanced Mode
• Goal of the Game
• Gameplay
  • 1 - Box Office
  • 2 - Rehearsal
    • Upgrade Your Performers
    • Upgrade Cards
    • Example (Part 1)
    • Develop Your Circus
    • Example (Part 2)
  • 3 - Showtime!
    • Example (Part 3)
• The Grand Finale
• End of the Game
  • • Example
• Advanced Mode

Game Components

• 1 double-sided game board
• 36 performer cards
• 4 player color cards
• 56 upgrade cards
• 48 upgrade cubes: 12 yellow, 12 red, 8 green, 8 turquoise, 8 purple
• 1 starting player card
• 9 poster cards
• 24 player discs (6 in each player color)

Game Setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table with the basic side faceup.
2. Each player chooses a color and takes the corresponding player color card.
3. Each player takes their 6 player discs and places 1 on the "0" space of the score track. In addition, each player places a player disc on the bottom spot of each of the 3 development tracks on the game board. Return the 2 remaining player discs to the box.
4. Place the blank poster cards and the grand finale poster card faceup above the game board. Shuffle the remaining poster cards, remove 2 cards randomly and return them to the box. Place the remaining poster cards faceup between the 2 blank cards on the left and the grand finale card on the right.
5. Shuffle the performer cards and form a facedown draw pile in the middle of the table. Draw 3 performer cards and place them faceup below the game board. If you draw performers with the same specialty, replace them by other cards until you have a line of 3 performers with distinct specialties. This is called the arena.
6. Each player takes 2 performer cards from the draw pile and places them faceup in front of them. They represent the players' circus caravan.
7. Shuffle the upgrade cards and give each player 4 to form a hand. Place the remaining upgrade cards as a facedown draw pile in the middle of the table.
8. Place the upgrade cubes in the middle of the table.
9. The player who last attended a circus becomes the starting player and takes the starting player card.

Setup for Advanced Mode

Differences in setup for the advanced mode are as follows:

• Step 1: Place the game board with the advanced side faceup.
• Step 3: Each player keeps the 2 remaining player discs in front of them.
• Step 4: Play with all the poster cards instead of removing two.

Goal of the Game

In Circus, players send their best performers into the arena to perform. If your performer is better than the previous one, there will be a deafening cheer; the more applause you get, the more points you will receive. At the end of the show is a grand finale, after which the points get counted. The player with the most points is the best circus director in town and wins the game!

Circus can be played in both basic and advanced mode. These are the basic rules. The advanced rules are on the other side.

Gameplay

Circus is played over 7 rounds corresponding to the number of poster cards. In player order, each player executes the following 3 steps during their turn:

1. Box office: Score bonus points for the performer on the poster.
2. Rehearsal: Upgrade your performers and/or develop your circus.
3. Showtime: Send your performer into the arena to perform.

1 - Box Office

Which performer is worth bonus points during this round?

The first faceup poster card in line is the active poster card for that round. Receive 1 victory point (VP) per upgrade cube on the performers in your circus caravan with the specialty depicted on the poster card.

The specialties are: clown, contortionist, juggler, magician, mime, and strongman.

Ignore this step for the 2 blank poster cards (the first 2 rounds) and the grand finale poster card (the final round).

2 - Rehearsal

Give the audience a night to remember! Make your performance the most talented and the most stunning of circus experiences!

Upgrade your performers and/or develop your circus in the order you prefer.

Upgrade Your Performers

Play one or more upgrade cards from your hand to add upgrade cubes to the performer cards in your circus caravan. Each card has a cost that you pay by discarding additional upgrade cards. Form a discard pile in the middle of the table.

Each performer can only have one upgrade cube of each color. If a performer receives an additional upgrade cube of the same color, nothing happens.

Upgrade Cards

Each upgrade card has its own effect:

• Inspiration: Add a yellow cube to one of your performers of your choice. The cost to play this card is 4 minus the number of upgrade cubes present on the rightmost performer in the arena. The minimal cost is 0.
• Impression: Look at the gender of the rightmost performer in the arena. If it matches the upgrade card, add a red cube to one of your performers of your choice in your circus caravan.
• Practice: Add a green cube to all performers of the gender depicted on the card.
• Talent: Place this card in front of you for the remainder of the game. Every time you add a new performer to your circus caravan, look at their gender. If it matches the upgrade card, add a turquoise cube to your new performer.
• Costume: When you play a card with a costume symbol, choose a specialty. Add a purple cube to all the performers with that specialty. When you play a card with a costume symbol, add a purple cube to the performers with a different specialty. If you have more than one performer with the same specialty, add a cube to one of them.

Unlike other performer cards, the mime performer card has no specified gender. Use these cards as a male or female card, even during the same turn.

Example (Part 1)

Billie plays a practice upgrade card and discards 2 cards. This allows Billie to add a green upgrade cube to her male performers. The juggler already has a green cube so she only adds a green cube to the male clown.

Secondly, Billie plays an inspiration upgrade card. The cost is 4 minus 2, which is the number of upgrade cubes present on the rightmost performer in the arena (the magician), and she adds a yellow upgrade cube to the male clown.

Develop Your Circus

Once each turn you may discard 2 upgrade cards to advance your player disc 1 step on one of the 3 development tracks:

• Performers: The number of performer cards your circus caravan can hold. As soon as you can hold more performers than you have in front of you, immediately take the top performer card from the draw pile and add it to your circus caravan.
• Upgrades: The number of additional upgrade cards you can take at the end of each round.
• Bonus points: The amount of bonus points you score for upgrade cubes you have in your circus caravan at the end of the game.

Example (Part 2)

Billie discards 2 upgrade cards to advance her player disc 1 step on the performer development track. This allows Billie to have 4 performers in her circus caravan so she draws a performer card. Billie adds the mime to her circus caravan and puts a turquoise upgrade cube on top of it thanks to the talent upgrade card.

3 - Showtime!

Are you ready to start the show? Let's find out! Send your performer to the arena.

1. Add a performer: Choose one of your performers and add it (along with any upgrade cubes on it) to the rightmost position in the arena.
2. Score VP: Score VP for your performance. For every cube your performer has in common with the previous performer, you score 1 VP. For every cube your performer has which their predecessor does not, you score 2 VP. Remove the upgrade cubes from the predecessor and return them to the general supply.
3. Remove performers: If there is a performer with the same specialty in line, remove that performer and all the performers to their left and place them on the discard pile.
4. Take upgrade cards: Take upgrade cards equal to the number of performers in the arena plus the number of additional upgrade cards indicated by your position on the development track. If the pile of upgrade cards is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.
5. Draw a performer card: Draw the top performer card and add it to your circus caravan.

After all players have executed their actions, the poster card of this round is turned facedown and a new round starts.

Example (Part 3)

Billie has to send 1 of her performers to the arena to perform! She takes the male clown, with the 4 upgrade cubes (green, red, yellow, and purple), and adds it to the end of the line of performers in the arena.

The clown has 1 upgrade cube (purple) in common with the magician, his predecessor, which yields 1 VP. The clown has 3 upgrade cubes that the magician does not possess, which yields 3 times 2 VP, or 6 VP in total.

Billie removes the upgrade cubes from the magician and removes the previous clown and the strongman from the arena. She draws 3 upgrade cards, equal to the number of performers left in the arena, plus 2 additional upgrade cards according to her position on the upgrade development track.

To end her turn, she draws the top performer card and adds it to her circus caravan.

The Grand Finale

In the final round, each player executes their turn as usual.

When all players have completed their turn, all remaining performers will perform the grand finale. In such a spectacle only the performers that stand out from the other performers in their specialty get noticed.

For each specialty, the player whose circus caravan includes the performer with the most upgrade cubes scores 3 VP. In case of a tie, the player earliest in turn order wins.

If only one performer has a specific specialty, the player whose circus caravan contains that performer scores the 3 VP, even if that performer has no upgrade cubes.

End of the Game

Score bonus points for your upgrade cubes according to the bonus point development track (see "Develop Your Circus" under Rehearsal). The player with the most victory points is the best circus director and wins the game!

Example

At the end of the final round, it is time for the grand finale. Billie has 2 performers with the most upgrade cubes among all players, a clown and a strongman, and scores 6 VP. Billie has 6 upgrade cubes left in her circus and scores, according to the development track, 1 VP for every 3 upgrade cubes (6 : 3 = 2 VP).

Advanced Mode

Use the setup rules for the advanced mode as described above. The game is played over the course of 9 rounds. Use all the rules from the basic mode and add the following rule:

During the "rehearsal" (see Rehearsal above) you may discard 1 upgrade card to execute one of the following 2 actions:

• Switch a performer card along with any upgrade cubes on it with one of your opponents' performers or one in the arena. That performer may not have more upgrade cubes than your performer. If there is now a performer with the same specialty in the arena, remove that performer and all the performers to their left.
• Remove 2 upgrade cubes from the rightmost performer in the arena.

You may execute each action only once per game. Indicate this by placing one of your player discs on the indicated locations on the game board.