Dawson City Barbers
Dawson City Barbers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Play
All players are gold hungry barbers in Dawson City. The game is played over four rounds (months). Each round is divided into five turns. All players must schedule four turns (weeks) with activities and spend one turn getting a haircut. At the end of each round, players are ranked by their barber skills (via train) and the quality of their own haircut (via barber shop selection). Barbers earn gold depending on how many days their shop has been open (via work), cutting other barbers hair, and being the Best Barber. Players also score gold by making it farther upriver to pan (via pan). At the end of the four rounds the player with the most gold wins.
Contents
- 2 Game boards (forming 1 playing surface)
- 48 Cards (42 schedule and 6 long weekend)
- 18 Track Markers (4 cubes in each of 6 colours)
- 6 Pawns (1 in each of 6 colours)
- 80 Gold Markers (40 yellow 1s and 40 red 5s)
Setup
Lay out the game boards to create the playing surface. Each player takes the markers, pawn and long weekend card of one colour and distributes them as follows:
- Marker on 0 of the Work Track
- Marker on 0 of the Train (training) Track
- Marker on 0 of the Pan Track
- Pawn on Shop of player's colour
- Long weekend card face up in front of himself.
- Gold markers are placed within reach
Extra markers, pawns and long weekend cards are returned to the box. The player who most recently had a haircut is the start player.
Round
The start player shuffles the schedule cards and deals 5 cards to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down next to the board. The start player begins by taking a turn. A turn must be one of the following 3 actions:
Schedule: The player plays a schedule card from his hand face up to a discard pile and moves his markers up the tracks.
Get Haircut: The player discards a schedule card from his hand and moves his barber pawn to the first available chair of the barber shop of his choice. (He must do this once and only once per round!)
Plan Long Weekend: The player discards a schedule card from his hand and flips his long weekend card face down. He moves his marker 4 spaces on the work, pan, or train track. (Available only once per game!)
Turns then rotate around the table clockwise until all players have played or discarded all five cards from their hands.
Schedule
Here a player tactically plans his month one week at a time. He can divide his time by training to become the best barber, by working at the barber shop, or by trying his luck at panning the river.
E.g. If playing the first card, he would move 1 space up the train track, 2 spaces on the work track and 2 spaces on the pan track. If playing the second card, he would moves only the pan marker 5 spaces.
When moving on a track there are certain rules that must be followed:
Scheduling Training
No two markers can be on the same space. If, after counting the full movement, there is already a marker on the resulting space, the active marker is moved forward to the next available space.
Beginning with the second round, the best barbers from the previous round will start from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd spaces. These markers start movement from the next space on the track. They do not block the first 3 spaces of the track.
Scheduling Panning
No two markers can be on the same space, unless that space has multiple numbers. If, after counting the full movement, there is already a marker on the resulting space, the active marker is moved backwards to the next available space. On spaces with 2 or 3 numbers, markers are first placed against the north shore (i.e., the bigger number). If a number is vacated after a player's turn, any remaining markers in that space may need to be justified against the north shore.
Scheduling Work
Any number of markers can be on the same space. There is no conflict on the work scale.
Get Haircut
Nobody likes to go to an unkempt barber. Once every round, a player must spend one turn discarding a schedule card from his hand and moving his barber pawn to the first available seat in another player's shop. To ensure himself a top three haircut, the player selects a barber whom he thinks will finish first on the train track for this round. An earlier selection means a better seat, but is also based on less information. A player cannot move to a shop in which the 3 seats are already full. A barber cannot cut his own hair, so a player cannot move to his own shop.
Plan Long Weekend
Once a season, a barber can take a well-deserved long weekend. This allows him to schedule a four-day week and focus it on one activity. A player can use his long weekend card only once per game. When planning a long weekend, a player must discard a card from his hand, then flip over his long weekend card to show that it has been used. Finally, a player moves one of his markers up four spaces on one of the three tracks (train, work, or pan), following the usual scheduling rules.
End of Round
Once all players have played or discarded all five cards from their hands, it is time to score gold with the following phases:
Barber Haircuts
Every player scores 1 gold for each barber pawn in his shop. Barber pawns should remain where they are until after the Evaluate Haircuts phase.
Determine Best Barber
The marker farthest along the train track moves to the 1st place space followed by 2nd, 3rd etc. The Best Barber scores 3 gold and will start the next round.
Evaluate Haircuts
Barbers who went to the Best Barber have their pawns moved to the Best Hair scale (1st, 2nd, 3rd) on the Work board, maintaining the same order. If there are fewer than 3 pawns at the Best Barber's shop, move to the second best barber's shop for more pawns, and so on. Any remaining barber pawns go in the '4th 5th 6th' box of the Best Hair scale.
Open for Business
Starting with the player with the Best Hair, each player receives the gold value of the number of days they were open, modified by their position on the Best Hair scale. Working 0 days always scores 0 gold, never less.
Pan for Gold
The player whose marker is farthest upriver (ties go to the marker closest to the north shore) receives 2 gold, plus he is allowed to pan for more gold. To pan, a player flips the top card of the deck and scores the number of gold nuggets shown, from 1 to 3. The second-place player scores 1 gold plus what he pans by flipping the next card. The third-place player flips one final card and receives the number of gold nuggets displayed.
Starting the Next Round
Before starting the next round, reset the playing surface as follows:
- Reset the Barber pawns to their respective shops.
- Reset the Work markers to 0.
- Reset the Pan markers to 0.
- Leave the Train markers on their respective placing. Players who placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd get a positional advantage for the following round.
The Best Barber shuffles all the schedule cards, deals five to each player and starts the next round.
Players should exchange 5 yellow markers for 1 red marker, if needed. The amount of gold a player has is open knowledge.
Game End
After scoring the fourth round, the game ends. The player with the most gold wins. Ties are broken in favour of the barber with the better hair in the final round.