Desert Bazaar Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• The Object
• Overview
• Getting Started
• Setting Up Shop (How to Play)
  • Rolling for Additional Resources
• Building Tents
  • STEP 1: Pick a Tent Tile
  • STEP 2: Place the Tent Tile on the game board
  • STEP 3: Pay the Tent Tile's Building Cost with Resource Cards
• Scoring
• Game End
• Quick Reference Charts
  • Scoring

Contents

1 Game Board 15 Camel Cards 15 Water Cards 15 Silk Cards 15 Spice Cards 60 Resource Cards 60 Tent Tiles 3 Resource Dice 35 Tent Markers (5 Colors, 7 each) 5 Score Markers

The Object

To score the most victory points by strategically building your tents.

Overview

As enterprising, young merchants, each player attempts to score the most points by building tents across the oasis. Every TENT TILE has a building cost of 3 resources, so you must gather the appropriate RESOURCE CARDS to pay for them – a combination of Camel, Silk, Spice or Water cards. You score points for each of your Tent Tiles on the board, but as tent encampments grow, space quickly becomes limited.

You'll have to manage your resources and build strategically if you want to dominate the Desert Bazaar!

Getting Started

1. Set the game board in the center of the playing area.
2. Each player takes 1 set of 7 Tent Markers and the matching-colored Score Marker.
3. Each player places their Score Marker beside the "0" space of the scoring track that surrounds the Game Board.
4. Place the hex-shaped Tent Tiles face down and mix them. Leave them face down to the side of the board.
5. Separate the Resource Cards into 4 stacks – one stack for each type of resource (Silk, Camel, Spice, Water). Set the cards face up beside the board.
6. To generate initial resources, each player rolls all 3 dice 3 times and takes a matching Resource Card for every color rolled.

Dice faces: Blue = Water, Green = Spice, Purple = Silk, Red = Camel, All 4 Colors = Wild, Desert = Dead.

NOTE: The side marked with all four colors is Wild and may count as any resource. The sides of the dice marked with a Desert are "DEAD" and may not be redeemed for resources. Re-roll any Deserts when generating initial resources.

All players start the game with 9 Resource Cards in their hands. Players can look at their cards but should keep them hidden from their opponents.

7. After all players have collected their resources, turn over 8 of the hexagonal Tent Tiles from the pile and place 4 each by opposite sides of the board. There should be a total of 8 face-up tiles between the two groups.
8. Youngest player goes first.

Setting Up Shop (How to Play)

On your turn you may do one of the following:

• Roll for additional resources
• or
• Build tents

Rolling for Additional Resources

You may use your turn in an attempt to collect additional Resource Cards. This is done in two steps, with a third optional step.

STEP 1: Draw 1 Resource Card. Before rolling for resources, you first draw 1 Resource Card of your choice for free and add it to your hand.

STEP 2: Roll the 3 Resource Dice to generate additional resources. You may take only one of the resource types rolled (if a Water, a Silk and a Camel are rolled, you may only choose one of the resource types – you can't take all three); however, if you roll more than one of the same resource, you may take as many as you have rolled (if 2 Waters and a Silk are rolled, you could take either 2 Water Resource Cards or 1 Silk card). A Wild (side of the die with all four colors) can be any resource.

STEP 3 (OPTIONAL): Re-roll the Resource Dice. It's a gamble, but you may try to generate extra resources by re-rolling one time. After making your first roll (STEP 2), select just one die that shows a resource you want and set it aside. This is the die you must attempt to match when re-rolling your remaining "live" dice once. Only live dice can be re-rolled (any die not showing a Desert is "live").

Note: You can improve your chance of a match by setting aside a Wild die after your first roll; rolling a resource or Wild on your second roll is an automatic match.

When you re-roll, you must get a match to the die you set aside – either by rolling the same resource or by rolling a Wild (a Desert does not count as a match). If you roll a match, you may take that number of the resource. If you fail to roll a match, you forfeit your entire roll and do not collect any Resource Cards for that roll.

EXAMPLE: Tyler rolls 2 Silk and 1 Spice. He could collect the 2 Silk resources and end his turn, but Tyler needs Spice, so he keeps the 1 Spice and re-rolls the other 2 dice. He rolls a Wild and another Spice – both matches – so Tyler gets to take 3 Spice resources for his turn. However, if Tyler had rolled a Water and a Camel on his second roll – neither one a match – he wouldn't get to collect any Resource Cards, not even for the Spice die he initially set aside.

If your re-roll produces a pair that does not match the Resource Die you set aside, you do not collect any cards.

EXAMPLE: In the example above, if Tyler kept one Spice Resource Die, then rolled a pair of Water resources on his second roll, he couldn't collect the 2 Waters. He is only allowed to collect the type of resource he initially set aside; however, since he didn't roll a match to the Spice die he set aside, he forfeits even that.

There is no limit to the number of Resource Cards a player can hold.

If there are not enough Resource Cards in a draw pile, the drawing player takes as many as are available and play proceeds.

Building Tents

Instead of rolling for resources, you may "build" Tent Tiles on the game board. Building tents is done in 3 steps:

STEP 1: Pick a Tent Tile

Tent Tiles contain 2 pieces of information that you need to understand before you can choose a tile for building:

• Building Cost: The 3 colors on the flag indicate the 3 resources that you must pay before the Tent Tile can be placed on the board. Once paid for, a Tent Tile's Building Cost is ignored for the rest of the game.
• Resource Produced: After it has been built, a Tent Tile produces 1 resource type (Water, Spice, Camel or Silk), indicated by the color of the tent on the tile. You may be able to use this resource to pay part of the Building Cost for a Tent Tile placed next to this one (see STEP 3).

When picking a Tent Tile to build, you can choose from either set of 4 face-up tiles that are positioned on opposite sides of the board, but you cannot take tiles from both sets in the same turn. Once you begin taking Tent Tiles from one set, you must continue to draw Tent Tiles from that set for the rest of your turn.

STEP 2: Place the Tent Tile on the game board

Tent Tiles can only be placed on unoccupied spaces. They can be placed next to other Tent Tiles, including tiles belonging to opposing players.

Multiple tiles touching each other are called an encampment.

An encampment may contain no more than 7 Tent Tiles. You may not place a tile so that it creates an encampment of more than 7 tiles.

EXAMPLE: The 3 spaces marked with an X are not legal spaces in which to play a tile since the encampment created would contain more than 7 Tent Tiles.

After placing a Tent Tile on the board, set one of your Tent Markers on the tile to claim it as yours for scoring purposes (see SCORING). If you run out of Tent Markers, you can continue to build if you want to; however, you can't score any points for unmarked tiles. Tent Tiles without Tent Markers cannot be scored.

STEP 3: Pay the Tent Tile's Building Cost with Resource Cards

After placing a Tent Tile on the board, you must pay the number and type of Resource Cards indicated on the Tent Tile, placing the Resource Cards you spend on their corresponding draw piles. The resources required to pay a Tent Tile's Building Cost are identified by color:

• Silk = Purple
• Camel = Red
• Spice = Green
• Water = Blue

If you need a Resource Card you don't have, you may trade any 3 Resource Cards you hold for one Resource Card you want. After placing the three cards on each card's respective draw pile, take the Resource Card you want.

A Tent Tile's Building Cost may be reduced if it is placed touching a Tent Tile that produces a resource the new tile requires.

EXAMPLE: Although Tent A has a Building Cost of 2 Water resources and 1 Spice resource, if it is placed next to Tent B, it will only cost 1 Water resource and 1 Spice resource because Tent B produces 1 Water resource that Tent A can use as part of its Building Cost.

With clever positioning, a Tent Tile can be built with no actual cost to the player placing it.

EXAMPLE: Tent A has a Building Cost of 1 Spice (green), 1 Camel (red) and 1 Silk (purple) resource. By placing it so that it touches Tents B, C and D, Tent A can be built "for free" (without spending any Resource Cards). Tent A can satisfy its entire Building Cost by using the resources produced by Tents B (Spice), C (Camel) and D (Silk).

NOTE: You can use resources produced by another player's Tent Tiles; however, playing a Tent Tile next to another Tent Tile does not require you to use the resource it produces.

You may build as many Tent Tiles as you can afford on your turn. If you use all four Tent Tiles from one side of the board, immediately turn over four more tiles to replenish that side. If you wish to keep building, you must continue to choose tiles from the same side.

After you have completed all of your tent-building for the turn, replenish the face-up Tent Tiles on that side of the board by drawing up to 4 tiles.

Scoring

You immediately score 2 points for every Tent Tile you play that does not initially touch any other Tent Tile, and you advance your Score Marker along the scoring track around the board.

If a Tent Tile is placed touching another Tent Tile, you do not score that tile until the encampment is completed.

Once an encampment has 7 tiles, it must be scored immediately. You receive 1 point for every tile that you own in an encampment (the Tent Tiles marked with your Tent Markers). The player who plays the 7th tile to close an encampment scores 1 additional point as a closing bonus. After scoring is completed, all Tent Markers are removed from the scored encampment and they are returned to their owners.

Encampments with fewer than 7 tiles are NOT scored until the game ends.

Game End

The game ends when there is no legal space remaining in which to place a Tent Tile (remember, no encampment may contain more than 7 tiles), and players then calculate their final scores.

Players receive 1 point for each Tent Marker they have on the board. No closing bonus is awarded for incomplete encampments.

Two points are awarded to the player who holds the most of each individual type of Resource Card – i.e. 2 points to the player with the most Water cards, 2 points to the player with the most Spice cards etc. If there is a tie for the most of any resource, no points are scored for that particular resource.

The player with the most points wins.

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Resource Cards remaining wins. If it's still a tie, the game is a draw.

Quick Reference Charts

On your turn you may:

• Roll for additional Resources – STEP 1: Draw 1 Resource Card. STEP 2: Roll the 3 Resource Dice to generate additional resources. STEP 3 (OPTIONAL): Re-roll the Resource Dice.
• or Build Tents – STEP 1: Pick a Tent Tile. STEP 2: Place the Tent Tile on the game board. STEP 3: Pay the Tent Tile's Building Cost with your Resource Cards.

Scoring

• For placing a Tent Tile that touches no other Tent Tiles: 2 points
• For placing the 7th Tent Tile to finish an encampment: 1 point
• For each Tent Tile you own in an encampment: 1 point
• For holding the most of each type of Resource Card: 2 points