Drum Roll Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Symbols
• Game Setup
  • Main Board and Player Board Areas
• Game Play
• Action Phase
• Distribution Phase
• Turn End
• Vote
• Show
• Salary
• Show End
• Game End
• Regions
• Out of Stock
• Performers
• Personnel
• Trailers
• Investment Cards
• Two Players
• Credits

Components

• 1x Starting Player Tile
• 18x Trailer Tiles
• 1x Main Board
• 1x Rulebook
• 5x Region Tiles
• 44x Discount Tokens
• 4x Player Boards (1 in each player's color)
• 58x Money Tokens (40x 1-coin tokens & 18x 5-coin tokens)
• Round & Show Tokens
• 15x Personnel Cards
• 45x Performer Cards
• 30x Investment Cards
• 125x Resource Cubes (25 in each of 5 colors)
• 8x Score & Ticket Cubes (2 in each player's color)
• 1x Performer Cover Card
• 4x Player Aid Cards
• 12x Action Markers (3 in each player's color)

Symbols

• Player
• Show
• Vote
• Game End
• Trailer
• Positive Prestige
• Negative Prestige
• And (Plus)
• Or (Choice)
• If Used
• If Not Used
• Coin
• Investment Card
• Salary
• Magician
• Acrobat
• Juggler
• Tamer
• Bizarre
• Fired
• Action Marker
• +1 Hand Size
• When Flipped
• Discount
• Conversion
• Any Resource (Cube)
• Look at the Top Two Cards of the Investment Deck and Pick One
• Personnel
• Performer
• Outstanding Performance
• Good Performance
• Poor Performance
• Do Not Lose Prestige
• Do Not Pay a Salary
• White Cube (Rehearsal)
• Yellow Cube (Equipment)
• Green Cube (Promotion)
• Blue Cube (Costume)
• Red Cube (Supplies)

Game Setup

• Place the main board in the middle of the table.
• Place the two brown markers on the main board (one on the preparation track and one on the first show).
• Shuffle the personnel, performer and investment decks and place them next to the play area. Place the performer cover card on top of the performer deck. Each time you would deal from the performer deck, do it from the bottom of it.
• Take the personnel deck and deal cards equal to the number of players face up, below the main board.
• Take the performer deck and deal cards equal to the number of players + 1 face up, below the personnel cards. Each time new performers are dealt, if three performers of the same type (magician, acrobat etc.) are revealed, discard the last one revealed and deal a new one. Repeat the process until no more than 2 performers of the same type are in the hiring area.

Each player receives:

• A player board in the color of their choice.
• The score & tickets cubes of their chosen color. Place one cube on the 0 of the scoring track and the other on the starting ticket in the tickets area.
• 3 Action markers of their chosen color.
• One random region tile which they place on their player board.
• Each player is dealt two performers from the bottom of the performer deck. They keep them secret from other players. Players choose which one of the performers they want to keep and all at the same time, give the other to the player on their left. After that, the performers are revealed and placed below the player boards.
• Each player then chooses two resources and places them in their storage area on the player board (it can be two different resources or two of the same one).
• Each player receives 15 coins, minus the hiring cost of the two performers they have in their circus.

Example: Sandra has chosen a performer with hiring cost of 4 and was given a performer from the player to her right, with a hiring cost of 3. This means she must begin the game with 8 coins.

The player who most recently visited a circus becomes the starting player. In the case of a tie, choose randomly.

Main Board and Player Board Areas

• Main Board: Preparation Track, Show Track, Ticket Area, Starting Ticket, Invest Action, Resource Actions, Sell Tickets Action, Hire Personnel Action, Hire Performer Action, Scoring Track.
• Player Board: Region Tile Area, Cube Storage Area, Coin Storage Area.

Game Play

During the game, players give 3 shows. For each of these shows players have 5-7 turns of preparation. After these turns, the players start their shows and scoring begins. Each preparation turn consists of two phases:

• The Action phase where the players use their three actions to acquire resources, invest, sell tickets, hire personnel and performers for their circus.
• The Distribution phase where players can equip their performers with resources.

Action Phase

During the action phase each player uses their three action markers. Beginning with the starting player and continuing in a clockwise order, each player places one action marker on the action they want to perform. This is repeated until all players have placed their three action markers on the board.

Note: In all actions where more than one action marker can be placed, action markers should be stacked to determine priority.

• Rehearsal: The player gets a white cube. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn and only by one player.
• Equipment: The player gets a yellow cube. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn and only by one player.
• Promotion: The player gets a green cube. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn and only by one player.
• Costume: The player gets a blue cube. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn and only by one player.
• Supplies: The player gets a red cube. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn and only by one player.
• Sell Tickets: The player gets coins. They move their ticket cube one slot ahead in the ticket area and get the corresponding amount. Once the last ticket slot is reached, the player cannot perform this action until the next show. After each show, all ticket cubes return to the starting position. Limit: This action can only be performed twice each turn by each player.
• Invest: The player pays 1 coin and takes the top card from the investment deck. Each player has a hand limit of 2 cards which can be increased by 1 for each magician in that player's circus. Limit: This action can only be performed twice each turn by each player.
• Hire Performer: The player may hire 1 performer for their hiring cost (minus any discount tokens). The performer is then placed in that player's circus below their player board. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn by each player.
• Hire Personnel: The player may hire 1 personnel member for their hiring cost (minus any discount tokens). The hired personnel is then placed in that player's circus on the left of the player's board. Limit: This action can only be performed once each turn by each player.
• Pass: A player may choose not to perform any number of actions. They receive 1 coin for each action they do not perform.

Cube action limit:

• In a 4 player game, up to 4 cube actions can be performed each turn. One slot must remain empty.
• In a 3 player game, up to 3 cube actions can be performed each turn. Two slots must remain empty.
• In a 2 player game, up to 2 cube actions can be performed each turn. Three slots must remain empty.

All cubes acquired during the action phase are placed on the cube storage area on the player board.

Action resolution: After all players have chosen their actions, each player removes their action marker and performs the chosen action in the following order:

• Cube actions: They are all performed simultaneously and players receive cubes.
• Sell Tickets: It is performed simultaneously and players get coins.
• Invest: Players buy cards in the order they chose the action. (Use bottom to top priority on the stacked action markers.)
• Hire Performer: Using the bottom to top priority on the stacked action markers, players hire the performer they want.
• Hire Personnel: Using bottom to top priority on the stacked action markers, players hire the personnel member they want.

Note: There will be several times when a player will not be able to hire the performer or the personnel member they wanted because another player just hired them. A player can always choose not to perform an action they put their action marker on. In that case, the player gets back their action marker but they do not receive 1 coin.

After all actions have been resolved, each personnel member and performer that was not hired during the action phase receives a discount token. This means that during the next turn's action phase, those personnel members and performers will cost one coin less to hire. In the next turn all personnel members and performers that were not hired again receive a discount token (including the ones that already have discount tokens on them). This means that a personnel member or performer, who does not get hired for several turns, can end up being offered for free. When this happens, the card remains available for free hiring one last turn and then is discarded.

Distribution Phase

During this phase, all players simultaneously move up to two cubes from their cube storage area, on to their performers. Once a cube is moved on a performer, it cannot be removed and remains there for the rest of the game.

Exception: When performers get fired, or are flipped for prestige (see Performers for details) all cubes on them are returned back to stock.

Turn End

After a turn has ended, the following must be done:

• Replenish the number of available personnel cards.
• Replenish the number of available performer cards.
• Move the turn marker one step ahead on the preparation track.
• Move the starting player tile to the next player on the left.

Begin a new turn.

Vote

After the 5th turn has been played, the players vote if they want to start their show or delay it in order play a 6th turn and do some further preparation. All players take one action marker in their hand. They secretly choose to either keep it in their hand or not. Choosing to keep the marker, means that the player wants to delay the show for one more turn. Choosing not to keep the marker means that the player is ready to start the show. Once everyone has chosen, all players simultaneously reveal their hands. If the majority has an action marker in their hand, the show is delayed and a 6th turn is played as normal. If the majority of hands are empty, then the show starts. In the event of a tie, the starting player's vote is the only one that counts. If the show is delayed, the voting process is repeated after the 6th turn is played. If the majority votes to delay the show once more, a 7th turn is played and then the show starts without a vote. The players who voted for a delay on the 6th turn lose 1 prestige point.

Show

In player order, or in couples for 4 player games (to speed the process up), players give a show and receive benefits. Each player can choose the order their performers will appear in the show, and get benefits in the order they need them. Each performer does a performance based on the cubes the player moved on them. This will result in one of the following for each performer:

• Poor performance: The player receives the benefits shown below the poor performance.
• Good performance: The player receives the benefits shown below the good performance.
• Outstanding performance: The player here has two options. The first one is to do the same as above and receive the benefits shown below the outstanding performance. The second option is to (once per game for each performer) flip the performer and immediately score the prestige points the performer is offering.
• No performance: This may occur if the player did not move any cubes on the performer during the distribution phases or because the cubes provided, did not result in any of the above levels of performance. In this case the performer must be immediately fired. The card is removed from the player's circus. The player must pay the performer's hiring cost as compensation and lose 1 prestige point. (See Performers for details.)

Salary

After each player gives their show and receives all benefits from performers and personnel members, they must pay salaries. The player must pay each member in their circus the salary cost displayed on each card. The player adds up all the salaries from all their performers and personnel members, and pays the total amount. For every coin a player cannot pay, they lose 1 prestige point. This means that a player's score can drop below 0.

Show End

After all players have given their shows and paid salaries, all performer and personnel member cards in the hiring area are discarded and new cards are dealt for both, according to the number of players. The preparation track marker goes back to 1. The show marker moves to the next show. Each player passes their region tile to the player on their left. Each player's ticket cube returns to the starting ticket. The player on the left of the last starting player becomes the new starting player. The 1st preparation turn for the next show can now begin.

Game End

After the end of the 3rd show, the game ends. The end-game bonuses are awarded to the corresponding players, and the one who has gathered the most prestige points is the winner. In the event of a tie, the player who has the most remaining coins is the winner. If there is still a tie, it is a shared victory.

End-game bonuses:

• Largest Show (5 points): The player with the most performers in their circus when the game ends.
• Full Variety (3 points): The player who has all 5 performer types in their circus (magician, acrobat etc.).
• Perfect Show (5 points): If all the performers in the circus do outstanding performances in the last show (regardless if they are flipped or not).
• Large Troupe (5 points): The player who has 8 or more performers in their circus.

If there is a tie for any of the end-game bonuses, all tied players receive the full bonus.

Regions

During a game, players visit 3 regions of Europe. This is represented by the Region tiles. Each Region offers a special prestige bonus awarded during each show. By knowing their future destinations, players can plan ahead and invest in performers that will score them more prestige points.

Example: The crowd in Moscow enjoys watching magicians and tamers more than other performer types. During the show the player who is visiting Moscow will score 2 prestige points for every 2 magicians and 2 prestige points for every 2 tamers in their circus.

Out of Stock

If any of the resources (cubes) are depleted during the game, players can no longer acquire them until a player returns any back in stock by doing performer flipping to score prestige, or spending them on benefits, personnel and investment cards. If the discount tokens are depleted during the game, there are no further discounts until a token is returned to stock. If the investment, performer or personnel decks are depleted, shuffle and reuse any cards that were earlier discarded. If there is none left, no more of this kind is available for the rest of the game. Trailers are depleted as well.

Performers

Each performer card has a front and a back:

• Front: Performer's type, performer's name, performer's level, hiring cost, salary, prestige points earned when the performer is flipped, resource requirements, benefits.
• Back: Prestige points earned, salary when performer is flipped (always the same as the regular salary), secondary salary — the salary of the flipped performer after the show they got flipped (and for the rest of the game).

Each performer has specific resource requirements and can achieve 3 levels of performance. In order to achieve a higher level of performance, all resources required by lower levels must be provided. Example: In order for the Rope Walker to do an outstanding performance, she needs to be provided with one red, one yellow and one white cube in previous distribution phases. In all the following shows, the player can either earn 5 coins, or (once per game) flip her and immediately score 2 prestige points.

A player does not have to move cubes on each performer in the level-of-performance order. Example: In preparation turn 4, Jim has a yellow and a white cube in his cube storage area. In the distribution phase he moves these cubes on the Rope Walker even though she doesn't yet have a red cube. In preparation turn 5, Jim acquires a red cube and during distribution phase he moves it on the Rope Walker. In the following show the Rope Walker will do an outstanding performance.

If a show begins, and a performer does not have at least the cube needed for the lowest level of performance on them, they cannot perform, even if the cubes for higher levels were provided. (See "No Performance" under Show for details.)

As mentioned before, a performer who has achieved an outstanding level of performance can be flipped to score prestige points. After the show when this is done, the player must pay the performer's regular salary. In all the following shows, the flipped performer must instead be paid the secondary salary. This means that flipping performers for prestige points earlier in the game, will deprive players from getting benefits several times, but on the other hand, it will help them reduce the salary costs of their circus.

Examples of performers' benefits:

• Spend any cube to get 4 coins.
• Spend two coins to get 1 trailer.
• Look at the top 3 cards of the investment deck and keep 1. Put the rest on the bottom of the investment deck.
• Get a blue or a yellow cube.
• Spend any cube to skip a payment of any single salary after the show.
• Get any cube and a white cube.
• Get any 2 cubes.
• Skip a payment of any single salary after the show.

Performer types:

• Magicians help you acquire investment cards. They allow you to look at more than one card before choosing and increase your hand size by 1 (each).
• Acrobats give you coins and improve your income.
• Bizarre reduce salary costs in your circus by giving you trailers and allowing you to skip salary payments. Their own salaries and the prestige points they offer are affected by the number of bizarre performers in your circus.
• Jugglers give you cubes which help you provide resources for your other performers.
• Tamers allow you to convert cubes into coins.

Personnel

Personnel members assist you in various ways and work exactly like performers regarding hiring and salaries.

• Show Organizer: At the end of any turn, you may return the show organizer to the hiring area and become the next starting player. The Show Organizer is again available for hire but you cannot hire him in the following turn. Only other players can.
• General Supplier: During every distribution phase, you may move up to 3 cubes (instead of 2) from your cube storage area, to your performers.
• Orchestra: Gain 2 prestige points after each show.
• Popcorn Vendor: Earn 3 coins after each show.
• Bank Representative: At the beginning of each preparation turn, you may place any number of coins on the Bank Representative. These coins cannot be used any more. When the game ends, score the prestige points corresponding to the amount of coins you invested during the game. (The maximum prestige points that can be gained is 5. There is no point in investing more than 10 coins.)
• Agent (5 different): During each distribution phase, you may perform the shown conversion one time. This means you may convert any cube in to one of the two cubes offered. Limit: Regardless of how many Agents a player has in their circus, only one can be used during each distribution phase.
• Personal Assistant (5 different): During each distribution phase, you may perform the shown conversion one time. This means you may convert the specified cube in to the two cubes offered. Limit: Regardless of how many Personal Assistants a player has in their circus, only one can be used during each distribution phase.

Trailers

Every performer can be given a single trailer.

Immediately the salary of the performer using a trailer is reduced by 1 coin. Trailers earned by bizarre performers can be given to any other performer. Once a trailer is owned by a performer, it cannot be owned by someone else. Trailers can even reduce a salary cost to 0, but cannot reduce it below 0. When performers are flipped for prestige, they keep their trailer and the salary reduction is also applied to the secondary salary (see Performers for details).

Investment Cards

Investment cards help players acquire resources, coins, prestige points and more. Investment cards can be played at any moment unless stated otherwise. Each player has a hand limit of 2 cards which can be increased by hiring magicians. Each magician allows the player to keep one extra card in their hand. If a player reaches their hand limit and receives more cards, they must (after looking at the new card) immediately play any extra cards (including the one they just received) or discard down to their hand limit.

Each investment card shows: card name, potential prestige scored by this card, time this card can be used (any time if blank), card action, and an indicator of how prestige can be scored from this card (if used or not used).

• Unblock Action: You may place your action marker on any cube action even if it is blocked by another player or restricted by the game's rules. (If not used, this card is worth 1 prestige point at the end of the game.)
• Trailer: You get a trailer. (If not used, this card is worth 1 prestige point at the end of the game.)
• Fire a Performer: You may fire a performer at any time. You do not have to pay compensation or lose prestige. You may not fire a performer during a show. (If not used, this card is worth 1 prestige point at the end of the game.)
• Resource Bonus: At the game end, earn 1 prestige point for every 3 resources (cubes) left in your cube storage area.
• Double Vote: After seeing the result of a vote, you may use this card to make your vote count twice.
• Trailer Bonus: At the game end, earn 1 prestige point for each trailer in your circus.
• Extended Applause (one for each performer type): During the 1st, 2nd or 3rd show, use this card to earn 1 prestige point for each performer (of this type) who did an outstanding performance. You also lose 1 prestige point for each performer (of this type) who did a poor performance.
• Personnel Bonus: At the game end, earn 1 prestige point for each personnel member in your circus.
• Extra Resources (two for each cube color): Get any one cube or two cubes of the shown color.
• Extra Income: You get 4 coins.
• Extra Income: Spend any cube to get 5 coins.

Two Players

In 2-player games, the following changes must be made:

• Regions: Each player takes a random region tile and a 3rd one is placed on the table between the two players. It will be used as a virtual 3rd player's region so that each player visits 3 different regions during the game.
• Personnel: Deal 3 personnel cards instead of 2.
• Performer types: When dealing performers, if two of the same type are dealt, discard the second and deal a new one until the 3 performers in the hiring area are from different performer types.
• Voting: When voting to see if a 6th turn will be played, calculate the result by adding a virtual delay vote to it. In the vote for a 7th turn, perform the voting process normally.

Credits

• Designers: Konstantinos Kokkinis, Dimitris Drakopoulos
• Illustrator: Antonis Papantoniou
• Assistant designer: Sandra Biniari
• Assistant developer: Anastasios Grigoriadis
• Graphic designer: Giota Vorgia
• English rules: Konstantinos Kokkinis
• Italian rules: Michele Quondam
• German rules: Martin Mathes
• French rules: Christophe Muller
• Dutch rules: Christophe Mannaert
• Greek rules: Konstantinos Kokkinis

Note from the designers: Drum Roll is a product of fiction. Any relation to actual names or characters is purely coincidental. This game is not a historical representation. Actual historical details may vary from this game's contents. We are against any animal abuse and we do not wish to promote it in any way through this game. All life on this world should be treated with respect.

© 2010. Konstantinos Kokkinis - Dimitris Drakopoulos. © 2011. Artipia Games. All rights reserved.