Dry Gulch Junction Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Turn
  • Drawing Event Cards
  • Drawing Resources or Building Permits
  • Building
  • Reward Phase
  • Discard
• Special Rules
• Winning the Game
• Optional Rules
• Reference: Buildings
• Reference: Resource Cards
  • Substitution Table
• Reference: Event Cards
  • Red Triangle (Disasters)
  • Violet Triangle (Special Equipment)
  • Yellow Triangle (Special Abilities)
  • No Triangle (Other Events)

Components

• 1 Game board (6 parts, with a map of the building plots of Dry Gulch)
• 81 Resource cards (goods, abilities and influence points on a brown background)
• 39 Event cards (red background)
• 33 Building permits
• 102 Family member chips (18 each in 6 colours; the stickers go onto the chips). As printed; 6 colours at 18 chips would total 108.
• 6 Damaged-building markers (the additional red chips)

Setup

1. Spread out the game board and determine a starting player.

2. Beginning with the starting player, each player chooses a colour, takes the matching Residence and places it on an empty building plot on the board, so that the footpath points to a thick black line and to the outer edge of the board.

3. Each player takes the family member chips of his colour:

   • 3 players: 17
   • 4 players: 15
   • 5 players: 13
   • 6 players: 11

   One chip is placed on the Residence.

4. The Building permits, Resource cards and Event cards are separated. Each pile is shuffled and placed face down on its field on the board. Resource cards show their information on a brown grain. Event cards show their information on a red grain.

5. Each player is dealt 5 resources and 3 building permits face down.

Turn

Each turn of a player consists of the following phases:

1. Draw event cards
2. Either draw a resource card or draw building permits
3. Build
4. Receive rewards
5. Discard cards

Drawing Event Cards

1. In the first round, players do not draw event cards.
2. The top three event cards of the deck are turned face up and placed in front of the active player. The player must immediately discard one of these three cards. The remaining cards with a red or yellow triangle the player may take into hand. All other cards stay lying face up. The player must play these cards during the course of his turn, before the reward phase. When exactly he plays them is his choice.
3. Some cards concern buildings that have not yet been built. If a player loses cards to a building that has not yet been built, he discards them instead. If he receives cards from a building that has not yet been built, he draws them from the resource deck.
4. Some event cards last until the end of a particular player's turn. As a reminder, such a card is placed in front of the affected player and remains in effect until the discard phase of that player's turn.

Drawing Resources or Building Permits

A player may either draw Resource cards or draw a Building permit:

1. If he draws from the Resource deck, he draws three cards. If the deck is empty, the discarded cards are reshuffled and used.

2. If a player draws a Building permit, he takes either one of the face-up discarded permits, or he takes two from the face-down deck and places one of them on the discard pile.

   Note: Building permits are kept face down in front of each player. They cannot be traded, and they cannot be lost when random cards have to be discarded.

Building

A player may build as many buildings, and play as many influence point cards, in his turn as he wishes and can afford based on his Resource cards.

1. Buildings are built by playing the Goods and Ability cards that the building requires. If a player does not have all the required resources, he may replace the missing ones with any other cards from his hand according to the substitution table. The table is also printed on the edge of the board.

   Example: Otto tries to build the Pharmacy. He has: 1 Carpenter, 3 Lumber, 1 Labor, 1 I.O.U. and one Gold Strike. He uses 1 Carpenter as Carpenter and one Lumber as Lumber. He uses 2 further Lumber as Blacksmith. He uses the I.O.U. and the Gold Strike as Whiskey, and the Labor card as Labor; the surplus point of Labor is forfeited unused.

   a. Once the cost of the building has been paid, the cards are sorted onto the matching discard fields on the board. A building must be placed so that its sidewalks match the thick dark lines along the streets. A sidewalk may never lie between two buildings. A corner building may not be built in the middle of a block, and a building without a corner may only be played in the middle of a block or at the end of a street.

   b. When the building is built, as many family members are placed as correspond to its influence points.

   c. Each plot has a reward value. The corresponding number of Resource cards is drawn from the deck during the reward phase.

2. A player may play influence cards during the building phase. When the conditions of the card are fulfilled, the player may play the card face up in front of himself on the table. It stays there until the end of the game. The player also places a family member on the board. During the reward phase, the players who own the buildings matching the card may draw three additional Resource cards.

3. A player may also play a disaster event (red triangle) from his hand.

Reward Phase

1. All event cards must be resolved before the reward phase ends.
2. Each player draws his Resource cards from the corresponding deck.

Discard

1. The active player may discard any cards he wishes. He likewise discards all event cards that other players have played against him.
2. All players with more than 15 cards must discard randomly selected cards.

Special Rules

1. Building permits are kept face down in front of each player. They do not count as cards in the sense of these rules. They cannot be stolen, traded or discarded.
2. All hand cards may be used for building costs, including event or influence cards.
3. Certain buildings have special functions, and these functions are in effect as soon as the building has been built:
   1. Bank: The owner of the Bank may, during the Resource and Building permit drawing phase, draw two Resources and the top Building permit from the deck. (If the deck of Building permits is empty, this ability no longer applies.)
   2. General Store: The owner of the General Store may use any one of his hand cards per turn as a Good (not an Ability) for house construction. If a player owns both stores, he may use two hand cards in this way.
   3. Blacksmith: The owner of the Blacksmith no longer needs Blacksmith resources for new buildings.
4. Event cards with a red triangle are disasters:
   1. A damaged building is marked by placing a corresponding marker on it.
   2. The event card is placed in front of the owner of the respective damaged building. (It is discarded in the discard phase of the affected player.)
   3. The affected player loses cards accordingly.
   4. Half of the influence points belonging to the damaged building do not count and are therefore not available for ending the game.
   5. No player may have more than one Fire and one Vandalism card in front of him.
5. Cards with a yellow triangle may be kept and played at a suitable moment.
6. All influence points, special abilities, rewards and penalties of a building are void while that building is damaged.

Winning the Game

If at any point during the building phase a player has enough influence points on the board, he wins the game. (Reminder: influence points of damaged buildings count only half.)

Optional Rules

1. Advanced setup: The Building permits are not dealt out at random at the start. Instead, beginning with the last player and proceeding in reverse turn order, each player selects one Building permit from the cards and then passes the remaining cards on to the next player. This continues until each player has two Building permits.
2. Damage to the Town Hall: Vandalism and Fire may be played against the Town Hall. If this happens, the Town Hall is closed, and therefore no player may draw Building permits until the active player is on turn again. The Town Hall may be reopened by any player at the end of his event phase by discarding any two cards.
3. Open Building permits: If a player draws a Building permit in the Resource and Building permit drawing phase, he may look through the deck and take any permit he likes.
4. Spreading fire: As long as no Firehouse is in play, fire spreads at the start of each player's turn to neighbouring buildings. Fire does not spread across a street or over open plots. The fire is extinguished when the originally affected player is allowed to discard the event card.

Reference: Buildings

Building names as given in the source's list of building types (the small square building cards), with the German names as printed.

English	German
Residence	Wohnsitz
Saloon	Saloon (Bar, Kneipe)
Saddlery	Sattlerei
Hotel	Hotel
Opera	Opernhaus
General Store	Laden (großer Laden)
Hatmaker	Hutmacher
Sheriff's Office	Sheriffs Büro
Newspaper	Zeitung
Blacksmith	Schmied
Soup Kitchen	Suppenküche
Undertaker	Totengräber

On the board, the single plot lying in front of the town may only be built on by the Bank.

Reference: Resource Cards

English	German	Type
Labor	Arbeit	Ability
Carpenter	Zimmermann	Ability
Brick	Ziegelsteine	Good
Mason	Maurer	Ability
Blacksmith	Schmied	Ability
Lumber	Holz	Good
Whiskey	Whisky	Good
Entertainment	Unterhaltung	Good
Food

Substitution Table

The substitution table is printed on the edge of the board. The source lists it with the following values in its "Karten" (cards) column, which the source does not further explain; they are transcribed as printed.

English	German	Karten
Mason	Maurer	3
Blacksmith	Schmied	2
Carpenter	Zimmerleute	2
Brick	Ziegelsteine	3
Lumber	Holz	2
Whiskey	Whisky	2
Entertainment	Unterhaltung	1
Food	Nahrung	1
Labor	Arbeit

Reference: Event Cards

Red Triangle (Disasters)

• Fire (Feuer): Played against any building. The building is then damaged. If there is no Firehouse, the owner of the affected building must let each other player draw one card from his hand. If there is a Firehouse, its owner may draw 2 cards.
• Vandalism (Vandalismus): Played against any building. The owner of the affected building must let a card be drawn from him, which is discarded.

Violet Triangle (Special Equipment)

• Gold Strike (Goldfund): Counts 1 influence point. May only be played at the end of the game.
• Silk Lace (German title as printed: "Seiden was??"): Counts 1 influence point. May only be played if the General Store has been built. The owner of the General Store receives 3 reward cards.
• City Hall Clock (Turmuhr): Counts 1 influence point. Playable after the Post Office has been built and the Wells Fargo Wagon has arrived. The Post Office receives 3 reward cards.
• Printing Press (Druckerpresse): Counts 1 influence point. Playable after the Newspaper has been built. The Newspaper receives 3 reward cards.
• Fire Engine (Wasserpumpe): Counts 1 influence point. Playable after the Firehouse has been built. The Firehouse receives 3 reward cards.
• Deputy (Vize Sheriff): Counts 1 influence point. Playable after the Sheriff's Office has been built. The Sheriff's Office receives 3 reward cards.
• Two Ton Safe (Schwere Safe): Counts 1 influence point. Playable when the Bank and the Blacksmith have been built. The Bank and the Blacksmith each receive 3 reward cards.
• French Madam (Französin): Counts 1 influence point. Playable when the Bordello has been built. The Bordello receives 3 reward cards.
• Diploma (Diplom): Counts 1 influence point. Playable after the Doctor's office has been built. The Doctor's office receives 3 reward cards.

Yellow Triangle (Special Abilities)

• Ace up your sleeve (Kluges Köpfchen): Whenever cards are drawn from you, you show this card and then take it back. Afterwards you may set aside one of your cards to protect it from being drawn.
• I.O.U. (Ehrenschuld): Whenever cards (any number) are drawn from you, you hand over this card, and no cards are drawn this time.
• Fire Insurance (Feuerversicherung): Whoever discards this card prevents the loss of cards in the event of a fire. The loss of influence points is not prevented.
• Handyman Brother (Helfer): May be played as any ability.

No Triangle (Other Events)

• Election Poll (Wahlumfrage, 2x): For each player, the influence points on the board are compared. Each player draws one card for each point by which he is behind the leader.
• Main Street Shootout (Schießerei auf Hauptstraße, 2x): The Undertaker receives one Resource card.
• Doctor gets a new medicament (Arzt erhält neues Medikament): The Doctor loses two random cards to the Pharmacist.
• Headline about mayor-to-be (Schlagzeilen über den Bürgermeisterkandidaten): The leading player loses two random cards to the Newspaper. In case of a tie, each leading player loses one card to the Newspaper.
• Doctor gets a close shave (Arzt entrinnt knapp ...): The Doctor loses two random cards to the Barber.
• Banker gets a new pipe (Bankier bekommt neue Pfeife): The Bank loses two random cards to the Tobacconist.
• Gunfight in the Saloon (Schießerei im Saloon): This card is played against any Saloon. The affected player loses random cards to the Undertaker, the Sheriff and the Doctor, one each.
• Wells Fargo Wagon (Postkutsche 1): Each player loses one random card to the Post Office. Afterwards, each player draws 3 cards.
• Land Grant (Landzuweisung): Draw 1 Building permit from the deck. If the deck is empty, the action lapses.
• Sheriff Shot (Sheriff erschossen): The Sheriff loses two random cards to the Doctor.
• (Totengräberpferd krank): The Undertaker loses two cards to the Stables.

Notes on event cards: Buildings named in these card texts refer to their owners, who gain or lose the cards. Random card losses are carried out by an opponent drawing the corresponding number of cards from the affected player's own face-down cards.