Franchise Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Setting Up the Game
Playing the Game
The Bonus Tiles
End of the Game
Expert Variant

Components

Common materials:

1 Game board, split into 10 regions, each shown in a different color. There are towns and cities in each region, connected by links. The shape and color of a link determines the cost to use that link.
10 Region tiles
25 City tiles - 4x number "2", 3x number "3", 8x number "4", 5x number "5", 2x number "6", 2x number "7", 1x number "8". Each city tile has a front side (used in the normal game) and a back side (used only for the expert variant, see Expert Variant).
1 Extra expansion marker
55 Dollar cards - 25x $1, 16x $2, 7x $5, 7x $10
1 Rules booklet

Player materials (in 5 player colors: blue, red, orange, black, and beige):

1 Player board & 2 Income charts. Each player board has an "Overview" side and an "Illustration" side; it is the players' choice which side they want to use. The income chart shows a front side (5 players) and a back side (4 players), and a separate front side (3 players) and back side (2 players).
40 Franchises
1 Expansion marker & 1 Influence marker
4 Bonus tiles

Setting Up the Game

Common materials

Place the game board in the center of the playing area. Sort the dollar cards by denomination and place them next to the game board. The extra expansion marker is placed on the corresponding space on the board. Place the region tiles on the correct regions as printed on the board.

City tiles

Place the city tiles, front side up, on cities whose printed number matches the tile.

Changes during set-up for 2 or 3 players: The three depicted regions are not part of the 2 or 3 player game. To avoid players accidentally going there, each city tile is removed and a franchise of a non-player color is placed on each town and city space. The three region tiles are placed onto the region track in the three leftmost spaces.

Player materials

Each player chooses their player color, taking the following components of that color: 1 Player board, 40 Franchises, 1 Influence marker, 1 Expansion marker, 1 Income chart (for the correct number of players), 3 Bonus tiles.

Changes during set-up for 2 or 3 players: Each player takes all 4 of their bonus tiles.

All players place their franchises and bonus tiles next to their player board. The income chart is placed with the side up that shows the correct player count. Each player starts with their influence marker on space "0" of the influence track.

Starting franchises and dollars

Randomly determine the first player. Next, every player in reverse player order (player to the right of the first player begins, then counter clockwise) chooses a town on the game board to place their first franchise. Once a town has been chosen, no other player may place a franchise there. Finally, each player gets their starting income according to the table below:

Starting money with...	First player	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5
...two players:	$2	$4
...three players:	$2	$3	$5
...four players:	$3	$4	$6	$8
...five players:	$3	$4	$5	$7	$9

Note: Money is not to be hidden from other players.

Note: If this is your first game of Franchise or new players are present, we recommend using the table below to determine the starting towns for the first two franchises. Contrary to the normal rules each player gets to start with two franchises instead of one. (The amount of starting dollars does not change and can be seen on the table above.)

Default starting locations of the franchises for the introductory game (each player's two starting towns, in order):

	First player	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5
2 players:	Pueblo, Indianapolis	Montgomery, Ogallala
3 players:	Flagstaff, Little Rock	Pueblo, Indianapolis	Montgomery, Ogallala
4 players:	El Paso, Las Vegas	Pueblo, Indianapolis	Reno, Little Rock	Montgomery, Ogallala
5 players:	Memphis, Spokane	El Paso, Las Vegas	Pueblo, Indianapolis	Reno, Little Rock	Montgomery, Ogallala

Playing the Game

In Franchise players take turns in clockwise order, beginning with the first player. The active player performs the following 5 phases in this order, then the next player becomes the active player, etc.

Phase 1: Income
Phase 2: Expand once
Phase 3: Increase market share in cities
Phase 4: Open franchises and score cities
Phase 5: Score regions

Gameplay will proceed clockwise until the end of game condition is triggered (see End of Game Condition).

A player's turn in detail:

Phase 1: Income

The player adds together the highest showing number (equal to the number of available empty spaces remaining in the city) in all cities they occupy. This number is compared to the income chart, and the corresponding income in dollars is taken from the bank.

Note: If a player has no franchises in an unscored city he still gets $1 as income.

Example: Sam (red) has franchises in three cities on the game board. She adds up all the empty spaces in those cities, which totals 7. According to her income chart, she gets 3 dollars from the bank.

Phase 2: Expand once

Starting from a town or city (either scored or un-scored) with at least one of their own franchises, the player selects a town or city connected by a direct link to that location:

Town: The selected town must be unoccupied, then the player places their expansion marker in the center of the town.
City: The selected city must have an unoccupied space, and the player cannot have a franchise in that city already. The player places their expansion marker in the center of the city.

After placing their expansion marker, the player pays that link's cost to the bank.

The player may choose not to expand.

Important: Players are not allowed to jump towns or cities while expanding. They have to choose a directly adjacent town or city reachable by using only one link.

Example: To expand, Jan (blue) chooses the direct link between Detroit, where he has a franchise, to Chicago. He places his expansion marker on Chicago and pays the 3 dollar link cost to the bank.

For each city which contains one of their franchises and has an empty space remaining, the player may choose to pay $1 to the bank to open a new franchise in that city.

A player is not obligated to open a new franchise in any city, and may not add more than one franchise in a city on a turn.

After paying the $1 cost to the bank, the player takes one franchise from their supply and places it in the center of the city.

Example: Travis (orange) has franchises in four cities. He decides to increase his market share in two cities placing a franchise in each of them and paying 2 dollars to the bank.

Phase 4: Open franchises and score cities

Open franchises:

A) The player exchanges their expansion marker with one franchise from their supply.

Town: Place the franchise on the town space. As there is only one space, no further franchises can be opened here.
City: If the city is still empty, place the franchise on the first space, marked with a franchise icon. In all other cases, place the franchise on the next unoccupied space in the clockwise direction. If this is the last space, or the player has gained an absolute majority of franchises in that city, the city is scored immediately (see below).

Example: Jan (blue) returns his expansion marker and places a franchise from his supply on the next free space in the city.

B) Perform the following steps, one after the other, for each city containing a franchise in its center:

Move the franchise from the center of the city to the next unoccupied space in clockwise direction.
If all spaces are occupied now, or the player gains the absolute majority, the city is scored immediately (see below).

Absolute Majority: An absolute majority is obtained when one player has franchises in the city which equals or exceeds more than half of the value of the city.

Score cities:

If the player triggers the scoring of a city, do one of the following:

A) If the player holds the absolute majority of franchises (occupying more than half of all spaces) in that city: the player gains as many influence points (IPs) as shown in the center of that city, and advances their influence marker on the influence track accordingly.

Example: Sam (red) has the absolute majority of franchises and gains 6 IP's. She moves her influence marker accordingly.

B) If all spaces are occupied, but no player holds the absolute majority: the player owning the most franchises gains half as many IPs as shown in the center of that city (rounded down), and advances their influence marker on the influence track accordingly. In case of a tie for the most franchises, the tied player who had opened their franchise first (on the starting place or first from there in a clockwise order) gains the IPs.

Example: Sam (red) and Jan (blue) are tied for the most franchises in the city. Sam scores the 3 IP's due to the fact that she was the first one to build a franchise in the city.

Finally, remove the city tile. The player who scored the IPs returns all but one franchise to their supply, while all other players keep all their franchises on the empty city space.

If this is the first scoring in this region, the active player places a franchise from their supply next to the region tile.

Example: Sam (red) has triggered the city scoring and places a franchise next to the region tile, since this was the first city scoring a the purple region.

Once Phase 4 is solved for all towns and cities, play continues with: Phase 5: Score regions.

Phase 5: Score regions

Check each region to see if a scoring should take place. A scoring is triggered if the following two conditions are met:

There is one franchise in each town of that region, and
all cities of that region have been scored, i.e. there are no more city tiles in that region.

If these conditions are met, the IPs shown on the region tile are distributed among the players. The player owning the most franchises in that region gains the highest number of IPs shown on the region tile; the player owning the second most franchises gains the second highest number of IPs, and all other players owning at least one franchise in that region gain the third highest number of IPs each.

2 Player exception: The player owning the second most franchises gains the third highest number of IPs. The second highest number is ignored in a two player game.

Example: A region scoring is taking place in the yellow region, since all towns have a franchise and all cities have been scored. The white player scores 10, the black player 8, and the orange, blue, and red players 5 IPs.

The franchise placed next to the region tile is used for all tie-breakers in scoring that region. Tie-breaking order begins with this player and continues clockwise.

Finally, place the region tile on the first unoccupied space of the region tile track, and the active player gains as many influence points as shown on that space.

Example: Sam (red) has triggered the region scoring and gains the 2 IP's.

Note: The order of scoring regions is irrelevant.

If no region was scored, the next player clockwise takes their turn.

After scoring regions has been completed, the players check if the game has ended. If the game ends, proceed to End of the Game, otherwise the next player in clockwise direction takes their turn.

End of Game Condition

The game ends immediately if, after a player's turn, at least one region tile is placed in the red zone of the region track.

If this happens, proceed to End of the Game.

Rare case: The game also ends, if all players back to back do not expand on their turn.

Example: During Sam's (red) turn, three region scorings occurred, resulting in two region tiles being placed in the red zone of the region tile track. Therefore, the game immediately ends after Sam's turn.

The Bonus Tiles

Except during their first turn, each player may use exactly one of their bonus tiles during their turn, and perform one of its three extra actions. Subsequently, that bonus tile is put back into the game box.

The extra actions:

Expand a second time: During Phase 2: Expand once, the player may expand a second time. To do this, they use the extra expand marker, and follow the normal rules for expanding as described above. However, they may not expand in the same location as chosen for their first expansion.

During Phase 4: Open franchises and score cities the player places one franchise on each of the two locations.

Example: Jan (blue) uses his bonus tile to double expand to Chicago and to New York. He pays 8 dollars in link costs.

Note: To expand with the extra expansion marker, the player also has to start from a town or city with one of their own franchises - not the own expansion marker.

Double market share: During Phase 3: Increase market share in cities, the player may chose to place a second franchise for no cost in the center of a city where they already placed a franchise this turn. This extra action can be performed only if there are at least two unoccupied spaces in the location.

Example: Jan (blue) uses his bonus tile to open a second franchise on his turn in New York for not extra cost.

Dollar: The player may take 10 dollars from the bank.

End of the Game

When the end of game condition is met (see End of Game Condition), each player earns the following additional Influence Points (IPs):

1 IP for each franchise in a town
1 IP for each 3 dollars they have
4 IPs for each unused bonus tile

Cities and regions that are not scored at the end of the game do not award any influence points.

Example: Jan (blue) scores an additional 5 influence points for his towns on the game board, 3 points for his left over dollars, and 4 points for his unused bonus tile.

The player with the most influence points is the winner of the game. In case of a tie for the most IPs, the tied player owning the most franchises in towns is the winner. If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Expert Variant

During set-up, instead of placing the city tiles according to the numbers on the game board, sort them by their back side. Then the players decide for each city space which city tile they want to place there.

During set-up, the players decide for each region which region tile they want to place there.