Gran Circo

Gran Circo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Components

1 round board representing a ring
5 player boards in the shape of a circus tent (Royal, Splendor, Colossus, Majestic and Imperium)
1 mini board divided in three areas: (income, partners and union table).
60 acts tiles (5 for each artist). There are 12 different acts in the game.
24 circus improvement tiles, 8 advertisement tiles, 1 tile indicating the Starting Player of the round, 20 Concession Stands tiles in five different colors (4 green, 4 red, 4 blue, 4 yellow and 4 purple)
35 chips (20 white chips worth $1 and 15 yellow chips worth $3), 5 Wooden Scoring Markers
10 Partners tiles (2 Shareholders, 2 Investors, 3 Managers e 3 Talent Scouts)

Object of the Game

In Gran Circo, each player has his own circus and must carry out two performances: one in the first half of the game and another at the end. After each of these performances, players assess the "quality" of its cast of acts by adding the stars shown on each tile and transforming this into points. Improvements made to the circus, advertisements and concessions stands also help players achieve more stars and a better score. At the end of the second performance, the player who has achieved the highest score is considered the best circus administrator and wins the game!

Setting Up the Game

Place the board in the shape of a ring circus in the center of the table. (1)
Each player chooses his circus and takes the wooden scoring marker of its corresponding color. (2)
Shuffle the circus acts tiles and divide them into four equal piles (same amount of tiles), with the tiles facing down. Leave a space between the second and third pile. (3)

According to the number of players some tiles must be removed from the game and returned to box. See the box below:

3 PLAYERS: Remove one tile of each type of act with a star and one tile of each with two stars. 36 tiles will remain.
4 PLAYERS: Remove one tile of each type of act with a star. 48 tiles will remain.
5 PLAYERS: Use all 60 tiles.

OBS: Remove from the game only tiles from acts who do NOT have a DUET symbol (See Scoring the Performance ahead.)

Place the mini board with the income, Partners and Union table within players' reach. (4)
Set the Advertisement, Circus Improvements and Concessions Stands tiles aside. Shuffle each group separately and arrange a supply of these tiles, facing down, within players' reach. (5)
Draw these tiles from the top of each pile and fill in the corresponding spaces in the ring. You should place exactly two advertisement tiles; five concessions stands tiles and six improvement tiles, facing up. (6)
Place partners tiles within players' reach. Use as many tiles as described in the box below. Removed tiles are returned to the box. (7)
- 3 PLAYERS: Use 2 Shareholders, 2 Investors, 1 Manager and 1 Talent Scout
- 4 PLAYERS: Use 2 Shareholders, 2 Investors, 2 Managers and 2 Talent Scouts
- 5 PLAYERS: Use all tiles
Leave all game chips in a free area of the table. They shall be the "bank" throughout the game. (8)
The last player to have been at the circus gets this round's Starting Player tile and places it on the table in front of him.

After this setup, GRAN CIRCO is ready to begin!

(Example of set-up in a 3-player match: illustration.)

How to Play

A game of Gran Circo lasts exactly four rounds and each is divided into three different phases. Players' turns always follow clockwise around the table, starting with the player who has the Starting Player tile in front of him. All players must complete a phase of the round before starting the next phase.

After the second round of play, the first performance is executed and players score points. After the end of the fourth round of play, the second performance is executed and all players score again. Thus, the player with the highest score (combining their two performances) wins the game.

Time to explain each of the three phases of the game round.

Phase 1: Receive Acts Tiles, Money and Choose Characters

The starting player takes the first piles and distributes exactly three to each player (exhausting the pile). Then each player adds the numbers that appear on the tiles and checks the income table. Depending on the sum, the player may receive a bonus or has to make a contribution to help maintain the circus' union. See some examples:

Example 1: Bia gets three tiles which sum is 4. Thus, she receives 1 bonus and gets $ 5 from the bank.
Example 2: Rui receives three tiles whose sum is 6. With this amount, he does not gain or lose anything and gets $ 6 from bank to use this round.
Example 3: Leo receives three tiles whose sum is 9. Thus, he shall contribute to the circus' union by paying $ 2 and therefore receives only $ 7 from the bank.

Through the income table, the players never receive an amount less than $5 or more than $7 at the beginning of each round. The money from each player must remain on the image of the circus in his individual board, visible to everyone throughout the game.

After all players have received their money and collected three tiles, the starting player must then choose one of the partners.

The player takes the tile of the chosen partner and places it in the appropriate area of his circus. Then the next player, clockwise, chooses a partner as well. This continues until all players have chosen a partner and placed his tiles in the circus. Now, there is a second round to choose partners, only this time in the REVERSE order, i.e., those who were the last to choose are now the first ones and this continues in a counterclockwise direction around the table. Furthermore, there is another change: any player can, if they wish to, receive $ 1 from the bank instead of choosing a second partner. It is not allowed to choose the same two partners and no player can have more than two partners in his circus during the game. See the example below:

FIRST ROUND – CHOOSING THE PARTNERS	BIA	RUI	LEO
	Talent Scout	Manager	Shareholder

SECOND ROUND – CHOOSING THE PARTNERS	LEO	RUI	BIA
	S1	Investor	S1

The order of turns is: Bia, Rui and Leo. In the first round, Bia takes the partner Talent Scout and puts his tile in her circus. Then it is Rui's turn and he chooses the Manager, followed by Leo who chooses the Shareholder. Now he begins the second round in REVERSE ORDER. So, Leo decides to give up choosing a second partner and gets $ 1 from the bank. After that Rui chooses the Investor and then it's Bia's turn, who also just gets $ 1 instead of choosing a 2nd partner.

The role of partners in the game is to help players have good performances, hire talented acts and make improvements in the circus. Also, always at the end of a round, all partners, whether or not they were used by the players, are returned to stock pile be chosen again in phase 1 of the next round. See further ahead, a detailed description of each one of the four partners of the game: Talent Scout, Manager, Investor and Shareholder.

Phase 2: Reveal the Acts

During this phase, players will reveal acts by putting tiles into the colored markings that are represented in the ring. Each player has their own marking, in the same color of his circus. Starting with the starting player and clockwise around the table, each player, in his turn, must choose one of his tiles and place it near one of the markings. During this phase, two rules must be observed by players:

NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO REVEAL AN ACT IN HIS OWN MARKING.
NO MARKING CAN HAVE MORE THAN THREE REVEALED ACTS TILES.

If during your turn, the player can't do it because all the markings already have three tiles and the only one still available is his own marking, the player is required to send an acts tile to the Circus Union, by placing the tile on the table near the union. See the example:

In a game with three players, the order of turns is: Bia, Rui and Leo. On the beginning of phase 1, they received the following acts tiles: Bia (Ballerina - Tamer - Magician), Rui (Guest Artist - Tamer – Human Cannonball) and Leo (Mimic - Acrobats - Ballerina). Bia starts phase 2 by "revealing" the Ballerina to the Gran Circo Majestic (gray marking), then it is Rui's turn and he reveals the Guest Artist to the Gran Circo Splendor (yellow marking) and finally it is Leo's turn and he reveals another Ballerina to the Gran Circo Majestic. Note that these first revealed tiles are represented with the red outline in the following example

Now is the time for Bia to reveal one more time and she decides to reveal a Magician in the gray marking, then Rui reveals his Human Cannonball in the yellow marking and Leo reveals his Acrobats in the yellow marking as well. Note that this second group of revealed tiles is represented with the blue outline in the following example.

Finally, Bia must reveal her third and final tile and the only marking available is at the Gran Circo Royal (blue marking). So she reveals in this marking the Tamer. Rui is in the same situation as Bia's and reveals a Tamer in the same marking. Now it is the Leo's turn and as he CAN'T reveal an act in his own marking, so he is obliged to send his Mimic to the Circus' Union. These final tiles have a white outline in the following example.

The acts tiles sent to the Circus Union are placed in line next to it. These acts can be "hired" by the players on the 3rd phase (see phase 3 below). The number of acts who may occupy the union during the game is unlimited.

NOTE: Any marking can have two or three REPEATED acts. It is not possible to submit an act to the union voluntarily, i.e., if the player has some marking available, provided that it's not his, he must reveal the act in this marking. In matches with less than five players unused markings are simply ignored during the game.

How to Use the Talent Scout

By using a Talent Scout tile, the player can reveal an act in his own marking. The player places his Talent Scout tile on the act near his marking. In the example above, if Leo had a Talent Scout, he could use it to reveal the mimic in his own circus' marking, instead of sending it to the union. Each Talent Scout partner can reveal only a single act, and after completion of phase 2, it should be returned to pile of partners. Note: you may not use the Talent Scout to reveal an act in another circus' marking; that would not be very coherent!

After all players have revealed their three acts tiles, starting with Starting Player and following in clockwise direction around the table, the partner who owns the Manager can use it to swap an act of his own with an act in another marking.

After that, all players pick up the acts tiles which are in their markings and organize them in a row before him on the table, forming the cast of his circus. During that time, repeated acts in the players' circuses MUST be sent to the union.

In this example, Leo cannot take two Tamers back to his circus, so he decides to stay with the three-star Tamer and sends the other to the union.

IMPORTANT: throughout the game, no circus may have repeated acts. Therefore, whenever this occurs, at the end of Phase 2, the player must choose one or more acts, among the repeated ones, and send it (them) immediately to the union.

How to Use the Manager

By using the Manager tile, the player can, at end of phase 2, after all players have revealed all artists, SWAP an act from any of the markings with an act in his own marking. The owner of the other circus can't refuse this exchange and any artist who has been revealed with the Talent Scout is protected and can't be exchanged. In the example below, Rui (red) swaps his Ballerina with Leo's Guest Artist (green). Note that, after the exchange, Rui keeps the Manager's tile on the Guest Artist's tile so that this act can't be exchanged again, if one or more Managers are available to still be in this round.

When bringing new acts to his circus, the player can rearrange the tiles, changing position in the row the way he sees fit to form "duets" between acts and enhance his performance (see the Scoring the Performance below).

After bringing new acts to his circus, the player can form the sequence (row) you want with these tiles. In this example, if the player had brought a repeated act, he should immediately select a tile, among the repeated ones, and send it to the circus union.

After the end of Phase 2, all Talent Scout and Managers tiles, whether they were used or not by the players, are returned to the general stock of partners tiles.

Phase 3: Invest

At this phase players can buy advertisements, improvements and concession stands' tiles and may also hire acts from the union to increase the cast of their performances. So, starting with the Starting Player of the round and following on clockwise, each player, in turn, can make exactly one investment, which may be: buy a tile from the ring OR hire an act from the union. No player is obligated to invest and may "pass" his turn, saving his money. When he passes, the player can no longer invest during this phase and in turn is skipped until the phase ends.

Buying a Tile from the Ring

The player chooses any type of tile (advertisement, concession stands or improvement), pays the amount due to the bank (red number on the tile), and puts it into the appropriate space within his circus. If the player does not have enough money to buy a certain tile, he cannot buy it.

Space reserved for the ADVERTISEMENT tiles. Throughout the game, no player can have more than two such tiles in their circus tent.
Space reserved for the CONCESSION STANDS tiles. Throughout the game, the maximum number of concession stands that a player can have is 5 and all colors must be DIFFERENT!
Space reserved for the IMPROVEMENTs tiles. Throughout the game, the number of improvements that a circus can have is unlimited. Thus, if a player is occupying all these spaces, he can still put the new tiles next to his tent.

Hiring an Act from the Union

The player chooses any act tile that is available on the union and pays the tiles value + $ 1. Note that it is possible to hire acts that are missing in the cast of the circus or hire an act with more stars. See the example:

In her turn, Bia hires an act from the union and chooses the Clown with three stars. She pays the amount of $ 3 + $ 1 for a total of $ 4. Since she already has a clown with a star and the acts cannot be repeated within a circus, she immediately delivers this tile (the clown with one star) to the union and places the new contracted act (the clown with three stars) in a row of acts (cast) on the table in front of her.

How to Use the Investor

By using an investor' tile, the player can buy any type of advertisment, improvement or concession stand with a discount. If the tile is purchased within the ring, the player pays the total amount (- 1) and if it is outside the ring, (- 2). Each investor can only purchase once with a discount and after the discount is used, the investor is returned to the general stock of partners' tiles. To understand how the tiles "outside" the ring are purchased, see (End of round - below).

A tent inside the ring, purchased through the Investor, is sold for free! A "tent" outside the ring, purchased through the investors also comes for free!

How to Use the Shareholder

By using a shareholder's tile, the player can choose any type of union act and get it for FREE! The shareholder's tile is immediately discarded by the player and returned to the general stock of partners' tiles.

After all players have finished their investments and passed, phase 3 ends. Remember that a player is not required to spend all his money and he may "pass" any time he wants, however, investing in advertisements, improvements and concession stands can be a good way to increase the quality of your cast and circus to please the public and get more points for each performance!

End of the Round

After the end of Phase 3, the round ends and all players must do three things: change the Starting Player, discard tiles left over inside the ring and finally replenish tiles inside the ring.

Change the Starting Player – whoever has this tile passes it to the player on the left on the table and he becomes the Starting Player next round.
Discard ring's tiles - if there are any remaining tiles in the ring (advertisements, concession stands or improvements), they should be removed and placed face upwards, separated by type, on the table area, visible to all. In future rounds of the game, these tiles can be purchased by players using the Investor partner. Incidentally, this is the only way to acquire such tiles, i.e., through the Investor (Fig. 1).
Replenish tiles in the ring – the Starting Player buys new tiles from the top of each row in the stock and fills all the general empty spaces inside the ring so that the amount of tiles available for purchase at the beginning of each round of play is always the same: two advertisements, five concession stands and six improvements (fig. 2).
Fig. 1 - Area reserved for the disposal of the tiles that were not purchased during the round.
Fig. 2 – Advertisements / Concession Stands / Improvements

By spending an Investor tile, a player can buy any discarded tile with discount (- $ 2). Thus, in the example of Fig. 1, the Radio Advertisement would cost only $ 3, the Steel cables would cost $ 1 and the PAR Lights would be free! Remember: "discarded" tiles may only be purchased through the Investor.

Scoring the Performances

During a game of Gran Circo, players carry out exactly TWO performances. The first occurs at the end of the 2nd round and the second occurs at the end of the 4th and final round. Players add up the points scored in their two performances and whoever has the highest sum wins.

Starting with the Starting Player and following clockwise, each player calculates the score of its performance and uses his scoring marker to record the points in his scoring track in his circus ring. At this moment, the advertisements, concession stands and improvements tiles will directly influence the scores of the players. To do the calculation, follow step by step guide explained below:

Add up the Act's stars: The stars show the "technical" quality of your acts. There are newcomers (with one star), experienced (with two stars) and award-winning (with three stars) acts. The more stars they have, the higher the quality of your circus' cast and how much they enchant the audience.

NOTE: WHEN SCORING, EACH STAR IS WORTH EXACTLY ONE POINT.
Check the Duets: Certain acts with one or two stars have a special marking on their tiles (a ring behind the character) that indicates the willingness of these artists to make "duets" numbers (in partnership) with other acts within the performance. Each duet increases the performance's score by 1 point.

NOTE: All "award-winning" acts in the game, those who have 3 stars, are slightly vain, so they do not perform duets with other acts. Even so, they fascinate the audience and earn great points for the owner of the circus where they work at!

In this example, the Magician and the Mimic are performing a "duet" on the performance and it gives one extra point for that player! The red triangular markings, one on each tile, together form a circus ring. This represents a duet.
Check your Advertisements: By making the right advertisements, players get more audience for their performances. This is an incentive to the acts that, in turn, end up performing their numbers better than before. There are two types of advertisements in the game: those that offer points directly to the player and those that increase the points of the acts.

Flyers and TV Ads tiles increase 2 and 4 scores points of a performance, respectively.

Car Stereos tiles increase 1 point to all acts with one star. Outdoors increase 1 point to all acts with two Stars. Radio Ads increase 1 point to all acts with three stars.
Check your Improvements: By investing in improvements for your circus and new equipment for the performance, players increase the comfort of the audience and the satisfaction of its acts. There are two types of improvements in the game: those who need specific acts to be scored and the special improvements (see a detailed description of the special improvements on p. 8).

Two Examples of Scoring

Max, playing with the Gran Circo Royal, executes its 1st performance with six artists, whose star sum is 10. His Magician performs two duets, one with the Ballerina and the other with the Tamer. This gives two more points. For the advertisement "Car Sound", all act with one star receive 1 more point (Mime, Magician and Acrobat). Furthermore, he invested in "Flyers" and receives an additional 2 points. Since Max has the Magician, he gets 1 more point for the Smoke Machine, but does not get the two points for the Special Effects because he doesn't have the Human Cannonball in his cast yet. Finally, since he bought two Concession Stands, he wins 1 more point and receives $ 3 from the bank. Therefore his total score is 19 points and he moves his marker to the space nineteenth in his point's track of his tent.

NOTE: Please note that cash and points (stars), given by Concession Stands are NOT cumulative, i.e. with two different Concession Stands, a player gets 1 point and $3. With three Concession Stands he receives 2 points and $5. With four Concession Stands he receives 2 points and $7 and, finally, with five Concession Stands he receives 3 points and $10.

Ana, playing with the Gran Circo Colossus, makes her 1st performance with five acts whose star sum is 11. Her Equilibrist performs a duet with the Clown and this gives her 1 point. The "Radio Ads" advertisement gives all acts with three stars 1 more point (Human Cannonball, Mimic and Guest Artist). Since Ana has the Equilibrist she gets 1 more point for the steel bar but does not receive 1 point for the safety net because she doesn't have the Trapeze Artist in her cast yet. Other than that, she has a special improvement tile (see details on p. 8), which gives her 3 more points because she has four different Concession Stands. And finally, the four Concession Stands give her 2 more points and $7 from the bank. Therefore, her total score is 21 points and she advances her marker into the corresponding space of the track.

IMPORTANT: After scoring the first performance, it's time to dismantle the circus tent and move to another city! Thus, all players MUST discard all advertisement and concession stands tiles that are in their tents. Those tiles are removed from the game and returned to the box. Be careful not to mix them with the discarded tiles from inside the ring, which are still available for purchase. Now, in another city, circuses should make new advertisements and hire new temporary concession stands for this task. The improvement tiles however, are permanent, and CONTINUE in the circuses tents until the end of the game. Also remember that money is only scored in the second performance!

NOTE: When scoring the 2nd performance, players score AGAIN ALL of his cast of acts and their improvements, along with new advertisements and new concession stand that are the service of the circuses.

End of Game and Winner

The Gran Circo game ends after all players have scored the second performance, at the end of the fourth round. Each player will add the points from their two performances to reach his final score. The one with the largest sum is declared the most efficient, creative and charismatic circus entrepreneur, and wins the game!

If two or more players are tied with the same amount of points, there are three possible tiebreakers in the following order:

1st criteria: Largest amount of Acts - among the tied players, the one who has the highest number of act tiles in his cast, no matter neither the stars nor the duets, only the total amount of acts.
2nd criteria: Largest amount of improvements - among the tied players, one who has the highest number of improvement tiles in his circus, no matter what kind they are.
3rd criteria: Money - among the tied players, the winner is the one who ended the game with the largest sum of money.

Special Improvements Tiles

Toilettes

To get the 3 points from this improvement, the player's circus must have at least four different Concession Stands. If the player does not reach this minimum number, he wins 1 point for having installed toilettes at the circus (painted yellow star on the tile)

Computerized Box Offices

To score with this tile and receive 3 points, the player must have at least four acts with three stars each in the cast of his circus. If the player hasn't reached this number, he gets only 1 point for having invested in a computerized box office (painted yellow star on the tile).

Boxes

To receive 3 points, the cast of acts must have at least four duets. If the player does not reach that number, he wins 1 point for having invested in new facilities (painted yellow star on the tile), after all, a more demanding audience loves the comfort of good boxes.

Tent

To get the 3 points in this tile, the player must have at least eight act tiles in the cast of his circus. If the player does not reach this number, he gets only 1 point for having invested in new canvas (painted yellow star on the tile).

Portable Ring

To get the 3 points in this tile, the player must have at least six acts, with two stars each in the cast of his circus. If the player does not reach this number, he gets only 1 point for having invested in a portable ring (painted yellow star on the tile).

Sound System

To receive 3 points, the sum of the stars of all acts in a player's cast must be at least 18. If the sum does not reach this number, the player wins only 1 point for having invested in a Sound System (painted yellow star on the tile).

NOTE: Duets NOT count when adding the stars.

Hints

When you receive your three act tiles at the beginning of a round, try to assess whether it may be more interesting to choose a Talent Scout to help you reveal an act with three stars in your own marking, for example, or a Manager to help you get a better artist at the end of phase 2.
If you choose the Talent Scout, do not wait to use it, because your marking can wrap up with three artists on it, and you will waste it during that round.
When revealing an "award-winning" act with three stars in another player's circus marking, give preference to circuses that already have this type of act. Thus, the other players will have to choose one of them and deliver the other to the union as it is not permitted to have repeated acts in the cast.
Be sure to invest in some improvement even if you do not have the act shown on it. By the end of the game you can get it and the improvement will be scored.
Keep your eyes on the tiles discarded in the ring during the game. Buy them with the Investor can be cheap and give you many points.
Do not overlook the concession stands. Besides helping in scoring, they bring money to your circus, which allow new and better investments.
Also observe that the acts that are sent to the union during the game. There you can find those who are missing to complete your cast.