Hip Town
Hip Town Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 108 Property Cards
- 54 Reality Cards
- 60 Hip Coin Currency Pogs (32 1HCs, 16 5HCs, 12 10HCs)
- 1 8-sided die
- 1 Instructions sheet
Object & Overview
Players will compete to develop the trendiest neighborhood in Hip Town, employing both luck and strategy as they use their Hip Coins and Property Cards to construct businesses to their benefit. Whoever has the most total Hip Points once any player builds ten businesses is the winner!
Set Up
At the beginning of the game, the Property deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt three cards face-down from the Property deck.
After the Property Cards have been dealt, shuffle the Reality deck and place both the Property and Reality decks face-down at the center of the table, within reach of all players.
A banker is chosen, who must then pass 18 Hip Coin to each player (1-10HCs, 1-5HCs, 3-1HCs). This will be the currency of the game, used for both direct purchases and auctions.
The player who most recently drank a craft beer (legally!) goes first. Otherwise start with the youngest player and move clockwise.
How to Play
Each player's turn consists of two steps: the ROLL and the ACTION.
1. The Roll
Player rolls the die.
a) If the Hip Coin symbol is face-up, the player receives 5 Hip Coin from the bank.
b) If the Reality symbol is face-up, the player draws the top card of the Reality deck, reads it aloud, and follows the directions.
c) If the Property symbol is face-up, the player flips the top card of the Property deck. The player may either buy that property for the Hip Coin Cost listed on the card or surrender it to the auction block. If surrendered, other players may bid (starting at a value of 1 Hip Coin) for the property. Bidding begins with the player to the left of the current player and continues around the table clockwise as many times as necessary until a winning bid is established. The player who places the highest bid must then pay that amount to the bank. The player who initially surrendered the card may not bid. Players may NOT bid more Hip Coin than they possess.
NOTE: When a player wins an auction, they may add the card to their hand but they may not build until their turn.
d) If the Choice symbol is face-up, the player can choose any of the previous 3 options.
2. The Action
Player may build one property. (maximum one building per turn)
If a player possesses a Property Card with a Developer Rating equal to or less than the number of cards currently in that player's neighborhood, they may choose to play that card so long as it is adjacent (vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally) to another existing business. (See figure A. to the right)
Property Cards with a Developer Rating of 0 may be played without any other existing businesses. See "Building Your Neighborhood" for more information.
[Figure A: a grid of four card positions. Three are filled, with the card placed vertically above and two cards side by side below, and one position marked with a "no" symbol. Caption "A."]
The Cards
1. Property Cards
a. Property Cards are the most valuable resource in Hip Town.
b. Each card contains three distinct values in separate parts of the card:
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Developer Rating: indicated by the Hard Hat symbol on the card's face, this value represents the number of businesses that must already exist in a player's neighborhood prior to constructing that Property Card.
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Hip Coin Cost: indicated by the Hip Coin symbol on the card's face, this value represents the number of Hip Coins a player must use to purchase this property if it becomes available on their turn. The paid cost goes to the bank.
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Hip Points: indicated by the Hip Points text on the card's face, this value represents the total number of points a player may claim for that card at the game's end.
c. Each card also contains one symbol - paired with a color - at the bottom of the card, representing the type of business of each Property Card:
- Tools (Green): Service
- Fork & Knife (Blue): Food
- Microphone & Paintbrush (Purple): Arts & Entertainment
- Shopping Bag (Yellow): Novelty Shop
- Bottle (Red): Vice
d. One Property Card may be constructed at the end of each turn, so long as the Developer Rating of the card is less than or equal to the number of businesses that have already been constructed within the neighborhood.
2. Reality Cards
a. Drawn whenever a player rolls a Reality symbol and MUST be played on the turn that it's drawn.
b. Includes several separate benefits and penalties, ranging from the opportunity to steal an opponent's business at random to discarding a business from your hand.
NOTE: If a card's direction cannot be completed in its entirety (for example, a penalty costing 5 Hip Coin when a player only has 2 Hip Coin), a player must meet the penalty to the best of their ability. No further penalty is applied.
Building Your Neighborhood
Once a property is purchased, it becomes part of that player's "hand".
a. Players may only build on their turn and may only build one business from their hand per turn.
b. Players must adhere to the property's Developer Rating when building. (ie: the first property that can be built must have a Developer Rating of 0. A Developer Rating of 1 can be played once there is one prior property built. A Developer Rating of 2 requires 2 existing properties, etc.) In other words, for a Property Card to be legally played, the Developer Rating must be equal to or less than the number of businesses already built in the neighborhood.
c. When building a business, every new card played (with the exception of the first) must touch another card on either a horizontal or vertical edge.
d. Finalized neighborhoods must appear in a 2 x 5 block, as represented below:
[Diagram: a 2 x 5 grid of ten business card positions, two rows of five.]
Once built, completed buildings cannot be moved or replaced with the sole exception of a Demolisher Reality card.
e. If a player has four or more cards of the same type of business touching (sharing a vertical or horizontal border), bonus points are applied in the final scoring as "Destination" bonuses.
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4 Connected Businesses of the Same Type: +5 bonus Hip Points Total
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5 Connected Businesses of the Same Type: +7 bonus Hip Points Total
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6+ Connected Businesses of the Same Type: +10 bonus Hip Points Total
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If a player's neighborhood contains at least one business of every type (Service, Food, Arts & Entertainment, Novelty Shop, and Vice): +3 Hip Points Total
Winning the Game
The game ends when any one player completes their neighborhood by constructing their tenth business within the designated format. Once this occurs, players tally their total Hip Points and apply any "Destination" bonuses. Whoever holds the highest point total wins the game!
Tie-breaker: In the rare case of a tie, whichever player has the most remaining Hip Coin is deemed the winner.
Second Tie-breaker (if necessary): If players end the game with equal Hip Points and equal Hip Coin amounts remaining, the game shifts to a face-off. The younger of the tied players flips the top card of the Property deck, revealing it to the table. The second tied player then flips over the next top card of the Property deck, revealing it to the table. Whichever player's card reveals the higher Hip Point value is the winner. This process continues until the tie is broken.
Variation for 2-3 players
For fewer than 4 players, we recommend the following modification:
Once players have been dealt their Property Cards to set up the game, flip over the top 3 Property Cards from the deck and place them face-up in front of the Property deck.
When a player rolls the Property symbol, they may choose to purchase any one of the three face-up Property Cards for the listed Hip Coin Cost. Once purchased and added to a player's hand, the card is replaced by the next card in the Property deck ensuring that 3 Property Cards are consistently available for purchase.
All other rules relating to purchasing, building, destination bonuses, and scoring, remain identical to the general instructions.
NOTE: There's no auction block in this format.