Jacob Marley, Esq.
Jacob Marley, Esq. Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Players: 3-7 Playing Time: 90 Minutes
This is a playtest version (4.4) of the game. The package consists of three files: rules, board (one page, 11 x 17; print in two sections or on a large-format printer), and cards (6 pages, one-sided; the first page is a cutting template, the next five pages are the cards).
Materials
Print, cut, and assemble the cards and boards in this package. You will also need the following parts:
- One pawn to represent Jacob Marley
- One 6-sided die for movement
- Six counters or chips to mark the center of the board
- About 200 counters or chips to represent money
- About 200 counters or chips for keeping score
You can get the chips you need for $7.50 from Cheapass Games: Look for the 4-color Microchips pack, which has 400 plastic chips in Yellow, Red, Green, and Black. We suggest using Yellow for 1 coin, Red for 5 coins, Green for 1 point, Black for 5 points, and pennies for the six counters in the middle.
Setup
Shuffle the deck and deal it into 8 piles of 7 cards. Place one pile of cards next to each of the 8 "streets" around the outside of the board. Put one coin on each street.
Players start with 12 coins each.
The chart in the center of the table represents the relative values of the six kinds of loans. Place one counter on each line, as indicated by the starting levels across the top. Or place them randomly, but keep them between levels 3 and 8. Two loan types can never have the same value, which means no column can have more than one counter.
Place Jacob Marley in the Start space and determine randomly who will go first. Play proceeds to the left.
Turn Sequence
Each turn has the following steps.
Step 1: Roll and Move
Roll the die and move Marley that many spaces clockwise around the track.
If he lands on a "Roll Again" space, roll and move him again.
If he passes the "Start" space, add one coin to every street. (This is already done for you on the first turn.) Start is also a Roll Again space.
Next, do steps 2a and 2b in either order.
Step 2a: Activate Board Space
Every board space changes the relative values of loans, as follows:
Each space has a number, such as +/- 2, and a set of letters, such as C, F, and L. When you land on this space you must adjust one of the listed loan types by the amount shown. In this example, you could shift Criminal, Fishing, or Legal loans up or down by 2.
If the length of the move exceeds the range of the loan, you can just move it to the limit. For example, if Individual is at level 7, and you perform an I + 3, you can move the Individual counter to level 8.
Each loan type must occupy a different column, so if the counter you have moved is now sharing a column with another loan type, the other loan is forced to move in the opposite direction. If that counter moves into an occupied column, the third counter moves in the same direction, and so on until the chain reaction stops or until a counter is forced in a direction it cannot move. As a general rule, all counters in a chain reaction will go in the opposite direction from the first.
If a counter is forced by a chain reaction to move in a direction that's not allowed, it springs in the opposite direction instead, moving into the first empty column it can find. For example, if you move Shipping from 2 to 4, and Legal occupies 4, the Legal counter can't move down. It bounces off the bottom and moves up until it gets to an empty column. This bounce can never cause a chain reaction, since the counter always moves into an empty column.
Question Marks: There are a few board spaces with question marks. These are variable spaces, decided by the roll of a die. If the question mark replaces a number, decide on the loan type and direction first, and then roll a die for the number. If the question mark replaces a loan type, decide on the direction, and then roll a die for the loan type (1 is Accounting, 2 is Criminal, and so on).
Step 2b: Pay and Score Loans
The loans already on the table in front of you pay back and score points at the rate dictated by their position in the chart. For example, if you have an Accounting loan and Accounting is Quality 7, that loan pays 1 coin and 2 points. Move the coin(s) off the loan card and back into your money, and take the points from the bank and add them to your score.
If you take the last coin off the loan, discard the loan card.
Negative Coins: When a loan pays negative coins, it loses money to the bank instead of paying them to you.
Negative Points: When a loan pays negative points, they can only count against positive points you earn on the same turn. They never subtract from your score.
Step 3: Look at New Loans
After taking Steps 2a and 2b in either order, look at the facedown cards on the street where Marley is standing. You may choose to take one of these loans or leave them where they are.
If you take the loan, you must provide the principal (the number on the card) from your own money, putting it on the card and placing it in front of you. The interest on the loan is added by the bank, in an amount equal to the number of coins on the street. For example, if you take a loan from the pile at Blackpool Boulevard, and there are 3 coins in that street, the bank adds 3 coins to the loan when you take it.
If the loan quality (the chart in the middle of the board) is such that there is an Interest bonus for your loan type, the bonus is added to the interest provided by the bank when you take the loan. For example, if you took a Criminal in the example above, and Criminals were currently at Quality 2, you would get an interest bonus of +3, for a total of 6 coins from the bank.
If you take no loan in this step, add another coin to the street. (This coin comes from the bank.) Note that the piles of coins on the streets are growing throughout the game.
Winning
The object of the game is to score 30 points. Since there is a slight advantage to going first, we suggest that you complete a round before determining the winner; that is, each player gets the same number of turns.
Strategy
In the early parts of the game you will probably focus on earning money, and once you have enough, you will switch your focus to earning points. The most expensive loans are often worth the most points, but they can pay back so slowly that it's not a good idea to have all your money in one loan.
You will find that it is often advantageous to follow the board space (Step 2a) before paying your loans (Step 2b) so that you can make a choice that maximizes your return. However, it's often just as good to execute the steps in reverse order, crippling one of your loan categories after you pay it, so that the player after you (if he has the same kinds of loans) loses value.
Pay careful attention to the types of loans other people are taking and where they sit in relation to you. The system ebbs and flows based on players' interests and the order of turns.