Lords of Vegas
Lords of Vegas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Summary
In Lords of Vegas you play a Las Vegas developer and casino boss. You build casinos, trade properties with your rivals, gamble in the casinos they control, and reshape the casinos you manage. Controlling the biggest and best casinos earns you money and points, and when the game ends the player with the most points wins.
Objective
You win by accumulating the most points. You are paid points when a casino's color is drawn, and bigger casinos pay more points. Casinos also pay money, which funds the actions you use to manage your properties. Your core strategy is therefore to build — and stay in control of — the largest and best casinos.
Components
The Board: An abstract stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard ("The Strip"). Every square on the board starts out as an unowned space called a lot. You own each lot that holds one of your markers (your owned property), and you also own each lot holding a tile with one of your dice on it. The board additionally carries the scoring track, a wager space, and discard spaces for played cards.
Casino Tiles: Square pieces representing individual casinos, or sections of larger ones. There are 9 tiles in each of 5 colors: aqua, brown, gold, purple, and silver. The casino colors do not correspond to the player colors. When two or more tiles of the same color form a contiguous group they count as a single large casino that can never be subdivided. Each tile holds only one player die.
Player Dice: Each player has 12 dice, representing influence in casinos. The four player colors are blue, green, red, and yellow. When you own a tile you mark it with one of your dice; the value showing on that die is the amount of influence you have in that space. The single highest-valued die in a casino designates the boss of that casino.
Player Markers: Each player has 10 markers, used to mark owned lots. A marker stays on a space you own until you build a casino tile there, or until you trade or sell that space to another player.
Scoring Chips: Your scoring chip starts on space "0" of the scoring track and records your point total as you are paid points. Note that the track contains numeric jumps, which make points progressively harder to acquire at higher levels.
Money: All values in the game are written in dollars ($1, $5, $10) but represent millions of dollars ($1M, $5M, $10M).
Property Cards: 49 cards, each corresponding to a single space on the board. One of them is the End of Game card — a property card that also determines when the game ends.
Player Card: Passed around the table to show whose turn it is.
House Card: Handed to the house when a player gambles; it shows the winning rolls.
Action Cards: Four cards summarizing the actions available to you on your turn.
Setting Up
- Each player takes an action card plus the scoring chip, markers, and dice of one color.
- Choose a player to be the Banker.
- Put every player's scoring chip on the "0" space of the scoring track.
- Remove the End of Game card from the property cards, shuffle the rest, and deal 2 cards to each player. Then:
- Put one of your markers on each of the lots (spaces) named by your 2 cards.
- Draw money from the bank equal to the sum of the two values shown on your cards. For instance, cards showing $4 and $7 give you a starting bankroll of $11. These card values matter only during setup.
- Discard your 2 cards onto the colored discard spaces along the edge of the board. It matters how many cards of each color have been drawn, so arrange these discard piles so they can be counted easily. There are 9 cards in each color, plus 3 cards that Pay The Strip.
- Insert the End of Game card into the shuffled deck as follows: divide the deck into 4 roughly equal stacks, place the End of Game card on top of the 4th stack, then put the other 3 stacks on top of it. Set the draw pile beside the board and begin.
Who Owns What
A lot is a space with no tile on it. When you draw the card matching a lot, you place one of your markers on it and you own that lot.
When you pay a lot's build cost, you place a tile and one of your dice there — the lot becomes a casino, or part of an existing one. That die is yours and represents part of your influence in the casino.
A casino is a group of one or more contiguous same-colored tiles; each tile must share at least one edge with another tile of the group. Such tiles are always treated as one large casino and can never be split apart.
The boss of a casino is the player who owns the highest-valued die in it.
Taking Turns
At the start of the game every player rolls 2 dice. The highest roller takes the player card and takes the first turn. Each turn stands for roughly a year of activity, during which certain players and development companies prosper. When a turn ends, the next player to the left takes the player card and begins a turn. Play continues this way until the End of Game card is drawn.
On Every Turn
Your turn has two steps: Draw and Play.
Step 1: Draw
Begin your turn by drawing a new card. Then take over the lot named on your card. Next, all owned lots pay money, and the casinos named by the card pay points and money.
Take Over Your Lot
- If the lot named on your card is empty, place one of your player markers on it — you now own it.
- If the lot already holds a tile (through sprawling, see the Sprawl action), replace the die on that tile with one of your own dice, keeping the same value.
- If the tile has no die at all, place your die showing the value printed on the board.
Owned Lots Pay
Every lot holding a player marker (that is, every owned lot) pays its owner $1, no matter which card was drawn.
Casinos Pay
Each turn, the development company named by the drawn card pays money and points. Most cards call for payment by all casinos of a single color, but 4 cards — including the End of Game card — instead "Pay The Strip."
Pay Based on Color: When a card showing a single color is drawn, casinos of that color pay points and money, everywhere on the board.
Pay The Strip: When one of the 4 Pay The Strip cards is drawn, every casino with at least one edge adjacent to The Strip pays points and money, instead of payment being based on a single color.
Money Paid
When a casino pays money, you receive $1 for each pip on each of your dice in that casino. A red 5 die, for example, pays $5 to the red player.
Points Paid
When a casino pays points, that casino's boss is paid 1 point per tile in the casino. Record points by advancing your chip along the scoring track.
Example: It is the Yellow player's turn. He draws a gold card, D8, and marks D8 with one of his markers. The two owned properties shown pay money: $1 to Green and $1 to Yellow. Because a gold card was drawn, the gold casinos pay everywhere on the board. Yellow is paid $6 and 1 point for his 1-tile gold casino in the lower right. The brown and purple casinos pay nothing. Green is the boss of the 3-tile gold casino, so Green is paid 3 points; the dice in that casino pay $2 to Blue and $6 to Green.
Example: The 1-tile brown casino and the 3-tile gold casino both touch The Strip, but the 1-tile purple casino and the 1-tile gold casino do not.
Ending Step 1
Once Step 1 is finished, discard your card into the appropriate discard pile and move on to Step 2.
Scoring
You record the points you receive from each casino you are the boss of by advancing your scoring chip from space to space along the scoring track. Some spaces require more than 1 point to move into; such a gap is called a break.
To move your chip past a break you must record enough points to satisfy the requirement of the space beyond it. If you do not have enough, your chip stops on the space before the break and the excess points are lost.
Example: Your chip sits on the 8-space. A casino paying you only 1 point does not move it to the 10-space. Being paid 2 or 3 points advances it to the 10-space. Being paid 4 or 5 points advances it to the 12-space.
When several casinos pay you points on the same turn, you must record each casino's points separately, starting with the smallest casino and working up to the largest (your choice among ties). So even a handful of 1-tile casinos all paying you on one turn still cannot carry your chip from the 8-space to the 10-space.
Step 2: Play
During Step 2 you may take actions to manage your holdings. The available actions are build, sprawl, remodel, reorganize, and gamble. You may take them in any order, and every action except gamble may be taken multiple times. The actions are detailed below and summarized on your action card.
Note: You may also trade with other players at any time (see Trading).
Available Tiles: If every tile of a given color is already on the board, you may not place a tile of that color when you build, sprawl, or remodel.
Available Dice: If all of your dice are already on the board and you place a new tile (by building or sprawling), you must remove one of your dice and place it in the new tile. The tile you took the die from stays on the board without a die, and nobody owns a tile without a die. Note that you can trade to free up a die.
Action - Build
Taking the build action places a new tile on any lot you own:
- Remove your player marker.
- Choose a casino tile.
- Pay the amount specified on that lot.
- Place the tile, and in it place one of your dice turned so that the lot's die value is face up.
Example: Red has a marker on space A2 and can build a casino there for $6. He chooses to build a gold tile and places a die in it showing a value of 2, as specified on space A2.
Action - Sprawl
Taking the sprawl action expands a casino where you are the boss:
- Pay twice the amount specified on that lot.
- Place a tile of the same color as the sprawling casino on any empty, unowned lot sharing an edge with the sprawling casino. If no tile of that color is available, you cannot sprawl.
- In that tile, place one of your dice turned so that the lot's die value is face up.
Example: Red is sprawling from A2 into A5. He can sprawl here because no one owns A5, but he cannot expand into A3 because that space is owned by Yellow. The new tile must be gold because the original casino is gold, and the cost is $18 — twice A5's normal build cost.
Strategy: Sprawling can be risky, because the card corresponding to the sprawl lot is still in the deck. Another player who draws that card immediately replaces the die in the lot with one of his own (see "Take Over Your Lot").
Action - Remodel
Taking the remodel action changes the color of the tiles of a casino where you are the boss:
- Choose a new color with enough available tiles to replace all of the casino's tiles.
- Pay $5 for each tile in the casino.
- Exchange each of the casino's tiles for a new tile of the chosen color.
Example: The Red player decides to remodel his gold casino, changing it to brown. The cost is $10, $5 per tile. This merges it with the smaller brown casino where Yellow is the boss. Yellow's 5 die is larger than Red's 3 die, so Yellow is the boss of the new casino.
Strategy: A remodel can change how likely your casino's color is to be drawn. You can also remodel to merge several small casinos you control into one larger one, or to join your casino to a neighbor's. Such a "hostile takeover" is a handy way to become the boss of someone else's property.
Action - Reorganize
Taking the reorganize (re-org) action forces a reroll of all of the dice — not just some of them — in a casino where you have at least 1 die. You do not have to be the casino's boss to reorganize it. To reorganize a casino:
- Pay $1 for each pip on each die in the casino.
- Reroll all the dice in the casino. You may reorganize multiple casinos during your turn, but no die may be rerolled more than once in a turn, even if that die's tile becomes part of a larger casino.
- Put the dice back into the spaces they came from. If you have multiple dice in the casino, you decide which go in which tiles.
Note: To keep track of your tiles involved in a re-org, you can temporarily put one of your markers on each of them.
Strategy: A reorganization represents a shakeup among the casino's influential people, and it can have dramatic effects on the balance of power. Because some tiles may have been acquired by sprawling, proper replacement of dice can be critical after a re-org to protect your high rolls from a Take Over. One common reorganization trick is to build a 1-tile casino with a starting die value of 1 or 2, then immediately reorganize it at very low cost, hoping for a higher value.
Example: Continuing the previous example, the Red player remodeled his casino in A2 and A5 to match Yellow's brown casino in A3. He now reorganizes the new 3-tile casino for $10 (there are 10 total pips in the casino). The reroll makes Red the boss, because the Red 5 is now the largest die. Had the reroll not gone Red's way, he could not have reorganized the same casino again on the same turn.
Action - Gamble
You may take the gamble action only once during your turn. When you gamble, you make a wager at a casino where another player is the boss.
- Give another player the House card and choose one of his or her casinos.
- Bet up to $5 for each tile in that casino. You cannot bet more money than you have.
- Roll 2 dice and add the results. On a 3, 4, 9, 10, or 11 you win and the casino's boss pays you an amount equal to your bet. On a 2 or 12 the boss must pay you twice your bet. (If the boss lacks the money to fully cover his portion of your bet, you only get the money he does have.) On a 5, 6, 7, or 8 you lose and pay the boss an amount equal to your bet.
- Before the roll, the boss of the casino taking the bet may "lay off" half of the bet to the bank. If the gambler wins, the boss pays only half (round down) and the bank pays the rest. If the gambler loses, the boss receives only half (round down) and the bank gets the rest.
Strategy: This wager is the field bet from craps, with a house advantage of 5.6%. You usually take this action when you need just a little more money for your turn, but you can do it for any reason.
Example: The Red player is the boss of a 3-tile casino. On Yellow's turn, he goes to Red's casino and wagers $4 (the maximum would be $15). Yellow decides not to lay off half the bet. Yellow rolls a 3 and wins $4 from Red.
After Each Action: Reroll if Tied
After each action you take, check every casino to see whether two or more players have dice tied for the largest value there. Such a casino has multiple bosses tied for control, so all of the dice with that largest value must immediately be rerolled.
These rerolls are free. Only the tied largest-valued dice are rerolled. If they are still tied for largest after the reroll, reroll the current largest-valued dice again, and keep going until exactly one die holds the largest value.
If all of the tied dice belong to the same player, no reroll takes place. If the tied dice are not the largest in the casino, no reroll takes place.
This power struggle can be disastrous for the players tied for the boss position: if two players reroll down to a number below another player's die, that third player becomes the boss.
Example: The Green player is the boss of a 2-tile gold casino, and Red is the boss of a 3-tile brown casino. Green's dice are 4 and 5; Red has a 5 and a 2; Yellow has a 2. Green remodels his gold casino to brown, which leaves him tied with Red for control of the new 5-tile casino. Both 5s are rerolled and each comes up 3. Green's 4 is now the largest die, so Green is the boss and no further rerolls are required.
At Any Time: Trading
You and the other players may trade at any time, even when it is not your turn, but there are restrictions on what may be traded.
You may trade any combination of money, lots, dice in casinos, and actions (on your turn only).
Example: You may trade a die for a lot. You may trade a die for money. You may trade an action you perform this turn for money. You may trade a lot and a die for 2 dice.
When you trade a lot, replace your marker on it with a marker belonging to the player you traded with. When you trade a die, replace your die with a die belonging to that player; the new die shows the same value as the die it replaces, not the value marked on the space.
You may not trade points or casino tiles. You may not trade promises of actions, exchanges, or transfers to be performed on future turns. No player may ever take an action on another player's turn.
Winning
You win if you have the most points after the End of Game card is drawn and paid. When the End of Game card comes up there is one last payment for The Strip, so a final payoff is guaranteed. If there is a tie for most points, the tied player with the most money wins.
You also win immediately if you reach 90 or more points. As far as the designers know this has never happened — but nothing is impossible in Las Vegas.
2-Player Rules
In a 2-player game you cannot build on the F block. When you draw a card specifying an F lot (F1, F2, and so on), do not place a marker. Pay for owned lots, pay for casinos, and discard. Then repeat Step 1 until you draw and resolve a card that does not specify an F lot.
Casinos and owned lots can therefore pay multiple times during a single turn. You keep drawing and paying until you get a card specifying A, B, C, D, or E.
Credits
Designers: James Ernest and Mike Selinker
Art: Franz Vohwinkel, Fastner and Larson
Art Direction: Morgan Dontanville, Pete Fenlon
Production & Editing: Pete Fenlon, Coleman Charlton
Playtesters: Owen Jungemann, Carol Monahan, Rei Nakazawa, Rick Fish, Nathan Clarenburg, Jeff Vogel, Dave Howell, Eric Yarnell, Joshua Howard, Paul Peterson, Matt Ruhlen, Mark L. Gottlieb, Amanda O'Connor, Richard Thames Rowan, Sam Clifford, John Garnett, Rick Collins, Jason Mai, Josh Olson, Michael Elliot, Nora Frances Miller, Mike Allen, Dave Platnik, Kurt Fischer, Olivia Johnston, Jesse McGatha, Ron Magin.
Special Thanks: Peter Bromley, Robert T. Carty Jr., Robert T. Carty Sr., Dan Decker, Bill Fogarty, Evon Fuerst, Nick Johnson, Ron Magin, Kim McBrady, Marty McDonnell, Jim Miles, Bridget Roznai, Larry Roznai, Loren Roznai, Guido Teuber, Ray Wehrs, Teeuwynn Woodruff, Bill Wordelmann, Elaine Wordelmann.
Copyright (c) 2010 James Ernest & Mike Selinker. Lords of Vegas, Dust Dice Dollars, and Casino Vegas are trademarks of Mayfair Games, Inc. All rights reserved.