Mr House

Mr House Rulebook

Table of Contents

Box Contents

1 double-sided game board
40 roofs
40 walls
12 doors
24 windows
16 chimneys
15 privilege cards
28 worker cards
12 loan cards
1 turn marker
4 double-sided player boards
20 movement markers (5 each in 4 colors)
4 permit tokens
25 wood pieces
25 steel pieces
20 brick pieces
20 cement pieces
12 player markers (3 each in 4 colors)
6 price markers
20 coins
1 sheet of stickers

Before the first game, attach movement value stickers onto the movement markers. Each player should have 5 movement markers in one color with values 0, 1, 1, 2 and 3.

Basic Variant

Game Preparation

Put the board with the basic side up in the middle of the table. Put several worker cards face down on the spaces with a worker icon (A) - one worker card less than the number of players. The remaining workers form a face down deck near the board. Nearby place the building materials (wood, cement, steel, bricks, doors, windows), permits, coins, and house elements (walls, roofs, chimneys) in easy reach. They form the bank.

Place the appropriate amounts of building materials in their respective buildings on the board. For each material, the amount to place is indicated by the digit (B) next to the icon showing the number of players. E.g. place 5 wood in a 2-player game, 6 wood in a 3-player game, and 8 wood in a 4-player game.

Place the turn marker on the first space of the turn track (C).

Each player receives:

A player board in a selected color with the basic side up.
5 movement markers in the same color (with values 0, 1, 1, 2, 3).
Building materials: one each of wood, brick, cement and steel. These go onto the storehouse on the player board (D).
Each player starts a game with one permanent worker, printed on player's board (E).

Sequence of Play

The game lasts 6 turns. Whoever was most recently in a building supply store is the first player. Then players go in clockwise order.

Game Turn

Each game turn has the following phases in order; in each phase, players do their actions in clockwise order starting from the first player:

Movement around the city
Purchases
Construction
Preparation for the next turn

Movement Around the City

In this phase, players move around the city to get the necessary materials to build a house and to hire workers. Players place their movement markers to show their movement. Players hold their movement markers so that opponents cannot see their values.

Starting with the first player, players take turns placing one marker face down (so that the number is hidden) onto a board location. This continues until all markers are on the board. A player's first marker can go anywhere, but all later markers must be placed adjacent (orthogonally, not diagonally) to one of the player's previous markers.

Example: Jacob, who is yellow, places his first movement marker on the window store. Then in turn the other players each place their first markers. Jacob places his second marker onto a building adjacent to the window store. He cannot place it onto the work notice board because it's not orthogonally adjacent to the window store.

A building can have only one marker of a given player color. When a marker is placed on a building which already has one or more markers (of other players), the new marker goes on top of the other markers. Thus stacks of face down markers are formed.

Purchases

Next comes the purchasing phase. Buildings are considered in order according to their numbers in the upper left corners of the building spaces. At a given building, the first player turns the stack of movement markers face up, so that the numbers are visible and the marker which was placed first is now on the top.

Example: At the wood store, Marta first placed a marker (red), then Jacob (yellow), and then Paul (blue). When resolving wood purchases, the stack is turned over. The top marker (red) is Marta's; she will receive wood first.

Now, in order of movement markers (from top to bottom), players can take materials from the location, but no more than the number on their marker. (Players take materials for free, without spending coins.) However, materials might run out before a player gets their chance to take them. Purchased materials go onto the storehouse on the player's board.

NOTE! A player's 0 marker does not let them take any materials.

At the office (location 2), only one player receives a building permit. The first non-zero marker in the stack receives it. But a player who already has a permit can not get another. Skip past the marker of a player who already has a permit.

At the bank (location 1), each player receives only 1 coin, regardless of their marker's number. (But as usual, 0 markers get nothing.) A coin can be spent to receive any one extra building material, except a window or door. This can be done at any time during a player's move, regardless of whether the player visited the store selling the material. At the end of the game, the two players with the most unspent coins receive additional victory points.

At the work notice board (location 6), a player receives only 1 worker card, regardless of their marker's number. (But as usual, 0 markers get nothing.) After getting a worker card, it goes onto the player's board, on the first empty space from the left after the illustrated permanent worker. If a player takes the last worker card, then any remaining players there receive nothing.

After purchasing is resolved at all locations, the movement markers return to their owners.

Construction

Players may prepare building materials simultaneously in the construction phase.

Preparation of building materials. Player boards are marked with building materials needed to build specific parts of a house. First separate your materials into groups for each house part which you will build. Place these groups onto your player board. Then point to a group and say what you are building.

Example: Jacob wants to build a wooden wall, a roof and a chimney. He sorts his materials into three groups: the first has 2 wood and 1 steel, the second has 2 wood, 1 steel and 1 brick, and the third has 1 cement and 1 brick.

Building parts of the house. Players have worker cards on their player boards. The more worker cards (and thus the number of spaces they occupy), the higher the quality of work of the construction company which the player is using. The quality is 1 + the number of workers.

For each group of materials, the player rolls a die to see if that part of the construction succeeds. If the die roll is less than or equal to the quality of the construction company, then the construction succeeds. If construction is not successful, then the building materials which were allocated to build this item return to the storehouse on the player's board. They are not lost; they will be available in the next game turn.

Example: Jacob's (yellow) construction company has quality 3 (1 employee which he started with and 1 hired), and Paul's (blue) quality is 4. This means that each of Jacob's construction attempts needs to roll 3 or less to succeed.

If construction succeeds, then the player returns the building materials to the bank and receives the constructed house part. A player can try to build as many house parts as he has materials for.

Example: Jacob (yellow) has prepared the materials to build 2 things: a wooden wall and a brick wall. He chooses to build the wooden wall first. He rolls 5 on the die. Because the quality of his construction company is 3, the construction was not successful. Jacob returns the materials back to his storehouse; he does not lose them. He can use them again next turn. Then he tries to build the brick wall. He rolls 3, a success! He takes a brick wall from the bank and returns the 2 brick and 1 cement to the bank.

When a player has rolled for all their allocated groups of materials, the next player starts rolling for theirs.

Building a house. Constructed house parts are placed next to the owner's player board, in the shape of a house. Each house part must be immediately added to the house; they cannot be stored in the storehouse. The storehouse only contains building materials (wood, steel, bricks, cement, windows and doors).

Construction has specific rules:

Walls must be built first, and only later windows and doors.
Built walls can be of two types - wood or brick. A house may include both types of walls.
In this basic variant, there is only one type of roof. Its color does not matter.
A roof can only be placed on an already built wall. Not all of the house's walls need to be completed before starting building roof parts. A house can also have more than one level, by building walls on top of walls. Not all roofs must be at the same level.
A chimney can only be placed on an already built roof.
A house can have as many chimneys as it has roofs.
A wall can have up to 2 windows, or 1 door. A wall cannot have both a window and a door.
The whole house can have only 1 door.
A constructed house part can be removed, but the player does not keep it or regain the materials used to create it. The removed part is simply given up. Once placed, house parts can not be moved later to different positions in the house.

Example: Marta (red), has already built two walls (wooden and brick), added a single window, and added a roof on one wall. But she decided to remove the roof to build a new wall there. Her investment in the roof is simply lost.

Once all players have finished their construction, the final phase of the game turn begins.

Preparation for the Next Turn

To prepare for the next turn:

move the turn marker to the next space on the track
replenish building materials on the board, just like during game setup
replenish worker cards on the board, just like during game setup

The player to the left of the first player becomes the first player in the next game turn.

Game End

The game ends after the sixth game turn. Then points are scored.

Points are scored for:

Completing your house: 4 points. A complete house has at least 2 walls; 2 roofs; all walls covered by a roof or a higher-story wall; at least 1 chimney; exactly 1 door; all other walls have at least 1 window; a permit.
Points for individual house parts - as shown on player boards.
Unused coins - the player who has the most unspent coins receives 2 points and the player with the second most unspent coins receives 1 point. If two or more players are tied for the most unspent coins, then they all receive 2 points and no second place points are awarded. If there is a unique first place award but two or more players are tied for second place, then all the second place players receive 1 point. You must have at least 1 coin to earn this bonus.

The player with the most points is the winner. In case of a tie, then the player who built a bigger house (total number of walls and roofs) wins the tie. If there is still a tie, then the player who has the fewest building materials left wins the tie. If there is still a tie, then it remains a tie!

Example: At the end of the game Jacob (yellow) and Marta (red) completed their houses, and Marta still has an unspent coin. Paul (blue) did not complete his house, since it's missing a window. The final score is as follows:

Player	Yellow - Jacob	Red - Marta	Blue - Paul
Points for individual house parts	6 – for roofs, 2 – for chimneys, 3 – for the walls, 3 – for windows, 1 – for the door. Total: 15	4 – for roofs, 1 – for chimneys, 4 – for the walls, 3 – for windows, 1 – for the door. Total: 13	8 – for roofs, 1 – for chimneys, 4 – for the walls, 2 – for windows, 1 – for the door. Total: 16
Bonus points for unspent coins	0	2	0
Points for completing house	4	4	0
Total score	19	19	16

The yellow and red players tied. They also have equally big houses. But the red player still has an unused brick while yellow has no building materials, so yellow wins!

The Advanced Variant

Game Preparation

Put the board with the advanced side up in the middle of the table. Put several worker cards face up on spaces with a worker icon (A) - one worker card more than the number of players. The remaining worker cards form a face down deck near the board.

Nearby place the building materials (wood, cement, steel, bricks, doors, windows), permits, coins, and house elements (walls, roofs, chimneys) in easy reach. They form the bank.

Place the appropriate amounts of building materials in their respective buildings on the board. For each material, the amount to place is indicated by the digit (B) next to the icon showing the number of players. E.g. place 4 wood in a 2-player game, 7 wood in a 3-player game, and 9 wood in a 4-player game.

Place the turn marker on the first space of the turn track (C).

Put the price tags of building materials on the price table in the right places (G) (brick=3, wood=3, steel=4, cement=3, window=7, door=10).

Shuffle the privilege cards, deal 12 face down, and return the rest unused to the box. Deal the first 2 cards face up onto the first 2 spaces of the construction expo (E) (current cards used in the current game turn), then the next 2 cards face up onto the next 2 spaces (H) (future cards which will be used in the next game turn).

All players put their player markers onto:

the -3 space of the construction quality track (F)
a random space of the turn order track. The initial player order is random. The 4th space is unused in a 3-player game. The 3rd and 4th spaces are unused in a 2-player game.
the money track. The player on the 4th space of the turn order track starts with 90 money, the 3rd player starts with 88, the 2nd starts with 86, and the 1st starts with 84.

Each player receives:

A player board in a selected color with the advanced side up.
5 movement markers and 3 player markers in the same color.
Building materials: one each of wood, brick, cement and steel. These go onto the storehouse (D) on the player board.
Each player starts a game with one permanent worker, printed on player's board (I).

Sequence of Play

The game lasts 6 turns. In each turn, the player whose marker is first on the player order track will start. The player 2nd in order goes next, and so on. The player order may change at the end of each game turn.

Game Turn

Each game turn has the following phases in order; in each phase, players do their actions in player order starting from the first player:

Movement around the city
Purchases
Construction
Preparation for the next turn

Movement Around the City

In this phase, players move around the city to buy the necessary materials to build a house, to hire workers, to visit the construction expo, go to the office, change the player order, and raise the quality of their house. Players place their movement markers to show their movement. Players hold their movement markers so that opponents cannot see their values.

Starting with the first player, players take turns placing one marker face down (so that the number is hidden) onto a board location. A player's first marker can go anywhere, but all later markers must be placed adjacent (orthogonally, not diagonally) to one of the player's previous markers.

Note: The adjacent spaces 1 and 10 (player order and construction expo) are both considered to be directly adjacent to spaces 2, 4, 6, 8 (office, window store, work notice board, door store). E.g. if you placed your first marker in 1, you may place your second marker in 4 (without needing to first place a marker in 10).

Example: The yellow player places his first marker on the window store. Then the other players in order place their first markers. Then the yellow player places his second marker on a neighboring location, i.e. the cement store, brick store, player order, or expo. He cannot place on the work notice board since it is not orthogonally adjacent to the window store.

A marker's number is the maximum number of items a player can buy. Some spaces give 1 item to only 1 player (e.g. office) or to 2 players (expo). These spaces may have many markers, however. A marker with 0 never gets an item; it is only useful for movement to further spaces. Once all players have placed all their movement markers, the purchasing phase begins.

Purchases

Buildings are considered in order according to their numbers in the upper left corners of the building spaces. At a given building, the first player turns the stack of movement markers face up, so that the numbers are visible and the marker which was placed first is now on the top.

Now, in order of movement markers (from top to bottom), players can take materials from the location, but no more than the number on their marker. However, materials might run out before a player gets their chance to buy them. Purchased materials go onto the storehouse on the player's board. A player must pay for each purchased item, moving the buyer's marker on the money track. Prices for all items are shown on the price table. A player's marker on the money track is moved lower as many spaces as the price they must pay. A player may pay more money than he has, but must immediately take a loan. Whenever a player's marker reaches 0 or goes negative, then the player must immediately take a loan and add 20 to their money (see Loans).

Example: The blue player buys wood. The current price of wood (shown in the price table) is 4. That's a lot, so the player decides to buy only 2 wood, even though their movement marker has the value 3. So the buyer pays 8 (price × quantity bought) and moves their marker 8 spaces lower on the money track.

Construction expo. At the construction expo, the player with the highest non-0 marker in the stack (after it is turned face up) chooses one privilege card from the two available current cards. The player with the second highest non-0 marker gets the second currently available privilege card. A privilege card can be used in two ways:

Keep for final scoring: at the end of the game, the player with the most cards in a given color gets 1 victory point.
Use its special action (see: Description of privilege cards).

Office. At the office, only 2 players will gain a benefit, and each must choose from 3 different options. A player can decide whether to obtain a building permit, gain a quality point (immediately advance the player's marker one space on the quality track), or gain money, immediately move the player's marker (4 × movement marker value) on the money track.

Example: Marta (red) is at the office with a movement marker of value 3; she chooses to receive money. 4 × 3 = 12, so she advances her money marker 12 spaces.

Work notice board. A player can buy as many worker cards as the value of his movement card. The player chooses which cards to buy and pays the price, moving his marker on the money track. After hiring one or more worker cards, they are put on the player's board, on the first empty spaces from the left after the illustrated permanent worker. Any cards already there are all shifted to the right as needed to make room for the new cards. Some such older worker cards might be shifted right off the board; they leave the game and return to the box.

A worker card has three pieces of information. The number in the coin symbol is the price, people symbols are the number of workers in the card, and the star shows the quality. If a player buys a card with stars, the player's marker on the quality track immediately advances as many spaces as the card's stars.

Example: Marta (red) buys a worker card with quality 2 and price 6. It has 2 workers. She pays 6, moving her money marker 6 spaces back. She moves her quality marker ahead 2 spaces.

Player order track. The first player with a non-0 movement marker here advances his marker on the player order track to the first space. Later players with non-0 movement markers in turn advance to player order position 2, then 3. Other players are shifted to later positions on the player order track (preserving their own order relative to each other).

Example: The current player order is: red, green, yellow. The yellow player places a movement marker of value 2 at the player order track. No other player places a non-0 marker here. Therefore yellow moves their marker ahead to position 1. Red shifts back to position 2, and green shifts back to position 3.

After purchasing is resolved at all locations, the movement markers return to their owners.

Construction

Players may prepare building materials simultaneously in the construction phase.

Preparation of building materials. Player boards are marked with building materials needed to build specific parts of a house. First separate your materials into groups for each part of the house which you will build. Then point to a group and say what you are building.

Building parts of the house. On each board player, next to each buildable part is shown the number of employees required to build that part. E.g. to build a brick wall, a player needs not only materials (2 bricks and 1 cement) but also 2 workers.

While planning construction, players decide which worker cards will work on which house part.

More than one worker card can be assigned to a house part, but a card cannot be split across several parts.
So you can build no more parts than the number of worker cards on your player board.
In a given turn, workers from one card can be used to build one part, then they "get tired" (turn the card horizontally). For the first worker (permanently printed on the player board), simply remember that it is used. They can be used again in the next turn.

Example: The blue player has 3 worker cards which give him a total of 6 workers.

Example: The blue player decides to build 2 walls. Each wall needs 2 workers, and each wall needs its own worker crew (from 1 or more worker cards). Blue uses his second and third cards. The third work card has 3 workers, so one worker is simply extra and unused. The used cards are rotated horizontally to remember that they cannot be used again this game turn.

After building a part, the player returns the building materials to the bank and receives the constructed house part. A player can build as many house parts as he has materials and workers for. When a player has finished construction, the next player starts theirs.

Construction has specific rules:

Walls must be built first, and only later windows and doors.
Built walls can be of two types - wood or brick. A house may include both types of walls.
Not all of the house's walls need to be completed before starting building roof parts. A house can also have more than one level, by building walls on top of walls.
A roof can only be placed on an already built wall. A roof can be normal (sheet metal) and improved (ceramic tile). A house may have both types. Not all roofs must be at the same level.
A chimney can only be placed on an already built roof.
A house can have as many chimneys as it has roofs.
Once a wall is built, it can have windows or doors built onto it.
A wall can have up to 2 windows, or 1 door. A wall cannot have both a window and a door.
The whole house can have only 1 door.
A constructed house part can be removed, but the player does not keep it or regain the materials used to create it. The removed part is simply given up. Once placed, house parts can not be moved later to different positions in the house.
The whole house can have only 1 garage (see: Garage).

Once all players have finished their construction, the final phase of the game turn begins.

Preparation for the Next Turn

1. Change in prices of building materials. After each game turn, players check whether building material prices change. For each material, check how many are still on the board. If the number of remaining materials is less than or equal to the green number with the up arrow, then the price increases to the next higher price. Otherwise, it decreases to the next lower price. A price which would increase higher than that type's maximum or decrease lower than that type's minimum remains unchanged.

Example: The steel shop has 3 pieces left. In a 3-player game, if there are 4 or fewer remaining pieces, then the price increases, and so in this example, the price increases. The steel price increases from 5 to 6, which is the maximum price.

2. Replenish building materials. Replenish the building materials on the board according to the number of players, just like during game setup. The correct number of each building material is shown by a number next to an icon showing the number of players. E.g. wood - there should be 4 pieces in a 2-player game, 7 in a 3-player game, and 9 in a 4-player game.

3. Replenish worker cards. Replenish the worker cards on the board according to the number of players, just like during game setup. Any remaining worker cards from this round have a coin placed on them: their price thus decreases by 1. If adding a coin would make a card's price become 0, then the card is removed from the game, and a random new card replaces it.

4. Replenish privilege cards at the expo. Unused current privilege cards are removed to the box. The 2 future privilege cards are moved to the 2 current slots, and 2 random new cards are drawn and placed in the 2 future slots.

Example: The 2 future cards (green and pink) are moved to the 2 current slots. 2 new cards are drawn from the face-down privilege deck and placed face up on the 2 future slots.

5. Shift worker cards. Tired workers are rotated to vertical orientation again, so they may work again, and every card moves 1 space to the right. If a card moves off the right end of the board, then it is removed from the game and returned to the box.

6. Move the turn marker ahead one space on the turn track. The next game turn begins with the player who is first on the player order track.

Loans

When a player's money marker reaches 0 or below, he immediately receives a loan card and +20 money, advancing his money marker ahead 20 spaces. E.g. a player has 2 money but spends 6 (so their money falls to -4); they must immediately take a loan and receive +20 money, so their money marker advances to the 16 space on the money track.

The more loans a player has, the more negative points the player receives at the end of the game. A player who has no loans at the end of the game receives +1 point. At the end of the game, the 1st and 2nd loans a player holds each reduce the player's score by 1 victory point. The 3rd and 4th loans each reduce the score by 2 points. The 5th and 6th loans each reduce the score by 3 points. Additional loans have no further effect.

If a player earns enough money during the game, loans can be repaid. A player can spend 20 money (moving their money marker back 20 spaces) to give a loan card back to the bank.

Example: A player holds 5 loans at the end of the game. The player loses 1+1+2+2+3 = 9 victory points.

Garage

Each player may build only one garage. A garage can only be built if the house already has a wall (of either kind, wood or brick). At the end of the game, a complete garage (wall & door) gives 5 victory points. (A garage may also have a roof, but a roof is not required.) A completed garage's individual parts are not scored individually. The garage is scored independently of the house: if the garage is not complete, that does not cause the house to be incomplete. If the garage is not completed - only the wall was built - the player receives only 1 victory point for it.

Game End

The game ends after the sixth game turn. Then points are scored.

Players check whether their houses are completed. A complete house has at least 2 walls; 2 roofs; all walls covered by a roof or a higher-story wall; at least 1 chimney; exactly 1 door; all other walls have at least 1 window; a permit. A player whose house is incomplete automatically loses. (In theory, everyone could lose.)

Points are scored for:

Points for individual house parts - as shown on player boards
Garage, if it has been built
Quality points equal to the player's position on the quality track
Privilege cards - for each color, the player who has the most cards in that color gets 1 point. In case of a tie, all players with the most cards of a color get 1 point
No loans: 0 = +1 pt
Loans: 1 = -1 pt; 2 = -2 pts; 3 = -4 pts; 4 = -6 pts; 6 or more = -12 pts

Translator's note: the printed loan scoring table above has no entry for exactly 5 loans. The Loans section gives the cumulative penalty for a 5th loan as -3 (total -9 for five loans), so 5 loans = -9 pts is taken from that section.

The player with the most points is the winner. In case of a tie, then the player with fewer loans wins the tie. If there is still a tie, then the player with more money wins the tie. If there is still a tie, then the highest quality house wins the tie. If there is still a tie, then largest house (total number of walls and roofs, including any garage) wins the tie. If there is still a tie, then it remains a tie!

Example: Jacob (yellow) and Marta (red) completed their houses. Paul (blue) did not complete his house, so he automatically loses. Jacob (yellow) has the following privilege cards: 1 green and 1 pink, Marta (red) has 1 pink, and Paul (blue) has 2 pink and 1 blue (even though he lost, his cards are counted when checking who has the most). Additionally Marta (red) built a garage. The final score is as follows:

Player	Yellow - Jacob	Red - Marta
Points for house parts	6 – for roofs, 2 – for chimneys, 3 – for the walls, 2 – for windows, 1 – for the door. Total: 14	4 – for roofs, 1 – for chimneys, 4 – for the walls, 3 – for windows, 1 – for the door. Total: 13
Points for garage	0	5
Points for privilege cards	1 for green	0 for pink
Points for house quality	0	1
Points for loans	1	-2
Total score	16	17

Marta (red) wins.

Description of Privilege Cards

Card name	Special action
Extra Wall and Roof Insulation	Discard at any time to receive 2 bricks for free.
Energy-Efficient Windows	Discard at any time to buy 1 window for 2 money.
Solar Water Heater	Discard at any time to increase your house quality by 1.
Wind Energy Generator	When you receive this card, immediately decide whether to keep it until the end of the game, or to discard it now and receive money equal to 5 × the value of your movement marker on the expo. Example: A player on the expo location gains this card with a movement marker with value 3. The player immediately decides whether to keep for end game scoring or to discard it and receive 5 × 3 = 15 money.
Heat Pump	Discard at any time to buy the first worker card from the face down deck for 2 money.
Fence and Gate	Discard at any time to receive 2 wood for free.
Gazebo	Discard at any time to buy 1 door for 5 money.
Brick Driveway	Discard at any time to increase your house quality by 1.
Lawn