Northern Branch: Firm With Brownies Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Card Types
• How to Read Cards
  • Resource and Goods Cards
  • Building Cards
• Game Setup
  • Row A - Building Card Setup
  • Row B - Category II Goods Cards Setup
  • Row C - Category I Goods Cards Setup
  • Row D - Resource Cards Setup
  • Starting Player & Starting Capital
• Playing the Game
  • Turn Anatomy
  • Replenish the Market
  • Actions
• Action Detail
  • Player Action
    • Produce Action
    • Buy/Sell Action
  • Brownie Action
  • End of Turn
• Victory Points

Contents

90 cards:

• Resource Cards = 19
• Capital Funds Cards = 4
• Victory Point Cards = 11
• Category I Good Cards = 17
• Category II Good Cards = 9
• Basic Building Cards = 8
• Building Cards = 22

Card Types

• Resource Cards: The resources you use to make goods: Clay, Wheat, Wood, Ore, Dung.
• Goods Cards: Category I goods are made just using resource cards. Category II goods require the use of a Category I good.
• Building Cards: You can build shops and workshops. If you build one, then you can use the Brownie Effort effect on the card to make goods. Basic building cards are recommended to be the first things that you build.
• Capital Funds Cards: These cards are given to the players at the start of the game. There are 4 cards with values ranging from 3 to 6. These cards represent your seed money to buy cards at the start of the game.
• Points Cards: Points that you gain from earning money and reputation. The front side shows 1 point; the reverse side is used when you gain 2 points.

How to Read Cards

Resource and Goods Cards

1. The cost to purchase the card using buy action
2. The cost to produce the card using produce action
3. Effect (choose one)
4. Shows the number of cards to include in the game based on the number of players (2p, 3p, 4p)

Using Clay as an example, it costs 1 gold to buy with the buy action, and can be taken from the display and put into your hand using produce action. For its effect, it can either count as clay for purposes of producing other cards, or can count as 1 gold for buying other cards.

Building Cards

1. Cost to purchase using the buy action
2. Cost to produce using the produce action
3. Victory points gained by obtaining this card
4. Effect - use Brownie Action to gain the listed benefit (here, turn a basic Category I card (timber) into a higher value Category II card (furniture))

Basic building cards are indicated with a snowflake symbol next to the name.

Game Setup

Set the cards up as shown in the diagram in the manual:

• Row A: Building Cards
• Row B: Category II Goods Cards
• Row C: Category I Goods Cards
• Row D: Resources

Row A - Building Card Setup

1. Take the basic buildings (snowflake icon in the upper left) and shuffle them face down. Without looking at the cards, take a number of cards from this group equal to the player count plus 1. Lay these cards out face up in Row A.
2. Shuffle all the remain basic building cards with the other building cards and put the pile face down on the right side of Row A.
3. If there are fewer than 5 cards in Row A, draw from the draw pile until there are 5 cards.

Row B - Category II Goods Cards Setup

1. Shuffle the Category II Goods Cards into a facedown pile and place that pile below the Building Card draw deck.
2. Draw 5 cards from the deck and place them face up in Row B.

Row C - Category I Goods Cards Setup

1. Shuffle the Category I Goods Cards into a facedown pile and place that pile below the Category II draw deck.
2. Draw 5 cards from the deck and place them face up in Row C. If there are any duplicate cards, stack the duplicates and continue drawing cards until you have 5 different Category I Goods Cards shown in Row C.

Row D - Resource Cards Setup

1. Check each Resource Card to see the number of cards specified for each player count (see How to Read Cards above).
2. Place piles of each type of Resource Card into Row D, with the number of cards corresponding to the player count. Put the remaining unused cards into the box, as they will not be used in this game.

Starting Player & Starting Capital

1. Use rock, paper, scissors to determine the starting player.
2. The starting player takes the Capital Funds card with the 3 gold value.
3. Going clockwise around the table from the starting player, each player takes the next highest Capital Funds card. (Player 2 would take the 4, Player 3 the 5, etc.)
4. Put unused Capital Funds cards back in the box. They will not be used this game.
5. Note: when Capital Funds are spent, place the card back in the box. It will not be used again this game.

Playing the Game

The game is played by having each player take a turn in order, starting with the Starting Player. Play continues until one player obtains 10 Victory Points.

The hand limit is 7 cards. You cannot take an action if it would result in you having more than 7 cards in your hand. Building Cards and Victory Point Cards do not count to this limit and are placed face up in your player area. The contents of your hand of cards is public information.

Turn Anatomy

1. Replenish the Market (skip during the Starting Player's first turn).
2. Take Actions (see below) - during their turn, a player can take (A) one player action and (B) one Brownie Action per Building Card.
3. Turn end (move to next player in clockwise order)

Replenish the Market

1. If any of the Building, Category II Goods, and Category I Goods rows do not have 5 cards, draw cards until each row has 5 cards. If you draw duplicate Category I Goods Cards during this step, stack those cards and continue as in the Setup Phase.
2. If a draw deck runs out of cards during this step, shuffle the associated discard pile and create a new draw deck, then replenish the market.
3. If a draw deck runs out and there is no discard pile, there is no replenish action for that row.

Actions

A player can take two actions during their turn:

• Player action - choose to perform either the Production Action or the Buy/Sell Action
• Brownie action - perform once for each building card they own.

You can order this sequence any way you choose. For example, you could perform a Brownie Action on one Building Card, then perform a Buy/Sell Action, and finally perform a Brownie Action on a different Building Card.

Action Detail

Player Action

A player can choose either, but not both, of the following actions during their turn:

Produce Action

1. Category I Goods and Category II Goods may be Produced (taken from the market and added to your hand) by paying the exact cost to Produce the good listed in the upper right hand corner of the card.
2. The resources that you use to pay the Production cost are returned to the Market. Resource Cards go to the appropriate pile in Row D. Goods Cards are placed face up in a discard pile to the right of the draw deck for the appropriate Row.
3. Some Goods Cards have a "/" (slash) in the Production cost. The slash means "or".
4. The listed cost for Resource Cards (except Dung) is a hand symbol. This means the player simply takes the card during their Production action. Dung cards cannot be taken this way.

Buy/Sell Action

1. You can buy cards from the Market using the gold value of the cards in your hand.
2. In performing the Buy/Sell Action,
   1. You can use one card from your hand to buy one or more cards from the Market; or
   2. You can use multiple cards from your hand to buy one card from the Market.
   3. You cannot use multiple cards from your hand to buy multiple cards from the Market.
3. You must spend the exact amount of money required.
4. Dung cards contribute -1 gold when spent using multiple cards from your hand.
5. The cards you use to pay gold costs are returned to the Market. Resource Cards go to their appropriate piles. Goods Cards are placed face up in their respective discard piles.

Brownie Action

1. During the Brownie Action, you can use the effect on each of your Building Cards once each, paying the cost specified for each. (Costs paid are returned to the Market as described above).
2. If a Brownie Action allows you to take a card, that card must be visible in the applicable Row of the Market. You cannot take cards from the draw or discard piles.
3. For example, the Building Material Factory has a Brownie Action that allows you to pay a Cement Card to take a Concrete Brick card. If there is a Concrete Brick card showing in Row B, then you can use the Brownie Action on this card to pay the cost (discard the Cement Card from your hand) and take the Concrete Brick card.
4. Certain buildings allow you to perform a Buy/Sell action. This action is still considered a Brownie Action (it does not count as your Player Action). The four cards are as follows:
   1. Exchange card: conduct a buy/sell action using one Category I Goods Card from your hand. You may buy cards with a total cost of exactly 3, regardless of the gold value of the Category I Goods Card.
   2. Market card: conduct a buy/sell action using one Category II Goods Card from your hand.
   3. Trading House card: perform a standard Buy/Sell action.
   4. Realtor card: You may take a Building Card from the Market row, paying the cost using cards with a total value equal to the cost of that Building Card.

End of Turn

1. If you have more than one of the Pig and/or Chicken cards (e.g., a Pig and a Chicken, two Pigs, two Chickens), you must take a Dung card from Row D. If there are no Dung cards remaining in Row D, skip this step.
2. If you have 7 cards and would be forced to draw a Dung card, skip this step.

Victory Points

Players get Victory Points in two ways. First, each building card purchased by the player has a Victory Point value shown on the card, which counts towards the purchasing player's Victory Point total. Second, some actions allow you to take Victory Point cards, which count toward your Victory Point total.

The first player to reach 10 Victory Points wins the game.