On the Road Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• How to Play
  • A. Play a movement card
  • Location tokens
  • Concert
  • B. Draw a movement card
  • C. Draw fans from the bag
• Mainstage
• Special Actions
• End of the Game

Components

• 27 location tiles
• 3 city tiles (night stage)
• 1 barn tile (starting tile)
• 1 mainstage tile
• 4 ticket tiles
• 1 porta-potty tile
• 33 location tokens
• 50 movement cards
• 80 fans (wooden stars)
• 4 van pawns
• 1 cloth bag
• 4 player aids

Goal of the Game

In On the Road, your goal is to tour the country and attract the most fans to the festival's mainstage for the final concert.

Setup

1. Place the barn tile on the table. This is the starting tile.
2. Shuffle the location tiles. Use the tiles to create a road, similar to the image on the next page. Starting from the barn tile, randomly place 7 consecutive location tiles, followed by 1 city tile. Do the same thing again twice: 7 location tiles followed by 1 city tile. There should be 6 location tiles remaining: place them behind the final city tile.
3. Place the mainstage tile at the end of the road.
4. Place the porta-potty tile and the ticket tiles next to the play area. The stack of tickets should be in ascending order, with the tile showing 1 music note on top and the tile showing 4 music notes at the bottom.
5. Sort the location tokens by color and place them next to the play area. Depending on the number of players, return a number of pink tokens to the box: 2 tokens in a 3-player game, and 3 tokens in a 2-player game.
6. Place your van pawn on the barn tile.
7. Take the fans in your color. Put 3 of them in the cloth bag.
8. Shuffle the movement cards and deal 3 to each player. You may look at your own cards. Create a face-down draw pile with the remaining cards.
9. The last person to attend a music concert will be the starting player.

How to Play

The game is played over a number of clockwise turns, until there is a winner. On your turn, you must:

• A. Play a movement card (unless you're on the mainstage tile)
• B. Draw a movement card (unless you're on the mainstage tile)
• C. Draw fans from the bag (only if you're on the mainstage tile or a city tile)

A. Play a movement card

Discard 1 of your movement cards and advance your van pawn a number of tiles equal to the card's value. You must always move in the direction of the mainstage tile, unless you start your movement on a van tile.

Van tile: If you start your movement on a van tile, you may choose to either:

• Advance as normal, or
• Advance by doubling your movement value, or
• Move back according to your movement value

Example: in the example below, you start your turn on a van tile. By playing a value 2 movement card, you can either:

• Advance 2 tiles, or
• Advance 4 tiles, or
• Move back 2 tiles

If your van pawn ends its movement on an occupied tile, advance it (or move it backward, if you were already moving backward from a van tile) to the first unoccupied tile.

Example: in the example below, you discard a value 2 card and advance 2 tiles. Since this tile is occupied, you must advance to the next tile.

Location tokens

After moving, take a location token of the color depicted on the tile you ended your movement on.

Example: if you ended your movement on a forest tile, take a green location token (which also shows the same symbol). If you end your movement on a van tile, city tile, or the mainstage tile, take a pink location token.

Important: if there are no tokens left of the corresponding color, if possible you may instead take 1 of your fans from the porta-potty tile and return it to the bag.

Concert

When you end your movement on a location tile with a mountain, lake, forest or field, you play a concert to promote your band and invite fans to come and see you at the festival.

Place a number of fans into the bag equal to the location tokens of that type you already have in front of you. This includes the location token you just took.

Example: you end your movement on a lake and take a blue location token, which you add to the 2 blue tokens you've previously obtained. Since you now have 3 blue location tokens, you put 3 of your fans in the bag.

B. Draw a movement card

Unless you're on the mainstage tile, draw a movement card. You should always have 3 cards in your hand at the end of your turn.

C. Draw fans from the bag

When you end your movement on a city tile, draw fans from the bag. This action allows you to discover if your fans want to attend your final concert at the festival.

Drawing fans: Draw as many fans from the bag at random as the number of music note symbols you have in front of you. These symbols can be found on the pink location tokens and on the ticket tiles. There are 2 possibilities:

• The fan is of your color: place it on the first available space of the mainstage tile
• The fan is of a different color: place it on the porta-potty tile

Mainstage

You can arrive at the mainstage using a movement card with a value equal to or higher than the required movement. When you end your movement on the mainstage tile, you also draw fans from the bag. However, before doing so you must:

• Discard all of your movement cards, because your tour of the country has come to an end
• Take the topmost ticket tile from the stack (lowest value available). This will allow you to draw extra fans

From now on, you are not allowed to move and you can only draw fans from the bag during your turn (see C. Draw fans from the bag).

In addition, at the start of each of your following turns, take 1 pink location token. If there are no pink location tokens available, take 1 of your fans from the porta-potty tile instead, and return it to the bag. Then, proceed to drawing fans from the bag as usual.

Special Actions

Every time someone draws fans from the bag, you may return a number of differently colored location tokens you have in front of you to the box, to carry out 1 of the following actions. You're also allowed to discard pink location tokens. The various effects are also listed on your player aid.

Number of different location tokens	Effect
2	After one of your opponents draws fans, discard 2 different location tokens, to force them to immediately return ALL of the drawn fans of your color to the bag, instead of placing them on the porta-potty tile.
2	After you draw fans, discard 2 different location tokens to return all the fans you drew to the bag and draw again.
3	Before you draw fans, discard 3 different location tokens to return all the fans of your color from the porta-potty tile to the bag.
4	After one of your opponents draws fans, discard 4 different location tokens to place 1 of the drawn fans of your color on the mainstage tile, instead of the porta-potty tile.

End of the Game

The game ends when at the end of a player's turn, the mainstage tile is completely filled with fans: 16 fans or more in a 4-player game, 13 fans or more in a 3-player game, and 12 fans or more in a 2-player game.

The band with the most fans on the mainstage tile is considered the hottest act of the year. In case of a tie, continue taking turns until there's a clear winner.

Example: In this 4-player game, there are 15 fans. It's the blue player's turn. They draw 2 blue fans from the bag. There are now 17 fans on the mainstage tile. However, blue and yellow still have 5 fans each. Next, it's your turn. You draw 2 red fans, which means you now have 6 fans on the mainstage tile. You win the game!