Pacific
Pacific Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 80 cards
- 5 player mats
- 1 central playmat
- 5 scoring tokens
- 25 choice tokens
- 45 larger chits - 10 each of x10 (white circle) and x2 (black circle). 5 each of Balloon, Hatchery, HQ, Path, and Port.
- 110 two-sided smaller chits - 25 each of 1 fish/hotel (fish on one side, hotel on the other), 2 fish/hotel, 1 factory/boat, 2 factory/boat (factory on one side, boat on the other); 10 of 5 fish/hotel.
Preparation
Each player takes a player mat, a scoring track token, and one choice token in each player color being used this game.
Put the central playmat for the cards in the middle of the table. Shuffle the deck and deal each player 10 cards. Put the rest of the tokens on the table where everyone can reach them. Players start at $0.
Turns
The game lasts 10 turns. Each turn, each player puts a card from their hand face down at the appropriate space next to the central mat. When everyone is ready, reveal all of the cards. Then each player uses one of their choice tokens to secretly pick which card they are going to execute. When everyone is ready, each player reveals their choice and does the text of the card they picked. Then they "run" the areas of their mat corresponding to the colors on the card they picked. The revealed cards are left out on the table; cover them up with next turn's face down cards.
Example: This turn you choose to put out Blue Whales from your hand. You are player D (brown), so you put the Blue Whales card face down next to the brown spot on the central mat. Other players meanwhile put out other cards. When everyone is ready, the cards are flipped over. Then everyone picks which card to play. You could choose Blue Whales if you wanted, but you do not have to; you can pick anyone's card. Player E (gray) put out Beach Hotels, and you pick that instead - you conceal the gray E-token in your hand (and the others in your other hand), and when everyone is ready, everyone reveals their token. You reveal the gray E-token, for Beach Hotels. You follow the instructions on the card (cards explained below). Then since Beach Hotels [colour icon] is blue and red, you "run" the blue and red areas.
Reading Cards
Many cards will have an area name, a colon, and then some symbols.
For example "Peru: factory factory." This means, you place 2 factories on Peru.
This is the most basic thing cards do. The factories come from the supply, they go onto your mat in the Peru area, and they stay there all game unless a card moves them later.
Some cards have a more complex description of an area to place tokens. Examples:
- "Anywhere: boat" means to put a boat in any area.
- "Each area: fish" means to put a fish in each area, so five fish placed total.
- "An empty area: hotel" means to put a hotel into any single area you have with no tokens in it.
- "Each area where you have a boat: hotel" means to put a hotel into each area where you have one or more boats.
Other instructions may tell you to move tokens, or remove tokens, or replace tokens with other tokens, or make +$, or run specific areas. The multi-coloured circle symbol means any token.
Follow instructions on cards in order from top to bottom. If you cannot do something, just do as much as you can; for example if you have one fish and are told to lose 3 fish, you just lose the one fish.
Some cards do something "next turn." Set these aside rather than covering them up, and remember which players picked them. After the next turn, discard them. These abilities do not do anything on the last turn.
Some games you will have a lot of a particular token; x10 (white circle) tokens let you track this. x2 (black circle) tokens let you track multiple special tokens. Tokens are not counter-limited; if you run out, use a replacement.
The cards are mechanically themed by color.
- Japan - Transit - green - make boats, movement, and "next turn" abilities
- California - Business - yellow - +$
- Peru - Industry - red - make factories, and lose or replace tokens
- Polynesia - Tourism - blue - make hotels
- Coral Sea - Nature - white - make fish
- Special - orange - run areas and duplicate tokens
Every yellow card makes +$, and every card that makes +$ is yellow, and so on.
So for example Widget Factory is yellow/red, since it places a factory and makes +$. When you play it, first you follow the instructions on it, and then you run California and then Peru, the yellow and red areas.
Running Areas
"Running" an area means that the tokens on your mat will do things. You run areas in order going clockwise starting from Japan and following the arrows. The areas are Japan, California, Peru, Polynesia, and Coral Sea (and they are run in that order). When a card is two colors, it has the colors on the bottom in the order that you run the areas.
These are the basic kinds of tokens, and what they do when you run their areas:
- Hotel: you get +$1.
- Fish: the fish moves to the next area, following the arrows. From Japan to California, from California to Peru, from Peru to Polynesia, from Polynesia to Coral Sea, from Coral Sea to Japan.
- Factory: you may remove up to 3 other tokens from this area (including factories but not this factory) for +$2 each.
- Boat: you get +$1 per fish here.
All of the tokens are cumulative; three hotels makes you +$3, and so on.
Do those things in any order when running an area. You have to do them all (though factories can remove 0 tokens). For example if you have a factory, five fish, and two boats on Peru when you run it, you could decide to first get +$10 for the boats, then use the factory to remove two fish and a boat for +$6, then move the remaining three fish to Polynesia.
Illustration on page 4 shows the Tourism (Polynesia) and Industry (Peru) areas with fish moving from Peru to Polynesia along the arrow, with a factory and boats on Peru and the two removed items crossed out.
Special Tokens
Some cards create special large tokens with unique abilities.
- Hatchery: When run, makes 2 fish in that area. They will move that turn.
- HQ: HQ does nothing when run. When tokens are placed in the area with HQ, you get +$1 of whatever type of token is being placed, once per turn per type of token. For example if you place 2 fish and a hotel there, you get a 3rd fish and 2nd hotel; if you place a Hatchery, you get a 2nd Hatchery.
- Port: When run, you may move a hotel, factory, fish, or boat from another area to the area with the Port. This is optional. This ability happens before all other abilities when running an area, and cannot move other special tokens e.g. Hatchery. The moved token will do its thing for the area with the Port that same turn (even if it already did something earlier in the turn where it used to be).
- Balloon: When run, this token moves to the next area, like a fish. If it ever moves from somewhere else to California, you get +$15; this can happen repeatedly.
- Path: This goes on an arrow rather than in an area. It means that for you, cards of either color are also the other color. This does not give a card the same color twice. For example if you put the Path on the arrow between Japan and California, then your green cards would be green-yellow, and your yellow cards would be green-yellow, and your green-blue cards would be green-yellow-blue, and so on. So if you played a green card you would run both Japan and California. You still run areas in the normal order, starting with Japan.
The basic tokens and the special tokens are all "tokens," for cards that refer to tokens. Path is not in an area, and so is not affected by some cards that interact with tokens.
Game End
After the tenth turn, the game is over. At this point normally everyone is out of cards; if a player has a card left though (due to Computer Chip Factory), they never play that card.
Most $ wins. There is no tiebreaker.
2 Player Rules
Players start with extra color tokens as if there were 4 players.
At the start each player looks at their hand, and then chooses an area of their board to put a hotel in, and a different area on their board to put a factory in. Players decide and then simultaneously place these tokens.
Each turn, deal out 2 random cards for the "dummy" players (after all players have put out their cards). You do not use mats for the dummies; they just give you two more cards to choose from each turn.
Card Notes
- Aquarium: The fish do not have to be in the same area.
- Beach Hotels: It is okay if you have no fish to lose; you simply do not lose any.
- Capsule Hotels: The factories do not have to be in the same area.
- Car Factory: You can lose one of the factories you just added.
- Casinos: This forces you to choose to play your own card on the next turn. For example if you put out Blue Whales, other players could choose Blue Whales to play or not, but you would be forced to play it. If you play Casinos on the 10th turn, that part will not matter, as there are no more turns.
- Computer Chip Factory: The game still lasts 10 turns, even though some players may have an 11th card.
- Diversify: If you have zero factories or zero fish, you get no $.
- Documentary: This includes any fish that move, any movement caused by card instructions, any tokens removed by card instructions, and any tokens removed due to factories.
- Dolphin Spy Network: Everyone else puts out a card face down as usual; those cards are revealed; then you put out your card. If for example there are four players, and two play Dolphin Spy Network, then the two players who did not play it put their cards face down, then those are revealed, then the two who played Dolphin Spy Network pick their cards to put out and put them out face down, then those are revealed too.
- Grand Opening: This includes tokens that replaced other tokens, such as via Seafood Chain.