Penny Lane
Penny Lane Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 8 Main Street cards
- 35 building cards
- 45 penny tokens
- 30 citizen meeples
- 5 player boards
- 5 scoring stars
- 1 Mayor meeple
- 1 rulebook
Game Setup
- Place the Main Street cards in a row in the center of the table. Note that some cards are double-sided. Use the side of the card corresponding to the number of players in your game.
- Give each player 3 pennies, a player board, and a scoring star, with each player placing the scoring star to the side of their player board's score track.
- Shuffle the building cards and place the deck face-down near the Main Street cards.
- Place the pennies and citizen meeples in piles near the Main Street card row.
- Reveal the top five cards of the supply deck and lay them out below the Main Street cards in a row to form the building supply.
- The player who most recently ran for (any) office takes the Mayor meeple and takes the first turn.
Starting Game Setup (diagram)
The setup diagram lays out the table like this: the Main Street cards (1) form a row across the top. Below them sit the Supply Deck (3) with the Penny Supply (4 pennies shown) to its left and the Citizen Supply (4 citizen meeples shown) to its right. Below that is the Building Supply (5) — five building cards revealed face-up. At the bottom, each Player Start (2) consists of a player board, a scoring star, and 3 pennies.
Component Reference
The rulebook includes labeled diagrams explaining the parts of each card and board. They are described below.
Building Cards
Each building card shows, in its top corners, its Cost (the number of pennies required to add it to your lane) and its Name. Along the right edge is the card's Type, shown as an icon: a tag icon for Store, a hammer icon for Workshop, a mask icon for Attraction, or a house icon for Housing.
- Stores, workshops, and attractions must be placed on the upper half of your lane.
- Housing must be placed on the lower half of your lane.
A building may have Job Vacancies — open meeple-shaped slots where a citizen can be moved to become an employee. Along the sides of the card are Link icons, half-icons that come in two kinds: a star (point) half and a penny half. When a link on one card lines up with a matching link on an adjacent card, it forms a Completed Link, which is worth points, pennies, or both depending on the icon.
Below the art is the card's Card Effect text, describing what the building does (e.g., "Worth [star] per [icon] on your Lane"). Housing buildings also have one or more Citizen Slots — spaces that come pre-filled with a citizen meeple when the building is added to a lane.
Player Board
Each player board shows a Name plate and a numbered score track (1–10) along the top. It has a Bonus Citizen space: during upkeep, if this space is vacant, place a new citizen here. It has a Bonus Penny space: during upkeep, gain a penny. The board also has Links along its edge like building cards, and a space to store your pennies.
Building cards must be placed either beside your player board or an existing building on your lane.
Main Street: Action Locations
Each Main Street action-location card shows the Number of Players it's used with (some cards are double-sided for different player counts) and its Name. Below the art are its Action Spaces: a row of circles, each marked with the number of pennies required to use that space. The leftmost is the Priority Action Space, which grants an extra bonus (in addition to the basic effect) to the first player who uses it each round. The remaining action spaces only grant the basic effect. At the bottom is the Card Effect text describing what happens when the location is used.
For example, the Gazette card's basic effect reads: "Move a citizen into an open job." Its priority effect adds: "You may pay 1 more to move a second citizen."
Main Street: Job Locations
Job location cards show a Name and a single Job Vacancy (a meeple-shaped slot). Their Card Effect text describes what happens when a citizen is moved into that vacancy using the Gazette. For example, the Temple's effect reads: "Choose any lane. Gain 1 penny for each Housing building on that lane."
Gameplay
Each round consists of two phases: an action phase followed by an upkeep phase.
Action Phase
The player holding the Mayor meeple takes the first turn of the round.
A player takes one action during the action phase. They may choose to take either the Main Street action or the Pass action. After completing their chosen action, play continues clockwise.
The action phase repeats until all players take the Pass action consecutively. Once this happens, proceed to the upkeep phase.
Main Street Action
The player chooses a Main Street location with an open action space. They must place the required number of pennies on its leftmost open action space. The player then carries out that location's effect. Job location effects can only be activated by moving a citizen into the vacancy by using the Gazette.
If a player doesn't have enough pennies for a card, if all action spaces are already filled, or if the player cannot carry out the effect of a chosen Main Street card (e.g. they have no citizens to move with the Gazette), they must take the Pass action.
Priority Action Spaces. Several of the locations on Main Street have an additional priority effect that grants an extra bonus to the first player to use that location during the round. Non-priority action spaces on those locations only grant the basic effect.
Pass Action
The player's turn ends immediately. On their next turn, they will have the chance to choose a Main Street action or pass again. Once all players pass consecutively, proceed to the upkeep phase.
Upkeep Phase
At the start of the upkeep phase, if any player has 10 or more points from buildings on their lane or there are less than 5 building cards in the building supply, the game immediately ends and proceeds to final scoring. Otherwise, perform the following steps:
- Return all pennies and citizen meeples on Main Street locations back to their respective supplies.
- Each player resolves all upkeep effects on their lane, including gaining additional pennies from bonus links and adding a bonus citizen to their player board if the space is empty.
- Begin a new round, starting with the action phase. The player with the Mayor meeple takes the first turn.
Bonus Links
Player boards and most building cards have one or more bonus link icons on the sides of the cards. Through careful placement of cards on your lane, full point and penny icons can be made.
Each completed penny link grants the player an additional penny during each upkeep phase.
Each completed point link counts as 1 additional point.
Final Scoring
Each player totals the number of points on their lane. The player with the most points wins the game!
If there is a tie for first, the tied player with the most building cards wins. If there is still a tie for first, the tied player with the most pennies wins.
Still tied? Then the tied player whose age is closest to 42 wins!
Keywords
Basic Effect – The standard effect from a location card.
Building – Cards from the building supply deck, even if their name doesn't necessarily sound like a building (e.g. Fountain).
Citizen – Any meeple on a lane. All Housing buildings come with one or more citizens (indicated by citizen slots) when added to a lane.
Employee – A citizen that occupies a job vacancy.
Job Vacancy – A place where a citizen meeple can be moved. Most of these are on building cards. The Temple and Barracks location cards also have one each, but unlike the ones on buildings, citizens in these slots are returned to the supply during each upkeep phase.
Lane – One player's board and all building cards that have been added to it. Each player creates their own lane throughout the course of the game.
Link – Half of an icon on the edge of a building card. By completing both sides of a link, a player can gain either bonus points or pennies.
Priority Effect – The special effect from a Main Street card granted by the first, leftmost action space on the card.
Upkeep Effect – A card effect that resolves during the upkeep phase.
Main Street Cards in Detail
Bank
The player gains 2 pennies from the supply. The priority effect gains the player 1 additional penny.
Barracks
This location has a single job slot on it. If a player moves a citizen into this slot with the Gazette, they choose any player's lane (including their own) and gain 1 penny from the supply for each Attraction building on that lane.
Gazette
The player moves one citizen meeple from their lane into an open job vacancy on their lane or on a Main Street location card. The player may not move a citizen back into a citizen slot on a Housing building card or into an open job vacancy on another player's lane.
The priority effect gives the player the option to place one additional penny on the priority action space in order to move a second citizen in the same manner.
Moving a meeple from a citizen slot to a job vacancy will reveal a point icon, immediately adding one point to the overall score of that player's lane.
Masons' Guild
The player chooses one of the available building cards from the building supply and adds it to their lane. The number of pennies required to use this location is equal to the cost listed on the chosen building card.
The priority effect allows the player to pay one penny less (to a minimum of 1 penny).
It is not required to complete a point or penny link in order to place a building.
Housing buildings must always be placed on the bottom row of your lane. These buildings all have the street at the top of the card. After adding a Housing building to a lane, place a citizen on each citizen slot, covering up that slot's point icon.
Store, Workshop, and Attraction buildings must be placed in the top row of the lane. These buildings all have the street at the bottom of the card.
Temple
This location has a single job slot on it. If a player moves a citizen into this slot with the Gazette, they choose any player's lane (including their own) and gain 1 penny from the supply for each set of Store, Workshop, and Attraction buildings on that lane.
Tower
The player may swap the position of two building cards on their lane, potentially creating more bonus links. However, this does not allow Housing buildings to be placed in the top row or Store, Workshop, and Attraction buildings to be placed in the bottom row.
The player may choose to pay 1 additional penny for each additional swap they wish to perform. For example, they could place 3 pennies on the Tower action space to perform the swap effect three times.
Town Hall
The player takes the Mayor meeple and gains 1 penny from the supply. (A player with the Mayor meeple may take this action to go first again in the next round.)
Building Cards in Detail
Book Shoppe
This building is worth 1 point if it has an employee.
Cobbler
This building is worth 1 point for every 2 Housing buildings on its lane, rounded down.
Dark Alley
When using the Black Market, the player secretly draws the top two cards, chooses one to add to their lane, and places the other on the bottom of the building deck. This effect replaces Black Market's printed effect.
Engineer
Each employee on this building card reduces the cost of using the Masons' Guild (to a minimum of 1 penny).
Farmer's Co-Op
During upkeep, gain 1 penny for each employee here and choose another player to also gain 1 penny. If you have two employees here, you may choose a different opponent to gain the 1 penny from the second employee.
Garage
When you add a new building to your lane, you may move a citizen from another building on your lane to the new building.
Haunted House
This building is worth 1 point for each other building adjacent to it (maximum of 3, with adjacent buildings on the top, left, and right) with no citizens on it. The player board does not count as a building.
Loft
During upkeep, gain 1 penny if the citizen from this building has been moved into a job vacancy.
Luthier
If both job vacancies are filled, all the bonus links on this building are doubled (e.g. if both job vacancies were filled and all links were completed, Luthier would be worth 2 points and gain the player 4 pennies during upkeep).
Manor
This building is worth 1 point for each Housing building on the lane (even if the building's citizen is not employed).
Mansion
This building is worth 1 point for each Store building on the lane (even if the building's citizen is not employed).
Pet Shop
During upkeep, gain 1 penny for each employee here. If both job vacancies have employees, this building is also worth 1 point.
Penny Arcade
This building is worth 1 point for each set of Store, Workshop, and Attraction buildings on the lane (for example, if the lane has 2 Stores, 2 Workshops, and 2 Attractions, Penny Arcade is worth 2 points).
Smelter
If this building's job vacancy is filled, you gain 1 additional penny each time you use the Bank.
Stationers
If this building's job vacancy is filled, you pay 1 penny less (to a minimum of 1 penny) each time you use the Gazette.
Tailor
During upkeep, gain 1 penny for each employee here. If all of this building's job vacancies are filled, this building is also worth 2 points.
Warehouse
During upkeep, if there is an employee on this building, gain 1 penny for each Workshop building on the lane.
Credits
Game Design Mel Primus, Justin Blaske
Art Denis Martynets
Art Direction Dann May
Graphic Design Dann May, Cody Jones
Game Development Dann May, Brenna Noonan
Marketing Brenna Noonan
Executive Producer Dan Yarrington