Planecrafters
Planecrafters Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Players earn crowns, the native currency of Crumplehorn, primarily by selling planes. Better planes sell for more crowns. But what really makes a factory succeed is its workers. Hiring employees for your factory will cost you crowns, but they're also a great investment. Employees can speed the production of planes, help you find better parts, sabotage your opponents' factories, or receive crowns from the bank. At the end of the game, the player with the most crowns wins.
Setup
Place all Employee cards face up, in their respective tiers (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3). Give each player a Player Aid Card and 5 crowns. Place the rest of the crowns near the employees. This is the Bank. With 3 players add the (3+) cards. With 4 players also add the (4+) cards. Shuffle the deck.
Dealing
The first player is the one who most recently flew on an airplane. Play proceeds clockwise.
- In a 2-player game, deal 3 cards to the first player and 4 cards to the second.
- In a 3-player game, deal 3, 4, and 5 cards to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd players respectively.
- In a 4-player game, deal 3, 4, 4, and 5 cards to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th players respectively.
Place the remaining cards face down in a stack in easy reach of all players. Draw four cards from the stack and place them face up in a row next to the stack. The stack and four face up cards make up the Parts Depot.
Components
- 1 Rule Booklet
- Cards: 20 Tarot Sized Employee Cards; 4 Trifold Player Aid Cards; 3 Tarot Sized Bonus Cards; 112 Poker Sized Part Cards; 20 Mini Sized Objective Cards
- Cardboard Coins: 28 Value 1 crowns; 15 Value 5 crowns; 15 Value 10 crowns
Gameplay
Each player's turn consists of five steps:
- Hire (optional): Spend your crowns to hire a new employee.
- Acquire: Gather new parts cards.
- Flyer: Play your parts cards in your factory to build your flyer.
- Buyer (optional): Sell your plane to the buyer, Master Pennington.
- Clean Up: Discard down to hand size limit cards.
Hire
You may spend your crowns to hire one employee to work in your factory. Your Factory is the space on the table in front of you. The cost of each employee is found in the center of their card and that amount is paid to the bank. Once you have hired an employee, you may use their ability on that turn and every future turn. Each ability is used during a specific turn step. An icon on each employee card will help remind you when to use that employee's ability. Keep in mind that the crowns you use to hire employees are the same crowns you need to win. So hire wisely!
Employee card parts: Employee Name, Cost, Tier Marker, Ability Description, Turn Step Icon.
Note: The abilities of the Tier 1 employees can be doubled (by hiring both of the same employee OR by utilizing the Jack of all Trades), but they cannot be tripled (by hiring both of the same employees AND utilizing the Jack).
Acquire
Take two cards from the Parts Depot and place them in your hand. If a face up card is drawn, immediately replace it with a card from the face down pile. Then you may use the abilities of any Acquire step employees you've hired.
Flyer
Place up to two part cards from your hand face up in your factory to build your flyer. You will continue to add part cards to your plane in subsequent turns until it is complete and ready to sell.
A complete plane is composed of a nose, a tail, a left wing, and a right wing. There are fuselage cards in the deck that belong to specific plane models. A single fuselage can be used on any plane, but a plane does not need a fuselage to be complete.
It is not required to use parts from matching models, though your plane will sell for more crowns if it does. An example of a completed plane with two parts of one model, and two parts of another model, is shown in the manual. A player may only build one plane at a time.
Part Replacement: A player may replace a part previously played on their plane. The old part is discarded, face down, to the bottom of the stack in the Parts Depot.
Spare Parts (Wild): A Spare Part may be played during the player's Flyer step, and counts as a free play. In other words, a player can play two cards, then they may play additional Spare Part cards for free. The Spare Part counts as one crown when scoring a plane. A spare part is not locked into its location until it is sold, so it may be moved if the player chooses.
Buyer
Money is earned for each part of a completed plane, but a plane can fetch a higher price when more parts belong to the same model. A model is a group of parts belonging to the same airplane design.
Money earned from selling your plane comes from the bank.
The Distinction Award goes to the player who scored the most valuable plane (not including Ace Pilot bonus) - See award description.
Scoring Your Plane
In the example in the manual, two parts belong to the Big Boy model (the nose and left wing). Two parts from the same model is worth 3 crowns. The two parts belonging to the Night Fury model (the right wing and tail) are also worth 3 crowns, making the plane as a whole worth 6 crowns.
| Parts of a model | Value |
|---|---|
| 1 part of a model | 1 crown |
| 2 parts of a model | 3 crowns |
| 3 parts of a model | 6 crowns |
| 4 parts of a model | 10 crowns |
| 5 parts of a model | 15 crowns |
Clean Up
There is a 5 card limit for your hand. At the end of your turn, discard any excess cards. Place those cards, face down, at the bottom of the stack in the Parts Depot. All discards are placed in the same manner.
Track the Parts Sold
Stack the cards of the sold plane to the side of your factory, so that they can be counted at the end of the game. At game end, the player who can show they sold the most parts receives the Industry Award bonus card.
End Game
The end of the game is triggered when a player empties the face down stack of the Parts Depot, either by drawing directly from the face down stack, or by replenishing a face up card. The player who triggered the end game finishes their turn, then play continues normally until the player to the right of the first player finishes their turn, so that all players have an equal number of turns. If the triggering player is the player to the right of the first player, then the game ends at the end of their turn.
Winning: The value of awarded Bonus Card values (see below) are added to player's crowns. The player with the highest total is the winner. If there is a tie, the player who was last, or closest to last in turn order wins.
Bonuses
The Industry Award: This award goes to the player with the most parts sold by the end of the game. The player with the highest total receives this card and adds 8 crowns to their total score.
The Enterprise Award: This is given to the player with the most expensive employee pool at the end of the game. Add the costs for each player's employees. The player with the highest total receives this bonus card and adds 8 crowns to their total score. Discounts from the Recruiter are not calculated in this total, just the actual employee costs.
The Distinction Award: This award goes to the player who has sold the most valuable plane. Employee abilities that would alter the sale value of the plane, like the Ace Pilot, are ignored. The Distinction Award is given to the player who sells the first plane at the time of sale. The award is passed around the table, throughout the game, as players sell more valuable planes (ties don't count).
The current holder of the Distinction Award is entitled to display their award-winning plane in a prominent place near the employee pool. If that plane is replaced by another of higher value, the former plane is returned to the player that sold it and placed with their other sold planes. The player who sold the most valuable plane by the end of the game, receives this card and adds 8 crowns to their total score.
Tip #2 - Lock that Award Down! If you want to secure the Distinction Award for good, you need to track down a 5-part plane model...a model with a Fuselage card. Those models are marked with a star next to their names.
Ties for Bonuses
In case of ties no one receives the card, simply split the award amount between the tied players rounding down.
Employee Overview
Accountant: Collect crowns based on how many employees you have in your factory. Crowns can be collected before or after hiring a new employee that turn, but must be collected before your Acquire step begins.
Recruiter: Receive a discount on hiring new employees based on their tier.
- 1 crown for Tier 1 employees
- 2 crowns for Tier 2 employees
- 3 crowns for Tier 3 employees
Tip #3 - Watch those Recruiters! Hiring one Recruiter can be a great long-term investment. Hiring two Recruiters will turn a factory into an HR powerhouse! Make sure you're the powerhouse or nobody is!
Tax Collector: Collect one crown from each other player, unless they are protected by the Investigator, or they have no crowns. Crowns can be collected before or after hiring a new employee that turn, but must be collected before the Acquire step begins.
Agent of the Board: Trade hands with an opponent blindly or swap a certain number of cards from your hand with Parts Depot. If you wish to trade hands with an opponent or swap with the Parts Depot, you would do so after you acquire your first two parts cards.
Logistician: Allows you to draw one additional card from the Parts Depot. A Logistician increases your hand size limit by one card.
Spy: Select one opponent and look at their hand. Take one card from their hand and add it to yours.
Factory Manager: You may build multiple airplanes in your factory. You may also swap parts between planes in your factory (as often as you need). Hand size limit is eliminated.
Technician: You may play an additional part card from your hand.
Thief: Steal one plane part from an opponent's factory and place this stolen part into your factory.
Ace Pilot: Collect 2 additional crowns when you sell a plane.
Contractor: You may sell a plane that is incomplete. It must have at least one part. Hiring two Contractors gives +1 crown for all planes sold.
Your Boss's Boss: Collect the first 2 crowns when other players sell a plane. These crowns comes out of the crowns they receive for their plane.
Jack of all Trades: May mimic the abilities of any single Tier 1 employee (Agent of the Board, Contractor, Logistician, Recruiter, Technician) each turn.
Guard: Your cards are protected from the abilities of the Agent of the Board, Spy, and Thief.
Investigator: Your crowns are protected from the actions of Your Boss's Boss and the Tax Collector.