Project Skyline Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Goal of the Game
• Setup
• Explanation of the Character Boards
• Explanation of the Money Track
• Explanation of the Cards
  • Card Types
  • Card Anatomy
  • Starting Deck
• Course of Play
  • I. Buy or Upgrade
  • II. Play Cards
    • Building a Floor
    • One-time Bonus
  • III. Score Monuments
    • Monument Bonus
  • IV. Score Areas
  • V. Draw
• End of the Game and Final Scoring
• The Two-Player Game
  • Setup
  • Building a Floor
  • Moving Construction-Site Tiles
• Glossary

Components

94 cards, divided into:

• 32 Start cards
• 28 Basic cards
• 34 Upgrade cards (four sets of 8 cards each)

Further components:

• 120 floors (30 floors each in four colors)
• 4 double-sided character boards
• 4 money markers + 4 upgrade markers in four colors
• 3 construction-site tiles
• 6 restricted-zone tiles
• 1 Basic market, 1 start marker, 1 Upgrade market (consisting of 4 parts)
• 1 rulebook
• 1 double-sided game board (New York City + Tokyo)

Goal of the Game

The goal is to earn the most money. You achieve this by constantly improving your card deck and thereby expanding into the most promising city districts. At the same time you try to make the best possible use of the advantages of the monuments.

Setup

Before the first game, carefully punch the pieces out of the punchboards and assemble the pieces of the start marker.

1. Place the game board with the desired side face up in the middle of the table. Note: For your first game we recommend playing with the New York City side. Along the outer edge of the game board runs the money track. In the middle the city is depicted, divided into several areas of different colors:

   • Green: recreation areas
   • Grey: business areas
   • White: residential areas
   • Red: industrial areas

   The areas consist of different numbers of spaces. On the New York City side of the game board you will also find a central landmark as well as 8 monuments. On the Tokyo side you will find no central landmark, but 9 monuments.

2. In a game with two or three players, place 1 restricted-zone tile on each of the spaces bearing the restricted-zone symbol. Note: These spaces are now "restricted" and may not be built on.

3. Place the Basic market and the Upgrade market next to the game board.

   • A. Sort the Basic cards (see p. 5) by color and place them face up in the corresponding places of the Basic market.
   • B. Shuffle the Upgrade cards and place 4 of them face up in the corresponding places of the Upgrade market. Place the remaining Upgrade cards next to it as a face-down draw pile.

4. Determine one person who receives the start marker.

5. Everyone takes 1 character board and places it in front of themselves with the desired side face up.

   • A. Take the 30 floors in the matching color, as well as the money marker and the Upgrade marker. Place the floors in front of you as your personal supply.
   • B. Place the Upgrade marker on the lowest space of the Upgrade track of your character board.

Explanation of the Character Boards

All character boards are built identically:

1. To the left of the board you place your personal draw pile.
2. To the right of the board you place your played cards; this is where your personal discard pile forms.
3. On the left of the board the Upgrade track is depicted. It consists of 5 round spaces. At the start of the game you place your Upgrade marker on the lowest space of this track. (The spaces show, from the top, -5, -3, -2, -1 and the lowest space.)
4. At the bottom of the board you see an overview of the five steps that you carry out on your turn.

Explanation of the Money Track

Each time you receive money, you move your money marker forward on the money track accordingly. Each time you pay money, you move your money marker backward on the money track accordingly.

You can never have less than 0 money, but you can very well have more than 70 money.

Explanation of the Cards

Card Types

There are three types of cards: Start (S), Basic (B) and Upgrade cards (U). You can tell them apart by the initial letter, which together with a number forms the code number shown in the lower left corner of each card. The code number helps you identify the card and find it in the glossary at the end of the rulebook.

Card Anatomy

• A. At the top left there are up to 4 different symbols, which correspond to the 4 area colors on the game board.
• B. In the middle the card effect is depicted, including a short explanation.
• C. At the bottom left the code number is depicted.
• D. At the bottom right the money value is depicted that you receive (or must subtract) at the end of the game for this card.

Starting Deck

At the start of the game you each receive an identical set consisting of the following 8 Start cards (with the code numbers S-01 to S-08):

• S-01: Build 1 floor in a recreation area.
• S-02: Build 2 floors on one space in a business area.
• S-03: Build 1 floor in a residential area.
• S-04: Build 1 floor in an industrial area and receive 1 money.
• S-05, S-06, S-07, S-08: Receive 1 money.

Course of Play

You play clockwise, starting with the person holding the start marker. You take turns until the end of the game occurs. When it is your turn, you carry out the following five steps in order:

I. Buy or Upgrade — II. Play Cards — III. Score Monuments — IV. Score Areas — V. Draw

Then it is the next person's turn.

I. Buy or Upgrade

At the start of your turn you may either A) buy 1 card from the Basic market or B) upgrade 1 hand card. Note: This step is optional! If you do not want to (or cannot) buy or upgrade a card, skip this step. You may only buy or upgrade cards if you can also pay enough money for it.

A. Buy 1 card from the Basic market: Pay as much money as is indicated above the chosen card on the Basic market. Then take the chosen card into your hand. Note: If there are no more cards of a color in the Basic market, you can only buy 1 card from the colors still available.

B. Upgrade 1 hand card:

1. Pay as much money as is indicated on the space above your Upgrade marker on the Upgrade track of your character board. Then move the Upgrade marker up by 1 space. Note: If the Upgrade marker is already on the top space, you may no longer upgrade any hand cards.
2. Choose 1 hand card and remove it from the game. This can be a Start, Basic or Upgrade card.
3. Then choose 1 card from the Upgrade market and take it into your hand. Important: The new Upgrade card must match at least 1 symbol that is depicted on the removed hand card!
4. Refill the Upgrade market to 4 cards by first sliding all cards to the left of the resulting gap one position to the right, then revealing 1 new Upgrade card from the draw pile and placing it on the free space at the far left.

II. Play Cards

Choose a symbol (recreation, residential, business or industrial) and play any number of hand cards with that symbol. Then carry out the effects of the played cards in any order. Make sure you resolve each card individually and one after another! Place each resolved card immediately face up onto your discard pile, to the right of your character board. (If you cannot carry out an effect completely, you must carry it out as far as possible.)

Building a Floor

If a card effect allows you to build one or more floors, you may place the corresponding number of floors on the game board. Observe the card's requirement as to which area you may build the floors in.

You may build floors on empty spaces or on already built floors (of any color) - but not on monuments or water. If there is already a floor on a space, you place your floor on top of it.

One or more stacked floors form a building. The height of a building equals the number of floors in that building. Important: Each building may be at most 7 floors high! If a card allows you to build several floors on one space, which would exceed the maximum height of the building, you place only as many floors as it takes to reach the maximum height. The remaining floors are forfeited.

One-time Bonus

If you build the first floor on an unbuilt space on which a bonus is depicted, you receive it immediately. Afterwards this bonus is no longer available. There are 2 kinds of bonus spaces:

• Money bonus: Receive the indicated amount of money.
• Upgrade bonus: Move the Upgrade marker on the Upgrade track of your character board down by 1 space.

Example: Paul (orange) plays a card that allows him to build 1 floor on any space that is adjacent to water. He chooses an industrial area and places 1 floor of his color on a building already standing there.

III. Score Monuments

Depending on the game board side, you must fulfil the following condition in order to score a monument:

New York City Receive the bonus of all monuments that you have connected to the central landmark. Monuments count as "connected" if you have built an unbroken chain of your own floors between the central landmark and a monument. Important: For each building only the top floor counts! (So you can also lose connections to monuments again if you are built over by others.)

Important: Monuments themselves never count as part of a chain. So you cannot use one monument to connect another monument to the central landmark!

Tokyo Receive the bonus of all monuments next to which you have built at least the prescribed number of floors adjacent. Important: For each building only the top floor counts!

Example: For the upper monument Barbara (blue) receives 3 money, since she has built the top floor on two adjacent spaces. For the lower monument she currently receives no money, since she has built the top floor on only three adjacent spaces. The monument's requirement of four adjacent spaces is not fulfilled.

Monument Bonus

• Receive the indicated amount of money.
• Move the Upgrade marker on the Upgrade track of your character board down by 1 space.
• Take 1 card of your choice from the Basic market into your hand, without paying money for it. (Only on the Tokyo game board side!)

Additional rule for the New York City game board side: Spaces that are connected by a ferry count as adjacent (for all purposes).

Reminder: You receive the monument bonus every time it is your turn, provided you fulfil the condition!

IV. Score Areas

If in this turn you have built at least 1 floor on the last free space in an area, you trigger an area scoring. Carry out the following steps in order:

1. Determine the value: Count all floors of any color (including those that have been built over) in this area. Using the scoring table printed on the game board, determine how much money this area is worth.

• NYC: 9+ floors = 12 money; 5+ floors = 6 money; 1+ floors = 3 money.
• Tokyo: 9+ floors = 13 money; 5+ floors = 6 money; 1+ floors = 2 money.

2. Receive money: Whoever has built the most top floors in this area receives the determined value as money. In case of a tie, everyone involved in the tie receives the full value as money. Whoever has built the second-most top floors in this area receives half of the determined value as money (rounded up if necessary). In case of a tie, everyone involved in the tie receives the half value as money. If only one person has built top floors, second place does not apply.

3. Refresh the market: Remove the card lying furthest right in the Upgrade market from the game. Then refill the Upgrade market to 4 cards as described on p. 7.

Example: Paul (orange) has built on the last free space of this residential area in his turn and thereby triggers an area scoring. 1. Determine the value: There are 6 floors in total in this area, which according to the scoring table are worth 6 money. 2. Receive money: Paul has built the most top floors and therefore receives 6 money. Barbara (blue) has built the second-most top floors and receives half of the determined value, so 3 money.

Important: Each area can only be scored once per game. You may however continue to build floors in already scored areas. If you trigger several area scorings in your turn, you decide in which order you carry them out.

V. Draw

In this step you may first discard any number of cards that you still have in your hand, by placing them face up onto your personal discard pile to the right of your character board. Then draw as many cards from your personal draw pile until you have 4 cards in your hand again.

Note: In the rare case that you have more than 4 cards in your hand at the start of this step, you must first discard as many cards until you have at most 4 cards in your hand.

Draw pile used up? If you must draw cards but there are no cards left in your draw pile, shuffle your discard pile well and place it as the new face-down draw pile to the left of your character board. Then you draw your card(s) as usual.

End of the Game and Final Scoring

The game ends as soon as someone reaches or passes the gold-marked space on the money track with their money marker (the space marked 50). Finish the current round so that everyone has had the same number of turns, and then play one additional last round. Note: In the rare case that someone places their last floor on the game board, the game ends at the end of the current round. In this case no additional round is played.

Then carry out the final scoring:

• Find all cards from your hand, draw pile and discard pile that show a money value at the bottom right. Receive (or lose) money according to the sum of these money values.
• Receive money according to the end condition that is depicted on the game board.

New York City Receive 5 money for each building that is 7 floors high and whose top floor you have built.

Tokyo Receive money depending on in how many different areas you have built at least 1 floor. (You do not need to have built the top floor of the building.)

Areas with at least 1 of your floors	Money
12+	22
10+	15
8+	9
6+	4

Example: For floors built in 7 different areas you receive 4 money.

Whoever's money marker is now furthest ahead on the money track wins! In case of a tie, the tied player with the most cards (hand cards, draw pile and discard pile) wins. If there is a tie here as well, all those involved in the tie share the victory.

The Two-Player Game

In the two-player game the following additional rules apply:

Setup

At the end of setup, place 1 construction-site tile on the area with the construction-site symbol, in such a way that none of the spaces is blocked for building. Then, alternating and starting with the person holding the start marker, each place 1 further construction-site tile on any area. Note: Only 1 construction-site tile may ever lie in an area!

Building a Floor

You may build the first floor of a new building only in areas in which a construction-site tile lies. This restriction does not apply to further floors of a building. That means you may also build floors on existing buildings in areas in which no construction-site tile lies.

Moving Construction-Site Tiles

After each area scoring, the person who triggered the area scoring moves the construction-site tile from the area just scored to any other area that is still completely unbuilt. (If there is no unbuilt area left, put the construction-site tile back into the box.)

Glossary

• S-03/B-03: Build 2 floors on the same space. If you would exceed the height of 7 floors, you build only 1 floor.
• U-10: Build 1 floor on any building, regardless of which area it stands in. You may not build on an unbuilt space.
• U-11: Build 1 floor on any space that is adjacent to water. The space may be in any area.
• U-12: Build 1 floor on any space that is adjacent to a monument. The space may be in any area. Note: The central landmark (New York City) is not a monument!
• U-13: You may play one additional hand card of your choice. The symbols on the additional card do not have to match the card(s) played so far. Carry out the additional card effect as usual.
• U-14: You may sell 1 card from your hand or from your discard pile. Remove the chosen card from the game and receive 2 money.
• U-15: Build 2 floors on the same space in a residential area. If you would exceed the height of 7 floors, you build only 1 floor.
• U-16: Take 1 card of your choice from the Basic market into your hand, without paying money for it. You may play it immediately, provided it has the symbol chosen for this turn.
• U-17: Draw 2 cards from your draw pile into your hand. You may immediately play any number of these cards, provided they have the symbol chosen for this turn. If you are currently (alone or together with another person) furthest behind on the money track (= you have the least money), you even draw 3 cards. Note: You may carry out this card effect only 1x in your turn, even if you have the card several times in your hand.