River Market Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Discarding a Card to Move
  • Action Cards
  • Booth Cards
  • Events
  • Helper Cards
  • Storing Resources on Cards
  • Refilling Your Hand
• Game End
• Scoring
  • Events You Are Attending
  • Booths You Own
  • Helpers You Hired
  • Leftover Coins
  • Leftover Goods
• River Market at a Glance
  • Common Questions

Components

• 4 Starting Booth cards — All Starting Booths have this back.
• 5 Player mats — Organize all your stuff; there is a score track on the back. Each mat has a Starting Stuff area, House slots, Goods storage, and Coin storage.
• 1 Firefly token — Last-player marker.
• 65 cards — All cards have this back. This includes 24 Actions, 29 Booths, and 12 Helpers. Cards show Steps, Build Cost or Hiring Cost, Effects, Owner Bonus, Ongoing Ability, and Scoring, as applicable.
• 125 resource markers — These five resources are called Goods. Whenever you see the "any Good" symbol, it means "any Good." Coins are resources, but not Goods. Breakdown: 20 Veggies, 20 Fish, 20 Cloth, 20 Tools, 20 Lilies, 25 Coins.
• 5 pawns
• 25 houses — Five per player.
• 5 score markers
• 8 multiplier planks — Use these to make change if you run out of resources. A plank with one resource on it counts as three or five of that resource, depending on which side of the plank you use. For example, one side of a plank counts as five Fish, and the other side counts as three Coins.
• 5 Zoom tokens

Setup

1. Place the four Starting Booths randomly in two rows of two in the middle of the play area. Rotate the bottom row so that the "water" part of the cards meets in the middle, forming the river; the river will extend outwards on both sides during play, so leave plenty of room.
2. Make stockpiles of the resources and multiplier planks where everyone can reach them.
3. Keep the Firefly and all Zoom tokens nearby; they won't be needed until the end of the game.
4. Shuffle all of the cards together into one deck, and keep the deck near the Starting Booths; leave room for a discard pile beside it.
5. Each player gets the Player mat, pawn, Score marker, and five houses in their colour, plus four Coins from the supply and a hand of four cards from the deck.
   • Keep your Player mat in front of you, with your Score marker on your portrait.
   • Place your pawn on the Swap Meet Booth.
   • Arrange your houses in the slots on your mat (in a 5-player game, or if you want a shorter game with 3-4 players, return one house to the box).
   • Keep your Coins in your mat's storage area.
   • Keep your hand of cards secret from the other players. If your hand doesn't include at least one Booth card, show everyone, discard the whole hand, and draw again, repeating until you have a hand that does.
6. Choose a start player. You are ready to begin!

Gameplay

Beginning with the start player, players take turns. On your turn, choose one card in your hand and either discard it to move clockwise around the river and activate a Booth, or pay the card's cost and put it into play. Then refill your hand from the deck to finish your turn, and play passes to the next player clockwise. Turns continue until the game ends, then scores are tallied to see who wins!

Discarding a Card to Move

Any type of card can be used for this. Each card has a Step value; move your pawn clockwise around the river (one Booth per step) up to that many steps.

• You must move at least one step, and you may not stop on the same Booth you began. When you pass the last Booth on one side, continue to the first Booth on the opposite side. Multiple pawns may be on a Booth at once.

Zooming. Some cards show the Zoom symbol for their Step value; to Zoom, move anywhere except the Booth where you began.

Movement example: You discard a Booth card with a Step value of 5. You decide to move only four steps, stopping at Purple's Hardware Store.

After moving, you may activate (only) the Booth you arrived at; each Booth has a plank (or planks) showing its effects. Usually you will gain resources (sometimes for free, sometimes not); some Booths have more unique effects.

• Anything you gain comes from the supply; store resources on your mat. Anything you spend goes into the supply.
• Brown plank effects are free; red plank effects are not. You may only do a plank's effect once, unless it says otherwise. Booths with multiple planks say whether you can do them all (which may be in any order) or must choose between them.

The Booth offers you a choice; gain two Tools, or sell one Veggie for three Tools. You don't have any Veggies, so you gain two Tools.

Owner Bonus. If you activate another player's Booth, the owner gains the Owner bonus described on the card (only once, even if you do multiple things at the Booth).

Since it was Purple's Booth, they gain the Owner bonus of one Tool.

Some sample effects (this iconography appears on various types of components):

• Gain two Fish for free (once).
• Spend any three Goods to gain one Coin (up to twice).
• Spend any one Good to gain three Lilies (once).
• Spend any two matching Goods to gain one Coin (up to twice).
• Spend two Veggies to gain one Coin (up to four times).
• Gain two different Goods for free (once).

Action Cards

An Action card may only be used to move. When you use one, you also get to do the bonus effect it describes.

Unless the card specifies when its effect happens, you may do it either before or after you activate the Booth.

Action example: You use this Forage card to move; it permits you to gain either two Veggies or one Fish before or after you activate your Booth.

Booth Cards

A Booth card may be used to move, or you may pay its cost and build the Booth. You do not move your pawn or activate a Booth when you use your turn to build. To build:

1. Pay the cost (shown on the card) to the supply.
2. Place the card in any one of the four "end spots," extending the river. Choose your location wisely!
3. Move a house from your mat to the new Booth (covering its Step value) to mark yourself as the owner.
   • If that was your last house (and you are the first one to run out of houses), it triggers the game end (see Game End, below).
   • If you have no houses left, you may not build a Booth.

Building example: You have the Art Supplies Booth card in your hand, and all the resources to build it; one Coin, one Cloth, and one Tool. After paying the cost, you must place the new Booth in one of the four end spots. Since it provides free Tools and Cloth (exactly what the adjacent Dressmaker needs), you decide to place it here, (with a house on it to mark it as yours).

The new Booth is now part of the river, available to be visited by anyone (including you) on their turn. When other players activate your Booth, you will benefit from its Owner bonus. Booths are also worth points at game end, as displayed.

Events

Events are a special Booth type, marked by the Event symbol. When you move to and activate an Event, you may place one of your remaining houses in a star space there, to attend the Event (and benefit from its Event scoring).

Event Activation Plank: Place a house in a star space here. You may not do this if you already have a house in a star space here.

If your pawn is on an Event at game end, that also counts as attending the Event.

• The owner's house (marking ownership) on an Event does not count as attending the Event, but the owner may attend just like any other player.
• If you place your last house to attend an Event (and you are the first one to run out of houses), it triggers the game end (see Game End, below).

Event card layout notes: the Owner's house (not attending) marks ownership; the pawn (attending if it's here at game end); the house in a star space (attending); Event scoring (only for attendees).

Helper Cards

A Helper card can be used to move, or you may pay its cost and hire the Helper. You do not move your pawn or activate a Booth when you use your turn to hire. To hire:

1. Pay the cost (shown on the card) to the supply.
2. Place the card face up near your mat.

The Helper's ongoing ability is now available to you for the rest of the game. Helpers are also worth points at game end, as displayed.

Hiring example: You pay two Fish and one Tool to hire this Beaver. Its ability is now active for you for the rest of the game.

Storing Resources on Cards

Some built Booths and hired Helpers say that they score bonus points at game end for resources "stored here." You may freely move resources between your mat and your own cards of this type during the game however you like; resources are not committed to a card until scoring.

Storing example: You can store up to four Cloth on the Beaver you hired (but you are free to take any stored Cloth back to your mat at any time before the card is scored).

Refilling Your Hand

To end your turn, refill your hand by drawing as many cards from the deck as needed (usually only 1) to refill your hand back to your hand limit of four cards. If the deck ever runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

Game End

The first time anyone runs out of houses (by building a Booth or attending an Event), the game end is triggered: That player finishes their turn and takes the Firefly token (dim-side up) marking them as the end player. All players get a Zoom token from the supply. Everyone (including the end player) gets two more turns, then the game ends.

After the end player takes their second-last turn, they should flip the Firefly to the glowing-side up, to remind everyone that this is now their last turn.

Zoom Tokens. On either of your last two turns, you may spend your Zoom token to change the Step value of a card (that you are using to move) to a Zoom.

After the end player has taken their last turn, the game ends; proceed to Scoring.

Scoring

Flip your mat over, and use your Score marker on the score track there. Points are earned in these categories (score them in order, there is a reminder beside your score track):

If your score ever passes 50, flip over your Score marker and continue from the beginning of the track.

Events You Are Attending

Each Event Booth describes scoring for anyone attending. You are attending the Event if you have a house in a star space there, or if your pawn is there.

• You may score each Event once at most, even if you have both a house in a star space and a pawn there.
• The owner's house (marking ownership) on an Event does not count as attending the Event.

Scoring example: Your pawn is attending the Lilypad Hop Event, which is worth 2 points for every two Lilies you have. You have five Lilies, so you score 4 points.

Booths You Own

Each Booth you built (including Events) has a printed value on it; some Booths describe bonus scoring. Some Booths (and Helpers) allow you to store resources on the card for bonus scoring. You may reorganize your resources now to maximize your score; once a stored resource has been scored, it may not be moved. Stored resources are not eligible for leftover scoring, below.

You built four Booths, with a combined score value of 21 points.

Helpers You Hired

Each Helper you hired has a value printed on it; some Helpers describe bonus scoring (often for stored resources, which works the same as for Booths).

You hired two Helpers; including the four Lilies you now store on your Wood Duck, they score a combined total of 8 points.

Leftover Coins

Score 1 point for every two Coins you have left over, ignoring remainders.

You have six leftover Coins, which score 3 points.

Leftover Goods

Score 1 point for every batch of three different Goods you have left over, ignoring remainders. Each batch may include any combination of three different Goods.

You have 1 leftover batch of three different Goods, which scores 1 point.

Your final score is 37... will it be enough to win?

If you have the highest score, you had the most successful day at this year's River Market, and you win the game! In the event of a tie, the tied players share the victory and it's even better than winning alone!

River Market at a Glance

The entire game explained on one simple page.

Setup. Form the river with the four Starting Booths. Stockpile the resources and multiplier planks. Keep the Zoom tokens and Firefly handy for game end. Shuffle all cards into one deck. Each player gets: Their player mat, Score marker, pawn (put it on the Swap Meet Booth), five houses (four in a 5p or shorter 3-4p game), four Coins, and a hand of four cards from the deck (including at least one Booth). Pick a start player, and begin!

On Your Turn (go clockwise from start player until game end)

Pick a card from your hand. Discard it to move, or pay its cost to put it into play. Then refill your hand.

Moving. Move (up to) the Step value of your card, clockwise around the river. Activate the Booth you stop at (Booth owner gains the Owner's bonus).

• Action card: If you used an Action card to move, also do its effect.
• Booth card: Instead of moving, you may pay its cost to build it on the river in any end spot; put a house on it.
• Helper card: Instead of moving, you may pay its cost to hire it, keeping it in front of you. Its ability is now active for you for the rest of the game.

Refilling. Draw back up to your hand limit of four cards.

Game End. When someone runs out of houses, they become the end player, and claim the Firefly (as a reminder). Everyone gets a Zoom token. Everyone gets two more turns, then the game ends.

Scoring (score points for...)

1. Events you are attending (with a house or pawn), as marked.
2. Booths you built (plus stored resources), as marked.
3. Helpers you hired (plus stored resources), as marked.
4. Leftover Coins, 1 per pair (ignore remainders).
5. Leftover Goods, 1 per batch of three different (ignore remainders).

Common Questions

• Coins are not Goods, so the "any Good" symbol does not include them.
• When moving (even when Zooming) you may not end movement on the same Booth you began.
• You do not have to activate the Booth you arrive at (whether by choice or because you are unable to).
• The Owner only gets their Owner bonus if you activate their Booth, not just if you end movement there.
• The house on an Event Booth marking ownership does not count as attending the event; the Event's owner must attend it the same way as anyone else.
• You may only score each Event once at most, even if you have multiple pawns/houses there.
• You may freely move your resources on and off of cards that allow you to "store" them, until they have been scored.
• Resources that are scored as "stored" are not eligible to be scored as "leftover".