Road Rally USA
Road Rally USA Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Get in your car and drive! Even though it is always good to be the leader, it is more important for you to lead at specific rally points. Will your timely racing put you into the winner's circle at the end of the race?
Object of the Game
Players earn points when a rally point is scored. You start the game with four rally point cards, and may score only a portion of them during the game. When a rally point is scored, you earn more points by being ahead of other players; double your newly earned points if you triggered the scoring. You also score points by landing on rally points exactly, crossing checkpoint tiles first, and by finishing ahead of other players at the end of the race. The player with the most points wins!
Demo Set Up
A. Lay out the race boards, starting with the "Start" board and adding boards as you wish until adding the "Finish" tile at the end.
B. Place the 21 rally point tokens on the rally point spaces, in order, beginning at the Start Line.
C. Place the checkpoint tiles on the checkpoint tile spots on the boards.
D. Each player takes a car and the deck of cards matching that car's color. Shuffle your cards and draw 5 cards as your starting hand.
E. Shuffle the A and B Rally Point decks together and give each player 4 cards. Set the other cards aside unseen.
F. Randomly place the cars in a row on the Start tile. This will be the order of play for the first turn.
Flip over this mat and you're ready to play!
Game Play
During a round, all players move their car once. On your turn, you play cards to move your car. At the end of the round, if one or more rally points have been reached, scoring may occur. Player turns go in order of the cars from first to last place each round.
If you have no cards in your hand at the beginning of your turn, shuffle your discard and draw decks together to create a new draw deck, and then draw two cards. Your turn is now over.
Otherwise, if you have at least one card in your hand, you must play one or more cards on your turn. All of the cards you play must be the same color. Exception: if you start your move on a "Rainbow 5" space, you may play up to 5 cards of your choice, using as many colors as you like.
Move your car as many spaces as the sum of the cards you played. Depending on what you pass or land on, there may be other effects after you move. If there is another car in the space already, position your car slightly behind it on the space (the first car to arrive will move first next round).
After you move your car, you draw cards based on the color of card you played (no matter how many you played):
- Green Cards: 2 cards
- Yellow Cards: 1 card
- Red Cards: none
- "Rainbow 5" move: 1 card (ignore colors of cards played, even if colors are the same).
Board Effects
General Store: Start on this space to play up to 5 cards of any colors to move. Draw 1 card at the end of your turn.
Gas: Shuffle your discarded cards together with your draw deck (if any) before or after you draw.
Shortcut: If you end your move in front of a shortcut, you may immediately move across the shortcut to the opposite track space.
Checkpoint: If you are the first driver to pass one of these tiles, take the tile and place it in front of you. It is worth 2 points at the end of the game. Simultaneously, the driver in the last position on the course draws two cards.
Mechanic: As soon as your car stops here (and before drawing the cards) pick the topmost 5 cards from your deck (or all the remaining ones if they are less than 5) and return them back in any order you wish (this represents the fine tuning of your car). Then you draw the cards according to the color of the cards you played in this turn.
Rally Scoring
At the end of a round, if one or more rally points have been passed, rally scoring MAY occur. Starting from the last place car and going up to the first place car, identify each rally point that was crossed this round. If a player wants to score that rally point, they reveal the rally point card from their hand with the same number. If you choose NOT to score the rally point, do NOT reveal the card. You may score up to 3 of the 4 rally point cards in your hand during the game.
If a rally point is scored, each driver scores points or takes cards:
- 1st place car: 5 points
- 2nd place car: 4 points
- 3rd place car: 3 points
- 4th place car: 2 points or draw 2 cards
- 5th place car: 1 point or draw 2 cards
If you triggered the scoring, your earned points are doubled.
If a player is on the space (or first on the space) with a scored rally point, that player takes the rally point chip. It is worth 2 points at the end of the game. If the rally point is not triggered, remove the chip from the game.
After the first two rally chips have been resolved, no further checkpoints can be scored this round. Remove all discs that could have qualified for scoring but did not. The first-place car starts the new round.
Your Draw Deck
The gas station spaces are important, as they are the only way to get played cards back into your draw deck.
If you have no cards in your hand at the beginning of your turn, shuffle your discard and draw decks together to create a new draw deck, and then draw two cards. Your turn is now over.
Finish Line
The first car to cross the finish line triggers the end of the game. The current round is the final round of the game; all cars making it across the finish line score as if it were a rally point. Cars that do not cross the finish line on this round do not score.
Scoring
Add up the scoring chips you've collected during the game, adding 2 points for each checkpoint tile and rally point chip you have received. The player with the most points is the winner. If players are tied, the final order of the cars is the tiebreaker.