"Shobai" All Right

"Shobai" All Right Rulebook

Table of Contents

Contents of the Game

Victory Point board
92 Ally cards (front and back). 15 cards are marked with an icon; these are recommended for beginners.
26 Client cards (front and back)
11 Emperor cards (front and back)
16 Mogul cards (front and back)
1 Start Player card
60 cubes in 5 player colours (12 cubes per player)
5 scoring discs in 5 player colours
1 Rulebook

Game Setup

Lay the victory point board in the centre of the playing area.
The most recent player who has been to a supermarket is the start player. Otherwise, decide the start player with any other preferred method. Give the start player the start player card.
Each player chooses one of the 5 player colours (red, blue, green, yellow and black) and receives the following:
- 3 starting Ally cards to be placed face-up (cards A, B and C; in the rulebook's diagram these are shown as card numbers 78, 83 and 88).
- 12 cubes in their colour. The starting player places 2 of them on top of their card [C] and keeps 10 of them in their hand. All other players place 3 cubes on top of their own card [C] and keep 9 of them in their hand.
- 1 scoring disc. Place this in the 0 space of the victory point board.
Unused starting Ally cards, cubes and discs are returned to the box.

Rules for Card Placement

Each player creates in their playing area a two-tiered card display.

The upper row is where you place active cards.
The lower row is where you place inactive cards.

All players place their starting Ally cards on the upper row.

(Upper) Active card row
(Lower) Inactive card row

Shuffle the Ally cards face-down to form a deck. Flip 6 cards over to form a display. These 6 cards will form an upper row of cards. Leave room for 3 rows of 6 cards (refer to the diagram below).
Shuffle the Client cards face-down to form a deck. Flip 6 cards over to form a display just above the Ally card display.
Shuffle the Emperor cards face-down. Flip X cards over to form a display just above the Client card display, where X is equal to the value below:
- 2 players ... 6 cards
- 3 players ... 7 cards
- 4 players ... 8 cards
- 5 players ... 9 cards
The remaining Emperor cards will not be used in this game, so you may return them to the box.
There are 4 types of Mogul cards (Shrine, Scholar, Officer, Temple). Shuffle each type and draw one from each type to form the display, just above the Emperor card display. The remaining Mogul cards will not be used in this game, so you may return them to the box.

The setup is now complete!

Diagram: Example for a 3-Player game (the rulebook shows the card display with the Victory point board, Mogul, Emperor, Client and Ally card rows, and the starting cards with 2 cubes on card C for the start player and 3 for all other players; the remaining cubes are placed in your hand).

Rule for Active and Inactive cards

Ally cards can be in active and inactive states.

An Ally card in an active state is placed on the upper row, and an Ally card in an inactive state is placed on the lower row.
Inactive Ally cards may not be used until they are reactivated.

Description of Cards

Ally card

Ally cards are the main cards used in this game. Ally cards can be used to produce goods for Clients, as well as other effects.

Ally cards are divided into three types: production type, discard type and passive type cards, denoted by icons. The icon which shows a cube with an arrow is the "production type", the grey icon is the "discard type", and cards without these two icons are "passive type".

Production type: A Production type card is an Ally card that shows that the card holds goods or money by placing cubes on the card. You can load cubes onto the card according to the number of cube icons as described later in the Refresh phase. There is no limit to the number of cubes that can be placed on the same card.
- Example: If you have 4 cubes on this Ally card, you have 4 pottery.
- There are special Production type cards called "money cards". These are noted by the money icon next to the cube icon. Cubes on these cards indicate the possession of money. Money cards are used to temporarily raise the value of Ally cards.
- Example: If you have three cubes on top of this Money card, removing the cubes will increase the value of your Ally card by up to three.
Discard type: Discard type cards are Ally cards that can be used as free actions during your turn to activate various effects.
- Example: You may discard the card to get 1 victory point.
Passive type: Passive type cards have products written on their card effect and the player is considered as having the indicated product.
- Example: The player has 3 oil.

The card anatomy shown in the rulebook is labelled: Card Value (used for trading Ally cards), Card Effect (what the card does).

Client cards

Client cards provide victory points and can also be treated as Ally cards when fulfilled.

Fulfilment condition: These state the products and the amount needed to fulfill their request. After fulfilling their request, the Client card is treated as an Ally card.
There are five types of products below: Tribute, Medicine, Cloth, Oil, Pottery.
Beside these 5 types, there is a wild icon that can be treated as any of the 5 products. The product chosen must be of one of these 5 types.
Card effect: The card effect stated is what the card does as an Ally card.
Victory points: The victory points that you obtain when you fulfil the Client card.

Emperor Card

Emperor cards are similar to Client cards. Earning Emperor cards is another way to earn victory points.

Fulfilment condition: These state the products and the amount needed to fulfill their request. After fulfilling their request, the Emperor card is treated as an Ally card.
Card effect: The card effect stated is what the card does as an Ally card.
Victory points: The victory points that you obtain when you fulfil the Emperor card.

Mogul card

Some Ally cards allow you to place cubes on top of Mogul cards to execute various effects.

Card type: There are 4 types of Mogul cards (Shrine, Scholar, Officer, Temple).
Card effect: These effects take place when cubes are placed on the card.
Victory point: Victory points that you gain when cubes are placed on the card.

Flow of the game

The game takes place in turns in a clockwise direction until the end condition of the game is met (25 victory points by a player). If a player attains 25 victory points, play till the player to the right of the start player has had an equal number of turns, then play one more final round to end the game.

Flow of a turn

The player on turn will carry out the following three phases in order.

Preparation phase
Refresh phase
Action phase

When these phases are over, it will be the next player's turn in clockwise order. In addition to these phases, the player may also perform free actions on their turn.

1. Preparation phase

Refill Client cards: If there are 5 or less Client cards in the display, draw cards from the deck to refill the display to 6. There is no restriction on the order of the cards in the display.

In rare circumstances, if there are no more cards left in the Client deck, all discarded Client cards will be shuffled to replenish the deck.
Discard & refill Ally cards: Slide all Ally cards, to the topmost row as long as there are empty spaces available.

After that, if there is at least ONE Ally card in the lower row, discard ALL the Ally cards in the upper row. Then, slide all cards up to fill the empty spaces.

Then, draw 1 Ally card from the Ally deck to refill the display. Refill the uppermost and leftmost empty space wherever possible. Refill the leftmost space in the upper row first, then the leftmost space in the middle row if the upper row is empty, and so on. If there are less than 5 Ally cards in play, repeat the drawing process until there are 6 cards in the display.

The rulebook's diagram of this step reads: "Slide the cards to the upper row where possible." / "If there is any card in the lower row, discard all cards in the upper row." / "Slide the cards up one row." / "You must draw at least one card to replenish the display. If there are 5 or less, replenish until there are at least 6 cards in the display."

2. Refresh phase

Card activation: Activate an inactive card. Select one card in the inactive card row and transfer it to the active card row.
Place cubes on production cards: Take cubes from your hand and place one on each active production card. The number of cubes to be placed is the number of cube icons stated on the production card.

If you decide not to or if there are not enough cubes in the stock, you may choose which cards to place or not place cubes on.

3. Action phase

Select one of the following six actions:

A. One-to-one exchange
B. One-to-many exchange
C. Fulfil Client card
D. Fulfil Emperor card
E. Card activation
F. Do nothing

A. One-to-one exchange

Swap (a) 1 active Ally card and (b) 1 Ally card from the display. However, the value of (b) cannot be less than the value of (a) + 2.

After the exchange, place the card of (a) in the place of the original placement of (b). Place (b) into your active row.

You may remove cubes from active Money cards when carrying out this exchange to increase the value of (a) by 1 per cube. Then, deactivate the Money card by moving it to the lower row.

Example: Ms. Fond carries out a 1 to 1 exchange action with a value 5 Ally card. He may exchange it for 1 Ally card of a value up to 7 from the display. However, because he wanted to obtain a card of value 8, he removed one cube from a Money card. As a result, the value of the original card increased by one from 5 to 6, and thus a card of value 8 could be obtained.

B. One-to-many exchange

Exchange one of your activated buddy cards (a) with multiple buddy cards in play (b). However, the sum of the (b) values must be less than or equal to the (a) value.

After the exchange, place the card from (a) in any one of the places where (b) was originally located. All cards in (b) are placed in your active row.

You may remove cubes from active Money cards when carrying out this exchange to increase the value of (a) by 1 per cube. Then, deactivate the Money card by moving it to the lower row.

Example: Ms. Fond carries out a 1 to many exchange action with a value 10 Ally card. The cards that Ms. Fond wants are of value 5, value 4, value 3 for a total of value 12. Thus, the value was insufficient for an exchange. Ms. Fond removes two cubes from a Money card, increasing the value of the Ally card by 2 to 12 to complete the successful exchange.

C. Fulfil Client card

Choose a Client card in the display and select as many active Ally cards desired to match the conditions stated on the Client card.

For Production type Ally cards, you will need to remove the relevant cubes. For Passive type Ally cards, you may satisfy the conditions without paying cubes.

Lower all used cards to the inactive card row. Then, gain the victory points stated on the Client card, and place the Client card in your active card row. This Client card is now considered as an Ally card.

However, Client cards may NOT be exchanged with Ally cards in the display.

Example: Ms. Fond wanted to fulfill a Client card of 4 Cloth and 4 Any goods. The following cards were used to fulfill this request:

(a) 2 cubes from a Cloth Production card
(b) a 2 Cloth Passive card
(c) 4 cubes from a Pottery Production card

The 4 Cloth condition was met by (a) and (b), while the 4 cubes from (c) achieved the 4 Any condition. Finally, move all three cards from (a) (b) (c) to the inactive row.

D. Fulfil Emperor card

Select one Emperor card in the display and select as many active Ally cards desired to match the conditions stated on the Emperor card.

Emperor cards require Tributes. You will need to be able to fulfill (a) at least one Tribute card (either Production or Passive). If you do so, you can fulfil the remainder with (b) deactivating 1 Ally card to produce 1 Tribute each.

In the case of (a), you need either a Production or Passive Ally card. For a Production card, you will need to remove cubes before deactivating. For Passive cards, you can produce Tributes by deactivating.
In the case of (b), any Ally card may be deactivated. Each Ally card deactivated will produce 1 Tribute.

Lower all activated cards to the inactive card row. Then, gain the victory points stated on the Emperor card, and place the Emperor card in your active card row. This Emperor card is now considered as an Ally card. However, Emperor cards may NOT be exchanged with Ally cards in the display.

Example: Ms. Fond wanted to fulfill an Emperor card that requires 4 Tribute. In order to fulfil this card, he first selects (a) a Passive Ally card with 2 Tribute icons. He does not have any other cards with Tribute icons, and therefore he fulfils the remaining 2 Tribute by (b) selecting 2 other Ally cards and deactivating them. Finally, he moves all used cards in (a) and (b) to the inactive row.

E. Card activation

Activate 1 inactive Ally card by moving it from the inactive card row to the active card row.

F. Do nothing

Pass your turn.

Important Note on Inactive Cards

Inactive Ally cards cannot do the following:

They cannot be exchanged.
They cannot be used to fulfil any orders.
In the case of a Production type Ally card, no cubes can be placed on the card.
In the case of a Discard type Ally card, the effect cannot be used.

There are Mogul cards that may alter these rules.

Free Actions

You can do as many free actions as you like during your turn.

Remove cubes on Ally cards: Remove as many cubes as you like on your active or inactive Ally cards and put them back in stock.
Use Discard type Ally cards: Use the activated discarding Ally card and apply its effects. A Discard type Ally card is an Ally card with a discard icon. Then, discard that Ally card to the discard pile. Do not place this card in the display.

Game End and Scoring

When any player has reached a total of 25 points or more, play until the player to the right of the start player so that all players have an equal number of turns, then play one more final round.

The player with the most victory points wins!

In the case of a tie, the player who has the most active Ally cards. If this is also tied, the player with the most inactive Ally cards breaks this tie. If this is still a tie, then all tied players win the game.

Beginner Rules

For players new to the game, we recommend using the Beginner Rules as listed below. Change the following two points during Game Setup and Game End Scoring:

Game Setup (step 7): Choose only the 4 Mogul cards with Victory point effects.
Game End and Scoring: Change the ending condition of the game from 25 points to 15 points.

Ally Card Details

Ally cards have various card effects. This section will explain specific special effects of individual cards.

Since Client and Emperor cards are also treated as Ally cards after fulfilling their requirements, these will also be explained.

Production type

Production type cards are Ally cards that use cubes to track goods and money. Cubes are loaded on these cards during the Refresh phase. Exchanging a Production card with cubes will cause any cubes on it to be returned to your hand.

Production type (Goods): By returning cubes into your hand from the card, each cube can be treated as the stated good(s) for fulfilment of orders. When you do so, this deactivates the card.
Production type (Money): When you carry out an exchange action, such as one-to-one exchange, one-to-many exchange, etc., cubes on this card are returned to your hand to temporarily increase the value of the original exchange card. When you do so, this deactivates the card.

You may exchange Money cards, and it is also possible to raise the value of the Money card paying the cubes on it.
Victory point production card: This card is both a production type and discard type Ally card. By placing a cube, you increase the victory points you get when the card is discarded as a free action. When discarded, gain the number of victory points per cube on this card.

Passive type

This card can be treated as the stated amount of good(s) for fulfilment of orders. When you do so, this deactivates the card.

Discard type

You can use this Ally card as a free action at any time during your turn. Gain the effect stated, then discard this card to the discard pile.

The discard-type effects are:

Card acquisition: Gain 1 Ally card equal to or less than the stated value from the display into your active area. You may not increase this value with a Money card.
Cube placement: Place the number of cubes stated on active Ally Production cards. You may place these all on one card, or on multiple Ally cards.
Victory points: Gain victory points stated.
Activation: Activate inactive Ally cards up to the number stated.

(The numeric value or count printed beside each effect's icon is not reproduced here; the effect text above is as printed.)

Mogul cards

Some Discard type Ally cards have the effect of placing a cube on a Mogul card. In that case, take one of your cubes from your hand and place it on the specified Mogul card.

However, you cannot place additional cubes on a Mogul card that already has one of your cubes.

Immediately gain the victory points written on the Mogul card. Henceforth for the game, the player benefits from the effects stated on the card.

There are four types of Mogul cards: Shrine, Scholar, Official, Temple.

Once a cube is placed on a Mogul card, it may not be removed for the rest of the game.

Mogul Card Details

There are 4 types of Mogul cards (Shrine, Scholar, Official, Temple).

During Game Setup, place 1 card of each type in the display.

The card effects are as follows.

Card common to all 4 types: Gain 3 Victory points. In addition, the player who first places a cube gains an additional 1 victory point.

Shrine

Immediately gain 1 Ally card equal to or less than the stated value from the display into your active area. You may not increase this value with a Money card.
Immediately place 3 cubes on active Ally Production cards. You may place these all on one card, or on multiple Ally cards.
Immediately activate up to 3 inactive Ally cards.

Scholar

When fulfilling orders, you may treat Medicine as Pottery.
When fulfilling orders, you may discard two Money cubes to be used as any of the four types of goods (only once).
When fulfilling orders, you may choose not to deactivate one of the Ally cards used to fulfill the order.

Official

You do not need to deactivate Money cards after using them.
When carrying out a one-to-one exchange, the card obtained can be of a value up to +4 instead of +2.
When carrying out a one-to-many exchange, the total value exchanged is increased by +2.

Temple

You may exchange inactive Ally cards for an Exchange action.
During the Refresh phase, activate an additional inactive card.
During the Refresh phase, gain one additional cube to a Production Ally card.

Editorial notes on this transcription: the source names the fourth Mogul type "Officer" in Game Setup step 7 and "Official" in the Mogul section and card list; both are printed as they appear. The Mogul card faces carry numeric icons (card numbers, values and victory points) that the text extraction did not reproduce in readable form, so only the printed effect text is transcribed. The "Game Setup7." heading in the Beginner Rules is read as a reference to setup step 7.