Showbiz Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparation
• Play
  • The selection turn
  • The contract negotiation phase
  • Concluding the contract
  • Terminating a contract
• Scoring
• The General Agent's Duties After the First Year and for Every Year to Come
• Object of the Game
• Variant

Components

• 1 game board
• 8 contract boards [Vertragstafel]
• 60 coloured "Public Favour" pieces [10 x 6 colours]
• 81 "Artist" pieces [6 Yellow, 9 Red, 12 Blue, 15 Green, 18 Black, 21 White]
• 120 grey ZE "Time-Energy" chips
• 2 dice
• 1 "In and Out" bag
• 1 "Artists" bag
• 1 rulebook

Preparation

• Place the board on the table.
• Each player receives 15 ZE "Time-Energy" chips.
• Put the 60 "Public Favour" pieces into the "In and Out" bag.
• Put the 81 "Artist" pieces into the "Artists" bag.
• Each player receives a contract board (Vertragstafel). Each agent must put six artists under contract each year.
• Place the two dice next to the board.

One player is designated to keep score. The game lasts 10-12 years. After the twelfth year the game ends in any case.

In the first year, who will be the general agent is decided by rolling the dice. The general agent must carry out particular administrative tasks. The office of general agent changes from year to year, from player to player clockwise.

These are the general agent's tasks in the first year:

1. He takes the "In and Out" bag and, without looking, draws 6 pieces which he places on the 6 squares of the first row on the board. The colours reflect the taste of the public in the first year of play.
2. He then draws another six pieces and places them in the second row of the board. They represent the probable taste of the public for the second year, the following year.
3. To determine the probability of the second year's forecast, the general agent rolls one of the two dice and places it, with the number rolled, on the Number "1" next to the first row of the board. The higher the number, the more likely it is that this public taste will also hold for the following year.
4. Finally, the general agent must make sure that enough artists are available. In the first year, for each player, 6 artists are taken from the "Artists" bag (e.g. 4 players, 24 artists). All the pieces must remain clearly visible next to the game board. They form the pool of artists.

Play

The game begins with the general agent. The other players then follow clockwise.

The selection turn

On his turn a player chooses to take an artist from the available pool. If no opponent objects, he may put the chosen artist under contract and the turn passes to the next player. When, instead, another player claims the same artist, a negotiation must begin to secure the artist in question. A cycle of negotiations only interrupts the selection turn, but does not change the order of play, which remains clockwise as before.

The contract negotiation phase

To claim a selected artist, a player uses a ZE chip, placing it on the table in front of himself. Any number of players may take part at the same time in a negotiation round.

At this point the claiming players plus the player whose turn it is choose an appropriate quantity of ZE chips from their supply and secretly hold them in a closed fist on the table. When everyone is ready, the ZE chips used are shown. Remember that all ZE chips used go into a common storage space next to the general agent.

The following outcomes of a round of negotiations are now possible:

1. If one player alone has offered the greatest number of ZE chips, he must immediately place the artist piece on a free column of his contract board. The negotiation round ends and the selection turn passes to the next player to the left of the previous player.
2. There are two or more players with the same number of ZE chips offered and one of them is the player whose turn it is. The player whose turn it is receives the artist, the round ends and play continues as usual.
3. There are two or more players with the same number of ZE chips offered without the player whose turn it is among them. A second round of negotiations must be held between these players, who repeat the act of choosing a number of ZE chips. Whoever puts in the most wins the artist; in case of a further tie, a third round of negotiations. After that, there is no winner and the artist returns to its place.

All the ZE chips that players use in negotiating an artist's contract are considered spent and are placed in a storage area. This applies to everyone, both whoever takes and whoever loses the artist. New ZE chips will be available to the players again the following year.

A player who already has 6 artists under contract may not take another artist and therefore may not take part in any negotiation.

Concluding the contract

When an artist, with or without a negotiation phase, joins the agent's team, the two parties must decide the length of the contract. The agent places the artist piece in an empty column on his contract board. The spaces of a column indicate the length of the contract. A contract may be made for one to five years. At the end of each year of play the length of the contract is shortened by one year. So the artist pieces on the contract board are moved down one space. A contract ends when an artist piece is pushed out of the space with the number 1. When all agents have a contract with 6 artists, the year ends and the agents earn success points according to the public's taste.

Terminating a contract

An agent may break off the contract with an artist at any time. To do so, he must place two ZE chips in the storage space for each remaining contract year.

Scoring

At the end of each year the agent-players receive success points from their individual artists, depending on how exactly they meet the public's favour. The public's taste depends on the row of colours placed for the current year on the board. The more the colours match between the agents' contract boards and the year's row on the board, the more success points are earned. The exact arrangement of the colours does not matter. Success points are awarded as follows:

Matching colours	Points earned
1	1
2	3
3	6
4	11
5	18
6	21

Important: each colour counts once, so all double or triple colours on the board must have their counterpart on the contract board in order to score.

The points earned each year are recorded separately for each player on the score sheet.

The General Agent's Duties After the First Year and for Every Year to Come

After a year has ended, the new general agent must carry out the following actions:

1. He distributes the ZE chips from the storage space evenly to all agents. The indivisible remainder stays out of the game in the discards.
2. He collects the six "Public Favour" pieces of the year of play just resolved from the board and puts them back in the "In and Out" bag.
3. He rolls the second die, which is compared with the one already on the board. If the new number is lower or equal, the public's taste does not change for the following year and the pieces stay in their row. This row is the one for the new year of play. But if the new number is higher, then the following year's pieces are also put back in the "In and Out" bag and 6 new pieces are drawn. This new row of colours reflects the new public taste and is the one valid for the new year of play.
4. Now he draws another 6 pieces for the following year. He rolls one of the two dice, which in the meantime have been removed from the current year, and places it next to the next season.
5. As a last action, the general agent tells all agents to move their artist pieces down one year on their contract boards. All artists whose contracts expire are put back in the "Artists" bag. Next, the general agent draws the number of artists due out of the bag again and places them visibly on the table as the subject of new contract negotiations.

This process takes place in this way for all following years. The game could last 10 or 11 years and ends when the dice decide.

The game ends after 10 years if the general agent, when he rolls the die, gets 1 or 2. For all other numbers, the eleventh year is still played.

The game ends after 11 years if the general agent, when he rolls the die, gets 1, 2, 3 or 4. With 5 or 6, the twelfth year will take place. The game definitely ends after the 12th year.

Object of the Game

The aim of the game is to have the greatest number of points at the end of the game. In the event of a tie, whoever has the greatest quantity of ZE chips wins.

Variant

You can shorten the playing time and decide to start not in the first year but in the second, the third, and so on.