Skyline 3000 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Components
• Preparation
• Card Rules
• Playing the Game
  • 1. Construction Phase
  • 2. Improvement Phase
  • 3. Scoring Phase
    • Resolving Ties
  • 4. Draw Phase
• End of the Game
• Credits and Thanks

Object of the Game

Players represent corporations competing to assemble city buildings in their orbiting Plants and install them onto specially-prepared platforms in the city districts. Each player wants to construct the most living space in the blocks that feature the most desirable improvements (Greenspaces, Spaceports, and Megamalls). Players can also erect Billboards at a loss, to entice customers and to reserve space for future construction. At the end of four rounds of play, the player that has earned the most points is the most successful developer, and the winner of the game!

Components

• Game Board, with districts, blocks, an auction house, and a scoring track
• 4 Plants
• 90 Floors
• 20 Curved Roofs
• 20 Pointed Roofs
• 20 Billboards
• 1 Key
• 14 Roof cards
• 24 Floor cards
• 24 Contract cards
• 4 STOP cards
• 4 Score Track Markers
• Small platforms and large platforms
• 2 Megamall tiles
• 2 Spaceport tiles
• 12 Greenspace tiles

In some of the rules explanations: a small icon represents a small platform, a larger icon represents a block, and another icon represents one of the building spots in your Plant.

Preparation

Place the gameboard in the middle of the table, with a stockpile of Floors nearby.

Shuffle the Roof Cards and deal out 2 to each player. Shuffle the Floor Cards and deal out 2 to each player. Shuffle the Contract Cards and deal out 4 to each player. Place the remainder of the cards in separate face up stacks near the board.

Give each player a STOP Card. Unused STOP Cards are returned to the box.

Each player chooses a color and takes all of the Billboards, Curved Roofs, Pointed Roofs, the Score Track Marker, and the Plant of their color. Unused colors are returned to the box.

Each player places the Score Track Marker of their color on the "5" spot of the Scoring Track on the game board.

Each player should take 6 Floors from the stockpile. Each player creates the following buildings on his own Plant with these six Floors and four of his Roofs:

• A one-story building with a curved roof
• A one-story building with a pointed roof
• A two-story building with a curved roof
• A two-story building with a pointed roof

Place one Greenspace on each of the four marked platforms on the gameboard. Stack four Greenspaces each in spots 1 and 2 of the Auction House, and stack the Spaceports on top of the Megamalls in spot 3 of the Auction House.

Select a player randomly and give him the Key. The player holding the Key is the current Key Player.

Card Rules

The number of cards each player has in his hand is public knowledge. However, players may keep the exact type of cards in their hands secret. When a card of any type is played, it is revealed then discarded face down next to the matching stack of cards. When a stack is exhausted, reshuffle the discards of that type to create a new draw deck.

Playing the Game

The game is played in four Rounds. Each Round has four Phases. After four full Rounds have been completed, the game ends.

1. Construction Phase: Players take turns constructing buildings, or installing complete buildings into the city's districts, or placing Billboards.
2. Improvement Phase: Players bid to win improvements that are added to the districts.
3. Scoring Phase: Players earn points based on building construction, with special bonuses for Billboards, Greenspaces, and Megamalls.
4. Draw Phase: Players draw 6 new cards each (extra cards can be earned via Spaceports) and the Key is passed clockwise.

1. Construction Phase

Beginning with the Key Player and proceeding clockwise around the table, each player performs one of the following actions.

A player may play a Floor Card. He may then take two Floors and use each one to either add to the height of an existing incomplete building in his Plant, or to start a new building in his Plant. (The Plant has six marked spaces upon which to start buildings, but players may start more buildings if they wish, simply using unmarked space in the Plant.)

Once a player places his two Floors, the placement is final and cannot be changed.

A building is considered incomplete if it does not have a Roof on it. An incomplete building can have more Floors added to it. However, Floors may never be removed.

A player may play a Roof Card. He may then place one of his Roofs on any incomplete building in his Plant. This building is then complete.

Once a player places a Roof on one of his buildings, the building is then complete and may not be changed.

A player may play one of his Billboards onto a vacant small platform on the board. This action loses 1 point for the player, so immediately adjust the Scoring Track.

A player may play a Contract Card. He may then install one of his complete buildings from his Plant onto any vacant small platform on the board in the district highlighted on the Contract Card. Buildings may not be placed on the large platforms or on Greenspaces.

Instead of a vacant small platform, the player may instead install the building onto a small platform that already contains one of his own Billboards. (The platform must still be in the district highlighted on the Contract Card.) The Billboard is removed from the game. This action loses 1 point for the player, so immediately adjust the Scoring Track.

When the first building is placed in a block, it can have either a curved or pointed roof. All subsequent buildings placed in the same block must have the same type of roof. A block may never contain buildings with both types of roofs.

Example: Orange wants to place a building in this block, which already holds a Green curved-roof building. Orange's building must also have a curved roof.

There is a red district, a yellow district, and a blue district in the city. Each district has three blocks. It is forbidden for all three blocks in a district to have the same shape of roof.

Example: Two of the three blocks in this district have curved roofs; if anyone wants to place a building in the district's third block, it will have to be one with a pointed roof.

The first building placed in each block must have exactly one Floor. Subsequent buildings placed in a block must be either the same height as the tallest building in the block, or one Floor taller.

Example: Purple has placed the first (1-Floor) building in this block. Green wants to place a building in the block; it must be either equal in height or one Floor taller than the block's tallest building (Purple's 1-Floor building), so she places a 2-Floor building. Later, White decides to place in the same block; going by the same rules, his building must be 2 or 3 Floors tall.

A player may Pass. He then performs no actions for the rest of the current Construction Phase.

The numbers on the cards are ignored when cards are played during the Construction Phase.

A player may play any card and not perform the action. For instance, a player could play a Roof Card even if he didn't have any Roofs. This does not count as passing.

Play continues around the table, skipping over players who have passed. A player may continue to perform actions as long as he has cards to play, even if all other players have passed. The Construction Phase ends when all players have passed.

2. Improvement Phase

There are three auctions held in each Improvement Phase; players will bid to win the items on top of the three stacks in the Auction House. (So, each round will see two Greenspaces and either a Spaceport or a Megamall auctioned off.) The auctions are conducted one at a time (first for the item on top of stack 1, then stack 2, then stack 3) with the following rules:

Players use any or all of the remaining cards in their hands to bid.

During the Auction, only the numbers on the cards are relevant. The type of card (Floor, Roof, Contract) has no meaning.

All players arrange their remaining cards and their STOP Card in a face down stack on the table in front of them. Cards that are placed above the STOP Card are part of the player's bid. Cards that are below the STOP Card are not part of the player's bid.

Example: A player has cards with values 4, 6, 7, and 8 left in his hand. He decides to bid 11 so he places his cards in a stack with the 7 on top followed by the 4, followed by the STOP Card, followed by the other two cards in any order.

After all players have arranged their cards, each player reveals the top card on his stack, then the second card, then the third card, and so on until he reveals his STOP Card.

Example: It is the first auction of the game, so we are bidding for the Greenspace on stack 1. Everyone arranges their cards as they like, and when all players are ready, everyone starts flipping over cards until they reach their STOP. Orange reveals a 6 and then her STOP. Purple reveals a 2, then a 5, then his STOP, for a total of 7. Green reveals only her STOP, so her bid is zero. Purple's bid of 7 wins the Greenspace! Purple discards the 2 and the 5. All other cards go back to their owners, and Purple decides where to place his new Greenspace!

Each player's bid is the total value of all the cards he turned over before he turned over his STOP Card. If a player does not want to place a bid during an auction, he simply places his STOP Card on top of his other cards; the first card revealed will thus be his STOP Card and his bid will equal zero.

If two or more players are tied for the highest bid, the tie is broken in favor of: 1) the player who played the highest value individual card, or if it is still a tie, then 2) the Key Player or the player closest to the Key Player in clockwise order around the table.

The player with the highest bid wins the auction. He discards all the cards he used to bid with. All the other players take back all the cards they bid. All players take back their STOP Cards.

As each Auction is completed, the winner takes his new improvement and places it on the game board as noted below. (If all players bid zero on an improvement, nobody wins it and it is removed from the game.)

Greenspace (2 auctioned each round) — When a player wins an auction for a Greenspace, he must place it on any vacant small platform on the board. A block may contain any number of Greenspaces. The game board starts with four Greenspaces already positioned.

Spaceport (1 auctioned in rounds 1 and 2) — When a player wins an auction for a Spaceport, he must place it on any vacant large platform on the board (there is one large platform in each block).

Megamall (1 auctioned in rounds 3 and 4) — When a player wins an auction for a Megamall, he must place it on any vacant large platform on the board (there is one large platform in each block).

When all three Auctions for this Round have been completed, the Improvement Phase is over.

There are enough improvements in the Auction House to last exactly four rounds of play; when the Auction House is empty, that means that you are entering the final Scoring Phase of the game.

3. Scoring Phase

During each Scoring Phase, each of the nine blocks on the board is scored. Check the blocks one at a time, and move the markers on the Score Track accordingly as points are tallied. Players score points as follows for each block:

First Place Points* (player with the most floors in the block)

• 2 Points
• +1 Point for each Greenspace in the block
• +1 Point for each Billboard (of any player) in the block

Second Place Points* (player with the second-most floors in the block)

• 1 Point for each Greenspace in the block
• 1 Point for each Billboard (of any player) in the block

*If a block has a Megamall, the total points received for that block are doubled.

Each Greenspace and each Billboard in a block earns 1 point for both First and Second Place. Megamalls double the points of a block for both First and Second Place.

The number of buildings has no influence. Only the number of floors matters.

A player with no buildings in a given block never earns any points for that block; if no buildings are in a block, no player wins First or Second Place for that block. If only one player has buildings in a block, that player wins First Place Points and no player wins Second Place Points.

Resolving Ties

If two or more players are tied for most Floors in a block, the player with the tallest building wins the tie and receives the First Place Points and the other tied players receive the Second Place Points.

If two or more players are tied for the most Floors and their tallest buildings are all the same height, all of the tied players receive the First Place Points and no player receives the Second Place Points.

If only one player receives the First Place Points and two or more players are tied for the second-most Floors in a block, all of the tied players receive the Second Place Points; there is no tie-breaker for this.

After all scores are updated to reflect the earned points, the Scoring Phase is over. If this was the fourth and final Round (easily verified by checking that no improvements remain in the Auction House) then the game is over, and the final Draw Phase is skipped.

Example: Let's score the three blocks of the Yellow district. (During the game you will score all nine blocks every round.) For this example we've labelled the blocks A, B, and C for clarity.

Block A: Purple has a total of 3 floors, and Green has 2 floors. That gives First Place Points to Purple and Second Place Points to Green. Purple (First Place) earns 2 points +1 for the Greenspace, +1 for the Billboard = 4 points. Green (Second Place) earns only 1 for the Greenspace +1 for the Billboard = 2 points. (Note that this block has a Spaceport; this doesn't affect Scoring but will come into play in the Draw Phase.)

Block B: Green and White each have 5 floors, and Orange has 3 floors. White wins the tie for First Place Points because his tallest building in the block is taller than Green's. Green therefore wins Second Place Points, and Orange earns nothing. White (First Place) earns 2 points + 2 for the 2 Greenspaces = 4 points x2 for the Megamall = 8 points. Green (Second Place) earns 2 points for the Greenspaces x2 for the Megamall = 4 points.

Block C: Orange has 2 floors, and Green, White, and Purple all have 1 floor each. Orange wins First Place, and the other three players all score Second Place Points. Orange (First Place) earns 2 points + 1 for the Billboard = 3 points. Green, White, and Purple (Second Place) earn 1 point for the Billboard = 1 point each.

So after scoring this district, Purple has moved his Marker up 5 spaces, White has moved up 9 points, Orange has moved her Marker up 3 spaces, and Green has earned 7 points.

4. Draw Phase

Beginning with the Key Player and proceeding clockwise around the table, each player draws 6 cards from the face-up stacks near the board. The Key Player draws all of his cards, then the player to his left draws all of her cards, and so on until all players have drawn. When drawing cards, each player draws one card at a time from whichever deck he wants. The next card of each of the three types is always visible, which will influence the player's choice of which card to draw.

Spaceports

Spaceports give players the opportunity to draw extra cards during the Draw Phase of each Round. Before anyone draws any cards, check the blocks that have a Spaceport. (Referred to here as "Spaceport blocks".)

The player (or players) who won First Place Points in each Spaceport block in the preceding Scoring Phase will draw 2 extra cards when it is his turn to draw.

The player (or players) who won Second Place Points in each Spaceport block in the preceding Scoring Phase will draw 1 extra card when it is his turn to draw.

Example: In the preceding Scoring Phase, Purple won First Place Points and Green won Second Place Points in this Spaceport block. That means that Purple will draw 2 extra cards and Green will draw 1 extra card in this Draw Phase.

Since there are two Spaceports in the game, it is possible later in the game for a player to earn two bonuses; for example a player could have earned First Place Points in one Spaceport block and Second Place points in the other in a single Scoring Phase; in this case he would draw 3 extra cards when it is his turn to draw.

After all players have drawn their new cards, the Key Player passes the Key to the player on his left, who becomes the Key Player for the next Round.

End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the Scoring Phase of the fourth round. When the game ends, the player with the most points is the most successful developer, and is the winner of the game!

In the event of a tie, the tied player with the greatest value of cards remaining in his hand is the winner.

Credits and Thanks

Game Design: Alan R. Moon & Aaron Weissblum

Graphic Design, Illustration, and Rules Editing: Joshua Cappel

Published by Z-Man Games Inc. 6 Alan Drive, Mahopac, NY 10541 For comments, questions, suggestions, please contact [email protected] www.zmangames.com