Star System
Star System Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Shuffle the deck of Actor cards and give five cards (face down) to each player. The remaining ten cards are placed face down in a row in the middle of the table, between the two players; they'll be the "Unemployed". Put the Searchlight above the card at one of the ends of the Unemployed row, so that the arrows in the corners of the Searchlight card are pointed towards the other cards in the row. Then shuffle the four Studio cards and place them face up in a random order (Pic. 2). Finally each player gets one Director card, one Archive card, a pencil and a notepad to take notes. Let's play!
Pic. 2 callouts: the Red Cast and the Blue Cast; the Unemployed row; the Searchlight; the four Studio cards (Studio card, Main action, Secondary action); the Archive card; the Director cards.
Goal of the Game
Using at best the actions of the Studio cards, the winner will be the director able to identify the five actors in the hand of the opponent.
Gameplay
The player who went to the cinema more recently plays first. He turns his Director card to the side with the number "1" face-up, while his opponent turns her Director card to the side with the number "2". The first player chooses one of the four Studio cards and puts his Director card on top of it so that his Director card covers only the lower half of the Studio card. Then the second player will place her Director card similarly on one of the three remaining uncovered Studio cards.
Each Studio card lists two possible actions. The action in the top half is executed by the player who put his Director card on it (thus cancelling the lower action). If a Studio card does not have a Director card on it, the action in the top half is ignored, and the action in the bottom half will be carried out.
When both players have selected a Studio card, the actions are executed from the leftmost card to the rightmost one (as shown by the arrows on each card). The cards with no Director will ignore their main action (top half), applying the secondary action (bottom half) instead.
Example: none of the directors chooses to execute the "GOSSIP" action (main action). When it'll be time to play this card, only the "STUNTMAN" action (secondary action) will be applied.
Once all four actions have been executed, the round is over. Each player takes back his Director card and turns it over (thus the player that had the number "2" will now have the number "1" and will choose first which of the four main actions to use). Move the Searchlight one spot forward, in the direction shown by its arrows. The four Studio cards are shuffled and randomly repositioned face-up in a line. The players place their Director cards (first number "1" and then number "2") and apply the effects of all Studio cards (starting from the leftmost one) as described above.
Pic. 2 callouts for this section: "The Blue player must still choose his action for the turn"; "Card revealed with the action 'Substitution'"; "Secondary action" and "Main action" (the bottom and top halves of a Studio card).
Victory
The winner is the first player to unveil all five actors composing the cast of the opponent. Alternatively, at the end of the tenth round (when the Searchlight has no more spaces to move), the winner is the player who has revealed more actors of the other cast. In case of a tie, the player whose Director card is on the "1" side can say a name. If the named actor is held by the opponent, the player can immediately call another actor. If he is wrong, he must stop and the opponent can say a name with the same rules. The winner, in this case, is the first player to unveil all five stars composing the cast of their opponent.
Strategies
It'll be very important to take notes and deductions; thus the Archive cards will be very useful, as they list the names of the 20 most famous Hollywood stars and the four genres they can be specialized in: "Romance", "Musical", "Comedy" and "Mystery". Each actor is represented on his card by an image, a progressive number, his name, and the genres that he excels in (Pic. 1). Some actors are more versatile and are skilled in two genres, while others have only a single specialization.
When a player, thanks to his discoveries, questions and information, believes they know the name of an actor or actress belonging to the cast of the opponent, he must choose the Studio card "Revelation" to be allowed to declare the name. This is the only way to force the opponent to unveil a card in her cast.
Pic. 1: an actor card, showing the image, progressive number, name and genre specializations.
Note on the Studio Cards
When they refer to the "Director closer to the card", they intend the one sitting on the side closer to the card itself.
Summary of a Turn
- Director #1 chooses a Studio card, and then Director #2 chooses one of the others.
- From the left to the right, the actions on the Studio cards are applied: main action (top half) for the two cards selected; secondary action (bottom half) for the others.
- Move the Searchlight one space towards the direction shown by its arrows.
- Shuffle the Studio cards and display them face up.
- Turn both Director cards ("1" becomes "2" and vice versa).
Pic. 2 callouts for the Studio card actions: "Cards guessed with the 'Revelation' action" (the actor cards a player has identified through the Revelation action); "Resolve the actions from left to right"; "Archive card"; "Studio card".
Gap Note
The per-card effect text of each individual Studio card action (apart from the actions named in the rules text above: "Gossip" main action, "Stuntman" secondary action, "Revelation", and the "Substitution" action shown in the figure) is printed on the Studio card artwork itself. In the scanned sheet it is too small to read reliably, so it is not transcribed here. Consult the physical Studio cards for the exact wording of each action.