Suburbia
Suburbia Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Contents
- Set-Up
- Starting the Game
- Gameplay
- Take and Place 1 Tile or Place 1 Investment Marker
- Collect or Pay Money (Based on Income)
- Adjust Population (Based on Reputation)
- Adjust the Real Estate Market
- Game End
- Final Scoring
- Winning the Game
- Tiles
- Tile Terminology
- Tile Effect Resolution Order
- Strategy Tips
- Solo Game 1: The Lone Architect
- Solo Game 2: Dale the Bot
- Miscellaneous Notes
Contents
- 1 Population Board
- 1 Stacks Board
- 1 Supply Board
- 1 Real Estate Market
- 4 Borough Boards
- 8 Suburbs
- 8 Heavy Factories
- 8 Community Parks
- 1 "1 More Round" tile
- 32 A tiles
- 36 B tiles
- 32 C tiles
- 20 Goal tiles
- 4 player aids
- 1 Start Player Marker
- 66 $1, 48 $5, 12 $10 coins
- 4 Reputation Cubes
- 4 Population Squares
- 12 Investment Markers
- 4 Income Cylinders
Set-Up
- Shuffle 3 stacks of face down tiles, each stack with a letter on the back (A, B, and C). Each stack has the same number of tiles: 15 for 2 players, 18 for 3 players, and 21 for 4 players. Place unused tiles back in the box.
- Place the Stacks Board here.
- Mix the "1 More Round" tile with: 6 tiles from the C stack for 2 players, 9 tiles from the C stack for 3 players, 12 tiles from the C stack for 4 players, and place those tiles face down on the bottom of the C stack. Then take 4 more C tiles (from the box) and place them on the very bottom of the C stack.
- Place the Real Estate Market here.
- Place 4 each of Heavy Factory, Community Park, and Suburb tiles face up on their three spaces here.
- Place the Supply Board here.
- Place the money ($) coins here.
- Place the A, B, and C stacks here.
- Place the top 7 tiles from the A stack face up along the bottom edge of the Real Estate Market.
- Shuffle the goals face down and place 1 random goal per player face up on their spaces here.
- Each player places a Borough Board in front of them with enough space below it for several tiles to be placed between it and the edge of the table.
- Place your Income Cylinder on the 0 Income space and your Reputation Cube on the 1 Reputation space.
- Place one Suburbs tile, one Community Park tile, and one Heavy Factory tile below your Borough Board exactly as shown in the rules.
- Place the Population Board (which tracks Population, the "victory points" in Suburbia) on the table where everyone can see it.
- Each player places $15 (million) here.
- Each player places all 3 of his Investment Markers here.
- Each player takes 2 random goal tiles from the supply, looks at both, and then keeps 1 of them (face down so the other players cannot see it). The other goal is returned to the box.
- Place a Population Square from each player on the 2 Population space.
Starting the Game
Randomly choose a player and give him the Start Player Marker.
The starting values of 0 Income and 1 Reputation can be calculated by the three tiles already placed: The Heavy Factory tile provides +1 Income, while the Community Park provides -1 Income, which equals an Income of 0 (zero). The Community Park provides +2 Reputation (+1 for the adjacent Suburb, a green tile, and +1 for the adjacent Heavy Factory, a yellow tile), while the Heavy Factory reduces Reputation by -1 (because it is adjacent to the Community Park, which is gray). The Suburb tile provides 2 population because of its Population icon.
Gameplay
On his turn, each player must perform the following four actions in order:
- Take and place 1 tile or place 1 Investment Marker in your borough.
- Collect or pay money (based on your Income).
- Adjust Population on the Population Board (based on your Reputation).
- Add a new tile to the Real Estate Market.
Take and Place 1 Tile or Place 1 Investment Marker
The player must either:
- Take 1 tile and add the tile to his borough, or
- Place 1 Investment Marker on a tile in his borough to "invest" in that tile.
Taking a tile from the Real Estate Market
When taking a tile from the Real Estate Market, the player pays the cost printed above the tile (if any) on the Real Estate Market in addition to the cost on the tile. The total combined cost of the tile is paid to the supply. The player must place the purchased tile adjacent to any of his tiles. When he does so, the player must make any adjustments as noted on the tile descriptions of the placed tile as well as any other impacted tiles (including tiles placed by other players).
The effects of a tile can be triggered after it is placed. For instance, placing a new Community Park next to an existing Community Park results in an increase of +1 Reputation.
Because Income and Reputation can never fall below -5 or rise above 15, adjustments stop at those limits.
Example: Dakota wants an Office Building, which is a tile that costs $9 and provides +1 Income upon placement and then +1 Income for each adjacent Office Building. It is on the +$2 space of the Real Estate Market. Dakota pays $11 to the supply for the tile, and places it next to her Heavy Factory and her Community Park, which has a +1 bonus for each adjacent Office Building or other office-icon tile. Dakota moves her Income Cylinder up 1 space (for the immediate effect of +1 Income), then moves her Reputation Cube up 1 space (+1 for the adjacent tile's conditional effect: the Community Park provides +1 Reputation for the newly adjacent Office Building).
Taking a basic tile
The player may also take any available basic tile: Suburb, Community Park, or Heavy Factory instead of a tile from the Real Estate Market. If he does so, he pays only the cost on the tile. The player places this tile in the same manner as if he had bought it from the Real Estate Market. These tiles are limited, and may run out during a game, at which time they can no longer be acquired.
After placing a basic tile, the player then must take any tile that is face up below the Real Estate Market (paying only the cost shown above that tile on the Real Estate Market, if any) and discard it onto a discard pile.
Example: Toni takes and places a Suburb on her turn. She then has to decide which tile to discard from the Real Estate Market. She can remove the Freeway or the Fast Food Restaurant for free, but she doesn't want Gage, who is to her left, to get the Homeowner's Association, so she pays $2 to the supply to discard the Homeowner's Association.
Taking a tile to use as a lake
When taking a tile to use as a lake, the player must choose a tile from the Real Estate Market. He only pays the cost printed on the Real Estate Market, he does not pay the cost on the tile. The player places this tile face down adjacent to one or more of his tiles (which may be face up or face down) and receives $2 per adjacent Commercial, Industrial, Residential, or Civic tile for doing so. If the player places another Commercial, Industrial, Residential, or Civic tile next to a lake, he takes $2 from the supply. When the player places another lake adjacent to an existing lake, he does not take $2 for adjacency to the other lake tile(s).
Placing an Investment Marker
An Investment Marker may be placed on any of the player's tiles—including a lake—that does not already have an Investment Marker on it.
If the player opts to do this (instead of taking and placing a tile), he pays the cost of that tile again and places that Investment Marker on the left corner (covering the tile's price) of that tile. An Investment Marker doubles the effects of the tile it is placed on. For instance, an Investment Marker placed on a Community Park results in +1 Income, and +1 Reputation for each adjacent Suburb or green or lake tile. When a player places an Investment Marker he does not place a tile. Placing an Investment Marker does not impact other tiles' conditional effects (i.e., placing an Investment Marker on a Community Park that is adjacent to a Heavy Factory does not trigger the -1 of the Heavy Factory again).
Example: Gage wants to place an Investment Marker on a tile. His three best options are placing it on (a) the "A" Lake tile, which costs $0 and gives Gage $10 ($2 for each of the 5 adjacent tiles), (b) the Parking Lot, which costs $12 and allows Gage to move his Income Cylinder 3 spaces to the right (+1 for the Parking Lot itself, +1 for the adjacent Community Park, and +1 for the adjacent Office Building), or (c) the Community Park, which costs $4 and reduces Gage's income by 1 but also allows Gage to move his Reputation Cube 3 spaces to the right (+1 for the adjacent Suburb, a green tile, +1 for the adjacent Heavy Factory, a yellow tile, and +1 for the adjacent Parking Lot, a blue tile).
An Investment Marker's effects are in place for the rest of the game, so for the example above, if another Suburb or green or lake tile is placed adjacent to the Community Park when an Investment Marker is already on it, the player will receive +1 twice, for a total of +2.
After placing an Investment Marker, the player then must take any tile that is face up below the Real Estate Market (paying only the cost shown above that tile on the Real Estate Market, if any) and discard it onto a discard pile.
Collect or Pay Money (Based on Income)
If the player's Income Cylinder is on a positive number, the player collects that amount of money from the supply. If his Income Cylinder is on a negative number, the player owes money and must pay that amount immediately to the supply. If he does not have enough money, he pays what he has and then moves his Population Square backwards one space per $1 to cover the difference. A player cannot have a Population less than 0, so if he cannot move his Population Square back any more and still owes money, nothing happens.
Adjust Population (Based on Reputation)
Increase or decrease your Population on the Population Board by the amount where your Reputation Cube is located. If Population gets to 0, any additional movements backwards cost $1 per Population. If the player cannot pay this fee, nothing happens to the player...he just stays on the 0 spot.
As your borough grows, it will cost more to maintain and its "small town" quality will decrease—this is represented by Red Lines on the population track. When a player's Population crosses a Red Line, then that player's Income and Reputation are both reduced by 1 (moved to the left one space) for every Red Line the player moves past. If a player's Population dips below a Red Line (this can happen if he has a negative Reputation) he moves both his Income Cylinder and his Reputation Cube forward (moved to the right one space).
When you place a tile, sometimes there will be multiple adjustments to make. When adjusting population past a Red Line, immediately decrease your Income and Reputation by one space, even if you haven't finished with all the other adjustments yet.
If a decrease to Income or Reputation would cause either or both to be less than -5, the Income Cylinder or Reputation Cube stays at -5.
Adjust the Real Estate Market
Slide the remaining tiles on the Real Estate Market to the right to fill in the gap from the removed tile (there will always be a tile removed on each player's turn), and flip over a new tile from the current stack (starting with Stack A), placing it at the far left of the Real Estate Market. When Stack A is depleted, flip tiles from Stack B; when Stack B is depleted, flip tiles from Stack C.
Game End
When the "1 More Round" tile is flipped over, the current round is completed, and then one more full round is played, starting with the Start Player (after the current round is completed). Everyone should end up having taken the same number of turns in the game.
Final Scoring
After the last player finishes his turn, final scoring takes place. There are two parts to final scoring: Goals and Converting Money to Population. Award goals before converting money to Population.
Red Lines are Ignored During Final Scoring
Population bonuses for accomplished Goals and converting money to population at the end of the game do not trigger the Income and Reputation lowering effect of the Red Lines.
Award Goals
The Population bonus from each of the goals placed on the Real Estate Market are awarded to a single player who achieves those goals. If two or more players tie for achieving a goal, no one is awarded that goal's Population bonus.
Then, in turn order, each of the players' secret goals are revealed, and if a player has singularly achieved his secret goal (and not tied another player for that goal), he is awarded that goal's Population bonus. Only the owner of a secret goal tile is able to receive the Population bonus for achieving his secret goal.
Convert Money to Population
Each player's money is converted: 1 Population for every $5 put in the supply from the player, rounded down (the player keeps any leftover money to be used as a 3rd-level tiebreaker).
Winning the Game
The player with the highest Population on the Population Board wins. In case of a tie, the player with the highest Reputation among the tied players wins. In case of another tie, the player with the highest Income among the tied players wins. If players are still tied, the player with the most remaining money wins. In case of a further tie (at which point the tied players are probably incredibly amused), the tied players play another game of Suburbia to determine the winner of the first game.
Tiles
Each tile that you place impacts your city in some way. Tiles fall into one of four categories: Residential, Industrial, Commercial and Civic. Most tiles give bonuses or penalties to Income, Reputation or Population, while others give you special abilities. Each tile has four or five main elements:
- Tile Name
- Tile Cost — the cost of the tile plus the amount printed on the Real Estate Market above where this tile was displayed.
- Immediate Impact — for example, adjust the Income Cylinder 3 spaces to the right.
- Interactive Icon (optional) — this tile interacts with other tiles that have a matching symbol.
- Conditional Impact — for example, adjust the Income Cylinder to the left 1 space for every other Restaurant tile built after this one.
Tiles must always be placed so that at least one edge is adjacent to another tile (face up or face down). Tiles can be placed so that they go around (but not rest on top of) the Borough Board.
Interactive Icon Tiles
Some tiles are impacted by tiles with a specific icon on the right corner of those tiles. These are interactive icon tiles. For instance, the Business Supply Store income increases by +1 for every tile with an office icon (a little briefcase) on it, including the Office Building, Office of Bureaucracy, and the Local EPA Office.
Tile Terminology
A slash (/) between different tiles means that effect applies to any of the tiles listed. The following lists a few other common terms that appear on tiles, and how they work:
"All other boroughs"
This refers to tiles in every borough not including your own.
"Each adjacent"
Tiles with "Each Adjacent" on them require you to count the number of tiles that are directly next to the tile, where one straight edge of the tile is butted up against another straight edge of another tile.
"Each of your"
This refers to tiles that you have placed in your borough only (and in some cases even the tile itself if it is the type specified). For instance, a High School provides its owner with population for every Residential tile in the owner's Borough.
"Every"
This refers to all tiles in all boroughs, including your own borough and including the tile itself (if it fits the criteria).
(Take) $2
For all tiles where you take money from the supply, you take that money both when you place that tile as well as when designated tiles are placed after you have placed that "Take" tile. For instance, if you place the Homeowner's Association tile on the very first turn of a 4 player game, you'll pay $6 for the tile to place it, and then instantly take $10 back from the bank (because there are 4 Suburbs and 1 Homeowners Association tile in the game, for a total of 5 Residential tiles, and you take $2 for each). From that point on, when anyone places a Residential tile (including yourself), you take $2.
Tile Effect Resolution Order
To resolve the effects of tiles when they're played, always use the following order:
- Pay the cost of the tile shown on the left corner of the tile (and any additional cost shown on the Real Estate Market).
- Adjust according to the immediate effect in the upper right of the tile.
- Adjust according to the conditional effect at the bottom of the tile.
- Adjust according to the conditional effects of any adjacent tiles.
- Adjust according to the conditional effects of any non-adjacent tiles.
- Check with other players to see if any of their tiles will cause you to make adjustments.
- Check with other players to see if their boroughs are impacted by the tile you've played.
Tile effects can stack, and players may have more than one of the same named tile. For instance, it is okay to have two Fast Food Restaurants in a single borough.
Strategy Tips
- Focus on raising your income early in the game...a +1 Income in the first turn is worth anywhere from $15-$18 by the end of the game!
- Be careful not to get too much population too fast, as you'll start to run into Red Lines faster and slow down your progress before you have a chance to build up a solid Income and Reputation infrastructure of tiles.
- Keep both the public Goals and your private Goal in mind at all times; these are worth a lot at the end of the game.
- Review the Tile List so you know what tiles might show up in each Stack.
- When discarding a tile, look at what your opponents (particularly the player to your left) might need...it might be worth some extra money to get rid of a tile that's perfect for him!
- Always pay attention to where your Population Square is relative to the Red Lines. Sometimes a single extra point can be costly in the long run.
- Income and Reputation increases (or decreases) change in value during the game. The approximate number of turns left in the game (each game has about 15-18 turns in total) is the value when the tile is placed, so early game increases are worth a lot more than late game increases.
Solo Game 1: The Lone Architect
All the challenge of the multiplayer game in less than 30 minutes! Gameplay is just like the 2 player game, but you'll only need one Borough Board.
Set-up
Use the 2-player tile stacks setup, but don't place or distribute any goals.
Your Turn
Moving past a Red Line results in +2 Income and +2 Reputation.
After your turn is over, you must remove an additional tile, using the same rules as if you had placed an Investment Marker or a basic tile.
Solo Game 2: Dale the Bot
In this solo game, you'll be playing against Dale, the bot, who has no emotions; he'll always play with you, because he has no other friends! You go first each round (Dale doesn't mind).
Solo Game 2 Set-up Changes
Set-up is the same as regular setup with the following exceptions:
- Shuffle 3 stacks of face down tiles, each stack with a letter on the back (A, B, and C). Each stack has 25 tiles. Place unused tiles back in the box.
- Mix the "1 More Round" tile with 12 tiles from the C stack, and place those tiles face down on the bottom of the C stack.
- Shuffle the goals face down and place 3 random goals face up on the 3 goal spaces on the Real Estate Market. If you reveal a goal with a lake or Investment Marker, discard it and replace it with another tile.
- Place the top 4 tiles from the A stack face up along the bottom edge of the Real Estate Market under the $6, $4, $2 and $0 spaces.
Your Turn
Take a normal turn, following the normal rules. The three tiles not bought are left in the Real Estate Market (do not move them).
Dale's Turn
Dale isn't too smart, but he has some advantages. He plays by the following rules:
Each turn, Dale buys the most expensive tile available (based on the tile price plus Real Estate Market adjustment), but he only pays $3 for it. In the case of two or more tiles with the same costs, he buys the leftmost one.
Dale never buys a basic tile, and Dale never creates a lake. Furthermore, Dale never plays an Investment Marker.
The Purchased tile is placed in the best spot possible (after taking into account all tile interactions), using the following rule: Increase the most Reputation and Income when both are added together (ties favor Reputation). As long as the placement rule above is followed, the tile can be placed on any valid space.
After Dale buys a tile, places it, and adjusts his Income and Reputation, the two tiles remaining in the Real Estate Market are discarded from the game.
Next Round
4 new tiles are placed in the Real Estate Market on $6, $4, $2 and the (leftmost) $0 spaces.
Game End
When the "1 More Round" tile appears, the game ends immediately (you do not take another turn, but instead go directly to goal scoring and Population-for-money scoring).
Scoring for Both Solo Games
- Below 60: Junior Intern
- 60-75: Subcontractor
- 76-90: Draftsman
- 91-105: Architectural Designer
- 106-120: Architectural Engineer
- 121-135: Principal Architect
- Above 135: CEO of Suburbia, Inc.
Miscellaneous Notes
The Borough Boards can be flipped over; the ones pictured in the rules are from the top down, which is more thematic (building the suburbs out from the main city). However, due to table space restrictions or personal preference, you may want to flip them over and play with the Borough Boards at the bottom. In that case, the starting tiles are positioned the same way: Suburbs in the center space, with Community Park above Suburbs, and Heavy Factory at the top above Community Park. Different players within the same game may play different orientations of Borough Boards; this has no effect on gameplay.
The stickers in the box should be applied to the (large) Start Player Marker's front and back.
The blank A, B, and C tiles are for replacing damaged tiles, and should not be used in the game.