The Club Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Opening the Club (Setup)
• Let's Party (Start of the Game)
• Meeting a Like-Minded Soul
• Rules of Attraction in the Club
• Dancer Qualities
• Scoring
• Hidden Qualities (see the detailed table on the last page, which is used as a reference sheet)
• Special Tiles
• Who Are You? (Hidden Qualities in Full Detail: Reference Sheet)
• Closing the Club (End of the Game)

Components

• 120 square cardboard tiles: 108 Dancers, 8 Guards, 2 Rock Stars (one female, one male) and 2 Bullies
• 1 game board (the Dance Floor)
• Score pads
• 1 bag for the tiles
• This rulebook

Opening the Club (Setup)

First find and set aside all of the Guard tiles (8), Rock Star tiles (2) and Bully tiles (2).

Return the following number of Dancer tiles to the box. They have decided to stay home this Friday night and are not coming out to socialize:

• 2 players: return 23 tiles to the box
• 3 players: return 11 tiles to the box
• 4 players: return 11 tiles to the box

Put all remaining Dancer tiles into the bag. Each player draws one Dancer tile from the bag and, carefully (so as not to see the back of the tile), places it face up on the board on any cell (two tiles may not be next to each other).

When setup is finished, there must be 25 Dancers on the board (arranged in a checkerboard pattern), occupying every cell that is possible to fill (see the illustration below). Now put all of the Guard, Rock Star and Bully tiles that were set aside back into the bag with the remaining Dancer tiles.

Let's Party (Start of the Game)

On your turn, take 3 tiles from the bag. After studying these tiles (both sides), place them one at a time on the board from your edge of the table. In front of you are 7 squares and the two squares to the right and left that are adjacent to your side of the board (see the illustration below). In a 2-player game, each player uses two sides of the board and chooses between them. In a 3-player game, players use the fourth side of the board every third turn. The bartender knows the dancers' secrets, so at any time during the game you may check the back sides of the 7 tiles nearest to you.

The player seated at the top may place tiles from the sides indicated by the arrows. (The blue squares mark the Dancer tiles placed during setup.)

Meeting a Like-Minded Soul

When new dancers placed by the players appear on the dance floor, they push the other dancers standing in front of them closer to the centre of the board (and sometimes push them off the opposite side of the board, which means they go back into the box and out of the game for good). Now that they are next to each other (on adjacent cells), they may become a pair, provided the Rules of Attraction described below are met. One player may take only one pair from the dance floor on their turn (Exception: Rock Stars, see below).

When dancers become a pair, they leave the dance floor and the Club and continue their night somewhere else. Remove this pair from the board and place it beside you. Count and record (on a sheet of paper) the points you received for creating this pair.

Rules of Attraction in the Club

For two dancers to become a pair, they must:

1. be on adjacent cells (not diagonally);
2. be on the white 9 cells in the very centre of the dance floor;
3. and share at least 2 visible "qualities" (see below).

Dancer Qualities

Each Dancer has 4 visible qualities and one "hidden" quality (shown on the back of the tile). The visible qualities are: gender; musical taste (represented by style of clothing); appearance (build); and party mood (see the tile images in the illustration below). Being of the opposite sex counts in this game as sharing one "visible quality".

Illustration in the original: the visible qualities. Build: Large, Medium, Small. Musical taste: Heavy Metal (blue), Disco (green), Hip-Hop (brown). Party mood: Bored, Cheerful, Drunk.

Scoring

On your turn you may form only one pair. Pairs score victory points depending on how happy they will be together. The visible qualities determine the pair's initial points as follows:

• A pair that shares at least 2 visible qualities scores only 1 point, because most likely they will be together only for this one night.
• Pairs that share 3 visible qualities are more interested in each other and start dating. They score 3 points.
• But the Club would not be a cool place to party without a feeling of true love. Each time Cupid shoots, love fills two hearts and they will be happy together forever. This happens when all 4 visible qualities match, and the happy pair scores 5 points for the player who formed it.

[Translator's note: "Cupid" is named in this passage but is not otherwise defined in the source; it is transcribed as printed. The 5-point case is read as the case where all 4 visible qualities match.]

So the initial points for the various pairs are 1, 3 or 5, depending on the number of matching visible qualities. BUT these points can be changed by one factor: the hidden qualities!

Hidden Qualities (see the detailed table on the last page, which is used as a reference sheet)

There are always hidden factors that you are unlikely to think about on first meeting someone. The Club is the same: each Dancer has a hidden quality that affects the points you receive when forming a pair. Only if you take these hidden qualities into account can you know whether the pair will actually be happy, and that determines the pair's final points.

The hidden qualities are listed under "Who Are You?" below.

Special Tiles

Guard. The irritable member of the Club's security. If you draw a Guard from the bag, do not place it on the board. Instead you may remove one tile from the dance floor.

Rock Star. The selfish superstar of the Club. When you draw a Rock Star, place it on the board like an ordinary tile. The Rock Star leaves the Club when it gathers a crowd of fans around it, that is, when it is completely surrounded on all 8 sides (including the diagonals). When this happens, the player who caused the surrounding removes the Rock Star and the 4 dancers adjacent to it from the board. The player may then arrange the 4 dancers into 2 pairs, scoring for each pair. You also receive a bonus of 1 point from the Rock Star itself.

[Translator's note: the source says "4 dancers adjacent to it" and does not specify which four; it is transcribed as printed.]

Bully. The Bully is simply awful! He is the guy who picks fights with men and bothers women. When you draw a Bully tile from the bag, you may place it on any free cell on the board. Dancers next to the Bully may not become a pair.

Who Are You? (Hidden Qualities in Full Detail: Reference Sheet)

Each hidden quality below modifies the points of the pair in which the dancer appears. Points are added or subtracted as stated.

• Fat wallet. A dancer with a fat wallet adds 1 extra point to the pair.
• Large "personality". If the man has a large "personality", the pair receives 2 extra points, unless his partner is completely drunk.
• Beautiful roomie. A beautiful roomie means a fun time can be had by three. She brings 3 extra points, but only if this is a one-night pair (1 point).
• Disease. The night is ruined if you discover that your partner has a disease. This reduces the pair's points by 5, unless the sick partner is not sober (drunk). In that case you were lucky that he was careful and used protection, and you lose no points. Also, if both dancers are sick, you lose no points.
• Child. A dancer with a child reduces the pair's points by 1, unless the second partner also has no child. [Translator's note: the source reads "also has no child" here, but the next sentence describes the case where both partners are single parents, which suggests "also has a child" was intended. Transcribed as printed; the implementer should check the original.] In that case the happiness of both single parents brings you 2 extra points.
• Committed (married). A dancer who is already married (committed) always reduces the pair's points by 2.
• Lives with Mom. A partner who lives with Mom affects the points only if the other dancer also lives with Mom or is married (committed). In that case they have nowhere to go, and the feeling of disappointment .

Closing the Club (End of the Game)

When you draw the last tile from the bag, the last slow song starts playing in the Club. When the last tile is placed on the board, the Club closes and the game ends. Count the points. The player with the most points wins. But the true winners, of course, have long since left the Club.

Come back to the Club tomorrow, when we open our doors again to new players. It will be Saturday night then, and lonely hearts will once again be looking for fun (and love).

[Translator's note: the source gives no tie-break rule.]