The Grand Carnival
The Grand Carnival Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 52 Attraction Tiles
- 10 Tiny Attractions
- 10 Small Attractions
- 10 Medium Attractions
- 10 Large Attractions
- 12 Giant Attractions
- 84 Foundation Tiles
- 1 Railyard Board
- 4 Player Boards
- 32 Action Pawns (8 pawns for each player)
- 30 Guest Pawns
- 8 Carnival Barker Pawns
- 50 Ticket Tokens
- 14 Trick of the Trade Cards
- 1 Round Marker
- 1 Starting Player Token
Setup
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Place the Railyard board near the center of the table, and place the round marker on the leftmost space (Sunday) of the round tracker.
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Shuffle all 84 foundation tiles, separate them into two facedown stacks of 42 tiles each, and place the two stacks on the two "1" spaces of the Railyard board. Draw 4 foundation tiles and place one each, face-up, on spaces "2" through "5" of the Railyard board.
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Shuffle the 14 trick of the trade cards. Draw 3 cards and place them face up near the Railyard board. Return the rest to the box.
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Collect the 50 ticket tokens in a supply.
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Each player takes a player board and the 8 action pawns of the matching color. (The action pawns for each player are shaped differently.) Each player places 5 action pawns next to the 5 action slots on the left side of their player board, and places the remaining 3 action pawns nearby in a personal supply.
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Gather the 30 guest pawns into a supply. Each player takes 2 guest pawns and places them on the two Entry spaces at the bottom of their player board.
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Collect the following number of carnival barker pawns into a supply:
- 2 Players: 5 carnival barker pawns
- 3 Players: 6 carnival barker pawns
- 4 Players: 8 carnival barker pawns
Return the rest to the box.
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Collect attraction tiles grouped by size (number on tile) into a supply:
- 2 Players: 5 attraction tiles of each size
- 3 Players: 6 attraction tiles of each size
- 4 Players: 8 attraction tiles of each size
Return the rest to the box.
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Give the starting player token to the player who went to a carnival most recently. That player takes the first turn.
Playing a Round
The Grand Carnival is played over a series of seven rounds. In each round, each player will take a total of five turns, starting with the starting player.
On your turn, follow these steps in order:
- Place one action pawn and take one action, as described in Taking Action (below).
- Check if you completed any tricks of the trade, as described in Tricks of the Trade (below).
After these steps, your turn ends. Players continue taking turns until each player has taken five turns (and so have placed all five action pawns). At this point, the round ends.
At the end of a round, each player returns their five action pawns to beside their player board. Then, the round marker is advanced one space to the right, and the starting player token is given to the next clockwise player, who takes their first turn.
At the end of the seventh round, the game ends (see Ending the Game below).
Taking Action
Take one of your action pawns that you have not placed yet, and place it on an empty action number on the left side of your player board. The higher the number, the better your action will be!
Then, take one of these actions:
- Place a Foundation
- Build an Attraction
- Move a Guest
You may only take an action if you can complete it.
Place a Foundation
Take one foundation tile from a Railyard space that is up to your action number.
Example: If you placed your pawn on the "3" action number, you could take a tile from the "1," "2," or "3" Railyard space.
Place this tile face up on any empty space of your Fairground on your player board. Orient it so that its construction sites (mallet symbols) are pointing in the same direction as the mallets on your Fairground.
If you took a face-up tile, slide tiles from the right to fill in the empty space, then take a tile from either "1" stack and place it face up to refill the "5" space.
If you took a facedown tile, you may choose to cycle the Railyard: discard all the face-up tiles there, place them in a face-up discard pile nearby, and then take tiles from either "1" stack and place them face up to refill all the empty Railyard spaces.
(Players cannot search through the discard pile. If either "1" stack on the Railyard is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile of foundation tiles to form a new Railyard stack.)
What's on a foundation tile? Foundations have two kinds of spaces: walkways and construction sites. Guests can only move along walkways, and attractions can only be built on construction sites.
Build an Attraction
Take an attraction tile from below the Railyard. Its size (number) can be up to your action number.
Example: If you placed on the "3" action number, you could take a "1," "2," or "3" size attraction.
Place this attraction tile on your Fairground on construction sites shown on foundation tiles (not on walkways, Entry spaces, other attractions, or the large mallets on empty Fairground spaces). Attractions may be flipped to either side and rotated in any direction.
Moving Near Attractions: If a guest ends their movement adjacent to any attraction tiles, place one ticket token on any empty space of each adjacent attraction. (Tickets can be placed on any space of an attraction tile, even spaces that aren't adjacent to the guest.)
An attraction can hold a number of tickets up to the number of spaces it covers. (So an attraction that covers two spaces can hold two tickets.)
Move a Guest
You can move one guest around your Fairground a number of adjacent spaces up to your action number, plus one space per carnival barker pawn in your Fairground.
Whenever we say adjacent, we mean up, down, left, or right. Not diagonal!
Guests can only move onto walkways. (Not onto construction sites, attractions, empty Fairground spaces, or Entry spaces.) Guests cannot move into or through spaces with other guests or carnival barkers.
Moving to the Bigtop: Guests cannot move through the sides of the Fairground, but they can move into the Bigtop from any of the four topmost spaces of the Fairground. Once in the Bigtop, the guest stops moving and does not place tickets on any attractions. The Bigtop can hold any number of guests.
Emptying the Entry: After you move your guest, if both of your Entry spaces are empty, you must do the following:
- Refill Entry. Take 2 guests from the supply and place one on each of your Entry spaces.
- Add Staff. Take one carnival barker pawn (if any) from the supply and place it on any empty walkway on your Fairground. If you have no empty walkways, the carnival barker stays in the supply.
What do carnival barkers do? Whenever you move a guest, you can move it one extra space for each carnival barker in your Fairground. However, carnival barkers also block guest movement, do not move, and do not visit attractions.
Tricks of the Trade
Tricks of the trade are powerful abilities that let you bend the rules.
After you finish taking an action, check whether you completed the goal on any of the trick of the trade cards. If you did, take an action pawn from your supply and place it on that card (or cards). You can now use its listed ability starting on your next turn.
When a player completes a trick's goal, each other player must complete this goal on their next turn in order to gain the trick. If they do not, they will be locked out from completing it for the rest of the game. (As a reminder, the other players can place one of their action pawns next to the trick.)
- If a player completes the goal on their next turn, they move their action pawn onto the card. They can now use its listed ability as well.
- If a player does not complete the goal on their next turn, they take the action pawn next to that card and return it to the box. They can no longer complete the goal of this trick.
If the base rules and a trick conflict, the trick takes precedent. For more details on specific tricks, see Glossary: Tricks of the Trade (below).
Ending the Game
The game ends at the end of the seventh round. At the end of the game, each player adds up their points as follows:
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Attraction Sets: Score points for each set of attractions of the same size in your Fairground, as follows. Each attraction in a set must have at least 1 ticket.
Set of 3 Set of 4 Set of 5 Tiny 3 5 10 Small 5 8 13 Medium 8 12 19 Large 12 18 26 Giant 18 25 35 -
Attraction Variety: Score 22 points if your Fairground has at least 1 attraction of each size (5 total). Each one must have at least 1 ticket.
No Ticket, No Score! Let's say it again—if an attraction has no tickets, it does not score in any way. Nobody got to enjoy it, after all.
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Guests in the Bigtop: Score points based on the number of guests in the Bigtop, as follows.
# Guests 1 2 3 4+ Points 3 6 10 15 -
Tickets: Score 12 points if you have at least 15 tickets in your Fairground.
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Carnival Barkers: Score 3 points per carnival barker pawn in your Fairground.
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Lose 1 point per visible mallet symbol in your Fairground. (Whether on empty Fairground spaces or empty construction sites.)
Example: It is the end of the game. You have 3 carnival barkers, 12 tickets, 2 guests in the Bigtop, and 8 attractions with tickets—1 tiny, 3 small, 1 medium, 2 large, and 1 giant. However, you have 2 attractions without tickets and 4 visible mallets.
First, you score 42 points: 9 points for the 3 carnival barkers, 6 points for the 2 guests in the Bigtop, 22 points for building one attraction of each size with tickets, and 5 points for the set of 3 small attractions.
You don't have enough tickets to score 12 points for them. Also, you lose 4 points for the visible mallets, so your final score is 42 – 4 = 38 points.
The winner is the player with the most points. If tied, the winner is the tied player who completed the most tricks of the trade. If the game is still tied, the winner is the tied player with the most tickets on their Fairground. If still tied, the tied players share the title of The Grand Carnival.
Glossary: Tricks of the Trade
"Bribe the inspectors!" Goal: Finish a straight diagonal line of four foundations in your Fairground. Ability: Whenever you place a foundation tile, you may rotate it left or right. You may only rotate it 90 degrees, not 180 degrees.
"Create mystery!" Goal: Have 5+ attractions with no tickets. Ability: You may change an attraction's size by one when scoring. You may choose one attraction to count as one size larger or smaller than its original size. It still needs a ticket to score.
"Find a mark!" Goal: Move a guest 5 or more spaces in a single turn. You cannot make the guest backtrack onto any space they already moved onto this turn. Ability: You may split movement between two guests. When taking the Move a Guest action, you may split the movement between two guests. You must finish moving the first guest before you starting moving the second. Each guest places tickets on adjacent attractions as normal. Carnival barkers add extra moves to the total for the action, not to each guest.
"Keep the crowd moving!" Goal: Move a guest to the Bigtop. Ability: Guests may move through each other for free. You may move guests into a space with another guest without spending a space of movement. However, you must still end their movement in an empty space.
"Make a spectacle!" Goal: Build an attraction that spans 3 foundations. It does not matter how many spaces of each foundation that the attraction covers. Ability: Ignore the scoring penalty for empty Fairground spaces. When scoring, empty Fairground spaces are worth 0 points instead of -1 points. However, uncovered construction sites on foundation tiles are still worth -1 point.
"Open early!" Goal: Have 8+ foundations. Ability: Attractions built next to guests immediately gain tickets. When taking the Build an Attraction action, if you place an attraction next to at least one guest, immediately place ticket tokens equal to the number of adjacent guests onto that attraction.
"Pick some pockets!" Goal: Finish a column of foundations. Ability: Place 1 ticket before scoring. At the end of the game, you may place 1 ticket token on any 1 attraction with an empty space in your Fairground.
"Posters around town!" Goal: Finish a row of foundations. Ability: You may peek at the topmost facedown foundations. When taking the Place a Foundation action, before covering an action number, you may peek at the top facedown tile in the stack before taking a tile. If you peek at the top tile, you must take the Place a Foundation action.
"Practice your ballyhoo!" Goal: Move 2 guests past the halfway point of your Fairground. In other words, into the two topmost rows of foundations. Ability: Guests may move diagonally. Your guests can move diagonally on walkways. (Your guest must still be orthogonally adjacent to place a ticket on an attraction.)
"The big draw!" Goal: Have an attraction with 3 tickets. Ability: Guests may move on construction sites. Your guests can now move on construction sites in addition to walkways. They will place tickets on adjacent attractions as normal if they stop on a construction site. They cannot move onto empty Fairground spaces. You cannot build an attraction over a construction site with a guest. During scoring, construction sites with guests still score -1 point each.
"Think on your feet!" Goal: Have 3 guests in a connected group. Each guest must be adjacent to another guest in that group. Ability: You may take a foundation from a Railyard space one higher. When taking the Place a Foundation action, you may take the foundation tile from a Railyard space that is one higher than your action number.
"Ticket trap!" Goal: Have a guest finish their movement adjacent to 3 attractions. This can be triggered by the "Weighted Milk Bottles" trick. Ability: You may split building between 2 attractions. When taking the Build an Attraction action, you may build two attractions (instead of one) that cover a total number of construction sites up to your action number.
"Underinflated balloons!" During Setup: Place 2 additional, random attractions of each size near the Railyard. Goal: Build an attraction adjacent to 2 other attractions. Ability: You may build attractions from the reserve. When taking the Build an Attraction action, you may choose an attraction of the proper size from this reserve instead.
"Weighted milk bottles!" Goal: Have 5 tickets on your attractions. These tickets can be spread across any number of attractions. Ability: Guests place tickets on diagonal attractions. When a guest ends their movement diagonally adjacent to any attractions, you can place tickets on those attractions as if they were adjacent, in addition to placing tickets on adjacent attractions.
Glossary: Attractions
Attractions come in five sizes, which match the number of construction sites they cover.
- Tiny (Size 1): Popcorn Stand, Cotton Candy, Corn Dogs, Caramel Apples, and Funnel Cake Booth
- Small (Size 2): Fortune Teller, Age Guessing, Pony Ride, Organ Grinder, and Dunk Tank
- Medium (Size 3): Milk Bottle Toss, Hit the Bell, Balloon Darts, Fishing Pond, and Shooting Gallery
- Large (Size 4): Fire Breather, Magician, Tightrope, Wax Works, and Strong Man
- Giant (Size 5): Tunnel of Love, Wild West Show, Carousel, Funhouse, Bumper Cars, Ferris Wheel, High Dive Act, House of Mirrors, Swing Ride, Globe of Death, Whip Ride, and Roller Coaster
The Only Show in Town (Solo)
You may be the only carnival here all summer, but that doesn't mean this will be easy.
Your goal is to build two attractions of every size, get them all tickets, and make sure you have no construction sites showing.
You'll gain points for carnival barkers, guests that move into the Bigtop, tricks you learn, and extra attractions you build. You'll lose points visible construction sites.
Setup
Set up the game from step 1 to 6 as normal.
- For step 7, collect 3 carnival barker pawns in a supply.
- For step 8, collect 3 random attraction tiles of each size.
- For step 9, you don't need the starting player token—but you can take it if you feel like it!
Playing a Round
Just like the multiplayer game, on each turn you will cover an action number on your player board and take one action. Once you have covered all 5 action numbers, you'll clear the action pawns and advance the round marker one space.
Tricks of the Trade
When you meet the goal of a trick of the trade, take the trick and place it near your player board. Tricks won't stick around forever! At the end of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round, remove the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd trick—from left to right—if you have not met its goal yet.
Cycling the Railyard
At the end of each round, you must cycle the Railyard. (You may still choose to cycle the Railyard each time you take a foundation tile from a "1" stack, as normal.)
Ending the Game
The game ends after 7 rounds. Ignore the scoring for the multiplayer game, and score as follows:
- Score 1 point per carnival barker in your Fairground.
- Score 1 point per trick of the trade you completed.
- Score 1 point per guest in the Bigtop.
- Score 1 point per set of all three attractions of a given size in your Fairground, each with at least 1 ticket.
- Score 1 point per attraction that has at least 2 tickets.
Lose points as follows:
- Lose 1 point per construction site visible in your Fairground.
- For each size of attraction, lose 2 points if you only have one attraction of that size with any tickets in your Fairground, or lose 4 points if you have none of that size.
If your score is above 0, you win! Check your score to see how your town looks in your legacy.
- 0 or lower: Forgotten
- 1-4: Remembered
- 5-8: Honored
- 9-11: Revered
- 12+: Legendary
Credits
Game Design: Rob Cramer Game Development: Jeff Beck Illustrations: Ryan Goldsberry Rulebook: Joshua Yearsley
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