Worker Placement Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Game Components
  • The City Game Board
  • 110 Cards
  • 48 Wooden Skill Cubes
  • 25 Wooden Player Tokens (5 Coloured Sets)
  • 1 Hourglass Token (To Track Rounds)
• Preparing to Play
• Playing the Game
  • Action 1: Determine Player Order
  • Action 2: Reveal New Jobs
  • Action 3: Draft Business Cards
  • Action 4: Auction Discarded Business Cards
  • Action 5: Place Workers
  • Action 6: Reset
• Filling Jobs
• Resource Buildings
• Special Buildings
• End of the Game
• Round Summary

Object of the Game

As a player in the Worker Placement game, you assume the role of a temporary employment agency CEO who is trying to build your start-up business into a thriving operation. The path to success seems simple enough: hire unemployed temp workers, help them upgrade their skills, and find them the best short-term jobs so your company can get paid its cut. Competition with other temp agencies is fierce, though, so establishing a solid reputation as a reliable and dependable agency can bump your workers towards the front of the employment line for first pick of the premium jobs.

At the end of the game, the company that has earned the most money is declared the winner and becomes the dominant temp agency in The City!

Game Components

The City Game Board

This game board is where all the action happens in Worker Placement. Within The City are:

• 10 buildings where employees can visit during each round to obtain Skills, take Jobs, earn reputation Thumbs, play Business cards, or discard and redraw Business cards
• The Peer Networking Group for bidding on discarded Business cards
• Number/score tracks for game rounds, player order, income (Cash), and company reputation (Thumbs)
• Area for draw and discard piles for Business cards and Job cards

110 Cards

• 63 Business cards (24 Worker, 23 Skill, 16 Management)
• 42 Job cards
• 5 Player Order cards

48 Wooden Skill Cubes

• 12 Clerical Skill cubes (red)
• 12 Labour Skill cubes (yellow)
• 12 Tech Skill cubes (black)
• 12 Life Skill cubes (green)

The multi-coloured Skill cube with three question marks is a 'wild' Skill, and represents any Skill of the player's choice.

25 Wooden Player Tokens (5 Coloured Sets)

• 15 employee worker tokens (called meeples)
• 5 Cash tokens
• 5 Thumb tokens

1 Hourglass Token (To Track Rounds)

Preparing to Play

Place game board of The City in the centre of the table. Sort the four Skill cubes into their respective piles and place them beside the playing area. Place the Hourglass token on the round 1 space of the Time Track. Remove from the small deck of Player Order cards any card number that exceeds the number of players in the game. For example, in a three-player game, remove the cards labelled 4 and 5 (keeping cards 1, 2, and 3).

Shuffle the deck of Business cards and deal four cards to each Player, then place the rest of the deck face down on the Business card draw pile space on the game board. Shuffle the deck of Job cards and place it face down on the Job card draw pile.

All players choose a colour and receive the three meeples of that colour, placing them in an undefined zone called a "Reserve Area" in front of them for future play. Place the wooden Cash token for each player on the $2 space of the Cash Track. Place the wooden Thumbs token for each player on the 2 space of the Thumbs Track.

Playing the Game

Before gameplay begins, all players collectively decide how many rounds of Worker Placement they will play before the winner is determined: 5 for a shorter game, 8 for the standard game, and 12 for a longer game. The game proceeds through the following six Actions each round:

• Action 1: Determine Player Order
• Action 2: Reveal New Jobs
• Action 3: Draft Business Cards
• Action 4: Auction Discarded Business Cards
• Action 5: Place Workers
• Action 6: Reset

Action 1: Determine Player Order

Deal one random Player Order card to each player. Players add the numbers on their cards to their number positions on the Thumbs Track and compare the resulting total to those of the other players. The player with the highest sum places one of his or her three meeples on the Player Order Track in position 1. The player with the second highest total number then places a meeple on position 2. This process continues in descending order until all players have placed one meeple on the track. To break ties, a player with a higher position on the Thumbs Track is placed before one with a lower position. Note that spaces 6-8 on the track are reserved for use with future game expansions. Set aside the Player Order cards until they are needed to determine order in the next round.

Action 2: Reveal New Jobs

For the first round of the game, deal from the top of the Job deck to place one card for each player (but always a minimum of four cards) face up at the top edge of the game board at the orange triangles at the Job Centre building. (The blue triangle positions are reserved for use with future game expansions.) These revealed cards are the Jobs the workers can potentially fill this round to earn Cash for the players. Always flip the top card of the remaining deck face up, giving a sneak peek of one of the Jobs available in next round (this Job cannot be filled this round, though).

In subsequent game rounds, one or more Job cards may have gone unfilled in the previous round and thus still remain in the Job Centre. These existing Jobs are not replaced by new Jobs, and so fewer new Job cards will be revealed. For example, if two unfilled Jobs carry over from the previous round in a five-player game, only three new Jobs (not five) are revealed to fill the five spaces at the Job Centre.

If the Job deck is ever depleted no further new Jobs are available. Play continues until the game is over, but this Action is skipped in each remaining round.

Action 3: Draft Business Cards

Deal three Business cards to every player, beginning with the player in position 1 on the Player Order Track. Each player simultaneously selects one of the three cards to add to his or her hand, passes one of the cards to the player on his or her left, and places the final card face down on the Peer Networking Group building on the game board. If at any time all the Business cards are drawn from the deck, shuffle the discard pile and reuse those discarded cards as the Business draw deck.

In a two-player game deal one additional Business card directly to the Peer Networking Group, ensuring there are always a minimum of three cards located at the building at the end of this action.

For variety, consider alternating the passing direction each round (left, then right, then left, etc.).

Action 4: Auction Discarded Business Cards

Randomly select three cards from all the Business cards placed on the Peer Networking Group building during Action 3, and move the remaining cards to the Business card discard pile. Place the three cards face up at the building so all players can see which cards are now up for auction.

The Peer Networking Group building has eight bidding spaces for the auction, from left (last bid position) to right (first bid position): 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5. The spaces represent the amount of Cash the player is willing to exchange for any one of the three cards, with the higher-bidding players selecting a card before the lower-bidding players.

Bidding begins with the player in position 1 on the Player Order Track and proceeds in ascending order until the player in the last position. Each player may pass or bid. To bid on one of the cards, the player places one of his or her meeples on any of the unoccupied bidding spaces.

If only one or two players placed meeples to bid and everyone else passed, only those one or two bidders have the option of each placing a second bid with another meeple in descending player order once again. No players are allowed to bid for a third time.

Once bidding is complete, the player who placed a bid in the space closest to the right (one of the highest bid amounts) selects one of the three Business cards at the Peer Networking Group to add to his or her hand and reduces his or her position on the Cash Track by a number of spaces equal to the bid amount.

The player who bid in the second closest space to the right (the second highest bid amount) then does the same with the two remaining cards, followed by the player who bid in the third closest space to the right (who takes the final card). If fewer than three bids were made, the extra Business cards that were not selected during the auction are moved to the Business card discard pile. At the end of the auction, players return their bidding meeples to their respective Reserve Areas.

Bids that were not one of the top three are unsuccessful and the players who made those bids do not gain any cards nor lose any Cash. Note that players may not place bids if they do not have the Cash to pay for the card(s) should their bids be successful.

Action 5: Place Workers

Beginning with the player in position 1 on the Player Order Track and proceeding in ascending order, players take turns placing their workers on the game board. Players take one meeple from their Reserve Areas and place it on any of the game board buildings except the Peer Networking Group. The player immediately must reduce his or her Cash Track position by a number of spaces equal to the number of meeples already at the building (no Cash reduction for the first meeple placed at the building each round, or for placements at the Call Centre, Casino, or Job Centre buildings since they can each hold unlimited meeples without cost). Benefits then provided by the buildings are outlined later in the rules (see pages 6-7).

A player may only place one meeple at a time, and must wait until play comes back to him or her before placing another meeple. All players continue the worker placement until all three of their meeples have been placed on buildings on the game board. The first two meeples were taken from the Reserve Area while the third and final meeple is taken from the Player Order Track (since the third meeple is the last worker placement, the meeple is no longer needed to mark the play order).

A meeple cannot select and occupy a building space without the player paying the Cash cost above and taking the action or gaining the benefit associated with the space.

Special rules apply when placing meeples at the Job Centre. See the section on Filling Jobs (page 5).

Action 6: Reset

The game round is now over. Players return their meeple tokens currently on the game board buildings back to their respective Reserve Areas and repeat Actions 1-6 in the next round.

Advance the Hourglass token one space on the Time Track unless it is already on the final round of the game (in which case the game is now over; see page 8).

Players can only hold a hand of up to five unplayed Business cards. Each player must discard down to five cards if holding more than five at the end of Action 6.

Note About Cash and Thumbs Tracks: A player can never initiate any action that would reduce his or her position on either the Cash or Thumbs Tracks below 0 (such as sending a meeple to the Call Centre while currently on position 0 of the Thumbs Track). An opponent may initiate such an action – for example, playing a Management card that steals 4 Cash from a target player who is only at position 3 on the Cash Track – but the token stops at position 0 and cannot go into negatives (the remaining Track penalty/effect is simply ignored).

Filling Jobs

Filling Jobs currently available at the Job Centre building with Workers and Skills is at the heart of the game. A player can only place a meeple at the Job Centre to fill a selected Job if he or she has at least one Worker card in his or her hand. Additionally, the player must be able to match or exceed the Skills required on the Job card using any combination of: Skills listed on the one specific Worker card to be used; Skill cards in his or her hand; and Skill cubes currently located in his or her Reserve Area. Note that while multiple Skill cards and Skill cubes can be used when filling a specific Job, only one Worker card may be assigned to a Job. A player with multiple Worker cards in his or her hand may place more than one meeple on the Job Centre building in a single round if afforded the opportunity, provided the player also has all the necessary Skill cards or cubes to fill all selected Jobs requirements. Unlike most other building spaces, players are not penalised with Cash reductions for placing the second, or third, or fourth, etc. meeple at the Job Centre in a single round.

Once used to fill a Job, the player's Worker card and any Skill cards are discarded to the Business card discard pile and Skill cubes are returned to the supply. The filled Job card is then claimed by the player and removed from the Job Centre building. Finally, the Cash and Thumbs that the Job provides are awarded to the player before the game continues with the next player. If a player ever exceeds the 60 spaces on the Cash Track, he or she simply restarts at position 1 and adds 60 to the final Cash Track number at the end of the game.

For example, player Paul places a meeple at the Job Centre to fill the Board Game Designer Job. This Job requires two Tech Skills, one Clerical Skill, and one Labour Skill. Paul has a Worker card in his hand (Gunther Klaus) that provides one Clerical and one Life Skill. He also has one Labour Skill card in his hand. When combined with the two Tech Skill cubes Paul has in his Reserve Area, Paul ensures Gunther has enough Skills to fill the Job. Gunther's additional one Life Skill is extra and not necessary to fill the Job so it is ignored with no benefits or penalties. Paul discards the Worker and Skill cards to the Business card discard pile and returns the two Tech Skill cubes to the supply. He moves the Board Game Designer Job card from the Job Centre to his Reserve Area, and increases his position along the Cash Track by five spaces as the Job indicates. Additionally, the Job enhances Paul's reputation by increasing his position along the Thumbs Track by one space. His turn now complete, play continues with the person in the next Player Order Track position.

The Skills listed on a Worker card that a player uses to fill a Job do not need to help meet any of the Skill requirements listed on the Job, though it is obviously to the player's benefit if they do. Continuing the above example, if Paul didn't have the Gunther Klaus Worker card (with one Clerical and one Life Skill) in his hand but instead had the Jaques Mondieux Worker card (with two Life Skills), Paul could still fill the Board Game Designer Job using Jaques's card but would consequently need to have an extra Clerical Skill card or cube to meet the Job requirements. Jaques's two Life Skills are unnecessary and wasted on the Board Game Designer Job, but do not prevent Paul from using that Worker to fill that Job. In a temp agency, sometimes workers find jobs completely unrelated to their base knowledge set....

Resource Buildings

The City College: The player takes one red Clerical Skill cube from supply and places it in his or her Reserve Area.

Rec Centre: The player takes one green Life Skill cube from supply and places it in his or her Reserve Area.

Trade School: The player takes one yellow Labour Skill cube from supply and places it in his or her Reserve Area.

Life Coach: The player returns any one Skill cube from his or her Reserve Area back to the supply and replaces it with any two Skill cubes of choice from the supply.

Hackers Club: The player takes one black Tech Skill cube from supply and places it in his or her Reserve Area.

Health Spa: The player advances two spaces on the Thumbs Track.

Special Buildings

Job Centre: The player fills one of the face-up Job cards located at the top edge of the game board at the Job Centre building. See the Filling Jobs section (page 5) for additional details. Unlike most other building spaces, multiple meeples may be placed at the Job Centre each round until no more face-up Job cards remain to be filled (no Cash reduction for any player).

Call Centre: The player advances two spaces on the Cash Track, but goes back one space on the Thumbs Track. Unlike most other building spaces, any number of meeples may be placed at the Call Centre each round (no Cash reduction for any player).

Career Consultants: The player plays one Management card from his or her hand and follows the instructions.

Casino: The player discards any number of Business cards from his or her hand and replaces them with an equal number of new ones from the Business card draw pile. Unlike most other building spaces, any number of meeples may be placed at the Casino each round (no Cash reduction for any player).

Peer Networking Group: Players bid on Business cards placed at this building during Action 4: Auction Discarded Business Cards (see page 3 for details). Meeples cannot be placed at the Peer Networking Group during Action 5: Place Workers.

End of the Game

Once all rounds of the game are complete (5, 8, or 12 – as determined before play began), the player (or players) furthest along the Thumbs Track gains bonus Cash equal to the number of players in the game. Additionally, each player is awarded one Cash bonus for every two unused Skill cubes remaining in his or her Reserve Area. Finally, other Cash bonuses awarded by Business cards in the players' hands, if any, are added to the Cash Track as well.

The player with the most amount of Cash is the winner and becomes the dominant temp agency CEO in The City! Use the position on the Thumbs Track to break ties (higher is better), followed by the Player Order position during the final game round if necessary (lower is better).

Round Summary

Action 1: Determine Player Order. Player Order card + Thumbs Track position = position on the Player Order Track.

Action 2: Reveal New Jobs. Deal one Job card for each player (minimum four cards) face up on the game board edge at the Job Centre building.

Action 3: Draft Business Cards. Deal three Business cards to each player, who selects one cards to add to his or her hand, passes one to the player on the left, and places the final card face down on the Peer Networking Group building.

Action 4: Auction Discarded Business Cards. Place face up three randomly select Business cards from those at the Peer Networking Group building and discard the others. Starting with the first player and continuing along the Player Order Track, each player may pass or bid. Players with the top three bids select, in order, one of the Business cards up for auction and adds it to their hands, reducing their positions on the Cash Track equal to their bids. Discard unselected cards.

Action 5: Place Workers. Clockwise, beginning with the first player, players take turns placing all meeples on the game board buildings to gain benefits. Cash cost = number of meeples at the building. If a Job is filled, the player gains the Cash and Thumbs on the Job card.

Action 6: Reset. Players reclaim placed meeples. Advance the Hourglass token one space on the Time Track. Players must discard down to five Business cards if holding more than five in their hands.