How to Play

You can download the Rules in English and German as a PDF or continue reading below.  There is a rules video available however it is for a slightly earlier iteration of the game. 

What's In The Box? 

• 120 Career Cards                       
• 60 Fan Cards
• 10 Passion Cards
• 5 Badges
• Tour Grid T-Shirt
• English & German Rule Booklet
  
  BONUS
• NSFW Expansion: 19 cards
• Entourage Expansion: 8 cloth patches

Game Setup

1. Lay the tshirt out flat with the Tour Grid facing up, so it’s in reach of all of the players.

2. Separate the fan cards, passion cards, and career cards

3. Thoroughly shuffle the career cards and place them in a deck face down on
   the right sleeve of the tour grid - the “career deck”. A thorough shuffle is very
   important, especially if it’s a fresh pack of cards!

4. Thoroughly shuffle the fan cards and place them in a deck face down to the
   left of the tour grid - the “fan deck”.

5. Each player chooses a badge.

The Rules

Fans

The first player to have 27 fans wins the game!

Get fan cards by going on tour. Each fan card has a value of one, two, three or four fans.

Career

To go on tour, you need career cards. Career cards have a suit and a value.

Suits are Hype, Chops, Riffs and Gear. You need all of them to go on tour.

Values are 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Higher value career cards make better tours.

Suit

Value

Passion

How To Play

Shuffle the passion cards and deal two to each player, putting any extras back in the box.
This is what inspired you to go into music! Tell your backstory to the other players.
The player who tells the best backstory goes first, and players take turns clockwise.

On a turn, you can do one of two things:

Stay Home & Practise

Draw one career card.

OR

Go On Tour

Become band manager and try to put together a tour.
A tour has five phases. Here’s a quick overview:

1. Assemble The Band

The band manager tries to put together a valid tour using career cards. They have
to fill rows of the tour grid with cards of the correct suits. They can use the cards in
their hand, or allow other players to contribute their cards for a share of the spoils.
Players also negotiate cards to put their badge on. Badges do two things: determine
the picking order of the spoils, and mark cards that players get back after the tour.

      2. Reveal The Spoils

The placement and value of the career cards used on the tour determine the amount
and type of spoils the tour produces - a combination of career cards and fan cards.
The board is divided into “fan slots” and “career slots”. Cards on fan slots produce
fan cards and cards on career slots produce career cards. High value cards produce
more than low value cards. The spoils are dealt out face up on the table into one pot.

      3. Divide The Spoils

Band manager gets first pick, then band members take turns picking from the spoils,
with the picking order determined by the suit in which badges were placed.

      4. Clear The Grid

Band members get back the card that was marked with their badge in the first
phase. The rest of the cards used on the tour are discarded.

      5. Band Manager Hand Limit

The band manager (only!) reduces their hand to seven cards by discarding career
cards or banking fan cards. Players can avoid this by staying home and practising.

Play continues until one player has 27 fans or more.

Read on for detailed rules for each phase...

Phase One: Assemble The Band

The band manager tries to assemble a valid tour, either on their own or with other players.
A valid tour fills at least one complete row on the tour grid, starting from the bottom. Each
row must be filled with one of each suit of career card: hype, chops, riffs & gear. Levels 2 and
above also need a fan card.

Passion cards count as a career card of any career suit (hype, chops, riffs, gear). They
can’t be used in place of a fan card. Tours at the beginning of the game are often made up
entirely of passion cards.

The band manager can fill the tour grid entirely with their own cards, or allow other players
to join their tour and contribute their cards, as long as the tour is valid. It is cheaper to go
on tour with other players, but the spoils from the tour are shared.

Players also negotiate to place their badges on cards on the grid. Players can put their badge
on any card, even if they did not put it down themselves. Badge placement has two effects:

• Players get to keep the card their badge is placed on after the tour is over.

• The picking order of the spoils is determined by the suit column badges are placed.

Only one badge may be placed in each suit column (hype, chops, riffs and gear).
Badges may not be placed in the fan column.

At any point in this phase the band manager may kick another player off the tour, or a player
may choose to leave, in either case taking back their cards and badge. Negotiation continues
until all participating players are satisfied, and the tour is set - name your new band!

If the band manager goes on tour on their own, they don’t get to place their badge. They get
to keep all the spoils to themselves, but they lose all the cards they put down.

If the band manager cannot assemble a valid tour, then they must stay home and practice.

A good way for a band manager to start their turn is to say “Who would like to go on tour
with me? And what can you bring?”, and then choose between the offers they receive.
Going on tour is the best way to get cards, so players should be keen to join tours - but
each player is trying to contribute the least while getting the most in return.

Phase Two: Reveal The Spoils

The tour grid is made up of three types of card slots:
fan payout slots, career payout slots and null slots.

                                           Fan Slots                                                           Career Slots                                                           Null Slots

Tours produce spoils depending on the placement and value of cards on the tour grid.

Tour cards on fan payout slots produce fan cards.
Tour cards on career payout slots produce career cards.
Null slots produce nothing.

The value of a tour card determines the number of spoil cards it produces.

For example:

A value 2 card on a fan payout slot produces two fan cards from the fan deck.
A value 1 card on a career payout slot produces one career card from the career deck.
A value 0 card doesn’t produce anything on any slot.
Fan cards in the fan column do not produce anything.

Spoils are dealt out face up into a single pot, to be split in the next phase.

If at any point the career deck or fan deck run out, replace it with the corresponding
shuffled discard pile.

Phase Three: Divide The Spoils

First, the band manager takes one card of their choosing from the spoils.

Then, band members take turns choosing spoils. The order in which they pick is determined
by which column their badge is in. (There should only be one badge in each column.)

The player with their badge in the hype column picks first, then chops, then riffs, then gear,
then hype again, and so on. Columns without badges can be ignored.

If the band manager has their badge in the hype suit, they will get to pick twice in a row;
once because they’re band manager, and once because their badge is in the hype column.

If picking up a card means a player has a total of 27 fans or more, they win instantly!

Phase Four: Clear The Grid

Players pick up their badge and put the card underneath it into their hand.

Fan cards are put onto the fan discard pile, face up next to the fan deck.
Career cards are put onto the career discard pile, face up next to the career deck.
Passion cards are put back in the box.

Phase Five: Band Manager Hand Limit

The band manager (only!) must reduce their hand to seven cards by some combination of:

Discarding their career cards into the discard pile

and

Putting their fan cards face up in front of them, in view of the other players.
(They still count towards the fan score but cannot be used on tour.)

If a player chooses to stay home and practise instead of going on tour,
they do not have to reduce their hand to seven cards.

The other players do not have to reduce their hands, only the band manager.

Tips for Beginners

At the start of the game, go on as many tours as possible to try and get high value career
cards. 3 and 4 value cards are especially are rare and powerful, hang onto them.

Level 1 tours with 3 or 4 other players are more cost efficient than larger tours with fewer
players. Try and negotiate to spend as few cards as possible and have the earliest pick so
you can get the best spoils. A tour’s manager gets the best card out of that tour - make
sure they pay for the privilege!

As the game progresses and players start to have higher value cards, tours will start
producing a lot of career cards. Now you can start going on larger tours with fewer people
so you can win more fans.

Zero value cards are useful for filling up lower level rows. If you stay home and practise you
don’t have to discard down to 7 cards, which can be useful if you’re saving career cards for
a big solo tour. In a solo tour, your lose all the cards you put down, but you are guaranteed
to get all the spoils for yourself.

Beginners Game / Quick Game

For beginners or for a quicker game, players may trade in one of their starting passion
cards for a 2 chops, 3 riffs or 4 gear card.

Rules for Expansions

NSFW Cards

Replace the cards in the standard deck with NSFW cards of the same value.

Entourage

In this expansion, each player starts the game with an entourage consisting of fans and
crew members who give special abilities.

First, each player selects a crew member from the crew pool. If the one they want is taken
by another player, then they must choose another, until everyone has one.

Players then take turns in a clockwise direction as follows:

If you think another player has a better entourage than you, you may add to your entourage
any one fan card from the fan deck or crew member from the crew pool, and then offer
to exchange your whole entourage for theirs. If they refuse, you keep your entourage,
including the additional crew or fan card.

If you are happy with your entourage, or your entourage consists of three cards/crew, move
on to the next player.

Continue until there is a round where all players pass, then the game starts as normal.
Entourage fans begin the game banked.