Food Chain Magnate: The Ketchup Mechanism & Other Ideas

Developer Note: Images are not available yet. They're planned for a future update.

Game Materials

1 game box

2 rulebooks: 1 English and 1 German

14 player aids: 6 English and 6 German Ketchup player aids, 1 English and 1 German Food Chain Magnate player aid

1 turn order track for 6 players

1 new restaurant chain: 3 restaurants and 1 turn order marker

18 coffee shops: 3 for each restaurant chain

General Rules

The large food and drink pieces represent 5 of the respective type.

This expansion includes updated versions from some base game employee cards, showing their new career paths in red text. Replace the old cards with the new version when playing with a module that includes such a career path. Also, additional copies are provided of some old milestones so you will have six copies of each. Note the base game already contains 6 copies of many milestones and the CEO card.

This expansion introduces a large set of new modules. Each module can be played on its own. We propose to start with these two major expansions:

New milestones: use only the "New Milestones" module. This shakes the strategic space up quite a bit already!

Your first cup of coffee: the "Coffee" module makes board positions even more important. Try using this one stand-alone, with or without the "New Milestones" module.

After that, you can play the other modules separately or in combination. Here are some chef's choices for interesting pairings:

Korean city: New districts (make sure to have at least 1 apartment building tile in the city) + Kimchi

Nightlife: New milestones + Night shiftmanagers

Sustenance: Coffee + Fry chefs

Upmarket Area: New milestones + Park tile from new districts + Gourmet food critic + Sushi

City builder: Lobbyist + New districts + rural marketeers

Asian Fusion: Sushi + Kimchi + Noodles + Ketchup

First mover: Hard choices + Ketchup + Movie stars + Lobbyists + Reserve prices

Overtime: Night shiftmanagers + Mass marketeers + Rural marketeers + New districts + Noodles + Reserve price

Henri Lo menu: All modules except 6 players & Hard choices

New Districts

5 new map tiles (or 6 if you are playing with lobbyists).

We needed extra tiles to be able to play with 6; we wanted these to be different. Most of the tiles contain pre-built improvements or multiple resources (houses or drinks). In addition, we created apartments, which can be mass-marketed for faster growth.

These tiles are shuffled into the mix at the start of the game and alter the map.

• Shuffle the additional cards into the mix at the start of the game and place them as you normally would. Note that the tile with the two parks is only used in combination with the lobbyist.

• The tile with the three lemonades provides multiple sources of drinks. When fetching drinks, depending on your route, you may pass one, two, or three of them with a cart operator or truck; this works just as if the sources were on different tiles. A zeppelin passing over will collect from all three sources.

• The tile with houses 21 and 22 follows the normal rules.

• House 25 has a garden from the start and cannot get an additional garden. The road on the tile does not pass through the house.

• The tiles numbered "Pi" and "9¾" contain apartment buildings. They represent many people living in the same place. Marketing to them will be extra effective.

• During marketing, whenever you have to place demand on an apartment building, place 2 tokens instead of 1; so, each marketing counts double.

• Apartment buildings have no maximum demand.

• Apartment buildings cannot get a garden; but they can get a park if lobbyists are used.

• During dinner time, apartment buildings are treated like a normal house. The number refers to their order of play during dinner time: "Pi" comes between house 3 and 4, and "9¾" comes between house 9 and 10.

• Note that the "Pi" building tile has 4 disconnected entrances. You cannot trace a route through the building. However, a mailbox marketing campaign will pass through the building!

The tile with the two parks puts parks in play from the start of the game and is only used in combination with the lobbyist. Refer to the lobbyist section for the rules regarding parks.

Lobbyists

Lobbyist employee cards; "First Lobbyist Used" milestone cards; new road tiles; park tiles; road block markers; optionally, the new city map tile with two parks. If playing with 5 or 6 players, you will need to also use the new map tiles.

We wanted to allow players to change the connectivity of the map, ideally allowing both better or worse connections. We did this by creating a paid lobbyist, who can influence city hall to build roads. To balance play, we added the extra ability to build parks and increase the value of property.

Players can hire a lobbyist; during 9-5, a lobbyist can build an additional road or a park. Roadworks will hold up traffic for 1 turn, after which the new road can be used. Parks will increase the value of each directly adjacent property.

• At the start of the game, agree which (if any) new map tiles will be used. If playing with 5 or 6 players, you will need to use them.

• The lobbyist is an employee card. He can be recruited directly but requires a salary.

• During the 9-5 phase, each lobbyist can place one road tile or one park tile.

• Lobbyists are used after houses and gardens have been placed, and before new restaurants are placed.

• The new road and park tiles are limited, and if they run out, the lobbyist can no longer do anything useful. Lobbyists can be fired using the normal rules.

• The lobbyist has a range of 2 by road and can only place a tile adjacent to a road square it can reach.

• New roads and parks must be placed on empty squares and may not cover anything that was already on the map.

• A new road is always played with the 'under construction' side face up. One of the arrows has to point to an existing stretch of road or your restaurant entrance. For each of the arrows that point directly to an existing road square, place a roadworks marker on that road tile.

• During dinnertime, each roadworks marker crossed adds +1 distance to your route. A road that is under construction cannot be used yet.

• In the cleanup phase, remove all roadworks markers and flip the new road tile faceup. From now on, it functions as a normal road.

• If two roads run adjacent and parallel, they are considered connected.

• During dinnertime, a house or apartment building that is directly adjacent to a park will pay double the unit price for each food or drink consumed. This does not influence the distance or demand in any way.

• A house can have a garden and be adjacent to a park, in which case it will pay triple (3x) the unit price. A house connected to the park through its garden counts as adjacent to the park.

• If a house/apartment is adjacent to more than one park, this gives no additional bonuses; you only get a bonus for the first park.

• Parks have no impact on demand for sushi or on the maximum amount of demand counters.

• The first player(s) to place a road or park receive the First Lobbyist Used milestone. This allows them to immediately place an additional map tile.

• The player can choose any of the map tiles still available (as agreed at the start of the game). If the tiles have run out, the player does not get to place a new tile.

• The new tile must be placed so that one side fully connects to one side of one existing tile; it has to 'fit' the existing grid. The new tile does not have to be connected by road to an existing road. There are no range limitations.

• The new tile cannot be placed on a side that contains an airplane or a highway offramp.

• The new tile can immediately be used to place new restaurants on. If a player has played more than 1 lobbyist, they can place a park or new road on the new tile.

New Milestones

The Milestones in Detail

Remove all the milestone cards from the base game. Instead, use the new milestone cards provided except ketchup, first coffee, first rural marketeer, and first lobbyist (unless you are also using these modules). Also, take 3 "Remove after turn 2" markers and the new airplane marketing tiles.

The milestones have a very strong impact on strategy in Food Chain Magnate; changing them is easy to explain but forces players to rethink their standard strategies.

We wanted players who start with an early marketing strategy to have more options; we also tried to make all the new milestones to feel as different as possible from the base set.

Setup Place a "Remove after turn 2" marker on the "First marketeer used", "First trainer used" and "First recruiting girl used" piles.

Awarding milestones Milestones are awarded in the same way as in the base game.

Note that many of the new milestones require you to use a card, not just play it. A card is used if it performs at least one function printed on the card during the working 9:00-5:00, dinnertime or payday phase. Playing a card, training a card, or paying salary for it, does not in itself count as using it. Marketeers are only used if you actually place a marketing tile with them; if you do not place a tile, you do not get the corresponding milestone.

Hard choices After turn 2, if any of the milestones with a "Remove after turn 2" marker are still available, remove them from play.

This milestone has two separate effects.

1. From now on, you gain $5 for each demand token placed on a house by a marketing tile placed by one of your marketeers. You earn this money during the marketing campaigns phase. Note that the game can only end in the dinnertime phase. If the bank breaks during the marketing campaigns phase, play continues until the next dinnertime phase.

2. From now on, during dinnertime, after computing the distance to any of your restaurants, lower the distance by 2. In other words, count your distance from customers to restaurants as (unit price + distance - 2). The result may become negative! This represents brand loyalty to your 'original' products.

Interaction with other milestones and modules:

• The "pizza radio" created by the milestone is not linked to a marketeer, and will not provide this bonus.

• Apartments and the rural area receive two tokens per marketeer, so you will get the $5 bonus twice.

• The distance reduction stacks with the similar bonus provided by the Ketchup milestone "Someone sells your demand".

This provides free employee cards on the beach: a kitchen trainee and an errand boy. As the marketing trainee is always used after all training has been completed, the new cards cannot be trained immediately.

The campaign manager may place a second marketing tile of the same type (billboard or mailbox). The tile must market the same goods, for the same duration; it may be placed in a different area. All rules for placement have to be followed. The marketeer will be linked to both tiles and returns when they are both depleted. If you use a second campaign manager in the same turn, you do not get this benefit a second time. You may not save the benefit for a later turn.

If your brand manager places an aircraftthis turn, you may place two goods on it (these must be different). The aircraftwill market both, in order from A to B. Use the new airplane marketing tiles provided for this. If you use a second brand manager in the same turn, you do not get this benefit a second time. You may not use this ability for a mailbox or a billboard; and you may not save it until a later turn.

Any radio marketing you place is permanent. The brand director will be busy for the rest of the game. You also receive this milestone if you use a brand director to place something other than a radio marketing tile (but only your radio will be permanent).

From now on your CEO will have 4 slots. This is independent of any bank reserve card effects.

For the first three houses that buy a pizza this turn, the person selling to that house must place a radio advertising pizza for two turns on the tile containing the house (if there is room). These will function as normal marketing tiles. However, they are not linked to any marketeer, so will not provide $5 for the first marketeer milestone.

From now on, you may train cards that are in your structure, provided that you do not let them change color. All other rules still apply (e.g., you need an active trainer/coach/guru, and you cannot stack trainers unless you have that ability). The newly trained employee is placed into your structure and can be used immediately, provided the old employee was not yet used. Note that if you train an employee before you have used them, you may miss out on the related milestone.

When paying salaries, you can pay employees with food or drink tokens. One token will pay one salary. You may pay some employees in food and others in cash.

Interaction with other milestones and modules:

• The $3 salary milestone has no effect when paying with tokens;

• In the rare case that you cannot fire anyone and have food tokens but no cash, you are obliged to pay your employees using the food tokens;

• Coffee does not count as food or drink. Noodles, kimchi, and sushi do count as food.

This provides a freezer; it functions the same as the milestone from the base game.

Interaction with other milestones and modules:

• Coffee cannot be stored in the freezer;

• Kimchi can be stored, but follows special rules (see Kimchi);

• Noodles and sushi can be stored in a freezer.

You get an executive vice president card; for the rest of the game, you pay no salary for him. In the rare case that there is no executive vice president available any more, take one from the box.

You get an additional trainer card. In addition, you no longer have to fire any employees when you cannot pay them. However, you are still obliged to pay cash (and, if applicable, food and drinks) if able.

From now on, each turn (including this one) in which you discount by $3 or more, remove $100 from the bank at the end of the restructuring phase. This money is removed from the game. If multiple players have this milestone, it will be applied for each of them, so a lot of money can leave the bank each turn.

This milestone allows you to stack training actions, similar to the first to pay $20 in salaries milestone in the base game.

This milestone allows you to build a free permanent mailbox in the restaurant area. You may determine what it markets. As this mailbox is not linked to a marketeer, you will not get a $5 bonus for demand marketed by it for the first marketeer milestone.

Your salaries are now $3 per employee that requires a salary. Unused recruiting manager and HR director actions still give $5 discount to your total salary cost, so they will become more efficient. However, when paying with food or drinks (see first beer sold milestone above), you still need one token per employee.

Your cart operators and zeppelin pilots will collect 4 drinks (instead of 2) at every drink source on its route. Collect 6 drinks for every source on your route(s) with a truck driver. This already applies to the first haul.

Coffee

Barista trainee, barista and lead barista employee cards; small restaurant (coffee shop) counters for each player; wooden coffee pieces; first coffee sold milestone; additional luxury manager employee card.

Whenever we are in the US, we are always struck by the fact that everyone seems to stop at a coffee place on the road and arrives at their destination carrying styrofoam mugs with their names, misspelled. In terms of gameplay, we wanted to create a complete alternative to marketing and selling food in restaurants. This alternative will be particularly good in price war situations.

You can sell coffee to anyone who drives past your restaurants on the way to eating somewhere else. You can also open up coffee places that cater exclusively to people driving by.

Coffee Coffee is produced by baristas. It cannot be marketed. Coffee does not count as a drink (e.g. when determining milestones).

Baristas Baristas in your structure will produce 1, 2 or 5 coffee; take the relevant number of wooden pieces.

Coffee shops If you train a trainee barista to a barista, or a barista to a lead barista, you may immediately place one coffee shop on the board. Apart from the milestone, this is the only way to place or move coffee shops.

A coffee shop must be placed in an empty square, connected to the road, on a tile that does not yet contain any coffee shops. If you place it by training a barista, it must be placed within range 2 of an existing restaurant or coffee shop; otherwise, you may place it anywhere on the board. If you are allowed to place a coffee house but have no more tokens, you may move one of your coffee shops already on the board. A coffee shop has entrances on all four sides.

Coffee shops only sell coffee, no food or drinks.

Coffee shops can be used as a starting point to compute the range of other cards.

Dinnertime coffee During the dinnertime phase, houses will choose to go to a restaurant following the standard rules. U-turns are not allowed on a route. If the shortest route to a restaurant leads past a restaurant entrance or a coffee shop of a player who has coffee, they will consume 1 coffee there, pay, and continue on their way to the destination restaurant.

Each house will consume only 1 coffee per location, but they will stop and consume coffee at each location en route to their destination. People will never drink coffee in their destination restaurant.

If there are multiple ways to go to the destination restaurant, a house will choose the shortest route. If there are multiple shortest routes, they will choose the route that provides the most coffee. If there are multiple shortest routes providing the same amount of coffee, they will skip all coffee shops and restaurants along the part of the route that cannot be decided. Note that to determine the shortest route, distance is measured in map tiles. The number of road squares travelled along is not relevant.

For each coffee, they will pay just as they would for a food or drink item, including bonuses from cards, gardens, etc.

Cleanup During cleanup, all remaining coffee markers are discarded. Coffee cannot be stored in a freezer. The first player(s) to sell coffee gain(s) the associated milestone and get(s) to build an additional coffee shop in the cleanup phase directly after they sold their first coffee. These are built in turn order. There is no range restriction, but the limit of one coffee shop per tile still applies.

Example. Assume Xango Blues Bar is selling burgers to house 8. All players have 3 coffee available. The shortest distance is 2; Gluttony Inc. will sell two coffee on the way. On the other hand, if Golden Duck Diner was selling the burgers, Gluttony Inc. would only sell a single coffee (from his coffee shop) on the route, as both the Gluttony Inc and Xango Blues Bar restaurants are skipped as both are on a possible shortest route with the same amount of coffee sold.

Kimchi

Kimchi master employee cards; wooden kimchi pieces; additional luxury manager employee card.

Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish that can be prepared by a kimchi master. It is said every dish tastes better with kimchi! Kimchi is made by fermenting, so it takes some time to produce. Its smell is so strong that you use a separate fridge to store it. The kimchi card was created for the Korean edition of FCM. Playtesting it was what caused us to reconsider making a full expansion, so in a way this is the origin of the whole box!

Kimchi is a type of food that can be created by a kimchi master. During dinnertime, every house will prefer to go to a restaurant that has kimchi available.

• When playing with kimchi, add the extra luxury manager card at the start of the game. It is available just like a normal luxury manager would.

• The kimchi master is an employee card. She can be directly recruited but does require a salary during Phase 5. It is a "1x" card and follows all the rules for these cards.

• When the kimchi master is played, she does nothing during the 9-5 phase. However, she produces a single kimchi in the cleanup phase, after food has been discarded. This newly produced kimchi is stored automatically until the next turn.

• Kimchi cannot be marketed.

• During dinnertime, each house prefers to go to a restaurant that serves kimchi in addition to what the house already demands. First check if there is a chain with a restaurant connected to the house which can deliver all the food and drink its inhabitants want AND a (single) kimchi. If there are multiple chains that can provide this, the house will go to the chain with the lowest distance as usual. Only if there is no restaurant that provides the required food and kimchi will inhabitants go to a place that has only the required food and drinks.

• Kimchi earns the same amount as any other food or drink. Discard the kimchi after it has been served. You cannot sell more than one kimchi per house per dinner time. You cannot sell kimchi to a house that has no demand of its own.

• Up to 10 Kimchi can be stored in a freezer, but if you store any kimchi, no other type of food or drink can be stored.

Example There are two houses: house 1 has demand for a burger and a pizza, and house 2 has demand for two pizzas and a beer. Santa Maria Pizza has 1 kimchi, 2 burgers and 2 pizzas in stock. Xango Blues Bar has 2 burgers, 2 pizza and 2 beer in stock. Golden Duck Diner has 1 kimchi, 1 burger, 2 pizzas and 1 beer in stock. All chains have unit price $10 (no price change employees were played). First house 1 is evaluated. Santa Maria is at (distance + price) = 13; Xango is at (distance + price) = 10; and Golden Duck is at (distance + price) = 12. Even though Xango is closer, Golden Duck Diner sells to house 1 as it has kimchi available. Golden Duck Diner earns 3 x $10 = $30. Then house 2 is evaluated (all chains are connected by road). Only Xango Blues Bar still has the required food and drink: it will sell these for 3 x $10 = $30.

When playing with multiple modules, there can be some confusion as to the priority. In short, kimchi has priority over sushi or noodles. So, a house with a garden would rate restaurants in the below order of preference:

1. Kimchi + sufficient sushi 2. Kimchi + correct mix of food and drinks 3. Kimchi + sufficient noodles 4. Sufficient sushi 5. Correct mix of food and drinks 6. Sufficient noodles

If multiple of these modules are used together, only a single extra luxury manager is added at setup (even though three are provided).

Sushi

Sushi cook and sushi chef employee cards; wooden sushi pieces; additional luxury manager.

The Japanese edition of Food Chain Magnate was the first Splotter game ever published by another publisher. We did not create this module at the time, but after making something specifically for the Korean version, we also wanted to have a Japanese food module. Although Japanese cuisine is very diverse, sushi is probably the best known Japanese take-out outside Japan.

Sushi is a dish eaten only by people in houses with gardens; they will prefer it over any other food or drink.

Sushi is produced by sushi cooks and chefs in the same way as other food. Sushi cannot be marketed.

During dinner time, any house with a garden will look first if they can get sushi. They need a restaurant that can provide one sushi per item marketed to that house (food or drink—sushi replaces both). If such a restaurant is available, they will go there and buy sushi instead of the marketed goods (but only if all demand can be replaced by sushi). If there are multiple restaurants that have sufficient sushi, the house will decide where to go using the normal rules for ties: (unit price + distance), most waitresses, then turn order.

Sushi earns the same amount as any other food or drink. The food and drink demand tokens on the house are discarded along with the sushi from the restaurant.

Houses without a garden will never desire sushi. Sushi cannot be used as a substitute for coffee.

Sushi counts as food for the purposes of milestones; it can be stored in a fridge.

See the kimchi rules for how sushi, noodles and Kimchi interact.

Noodles

Noodle cook and noodle chef employee cards; wooden noodle pieces; additional luxury manager employee card.

After creating kimchi for the Korean translation, we wanted to have a module celebrating our Chinese translation; spoilt for choice, we decided on noodles.

Noodles can replace any other food or drink; however, houses will always prefer the items marketed to them over noodles if they have a choice.

Noodles are produced by noodle cooks and chefs in the same way as other food. Noodles cannot be marketed.

During dinnertime, if a house (or apartment or the rural area) cannot find any restaurant that can fulfill its demand, they will look for a restaurant that sells noodles. The restaurant needs to have one noodle for each demand token (food or drink) on the house. You have to fulfill the entire demand of a house with noodles; it is not allowed to mix noodles and other food stuffs for the same house.

Noodles earn the same amount as any other food or drink. Noodles may not be used as a substitute for coffee. Noodles count as food for the purposes of milestones; they can be stored in a fridge.

See the kimchi rules for how sushi, noodles and Kimchi interact.

Ketchup

Ketchup milestone cards "Someone sells your demand"

At Splotter, we tend to have a different take on game design than many other publishers. We take competitive gameplay, and our players, very seriously. Not everybody likes this and so from time to time people write critical reviews that basically suggest our games should be more like all the others. During a Splotter playtest event some years ago, we had a lot of fun by thinking of additions that we could make to 'improve' our games in this way. The idea of a catch-up mechanism called ketchup stuck, and ever since the expansion has been named after it. We'll let you find out yourselves if it is really a catch-up mechanism, or if it is more bloody than that!

If someone 'steals' one of the goods you have marketed, you get a boost.

• You are awarded the Ketchup milestone "Someone sells your demand" at the end of a dinnertime phase when another player has sold to a house on which your marketeer has created demand. It is awarded to the person(s) who created the original demand.

• If the house has demand on it that was created by multiple marketeers, multiple players may get the achievement as a result of the same sale.

• The Milestone is awarded at the end of the dinnertime phase, so it cannot influence the rest of the same dinnertime phase.

• During the dinnertime phase, players who own the Ketchup milestone count distance from customers to restaurants as (unit price + distance - 1). In other words, customers will go one extra step in order to eat at a restaurant that has ketchup.

• There is no effect on any other range rules.

• It is not possible for one player to have multiple Ketchup milestones; but the Ketchup milestone may be stacked with similar milestones in the new milestone set.

• The Ketchup milestone also works for orders only containing drinks, as ketchup makes everything taste better.

Fry Chefs

Fry Chef employee cards

We wanted to create a way to make some extra money in situations with low prices. During much of the playtest, this was done by a glacier (ice cream maker), but in the end, French fries seemed to fit the era and the rules for this module better.

You can train a specialized fry chef. When you serve French fries, you get an additional fixed amount per house.

• You can train a fry chef from any cook (pizza cook, burger cook, sushi cook or noodle cook).

• The fry chef counts as a green (kitchen staff) card.

• A fry chef will give you a bonus of $10 on every house (or apartment, or the rural area) that you sell to (they add French fries to their order). This is a fixed amount per house, not per food item they buy. This bonus does not affect unit price or distance in any way.

• If you have more than one fry chef, you will get the $10 bonus per house for each of them.

Night Shiftmanagers

Night shiftmanager employee cards.

We wanted to try out a different form of manager card. And see if we could get the game mechanism to allow for fast expansion without using trainers.

Night shiftmanagers allow you to use non-salaried employees twice.

• Night shiftmanagers are employee cards. They are hired directly but do require a salary. They cannot be trained.

• Night shiftmanagers are managers and follow the rules for these cards: they can only report directly to the CEO.

• Night shiftmanagers are "1x" cards and follow all the rules for these cards.

• A night shiftmanagers has no slots; no other cards can report to him.

• If a company has an active night shiftmanager, all employees that do not require a salary work a second time (night shift). Treat this as if you played two copies of that card during your normal 9-5 phase.

Clarifications:

• Trainer: you are not allowed to train an employee that has already been trained during the day shift, unless you have a milestone that allows you to do so.

• Marketing trainees: a marketing trainee can initiate a second billboard campaign; place both busy markers on the same trainee to indicate they are running two campaigns.

• Waitress: earns double income and counts as two waitresses when determining ties.

• Management trainee: the management trainee has to manage the same employees during the day and the night shift; you cannot play additional employees.

• The CEO does not work the night shift.

Mass Marketeers

Mass marketeer employee cards.

We wanted to enable a style of play where you can flood the market with demand. This idea can be especially vicious when combined with some other expansions that allow for more goods to be marketed to a site.

Each Mass marketeer employee cards played will add an additional marketing phase.

• The mass marketeer employee cards is an employee card that can be trained from the marketing trainee employee cards.

• The mass marketeer is a marketing employee and follows all the rules for those cards.

• For each active mass marketeer, run an additional marketing campaign phase. So, if there is one mass marketeer, you will have 2 campaign phases, with 2 mass marketeers, play 3 phases, etc. It does not matter which player played the Mass Marketeer(s) — their effect is global and additive.

• The marketing duration marker on the campaign is only discarded after the last round of campaigns in this phase. So, you run 2 or more phases first, and only then discard one token from each campaign tile.

• Note that you first complete all campaigns once, and only then start the next series; for example, if one mass marketeer was played and the currently active marketing on the board are radio "1" and billboard "11", you would first activate radio "1", followed by billboard "11". Then, for the second phase, you again activate radio "1" and then billboard "11".

• Remember that normal houses take only 3 marketing items (5 with garden).

Rural Marketeers

Rural marketeer employee cards; "First Rural Marketeer used" milestone cards; rural area tile; giant billboard tiles; highway offramp tiles "Freeway".

The rural area can potentially be hotly contested by players on different sides of the board. It provides a volume-based alternative to normal marketing activities.

The rural area around town is treated as one (potentially enormous) house. Only rural marketeers can market there. The location of the connection of the rural area to the board is determined by the first player(s) going for rural marketing.

• The rural marketeer is an employee that can be trained from the marketing trainee.

• The rural marketeer is a marketing employee and follows all the rules for those cards.

• When you play a rural marketeer, you may place a giant Billboard next to the Rural Area tile. There are 4 giant Billboards, each can be placed on one side of the Rural Area Tile. They are always placed so that they are fully adjacent. Place a marketing token on the giant Billboard (food or drink). The giant Billboard is always eternal, it will never disappear. After placing the billboard, the Rural Marketeer is busy for the rest of the game.

• Only the rural marketeer may place giant billboards.

• The first player(s) to use a Rural Marketeer get(s) a Milestone "First Rural Marketeer used". This allows them to place a highway offramp tile. The highway offramp must be placed adjacent to an existing board tile, in such a way that it connects to a road. It may not be placed over an airplane. The highway offramp is placed immediately, during the active player's 9-5 Phase. If the highway offramps run out, further players using rural marketeers do not get to place any.

• During marketing, each of the giant Billboards markets the same good twice. The demand goods are placed on the Rural Area. The Rural Area has no maximum demand.

• During Dinnertime, the Rural Area is treated as a house. It will always be last to eat. The distance between the Rural Area and the restaurants is computed starting from any highway offramp. As with any other house, in order to make the sale a restaurant has to be able to fulfill the complete demand of the Rural Area.

Gourmet Food Critics

Gourmet food critic employee cards; gourmet guide marketing tiles.

We wanted to create new types of marketing tiles. For a while, we considered using a more complex Michelin star rating to celebrate French cuisine, as the game is very popular in France; this simpler setup works better in the game.

The gourmet food critic markets to all houses with a garden.

The gourmet food critic is a marketeer that can be trained from a marketing trainee. During the 9-5 phase, they can place a guidebook marketing tile. The tile is placed by the side of the board. It follows the same rules as other marketing tokens: you may place 1-3 marketing tokens of the same type; the gourmet food critic will be busy while the guide is active; each turn, the gourmet guide will market based on its order number.

The guide will market 1 demand of the indicated type to all houses that have a garden. Houses without a garden, including apartments, houses with just a park, and the rural area, do not get marketed.

Movie Stars

Movie star employee cards. These are unique employees, there is only one of each available.

We feel the waitresses are not as useful as they were in earlier playtests, so we decided to open up career opportunities. It is said every waitress is a movie star temporarily down on opportunities. We felt movie stars would fit well with the order of play mechanisms, with the stars operating on their own time.

Players can train their waitresses to become movies stars. A movie star can choose order of play before any of the other players.

• It is possible to train a waitress to any of the movie star cards (normally, the first player will choose the B-movie star). Each movie star is unique. Movie stars are a "1x" card and follow all the rules for these cards (a player can have at most one movie star).

• Movie stars require a salary.

• In the Order Of Business phase, players that have an active movie star in their structure may choose their order of play before any other player.

• If there are multiple movie stars, the B-movie star can choose first, then the C-movie star, then the D-movie star.

• During dinner time, if there are ties that have to be decided by the number of waitresses, such a tie is automatically won by a player with a movie star. B-movie stars win against C-movie stars; B-movie and C-movie stars win against D-movie stars.

• Unlike waitresses, movie stars do not generate any income.

Reserve Prices

3 new bank reserve cards per player. The bank reserve cards from the base game are not used.

We wanted to experiment with other effects on the bank reserve cards, specifically because given the fast expansion seen in many games, the current bank reserve card mechanism sometimes only has a small impact on the duration of the game.

The bank reserve cards chosen at the start of the game no longer impact the number of slots or the money in the bank. Instead, they change the base price of all products.

• At the start of the game, determine bank reserve cards using the alternate set.

• When the bank breaks for the first time, add $200 per player to the bank.

• This may change the base price for the rest of the game. First, check if there is one type of bank reserve card that occurs more than any other. If so, take this price as the new base unit price.

• If there is a tie, the tie is broken as follows: $20 wins over $10 and $5; $5 wins over $10.

• From now on, use this new base price during dinnertime.

Hard Choices

5 Milestone depletion markers.

In many playtest sessions and online games, we see that players follow a similar strategy so that they all get (the same) multiple milestones in the first rounds. In the new milestone module, we forced players to choose between three "starting" milestones. It is possible to do the same with the original milestones.

The initial set of Milestones are only available if you aim for them in round one, forcing players to choose between them.

The hard choices module must be combined with the standard milestone set from the base game.

Place the "Remove after turn 2" on the following milestone piles:

• First burger marketed

• First pizza marketed

• First drink marketed

• First to train someone

Place the "Remove after turn 3" on the following milestone pile:

• First to hire 3 people in 1 turn

In the cleanup of the second turn, if any of the milestones with a "Remove after turn 2" marker are still in play, remove them. They will no longer be available. Do the same after turn 3 for the recruiting milestone.

6 Players

Additional wooden pieces; additional player aid; additional restaurant chain.

There was demand for a 6 player version of the game.

The game does not change except for the initial setup.

Start with a 4x6 grid (you will need to use the New Districts module). In all other respects, the game proceeds normally. Use 3 copies of each "1x" card in play.