Yes! I gave Cheapass Games $ for this game!

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1 Setting Up: Welcome to the Agora, the ever-changing Ancient Greek Marketplace. It s a wide open space filled with chaos and excitement. And it s what you re afraid of if you have agoraphobia. You are a hardworking merchant. You will build shops, sell goods, and struggle to earn money. Agora is a simple game about constructing a sprawling marketplace. There are fires, floods, and festivals to add excitement. But the coolest thing about the game is that you can play your cards nearly anywhere, at any angle! Start each player with 10. The goal is to reach 50. Mix the four player cards (A, B, C, and D) and hand one of these to each player. Set the others aside. A player s letter has nothing to do with his turn order. It merely determines which special effects will happen on that player s turn. Shuffle the other 36 cards and place them face down on the table. To start the marketplace, place one card face up in the middle of the table. The player whose letter matches that card will go first. If that letter is not a player letter, then choose a starting player at random. Players will take turns, with the turn passing to the left. On Each Turn: Your turn consists of four steps: collecting income, drawing a card, placing your card, and (optional) buying a shop. Game Details: Players: 2 to 4 Game Type: Tile-placing strategy game Game Length: Minutes Game Components: 36 game cards and 4 player cards About 25 colored counters for each player (There is no upper limit, but 25 should do.) Money in denominations of 1 and 5 (about 200) This rules sheet For more help on assembling the game components for the first time, see the last page of this document. Step 1: Income. At the beginning of your turn, you collect income from all of your shops. (On your first turn, your income will be zero.) If your income puts you over 50, you win. (Yes, the currency of the ancient Greek marketplace was not dollars. Breathe.) A shop earns one dollar for every section of its edge that a customer can walk to, as shown in the examples below. These edge segments are called doors. The empty table space is open ground, but other cards and the edges of the table are not. So a customer can reach any door that s not blocked by other cards or by the table edge. The Playing Surface: 3 Your playing surface should be reasonably large, so you can have plenty of building space. It also helps if the surface is cloth or felt, so that the cards do not slide. 2 4 Income Example 1: The shops on this card have incomes of 3, 4, and 2, because they have 3, 4, and 2 open doors respectively. This Cheapass Game is free. That s right, free. You can print it, copy it, and share it with your friends. Obviously, if you like it, we d appreciate a dollar or two in return. We think this is the best way to get great games into your hands, so please help us make it work. Yes! I gave Cheapass Games for this game! To learn more, read the last page of this document, or visit

2 3 Income Example 3: If the corner of another card interrupts a door, that door is closed. This shop has an income of 2 because of its closed door. (The shop on the opposite card still has an income of 4.) Income Example 2: When cards join, the shops expand, but often lose income. Only doors that are open to foot traffic can make money. This shop occupies two cards, and has an income of 3. 2 Fire: A Fire destroys the largest shop, removing those cards from the table. The definition of largest shop is the shop with the most counters in it, not necessarily the biggest shop by any other measure. In the figure below, Player B owns the largest shop (in the center) with four counters. If there is a Fire, this shop will burn down, and those cards will leave the table. Note that this removes a total of three cards, one of which is part of B s shop even though it has no B counters. Player B s other shop, unconnected to the largest shop, is unaffected by this Fire. Ties: If there is a tie for largest shop, a Fire has no effect. Flood: Like a Fire, a Flood affects the largest shop. The Flood removes all the counters from that shop, but leaves the cards on the table. In the example below, the same shop (player B s larger shop) would be the target of the Flood. In this case, Player B s counters would be removed from that shop, but the cards (and the other shops counters) would remain. Ties: As with Fire, if there is a tie for largest shop, a Flood has no effect Income Example 4: If an alley is completely enclosed, doors facing into that alley make no money. Festival: A Festival means that every player earns his income right away. If more than one player breaks 50 at the same time, then the player with the most money wins. In the example below, a Festival would pay out as follows: 6 to Player A, 2 to Player B, 5 to Player C, and 7 to Player D. Note how none of the doors in the enclosed alley pay anything. Step 2: Draw. Reveal the top card of the deck. You will play this card in step 3, but first it might have a special effect. If the letter on the card matches your player letter, the speical effect happens. If it s any other letter, you ignore the effect and move on to step 3. Note: Not accounting for cards that have already been played, there is a 25% chance that a special effect will happen on a given turn. This is true no matter how many players there are. Special Effects: The three special effects are Fire, Flood, and Festival, represented by a flame, a rain cloud, and a sun. Fire Flood Festival

3 Step 3: Place your Card. In Step 3 you will play the card you have drawn. As you have seen in the examples, you can play this card at any angle and in nearly any position on the table. It does not have to touch the existing cards or conform to the same grid as the existing cards. However, there are some restrictions on building: Cards can not overlap. You cannot join shops owned by different players. If a new card shares an edge with an existing card, they must conform to the same grid. Below is an example of an illegal play. Because these cards share an edge, they must line up. Use the pillars to match the grids. Step 4: Buy One Shop. In the last step of your turn, you may buy one shop. This is optional, but it is usually a good idea. As you ve probably figured out, a shop is any single shop piece or a connected string of shop pieces. Shops are separated by walls, but continue between connected cards. The price of a shop is the same as its current income. So any of the income examples shown above also indicate the current price of those shops. You can buy a shop that s completely closed off for nothing! However, it will also make no money unless a fire opens something up. This is a cheap but high-risk strategy. To mark a shop as yours, cover all the circles with your counters to show that it s yours. The counters are an abstract measure of the volume of the shop, which is how they determine which is the largest for Fires and Floods. Some parts of your shop might not have stones on them, and that s fine. Those segments still belong to you, but they don t count as volume for Fires and Floods. You can t buy a shop that has no circles, because there is no way to mark it as yours. (Yes, we did that on purpose.) Legal Not Legal Running out of Money: You can not actually run out of money in this game. You start with 10 coins, but that s just an illusion; you can borrow as much as you need. If you want to start everyone with more money, just remember to adjust the winning score appropriately. Touching Or Not? When you play cards at odd angles near each other, you should state whether those cards are meant to be touching. If it s not clear, you might be trying to close an alley, or force it to stay open! Cards often shift in the course of the game, so if you make the intent of each move clear, it s easier to remember whether an alley was supposed to be open or closed. Expanding Existing Shops: When you enlarge an existing shop by attaching a new card, the shop grows. The owner of the shop immediately covers all the empty spaces with his counters. This expansion is free and automatic, and happens no matter who owns the shop. You might use this effect as a free way to grow your own shops, but it s also a good way to make other players more vulnerable. A well-placed card can simultaneously expand a shop and cause it to lose income. And larger shops are more vulnerable to Fires and Floods. If you re a defensive player, expanding an existing shop can also be a good way to cause a tie for largest shop, which can shield you from the effects of Fires and Floods. At least, until someone decides to break the tie! Winning: As described above, the winner is the first player to reach 50 coins or more. Remember that Festivals pay everyone at once, and if two players break 50 at the same time, the player with the highest total wins. (Ties are ties.) If you play through the entire deck before anyone goes out, then after the last card is played, the player with the most money wins. Does it say something that we have chosen to launch our line of free PDF games with a game about the chaos and dangers of selling physical items in a real marketplace? Agora was designed by James Ernest with help from Jeff Vogel, Elizabeth Marshall, Mariann Krizsan, Toivo Rovainen, Julie Haehn, Joyce Godecke, and Anthony Gallela. Graphics by James Ernest and the Internet. Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games. Some rights reserved. Published by Cheapass Games, Seattle WA: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. There is a brief license rights summary on the following page.

4 Free? Seriously? Tell me a little more about that. Okay, here s the deal. If I made a great game and sold it to you for ten bucks, I d probably keep about a dollar. If I sold it to a big game company, they d probably make a nicer version for thirty bucks, and I d still get about a dollar. The rest of your money would go to printers, distributors, retail stores, and at least three freight companies. And most of those guys don t know anything about what makes a great game. Mass-producing entertainment is a gamble. It s a convoluted way for creators to protect their intellectual property, by selling it in a way that is prohibitively expensive to counterfeit. And it s getting a little old. Why do you pay 30 for a board game? The story goes like this: the retail price of a game covers the cost of manufacturing it, and there is no way you could make your own copy for that price, to say nothing of the hassle of finding little wooden men in six colors. So, it s worth 30 because it costs 30, QED. But the value in a board game isn t the manufacturing cost. It s the play value. Unfortunately, this means that some games are priced way out of whack with what they are worth. And because the big gamble doesn t always work out, some of your money actually helps pay for the stuff that goes straight to the dump. I ve decided to try a different gamble. I m giving my games away for free. This way, you can read the rules, make a copy, and even play the thing, before you decide what it s worth. If you do like my games, I hope you will send me some money. But I m also hoping you will share this experiment with your friends. You are my sales force, my marketing department, my demo team. You re also my testers, so if you can think of ways to improve my games, please share them with me. I m easy to find at big gaming conventions, and even easier online. Look for Cheapass Games on Facebook, or drop me a line at cheapassjames@gmail.com. If we do this right, we will get famous and do shaving ads. But more importantly, we will prove that there is a better way for a creator to profit from his work. And nothing has to go to the dump. Our Creative Commons Agreement Summary: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit: or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. This agreement means... You are free: to Share to copy, distribute and transmit the work (in this case, the electronic files that comprise the work). Under the following conditions: Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). In this case, Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games: www. cheapass.com. Noncommercial You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. With the understanding that: Waiver Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. (For example, a license to manufacture, or approval to distribute a new set of rules or graphics, can be obtained under a separate agreement.) Public Domain Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license. Other Rights In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license: Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and limitations; The author s moral rights; Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights. Notice For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. That means including all pages of this document, unaltered.

5 How to Make your Agora Cards: Making the cards for Agora is simple. Here s how I do it. If you re an expert, you can ignore these hints and do it however you like. Step 1: Full-Sheet Labels: Full-sheet mailing labels are great. Get white ones, suitable for whatever printer you will use. You can get them at any office supply store for about 25 each (in packs) and they will be very handy for making cards and game boards. Print the five card sheets on full-sheet labels. You can use inkjet, laser, or whatever gives you the best and most convenient results. See Step 4 about sizing the card backs. Step 2: Heavy Card Stock: You could buy medium-weight stock (110-lb Index, for example) and print directly on that, but I prefer to stick the labels to something heavier. Look for white shirt-box cardboard or lightweight illustration or matte board. If you get colored matte board, it makes its own card backs. Stick the uncut full-sheet labels to the boards. If the boards are really large, you can cut them to a manageable size, but DO NOT cut them down to card size. Stick the full sheet labels on first, and then cut them down in Step 3. Step 3: A Good Guillotine Cutter: If you don t have an awesome guillotine paper cutter, use the one at the local copy shop. Or buy one. Trim the sheets as follows: First, trim them at the outside edge of the printed area (do not cut at the crop marks yet). This rough cut makes the crop marks easier to use, and ensures that you have put the labels on straight. Next, make horizontal slices (the short way) at the crop marks. This means you will lose the crop marks on the short sides, but that s not a big deal. Next, slice down the middle of each pair, using the centers of the pillars as a guide. Finally, set your cutter stop (there should be a backstop on the cutter that you can lock in place) so you can finish every card to the same length. Step 4: Card Backs (Optional): If you want card backs, there is a card back file. Print this file at 93% on full-sheet labels, so that the card back labels will be slightly smaller than the fnished cards. Once the cards are labeled (on the front) and cut, cut the label sheets with the guillotine cutter, eyeballing the lines, and apply the stickers to the backs of the cards. If you re clever enough to print both sides of the cardstock before you cut it, or to align the labels, more power to you. I find that is more trouble than it s worth. If you do it this way, you can print the card backs at 100%. Nice Bits! How to flesh out your Cheapass bits box. The Rules: We ve standardized our new rulebooks to 8.5 x 11 PDFs, so you can keep them together in a binder. Older PDF rulebooks are harder to deal with, so please bear with us as we convert all the old ones. You might also want to fold up your rulebooks and keep them in the box with the game, but for a little game like Agora this might be more than the box can hold. And of course, if you live in the 21st century, you don t have to print the rules at all. The Game Box: Start collecting empty boxes, or find a supplier of decent cheap boxes. Agora is 40 cards and some counters, and fits easily in a small card box, roughly 4.5 x 3.25 x 2.25, which you can find in a shop that sells baseball cards. There is a PDF called box labels at Cheapass.com if you want to print labels for various sizes of box, notebooks, or your school locker. The Bits Box: For Cheapass Games you might want to keep one collection of good pieces, rather than putting adequate parts in every box. Many of our pieces are generic enough to be re-used in lots of different games. Personally, I like to have the right bits in every box. But if your collection spends a lot of time on the road, consolidate! You can pilfer pieces from old board games you hate, or games (and other toys) that you get cheap: on super-sale at the department store, garage sales, or at your friendly local reseller of donated junk. For very nice specialized parts, check online piece sellers and educational products stores, who often carry better generic bits than normal hobby game stores. Check out cheapass.com for fun labels to help you customize your bits box. Pieces for Agora: Money: Use paper money or poker chips, in denominations of 1 and 5, to a total of about 200. For your master bits box, you should get some unmarked poker chips in four colors for maximum cross-game versatility. For Agora, you can use paper money in 1s and 5s, pennies and nickels, two colors of non-player counters, or keep score on a piece of paper. Counters: These are colored counters approximately 0.75 to 1 across. They should fit within the squares but cover the circles. You can use glass beads, plastic mini-chips, 2x2 Lego plates, or whatever you can steal from your least favorite game. There is no legal limit, but 25 is about as many as we have ever needed.