Jcbarr: Create rules summary for Byline (2-4 players)

2026-10-28T17:26:26Z

Create rules summary for Byline (2-4 players)

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'''Byline''' (Figment Box Games, designer Derek Lovell) is a worker-placement game for 2–4 players set in the 1960s newspaper world. Over seven days you plan your hours, gather and verify sources, take assignments from the editor and file your stories by their deadline. Coins are the score; reputation is the tie-breaker.

== Overview ==

Each player has 7 '''Hour Discs''' (9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3) and 15 '''Player Discs'''. The main board has eight locations, each with one circle per hour of the day. Every circle holds at most one disc per day, so an hour taken by another player is an hour you cannot use there.

A day has three steps:

# '''Planning''' – in turn order, place discs to claim actions (or pass).
# '''Resolution''' – the day plays out hour by hour, 9 am to 3 pm.
# '''Clean-up''' – refresh the assignment rows and source columns, age your assignments, start the next day.

After the seventh day (Sunday) the game is scored.

== Planning ==

On your turn place the discs for '''one action''': exactly the number of consecutive hours the location needs, all of them free. The last disc is placed light side up (the action resolves at that hour); earlier hours are dark side up. 3 pm and 9 am are not consecutive. You may visit the same location more than once in a day.

Instead of placing, you may '''pass''': gain 1 coin for each disc you did not place and sit out the rest of the planning step.

Free actions on your turn, as often as you like: spend 1 reputation to verify one source, or spend a ''Verify 2'' token to verify two.

== Resolution ==

Each hour from 9 to 3, actions resolve from the leftmost location to the rightmost; in a stacked circle the bottom disc goes first. An action that cannot be carried out is simply lost, except at the Deadlines (see below).

{| class="wikitable"
! Location !! Hours !! Effect
|-
| '''Coffee Break''' || 1 || Sets tomorrow's turn order: the earliest coffee disc goes first, then the other coffee drinkers in hour order, then everyone else in today's relative order.
|-
| '''Deadlines''' || 1 || File an assignment whose printed clock matches this hour (with 3–4 players you may also file one hour late: 9→10, 11→12, 1→2, never 3). See ''Filing a story''.
|-
| '''Visit Source (2h)''' || 2 || Take 1 source token from the column slot next to one of your discs. Two of these locations exist with 3–4 players, one with 2.
|-
| '''Visit Source (3h)''' || 3 || Take 2 source tokens from slots next to your discs.
|-
| '''Assignment Editor''' || 2 || Take one face-up assignment card into the slot on your board that matches its calendar number (or the next free slot to the right).
|-
| '''Verify Source''' || 2 || Flip unverified sources to verified: 1 if you are the first player to verify today, up to 2 for the second, up to 3 for the third.
|-
| '''Research''' || 1 || Take 1 Research token.
|-
| '''The Bar''' || 1 || Opens at 10 am. Choose one: discard an incomplete assignment for 3 coins; lose 1 reputation for an assignment card or 3 coins; or pay sources (1 verified, 2 unverified, 2 Official Reports or 3 Research) for 1 reputation, an assignment card or 3 coins.
|}

If no source is available next to your disc you take an Official Report from the pool instead. With 2 players you may always choose an Official Report instead of the adjacent source.

== Sources ==

Six token types: '''Official Report''', '''Leaked Document''', '''Tip-Off''', '''Interview''', '''Photo''' and '''Research'''. Tokens drawn from a Source Column arrive '''unverified''' (red side). Official Reports and Research never need verifying. Only verified sources can be spent at a deadline.

Special tokens from the Editor's Bonus grid: ''Verify 2'', ''Extra Assignment'', ''Stack Hour'' (place a disc on top of an occupied circle; the bottom disc resolves first) and ''Late counts as on time''.

== Filing a story ==

At the Deadlines location, pick an assignment on your board whose clock matches the hour and pay its source icons with verified sources. Then:

* The paper's '''circulation''' rises by 1.
* You earn the card's coins (National and International) or the paper's current '''Headline Value''' (Headlines), plus the coin bonus printed under the card's slot on your board (+4 to +0, from the leftmost slot to the rightmost).
* A Headline may also give a reputation star if the Headline Value row shows one.
* '''On time only''': place a Player Disc on either the Editor's Bonus grid (in the paper's row, no further right than your reputation allows) or the Story Bonus grid (the card's story type and paper), then gain the reputation shown on the card.

Crossing a reputation threshold (4, 5 and 6 stars) for the first time releases an extra Editor's Bonus disc that must be placed on the grid.

If you placed a Deadline disc but '''cannot file''' anything that hour (no matching card or missing sources) you lose 1 reputation, or 3 coins if your reputation cannot drop.

== Clean-up ==

# Take your discs back.
# Each assignment row: discard the rightmost card, slide the others right, refill from the deck.
# Each source column: discard the bottom token, slide the rest down, refill from the bag.
# With 2–3 players the blocking discs move one hour later (3 pm wraps to 9 am).
# Your assignments move one slot to the right. A card leaving the last slot is discarded and costs 1 reputation.

== End of the game ==

After Sunday's clean-up:

# You may hand in unfinished assignments you hold the verified sources for, at a cost of 1, then 2 more, then 3 more reputation per card. Each one raises circulation by 1 and pays half its coins (rounded up), with no slot bonus or reputation.
# Story Bonus: each disc on the Story Bonus grid is worth the highest threshold value at or left of the paper's circulation marker.
# Leftover tokens: 1 coin per verified source, per 2 Official Reports, per 2 unverified sources, per 3 Research and per unused special token.

The player with the most coins wins. Ties go to the higher reputation, then are shared.

== Player count differences ==

* '''2 players''': one Source Column, no late filing, circulation and bonus grids use the 2-player side of the board.
* '''2–3 players''': blocking discs occupy some main-board circles and move one hour later each day.
* '''3 players''': four blocking discs cover the leftmost Editor's Bonus column.

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Jcbarr: Create rules summary for Byline (2-4 players)