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Highrise Homino (Rules)

Setup

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Create a deck of Tenant Tiles and one for Room Tiles.

Draw 6 Tenants from the deck and place them faceup on the table: those are your Guests.

Draw 6 room tiles from the deck and also place them faceup on the table: that is your Market.

Pick anyone to be start player.

Example of how to setup a new game.

Objective

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The game ends as soon as either the Tenant Deck or Room Deck is empty. Players sum the value of all Tenants they have (and any special tiles that tell you they score points). Highest score wins!

Gameplay

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Gameplay happens in rounds. Each round, players take clockwise Turns. Once done, execute one Attract Phase.

Turn

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On your turn, grab 1 domino from the Market, and place it in your map.

The placement rules are simple.

  • It needs to connect to an existing domino and can’t overlap.
  • Floors need to match. (Unless there’s a wall/door between them.)
  • You can’t connect a door and a wall.

You may also destroy as much of your personal map as you want, as long as your map is connected (no loose parts) by the end of your turn. The destroyed tiles are discarded permanently. This is called Construction and can have consequences.

Example of how to take a turn: pick a domino from market and place it in your personal map.

Attract

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First, determine what floor every player is on.

  • Players count how many floor icons they have.
  • Then sort players based on that, low to high. (The player who has the least such icons is the first floor, the next player is the second floor, etcetera.)
  • Ties are allowed: those players are simply all on the same floor. If so, they take turns in clockwise order, from start player.
Example of how to sort players and then attract Tenants (if you fulfill their wishes).

Now, in that order, players attract a Tenant.

  • Pick 1 Tenant from the Guests.
  • You may only pick Tenants of whom you fulfill their wishes (see next section).
  • Crucially, when fulfilling wishes, you also count the dominoes of other players to whom you’re “connected” as your own.
  • Place the Tenant somewhere near your map.

By default, you are connected to everyone on the same floor as you. Special icons (such as the elevator) can change this.

Once done, refill the Guests and the Market, and play the next round.

Guests & Wishes

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Guests have two sides: one side shows their SCORE (on the star icon), the other their WISHES.

Their wish icons follow a few simple rules.

  • Most wishes are regular icons also present on tiles. You must have at least one of that object in your map.
  • If there’s a number as well, it means you need to have at least that many of the object.
  • A red cross means it’s inverted: you should not have that object. (Thus, if there’s a number, it means you must have strictly fewer of the object than the number.)
Example of what every part of a Guest tile means.

Variants & Expansions

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Played the base game and ready for more? Or want to tweak it a little to fit your group? Check out these variants and expansions!

All the expansions add a third type of wall: windows. Their rule is simple: nothing can be placed at the other side of a window. (Windows must be at the “outside” of the building.)

The expansions also talk about Tenants “leaving”. This simply means that they go to another player.

Leaving Tenants are always “cheatable”. This means that it’s up to the player who receives the Tenant to check if they go to them, and say so. The current owner of that Tenant can “forget” it if nobody else catches it.

Room Service

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From now on, it becomes important to create Rooms.

A “room” is any enclosed space (walls on all sides) with at least one door.

This expansion adds a property to some Tenants: Construction. If this icon shows (next to their star),

Example of what a Room is and how Construction works.
  • You can’t attract this Tenant if you did Construction this turn.
  • Additionally, they will leave if you do Construction during your turn.
  • If you share a floor with multiple players, it must leave to one of them.

Guests can now have Special Wishes (that relate to Rooms). The table below explains what each icon means.

There are also some new Objects that can appear.

Wallet Watchers

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This expansion adds another property to some Tenants: Wallet. If this icon shows,

  • They can only be attracted if they can actually pay to live with you.
  • Their score = the maximum price they’re willing to pay.
  • The current price of your map is the smaller of these two numbers: your LARGEST ROOM or the number of UNIQUE ICONS.
Example of the Wallet property and calculating your apartment Price.

If you’re in for a challenge, also add this optional rule.

  • Whenever you Attract a new Tenant, they will leave if you have the wrong price now.
  • This Tenant goes to whoever has a price they can pay.
  • If none exist, they are simply discarded.

At the end of the game, the final price of your map is ADDED to your total score.

Finally, this expansion also adds a few more Special Wishes and Objects. (If you choose “text on tiles”, which is the default, the way an Object works is simply written on the tile itself.)

Useful Utilities

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This expansion adds some basic utilities: Power (“electricity”), Water and Wi-Fi (“internet”).

How do you get them?

Example of how to access and provide Utility wishes.
  • Special “generator” icons appear on the dominoes.
  • If you place such a generator in your map, you get the utility if you have “Access” to it.
  • You have Access if a player on the floor below you has the utility. (In a sense, the wires/pipes go up through the building.)
  • If there’s no player below you—you’re the lowest floor—then you always have Access to it.

From now on, guests will wish for these things. See the added Special Wishes (and Objects) below.

Happy Housing

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This expansion adds some more Special Wishes and Objects (again).

It also adds a new property: Wandering. If a Tenant shows this icon,

  • You can attract it by satisfying just one of its wishes.
  • Whenever you Attract a new Tenant, however, they can leave. If another player satisfies ALL their wishes now, they go to them.
Example of the Wandering property.

As usual, this expansion adds some special Wishes and Objects too.

Living Together

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This expansion makes it possible (or simply more fun and challenging) to play the game completely cooperatively.

You’ll be working together to achieve goals for your entire skyscraper, for which you’re rewarded with unique tiles and objects to place in your map. But you’ll also be threatened, such as by quality inspection, and you must collectively pass these checks.

Example of how to play the cooperative variant (in general).

During setup, create two decks: Goal Dominoes and Threat Dominoes. Remove any dominoes from a set that you’re not using this game.

Keep three faceup Goal Dominoes at all times, and one faceup Threat domino (drawn from these decks).

Also deal every player their own Goal Domino. It is not allowed to communicate your personal (secret) goal in any way. Your actions and choices will have to reveal it to the others.

During gameplay,

  • Whenever a goal is achieved, give that domino to a player. They now place it in their map and get its reward. (This domino is considered as having “all floor types” and “no walls”, allowing you to place it anywhere.)
  • Whenever a threat is not defended, place the card faceup on the table. If it has a penalty, it triggers now. If you have 3 failed threats, you lose immediately.

During the Attract Phase, check whether goals are achieved or threats not defended. Unachieved goals simply stay where they are. Defended threats are discarded and replaced by a new one from the deck.

Unless stated otherwise, goals refer to a single floor. (If it’s your secret personal goal, then it obviously refers to your personal map only.)

When the game is over, you win if all personal goals have been reached. Your score is the combined score of all the individual maps—higher is better!