Setting Up:

Welcome to the Agora, the ever-changing

Ancient Greek Marketplace. Its a wide open space filled
with chaos and excitement. And its what youre
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 players letter
has nothing to do with his turn order. It merely determines
which special effects will happen on that players 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: 15-25 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 thats not
blocked by other cards or by the table edge.
$
$

The Playing Surface:

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.

$
$

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.

Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games: www.cheapass.com

This Cheapass Game is free. Thats right, free. You can print it, copy it, and share it with
your friends. Obviously, if you like it, wed 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 www.cheapass.com.

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.

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.)

X
X

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 Bs larger
shop) would be the target of the Flood. In this case, Player
Bs 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.
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.

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 Bs shop even though it has no B counters.
Player Bs 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.

Income Example 4:
If an alley is completely
enclosed, doors facing
into that alley make no
money.

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 its 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

Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games: www.cheapass.com

Step 3: Place your Card.

Step 4: Buy One Shop.

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.

Legal

Not Legal

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 its 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, its 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 its 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 youre 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!

In the last step of your turn, you may buy one shop. This
is optional, but it is usually a good idea.
As youve 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 thats 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 its 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 thats fine. Those segments still belong to you, but they
dont count as volume for Fires and Floods.
You cant buy a shop that has no circles, because there is
no way to mark it as yours. (Yes, we did that on purpose.)
Running out of Money: You can not actually run out of
money in this game. You start with 10 coins, but thats 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.
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
JamesErnest and the Internet. Agora is 2002, 2011 James
Ernest and Cheapass Games. Some rights reserved. Published
by Cheapass Games, Seattle WA: www.cheapass.com.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial - NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy
of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/3.0/ 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.

Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games: www.cheapass.com

Free?
Seriously?
Tell me a little more about that.
Okay, heres the deal. If I made a great game and sold
it to you for ten bucks, Id probably keep about a dollar.
If I sold it to a big game company, theyd probably
make a nicer version for thirty bucks, and Id 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 dont know anything about
what makes a great game.
Mass-producing entertainment is a gamble. Its a convoluted way for creators to protect their intellectual
property, by selling it in a way that is prohibitively
expensive to counterfeit. And its 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,
its worth $30 because it costs $30, QED.
But the value in a board game isnt the manufacturing
cost. Its 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 doesnt
always work out, some of your money actually helps
pay for the stuff that goes straight to the dump.
Ive decided to try a different gamble. Im 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 its worth.
If you do like my games, I hope you will send me some
money. But Im also hoping you will share this experiment with your friends. You are my sales force, my
marketing department, my demo team.
Youre also my testers, so if you can think of ways to
improve my games, please share them with me. Im
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:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ 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 authors 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.

Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games: www.cheapass.com

How to Make your Agora Cards:

Making the cards for Agora is simple. Heres how I do it. If
youre 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 dont 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 thats 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 youre 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 its 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: Weve 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
dont 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.

Agora is 2002, 2011 James Ernest and Cheapass Games: www.cheapass.com