Gamehelpbookfestival

Build your very own bookshelf in this "deck-building × roll-and-move" game for 3 to 6 players! Welcome to the Book Festival, the animals' celebration of books. Stock your booth with books and eye-catching POP displays, then watch the animal customers travel across everyone's shelves and buy them up.

Goal of the game

Earn the most review stars for your booth and be crowned MVP of the Book Festival. Collecting many stars helps, but the MVP is decided by a final draw from the vote bag — so there is always a chance for a last-minute comeback!

Game flow

Each round has two phases.

1. Action phase

Starting from the start player and going clockwise, each player takes 3 actions on their turn. Each action may be one of:

• Place books — put one or more book cards of the same genre onto a slot on your shelf.
• Buy a POP / end shelf — discard the listed cost in book cards to buy a POP display (placed on a slot) or an extra end shelf.
• Retrieve books — take books back from your shelf into your hand.
• Draw a card — draw 1 card from the deck.

If your main shelf (3 slots) is completely filled with books at the start of your turn, you draw 1 free bonus card (no action used); a filled end shelf gives 1 more.

2. Sales phase

When everyone has finished their turn, all players roll their die at the same time. Then, in start-player order, each player's animal customer moves clockwise across the booths by the number rolled. The finished shelves literally become the spaces the customers move along.

When a customer stops on a slot that holds books:

• If the genre matches the animal's favourite genre, it bulk-buys every book on that slot.
• Otherwise it buys just 1 book.
• Each book sold sends 1 review star from the shelf owner into the MVP vote bag.

Genre bonus: whenever a genre pile in the Genre Bonus Area reaches 5 books, the owner of the booth where that book sold gains 2 extra stars, and the pile is cleared.

Animals

Each animal has a favourite genre and its own die faces.

Animal	Favourite genre
Gorilla	Comedy
Elephant	Business
Cheetah	Sports
Panda	Cooking
Owl	Mystery
Penguin	Picture Books
Camel (extension)	No favourite — also buys matching books from the adjacent slots of its own booth
Chameleon (extension)	Bulk-buys any genre, but skips a shelf holding 4 or more books

POP displays

POPs are placed on your shelf slots and trigger special effects.

POP	Cost	Effect
Recommended Series!	1	When a book sells here, adjacent same-genre books in your booth are also bought.
Trial Read!	1	When a customer passes here, you may discard 2 cards to stop them on this slot.
Related Books!	2	When a book sells here, you may file it under any genre's bonus pile.
With Booklet!	3	Draw 1 extra card at the start of your turn while this is placed.
Limited Edition!	4	When a book sells here, the owner gains 1 extra star.

End of the game

The game ends at the end of the round in which any player's supply of review stars runs out. Then the festival's MVP is decided: each player adds chips to the vote bag equal to the stars they collected, the bag is shuffled, and a set number of chips are drawn. The player whose colour is drawn the most is the MVP. Having collected more stars improves your odds — but the MVP is never guaranteed!