How to Play Bus & Stop, a kawaii set collecting game.
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win, collect the most passengers, by loading and unloading your bus efficiently.
To set up
- Sort the 4 of each coloured and 2 multicoloured destination cards by type and stack them in ascending order, with the highest values on top.
- Shuffle the passenger cards, place them face down on the table and turn 5 face up in a row to make the bus stop. If all 5 passengers are the same colour, reshuffle and deal a new set.
- The player who most recently rode a bus begins.
To play the game
On your turn you can either pick up passengers from the bust stop, or drop them off for a destination card.
To pick up, take ALL the passengers of the SAME colour from the bus stop and place them in front of you into your bus.
- Your bus has a limit of 10 passengers.
- You cannot pick up a colour if you cannot fit all of them in your bus. The only exception is senior citizens.
If, when picking up a colour, you pick up a senior citizen, put it face down next to your bus. They’re worth 1 point each at the end of the game. You can't collect more than 10 senior citizens in total.
After picking up, refill the empty spaces at the bus stop with new passengers. If all 5 passengers are the same colour, reshuffle and go again. If they are a second time, continue playing.
Option 2 is to drop passengers off. To drop off you must meet the criteria on the topmost destination card on one of the stacks.
- Colour destination cards require you to have a set amount of passengers of the matching type, not colour.
- Multicoloured destinations require you to have cards of different colours, irrespective of type.
For example, to claim this red destination card I need to drop off either 3, 4, 5 or 6 red mothers.
To claim it, remove that many of the matching passengers from your bus, put them face up in front of you, take the destination, flip it over and turn it so that to the side corresponding to the amount you dropped off is at the top, tucking it behind the passengers.
If you don’t have the correct passengers, you can't drop off.
When a player other than you drops off, you may ‘skedaddle’, by dropping off 1 passenger that matches the drop off destination, or 1 card of the same colour for a multi colour destination and placing it face down by your bus.
Skedaddling represents a passenger getting off unplanned and, according to the instructions, 'is the true joy of riding a bus’.
In the rare case you can neither pick up or drop off, you must make an unhappy passenger, by choosing 1 or more people to discard from your bus. Place them face up on their side by your bus.
Game end & scoring
Keep picking up and dropping off passengers until either:
- The bus stop can’t be filled with 5 passengers, OR
- There are just 6 destination cards remaining
Every player takes 1 final drop off action if they can, skedaddling on other players turns if they wish and then scoring begins.
- Total the points at the top of each destination card you collected.
- Add 1 point for every elderly and skedaddled passenger
- Minus 1 point for each unhappy passenger
- Score 3 bonus points if your bus is completely empty
The player with the most points wins!
In the case of a tie, the player with the most elderly and skedaddled passengers wins.
That's Bus & Stop, a pleasant little card game. Toot Toot!