Terrain Build Costs
Plains, Towns: 1 (basic build cost)
Mountain: +2 per half-hex
River: +2 per hex-side
Swamp: +2 per half-hex
Actual Build Costs
1: Plains - Plains
3: Plains - River - Plains; Plains - Mountain
5: Mountain - Mountain; Plains - River - Mountain
Terrain Notes
Adjacent countries are impassable
Variant Rules
Introduction
The following variant rules are designed to be used with the Transcontinental Unites States Railway Rivals map. There are no cities on the printed map; cities appear during the game as described in the rules below.
This variant involves considerably more luck than an ordinary Railway Rivals game. If you find this unacceptable, you should not play this variant.
Rounds of Play
The game consists of one building round followed by fifteen racing rounds. The winner is the rival with the most cash at the end of the racing rounds.
Foreign Countries
No track may be built into Canada or Mexico. No cities may appear in these countries.
East and West Coast Hexes
A hex is an East Coast hex if it is adjacent to an Atlantic Ocean water hex, or to a water hex connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Hexes adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico are not East Coast hexes. East Coast hexes run from D57 to M98. For example, Q49 is an East Coast hex, but Q48 is not.
A hex is a West Coast hex if it is adjacent to a Pacific Ocean water hex. Hexes adjacent to hex O2 (San Francisco Bay) are considered West Coast hexes.
Appearance of Cities
Cities appear during the game in four ways:
Game Start
To start the game, each rival selects an East Coast hex as a starting hex. The GM creates a city in each hex chosen. If two or more rivals choose the same hex, the GM creates a multiple-key city. No rival receives a bonus for connecting any starting city.
The GM then creates a set of cities at random as described in the next section, and announces the die rolls for Round 1.
GM Created Cities
Before the building round, the GM creates a set of new cities. The number of new cities created is equal to the number of rivals.
At the end of each round (except Rounds 15-16) four new cities are created.
Non-city, non-water hexes are selected at random for this purpose from among those in the "eligible" region. During Round 1, only hexes numbered 41-57 or 91-98 are eligible. The eligible region moves two hexes west per round up until round 11, when it includes hexes numbered 21-57 or 71-98. For rounds 12-14, the eligible region consists of the entire United States.
Rivals may receive bonuses as usual for connecting GM-created cities. If such a city is created in a hex already occuppied by track, the usual bonus is paid to the rival(s) whose track is in the hex.
Building
Building during the building round is regulated by three building dice as usual. Building continues to be regulated in this way during the racing rounds until the Transcontinental race (see below) is run. After this, building is on a per-hex basis, with rivals paying in cash for their builds.
Races
Each round except Round 1 is a racing round. Each racing round begins with a set of races, with the number of races being equal to the number of rivals. No city may be used in more than one race per round (excepting multiple-key cities as usual). Cities created at the end of the previous round are not used in the races, since the rivals have not had a chance to connect them.
There is no sectoring of races in this game. There is no attempt to assure that each city is involved in the same number of races. There is no guarantee that a given city will be in any races at all. There is no minimum race length. Races are resolved using an ordinary die.
For each race entered, the exact route must be clearly specified (if there are two or more routes of the same length and with the same payments, the GM chooses one at random). No rival or joint run team may use a route if a better route is available (a route is better than a given route if it is shorter without involving more payments, or if it involves less payments without being longer). Exchanges of running powers is not permitted in this game.
If a race is not entered the first time it is offerred, it is re-offerred just once in the following round (after that it is dropped, even if there is no line between the two cities). There is one exception to this rule, namely, the
Special Transcontinental Race
The United States Government has offerred a special bonus for the first Transcontinental line. To reflect this there is a special Transcontinental race from an East Coast city to any West Coast city. This race is offerred as soon as there is a route along which it can possibly be run. It is reofferred as many times as necessary until it is run. The payoff for this race is double the usual payoff -- 40 for the winner and 20 for second place.
West Coast Operations
Each rival may start West Coast operations once during the game. This may be done at the start of the builds during any round from Round 11-15. The rival selects any West Coast hex and pays 6 in cash to create a new city in that hex. That city becomes an additional starting city for that rival. However, all building on a rival's West Coast network costs double until such time as the West Coast network is connected to the rival's East Coast network (this represents the extra cost of shipping building materials by sea around Cape Horn). The two networks are connected when it is possible to run between the rival's two starting cities using only the rival's own track.
Cities Created During the Races
Cities may be created during the races. When a train enters a hex on a roll of "1" and immediately rolls a second "1", a new city is created in the hex. No bonus is paid for this city. If a city is already in the hex, it is awarded an additional key. This rule reflects the role of rail traffic in causing economic growth.
Mountains and Swamps
Mountain hexes are treated just as in an ordinary game. Swamps cost like mountains for building purposes, but impose no delay during the races.
If a new city is created in a mountain or swamp hex, the hex becomes both a city and a mountain or swamp, so the additional building costs to enter the hex still apply.
Estuaries
Rivers cost 2 extra to cross, just as in an ordinary game. This includes places where the rivers are estuaries in real life, such as O1-P1 and K53-K54.
Die Rolling Scheme
Until the Transcontinental race is run, there will be three building segments each round. During this time, builds will be regulated by die rolls. I will reroll all `1's, and if the total for any round is less than 9, I will reroll all three dice. After the Transcontinental race is run, I will permit you to build up to six hexes per round at your own expense. Remember that there will be sixteen rounds in this game, and that racing will begin in Round~2.
Credits
Designed by Eric Brosius
Railway Rivals c David Watts;