How to Play Santa Monica: The Long Weekend

Alderac Entertainment Group, Game Harbor · Board game · 2021
2–4 · best 3 40 min Weight 2.0/5
— rating Ludopedia
7.8 rating BGG

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Step by step

Objective of the Game

In Santa Monica: The Long Weekend, players are building their own section of the iconic Santa Monica beachfront. The goal is to strategically play Feature and Event Cards to create a vibrant city, attract People, and fulfill various scoring conditions. The game ends when one player has played their 14th Feature/Event Card, triggering final scoring. The player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the end of the game wins.

Preparation (Setup)

  1. Shuffle all Feature and Event Setup Cards into a single facedown Deck.
  2. Display 8 Cards into 2 faceup rows of 4 Cards each, on top of each other.
  3. Shuffle all Event Cards into a single facedown Deck.
  4. Display 2 Event Cards faceup.
  5. Randomly select 2 of the 8 Sand Dollar Tiles.
  6. Randomly select 1 of the 4 Scoring Objective Tiles.
  7. Randomly choose a 1st Player; they receive the Start Player Marker.
  8. Display a number of Starting Feature Tiles equal to the number of players. In reverse turn order, each player chooses 1.
  9. Each player receives the starting Resources indicated on the bottom of their Starting Feature Tile. Place People gained on the bottom of the Tile.
  10. If your Starting Feature Tile has at least 1 Attribute matching those your Green VIPs are looking for, place 1 Footprint Token on the Tile at the start of the game.
  11. The last player places the Food Truck Token below 1 Feature Card column of their choice.
  12. The Foodie is placed 2 Cards to the right away from the Food Truck (wrapping around from the right-most Card back to the left-most Card on the bottom row).

Fluxo do Jogo

Santa Monica is played over a number of Rounds, starting with the 1st player until 1 player has played 14 Feature/Event Cards, which triggers the END OF THE GAME.

Each player's Turn consists of the following 4 Phases:

1) SELECT PHASE

EITHER:

  • A) Take 1 of the 4 bottom row Feature/Event Setup Cards from the Display.

    If you take a Card from above the Foodie or the Food Truck then activate them:

    • FOOD TRUCK - Move the Food Truck 1 Card to the right, then gain 1 Sand Dollar.
    • FOODIE - Move the Foodie 1 Card to the right. In the following Placement Action Phase you may move any 1 Person in your City 1 space.
    • BOTH UNDER THE SAME CARD - Either gain both Rewards, or 1 Reward twice, then move only the Food Truck 2 Cards to the right.

    If either the Foodie or the Food Truck are moved from the right-most Card in the Display, wrap around to the left-most Card.

  • OR
  • B) Pay to use 1 of the 2 Sand Dollar Tile Actions.

    Spend the number of Sand Dollars indicated and activate the Sand Dollar Tile itself. Food Truck/Foodie Actions are forfeit in this case.

If you take an Event Setup Card in this Phase, the other players gain the Reward indicated on the Card. Then discard the Event Setup Card and take 1 of the 2 faceup Event Cards.

2) PLACE PHASE

Beach Cards must be placed into the top row of your City, Street Cards must be placed in the bottom row. Cards must be placed orthogonally (not diagonally) adjacent to another Feature or Event Card, or your Starting Feature Tile. Event Cards count as 1 Card but have the width of 2 Feature Cards, allowing for Cards to be staggered which may leave gaps in your City. Some Sand Dollar Actions let you swap Feature Cards in your City; this occurs after placing Feature Cards. Any People on a Card move with the Card.

You may not place any Cards to the left of this Card. This also prevents you from placing an Event Card above this Card as it would overhang to the left.

3) PLACEMENT ACTION PHASE

Gain any indicated placement Rewards (top-left corner on Beach Cards, bottom-left corner on Street Cards).

Gain all People before carrying out any movement. Event Cards count as 1 Card for People movement.

  • X Gain X Sand Dollars.
  • X Gain X People of the pictured type.
  • MOVE UP TO X HERE Move X People of the type pictured, up to Y number of spaces. You can't move the same Person twice.
  • -1 Discard 1 Person of any colour, from any Card in your City.
  • Move X People of any type directly to this Card, regardless of distance.

4) REFRESH PHASE

Fill any empty space(s) in the front row of the Display with the Card from the row above it. Then fill any empty spaces in the back row from the Draw Deck. If an Event Card was taken, draw another Event Card to replace it in the display.

Ações e Como Jogar

SELECT PHASE Actions

  • Take a bottom row Feature/Event Setup Card: Choose one of the four cards from the bottom row of the display. If the Foodie or Food Truck are above the chosen card, activate their effects. If both are above the same card, you can gain both rewards or one reward twice, then move only the Food Truck 2 cards to the right.
  • Pay to use a Sand Dollar Tile Action: Spend the indicated number of Sand Dollars to activate one of the two available Sand Dollar Tile Actions. This forfeits any Food Truck/Foodie Actions for this turn.
  • Taking an Event Setup Card: If you take an Event Setup Card, all other players immediately gain the reward indicated on that card. Then, discard the Event Setup Card and take one of the two faceup Event Cards.

Sand Dollar Tile Actions

  • COST: 4 Sand Dollars. Take any 2 Cards from the front row of the display. You may also move up to 1 Person of any type 1 space in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 4 Sand Dollars. Take any 1 Card from the front row of the display and the Card in the back row behind it. You may also move up to 1 Person of any type 1 space in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 2 Sand Dollars. Take 1 Card from the front row of the display, it must have a and/or a Tag. You may also move up to 2 People of any type 1 space each in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 2 Sand Dollars. Take 1 Card from anywhere in the display, it must have a and/or a Tag. You may also move up to 2 People of any type 1 space each in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 3 Sand Dollars. Take any 1 Card from the back row of the display. You may also move up to 4 People of any type 1 space each in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 2 Sand Dollars. Take any 1 Card from the front row of the display. You may then swap any 2 Cards in your City. You may swap Event Cards in the same way as standard Feature Cards but you must have the space to place the Event Card. You may also move up to 2 People of any type 1 space each in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 1 Sand Dollar. Take any 1 Card from the front row of the display. You may also remove up to 3 1 space in the following Placement Action Phase.
  • COST: 2 Sand Dollars. Take any 1 Card from the front row of the display. You may then swap any 2 Cards in your City. You may also remove up to 2 People of any type 1 space each in the following Placement Action Phase.

PLACEMENT ACTION PHASE Rewards

  • Gain X Sand Dollars.
  • Gain X People of the pictured type.
  • Move X People: Move X People of the pictured type up to Y spaces. You cannot move the same Person twice.
  • Discard 1 Person: Discard 1 Person of any color from any Card in your City.
  • Move X People directly: Move X People of any type directly to this Card, regardless of distance.

Fim de Jogo e Pontuação

End of the Game

Once 1 player has placed their 14th Feature/Event Card, the end of the game is triggered. Continue the Current Round until the last player has taken their turn. Players then use their Final Movement with the People in their City:

  • LOCALS - You may move each up to 3 spaces.
  • TOURISTS & VIPS - You may move each 1 space.

Scoring

  1. SCORE YOUR CARDS

    Event Card scoring items are listed on the following page. Tags and placement Rewards on your Event Cards and your Starting Tile count towards applicable scoring items.

    • If there is at least 1 Card with the indicated Tag next to this Card score X VP.
    • If there is at least 1 Card that gained you Sand Dollars next to this Card score X VP.
    • If at least 2 instances of the indicated Tag are on Card(s) next to this Card score X VP.
    • If there is at least 1 Activity Ring (filled or not) next to this Card score X VP.
    • If this Card is NOT next to an Activity Ring score X VP.
    • Gain Y VP for having X of the indicated Tag anywhere in your City.
    • Score X and/or Y as indicated above.
    • If you have a Chain of Tags at least X Cards long anywhere in your City score Y VP.
    • Score Y VP per X of your remaining Sand Dollars.

    A Chain is a Group of contiguously adjacent Cards (or your Starting Feature Tile) that have the same Location Tags. If you have multiple Chains of equal size, you score only 1. All adjacency is orthogonal. Cards are never adjacent diagonally. All Scoring stacks. Tags etc... can be used to score multiple Cards.

  2. SCORE YOUR ACTIVITY RINGS
    • Each Activity Ring can hold X number of People of the type pictured. If it contains this many People score Y VP. Any additional People than this on the Card are UNPLACED.
    • These Activity Rings can hold any number of People of any type. You must have at least 1 Person in the Ring to score X VP. These Rings are considered FILLED as long as there is at least 1 Person inside them.
    • This Activity Ring Rewards 4 Sand Dollars in final scoring, NOT during the game, if the Activity Ring has 1 Person of any type in it.

    A FILLED Activity Ring is one that has the exact number of People required for its scoring requirement. UNPLACED People are People that end the game outside those placed on a Card with an already FILLED Activity Ring, or those placed in an Activity Ring that hasn't fully met its scoring requirement.

  3. SCORE YOUR FOOTPRINTS

    Footprint Tokens score for each Attribute indicated by your Starting Feature Tile (or by the "Grand Opening" Event Card if you've placed it in your City) on the Cards/Tile they're placed on. There can only be 1 Footprint Token per Card/Tile, even if VIP(s) visit multiple times, but each Token scores per Attribute.

  4. SCORE THE OBJECTIVES

    Score VP for each of the 3 scoring items on the Tile. If you have Groups or Chains of equal size, you score only 1.

    • 2 per in your longest Tags. Find your longest Group of Tags. You will score 2 VP per in it. A Group is a contiguous Group of 1 or more Cards.
    • 2 per in your largest . Find your longest Chain of non-wave Location Tags and score 2 VP per Tag. If you have multiple Chains of equal size, you score only 1.
    • The player with the most unplaced People gets -4, 2nd -2. The player with the most unplaced People loses 4 VP, the player(s) with the 2nd most loses 2 VP. If 2 or more players are tied for most unplaced People, all of those players gain 8 VP and there is no 2nd place.
    • 3 for each separate Group. Score 3 VP for each separate Group of . A Group is a contiguous Group of 1 or more Cards.
    • 3 for each of your with 3+. For each Chain of 3 or more non-wave Location Tags score 3 VP. You do not need a Card with a scoring Icon to score this Objective.
    • -1 per Card with unplaced Lose 1 VP for each Card in your City that contains 1 or more unplaced People (per Card, not per Person). A Card with a Ring that is only partially filled, or has more People than the Ring allows counts as a Card with unplaced People.
    • Score each group of 1|3|6|10. Each Group with 1 wave scores 1 VP, 2 waves scores 3 VP, 3 waves scores 6 VP, 4 or more waves scores 10 VP. A Group is a contiguous Group of 1 or more Cards.
    • 1 per set of Street and Beach Cards in your largest set.

Rules manual

Official PDF file

Prefer the Official PDF? Download the official Santa Monica: The Long Weekend rulebook or browse it online with our AI rules assistant.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Quick answers about the rules

4 questions
What is the objective of Santa Monica: The Long Weekend?
In Santa Monica: The Long Weekend, players are building their own section of the iconic Santa Monica beachfront. The goal is to strategically play Feature and Event Cards to create a vibrant city, attract People, and fulfill various scoring conditions. The game ends when one player has played their 14th Feature/Event Card, triggering final scoring. The player with the most Victory Points (VP) at the end of the game wins.
How do you set up Santa Monica: The Long Weekend?
Shuffle all Feature and Event Setup Cards into a single facedown Deck. Display 8 Cards into 2 faceup rows of 4 Cards each, on top of each other. Shuffle all Event Cards into a single facedown Deck. Display 2 Event Cards faceup. Randomly select 2 of the 8 Sand Dollar Tiles. Randomly select 1 of the 4 Scoring Objective Tiles. Randomly choose a 1st Player; they receive the Start Player Marker. Display a number of Starting Feature Tiles equal to the number of players. In reverse turn order, each…
How do you play Santa Monica: The Long Weekend?
Santa Monica is played over a number of Rounds, starting with the 1st player until 1 player has played 14 Feature/Event Cards, which triggers the END OF THE GAME. Each player's Turn consists of the following 4 Phases: 1) SELECT PHASE EITHER: A) Take 1 of the 4 bottom row Feature/Event Setup Cards from the Display. If you take a Card from above the Foodie or the Food Truck then activate them: FOOD TRUCK - Move the Food Truck 1 Card to the right, then gain 1 Sand Dollar. FOODIE - Move the Foodie…
How does Santa Monica: The Long Weekend end, and how do you score?
End of the Game Once 1 player has placed their 14th Feature/Event Card, the end of the game is triggered. Continue the Current Round until the last player has taken their turn. Players then use their Final Movement with the People in their City: LOCALS - You may move each up to 3 spaces. TOURISTS & VIPS - You may move each 1 space. Scoring SCORE YOUR CARDS Event Card scoring items are listed on the following page. Tags and placement Rewards on your Event Cards and your Starting Tile count…
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