REGISTERED IN U.S. PATENT OFFICE
COPYRIGHT 1937 BY PARKER BROTHERS
RECREATED DIGITALLY IN 2020 BY TRENTON-TELGE
For 2 to 6 players
THE IDEA OF THE GAME
Players act as Reporters for the several Newspapers published in the city of " Urbania." As in real reporting, each player attempts to bring in as much news as possible, to be the first to reach and report on happenings of importance, and to be on the spot as soon as possible after any major disaster or catastrophe has occurred. By so doing he may accumulate credits which make him the " Star Reporter" and the Winner of the Game.
EQUIPMENT
The game is played on a board representing an airplane view of a countryside on which are shown Roads, Railroads, Cities, Airplane Landing Fields, etc. There are two dice for determining moves, six colored pins, six telephones, and six airplanes for players to use in pursuit of news. There are also three sets of cards as follows: 63 News, 9 Disaster, and 8 Catastrophe.
RULES
To Start The Game
Shuffle the three kinds of cards separately and place them in three piles with the illustrated side face down in any convenient place on the table. Each player then draws one NEWS CARD; and selects as his playing pieces a pin, a telephone, and an airplane, all of the same color. He turns his News Card illustrated side up in front of him and sticks his pin in the central city marked " Urbania." He retains the telephone until used later in the game and places his airplane on the airport at Baytown near Urbania. Now all players throw the dice in turn and the player throwing the highest total moves first and is followed by the other players in rotation to the left.
Location of Cities
On his News Card he will find an Event noted, a City given where it took place, and the number of Points to which he is entitled when he reaches this city. He will also find a letter and number in parenthesis on the card. By means of this letter and number he may locate his city on the map.
Methods of Travel
There are three Methods of Travel which a player may use to reach the city where he may pick up his News Assignment. He must announce his method of travel before throwing the dice.
METHOD No. 1
He may go by AUTOMOBILE in which case he throws the dice and moves his pin as many white spaces as the total throw of the dice along the road (the black and white tracks) in the direction he wishes to go.
METHOD No. 2
He may go by TRAIN but in this case he must be on some city or must reach it by an exact throw of the dice before he can start to use this method of transportation. If his pin is already on a city and he wishes to travel by rail, he throws the dice and if the total of the throw is an Even Number he moves his pin to the next city on the railroad line in the direction in which he wishes to proceed. (He moves in this same way and for the same distance if the total is even, regardless of the number of spots exposed on the dice.) On the other hand if he finds the total of the throw is Odd , he cannot move on that turn, but must wait until on a following turn he throws a total which is Even before he can proceed from that city to another by rail.
METHOD No. 3
He may go by AIRPLANE. To do this he must travel by train or automobile to an airport. (He need not reach the airport by exact throw.) When he reaches an airport, he must throw a double to secure a plane and, to show that he has it, he puts his plane with his pin on the airport. He must throw another double on a succeeding turn to fly. When he shakes this second double he may move his pin and his plane to any airport on the board. When a player has secured a plane, he is considered to have chartered it for the game. He may leave it at any airport and proceed with his pin to any part of the board and then if he wishes may telephone ( how to do this is explained below ) and have his plane come to any airport on the board. He must then reach that airport with his pin and shake only One Double to fly. (After he has first chartered his plane, he need only shake this one double to fly if he (his pin) is at the same port as his plane.)
Obtaining News
As the ordinary run of News is not difficult to obtain by a reporter who reaches the place of the event, it is not necessary for a player to reach the place designated on a News Card by an exact throw of the dice. For example: A player three spaces away may throw a total of seven on the dice and move three of this seven to reach his city, sacrificing the other four points in order to do so. When a player reaches the city which was noted on the original News Card, he is considered to have obtained the desired information for his paper and may then turn this News Card down in front of him as the beginning of a pile of cards which will count to his credit at the end of the game.
Securing New Assignments
After a player has completed an assignment he may then secure a new News Assignment by drawing another News Card as soon as he returns to "Urbania" (which he need not reach by exact throw) by any method of transportation, or he may prefer to telephone in to his paper to secure a new News Assignment (as explained below).
How to Telephone
At any time when a player's pin is exactly on any city , no matter whether it is where he went for News or not, he may telephone in to his editor for a new News Assignment, (provided of course that he has completed the assignment he was working on ) or to an airport for his plane. To do this he must put the little telephone piece at the side of his pin on the board, announce he is to telephone, and throw the dice. If he throws a total of seven , he is considered to have made his connection and may draw a new Assignment (a News Card) if he has telephoned for that, or may move his airplane to any airport on the board if he has telephoned for that. If he does not throw a total of seven he must wait to throw a seven on a succeeding turn.
If a player has made several unsuccessful throws when trying for a total of seven (which he wishes to telephone for a new News Assignment or for his plane) he may decide that he does not wish to try to telephone on future turns, and in this case after announcing his intention and his method of travel and removing his telephone piece from the board after he throws, he may use any other method of transportation to move his pin back to "Urbania" and secure a new News Assignment, or to reach the place on the board where he had intended travelling by plane.
Disaster Cards
Players keep moving around the board, as indicated by the cards they draw, gathering items of news with their various credits until some player throws Double Sixes. This player does not move , or obtain an airplane, on this throw, but must turn a Disaster Card face up. The next player following and all other players in turn, including the player who threw the Double Sixes, may now temporarily give up their individual Assignments and attempt to reach the scene of the Disaster and thus receive the larger credit. (Specific News Items may be secured only by players who draw them, but Disasters are open to all.)
When a real Disaster occurs it is frequently quite difficult for a reporter to reach the scene and for this reason, in this game, the cities noted on Disaster Cards must be reached by an exact throw of the dice. No player in attempting to reach the city may pass through it or even count it as a space for the movement of his pin, except when he does reach it by exact throw, but if he is travelling by automobile must move back and forth on the road by which he is approaching it until he can complete a move at that point. However, at that time, (and any other time in the game if he wishes) he may split the total of the throw of the dice. For example: if he throws a 6 and a 3 he may move 9 either forward or back or 6 forward and 3 back or 3 forward and 6 back.
He must , however, be very careful in making this move to move in the same direction the total number of spots shown on any one die. He cannot, for instance, split the six shown on one die to move four in one direction and two in another. Of course if the city is on a railroad, or has an airport, he may reach the city exactly by plane or train, provided the Disaster Card does not forbid planes landing at that particular airport.
After some player has secured the Disaster card by being first to reach the city where the disaster occurred, he places it face down on the pile of news items he has secured. All players now continue on their individual Assignments, and move to obtain the News Item which they were seeking, or to return to "Urbania," or telephone for a new News Item. They continue seeking regular News Items until another Disaster breaks by the throw of Double Sixes.
Catastrophe Cards
Players may vary the length of a game by deciding before it starts the number of Disaster Cards they wish to draw (usually 3 to 5) during the game. As soon as this number of cards has been drawn from the Disaster pile a CATASTROPHE CARD is drawn by the next player who throws a Double Six.
All players may attempt to secure this card in the same way as the Disaster Cards and they should do so as its count is so high that it usually wins the game for its possessor.
Only one CATASTROPHE CARD is turned up from the pile in each game and when this story is obtained by the first player reaching the scene, the game ends.
Players now add up their score from the points on the cards and the one having the highest credit becomes the " Star Reporter" and Wins The Game.
