Bus Stop

To set up, sort the four of each colored and two multi-colored destination cards by type and stack them in separate piles. Shuffle the passenger cards, place them face down on the table, and turn five face up in a row to make the bus stop. If all five passengers are the same color, reshuffle and deal a new set. The player who most recently rode a bus begins.

The objective of Bus & Stop is to collect the most passengers by efficiently loading and unloading your bus. Players earn points by successfully dropping off passengers at destinations and by collecting certain types of passengers, while losing points for unhappy passengers.

On your turn, you can either pick up passengers from the bus stop or drop them off for a destination card. To pick up, take all passengers of the same color from the bus stop and place them in front of you onto your bus, which has a limit of 10 passengers. You cannot pick up a color if you cannot fit all of them in your bus, with the exception of senior citizens. If you pick up a senior citizen, place it face down next to your bus for 1 point at the end of the game. After picking up, refill the empty spaces at the bus stop with new passengers. If all five passengers are the same color, reshuffle and go again. If they are a second time, continue playing. To drop off, you must meet the criteria on a destination card. Colored destination cards require a set amount of passengers of the matching type (not color). Multi-colored destinations require cards of different colors, irrespective of type. 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 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 one passenger that matches the drop-off destination, or one card of the same color for a multi-colored destination, and placing it face down by your bus. Skedaddling represents a passenger getting off unplanned. In the rare case you can neither pick up nor drop off, you must make an unhappy passenger by choosing one or more people to discard from your bus, placing them face up on their side by your bus.

Scoring begins after the game ends. 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.

The game continues until either the bus stop cannot be filled with five passengers from the passenger deck or there are only six destination cards remaining in total across all destination piles. Every player then takes one final drop-off action, if they can, skedaddling on other players' turns if they wish, and then scoring begins.