Bathroom Rush
Bathroom Rush Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Box
- 4 Player cards (double-sided, one for a man and one for a woman)
- 4 Breviary cards
- 50 Persona cards
- 50 Action cards
- 2 special dice (4-sided and 6-sided)
- 5 bathroom door tokens
- 5 plastic pedestals
- 1 first-player-of-the-turn token (+1 spare)
- 18 Popò tokens (+1 spare)
- 40 Pipì tokens (+1 spare)
- 1 Rulebook
Introduction
Bathroom Rush is a game for 2–4 players. The goal of the game is to finish the game with the fewest pipì and popò tokens! Be careful, however, not to accumulate too many, or you will be eliminated before the last turn!
The Persona cards represent the people queuing at the bathrooms, while the Action cards describe the actions players can take to their own advantage or to the disadvantage of an opponent.
The dice used in the game are represented on the cards by a specific icon. Unless otherwise specified, the result of rolling a die equals the number of pipì tokens to add or subtract:
- Blue die: range 1–2
- Red die: range 1–4
Glossary of Terms
- Adjacent Persona: a Persona card in the queue that is directly in front of or behind a player. Cards to the right or left are never included in this category.
- In the bathroom: a Persona card in the queue, or a player, is said to be in the bathroom when it is in first position, in front of the bathroom doors.
- Free queue: the only queue not occupied by a player.
- Turn: a player's phase of play.
- Round: the set of turns of all the players.
- Reserve: the total of the pipì and popò tokens accumulated by a player.
(Layout key from the rulebook diagram: the space needed to play permanent cards behind the bathroom door; the card "in the bathroom"; the cards "adjacent" to the player.)
Icon Legend
- "Turn the card over" icon: if the card's effect has been resolved or blocked by an Action card, the Persona card must be turned face down (flipped).
- Queue icon: the effect of the card applies to the queue in which it is played, except in specific cases described on the cards.
- Bathroom icon: the effect of the card applies to the bathroom in which it is played.
- Queue-cancel icon (with the bathroom icon): if played at the same time, this card cancels the effect of an Action card bearing the bathroom icon, played on the bathroom of its own queue.
- Queue-cancel icon (with the queue icon): if played at the same time, this card cancels the effect of an Action card bearing the queue icon, played on its own queue, or the special effect of a Persona card in its own queue.
- First-player-of-the-turn token.
Persona Cards in the Queue
The Persona deck contains the people you will find queuing at the bathroom. There are four different types of card, shown in four colours:
- Neutral cards (light blue): these are considered "neutral". You only need to worry about how many pipì or popò they produce when they enter the bathroom!
- Orange cards: these have a special effect that applies only once, and only if they are adjacent to a player. The effect can be blocked by an appropriate defensive card, immediately after drawing the cards, in Phase 2 of the turn.
- Red cards: these activate like the orange cards, but unlike those, they are permanent! They continue to apply their special effect turn after turn, unless a defensive card is played or the adjacency condition ceases to be met.
- Yellow cards: these are the most unusual and rare. Their special effect activates independently of the adjacency condition with a player, and according to what is described on the card itself, so pay close attention!
Layout of information on a "Persona in queue" card:
- Icon showing whether the card acts on the queue or on the bathroom, plus the "turn the card" icon (top left).
- Tokens that the person "produces" in the bathroom (top right).*
- Name and phrase of the character.
- Illustration of the character.
- Special effect of the card (bottom).
* The tokens shown on the cards indicate how long the Persona in the queue stays in the bathroom and, consequently, how much pipì and/or popò the players will accumulate.
Action Cards
Action cards represent the actions you can take to your own advantage or to the disadvantage of another player. There are three different types of Action card:
- Base cards: these are the "basic" cards. You play them; if they are not blocked, their effect is applied, and in any case they are discarded after use.
- Red cards: these are permanent. Once put into play, behind the bathroom doors, they repeat their effect at the start of each turn of the player concerned. It is possible to avoid being hit by the card by using an appropriate defence at the moment it is played. Once in play, a red card can be discarded only by following the instructions described on the card itself.
- Green cards: these protect you from the attacks of other players and from the effects of Persona cards in the queue. They are the only cards that can be played outside your own turn.
Note: not all Action cards can be countered by a defensive card! For example, the card "Desperate Scream" shown in the rulebook has no "queue" or "bathroom" icon, so there is no way to block it!
Layout of information on an "Action" card:
- Name of the action.
- Icons showing whether the effect of the card occurs in the queue or in the bathroom.
- Illustration of the action.
- Effect of the card.
Basic Rules
Preparing the Game
How is the first player chosen? There is no precise rule, but to remain in keeping with the spirit of the game, the player who was in the bathroom last could start. Feel free to create your own variants!
The player chosen as first player places the first-player token in front of them.
- Choose a card that represents you from the Player deck and take the Breviary of the same colour.
- Place next to each other as many bathroom door tokens as there are players, plus one.
- Shuffle the Persona deck and place 6 face-down cards in a row in front of each bathroom, taking care to leave some space behind the bathroom doors (for playing permanent Action cards) and behind the last Persona card (in case a Persona card should move past a player). Place all the pipì and popò tokens near the bathrooms.
- Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, place your character card at the end of a queue of your choice. Note: two players can never occupy the same queue.
- Place one additional Persona card behind each player.
- Reveal the Persona cards adjacent to each player and all those in the bathroom, leaving the others face down.
- Shuffle the Action deck and, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player draws 3 cards.
Setup example for 4 players. Always keep a little space behind the bathroom doors and at the end of the queue!
How to Play
A) At the start of the turn, reveal the Persona cards in the bathroom and those adjacent to all players.
B) Place on all the Persona cards in the bathroom the pipì and/or popò tokens indicated on the cards themselves (taking into account any effects from the previous turn, e.g. the Avid Reader or Action cards).
C) The active player draws Action cards from the deck until they have four in hand.
D) Resolve any effects of Persona cards in the queue of the active player (who may use defensive cards, if they have them), starting from the bathroom and proceeding with the adjacent ones, beginning with the one in front.
Illustration: a red or orange card that is not adjacent to a player never activates its effect. In this position, although it is adjacent to the player, the Elderly Man does not activate its effect.
E) The active player must then adopt one of the following options and, at the end, discard any excess Action cards (at the end of the turn you may hold at most three):
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Play an Action card from those in hand.
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Decompress: with decompression you can try to relieve your situation with an annoying bout of flatulence. Regardless of the result, the person behind you leaves the queue and is immediately replaced by a new card. Roll the red die and compare the result with the table below.
Red die result Effect 1 Discard 1 pipì from your reserve 2 Discard 2 pipì from your reserve 3 Discard 3 pipì from your reserve 4 Take 1 popò Printed explanation: when decompressing you have the possibility of discarding 1 to 3 pipì from your reserve, but there is a risk of taking one popò! The Decompression roll is the only roll that refers to this table.
(The table is printed with icons: the drop icons for pipì tokens, and the poo icon for a popò. The results 1–3 are shown with "−" and result 4 with "+".)
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Pass the turn: in the remote event that the player cannot or does not wish to perform an action.
F) When the last player of the round has finished their turn, the CLEANUP PHASE begins:
- Take the pipì and/or popò tokens accumulated on the Persona card occupying the bathroom of your queue (placing them on your Breviary card, which becomes your reserve).
- Discard the tokens on the Persona card in the bathroom of the free queue.
- Discard all the Persona cards in the bathroom, moving the queues forward (or sliding the bathrooms forward).
G) The first-player token passes to the next player clockwise, and play resumes from point 1.
In short, the turn is divided into 4 phases:
- Phase 1: draw Action cards until you have 4 in hand.
- Phase 2: resolve the special effects of the Persona cards in the queue, starting from the one in the bathroom, down to the last one in the queue.
- Phase 3: perform one of the following actions:
- a. play an Action card;
- b. decompress.
- Phase 4: discard excess cards (at the end of the turn you may have at most 3 in hand).
Start of round: place the pipì tokens on the cards in the bathroom.
End of round: each player takes the pipì tokens present in the bathroom of their own queue and places them in their own reserve, on their Breviary card. Then discard all the Persona cards in the bathroom...
...and move the queues forward, revealing the new Persona cards that are now in the bathrooms.
How to Win
The first player to enter the bathroom triggers the end of the game. If they enter at the start of a turn, through a normal advance of the queue, the game ends instantly. If they enter by using Action cards, all the players after them carry out the final turn normally. At this point each player counts how many tokens they have accumulated, bearing in mind that a player still in the queue must also count the tokens of the Persona cards separating them from the bathroom door (subtracting or adding tokens if permanent cards played in their own bathroom are present).
The player with the fewest tokens is the winner of the game!
How to Lose
During your rush to the bathroom, you must be careful not to accumulate too many pipì tokens!
Five pipì tokens must immediately be replaced with one popò token!
When a player receives their fourth popò token, they immediately lose the game and render the queue they are in unusable. Discard all the Persona cards in that queue and remove the bathroom door.
Always keep this scheme in mind: 5 pipì = 1 popò; 4 popò = elimination.
Special Rule for Two Players
In a two-player game, the maximum number of popò tokens that can be accumulated is 3!
Tips for First Games
- Do not consider the special effects of the orange and red Persona cards in the queue.
- If you are new to the game, you may also avoid the special effects of the yellow-bordered cards (in this case, remove the Lost Young Man from the Persona deck before starting the game).
- If the idea of leaving the game before its end bothers you excessively, simply keep playing until the end of the game!
- When using Decompression, you may avoid replacing the card behind you.
Note: the special effect of a Persona card in the queue is printed on the lower part of the card. If you ignore it, you must nevertheless place the pipì/popò tokens on the card when it enters the bathroom!
Rules in Detail
Player's Turn
- Decompression acts always and only on the tokens belonging to the player, never on those in the bathroom. In case of failure, the popò token must be taken directly by the player and not placed in the bathroom.
- Two players can never occupy the same queue.
At the End of the Game
- All players who are not in the bathroom must take the pipì and/or popò tokens of the Persona cards in their own queue that separate them from the bathroom, without considering their special effects and without being able to play any Action card, taking into account only any permanent cards played in the bathrooms.
- If a player has entered the bathroom during their own turn and not at the start of the round, the players after them may play against them only the Action cards Give Up Your Place (Cedi il posto), Swap (Scambio) and Sneeze (Starnuto).
- If two or more players are tied at the end of the game, they must perform a Decompression roll. If there is still a tie, they must repeat it until there is a winner, or all have reached the maximum number of popò tokens, being eliminated from the game and resulting in a game without a winner.
Action Card Effects
Card names are given in English, with the Italian printed name in brackets.
- Cleaner (Addetto alle pulizie): strikes the bathroom in which the card is played, adding 1 to 4 pipì tokens to it, and removes all red cards present in the bathrooms at that moment. Only the player against whom this card is played may use a Bathroom Defence card to cancel its effect. If they have none, the other players with any permanent cards in their own bathroom must suffer the effect of the cleaning without being able to respond.
- Cunning (Astuzia): remove from the queue a Persona card in front of you or behind you and place it on the discard pile. If you removed a Persona card in front of you, move forward. If the Persona card you removed was behind, replace it with a new card (if it was the last in the queue) or move the queue forward behind you.
- Empty Bottle (Bottiglietta vuota): always has an effect exclusively on your own reserve, never on tokens present in the bathroom.
- Change Queue (Cambia fila): after changing queue, the Persona that was behind you moves forward, taking your old place. Remember to draw a new Persona card to place behind you in your new queue!
- Give Up Your Place (Cedi il posto): the struck player must swap their position with that of the Persona behind them.
- Concentration (Concentrazione): this card cancels almost all the risks of Decompression: unlike a normal roll, if a 4 comes up when playing it, you may discard up to 5 pipì tokens, equivalent to one popò. Having nevertheless performed a Decompression roll, the Persona behind you must be replaced with a new Persona card.
- Bathroom Defence (Difesa bagno): being a defensive card, it is never considered an Action card played in the turn. The green cards are the only ones of the Action deck that can be played outside your own turn to defend against the attack of another player. It has effect only if played together with the negative effect you wish to avoid. It must be used before rolling the die to define the negative effect on your own bathroom.
Persona Cards
It is possible to reveal only the Persona cards in the bathrooms and those adjacent to the players.
- At the start of a player's turn, the effects of the Persona cards must be taken into account always in this order: 1) Persona in the bathroom; 2) adjacent Persona in front; 3) adjacent Persona behind.
- Orange and red Persona cards activate only if they are adjacent to a player.
- Yellow Persona cards are the only ones that activate their effect independently of the adjacency condition with a player. As for the others, the effect activates in the turn of the player concerned, so it is possible to block them with a defensive card (for example, if an Infamous Person (Infame) ends up in the bathroom, at the start of the round a pipì token must be placed on the card and, at the start of the turn of the player concerned, if no defensive card is used, a Persona card must be placed on top of it).
- The possible effect of Persona cards in the free queue must be resolved before the turn of the first player.
Persona Card Effects
- Elderly Man (Anziano): if he is behind you and you do not play a Queue Defence against him immediately after drawing the Action cards, the Elderly Man passes in front of you. In this case, if a Persona card with a special effect arrives behind you, this effect will activate at the start of your next turn. Being an orange card, he activates his effect only once, so whether you have blocked him or not, remember to turn this card upside down. This indicates that from that moment on the Elderly Man is harmless, except for the tokens he will produce once in the bathroom.
- Avid Reader (Avido lettore): if he is in the bathroom of your queue at the start of your turn and you do not play a Queue Defence against him, the Avid Reader leaves his newspaper in the toilet. In this case roll the blue die and add the number of tokens indicated by the die on top of the Persona card that will enter the bathroom after him. In the next turn those tokens must be added to those indicated on the card. If immediately after the Reader there is a Player, then the card will have no effect. Whether you have blocked him or not, afterwards remember to turn this card upside down. This indicates that from that moment on the Avid Reader will be harmless, except for the tokens he will produce once in the bathroom.
- Distracted (Distratto): if he is adjacent to you and you do not play a Queue Defence against him immediately after drawing the Action cards, you risk him making you take a pipì token, to be placed directly in your reserve. Being an orange card, he activates his effect only once, so whether you have blocked him or not, remember to turn this card upside down. This indicates that from that moment on the Distracted will be harmless, except for the tokens he will produce once in the bathroom.
- Entrepreneur (Imprenditore): the Entrepreneur produces 0 pipì tokens, but remains in the bathroom for the whole turn. It is possible to play any Action card on him.
- Mother with Baby (Mamma con pupo): if she is behind you and you do not play a Queue Defence against her immediately after drawing the Action cards, the Mother with Baby passes in front of you. In this case, if a Persona card with a special effect arrives behind you, this effect will activate in Phase 2 of your next turn. Being an orange card, she activates her effect only once, so whether you have blocked her or not, remember to turn this card upside down. This indicates that from that moment on the Mother with Baby will be harmless, except for the tokens she will produce once in the bathroom.