Code Triage Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Overview
• Setup
• Play
  • 1. Incoming Ambulance Check
  • 2. New Patient
  • 3. New Event
  • 4. Player Actions
  • 5. Patient Discharge Check
  • 6. Reduce Patient Health
  • 7. Reset Action Tokens
  • 8. Advance Game Clock
• Game End
• Special Abilities

Contents

• 4 Player Boards + 1 Game Board
• 64 Patient Cards
• 44 Event Cards
• 12 Room Assignment Cards
• 4 Player Pawns
• 2 Ambulance/Patient Dice
• 36 Heart Tokens
• 1 Game Clock Token
• 12 Nurse Tokens
• 12 Radiology Tech Tokens
• 12 Patient Rep Tokens
• 12 Lab Tech Tokens

Overview

In Code Triage, you and your fellow players are staff members of an overly busy, understaffed emergency room. You must work together to treat patients quickly, before they leave against medical advice (AMA) or expire (depending on their condition).

Code Triage is a cooperative game. The players all win or lose together.

The goal is to survive a 12-hour shift in the emergency room without being shut down by a government agency. The players lose if:

• 3 patients Expire (immediately ends the game),
• there is not a room available to receive a patient (immediately ends the game), or
• there is not a positive Discharge to AMA/Death score at the end of a 12-hour shift (or desired length of game, see page 2).

Each role has special abilities to aid in accomplishing this task.

Setup

1. Place the board within easy reach of all players.

2. Place the Pawns for each role onto the board on their respective starting spaces.

3. Place the Game Clock token onto the starting space depending on desired play time.

   • Full Time – 12 Hours (7:00 AM - 7:00 PM, Red space)
   • Part Time – 8 Hours (11:00 AM - 7:00 PM, Yellow space)
   • Contingent – 6 Hours (1:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Green space)

   The length of time selected does not alter any rules, except that the game ends after the selected number of hours played. At that time, the status of whether the team saved the hospital or not will be checked according to the "Game End" section of the manual. For your first few games, we recommend you play with the Contingent game length (6 hours) by placing the Game Clock token on the green space marked 1:00 PM.

4. Shuffle the Patient, Room Assignment, and Event decks separately and place them on their respective spaces on the Game Board. (If you are playing with younger players or desire less mature content, you may remove the 8 black bordered Patient cards from the Patient deck before starting the game.)

5. Place the Heart tokens and Ambulance/Patient dice near the Game Board.

6. Determine the number of players and give the Nurse player board to the person who was most recently in a healthcare facility. Allow the other players to select from the remaining roles in clockwise seat order. Give each player the Action tokens that match his/her player board(s). Players may play with either side A or side B. Side A features the Round Summary listed as text (simpler gameplay). Side B features the Round Summary listed as symbols and each player role has a special ability on it (See page 6). (If playing solo or less than 4 players, each player will control one or more roles, as all roles MUST be played.)

7. Select the game difficulty.

Play

For the first round only, skip the first two phases of the round.

The game is played over the course of 12 hours (or desired length of game) in 30 minute intervals (Game Clock, not actual time). In each round, or every 30 minutes, follow these 8 phases as a team in this order:

1. Incoming Ambulance Check
2. New Patient
3. New Event
4. Player Actions
5. Patient Discharge Check
6. Reduce Patient Health
7. Reset Action Tokens
8. Advance Game Clock

1. Incoming Ambulance Check

At the beginning of each round, perform an Incoming Ambulance Check by rolling both Ambulance/Patient dice. The Ambulance die determines if an ambulance is arriving with new patients this round. The Patient die determines how many patients will be arriving via ambulance this turn, if the Ambulance die roll reveals an ambulance symbol. Reveal the top card of the Patient and Room Assignment decks for each new patient arriving this way.

Warning: While you will perform this check during every round of play (except the first), adding patients this way is a special event that may or may not occur every round and DOES NOT replace the regular incoming patient that comes every round in the second phase.

If through adding patients via an Ambulance die roll causes you to place a 13th patient into the emergency room, then the hospital gets shut down and the players immediately lose.

2. New Patient

Following the Incoming Ambulance Check and associated actions, a new patient arrives. Turn over the top card of the Patient and Room Assignment decks. The number on the Room Assignment card determines which room the new patient will be moved to. Set the Room Assignment card aside face up in the Rooms Filled space and place the patient into the assigned room. No more than one patient may be placed into the same room at any time. Add the number of Heart tokens as indicated in the Health section of the Patient card to the area above that patient's room on the game board.

The Patient card has these parts (Chief Complaint/Artwork and the Name/Date of Birth do not affect gameplay):

• Name/Date of Birth
• Chief Complaint/Artwork (Medical Condition/Flavor Text) (Does not affect gameplay)
• Risk (What happens to the patient if you do not treat them quick enough) (AMA, DEATH, or Self-Harm/Cannot Leave)
• Health (Number of turns until the Risk effect occurs)
• Doctor's Orders (Which players need to Treat this patient before they are ready for Discharge)

3. New Event

After all new patients have arrived and been placed into rooms for the round, a new Event will occur. These may have positive or negative effects on the game. Turn over the top card of the Event deck and follow its instructions. Most events will have immediate effects, so read and follow the instructions on the card right away.

Some Event cards require you to select a patient at random for the stated effect. To perform a random patient selection, first determine which patients are eligible for the stated effect. Some Events only apply to Death Risk patients, some apply to AMA Risk patients, while others apply to all. After determining the pool of patients from which the event may apply, remove those patients' Room Assignment cards from the Rooms Filled space, shuffle them together, then reveal one card. Apply the Event's effect to that patient immediately, then place all the shuffled Room Assignment cards back on the Rooms Filled space.

The Event deck contains these cards (the number in parentheses is the number of copies in the deck):

• Adrenaline Rush (Immediate Effect) (x2): Double the effect of all action tokens for this round only. If moving, move up to 20 spaces per token. If treating, fill up to two orders per token. Does not apply to comforting. (The game clock does not advance more than 30 minutes this round. Only double the normal effect of movement/actions for each player.)
• Code Blue (Immediate Effect) (x4): Shuffle the room assignment cards that are currently filled with AMA Risk patients and draw a card at random. Treat this patient with the risk of death for as long as they are in the Emergency Room. (Slide this card under the patient that is in that room so the title remains showing.)
• Discharge Paperwork (Item) (x1): Use this card to discharge any patient at any point in their care, regardless of pending orders. A player must be present in that patient's room to use this item. (This may be saved for use at a later time.)
• Exhaustion (Immediate Effect) (x4): Reduce the effect of all action tokens by half for this round only. Reduce all player movement to 5 spaces per action token. To fill an order, you must spend 2 action tokens. Does not apply to comforting. (The game clock still advances 30 minutes this round. Only reduce the effect of each action token by half for each player.)
• External Disaster (Immediate Effect) (x4): Roll the Ambulance Patient Die as if a new ambulance is arriving this turn. Add that many patients to the Emergency Room. (This event will occur regardless of if an ambulance has already arrived this round.)
• Lunch Break – Lab Tech (Immediate Effect) (x4, 1 per player): Remove the Laboratory Tech pawn from the Emergency Room for 30 minutes of game time (1 round), then return it to its starting space.
• More Imaging Required (Immediate Effect) (x8, 2 per player): Shuffle the room assignment cards that are currently filled with patients and draw a card at random. The Radiology Tech must treat this as an Extra Order that needs to be filled.

4. Player Actions

Starting with the Nurse, each player must take their complete turn in clockwise order.

You have 4 Action tokens to use each round. There are 3 actions a player may take on his/her turn with the Action tokens: Move, Treat, or Comfort.

• Move: Spend an Action token to move up to 10 spaces on the board. If your movement into a patient's room in less than 10 spaces, you MAY NOT use any of the remaining spaces available from spending that token. You must spend another token to move out of a patient's room after performing an action, if more movement is possible or desired. Any movement not used in each turn is lost.

• Treat: Every player role has a symbol on their card that corresponds to a set of tokens that they possess. This symbol is also found on the bottom of some Patient cards. Every patient has a different set of orders that need to be filled for them to be Discharged and earn points for the team. To fill one of these orders, a player must be in a room with a patient that requires one or more of that symbol. Once in the room, simply place one or more of your tokens onto that patient and spend one Action token per order filled. Any player may perform this action for orders of their own symbol.

  Due to hospital regulations, in order for the Radiology Tech to Treat patients by taking X-rays in a patient's room, the room must be clear of any other staff members. Radiation is dangerous and regulations require this before a Treat action may take place. If a room is not already empty when the Radiology Tech wants to fill an order (via the Treat action), that player must remove all the pawns from inside that room and move them to any of the 3 open spaces in front of that patient's room (as long as it does not block the doorway).

  Warning: This only applies when the Radiology Tech needs to perform a Treat action in a patient's room. If the Radiology Tech is already in a room and no longer needs to perform a Treat action, but his/her turn has ended, another player may enter that patient's room, as the Treat action (X-ray) is not currently being performed.

• Comfort: A player may spend an Action token to add a Heart token back to a patient. This action cannot be performed to increase their health beyond the amount of Heart symbols printed on that patient's card. Patient deaths are extremely important to avoid, so if a patient gets too close to Expire, it is highly recommended that this action is performed. Any player may perform this action, but you must be in that patient's room to do so.

5. Patient Discharge Check

After all players have completely taken their turns, a Patient Discharge Check needs to be performed. Examine all the patients currently on the board at the end of the round. If all orders have been filled for any patient on the board, they are ready to be Discharged. Remove the Patient's card and all tokens on it (from filled orders and remaining hearts) and place it on the Discharged space in the Patient Status section of the Game Board. Remove that patient's Room Assignment card and place the removed Room Assignment card(s) onto the bottom of the Room Assignment deck.

The Patient Status section of the Game Board has three spaces:

• Discharged (+1)
• Left AMA (-2)
• Expired (-3)

6. Reduce Patient Health

The patients that remain on the board after the Patient Discharge Check have Heart tokens to indicate their health. Every round (30 minutes of game time), you must remove a Heart token from every patient in play. If this requires you to remove a patient's final Heart token, then they are about to leave the hospital against medical advice (AMA) or Expire, depending on the Patient's Risk indicated on their card. Remove the Patient's card and all tokens on it and place it on the appropriate space on the Patient Status section of the Game Board. Place the removed Room Assignment card(s) onto the bottom of the Room Assignment deck.

Warning: There are 4 Psychiatric Patient cards that have the Risk of "Self-Harm, Cannot Leave." They do not have a Health section on their Patient card, as they cannot be Discharged until all orders have been filled.

Example: Danny Young still had pending orders that needed to be filled, so one of his Heart tokens was removed from his Patient card, indicating that his health is decreasing, bringing him closer to expiring.

7. Reset Action Tokens

Move all used Action tokens from the right column of the Player boards back to the unused Action tokens column and replace any that were used for filling orders.

The Lab Tech player board (Side B) carries this role ability: If you are in the same room as the Nurse, you can fill that patient's Nurse order by spending an action token.

8. Advance Game Clock

A full game is played over the course of 12 hours in 30 minute intervals (25 rounds of play). At this phase in the round, move the Game Clock token to the next space on the Game Clock, advancing it 30 minutes from the current game time.

Continue gameplay in this fashion until the end of the round on the 7:00 PM space, unless a game-ending event has occurred (3 patients Expired or no room available to receive a new patient).

The Game Clock runs from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM in this order:

Row	Times
1	7:00 AM, 7:30 AM, 8:00 AM, 8:30 AM, 9:00 AM
2	9:30 AM, 10:00 AM, 10:30 AM, 11:00 AM, 11:30 AM
3	12:00 PM, 12:30 PM, 1:00 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:00 PM
4	2:30 PM, 3:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 4:00 PM, 4:30 PM
5	5:00 PM, 5:30 PM, 6:00 PM, 6:30 PM, 7:00 PM

Game End

At the end of the round on the 7:00 PM space, the game is over and any patients currently still in play after the Advance Game Clock phase are removed from the game and not counted in the final tally of points.

Count the number of points earned for patient Discharges (+1) and subtract points lost due to AMA (-2) and Expired (-3) patients.

Example: The game ends with 30 Discharges, 10 AMAs, and 2 Expirations. The team earned 4 points higher than points lost (30-20-6=4). The players have won the game, due to their positive score.

Warning: You cannot have more than 2 patient Deaths throughout the course of the game, because once 3 patients Expire, you lose and the game is over.

If you could Discharge more patients than points lost through patient Deaths and leaving AMA, you win and the hospital has been saved! In the event of a tie (score of 0), the players win.

Special Abilities

Each player role has a special ability (printed on Side B of the player boards). Abilities marked as another type of action may be taken instead of the usual 3 actions (Move, Treat, Comfort). The Patient Rep ability is static and does not require spending an Action token.

• Nurse (First Player): Spend two action tokens to overhead page any other player to any room. (move them to a room of your choice) This ability is another type of action that you can take instead of the usual 3 actions.
• Radiology Tech: Spend two action tokens to move to any room on the board. This ability is another type of action that you can take instead of the usual 3 actions.
• Patient Rep: If you end your turn in a patient's room, that patient does not lose a heart during the 6th phase of this round. This is a static ability that does NOT require spending an Action token.
• Laboratory Tech: If you are in the same room as the Nurse, you can fill that patient's Nurse order by spending an action token. You and the Nurse MUST be in the same room that requires a Nurse order to perform this action.