Doughnut Drive-Thru Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to win the game
• Components
• The Recipe cards
• Setting up the game
• How to play
  • A. Work
    • 1 - Learn a Recipe
    • 2 - Prepare an order
    • 3 - Serve a customer
    • Using Recognition
    • 4 - Coffee Break
  • B. Take Doughnuts from the Kitchen
• Game end
• The Baker cards
• Playing with 2 players

How to win the game

In Doughnut Drive-Thru, players are working to bake and sell doughnuts (and other sweet treats) to customers, quickly. Players that impress their customers will gain the confidence to prepare their orders even quicker. Each completed order will give the player money in tips. Once any player Serves their fifth order, the game ends, and the player with the most money in tips wins!

Components

• 24 Recipe cards
• 4 Kitchen cards
• 4 Baker cards (player aid on back side)
• 4 "$0" Recipe cards
• 8 Doughnut pieces
• 1 Die

The Recipe cards

The Recipe cards (front side shown):

1. Name of treat
2. Tips you will earn
3. Minimum die roll required to Prepare
4. Minimum die roll required to Serve

A treat's type is denoted by the small capitals in the lower left corner of the card (for example, "This treat is a type 'C'."). This is used for the tie-breaker at the end of the game.

Setting up the game

1. Place the four Kitchen cards in a row in the center of the table. For a 2-3 player game, place the cards with the two plates face up. In a four player game, place the cards with the three plates face up.
2. Hand out the following to each player:
   • 1 "$0" Recipe card (placed face up in front of each player)
   • 3 Doughnut pieces in a 2 player game
   • 2 Doughnut pieces in a 3-4 player game
3. Remove any unused "$0" Recipe cards from the game. Then, shuffle the remaining Recipe cards and place them in a face down deck near the Kitchen cards.
4. The person who last ate a doughnut goes first! (Or you can roll the die to determine who the starting player will be.)
5. Place the die in the center of the table.

Note that the Baker cards aren't used in the basic rules of the game. See the end of the rulebook on how to use these cards.

How to play

Every player will take their turns in a clockwise order around the table. On their turn, players will choose one of the following two options, detailed below:

• A Work (by placing Doughnut pieces on a Kitchen card)
• B Take Doughnuts from the Kitchen

A. Work

Players may choose to place one or two Doughnut pieces on a Kitchen card to perform an action, as stated on the chosen Kitchen card. The Kitchen cards are explained below. If you place 2 Doughnuts on one card, you will receive a bonus effect on your action (see below). When Doughnuts are placed on a Kitchen card, they must be placed on the empty plates on the Kitchen cards.

For example, if a Kitchen card has three plates on it, and all three have a Doughnut already placed on them, then you cannot place Doughnuts on that card.

1 - Learn a Recipe

This action allows players to learn a new recipe (draw new cards from the Recipe deck).

If the active player places a Doughnut piece on this card, they draw 2 cards from the Recipe deck. The player may then select 1 of the cards just drawn, and place it face up in front of them on the table. Then they must discard the other card, placing it on top of a discard pile. If the player does not want to keep any of the cards they drew, they may discard all of them.

Bonus: If the player places 2 Doughnut pieces on the Learn a Recipe card, the player draws 3 cards instead of 2.

Note: A player may never have more than 2 unprepared (see below) Recipe cards in front of them. If you wish to keep any cards after taking this action, but doing so will mean you have more than 2 unprepared Recipe cards in front of you, you must discard one of your face up Recipe cards before placing the new Recipe card in front of you.

If the draw pile ever runs out, players should shuffle all the Recipe cards in the discard pile to form a new draw deck.

2 - Prepare an order

This action allows players to prepare a Recipe (by rolling the die) in order to Serve it to a customer later.

After the active player places a Doughnut piece on this Kitchen card, they must declare which of the face up Recipe cards in front of them they will attempt to Prepare. Then they must roll the die. If the number of pips shown on the die is equal to or greater than the Prepare icon on the Recipe card, the order has been successfully Prepared! The card must then be rotated 90°.

A Prepared Recipe is shown rotated 90°.

Bonus: If the player places 2 Doughnut pieces on the Prepare card, their die roll result is increased by 1.

However, if a player rolls a "1" on the die, they have been unsuccessful in Preparing the Recipe, no matter what. The stress of working in a Doughnut Drive-Thru causes everyone to make mistakes sometimes...

Note that if a player does not have any face up Recipe cards in their play area, they cannot take the Prepare action.

3 - Serve a customer

This action allows players to Serve a customer one of their Recipe cards that has already been Prepared. Performing this action is how players will earn tips and Recognition.

After the player places a Doughnut piece on this Kitchen card, the active player must declare which already Prepared Recipe card in front of them they will attempt to Serve. The chosen Recipe card must already be Prepared (and rotated 90°). If the player doesn't have any Prepared Recipe cards, they cannot place any Doughnut pieces on this Kitchen card.

Then they must roll the die. If the number of pips shown on the die is equal to or greater than the Serve icon on the Recipe card, the order has been successfully Served to a customer. The card must then be flipped over to the Recognition side.

Bonus: If the player places 2 Doughnut pieces on the Prepare card, their die roll result is increased by 1. (Printed as "Prepare card" in this section of the source; see the note below.)

However, if a player rolls a "1" on the die, they have been unsuccessful in Serving the Recipe, no matter what. It's a hard-knock life and customers tend to be a fickle crowd...

Note on the source: the Serve section's bonus is printed as referring to "the Prepare card". Read in context, it describes the Serve action's bonus (2 Doughnut pieces on the Serve card gives +1 to the die roll); the rulebook's wording is transcribed here as printed.

Using Recognition

Once players have earned Recognition by Serving customers and flipping Recipe cards face down, players will be able to attempt to Prepare and Serve more lavish treats! Whenever players roll the die after placing Doughnut piece(s) on the Prepare or Serve Kitchen cards, players may rotate their face down Recognition cards 90° to increase their die result by 1. Players may use more than one Recognition card on the same turn, but Recognition cards already rotated 90° cannot be used until they are returned to an upright position, by taking the Coffee Break action.

4 - Coffee Break

After placing a Doughnut piece on the Coffee Break Kitchen card, the active player may rotate all their used Recognition cards to an upright position, ready to be used again.

Note: Players can only place 1 Doughnut on the Coffee Break Kitchen card on their turn.

B. Take Doughnuts from the Kitchen

On their turn, players may instead choose to take this action, and take up to 2 Doughnuts from one of the Kitchen cards, and place them in front of them to use on a future turn.

To do so, the active player must select the Kitchen card to take Doughnuts from, and then take 1 or 2 of the Doughnuts already placed there. Players can never take Doughnuts from more than one Kitchen card on their turn. Players can never have more than 2 Doughnuts at any one time (or 3 Doughnuts in a 2 player game).

This means, for example, that if a player already has 1 Doughnut (in a 3 or 4 player game), they can only take 1 Doughnut from a Kitchen card when taking this action. If a player already has their maximum number of Doughnuts then they cannot take this action.

• You may take up to 2 Doughnuts from this Kitchen card.
• You can take only 1 Doughnut from this Kitchen card.

Game end

The game will end once a player has successfully Cooked five Recipe cards. Once the player who does this ends their turn, every other player following them will then take one more turn, up to the Start player. This ensures that each player will take the same number of turns. (This means that if the last player in turn order triggers the end of the game, the game will end immediately.) Once the final player in turn order has had their last turn, the game will end.

But the person who ends the game may not be the winner! To determine the winner, add up all your tips on the Recipe cards you have Served to customers (turned face down). Recipe cards that were Prepared but not Served do not earn any tips.

The player who has the highest amount of tips wins the game!

In the case of a tie, the tied player who Served the most different types of treats (as denoted by the small capitals in the lower left corner of the Recipe cards), wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

The Baker cards

It is possible to play Doughnut Drive-Thru with Baker cards that give each player a special ability. These cards are handed out during set up, and stay face up in front of each player for the duration of the game. The four Baker cards are:

• Tommy - The young apprentice, he is ready to learn! When taking the Learn a Recipe action, Tommy may draw and keep more cards than everyone else. After placing 1 Doughnut, Tommy draws 3 Recipe cards and may keep up to 2. After placing 2 Doughnuts, Tommy draws 4 Recipe cards and may keep up to 2. (The source prints "my keep up to 2"; read as "may" here.)
• Sally - She's the head of the kitchen and knows where everything is! When taking the Prepare action, Sally adds 1 to her die roll. If she rolls a "1" she still fails, however.
• Tina - The customer is always right! When taking the Serve action, Sally adds 1 to her die roll. If she rolls a "1" she still fails, however.
• Dwight - The master baker. He's been making Doughnuts for forty years! At the start of his turn, Dwight may turn one of his Recognition cards to the unused position.

Note on the source: the Tina card's text is printed as "Sally adds 1 to her die roll". Read in context this is the Tina card's ability (the Serve action), so "Sally" is a misprint for "Tina"; the wording is transcribed here as printed.

There are a number of ways to distribute the Baker cards at the start of the game. They can be handed out randomly, for example, but it is suggested to do the following: During set up, place the four Bakers face up on the table. Then, in reverse player order (starting with the last player), each player selects one Baker card. Any unused cards should be returned to the box.

Playing with 2 players

Please note, that when playing with 2 players, even though each player starts the game with 3 Doughnut pieces, and may hold up to 3 Doughnut pieces during the game, all the other rules still apply. Players, for example, can never place more than 2 Doughnuts on a Kitchen card, nor can they take more than 2 Doughnuts off a Kitchen card.