Dr Gribouille
Dr Gribouille Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
About the Game
Dr Gribouille is a cooperative game. The goal is for the players, working together, to cure the patient within 3 rounds.
In each round one player becomes the doctor and, within 25 seconds, tries to copy out a prescription containing 4 medicine names. The other players act as pharmacists and have 2 minutes to work out the medicine names written in the prescription and assemble them on the pharmacy board, using special pill tokens. Each correct medicine name raises the patient's health level by 1.
If you manage to cure the patient within 3 rounds, you all win. If not, you all lose, but you lose together.
Components
- 1 Pharmacy board
- 1 Screen and thermometer token
- 45 double-sided Recipe cards (9 sets of 5 cards)
- 1 Recipe pad
- 10 Patient cards (difficulty levels 1 to 10)
- 10 Special tokens (5 bell tokens and 5 error tokens)
- 3 sets of pill tokens, 20 tokens per set:
- Set No. 1: yellow side (●) and orange side (✖)
- Set No. 2: blue side (▲) and purple side (★)
- Set No. 3: green side (◆) and pink side (■)
- A timer, clock or phone for timing (required)
Note: for players who have difficulty distinguishing colours, each colour of pill token corresponds to a specific symbol: yellow ●, orange ✖, blue ▲, purple ★, green ◆, pink ■.
Setup
- Place the pharmacy board in the centre of the table.
- Choose a Patient card. On the back of each Patient card is a difficulty level from 1 to 10. For your first game, it is recommended to choose a patient of difficulty level 1.
- Place the chosen Patient card face up next to the pharmacy board. Return the remaining Patient cards to the box; they are not needed. A detailed description of all patients is on page 4 of the rulebook.
- Take the screen and insert the thermometer token into the slot showing the starting health level of the chosen patient.
- Take the 5 Recipe cards that show the same pills as the upper-left corner of the chosen Patient card. Return the remaining Recipe cards to the box; they are not needed.
- Take the set or sets of 20 pill tokens required by the Patient card and lay them out on the table with the required side face up. If a pill on the Patient card is coloured in 2 colours, you will use both sides of those tokens during the game, so they may be placed with either side face up during setup. Return the other pill tokens to the box; they are not needed.
- Take the number of bell tokens and error tokens shown on the Patient card and place them next to the pharmacy board. Return the other special tokens to the box; they are not needed.
- Place the Recipe pad next to the screen.
Setup key (from the rulebook diagram): the Patient card shows, from top-left, the required pills; from top-right, the starting health level; from bottom-left, the number of bell tokens; and from bottom-right, the number of error tokens.
Setup examples
- Place 20 pills from set No. 1 with the yellow side face up.
- Place 20 pills from set No. 1 with the yellow side face up, and 20 pills from set No. 2 with the blue side face up.
- Take 20 pills from set No. 1. In the game you will use both sides of the tokens, so you may place them with either side face up.
Game Flow
The game lasts 3 rounds. In each round, carry out the actions below in the order given.
1. Choose the doctor
Together, decide who will be Doctor Kurolapova this round. Each player may be the doctor only once during the game (or twice in a 2-player game). The other players are the pharmacists for this round.
The doctor sets up the screen in front of them and places the Recipe pad behind it. The doctor then takes 1 of the Recipe cards and also hides it behind the screen. Only the doctor may look at this card.
2. Write the prescription
When the doctor is ready, start the timer for 25 seconds.
With the Recipe pad and the Recipe card hidden from the other players behind the screen, the doctor must copy the 4 medicine names from the card onto the sheet of the Recipe pad before the time runs out. When the time is up, the doctor must stop, even if the prescription is not fully written.
Note: the players may agree to increase the time, either for everyone or for individual players.
3. Prepare the medicines
Start the timer for 2 minutes.
The doctor hands the sheet with the copied prescription to the pharmacists, who must work out the medicine names by laying pill tokens with the required symbols on the pharmacy board. Each medicine name contains from 2 to 4 pill tokens.
During this stage the doctor may not communicate with the pharmacists. However, you have special tokens that can help in difficult cases. When a token is used, return it to the box.
Expert mode (too easy for you?): set the timer to 90 seconds instead of 2 minutes.
4. End of round
When the 2 minutes have run out, check whether the pharmacists assembled the medicine names correctly. For each correctly assembled medicine name, raise the patient's health level by 1.
Example: the names in the 1st and 3rd positions are correct. The name in the 2nd row is incomplete, and the 4th name contains an error. The patient's health level rises by 2.
Special Tokens
- Bell token. A pharmacist may use this token to ask the doctor to say aloud 1 letter, or to explain 1 symbol from the prescription, if they are completely stuck.
- Error token. The doctor may use this token to point out 1 incorrect pill token on the pharmacy board, or 1 incorrect medicine name that has not yet been completed.
End of Game
The game ends after 3 rounds. If the patient's health level is 0 or higher, you have cured the patient! Congratulations, you may move on to more difficult patients.
Otherwise, try to cure the patient again.
You may play the same level several times, using different sides of the Recipe cards. You may also replay in order to raise the patient's health level as high as possible.
Patient Descriptions
Each Patient card lists the starting health level, the pills required, and the number of bell and error tokens. Narrative flavour text from the rulebook is omitted here; the game data below is complete.
| Level | Patient | Starting health | Pills | Bell tokens | Error tokens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivan Golevoy | -8 | Yellow ● | 5 | 5 |
| 2 | Fedya Konev | -9 | Orange ✖ | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | Maria Medova | -8 | Blue ▲ | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | Lavr Korneev | -9 | Yellow ● and blue ▲ | 1 | 5 |
Note: the pill pictures on the Patient cards for levels 5 and 8 are double-sided ("face/back"), as shown in the rulebook.
Special rules on patient cards
- Level 3 (Maria Medova): special rule. The doctor must close one eye when writing.
- Level 9 (Felix Tsarapin): special rule. Only 1 pharmacist may see the prescription sheet, and must read it aloud to the others. Each medicine name must be read in full, without being split into syllables, but it may be read more than once if needed. This rule does not apply to a 2-player game.
Variant rule
You may use the special rules with any Patient cards. For example, for Patient cards of levels 1, 2 and 6, the special rule of level 9 works well.