Dr. Hrubec
Dr. Hrubec Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
I. Game Round-Up
In game Dr. Hrubec, you take on the role of a chief of medicine in a crazy hospital full of loonies – both doctors and patients. The game is for 2-5 players and takes 30-60 minutes.
The aim of the game is to cure the patients that come into your hospital. You achieve that by hiring the right combination of up to four doctors. Patients have problems in one of four different specializations: surgery, psychiatry, stomatology and dermatology. Each of your doctors has skills in these specializations which add to your team's ability to cure patients. You can also affect what happens in the hospital through action cards. Ultimately, your hospital will close due to doctor incompetence, at which time there will be a final reckoning and scoring.
II. Game Setup
1. Operating Room
Each player takes an operating room of a chosen color.
- Operating table – on which players place patient cards. That is where their fate will be decided.
- Doctor offices – for your team of up to 4 doctors.
2. Team Ability Sheet
Each player takes one team ability sheet and four team counters, which he places on value 0 of all specializations (surgery, psychiatry, stomatology and dermatology).
- Team ability sheet – shows the combined skill of your doctors. It is the main measure of how successful your team is likely to be.
- Team counters – one for each specialization.
3. Hospital
Place the hospital board in the middle between all players.
- Waiting room – four places where you place patients from the patient queue. In a two-player game, hide one space with an unused patient card.
- Ongoing action cards – place for ongoing action cards. These cards affect the game until another ongoing action card is played, at which point the old one is discarded.
- Discard pile – for action and doctor cards. If the draw deck runs empty, just shuffle the discard pile and place all cards into the draw deck space.
- Draw deck – containing action and doctor cards.
- Patient queue – from which patients are placed into the waiting room.
4. Cards
- Doctor cards – make up your medical team. Each doctor has skills, which add to your team's ability to cure patients.
- Patient cards – which you cure and get money (victory points) from their insurance.
- Action cards – which you can play anytime during your turn.
Randomly select one doctor for each player. You will start the game with him in your hand. Shuffle together the rest of the doctor cards and patient cards and use them to create the draw deck, which you place on the hospital board. Each player draws additional 3 cards before the game starts.
Now create the patient queue: Shuffle patient cards with numbers 1 and 2 on the back separately and randomly choose a number of them according to the number of players (as indicated in the table below). Place the hospital closing on the hospital board on the queue space. On top of that, shuffle and place the number 3 patients face down. On top of those cards, place the chosen number 2 patients face down, followed by the chosen number 1 patients, also face down.
| Number of cards | 2 players | 3 players | 4 players | 5 players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number 1 patients | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| Number 2 patients | 6 | 9 | 10 | 12 |
| Number 3 patients | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Hospital closing card | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
III. Game Rules
Players take turns in clockwise order until the game ends.
When it's your turn:
- If you don't have a patient on your operating table, take the following steps in order: Morning administration, then Patient admittance.
- If you have a patient on your operating table, you must operate (see Operation below).
1. Morning Administration
You can either:
- draw a card from the draw deck (only if you have less than 5 cards in your hand),
or
- play a doctor into one of your four offices next to the operating table. If you already have 4 doctors you must fire one (discard onto discard pile).
You can do only one of these options.
2. Patient Admittance
You have to either:
- place another patient from the queue into the waiting room (if there is space available),
or
- admit a patient from the waiting room onto your operating table (you will operate on him during your next turn).
If the waiting room is full, patients jump onto your operating table even if you don't want them.
You can play action cards anytime during your turn! Played cards are put into the discard pile.
Example: Dr. Watt is not satisfied with her team, so instead of drawing a card she plays Alpine Doctor and then plays the action card Bribe which steals Dr. Acula from Yrfing. She updates the counters on her team ability sheet. Still feeling she needs time to prepare she admits another patient from the queue into the waiting room and ends her turn.
Example: Ester wants to draw a card during her turn, but has already 5 in her hand. So she first plays the ongoing action card Alternative treatment, which she places on the hospital board. She now has only 4 cards so she is able to draw one during Morning administration. The waiting room is already full, so during Patient admittance she has to admit one patient to her operating table. She chooses the patient with Blisters, and her turn ends.
Operation
If you have a patient on your operating table at the start of your turn, you must operate. You don't do morning administration nor patient admittance. Success of the operation depends on your team's skills and a little luck.
You will find the specialization and difficulty of the operation on the patient card. If there are more values in different specializations, choose one of them. Roll a die and add your team's combined skill in that specialization. If the sum is less than the difficulty, then the patient has died. Otherwise, congratulations, the patient is cured!
Dead patients are stored in the morgue – under the right side of your operating room. Cured patients are placed under the left side.
- During the operation, ALL your doctors' skills add to your team ability, both positive and negative. Also check if any ongoing action cards have some relevant effects.
- An operation is a question of life and death. Before operating, try to call a Nurse or play some other action card that will help you. But beware, any cards played after the dice roll will not affect the operation.
Example of a successful operation: Dice roll 1 + sum of your doctor abilities in dermatology = 7 > 6, the difficulty of the patient's dermatology problem. Successfully cured patients stack under the left side of your operating room.
Example of an unsuccessful operation: Dice roll -1 + sum of your doctor abilities in stomatology = 1 < 3, the difficulty of the patient's stomatology problem. Unsuccessfully cured (i.e. dead) patients are stacked in the morgue under the right side of your operating room.
IV. Game End
The game ends when the hospital closing card moves from the patient queue to the waiting room. Players with a patient on the operating table finish their operations (clockwise order), but cannot play any other cards. The last ongoing action card remains in effect.
Now add up the victory points for the cured patients (on the left). Subtract 2 points for every dead patient (on the right). The player with the most points wins the game.
Cards and Icons
Effects of the cards in the game are symbolized with icons. Here are the explanations of most of them:
Icons Overview
- Move cards from – icons show what is moved and where (patient, doctor, man, woman, morgue, waiting room, me, other player, all players, player to your right). For example, the icon for a card moving from another player to me.
- Cards affecting abilities – these cards affect your team's abilities. A card with this icon adds 1 to all your team specializations.
- Other types of cards: (icons for ongoing effect, draw a card, successful operation and unsuccessful operation)
- Ongoing action cards carry an icon marking them as ongoing. Play it at the marked place on the hospital board; if there was one already, discard it. The last played ongoing card affects all players until someone plays another one.
- Discard a doctor to the discard pile. If it's not specified, then choose either your doctor or a doctor from another player.
- Discard a card from your hand onto the discard pile.
- Discard a patient from the game. If it's not specified, choose either your patient, or another player's patient, or a patient from the waiting room.
- Special effects of some cards depend on the result of the operation, either success or fail.
Some cards are a little bit different. You can find them in the card overview, but right now you know enough to start playing!
Card Overview
Action Cards
- Alternative treatment – Ongoing action card that affects values on dice: roll 1, 2 and 3 counts as 0, roll 4, 5 and 6 counts as 6.
- Euthanasia – Discards a patient from the game. You can't play it on an operated patient after the dice roll.
- Dr. Hrubec on duty – All patients on player operating tables die; they are just moved to the morgue, no special effects apply.
- Tools delivery – Ongoing action card affecting all teams' abilities: surgery +1 and psychiatry -1.
- Castling – All players pass one doctor from their team to the left. First everyone chooses one and then they are all passed.
- Holiday – Moves a patient from your operating table to another player.
- Heroic act – Discard a doctor from your team; he doesn't count in the next operation. You have +2 to all abilities during the next operation.
- Heart attack – Discard a patient from the waiting room from the game.
- Infectious eczema – Ongoing action card affecting all teams' abilities: dermatology -1.
- Clown show – Ongoing action card affecting all teams' abilities: surgery -1, psychiatry +1, stomatology -1 and dermatology -1.
- Lunch break – Moves a patient from your operating table to the waiting room.
Doctors
- Lawyer – After a failed operation, move the lawyer and the dead patient to another player. The patient goes directly into his morgue. If he has already 4 doctors, he either discards Lawyer or one of his former doctors.
- Alpine Doctor – After a successful operation, move Alpine Doctor to another player. If he already has 4 doctors, he discards either Alpine Doctor or one of his former doctors.
- Dr. Acula – If you have Dr. Acula in your team, action cards have no effect on your patient, except: Blackout and Dr. Hrubec on duty.
- Dr. Incognito – You or other players can't manipulate with him through special effects, except Castling.
- M.D. Brutal – After a failed operation, draw a card.
- Dr. Zero – When you play him, draw a card.
- M.D. Silicon – If you have a woman in your team, M.D. Silicon's abilities are: -2, 2, 0, 3.
- Young Intern – After a failed operation, move her to another player. If he has already 4 doctors, he has to discard either Young Intern or one of his former doctors.
- Butcher – If you rolled 1 on a failed operation, discard the patient from the game, instead of moving him to your morgue. If Alternative treatment or Lucky day is in play, Butcher has no effect.
- Alien – After playing Alien, discard a doctor.
- Gate keeper – After a successful operation, draw a card.
Patients
- Alcoholic – After a failed operation, move him to the operating table of the player to the right. If there is already a patient, discard Alcoholic from the game.
- Exhibitionist – After a successful operation, steal a woman doctor from another player. Only if you have less than 4 doctors.
- Leper – After a successful operation, draw a card.
- Infected prostitute – After a failed operation, discard your doctor.
- Geek – After a failed operation, draw a card.
- Blisters – After a failed operation, discard a card, if you have any.
- Schizoid – After a successful operation, steal a doctor from another player. Only if you have less than 4 doctors.
- Siamese twins – After a successful operation, you can move one patient from the waiting room to your operating table.
- Appendix – After a successful operation, draw a card.
- One body, no head – After a successful operation, move One body, no head to the morgue of another player.
- Constipation – After a failed operation, discard a card, if you have any.
- Fracture – After a successful operation, discard a card from your hand, if you have any.
Game Components
- Cards: 25 doctor cards; 25 patient cards; 34 action cards; 6 icon overview cards.
- Boards: 5 operating rooms; 5 team ability sheets; 1 operating room (the component list prints this single board as "operating rooms"; it is the hospital board used in Setup step 3).
- Dice: 1.
- Counters: 20.