Droids Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Preparation
• Game Sequence
  • 1. Drawing Order Chits
  • 2. Programming a Turn's Orders
  • 3. Execution of Orders
• End of the Game
• Order Chits
  • Violet Chits = Movement Orders for Land
  • Blue Chits = Movement Orders for Water
  • Red Chits = Action Orders
  • Grey Chits = Orders for Repair Robots
• Scenarios
  • 1. The Challenge
  • 2. Operation 'De-Mine'
  • 3. Golden Microchips
  • 4. Robot Madness
  • 5. The Robot Statue
  • 6. Duel in the Labyrinth
  • 7. Robot Killer
    • Special rules

Game Preparation

Each player takes a chit rack and a colored Droid which is placed on the appropriate start base. A game scenario is selected and the relevant obstacles are placed on the board. The order chits are separated into their respective colors and placed into different compartments in the game box. Decide a first player by some random method and proceed clockwise.

Game Sequence

Each game consists of three phases:

1. Drawing order chits
2. Programming a turn's orders
3. Execution of orders

1. Drawing Order Chits

Each player in turn draws 7 order chits and places them on the rack provided. The players have complete freedom of choice and may pick seven chits of one color or any combination of colors. All chits are drawn blind...meaning all 7 should be drawn before the player starts to look at them.

Meaning of colored order chits:

• Violet: Movement orders for land
• Blue: Movement orders for water
• Red: Action orders
• Grey: Orders for repair robots

2. Programming a Turn's Orders

With the selection of chits drawn, each player determines what movement and actions he is able to make, then each player in turn places an order face up on one of the ten transmitters behind their side of the board. Each transmitter consists of 3 boxes, so a maximum of three orders can be sent from any one box. The orders will be sent in sequence beginning with the ones closest to the board.

Orders may be place in random order (in fact it is best if they are so other players cannot see exactly what you are going to do) and may also be placed to bluff your opponents by being placed in transmitters which are never going to be used.

Once a player has placed all the chits he wants to place he passes, but once he passes he may not place any more chits on this turn. It is possible, then, for each player to place a different number of orders. Once all players have passed any remaining order chits are returned to the box.

3. Execution of Orders

Beginning with the start player, each player in turn sends on order to his Droid. The order must be the first order chit on the same transmitter that is in line with the Droid receiving the order.

The order chit must be applicable to the receiving Droid otherwise it has no effect (i.e. sending a water movement to a Droid on land has no effect). Other Droids or obstacles do not block orders. If the order is for a repair robot and both repair robots are in the same line...only the first robot is affected by the order.

The order is executed immediately and the Droid moves or takes an action. After use, order chits are removed from the board and returned to the box. The next player then executes an order...and so on, until all order chits have been used, or until there are no valid order chits remaining.

A player must send an order (if possible) once it has been programmed and he may not pass when it is his turn until he has no playable orders left to send. A players turn ends when:

• There are no more orders remaining
• The Droid is not in line with any remaining order chits
• Any remaining order chits are invalid for the Droid in it's current location.

When all players have finished sending orders, remaining chits are returned to the box and a new turn begins with the draw of 7 new order chits.

[The rules don't say this but I would suggest that the player to go first moves on each turn.]

End of the Game

When a player fails to execute an order to his own Droid or a repair robot in a turn he is eliminated from the game. His Droid remains on the board however, and the remaining players continue until one player achieves the victory conditions for the scenario that has been chosen...or until there is only one player remaining...who is declared the winner by default.

Order Chits

Violet Chits = Movement Orders for Land

(Ignore the color of the arrows in these illustrations.)

• Advance one square in the direction of the arrow. You may not enter a square containing an obstacle. If you enter a square containing a Droid you push it along one square.
• Advance two squares in the direction of the arrows. If the second square is an obstacle, only advance one square. If you enter water stop moving. Otherwise as above.
• Advance one square diagonally in the direction of the arrow. Otherwise as above.
• Advance as many squares as possible (until you reach an obstacle or the edge of the board) in the direction of the arrow. If you meet a Droid push it before you until it reaches an obstacle/edge of the board. Stop if you enter a water square.

Blue Chits = Movement Orders for Water

• Advance one square in the direction of the arrow. Otherwise the same rules apply as for land movement.

Red Chits = Action Orders

• Shoot in the direction of the arrow. An obstacle will block the shot, otherwise calculate whether a hit has been scored. Roll the ten-sided dice provided: if the number rolled is less than the number of squares separating the Droids the shot misses; if the number is equal to or greater than the number of squares separating the Droids the shot is a hit. If a number is double (triple etc.) the number of squares, then two hits are scored (three, etc.). For each hit, the damaged Droid's player must place a black marker over one of his transmitter columns. That transmitter is now useless until repaired. Note: Repair robots do not take hits but they do block shots.
• Pick up an object/put down an object. Each Droid may carry one object. A Droid may pick up an object on any adjacent space (not just the one in front of him) or steal an object from any adjacent Droid. If the Droid is already carrying something, then this order will command him to put it down in any adjacent square.
• This order is reserved for other players' Droids and interferes with their plans. The chit must have the 3 little arrows pointed at the target Droid. The order makes the Droid or repair robot advance as far as possible in the direction of the center arrow.

Grey Chits = Orders for Repair Robots

• Movement orders are acted upon in the same way as ordinary Droid orders, except that repair Robots treat water squares as ordinary spaces.
• Repair the Droid in the adjacent square in the direction of the arrow. The player may remove one grey damage marker from his Droid. With several of these orders it would be possible to repair a badly damaged Droid.

Scenarios

1. The Challenge

For 2-4 players or two teams of two.

If anyone dares to insult you by declaring you know nothing about robotics and that your Droid is not fit to wash dishes, challenge them to play this scenario. Of all the Droids, yours will be the last one standing!

Each player has one Droid; there are no repair robots and it is a fight to the death (meaning until only one player can move their Droid).

Each player gets to place mobile obstacles on free squares before the game begins (a free square is a square without a Droid or a permanent obstacle on it). With 2 or 4 players, 8 obstacles are placed in total (4 per person or 2 per person). With 3 players 9 obstacles are placed (three per person). These obstacles may be picked up and put down by Droids using the correct order chits (presumably making them mobile shields!).

2. Operation 'De-Mine'

For 2-4 players or two teams of two.

Some malicious soul - probably the loser of the last game - has tampered with the programming of the Repair Robots. From now on, they are also minelayers!

Will you be able to survive without blowing up your Droid on these infernal mines?

Aim of the game: to be the last player with a moveable robot on the board.

Players begin on their start spaces and the Repair Robots are placed in the two free corners. As well as their normal function, Repair Robots also lay mines. Every time a Repair Robot receives a movement order, it drops a mine in the square it leaves (place a mine token on the space). When a Droid lands on or passes through a square with a mine, the mine explodes (remove it from the board) and the Droid receives one damage marker which the player places on one of his transmitters.

Repair Robots that pass over mines detonate them but they are unaffected by the explosion. The explosion of a mine does not block the movement of a Droid or block transmission of orders (including shooting).

During the battle Droids may pick up and put down mines, but there is a small chance they will explode! If a Droid is carrying a mine the player must roll the D10 for each square it travels over. If he rolls a '0' the mine explodes and the Droid takes 2 damage markers.

3. Golden Microchips

For 2-4 players.

A satellite controlled barge has just sunk in a the river, after electrical problems. No big deal, you may say, except for its cargo! Armored containers each holding 10 million of the latest microchips...sold gold to power hungry Droids!

Place the cargo boxes as shown, the 2's with only two players, 2's and 3's with three players and all of them with four players. The Repair Robots go in the free corners. Victory goes to the player whose Droid takes the most cargo boxes back to its start space. Droids may only carry one box at a time and boxes returned to the start space are removed from the board. In the event of a tie everyone loses.

4. Robot Madness

For 2-4 players.

It occasionally happens that a Droid develops a complex. One tries vanely to find a rational explanation for this phenomenon, but to no avail. When a robot develops a complex, you have only three choices:

• Send it to the junk-yard. A radical but expensive solution (as they are not covered by insurance).
• Wait until it gets over it. This solution is generally adopted by those who have not finished paying for their Droid.
• Help it in its madness. This is the solution for imaginative people...and those with plenty of time!

The scenario takes place in the light of the effects of a Droids persecution complex: in order to protect itself from an imminent danger that only it can perceive, the Droid surrounds itself with huge blocks of cement until it is completely enclosed in a concrete garden, commonly known as "Droids Crazy Garden." You must now help your Droid overcome its crisis.

Aim of the game: to be the first to build a concrete garden for your Droid.

Droids are placed on their start spaces (green for the grey Droid) and the Repair Robots are place in the two free corners of the board. Each player places one obstacles at a time on a free space on the board (a free square is a square without a Droid or a permanent obstacle on it), until each player has placed three obstacles. (So with 2 players there will be 6 obstacles placed, with 3 players 9 obstacles placed, and with 4 players 12 obstacles placed. Obstacles are moved with a 'pick up/put down' order.

Note: A concrete garden consists of a mobile and/or fixed obstacles side by side, surrounding a players home base. Diagrams 1 and 2 show completed concrete gardens, and diagram 3 shows one that is incomplete.

[Diagrams 1, 2 and 3 omitted: 1 and 2 show completed concrete gardens; 3 shows an incomplete one.]

5. The Robot Statue

For 2-3 players.

The grey Droid is placed in the center of the game board and represents a statue of a hero Robot. Each Droid wants to bring the statue back to its start space. The scenario is played without Repair Robots, obstacles or shoot orders, so remove the 'shoot' order chits from the red draw pile. The statue may be pushed as normal or it may be carried by means of a 'pick up' order chit. Because the statue is heavy, a Droid carrying it may only move one square per order regardless of the movement allowed by the order chit. A statue may be grabbed from another Droid by means of the 'pick up' order.

6. Duel in the Labyrinth

For 2 players.

There comes a day in the life of a Droid when it knows it must leave the peaceful hum of programmed 'beeps.' Once every four years the Robot world champion chooses a challenges another Droid to a duel to the death. Today, your Droid has been chosen! Good luck!

Aim of the game: to capture your opponent or to be the last player to have a working Droid on the board.

The scenario is played without Repair Robots and diagonal movements are not allowed (remove the diagonal movement chits for both land and water).

The Red and Yellow Droids are placed in their start spaces each holding a mobile obstacle in their claw. Both players take another 11 mobile obstacles (so both have 12 in total) which are used as a supply for their Droid - these obstacles can be placed at any time as long as the appropriate order is used. [In other words, it is as if the Droid is carrying all 12 obstacles] During play, the Droids pick up and put down obstacles as normal in an attempt to completely surround their opponent as illustrated in the diagram below.

[Diagram omitted.]

7. Robot Killer

For 1 player.

As we saw in scenario 4 sometimes Droids malfunction without anyone knowing why. When all that is required is a concrete garden it's ok, but when a Droid becomes a killer we have a serious problem on our hands. Then we have to call in an elite Droid, yours, to sort things out. Happy?

Aim of the game: to place a force field over the Robot Killer before it shoots you to pieces.

Choose a Droid and place it on its start space. Place 7 mobile obstacles in front of you, representing the supply that your Droid is carrying. On the opposite start space place the grey Droid (the one that's a killer).

In this scenario you may only use the Blue, Violet and Pick up/Put down orders (you would never shoot a sick colleague would you!) but you do not need to draw them blind. On your turn you can choose any 7 orders you like (from the ones allowed) and place them on your transmitter to direct your Droid. Then you throw the dice and place the 'Program Sheet' (provided with the game) on the killers transmitter in such a way that the first order set corresponds to the number rolled.

[See diagram on page six of the original rules. Example 1 shows how the Program Sheet would be placed if you rolled a 6. Example 2 shows how the Program Sheet would be placed if you rolled a 3.]

If the Program Sheet extends beyond the board, only the orders that are on the transmitters are able to be sent. Orders are sent in the normal manner beginning with the Killer Robot. (It is recommended you use red order chits to mark the Program Sheet to make it easier to see which orders the Killer Robot has already executed.) In order to capture it with your force field you must completely surround the Killer Robot as in scenario 6 (see diagram example above).

Special rules

• The Killer Robot moves like a Repair Robot, it does not stop on the water squares.
• Whenever the Killer Robot shoots it fires in all four directions (hence the four arrows on the 'shoot' order on the Program Sheet) however, depending on how difficult a game you want to play, you can vary the effects of the Killer Robots shots. Choose one of the options below before you start the game.

1. Follow the normal rules of the game for shooting, obstacles, and damage.
2. The Killer scores a shot every time (obstacles don't block). Damage is taken as normal.
3. The same as 2. Except each hit destroys 2 transmitters.
4. The same as 2. Except each hit destroys 3 transmitters.
5. The same as 2. Except each hit destroys 5 transmitters.
6. Just one hit and your Droid is scrap metal.