Get Out
Get Out Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What You Need
What you need:
- Players: 2-8
- Playing Time: 1-2 Hours
What comes with it:
- Get Out Board
- 40 Plot Twist Cards
- 40 Comic Page Cards
- Rulebook
Other stuff you need:
- Two 6-sided Dice (1 red, 1 black)
- One colored Pawn for every player
- 20 colored Counters for every player
- Money
Assembling the Parts: If this is your first time playing Get Out, you'll have to assemble the board. Find a good stiff piece of cardboard to tape it to, about 17 inches square. Or just put sticky notes on the back, to hold it together temporarily. If you need help matching up the pieces, there's a snapshot of the board on the back of this rulebook.
Gather up all the stuff in the "What You Need" box to the left. You can use a bag of colored candy for your counters, or you can go buy some nice ones. Just about anything will work for pawns, as long as they match the counters and fit in the squares.
If you don't have any play money, you can keep track on paper, or get by with the real thing (use pennies for $10.) You can also buy money from Cheapass Games for $5.00 a bundle. Shameless, aren't we?
Before the Game: Shuffle the Plot Twist and Comic Page decks, and set them next to the board. Everybody chooses a pawn and 20 counters. Your counters should match the color of your pawn, because you will use them to represent your applications, jobs, apartments, and points. There isn't any upper limit to the number of counters you can use; 20 is just our best guess for the most you'll ever need.
Put your pawns on the Pay Day on the outside track, and roll dice to see who will go first. You begin with $100, which includes your first month's allowance.
How You Win
All you have to do is get up to the center ring and walk past the "Get Out • Pay Day" square four times. Each time you go by that square you get one Life Point, and the first player with four Life Points wins.
Getting up there won't be easy, however. You'll need to get a job, get an apartment, keep the bills paid, and avoid the temptation to blow all your money on wagonloads of useless crap.
Getting Around
Your basic movement roll is two dice, clockwise around the board. You can't move up and down the gray ramps yet, so you're pretty much stuck in the outer loop. Once you get a job or move into an apartment, (see details below), you open up the ramp above that square. It's only open for you, for as long as you keep that job or apartment. Other players can't use it.
You can move freely up or down your own ramps, but you can't use the same ramp twice on the same move. A ramp isn't a space, so don't count it as you go through.
The Bank: Someone needs to keep track of the money. The pile of Money is "The Bank." If money gets paid to, or collected from, any unoccupied job square, or any other unspecified place, the Bank takes care of it.
Movement Penalty
Having a job is nice, but it also slows you down. Your movement roll represents what you're doing in your free time, and that free time will dwindle if you work too much.
If you have one job, throw away any 6's in your movement roll. If you have two jobs, throw away 5's and 6's, and so forth. For example, if you had two jobs, and rolled (5,2), you'd ignore the 5 and move only 2 spaces.
If you ever make 2 movement rolls without moving, you must immediately quit one job of your choice.
Jobs and Apartments
Jobs and apartments both function in basically the same way. We'll describe jobs, and then add notes in italics about apartments wherever it's necessary.
Special Squares Around the Board
Pay Day: Whenever you pass Pay Day, you collect the money from all your jobs, and then pay your rent. If you have no job, your mom gives you $40 allowance. If you can't make rent, you pay what you can, and then you get evicted.
Get Out • Pay Day: Every time you walk past this square, you get one Life Point. Show this by putting one of your counters in the big open space in the center of the board. That way, everyone can see who's ahead. The first player to collect four Life Points wins.
Plot Twist / Comic Page: If you land on one of these squares, draw the appropriate card and follow its instructions. Reshuffle these piles if they run out.
Benjy's Card 'n Comic Shop: Whenever you pass this square, you must pay Benjy's $30 for comic books and trading cards. The only way around Benjy's is to land on Back Alley, or to be up on another level. Note that Benjy's is a job square, but it doesn't ramp to anywhere.
The 451 Club: This is a dead-end job rather like Benjy's, but it's up on the Apartment level. Players must pay the 451 Club $60 when they stop there.
Half-Jobs: There are four half-jobs, which read "Affects black (or red) die only." They work like this: If you have one normal job, and also work at Frozen Hell, you'd throw out all sixes, and black fives. If you got the other "black die" half-job, you'd also throw out black 4's. If you get one half-job of each color (one black, one red), then work like a single normal job.
The Double-Job: Mandelbrot's Furniture counts as two jobs for purposes of movement. The fact is, it's the only full-time job on the board. The others are merely part time jobs (or worse.)
Other Funky Stuff: Whenever you land on a square that isn't described above, you follow the instructions on the square. Furthermore, if something jumps you to another square, you also follow the instructions where you land.
However, if you stay in the same place for a second turn (because you rolled a zero, due to too many jobs), you ignore the text on the square. Don't act like you just landed on it again. For example, if you get stuck on GloomCon, you don't have to pay the $30 again. You also can't deal with a Job square if you're stuck on it, you don't get paid twice at Pay Day, etc.
To move into an apartment, you have to pay a damage deposit equal to one month's rent. You will never get this back. If you can't afford the damage deposit, you can still stop and try for an apartment, but you will always fail.
Putting in an Application
Whenever you land on an available job, you can put in an application. You show your application by putting a counter on the job square (see diagram below).
Any number of people can apply for the same job, as long as no one works there. However, one player can't put two applications in at the same job at the same time. As soon as one player gets the job, the other applications will disappear.
You apply for apartments in the same way, but each application costs you $50 for a credit check.
Diagram: a job square labelled "Grin 'n Wear It, PAYS $350", with the caption "You Got the Job!"
Quitting Your Job
Once you have a job, you may choose to stop at it whenever you pass by, but only if you want to quit. (Why else would you go to work on your day off?) You must be at your job to quit: You can't quit from any other square, unless you're forced to do so by a card, or by making 2 rolls without moving.
You can ditch an apartment in the same way, or by being unable to pay your rent.
Diagram: "Grin 'n Wear It, PAYS $350" (two applications on a job square).
Getting Somebody Canned
If you land on someone else's job, you can try to get them fired. Roll one die. On a 5 or a 6, they get fired, and you can immediately apply for their job (if you want to). On a 1 or a 2, you lose a Life Point, if you have one. On a 3 or a 4, nothing happens.
You can get somebody evicted by the same method, but you must have a Life Point to risk.
Trying to Get It
The next time you walk past your application, you can choose to stop on that square and try for the job. If you are the only applicant, you get the job without fail. Otherwise, you have to roll for it. Your chances of getting the job are 1 in X, where X is the total number of applications there. (If you need help doing probability rolls, see the chart on the back page.)
If you walk past an application without dealing with it, it gets burned (goes away). If you land exactly on an application, you can either try for the job, re-apply, or just let the application go away.
If you try to get the job but fail, your application is burned, and the others remain. You may immediately re-apply.
If you get the job, you burn all the other applications, and move your counter up to the gray ramp above the job square. That ramp is now open for you.
Other Stuff To Know
Paying Money: If something requires you to pay money to a particular place, that money usually goes to the Bank. However, if somebody works at the square, the money goes to the player instead.
For example, if you work at Benjy's, everybody who passes that square pays $30 to you. And, if Benjy's pays money to someone, it comes out of your pocket!
Going into the Hole: There's no credit in Get Out, so if you go into the hole, your Mom bails you out. However, her kindness only goes so far. For example, she won't buy you stuff. Assuming you have $40, the following are true:
- If something forces you to pay $50, you pay $40.
- If something gives you the option of paying $50 for something, you can't pay it. But you keep your $40.
Strategy Hints
Turn Order: Since there are several things you can do on your turn, you may sometimes have to choose what order you do them in. If you're faced with multiple squares, you deal with them in the order you pass them. On Pay Day, you always get paid before you pay your rent, but you can choose what order to pay your rent in (if you have two apartments), so you don't get evicted from the wrong one. When dealing with other single squares, you can choose what order to do everything in.
For example, say you're moving towards Benjy's Card and Comic. You've got an application at Benjy's, and so does Kathy. You will pass it and land on the Googolplex, unless you decide to stop.
- Option 1: Pass Benjy's, and pay $30. You will burn your application by passing it. Then you land on the Googolplex, and you can deal with that square.
- Option 2: Stop at Benjy's and try for the job. You don't have to pay the $30 to Benjy first, so if you get the job, you can pay yourself.
- Option 3: You can even get the job at Benjy's, pay yourself the $30, and quit all in the same turn. Net result: You burn Kathy's application, and save $30.
- Option 4: It would also be legal to stop at Benjy's, pay the $30, and then try for the job. Silly, but legal.
Money isn't everything: Don't let your natural lust for wealth slow you down. Having lots of jobs might get you a lot of money, but unless you can convert your cash into points, you're going to wind up a very rich loser. If you've got way too much money, try dumping a job or two. It will seriously speed you up.
In fact, you can survive the inner ring even if you're broke, as long as you don't hit any of the squares that kick you out. You can also run on a negative monthly balance, if you have enough cash to pay the bills.
"Can I Work Here?" Leave lots of job applications in your wake, even if you don't intend to take those jobs. They will just make it harder for other players to get the jobs, and they will give you places to stop if you want to avoid a hazard. Of course, using your applications as brakes forces you to try for the jobs, but you can quit immediately if you don't want them. And you'll burn the other applications on the square in the process.
If you have enough cash, you might want to do the same thing in the apartment ring. But it's a lot more expensive!
Live Where You Work: Try to get a job that leads into your apartment. Don't take an apartment earlier on the loop than your first job, or you'll have no reliable way to get home.
Options for a Faster Game
Open Squares: If you're looking to speed up the game, you might want to designate certain jobs and apartments as "open." This means that any number of people can work/live there. You always get those jobs and apartments no matter how many applicants there are, everyone who works there can use the ramps, and so on. You can figure out the rest.
More or Less Points: Another way to adjust the game length is to play to more points, or fewer points if there are a lot of players. If you want an all-fired game of luck and violence, play the game to one point.
Three Dice: To speed up the game, use a blue movement die in addition to the red and black dice. The half-jobs don't affect the blue die, but the other jobs do. Or, if you have them, use two seven-sided dice.
Trying For a Job/Apartment
Reference chart, printed on the back page; see "Trying to Get It."
| If there are | Then do this |
|---|---|
| 2 applicants | Roll 1 die. You succeed on 4, 5, or 6. |
| 3 | Roll 1 die. You succeed on 5 or 6. |
| 4 | Roll 2 dice. You get it if both are even. |
| 5 | Roll 1 die. You get it on a 6. Re-roll 1's. |
| 6 | Roll 1 die. You get it on a 6. |
| 7 | Roll 2 dice. You get the job on a red 6, unless the black die is also 6, in which case you must roll again.* |
| 8 | Roll 3 dice. You get it if all 3 are even. |
* Aren't we clever? You'll never need it, but boy are we clever.