HUNGER: The Show Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Locations
• Locations and Simultaneous Resolution
• Daily Schedule
• Gathering Fruits, Hunting for Chickens and Searching for Raft Parts
• Thief
• Guard
• Event Cards
• Ending the Show
• Determining the Winner
• Example of Play: Days 1 and 2
• Additional Variant: Special Characters

Components

• 1 character card, 6 alternative character cards, and 1 starting player card, henceforth called The Leader. The starting player card is printed inside the game box.
• 6 sets of player cards (60 cards in total), one set per contestant color.
• 4 location cards (The Campsite, The Beach, The Jungle, The Mountains).
• 5 action cards per player color.
• 23 event cards: 12 unpleasant (red and yellow numbers) and 10 neutral (empty cards).
• 1 The End of the Show card.
• 18 fruit tokens (8 × "2", 10 × "3").
• 18 chicken tokens (6 × "1", 4 × "2", 8 × "4").
• 24 raft part tokens: ropes (6 × "1", 6 × "2") and logs (6 × "1", 6 × "2").
• 30 coconut tokens (8 × "0", 18 × "1", 4 × "2").
• 48 canned food tokens (six sets of 8 tokens each, in the players' own colors: 2 × "4", 2 × "3", 2 × "2", 2 × "1").
• The Island (printed inside the game box). Place it within the reach of all the contestants. The box lid is storage for unused components.

Attention: the resources are limited. If any resource type is depleted, it becomes unavailable until the end of the program.

Setup

Dear contestant, before we commence the program:

1. Shuffle the character cards and deal one to each player. Place unused character cards into the box lid, as they will not be needed.

2. Take the 5 action cards in the color of your character card: search for raft parts, fruit gathering, hunt for chickens, protection against stealing, attempt to steal from other contestants.

3. Take 2–4 location cards: The Campsite and The Beach (always), + The Jungle (in a game with 3 or more players), + The Mountains (in a game with 5 or more players). Place unused location cards into the box lid, as they won't be needed.

4. Take all your provisions for the first days of the show (canned food): 2 provision tokens of each value: 1, 2, 3 and 4 food rations in the color of your character card. Every contestant keeps all his/her tokens here, face down, and may check them at any time. Players cannot however check other contestants' tokens, nor those already placed on the island (except when collecting or stealing them). Shuffle each token type separately (face down).

5. Put the token piles on their corresponding locations on the board:

   • 6 Chicken tokens on The Beach and (with 3 or more players) 6 Chicken tokens in The Jungle and (with 5 or more players) 6 Chicken tokens in The Mountains.
   • 6 Fruit tokens on The Beach and (with 3 or more players) 6 Fruit tokens in The Jungle and (with 5 or more players) 6 Fruit tokens in The Mountains.
   • 8 Raft parts on The Beach and (with 3 or more players) 8 Raft parts in The Jungle and (with 5 or more players) 8 Raft parts in The Mountains.

   Place unused tokens into the box lid, as they will not be needed.

6. Event cards – prepare the event card deck depending on the desired level of difficulty. For example, add more red and yellow number cards to make the game more difficult. If you don't want any events, then use only empty cards. (We recommend this during your first show.)

   • Set aside The End of the Show card.

Footnotes printed on the setup pages: canned food consists of fish, as (according to nutritionists) they are an essential part of any balanced diet. A "celebrity" is a player who usually lines up in front.

Locations

Dear contestant, on the island you shall find a shelter and several interesting locations:

• The Campsite (1) is where the players return each day to eat, sleep and store their stuff. Here you can try your luck as a Thief or protect the resources as a Guard. The remaining actions (Gatherer, Hunter, Seeker) do not work at The Campsite.
• The Beach (2), The Jungle (3) and The Mountains (4) are the only locations where you can gather fruits, hunt for chickens and seek raft parts. You can also try your luck as a Thief or defend others as a Guard.

Footnote printed on the location page: "Sometimes there are some coconuts on a tropical island. May contain coconut."

Locations and Simultaneous Resolution

Dear contestant, every day you spend on the island you must choose one location that you shall visit and one action that you shall perform there.

• If only 1 contestant performs a given action at a location, he/she can use both hands and therefore gathers 2 tokens (fruits, chickens, raft parts or coconuts).
• If 2 contestants perform the same action in the same location, they both use one hand to defend their loot and the other hand to collect it. They collect 1 token each (fruit, chicken, raft part or coconut).
• If 3 contestants or more want to perform the same action in the same location, all of them have their hands full, as they are battling each other. They cannot collect any items and return to The Campsite empty-handed. Their actions have no effect.
• Usually a Thief steals other contestants' resources, although sometimes he/she only gathers coconuts. But when a Guard catches the Thief red-handed, then the Thief loses resources!
• Usually a Guard stops a Thief, and as a reward receives gifts from other players. When a Guard doesn't catch a Thief, then the Guard only gathers coconuts.

Footnote printed on the location page: three contestants meet at the entrance to the Campsite and it goes like this: "I'm on guard today." "No, today's my turn!" "Guys, it's me who's on guard!" – "Aaargh!" In the meantime Contestant D quietly steals from the Campsite.

Daily Schedule

Dear contestant, your full day schedule on the island involves the following:

1. You greet a new day! Each contestant secretly chooses where (location card) and what (action card) he/she intends to do in order to get closer to victory. In the morning everyone leaves The Campsite, although some may bluff and return there as Thieves or Guards.
2. At the Leader's command, all contestants reveal their chosen cards (location and action).
3. You settle the effects of contestants' efforts starting from The Campsite, then The Beach (and, depending on the number of players) The Jungle and The Mountains. All actions at a given location are settled simultaneously.
4. If a contestant reveals cards displaying illegal actions (e.g. gathering fruits at The Campsite, or The Mountains location card in a 4 player game), such cards have no effect.
5. At the end of the day, an event card is revealed and its effect resolved. One of the possible effects is The End of the Show – in this case all players count their scores and one of the players is declared the winner.
6. At the end of the day, every player needs to eat supper, which requires 4 food portions (consisting of any number of cans, fruits, chickens and coconuts). No change is returned if you must use tokens worth more than 4 portions!
7. If a contestant cannot fulfill his/her needs, he/she is eliminated from the show (along with all of his/her tokens)! You'd better check if the show doesn't end because of all players' elimination...
8. The Leader card is passed to the player to the left, and a new day dawns.

Footnotes printed on these pages: "Why at the end of the day? Because it's prime time!" and "A participant has fainted, so he/she is taken by a rescue helicopter to our studio. This particular contestant loses, but at least he/she'll follow further events from a comfy chair."

Gathering Fruits, Hunting for Chickens and Searching for Raft Parts

Dear contestant, here you'll find detailed rules of the resolution of your activity:

These actions may be played on The Beach, in The Jungle and in The Mountains (no effect at The Campsite).

• If you're the only player performing a given action at a location, then you collect 2 tokens.
• If you and 1 other contestant perform the same action at a given location, then each of you collects 1 token (in the playing order starting from the Leader).
• If you and 2 or more other contestants perform the same action at a given location, then you all get in each other's way and all of your actions are canceled.
• If you perform different actions in a given location – e.g. on The Beach one player hunts chickens, a second player gathers fruits, and a third player searches for raft parts, then each of them collects 2 tokens.
• If there's no token of the kind you wanted to collect, your action is canceled.
• If you come across a Thief or a Guard, read their corresponding action descriptions.

Thief

Dear contestant, the audience will co-create the show. They'll make sure you feel enough excitement during the evening event.

On The Beach, in The Jungle and in The Mountains:

• You collect all the tokens collected by other players who have gathered fruits, hunted for chickens, and searched for raft parts. If no other contestants did so, then you just roam around and collect 2 coconuts.
• If there are 2 Thieves in the same location, they share their loot (each takes one token in turn in the playing order until all the loot is divided between them). If there were no other contestants, they collect 1 coconut each in the playing order.
• If there are 3 Thieves in the same location, they get in each other's way and their actions are canceled.
• If you come across a Guard, read below what awaits you.

At The Campsite:

• You steal 2 tokens from other contestants (take 2 tokens from a single player, or 1 token from 2 players).
• If there are 2 Thieves, each steals 1 token from another player (in the playing order).
• If there are 3 Thieves, they get in each other's way and their actions are canceled.
• If you come across a Guard, then you know something went wrong...

Footnote printed on the Thief page: "Of course you can steal from a Thief – some may call it social justice..."

Guard

Protecting the resources:

• If you are a Guard and catch one Thief, then you take 2 tokens from the Thief, and each other contestant in this location (other than the Thief) must give you one token of his/her choice. If you catch the Thief at The Campsite, each contestant (other than the Thief) must give you one token.
• If you come across 2 Thieves, you take 1 token from each of them, and each contestant present in the same location (other than the Thieves) must give you one token of his/her choice. If you catch the Thieves at The Campsite, each contestant (other than the Thieves) must give you one token.
• If you come across 3 Thieves, their actions are canceled, so you have nothing to do and you collect 2 coconuts.
• If you don't see any Thief in your location, then you simply roam around and collect 2 coconuts.
• If two Guards catch one Thief, each Guard takes one token from the Thief, and each contestant present in the same location chooses a Guard and gives one token to that Guard. If at The Campsite, each contestant (other than these Guards and the Thief) must give one token to a chosen Guard.
• If two Guards catch two Thieves, each Guard takes 1 token from a chosen Thief and the other contestants at the same location each give 1 token each to a chosen Guard. If at The Campsite, each contestant (other than these Guards and Thieves) must give 1 token to a chosen Guard.
• If two Guards don't catch a Thief in a given location, they each collect 1 coconut in the playing order.
• If two Guards come across three Thieves or no Thief, they each collect 1 coconut.
• If there are three Guards, they get in each other's way and their actions are canceled.

Footnote printed on the Guard page: "As a compensation for protection – because, as you know, protection doesn't come free."

Event Cards

Event cards have the following effects:

• Typhoon (−1 / −2 cards): destroys the stock of ropes and wood prepared by the TV crew. Remove 1 or 2 raft parts from each part of the island and put them back into the game box. It'll be harder to build a raft.
• Bird flu (−1 / −2 cards): results in a chicken plague. Remove 1 or 2 chicken tokens from each part of the island and put them back into the game box. It'll be harder to prepare supper.
• Flock of parrots (−1 / −2 cards): results in a loss of fruits. Remove 1 or 2 fruit tokens from each part of the island and put them back into the game box. It'll be harder to prepare supper.
• Rat plague (−1 / −2 cards): results in a loss of stock gathered at The Campsite. Starting with the Leader, each contestant chooses 1 or 2 tokens from the player on the left and puts them back into the game box.
• Calm day (empty card): Amazingly, nothing bad happens on the island today...

Footnote printed on the event page: "the audience either felt sorry for you or was out of money."

Ending the Show

Dear contestant, the show shall end under the following circumstances. The show ends if at least one of the following situations occurs:

• A. The End of the Show card has been revealed from the event card deck. You need to determine the winner from among the contestants remaining on the island.
• B. None of the contestants remaining in the show is able to eat supper. You need to determine the winner among the contestants that got eliminated last, i.e. on this day!
• C. After supper, only one contestant remains. He/she is instantly declared the winner! (No need to count raft parts.)

Determining the Winner

Dear contestant, the winner of The Hunger Show shall be the one who survives the longest and builds the best raft.

• Contestants build raft parts out of logs and ropes. Whoever has the most sets is declared the winner (example: 3 logs and 1 rope gives you only one set).
• In the case of a tie for sets, you need to count the tying players' other raft parts. Whoever has more raft parts is declared the winner.
• In the case of a further tie, you need to count gathered food. Whoever has more food (number of meals in total) is declared the winner.
• Footnote printed on this page: "In the case of a further tie, the contestant with the fanciest haircut wins. Those are the rules of show business..."
• Footnote printed on the introduction page, against "There are no ties in this contest": "In truth there are some, but that would look poor in the credits, so we moved it to the end of the rulebook."

Example of Play: Days 1 and 2

Dear contestant, attached you'll find a record of the first two days of the show's previous season, so you can have a better understanding of what you are about to experience.

Day 1

1. Planning. Anne plans to gather fruits on The Beach. Bonnie plans to hunt chickens in The Jungle. Mike also plans to hunt chickens in The Jungle. Tom intends to be a Guard in The Jungle. Sergio would like to try his luck as a Thief on The Beach. Kate is going to look for raft parts in The Mountains.
2. Anne (Leader) tells others to reveal their plans.
3. Resolution of effects. There's no one at The Campsite, so nothing happens there. Anne and Sergio are on The Beach. Anne collects 2 fruit tokens (3 and 3 – an abundant harvest), but Sergio immediately steals them from her. Anne returns empty-handed, and Sergio has 2 fruit tokens (3 and 3, great loot). There are 3 contestants in The Jungle. Bonnie and Mike hunt for chickens, so each collects only 1 token. Bonnie takes a token first (4 – a fat one), Mike goes second (2 – an average one). Tom is a Guard, but he didn't encounter a Thief, so he only collects 2 coconut tokens (2 and 0 – one of the coconuts turned out to be rotten). Kate is the only contestant in The Mountains, so she collects 2 raft part tokens (double line and log – they constitute 1 full raft part and a half of another!).
4. The event is resolved. Bird flu card (−1 chicken)! 1 chicken token is removed from each stack on the island (from The Beach, The Jungle and The Mountains) and put back into the game box lid.
5. Supper. Each contestant must regain strength, so he/she discards food tokens with a total value of 4 or more to the box. Every contestant eats one can of fish (4).
6. Anne gives the Leader card to Bonnie.

Footnote printed on this example: "If Tom had gone to The Beach, Anne would have collected her fruits, and Tom would have taken 2 tokens of his choice from Sergio. Anne would need to give one more token to Tom as a compensation for protection (she would probably give her worst token – a can of value 1 – since gratitude has its limits)."

Day 2

1. Planning. Anne intends to get revenge on Sergio and wants to steal from him at The Campsite. Bonnie plans to steal from people present in The Jungle. Mike plans to hunt for chickens in The Mountains. Tom expects a theft at The Campsite and decides to be a Guard. Sergio anticipates Anne's plan and stays at The Campsite as a Guard. Kate wants to mind her resources and stays at The Campsite as a Guard.
2. Bonnie (Leader) tells everyone to reveal their plans.
3. Resolution of effects. There are 3 Guards and a Thief at The Campsite. The Guards totally get in each other's way, so it's as if they're not even there! Tom, Sergio and Kate end up empty-handed. Anne is lucky! As the Guards get in each other's way, she acts freely. She may steal 2 tokens from other players – she steals a fruit token from Sergio (remembering that he has two fruit tokens each worth 3) and Kate's raft token (she's lucky for the second time – double rope!). There's no one on The Beach. Bonnie is the only contestant in The Jungle, so she doesn't steal (there are no victims to steal from), but she collects 2 coconuts (1 and 1 – both are small, but they're still food). Mike is the only contestant in The Jungle, so he collects 2 chicken tokens (1 and 2 – some weaklings).
4. The event is resolved. Rat plague card (−1 Campsite)! Starting from the Leader (Bonnie) each player discards 1 token of his neighbor on the left back into the box. Bonnie chooses one of Mike's can tokens and returns it into the game box. Now Mike does the same to Tom. Tom discards Sergio's fruit token. Sergio removes Kate's raft part, and Kate gets revenge on Anne. Lastly, Anne discards Bonnie's chicken token.
5. Supper. Each contestant of The Hunger Show must regain his/her strength, so he/she discards food tokens of a total minimum value of 4 back into the game box. Some contestants had chickens or cans worth 4; others had to spend tokens of value 3 and 1 or 2 and 2.
6. Bonnie gives the Leader card to Mike.

Footnotes printed on this example: Anne might have stolen Sergio's second fruit token, but she remembered that she needed to build a raft. If there were only 2 Guards at the Campsite, e.g. Sergio and Kate, each of them would take 1 token from Anne. Moreover, Bonnie, Mike and Tom would each give 1 token to a Guard of their choice.

Additional Variant: Special Characters

The audience has received your full dossier. You have also been gathering information about each other. On the one hand, it may be easier to anticipate your actions. But on the other hand, if "I know that you know that I know that he knows..." then maybe it'll be easier to actually surprise someone?

In order to make the show even more interesting, you may use characters with special abilities. Switch the basic character cards with these expansion cards and benefit from their special abilities.

• Coconut connoisseur – when collecting coconuts, this contestant receives one more token.
• Eagle eye – when searching for raft parts, this contestant draws 1 extra token and chooses which one to reject (placing it onto the top or the bottom of the pile) and keeps the rest (1 or 2).
• Raptor – when hunting for chickens, this contestant draws 1 extra token and chooses which one to reject (placing it onto the top or the bottom of the pile) and keeps the rest (1 or 2).
• Sweet – when gathering fruits, this contestant draws 1 extra token and chooses which one to reject (placing it onto the top or the bottom of the pile) and keeps the rest (1 or 2).
• Arnold – when Arnold is a Guard, he doesn't wait for other players to choose their gifts – Arnold himself chooses them.
• Ninja – when the Ninja is a Thief and is caught, he/she may hide 2 tokens from the Guards.