Infarkt
Infarkt Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Setup
Prepare the game as shown in the picture.
The game board. The game board represents places where your life takes place.
A pile of coins. Money can buy almost everything (in this game).
Supermarket – Goods package. In the supermarket, you can buy various goods: food, beverages, tobacco.
Place reserved for used goods pile. All discarded goods cards go here (even from other locations). If the goods package is depleted, shuffle all discarded goods cards and form a new goods package.
Pharmacy – Drug package. In the pharmacy, you can buy drugs to recover your frail health. Place reserved for used drug package.
Place reserved for used drug pile.
Flea market – Three goods cards and one drug card face up. Both goods and drugs may be purchased on the flea market.
The beginner player piece should be given to the player who was ill last time.
Events – Event package. Shuffle the event cards and place them on the designated position depending on the number of players. The picture shows the board configured for four players.
Event positions for event cards. Their number is always higher by one compared to the number of currently playing players.
Place reserved for used event cards pile.
Every player will be given:
- a player's card and 6 chips – health indicators showing his/her current health condition. At the beginning of the game, all health indicators show zero.
- three pieces in the player's assigned colour
- 1 coin and one randomly drawn drug card + one goods card. The player will put the cards on the table in front of him/her face up. All cards and money are always uncovered in this game!
If 3-4 players play the game, the third player (in order) will get 1 more. If 5 players are playing the game, the third player (in order) will get 2 more and the fourth 1 more. You may find it odd, but that's the way it is. For the rules for a two-player game see the addenda.
Extension. Just like you, we too love extensions. That is why we have added them right to the basic set of the game. We have prepared five such extensions for an advanced version of the game. But for the moment, let us describe the basic version of the game.
At this moment, you don't have any use for the chips — put them aside.
That's it. The game is ready. Now, let's look at the basic principle of the game.
The Basic Principle of the Game
The basic principle of the game resides in the improvement and deterioration of your health condition depending on what events you face.
You can see your health condition on your player's card where you have your individual health indicators. There are six of them: cholesterol, blood pressure, obesity, depression, diabetes and cancer.
You will identify changes based on icons as on the cards or on the game board.
For instance: +2 blood pressure means move your blood pressure up by 2 points towards the grave symbol.
A small example: The figure indicates a player has problems with his/her blood pressure (value 6) and obesity (value 5). All other health conditions are OK.
He/she experiences and unpleasant event – a diarrhoea. On one hand, it helps the player to get off some extra weight -1 obesity (the obesity value drops from 5 to 4) but it naturally affects the mental condition +3 depression (the depression rises from 0 to 3).
As you can see, it's simple. If any provision of the rules reads "execute the effect of the card" it simply means – move the indicators according to symbols as on the card.
Moreover, the player has to go to his/her office (as he/she needs money +3 coins) and it will worsen his/her depression by 2 points to the dangerous level of 5.
His/her decides to improve his mood somewhat by having some beer (-1 depression +1 obesity) but his/her obesity reaches the hazard limit, again. Should any of the indicators reach the grave symbol, the player dies and leaves the game. He/she can die of anything, except obesity.
None of the indicators can be lowered to less than zero and increased to more than 10. Example: Your diabetes value is 1 and you have to lower it by 2, so you will move your indicator from 1 to 0. The remaining part of the effect will be forfeited and it cannot be saved for later in any event.
Warning of the publisher: We cannot exclude a positive impact on your lifestyle.
General Overview of the Game
The game is divided into rounds. The procedure of every game round is as follows:
- Events – the players one by one take a card from the set of events and execute the instruction. Then the chip of the first player is given out.
- Placement of pieces (action planning) – the players simultaneously place their 3 pieces on the game board.
- Execution of actions – the players gradually execute the chosen actions.
- Termination of the round
The rounds keep repeating until only one player remains alive – he/she is the winner.
"One by one" means that the first player (the player possessing the beginning player chip) starts playing followed by his/her neighbour at the table and so on until the last one. We recommend settling the basic cultural differences concerning the direction of the game (clockwise / counterclockwise) prior to the beginning of the game.
Always lay out one more card than the number of active players (that means excluding those who have already died; simply those who are still actively involved in the game).
If you like to have things clearly arranged, move the event pile at every death to the left depending on the current number of active players. This way you will have the right number of layout places left for the pile. But it's up to you.
1. Events
The beginning player will put on the Event positions a number of cards that is higher by one than the number of the active players.
The cards should be laid face up. The players play one by one. The currently playing player will draw one of the remaining offered events and immediately execute the effects of the instruction it contains.
After all players have chosen cards and executed the instructions, the beginning player will hand over the beginner's chip to the next player respecting the game direction (this way, he/she determines the new beginning player for the next parts of the round). The last remaining event card will be moved to the discarded pile. The players keep used event cards.
The cards we keep for ourselves will serve as a small personal diary, CV, log or whatever you may call it. At the end of the game it may be fun to read the sequence of your life events and to wryly comment on its vicissitudes.
2. Placement of Pieces (Planning of Actions)
Every player deploys his/her 3 pieces to 3 different places.
The players deploy their pieces at the same time (not waiting for others). The following places are available: Job, Supermarket, Pharmacy, Flea market, Home and Fitness centre. Several pieces of several players may be placed at the same place but never several pieces of the same player.
Sometimes, the player's choice of locations may be limited. If, for instance, he/she has picked a bank holiday, he/she cannot go to his/her office (see the annex with special cards). After all players have completed their planning, you can start with the execution of the actions.
Why do we call it "planning"? The piece at any location will make it possible for the player to execute a specific action later on. In this phase of the game, we just choose what (actions) we will execute later on. Therefore we use the word planning.
The pieces are deployed at the same time. If you play with people who prefer to carefully calculate every move in advance, you may agree on step-by-step planning, but it will make the game much slower. It all depends on your mates – we always play at the same time and if someone keeps us waiting we take a creative approach to address it.
3. Execution of Actions
The players play one after the other. The currently playing player executes his/her planned actions in any order whatsoever. That means that the player:
- chooses one of his/her pieces.
- executes actions allowed to him/her by the location visited.
- takes the piece back and repeats the procedure with other pieces.
The order of actions is sometimes irrelevant but sometimes it may matter. For instance, first you go to your office, you buy some goods for the money earned and in the same round you may invite others to a party.
Office
Although the job will earn you 3 coins, why work if it makes you suffer +2 depression?
An action is what is inside one black rectangle. Sometimes one, sometimes several actions. The action must be performed fully not partially (for instance to take the money at your office but leave the depression). The action is not obligatory but once you decide to execute it, you have to execute it in its entirety.
Pharmacy
A pharmacy is a paradise of all ill people and hypochondriacs. You can get here 1 drug from the drugs pile for 2 coins. The drugs are not cheap but bring you an enormous benefit: You can use them anytime during the game, even when you are not moving without any special action. You simply report "I am going to use my drug", you execute its effect and you put away the drug on the discarded drug pile.
Fitness
You are working hard in there. It is a place where you improve your physical condition, your mood and self-confidence depending on your financial standing and the number of hours you can afford.
For 1 coin you will get -1 cholesterol -1 depression, for 2 coins even -1 cholesterol -2 depression.
Where options A), B) are available, choose just one of them. Make your choice as late as when executing the action not during the planning. For instance: A) -1 coin -1 cholesterol -1 depression B) -2 coins -1 cholesterol -2 depression
Supermarket
In the supermarket, you can stock up with food to prepare some delicious meals, or to invite your neighbours to a party. You may:
- do a standard shopping – you may buy one (A) or two (B) cards from the goods pile, the price of each is 1 coin.
- fall victim to a shopping frenzy (C) +1 coin and -2 goods cards. Check the 3 upper cards as in the goods pile, keep 2 of them and return the remaining 1 to the goods pile face down.
The little icon means the acquisition of a card from the respective pile. The icon means the choice of 2 cards from 3.
Flea Market
In the Flea market you can get both drugs and goods. The cards are not purchased in here but traded. What can be traded are goods for goods and drugs for drugs. The level of benefit depends on how many cards you have traded. The following three options are available to you:
A) You may trade one card for another of your own ones - it is actually a beneficial deal as you will earn 1 coin.
B) You may trade two cards for two of your own cards. This transaction is not as advantageous but, at least you do not have to pay anything.
C) You may trade three cards. This is more demanding as to money as you will have to pay 1 coin.
Should the deal be not attractive for you, the stallholder will change it for you. Put away your cards and draw another three goods cards and two drug cards. Choose one of the two drug cards and place it on the Flea market and put away the other one. As long as you have money, the stallholder will keep changing the offer for you - it may be repeated several times.
The exchange and trading cannot be combined. Once you have started trading, changing is not admissible any further.
The Flea market does not have any drawing and discarded card pile. Use respective the piles of the pharmacy and supermarket (that means take drugs from the pharmacy and goods from the supermarket and put the cards on the respective discarded piles).
Home
Should you decide to spend some time at home, you may recover (-1 depression) and have some time for yourself or invite your friends to a party. You may decide:
A) either to prepare some food for yourself – choose two goods cards with various symbols (e.g. food and beverages) and execute the required effects of both cards on your player's card.
B) or to invite your closest neighbours to a party and serve them some dainties. Again, you will need two goods cards with different symbols – for instance beverages and tobacco products. Both neighbours will execute the effects of the chosen cards on their player's card.
Put away used cards. Caution! An invitation to a party cannot be turned down.
When preparing a meal for yourself, choose something healthy (green goods) although a cigarette may keep your depression down. But if you invite friends to a party, have no mercy at all – give them typical party food (red cards or tobacco products). When serving at a party, do it properly and with due care: read the cards to your guests in sequence, announcing the name of every card separately and reading its effect, while waiting for its execution by the others. Detailed comments on the preparation of your food are of course welcome. Those who combine the effects in advance and do not announce the names of the cards in order to speed things up, may save a few seconds but are sure to lose lots of fun.
Please note, that -1 depression is provided in a separate rectangle, meaning it is a separate action. You may thus reduce your depression while not choosing either A) or B).
No matter whether you choose option A) or B) at home, you always need a combination of two goods cards with different symbols. You cannot use just one separate card!
Completing the Round
At the end of the round, you have to check all the players' cards because they may experience a spontaneous deterioration of their health condition. Increase the indicator values according to respective icons on the player's card.
The next round follows.
Spontaneous health condition deterioration:
| If | the value is | then increase |
|---|---|---|
| cholesterol | 7 or more | +1 blood pressure |
| blood pressure | 7 or more | +1 cholesterol |
| obesity | 5 or 6 | +2 diabetes |
| obesity | 7 or more | +3 diabetes |
| depression | 5 or more | +1 depression |
| cancer | 5 or more | +1 cancer |
What is vital are the starting values prior to the spontaneous rise – if your blood cholesterol content value is 7 and your blood pressure is 6, you execute just +1 blood pressure, but not +1 cholesterol as the starting value of the blood pressure was 6 (although it is now 7).
Under extremely favourable circumstances, a collective or chain death may occur. For instance two dead players at a party mean +4 depression for the organising player and this may kill him/her, too. You have to complete every ongoing action. If all the players die during such an action, all of them are winners.
Death and End of the Game
If at anytime (including during the round) any of the indicators reaches the grave symbol, the player dies and the game is over for him/her. All players have to contribute 1 coin for a decent burial. Should anyone be completely insolvent and be so not able to provide his/her funeral contribution, he/she suffers +1 depression as he/she could not honour his/her friend on his way to the grave.
Should any of the players die in the course of a party, all players present will suffer from a shock +1 depression. The player organising this grim party will be assigned even +2 depression.
The game ends at the moment when one only player remains alive. He/she is the winner.
Now you know all the important rules of the game, so get started!
An Overview of Special Events
In addition to standard effects, some of event cards involve other special effects. These are listed below:
- Should the Refrigerator be broken, you lose all food and beverages (cigarettes will survive this event – we at least do not keep tobacco products in the fridge).
- You've been robbed - the perpetrators were apparently a bunch of cool dudes, as they stole all your drugs and tobacco products.
- As you have a Paid leave, you cannot go to your office in this round.
- The player left for a Business trip, and therefore cannot go home.
- Because of Divorce the player has lost one half of his/her cash.
If you don't know how to round one half of an odd number in case of the divorce you have evidently not (yet) gone through a divorce. Ask someone who has.
The limitation applies to one only round, does not apply to the next round.
If you play with Family extension:
- If Divorced, the player will lose one half his/her family's chips.
- If informed that Grandma has died, you will lose one family chip.
If you play with Career extension:
- Thanks to his/her Promotion, the player will obtain one career chip.
- Due to Labor disputes, the player will lose one career chip.
List of Extensions
Black market – place a new offer of 4 goods cards next to the game board at the beginning of every round (or 3 cards when 2 - 3 players are playing). The player may spend 1 coin to buy one of the offered goods cards. The players cannot go to the Flea market and the Black market in the same round.
If a player buys a card, an empty place is left behind, as the cards are not replenished immediately after the purchase. If there are any cards left, they have to be put away at the beginning of the next round and new ones must be drawn.
Nightlife – no matter whether you go to a pub or a smoke-filled bar, you may invite one of your mates and buy him/her some treat. You may choose any of the players and pay 1 coin. You both will have your cancer value increase by 1 (so much for passive smoke being harmless!). The guest you have invited takes cards from the goods pile until he/she finds the first red unhealthy food/beverage card. He/she consumes it (I mean the effect of the card, of course, avoid chewing the card).
You have to pay some money for the invitation, but your friend will have a good time. The advantage is that you can invite anyone not only your neighbours. Take the cards from the supermarket stock pile and put them away to the discarded card pile at the same location. If a death occurs it has the same effects as if it happened at a party.
Flirting, infidelity, love affair or romance – whatever you call it, with this action you can visit either to your lover A) -2 depression +2 blood pressure or a prostitute B) -1 coin -3 depression +2 blood pressure.
Family – if you have some time left during your hard day, it would be good to invest it in your family, one day they will pay you back for it. Spend 1 coin to pick up the family chip, or, as the case may be, spend 2 coins to get 2 family chips.
Benefit acquired: Whenever you face in future any deterioration of your health condition, you may avoid any such deterioration worth 1 point by putting away 1 family chip.
Your family can help you to better withstand the blows of fate. If you experience for example Labor disputes, which means for you +1 blood pressure +3 depression, you may instead put away three family chips and execute just +1 blood pressure (or +1 depression). The number of chips is limited and it may happen that they will no longer be available. No player may collect more than 4 family chips. The number of family chips is influenced by some events (Grandma died and Divorce).
Career – has similar effects as your job. At first, it generates quite low benefits but after some time you will be flush with money. You cannot go to your office and work on developing your career in the same round.
For +2 depression +1 blood pressure, you will get +2 coins and 1 career chip.
Benefit acquired: Whenever you go to your office in the future, your pay will rise. You will get 1 more coin for every career chip.
Your career will increase your earnings at work in the future – provided you live long enough to see it. If, for example, you have 2 career chips, your pay at work will be 5 coins next time (3 basic +2 for your career). As there is a limited number of managerial positions and career chips, there may be a lack of them. No player may have more than 4 career chips. The number of career chips may be affected by some events (Promotion at work +1 career and Labour disputes -1 career). Unlike the family chips, the career chips are not to be put away after use.
List of Game Components
- 1 game board
- 5 player's cards and 30 indicator chips
- 15 wooden pieces (every player colour includes three pieces)
- 5 extensions – the set includes extensions, 5 other optional places
- 1 beginning player piece
- 12 family chips and 13 career chips
- 154 playing cards (42x food, 32x beverages, 12x tobacco products, 50x event and 18x drug)
- 24 money chips (20x nominal value 1, 4x nominal value 5)
- Easy-to-understand game rules
Advanced and Extreme Version of the Game
Advanced version of the game – read the list of extensions and take one of them to replace the fitness centre.
Extreme version of the game – implement two extensions at once. A place is reserved for them on the game board. Do you dare? Implement three.
The other world version – the player who died can affect events from the hereafter by taking as many event cards as if he/she were still an active player and can check them. Then he/she takes one of them out and distributes the others as usual. He/she may check and prepare cards in the course of the previous round.
Two-Player Game
Apply standard rules except for the following deviations:
- At the beginning, both players get just 1 coin + 1 drug.
- When three discarded event cards get cumulated (one card put away in every round), these three cards will be used at the beginning of the next round for the choice of events in the current round. No one can escape his/her fate! This situation will come up after every 3rd round (i.e. after the 3rd, 6th, 9th round)
Your opponent executes the effects of the chosen cards only once at your party although he/she is both your left and right neighbour.
Credits
© 2011 Česká deskoherní společnost
Author: Vladimír Brummer Development: Česká deskoherní společnost Chief tester: Jakub Těšínský Illustration: Karel N Moravec, firma Efko Graphic design: Karel N Moravec, firma Efko Production: firma Efko, Czech Board Games team, Jakub Těšínský, Zdeňka Gašparíková English version: Agis, Dana Bartelt, Jan Sammer German version: Dana Havlíková, Radka Lomičková
Special courtesy to (alphabetical order): Jana Isabella Růžičková, Jan Kuděla, Josef Koštíř, Lomi, Luboš Žižňavský, Radka Lomičková, Sebastian Chum and other people from Česká deskoherní společnost who participated in the development and testing of the game.
The project of Česká deskoherní společnost (Czech Board Games) supports beginner Czech authors to get ahead in the board game market. A competition of authors organised in the framework of this project guarantees the publication of at least the winning game. In 2011, we succeeded to find partners for the publication of two games and, therefore, thanks to Efko, we have launched this game called Infarkt (Heart Attack). We fully support the launched games in terms of the finalisation of their development. For more details on the competition see www.czechboardgames.com