Karnivorous Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
  • 90 Plant Tokens
  • 3 Reserve Boards
  • 1 Herbicide Bomb Board
  • 16 Dice
  • 4 Robot Figures
  • 5 Double-Sided Player Boards
  • 36 Crisis Cards
  • 1 System Board and 12 System Tokens
  • 8 Scientist Figures
  • 1 Energy Board and 1 Energy Token
  • 1 Lab Board
  • 32 Room Cards
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Intervention
  • Phase 2: Proliferation
  • Phase 3: Preparation
• Phase 1: Intervention
  • A) Player Board
    • Move and Fight
    • Move Scientist
    • Increase Energy
    • Special Powers
  • B) The Herbicide Bomb Board
  • C) Crises
  • End of a Turn
• Solving Crises
  • Nil 1/2/3
  • Zone Yellow/Purple/Pink/Gray
  • -5/-6 Energy
  • Electric Generator
  • Ventilation Ducts
  • Exfiltrate the Scientists
  • Protect the Scientists
  • Repair Incubators
• Phase 2: Proliferation
• Phase 3: Preparation
• End of the Game
  • Defeat
  • Victory
• Increase the Difficulty
  • The Old Laboratory
  • The Explosive Infestation
  • Cutting Costs on Upkeep
• Player Aid
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Special Powers and Actions
  • Solving Crises

Goal of the Game

This is a cooperative game: you play against the game and win or lose together as a team. You can also play the game solo.

To win the game, you must last 4 rounds without emptying any of the Reserve boards of Plants while holding on to at least 3 different System tokens.

If after 4 rounds you finish the game with more than 3 different System tokens, your victory will be even more glorious.

Components

90 Plant Tokens

(Hereafter: Plant/Plants)

These are the plants you'll have to fight to prevent them from taking over the lab – and the world! They come in strengths 1, 2 and 3 (30 of each type), and each type has its own Reserve Board.

3 Reserve Boards

If any of the Reserve boards are empty, the plants have grown beyond control: you lose the game!

1 Herbicide Bomb Board

Trigger the herbicide bomb by placing 3 dice on this board to wreak havoc among the plants.

16 Dice

4 Robot Figures

(Hereafter: Robot/Robots)

5 Double-Sided Player Boards

Each board shows the various actions and special powers you can trigger during the game by placing dice on the designated spots.

• The number of dice you have at the beginning of the game and retrieve at the end of each round.
• A picture of your robot. Note: When playing solo, you are free to choose the Robot you prefer, so the Player board for one player will not have a picture of a robot.
• Your special powers (each Player board has specific special powers).
• Your actions (to be found on each Player board).
• The player count (for instance, in a 3-player game, you'll use all 3 boards showing the 3-player icon).

36 Crisis Cards

(Hereafter: Crisis/Crises)

These represent the crises that you'll have to resolve.

Each card shows:

• The System token you'll lose if you don't resolve this Crisis by the end of the round.
• The type of crisis you face.
• The type of Plant that will fill one room at the end of the round, no matter whether you resolved this card or not (yes, the plants are very mean...).
• The type of Plant that will fill one room each if you don't resolve this Crisis by the end of the round.

1 System Board and 12 System Tokens

This board and these tokens represent the general state of the lab: the structure of the building, how infested the ventilation ducts are, how wild each type of plant has evolved to be and how far the lab is from collapsing completely... If you have fewer than three different types of token left, you immediately lose the game!

Six different types of token (quantities shown): X1, X1, X1, X2, X3, X4.

8 Scientist Figures

(Hereafter: Scientist/Scientists)

These figures represent the few human survivors in the lab. Some Crises will have you evacuate or protect these figures from the plants.

1 Energy Board and 1 Energy Token

Energy is a precious resource that will allow you to resolve specific Crises and modify the result of your dice.

1 Lab Board

This is where the action takes place.

• The lab is divided into rooms; each room shows between 3 and 6 spaces (the circles), where you'll place the Plants infesting this room.
• Rooms are separated by doors, which your Robots (as well as the Scientists) will use.
• Rooms 11, 23, 56 and 62 show an evacuation lock. You'll have to move the Scientists through these locks to resolve one type of Crisis.
• Most of the spaces are white. 16 spaces are blue. This color difference is relevant only for one type of Crisis. In all other aspects the blue and white spaces behave similarly.
• These symbols show where the Scientists will be placed during setup. After this, they have no relevance during the game.
• Some spaces show a ventilation icon; this icon is relevant only for one type of Crisis. In all other aspects spaces with or without a ventilation icon behave similarly.

Each room belongs to one of these colors:

• Gray (rooms 11, 23, 34, 56 and 62),
• Yellow (rooms 36, 42, 45, 46, 51, 52, 53, 54 and 61),
• Pink (rooms 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24, 31, 32 and 33),
• Purple (rooms 21, 22, 25, 26, 35, 41, 43, 44 and 55).

These colors are relevant only for one type of Crisis.

32 Room Cards

These cards will be used to indicate which rooms on the board will be filled with Plants (during setup and at the end of each round).

Setup

1. Place the Lab board, the Herbicide Bomb board and the 3 Reserve boards within reach of all players.
2. Divide the Plants into 3 types (by strength: 1, 2 and 3) and place all Plants of each type on their corresponding Reserve board.
3. Randomly place 1 Scientist on each Scientist symbol on the Lab (in rooms 13, 21, 25, 35, 36, 42, 51 and 54).
4. Each player takes a Player board, according to the number of players.
5. Each player takes the number of dice and the Robot depicted on their board and places their Robot in room 34.
6. Shuffle the 32 Room cards, reveal 6 of them, and place a Plant of strength 1 on each space in each corresponding room. Then reveal 5 Room cards and fill the corresponding rooms with Plants of strength 2. Finally, reveal 4 Room cards and fill the corresponding rooms with Plants of strength 3. Discard all 15 revealed Room cards next to the Room cards deck.
7. Place the System board within reach of all players and the 12 System tokens on this board. Note: We recommend you place the System tokens as depicted to make it easier during the game to keep track of how many different System tokens are left.
8. Place the Energy board within reach of all players. Place the Energy token on the 0 of the Energy board.
9. Return to the box any unused Player boards and Robots.
10. Shuffle the 36 Crises and randomly remove 8 of them. Put those 8 Crises aside as a face-down Crisis Management deck (see page 13). Put the remaining 28 cards next to the board: this is the main Crisis deck.
11. Reveal the first 7 cards from the main Crisis deck, and place them face up within reach of all players.

Gameplay

The game spans (maximum) 4 rounds. Each round is divided into 3 phases:

Phase 1: Intervention

All players roll their dice, place them and trigger actions to resolve as many Crises as possible.

Phase 2: Proliferation

In this phase, rooms that weren't entirely emptied of Plants fill up again, unresolved Crises result in the loss of System tokens, and all Crises (resolved and unresolved) require you to fill rooms with Plants.

You immediately lose the game if one of the following happens:

1. One of the Reserve boards is empty.
2. There are fewer than 3 different System tokens on the System board.

Phase 3: Preparation

Each player takes back their dice and you reveal 7 new Crises for the next round. This phase is skipped in round 4.

Phase 1: Intervention

This is the most important phase of the game, where you'll use your dice to move, fight plants, resolve Crises, trigger special powers on your board, increase energy or launch the herbicide bomb.

This phase is played over a series of turns (8 with one or two players, 6 with three players, 4 with four players).

Each turn unfolds like this: Simultaneously, each player takes 1 unused die from their pool and rolls it. Then each player (in the order of your choice) places their rolled die on a spot (and usually triggers the action of this spot).

Solo game: Simultaneously roll 2 dice each turn, then place and resolve each die after the other in the order of your choice.

You can place a die on:

A) Your Player board to

• move and fight
• increase energy
• move Scientists
• trigger a special power.

B) The Herbicide Bomb board.

C) Crises with dice spots.

General notes:

• If a spot indicates a specific value, a die of exactly this value must be placed on this spot.
• You may only place a die on an empty spot.
• You may not place your die on the Player board of another player.

A) Player Board

Move and Fight

The value of the die plus the bonus next to its spot determine how many points you have this turn to move your Robot and/or to fight Plants. You are free to alternate between moving and fighting with the same die.

Move: Spend 1 point to move your Robot through a door from one room to another.

Fight: Spend a number of points equal to the strength of a Plant in the same room as your Robot to remove it.

Notes:

• The presence of Plants in a room does not affect the movement of Robots.
• You do not have to use all your available points, but any points left will be lost (they do not carry from one turn to the next).
• Plants of strengths 2 and 3 do not accumulate damage: you must inflict the full damage in one turn to remove the Plant.

Example:

You place a die of value 6 on a spot with a +5 bonus, which gives you a total of 11 points. You could:

a) Stay in the room you're in and fight the plants in there. Let's say there are 5 strength 3 Plants: you could remove 3 (3x3=9) of those Plants and stay in the room to fight the remaining 2 Plants on a subsequent turn. The 2 unused points are lost.

Example (continued):

b) Move through 4 doors, fight 3 strength 2 Plants, then move through 1 door.

c) Move through 11 doors and not fight.

Move Scientist

A die of value 3, 4 or 5 lets you move 1 Scientist through a door from one room to another.

A die of value 6 lets you move either 1 Scientist up to 2 times or 2 different Scientists once.

A die of value 1 or 2 has no effect.

Example:

You place a die of value 6 on a "Move scientist" spot on your Player board, and this gives you 2 movements. You could, for instance:

a) Move the DNA Scientist twice, from room 14 to room 12.

b) Move the Flask Scientist once, from room 15 to room 14, and the Leaf Scientist from room 12 to room 11.

Notes:

• The presence of Plants in a room does not affect the movement of Scientists.
• Several Scientists may be in the same room.
• To move a Scientist, it does not necessarily have to be in the same room as your Robot.
• A Scientist may only be moved off the board when the matching Crisis is active (see page 17).

Increase Energy

Depending on the value of the die, move the Energy token up on the Energy board.

Die value	Increase in Energy
1 or 2	1
3 or 4	2
5 or 6	3

Note: The maximum Energy is 8 (any extra is lost).

Use of Energy: Any player may at any time spend 1 Energy to add or subtract 1 from one die that has been rolled and not yet placed. This can be done multiple times on the same die. You may not subtract 1 from 1 to get to 6 or add 1 to 6 to get to 1, and the value of a die cannot go above 6.

Special Powers

Each Player board has specific special powers, which are triggered by placing a die on the corresponding spot. The powers are:

• Energy Boost: Increase Energy as indicated.
• Herbicide Missile: Remove 2/3/4 Plants of the depicted strength from the board.

  Notes:

  • Unlike the "Move and Fight" action, your Robot does not necessarily have to be in the same room as the targeted Plants.
  • You may target Plants in different rooms.
  • You may remove fewer Plants than indicated.
  • The double Herbicide Missile special power (shown with two missile icons) allows you to target Plants of different strengths.

• Flame Thrower: Remove all Plants in a room separated by 1 door from the room your Robot is in.

  Note: No Scientist may be in the targeted room.

• Grenade: Remove all Plants in a room separated by 2 doors from the room your Robot is in.

  Notes:

  • No Scientist may be in the targeted room.
  • The room your Robot is in must be separated by exactly 2 doors from the targeted room (i.e., you cannot choose to target a room if there is a door connecting it to the room your Robot is in – see example below).

  [Example illustration: an unlabelled board diagram showing a Robot in room 21 and a Grenade target.]

Note: The solo Player board shows Special powers separated by a slash. When placing a die next to two special powers, you must choose one of those powers.

B) The Herbicide Bomb Board

You need 3 dice to activate the herbicide bomb, one of value 6. The other two dice will indicate which room will be the epicenter of the bomb. When the third die is placed, remove all Plants from the epicenter room, then remove from each room connected by a door to the epicenter room all Plants of the same strength as those removed from the epicenter room.

Example:

Dice with values 2 and 6 have already been placed on the Herbicide Bomb board, and a 5 has just been added, determining the epicenter to be room 25. This room is full of strength 2 Plants, which are immediately removed. Rooms 16, 21, 22 and 35 are connected to room 25 by a door, so all strength 2 Plants in any of these rooms are also removed. Plants of strengths 1 and 3 are unaffected, as are strength 2 Plants in rooms not connected to the epicenter room by a door.

Notes:

• You may not trigger the Herbicide Bomb if there are any Scientists in the epicenter room.
• The 3 dice on the Herbicide Bomb board do not necessarily have to be placed on the same turn, nor on consecutive turns.
• After the herbicide bomb has been triggered, the 3 dice remain on the board until the end of the round (so the bomb can be activated only once per round).
• Nothing happens after placing the first and second dice on the Herbicide Bomb board. If at the end of the round only 1 or 2 dice were placed on the board, these dice are retrieved by the players for the next round and were placed needlessly to no effect.

General note: Any Plant removed from the Lab board is placed back on its corresponding Reserve board, no matter how it was removed (by fighting, using herbicide missiles, the flame thrower, the grenade or the herbicide bomb).

C) Crises

6 Crises show spots to place dice of specific values. In order to resolve one of these Crises, dice of these values must be placed on all spots of the card (see "Repair Incubators" on page 17).

End of a Turn

Once each player has placed their rolled die, start another turn by each player simultaneously rolling their next die (2 dice in a solo game). After 8 (1-2 players), 6 (3 players), or 4 (4 players) turns, all 16 dice have been placed; the Intervention phase is over and you continue with the Proliferation phase.

Note: In some cases not all players will empty their dice pool at the end of the same turn. This will happen in a 3-player game and/or if a player uses their Re-roll special power. In this case, any player who has dice left plays their turn as per the usual rules, until all players have used all their dice.

Solving Crises

During the Intervention phase, you try to resolve as many Crises as possible. As soon as the condition of a Crisis is met, flip this card. This has two (positive) consequences:

• During the Proliferation phase, only 1 room will be filled with Plants, instead of 3.
• During the Proliferation phase, this card won't make you lose any System tokens.

Nil 1/2/3

No Plants of the type depicted on the card's illustration remain on the board.

Zone Yellow/Purple/Pink/Gray

No room of the corresponding color has a Plant.

-5/-6 Energy

Pay the amount of Energy points shown (5 or 6). You must be able to pay the whole amount (since you cannot go below 0 Energy).

Electric Generator

The 16 blue spaces around the Generators have no Plants.

Ventilation Ducts

These cards show 2 gray corner rooms, identified by their number. Trace a path from one room to the other along the Ventilation ducts, with the spaces crossed by the Ventilation ducts having no Plants.

Note: The path shown on the Crisis is not necessarily the one that must be freed: if you can trace another way (even a longer one) between the two rooms using Ventilation ducts without Plants, this Crisis is resolved.

Exfiltrate the Scientists

The 2 Scientists showing the symbol on the card must be moved off the board via one of the 4 evacuation locks (rooms 11, 23, 56 and 62). To move a Scientist off the board, this Scientist must be in one of those 4 rooms, and you must make a move with it (using either the Urgent Exfiltration special power or the Move Scientist action). The Scientist is then removed from the game.

Notes:

• The two Scientists do not necessarily have to exit through the same room.
• You may move the Scientists on the board during any round, but they can be moved off the board only if the Crisis showing the symbol of these specific Scientists is active.

Protect the Scientists

No Scientists are in a room with Plants.

Repair Incubators

As mentioned on p.15, these cards need you to place dice with the shown value on them. As soon as all required dice have been placed, set those dice aside (they will be retrieved during phase 3, Preparation) and flip the card. As long as some spots remain unfilled, the card is considered unresolved.

Phase 2: Proliferation

This phase is divided into 3 steps:

1. In all rooms with at least 1 Plant and 1 or more empty spaces, fill all the empty spaces with Plants of the same strength as the remaining Plant(s) in the room.

2. Each Crisis shows, in its upper left corner, a symbol identical to one of the System tokens.

For each unresolved Crisis, remove the corresponding System token from the System board and put it back in the box. If there is no such token left on the System board, nothing happens. If, after removing a token, you have fewer than 3 different types of System tokens on the System board, you immediately lose the game.

Notes:

• Tokens 1, 2 and 3 are considered different.
• If you set up the System tokens as shown on page 7, we recommend you remove them starting from the bottom of the System board. This way, you'll be able to see at first glance how many different System tokens are left (since all the different types of tokens are placed in the upper two rows of the System board).

3. Each Crisis shows 1 Proliferation symbol on its back and 3 Proliferation symbols on its front. For each Crisis (resolved or unresolved) reveal 1 Room card from the deck for each Proliferation symbol shown and fill all the spaces in this room with Plants of the strength shown on the Proliferation symbol.

If a player has a die on the Spore Vacuum spot, they may ignore 1 Proliferation symbol (before revealing the Room cards).

The absolute minimum of rooms filled during this phase will thus be 6 (if all Crises have been resolved and a player has activated the Spore Vacuum) and the maximum will be 21 (no Crises at all have been resolved this round).

If you draw a Room card indicating a room already full of Plants, fill a room connected by a door to this room (pick the room with the lowest number). If all connected rooms are full, draw another Room card as a replacement and fill the room indicated on the card.

If any of the Reserve boards are empty, you immediately lose the game.

Note: When the deck of Room cards is empty, shuffle all discarded Room cards to make a new deck.

Phase 3: Preparation

Note: Skip this phase entirely on round 4.

Each player retrieves all of their dice. Discard all of this round's Crises (resolved and unresolved). Reveal 7 Crises from the main Crisis deck for the next round.

End of the Game

Defeat

The game immediately ends in defeat if there are fewer than 3 different types of System tokens on the System board or if any Reserve board is empty.

Fewer than 3 different types of System tokens

Catastrophe! All systems shut down, no containment, no regulation… The plants are roaming free and will soon take over the whole surface of the globe. It is the end of humankind's dominion…

A Reserve board is empty

Disaster! The plants of one species have proliferated beyond control and were able to break through the building: it is only a matter of time before they spread all over, eating every human in their path…

Victory

If you manage to survive until the end of round 4, you win. Check how many different types of System tokens are left on the System board:

6

Amazing! You've managed to contain the giant plant rampage while protecting the scientists and maintaining the lab's integrity. Let's hope that the new team will be wiser than the previous one in using their growth serum (otherwise it might be time to ask the central computer to take over. No more irresponsible primates in charge...).

5

The lab has seen better days, but scanners do not pick up any breach of containment. Unless those scanners were also damaged... Vegetation activity around the lab will have to be carefully monitored in the coming years.

4

On a razor's edge! Everything seems under control, but the lab's integrity is seriously compromised. Could a plant have broken free?

3

The assault of the giant plants was simply too vicious. The only option left to save humankind from a deadly plant invasion is to activate the lab's self destruction protocol immediately and blow everything (and everyone) into pieces. Let's hope the blast will be strong enough to eradicate all the spores. What a waste!

Increase the Difficulty

For a more difficult game, use one or several of the following modifications during setup.

The Old Laboratory

During point 7, randomly remove 2 System tokens (from the 2 lower rows).

The Explosive Infestation

During point 6, reveal 6 and 6 Room cards instead of 5 and 4, and fill those rooms with Plants of strengths 2 and 3.

Cutting Costs on Upkeep

You must play each round with 15 dice instead of 16 (at the beginning of each round, any one player sets aside one of their dice).

Player Aid

Setup

• 6 Room cards → Plants of strength 1.
• 5 Room cards → Plants of strength 2.
• 4 Room cards → Plants of strength 3.
• 1 Scientist in rooms 13, 21, 25, 35, 36, 42, 51 and 54.
• Energy token on 0.
• Robot(s) in room 34.
• Main Crisis deck: 28 cards (reveal 7 for the first round).
• Crisis Management deck: 8 cards.

Gameplay

Phase 1: Intervention

Roll dice and place on:

• A) Player board to move and fight, increase energy, move Scientists, or trigger a special power.
• B) Herbicide Bomb board.
• C) Crises with dice spots.

Phase 2: Proliferation

• Fill up rooms not totally emptied.
• Lose System tokens for unresolved Crises.
• Fill rooms for each symbol on Crises.

Immediate loss if:

1. One Reserve board is empty.
2. Fewer than 3 different types of System tokens.

Phase 3: Preparation

(skipped at the end of round 4) Take back dice and reveal 7 Crises from main Crisis deck.

Special Powers and Actions

• Move and Fight, Increase Energy and Move Scientist: the Player board actions (illustrated on the aid; see the Player board section above).
• Energy Boost: Increase Energy as indicated.
• Herbicide Missile: Remove from the board the indicated Plants.
• Flame Thrower: Remove all Plants in a room separated by 1 door.
• Grenade: Remove all Plants in a room separated by 2 doors.
• Re-roll: Take back one of your already used dice and add it to your unused dice pool.
• Urgent Exfiltration: Move 3 Scientists.
• Crisis Management: Draw 2 cards from Crisis Management deck; you may replace 1 of the 7 Crises of this round.
• Spore Vacuum: During Proliferation, skip the filling of one room.
• Jetpack: Move your Robot to any Room on the Lab board.

Solving Crises

• Nil 1/2/3: No Plants of this type on the board.
• Zone yellow/purple/pink/gray: No Plants in any room of this color.
• -5/-6 Energy: Pay 5/6 Energy points.
• Electric Generator: No Plants on any of the 16 blue spaces.
• Ventilation Ducts: No Plants on the Ventilation ducts between the two rooms.
• Exfiltrate the Scientists: Move the 2 Scientists off the board.
• Protect the Scientists: No Plants in same room as Scientists.
• Repair Incubators: Fill all the spots on the card with indicated dice.