Lab Rats Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Objective
• Components
  • Cards
  • Tokens
  • Chips
• Setup
• Game Round
• Game Turn
  • A. Door Exploration
    • Obstacles
    • Events
    • End of Exploration
  • B. Exits
• End of Game Turn
  • Crumbs and Contamination
• Setup for the Next Turn
• New Game Round
• Rewards and Penalties Summary
• Potions
• Injuries and Dead

Game Objective

The player who accumulates 4 rewards (cheese tokens) wins the game.

Components

80 Cards:

• 6 Specimen Cards
• 36 Door Cards
• 25 Potion Cards
• 8 Exit Cards
• 5 Aid Cards

16 cheese tokens

1 First Player Token

67 Chips:

• 21 Pollution Chips (Green)
• 46 Crumb Chips (Yellow)

Cards

There are 5 types of cards:

1. Specimens. They represent the characters in the game. Each specimen has a different permanent mutation (specified by a color) that will allow the player to automatically overcome an obstacle of its color.

2. Potions. They generate temporary mutations that allow the player to overcome additional obstacles.

3. Doors. They represent the laboratory to explore and the obstacles and rewards that inhabit it. There are 2 types of doors:

   • a. Obstacles: Consist in monsters, traps and riddles that must be overcome with the correspondent mutation.
   • b. Events: Trigger special effects that can affect the player in turn or all players.

4. Exits. They are the main route to win the game but each one is guarded by a horrible abomination that must be overcome to get out.

5. Aids. They contain a description of each event.

Tokens

1. Cheeses. These are the rewards that the specimens need to win the game.

2. First Player. It is used to indicate which player goes first in each round.

Chips

1. Crumbs (yellow chips). They are the reward that the player will receive when he/she opens a door.

2. Pollution (green chips). They are penalties that the player will receive by not exploring, who risk not running away from the lab is exposed to the biological contamination of it.

Setup

1. Choose the specimens. Each player can choose a specimen card or they can be randomly distributed. These cards represent the characters in play and must be face up in front of each player. Leftover specimens are returned to the box.

2. Deal potions, doors and aid cards. Each player receives 2 potion cards and 2 door cards. These cards are secret and they should not be shown to other players. They also receive 1 aid card.

3. Prepare the exit cards. Place three exit cards face down next to each other.

4. Prepare the decks. Potions, doors, and exits decks are placed face down on the table within reach of all players.

5. Place your door. Each player selects one of the door cards from their hand and places it face down in front of them.

   At all times there should be 5 door cards on the table, so at this point, if necessary, extra cards must be drawn from the deck and placed face down until completing 5. Ex: With 3 players each one should place a door card face down and then 2 more are drawn from the deck and placed without seeing it in the center of the table.

6. Starting player. The player who most recently ate cheese will be the starting player. The player receives the initial player token and places it next to his or her specimen.

Game Round

The game is divided into several rounds and in a round each player will have one or more turns. The round begins with the player who owns the initial player token. A round ends when a player is the only alive specimen at the end of its turn, a player passes an exit or all players die. The rounds will continue until a player collects 4 cheese tokens and wins the game.

Game Turn

In his or her turn the player will choose between:

• A. Explore the Doors, or
• B. Try to use an Exit (This option is not possible during first turn of each round).

At the end of the turn, the player must check if any of the conditions to finish the round have been met and then passes the turn to the player on the left.

A. Door Exploration

To explore a door the player must turn face up one of the 5 door cards that lie face down at the center of the table (it can be the card that he played) and solve what is behind (obstacle or event). Each player must solve at least one door card on his turn.

Obstacles

To overcome an obstacle, the specimen must have the corresponding mutation (same color) or show and discard the potion indicated in the card. When overcoming an obstacle the player must draw a new potion from the deck. If the specimen does not overcome the obstacle the player will become injured (see Injuries and Dead) and will NOT receive a potion.

Then the obstacle card stays face up (whether it has been overcome or not).

Diagram notes: the obstacle card shows a "Potion needed to overcome the obstacle" icon in its corner and a "Picture of the obstacle" illustration.

Example 1. Player A flips a door card showing a riddle (green) to solve. Player A has the green colored mutation specimen so automatically overcomes the obstacle and receives a potion from the deck. Now he has 3 potions in his hand.

Example 2. Player B flips a door card showing a riddle (green) to solve. Player B has the blue mutation specimen so she discards a green potion from her hand to overcome it and takes another potion card from the deck. Now she has 2 potions again.

Events

This door cards don't have a potion icon in its corner. When flipping an event its effect must be applied at that moment. Then the event stays face up (whether it has been overcome or not).

1. Potions Box. The player collects a potion card from the deck.

2. Confusion. Each player must pass one potion card to the player on their right.

3. Radioactive explosion. All ALIVE specimens receive 2 pollution chips. If the player has accumulated 5 or more tokens his or her specimen becomes dead and discards all pollution tokens.

4. Explosion. All specimens became injured, if they were already injured then they become dead (see Injuries and Dead).

5. Instant death. The player's specimen becomes dead and can't keep exploring.

6. Resurrection. ALL injured or dead specimens recover and return to their normal position (vertical and face up).

7. Double door. The player in turn is forced to reveal 2 door cards and solve both. This must be done in order (if the specimen becomes dead in the first card the turn ends). The event card stays on the table face up and the other obstacle card that were drawn are placed in the discard pile.

End of Exploration

Once a door is solved, the player can keep exploring another door on the table or finish the exploration phase (and therefore the turn) leaving unopened doors (See later End of turn).

If the player explores all the doors available he will be forced to end the turn, taking 1 potion card as a reward from the deck.

B. Exits

From his SECOND TURN, the player can, instead of exploring doors, try to escape the laboratory. To do this he must flip one of the 3 available exit cards.

Each exit is guarded by an abomination. To overcome it, the player must own three specific mutations (different for each abomination). Both potions in hand count, as well as the specimen mutation.

If the player overcomes the abomination he wins the round automatically and gets 2 cheese tokens.

If he fails, his specimen becomes dead (see Injuries and Dead later) and the player's turn ends. The three exit cards are shuffled back in the deck and three new exits are placed face down in the center of the table. The round continues usually.

Diagram notes: the exit card shows the "Types of mutations required to overcome this abomination" icons above the "Picture of the abomination".

Example. Player A turns face up an exit card showing an abomination to be overcome with a green, violet and orange mutation. The player A has the green mutation specimen so uses his mutation and discards a purple potion and a multiple potion that decide to use as orange. Player A wins the round and receives 2 cheese tokens.

End of Game Turn

A player's turn ends when:

1. The player has flipped all the door cards.
2. The player has died from the effect of an event or obstacle.
3. The player decides not to explore any more doors.
4. The player has opened an exit.

Example 1. Player A has opened two doors in his turn, by opening the third, he encounters an obstacle that cannot be overcome and becomes injured. Player A decides no further exploring and his turn ends. He receives 3 crumbs (yellow) for the open doors and 2 pollution (green) for the doors he decided not to open.

Example 2. Player B has opened a door on his turn and he finds an obstacle that he cannot overcome and becomes injured. Player B decides to continue exploring, when he opens the second door he finds another obstacle that he cannot overcome and his specimen becomes dead. His turn automatically ends and receives 2 crumbs (yellow) by the open doors and no pollution (green).

Crumbs and Contamination

If situations 1, 2 and 3 happen, the player will proceed with the count of explored doors (event and obstacle cards that were face up) and unexplored (face down door cards).

The player who has finished his turn receives:

• 1 crumb chip (yellow) for each door card face up, whether he has overcome it or not, even if he has died when opened.
• 1 pollution chip (green) for each door that the player has decided not to open. Doors that have not been opened due to the player having died before being able to explore them should NOT be taken into account in this instance.

In case the player has decided to open a laboratory exit (situation 4) he does not win crumb (yellow) or pollution (green) chips. These are only taken into account for the option A (Explore).

Crumbs and pollution collected must be kept by each player. When arriving at 10 yellow crumbs the player will receive automatically 1 cheese token. If a player receives 5 pollutions or more his specimen will die. In both cases the player discards the chips of the corresponding color and the round continues normally.

A player does not receive pollution tokens being dead.

The door cards resolved in the double door event DO NOT count as multiple doors. In this case it counts as a single door open, so the player receives only 1 crumb.

Setup for the Next Turn

When a player's turn ends and he received the crumbs and pollution chips, a new door card must be dealt to each of the players whose door has been explored (the explored cards are placed in discard). If there are less than five players remember to draw extra door cards from the deck to hold the number of 5.

If the cards in the deck run out, the discard pile is shuffled and placed again face down to replace the deck.

Players whose door has remained unexplored can exchange it for another one in their hand (they do not receive a new card). Once this is done, it will be the turn of the next player clockwise (to the left).

New Game Round

The round ends automatically when all the specimens die, one player is the only survivor at the end of his turn or a player has managed to get out of the lab.

To start a new round each player with more than 2 potions in hand must select 2 to keep and discard the rest. If needed, door cards are replenished until each player has 2, the ones that have left in hand are preserved. Thus, each player starts the new round with 2 potion cards and 2 door cards in hand. The specimen will remain the same for each player.

The player who was next in turn order (the one who was about to play his turn before the end of the round) receives the initial player token and will be the first to play in the new round.

Rewards and Penalties Summary

Turn. The player:

1. Receives 1 crumb chip for each open door.
2. Receives 1 pollution chip for each door he has decided not to open.
3. Receives 1 potion card if he has explored all doors during his turn.
4. Receives 1 cheese token every 10 crumbs (yellow).
5. Dies when accumulating 5 or more pollution tokens.

Round. The player:

1. Receives 1 cheese token for being the only survivor at the end of his turn, or 2 cheese tokens if he gets out of the lab.

Potions

There are three types of potions:

1. Simple potions. They are of a single color and type of container. There are red, green, blue, purple, orange and yellow.

2. Double potions. They have two colors and types of containers. When the player plays this card he must choose between ONE of the colors.

3. Multicolor potions. It has multiple colors in one container. It can be discarded to overcome an obstacle of any color or as a color of choice to overcome an abomination.

Each potion used must be placed in the potions discard pile. If the potion deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

A player can hold up to 4 potion cards. Cards that exceed this number must be discarded instantly.

Injuries and Dead

A specimen is injured when:

1. It does not overcome a door that it explored.
2. A player opens a door with the event Explosion.

A specimen dies when:

1. It becomes injured and it is already in that condition.
2. It accumulates 5 or more pollution tokens (green).

If a player becomes injured they must indicate so by placing the specimen card in horizontal position.

During his turn, an injured specimen can continue exploring, but in case of receiving a second wound it will be dead, which will be indicated by flipping the card face down.

An injured specimen will recover at the beginning of his next turn (returning the card to normal position).

A dead specimen can no longer explore (loses the turn), but the player must continue placing door cards in front of him until the winner of the round is defined or his specimen revives.