Laborigines Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Preparing, Playing and Winning the Game
  • Preparation
  • Playing the Game
    • Spending Energy
    • Transferring Energy
  • Immunity
  • Laborigine Without Energy Is Out
  • Winning the Game
• It's Your Turn!
  • Phase 1: Dice Roll
  • Phase 2: Disease Manifestations
    • Mutations
  • Phase 3: Movement
    • Encounters
    • Manipulation
  • Phase 4: Triggering Traps
• Variations
  • Team Play Variation
  • Twins Variation
• Summaries
  • Immunity Flag – Summary
  • Energy – Summary

Game Contents

1. Moa – a mysterious creature roaming the lab with malicious intentions towards the laborigines.
2. Plasticine and stands – prior to starting the game, each player models his/her laborigine from plasticine and places it on a stand.
3. Traps – two-sided tiles with trap symbols represent the traps set for laborigines in the lab. The tiles create a different pattern each game, making each game a unique experience. It is advantageous to try to memorize the position of each trap as the game progresses. Each type of trap exists in two versions; the first type has the trap on both sides of the tile, while the second type is safe on one side.
4. Dice – two ordinary dice.
5. Energy tokens – each laborigine starts the game with 20 energy tokens of his/her color. During the course of the game, each player can obtain energy tokens of other colors as well, which can be both an advantage and a setback.
6. Lightning, diseases, flag – each laborigine can bear multiple marks depicting the number of lightning strikes he has sustained, the disease he suffers from, or an immunity represented by the flag. The effects of lightning strikes are permanent, but diseases can be rid of by transferring them to a healthy laborigine.
7. Disease cards – laborigines can contract diseases during the course of the game. All infected laborigines suffer from the same disease, and its type is determined by the active disease card.

Preparing, Playing and Winning the Game

Preparation

Arrange the game tokens according to the following picture:

• Place the traps randomly on the board making up a circle (see picture).
• Place Moa on a random, unoccupied tile.
• Shuffle the disease cards and place them in the middle of the board face down.
• Each player starts with a stand, plasticine, and 20 energy tokens of a uniform color.
• Each player shapes his/her laborigine from the plasticine and places it on a random tile.

The players agree or vote on which laborigine is the nicest. This laborigine obtains the immunity flag and starts the game. If a consensus cannot be reached, the laborigine shaped by the heaviest player is proclaimed the nicest.

Playing the Game

The players take turns in clockwise order, moving their laborigines around the board. Each laborigine survives as long as he has at least one energy token of any color. Laborigines lose and gain energy in various situations, but always by one of the following ways:

• energy transfer between laborigines
• spending energy while traversing the board

Spending Energy

While spending energy, the energy tokens never directly leave the game, but are spent this way: the first spent token is placed on the tile occupied by the laborigine, the second token leaves the game, the third is once again placed on the currently occupied tile, the fourth leaves the game, and so on, until the total number of spent tokens is reached.

Transferring Energy

Under certain conditions, a laborigine transfers a portion of his stored energy to another laborigine. The color of transferred tokens is chosen by the player currently on the move.

Immunity

Immunity is represented by the flag and is beneficial because it protects its owner from losing energy. A laborigine does not lose any energy while carrying the immunity flag (nor even by transferring, with the exception of the inferiority complex disease where it is explicitly stated). Immunity does not protect against anything else (diseases or lightning strikes). There is only a single immunity flag in the whole game; therefore when someone gains immunity, the previous owner loses it. The immunity flag might not even be owned by any laborigine at any given time. But this state is generally only temporary.

Laborigine Without Energy Is Out

A laborigine who loses his last energy token immediately leaves the game, even if not currently on move or did not finish his move yet. All the energy tokens of his color are removed from the game together with him (including tokens owned by other players). Once the first laborigine leaves the game, the immunity flag is also removed from the game and can be no longer obtained.

Winning the Game

The last surviving laborigine wins the game. He is clearly destined to successfully escape the dangers of the laboratory and to find his new purpose and life in the outside world.

It's Your Turn!

Each player's turn has the following phases:

1. Dice roll
2. Disease manifestations
3. Movement
4. Triggering traps

Phase 1: Dice Roll

• Roll 2 dice.
• Decide which dice shall be used to move your laborigine and which to move the Moa.
• If you rolled 1 on at least one dice, you obtain the immunity flag.

Phase 2: Disease Manifestations

During the third and fourth phase, you can contract a disease. If you are already infected from previous turns, its (mostly negative) effects will affect you in this phase (excluding mutations).

Leprosy – Spend one energy token.

Inferiority complex – If you rolled 1 on at least one dice, spend 2 energy tokens. The immunity flag does not protect you from this disease!

Limping – If you assigned a dice with even number to move the laborigine, spend 2 energy tokens.

Immunity loss – This disease prevents you from ever having the immunity flag as long as you are infected. If you own the flag at the moment you contract the disease, remove the immunity flag temporarily from the game (other players can still obtain it). Should you obtain the flag while suffering from immunity loss, you remove the flag temporarily from the game instead.

Hyperactivity – The dice number you assigned for moving your laborigine is multiplied by 2 for the rest of your turn.

Mutations

Mutations are diseases that do not have immediate effects, but affect the laborigine at the moment he is to gain or lose energy. Malign and benign mutations affect spending energy; energy storage disorder affects every means of gaining energy.

Benign mutation – Whenever spending energy, you spend one token less. Does not affect other means of losing energy. (see Energy – Summary)

Malign mutation – Whenever spending energy, you spend one token more. Does not affect other means of losing energy. (see Energy – Summary)

Energy storage disorder – You cannot gain energy in any way. Should you gain some energy tokens, they remain on their point of origin instead.

Phase 3: Movement

This phase includes the following actions in this particular order:

1. 3a. Moa movement
2. 3b. Laborigine movement

The movement of the pieces is governed by similar, but not identical rules. The movement distance is governed by the dice you have assigned to each particular piece (Moa and laborigine) during phase 1. Moa always moves clockwise, while the direction of laborigine movement is determined by the player.

Each tile may be occupied by only one piece. That's why when a piece arrives on an occupied tile, it must repeat its movement (moves again in the same direction across the same number of tiles). Prior to moving again, the encounter is resolved. This process may repeat multiple times, until the piece arrives at an empty tile.

Encounters

Moa is stronger than laborigines and that determines the way its encounters are resolved regardless of who is moving. During this encounter, the laborigine spends 2 energy tokens, or loses the immunity flag instead (if he owns it).

The conflict of two laborigines is won by the attacking (moving) laborigine. 2 energy tokens of the victor's choice are transferred to the victor from the defeated laborigine. If the defeated laborigine owns the immunity flag, it is transferred instead of the energy tokens (this is the preferred option in the previous case as well).

After an encounter of two laborigines, a disease may also be transferred. If one laborigine is infected at the time of the encounter and the other is not, the disease is transferred. The originally diseased laborigine is cured and the other one contracts the disease. If both laborigines have the disease, nothing happens.

Example (phase 3b): The red player assigns the dice with 2 to his laborigine, choosing to move clockwise. He moves two tiles first (1.) encountering the diseased blue laborigine. Blue transfers the energy and disease to red (2.). Red continues by moving another two tiles (3.), encountering the green laborigine with the flag. The flag is transferred from green to red instead of energy and green contracts the disease from red (4.). Finally, red moves yet another two tiles, ending his movement.

Manipulation

By manipulation, any player can determine the direction of laborigine movement. If he wants to do so, he must state it before the phase 3b begins. He then discards three energy tokens from his stockpile and determines the movement of the laborigine currently on turn. The color of the discarded tokens must match the color of the moving laborigine.

If more than one player wants to manipulate, the nearest player to the current player has the priority (in the clockwise direction).

Phase 4: Triggering Traps

The laborigine first takes all energy from the tile he arrived to. Then the tile is flipped and the effect of the revealed trap is applied. The color of the revealed tile immediately indicates the nature of its effect: negative (yellow), neutral (green), or even positive (white).

Footprint – Continue moving. More precisely, return to phase 3b (laborigine movement). You move in the same direction. Note: After the 3b phase is finished including possible encounter resolution, a normal phase 4 begins by triggering a new trap.

Disease – You have contracted a disease. Take a disease marker (if you don't have it yet). Draw a new card from the disease pack and place it on the top of the disease discard pack, face up. From now on, all diseased laborigines suffer from this particular disease. The disease does not take effect immediately (except mutations), but in the disease manifestation phase of each infected laborigine (phase 2). After all the disease cards are used, they are shuffled and reused.

Charity – Give the laborigine with the smallest energy stockpile 3 energy tokens from your stockpile. If it is your laborigine, nothing happens. Should there be multiple laborigines with the least amount of energy tokens, and yours is not among them, spend 3 energy tokens instead.

Radiation – Spend the number of energy tokens equal to the number of revealed green tiles, regardless of whether they are occupied or not.

Small explosion – Spend four energy tokens.

Huge explosion – Spend eight energy tokens.

Cure – Your laborigine obtains one energy token of your choice from the rest of the laborigines. Each of them transfers one energy token to him.

Immunity flag – You obtain the immunity flag.

Danger – Nothing happens. It is only a warning that the other side of the tile contains a huge explosion.

Green tile – Really, absolutely nothing happens. This is actually quite good!

Lightning – Proceed with the actions below in the specified order:

1. Take a lightning marker and stick it into your laborigine.
2. Each laborigine, including yours, spends the amount of energy tokens equivalent to the number of lightnings he carries.

The lightnings affect every laborigine, not only the one currently on move. There is no way to get rid of the lightning markers.

Acid – During his next move, the laborigine spends one energy token on each tile he crosses (starting with the tile he originally occupied). No energy is spent on the tile where the laborigine ends his movement. The acid can be very dangerous. Perhaps that is the reason why some players tend to forget about its effect. To prevent this oversight, each player who turns the acid tile takes the acid marker and places it beside his laborigine.

Variations

If you are already familiar with the basic rules of Laborigines, you can try one of the following variations:

• Team play variation for 4-6 players. When 6 players want to participate, it is necessary to use this variation.
• The twins (pairs) variation for 2-3 players.

For a shorter game you can also start with less than 20 energy tokens. This could however result in some players leaving the game very quickly.

Team Play Variation

Number of players: 4-6

The players form teams consisting of two players each. Each team receives plasticine of one color. Thus, each team will be represented by two laborigines of the same color. Each member of a team controls their own laborigine. Each team member obtains 5 energy tokens of a neutral color (any color not taking part in the game), and 15 energy tokens of his/her color.

If one laborigine from a pair is knocked out of the game, the remaining member is significantly weakened as the standard rule about removing all energy tokens from the expired laborigine's color still applies. The game ends when only laborigines of one color are left in the game.

Twins Variation

Number of players: 2-3

Moa does not participate in this variation.

Each player forms and controls two laborigines. Both laborigines share a stock of 20 energy tokens. When any of the twin laborigines spends or transfers energy, the laborigine removes the tokens from his shared stockpile.

After rolling the dice, the player assigns each dice to one of his/her laborigines, moving one after the other. The player can determine the order in which he moves his/her laborigines. However, one of the twin laborigines must move clockwise, and the other anti-clockwise.

When a player rolls 1 on one of the dice, he must choose which one of his laborigines will carry the flag.

After losing all energy tokens, both laborigines leave the game simultaneously.

Summaries

The following section does not contain any new information. It merely summarizes all the previously explained rules.

Immunity Flag – Summary

The flag is obtained when:

• number one is rolled on at least one dice.
• a laborigine carrying the flag is encountered.
• the tile with the flag is turned.

The flag is lost when:

• one laborigine wins control of the flag when another laborigine already has it.
• another laborigine encounters your flag-carrying laborigine.
• Moa encounters your laborigine.
• the first laborigine is knocked out of the game (the flag is removed permanently for the duration of the game).

Energy – Summary

Energy loss – situations requiring spending energy:

• Encountering Moa (2 tokens are spent).
• Personally activating certain traps (small or big explosion, radiation, lightning), or suffering from global trap effects (lightning).
• Suffering from certain diseases.
• Being burned by acid (1 token is spent on each crossed tile).

Transferring energy to another laborigine:

• When encountered by another laborigine (2 tokens are transferred).
• Trap effects (charity, cure).

Other laborigine leaves the game:

• When a laborigine is knocked out of the game, all the energy of his color is removed from the game as well, including tokens owned by other players and tokens on board.

Energy gain:

• Encountering another laborigine (2 tokens are transferred).
• Stopping on a tile containing energy tokens. In such cases, they are collected by the newly arriving laborigine even before turning the tile.
• Trap effects (charity, cure).