Na Sygnale Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Goal of the Game
• Game Components
  • Cards (54)
  • Action Point Tokens (24)
  • Patient Tokens (10)
  • Hearse Token (1)
  • Pawns (8)
  • Board (1)
• Setup
• Course of the Game
  • Drawing Patients
• Planning Phase
  • Tender
  • Hearse
• Emergency Phase
  • Buying Cards
  • Moving the Ambulance
  • Playing Cards
• City Phase
  • Change of Condition of the Patients
  • End of the Effects of Cards
  • Drawing New Patients
• End of the Game
• Optional Rule
  • Revealed Card
• Notes
• FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
  • Cards
  • Other

Introduction

Na sygnale is a social card-and-board game for 2 - 4 players, aged 18 and up. The average playing time is 15 - 45 minutes.

Goal of the Game

Each player takes the role of the head physician (ordynator) of a clinic. The goal is to achieve the best statistics with the National Health Fund (NFZ) regarding the treatment of patients. The players compete for the best contract for the coming year. The contract (and the victory) goes to the player who has treated the greatest number of patients.

Game Components

The box contains:

• 54 cards,
• 24 Action Point tokens,
• 10 patient tokens,
• 1 ambulance token (hearse),
• 8 pawns - two in each colour,
• 1 board,
• this rulebook.

Cards (54)

The larger part of the deck is 50 cards to be played during the Emergency Phase. Cards marked with a picture of an ambulance (hereafter called "privileged cards") may be played at any moment during the Emergency Phase. Players may play the other cards only when it is their turn in the order of actions in that phase.

The remaining 4 cards are ambulance cards. Players will place tokens of transported patients on them. Each ambulance contains one stretcher (a place for one patient).

(The printed rulebook shows a sample ordinary card and a sample privileged card, marked "Zwykła karta" (ordinary card) and "Karta uprzywilejowana" (privileged card).)

Card list (the number of copies in brackets):

Ambulance card (4), Empty Tank (2), Director's Verdict (2), Paramedics' Clash (5), Creative Accounting (1), NFZ Inspection (1), Call from Dispatch (2), Łódź Ambulance Service (2), Extortion (2), Black Mark (4), Ambulance Rally (4), Crazy Nurse (2), Enema (1), Extra Stretcher (2), X-Ray (2), Sit-in Strike (2), Fire (2), Traffic Check (2), Hearse (1), Miraculous Recovery (1), Telebioenergotherapist (1), Head Nurse (2), Traffic Jams (3), Medical Fair (1), Na sygnale ("Lights and Sirens") (3).

Action Point Tokens (24)

Used for tendering, moving the ambulance and buying cards. Each token represents one Action Point (hereafter AP).

Patient Tokens (10)

Double-sided markers. One side marks a mildly ill patient, the other a severely ill patient. During the game they are placed on the board where a patient appears.

Hearse Token (1)

The hearse is moved on the board by the player who won the tender. The hearse can be used to remove inconvenient patients.

Pawns (8)

One pawn of each colour represents the emergency ambulance moving on the board. The second one is used to mark, on the NFZ statistics, the number of patients delivered to the clinic.

Board (1)

The board shows a map of the city, i.e. the layout of the streets with numbered addresses, and also space for the cards and the victory track. During the game patients appear on the individual streets, and the players' ambulances and the hearse drive along the streets.

The victory track (NFZ statistics) shows the number of patients brought to each player's clinic, which indicates how close each player is to victory.

The rules printed on the cards always take precedence over the general rules in this rulebook.

Setup

(See the illustration in the middle of the manual, pages 8 - 9.)

Before starting the game:

1. Take all the components out of the box and lay out the board in the middle of the table.
2. From the deck of cards, find the 4 ambulance cards and give each player one of them. In a 2- or 3-player game, set the remaining ambulance cards aside (they will not be used in the game).
3. Shuffle the rest of the cards, deal each player 3 at random, and place the remaining cards face down on the board, in the place designated for them.
4. Place the hearse token in the middle of the board, on the field "Happy End".
5. On the victory track, on the field "0", place one pawn of each player.
6. Draw lots to determine the player who will start the game.
7. Then, starting with the player who will start the game and continuing clockwise, the players must choose their clinics (by placing their pawn - the ambulance - on them).
8. The player who starts the game must also determine on which fields the initial patients will appear (see: Drawing Patients, page 7).
9. Give each player 6 AP tokens.

Course of the Game

The game is divided into the following consecutive turns. Each turn is divided into the following phases:

1. Planning Phase
2. Emergency Phase
3. City Phase

Drawing Patients

The number of patients drawn depends on the number of players (see the table below). To draw a patient, roll the die twice. The first result gives the street, and the second gives the house where the patient will appear. (For example, rolling 5 and then 2 means field 52, i.e. the address Mokra Street (ul. Mokra) 52.)

If the second die roll is 6, the player rolling the die decides on which field of that street the patient will appear.

If there is already a patient on the drawn field, nothing happens (do not place a new token and do not re-roll).

Newly drawn patient tokens are placed with the "mildly ill" side face up.

Note: a patient who is inside an ambulance no longer lies on the field where the ambulance stands, so a new patient may appear there.

Drawing Patients table (see the manual, page 6):

Players	City Phase	Game start
2	2	3
3	2	4
4	3	5

Planning Phase

During this phase all players take part in the tender. Using AP, they determine the order of actions of the players in the turn, and the player who will take control of the hearse.

Each player starts this phase with 6 AP.

Tender

On an agreed signal, all players secretly choose from their 6 AP the amount they will offer in the tender, and then simultaneously reveal the chosen tokens. The player who has spent the most points wins the tender, will begin the Emergency Phase, and may move the hearse (see below).

The player who was second - who spent the next largest number of AP on the tender - receives one card (NOTE! In a 2-player game the player who loses the tender receives no card). The other players gain nothing.

After the tender is over, the AP used in it are set aside, and the player controlling the hearse immediately moves it.

Any ties are resolved by the player who won the last tender (or who started the game, in the first turn).

Hearse

The hearse may be moved by at most 5 fields. If at any moment of the game the hearse is placed on a field where at least one patient is located (this also applies to patients in ambulances), then one of the patients (chosen by the player moving the hearse) is taken away by the hearse and set aside on the pile of used patients. The hearse then immediately returns to the field "Happy End", where it ends its move.

If, during their turn, a player drives an ambulance (carrying a patient) onto the field where the hearse stands, the patient is not taken!

Emergency Phase

In the Emergency Phase, each player, starting with the player who won the tender and then continuing clockwise, may perform the following actions:

• buying cards,
• moving the ambulance,
• playing cards.

Buying Cards

Drawing one card costs 1 AP. A player may hold at most 5 cards in hand. A card is drawn "blind", by taking the first card, lying on top, from the stack on the board.

Moving the Ambulance

The ambulance (pawn) moves along the streets (fields on the board). For each field entered, the player must pay one Action Point (AP). The ambulance may end its move on any field, or not move at all. The movement should be made one field at a time, so that other players can play privileged cards during it.

If the ambulance enters a field with a patient and there is a free stretcher in it, the paramedic team may take the patient into the vehicle, paying 1 AP for this.

Delivering the patient (raising the statistic by 1) happens automatically when the ambulance drives into the clinic (entering the clinic, like any move, costs 1 AP).

A player's ambulance may enter only its own clinic (this also applies to the effects of played cards).

Playing Cards

Cards may be played before, after and during the movement of the ambulance. Played cards are placed off the board, on the pile of used cards. (After shuffling, they return to the game; this happens after the last card has been taken from the stack on the board.)

The above actions may be performed in any order, e.g. draw a card, move the ambulance one field, draw a card again, play it, and so on.

NOTE! Cards without the ambulance symbol may be played by a player only during this phase, when it is that player's turn in the order of actions.

City Phase

After the Emergency Phase is over, the City Phase begins, during which the following actions are performed, in strictly defined order:

1. Change of condition of the patients.
2. End of the effects of cards.
3. Drawing new patients.

Change of Condition of the Patients

All severely ill patients die (place their tokens on the pile beside the board). All mildly ill patients become severely ill (turn their tokens over). A change of condition does not apply to patients who are in ambulances, or lying on the field where an ambulance stands (it is assumed that the patient is currently receiving help, and therefore their condition does not change).

End of the Effects of Cards

Some cards in play on the board, e.g. "Traffic Jams" or "Telebioenergotherapist", stop working at this moment - remove them from the board and place them on the pile of used cards.

Drawing New Patients

The player who won the last tender draws new patients (see the frame "Drawing Patients", page 7).

End of the Game

The game ends at the moment when the first player reaches the specified number of patients on the NFZ statistics (victory track):

• with 2 players: 6 patients,
• with 3 or 4 players: 5 patients.

The player who reached this result is the winner.

Optional Rule

Revealed Card

At the start of the Planning Phase, reveal the first card lying on top of the stack. In this way every player sees which card the player who is second in the tender will receive.

Notes

(Two unlabelled passages from the printed manual, placed after the optional rule.)

All cards may be played only in the Emergency Phase. This also applies to those described as "Play at any time".

We recommend using medical terminology during play, e.g. addressing each other as "Doctor" - this can make the game much more enjoyable.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Cards

1. Can the card "Fire" be played on a field where an ambulance stands, or so that as a result a patient ends up on a field with an ambulance? Answer: Yes.

2. Can the card "Extortion" be played when there is already a patient in the ambulance? Answer: Yes. The card works on a patient on the street.

3. Can the card "Call from Dispatch" be used when the card "Sit-in Strike" has been played? Answer: No. The effects of all cards are resolved in the order in which they were played, and in case of a contradiction in their descriptions, the one played earlier always takes precedence.

Other

4. What happens when, as a result of drawing patients or playing cards, two patients end up on one field? Answer: There can be only one patient on a field at a time (not counting the patient(s) in an ambulance). Each new surplus patient must be discarded immediately.

5. Does an ambulance carrying a patient that drives past the hearse cause the patient to be lost automatically? Answer: No. The hearse takes a patient only when it ENTERS a field where a patient is located (or an ambulance with a patient).