Pandemic: Government Shutdown Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Required for Play
• Setup
• Play
• Game End

Required for Play

• Pandemic
• Pandemic: On The Brink Event cards (required if playing with more than 3 players)
• 35 pennies (or other coins or chips)

Setup

Set the game up using the standard Pandemic rules with the following exceptions:

1. When you prepare the Player deck, do not include any Event cards. You'll have a smaller deck than usual.
2. Place 2 Event cards per player face up next to the board. Place the other Event cards into the box. (For example, in a 2-player game, you'll have 4 face-up cards and in a 5-player game, you'll have 10 face-up cards.)
3. Hand 2 pennies to each player.
4. Add pennies to the board according to the number of players as shown. a. Add pennies equal to the number of players to the third space (the last space marked with a 2) and fifth space (the last space marked with a 3) of the Infection Rate Track. b. Add pennies equal to the number of players to the spaces on the Outbreak track marked 3, 5, and 7.

Play

To represent their lack of funding, players may only take a number of actions equal to the number of pennies in their possession. This means that at the beginning of the game, each player starts with only enough pennies for 2 actions per turn.

Whenever the Outbreak track or Infection Rate track reaches a new space with pennies on it, the team's sponsoring government panics and unlocks more funds. Immediately distribute the pennies amongst all the players as you see fit. If players can't agree, the current player decides how to distribute the pennies.

Players may spend a penny to the box (discarding it from play) to take a face up Event card into their own hand. This can be done at any time, except in between drawing and resolving a card. (Remember that Event cards can be played at any time, except in between drawing and resolving a card, so the pennies received in the middle of an Epidemic can't effectively be used until the card is resolved.)

Players get a new action to choose from on their turn:

Transfer Funds: give a penny to any other player as an action. The player using the Transfer Funds action does not need to be in the same city as the player receiving the funds.

Game End

The game ends according to the standard rules. Can you save humanity when the government is shut down?