Pandemic: Rapid Response Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• Key Concepts
  • Cities and Supplies
  • Dice and Rooms
  • Real-Time Gameplay
• Player Turns
  • Move
  • Fly
  • Assign Dice
  • Activate Room
  • Supply Rooms
  • Recycling Center
  • Cargo Bay
  • Turn End
• Roles
• Time Runs Out
• Game End
• Example Turn
• Difficulty
• Crisis Cards
  • Immediate
  • Temporary
  • Delivery
• Credits
• Fine Points
  • Frequently Overlooked Rules
  • Roles
  • Crisis Cards

Contents

• 24 Dice (6 each of 4 colors)
• 4 Player Pawns (1 each of 4 colors)
• 20 Supply Crates (4 each of 5 colors)
• 1 Plane with stand
• 24 City Cards
• 7 Role Cards
• 4 Reference Cards
• 15 Crisis Cards
• 1 Plane Board
• 1 Sand Timer (2 minutes)
• 9 Time Tokens
• 1 Waste Marker

Setup

1. Place the plane board in the middle of the table.

2. Place the waste marker on the first space of the waste track.

3. Place four supply crates in the five matching-colored supply rooms on the board.

4. Place the sand timer and three time tokens on the board in HQ (a). Place the remaining six time tokens off the board near the cargo bay as a supply (b).

5. Shuffle the city cards and reveal one; place the plane in the matching city on the flightpath along the edge of the board and return that card to the box.

6. Reveal two city cards and place them faceup at the matching cities on the flightpath along the edge of the board. Then place three city cards in a facedown pile in HQ without looking at them to create the city deck. Return all remaining city cards to the box.

7. Shuffle the role cards and deal one faceup to each player. Return all remaining role cards to the box.

   Note: For your first game, we recommend returning these roles to the box before shuffling: Director, Recycler, and Supply Specialist.

8. Each player chooses one pawn and takes the six dice and reference card of the matching color. Place your pawn in the room shown on the top-right of your role card. Place your reference card faceup in front of you. Return all remaining pawns, dice, and cards to the box.

9. The player who last traveled on a plane takes the first turn.

Note: Crisis cards add more variety to the game, but also make the game more challenging. When you have experience with the game, if you wish to play with crisis cards, see "Crisis Cards" on page 6 for related rules and setup instructions.

Key Concepts

Pandemic: Rapid Response is a fast-paced game in which you portray elite disaster relief specialists aboard an advanced plane delivering supplies to cities in need.

Cities and Supplies

City cards represent the locations of disasters. Each city card shows the types of supplies that need to be delivered to it.

There are five types of supplies, each created and packaged aboard your plane as you fly to cities for delivery: Vaccine, Food, Power, First Aid, Water.

Dice and Rooms

Each player has their own set of dice, which they use to move around the plane and activate effects. There are several rooms aboard your plane, many of which are used to create supplies: HQ, Supply Rooms, Recycling Center, Cargo Bay.

Real-Time Gameplay

Pandemic: Rapid Response is played in real-time. Players take turns one at a time, but they must do so as quickly as possible since the sand timer is always running. If you take too long to complete your goals, time will run out, and you will lose the game.

Player Turns

To start the game, flip the sand timer. Then players take turns in clockwise order.

At the start of your turn, take all your dice in front of you and roll them. Twice per turn, you can reroll any of your dice, keeping any results you like. You can do these rerolls at any time during your turn.

During your turn, you can use your rolled dice to move around the plane, fly the plane to different cities, assign your dice to rooms, and activate rooms for their effects. You can do any of these as many times as you want during your turn based on your die results.

Note: Sometimes you will have to "spend" a die to use it. Place spent dice onto your role card; dice on your role card cannot be used again until your next turn.

Move

To move, spend any one of your rolled dice to move your pawn through an open door from your current room to an adjacent room. The result showing on the spent die does not matter.

You could spend any die to move through an open door to either adjacent room.

Fly

You will need to fly the plane to a city before you can deliver supplies there. The plane follows a flightpath around the edge of the board. To fly, spend one of your dice showing a plane result (plane icon) to move the plane to an adjacent city. You can do this while you are in any room of the plane.

You could spend a die showing the plane result to fly the plane to either adjacent city.

Assign Dice

Before you can use a room's effect, you will need to assign enough dice to it. To assign dice, place one or more of your dice on empty die spaces in your current room. There are a few rules for assigning dice:

• The die result must match the icon shown on the die space. Most rooms require a single type of result, but the recycling center requires all different results.
• If two or more spaces are grouped together, you must place dice on all of those grouped spaces at the same time or you cannot place dice there.
• You must assign dice in a room in the direction shown by the groups in the room.

Multiple players can assign dice in the same room over multiple turns. Dice that have been assigned are "locked" and cannot be spent or rolled until the room has been activated.

Activate Room

Each room of the plane has a unique effect you can use when enough dice have been assigned in that room.

During your turn, you can activate your current room to use its effect. A room's effect is represented by a symbol shown on the right of a group of die spaces, and each space leading up to that symbol must be filled in order to use the effect.

This room allows you to create 1 power supply crate. To activate this room, each space leading up to the first symbol must be filled.

Most room effects become more powerful as more dice are assigned. When you activate a room, use the most powerful version of the effect that the dice allow.

Since all spaces leading up to the second symbol are filled, you create 2 crates instead of 1. There are not enough dice here to create 3 crates.

After you finish using a room's effect (including generating waste, explained later), take all dice that were assigned in the room and place them on their owners' role cards.

Supply Rooms

There are five supply rooms in the plane, one for creating each type of supply.

When you activate a supply room, take the shown number of supply crates from that room and place each on an empty cargo space in the cargo bay.

Activating the room creates 2 power supply crates, which are taken from the supply room and placed in the cargo bay.

If there are not enough empty spaces in the cargo bay, you may take fewer crates or return other crates from the cargo bay to their rooms in order to make space.

If there are not enough crates in the room, take as many as you can—you can never have more than the four crates of each type included in the game.

The process for creating supplies on the plane also generates waste, which builds up over time. After you move crates to the cargo bay, generate waste by rolling all dice in the activated room. For each die result that shows a circle around the icon (plane, water, food), move the waste marker one space toward the skull space on the waste track. If it ever reaches the skull space, you lose the game.

These results move the waste marker 3 spaces.

Recycling Center

The recycling center contains machinery for processing the waste created by supply rooms.

When you activate the recycling center, move the waste marker the shown number of spaces toward the recycling space on the waste track.

Activating the recycling center moves the waste marker back 2 spaces.

Cargo Bay

The cargo bay holds your finished supply crates, and from the cargo bay you can deliver crates to cities.

When you activate the cargo bay, deliver supplies to your current city: take crates from the cargo bay matching all the icons shown on the city card at the plane's current location. Return those crates to their supply rooms.

Then take one time token from the supply and place it in HQ, giving you more time. Discard the city card to the box.

1 die is needed to activate the cargo bay.

To deliver here, you need 2 power and 2 first aid crates in the cargo bay.

Turn End

When you cannot (or do not want to) do anything else on your turn, your turn ends, and play passes to the player on your left.

Roles

Each player has a role that shows their starting room in the upper-right corner (used during setup). The roles also give players special abilities they can use during the game.

When you activate a supply room, roll 1 fewer die to generate waste. When you assign dice in the recycling room, skip the first space.

Ian Dominic, the recycler, starts in the recycling center.

Time Runs Out

The sand timer keeps running while players are taking their turns.

When the sand timer runs out, pause the active turn. Discard one time token from HQ to the box, then draw the top card of the city deck and place it faceup at the matching city along the flightpath.

Then flip the sand timer and resume the game, continuing the active turn. Players cannot play or strategize while the game is paused.

If there are no time tokens in HQ when the timer runs out (regardless of how many tokens are in the supply), players immediately lose the game.

Note: Time tokens discarded to the box are out of the game; there is no way to recover discarded time tokens.

Game End

If either of the following occurs, the players immediately lose the game:

• The timer runs out, and there are no time tokens in HQ to discard.
• The waste marker reaches the skull space on the waste track.

When players have delivered supplies to all of the city cards, such that there are no remaining city cards along the flightpath and the city deck is empty, the players immediately win the game!

Example Turn

Dehli needs three power crates and one food crate. Your teammate has already assigned three dice to the power supply room, and now it is your turn.

None of your dice are assigned on the board, so you roll all your dice.

You roll only one power result, but will need a second to create the three crates needed in Delhi. You keep that die and reroll the rest.

You roll a second power icon and assign both dice to the room. Then you activate the room. You take three crates from the room and place them in the cargo bay.

Then you generate waste by rolling all the dice in the power supply room.

Two results have circled icons, so you move the waste marker two spaces.

You place the dice rolled for waste on their owners' role cards. You have one reroll left this turn, so you roll your remaining dice.

You spend two dice to move to the cargo bay to prepare to deliver on your next turn, and then you end your turn.

Difficulty

When you have experience with the game, you can adjust the difficulty level to offer a greater challenge.

During step 6 of setup, choose a difficulty level. When placing city cards along the flightpath and creating the deck, use the number of cards shown in the table below:

Difficulty Level	# Placed Cities	# Cards in City Deck
Easy	2	3
Normal	2	5
Veteran	3	7
Heroic	4	9

The higher difficulty levels will provide a significant challenge, so avoid attempting the veteran or heroic difficulty levels until you are truly ready.

Crisis Cards

Crisis cards introduce new types of obstacles to overcome for greater variety during the game. Crises make the game more challenging, so we recommend playing on a lower difficulty when first introducing crisis cards.

During setup, shuffle the crisis cards and place them in a facedown pile near HQ to create the crisis deck.

When the sand timer runs out, after you draw and place a new city card, draw the top card of the crisis deck and resolve its effect. If the city deck is empty, you still draw a crisis card. There are three types of crisis cards, as shown by an icon in the bottom-right corner of the card:

Immediate

Immediate crisis cards have one-time effects. Resolve the effect and then discard the card to the box.

Temporary

Temporary crisis cards have ongoing effects that remain active while the card is in play. Place the temporary crisis card faceup on top of the city deck; the next time the timer runs out, discard the faceup crisis card to the box.

Delivery

Delivery crisis cards cover up city cards, requiring you to deliver to the crisis card before delivering to the city card beneath it. When you deliver to your current city, you can deliver a crate matching the icon shown on the crisis card to discard that card to the box.

It is possible for multiple delivery crisis cards to cover the same city. Each time you activate the cargo bay, you can deliver to only the topmost card at your current city.

Credits

Game Design: Kane Klenko

Game Development: Alexandar Ortloff

Producer: Alexandar Ortloff

Editing: Andrea Dell'Agnese & Julia Faeta

Graphic Design: Jasmine Radue and Dan Gerlach

Additional Graphic Design: Bree Lindsoe and Samuel R. Shimota

Board Art: Jasmine Radue and Atha Kanaani

Character Art: Atha Kanaani

Crisis Art: Bree Lindsoe

Plane Sculpting: Samuel R. Shimota and Atha Kanaani

Art Direction: Samuel R. Shimota and Bree Lindsoe

Managing Art Director: Samuel R. Shimota

Managing Game Designer: Justin Kemppainen

Publisher: Steven Kimball

Playtesters: Stacci Barganz, Todd Barganz, Jay Barrett, Mark Bazata, Eric Bernstrom, Jenny Bottoni, Sam Bottoni, David Classey, Garrett Coombs, Natalie Coombs, Pete Cymbalak, Caterina D'Agnostini, Andrea Dell'Agnese, Emily Dennison, Kirk Dennison, Justin DeWitt, Andrea Ebley, Kyle Ebley, Julia Faeta, Canyon Forkash, Haley Gandara, Erin Green, Aaron Gresham, Kevin Hicks, Anita Hilberdink, Sean Howard, Nate Jones, Caleb Klenko, Carter Klenko, Chelssey Klenko, Kallen Klenko, Kyle Klenko, Sandy Klenko-Blackmon, Morgan Kostelnik, Rob Kostelnik, Ryan Knepp, Taryn Knepp, Alanna Lewis, Kortnee Lewis, Scott Lewis, Kevin Lund, Emile de Maat, Keith Matejka, Michael McClennen, Brett Myers, Willow Palecek, Deanna Ratz, James Ryan, Vera van Schaijk, Scott Schultz, Clayton Stoffel, Léon Tichelaar, Marjan Tichelaar-Haug, Maddie Vanderhoef, Will Vanderhoef, Tim Virnig, Matt Worden

The designer would like to thank: My amazing wife, Carrie. This one was a long road. Thanks for playing 743 different versions of this game, and making it better.

© 2019 Z-Man Games. Pandemic and Z-Man Games are ® of Z-Man Games. The Z-Man logo is a TM of Z-Man Games. Fantasy Flight Supply is a TM of Fantasy Flight Games. Actual components may vary from those shown. Made in China. NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY PERSONS AGE 7 OR YOUNGER.

Fine Points

This section contains easily missed rules and clarifications about some game effects.

Frequently Overlooked Rules

• At the start of your turn, you must roll your dice. After that, rerolling or spending dice is optional.
• Twice per turn, you can reroll any of your dice, keeping any results you like. You can do these rerolls at any time during your turn.
• Dice that have been assigned to a room are "locked" and cannot be spent or rolled until the room has been activated.
• You must be in a room to assign dice or activate it.
• When generating waste, you must roll all the dice assigned in the room, even if you cannot create all of the supplies (not enough space in the cargo bay or not enough crates in the room).
• You cannot partially deliver to a city; you must deliver the required crates all at once.
• Components discarded to the box are out of the game and cannot be recovered.

Roles

Adjoua Soro—Analyst

• You can keep any results you like for the additional rolls as normal.

Martina Rivera—Director

• At the start of your turn, if your HQ die is still in HQ, you may take it and roll it along with your other dice.
• Players can assign the HQ die to a group along with their own dice.
• If another player spends the HQ die to move or fly, the die is placed on your role card.

Soojin Sohn—Engineer

• You can use this ability any number of times per turn.
• Your ability does not apply while generating waste.

Ian Dominic—Recycler

• This allows you to skip only the first space and begin assigning dice with the second space in the recycling center. After you have skipped the first space, future dice are placed as if that space is already filled until the room is activated. The skipped space doesn't need to be filled to activate the room.

Raquel Cardoso—Supply Specialist

• Your assigned dice must still follow the correct order, and you cannot skip spaces.
• If you assign dice without filling all spaces in a group, other players can assign their dice next to yours in the remaining spaces in that group on their turns. They must fill remaining spaces in a group at the same time.

Crisis Cards

Urgent Delivery

• If there is a tie for the closest city card, you choose which city card to place the card on.
• Each time you activate the cargo bay, you can deliver to only the topmost card at a city.

Extreme Winds

• The Flight Planner can spend two plane results to move the plane up to two spaces.

Distraction

• If all of your dice are assigned to the board, this card does not affect you.

Turbulence

• The Technician can spend 2 dice to move up to 2 rooms.

Equipment Failure

• If the Director has placed an HQ die, it is also placed on her role card.

Supply Spill

• If there are no crates in the cargo bay, this card has no effect.

Evacuation

• If there is a tie for the closest city card, you choose which direction to move the plane.