Pinball Showdown Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Overview
• Turn Sequence
  • 1) Selecting cards
  • 2) Using Control tokens
  • 3) Claiming Playfield cards
  • 4) Resolving Playfield card effects
  • Draining
  • 5) Claim combinations
  • Wizard Mode
  • 6) End of the turn
• Game End and Scoring
• Special Scoring Notes

Components

54 Playfield cards representing the Pinball devices on that can be struck for points.

4 Player Aid cards

1 Wizard Mode card to indicate when Wizard Mode has been activated.

80 double sided speed/control tokens (twenty for each player).

12 Combination cards that can be collected for extra points.

4 2X tokens (one for each player). These mark which of each player's two scoring piles counts double.

1 First Player marker.

Setup

1. Each player takes twenty speed/control tokens and places five speed side up (green side) leaving the other fifteen in a second pile control side up (red side). They also each take out their 2 X token and set it aside nearby.
2. Shuffle the Playfield cards and deal ten to each player. Set the rest of the deck off to the side but within reach. Shuffle the Combination cards and place a number of them equal to the number of players in the game, face up, near the play area. These are the only Combination cards available for the entire game. NOTE: In a two-player game, if the second Combination card has one of its two requirements in common with the first card revealed, remove it from the game and reveal another card until both cards have unique requirements.
3. Place the Wizard Mode card nearby with the "Off" side face up.
4. Select a player to be the First Player. We recommend the last player to actually play a pinball machine or choose a player at random. Give the selected player the First Player marker.

Overview

During each turn, players choose cards to offer for bidding, increase their speed, buy a card that wasn't claimed in a previous turn, and/or bid on one of the revealed cards. The player's speed and control affect what cards they may wish to bid on. When the game ends (10 turns usually), players add the points in their two scoring piles plus points for their surviving tokens. The highest total wins.

Turn Sequence

1) Selecting cards

The player with the First Player marker reveals the top card from the Playfield card deck by turning it face up. This is the first card of several that will be available to claim this round. After this card is revealed, each player selects one card from their hand and places it face down next to the revealed card. Once each player has played one card face down to the pile the First Player shuffles the pile and flips them all face up next to the card revealed from the deck. These are the Playfield cards available to the players for this turn. Each player will claim only one Playfield card per turn.

Note - The cards are piled and shuffled before being revealed, so that players don't necessarily know who contributed which card. In a two player game simultaneously play your cards face up.

2) Using Control tokens

Starting with the First Player and proceeding clockwise, each player may perform any of the following actions using tokens from their control pile in any order they wish. A player may choose to perform no actions using tokens. Once a player finishes using their control tokens (or not), the next player in sequence gets to do so.

A) Bid (steering your pinball): A player may place one or more of their control tokens on one of the face-up Playfield cards. This represents their pinball using some of its control to steer itself towards that particular playfield object. If an object already has another player's control tokens on it, you may remove them by placing a higher number of your own control tokens on it (your pinball has collided with theirs, pushing it out of the way). The displaced tokens are returned to the owning player who may flip any number of them over to speed tokens and then place them in their appropriate piles.

B) Increase Speed: A player may increase their speed. A player does this by flipping over one or more of their control tokens to the speed side and adding it to their speed pile. For each such token a player adds to their speed pile, they must remove permanently one control token from the game. You can only convert as many tokens as you can pay for with your remaining available control tokens. For example, a player who only has three control tokens could only increase his speed by one, with one token flipped to its speed side, another discarded and the third left in his control token pile.

C) Buy Discarded Card: Beginning with the second turn of the game, a player may permanently remove two control tokens from the game to take a Playfield card from the discard pile and add it to their hand. This action is not available on the first turn since no cards have been discarded yet.

3) Claiming Playfield cards

Once all of the players have had a chance to use their control tokens, the face-up Playfield cards for this turn are claimed. Any player with control token bids on any Playfield card takes the card and checks to see if they meet the card's speed requirement. If so, the player adds the card to their appropriate scoring pile. If they do not meet the speed requirements, the player loses speed equal to the number of circles on the card (regardless of if they are green, red or blue) which means, those speed tokens are flipped over to their control side. The uncompleted Playfield card is placed into the discard pile. The control tokens on the card are permanently removed from the game whether the card was successfully completed or not.

Players who did not have control tokens on any card then take one card from the remaining unclaimed face-up Playfield cards and resolve their speed requirements starting with the First Player and going clockwise. This will leave one unclaimed Playfield card that is put into the discard pile and may be purchased on a future turn by a player as described in the Buy Discarded Card section.

4) Resolving Playfield card effects

Each player now resolves the effect of the Playfield card they claimed this turn on their speed. There are four possible effects.

• Green circles with plus signs: Cards that have green circles with plus signs convert a number of that player's control tokens to speed equal to the number of circles shown on the card. Take the tokens from the control pile, flip the tokens to their speed (green) side and add them to the speed pile. If a player has fewer control tokens than the number of circles on the card, then they convert all of their control tokens to speed. Unlike the Increase Speed action, players do not have to remove tokens from the game when resolving this effect.
• Red circles with minus signs: Cards that have red circles with minus signs convert a number of that player's speed tokens back to control tokens equal to the number of circles shown on the card. Take the tokens from the speed pile, flip the tokens to their control side and add them to the control pile. If a player has fewer speed tokens than the number of circles on the card, then they convert all of their speed tokens to control and drain (See Draining).
• Blue circles with equals signs: Cards that have blue circles with equals signs in them set a player's speed to the number of circles shown on the card. Convert speed tokens to control or vice versa to set the player's speed pile to equal the number of circles on the card. The rest of the player's tokens are set to their control side and placed in the player's control pile. If a player has fewer control tokens than the number of circles on the card, then they convert all of their control tokens to speed. Unlike the Increase Speed action, players do not have to remove tokens from the game when resolving this effect.

After all of the players have applied the appropriate card effects to their speed, they place the cards in their appropriate individual scoring piles (see Wizard Mode). Generally, this means cards go in their regular scoring pile, but if Wizard Mode is in effect, cards go to the 2X scoring pile.

Draining

If a player's speed is zero after applying their Playfield card effect one of two things happens. If a ball drains during turns one through five of the game, then autosave is in effect which means that the player converts five of their control tokens to speed or all of them if they have less than five. If this occurs on turn six or later, the game ends at the end of that turn.

Note - You can tell what turn the game is on by counting the maximum total of Playfield cards any player has in their scoring pile(s), and adding 1. For example, if the maximum total number of Playfield cards in any player's scoring piles is 6, the game is in the 7th turn.

5) Claim combinations

Players check both of their scoring piles and see if any pair or pairs of the Playfield cards they have match the two requirements on any of the available Combination cards. Starting with the First Player, players take all such Combination cards and add them to their scoring pile. Remember: bonus points never double, so completed Combination cards should always be placed in your normal scoring pile. Once a playfield device has been successfully scored, it can be used to complete multiple combination cards. For example, if you have a Short Ramp in one of your scoring piles it could be used to complete both the Short Hop and Ramp combinations if they are available.

Wizard Mode

When any Combination card is claimed the next turn will be a Wizard Mode turn (that is, Wizard Mode is On). The turn plays exactly the same except that players put Playfield cards in the 2X scoring pile and use their 2X token to indicate that these Playfield cards were scored during Wizard Mode. The cards in this second scoring pile will have their non-bonus points doubled at the end of the game. Bonus points never double and Combination cards are never placed in the 2X scoring pile. When Wizard Mode is On, the Wizard Mode card should be displaying the On side, as a reminder to the players to use their 2X scoring piles.

At the end of a turn in which Wizard mode is On, check all players' speed. If any player has a speed of 12 or greater, then the next turn Wizard Mode will remain On, meaning players will continue placing scored Playfield cards in the 2X pile for that turn as well. The Wizard Mode also remains On if any new Combinations were scored during the turn.

Wizard Mode remains On as long as at least one player maintains a speed of 12 or greater. If at the end of a turn in which Wizard Mode was On, no players are going at a speed of at least 12 and no new Combination were scored during that turn, Wizard Mode is turned Off. Flip the Wizard Mode card to the Off side. The next turn will be a normal one with scored Playfield cards being placed in the player's regular scoring piles. Any Combinations cards claimed on later turns trigger Wizard Mode On again on the following turn, as indicated above.

6) End of the turn

Pass the First Player marker to the player on the left and begin the next turn.

Game End and Scoring

At the end of the tenth turn or, the end of turn six or later where a player has drained, the game is over. Players add up the points of all the Playfield cards in their scoring piles. Any cards under their 2X token have their points doubled (again, bonus points never double). Add these points together and then add 100 points for each speed and control token a player has remaining in the game. The player with the highest total wins. In the event of a tie, most tokens wins. If there is still a tie, they both win.

Special Scoring Notes

• Each Drop target card is worth 1000 points (which can be doubled if in the 2X scoring pile of course). if you have a set of 4 of them, you earn a bonus of 5000 (you have sunk an entire drop target bank). For example, if you had a total of 5 Drop Target cards in your normal scoring pile they would score 1000 each for a total of 5000 plus 5000 bonus points since you have one set of four for a total of 10000 points. If a player manages to get all 8, each 4 scores the bonus separately.
• The Kick-out Hole is discarded and not scored, if your speed is more than 5 when you claim it.