Robo Rally Dice Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
  • Player Aid
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • The Basics
  • 1. Programming Phase
  • 2. Activation Phase
  • Damage
• Board Element Activation
  • Notes on Board Elements
  • Robot Weapons (Step 7)
  • End of Round
• More on Racing Through the Factory
  • Conveyor Belts
  • Rotating Conveyor Belts
  • Walls
  • Pits
  • Reboot Tokens
  • Board Edges
• Robot Interactions
  • Robot Lasers
  • Pushing Other Robots
• Upgrade Cards
• Checkpoints

Contents

• 4 Double-Sided Gameboards
• 4 Robot Pieces
• 20 Upgrade Cards (11 Movement and 9 Lasers)
• 20 Programming Dice
• 4 Player Boards
• 4 Damage Tokens
• 4 Checkpoint Tokens
• 4 Checkpoint Tracking Tokens
• 4 Star Tokens
• 4 Reboot Tokens
• 1 Time Pressure Die
• 1 Player Aid

Player Aid

Board Elements Activation

1. Blue Conveyor Belts convey any robot standing on them 1 space in the direction of the arrow. If a robot is still on a blue conveyor belt after this first conveyance, the robot conveys a second space in the direction of the arrow.
2. Green Conveyor Belts convey any robot standing on them 1 space in the direction of the arrow.
3. Gears rotate robots standing on them 90 degrees in the direction of the arrows.
4. Board Lasers fire, but cannot fire through walls or hit more than 1 robot: They shoot from the pointer and hit only the robot nearest to the source. Take 1 damage for each laser beam shown.
5. Homing Missiles fire if a robot is on them. All other players take 1 damage, no matter where they are on the board. Will not reactivate until a robot moves off of it.
6. Batteries: If your robot ends a register on a battery, draw a card. You can either take a face-up or a face-down card. Card slots must be filled from left to right. You may replace cards you already have.

Robot Weapon Activation

Robot Weapons: Each robot has a built-in "main laser" weapon that fires in the direction the robot is facing (in the direction of the arrow on its base). Its range has no limit; it goes until it hits something solid (a wall or robot).

End of Round Activation

Draw a Card: Any player who placed a star in this space now draws a card and adds it to their slots, using the same rules as Batteries.

Setup

1. Set up the Board.
   • Place the Gameboards in any configuration of your choice. Use three for a shorter game, or four for a standard game. Each Gameboard has two sides, with side A containing fewer obstacles, and side B containing more.
   • Place one Checkpoint Token on each Gameboard. The robots will race to reach checkpoint 1, then 2, etc. with the robot who reaches the highest numbered checkpoint first winning the game.
   • On each Gameboard that contains a pit, place a Reboot Token somewhere on that board tile.
   • NOTE: You can use any Robo Rally Gameboards to play, even boards from other Robo Rally games.
2. Separate the Upgrade Cards by their backs and shuffle each deck separately.
   • Deal each player 2 cards from the Movement Deck. They then choose 1 of those cards and return the other to the deck. Reshuffle the Movement Deck.
   • Place each deck (Movement and Lasers) off to the side of the playing area. Reveal the top 2 cards from each deck and place them face-up on the table.
3. Each player chooses a color and takes the following game components.
   • A Player Board. They place their chosen Movement Card face up in the left-most card slot at the top of their board.
   • 1 Damage Token. They place it on the left-most space of their Damage Track.
   • 1 Checkpoint Tracking token. They place it near their Player Board.
   • 1 Star Token. They place it on the Trigger slot at the top of their Player Board that shows a circled star.
   • 5 dice.
   • 1 robot, which they keep in front of them for now.

Gameplay

The Basics

The game is played in rounds. Each round is made up of a Programming Phase and an Activation Phase. In the Programming Phase, the players use their dice to plot the moves they want their robots to make. Everyone performs this phase at the same time. In the Activation Phase, all players take turns activating their robots and carry out their programming, resolving their dice from left to right.

1. Programming Phase

Each round begins as soon as any player decides to start rolling their dice. All players roll dice at the same time, with each player rolling dice and locking them as fast as they want. To lock a die, they place it on one of the spaces on their Player Board. When a die is placed on the Player Board, it is "locked" and cannot be moved or removed. NOTE: If this is your first game, or if you are playing with new players, you can ignore this rule and allow players to move their dice until the Programming Phase ends.

Player Boards consist of 2 main areas for dice: The Triggers, which are used to activate Upgrade Cards, and the Registers, which are used for programming a robot's movement.

Dice can be placed in any of these spaces with the following restrictions:

• Stars cannot be placed in the Registers.
• Only stars can be placed on the Triggers.

Typically, players will place 4 dice in Registers and 1 on a Trigger, but this is not always the case, and is not required.

After rolling their dice, a player can decide to re-roll as many dice as they want as often as they want.

• If a player has fewer than 5 dice (see Damage on page 8), they can choose which spaces to leave open. They may even leave a gap in their Registers (for example, filling Registers 1, 3, and 4 while leaving 2 empty).
• A player may place more than 1 die on their Triggers in a round, meaning they will have fewer dice in their Registers.

Once the first player has locked all of their dice, they grab the Time Pressure Die and start rolling it as fast as they can. When they roll a 6, they call out "ONE". When they roll another 6, they call out "TWO". When they roll a third 6, they say "STOP!" and all players who are still rolling dice must stop rolling immediately. Any dice that have not been placed yet follow these rules:

• If there are no remaining open Registers, the remaining dice are lost and placed on the Lost Dice space of their Player Board.
• If there are remaining open Registers, re-roll each remaining die one at a time and place them in the open Registers from left to right. Re-roll any rolled stars.

NOTE: It is possible that all players will lock in all of their dice before the start player rolls all three 6s. In this case, they just stop rolling and you move on to the Activation Phase.

The player who rolled the Time Pressure Die keeps it in front of them for the remainder of the round to indicate that they are the start player.

2. Activation Phase

Dice in Registers are resolved from left to right on the Player Boards, with the board elements activating in order after each die. Card resolution will be described on page 15.

Starting with the start player (the player who rolled the Time Pressure Die) and continuing clockwise around the table, players resolve the die in their first Register. Once a die has been resolved, remove it from your Player Board.

• Single up arrow = Move your robot 1 space forward.
• Double up arrow = Move your robot 2 spaces forward.
• Left turn arrow = Rotate your robot to the left 90 degrees, staying in the same space.
• Right turn arrow = Rotate your robot to the right 90 degrees, staying in the same space.
• U-turn / back arrow = Either rotate your robot around 180 degrees OR move your robot 1 space backwards.

After all players have activated the die in their first Register, the Board Elements activate in this order (see page 9 for details on each element):

1. Blue Conveyor Belts
2. Green Conveyor Belts
3. Gears
4. Board Lasers - See Damage below
5. Homing Missiles
6. Batteries

After the Board Elements activate, robot lasers fire (page 14). After the robot lasers fire, move on to the dice in Register 2, and continue to the right on the Player Boards following the same pattern: Dice, Board Elements, Lasers, Dice, etc.

After the final robot laser has fired this round, any player who placed a die with a star in their right-most Trigger space (see Cards on page 15) now draws a card and adds it to their card slots using the same rules as described for Batteries (page 9). If multiple players have a die in this space, they draw starting from the start player and continue clockwise.

Once this is complete, all players retrieve all of their dice (including any they had on their Lost Dice space during the round). If a player has reached either of their damage spaces (the burst-icon spaces) on the Damage Track, they will now lose dice (see Damage below).

Then a new round begins. The start player returns the Time Pressure Die to the center of the table. The players can analyze the board and the current situation as long as they want, but as soon as any player starts rolling their dice the round begins.

Damage

Any time a robot takes damage, they move their Damage Token 1 space to the right on their Damage Track.

If, at the end of the Activation Phase of a round, their Damage Token has reached at least the first burst-icon space (single burst icon), they do the following:

• Lose 1 die for the next round. Take any 1 die and place it on the Lost Dice space on the right side of the Damage Track.
• Reset their Damage Track to the start.

If the Damage Token has advanced all the way to the double burst-icon space, do the same as above, but lose 2 dice for the next round instead.

NOTE: Any damage taken past the double burst-icon space in a round is ignored.

(Example 1: the Damage Token has reached the single burst-icon space, so 1 die is placed on the Lost Dice space and the token returns to the start. Example 2: the Damage Token has reached the double burst-icon space, so 2 dice are placed on the Lost Dice space and the token returns to the start.)

Board Element Activation

1. Blue Conveyor Belts move (we will use "convey" from now on) any robot standing on them 1 space in the direction of the arrow. If a robot is still on a blue conveyor belt after this first conveyance, the robot conveys a second space in the direction of the arrow.
2. Green Conveyor Belts convey any robot standing on them 1 space in the direction of the arrow.
3. Gears rotate robots standing on them 90 degrees in the direction of the arrows.
4. Board Lasers fire, hitting any robots in a direct line. Board lasers cannot fire through walls or hit more than 1 robot: They shoot from the pointer and hit only the robot nearest to the source. Take 1 damage for each laser beam shown. See page 8 for more on Damage.
5. Homing Missiles fire if a robot has moved onto it in this Register. When homing missiles fire, all other robots take 1 damage, no matter what board they are on. Remaining on a homing missile space does not reactivate it.
   • NOTE: When using boards with homing missiles in standard Robo Rally games, instead of dealing damage to all robots, the player activating the homing missiles instead chooses a robot to take 1 damage.
6. Batteries: If your robot ends a Register on a battery space, draw a card. You may choose a face-up card or the top face-down card from the deck. If you choose a face-up card, replace it from the deck immediately. You must fill your card slots in order from left to right. If the next open slot is a Laser slot, you must choose a laser card. If it is an Any slot, you can choose either card type. You may choose to replace a card you already have instead of filling a new slot, allowing you to choose the appropriate card type.

Notes on Board Elements

During each of the 6 steps above, if your robot is on that particular Board Element when it activates, your robot is affected by it (but only during that step). For example, if your robot moves through a laser's path during any given Register but is not on the laser during Step 4 of Board Element Activation, it will not be hit.

Robot Weapons (Step 7)

Each robot has a built-in "main laser" weapon that fires during this step. This main laser fires in the direction the robot is facing (in the direction of the point on its token). Its range has no limit; it goes until it hits the nearest target robot, a wall, or harmlessly exits the board.

Once all Robot Weapons have fired, proceed to the next Register. If it is the end of the last Register, proceed to the End of Round.

End of Round

At the end of each round, after the final Robot Weapons have fired, any player who placed a star die in the extra Trigger space (right-most) now draws a card and adds it to their slots as described under Batteries on page 9.

More on Racing Through the Factory

As you can imagine, things can get crazy fast. The next few pages will cover some of the interactions your robot might find itself in, whether you planned for them or not!

Conveyor Belts

These convey your robot in the direction of the arrows if it is on the conveyor belt during Board Element Activation. Blue conveyor belts (showing 2 arrows per space) can convey robots 2 spaces if the first conveyance is from a blue belt space to another blue belt space. There are exceptions:

• Once Smash Bot has conveyed off the blue belt, it is no longer on the conveyor belt, so it does not convey a second space. Since the conveyor belt conveys it off the belt, the blue conveyor belt is no longer under it to convey it a second time.
• If a conveyor belt would convey a robot onto a space that is occupied by another robot, the robot in motion will stop on the last space of the conveyor belt. It does not push the robot in its way. (A movement die in the next register certainly would though!) Additionally, if a robot on a blue conveyor belt would convey onto an occupied green conveyor belt space, the robot on the blue conveyor belt stops.

Note that all robots on conveyor belts of a particular color are conveyed at the same time. They convey in tandem in the direction of the arrows, so a robot on the same conveyor belt as your robot will convey along with your robot down the belt.

• In this example, both robots would end their conveyance on the same conveyor belt space. Since they cannot, they each convey 1 space and then stop, leaving the junction space empty.

Sometimes, this simultaneous conveyance can cause 2 robots to try to enter a junction space at the same time. If this occurs, neither robot enters that space.

Rotating Conveyor Belts

Some conveyor belts have a curved arrow indicating a rotating section of the belt.

When a conveyor belt causes a robot to convey onto a curved conveyor space (during Board Element Activation), they will rotate 90 degrees in the direction of the curved arrow on the conveyor belt (left or right).

If a robot moves onto the curved section of a conveyor belt for any reason other than being conveyed by that belt, such as its own programming die or being pushed, it does not rotate.

Again, if your programming die moves your robot onto a curved arrow conveyor belt space, it does not rotate. If a conveyor belt conveys your robot onto a curved space of conveyor belt during Board Element Activation, your robot does rotate 90 degrees in the direction of the arrow.

If a robot conveys onto a junction space featuring a curved arrow, the robot only rotates 90 degrees if it came from the direction of the curved arrow. In the example, the robot did not come from the direction of the curved arrow. It came from the straight arrow side, so it does not rotate.

1. In this example, Smash Bot has resolved a Move Back in Register 3 onto a blue conveyor belt. Since there are no obstructions, it will convey twice, onto a curved conveyor belt both times it is conveyed during this Board Element's resolution.
2. The first time it conveys around the corner, Smash Bot rotates to follow the arrow around the right-swinging curve. This conveys its backside in the direction of the curved arrow seen in panel 1 to conform to the belt's motion.
3. Since a blue conveyor belt conveys it a second time, Smash Bot now conveys around a left-swinging curve, with its backside following the direction of the curved arrow.

The point is, your robot does not rotate to face the direction of the arrow. Its leading side rotates 90 degrees in the direction of the arrow, no matter which side of your robot that might be.

Walls

Walls are obstacles that robots cannot move or fire through. For example, if there is a wall 1 space in front of your robot and you resolve a Move 2, your robot moves 1 space and stops. The extra move is lost. A robot or board feature on the other side of a wall from your robot is not "adjacent" to your robot.

Walls stop robot movement and lasers, while the other Board Elements do not.

Note: The small blocks in the corner of some spaces where angled lasers are mounted do not obstruct movement or lasers in any way.

Pits

If a robot falls in a pit, they must do the following:

• Move their Damage Token to the single burst-icon space.
• If their Damage Token was already on or past the single burst-icon space, they move it to the double burst-icon space instead.
• Remove their robot from the board.
• Remove all remaining dice from their Player Board.
• At the beginning of the next round, when activating their first die, they must place their robot on the Reboot Token on that Gameboard facing a direction of their choice.

Reboot Tokens

Reboot Tokens are where robots who have fallen into a pit will reappear when they activate during Register 1 of the next round. Each Gameboard will only have 1 of these tokens. If the Reboot Token is occupied by another robot, move the obstructing robot 1 space in the direction of the arrow on the Reboot Token. Then, place your robot onto the Reboot Token facing in the direction of your choice. This does not count as "pushing" that robot. See Pits above.

Reboot Tokens do not obstruct movement or lasers. If there are walls in the space, place the token in a manner that allows the walls to be seen. Board lasers that pass through a Reboot Token are active. All other Board Elements under a Reboot Token are not active.

Board Edges

Unlike regular Robo Rally, the outside edges of the board are considered to be surrounded by walls. Robots cannot fall off the board.

Experienced players may wish to treat the edge of the board as a pit, using the rules described above.

Robot Interactions

Robot Lasers

Each robot fires its main laser weapon straight ahead in the direction it is facing during Step 7 of each Register in the Activation Phase. The laser continues in a straight line until it hits a solid object, such as a wall or a robot. Anything behind that object is said to be "blocked" and is not affected by the laser. If your robot is hit by a robot laser, it takes 1 damage: Move your Damage Token 1 space to the right on your Damage Track. Some Laser Upgrade Cards can be used instead of or to enhance your robot's main laser. Each card describes how it is used.

Pushing Other Robots

If a robot enters a space occupied by another robot, the robot in motion will push the other robot in the direction the pushing robot is moving until it ends its move.

Robots can be pushed almost anywhere on the board, including into a pit, but not through walls. Robots do not change the direction they are facing when they are pushed.

When a robot pushes another robot, that might cause other robots in a straight line of robots to also be pushed.

• As Smash Bot moves 2 spaces, it pushes Hammer Bot 2 spaces.
• Twonky, Hammer Bot, and Smash Bot are sitting in a row when it is Smash Bot's turn. Smash Bot moves 1 space and pushes the other 2 robots 1 space each.

Robots cannot be pushed through walls. If a robot pushes another robot into a wall, both of these robots immediately end their movement.

• Here, Smash Bot would push Hammer Bot 2 spaces, but when Hammer Bot hits a wall, both robots must stop. The remaining move from that programming die is lost.

Upgrade Cards

Upgrades give your robot access to special abilities, new weapons, movement bonuses, etc. There are 2 types of Upgrade Cards: Movement (gear icon) and Lasers (laser icon). In order to use an Upgrade, you must assign a star die to that card's Trigger during the Programming Phase.

The top of each Player Board shows 3 card slots with 4 dice spaces below them (Triggers); one below each card and an extra star space. Only dice showing star faces can be placed into these spaces.

If a die is placed in the extra star space, then at the end of the round the player will get a new card, as described on page 10.

If a die is placed below a card during the Programming Phase, that card can be activated during the round. Cards activate at different times, as described on the card, typically when it is that player's turn to activate their robot. Card activations are always optional.

The second star space under the cards had a star token placed on it during setup. The card in this space does not need a die in order to activate it. The star token acts as though a die was placed there every round, and the token activates the card as though it were a die.

Some Upgrades are always active when they have a die below them, while others can be activated only a certain number of times each round, as indicated by the dice boxes on those cards:

• Cards with a single box can be activated once per round. When activated, move the die (or star token) onto the card space to show it has been used.
• Cards with 2 boxes can be activated twice per round with a single die. When activated the first time, move the die (or token) onto the left space. When activated the second time, move it to the right space.
• Cards without any boxes are active for the entire round and can be used an unlimited number of times.

Card icons:

• Cards with the double-arrow/cube icon can be activated either immediately before or immediately after activating one of your movement dice. This is in addition to the movement from the movement die.
• Cards with the checkmark icon activate to enhance the movement from one of your dice.
• Cards with the laser-burst icon activate during the step when the robot lasers fire.
• Cards with the conveyor icon activate during the steps when both types of conveyor belts activate.

NOTE: If a player does not have a die in a Register, they cannot activate a card at that time. For example, Twonky doesn't have a die in Register 4. They have a die under their Overclock card. They can only activate their Overclock card before or after one of the dice in Registers 1-3 in order to use it. Since they do not have a die in Register 4, they cannot activate the card at that time, even if other players still have dice to activate.

Checkpoints

The goal of every robot is to complete the racecourse by moving onto every Checkpoint. The Checkpoints must be achieved in numerical order or they do not count towards this goal.

When a robot lands on or moves over the first Checkpoint, the player takes their Checkpoint Tracking Token and places it in the first Checkpoint space on their Player Board. When they reach Checkpoint #2, they move the Checkpoint Tracking Token to space number 2, and so on.

The game ends immediately when a robot reaches the highest numbered Checkpoint (after reaching all the earlier Checkpoints in order). That robot wins the game!