Tiny Turbo Cars Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Game Round
• 1. Programming
  • Movement Commands
  • Special Commands
• 2. Racing
  • Racetrack Elements
  • Damage! Lose 1 Battery
    • Example
  • Racecars Without Energy
    • Example
• 3. End of Round
  • If No Car Has Crossed the Finish Line
• Racecar Special Abilities
• Credits

Components

• 4 Puzzle-Controllers
• 8 Racecar (Tiles + wood tokens)
• 6 Double-sided Track boards
• 25 tokens (4 Smiles, 13 Batteries, 1 Slippery, 7 Energy Shields)

Setup

1. Place the Starting Grid board on the table. Shuffle the other 4 Track boards, randomly draw 3, and connect them to the Starting Grid board, one at a time, so the red and blue sides line up. Then, place the Finish Line board on the table to complete the Track.

   If this is your first game, we suggest you use the Track configuration indicated on the picture above.

   If all players agree on playing a longer version of the game, add the 4th Track before the Finish Line board.

2. The youngest player chooses a Racecar tile, followed by the other players in clockwise order. Then, in counter-clockwise order, starting from the last player to chose a car, each player places their Racecar token in any empty position on the Starting Grid. Return the remaining Racecar tokens and Racecar tiles to the box.

3. Each player takes 3 Battery tokens and places them face up in front of their Racecar tile. Batteries are a Racecar's "life!"

4. Each player takes 1 Controller.

5. Separate the "Happiest" and the "Saddest" Smile tokens (symbols I and X on the back). Add more Smile tokens until you have one per player. Create a pile, in order, with the "Saddest" (X) at the bottom and the "Happiest" (I) on top.

6. Place the Energy Shield tokens and the Slippery token close to the playing area. Any other remaining tokens are returned to the box.

Game Round

Each round is made up of 3 phases:

1. Programming
2. Racing
3. End of Round

1. Programming

This is the heart of the game, when players should plan their best strategy and try to bring it to reality with their programming.

All players simultaneously program their movements on their Controllers, trying to create the best sequence of actions to move their Racecar the furthest and be the quickest to reach the Finish Line.

RESET step: At the start of this phase, each player turns their Controller facedown and randomly shuffles all of the commands for about 5 seconds. Once all players are done, they pass their Controller facedown to the player on their left.

After all players have received a scrambled Controller, flip them simultaneously and start to program your actions for the round. Try to put the puzzle pieces in the order that best suits your Racecar's path. Go as quick as you can!

IMPORTANT: Only the 2nd and 3rd lines of the puzzle will be used to run the program! The 1st and 4th lines will be ignored!

When a player believes they have achieved a desirable program, they MUST call out loud that they've finished, place their Controller in front of them, take the TOP SMILE TOKEN from the pile, and place it on top of their program.

When only one player is left programming (i.e., only the last Smile token is remaining), all other players should start a 10 second countdown aloud, indicating the remaining time this last player has to finish their programming. At the end of the countdown, the last player has to stop programming and take the Saddest Smile token. You are now all ready to race.

Movement Commands

• Move 1 space FORWARD.
• Move 1 space BACKWARDS.
• Move 2 spaces FORWARD.
• Move 1 space DIAGONALLY TO THE LEFT (towards Blue).
• Move 1 space DIAGONALLY TO THE RIGHT (towards Red).
• Move 2 spaces DIAGONALLY TO THE LEFT (towards Blue).
• Move 2 spaces DIAGONALLY TO THE RIGHT (towards Red).
• JUMP: Move your Racecar 2 spaces forward ignoring the first space! If the landing space is impassable, your Racecar immediately takes 1 Damage. You must place your Racecar on the first non-impassable space immediately behind that one.
• MISSILE: Shoot a missile straight ahead, dealing 1 Damage to all players ahead of you in that same line, then move 1 space FORWARD. Missiles are not obstructed by anything.
• TURBO: Check your Racecar's current number of Batteries and move that many spaces forward.

Special Commands

• Flip 1 BATTERY face up.
• Nothing happens!
• INCREASE - Your next command gains +1.
  • • Missile: Only your movement gains +1, you still shoot only 1 missile.
  • • Jump: Your Racecar will move 3 spaces forward ignoring the first 2 spaces.
  • • Backwards: Your Racecar will move 2 spaces backwards.
  • • Battery: You flip 1 more Battery face up.
• DECREASE - Your next command gains -1.
  • • Missile: Your Racecar doesn't move, you still shoot only 1 missile.
  • • Backwards: Your Racecar doesn't move.
  • • Increase: The 2 commands cancel each other.

2. Racing

In this phase, players execute the actions they programmed in the order determined by their Smiles! Racecars will move, programs might prove to be not as good as planned, disasters will inevitably happen, but the race will go on.

Starting with the player who has the Happiest Smile token and proceeding in Smile token order happiest to saddest – look at symbols on the back: I, II, III, X – each player executes all the commands they have programmed on the 2nd and 3rd lines of their Controllers, one by one.

After the first player has executed all of their programmed commands, the second player's turn will start, and so on.

The last player to finish their programming (the slowest) suffers a penalty: They must flip 1 Battery facedown at the start of their turn.

Smile tokens are also used as tie-breakers in any other game situation!

Racetrack Elements

When a Racecar moves, some interactions may be triggered, mostly due to the track configuration but also by the presence of other Racecars.

• STARTING GRID: Racecars can be Hit but won't suffer any Damage when on a Starting Grid space. Any BACKWARDS command on the Starting Grid space is ignored.
• EMPTY: Racecars can move on empty track spaces without unpleasant side effects.
• CARPETS: Any movement command (either straight, diagonal, jump, etc...) that STARTS on a carpet space will have its movement value changed to exactly 1. On the Starting/Finishing Line boards, grass spaces have the same rules as carpet spaces. INCREASE and DECREASE effects are applied after the Carpet effect.
• CRAYON SPEEDER: When a Racecar starts a command on a space containing a Crayon Speeder, resolve that command as if it had an INCREASE command before it.
• OBSTACLES and RACECARS: If a Racecar enters a space containing an Obstacle or another Racecar, they must stop their current movement command on that space and suffer 1 Damage. Then, they continue to execute their program as usual. Effects don't accumulate, so if a player hits a Racecar that's on top of an Obstacle, they won't suffer 2 Damage.
• WATER PUDDLE: If a Racecar starts its movement or enters a space containing a Water Puddle, they must take the Slippery token. From their next command on, until the end of their turn, any diagonal movement command programmed on their Controller will have it's direction reversed (BLUE becomes RED, and vice-versa). Return the Slippery token to the supply at the end of that player's turn.
• IMPASSABLES: Racecars cannot enter an Impassable space. Those can be found in the middle of the track as Books or Magazines with dark backgrounds or on the side of the track (as part of the external areas), marked in RED (right) or BLUE (left). If the active Racecar should move into an Impassable space, they stop their current movement command, remain on the space they were in before hitting the Impassable space, and suffer 1 Damage.

Damage! Lose 1 Battery

For each Damage suffered, you must flip 1 Battery token facedown.

If you flip your last Battery token, your Racecar runs out of energy! When this happens, you must immediately lay your Racecar down on the track. See how to recover below.

Example

Pete's first command is a Decrease.

Pete currently has 3 Batteries, so his next Turbo command would have made him move 3 spaces ahead, but since the previous command was a Decrease, he'll move only 2 spaces forward.

Now Pete is using his Increase command to enhance the next command!

Pete's 4th command is a jump! Thanks to the previous Increase command he'll jump 3 spaces (instead of 2), ignoring the first 2 spaces. Great move!

Pete's next command is 2 diagonal to the red, but he's standing on carpet, so he only moves 1 space.

Pete's 6th command is a battery: Since he already has 3 face up Battery tokens, nothing happens.

Pete seems to have made a mistake! He moves 1 space backwards!

Finally, Pete executes his 8th command and moves his Racecar 2 diagonals to the BLUE side, one at a time. Then his turn is over.

Racecars Without Energy

When a Racecar is lying down, it cannot be moved until it is fully recovered! You must ignore your next 3 commands and regain 1 Battery for each ignored command.

When you reach 3 Batteries, stand your car up and proceed with your next command! If you finish a round lying down, you will be able to stand-up during the next round, using future commands.

When a Racecar is lying down, its ability cannot be activated unless its tile says so. Also, this Racecar can be Hit, but won't suffer any Damage.

Example

After the 7th command of the previous round, Mari lost her last Battery token... no more energy! She laid her Racecar down on the Track and used her 8th command to regain 1 Battery.

Now Mari is starting a new round, still lying down. She must ignore her first 2 commands to flip 2 Battery tokens face up (one for each ignored command) and stand her car up. Then she starts moving with her 3rd command as normal.

In the previous End of Round phase, Mari had both Anna and Pete ahead of her, so she gained 2 Energy Shield tokens. Mari is the last player to move (the slowest to program): She should lose 1 Battery, so she discards 1 Energy Shield instead.

1. Mari should move her Racecar 2 spaces forward, but the next space has an Obstacle. She stops on the Obstacle and loses her last Energy Shield token.
2. Mari's 2nd command is 2 diagonals to the right, so she moves accordingly. During her movement, she passes trough a space with a Water Puddle! She takes the Slippery token: it will interfere with her remaining diagonal movements during this round.
3. Next, Mari shoots a missile! It goes straight ahead and hits Pete, who is in the same line as her. Pete takes 1 Damage. Then Mari moves 1 space forward.
4. Mari should now move 2 diagonals to the blue, but her diagonal commands are flipped! As a result, this command will make Mari move 2 diagonals to the right... but she can't! There's an impassable space, so she stays on the previous space and takes 1 Damage.
5. Mari activates a Jump: she's on a carpet space, and normally the value would be reduced to 1, but The Brick Gang ability keeps the value at 2!
6. Mari uses an Increase command!
7. Mari adds the Increase effect to her 1 diagonal to the right command, and again, the carpet cannot limit The Brick Gang! But she still has the Slippery token, so she moves 2 diagonals to the blue and hits another pile of books. She takes another Damage: there's just 1 Battery left.
8. Last command: Mari moves 1 space forward. She enters a space containing another Racecar, so she takes 1 Damage... this means she has lost her last Battery and now must lay her Racecar down.

3. End of Round

Check if any Racecar has crossed the Finish Line. If only 1 Racecar has crossed the Finish Line, the game is over, and that Racecar is the winner!

If more than one Racecar has crossed the Finish Line in the same round, the Racecar that managed to move the furthest past the Finish Line is the winner (even if lying down!). In case of a tie, the one with the Happiest Smile token is the winner.

Other players may still keep playing to finish the race and check all their final standings.

If No Car Has Crossed the Finish Line

If the round is over and no Racecar has crossed the finish line, prepare to start a new round: Return all Smile tokens to the center of the table forming the Smile token pile again. After that, players are ready to start a new round with the Programming phase.

ENERGY SHIELDS: At the end of each round, all players check their position in the race and gain 1 Energy Shield for each Racecar ahead of them on the Track.

Whenever you would flip a Battery token facedown, discard an Energy Shield token instead. At the end of your turn, if you still have any Shield token(s) left, you may discard them, one at a time, to move 2 spaces forward for each token. After that, discard all remaining tokens (if any) at the end of your turn.

Racecar Special Abilities

Each Racecar is unique! Their abilities override the board effects when specified.

DIE LINER The Increase command is applied twice! Increase the next command by 2 instead of 1.

BRICK GANG When this Racecar starts any movement on a carpet, the movement value is equal to 2 instead of the regular value of 1 (including backwards movements).

SONIC FISH When this Racecar is under the effect of the Slippery token, all its diagonal movements are increased by 1.

GRIM THRESHER When this Racecar moves exactly 1 space forward (after considering all modifiers), it ignores any Damage it should take.

M1 FURRY This Racecar also automatically shoots a missile at the end of its turn and all its missiles are shot forward and also backwards. M1 Furry gains 1 Energy Shield if they Hit any other Racecar with a missile.

BIRD RACER After resolving all commands, but before using any Shield tokens, Bird Racer may move their car sideways to any empty spot, "flying" over any obstacle, impassable, or Racecar. If Bird Racer is lying down, ignore this ability.

DOGTOR When this Racecar uses the Battery command, they heal 2 life instead of 1. If Dogtor has 3 life when using the Battery command, they move 2 forward instead.

TURBOBOT When this Racecar activates the Turbo command, they move 4 spaces forward. However, if during this movement Turbobot suffers any Damage, they take it twice.

Credits

Game Design: 4Brains4Games (Laura Severino, Alessandro Manuini, Jonathan Panada, Giulia Tamagni) and Hjalmar Hach Artwork: Eduard Valls Graphic Design and additional Artwork: Fábio Frencl Jr. Project Manager: Renato Sasdelli Rulebook: Renato Sasdelli, Alessandro Pra, and William Niebling 3D Artist: Paolo Lamanna Special Thanks to our Playtesters: Adriano Macorin, Luiz Eduardo Coelho, Lucas Macorin, Rafael Amaro, Igor Abduch, Jonas Lucchesi, Alexandre Olteano, Leo Almeida, Marco Portugal, Neo Cury, Jordy Adan, and many others.