Whacktown Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Player boards
  • Profiles
  • Locations
  • Hustles
  • Perks
  • Bone and evidence tokens
• Setup
  • General Setup
  • Player Setup
  • Example — turn order
• Aim of the Game
• Turn Sequence
• 1. Movement Phase
  • Additional movement
  • Location requirements
  • Example — movement options
• 2. Hustle Phase
  • Example — how to play a hustle card
• 3. Chill Phase
• End of the Game
  • Elimination
• Armor & Money
  • Armor
  • Money
• Red Dice & Bombs
  • Bombs
• Crime Scene
• Profiles & Perks
  • Profiles
  • Perks
  • Example — the BOMB explodes
• Purple Locations
• Clarifications
• Don't Forget

Components

• 1 Rulebook
• 4 Icon Overview Sheets
• 76 Location Tiles
• 1 City Grid Frame
• 4 Dice
• 4 Player Boards
• 1 Crime Scene
• 23 Profiles (cards)
• 57 Hustles (cards)
• 12 Perks (cards)
• 4 Bombs (cards)
• 4 Reputation trackers
• 4 Gang member trackers
• 4 Information trackers
• 4 Health trackers
• 4 Gangs (double-sided tokens)
• 30 Money (tokens)
• 30 Armor (tokens)
• 15 Bones (tokens)
• 8 Evidence (tokens)

Player boards

Each player board shows:

1. Gang symbol
2. Gang member track (here 3 gang members)
3. Information track (here 2 information and 3 money, resulting in 2 information and 3 money shown together)
4. Health track (here 5 health and 2 armor, resulting in 7 combined health/armor)
5. Damaged armor area (here 3 damaged armor)

How to handle your tracks, money & armor: You have 3 trackers counting your gang members, information and health. Whenever you gain (or lose) one of these resources, adjust the corresponding tracker to show the correct amount. A tracker to the left of your player board indicates a value of 0.

Whenever you gain money, place money tokens in a row immediately to the right of your information tracker. The money tokens always move with your information tracker. Whenever you gain or repair armor, place armor tokens in a row immediately to the right of your health tracker. The armor tokens always move with your health tracker. Place damaged armor below your player board in the damaged armor area.

The combined health/armor icon represents your combined health and undamaged armor.

Profiles

Profile cards show:

1. Name
2. Turn order number
3. Starting resources
4. Profile ability
5. Flavor text
6. Card back

Locations

Location tiles show:

1. Name
2. Requirement
3. Location icons
4. Text instructions
5. Tile back

Hustles

Hustle cards show:

1. Name
2. Cost
3. Hustle effect
4. Flavor text
5. Card back

Perks

Perk cards show:

1. Name
2. Perk symbol
3. Perk ability
4. Card back

Bone and evidence tokens

The bone tokens will only be used if the BACKYARD location with RUFUS is in play.

The evidence tokens will only be used if someone chooses the DETECTIVE profile card.

Setup

General Setup

1. Place the city grid frame in the center of the table.
2. Shuffle all the location tiles facedown. Place 14 random locations inside the city grid frame, then return the remaining tiles to the box.
3. Check the 14 random locations for the perk symbol icon with perk symbols. Place all the perk cards matching these symbols in a supply next to the city grid, and return the others to the box.
4. Shuffle the hustle card deck and place it face down next to the city grid. Leave some space next to it for a discard pile.
5. Place 1 bomb card per player, the 4 dice, the crime scene, and all tokens in the supply area.

Player Setup

Each player completes the following steps:

6. Choose a color and place the matching player board in front of you.
7. Place the matching gang token (bright-side up) on the STREET GANG location.
8. Place the matching reputation tracker on space 0 of the reputation track (left side of the city grid).
9. Place a gang member tracker, an information tracker and a health tracker to the left of your player board.
10. Shuffle the profile card deck. Draw 2 profile cards facedown. Choose 1 to keep and return the other to the box facedown. After you have all chosen your profile card, reveal it at the same time, and place it next to your player board.

Each profile card has a turn order number in its top right corner. You will be taking turns in order of those numbers, with the player with the lowest number going first, second-lowest going second and so on. 11. Gain starting resources as indicated on your profile card: Adjust your health tracker and place armor to the right of it. Draw hustle cards into your hand. Some profile cards will also grant starting gang members, money, reputation or damaged armor. Place money tokens on your information tracker. Adjust your reputation and gang member tracker accordingly. Place damaged armor in the designated area.

Starting resources: Most profiles start with 2-3 health, 1-2 armor and grant 2 hustle cards. Some profiles give you more/less starting health, armor and hustle cards. If your profile has no armor or hustle card icon, you begin with 0 of that resource.

Example — turn order

The chosen profiles are JUNKIE (19), PSYCHO (20) and KINGPIN (10).

The KINGPIN begins the game, followed by the JUNKIE and finally the PSYCHO.

Play continues in this order for the remainder of the game.

Aim of the Game

Become the biggest crime boss of WHACKTOWN by whacking everyone else or building a fearsome reputation so strong that no one dares to challenge you.

You win when all other players have been whacked or when your reputation tracker reaches 10.

Turn Sequence

Starting with the player whose profile has the lowest turn order number, you take turns until one of the win conditions is met.

Each player's turn consists of the following three phases, which must be completed in order before proceeding to the next:

1. Movement phase: Perform a movement.
2. Hustle phase (optional): Play any number of hustle cards.
3. Chill phase: Draw 2 hustle cards to end your turn.

Some effects trigger At the start of your turn. Always resolve those effects before your movement phase.

1. Movement Phase

Move your gang token to any location, in order to do what the location says.

The following rules apply to movement:

• You can't stay at your current location.
• You can't move to a location occupied by an opponent.
• You can't move to a location inside the crime scene unless you are already inside it (see Crime Scene).
• Most locations have a requirement in the top right corner. You must meet that requirement in order to move to that location.

For a visual movement example, see the Example — movement options below.

After moving to a location while following all the movement rules, resolve the text instructions and icons on the location, one at a time, in their written order (from left to right and top to bottom). The icon overview sheet explains all available location icons.

Additional movement

There are two ways to gain an additional movement:

• The DRIVE THRU location
• The BUS TICKET hustle card

An additional movement counts as a movement for all purposes. Follow the movement rules and resolve text instructions and location icons as usual.

Put a gang token on a location: Some effects allow you to "put" your gang token on a different location. These effects do not count as movement. They do not trigger location icons. They do not give you any tokens currently on that location and you ignore movement effects from your profile or perk cards.

Location requirements

To meet a requirement, you must simply have the required status. You do not spend or lose any of the required resources (except money).

Locations and their background colors are defined by their requirement:

• Grey locations have no requirement and are always in play as part of the city grid. You may always move to grey locations as long as you follow all the other movement rules.
• Green locations require money or information. Money can also be paid to make up for a lack of information.
• Pink locations can only be accessed from a horizontally or vertically adjacent location. Diagonal locations are not considered adjacent.
• Blue locations require a combined total of 6 or more health and armor.
• Yellow locations require you to have more (not tied) reputation than at least one living opponent.
• Purple locations have unique requirements. See Purple Locations for more information.

Example — movement options

You are the yellow gang. You have 4 health, 3 gang members, 3 information and 2 money.

1. You can't stay at the FARMERS MARKET, as it is your current location.
2. You can't move to STREET GANG or LAN PARTY, as these locations are occupied by opponents.
3. You can't move to any of the 4 locations inside the crime scene.
4. You can move to any of the 5 grey locations in the bottom row.
5. You can move to HIPPIE COMMUNE which requires 4 information by paying 1 money to make up for the lack of information. You can also move to VIGILANTES, which requires 2 information without paying any money.
6. You can't move to METAL CONCERT or HITMAN which require 6 information or 9 information, because you don't have enough money to make up for the lack of information.
7. You can move to LABORATORY, which is adjacent to your current location (FARMERS MARKET).
8. You can't move to BOOK SIGNING because it is not adjacent to your current location (FARMERS MARKET).
9. You can move to OCEAN DRIVE as you have a combined total of 7 health and armor.
10. You can't move to SOUP KITCHEN because you have money, or to EMERGENCY WARD because you have more than 2 health.

2. Hustle Phase

You may play any number of hustle cards from your hand.

All hustle cards have a number in the top right corner. In order to play a hustle card, you must discard that many other hustle cards from your hand. If you do not have enough cards to discard, you cannot play that hustle card.

Resolve the effects of a played hustle card. Then place the played card and the discarded cards face up on the discard pile.

Some hustle cards are preparations. When you play a preparation, place it next to your player board. You can choose to resolve its effect at the specified point of your turn and then discard it.

Example — how to play a hustle card

You have 3 hustle cards in hand.

Option 1: To play PIZZA (cost 2), you must first discard your other 2 hustle cards. Those discarded cards have no effect. You then gain 4 health.

Option 2: To play PLAN B (cost 0), you do not need to discard another hustle card. Place PLAN B (preparation) next to your player board. This allows you to reroll a die once in the future. Then, in the same hustle phase, you may also discard your last hustle card to play GEAR UP (cost 1). You then gain 1 armor.

3. Chill Phase

End your turn by drawing 2 hustle cards.

If the hustle card deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.

The next player (in profile card turn order) takes their turn, starting with the movement phase.

End of the Game

You immediately end the game and win by fulfilling one of the following conditions:

• Whack everyone else: When you're the last player alive, you win.
• Become the new crime boss: If you reach 10 reputation, you win.

The BUSINESSMAN, the KINGPIN, the BODYBUILDER and the DETECTIVE have an additional win condition as their profile ability.

Elimination

A player is whacked when their health is reduced to zero, even if this occurs partway through an effect.

Whacked players are eliminated and no longer count as living players. They immediately carry out the following two steps:

• Remove their gang tokens and reputation trackers from the board.
• Discard their hustle, perk and bomb cards.

Then, all living players simultaneously gain 1 reputation for each player just whacked.

If this causes more than 1 player to reach 10 reputation, the victory is shared.

Armor & Money

Armor

Place armor tokens to the right of your health tracker. Armor works just like additional health points, but can be repaired when damaged.

Place your damaged armor below your player board in the damaged armor area.

The REPAIR icon repairs all of your damaged armor tokens in your damaged armor area. Place them to the right of your health tracker again. Armor can be damaged and repaired multiple times.

Money

Place money tokens to the right of your information tracker.

Money can be paid to obtain one-time access to locations, which require more information than you currently have. If you have less information than the required amount, you may pay the difference with money instead.

Some green locations also require you to specifically pay money to meet their requirement. Some profile cards allow you to pay money for various effects.

Return paid money tokens to the supply.

If at any time you have more money/armor tokens than can fit on your information/health track, flip the corresponding tracker to the +10 side and adjust it to match the correct amount.

Money and armor are finite resources. When you would gain money/armor but there are no corresponding tokens left in the supply, you do not gain that resource.

You can never have more than 10 gang members.

Red Dice & Bombs

Red dice, bombs and some perk abilities cause opponents to lose health/armor. Whenever you resolve one of these effects, you hit all opponents at once.

As long as a player has any undamaged armor, each point of health/armor they lose damages 1 armor per point, moving it to the damaged armor area. Once no undamaged armor remains, each point of health/armor they lose moves their health tracker 1 step to the left. (See Example — the BOMB explodes.)

You are whacked when you have no health remaining (see Elimination).

Opponents might lose different amounts of health/armor from SHOWDOWN and DRIVE-BY.

Bombs

Whenever you gain a bomb, take a BOMB card and place it next to your player board with the LOADING side up. Flip it to the ARMED side at the start of your next turn. At the start of your following turn, the BOMB explodes.

The amount of health/armor your opponents lose depends on the number of living players as indicated on the BOMB.

You can only have 1 BOMB at a time. You may gain another after your current BOMB has exploded.

When you resolve a red die and would gain a BOMB but already have a BOMB, reroll that die. When another effect gives you a BOMB and you already have a BOMB, ignore that effect.

RUFUS and the TANK can prevent the loss of health/armor. In this case, ignore the entire loss of health/armor once. LAY LOW can also prevent the loss of health/armor.

If you have more than one of these abilities available at the same time, you choose which one to resolve.

Crime Scene

The crime scene may be placed through location icons and hustle cards. It is always placed around any 4 locations. You may not move to locations within the crime scene unless your gang token is already inside it.

When you are inside the crime scene and an opponent resolves DRIVE-BY, you ignore the loss of health/armor.

The TUNNELS, the V.I.P., SNEAK IN and the SKATEBOARD allow you to access locations inside the crime scene, ignoring its movement restriction.

Profiles & Perks

Profiles

Profile cards contain rule text with abilities that give you unique effects unavailable to your opponent.

This includes additional win conditions on some of the profile cards.

Perks

You can gain a perk card by moving to the location with the corresponding perk symbol. Place the perk card next to your player board.

You will have the perk ability until the card is discarded or taken by an opponent. Return a discarded perk card to the supply.

When an opponent moves to the associated location, they take the perk card from you.

Most profile and perk abilities can only be triggered during a certain phase of your turn.

Movement phase: An effect that modifies your movement rules or gives you a bonus during movements.

Hustle phase: An (optional) effect you may resolve once per turn, at any point during your hustle phase.

Chill phase: A (non-optional) effect that resolves once per turn during your chill phase.

Example — the BOMB explodes

You have 3 gang members.

Your opponents are the blue and red gang:

Blue has 3 armor and 7 health, resulting in 10 combined health/armor.

Red has 2 armor and 5 health, resulting in 7 combined health/armor.

At the start of your turn, your ARMED BOMB explodes. Your opponents lose 6 health/armor each:

Blue damages 3 armor and then moves their health tracker 3 steps to the left. Blue now has 4 combined health/armor remaining.

Red damages 2 armor and moves their health tracker 4 steps to the left. Red now has 1 combined health/armor remaining.

In your movement phase you move to OCEAN DRIVE. You roll a red die and gain 1 armor with the additional red die.

The blue gang loses 1 health/armor. Red loses no health/armor due to being inside the crime scene.

With your additional roll you gain a gang member. As you have 3 gang members, both the blue and red gang lose 3 health/armor each.

Both are whacked and you win the game!

Purple Locations

Location	Requirement	Details
SOUP KITCHEN — No money	You must have 0 money.	This requirement checks money only, not information.
EMERGENCY WARD — 2 health or less	You must have 2 or less health.	This requirement checks health only, not armor.
FREAK SHOW / ICE CREAM VAN — Less reputation/information than someone	At least one opponent must have more (not tied) reputation/information than you.
BACKYARD / SUPPORT GROUP / SHADY CHARACTER — Lowest/Fewest health-armor / money / gang members	Every alive opponent must have more (not tied) health-armor / money / gang members than you.
HUNTING LODGE — No opponent on top row	May only be accessed if no opponent has their gang token on any of the 5 top-row locations.

Clarifications

• Diagonal locations are not adjacent.
• The discard/loss icon refers to discarding/losing resources.
• To put your gang token on a different location does not count as movement.

Don't Forget

• You always hit all opponents at once.
• When an opponent is whacked, all remaining players immediately gain 1 reputation.
• Players inside the crime scene do not lose health/armor from DRIVE-BY.
• Don't lose resources (except money) when meeting a location requirement.
• Players can never have more than 1 BOMB at a time.