Wok Star (3rd Edition) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Game
• Contents
• Setup
  • Two Players
• Play
• Phase 1: Open for Business
  • Serve Customers
  • Prepare Ingredients
  • Wash the Dishes
  • Gain and Spend Hustle
  • Closed for Business
• Phase 2: Daily Accounting
  • Income Goals
• Phase 3: Next Day Prep
  • New Recipes
  • Ingredient Upgrades
  • Advertising
  • Hustle
• Starting a New Day
• Winning the Game
• Optional Rules: Events and Player Powers
  • Events
    • Additional Setup
    • Additional Gameplay Rules
  • Player Powers
    • Additional Setup
    • Additional Gameplay Rules

The Game

Wok Star is a cooperative game for 2 to 4 players in which players are trying to save their family restaurant. Over 4 rounds, players must work together to serve a line of customers. But customers are impatient – you only have 30 seconds to serve each one. Can you grow your business to pay off the loan in time?

Contents

• 1 Game board
• 10 Ingredient tokens
• 1 Income marker
• 20 Dice (5 per player color)
• 1 Dirty Dishes mat
• 1 Dishwasher token
• 25 Hustle tokens
• 2 30-second timers
• 12 Recipe cards
• 10 Ingredient cards
• 60 Customer cards (5 per Recipe – 3 Regular Customers, 2 Coupon Customers)
• 15 Fortune Cubes
• 6 Wang Family Character cards
• 15 Event cards

A Regular Customer card shows the Dish Requested and the Income. A Coupon Customer card shows the dish, the Income (only $1) and "Now Serving".

Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the table, within easy reach of all players.
2. Place the Income marker on the 0 space of the Income Tracker, along the outer edge of the game board.
3. Place both 30-second timers near the game board.
4. Sort and place the following components near the game board as a supply:
   • Ingredient tokens
   • Dice
   • Hustle tokens
   • Fortune cubes
5. Some components are not use in the standard game. Leave them in the box:
   • Wang Family Character cards
   • Event cards
6. Place the Dirty Dishes mat near the game board within easy reach of all players. Place the Dishwasher token in the Dirty Dishes, with the "1st Wash" side showing.
7. Separate the Recipe cards, using the dollar amount in the top-right corner of each card. Shuffle each pile of Recipe cards and place them face-down next to the board.
8. Deal each player 1 random Recipe card from the following priced piles:

	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4
2-Players	$11 Recipe	$16 Recipe
3-Players	$11 Recipe	$11 Recipe	$16 Recipe
4-Players	$11 Recipe	$11 Recipe	$16 Recipe	$16 Recipe

These recipe cards are placed face-up in front of each player. 9. For each recipe in play, locate the 5 Customer cards associated with that recipe. Divide these cards into 2 piles: Regular Customers and Coupon Customers. Shuffle each pile individually. Place the pile of Regular Customer cards face-down near the game board and the Coupon Customer cards face-up to the side. 10. For each ingredient shown on the dealt Recipe cards, take the matching Ingredient cards. Distribute these cards to players as best suits your group. Each player should have at least 1 Ingredient card. Pro Tip: Give ingredient cards to players that don't need them for their recipes. 11. Take the Ingredient tokens that correspond to the Ingredient cards in play and place them on the game board, each on row 1. 12. Take 2 Hustle tokens per Ingredient card from the supply and place them so they cover the 2 rightmost methods on each Ingredient card. 13. Each player selects a player color and takes 2 dice of their color. Put the remaining dice to the side. 14. Give each player 2 Fortune cubes. 15. Select a difficulty at which to play: Mild, Medium, or Extra Spicy. 16. Depending on the difficulty selected, follow the appropriate chart to place 4 Fortune cubes on the appropriate spaces along the Income tracker on the game board. These cubes are placed in order to remind you of your Income Goals each round (see Income Goals below).

Difficulty	Players	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Mild	2-Player	$7	$12	$18	$25
Mild	3-Player	$10	$17	$27	$38
Mild	4-Player	$13	$23	$36	$50
Medium	2-Player	$8	$13	$20	$28
Medium

Two Players

In a 2-player game, the following changes should be made during setup:

• Remove the $31 recipe cards from the game.
• Select one player to start the game with 3 dice instead of 2.

Play

Wok Star is played over 4 rounds, representing the 4 days until the loan against the Wang Family Chinese Restaurant is due. Each round has 3 phases:

1. Open for Business
2. Daily Accounting
3. Next Day Prep

Phase 1: Open for Business

A new day of business begins. Flip over 1 of the 30-second timers and draw and reveal the first Customer from the Regular deck. All players simultaneously roll their dice and then begin cooking ingredients and serving customers.

During the Open for Business phase, gameplay moves rapidly. There is no turn order – all players play simultaneously. Players can take the following actions in any order and as often as they wish or can:

• Serve customers
• Prepare ingredients
• Wash the dishes
• Gain and spend Hustle

Serve Customers

Each Customer card shows a dish that must be made to fulfill the customer's order. Only the player with that customer's Recipe card can serve that customer. To serve a customer, the player with the matching Recipe card:

1. Moves each Ingredient token on the game board associated with the recipe down 1 slot. If an Ingredient token is already on the bottommost slot (number 0), you are unable to prepare that dish until new ingredients are prepared (see Preparing Ingredients below.)
2. Takes the Customer card and places it in their own pile of completed Customer cards.
   • If there is at least 1 timer still running when the customer is served, the meal is served on-time. Place the card face-up. It is worth its full dollar value indicated on the customer card.
   • If both timers are empty when the customer is served, the meal is served late. Place the card face-down. It's worth $1 less at the end of the round.

Immediately after serving the first customer, flip over the second, empty 30-second timer and reveal the next Customer card. For the rest of the phase, as soon as you serve a customer you must flip one of the timers and reveal the next Customer card from the Regular deck.

Continue flipping the timers and revealing new customers until either all customers from the Regular Customer deck are revealed and served, or you are unable to (or chose not to) serve a customer.

If you don't have all the ingredients to prepare the customer's dish, you may spend dice to prepare ingredients (see Preparing Ingredients below). If you don't have dice to spend, you may use the Dishwasher in order to gain and re-roll used dice (see Washing the Dishes below).

Prepare Ingredients

Players need to make sure there are enough ingredients to keep things moving fast. Players can use dice according to their Ingredient cards to prepare ingredients. Each Ingredient card has 4 methods to prepare its ingredient. At the beginning of the game, only the 2 leftmost methods are available – the remaining 2 methods can be purchased later (see Ingredient Upgrades below). You may use any available method multiple times.

To prepare an ingredient, the player with the specific Ingredient card:

1. Chooses a method and finds matching dice: locates any 2 unused dice (dice not in the Dirty Dishes) that fulfill the requirements of the selected (and available) method on the Ingredient card.
2. Swaps if needed.
3. Places the used dice in the Dirty Dishes (not on the Ingredient card).
4. Gains the ingredient: slides the associated Ingredient token on the game board up the number of slots indicated on the method used.

For example, to prepare 2 pork ingredients, you need two dice that, after subtracting one from the other, result in 2. You might choose a 5 and a 3 die. Place them in the Dirty Dishes and slide the Pork ingredient token up 2 slots on the game board.

The dice used do not necessarily need to be of your color. However, you must hand a player 1 of your Fortune cubes when you take 1 of their dice. If you do not have a Fortune cube to exchange, you can't use dice belonging to other players.

Wash the Dishes

If you don't have the dice necessary to prepare the ingredients you need, you may use the Dishwasher to re-roll all used dice in the Dirty Dishes. If the Dishwasher token is still placed on the Dirty Dishes, do the following:

1. Stop both 30-second timers by laying them on their side. As long as the timers are stopped, no customers may be served.
2. If the Dishwasher token is on "1st Wash", flip it over. If it's on "2nd Wash", remove it from the Dirty Dishes and put it back in the supply.
3. Use any number of currently unused dice to either prepare ingredients (see Preparing Ingredients above), or gain 1 Hustle token per die (see Hustle below). Place these dice in the Dirty Dishes.
4. Stand up the timers and flip one over to start the timer again.
5. Each player takes all their dice from the Dirty Dishes and rolls them. These dice are available again to prepare ingredients.

Gain and Spend Hustle

Hustle tokens can be extremely helpful in getting your team out of sticky situations. To gain them, anytime during the Open for Business phase, you may convert any 1 unused die (not in the Dirty Dishes) into a Hustle token. Take the die and place it in the Dirty Dishes. Take 1 Hustle token from the supply and place it in your collective Hustle pool.

Anyone can use Hustle tokens in the pool. You may not use the Hustle tokens covering your upgrades. To use a Hustle, return 1 Hustle token from the pool to the supply and either:

• Rotate 1 unused die up or down 1 value (for example, from a 3 to a 4). You may also rotate a 1 to a 6 and a 6 to a 1.
• Move 2 Fortune cubes from any player to any other player. Cubes can come from or go to multiple players.

Closed for Business

The Open for Business phase ends, if:

• You cannot (or choose not to) serve the current customer, or
• All customers from the Regular deck are served.

Immediately following the Open for Business phase, players may spend any remaining, unused dice to Prepare Ingredients or earn Hustle (see above). Then proceed to the Daily Accounting phase.

Phase 2: Daily Accounting

Once the Open for Business phase ends, the Daily Accounting phase begins. Do the following:

1. Each player gathers their dice back from the table and Dirty Dishes.
2. Each player counts the number of their on-time Customers (face-up Customer cards) they served. If they served more customers than they have dice, their dice pool size increases to match the number of on-time customers served, up to 5 dice per player. Take any new dice of your color from the supply. Once added, dice are retained between rounds and can never be lost. For example, if you have 4 dice but only serve 3 customers in a subsequent round, you will retain your 4 dice in upcoming rounds.
3. All players add their total income (dollar icons) from all Customer cards they served. Then subtract $1 for each late customer (those turned face-down). Use the Income Tracker on the game board to add up the collective money earned by each player.
4. Separate all Customer cards (from players and in both decks) into Regular and Coupon Customer cards, placing both decks near the game board. Note that Coupon Customers do not stay in the Regular deck.
5. Place the Dishwasher token on the Dirty Dishes, with "1st Wash" showing.

Income Goals

During each round, your team must collectively earn enough income to proceed to the next round. The Fortune cubes placed on the Income Tracker during setup are there to remind you of the Income Goals you are aiming for each round.

If you have achieved or surpassed the Income Goal for a given round – congratulations! You gain all Fortune cubes you passed on the Income Tracker. Give them to the player of your choice and continue with Phase 3: Next Day Prep.

If you have earned less than the required Income Goal, the game is over and all players lose. The restaurant must close its doors.

Phase 3: Next Day Prep

If you have just completed round 4, proceed directly to Winning the Game to see if you were able to save the family business.

Otherwise, before you are ready to open for the next business day, you should prepare by purchasing:

• New Recipes ($11/$16/$31)
• Ingredient Upgrades ($6)
• Advertising (Free)
• Hustle ($2)

Each option may be purchased multiple times. Subtract the cost for each option from the Income Tracker. The Income Tracker is set to zero at the end of this phase, so be sure to spend all of your money to help your restaurant grow.

New Recipes

Purchase new recipes to obtain new, often higher-paying customers. To purchase a new recipe, shuffle all Recipe cards not in the game and draw the top 3 from the deck. Only these 3 recipes are available to purchase this round.

The price of a new recipe is listed on the top right of the Recipe card. When purchasing a new recipe, complete the following tasks:

1. Choose 1 of the available Recipe cards.
2. Subtract the recipe cost from the Income Tracker.
3. Decide on a player and give them the new Recipe card.
4. Find any Ingredient cards for new ingredients required to make the recipe not currently in the game and distribute them to the players of your choice.
5. For each new Ingredient card, take 2 Hustle tokens from the supply and place them on the 2 rightmost methods on the card.
6. Find the Ingredient tokens for any new ingredients and place them on the game board, on the 1 row.
7. Find all 5 Customer cards for the new recipe. Place the 3 Regular Customer cards in the Regular deck. Place the 2 Coupon Customer cards in the Coupon deck.

Ingredient Upgrades

An Ingredient card may be upgraded to provide new and more efficient methods of preparing that Ingredient. Each Ingredient card may be upgraded twice, for a total of 4 methods. Each Ingredient Upgrade costs $6 per upgrade. When purchasing an Ingredient Upgrade:

1. Subtract $6 from the Income Tracker.
2. Remove 1 Hustle token from the leftmost covered method of 1 Ingredient card.
3. Add the Hustle token to your collective Hustle pool.

Ingredient Upgrades must be purchased in order, from left to right. To unlock the fourth preparation method of an Ingredient, you must first purchase the third method.

Note: As with all preparation methods, the rightmost preparation method on a Ingredient card requires 2 dice. However, this method also requires that one of the two dice to belong to another player.

Advertising

You may add any number of Coupon customers to your Regular deck for free, but be careful how many coupons you hand out – you make less money from them.

Flip the Coupon deck face-down and shuffle it. Take any number of cards and, without looking at them, shuffle them into the Regular deck.

Customers obtained through advertising do not persist between rounds. All Coupon Customer cards are removed from the Regular Customer deck during the Daily Accounting phase.

Hustle

You may purchase Hustle tokens for $2 each during Next Day Prep phase. Hustle tokens gained are taken from the supply and placed in the collective Hustle pool.

Hustle can be obtained in a variety of ways:

• Purchase Hustle tokens for $2 each during Next Day Prep phase.
• During the Open for Business phase take 1 unused die and place it in the Dirty Dishes to take 1 Hustle token from the supply and place it in your collective Hustle pool.
• Upgrade an Ingredient card (see above) during Next Day Prep.

Hustle tokens can be used to rotate unused dice and exchange fortune cubes.

Starting a New Day

At the end of the Next Day Prep, return the Income marker to the zero space on the Income Tracker. If you just completed days 1, 2 or 3, you are ready to start a new day: shuffle the Regular deck and proceed to the Open for Business phase.

If you completed day 4, it is time to face the bank (see Winning the Game below).

Winning the Game

If you have earned enough income at the end of the 4th round to satisfy the final Income Goal – congratulations – you have earned enough to satisfy the bank loan and save the Wang Family restaurant.

If you have not earned enough income to satisfy the final Income Goal (or any given round), the restaurant must close its doors and you lose the game. But don't fret – the Wangs are a resilient bunch and will surely try again with a new restaurant in the future.

Optional Rules: Events and Player Powers

Stir in events and player powers to add variety to Wok Star. While events are designed to add extra challenge, player powers are designed to make things a little easier. You can chose to play with either variant, or use them both to keep the game in its original balance.

Events

Additional Setup

During step 9 of the setup procedure, shuffle all Event cards. Shuffle 2 Event cards into the Regular deck. Place the remaining Event cards face-down next to the game board.

Additional Gameplay Rules

When an Event card is drawn from the Regular deck, follow the instructions on the card. Once either 30-second timers is up, flip the empty timer, draw the next Customer card, and proceed with the game as usual.

During the Daily Accounting phase:

1. At the start of the Daily Accounting phase, resolve any End of Round Event cards, following the instructions on the card.
2. Then discard all Event cards that appeared during this round from the game.
3. When re-shuffling the Regular deck, draw 2 new Event cards face-down and shuffle them into the deck.

Player Powers

Additional Setup

Each player selects a Wang Family Character card and places it in front of them.

Additional Gameplay Rules

Each player power may be used once per round by the player who owns the card. To use a power, follow the instructions on your Wang Family Character card, then flip it over to indicate the power has been used. You may flip it back over during the Next Day Prep.