Zombie Bus

Zombie Bus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

28 zombie cards, 6 special zombies, 1 Horde card and 5 character cards.
5 cardboard figures and their bases
1 school bus tile and 1 TV van tile
11 cheerleader tiles (8 purple and 3 pink)
16 equipment tokens, 1 whistle, 1 weapon, 4 hot dogs
30 wound markers
1 escape marker
6 special dice
2 player aids

Setup

Set aside the Horde card and the 6 special zombie cards. Randomly select 3 of the 6 special zombies and, without looking at them, shuffle them into the pile of zombie cards. The other 3 special zombies are not revealed and are removed from the game.
Shuffle the zombie cards without the Horde card. Draw 3 cards and add the Horde card to them. Shuffle these 4 cards and place them at the bottom of the Zombie pile.
Shuffle the equipment tiles and make 4 face-down piles.
Place the school bus in the centre of the table.
Shuffle the 8 purple cheerleader tiles, then form 2 piles (action symbols on top) and place them on the bus.

With 5 players: add the pink tile to one of the piles.
Then place the TV van so that the crew filming live misses nothing of the scene. Place the escape marker on the first notch (circled in green).
The wound markers are made available to the players (they are a common resource).

Note: if you play among experienced zombie hunters, you can add one or two extra pink cheerleader tiles to make the game harder.

The Dice

Wound a zombie in the jaw (scratch!)
Wound a zombie in the brain (sprouitch!)
Wound a zombie in the arm (grunch!)
Wound a zombie in the foot (sorry, pardon!)
Half-target: a half-target does nothing, but 2 half-targets replace any face of the die.
Action face: used to free a cheerleader, flee, attack a zombie on another player, or perform a special action.

Object of the Game

ZOMBIE BUS is a cooperative game where everyone wins together by saving all the cheerleaders before the zombies overwhelm the bus.

But ZOMBIE BUS is also a game where, if you feel things are not going to go well, you can prefer to save your own skin and play every-man-for-himself by fleeing to the safety of the TV van. In that case, you had better hope that your friends do not manage to save the cheerleaders, or you will be taken for a coward in the eyes of the whole world!

What you must know

If you are turned into a zombie, that is not good!
If the bus is overwhelmed by at least 4 zombies at the end of a player's turn, that is not good either.
If the Horde card appears, that is still not good...
On the other hand, if your team has managed to save all the cheerleaders, or if all the survivors have fled, there may be some hero material in you!

And It Begins

Players take turns. The player who most recently came across a zombie is named first player.

Each player chooses a hero and places his card and figure in front of him. (See Your Heroes, below.)

With 2 players: turn over the first zombie card and place it around the bus. With 3 and 4 players: turn over the first 2 cards. With 5 players: turn over the first 3 cards.

Note: apply their curse if they have one.

On your turn

Start by drawing a zombie card. Place it around the bus. Apply its curse if it has one.
Then roll the 6 dice, and reroll all or some of these dice up to 2 more times. Between each roll, you may keep the dice that suit you and reroll the others. You can assign these dice to different targets. (See What I can do, below.)

IMPORTANT: the results of your dice are only assigned at the end of your turn.

(A reminder of the attack values is printed on the player aid.)

What I Can Do

If the result of a die is identical to a zombie's wound symbol, you may inflict a wound on it by covering this symbol with a wound marker.

When all of a zombie's wound symbols are covered, the zombie is eliminated, and the player who eliminated it takes its card and puts it under his hero.

It is always the player who inflicts the last wound on a zombie who eliminates it and wins its card.

Attacking a zombie around the bus

If you kill a zombie around the bus, you do not get an equipment token. It is impossible to search a zombie when you are in the melee!

Beware: if you reach the zombie's reaction level, it takes you as its target and charges at you. (See He's charging me!, below.)

Eliminating a zombie on yourself

You can attack a zombie that has charged you. If you eliminate it, take its card and place it under your hero. And take the opportunity to search it and get an equipment token!

Eliminating a zombie on another player

You can attack a zombie on another player by spending an action face before assigning your wound faces.

To help several players, you must spend one action face per targeted player.

If you eliminate a zombie on another player, you win its card. However, it is the player who was targeted by the zombie who gets the equipment token (at his feet, he can easily search it).

Freeing cheerleaders

To free a cheerleader, you must assign to her in a single turn as many action faces as indicated on her tile. Then take the tile, look at it, and place it face down next to your character.

You can free several cheerleaders per turn.

Fleeing to the TV van

You may decide on your turn to abandon the team to a fate you judge fatal.

But beware, the TV van is not always accessible! (See The TV Van, below.)

He's Charging Me!

If you attack a zombie around the bus and the number of its wounds reaches its reaction capacity (bottom left of the card, if any), the zombie leaves the bus, takes you as its target and charges at you (place its card next to your hero).

From the next turn on, you will have one fewer dice roll per zombie on you.

As soon as you have 3 zombies on you, it is over, you are dead. You change sides, you are zombified! The zombies that were on you are discarded and your hero card is flipped to its zombie side and placed around the bus. From now on you count as a normal zombie around the bus, except that the other players cannot eliminate you (in any way).

Any equipment / cheerleaders you have stay with your figure, inactive as long as you remain zombified.

It seems there is an antidote to zombification, but that remains to be proven...

Equipment

When a zombie is killed on you, draw an equipment token.

You may use it at any time in the game (as long as you are alive and have not fled), even during another player's turn, whether for yourself or for the benefit of another player. You may even give it to another player.

Used equipment is removed from the game. When there are no more equipment tokens, there is no more equipment!

The equipment is detailed on the player aid dedicated to it.

The Zombies

Some zombies have a curse in the lower right corner of the card. There are 2 types of curse: instant and permanent.

Instant curses (yellow)

They are applied only once, when the zombie enters play.

Immediately add one extra zombie card around the bus, and apply its curse if applicable.
Advance the escape marker one space on the TV van tile.

Permanent curses (red)

They affect the whole group until that zombie is eliminated. However, when a zombie showing a permanent curse charges a player, it affects only that player.

Players roll one die fewer until the zombie is eliminated or charges a player (only that player then rolls one die fewer).
Players can no longer use action faces until the zombie is eliminated or charges a player (only he will then be forbidden action faces). Bad karma...

Note: the special zombies are detailed on the player aid dedicated to them.

The TV Van

Behind the cameraman and the journalist who film your exploits, the TV van is getting ready to leave. It offers you the possibility to flee if you think the game is lost or if you prefer to win alone.

At the start of the game you cannot flee. In the urgency and fury of combat, you do not yet notice the van!

The marker advances one notch when certain zombies enter play and each time a player manages to flee.

How to flee?

To reach the van, you must:

have the escape marker not showing a forbidden symbol (a red circle with a minus sign),
have fewer than 5 zombies around the bus (too many zombies between you and the van!),
spend as many action faces as the escape marker indicates (for example, here 3 action faces are needed to flee).

Note: it can happen that fleeing is not possible during a game. An invasion of zombies is not fun every day.

When a player succeeds in fleeing

Place his figure on the TV van,
discard the zombies that surrounded him,
advance the escape marker one space,
the next player discards one of the zombies present around the bus, who is trying to pursue the fugitive.

Beware, every escape is final! A player who has fled and reached the van will not play again until the end of the game!

When the escape marker reaches the last notch

The van driver loses his nerve and slams his foot on the accelerator, tires screeching. The van leaves the scene at breakneck speed, abandoning to their fate the players and cheerleaders still in the melee, who have no choice but to be heroic: players who have not yet fled can no longer do so!

End of the Game

The game ends:

at the end of a player's turn, if at least 4 zombies remain around the bus,
as soon as the Horde card is drawn,
when all players have fled or have been turned into zombies,
or as soon as the last cheerleader is freed.

Who wins?

If you finish the game as a Zombie, you do not win, even if green suits your complexion.

If all the cheerleaders have been freed, the players who stayed in the melee until the end win all together. Their life is going to change! The cover of Time... or of Closer is theirs. Each player adds up his points from freed cheerleaders and eliminated zombies and consults the Hall of Fame (see below).

Those who fled are considered cowards by the whole world. You may boo them.

If not all the cheerleaders have been freed, the players who did not flee are massacred by the zombies. Among those who fled, only the one who scored the most points (zombies + cheerleaders) is adored by the crowd and wins the game. History being what it is, it will not remember the names of any other survivors.

Hall of Fame

You scored more than 35 points. You are handsome. You are tall. You are the hero of America. All the TV sets are fighting over your presence. Your role in "Ze running dead" earned you the oZcar. Your conquests make the front page of the celebrity magazines. Your memoirs are a best-seller. You will be elected Governor of California or even more, unless a populist billionaire comes to steal your thunder.

You scored between 25 and 35 points. Your courage has been recognised by all. Your fame and high moral values make you a sought-after person in the business world. You are always looking for the breath of adventure. It would not be impossible to find you at the head of the first space mission to Mars...

You scored between 15 and 24 points. The cheerleaders named you honorary captain of their team. You were able to use your fame to become President of the San Romero baseball club, be elected city councillor, then make a fortune in the private sector. Today, the university library bears your name.

You scored fewer than 15 points. Your circle of friends considers you a reliable person who can be counted on, but without much distinction. You will regularly be named employee of the month, even if promotions will often elude you. But you know that you will forever be the hero of your children and your mom.

You fled cowardly while your comrades covered themselves in glory. You are the shame of America. You will be invited to take part in reality TV shows where you will be given the role of the traitor, you will shoot comparative ads to denigrate competing products, you will end up alone and childless from withdrawing too early.

Your Heroes

Each character has a special power that lets him optimise his actions during the game.

Steven: He always keeps his cool; zombies do not impress him. He is never affected by the permanent curses of zombies: he does not lose a die and can always use his action faces.
Jenny: Not confident in her qualities as a fighter, she prefers to equip herself properly. Each time a zombie is killed on her, she draws 2 equipment tokens instead of one.
Bruce: With his ball throws, he has formidable long-range accuracy. Each turn, he can choose either not to spend an action face to attack a zombie on another player, or to transform one face of his dice into a half-target.
Suzanne: She greets zombies with blows of a fire extinguisher. She is not affected by the first zombie that charges her. She always has 3 dice rolls when she has one zombie on her, two when she has 2, and one when she has 3; she turns into a zombie only with a 4th zombie on her.
Creepy: He is accurate and fast... but he is still a dog! Once per turn he can transform one of his dice into an action face. He cannot get equipment when a zombie is killed on him. However, the other players can give him some or let him benefit from theirs.