Zombie! Run for Your Lives!
Zombie! Run for Your Lives! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Before starting the game, shuffle the cards thoroughly and deal 4 to each player. Cards with a white background are item cards; cards with a black background are zombie cards.
Warning! It is not worth showing your cards to your opponents, as this will certainly not help anyone survive.
The potential victims of the zombies play their cards one after another, clockwise. The starting player is chosen in any way; for example, it may be the person who most recently watched a zombie movie.
Box contents: 63 cards, made up of 33 zombie cards and 30 item cards.
Rules of the Game
On each turn, a player performs the following actions: takes the top card of the deck into hand and plays a card from hand. If they choose an item card, they place it in front of themselves. If they decide to play a zombie card, they pass it to another player.
If a player has a zombie card and an item card with the same symbol, these cards cancel each other out and both must be placed on the discard pile.
Sidebar: "When you are escaping from ZOMBIES, it is important that you are faster than your friends!"
A player may not have two identical cards in front of them, regardless of whether they are zombie cards or item cards.
If a player cannot play a card from their hand, they show all their cards to the other players and place them on the discard pile. They then draw 5 cards from the deck and continue their turn.
How to Survive and Escape the Pesky Zombies
When a player collects 5 different item cards, they are rescued and win.
If, on the other hand, a player has 5 zombie cards, they lose and become a zombie themselves. The zombie player places all of their cards on the discard pile. Compared with their still-living and energetic friends, they have limited abilities. During their turn, they take the top card of the deck and give it to any living player (the type of card does not matter). If that card cannot be played, it is placed on the discard pile, and the zombie player draws and plays another card.
During each turn, but only once, a player who is not a zombie may use the Special Rule. The Special Rule is that, after drawing a card, the player may play a zombie card "on themselves" or play an item card to another player (who must be a living player). They then draw another card and continue their move.
There is one exception to the Special Rule. The player does not have to sacrifice themselves, meaning they do not have to place a 5th zombie card in front of themselves, or a 5th item card in front of another player.
End of the Game
Do not rejoice if the draw deck runs out, because that will not stop the zombies at all. In that case, shuffle the discard pile and create a new deck. Do this until someone manages to escape. Yes, yes! It will happen eventually!
It may happen that only one player manages to escape the rotten jaws of the zombies, while their fellow players have already been devoured. That player wins automatically, even if they did not collect 5 item cards (someone has to survive).
P.S. 1: Remember! Your task is not only to escape the zombies, but also to get ahead of the other players.
P.S. 2: Some may ask how to get rid of these "pesky zombies"? Well... bad luck, it cannot be done. The zombie cockroaches will lurk for you always and everywhere!
Illustration note: the first page shows a zombie card being played onto an item card with the same symbol, with an arrow showing the cards cancelling each other out. The second page shows, under the "two identical cards" rule, a pair of identical item cards and a pair of identical zombie cards, each crossed out as not allowed. The "Annoying Zombie" card (Nieznośne zombi) is pictured beside the P.S. 2 text. These are illustrations only; card names inside the illustrations are not transcribed.