You are in plague-infested Bristol in 1350.
Your aim is to remain plague-free and be the first to escape the city in one of three carts – possibly in the company of one or two other (also plague-free) players.
If you catch the plague, that isn’t game over! You can win by escaping from the city on one of the carts or by preventing the plague-free players from doing so!
You are one of 9 characters:
Barmaid – White
Countess – Purple
Mason – Green
Knight – Red
Outlaw – Orange
Friar – Yellow
Sheriff – Blue
Serf – Brown
Chandler – Black
We will play with the basic cards where these characters do not have any special abilities.
The starting order of the carts is: Birch (cream coloured), Cedar (orange/red), Oak (brown).
If there are 6 of us, there will be 2 in each cart. (If there are only 5, there will be only one in the Oak cart, if there are 7, there will be three in the Birch cart.)
You always have two Symptoms Cards:
Headache – 1
Cough – 2
Chills – 3
Buboes – 4
You are healthy provided the scores on your two cards add up to 5 or less. The Buboes cards are not included in the original deal – if you happen to get 2 Chills cards (making a total of 6), you hand them back and get 2 new cards. All players start healthy.
At some point, these cards will change! If at any point the two cards you are left holding total 6 or more – you have caught the plague! You still have the plague even if your cards change again and the cards you now have add up to 5 or less.
There are 6 dice.
Each die has an apple in the colour of each cart – and a rat in the colour of each cart.
At the end of the round, each cart moves forward a number of spaces equal to the number of symbols of its colour that are showing.
However, before moving the carts – has any cart got 2 or more rats showing?
If so, players on that cart must Mingle. That means their symptoms cards – plus an extra one from the Symptoms card deck – are shuffled and redealt. (The extra card being discarded.)
It is your turn – what can you do?
Option 1: Reroll one or two of the 6 dice.
Option 2: Draw a Remedy card (maximum holding 3).
Option 3: Make a Pawn move –
a) If your pawn isn’t at the front of your cart, you can Elbow your way to the front.
b) If you are at the front of your cart – and there is a cart in front of yours – you can Dash – if there is space on the cart in front you just jump on, if the cart in front is full, swap places with the last pawn on that cart.
c) Push a pawn that is behind you on your cart off the cart – it climbs onto the cart that is furthest back which has space. If this pushed pawn cannot do this (perhaps it was pushed off the last cart) that player is out of the game. But if they reveal that they are actually still healthy, the pushing player is also out of the game, having died of shame!
Any of these Pawn moves can be prevented by the affected player(s) using the remedy Whip.
Apart from the Whip, any number of Remedy cards can be played after you have played one of the options above. Each card has two options, only one of which can be used.
Arsenic – Lock two dice so they cannot be rerolled this round.
Chicken – If you rerolled dice (Option 1 above) this lets you reroll one or both up to 3 more times!
Crushed Emeralds – Make a Pawn move (Option 3 above).
Leeches – Draw two Symptoms cards and choose one to add to any cart’s Mingle area.
Pomander – Draw two Symptoms cards and choose two of the four you now have to keep.