Strategy Hints: About Cheapass Games:

Bluff. No matter how many Failure cards you’re We here at Cheapass Games are aware of two holding, try to convince everyone else that you’re out. basic facts about games: they cost too much, and they are, at some level, all the same. The more Failure cards you can force out of everyone If you ignore the clever shapes they come in, the KILL else’s hands, the better. cheap little plastic pawns are an interchangeable part Make as many murder attempts as you can. Even of most of the board games in your house. So are the DOCTOR LUCKY though your first ones will probably fail, you’ll be dice, the money, the counters, and just about every clever spare part. These parts can account for as M A Cheapass board game for 2-8 players pulling those Failures out of other people’s hands. much as 75% of a game’s production cost, and that Do your best to keep track of how many Failures cost gets handed to you. have been played. If you feel like the hands are thin, If you had your choice, you’d probably invest a hurry up and make an attempt before everyone gets the little money in one good set of gaming parapherna- lia instead of twenty crappy ones, and then just buy Included with this Game: chance to draw again. the new part of every “new” game. Yet most game Welcome to the J. Robert Lucky mansion, a If your games seem to be taking too long, or companies insist on selling you the whole package rambling country estate seven miles north of The Kill Dr. Lucky Game Board (8 sections), a you’re always exhausting the deck, every time; it’s a little like bundling a can opener with nowhere. It’s a stormy midsummer’s evening, ten every can of beans. deck of 96 Cards, and this Rule Book. it probably means that you’re seconds after midnight. And someone’s just shut off Cheapass Games come packaged with the bare If you need help assembling the board, look at the making fewer murder attempts the lights. essentials: boards, cards, and rulebooks. If you need snapshot on the back of this booklet. You’ll probably than we do. That’s okay. To speed anything else, we’ll tell you. And it’s probably some- You have hated Doctor Lucky for as long as you want to tape the board to a stiff piece of cardboard; the things up, try upping the weapon thing that you can scrounge from a game you already can remember, and you’ve been secretly awaiting values by +1. Or try removing the V have, or buy at a hobby store for less than we’d have finished size is 17" x 22". You can also assemble the this perfect chance to do the old man in. Maybe he F-3’s from the deck. Good Luck! to charge you for it. Heck, if you need to, you can even board temporarily by using sticky-notes on the back. buy the parts from us. destroyed your dry cleaning business; maybe you And once you’ve got a collection of pawns, dice, think he’s the leader of the vampires. Perhaps he’s You Also Need: KILL DOCTOR LUCKY counters, and money, you can use the same ones for the only person standing between you and the family ©1996 Cheapass Games. every Cheapass Game. We’ve standardized our fortune. Or maybe his cat just keeps peeing in your Graphics, Layout, and Game Design: James Ernest. designs so your gaming toolbox will last. You’ll need a Pawn for every player, plus one Assistant Design: Rick Fish, Dave Howell, E. shrubs. Whatever your reason, it’s good enough to You can learn more about Cheapass Games by more Master Pawn for Dr. Lucky. Jordan Bojar, Toivo Rovainen, and various asking your local game retailer. Or by visiting our push you over the edge. And now you absolutely Use whatever you like for your Pawns, as long as well-fed guinea pigs. Sixth Printing Sept. 2000. secret website at www.cheapass.com. can’t wait to take the lying old bastard down. everyone can identify themselves, and the bases are not And, though you don’t know it, everyone else much bigger than 1” square. Dr. Lucky’s Pawn should in the house wants to kill him too. be easily distinguished from the rest. Take a deep breath. Remember why you’re here. And then start sneaking around in the dark. If The Board: you run across a weapon, grab it. If you bump into Doctor Lucky, give him hell. Dr. Lucky’s Estate has 32 “rooms,” including 24 Trying to kill Doctor Lucky is pretty easy, as named rooms, 6 hallways and 2 stairways. When you try long as no one’s looking. But they don’t call him to kill Dr. Lucky, you must be alone in a room with him. “Doctor Lucky” for nothing. He’s got an uncanny You must also be out of sight of the other players. knack for slipping out of harm’s way. Don’t despair; The sight lines work like this: if someone can after enough tries, you’re guaranteed to wear the old stand anywhere in one room and look straight through codger down. You just need a clever plan, a good doorways into the room you’re in, they can see you. So, bluff, and a little more luck than everyone else. for example, someone standing in the Kitchen can see So gather in the Drawing Room and get crack- (and be seen by) people in the Master Suite, the west ing. Somebody’s going to kill Doctor Lucky tonight, stairs, the two adjoining hallways, the Trophy Room, the and it might as well be you. Wine Cellar, and the Winter Garden. You can’t see diagonally through doors, so for Cheapass Games example, someone in the Foyer can’t see someone in the Info Unit™: Carriage House. Now you can repent The Gallery overlooks the Dining Hall. It’s a musi- of your evil ways and cian’s gallery, like a balcony. You can see through that Save Doctor Lucky dotted wall, but you can’t walk though it. This means aboard a titanic that the Gallery can see (and be seen by) every room sinking ship. It’s straight down to the Piazza, plus the Nursery, the Master Cheapass Game #027 Suite, and the Library. To Begin: There are 20 Weapon cards, including many Who Goes Next: which, like the Billiard Cue below, are more effective in Put everyone in the Drawing Room. To randomly particular rooms. Normally, the turn order passes to the left around determine who starts, the winner of the last game deals There are 42 Failure cards, including 26 1-point the table. But Dr. Lucky can re-activate a player by land- cards faceup, starting on his own left. He continues until 22 Failures, 12 2-point Failures and 4 3-point Failures. ing on him. someone gets a room card. That player will go first, and MOVE-2 If Dr. Lucky moves into an occupied room Dr. Lucky will start in that room. Now reshuffle the deck, Two Discard Piles: (between turns), the player standing in that room goes and deal a hand of six cards to every player. RR next. This is true even if that player just had a turn! Failure cards go into a different discard pile than the This means that, if you’re clever, you can take sev- To Win: WINTER other cards. If the deck empties, you will reshuffle only eral turns in a row, leading the old fool around the man- the non-Failure cards to replace the deck. The Failure sion. You can use these turns to draw extra cards, and Kill Doctor Lucky. Pretty simple. cards are gone for good. to get someplace fast. But even though you can take GARDEN multiple turns in a row, you won’t be able to make a On Every Turn: Play this card to move Moving The Doctor: series of murder attempts. Since you can’t move (or play move cards) after a murder attempt, Dr. Lucky will When it’s your turn, you have two choices: You yourself or Dr. Lucky up to Dr. Lucky moves after every turn. So, when you are automatically get away from you if you fail. can either snoop around looking for stuff, or you can 2 roomsPlay this in anycard direction. to move done with your turn, you move Dr. Lucky. Multiple next players: If Dr. Lucky lands in a room actually do something. So, there are two different types Dr. Lucky tends to follow a predictable route occupied by two or more players, then the “my turn” of turn. yourself or Dr. Lucky through his mansion. Unless he’s lured off course by status passes from the last active player, to the left to the Winter Garden. someone’s play, Dr. Lucky moves by the numbers. around the table, until it hits one of the players in that Turn Type 1: “Snooping” If Dr. Lucky is standing in a numbered room, just room. This means that you can’t drag Dr. Lucky through move him into the next numbered room (19 leads to 0). an occupied room, since the turn will pass to the other If you’re snooping, you get to move one room in If he’s not in a numbered room, move him to the high- player when Dr. Lucky moves in. any direction (hallways and stairs count as rooms) or est numbered adjoining room. For example, if Dr. you can stay put. In the Murder step of the type-2 turn, you can try Lucky is in the Wine Cellar, move him into the Kitchen. A Sample Turn: If you end your turn in a named room, you get to to kill Dr. Lucky. If he is in the Foyer, he moves into the Piazza. draw one card. The card you draw loosely represents To attempt a murder, you must be alone in the There are 5 players, and it’s player 1’s turn. something you found while you were snooping. “Named room with Dr. Lucky, and you must be out of sight of Player 5 has just ended his turn, and Dr. Lucky has rooms” just means all the rooms with names; you can’t every other player. moved from the Master Suite into the Nursery (room 10 draw a card if you stop in a hallway, or on the stairs. You can only make one murder attempt per turn. to room 11). You may play one Weapon card to improve your F-1F-1 Player 1 moves from the Library into the Gallery. Type 2: “Doing Something” murder attempt; otherwise, it has a basic value of 1. He’s taking a “Doing Something” type of turn, not Without the Weapon card, you’re trying to kill the old FAILURE! snooping for cards. After taking his free move, he plays In this kind of turn, you take two steps: Move- man with whatever is on hand, or just poking him in the a Move-1 card, moving himself into the Nursery. ment, and Murder. Both steps are optional. When you eye with your finger. Now Player 1 tries to kill Dr. Lucky. There are no take this kind of turn, you’re not snooping, so you can’t If you use a Weapon, your murder attempt has the other players in the Nursery, and no one can see them, draw a card. value of that Weapon. For example, a murder attempt so the attempt is legal. He plays the Billiard Cue Weapon In the Movement step, you can move yourself one with a 4-point Weapon has a value of 4 (not 5!). The card, so it will take 2 Failure points to stop him. room, and you can also play Move and Room cards. You better your attempt, the harder it will be for your oppo- WW M Player 2 has the first chance to stop the murder, can take your regular move before, after, or between nents to stop you. but it’s early in the game and he feels confident that oth- playing these cards, and you can play as many of these Once you’ve made your murder attempt, everyone BILLIARDPlay this card to foil ers will be able to. He passes the chance to play a cards as you wish. else gets one chance to foil it, by playing Failure cards. a murder attempt. Failure, although he has several. So does Player 3. Move Cards: These cards can move you, or they Starting with the player to your left, every player may CUE Player 4 has watched Players 5’s hand dwindle to can move Dr. Lucky. There are 14 move cards, includ- either play one or more Failure cards, or pass. 2 cards, and feels a little reluctant to leave even one ing 8 Move-1’s, 4 Move-2’s and 2 Move-3’s. When you To foil a murder requires one Failure point for Failure up to him. However, he has only one Failure play one of these cards on Dr. Lucky, you can send him each point in the murder value. Failure cards are worth point, and he plays it. in any direction; he doesn’t have to follow 1, 2, or 3 points each. Player 5 also has only one Failure card left, and his numbers. Note: Even though your early murder attempts Base Value: 2 it’s worth 3 points. Although it’s overkill, Player 5 must Room Cards: Use these cards to probably won’t succeed, it’s important to keep trying, so orth 5 points in the play this F-3 card to stop the murder attempt from suc- jump either yourself or Dr. Lucky to a par- that you force the Failure cards out of other players’ W ceeding. He does, and Player 1 is foiled. ticular room. There are 20 different Room hands. The fewer Failures everyone else holds, the bet- Billiard Room. After his turn ends, Player 1 moves Dr. Lucky into cards. k ter your chances of winning. the Armory (Room 11 to Room 12).