The Infected by John Beardon

Entry #1

Welcome to the harsh tundra of the Antarctic. Your crew has just been assigned here to start mining a rare ore recently discovered in the area. Sounds like an easy paycheck but just your luck, some other roughneck crews seem to think they’re going to scrape the mother load out for themselves! Tensions are running high, almost downright deadly as some of your crew seems to be going crazy, homicidal even! The eggheads that sent you here were kind enough to send along some meds for the head cases but if that doesn’t work, every good crew chief carries a little bit of protection, the 12 gauge kind.

The Infected is a horror inspired game in the vein of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Players take control of a crew of miners struggling to retrieve rare minerals from a strange dig site that seems to be causing men to turn into blood-thirsty killers. Keep your ears pealed because when you hear the high-pitched cry of a rabid worker, you’ll need to act fast in order to stop them from killing too many of your crew or even other player’s crews.

Section 1. High-Level Description

The Infected is a horror themed tile-based board game where up to 4 players compete in a race to survive while collecting dangerous minerals from a hot zone mineral site.

Section 2. Gameplay Mechanics

2.1 Player's Objective

Players take turns moving their workers to and from the mineral site and their home base. The goal of each player is to mine as much of the rare ore from the hot zone while giving immunization shots to the workers in hopes of preventing an infection breaking out at either the mineral site or at the home base. If an infection does turn a worker into a rabid monster, players can use the last minute option of shooting the infected worker with a shotgun before the worker can kill any other workers at the work site or at the home base. Players continue the process of recovering as much mineral from the hot zone until all minerals are depleted or they have run out of workers or another player has run out of workers.

2.2 Game Piece Mechanics

Game pieces are made up of Siftables, tiny computers that can interact with each other and react to their orientation in the world around them. Workers interact with each other and the Mineral Deposit and Mineral Storage Bin. The Shotgun can be used directly on a Workers to immediately kill them. The Shotgun can also touch an Ammo to immediately refill all ammo for the Shotgun. Pouring a Serum Syringe on Workers build up an immunity to the infection in your workers. Serum Syringe can touch a Serum Supply Vial to completely refill the siftable.

Section 3. Game Componenets

3.1 Player's Siftables

These tiles reside on the player’s side of the playspace. With the exception of the Worker tile, the following tiles do not move outside of the player’s home base area.

3.1.1 Workers

Workers are the main resource the player’s manage during gameplay. Workers travel between the Mineral Deposits located in the hot zone and the Mineral Storage Bin located in the player’s home base. Workers gather a small amount of minerals from Mineral Deposits while next to one. Workers can only hold a small amount of minerals before they must return to the player’s home base and deposit the minerals into the Mineral Storage Bin.

Workers can be in one of three states, unknown, immune, infected.

Workers that are in an unknown state, may or may not have a infection % and a serum % but have yet to show signs of either being immune to the infection or rabid from it.

{Image #2 – TheInfected_WorkerImmune.gif - goes here} Workers in an immune state have had enough of the serum injected into their system to keep the infection from ever taking hold. Once a Worker is immune he can never be infected again.

Workers in an infected state have received enough exposure to the infection to cause them to turn into bloodthirsty killers. Once a Worker has reached this state no amount of serum is going to do anything for them and they will begin to kill other Workers around them. The only way to stop them is by using the Shotgun on them to kill them.

3.1.2 Mineral Storage Bin

This tile keeps track of the amount of minerals extracted from the hot zone by the player’s workers. Placing a Worker next to the Mineral Storage Bin transfers all minerals the worker is carrying into the Mineral Storage Bin.

3.1.3 Serum Syringe

Each player starts with one Serum Syringe. Players use this siftable by pouring the tile on top of a Worker. This transfers a portion of the serum into the worker. If the Worker receives enough of the serum, they become immune to the infection. If the player delivers too much serum to a Worker, they will die from an overdose. If the Serum Syringe becomes empty, players can replenish the siftable with a Serum Supply Vial.

3.1.4 Shotgun

In addition to the Serum Syringe, each player also starts with a Shotgun. This tile is pushed against a Worker that has become so infected that it has become rabid. Once the Shotgun is pushed against any Worker one ammo is depleted from the tile and the Worker that has been touched is immediately killed. Care must be taken with this siftable as it can kill any Worker, infected or not.

3.2 Dig Site Siftables

These tiles start in the middle of the play space and do not move to any other area. Worker tiles can be moved to the four corners of one of these tiles to collect minerals.

3.2.1 Mineral Deposit

These siftables start at the middle of the play space. Players place their Workers around a Mineral Deposit in order to gather some of the minerals to be taken back to the player’s Mineral Storage Bin. Unless the Worker placed near the Mineral Deposit has reached immunity, the Worker contracts a portion of the infection. If Workers are exposed to enough infection they will become rabid and begin killing any other Workers near them. Only 4 Workers can touch a single Mineral Deposit at one time. Once any Worker is carrying his full weight in minerals, any other player can move them off of the Mineral Deposit in order to make room for a new Worker but only the player that controls the Worker can move them back to their home base.

3.3 Supply Siftables

These tiles stay to the side of the play space and can be used at any time by a player on his/her turn.

3.3.1 Serum Supply Vials

By touching a Serum Syringe to one of these tiles, the Serum Syringe is automatically refilled to 100%. Serum Supply Vials can only be used one time.

3.3.2 Ammo

Touching a Shotgun to one of the Ammo tiles will replenish the Shotgun to its full ammo amount. Ammo tiles can only be used one time.

3.4 Achievement Cards

These cards are awarded at the end of play and are used for scoring the game.

3.4.1 Most Infected Killed Card

This achievement is awarded to the player with the most kills at the end of the game.

3.4.2 Most Immune Workers Card

This achievement is awarded to the player with the most immune workers by the end of the game. This total is a combination of a player’s dead and alive workers that have reached the immune state by the end of the game.

3.4.3 Most Minerals Collected Card

This achievement goes to the player that managed to collect the most resources as displayed on their Mineral Storage Bin by the end of play. Any minerals still in Worker tiles does not count toward this achievement.

3.4.4 Most Work-Related Accidents Card

This achievement is for the player that has the most Workers die before the game ends. This does not include deaths of Workers that became infected and went rabid. It does count any Worker that died from serum overdose, death by an infected attack or death by accidental Shotgun attack.

Section 4. Setup Instructions

The game begins by placing two Mineral Deposits in the middle of the play space creating the hot zone. If not already set to 100%, press and hold the reset button until they are both at 100%. Each player then takes their 8 Worker tiles that match the color they have chosen to play, (Red, Green, Blue or Yellow), and sets them near the player, making a home base for each player. If not already set to its default state, each player will reset their Worker tiles by holding in the reset button on the back of each tile. Each player takes one Mineral Storage Bin to complete their home base. Reset these tiles if necessary by pressing and holding in the reset button found on the back of the tile. A player’s Worker tiles are arranged to form a solid line, building off of the Mineral Storage Bin. Each Worker tile touches the next in this line with the final one touching the Mineral Storage Bin itself. Each player also takes one Serum Syringe tile and a Shotgun tile. Reset each of these, if necessary, by pressing and holding the reset button on the back. The remaining Serum Supply Vials and Ammo tiles are reset by holding in their reset buttons and then placed into a small pool off to the side of the main play space.

Once all tiles are reset and set into place, player start is determined by whichever means is deemed appropriate and then players take turns in a clockwise fashion.

Section 5. Game Tutorial

Players take turns performing one action before the next player’s turn. On a player’s turn they may perform one of the following actions:

• Move a Worker to the hot zone or back to their home base.
  • If a Worker is moved into the hot zone, they may be attached to a Mineral Deposit if a space is free. If no space is free, the player may move any other player’s Worker away from the Mineral Deposit and place their Worker on the deposit. When doing this, the displaced Worker is put in a queue behind the new Worker until he is taken back by his respective player. Workers in the hot zone must be touching a Mineral Deposit or another Worker in a queue until they are removed from the hot zone. When displacing a Worker, that worker can only be moved behind the new Worker and not to any other Worker in the hot zone area. It is possible for several Workers to be daisy chained in this fashion.

Here is a standard Worker at a Mineral Deposit

When a new Worker is attached to the Mineral Deposit he shifts any Workers down in the queue

The queue continues to adjust as new Workers are attached to the Mineral Deposit. Any player's Worker can displace another player's Worker when they are attached to the queue.

• Move a Worker back to their home base.
  • When a worker is moved back to their home base, they are immediately placed next to the Mineral Storage Bin to unload any minerals they bring back. All other Workers are pushed behind this Worker but still touch each other in the work queue

As Workers return to their home base, they queue up next to the Mineral Storage Bin to unload their minerals. Each new Worker brought to the home base shifts the other Workers down in the queue.

• Administer Serum to a Worker

  • This action can only be performed on Workers located in the home base area. A player can administer as much serum to as many Workers as they wish or as their Serum Syringe supplies allow.

• Replenish Supplies

  • Players can use this action to take one of any available Serum Supply Vials or Ammo from the supply pool and replenish their Serum Syringe or Shotgun.

At any time a Worker may become so infected that he turns into a rabid monster. At this point any player can immediately react by killing the infected with their Shotgun. This action does not have to occur during the player’s turn and any player can kill any infected worker in the hot zone but only a player may kill his Workers in the home base. The Shotgun may only be used if an infected has appeared and will not work at any other time in the game, however any Worker rabid or not can be killed while the Shotgun is active. The same restrictions to killing a rabid Worker applies to the vulnerability of the other Workers in the area. If the infected is within a player’s home base, only the player can shoot Workers in this area but if the infected arises in the hot zone area, any Worker can be shot by any player until the infected is killed. Infected that are killed go to the player that kills them, to be counted at the game’s end for achievements.

When a Worker becomes infected to the point that they turn rabid, a high pitch scream is heard from the infected Worker tile and immediately surrounding Workers are killed until the infected Worker is shot.

When a Shotgun is pushed next to an infected Worker tile or any Worker near an infected, a loud boom is heard followed by the death thralls of the Worker tile shot.

Players continue to take turns in this fashion until all of the Mineral Deposits are depleted or until one player has lost all of his/her ** Workers**.

Section 6. Flowcharts of how tiles interact with each other

6.1 Worker Tile interacting with Mineral Deposit tiles

6.2 Worker Tile interacting with other Worker tiles

6.2 Worker Tile interacting with Serum tiles

Section 7. Scoring and Ending the Game

Once all of the Mineral Deposits are depleted or one of the players have lost all of their Workers the game is ended and points are awarded.

First each player scores the amount of mineral collected in their Mineral Storage Bin. Any Worker that has not returned to the Mineral Storage Bin with his carried minerals does not count. The player with the most minerals collected receives the ** Most Minerals Collected Card** which is worth 10 additional bonus points. In the case of a tie, both player’s receive their individual score and no bonus points are awarded.

Next players total the number of infected Workers they are responsible for killing during the game. The player with the most kills receives the ** Most Infected Killed Card** worth 10 bonus points.

Next players count the total number of Workers, dead or alive that reached an immune state. The player with the most receives the Most Immune Workers Card worth 25 bonus points.

{Image #22 – TheInfected_WorkerImmune.gif - goes here} +

Finally each player counts the total number of dead Workers that are not infected. This can be Workers that remained in an unknown state or Workers that reached an immune state but died. The player with the most Workers that died receives the ** Most Work-Related Accidents Card** worth 25 bonus points.

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At this stage all points are totaled and the player with the most wins the game.

Who Goes There? by SiddGames

This is inspired by the short story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, Jr., on which is also based the movie The Thing by John Carpenter. In reality, this is a thinly themed solitaire deduction game.

Object and Play

The game consists of 20 characters at a remote outpost. Most of them are Pure (uninfected) humans, but someone among them is Infected, and as the game progresses, this infection will spread. The object of the game is for the player to deduce the identities of the Infected and eliminate them. This is done in a series of rounds until one side or the other has prevailed.

Components and Setup

The game is played with 20 Siftables and no other components.

At the start of the game, the Siftables are laid out on the playing surface. Each depicts a different character and, starting in round 2, a number indicating which group it belonged to the previous round.

The AI will randomly select 2 characters that are Hidden Infected; all other characters are Pure. The player has no knowledge of any character states initially.

Sequence of Play

Group Step At the start of each round, the player must group the characters into groups of size 1, 2, 3 and 4. This is done in order, starting with 1; once a group of 4 has been made, the player starts creating additional groups at size 1 again (e.g., in round 1, with 20 characters, there will be 2 groups of each size, 1 through 4). Each character in a group should be lined up together, so the Siftables can detect who else is in their group.

After the first round of play, each group of characters must be mixed up from the previous round. The characters will have group numbers assigned to them from the previous round to aid the player in mixing the groups. At least 50% of each group composition must change each time (e.g., from a group of 4, only 2 of the characters could possibly be put into the same group the next round).

Once the player is satisfied with the groups, he taps one to let the AI know to proceed to the next step.

Confrontation Step The AI resolves the interaction between Infected and Pure for each group. - Infected will infect Pure in any group composed of 1-1, 2-1 or 3-1 Infected-to-Pure (in groups of size 2, 3 or 4, respectively). - If the Pure outnumber a Known Infected (2-1 or 3-1), then the Pure kill the Infected. - In a group of 2-2, the Infected kill one of the Pure.

Test Step After applying the confrontation rules, any character killed will turn red; that block is set aside and is no longer in play. Then, the player may tap any block he chooses to test for infection. If it is a Hidden Infected, it will become a Known Infected for the rest of the game; otherwise, the block simply indicates that the character is currently Pure.

The player now begins another round of play. This continues until either all the Pure have been eliminated (the player loses) or the Infected have been eliminated (the player wins).

Plague at Dark Hollow by McWookie

Overview

Players are herbalists living in the village of Dark Hollow, attempting to investigate an outbreak. They believe the plague is passing from person to person, creating zombies. They must create an antidote before time runs out and the king burns the village to the ground.

Game Components

• Game Board showing different areas of the village
• Approximately 30 siftables, broken down as follows:
• One character siftable per player
• One clock siftable
• Six component siftables
• One research siftable
• One experiment siftable
• Remaining siftables represent the villagers of Dark Hollow

Game Setup

Each player takes a character siftable. All siftables are initialized. Villager are placed on the board at their indicated starting locations.

All character siftables (players and villagers) have stats, such as Attack, Defense, Resistence to infection, current disease level, and disease threshold level.

The siftable display for characters shows the name, starting location, and picture. The picture displayed is based on the stats. A stronger character (higher attack and defense) will be displayed as larger or more menacing. A character's infection level will make him look more or less diseased.

The game engine randomly determines which three components can be combined to create the cure for the disease.

Player siftables are placed on the game board at their starting location.

The oldest player goes first.

Game Turn

On a player's turn, he first taps his character against the clock to advance the time. The player may then move to an adjacent location. If the player is not a zombie, and if there is a non-player zombie at his current location, he must fight it. If he survives, he may perform one of the following actions: - Research. Requires a research location. The player chooses two of the components and touches them to the research siftable. The research siftable will display how the two components will impact the final potion. - Interrogate a villager. The player may take one component and touch it to a villager, which will display if it has a positive or negative affect on his health. - Fight an additional zombie, including player zombies. - Experiment. The player takes three components and touches them to the experiment siftable. The experiment siftable will then transform into a potion, based on the components the player chose. The player may then touch this potion to a villager. Based on the potion, the villagers infection status will either increase or decrease. - Pass. His turn ends.

If a player has been turned into a zombie, he moves as normal, but instead of his normal actions, he may perform one of the following: - Infect. The player touches his character to a villager at his current location. The villager's infection level increases by a random amount. - Attack player. The zombie player may attack a player. - Disrupt research. The zombie player touches his character to the research siftable. The research siftable then has a small chance to provide incorrect results on the next research attempt.

Once a player's turn is complete, play passes to the next player. Once all players have completed their turn, a new round begins. The infection level of each infected villager is increased a random amount, and each uninfected villager has a random chance of contracting the disease. The clock advances to the next day.

Any zombie who was killed is reinitialized as a villager and placed on the board at the indicated starting location.

End Game

The game ends if one of the following three conditions are met: - All players have been turned into zombies. - The cure has been found and all villagers have been cured. - The clock reaches two weeks.

Non-zombie players win if: - The players survive two weeks and more than half of the villagers are not zombies. - The cure was found and all villagers have been cured.

If there are zombie players, they win if the clock reaches two weeks and more than half the villagers are zombies.

If all players are zombies, the players lose.

Important Information

Combat. When a player's siftable comes into contact with a zombie (or a zombie player), combat begins. The attack and defense values of each character are compared, with a random value added. If a zombie is defeated, it is removed. If a player is defeated, his infection level increases (or decreases if the player is a zombie).

Touching non-zombie villagers. When a player interrogates a villager, there is a chance the disease may spread. - If both are uninfected, nothing happens. - If one is infected and the other isn't, the uninfected becomes infected. - If both are infected, the less infected becomes more infected.