RoboRally
goals, bugs & minor options

Minor revisions made 2003-03-22

Components

• Standard RoboRally (compatibility to expansions are not guaranteed)
• Extra deck of cards: «Secret goals» (26 cards)
• Extra deck of cards: «Bugs» (26 cards)
• Extra deck of cards: «Minor options» (26 cards) (The original option cards are referred to as major options)
• ca. 5 tokens (e. g. coins) pr. player to represent «Credits»
• ca. 4 tokens pr. player to represent victory points (or use life tokens)
• 6-sided die to select goal flags
• 1 marker to indicate the current goal flag (or use a victory point token)

Setup

• Decide game length (see victory below)
• Place all six flags (for any game length)
• Deal one program card to each player and initialise each robot in order of card priority

Initialisation

• Discard the program card
• Receive two credits, or three credits and a bug if you prefer
• Buy equipment as if on a wrench square (see below)
• Place the robot on any square on the board, as long at it is not on, adjacent to or has line of sight to squares with wrenches or other robots (robots do not start as virtual)
• Draw a secret goal card

Goal flags

• Before the start of the first round and any round following one when the previous goal flag was reached, roll the die to select a new goal flag
• If the die shows the same flag as the previous, or a flag that a robot is standing on, adjacent to or with line of sight to, it is rerolled
• If no flag is eligible, the roll is postponed to the next round

Scoring on goal flags

• The first robot to tag the current goal flag, and all robots tagging it later in the same round receive one victory point each
• Each robot scoring this way also receive one credit, plus one more credit for each robot that scores on this flag later in the round

Scoring with secret goal cards

• If a secret goal is successfully met, reveal the card, discard it and receive a victory point; a new card is drawn at the end of the round

Victory

• The game ends when someone reach the number of victory points agreed upon (5 points is recommended as a standard value for a long game, 3 for a shorter)
• Alternatively, a timed ending may be used instead of or in addition to a victory point based one. This is done by deciding on a fixed time (or an event external to the game); when this is reached the ongoing round and one more full round is played. With this option, a special "leader" token must be given to any player that at any time reach a greater number of points than any other player; the winner is the one who holds this token at the end of the final round.

Cards against damage

• Minor options may be discarded to avoid one point of damage
• Major options may be discarded to avoid two points of damage
• Cards with charges may be used in this way even if all charges are spent

Wrenches (at the end of a turn)

• Each wrench can be used to repair one point of damage or one bug
• At squares with wrenches, but without flags, one may buy major options for two credits, minor options for one credit or recharge any option to its original number of charges for one credit

Power-down

• At power-down all ordinary damage is repaired, but not bugs
• One may choose to discard one's secret goal card and draw a new one

Kills

• To push a robot into a pit or off the board
• To give a robot the last point of damage before it dies
• To be the last to have influenced the position of a robot (in the same round and the same or preceeding phase) by movement, blocking of movement or weapons before it moves itself into a pit or off the board, or is killed by board elements
• A kill gives a number of credits equal to the number of victory points of the victim (but at least one)

Archive copies

• Archive copies are not counted
• All damage is removed
• The robot gets a bug, in addition to ones it already has
• One pays two credits, option cards can be discarded to cover this expense, cards with used charges may also be used; if one can't or won't pay this, one receives one damage and one bug for each credit missing
• The card «superior archive copy» cancels the previous point
• One discards the secret goal card and draws a new one
• One rolls a die to find out which flag to start on; if this is the goal flag or a flag another robot is on, adjacent to or has line of sight to, it is rerolled
• Archive copies is placed the round after the death of a robot, before program cards are dealt
• The facing of the robot is chosen by the player, one may have line of sight to another robot

Timing

• Timing within a segment may be crucial (who shoots last and thus get a kill, who receives the winning victory point first of the one reaching the goal flag and the one fulfilling a secret goal)
• Effects of bugs and options on the robot itself goes first, then interactions between robots, finally interactions between robots and the board
• Within these categories, timing is resolved by the priority of the program card for the current phase (with all applicable modifications)

Availability of cards

• When a deck of major options, minor options, bugs or secret goals is empty, all discarded cards are shuffled and turned face down as a new draw pile
• If there are no discarded cards of the relevant type to shuffle, options can't be bought and one does not receive bugs