Adrenaline: Team Play DLC Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Two to Six Players
• Main Board Setup
• Character Abilities
• Choosing Characters
• Assigning Characters
• Character Setup
• Player Ammo
• Ammo Limit
• Spawning Round
• Team Turns
  • Actions
  • Control
  • Weapons
  • Weapons Limit
• Damage
  • The Damage Buffer
  • Marks in the Buffer
• Powerups
• End of Turn
  • Character Abilities
  • Flushing the Damage Buffer
  • Damage Buffer Rewards
• Scoring Killshots
  • Killshot
  • Scoring a Board
  • Overkill
  • Doublekill and Triplekill
  • Respawn
  • Reload
• Game Over
  • Scoring Leftover Damage
  • Empty the Damage Buffers
  • Count by Threes
  • Winning the Game
• Powerups in Team Play
• Team Play Rules Summary

Components

For team play, use all the components of the base game, and include all the components from the DLC expansion:

• Echo's figure, Echo's player board, and Echo's 20 damage tokens
• 6 pentagonal plastic stands
• 12 character-specific weapons
• 6 ability cards
• 6 adrenaline rush tiles
• 5 mind control tokens
• 4 overload tokens
• 5 green skulls
• Echo's ammo (3 cubes of each color)
• 3 buffer reward tiles
• 2 damage buffers
• 2 team play overview tiles
• 1 team play overview card
• 1 team play skull board

Two to Six Players

This is a game for two teams. Each team can have one, two, or three players, and the two teams do not have to be even. Each team always has 3 characters, so all six characters will be used.

Main Board Setup

1. Players divide into two teams. Each team can have 1, 2, or 3 players, and the two teams need not be even.
2. The black team uses the black plastic stands and sits on one side of the table. The white team sits across from them.
3. Set up the board as normal. Any board combination can be used in any number of players.
4. Cover the killshot track with the team play skull board, and place 8 red skulls on it.
5. Damage buffers are placed on two corners, near the corresponding team.
6. Beside each buffer, place a team play overview tile.
7. Randomly choose one of the buffer reward tiles and place it in the corner near the skull board. Return the other two reward tiles to the box.
8. Randomly choose 1 team to be the starting team. Give them the starting player marker.
9. Each team chooses characters according to the rules on the following pages.

Regardless of the number of players, you always have 3 characters on each team. This is actually the setup for a 1-versus-1 game.

Character Abilities

Team play uses the abilities and character-specific weapons described in the DLC Weapons Manual. Their use is explained in the DLC Characters rulebook. Please read that rulebook first so you know how character abilities work in the standard game. In this rulebook, we will explain character abilities and weapons only when the team play rules differ from the standard rules.

Note: It is theoretically possible to play in teams without using the character abilities that came in this expansion. That is not recommended. You should use the new abilities. They are not difficult to comprehend, and they are essential to the atmosphere of the game – each character can make a unique contribution to the team.

Choosing Characters

Use all 6 characters. For each character, randomly choose and reveal one of its two character-specific weapons. (The unchosen weapons will not be used in this game.) Set each character's figure and weapon where everyone can see them.

1. The starting team chooses one character.
2. The other team chooses two characters.
3. The starting team chooses two characters.
4. Which leaves one left for the other team.

Assigning Characters

If you are a one-person team, all the characters are yours. Otherwise, each player on your team should pick one of your team's characters – you probably already decided who would play which character as you were choosing them.

On a two-person team, each player will have one character, and the remaining character will be shared between them.

Character Setup

Each of the 3 characters on your team needs a player board. We don't use the action tiles (the little piece on the left side of the player board) in a team game.

The adrenaline rush tile is explained in the DLC Characters rulebook. For team play, use the side that has a 1-point icon below the overkill space.

In team play, the character's ability card starts each turn in the vertical position. This indicates it is ready for action. Some cards require tokens during setup, as explained in the DLC Weapons Manual.

Take the figures for your characters and push them into their plastic stands.

Player Ammo

Each player has his or her own ammo. A player's ammo may be spent on any character that player controls.

• Three-player team: Your ammo goes on your character's board. You spend it for your character, just as you do in a standard game. Start with 1 cube of each color, then immediately pay the cost to grab your character-specific weapon.
• One-player team: Choose one character's board for your ammo. You may spend it for any of the three characters. Start with 1 cube of each color, then immediately pay the cost to grab your character-specific weapons. If you have two that require the same cube, the one you do not pay for will start the game unloaded.
• Two-player team: Your ammo goes on your character's board. You may spend it for your character or for the shared character when you control it. Start with 1 cube of each color, then immediately pay the cost to grab your character-specific weapon. One player on your team must also pay the cost to grab the shared character's weapon.

Reminder: The cost to grab a weapon is the reload cost, minus the top cube. Many character-specific weapons are free to grab. None of them cost more than one cube.

Ammo Limit

Each player has a limit of 3 cubes of each color. Players cannot share ammo.

Note: If one team has fewer players, it will have less total ammo. This disadvantage is offset by the ability to grab ammo with one character and spend it on another character.

Spawning Round

Before the first team's turn, there is a spawning round. Every player on the starting team draws powerups and chooses their characters' spawnpoints. Then every player on the other team does the same. The entire game will be played with all 6 figures on the board all the time.

When it is your team's turn to spawn, everyone should draw powerups:

• If you are a team of one, draw 4 powerups. Then discard 3 to choose the spawnpoints for your 3 characters, according to the usual spawning rules.
• On a team of two, one player draws 2 powerups and the other draws 3. The player with 2 powerups chooses a spawnpoint for his or her character. Then the player with 3 chooses spawnpoints for the other two characters. Each player will have 1 powerup left.
• On a team of three, each player draws 2 powerups and discards 1 to choose the spawnpoint for his or her character. You are allowed to consult with your teammates when choosing spawnpoints and you are allowed to reveal what powerups are in your hands.

Once both teams have spawned, normal play begins.

Team Turns

You take your turn as a team. Each character on the team gets one action.

Actions

The standard actions are:

• Move up to 1 square, and grab whatever is there.
• Or shoot people.

The Run Around action from the base game is not used in team play because there are more efficient ways to use a character's only action. Instead of a standard action, the character can:

• Use one unlocked adrenaline action.
• Or pay for an adrenaline rush and use one adrenaline action.

Adrenaline actions are the same as in the base game. Adrenaline rush is explained in the DLC Characters rulebook.

Characters may act in any order. After a character takes its action, rotate its card to horizontal. This indicates that it is ready to use its special ability once all three characters have acted.

Control

If you are a team of one, you make decisions for all three characters.

On a team of two, you will each have a character that you control and play powerups for, and there will be one shared character. At the start of each turn, you decide who will control and play powerups for the shared character for the entire turn.

On a team of three, each player controls one character, holds powerups for that character, and decides what that character will do.

Weapons

It is possible to grab weapons around the arena, as usual. When a character picks up an arena weapon, it goes into the player's hand. The weapon can be used by any character the player controls. In this way, characters on one-player and two-player teams can share loaded weapons from the arena. (Characters on three-player teams do not share loaded weapons because no player ever controls more than one character.)

Players share unloaded arena weapons. When a weapon is used, it goes on the table. At the end of the round any player may reload it (and take it into his or her hand).

As explained during setup, each player has his or her own pool of ammo. The costs to shoot and reload a weapon are paid by the player – not by the character and not by teammates.

Each character also starts with a character-specific weapon. This weapon can only be used by that character, and it can be reloaded only by a player who controls or shares that character. On a two-player team, the shared character's weapon can only be used by the player who loads it. When the other player is in control of the shared character, its loaded weapon cannot be used. If the weapon is unloaded, either player may reload it at the end of the turn.

Weapons Limit

Each player has a limit of 3 loaded weapons, not counting any character-specific weapons. If you are at your limit when you grab a new weapon, you must put one of your loaded arena weapons in its place. If you are at your limit when you reload, you must unload one of your arena weapons and put it on the table.

Damage

Damage in a team game works very differently. In a team game, we are using these tokens in the opposite way. The color of the token indicates which character should receive the damage. For example, green tokens represent damage to Sprog.

Keep the damage tokens in your team's colors near your damage buffer.

The Damage Buffer

You do not deal damage directly to the other team's boards. Instead, damage goes to their damage buffer. For example, if you deal 3 damage to Sprog, you ask them to put three green tokens in their damage buffer.

The damage buffer has space for six damage tokens and marks:

• Marks go here. No more than three of each color.
• Damage goes on these six spaces. At the end of the turn, if they are all filled, the buffer will flush.

Any damage beyond 6 can go in the middle. There is no limit to the damage the buffer can hold. Damage remains in their buffer until the end of your team's turn, at which time it will be sent to the enemy characters all at once, but only if their buffer has at least 6 damage. Otherwise, it will remain in the buffer, waiting for a later turn. Details are in the End of Turn section on the following page.

In general, all marks and damage dealt by weapons and powerups go through the damage buffer. The only exception is Sprog's special ability, as explained in the DLC Weapons Manual.

Marks in the Buffer

When damage is put into the buffer, check to see if there are any marks of the same color from a previous action. If there are, those marks also become damage.

As usual, if you deal marks and damage with the same action, resolve the damage first. The marks can be triggered only on a later action.

Powerups

Each player has his or her own hand of powerup cards and can play them (for effect, for ammo, or for respawning) only on behalf of a character he or she controls. Each player can have at most 3 powerups, as usual.

• On a one-player team, you can play powerups on behalf of any character.
• On a two-player team, only the player in control of the shared character can play powerups for it. However, when either player can be in control, either player may play powerups for the shared character. Specifically:
  • When the shared character is damaged by a target it can see, either player (but not both) may respond with one or more Tagback Grenades.
  • After the shared character has been killed and scored, either player may choose a spawnpoint by drawing a powerup and then discarding one. (We recommend letting the player with more powerups choose the spawnpoint.)
  • When you are reloading the shared character's specific weapon, you may use your powerups to help pay the cost.
• It is legal to discuss the powerups in your hand and to consult with your teammates on using them. You may discuss them secretly or openly.

Each powerup is explained on page 11.

End of Turn

Several things happen at the end of your team's turn. Once all the characters have completed their actions, perform these steps in this order:

1. Replace all weapons and ammo tiles that were grabbed from the board.
2. All characters on the team use their end-of-turn abilities.
3. Flush the damage buffer if it has 6 or more damage.
4. Score any killshots.
5. Reload.

Character Abilities

Each character has a special ability explained in the DLC Weapons Manual. Your three characters' abilities may be used in any order. After you use an ability, rotate the ability card to vertical. This helps you track which abilities have been used.

Note that abilities are used after all ammo tiles have been replaced but before you check the damage buffer. For some characters, this timing is important.

Sprog: Venom ability is mandatory. All characters with venom tokens receive 1 damage that does not go through the buffer. You'll see why this is important in the next section.

Flushing the Damage Buffer

After every character on your team has used their special abilities, you check your opponents' damage buffer. If it still has empty spaces for damage tokens (that is, if it has less than 6 damage), then nothing happens. The damage will remain there, and more can be added on your next turn. Damage accumulates in the buffer until you end your turn with 6 or more.

If their damage buffer has at least six damage tokens at the end of the turn, then all the damage will go to their characters' boards. This is called "flushing" the damage buffer. Give each enemy player board all the damage tokens in the matching color. Any marks in the damage buffer will remain there and can be converted to damage later.

Damage Buffer Rewards

In addition to dealing damage, your team also gains rewards for flushing the damage buffer. The damage buffer reward tile specifies the benefit your team will get when you finish a turn by flushing the opponents' damage buffer. The benefits are based on the number of colors of damage in the buffer. Ignore any marks.

The tile chosen during setup will apply to the entire game. You can plan your tactics around it and take advantage of the rewards at the end of a turn in which the damage buffer is full.

Your team scores the indicated number of points. The reward tile's three conditions are printed on the tile and are shown in the manual as:

• If you dealt at least 1 damage to each character.
• If you damaged exactly 2 characters.
• If all damage goes to the same character.

Other rewards:

• Healing: On one of your team's player boards, slide the adrenaline rush tile one space to the right (unless it is on the rightmost space).
• Ammo and powerups: The depicted amount of ammo and powerups is the total reward for your team. The team must decide how to distribute this reward. It is legal to give the entire reward to one player. (The manual's caption for this icon reads: "This represents one ammo cube of your choice.")

Example: The white team's damage buffer has 9 damage. This is more than 6, so the buffer will flush at the end of the black team's turn. Marks remain in the buffer. Damage gets sent out to 2 player boards. According to the damage buffer reward tile on this page, the black team scores 2 points and one character may heal.

Scoring Killshots

Killshot

A character is killed when it receives a damage token in the killshot space of its adrenaline rush tile.

Sprog: A killshot from Sprog's venom counts as a kill, even if that board received no damage from the buffer. So it's possible to score a doublekill even when all the tokens in the buffer are the same color.

Scoring a Board

Killshots are evaluated immediately after the damage buffer. Initially, each board is worth eight points. (There are no points for first blood, no points for second place, and no tokens moved to a killshot track.)

The first time a board is scored, move a skull from the skull board to the player board and cover up the 8 icon. The second time a board is scored, it is worth only six points. Then you use a skull to cover up the 6 icon, and so on.

Overkill

As in the base game, each board can also hold 1 damage token of overkill. (Additional damage beyond overkill is wasted.)

There is no revenge mark in team play, and there is no killshot track. Instead, the team that accomplished the overkill gets the following rewards:

• Overkill Point: The team scores 1 point.
• Healing: On one character's board, slide the adrenaline rush tile one space to the right. (If all boards are at full strength, this has no effect.)

The team of the overkilled character receives no compensation or sympathy.

Doublekill and Triplekill

By carefully managing the damage buffer, your team may be able to achieve multiple killshots on the same turn.

• If you end the turn with two killshots, score a doublekill bonus of 2 points.
• If you end the turn with killshots on all three enemy characters, score a triplekill bonus of 4 points.

Respawn

Killed characters immediately respawn to get ready for their turn. A character controlled by 1 player must be respawned by that player. (Draw a powerup, then discard a powerup to choose a spawn location, as usual.) The shared character on a two-player team can be respawned by either player.

Reload

Your team finishes its turn by reloading. This happens last so you can take advantage of any additional ammo you may have gained as a reward for flushing the damage buffer.

You may reload any of your team's unloaded weapons, except that a character-specific weapon can be reloaded only by a player who controls that character. (On a two-player team, either player may reload the shared character's weapon and add it to his or her hand.)

You may reload more than one weapon, but remember that your hand can have no more than 3 weapons, not counting character-specific weapons. If you reload with a full hand, you must unload a weapon to avoid exceeding the limit.

You pay for your own reload costs with your own ammo and powerups.

Game Over

When the eighth killshot is scored, the eighth skull is taken from the skull board, and this triggers the end of the game.

If both teams have played the same number of turns, the game ends immediately. Otherwise – if the team with the starting player marker scored the eighth killshot – the other team will get one more turn. The team that plays second will always get the final turn of the game.

Scoring Leftover Damage

At the end of the game, you gain points for all the remaining damage. Before undertaking this scoring step, be certain that all damage has been removed from boards that received a killshot. This damage can go into the killshot space and the overkill space, if necessary. Any damage over that amount is wasted and discarded. The team does not get any points for the killshot nor for overkill.

Empty the Damage Buffers

One or both of the damage buffers may have unflushed damage. Move these tokens (ignore marks) to the corresponding boards. This does not give either team any rewards for flushing the damage buffer.

Count by Threes

Damage tokens left on enemy player boards at the end of the game are worth 1 point for every three tokens. Or, to put it another way, add up all the tokens regardless of color, divide by three, and round down. A remainder of 1 or 2 tokens does not count for anything.

Winning the Game

The team with more points wins.

If there is a tie, the team that scored more points from leftover damage at the end of the game is the winner, because they ended the game in a stronger tactical position.

Powerups in Team Play

• Targeting Scope: Can be used only when a character you control is using a Shoot People action to deal damage. It does not apply to damage dealt by a special ability at the end of the turn. It does not apply when you are flushing the damage buffer.
• Newton: Can be used before or after any character's action during your team's turn. It can target only enemy figures, not figures on your team.
• Tagback Grenade: Is played when damage is added to the buffer, not when the buffer flushes. You can play it when an opponent deals damage destined for a character you control or share, but only if that character can see the one dealing the damage.
• Teleporter: Can teleport only characters you control. It cannot teleport a character currently controlled by your teammate.

Team Play Rules Summary

Setup

1. Divide players into 2 teams, sitting on opposite sides of the board.
2. Make the game board by choosing one side of each board. Set up the game as usual.
3. Add the skull board and the two damage buffers.
4. Choose a damage buffer reward tile.
5. Assign a random character-specific weapon to each character.

Character setup

1. Choose characters. The starting team picks one. The other team picks two. The starting team picks two. The other team gets the remaining character.
2. Each player gets 3 ammo of each color and places 1 of each color in the ammo box that he or she will use for the game.
3. Each character-specific weapon must be paid for by a player who can control that character. Pay the reload cost minus the top cube.
   • On a 1-player team, if you have to pay two cubes of the same color, the weapon you do not pay for will begin the game unloaded.
4. The first team chooses spawnpoints, then the second team chooses.
   • On a 1-player team, draw 4 powerups and spawn all 3 characters.
   • On a 2-player team, one player draws 3 and spawns 2; the other draws 2 and spawns his or her own character.
   • On a 3-player team, each player draws 2 powerups and spawns his or her own character.

Control

• On a 1-player team, you control all three characters.
• On a 2-player team, you each control one character and you share the remaining character.
  • One player is in control for the entire turn, until reloading.
  • During the other team's turn, and when reloading, either may be in control.
• On a 3-player team, each team member controls only 1 character.
• You can play powerups (for effect, as ammo, or for spawning) only for a character you currently control.

Actions

• On your team's turn, each character gets one action.
• Actions may be in any order.
• You take actions only for the characters you control.

Sharing weapons

• Any character you control may use a weapon in your hand.
• An unloaded weapon can be reloaded by anyone on the team.
• Each player has a limit of 3 loaded weapons in hand, not counting character-specific weapons. There is no limit on unloaded weapons.
• Character-specific weapons can only be used by that character.
  • On a 2-player team, either player may reload the shared character's weapon.

End of turn

1. Replace all ammo tiles and weapons grabbed from the board.
2. All characters can use abilities.
3. Flush the opponents' damage buffer if it has 6 or more damage.
4. Score any killshots.
5. Reload.

Damage buffer

• All damage and marks go through the damage buffer.
  • Sprog's special ability is the only exception.
• If the buffer has 6 or more damage at the end of the turn, it is all sent to the player boards.
  • The team dealing damage gains rewards based on whether the buffer held 1, 2, or 3 colors of damage.
• Marks remain in the buffer.
• If the buffer has less than 6 damage, all damage remains in the buffer.

Killshot scoring

0. Score no points for first blood.
1. Score 8 points if this is the board's first killshot, 6 if it is the second, 4 if it is the third, etc.
2. Score 1 point if there is overkill, and heal 1 character.
3. Score 2 points for a doublekill or 4 points for a triplekill.
4. Move a skull to the board to cover the point value that was scored.

End of game

1. When the eighth skull is taken, it triggers the end of the game. But both teams get the same number of turns.
2. Score leftover damage:
   • a. Be sure all damage is gone from scored killshots.
   • b. If a buffer has damage, send it out, but don't score it.
   • c. Score 1 point for every 3 leftover damage tokens.
3. The team with the most points wins.
   • a. Break ties in favor of the team that scored more points for leftover damage.