¡Arre Unicornio! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. What ¡Arre Unicornio! is and how it is played
• 2. What you need to know before playing
• 3. How to play ¡Arre Unicornio!
• 4. Components of ¡Arre Unicornio!
• 5. Starting the game
  • Roles Deck
  • Madness Deck
• 6. Turn of play
• 7. Adverse effects
• 8. Types of cards and how to play them
  • Roles
  • Escape Item cards
  • Wildcard cards
  • Everyday Item cards
  • Mental Illness cards
  • Lousy Treatment cards
• 9. Escaping from the asylum
• 10. Winning the game

1. What ¡Arre Unicornio! is and how it is played

¡Arre Unicornio! is a hidden-role game set in a very low-budget asylum. The Doctors will have to be sharp so that nobody escapes. But be careful not to go bonkers, since the madness becomes so extreme that you will no longer know who is who however hard you try, and it will be hard to recognize who is the maddest of all those present.

2. What you need to know before playing

In ¡Arre Unicornio! the players receive a card at the start of the game that indicates their hidden role and therefore their objective in the game.

The objective of the Director is to make everything work perfectly inside the asylum.

The objective of the Cleaning Employee and the Beadle is to change their lives, since they are paid little for everything they have to put up with.

The objective of the Doctors is to restrain all the Patients with straitjackets so that they do not escape.

The objective of the Patients is to escape from the asylum at all costs, no matter what tricks they use to achieve it.

3. How to play ¡Arre Unicornio!

You can choose to play a simple game of ¡Arre Unicornio!, in which the winners are the complete team of the Director plus the Doctors when they manage to keep all the Patients tied up, or the complete team of the Patients when any Patient manages to escape from the asylum. The Cleaning Employee and the Beadle do not win on any side since, whatever happens, they will be fired, so it is better for them to swap their role with another player as soon as possible.

However, our personal recommendation is to play for points. This way everything is not decided in a single simple game, but in a set of simple games. The ideal is to play a game to 7 points. For each simple game, shuffle again and do everything from the beginning.

• If the Director or any Doctor wins, all of them win 2 points.
• If any Patient wins, that Patient wins 2 points, and the rest of the Patients win 1 point if they are not wearing a Straitjacket.

If any character (Director or Patient) is restrained with a Straitjacket, they do not win points.

Note: Games with 2 and 3 players are not won as a team; victory is individual.

4. Components of ¡Arre Unicornio!

The game consists of 96 cards, divided into:

• 10 Role cards:
  • 1 Director card.
  • 1 Cleaning Employee card.
  • 1 Beadle card.
  • 3 Doctor cards.
  • 4 Patient cards.
• 18 Escape Item cards:
  • 6 Building Plan cards.
  • 6 Doctor Uniform cards.
  • 6 Master Key cards.
• 15 Wildcard cards:
  • 5 Syringe cards.
  • 5 Alarm cards.
  • 5 Medical Inspection cards.
• 13 Everyday Item cards:
  • 6 Straitjacket cards.
  • 5 Scissors cards.
  • 2 Truth Serum cards.
• 20 Mental Illness cards.
• 20 Lousy Treatment cards.

5. Starting the game

The player who thinks they are the maddest prepares the game. Two decks are formed, the roles deck on one side and the madness deck on the other.

Roles Deck

NO. OF PLAYERS	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
DIRECTOR	-	1	1	1	1	1	1
CLEANING/BEADLE	-	-	-	1	2	2	2
DOCTORS	-	-	1	1	1	2	2

NOTE: With 5 and 6 players you can choose between the Cleaning Employee or the Beadle; it makes no difference. That one of these characters is not in the game does NOT mean that the Doctor Uniform and the Master Key need not be obtained in order to escape.

Madness Deck

NO. OF PLAYERS	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
MADNESS CARDS	27	39	44	50	58	78	86

Depending on the number of players, more or fewer escape item, wildcard, everyday item, mental illness and lousy treatment cards must be added. For this, a number is given on the cards that indicates the minimum number of players there must be. That is, if the number of players is 6, you must take all the cards that have a number equal to or lower than 6; in this case we would take all the cards that have a 6, a 5, a 4, a 3 and a 2 (the 2 is the smallest number).

The roles deck is shuffled and one card is dealt to each player. The madness deck is shuffled and 3 are dealt to each player.

Each player looks at their role card and leaves it face down on the table in their play area, takes the other 3 cards and looks at them, chooses one card to keep, and with the shout of "I'm not mad!" ("yo no estoy loco/a") passes the other two cards to the left. We choose one of the two and pass the remaining one to the left.

We now have our initial hand; the game can begin.

The player who prepared the game starts.

6. Turn of play

At the start of your turn, you must do what the visible Mental Illness card in your play area indicates, if there is one. After resolving your Mental Illness, draw two cards, and then do one of these two options:

• Play up to two cards: You choose a card from your hand to play it. Repeat the action if you wish, but you may also play only one card, or even none if for some reason you see fit.
• Role swap: You may choose to swap your hidden role with that of another player who is not restrained with a straitjacket. Doctors cannot swap their role on their own initiative, but if another player chooses a Doctor to swap roles with, then they do swap.

Once you have done one of the options, discard as many cards as necessary until you have 3 cards in hand and pass the turn to the player on your left.

7. Adverse effects

The Director has grown tired of so much nonsense and has decreed that there will be no more syringes, has uninstalled the alarms and has cancelled the medical inspections until further notice. I hope you saved something before angering the Director.

When the cards of the madness deck run out, take all the wildcards (Syringe, Alarm and Medical Inspection) that are in the discard pile and remove them from the game, shuffle the rest of the cards of the discard pile and put them back as the madness deck.

The benevolence is over, you have had plenty of time to escape, now things will get harder.

8. Types of cards and how to play them

Roles

Don't get too attached to your role card, you may change jobs faster than you think.

• Director: He is the boss of all this madness; because of him things are the way they are. His goal since he was little is to make life more unbearable for everyone else.
• Cleaning Employee and Beadle: They are tired of putting up with the horrors the asylum harbors and want to escape even if to do so they must become Patients of the center.
• Doctors: They are in charge of restraining all the Patients with the Straitjacket, but be careful not to restrain the Cleaning Employee, the Beadle or the Director, since then the Patients will take advantage of the benefits this entails.
• Patients: They are the victims of this horrible place and must try to flee at all costs.

Escape Item cards

They are played on your turn by placing them in your play area or even in the play areas of other players. They serve to escape from the asylum. Regardless of the card used to place items, YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE ESCAPE ITEM CARD OF EACH TYPE.

• Building Plan
• Doctor Uniform
• Master Key

Wildcard cards

They are used at any time and do not use up turn actions. They are discarded after use. They serve to prevent certain actions of other players.

• Syringe: Used at the moment a card is thrown and serves to cancel it. A syringe can be cancelled by another syringe. The card they tried to use is discarded.
• Alarm: Used at the moment a Patient shouts "¡Arre Unicornio!" and serves to prevent the escape and pass the turn to the next player.
• Medical Inspection: Used at the moment a player tries to change a role in any way. If there was any other card involved in the attempted role swap, it is also discarded.

Everyday Item cards

They are used on your turn and are the most everyday objects in the day-to-day of this asylum. Each object has a very useful function for fixing all this madness. Play them wisely.

• Straitjacket: Played by placing it in the play area of another player. The restrained player must turn their role card face up. The player can keep playing, but cannot swap their role until freed from the straitjacket. If the player one tries to tie up is a Doctor, they will reveal that they are a Doctor and the Straitjacket card is discarded since it has no effect; then the Doctor will put their role card face down again and the game continues.
• Scissors: Used to cut a Straitjacket, and both cards go to the discard pile. Once the Straitjacket is cut, the role card is turned face down again.
• Truth Serum: Used against another player, who will have to reveal their role by turning it face up. Once all players have seen their role, it is turned face down again and the Truth Serum card is discarded.

Mental Illness cards

This type of card is thrown against another player, or against oneself if the causing effect interests you, and is placed in the play area of the affected player. If there was already a mental illness, the new mental illness is placed on top of the previous one. The visible card takes effect at the start of the affected player's turn and is discarded, possibly leaving visible another Mental Illness, if there is one, which will take effect on that player's next turn. If for some reason the illness cannot be carried out, it is discarded.

• Exquisite Magpie Syndrome: Steal a card from the hand of another player.
• Minimalist Disorder: Discard an escape item card from the play area of another player.
• Mental Hyperhidrosis: Play all the cards you have in hand. Those that cannot be played are discarded.
• Infinite Gluttony Disorder: Discard all the cards in your play area except the role.
• Pathological Conformist: Show your cards and, if you have Escape Items, place them in the play area of other players. Perhaps that way they will pay more attention to you.
• Hypnotic Mania: Swap the roles of two players of your choice who are not restrained with a straitjacket.
• Mania for Disordered Order: Steal an Escape Item from the play area of another player and place it in your play area.
• Equivalent Exchange Paranoia: Swap your cards in hand with those of another player.
• Aversion to Movement: You cannot play any card during this turn. Take the opportunity to swap roles, if you want, and if you are not a Doctor.
• Telepathic Disorder: Give a card from your hand to another player.

Lousy Treatment cards

This type of card is thrown against another player or against oneself and is placed in their play area. Unlike mental illnesses, these cards are not covered by one another but accumulate, making that player weaker and weaker.

If a player gathers at least 3 Lousy Treatment cards, they will spend 1 turn unable to do much, since their mind is not at its best. During this turn, they will not be affected by the mental illness they had visible (if they had any) and it will be discarded. They may only draw one card and cannot perform any action, NONE (nor escape from the asylum); afterwards they will have to discard down to 3 cards in hand. At the end of their turn, all the Lousy Treatment cards in their play area are discarded.

• Lobotomy
• Non-Transfer Therapy
• Unicornosis
• Music Therapy
• Placebos
• Love Hypnosis
• Implantology
• Abstract Language
• Magnetotherapy
• Fluidotherapy

NOTE: For those players who love to role-play during their games, some of these treatment cards can be "role-played" while you have them in your play area to give the game more realism.

9. Escaping from the asylum

Only the Patients can manage to escape from the asylum. To do so they must have in their play area the objects needed to leave at the end of their turn. These objects are the Master Key, the Doctor Uniform and the Building Plan, or failing that:

• If the Director is restrained with a straitjacket at the moment of the escape attempt, the plans in his office will be unguarded and, therefore, it will not be necessary to get the Building Plan card to escape. Having the Master Key and the Doctor Uniform will be enough.
• If the Cleaning Employee is restrained with a straitjacket at the moment of the escape attempt, the dirty laundry bucket will be unguarded and therefore it will not be necessary to get the Doctor Uniform card to escape. Having the Master Key and the Building Plan will be enough.
• If the Beadle is restrained with a straitjacket at the moment of the escape attempt, his keys will be unguarded and, therefore, it will not be necessary to get the Master Key card to escape. Having the Doctor Uniform and the Building Plan will be enough.
• If two of these characters are restrained, it will only be necessary to get the escape item of the non-restrained character to escape.
• If all three characters (Cleaning Employee, Beadle and Director) are restrained, no escape item will be needed.

If the Patient has everything ready, they only need to shout "¡Arre Unicornio!" at the end of their turn to declare that they have won the game.

10. Winning the game

You can win the game in the following way depending on your role:

• If you are the Director: you win the moment all the Patients are tied up.
• If you are the Cleaning Employee or Beadle: your only hope of winning is to swap your role and win the game as your new role does.
• If you are a Doctor: you win the moment all the Patients are tied up.
• If you are a Patient: AT THE END OF YOUR TURN, if you have all the objects needed to leave the asylum, shout "¡Arre Unicornio!" and you will have won the game.

NOTE: Only Patients with the ideal escape item conditions to win may shout "¡Arre Unicornio!". If this is not the case, the cheater may be penalized by taking away all the escape item cards they had in their play area.