Bad Doctor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Set Up
• Gameplay
  • Player Turns
  • Step 1: Take Actions
  • Step 2: Remove and Score Cured Patients
  • Step 3: Add Complication Cubes
  • Step 4: Prepare for the Next Shift
• Winning the Game
• Treatment Tile Bonuses

Components

• 37 Treatment Tiles
• 22 Patients
• 4 Double-Sided Starting Patients
• 15 Complication Cubes
• 5 Shift Tokens
• 80 Doctor Markers (20 of each color: Dr. A. Achoo, Dr. Eror, Dr. Paine, Dr. Mal Practice)
• 4 Doctor Boards (1 of each color)

The game has four Maladies that are represented by the following colors:

• Injury (red)
• Acute Illness (green)
• Chronic Illness (yellow)
• Medical Error (blue)

Patient cards show a "Space for Complication Cubes" marked on each card.

Set Up

1. Each player chooses a Doctor Board and takes a number of the corresponding Doctor Markers in their player color, and places them in their Supply as follows:
   • 4-player game: 15 Doctor Markers
   • 3-player game: 18 Doctor Markers
   • 2-player game: 20 Doctor Markers
2. Shuffle the Treatment Tiles and place them facedown to create the Treatment Deck.
3. Each player draws two Treatment Tiles from the Treatment Deck. Each player's Treatment Tiles are placed face-up on the table in front of them, visible for other players to see.
4. Shuffle the Patients and place them facedown to create the Patient Deck.
5. Place all four of the Starting Patients in the center of the table. This is called the hospital.
6. Place one Shift Token on each Patient, Unvisited side up.
7. The player who most recently went to the doctor starts the game. Play proceeds clockwise.
8. Place the Complication Cubes in a pile within reach of all players.

Variation: If being a Bad Doctor isn't stressful enough, try removing two wild Treatment Tiles for added difficulty.

Gameplay

Player Turns

Players take turns performing the following four steps in order:

1. Take 2 Actions
2. Remove and score Cured Patients
3. Add Complication Cubes
4. Prepare for the next shift

Step 1: Take Actions

You MUST perform two actions. Either draw a Treatment Tile or place a Treatment Tile. You may draw two Treatment Tiles, OR place two Treatment Tiles; OR you may draw a Treatment Tile and place a Treatment Tile, in any order. You may NOT choose to Pass.

Very Important! On each player's first turn, each player must draw one Treatment Tile and place one Treatment Tile.

Available Actions:

Draw a Treatment Tile

Take one Treatment Tile from the Treatment Deck and place it face-up in front of you near your Doctor Board. Treatment Tiles are always visible to the other players. Each player may only have up to 5 Treatment Tiles. If a player already has 5 Treatment Tiles they may NOT choose this action or draw a Treatment Tile from a Treatment Tile Bonus.

Note: Treatment Tiles are discarded face-up in a discard pile next to the Treatment Deck. When there are no more Treatment Tiles, the discard pile is shuffled and placed face-down to replenish the Treatment Deck.

Place a Treatment Tile

Take one Treatment Tile from your play area and place it next to a Patient with a corresponding Malady. (Figure A)

If there is not a corresponding Malady on one of the Patients in the Hospital then you may not play that Treatment Tile. (Figure B)

Please note there is a "wild" Malady that can connect with any Malady.

If a player has 5 Treatment Tiles but is unable to place any of them, they discard one Treatment Tile of their choice and draw a new one. They repeat this until they are no longer stuck.

After placing a Treatment Tile do the following:

• Perform any Treatment Tile Bonus listed on the Treatment Tile. Note: There is a glossary of all Treatment Tile Bonuses at the back of the rulebook.
• Flip the Shift Token to the Visited Side. (Figure C)

A Patient is considered Visited:

1. When a Treatment Tile is added to or removed from the Patient; or,
2. When a Complication Cube is added to or removed from the Patient.

Place one of your Doctor Markers on top of the completed Malady space to indicate that you helped cure one of that Patient's Maladies. If a player does not have any Doctor Markers in their Supply, they may elect to remove one from another Patient. Note that removing a Doctor Marker does not affect whether the affected Patient was Visited. If the player does not want to remove a Doctor Marker in this fashion, they can still place a Treatment Tile and activate the Treatment Tile Bonus.

Step 2: Remove and Score Cured Patients

Check all of the current Patients to see if any are Cured. A Patient is considered Cured when there are no open Malady spaces on the Patient AND all connected Treatment Tiles.

If a Patient is Cured, the player that cured them collects all of their own Doctor Markers from the Patient and places them in the Score Pile on their Doctor Board.

Note: Only the player that placed the final Treatment Tile and Cured the Patient scores. Other players' Doctor Markers are returned to their Supply.

All Treatment Tiles that are connected to the Cured patient are placed in the Treatment Tile discard pile. The Cured patient is placed in the Patient discard pile. If the Patient Cured is a Starting Patient, it is removed from the game.

Step 3: Add Complication Cubes

Add one Complication Cube to each Patient that was Unvisited this turn. If a Patient should receive a Complication Cube and there is not an open space for one, the Patient dies.

If a Patient dies on your turn, you take one Doctor Marker from your Supply and remove it from the game. If there are no remaining Doctor Markers in your Supply, select one of your Doctor Markers from anywhere in the hospital to be removed from the game. Now collect any of your Doctor Markers from the deceased Patient, and return them to your Supply.

All other players that have a Doctor Marker on the now deceased Patient should move all of their Doctor Markers from the deceased Patient to their Score Pile on their Doctor Board. Any Treatment Tiles connected to the deceased Patient are discarded. The deceased Patient is also discarded.

Step 4: Prepare for the Next Shift

If any player has 8 or more Doctor Markers in their Score Pile at this point, the game is over. Proceed to "Winning The Game".

Otherwise...

• Flip all the Shift Tokens to the Unvisited side.
• If there are fewer than four Patients in the hospital, draw and place new Patients from the Patient Deck until there are four Patients in the hospital.

Winning the Game

If any player has 8 or more Doctor Markers in their Score Pile, the game is over. The player with the most Doctor Markers in their Score Pile wins the game.

If players are tied, the player who removed the fewest number of Doctor Markers from the game (resulting from patient deaths) wins the game. If there is still a tie, the player with the most Doctor Markers on existing Patients in the hospital wins the game.

Note: It is possible for a player to cure a Patient and meet the winning condition but at the same time cause other Patients to die and give another player more points to win.

Treatment Tile Bonuses

Draw 1 Treatment Tile: Draw one Treatment Tile. Remember you may only have 5 Treatment Tiles. If you already have 5 Treatment Tiles you may NOT draw another one to replace an existing Treatment Tile.

Draw 2 Treatment Tiles: Draw two Treatment Tiles. Remember you may only have 5 Treatment Tiles. If you already have 5 Treatment Tiles you may NOT draw another one to replace an existing Treatment Tile. If you have 4 Treatment Tiles, you only draw ONE.

All Players Draw 1 Treatment Tile: All players draw one Treatment Tile. Remember you may only have 5 Treatment Tiles. If you already have 5 Treatment Tiles you may NOT draw another one to replace an existing Treatment Tile.

Move 1 Complication Cube from one Patient to another: There must be a space for a Complication Cube on the Patient to which the Complication Cube is moved. Both the Patient the Complication Cube was removed from and the one it was moved to are considered Visited. Flip the Shift Tokens on both Patients to the Visited side.

Add 1 Complication Cube to a Patient: There must be a space on the Patient that the Complication Cube is added to. The Patient that the Complication Cube is added to is now considered Visited. Flip the Shift Token to the Visited side. If there is not a space on any of the Patients ignore this effect.

Remove 1 Complication Cube from a Patient: Remove one Complication Cube from any Patient. The Patient that the Complication Cube is removed from is now considered Visited. Flip the Shift Token to the Visited side.

Place 1 Treatment Tile: After placing the new Treatment Tile you may activate the Treatment Tile Bonus of the newly placed tile. The Patient that the Treatment Tile is added to is now considered Visited. Flip the Shift Token to the Visited side.

Remove 1 Treatment Tile: You may ONLY remove Treatment Tiles from an edge. You may NOT remove a Treatment Tile connecting two other tiles. Any Doctor Marker that is not supported by two Treatment Tiles is returned to that player's Supply. The Patient that the Treatment Tile is removed from is now considered Visited. Flip the Shift Token to the Visited side.

Add 1 Patient to the Hospital: Add one Patient to the hospital. This is the only time the hospital would have 5 Patients instead of 4.