Crazy Taco

Crazy Taco Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

50 customer cards
9 task cards
3 inspection cards
3 prepaid cards (2-player mode)
1 Fiesta Piñata card (exclusive to the Kickstarter/event edition)
5 custom dice
11 money tokens
1 popularity marker
1 extra hours marker
1 board

The game ends when:

The deck of order cards has been exhausted and resolved. You have succeeded!
Your popularity drops to the last space on the popularity track. You have lost!

Workers

Workers are represented by dice:

Manager (1): the main asset. Has 3 money faces, one food-service face, one drink-service face, and one blank face.
Employee (3): each has one money face, two food-service faces, one drink-service face, one blank face, and one rest face.
Trainee (1): has 2 food-service faces, 2 drink-service faces, and 2 blank faces.

When the money face comes up, you can use it to collect payment for orders and to serve the delivery drivers. It can also be used to serve bonus cards, both to acquire them and to activate them, and for cleaning the restaurant.

The food face lets you serve food orders.

The drink face lets you serve drink orders.

The rest face indicates that the worker is going to rest.

The blank face can be converted into food or drink. It has NO value on its own, and in a conversion it ALWAYS must be accompanied by a die (or several dice) showing the drink or food icon. The blank face does not replicate the food or drink result of the die it accompanies; you decide what you need that turn. The blank face has independent value for use in other tasks.

Other Components

Customer deck: the customer cards, placed face down.
Task deck: the task cards, placed face down.
Customer zone (counter), with customers arriving from the left.
Rest zone, where workers who are resting are placed.
Fine area (Multa).
Popularity track.
Cash register.
Storeroom door (puerta del almacén), where the current task is placed.
Task zone (blue area), where assigned tasks and their dice are kept.
Bonus zone, where bonus cards are kept.

Game Setup

Place the time marker (extra hours marker) with the 0 space visible in the rest room, and place the popularity marker (pencil marker) pointing at the top space of the popularity track.

Shuffle the customer cards face down to form the customer deck, and shuffle the TASK cards face down to form the task deck. Place both decks to the left, outside the board.

Remove the three order-terminal cards marked with the "terminal" icon (these cards are exclusive to the 2-player game mode).

Note: see "Kitchen Heads-Up!" on page 15 for how to add the inspection card.

Customer Cards

Each customer card has three parts:

Orders to serve (food and drinks).
Money we collect.
Computer messages: Task, Open, Penalty.

Task: draw a card from the task deck.
Open: draw a new customer card.
Penalty: indicates the penalty for failing the card's objective.

Bonus Cards

Inside the customer deck you will find BONUS cards:

Restaurant cleaning cards (3): You must use a die showing a "blank" or "money" face to remove the card from the order line and move it to the bonus zone, where it must remain for the number of turns shown on the card's die track.
Free time cards (2): These take NO space; discard them, since there is no one to serve. That turn you may relax by moving on to Phase 2.
Meal voucher card (1): Once acquired by using a die showing a "blank" face, it moves to the bonus zone and can be used whenever you wish without any extra die cost. You can complete an order by serving it in exchange for this single-use card. Do not collect payment; you receive no money.
Staff-room key card (1): Once acquired with a "money" face, it moves to the bonus zone. To activate it you must use a new die showing a "money" face, which stays captive for three turns. Once activated, nobody may enter the rest room, so dice with a "rest" result are not used that round, but they can still be played in the following round.

Note: If there is no room in the Bonus zone, you cannot add cards to the BONUS zone.

Task Cards

Task cards are activated by the computer message on customer cards. Reveal a card from the task deck and place it face up on the storeroom door.

The task is resolved by assigning the die indicated in the upper-left corner of the card. The card is then moved, together with the die, to the task zone (blue), freeing up the storeroom door space.

In the task zone, both the die and the card remain for the number of turns shown on the card. Once that is done, you must pay the cost of the order, if any, by removing the card and recovering the die.

If you receive a new task while the task on the storeroom door has not been resolved, you are penalized according to the indication in the lower-right corner of the card already in play, whether by a fine, a loss of popularity, or both. You then replace that task card with the new one on the storeroom door. The unresolved task card is discarded from the game.

Extra Cards

Within the customer deck there are 3 cards with extra tools to increase your restaurant's production. When one appears in play, you must decide whether to acquire it by paying its price (shown in the upper-right corner) and place it in the "EXTRA" area at the bottom right of the board, earning the bonus indicated, whenever you wish. If you decide not to buy the extra accessory, discard the card.

After an extra card appears, whether or not you decide to acquire it, a new customer card must be put into play.

Only one extra may be in play at a time. During the game you may swap your accessory for a new one, receiving in exchange the amount of money stipulated for the extra being discarded.

Character Cards

Remove the "VIP" and "the pickpocket" character cards from the customer deck to lower the challenge level of the game.

"VIP" character: The VIP enters the restaurant and you serve them as an ordinary customer, but they have no patience, so they leave the restaurant if you do not serve them before they enter the patience zone (Paciencia). Serving them in time earns good reputation, gaining 1 popularity star; failing to do so carries a heavier penalty, and you lose 2 popularity stars.

"The pickpocket" character: Their entrance coincides with the arrival of a task, so they take advantage of your workload to return to the customer deck if they are not served in time before reaching the patience zone. Their mission is to leave without paying so that they can return later, generating one more customer in play and the corresponding loss of popularity as with any other customer who was not served. Your task is to serve them so as to discard them from the game.

As a special rule, you must serve them before collecting payment for their order. This card cannot be used and is discarded if there are no "tasks" pending. Shuffle the customer deck when you put the card back into it.

How to Play

Everything is ready to start the working day. As soon as the restaurant opens, begin with an INITIAL PHASE that happens only once. Your first two customers, marked on their reverse with the "WELCOME" sign, enter.

Place them face up at random in positions 1 and 2. (From the second round on, every card we reveal goes into the free space furthest to the right.) With this, the initial exit phase is complete, and you move on to Phases 2 and 3. Review each phase to know how to act in each one.

PHASE 1: CUSTOMERS (customer entry).
PHASE 2: DICE ROLL and PLACEMENT (serving orders / tasks).
PHASE 3: MANAGEMENT of work in progress, rest and investment.

(F1) Customers (customer zone / counter)

Customers (customers and bonus cards) enter the restaurant from the left. Reveal and place a CUSTOMER card in the corresponding zone of the available counter row, making sure there is no gap between the customer cards by moving them to the right along the counter.

The customer in position 1 advances one position to the next patience level. If a customer leaves because the last available position was occupied, you suffer the corresponding loss of popularity (moving down one space on the Popularity track).

Bonus cards do not advance to the patience zone. After position 1, they leave the restaurant and trigger their corresponding penalty.

When a customer enters and there is no space, that customer enters the last position, forcing out the customer in position 1 or in the patience zone.

(F2) Dice Roll

It is time to work, and to do so you must roll the available dice. You may not have all the dice to roll because:

They are busy doing tasks.
They are in the rest room (zzz).
You kept a die result from the previous turn.

Remember that you can pay the amount indicated on the menu to re-roll as many dice as you wish.

(F2) Dice Placement (customer zone / storeroom door / bonus zone / rest room / task zone)

Analyze the resulting roll and decide, using EACH die only ONCE, which of your priorities to pursue, being able to:

Serve a complete order (food/drinks). If you serve a customer's order, it must be served in full, NEVER partially. Place the dice used on it and turn the card to a VERTICAL position, leaving the side with the drawing at the bottom, which will help you identify that the order is only pending payment. If the order had already been collected, the customer leaves the restaurant (remove the card). Add the indicated amount of money to the cash register.
Collect an order. If you decide to collect the order, place the corresponding die on the card and turn the card to a vertical position, leaving the side with the banknote drawing at the bottom to mark that this action has been performed, leaving the order pending service. If the order had already been served, the customer leaves the restaurant (remove the card). Add the indicated amount of money to the cash register.
Both of the above. If the dice roll allows it and you decide it is a good option, you can complete a customer's service by serving the order and collecting payment at the same time. In this case, remove the card from play and add the amount marked on the order to the cash register.

You may decide to keep the dice results, not using them and reserving them for use on a later turn. You may reserve as many dice as you wish.

Attend a task. A customer's entry may coincide with a task, which will be shown by a "task" warning on the computer. Reveal a task card and place it on the storeroom door. The storeroom door has room for only one task, so you must not be careless: if another customer comes in with a task warning, it will trigger the penalty of the card on the storeroom door, discarding it and replacing it with the new task.
Collect/resolve bonus. BONUS cards appear in the customer area (except the "Fiesta Piñata" card), occupying the same position as a customer, with the exception of not using the patience zone. If they are not attended before disappearing (through the push of cards), the penalty indicated on the card applies. Obtain the bonus by collecting it from the customer zone, assigning the indicated die, and moving the card to the bonus zone. Some bonuses are activated by assigning a die, while others activate directly without assigning a die. Bonus cards are single-use, so they are discarded from the game once resolved. It is important to keep the menu card in mind, since there may be interesting combinations that help you in the game.

Note: Money is received in the cash register only once the order has been served and collected and the customer leaves the game, NEVER by collecting it separately.

(F3) Management of Work (all zones)

In this last phase of the turn, the following is handled:

The movement of turn dice on cards (tasks and bonuses), advancing one position or recovering the die, and managing the benefits and obligations of the card in question if its requirements have been met.
The movement of dice in the rest room: introducing the die (if it came up this turn), or advancing it one position per turn until it comes out, when you recover it to be played. If more than one die enters the rest room, each die occupies one position, never two in the same space.
The movement of customers/orders/bonuses in the order zone toward the right to fill gaps in the line.
You manage money, and may invest it in paying overtime, an express advertising campaign to recover popularity, or fines you may have pending.

EXTRA HOURS: The company authorizes the payment of overtime to recover workers from the rest room. Use the counter located at the top of the room to record the use of extra hours, which may only be applied twice during the game and in each case to a single worker/die. The cost of the hours is shown at the bottom of the menu.

Once all 3 phases are complete, you start a new turn, repeating the phases of the game until all the cards in the customer deck are exhausted and resolved. If you achieve this before reaching the last space on the popularity track, you have WON! Otherwise, you have lost your opportunity.

Kitchen Heads-Up!

You hear a rumor that during the game you are going to have an inspection from the Labor, Health or Franchise authorities.

Before starting the game, randomly select one of the three inspection cards included in the game, and without looking at which one it is, add it to the customer deck (shuffle the deck).

When the inspector appears, you must pay the established fine, if the condition printed on the card is met:

-$3 per worker in the rest room.
-$6 if no workers are resting.
-$5 per trash/cleaning card in play.

If you do not have enough money to pay, the die corresponding to the trainee and the inspection card are locked in the FINE zone until the fine is paid.

When an inspection card appears, you must draw a new card from the customer deck.

2 Players: 1 vs 1

In this game mode, one player acts as the manager of "CRAZY TACO" and the other faces them by managing the clientele.

We recommend having played a solo game before trying the madness of this mode.

The setup is the same as for the solo game, with three exceptions:

Modify the customer deck: remove from the game the three cards marked with the icon shown on page 16 of the manual, and add the three order-terminal cards marked with their own icon. This card does not need a payment die (green bill) when in play; it is resolved directly with the action on the order.
The "VIP" and "the pickpocket" character cards may not be used.
After shuffling the three Extra cards, place them face down in the manager player's area.

Customer Player

The customer player's mission is to overwhelm the other player's management capacity by introducing new customers into the restaurant.

They draw the first 3 cards from the customer deck which, together with the 2 "WELCOME" starting cards, make up the opening hand.

At the start of each round (phase 1), the customer player plays one of the cards in hand. Phases 2 and 3 belong to the manager of "CRAZY TACO".

When playing a customer card, the base rule applies: after playing a "+OPEN" or "TASK" card together with its corresponding card, in that turn or the following turn you may not repeat the play of either one. That is, if a "+OPEN" card was played with its additional card, on the next turn you may not play another "+OPEN" card or a "TASK" card; and if a "TASK" card was played that turn, on the next turn you may play neither a "TASK" card nor a "+OPEN" card.

After playing, draw cards from the customer deck as needed to restore a hand of 5 cards.

On their turn, the customer player may discard three cards, returning them face down to the bottom of the customer deck, and draw three new cards from the top. This action costs the customer player their turn of play, and they must wait until the next turn to play the desired card.

The customer player wins if they bring "CRAZY TACO" to its last popularity space.

Manager Player

Following the rules of solo play, the manager player must complete PHASES 2 and 3, and survive the wave of customers that the opponent prepares and plays.

When a popularity star is lost, the manager player may reveal the top card of the Extra deck and decide whether it is worth paying for it to keep it, or discard it from the game.

The manager player wins if they survive the opponent's entire card deck without reaching the minimum popularity level. They also win if the other player cannot play one of the cards in their hand on their corresponding turn.

Fiesta Piñata Card (Exclusive to Kickstarter/Events)

This card is out of the game and is activated when two "+OPEN" cards appear in a row. The Fiesta Piñata card enters the bonus zone directly after the second "+OPEN" card, instead of a new card from the deck. (It appears only once per game.)

If there is no room in the Bonus zone, the card leaves the game, activating its penalty.

To resolve it, use a blank die that remains captive for 2 turns. After those turns, it leaves the bonus zone and the game, and you collect $6.

On the other hand, if once in play in the bonus zone it has not been attended before a combination of cards appears in the customer zone of "+TASK/+OPEN" or "+OPEN/+TASK", the card activates its penalty (-2 popularity stars), and leaves the bonus zone and therefore the game.

To use the menu, you must use the result of the dice roll. Blank-face variations are NOT valid, but variations from the "Extra" cards ARE valid.

Menu options:

Taco especial: Remove from the customer area the customer cards (except bonus cards) and receive the money corresponding to them. Dice cost (as shown by the menu icons): 2 food faces, 1 money face, 1 drink face and 1 blank face.
Vulcano / Ice and fire: Convert three food faces or three drink faces into one money face.
La Plata / Triple burrito: Use one money face to recover one die from the rest room, or three blank faces to recover two dice from the rest room.
Loreto's Mole: Convert four food faces into two money faces.
Achilipú: You may turn three dice to the desired faces, in exchange for four drink faces.
Nachos Pico-Pica: Increase your popularity by one star in exchange for four BLANK faces.
Campaña de publicidad (advertising campaign): Pay $10 and increase your popularity level by one star.
Hora extra 1 (extra hour 1): Pay $3 and recover one die from the rest room. Move the hours indicator to its position "1".
Hora extra 2 (extra hour 2): Pay $5 and recover one die from the rest room. Move the hours indicator to its position "2".
Relanzamiento de dados (dice re-roll): Pay $3 to re-roll the dice you wish (including "rest" results).