Docteur Pilule
Docteur Pilule Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Clinic track, made of puzzle pieces
- 110 Test cards
- 55 Blue Pill cards
- 55 Red Pill cards
- 6 Funnel pawns
- this rulebook
Setup
Assemble the puzzle that forms the Clinic track, starting with the Start tile in the centre, then following the numbers up to the Exit tile. Your goal: reach the Exit tile before the others!
Form several teams of 2 patients. (If you are an odd number of players, one team will consist of 3 patients.) The patients of the same team sit side by side. Each team chooses a Funnel pawn and places it on the Start space of the Clinic track.
Shuffle the 3 decks of cards separately (Blue Pill, Red Pill and Test), then place them near the Clinic track.
A random player turns over the top card of the Test deck: 5 words of different colours are then visible.
(The printed illustration of this step carries the captions "Teams", "Colours" and "Cards".)
Example of the five words shown on a Test card: Farine (flour), Amener (to bring), Ananas (pineapple), Canne (cane), Dent (tooth).
Turns of Play
The teams take turns. Each team is made up of a Madman (Fou) and his Imaginary Friend (Ami imaginaire). The roles are swapped at each turn of your team: sometimes you play the Madman, who must make words guessed, and sometimes you play his Imaginary Friend, who tries to understand him.
Randomly determine the team that starts the game. For the 1st turn, designate within your team the Madman and the Imaginary Friend. (If your team is made up of 3 patients, there will be 1 Madman and 2 Imaginary Friends.)
Each turn of a team is played in 2 steps.
(The heading of this first step is not legible in the source extraction. Its text is transcribed here as printed.)
At this step, choose only the colour you want to use for the game. Only the words of this colour will be taken into account on the Test cards. (These colours are not linked to a difficulty level or to a theme.) Then turn face down the Test card you revealed: it becomes the first card of the discard pile. If you are the Madman of the active team, draw one Blue Pill card and one Red Pill card.
1. Taking Medication
Reveal your Pill cards and read their side effects aloud, then place them face up in front of you. The other players must know your side effects. Until the end of your team's turn, you must permanently suffer the side effects of your 2 pills. These cards affect only you. (Trust us, it is worth taking the plunge. However, if an effect seems really too undesirable, feel free to draw the next card.)
At each new turn, the Madman of the active team discards his old Pill cards and draws 2 new ones.
Use a phone or a timer to start a countdown of 40 seconds (precisely!), ideally with an alarm to sound the end of the allotted time.
Example of a Pill card: "Ancestor" — "You speak in an ancestor's voice. You dance the waltz in 3/4 time!" — "1, 2, 3... 1, 2, 3"
2. Psychological Tests
The Madman then draws a Test card and looks at the word of the colour chosen at the start of the game (for example, purple). If your Imaginary Friend already has Pill cards, he also suffers his own side effects during your team's turn.
Note: For the first turn of your team, only the Madman will have side effects, because his Imaginary Friend has not yet drawn any Pill cards.
As soon as a word has been found, the Madman draws a new Test card and tries to get the new word that appears guessed (always in the same colour). The Madman therefore has 40 seconds to get as many words as possible guessed (drawing a new Test card each time and looking at the word of the correct colour). At the end of the countdown, the team advances its Funnel pawn on the Clinic track by as many spaces as there are validated words.
Reminder: If the Imaginary Friend already has Pill cards, he must also suffer his own side effects while trying to guess the Madman's words.
Big Final Slide
The 2 spaces that precede the Exit represent the Big Final Slide (Gros Toboggan Final).
The Madman then tries to get this word guessed by his Imaginary Friend, without ever saying it in any language and without spelling it. Apart from that, he may say whatever he wants, or even mime if he wishes. He may only move on to the next card once his Imaginary Friend has guessed this word. No skipping!
Warning: In addition to describing his word to put his Imaginary Friend on the right track, the Madman must suffer the side effects of his 2 Pill cards.
As soon as a team has reached the Exit, finish the current turn. The teams that fail to escape during their last turn will remain stuck forever in Doctor Pilule's clinic!
MOUAHAHA!
The others get out... more or less, even if they do not win. If your pawn lands on one of these two spaces, you slide back and return to space 14! This means you must manage to guess at least 3 words in a row during your turn to reach the Exit!
During a team's turn, the other teams play the role of Doctor Pilule's nurses. These players keep their Pill cards, but are no longer required to suffer their side effects. Their mission: to check that the Madman and his Imaginary Friend respect their respective side effects. They may invalidate words if they consider that the side effects have not been correctly interpreted.
The Nurses
The first team to reach the Exit space wins and escapes this clinic of madmen! When the timer runs out, the nurses count the Test cards validated during the turn.
And there you have it: over to you!
But above all, they must remain caring towards the patients:
- They help the Madman if he cannot fully play his role (for example, if one of his side effects prevents him from moving his arms, a nurse may help him draw the Test cards).
- They may adapt the rules when 2 side effects are hard to combine.
- They remind the patients of their side effects if the patients forget them.
- They address the patients as "Madame" or "Monsieur", out of respect.
Long-term consequences... In rare cases, videos of the patients may be recorded for memorable moments that will make you laugh forever! Well, I say that, I say nothing... Yours sincerely,