Evil Baby Orphanage
Evil Baby Orphanage Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to Evil Baby Orphanage, a card game for three or more players. Each player takes on the role of a Time-Nanny in an Evil Baby Orphanage, kidnapping villains throughout history and raising them to be accountants, or ballerinas, or something. Each player takes turns playing cards to help keep those Evil Babies from burning down the whole orphanage, supervising Evil Babies, and adopting an Evil Baby from the Time Stream.
How to Play
The rules of play aren't much more complicated than time travel … and that's how we like em! After all, those Evil Babies will cause all the mischief for us!
Set-Up
To begin, the Time-Nannies (that's what we call you players) will sort the cards into two decks (you can tell which is which, because they have different backs). Set these decks in the center of the table, where all the Time-Nannies can easily reach them. Each Time-Nanny should also take a reference card, setting excess reference cards aside.
The Nanny Deck (with the Green backs) contains actions that a Time-Nanny can take, and players will play these cards to do special things during the game. Next to the Nanny Deck, be sure to leave an area for the Spent Pile, which is where used Nanny Cards go.
The Baby Deck (with the Purple backs) is filled with many Evil Babies from history that need to be "Prehabilitated." Next to the Baby Deck, leave an area for the Time Stream, which is where Evil Babies ready for adoption go.
Each player then draws 4 cards from the Nanny Deck. Next, the players deal out 3 cards in a line next to the Baby Deck to create the Time Stream, from which players will "Adopt" Evil Babies. After the Time Stream is built, each player draws a random card from the top of the Baby Deck and places it into their Orphanage.
(Setup diagram, "Middle of the play area": the Time Stream row of Baby Cards, the Baby Deck, the Spent Pile and the Nanny Deck.)
The Orphanage and "Adoption"
Each player has an Orphanage. This includes a place to put all the player's toys and Evil Babies. Evil Babies are placed in a line (left to right), and whenever a new Evil Baby is added to your Orphanage for any reason, it is put to the left or right of the other Evil Babies (at the beginning or end of the line).
(Diagram, "Players Orphanage": a row of Baby Cards forming the Baby Line, with Toy Cards placed beside the line.)
Decide who goes first
The person who looks most like their Evil Baby (or time-machine?) gets to go first, and play proceeds clockwise. If you can't agree on who looks the most like their Evil Baby, randomly choose a player to go first. Who goes first really isn't that important, just flip coins, roll dice, play Rock-Paper-Scissors, or have a good old-fashioned Evil Laugh Off.
The Turn
Each Time-Nanny's turn is broken into a series of five steps. Each step must be completed before the next step is begun, and you may not skip a step.
Step 1: Win
First, you check to see if you have won! If you have at least 10 Mischief in your Orphanage, during this step, you are the winner. You should feel very good about how fantastic you are.
Step 2: Activity
You may now play any Nanny Cards from your hand or Discard Toys from your Orphanage to use their effects. This is normally the only time you can play Nanny Cards (including Toys) from your hand or discard toys to use their special effects. You may play a toy and then use it in the same Activity step.
Some cards can be played at other times. If a Nanny Card can be played outside of your Activity step, it will have a Nanny Clock-Hat icon in the upper right corner of the card. These cards might even be playable during your opponent's turn!
Step 3: Supervise
During this step, you move down your Orphanage line from left to right, resolving each Evil Baby's Unsupervised Effects. Effects on an individual Evil Baby card are resolved in order from Left to Right (as they appear on the card).
Each player may Supervise Evil Babies during their own Supervise Step by discarding "Good Toys." A Supervised Evil Baby does not trigger any of its Unsupervised Effects.
Some Evil Babies have Symbols, while others have a Special Effect…. and some have both! If an Evil Baby has a written Unsupervised Effect, it works just like a symbol but is special to that Evil Baby. Other effects are continuous, or situational, and are described on the Evil Baby card.
If you get an Evil Baby during your Supervise Step (usually because of a Bully), you can decide whether it goes on the left or right of your other Evil Babies; however, if you put it on the right, it will perform its Unsupervised Actions just as if it had been in your Orphanage all along! So it might be smarter for you to put it on the left of your other Evil Babies!
Step 4: "Adopt"
You must now take an Evil Baby from the Time-Stream and place it into your Orphanage. You may place this Evil Baby on the left or right of your line of Evil Babies.
If there is a Time Machine in the Time Stream, you may select it instead of an Evil Baby.
Step 5: Draw
You must now draw Nanny Cards until you have 4 cards in your hand. If there are no cards left in the Nanny Deck, shuffle the Spent Pile and start a new Nanny Deck.
If you have cards in your hand that you do not want, you may discard them before you draw back up to 4 cards.
Unsupervised Symbols
Many Evil Babies have a series of Unsupervised Action Symbols. There are five symbols, and they are triggered any time an Evil Baby is Unsupervised. They are:
- Bully (purple fist icon): These Evil Babies shove an Evil Baby from another Orphanage. Choose any Time-Nanny, that Time-Nanny must select one of their Evil Babies and give it to a Time-Nanny to their left or right.
- Biter (pink fang icon): These Evil Babies throw tantrums and scare off other Evil Babies. Choose another of your own Evil Babies and give it to a Time-Nanny to your left or right.
- Grabby (green grasping-hand icon): These Evil Babies tend to snatch up anything left lying around. Choose a Toy or Time Machine from an Orphanage to your left or right and move it into your Orphanage.
- Babbling (light-blue mouth icon): Why won't this baby stop making inane noise! Each other Time-Nanny to your left and right draws 1 Nanny-Card.
- Creepy (yellow-green eye icon): Soooooo Creepy … it stalks from Orphanage to Orphanage doing who knows what! Choose a Time-Nanny to your left or right, the Creepy Evil Baby moves to that Time-Nanny's Orphanage.
Toys
Toys are a special kind of Nanny card with a green background. When you play a Toy Card, it is placed in your Orphanage and stays there.
Toys have special effects. Some are always on and some must be spent to have an effect. Unless otherwise stated by the toy's effect, all toys must be used in the Activity Step.
- Good Toys are marked with a ball symbol (blue ring). You may discard the toy from your Orphanage to Supervise an Evil Baby during your own Supervise Step.
- Bad Toys are marked with a ghost symbol (red circle). You may discard the toy from your Orphanage to cause any Evil Baby to take it's Unsupervised Actions during your Activity Step.
Time Machines
These cards are toys that appear in the Baby Deck. You may only ever have one Time Machine in your Orphanage. If, for any reason, you get more than one Time Machine, you must give all but one of your Time Machines to other players. If every player has a Time Machine already, you must place your extra Time Machines on the bottom of the Baby Deck.
The Time Stream
You must make sure there are 3 Evil Babies (or Time Machines) awaiting adoption in the Time Stream. Any time there are less than three cards in the Time Stream, place the top card from the Baby Deck into the Time Stream until there are 3 cards.
Finishing the Game
If, at the beginning of any player's turn, they have Evil Babies with 10 or more total Mischief Rating (shown on the upper right of the Evil Baby card), they are the winner! For a longer game, play to 12, 15 ... or even more Mischief!
Evil Baby Card Anatomy
Each Evil Baby card shows the following:
- Mischief Rating (upper right): the Mischief value counted toward the win condition.
- Biographical Information: a short description of the historical figure, printed beneath the name.
- Adorable Picture: the artwork for the Evil Baby.
- Unsupervised Symbol: the Unsupervised Action Symbol(s) triggered when the Evil Baby is Unsupervised, as described above.