Filler
Filler Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 50 standard recipe cards
- 10 advanced recipe cards
- 18 chef cards
- 6 reference cards (with personality cards for solo play on reverse side)
- 6 turn order cards
Set Up
Supply the Chefs: Give each player a set of 3 chef cards and a reference card, all with a matching border color. Place any extras back in the box.
Create the Recipe Deck: Return the 10 advanced recipe cards, with a red border, to the box (unless everyone has played before, or you have 6 players). Shuffle the rest of the recipe cards and count out 10 cards per player. Place any extras back in the box.
Create the Recipe Book: From the deck, reveal as many recipe cards as there are players, plus one, and place these in a row in the center of the table.
Recipe Cards
Each recipe card has two regions. On the left side of the card is a column of information that is important when the card is in your hand. The rest of the card is relevant only when the card is in the recipe book.
Icons
Ingredients are used to fill recipes: rare, common, or any.
Requirements specify which ingredients you need to fill this recipe: rare, common, or any.
Victory points are how you win the game.
Special abilities are extra effects that happen when you fill this recipe: bonus fill, bonus restock, bad batch, arrive early.
Gameplay
The game takes place over a number of rounds, called days. Each day, players will use a card from their hand to determine the turn order for that day. Then, each player in turn will either fill a recipe (claim a new card), or restock their pantry (pick up discarded cards). Finally, the recipe book is refilled.
Turn Order
At the beginning of a day, each player must place a card from their hand face-down in front of them. This is the player's time card for the day. Once everyone has done this, all players simultaneously reveal their time card. The times printed on these cards determine the turn order for the day, earliest to latest. If you like, you may distribute the turn order cards as a visual indicator of this order.
Note: The recipe book is not replenished after a player's turn, so earlier players will have more choices than later ones.
On each player's turn, the player must first discard their time card into their personal discard pile, and then perform either a fill action or a restock action.
Fill
If a player chooses the fill action, they must play one or more cards from their hand. The ingredients on the left side of those cards must cover all of the requirements listed on one of the recipe cards in the recipe book. Then, the player must discard all of these played cards, and pick up the fulfilled recipe into their hand.
Note: Since the time card has already been discarded at this point, it is not available for the player to use in fulfilling a recipe.
Some recipes have a special ability icon, which is immediately resolved at this time. These abilities are explained in the Special Abilities section of the rulebook.
Restock
If a player chooses the restock action, they pick up all of the cards in their discard pile and return them to their hand. In addition, the player reserves one of the cards in the recipe book by returning it to the top of the deck. This prevents other players from fulfilling that recipe this day.
End of the Day
After all players have taken their turn, refill the recipe book with cards from the top of the recipe deck until there are as many cards available as the number of players, plus one.
If there are not enough cards to fully fill the recipe book at the end of a day, the game is over. Otherwise, begin a new day with the turn order phase.
Scoring
At the end of the game, award points as follows:
- Collect the cards in your hand and discard pile.
- For each victory point symbol at the bottom left of the cards, score 1 point.
- For each complete set of 3 different victory point symbols, score an additional 2 points.
Example: Claire scores 9 points for her victory point symbols, plus 4 points for her 2 complete sets, for a total of 13 points.
The player with the most points is crowned Star Baker! In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most total cards wins. If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.
Special Abilities
Some cards have special ability icons on them, which take effect immediately after a player fills that card's recipe.
Bonus fill. The player may optionally fill another recipe to claim another card. The ingredients used must come from newly-played cards.
Bonus restock. The player immediately returns all discarded cards to their hand.
Note: Unlike a regular restock action, the player does not have the option to reserve a recipe.
Advanced Cards
Once you are familiar with the game, you can introduce the 10 advanced recipe cards into the deck. These cards each contain one of two new special abilities.
Bad batch. After claiming this card, the player must immediately choose one of their cards and remove it from the game. The chosen card may come from the player's hand or discard pile.
Arrive early. Unlike other special abilities, this has no effect at the time the card is claimed. Instead, this ability replaces the time on the card. In the turn order phase, a player may select this card in addition to their time card to subtract one hour from the card's time.
Unusual Situations
What if nobody can (or wants to) fill any of the recipes in the recipe book? If all players choose the restock action two days in a row, then collect all of the cards in the recipe book and place them on the bottom of the recipe deck before refilling the recipe book.
What if there is a tie for turn order? This can only occur due to the use of multiple arrive early cards. If this happens, the player who played more arrive early cards takes their turn first.
What if a player has no cards to play for turn order? Players will always have at least one card in their hand because of the previous turn's fill or restock action. If the player has only arrive early cards, though, they will reveal this card as their time card, will play last, and must take a restock action.
Solo Play
You can play Filler alone versus an automated rival chef. Gameplay is the same as a two-player game, with the following alterations.
Set Up
Choose one of the six chef personality cards to play against (on the reverse of each reference card) and shuffle the matching three chef cards to form their deck. Place this chef deck face down above the recipe book.
Gameplay
In each turn order phase, after selecting your time card, flip the top card of the chef deck face up onto its own discard pile. This is the chef's time card. Turn order is then determined normally, comparing your time card to theirs.
When it is the chef's turn, they will normally attempt to fill a recipe. They spend no cards to do so. The personality card details how the chef decides which recipe to fill. The filled recipe card is placed in the chef's discard pile. Ignore special ability icons when filling recipes.
If there are no cards left in the chef deck when it is the chef's turn, then they will instead perform a restock action. The chef still selects a card as normal, but instead reserves that card to the top of the deck. Then, the chef's discard pile is shuffled to create a new chef deck.
Special Rules
Each personality card alters these rules in some way. If they conflict, follow the rules on the card instead.
Quick Reference
Setup: Distribute chef cards and make a recipe deck of 10 cards per player. Reveal one card per player, plus one, for the recipe book.
A Game Day: Simultaneously reveal time cards to determine turn order. In turn, fill or restock.
Fill: Play cards from hand with ingredients covering all the requirements on a recipe card. Take the recipe card into hand, and discard played cards.
Restock: Return all discards to hand. Reserve a recipe card to the top of the deck.
End of Day: Refill recipe book. If not enough cards in the deck, proceed to scoring.
Scoring: Add up victory point icons and add set bonuses (1 point per icon, 2 points per complete set).
Special Abilities:
- Bonus fill — perform another fill action.
- Bonus restock — perform another restock action, but do not reserve.
- Bad batch — remove one of your cards from the game.
- Arrive early — subtract one hour from your time card.