Gum Gum Machine

Gum Gum Machine Rulebook

Table of Contents

Goal

Lola: Er yes ... Gum-Gum ... of course! I think that's really great, too. But how do we get hold of the Gums? And how do we operate the machine?

Professor D.: Indeed, it's not all that easy. Levers must be operated, switches must be switched and gearwheels must be adjusted! If you can't manage that, then you're in the wrong place! Because, only when you've managed to produce Gum-Gums and seal them with a black lid, can I give you any points for them. The more different colours a Gum-Gum consists of, the more points you get!

Professor L.: I'll give you a bit of advice: be better than your competitors! Only the best of you may carry out research and work in the laboratory with us! The first one to collect 30 points will become our assistant!

9 framework parts of the Gum-Gum machine
42 Gums (6 each in 6 different colours and 6 black lids)
1 Gum storage bag
1 Gum-Gum machine
1 starting shutter with hole and octagonal wooden handle, to be inserted in the hole
2 boiler covers
4 gearwheels for counting the points
2 turntables (with 4 different sides) + 1 fixable arrow
7 switches (5 numbered switches and 2 with a screw)
16 machine components (2 square and 10 oblong inserts for the Gum-Gum spaces, 2 round inserts for the boiler, 2 oblong inserts for the starting shutter)
2 Gum-Gum-o-Meters (for reading the Gum-Gum points)
1 assembly line cover for mounting on the game board

Machine Set-up

When you work with the machine for the first time, just use the symbols already printed on the machine! In later phases, you can modify the machine. Take the framework parts out of the machine and insert the desired machine components. Every time you use it, you can rebuild it as you wish. Then replace the framework parts. There is no set order for the machine components.

Take the framework part out of the machine.
Insert a suitable machine component.
Replace the framework part.

Before the very first game, don't forget to punch the finger recesses out of the game board and to discard them; they are not needed in the game.

Now you must incorporate the 7 switches, both boiler covers, the starting shutter, one of the turntables and the assembly line cover into the machine.

You can distribute the numbered switches anyhow you like on the switch positions. You can recognise them by the small light bulbs. Place the two switches with the screw into the cross so that they are lying in adjacent spaces and not opposite each other.
Place the boiler covers on the green and blue boilers. It doesn't matter in which direction they face.
The starting shutter is placed onto the starting space so that the hole covers the middle number. Then push the handle into the hole, thus covering the number.
There are 2 different turntables. Choose one of the 4 sides, firmly fix the rotating arrow and place the disc in the machine. You'll learn more about the discs later. It's best to use the "Quality Control" for the first test run.
Insert the assembly line cover into the slots provided in the machine, at the bottom right.

Tip: you can also operate the machine without the assembly line cover. This lets you see which Gums will be pushed next.

Preparation

Place all the Gums into the storage bag (cloth bag). The machine now has to be filled! Nominate one of you to take single Gums out of the stock and lay them in the corresponding compartments. All compartments of 3, the compartment of 4 bottom left and the area under the assembly line cover must be filled. Make sure that at least 3 black Gum lids are positioned throughout the whole machine. If that's not the case, swap as many randomly chosen Gums as necessary, until 3 black ones are on the board.

Attention: In no way may you fill several black lids directly one after the other into the assembly line! That causes a lid jam! A coloured Gum should be inserted after a black one.

Each of you chooses a gearwheel and lays it on square 0 on the Gum-Gum scoring track. Now you must decide which Gum-Gum-o-Meter you want to play with: with one of them, you can score up to 12 points for one Gum-Gum (= somewhat faster game) and with the other one, up to 10 points (= somewhat slower game). Place the Gum-Gum-o-Meter that you are not using to one side.

The completed machine has these parts: starting shutter, boiler covers (blue and green), Gums, Gum storage bag, Gum-Gum-o-Meter, switches, gearwheels, Gum-Gum scoring track, turntable, assembly line cover (with Gums under it) and the cross-over switch.

Produce Gum-Gums

Professor D.: But first of all, we want to see if you've all ben [sic] paying careful attention. The one to operate the machine last, begins!

In a clockwise direction, take it in turns to operate the machine. When it's your turn, you must first switch the machine on.

To do so, slide the long starting shutter to one of the five possible positions, marked by a coloured arrow above the starting shutter. The shutter must be moved, you may not leave it in its previous position. Briefly lift the handle and look to see which number is concealed below. Then cover the number again with the handle.

On the machine, look for the switch with this number. Flick the switch in the free direction. You have now activated this switch!

Moving from the new switch position, follow the matching pipe. There's only ever one that is correct! The pipes lead to different machine components. I'll explain this later. You just follow the pipes and then carry out one of the possible actions.

All your actions should be directed towards collecting as many different Gums as possible! You can get several Gums all in one go. If you come upon a black lid anywhere in the machine and take it, then you must finish your Gum-Gum pile. You have produced a finished Gum-Gum! We then give you points for it. Pull the Gum-Gum-o-Meter over the top of the Gum-Gum. Along the side of it, you can now read how many points you get.

Example: a pile of black lid, yellow, green, pink and blue Gums would give you 6 points for your Gum-Gum.

In accordance with your score, move your gearwheel forwards along the scoring track. Then fill up all the empty spaces in the machine with Gums from the storage bag. Again, make sure that there are at least 3 black lids in the machine. After your Gum-Gum has been valued, put it back into the storage bag.

Your turn ends when the following situations arise:

the pipe that you're following comes to an end
you carry out an action from which no pipe leads off (e.g. on the assembly line)
you complete your Gum-Gum and score points.

End of the Endeavours

As soon as one of you has managed to score at least 30 points with the Gum-Gums he has made, the end is announced. All your competitors now also have the chance to score 30 points. They may operate the machine one more time. Then the one with the most points is the winner of this little competition!

Tip: If you want a shorter game, you can reduce the number of points to be scored to 20.

The Machine in Detail

If you follow a pipe, you can come out at the following points:

A Gum Storage Facility

A Gum storage facility consists of 3 or 4 Gums. Follow the pipe. You may choose one of the Gums lying in the storage facility. Remove it from its compartment and place it in front of you. Gums are piled on top of each other. Just pile any further Gums on top of those already there.

If there's a symbol under the Gum that you take out of the machine, then you must carry out that action.

If there's no symbol under the Gum, then you may follow the pipe and take another Gum from the same storage facility or follow the pipe to the next station.

Important: If you reach an empty square in the Gum storage facility on which a symbol is shown, then you may not use that symbol, but must jump over that square.

Further details:

You can get several Gums in one turn. One portion of finished Gum-Gum consists of 1-6 different coloured Gums and a black lid. No one colour may be used twice in a Gum-Gum!

You must always keep to the designated route and always follow the colour-marked pipes and/or symbols. You may not change the colour of the pipe mid-way nor branch off.

If you reach a Gum storage facility, you can take the first Gum first, then the second Gum and after that the third Gum - unless a symbol appears underneath one of the taken Gums. The actions matching the symbols must be carried out immediately! In the storage facility, you may also jump over any Gums you wish. However, you may not take the second Gum first and then take the first one. Going back is not permitted.

An Example of How It Could Be

Lola operates the starting shutter and sets it to the position on the far left. She lifts the handle and sees a 2 below it.

She replaces the handle in the recess and looks for switch number 2. She slides the shutter in the free direction.

Now the switch borders on the orange-coloured pipe. She follows the pipe to the first Gum storage facility. The first Gum is green, the second one is yellow and the third one is purple. She already has green lying in front of her. But she still needs yellow and purple. She decides on the yellow Gum, removes it from its compartment and places it on her green Gum.

A gearwheel is now visible in the compartment. Lola jumps to the gearwheel and follows the new pipe.

She could also have left the yellow Gum where it was and could have taken the purple one. There is no symbol under the purple-coloured Gum. So she should now continue to follow the orange-coloured pipe and operate the turntable. However, she should not go back and take the yellow Gum.

In no way would Lola have been able to take the purple-coloured Gum and then branch off down to the pink Gum, since that would have meant changing the pipe colour.

Symbols Which Occur in the Machine

Gearwheel, Piston, Flame

With these, you can activate the pipes running underneath. To do this you must find, somewhere in the machine, one of the corresponding symbols for the gearwheel, piston or flame (e.g. under a Gum, in a boiler etc.). As soon as you have found such a symbol, you must immediately move to the corresponding machine component and follow the new pipe.

Directly under the starting shutter are the machine components gearwheel, piston and flame.

Further Symbols

While you are operating the machine, you will come across other symbols. You will find symbols, which show some machine components in miniature. As soon as you come across such a symbol, drop everything and continue from the place indicated by the symbol.

Here's an example: Lola has activated switch number 2 and removes the third Gum (purple) from the compartment. Underneath, the symbol of the blue boiler appears. She immediately moves to the blue boiler and gives the cover a quarter turn, in the direction of the arrow, and follows the next symbol that appears there.

Parts of the Machine

Give the boiler a stir. Give the cover a quarter turn in the direction of the arrow. Act according to the new symbol.

If the symbol depicts a machine component, you immediately continue from the space that the symbol indicates.

If the symbol depicts a double Gum, you may make a quality check of the other players! Have a look at their Gum-Gum piles. Each of the other players has to give you one Gum in one of the two depicted colours from his Gum-Gum pile, if available. It is up to you which colour to choose! If you haven't had this colour yet, you may add this Gum to your Gum-Gum pile and thereby refine it. If the colour already exists in your pile, you have to put the Gum back into the storage bag.

Assembly Line

Take 2 gums from the storage facility and push them, from above, under the assembly line cover. Now 2 Gums come out at the bottom. If you don't already have these colours in your Gum-Gum lying in front of you, then you must integrate both colours into your Gum-Gum. If you already have one or both colours in your Gum-Gum, then only take the colour that you don't already have. Put the other one(s) back into the storage facility. If you have drawn a black lid, you must finish your Gum-Gum and value it. In any case, your turn ends after the assembly line.

Cross-Over Switch

Push one of the two switches across to the opposite position and carry out the symbol action, which is now lying between the two switches. The switches may not be pulled round the corners and may not remain stationary in the centre of the cross.

Quality Control

From time to time, you can test how good your Gum-Gum is. Flick the arrow. The two colours that the pointer rests on are of especially good quality! If you already have the Gum colours indicated lying in front of you, you receive one point for each colour indicated. Mark the points on the scoring track straightaway. That's the end of your turn.

Service Indicator

Look at all the Gum spaces in the machine and place a Gum from the storage facility in each space showing a symbol. Then flick the arrow. The part of the machine with this symbol you can see now must be serviced. Look for this symbol under the Gums. If the pointer points to the flame, for example, you must look for the flame symbol. Lift the Gum up, under which you assume the symbol is hidden, and take a look to see which symbol is there. If your first attempt at finding the right symbol is not successful, then you still have a second chance!

If you have found the correct symbol, then you may continue your route from the corresponding machine component, without delay.

If you haven't found the correct symbol, your turn ends here.

Pressure Gauge

If you reach the pressure gauge, the pressure in the machine is calculated. Count up all visible black Gum lids. Now move the arrow to the corresponding value. Next, you must jump to the switch with the matching number and continue your turn from there by flipping the switch and following the pipe.

More than 5 black lids in the machine causes excess pressure. Flick the pointer once. Then remove as many black lids from the machine, leaving the same number in the machine as shown by the pointer. Return them to the storage bag. If the arrow comes to rest on the brown excess pressure space after being flicked, simply flick it again. Then your turn ends.

Random Checks

Flick the arrow. Activate the switch bearing the number indicated by the arrow and continue play from there.

Note: If you want a game with lots of luck elements, then play with the turntable "Random checks" and use lots of inlay elements showing the turntable.

Summary

Slide the starting shutter, look at the number of the new position.
Move the switch with the corresponding number.
Follow the matching pipe from the new position.
Carry out action:
- a. Gum storage facility: choose a Gum and place it before you. If there's a symbol beneath it, carry out this action. If there's no symbol underneath, continue to follow the pipe and either take a Gum or carry out an action.
- b. Turntable: Depending on the turntable used, carry out the appropriate action.
- c. Green or blue boiler: give the cover a quarter turn and act on the symbol.
- d. Assembly line: take 2 single Gums from the storage bag and, from above, push them under the cover. If possible, incorporate the two Gums, which drop out, into your own Gum-Gum.
- e. Cross-over switch: flick one of the switches and act on the symbol lying between the switches.
Measuring the value of the Gum-Gum: if the Gum-Gum was sealed with a black lid, the points are measured on the Gum-Gum-o-Meter and the gearwheel is moved forwards along the scoring track.
The game ends, as soon as someone has scored 30 points.