Medical Frontier

Medical Frontier Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Overview

In Medical Frontier, players playing medicine developing researchers, and their mission is distributing their own budget on different drug development projects to make new drugs. Players need to ensure the new drugs are safe, efficient in treatment of diseases, while keeping the side effects at controllable levels. Once you meet all these marketing approval requirements, the new drugs can be launched. Will you save people's lives while making most profits for your lab?

Quick Play and Advanced Play

You may choose Quick Play or Advanced Play before the game starts.

Quick Play

Use only "Psychotropic Drugs", "Central Nerve System Drugs", and "Anticancer Drugs". First player who gains 150 points wins.

Advanced Play

First player first gains 300 points wins, or, when the last Drug Tile launches to the market, the player with highest scores wins.

Game Components

Main Board x 1
Compound Cards x 96 (including 12 blank spare cards)
Medical Frontier Tokens x 4
Drug Tiles x 16
Round Tiles x 15 (4 red, 4 blue, 3 green, 2 yellow, and 2 purple)
Lab Tiles x 5
Researcher Tokens x 15 (3 for each color)
Budget Cubes x 25 (5 for each color)
Pre-clinical Trials Tiles x 8
Clinical Trials Tiles x 12
-5 Point Penalty Tokens x 32
-20 Point Penalty Tokens x 20

Set Up

Before playing, set up the components as the following.

Main Area

Place the Main Board at the center of the table. Shuffle all Compound Cards, and put them face down into 1 pile as your draw Deck. Put the Deck beside the Main Board.
Draw 5 cards from the top of the Deck, and place them face up in each compound area on the Main Board.
Take out the Round Tiles you need as indicated in the chart below, and put the remaining back into the game box. (They will not be used during the game.)
Sort the Drug Tiles by type and stack them face up in 4 piles according to their types, and then put them beside the Main Board, so every player can see the tiles. (In Quick Play: put the Cardiovascular Drug Tiles into the box; they are not used in the game.)
Place Medical Frontier Tokens for the 4 types of drug on top of the corresponding Drug Tiles.
Randomly draw 4 Pre-clinical Trials Tiles and place them face down on the Drug Tiles.
Randomly draw 4 Clinical Trials Tiles and place them face down on the lower side of the Drug Tiles.
Separate -5 and -20 point Penalty Tokens into 2 piles, and put them aside.

Players	Round Tiles Needed
2	4 red and 4 blue
3	3 red, 3 blue, 3 green
4	2 red, 2 yellow, 2 blue, 2 green
5	2 of each color

The Cardiovascular Drug Tiles will not be used during Quick Play.

Player's Area

Set up your player's area as follows:

Each player chooses a color and takes the Lab Tile and Round Tiles of the corresponding color.
Take the 3 researcher tokens of your color, and place them with the researcher side face up in the circle above each Lab area.
Take the 5 Budget Cubes of your color, and place them in the circle with the "$" above the Lab Tile. This is your vault.

Game Flow

The drug development will be divided into the following steps. Players must follow the drug development procedures to complete each drug research and trial and meet all requirements.

Choose compounds
Compounds synthesis experiments
Pre-Clinical Trials: Do results of the Trials meet efficacy criteria?
- YES: continue to Clinical Trials.
- NO: fined with Penalty Tokens.
Clinical Trials: Do results of Trials meet side effect criteria?
- YES: continue to Launching and marketing.
- NO: drug approval delayed, providing the supplementary Clinical-Trial documents.
Launching and marketing

The instructions of each procedure and the costs of each Step are shown on the Main Board and Lab Tiles.

Each player will have a $500 million budget (each cube stands for $100 million) at the start of each round. The money can be distributed to different drug development projects as you wish. No unused budget can be saved for the next round. So, use your budget wisely.

The game will continue for several rounds until the winning conditions are met.

Deciding the Start Player

Shuffle all Round Tiles, and place them randomly in a vertical line. Put the first Tile a little forward from the line. The color of the first tile indicates who is the start player of that round. (See Figure 5-1)

Each round of the game starts with the Start Player, then play clockwise around the table. (See Figure 5-2)

The Start Player plays first while each player then takes his or her turn to complete a round. The second round will start with the yellow player being the Start Player, and so on.

Game Play

On your turn, you may allot your budgets to researches or trials by distributing cubes to any of the Steps (See Figure 5-3).

The cost of each Step is shown on your Tile. Each Budget Cube put in the Lab Action area stands for $100 million spent.

Steps:

Choose compounds
Compounds synthesis experiments
Pre-Clinical Trials
Clinical Trials
Providing supplementary Clinical-Trial Documents
Launching and marketing

Note:

You may repeat each Step for several times until your budget is exhausted, except for "providing supplementary Clinical-Trial Documents".
Put Budget Cubes from the vault of your Lab Tile to the Lab Action area to show the total costs.
1 Budget Cube stands for $100 million. You do not need to use all the budgets. However, unused budget will NOT be saved for the later rounds.

Step I: Choose Compounds (Cost: $100-300 million)

Choose suitable compounds for chemical synthesis from the Main Board. Each compound may cost $100, $200, or $300 million (1-3 Budget Cubes), as shown in the circle below each box. After allocating your budget for the compounds you select, hold the cards in your hand. (See Figure 6-1)

Figure 6-1: The number shown on the Main Board indicates the cost of that compound card.

Each compound card shows its "Efficiency Value", "Efficacy", and "Side Effects" (see Figure 6-2). Larger efficiency value brings about better treating efficacy, but also higher side effect risks. You should choose compounds wisely to form the designated formulas of drug development project.

Figure 6-2: Efficacy value, Efficacy, and Side Effects are shown on cards. See Step III for further information.

After allocating budgets for the compounds, pick up the compound cards and hold them in hand to prepare for chemical synthesis experiments in the Lab later.

Note: Each player may hold up to 5 compound cards. If you already have 5 cards, you cannot choose any more compound cards.

Step II: Chemical Synthesis Experiment (Cost: $100 million)

In the drug developing process, this step means to conduct chemical synthesis experiments of compounds you have chosen.

You can play 1 compound card in 1 of the Lab boxes on your Lab Tile, but no more than 5 compound cards in each Lab box.

The formulation of the Efficiency Value of the compound cards played must match the drug developing requirements for each drug as shown on the Drug Tile:

Cardiovascular Drugs (50 points): 2 pairs of 2 compound cards of the same Efficiency Value plus 1 compound card of any Efficacy Value.
Psychotropic Drugs (60 points): 1 set of 3 compound cards of the same Efficiency Value plus 2 compound cards of any Efficiency Value.
Central Nerve System Drugs (80 points): 5 compound cards with Efficiency Values in succession.
- Examples: both 6->7->8->9->10 and 6->5->4->3->2 are legitimate rows. The values may be arranged in ascending or descending order, as long as they are in sequential order.
- Note: 1 and 12 are not counted as a sequential pair.
Anticancer Drugs (100 points): 1 set of 4 compound cards of the same Efficiency Value plus 1 compound card of any Efficacy Value.

You cannot proceed to further development steps until the formulation of the Efficacy Value meets the requirements of the Drug Tile.

Note:

You may replace any played card with playing another compound card into the Lab. Replaced cards are discarded in the Discard Area beside the Main Board.
Compound cards played into a Lab cannot be exchanged with other played cards in other Labs.
If any of your Labs meets the requirements of the Drug Tile, and there is still unspent budget left, you may then go on to the next step and invest your budget into drug trial.

Step III: Pre-Clinical Trial (Cost: $100 million)

In the drug developing process, this step means to conduct trials on cells or animals with the synthesized compound you have made and to confirm whether it has any efficacy.

Pay $100 million, choose a combination of compound cards to enter into trial (See Figure 8-1), and then flip the Researcher Token on top of that Lab box to show the Pre-clinical Trial sign to indicate that this lab is now proceeding trials. (See Figure 8-2)

(See Figures 8-1 and 8-2.)

1. Calculating the Efficacy Criteria of Pre-clinical Trial

Check the number of grey needle icons listed on the Drug Tile (it's your "target drug") that corresponds to the row of compound cards that entered trial. If you are the first player to conduct trial, flip the Pre-clinical Trial Tile on the upper side of that Drug Tile (See Figure 8-3). Check the number of grey needles listed on the Pre-clinical Trial Tile and then add the number of grey needles of the Medical Tile and the Pre-clinical Trial Tile together (See Figure 8-4). The total amount of the needles is the "Efficacy Criteria" of this trial.

Once a Pre-Clinical Trial Tile is flipped, it sets the efficacy criteria of Pre-Clinical Trials for all players until the game ends.

Figure 8-3: Flip the Pre-clinical Trial Tile. Figure 8-4: Medical Tile, "Efficacy Criteria=5".

2. Calculating the Total Efficacy of the Pile of Compound Cards

Calculate the total number of grey needles listed on the row of compound cards on trial, and check if they meet the Efficacy Criteria. For each lacking needle, the player conducting the trial must take one penalty token. Put the penalty tokens on the top of the pile of compound cards. (See Figure 8-5)

Figure 8-5: Total Efficacy of pile of Compound Cards = 4. Lack of one: take one penalty token and place it on the top of the pile of the compound cards.

Step IV: Clinical Trial (Cost: $100 million)

In the drug developing process, this step means to put the drug into human experiment and to confirm the appropriate dose and observe side effects.

1. Checking Side Effect Criteria

Pay $100 million. If you are the first player to conduct Clinical Trial, flip the Clinical Trial Tile on the lower side of Target Drug Tile to show the "Side Effect Criteria". (See Figure 9-1)

Once a Clinical Trial Tile is flipped, it sets the standard of Clinical Trials for all players until the game ends.

2. Calculating the Total Side Effects of the Pile of Compound Cards

Check the side effect signs on the compound cards, and see if the drug passes the criteria:

(1) Side Effects less than or equal to the Side Effect Criteria. If the Side Effects signs on the compound cards are less than or equal to the side effect criteria provided on the Clinical Trial Tile (See Figure 9-2), you have fulfilled the "Launching and Marketing" requirement! Now you can invest your unused budget into launching the drug and earn points. (If you have no budget left, you may proceed in later rounds.)

(2) Side Effects greater than the Side Effect Criteria. If the Side Effects signs on the compound cards are more than the side effect criteria provided on the Clinical Trial Tile (See Figure 9-3), for each additional side effect, the next Step (Launching and Marketing) will be delayed for one Round. Take the round Researcher Token from the top of the Lab box, and put it on the corresponding Round Tile (See Figure 9-4). You must wait for "Launching and Marketing" until the Round Tile that carries your Researcher Token is pushed forward as the current round.

Figure 9-3 and Figure 9-4: Side Effect Criteria examples and the Round Tile delay. The printed side note reads: "For each additional side effect, the next Step will be delayed for 1 Round" and "You can proceed to 'Launching and Marketing' the drug only when the Round Tile that carries your researcher token is the current round."

Calculate only the specified side effects shown on the Clinical Trial Tile; other side effects are not taken into account.

Step V: Provide Supplementary Clinical Trial Documents (Cost: $100 million, no more than once per turn)

In the drug developing process, this step means that the Clinical Trial results of your drug did not meet the requirements for approval. You have to delay the launching of the drug and provide supplementary Clinical-Trial Documents to the review institution for re-evaluation to gain approval.

This Step accelerates the launching of your drug by one Round. However, this Step may only be taken once per Turn. After paying $100 million, move your Researcher Token one Tile forward. (See Figure 10-1)

Players launching their drugs without delays do not need to take this Step.

(See Figure 10-1.)

Step VI: Launching and Marketing (Cost: $100 million)

Unless the launching of your drug is delayed, you may spend $100 million in launching and marketing a drug. Scores as follows:

(1) Take the Drug Tile and Medical Frontier Token for yourself. After paying the launching cost, take the Drug Tile that corresponds with your successfully developed drug, and then place it in front of you as your score. (See Figure 10-2)

Bonus: The first Player to launch each type of medicine may take the Medical Frontier Token of that type of medicine as bonus (See Figure 10-3).

(2) Calculating Penalties. Penalty Tokens taken during the Pre-Clinical Trial phase are now placed on top of the earned Drug Tile. Deduct these points from your score (See Figure 10-4).

(3) Clear out pile of Compound Cards. Remove the compound cards that became a launched drug from the Lab Area to the Discard Area on the Main Board (See Figure 10-5).

(4) Put back Researcher Token (if any). If your Researcher Token was placed on a Round Tile to indicate delayed launching, you may now place it researcher side up back to the circle on the upper part of the Lab Tile. Now this Lab can go on developing a new drug (See Figure 10-6).

(See Figures 10-2 to 10-6.)

End of Each Player's Turn

Once you finish allocating your budget on your turn or pass, the next player starts his or her turn:

The next player pushes the remaining compound cards towards the arrow point (from higher cost to lower cost (see Figure 11-1)), and draws new compound cards from the top of the Deck to the empty boxes (if any) on the Main Board. (See Figure 11-2)
You may now take your Budget Tokens back to your vault on the Lab Tile. (See Figure 11-3)
If the compound card Deck is depleted, reshuffle the discarded cards and put them back to the Main Board as the drawing Deck.

Figure 11-1: Push the remaining compound cards towards the arrow point. Figure 11-2: Fill the empty boxes by drawing cards from the top of Deck.

Changing Start Player

Once each of the players has taken his or her turns (spent his or her $500 million budget), move the first Round Tile to the end of the line. Then again, push the first Tile forward from the line. The color of the first tile shows who is the Start Player of this round (See Figure 11-4).

Scoring

Continue with new Rounds until the game-ending conditions are met. Once the last Drug Tile is launched or any player gains 300 points (150 points in Quick Play), the game ends. Upon the end of game, calculate the points of Drug Tiles and Medical Frontier Tokens you have earned, and deduct points taken away by the Penalty Tokens to come up with your total score. The Player with the highest score wins.

Note:

All Penalty Tokens on a pile of compound cards that has not been launched as a new drug will not be taken into account. (See Figure 11-5)
In a tie, the player who developed more types of drug wins; if tied again, the player who developed the most drugs wins; if still tied, both players win the game!

Scoring example (Figure 11-5): (60+60+80)+(10+20)-(15)=215. The Penalty Tokens will not be scored while the compound cards that have not been launched.