My Brother Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Characters
• Content
• Aim of the game
• Preparation
• Development
  • 1. Events and Accidents Phase
  • 2. Actions Phase
    • Selection of the Action Cards
    • Resolution of the Action Cards
    • Discard of the Action Cards
  • 3. Recovery Phase
  • 4. Eric Phase
    • Stress Bars
    • Examples
• End of the Game
• Play again?

Characters

Eric (non playable) Eric is the most fragile in the family, who has had the most difficoulties with moving. He is a young student who has to enroll in the College of the new city. He always got good marks. Before moving he played soccer in the high school team and was member of the astronomy club, a great passion. He was a sunny and extrovert child, but growing up he turned introvert. He has very good relationship with his sister Emily, who is his favourite confidant.

Lara She is Matt's wife and mother of Eric and Emily. She is a journalist. Lara works at home writing articles for some magazine. She looks after the house and the family. Though she is attentive and sensitive, the crisis of her son catches her by surprise, lowering her morale and growing up her stress.

Emily She is Eric's younger sister. She is a teenage student. Emily is a lively and bright girl, hopeful for the future. She positively face up the relocation, ready to make new friends. Because of the link with her brother, she is the very first person becoming aware of Eric's changes. During crisis situations she comforts her mother. Despite her self-imposed fortitude she the change nduces her to worry about questions never thought before.

Matt He is Lara's husband and father of Eric and Emily. He is an insurer. He is always busy with his job because he wants the best for his family. He is charismatic and often has the situation under control. Because of his high expectations he struggles to accept Eric problems. He tries to find quick solutions to bring back his family to normality.

Dave He is Emily's and Eric's cousin, photography amatour. Dave was the first person Emily met at school, he is a kind and sunny and kinf boy. to whom Matt and Lara are very attacched. His presence is very helpful for the Fonte to adapt to the new city.

Content

• 1 Eric Board
• 4 Character Boards
• 24 Action Cards (6 for each player)
• 11 Event Cards
• 18 Accident Cards
• 1 Die
• 5 Stress Marking Disks

Aim of the game

The aim of the game is to avoid Eric's stress exceeding the value 10. If Eric reaches the level 11 of stress the game is over (see End of the Game). You'll lose also when all characters are in Recovery at the same time (see Recovery Phase). You win if you are able to complete the eleventh turn of the game (see End of the game). My Brother is a cooperative game. It means that if you win or lose, you do it togheter.

Preparation

Prepare the deck of Event Cards so that the card with the number 1 is on top of the deck, shuffle the others and put under it. Then set up the Accident Cards deck shuffling them. Place Eric Board in the centre of the table and place a Stress-Marking Disk on the 0 space on the Stress Bar. Both decks have to be positioned face down, on Eric Board.

Each player then chooses a character and takes its Board, Action Cards and a Stress-Marking Disk (to be placed on the 0 space of the Stress Bar on the Board). Now you re ready to start.

If there are less than 4 players, the remaining character can be distributed between the players or used as non-playng characters (they don't play actions).

Development

The game unfolds in up to eleven turns, each one made up of four phases:

1. Events and Accidents Phase
2. Actions Phase - made up of three under-phases:
   • selection of the Action Cards
   • resolution of the Action Cards
   • discard of the Action Cards
3. Eric Phase
4. Recovery Phase

1. Events and Accidents Phase

Reveal the first Event Card and the first Accident Card on top of the respective decks. Add up the effects of the cards for each character and modify their stress level according to cards instructions by moving the Stress-Marking Disks on the Stress Bars of an amount equal to the final result. Do not apply the effects of Events Cards and Accident Cards to players in Recovery (see Recovery Phase).

Eight of the 18 Accident Cards do not affect the level of stress of the characters, but they modify, for the current turn, the die roll of the character specified on the card. If one of these Accident Cards is revealed, it stays active for the entire duration of the turn and the die outcome obtained by the character specified on the card will be modified according to the card instructions.

2. Actions Phase

The Action Phase is performed by all active players. Players in Recovery can not perform the Action Phase (see Recovery Phase).

Selection of the Action Cards

After the effects of Event and Accident Card have been applied, the players simultaneously, secretly and without consulting each other, choose one of their Action Cards among the available ones (the cards still in their hands), in order to react to the situation. If you only have one available Action Card, you can choose to play it and then regain all your Action Cards (previously discarded), making them available for the next turn, including the one you just played; or, you can remove it from the game: in so doing, you regain immediately all the discarded Action Cards (except the ones that have been removed from the game) and you can choose among them one to be played. In the second case, the cards that have been removed from the game won't be available again for the entire duration of the game.

Resolution of the Action Cards

Once each player has chosen the Action Card, they are all simultaneously revealed. Players decide together the resolution order of the Action Cards, evaluating the situation and all the stress levels of the characters. In case it can't be decided the order is counterclockwise starting from the older player. Keep in mind that if the stress of a character reaches the value 10, he goes immediately in Recovery and he can't resolve his Action Card (see Recovery Phase). The Action Cards have to be resolved one at a time. To resolve his action card, the player rolls the die and applies the effects on the card corresponding to the outcome of the roll. If the result is not indicated on the card, the Action Card has no effect. Remember to apply all potential changes to the die roll caused by Accident Cards (see Events and Accidents Phase).

Discard of the Action Cards

Discard Action Cards after their resolution: each player sets up his/her discard deck with the Action Cards already played. The discarded Action Cards won't be available for the next turns until the player uses the last card in hand, (see Selection of the Action Cards).

3. Recovery Phase

If the stress of a character reaches or exceeds level 10, he/she has to go immediately in Recovery (need to relax). When in Recovery use the back of your Character Board: turn the Character Board placing the Stress-Marking Disk so that it keeps marking the same stress level (by entering Recovery, the stress level is set to 10). If you are in Recovery, you can't play Action Cards and you are not affected by the effects of Event, Accident and Action Cards. During the Action Phase each player in Recovery rolls the die and lowers his stress level according on the outcome and to the indications on his Character Board. If the result is 1 the level of stress stays unchanged. During Eric Phase the characters in Recovery do not influence Eric's stress level.

Note: the lowering values for each die outcome are printed on the back of the Character Board, not in this text.

4. Eric Phase

After all Action Cards have been resolved, Eric's stress level is modified depending on the stress level of characters who are not in Recovery. Eric's Stress-Marking Disk moves right or left by the value obtained adding up the modifiers above eache characters' Stress Bar. Those modifiers range from -1 to +2. If Eric's stress reaches the highest value indicated by the symbol X, the game ends immediately. Players have, alas, lost. After Eric's stress level modification, players in Recovery declare if they want to continue staying in Recovery during the next turn – to lower their stress level even more and to avoid affecting Eric negatively – or if they go back to active play. If a player in Recovery decides to go back to the game, he turns his Character Board again – without moving his Stress-Marking Disk. Next turn he will play his Action Cards again and will be influenced by the effects of Event, Accident and Action Cards.

Stress Bars

Each character's Stress Bar runs from 1 to 10 and is marked with the modifier zones shown in the printed example diagram (p. 13 of the PDF):

• 1-2: -1
• 3-4: +0
• 5-7: +1
• 8-9: +2
• 10: Recovery (the Stress-Marking Disk sits here when the character enters Recovery)

Eric's Stress Bar runs from 1 to 10 and is followed by a red X, the maximum value (see End of the Game).

Note: the zone boundaries above are read from the printed diagram; the text itself describes them only through the modifier range and the examples below.

Examples

example: During the Action Phase Emily was in Recovery and scored 2 with her die roll. She therefore has to lower her stress by 4 points. At the end of Eric Phase, Emily decides to go back home from holidays and re-enter the game.

example: At the end of the Action Phase, after all played Action Cards' effects have been applied, Eric's stress level is 8. Matt's stress is 7 (+1 to Eric's stress), Lara's stress has reached 9 (+2 to Eric's stress), Emily kept calm so her stress level is 4 (no influence on Eric's stress), Dave is very relaxed and his stress level is 1 (-1 to Eric's stress). Summing up all modifiers (1+2+0-1) the result is +2. Eric's stress goes up by 2 points, reaching level 10. If the stress had increased by only one more point, the game would have ended immediately and players would have lost.

End of the Game

The game ends if:

• All the Events occur and Eric's level of stress do not reach maximum value. Players win.
• Eric reaches the maximum stress level, indicated by the red X on his Stress Bar. All players lose.
• All players are simultaneously in Recovery. They all lose.

Play again?

My Brother doesn't end here. If you want to prove yourself with more difficoult events and discover the story that inspired this game, find free online the Events Card expansion on www.demoela.com.

The Events Card expansion is a separate download and is not covered by this rulebook.