New York Crisis Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Description
• Componentes
• Game Setup
• Goal
• How to Play
  • A) Police Phase
  • B) Player Phase
    • 1) Draw Mafia Cards
    • 2) Actions
  • Free Actions
  • Skills Tokens
  • Story and Alert Tracks
  • Fin de la Partida
• Item List

Game Description

New York Crisis is a cooperative game for 1 to 4 players, the players will play as the members of the Smith family, who accidentally find themselves involved in a serious crime that took place in front of them. You will have different scenarios to play each game, where the characters will have to explore Manhattan, and collect clues to find out what happened while avoiding the mafia and police, so they can prove their innocence before it is too late. Each story includes different challenges and mechanics to test your skills.

Componentes

The source heading reads "Componentes" (Spanish) as printed; the list below is the English component list.

• 1 board
• 4 character miniatures
• 4 character cards
• 50 mafia cards
• 23 police cards
• 15 story cards (4 missions: 3 missions + 1 tutorial)
• 10 blue info tokens (mental)
• 10 red info tokens (physical)
• 10 yellow info tokens (social)
• 10 multi-purpose tokens (character/building)
• 25 miniatures (Kickstarter exclusive) / Tokens (standard version) (mafia)
• 5 miniatures (Kickstarter exclusive) / Tokens (standard version) (police)
• 5 FBI standees
• 5 FBI standee bases
• 3 red dice (3 red sides, 1 yellow, 1 blue, and 1 wildcard side)
• 3 yellow dice (3 yellow sides, 1 red, 1 blue, and 1 wildcard side)
• 3 blue dice (3 blue sides, 1 yellow, 1 red, and 1 wildcard side)
• 3 grey dice (2 blue sides, 2 yellow, and 2 red)
• 8 skill tokens
• 20 item tokens
• 1 story track marker
• 1 alert track marker
• 1 cloth bag

If any of these sections is blank on the card, ignore that element.

Game Setup

1. Place the board at the center of the table.
2. Each player picks a character, takes that character's card and standee, and 2 skill tokens.
3. Place 6 items at random on different locations of the board.
4. Choose a scenario and take all the cards for that story. Reveal card 0 of the scenario and read the intro out loud. Aside from explaining the current situation, this card will tell you a) how many info tokens of each type must go in the bag, and b) on which positions of the alert track must the police cars go. Place the rest of story cards in order, face down and without looking at them, next to the story track, making sure that the arrow points at the position indicated on the back of each story card.
5. Each player draws and plays 1 mafia card. Mafia cards tell you a) where to place 1 mafia token, b) on which square to place a random info token on the map, and c) where to place a random item token.

Diagram (page 3): a sample mafia card, with three placement callouts marked A, B and C: "Add one [token icon] on Tribeca" (A), "Add one [token icon] on Central Park" (B) and "Add one [token icon] on Upper East Side" (C). The icons are shown as pictures in the printed diagram.

If any of these sections is blank on the card, ignore that element.

If there is already an item on the indicated location, don't place a new one.

With this, you are ready to begin.

Goal

The goal of the game is to collect enough info tokens to (a) reveal all the story cards and (b) overcome the final challenge before the alert track reaches the limit. [The source prints this bracketed Spanish translator note in the goal text: "tablero con las cartas de historia colocadas en el track de historia y una "a" al lado, y con los coches de policia colocados en el track de alerta y una "b" al lado" — i.e. a board-layout note: story cards placed on the story track with an "a" beside it, and police cars placed on the alert track with a "b" beside it.] Each story has their own cards that will change some game mechanics, introduce new ones, and will also tell you what the final challenge is. At any time, if the alert track reaches its limit, the players will have until the end of the round to reach their goal, or they will lose the game.

How to Play

New York Crisis is divided in rounds, which are played in two phases: Police phase and player phase. During the police phase, you will draw police cards and position their cars on the board. In the players phase, mafia will spawn and each player will take their turn.

Read below for an in-depth description:

A) Police Phase

During this phase, you will draw police cards that tell you where to place the police cars. They will also determine the round's event.

First, take all the police cars off the map and place them next to the police deck. During the first round of the game, place 2 police cars or as many as indicated by story card 0.

Police cards are used in this phase. These cards have two sections: a) On the top section you will find the location where a police car must go, b) on the bottom you will find the description of the event that will apply for the round.

Draw as many cards as the number of police cars next to the deck. Draw the cards one by one, and place them one over the other so that you can only see the top section of all of them, except for the last one, the one on top.

Place a police car on each location indicated by the cards. During the round, players cannot enter those locations, as explained in the player phase (see page 5).

When you place a police car on a location with mafia tokens, return the mafias to the reserve and raise the alert track 1 step for each token discarded this way. If the location contains one or more characters, at the start of their turn each affected character will move to an adjacent square, but will only have one action for their turn.

After placing the police cars, read and apply the event described on the last police card, the visible one on top. These events will reward you for completing tasks, or will make your life harder. The effects of events last for the full round.

Diagram (page 4): a sample "New information" event card: "The official investigation brings to light new clues of the case. Place a [info token icon] from the reserve on a random location."

When an event indicates "at a random location", that location will be decided by drawing a new police card. Afterwards, re-shuffle that police card into the deck (without the discard pile).

Then, the player phase begins.

Diagram (page 4): sample police cards stacked one over the other, with an arrow indicating the top card.

Diagram (page 4): the sample "Road closures" event card, marked A (location Tribeca) and B (event), reads: "The police closes the accesses and blockades routes. Move only 1 [movement icon] with each movement action."

B) Player Phase

During this phase, each player will play their turn drawing mob cards first, rolling their dice, performing actions, and using items.

The players decide the turn order and who plays next. Once decided, the selected player takes the following step:

1) Draw Mafia Cards

Draw as many mafia cards as indicated by the last story card revealed. Place them on over the other, just like police cards, so that only the top section can be seen.

Place a mafia token on each of the locations indicated by the cards. Don't place mafia on locations with police cars.

If there are already 2 mafia tokens on the location where you have to place a new one, discard them, raise the alert in 2 points, and place an FBI token there.

Note - FBI: You cannot enter locations occupied by the FBI. Once placed on the board, the FBI will remain there until the end of the game. Just like police, you cannot place mafia on locations occupied by the FBI.

After that, draw an info token at random from the bag and place it on the location indicated by the top mob card. There is no info token limit per location.

If you run out of tokens in the bag, raise the alert 1 step for each token you cannot place.

Finally, draw an item at random and place it on the location indicated by the mob card. There can only be 1 item per location.

2) Actions

At the start of their turn, each player rolls their dice, as indicated on their character card, plus 1 extra die (grey) for each relative present on their same location (max. 2). After that, they can perform 2 actions: moving and/or re-rolling dice.

Move: Each movement action allows you two move 2 steps, that is, you character can move to an adjacent location up to 2 times. The locations must be connected. (Printed as "allows you two move 2 steps"; the sense is that a movement action lets the character move up to 2 steps.)

Diagram (page 5): two sample map views of a character moving between connected neighbourhoods. The first, marked with a check, shows a permitted move; the second, marked with an X, shows a move that is not allowed.

You cannot move into a location occupied by police or the FBI.

If you enter a location with a subway station, you may move to another subway station on the map using only 1 step of your movement.

If you are in a location with one or more mafias, you cannot do anything until you deal with them, as explained in the "dealing with the mafia" section (page 6).

EXTRA STEP: Once per turn, your character may take 1 extra step by raising 1 alert on the track. You may do this aside from your actions.

Re-rolling dice: At any time during your turn, you may spend 1 action to re-roll some or all your dice, including any dice you may have used that same turn. When you re-roll dice, also roll 1 additional grey die for each relative present on your same location (max. 2). You may combine the re-roll and movement actions, i.e., you may move one space after spending some of your dice from your initial roll, then re-roll your dice to use some more, before finally moving a second step to a new location, and maybe spend any remaining dice there.

Example: Juan rolls his 4 dice and uses his first action to move to the location where Victoria and Lorena are. Once there, he takes a blue clue spending two of his initial dice results, and then uses his second action to re-roll all his dice plus two grey dice for sharing the location with two relatives. After that, he moves his last step to an adjacent location and fights one mafia token there.

Diagram (page 6): three sample police cards ("The New York City Police Department", with wanted sections) on a map of Upper East Side, Central Park, Midtown West and Midtown East, showing the dice-result icons on each card's bottom row.

Take the appropriate dice and roll them. These are the results you may get:

• Physical (red fist icon): Used to obtain physical info tokens (red) and to fight or deal with the mafia.
• Mental (blue brain icon): Used to collect mental info tokens (blue).
• Social (yellow icon): Used to obtain social info tokens (yellow) and to deal with the mafia.
• Wildcard (green icon): You may use it as any other result, if you want, but will raise 1 alert point on the alert track if you do.

Once you've rolled, the results will be valid until the end of your turn, or until you re-roll those dice.

You may spend your dice to:

• Collect 1 info token: There are 3 types of info tokens, matching the possible results of the dice: physical, mental and social. If you are in a location with an info token, you may spend 2 results of the same type as the info token to collect it from the board, and advance the story track 1 step. Some clues will require 3 results to collect them.

Diagram (page 6): a sample Garment District location with two mafia tokens marked with an X and a yellow info token; an arrow points to a story-track strip with numbered positions 1 to 4.

• Collect 1 item: When you enter a location that contains an item, you may spend two equal results to pick it up and add it to your character's inventory. Items give you extra skills and may be used once per turn. Flip the item token after you use it, and reset it at the start of the next round.
• Eliminate 1 mafia token (two physical results): If you share a location with a mafia token, you may spend 2 physical results to eliminate it from the map.
• Eliminate 2 mafia tokens (three physical results): You may spend 3 physical results to eliminate 2 mafia tokens from the same or different locations you move through during your turn.
• Dealing with the mafia (social or physical result): When you are in a location with one or more mafia tokens, you must deal with them to continue playing or you will receive damage.
  • Dodge: You may spend 1 physical result on a location with mafia token to dodge them without getting harmed. Afterwards, you may do other things except moving.
  • Avoid: You may spend 1 social result to avoid the mafia on that location, after which you may continue playing normally. Once avoided, you may stay on the same location as the mafia, or move somewhere else.

Note: You cannot continue your movement if there is at least one undealt mafia token on your location. For each mafia token on your location you haven't dealt with at the end of your turn, you will suffer 1 wound and lose 1 dice of your choice until you heal your character.

Turn example: Jorge rolls his dice and gets 3 physical and 1 social results. There is a mafia token at his current location, and another two a couple of squares away. Jorge spends 2 physical results to eliminate the mafia at his location. Then, he uses his first action to move where other the two mafia tokens are. There, he spends the third physical result to eliminate one of the two mafia tokens. With his last action, he re-rolls the 3 spent dice, but keeps his fourth die with the social result, and gets 2 mental and 1 physical. He cannot move anymore, so he could either use his physical or social results to avoid the last mafia token, and uses the social one.

Free Actions

Aside from the aforementioned actions, there are other things you can do for free during your turn. Such as:

Item exchange: You may give any number of your items to another player on your same location. If an item was already used this turn, the other player cannot use it until the next round (the token remains face down).

Item use: During your turn, you may use any items you have by flipping it to activate its skill. You can only use each item once per round.

Once all players have played their turns, the round ends and a new one begins.

Skills Tokens

Each character has a unique skill that you may use during the turn. To do so, you will have to spend one of your skill tokens. Each time a new story card is revealed, all players recover 1 skill token, with a limit of 2 skill tokens per character.

The skills are:

• Father: HEAL - Heal a wound from another character at your location.
• Mother: FIGHT - Re-roll a red die.
• Daughter: HACKER - Re-roll a blue die.
• Son: CHARM - Re-roll a yellow die.

Story and Alert Tracks

The story and alert tracks mark the passage of time and your progress, as well as marking the end of the game.

Story track: this track advances each time you pick up an info token. Each time the story marker reaches a position with a story card, reveal that card and apply its effects just like you did with story card 0. These story cards have narrative twists that will modify aspects of the game, they will tell you how many new info tokens you must put in the bag, and how many mafia cards must each player draw during their turns.

Mix all the revealed cards with the deck and shuffle them together each time you have to reveal a story card. Additionally, each player recovers a skill token, with a limit of 2 tokens per character.

A story card may be revealed in the middle of a player's turn. In that case, apply all effects of the story card and then proceed with your turn normally.

Once you reveal the last story card, it will indicate the final challenge you must overcome to win the game, and where to find it.

Alert track: The alert track will progress for many reasons: police catching mobsters, using wildcard results, taking extra steps, and so on. Each time the alert track reaches a police car, place that car on top of to the police deck.

At the start of the following round, add that card to the ones you recovered from the map, and reshuffle the police deck with any discarded police cards. From that moment on, you will play with one additional police car on the map. Then, proceed with the rest of the round as usual.

Fin de la Partida

The source heading reads "FIN DE LA PARTIDA" (Spanish) as printed; the content below is the English rules.

There are 3 ways the game may end:

1. If the alert track reaches its limit, as indicated in story card 0, the players will have until the end of the current round to reach their goal, or they will lose the game. If the alert marker reaches the end of the track during the police phase, the players will have the full round before the game ends.

2. If there are 5 FBI tokens on the map at the same time, the players immediately lose the game.

3. If the players overcome the final challenge presented in the last story card before any of the previous situations happen, they win the game.

Item List

• Cell phone: +1 mental result.
• Laptop: Pick up an info token from an adjacent location, using your dice results as usual.
• Cash: You may heal a wound or bribe a mafia token to discard it from the map. Discard this item after using it.
• Mask: +1 social result.
• Gloves: +1 physical result.
• Bike: Move 1 additional step with each movement action. It does not apply to the EXTRA STEP.
• Newspaper: Travel on the subway for free, without movement or alert costs.
• Police radio: Move a police car to an adjacent location, but raise the alert 1 point.
• Drone: Pick up an item from an adjacent square, using your dice results as usual. You may also send the drone and one of your items to another player anywhere on the map.
• Raincoat: Ignore the mafia at one location. You may also ignore police or the FBI by raising 1 alert on the track.