Nobel Run Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal
• Components
• Types of Cards
  • Anatomy of a Card
• Setup
  • Initial Player
• How to Play
  • Game Zones
  • Initial Hand
  • What Can You Do on Your Turn?
  • 1. Get New Cards From the Pool
  • 2. Publish a Card on Your Curriculum Vitae
  • End of Turn
  • Negative Resource Cards
  • Special Cards
• End of the Game
• Icon Guide

Goal

The goal of the game is to get 20 or more prestige points. These will allow you to win the Nobel Prize. You can get prestige points by:

• Publishing scientific papers.
• Getting research grants.
• Hiring staff.
• With the help of scientists and inventors.

Components

• 20 Initial cards: 16 Work, 4 Research.
• 16 Grant cards: 10 Local Grants, 4 National Grants, 2 International Grants.
• 10 Predocs, 4 Postdocs, 2 Seniors.
• 4 Lab Equipment.
• 26 Papers: 8 Q4 Papers, 4 Q3 Papers, 4 Q2 Papers, 4 Q1 Papers, 4 Q1 Open Access Papers, 2 Top Papers.
• 3 Situations.
• 21 Scientists / Inventors.

Types of Cards

The game cards are divided into 3 groups. These groups can be identified by the different patterns and colour at the bottom of the cards.

• Initial (grey)
• Basic (blue)
• Advanced (purple)

Anatomy of a Card

1. Cost. The cost of the card, or resources needed, is placed at the top left and represented by one or more orange icons.
2. Resources. The different resources that each card provides are also shown at the bottom. Each time you use a card, you can only use one of the resources it offers.

You can consult the icon guide at the end of this rulebook to find out more.

Setup

1. Individual cards. At the start of the game, hand out a deck to each player consisting of the following 7 cards: 4 Work, 1 Research, 1 Predoc, 1 Local Grant.
2. Pool.
   • 2A. Shuffle all the basic cards (these are blue at the bottom) and form a deck with them. Draw 5 cards from this deck and place them face up on the table to form the pool. Place the deck of basic cards face up next to the pool (showing all players the next card that will go into the pool).
   • 2B. Repeat the same process with the advanced cards (these are purple at the bottom) but place the 5 cards for the pool and the deck of cards below the basic cards.

Initial Player

The player who read a scientific article more recently will play first. Then the game will continue clockwise.

How to Play

Game Zones

During the game, you have 4 zones to manage and play your cards:

• Curriculum Vitae: where you collect the cards and turn these into prestige points.
• Play Area: where you show the cards from your hand and use their resources.
• Individual Deck: where you draw the cards to use during your turn.
• Discard Pile: where you leave the cards face up once you have played them.

Initial Hand

At the beginning of the game, shuffle your individual deck (consisting of 7 cards) and place it face down on the table next to your play area. Next, draw 5 cards. This could be your hand for the first round.

Remember: at the bottom of each card you can find the different resources the card is worth. However, you can only choose one of these.

For example, if you use the Research card you can choose between getting 1 unit of money or 1 unit of data, or putting it towards your Curriculum Vitae area and not getting anything. If you use the Predoc card, you can choose between getting 1 unit of money or 2 units of effort, or taking it to your Curriculum Vitae area and earning 1 prestige point.

What Can You Do on Your Turn?

On your turn, you can use as many of your cards as you want to perform the following actions:

1. Getting as many cards from the pool as you want by "purchasing" them.
2. Moving one of your cards to your Curriculum Vitae area.

1. Get New Cards From the Pool

Use your cards' resources to get one or more cards from the pool. The cost of each card is indicated in the upper left corner.

Resource icons: money, effort, data.

• Example A: with the illustrated cards you could use the 4 units of money from 3 Work cards and 1 Research card to purchase the Laboratory Equipment card.
• Example B: you could also use the 3 Work cards and 1 Research card to gain 3 units of effort and 1 unit of data, which can in turn get you the Q3 Paper card.

When it is your turn, you can get several cards from the pool if your cards have the resources to purchase them. For example, if you have a Lab Equipment card that gives you 2 units of data and you have other cards that give you 5 or more units of effort, you can use these cards to get both a Q4 Paper and a Q3 Paper in the same turn.

Did you know...? Scientific journals are usually divided into quartiles according to their prestige: Q1 is the first and most prestigious quartile and Q4 is the fourth, least prestigious quartile.

Both used cards and newly drawn cards go to your own discard pile. Exception: if the card obtained is a paper (Q4, Q3, Q2, Q1, Q1 Open Access, Top), it goes to your Curriculum Vitae directly and you are granted its prestige points (if you have 20 points or more, this will be the last round of play, as explained later).

Did you know...? Papers published in Open Access journals are widely read because they are free to access. However, you have to pay the publisher to make these journals open access.

Every time you get a card from the pool, you must replenish it from the corresponding deck (the deck of basic cards if you get a basic card or the deck of advanced cards if you get an advanced card), in such a way that there are always 5 basic cards and 5 advanced cards in the pool.

Important: if you want to get the card that sits on top of the pile of basic or advanced cards, you must discard one of your cards before using the necessary cards to "purchase" the card on the top of the pile. You can do this multiple times during your turn.

In the example, you want to get the card that is at the top of the basic card deck (Backup data loss). To do this, you can use any of your cards to unlock the card on top of the deck. Then you can "purchase" it with 2 Work cards (all these cards - the 2 Work cards, the card you used to unlock the card and the card you "purchased" go to your discard pile).

2. Publish a Card on Your Curriculum Vitae

In addition to getting one card every time it's your turn you can put one of your cards towards your Curriculum Vitae. This will allow you to get the results indicated by the publish icon:

• Prestige points will be counted at the end of the game to decide who wins the Nobel Prize.
• Extra resources: you can use these when it's your turn to get more powerful cards.

Unlike discarded cards, published cards cannot be used in the game again (except to count the prestige points they provided).

For example, a card can give you:

• 3 units of money each time you use it before placing it in your discard pile.
• 4 units of effort if you send it to your Curriculum Vitae, and get cards from the pool. After this, you cannot play this card again.

End of Turn

Your go is over when you no longer want cards from the pool or you are no longer able to "purchase" any. During your go you can discard as many cards as you want to your discard pile. You can also save your cards for the next round.

Next, draw as many cards as you need from your deck to have a total of five cards for your next go.

If your own deck runs out of cards, shuffle your discard pile to create a new deck (place it face down on the table). This means that in future rounds you will be able to use the cards that you have been getting from the pool and putting in your discard pile.

At this point your go ends and the person on your left can begin.

Negative Resource Cards

Some cards provide negative resources which players can use to stop other players from "purchasing" cards from the pool. Two negative "effects" can be used:

• A) Normal effect.
• B) Publication effect.

A) If you choose to use the normal effect, your opponent will have to discard one or more of their cards to make up the same resources (or more) than those indicated by the negative resource card. If your opponent does not have enough resources amongst their cards to counter the negative resource card, they must discard all the cards providing that resource (effort, money, data).

B) If you choose to use the publication effect (which is more powerful than the normal effect), you have to place the negative resource card in front of the player's Curriculum Vitae. Once you have done this, your opponent will not be able to "purchase" cards from the pool that require the type of resource indicated by the negative resource until they discard the cards needed to provide the same (or more) resources as those indicated by the negative resource card. Once your opponent manages to disable the negative resource card, they can save it in their Curriculum Vitae but it cannot be used against anyone else in this game.

Example A: if you use the normal effect of the Care card, your opponent will have to discard one or more of their cards to provide 2 units of effort. Once used, this Care card and the cards your opponent used to disable it get discarded.

Example B: your opponent places the Care card in front of your Curriculum Vitae and says that they want to use its publication effect. Before you can get any of the cards from the pool that require effort, you must use one or more of your cards to obtain 4 units of effort to disable the Care card.

If the card you want does not require effort but money, you can use your cards to "purchase it" even without removing the Care card in front of your Curriculum Vitae. However, the Care card will remain there until you disable it, preventing you from getting cards that require effort from the pool.

If one of your cards provides negative prestige points and you use its publish effect, you can place it on the Curriculum Vitae of whichever opponent you choose at any time. Those negative prestige points will reduce that person's total prestige points. For example, if a player publishes such a card in your Curriculum Vitae, you will have 4 prestige points deducted from your total.

Special Cards

• Sally Kristen Ride: When you discard this card you must draw 2 cards from your individual deck. This means you will have an extra card when it is your go.
• Donna Strickland: When you discard this card, you can blindly choose a card from one of the other players' hands to discard. This means that player will have to play with one less card.

End of the Game

The game ends when a player gets 20 or more prestige points on their Curriculum Vitae. When this happens, the players continue playing until everyone has had their turn.

The player with the most prestige points at the end wins. Important: The player who initially got the 20 prestige points may not win.

Did you know...? "Ex aequo" is a Latin expression that means "equally placed." It is used when two or more participants in a competition are equal.

In the event of a tie, the Nobel Prize will be awarded ex aequo to all players who achieved the highest score. That is, if in the last round there are two players with 22 points and one player with 21 points, the two players with 22 points win.

Icon Guide

• Effort: Amount of effort generated by a card, which is then used to purchase other cards in the pool.
• Data: Amount of data generated by a card, which is then used to purchase other cards in the pool.
• Cost of effort: Amount of effort needed to "purchase" a card in the pool.
• Data cost: Amount of data needed to "purchase" a card in the pool.
• Negative effort: Amount of effort that your opponent must pay to disable a negative effort card.
• Negative data: Amount of data that your opponent must pay to disable a negative data card.
• Publish: Move a card from your hand to your Curriculum Vitae to get the indicated prestige / resources. If these have a negative value, the card is placed in front of your opponent's Curriculum Vitae.
• Extra cards: When you discard this card, you draw 2 additional cards from your deck for that turn.
• Negative card: When you discard this card, you force your opponent to discard one of the cards from their hand chosen blindly by you.
• Immediate effect: When you get a card with an immediate effect icon from the pool, it is moved directly to your Curriculum Vitae, immediately awarding you the indicated prestige points.
• Money resource: In the upper left corner, it indicates the money needed to get that card from the pool. In the lower part, it indicates the money provided by this card when using it. If it has a negative value, it indicates the amount of money that your opponent must pay to disable it.