Panic Lab
Panic Lab Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
25 illustrated tiles; 4 dice; 30 tokens.
Objective
Starting from the tile indicated by the Lab die, each player tries to be the fastest to find the amoeba indicated by the 3 dice: Color, Shape, and Pattern.
Setup
Shuffle the 25 tiles and lay them side by side to form a circle (fig. 1).
How a Round Unfolds
The starting player is chosen at random and rolls the 4 dice, then every player plays at the same time:
- The Color, Shape, and Pattern dice indicate the amoeba that must be found. In the example (fig. 2), it is the tentacled amoeba, red in color, with stripes, that must be found.
- The Lab die indicates the place the amoeba escaped from and the direction it went. In the example (fig. 3), the amoeba must be looked for starting from the yellow laboratory, heading in the direction of the black arrow.
To find the amoeba indicated by the Color, Shape, and Pattern dice, players must therefore start from the laboratory indicated by the Lab die, moving in the direction of the arrow shown on the die. The first player to place a hand on the amoeba being sought wins a token, after the other players check the find.
In the example (fig. 4), a crawling amoeba must be found, violet in color and with dots. It escaped from the blue laboratory heading in the direction of the white arrow. Following the tiles placed after the blue laboratory (1) in the direction of the white arrow, the amoeba being sought is found at (2).
Error!
It can happen that players disagree and place a hand on different amoebas. During the check, the player(s) who guessed wrong must give back one of their tokens (if one of those players has no token to give back, nothing happens).
Vents
Amoebas hide by slipping into vents. If, while following the path taken by an amoeba, players come across a vent tile, they do not count the following tiles until the next vent. The search resumes from that second vent, continuing to turn in the same direction. This may continue up to the third vent, after which the tiles are no longer counted until returning to the first vent, from which the search must start over.
In the example (fig. 5), players are looking for a tentacled amoeba, red in color and with stripes, that escaped from the red laboratory (1) in the direction of the black arrow. Following the tiles in that direction, players reach a vent (2) without having found the amoeba. All tiles are ignored until the next vent (3), then the search resumes to find the amoeba (4).
Mutation Rooms
Amoebas that pass through a mutation room (fig. 6) change:
- An amoeba that passes through the Color mutation room changes color (a).
- An amoeba that passes through the Shape mutation room changes shape (b).
- An amoeba that passes through the Pattern mutation room changes pattern (c).
In the example (fig. 7), players are looking for a tentacled amoeba, violet in color and with stripes, that escaped from the yellow laboratory (1) in the direction of the white arrow. Following the tiles in that direction, players reach the Pattern mutation room (2) without having found the amoeba; they now look for the tentacled, violet, dotted amoeba. Continuing to follow the tiles in the same direction, players reach the Color mutation room (3) without having found the amoeba; they now look for the tentacled, red, dotted amoeba. Following the tiles, players reach a vent (4) without having found the amoeba. All tiles are ignored until the next vent (5), then the search resumes to finally find the amoeba (6).
Warning: amoebas are fragile and can withstand only 4 passes through a mutation room! An amoeba that, within the same round, passes through 4 mutation rooms disappears immediately. The winner is then the first player to place a hand on the fourth and last mutation room the amoeba passed through!
End of the Game
As soon as a player has found the correct amoeba or the correct mutation room, that player takes a token to mark the win, then the 4 dice are rolled again to launch a new hunt. The winner is the first player to win 5 tokens.
Variants
To get familiar with the game, or to play with younger players, it is possible to play without the mutation rooms, or even without the vents.