Parts Unknown
Parts Unknown Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What You Get
Parts Unknown comes with a deck of 96 cards (Brains, Gizmos, etc.), four board sections, and this rule book.
What Else You Need
You will also need two Pawns, several Counters, one six-sided Die, and a few thousand bucks in play Money. The Counters can all be identical; pennies will work fine. You can tell what different counters are by where they are sitting. The two Pawns will represent Viktor Frankenstein (outside track), and the Calendar Pawn (inside track).
Setting Up
Assemble the board sections in a loop. The empty space in the middle is called the "Town." (The suggested first-game layout, going around the loop, has the Extremities, Gizmos, Brains and Leftovers houses, with the Town in the middle.)
On your first game, you should arrange the board sections as shown. Once you have played the game a few times, you can shuffle the sections and arrange them in any order.
Put 4 "Townesfolk" counters in the Town. (All the counters are the same, but in there they represent people.)
Give each player $40, and put the rest of the money in the Bank. Also, give each player four "Shelf Space" counters.
Start Viktor on the "Monster" space, and put the Calendar Pawn on the "Start" space on the inside track. Both of these Pawns move counterclockwise around the board.
When the Calendar Pawn completes a loop, the game ends.
Before the First Turn
Shuffle the deck, and deal six cards to each player. Simultaneously, each player chooses up to four cards which he wishes to put on display at his store. Then, starting with a random player and proceeding to the left, each player reveals the cards he wishes to stock, and prices them with his Shelf Space counters.
How Stocking and Pricing works: Normally, you will stock and price items only on your turn. "Stocking" means putting a card from your Hand onto the table in front of you, and "pricing" means putting a Shelf Space counter on the card, to indicate the price you are selling it for.
Take a look at the Cheese card (Brains category; price column reading 28, 24, 20, 10, with a Shelf Space counter placed over the 24 space; flavor text "Way better than mold."). This player has put his Shelf Space counter on the card to indicate that (1) it is for sale, and (2) the price is $24. You cannot display more items than you have shelves, and the marked price is the lowest visible price above the Shelf Space counter.
It is possible to have items for sale which are not on your shelves, and which are not marked with Shelf Space counters. These items go into a grab bag, a face down pile called "Parts Unknown," which is described later. However, on this starting turn, no one can put anything into their Parts Unknown.
Once everyone has had the chance to stock and price their opening set of cards, determine a random player to take the first turn of the game. Thereafter, play proceeds to the left.
On Each Turn
A turn consists of three basic steps: Buying Stuff, Stocking and Pricing, and Moving Doctor Frankenstein. You do these three steps in the following order:
Step 1: Buy Stuff
You may draw up to seven cards from the top of the deck. The first card is free, but more cards will cost you more money. (There are only so many body parts to be found, and your good-for-nothing gravediggers charge triple overtime.) The prices for drawing cards are given in the Card Price Chart (below); the money you pay goes to the Bank. You can't draw more than seven cards each turn, but there is no upper limit to the size of your hand.
In addition to drawing, you can buy cards from the other players' shelves. Pay the players their marked price, and put these cards in your hand.
Other players can't refuse to sell you the cards they have on display. (They marked them at that price, so they must be willing to sell them!) You can use this option to buy out someone who is undercutting you, when you want to corner the market on a particular item or category.
Buying Shelf Space: For $40, you can add another shelf to your store. Pay the money to the Bank, and take another Shelf Space counter. You can add as many extra shelves as you like.
Step 2: Stock and Price
We've already described basic Stocking and Pricing. On step 2 of your turn, you can play any card from your hand into an empty shelf. And you can adjust the prices on anything you have on display.
Parts Unknown: On step 2, you can also move stuff from your shelves (or directly from your hand) into your Parts Unknown. This is a face down grab-bag of cards which you have marked at must-go prices. It is not part of your shelf space, and it can be as big as you want. The good thing about Parts Unknown is that it's guaranteed to sell at the end of the month. The bad thing is that it will not fetch much of money. Items in Parts Unknown always sell for half the Going Rate (described later). If there is no Going Rate, they sell at half their lowest price.
Beware: You can never pull cards back out of your Parts Unknown, and you can never pull cards from your Shelves back into your hand.
Step 3: Move Viktor
Roll the die, and move the Frankenstein pawn counterclockwise around the board. Viktor is window shopping, but all the Scientists in town are watching him. If he stops to gawk at Gizmos, he creates a demand for Gizmos. If he stops to look at Brains, then Brains (or the nearest facsimile) are the thing to buy.
Demand Spaces: Each House around the board contains a number of "Demand" spaces which are activated when Viktor stops on them. The "X" in a Demand space means the number of counters currently in the Town. For example, if Viktor lands on "2+X" in the Extremities house, then he creates a demand for 2+X Extremities. If the population of the Town is 4, this means the total demand is for 6 Extremities.
What does a demand of 6 mean? In a nutshell, it means that the Scientists will buy the cheapest Extremities on the table, until the demand of 6 is met, or until no more Extremities can be found. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the general idea.
Here's the complicated bit: Only the cheapest cards of any particular type can sell on the same turn. If one store is selling Feet for $11, then no one will buy them elsewhere for $14. On the other hand, $18 just might be a fair price for Hands, if no one is selling them cheaper.
The lowest marked price for a particular card type is called the "Going Rate." This can change each turn, but stays fixed during a particular turn. In the above example, the Going Rate for Feet is $11, and the Going Rate for Hands is $18. Only cards at the Going Rate can sell. More expensive ones will not, regardless of the demand.
Another wrinkle: if the Scientists buy one item, they will buy everything in that category at that price, even if it means exceeding the demand. This is how Surpluses arise.
For example, let's say the demand for Extremities is 6. A total of four Feet are available, at the going rate of $11, and they all sell. ("Selling" a card means that you discard it, and collect the price from the Bank.) After these four cards sell, the demand of 6 has been reduced to 2.
There are also three Hands available, at the Going Rate of $18. There is still a demand, and all three of them sell. That's one more Extremity than was called for, and this generates a Surplus.
Surplus: A surplus is the result of overselling, as demonstrated in the example above. There were more Hands at the Going Rate than the Scientists really wanted, but once they bought one thing at the $18 level they were forced to buy them all.
To indicate that there is a Surplus of one Extremity, place a counter over one of the Surplus dots in the Extremities house. This counter will remain until Extremities are called for again, or until all the Surplus dots are covered. In that case, the Surplus will be converted into more Townesfolk, as described below.
When there is a Surplus in a particular category, and Viktor lands on another Demand space in that house, the Surplus counters are immediately removed, and that amount is subtracted from whatever demand he creates.
Shortage: Shortages arise when there is more demand than can be met. In the example above, if there were no Hands on the table, then only four of the six demanded Extremities would have sold. This would result in a Shortage of two Extremities.
You mark this Shortage by placing counters over two Shortage dots in the Extremities House. Like Surpluses, large Shortages may convert to changes in the town. Otherwise, they will be added to the next Demand.
Note: It's impossible to have both a Shortage and a Surplus in the same category at the same time, since they go away each time a new Demand space is hit. Also, it's possible to momentarily have more Shortage or Surplus than a particular house has dots. That's okay, remember the extras, because the rest are about to be converted.
Converting Surplus and Shortage: This will happen at the end of every turn. If all of the Surplus dots in a particular house are covered, then those counters go away, and one counter is added to the Town. If all the Shortage dots in a house are covered, then those counters go away, and one person is removed from the Town. (Yikes!)
Excessive shortages can cause the Town to completely vanish. If the Town's population reaches zero, the game ends immediately and the player with the most money wins.
You will notice that Shortages and Surpluses in the Gizmos house do not convert into Townesfolk. That house can retain a Surplus or Shortage of any size.
Other Board Squares
Besides the Demand spaces, there are several unique spaces around the board. Here's what they do.
Advance the Calendar: These two black corner spaces are activated whenever Viktor passes them, or stops on them. He does not have to stop on these spaces exactly to make them go off! Both spaces advance the Calendar Pawn. One of them also grows the Town by one. In addition, passing this space clears every player's Parts Unknown.
To advance the Calendar Pawn, move it counterclockwise one space around the inside track. When it returns to "Start," the game is over. (Finish the current turn.)
At these points, all Parts Unknown sell immediately--technically before Viktor takes another step. Cards in Parts Unknown sell for half the Going Rate, rounding down. If there are no cards on the board to establish a Going Rate, then these cards sell for half their minimum price. (Note: The Going Rate for a particular item is usually set by cards of the exact same type. But if the Monster space is on, as described below, the Going rate for a category is determined by the single cheapest card in that category.)
Buyout: When Viktor stops here, reveal the top card of the deck. All the cards on display which match that card sell immediately, at their marked price. For example, if you turn over a Zwik, then everyone's Zwiks sell right away.
Auction: When Viktor stops on this space, turn over the top card of the deck. Every matching card which is currently on display is taken away and thrown into a pool, along with the card itself. Players then bid in an open auction to buy this entire stack of cards. Anyone may increase the bid at any time. Whoever offers the most money pays the Bank, and takes the cards.
Roll Again: If Viktor lands here, move him again. Duh.
Riot and Monster: These are persistent squares, and work in much the same way. If Viktor lands on one of these spaces, mark it with a counter. That means that the effect is "on" until Viktor lands there again, or passes over it again. In other words, if either Monster or Riot is hit, it will stay activated for exactly one lap.
Riot: While Riot is on, the townesfolk are up in arms. Not with any great unity of purpose, mind you. During a Riot, cards are more expensive: you draw one less than you pay for. In other words, if you pay $4, you only draw one card.
Monster: While Monster is on, there is a Monster wandering the streets. Scientists are afraid to venture out, and therefore they shop a lot less. This means the single cheapest item in a particular category sets the Going Rate for the entire category. For example, if there are Giblets for sale at $3, then no other Leftovers can sell, and all Leftovers in Parts Unknown will sell for $1 regardless of type.
Card Price Chart
This is the normal price to draw cards. If "Riot" is on, subtract one card.
| Cards | Price |
|---|---|
| 1 | $0 |
| 2 | $4 |
| 3 | $12 |
| 4 | $24 |
| 5 | $40 |
| 6 | $60 |
| 7 | $85 |
Reshuffling
You will probably go through the deck a few times in this game. When the cards run out, reshuffle the discards and replace the deck.
Winning
There are two slightly different victory conditions, depending on how the game ends. If the entire Town disappears, due to too many Shortages, then the game ends abruptly and the player with the most money wins. If, however, the Calendar Pawn runs its entire course, then each Shelf Space counts as $15 towards your score, and the player with the most money wins. So, building a bigger store is slightly more rewarding if the Town survives. Good luck!