Pest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
  • Map Setup
  • Player Board Setup
• Concepts
  • Renown
  • Assistants
  • Pest & Aid Cards
  • Plague Doctor
  • Containment Camp
  • Resources
  • Locations
  • Roads
  • Buildings
  • Capital City
  • Capital City Cards
  • Decree Cards
  • Technology Cards
  • Population
  • Quarantine
  • Influence
• Gameplay
  • Year Structure
  • 1. Pest & Aid Phase
  • 2. Action Phase
  • Actions
  • 3. Return Assistants
  • 4. Reset Turn Order
  • Era End
  • Influence
  • Decree Cards
• Game End
• Advanced Setup Variant
• 2-Player Versus Variant
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • Game End
• Solo Variant
  • Setup
  • Gameplay
  • End Game
• Technologies
• Icon Glossary
• Rules Glossary
  • Actions
  • Movement and Quarantine
  • Construct
  • Produce
  • Research
  • Assign

Components

• 1 Map Board
• 1 Era Board
• 1 Influence Board
• 1 Capital City Board
• 5 Player Boards
• 18 Pest Cards
• 10 Aid Cards
• 5 Capital City Cards
• 5 Starting Location Cards
• 15 Decree Cards
• 30 Technology Cards
• 5 Plague Doctor Meeples (1 per player)
• 20 Assistant Meeples (4 per player)
• 50 Building Meeples (1 Workshop, 1 Factory, 1 Treasury, 1 Castle, 6 Districts per player)
• 5 Capital City Buildings
• 14 Capital City Reward Tokens
• 5 Containment Camp Tokens (1 per player)
• 24 Renown Tokens
• 24 Negative Renown Tokens
• 12 City Location Tokens
• 16 Town Location Tokens
• 20 Village Location Tokens
• 28 Destroyed/Empty Location Tokens
• 42 Research Tokens
• 100 Population Meeples
• 8 Sick People Multiplier Tokens
• 70 Building Production Resource Tokens
• 25 Resource Track Tokens (5 per player)
• 5 Shield Turn Order Markers (1 per player)
• 15 Square Imperative Markers (3 per player)
• 5 Pentagon Influence Markers (1 per player)
• 5 Help Cards
• Score Pad & Pencil

Setup

Map Setup

Place the map board at the middle of the table in reach of all players. Choose a player color and take all the player pieces of that color, including one player board, and then:

1. Some locations have a Destroyed Location icon and player count numbers below their resource icon. This means that those locations are destroyed from the start of the game at certain player counts. Place a Destroyed Location token on the locations where your player count matches at least one of those numbers.

   Example: If you play as three players, find all the locations that have the 3 player number below the resource icon and put a Destroyed Location token on each.

   Note: Some locations don't have a player number. These locations are in play from the start at all player counts.

2. Some of the locations have a Sick People icon right below their resource icon. Place one Sick Person on each of those locations.

3. Shuffle the Decree cards by the Era decks and then draw one card from each Era deck. Place the drawn Decree cards on the corresponding Era slots face-up (the bottom slot is the Era I slot). 3.a) Place your Imperative markers (square shape) on the "0" space of the three Imperative tracks. Return the remaining Decree cards to the box.

4. Shuffle the Capital City cards, draw one card, and place it in on the slot of the Capital City board face-up. Return the remaining Capital City cards to the box.

5. Place the Capital City buildings on their corresponding slots on the Capital City board. 5.a) Take Capital City tokens depending on the player count (2 players: 6 tokens, 3 players: 8 tokens, 4 players: 10 tokens and 5 players: 12 tokens). Shuffle these tokens face-down, then place them around the perimeter of the Capital City on the map face-up.

6. For 3-5 players: Shuffle the Pest and Aid decks and place 6 face-down cards from each deck on the corresponding slots next to the map. Pest cards are placed in the left side column, while the Aid cards go on the right side column.

   6.a) For 1-2 players: From the Pest deck, take the cards numbered 7-15 and make three piles separated by the road color symbol on those cards. Shuffle the piles and draw one card from each pile. Return these three drawn cards to the box without looking at them. Combine the remaining piles, and shuffle them into the rest of the Pest cards. Shuffle the Pest and Aid decks and place 6 face-down cards from each deck on the corresponding slots next to the map.

7. Shuffle the Technology cards deck, and draw 5 cards. Place these cards at their slots below the Capital City board, face-up. This is the available Technology market.

8. Place your Influence markers on the "0" space on the Influence track.

9. Determine turn order randomly, then place your markers on the Turn order track spaces according to that order.

10. For 3-5 players: By following the turn order, draw a Starting location card and choose where to place your Castle (this is your starting settlement) from the three locations you were given as an option. Draw 2 Starting location cards, and by following the turn order, choose where to place your Castle from the two locations you were given.

Player Board Setup

You have already chosen a player color to play with and taken all the components of that color.

1. Now, place the buildings on the corresponding slots on your player board.
2. Place the resource markers on the appropriate spaces on your resource track - you start with 1 Stone, 1 Lumber, 2 Herbs, 2 Food, 2 Coins and 1 Research token.
3. Take two Assistant meeples and place them on their "ready" slot on your player board. 3.a) Place the other two Assistant meeples on the side of your player board (they will enter the game in the later Eras).
4. Take the Containment Camp token and place it on the appropriate slot.

You are now ready to start playing!

Concepts

Renown

The House with the most Renown at the end of the game is the winner.

You will earn Renown by constructing buildings, having Healthy People among your population, completing Decrees, researching Technologies, completing the Capital City Requests and having Influence. You will also gain Negative Renown if you have Dead People in your graveyard at the end of each Era.

Throughout these rules and on various components of the game, you will find two types of Renown/Negative Renown icons:

• End of Game: These icons represent Renown/Negative Renown gained at the end of the game.
• Tokens: These icons represent Renown/Negative Renown gained immediately as tokens, throughout the game.

Whenever the game instructs you to take X amount of Renown or Negative Renown, you gain the corresponding amount of tokens.

Assistants

You will use your Assistants to play the main actions of the game by placing them on the action grid on your player board.

Pest & Aid Cards

The Pest cards are used at the start of each year and represent the different places on the map where Sick People will show up. The Aid cards are used at the start of each year and will grant you different rewards depending on your Influence standing.

Plague Doctor

Your Plague Doctor is your main marker figure on the map. Throughout the game, you will move your Plague Doctor on the map through different locations along roads and gather Sick People along the travels. While your Plague Doctor is at a certain location, you will be able to construct the buildings that are found on your player board on that location.

Containment Camp

Your Containment Camp may be used during your movement to clear or protect locations on the map.

Resources

You will use Lumber and Stone to construct buildings, Food to gather Sick People from the map, and Herbs to cure Sick People. You can also use Coins as a wild resource instead of any of the above. Resources are produced by the buildings you construct at the locations on the map.

Locations

Locations are the spaces on the map where you move your Plague Doctor to gather Sick People and construct buildings from your player board. There are three types of locations: Villages (small size), Towns (middle size) and Cities (large size), and each location will provide one of the four resources (Lumber, Stone, Food or Herbs).

A location that has a Destruction Token on the resource symbol is a destroyed location, it cannot produce resources, and you cannot construct in these locations, but is still traversable.

Some locations have a Red, Blue or Black Harbour icon. These icons are only important during the Pest phase.

Roads

The roads on the map connect two locations. Some of them have a Red, Blue or Black Horseshoe icon and color that are only important during the Pest phase.

Buildings

Your House starts the game with 10 buildings on your player board: six districts, three special buildings (Workshop, Factory and Treasury) and one Castle. Once constructed, these buildings require a Healthy Person to work and produce resources for you.

Capital City

This space represents the Capital City of Thokaia. In the Capital you can assign Healthy People and construct the Capital City buildings.

The Capital City buildings are constructed in the center of the Capital City. Each building can be constructed only once each game, and the player who constructed it will gain Renown and Influence.

Capital City Cards

Capital City cards are special requests from the authorities of the Capital City that will grant rewards to the players with the most People in the Capital.

Decree Cards

Decree cards represent the plans of the Empire's Council to restore the empire's glory and uplift its citizens. Each of the three Eras will have a different Decree card that will only work for that Era.

A Decree card has two parts: The Agenda will reward you Renown at the end of the era, and the Imperative will reward you Influence and Renown by fulfilling conditions during the era.

Technology Cards

The Technology cards are innovations of the great minds of the empire that will help you in your quest to get rid of the Pest and thus restore the Empire. These cards provide various in-game abilities and effects. Some of the Technology cards have a requirement to be placed in one of the three slots of your player board (top, middle or bottom). In order to acquire Technology cards, you have to spend Research tokens.

Population

The green meeples in this game are called People. All the People found on the map and the ones you gathered in your Quarantine are considered Sick People. The Healthy People are people who you've cured during the game and are located on the Healthy Population track, where every Research space is a Laboratory. People located in the Graveyard are considered Dead People.

Quarantine

The Quarantine slots on the player board represent the places where you put the Sick People you gather during the game. The regular Quarantine has 3 slots and these don't have any direct downside to them. When the slots of the regular Quarantine are filled with Sick People, you have to put Sick People in the top row actions Quarantine or the storage Quarantine. These Sick People will hinder your top row actions and/or will prevent you from having 5 resources of a type.

Influence

You will gain Influence by constructing buildings and completing Imperatives or Capital City card requests.

The Influence points are also used to determine the turn order.

Gameplay

A game of Pest is divided into three Eras, with each Era consisting of two Years (rounds).

During Era I, you will place two Assistants to play actions on your action grid per each year. For Era II, you will place three Assistants per year and for Era III you will place four Assistants per year.

Year Structure

Follow these phases for each year:

1. Pest & Aid Phase
2. Action Phase
3. Return Assistant
4. Reset Turn Order

1. Pest & Aid Phase

At the start of every year, reveal the corresponding Pest card. This card determines where the Pest plague will strike this year. Place Sick People on the appropriate locations or roads on the map as shown on the Pest card.

In Era I, place 1 Sick Person on each corresponding location/roads as shown on the Pest card. In Eras 2 and 3, place 2 Sick People on each corresponding location and road as shown on the Pest card.

If a Sick Person is placed on a location containing exactly one building, the building's owner must gather that Sick Person and place it in their Quarantine. If that player does not have any more space in their Quarantine, they place that Sick Person in their Graveyard (it becomes a Dead Person).

If a Sick Person or People are to be placed on a location containing multiple buildings, at least one Plague Doctor or at least one Containment Camp, do not place those Sick People there.

More so, if Sick People are placed on a location containing only a Containment Camp, return that Containment Camp to your player board and do not place Sick People on that location. If there are multiple Containment Camps on a location where Sick People should be placed, all players return their Containment Camps to their player boards.

As mentioned before, Sick People can be placed on roads. These roads however, don't have a limit for how many Sick People they can contain.

Location Destruction

If a location has four or more Sick People (only after a Pest card is fully resolved), that location is considered destroyed. Remove all the Sick People from that location and then place a Destroyed location token there.

Then, place one Sick Person on each location adjacent to the destroyed location. If, after this, there are four or more Sick People on the adjacent locations, do not destroy those locations (locations may contain more than four Sick People this way).

The destroyed location still counts as a location for movement purposes only. You cannot construct buildings there and Sick People will not appear there through the Pest cards.

Note: A location can only be destroyed from the Sick People that appeared from the Pest card.

Example: In the city of Blessir, a fourth Sick Person appeared through a Pest card. Return all four Sick People from that city to the supply, and place a Destroyed location token on that location. Then, place one Sick Person in each of the adjacent locations (Terras & Meskar). Even though the town of Terras has four Sick People already, that town is not Destroyed because the fourth Sick Person didn't come from a Pest card.

After the Pest card is fully resolved, draw an Aid card and place it right of the Pest card for this year. The Aid card will reward you depending on your Influence, and the rewards you will get are determined by the Aid card from the previous year (the Aid card from year 1 will not reward the players).

The player with the most Influence will gain the leftmost reward. The player with the least Influence will always gain the rightmost reward. The rest of the players will gain the middle rewards.

The cards with the X symbol do not give rewards to any of the players.

In case of a tie (when players have 0 influence), the tied players receive the rightmost reward.

Note: The Crate is considered as any resource (except Coins). This means whenever a Crate is shown for you to spend or gain, you can spend or gain any resource (except Coins) instead.

2. Action Phase

Going according to the turn order, you must place one Assistant on one of the empty slots on your action grid.

When you place an Assistant on the action grid, you get to play a combination of one top row action and one left column action.

You may resolve these actions in any order you may like, however, you must resolve the first action you choose fully before resolving the second action. If you choose, you may also resolve only one of the actions or neither.

You may also spend exactly 1 Research token (only once per turn) to enhance a top row action on your action grid.

If an action has a Quarantined person on it, it's referred to as a Hindered action.

Actions

Free action: Trade

As a free action that you can play at any time during your turn, you can trade any 2 resources to gain 1 Coin. You can use this action multiple times during your turn, before, after or between your two actions.

Move

Move your Plague Doctor up to two locations connected by roads. Moving through locations containing one of your buildings and through the Capital City costs you 0 movement. However, moving through locations not containing your buildings cost you 1 movement.

If a location you move into with your Plague Doctor contains Sick People, you have to be able to gather all of the Sick People from that location either by spending Food or placing your Containment Camp (before proceeding to the next location):

• The first Sick Person you gather from a location is free. Spend 1 Food for each Sick Person gathered beyond the first.
• Instead of spending Food to gather Sick People in a location, you may place your Containment Camp from your player board on that location to gather those Sick People for free. If you are unable to spend Food to gather the Sick People, or don't have a Containment Camp to place on a location that contains Sick People, you cannot enter that location with your Plague Doctor.

If your Plague Doctor moves from one location to another and passes a road containing Sick People, you must gather those Sick People as well before moving onto the destination location. Spend 1 Food for each Sick Person gathered this way. If you are unable to spend Food to gather the Sick People on the road, you may not pass that road.

After your Plague Doctor finishes its movement on a location, gain the resource that the location produces. If your Plague Doctor ends its movement in a destroyed location, you do not gain any resource. Your Plague Doctor cannot move into the same location multiple times during a turn.

Note: You cannot use the Containment Camp on roads to gather Sick People.

Capital City: Moving through the Capital City with your Plague Doctor costs you 0 movement. You cannot end your movement there.

Example: Yellow wants to move their Plague Doctor from the town Gollor to the city Gothar. The yellow Plague Doctor must pass the road between these two locations. Because there are three Sick People on that road, Yellow must gather them and spend 3 Food (1 Food for each of them). Yellow spends the Food and places all of the Sick People in their Quarantine. Afterwards, the Plague Doctor continues its travel to reach the destination city Gothar. Because there are also Sick People in the city, Yellow must spend 2 Food to gather them (the first Sick Person in a location is free to gather, and the other two will cost 1 Food each). Yellow spends the Food and places all of those Sick People in their Quarantine.

Hindered Move Action: If you play the Move action with a Sick Person in the slot above the action icon, you must move your Plague Doctor 1 less location on the map.

Enhanced Move Action: When you Move, you may spend 1 Research token to move your Plague Doctor 1 additional location on the map.

Containment Camp

As mentioned before, your Containment camp is used to protect or clear locations on the map. This camp cannot be moved, however, you may use it to construct a building in the camp's location.

Whenever you move, you may place your camp on the location you started your movement from, or a location you pass or end your movement in (regardless if that location has Sick People or not).

Quarantine

When you gather Sick People from the map or in the Pest phase, you must place them in your Quarantine slots on your player board.

If you don't have enough space in your regular Quarantine, you may choose to either:

A. Put Sick People in the Quarantine slots above your top row actions or the Quarantine slot on your 5th storage slot: Sick people placed in this part of the quarantine will hinder your actions or limit your storage. B. Put them in the Graveyard from left to right (they become Dead People, and they cannot be cured). C. If all graveyard slots are occupied, discard the new Dead person and gain 3 Negative Renown tokens immediately.

Note: You can switch the places of your Sick People between the Quarantine slots above the top row actions, the Quarantine slot in the storage and the three regular Quarantine slots at any time.

Construct

Spend the required resources to construct either:

A. Buildings at the locations on the map; B. Buildings in the Capital City.

A. Constructing buildings on the map:

1. Spend the required resources to construct up to two buildings from your player board at locations on the map where either your Plague Doctor and/or your Containment Camp is located and you don't already have a building.

If you construct a building where your Containment Camp token is located, return that token from the map to the Containment Camp slot on your player board for later use.

Depending on the size, locations can contain the following number of buildings:

• Cities: Up to 3 buildings
• Towns: Up to 2 buildings
• Villages: Only 1 building

Note: You cannot have more than one of your own buildings in a location.

After constructing the building on a location:

1. Take the appropriate resource token from the supply and place it under the corresponding building slot on your player board. This token represents the type of resource the building will produce during the Produce action.

2. If you are the first player to construct a building in a:

   • City: Gain 3 Influence
   • Town: Gain 2 Influence
   • Village: Gain 1 Influence

Note: If you construct a building on a location where there are already buildings by other players, gain 1 less Influence for each building there.

Buildings Description

• Districts: When you play the Produce action, a District with assigned Healthy Person will produce 1 of the resource it is producing.
• Workshop: When you play the Produce action, the Workshop with assigned Healthy Person will produce +1 extra amount of the resource it is producing (for a total of 2 of the same resource).
• Factory: When you play the Produce action, the Factory will produce the resource without a Healthy Person assigned to it.
• Treasury: When you play the Produce action, a Treasury with assigned Healthy Person will produce 1 Coin instead of a resource.
• Castle: When you play the Produce action, the Castle will produce the resource without a Healthy Person assigned to it.

Hindered Construct Action: If you play the Construct action with a Sick Person in the slot above the action icon, you must spend one additional Lumber/Stone (even if you construct multiple buildings).

Enhanced Construct Action: When you Construct, you may spend 1 Research token to pay one less Lumber/Stone (even if you construct multiple buildings).

B. Constructing buildings in the Capital City:

Spend the required resources to construct one of the available buildings on the Capital City board. Place that building in the inner circle of Capital City on the map. Then, gain the corresponding amount of Renown and Influence.

Produce

Gain resources and move the appropriate resource marker one space forward for each of your constructed buildings that have assigned Healthy People as well as your Castle.

Note: Constructed buildings that don't have any assigned Healthy People to them don't produce any resources. (Except the Castle and the Factory)

Produce Research Tokens

After producing the resources, gain 1 Research token for each Healthy Person that works in a Laboratory at the Healthy Population track.

Hindered Produce Action: If you play the Produce action with a Sick Person in the slot above the action icon, gain one less resource of your choice from among the resources you would gain.

Enhanced Produce Action: When you Produce, you may spend 1 Research token to gain one additional resource from a type that your buildings produce.

Storage

The track on the bottom of the player board represents the resource storage. During the game, you will gain or spend resources by moving the corresponding marker to the right or to the left, respectively.

If you place a Quarantined Sick Person on the 5th slot of the storage, you can no longer use that slot until you Heal the person. You lose all resources that are already there the moment you do this, so be careful.

Research

Spend Research tokens to acquire one Technology card from the Technology cards available on the Capital City board. Place that card on one of your slots on your player board.

Some of the Technology cards have a requirement to be placed in a particular slot on your player board. These are marked with Top, Middle or Bottom to signify which slot they must be placed in.

You can have only three Technology cards (one per slot) on your player board.

If a slot is already occupied by a Technology, you may discard that Technology and return it back to the deck. Gain Renown tokens equal to the Renown award shown on the discarded Technology and place the new Technology in the empty slot. Shuffle the deck afterward.

Note: Technologies that have a sick person on them cannot be discarded.

Refresh Technologies

Additionally, during this action, you can spend 1 Research token to take all five Technology available on the Capital City board, return them to the Technology deck and reshuffle it. Then draw five new Technology cards and place them in the slots on the Capital City board.

Cure

Spend the required Herbs as indicated on the Healthy Population track to move Sick People from any of your Quarantine slots (including the ones above your actions and/or your storage) to your Healthy Population track.

Each Healthy Population slot requires a different number of Herbs you'll need to spend to cure a Sick Person.

Note: You can cure as many Sick People as you want with a single Cure action, as long as you can spend the corresponding amount of Herbs for each Sick Person.

Assign

Assign any number of Healthy People from your Healthy Population track to your constructed buildings and/or your Capital City slot, starting with your rightmost Healthy Person on the track.

You may also reassign Healthy People from one constructed building, to another one.

Each constructed building that has assigned Healthy Person to it will produce you resources when you play the Produce action (Remember, the Castle and Factory don't need Healthy People assigned to produce resources).

Additionally, whenever you assign any number of Healthy People to your slot in the Capital City, choose one of the Capital City reward tokens and gain it's reward. Afterwards, flip that token face-down.

Capital City Token Rewards

• Gain 1 Renown token
• Gain 1 Coin
• Gain 1 Influence
• Gain any 1 resource (Lumber, Stone, Herbs or Food)
• Gain 1 Research token
• Gain 1 of the indicated resource

At the end of the era, you may receive bonuses from the Capital City depending on the number of Healthy People you assigned to your space at the Capital City (more on that in the Era End steps).

3. Return Assistants

After all players have placed all their Assistants for the Year and played out their actions, return all of your Assistants to the "ready" space on your player board.

4. Reset Turn Order

Reorder the turn track on the Influence board. The player with the least Influence will go first next Year. The player with the second fewest Influence goes second, and so on.

In case of a tie (or if the players still have 0 Influence), reverse the tied players turn order.

Era End

After playing two Years, an Era ends. Follow the next steps:

1. Score Agenda: Gain Renown tokens if you have fulfilled the Agenda condition from the Decree cards.

2. Capital City Bonus: Gain Capital City card rewards depending if you have the first, second or third highest number of assigned Healthy People in the Capital City.

   When players are tied for the 1st place reward, they each receive the 2nd place reward instead. When players are tied for the 2nd place reward, they each receive the 3rd place reward instead. Players that are tied for the 3rd place reward receive no reward.

   The 1st place reward always gives an additional choice for the player that receives it.

   Two-player game: The player that has more assigned Healthy People in the Capital City will receive the 1st place reward, and the player with the less assigned Healthy People in the Capital City will receive the 3rd place reward. If both players are tied, they both receive the 2nd place reward.

3. Remove People from the Capital and reset Capital City tokens: Remove all assigned Healthy People from the Capital City and return them to the supply. Then, turn all Capital City tokens face-up.

4. Negative Renown: Gain Negative Renown tokens for the Dead People in your Graveyard.

5. Gain a new Assistant.

Influence

Whenever you gain Influence from anywhere, mark it on the Influence track.

When you gain Influence, skip all the spaces where there's already another player's Influence marker. When you pass or land on a space on the Influence track containing a reward (on the space's border), gain that reward immediately.

The Influence points are also used to determine the turn order. At the end of a Year, during the Reset Turn Order phase, the player that is the last on the Influence track (has least Influence) becomes the first player, then the player with more Influence than that player becomes second player, and so on. This way, the player with the most Influence will become the last player to play during the next Year.

At the end of the game, you will gain 1 Renown for each Renown icon you have passed on the Influence track. Furthermore, if you have the most or second-most Influence among the players at the end of the game, you will also gain additional Renown.

Decree Cards

The Decree cards are a significant factor in your final score since they give a lot of Renown when fulfilled. They are divided by decks corresponding to each era, so their demands will get more complicated as well as more rewarding as you play through the eras. Since the cards are revealed from the start of the game, you can plan your strategy for the entire game, era by era.

A Decree card has two parts:

Agenda (top part): Depending on the Agenda's condition, gain the appropriate amount of Renown tokens at the end of the Era.

At the end of each Era, you only gain Renown tokens for the Agenda that corresponds to that Era (you do not gain Renown tokens for Agendas from previously played Eras).

Imperative (bottom part): Whenever you fulfill the Imperative's condition during this Era, move your marker on the Imperative track on the left of the Decree card, one space up. Immediately gain the appropriate amount of Influence from that space, but score the Renown below the marker and all the previous spaces from that track at the end of the game. Each Imperative track has four levels above the starting level (0). You will not gain additional rewards if you fulfill the Imperative's condition more than four times.

Game End

The game ends after Era III is completed. Score final Renown for the following:

• Renown Tokens: All the Renown tokens you've gained during the game.
• Imperatives: Renown gained from Imperatives tracks from each Era.
• Healthy People: Renown from your Healthy Population track.
• Constructed Buildings: Gain Renown for the Buildings you've constructed from your player board. Then, gain bonus Renown if you've constructed all three buildings from the same column, as indicated on your player board.
• Technologies: Gain the Renown shown on the Technologies on your player board.
• Influence: Gain Renown for each Renown icon that you passed with your Influence marker on the Influence board.
• Highest Influence: The player with the most Influence will gain 5 additional Renown, while the player with the second most Influence will gain 3 additional Renown.
• Resources: Gain 3 Renown for each combination of 3 different resources.
• Coins: Gain 1 Renown for each 2 Coins that you have.
• Negative Renown: Lose 1 Renown for each Negative Renown token that you have.

In order to help with the score calculation, the game includes a score pad and pencil. For each player, add their Renown per category there to get the final Renown per player.

The player with the most Renown is the winner. In the case of a tie, the player with the most Influence is the winner.

End of game scoring example: Red had 14 in-game Renown from Renown tokens. Red then adds 19 Renown from their markers on the Imperative tracks. Red has 8 Healthy People in their Healthy Population track, which will give them 12 Renown.

Red also adds 9 Renown (7+2) since they have constructed 4 buildings scoring 7 Renown plus an additional 2 for constructing all three buildings in the first column.

Red has 3 Technologies which give them 5 total Renown. Then Red adds 6 Renown from the Influence track (because they passed 6 Renown icons) and lastly, they gain additional 5 Renown from having the most Influence on the Influence track.

Red also has 8 total resources and 2 Coins, which will give them a total of 3 Renown (2 Renown per 3 of the resources + 1 Renown for the 2 Coins).

So far, Red has a total of 73 Renown. But because Red had some Dead People throughout the game, they accumulated a total of 7 Negative Renown tokens. Red subtracts this total from the rest of the renown to get the final total Renown (73-7 = 66).

Red ends the game with a total of 66 Renown.

Advanced Setup Variant

Setup the game as you would normally, with the following additions and/or changes:

1. Take random location resource tokens depending on the player count:

Player Count	Number of location tokens per type
5	20 Village + 15 Town + 10 City tokens
4	20 Village + 10 Town + 10 City tokens
3	20 Village + 10 Town + 5 City tokens
2 / 1	5 Village + 15 Town + 10 City tokens

You will notice that the location resource tokens are marked on the back side with the type of location they belong to: Village, Town, City.

Place the resources on each corresponding location at random (Village tokens on Village locations, Town tokens on Town locations, City tokens on City locations), then turn them face-up so you can see the resource side of those tokens.

Some of the location tokens have a Sick People icon on them. Place a Sick Person on those locations.

2-Player Versus Variant

The 2-player Versus Variant provides additional gameplay rules and mechanisms for a two player game. We suggest players get familiar with the base game, before trying out this advanced variant.

Setup

The setup is the same as the base game with the following additions:

1. Place one Renown token on the 1st space of the 1st Era Decree Card, the 2nd space of the 2nd Era Decree card, and the 3rd space on the 3rd Era Decree card. These tokens only represent the minimum Imperative amount, they do not provide additional Renown to the players.

   Players gain Renown from the Decrees only if they match or go above the Renown token.

2. Place Negative renown tokens on the Influence track, to cover the following spaces: 5, 9, 14, 18, 22, 29. These tokens only represent the unavailability of the space, they do not give Negative Renown to the player.

3. Designate a Capital City space not used by any player. That space is now called Neutral space. Place 1 Healthy Person there. Each era will add one more Healthy Person to this slot. These Neutral people will "compete" against the players for the Capital City card rewards.

Gameplay

Most of the gameplay remains the same with slight additions and changes to the Aid Phase and the End of Era.

Pest and Aid Phase

Aid cards: During the Aid phase, only two of the Aid card's rewards are available, the leftmost and the rightmost. The player with more Influence than the other gets the leftmost reward, while the other player gets the rightmost reward.

Action Phase: No rules change.

End of Year: No rules change.

End of Era Additional Steps

1. Draw New Technologies: Remove the current Technology cards from the Capital City board and add 5 new ones. Then shuffle the removed cards back in the Technology deck.

2. Capital City Rewards: The Player with the most People in the Capital gets the 1st (leftmost) reward, while the other player only gets the 3rd (rightmost) reward if they have equal or more People than the Neutral ones. If both players are tied and have more people than the neutrals, they both get the 2nd (middle) reward. If both players have less People than the neutrals, they don't get any rewards.

   After the rewards are taken, add 1 Neutral Healthy Person in the neutral Capital City slot.

   Example: Blue has 3 Healthy People, Yellow has 1 Healthy Person, and there are 2 Healthy People in the neutral space. Blue gets the 1st reward and Yellow doesn't get any rewards, because they have less Population than the Neutral people.

Game End

The end game scoring is the same as the base game, with the following changes and/or additions:

• Imperatives: Gain the Renown from the space where your markers ended on the Imperative tracks but only if you moved past the Renown tokens.

  Example: Era I: Yellow finished on the 3rd space on the Imperative track for Era I and the Renown token is on the 1st slot. Because Yellow's marker passed the Renown token, Yellow scores the Renown from the space they are on (total of 2 Renown). Era II: Blue finished on the 1st space on the Imperative track for Era II and the Renown token is on the 2nd slot. Because Blue's marker didn't pass the Renown token, Blue doesn't score the Renown from the space they are on.

• Influence: The Influence track gives 1/2/4/6/10/15 additional Renown to each player based on the Negative renown tokens they have passed on the Influence track.

  Example: Blue passed 5 Negative Renown tokens, so they gain 10 Renown. Yellow passed 3 Negative Renown tokens, so they gain 4 Renown.

  Note: Players do not gain Renown for having the most and second-most Influence as they normally would.

• Constructed Buildings: The player with most Capital City buildings built gets 5 additional Renown. If there's a tie for most constructed Capital City buildings, no player gets additional Renown.

• Quarantine: The player with the most Quarantined People gets 3 Negative Renown tokens. If tied, no one gets any Negative Renown tokens.

Solo Variant

Setup

Setup the game as described in the Setup section, with the following additions and/or changes:

1. Place a Sick person on the appropriate Imperative spaces on each imperative track on the era board: a) 1-2 steps (Era I); b) 1-2-3 steps (Era II); c) 1-2-3-4 steps (Era III). Place your marker on the 0 space of the three Imperative tracks.

2. Place your influence marker on the 0 space on the Influence track. Place Sick People on spaces 5, 9, 15, 22, 30, 40 of the influence track.

3. Place a Sick person next to each Capital City building.

4. Return the Technology cards 2, 3, 5, 11, 16 in the box. Shuffle the rest and place 5 on their slot, forming the Technology market.

5. Return the Decree cards 4, 6, 9 in the box. Shuffle the remaining cards and place one for each era. Return the rest in the box.

6. Return the Capital City cards in the box (they are not used for the Solo).

7. From the Pest cards, take the 8 Village + Road cards and one white Road card (7-15) and make 3 piles separated by the road color. Shuffle the piles and draw 1 card from each pile. Return these 3 cards to the box. Combine the piles, and shuffle them into the rest of the Pest cards. Shuffle the Pest and Aid decks and place 6 face-down cards from each deck on the corresponding slots next to the map.

8. Shuffle all Capital city tokens and draw 6 random tokens. Place them near the Capital city. Return the remaining tokens in the box.

9. Place your Castle on any village that has a starting location symbol and is not destroyed. Place your Plague Doctor on an adjacent location.

You are now ready to start playing!

Gameplay

Gameplay is the same as the base game with the following changes/additions.

1. Designate a Capital City space not used by any player. That space is now called Neutral space. When you construct a Capital City building, gain the appropriate Renown tokens and Influence and remove the Sick Person from the building you've constructed. Place the Sick person in the Capital City Neutral space.

2. Whenever you complete an Imperative, move your marker as usual on the Imperative tracks. Whenever your marker reaches a space with a Sick person, place that Sick Person in the Capital City Neutral space, then gain the corresponding Influence from the Imperative track.

3. Whenever you gain Influence, move up the Influence track as usual. If a Sick Person is on a space your marker passed or lands on, skip that space and place that Sick Person in the Capital City Neutral space.

4. Aid Cards: At the start of each Year: gain the rightmost bonus from the Aid cards if there are 5/6 Sick people remaining on the Influence track, middle bonus if there are 4/3 Sick people remaining on the Influence track or the leftmost bonus if there are 1/2 Sick people remaining on the Influence track.

5. Capital City Tokens: Whenever you assign any number of Healthy People in the Capital City, gain a bonus from an available Capital City token of your choosing and then flip that token upside down. These tokens remain face-down for the rest of the game.

6. Capital City: At the end of each Era, if there are more Healthy People in the Neutral space of Capital City than your in own space, gain Negative Renown tokens based on the difference between the Neutral and your Healthy People.

   Example: You (red player) have 1 Healthy Person in your Capital City space. While the Neutral people (white) have 3 Healthy People. Because the Neutral people outnumber yours, you will gain 2 Negative Renown tokens (3 - 1 = 2).

End Game

Calculate your Renown as normally with the following changes:

1. Score Renown as in the base game (scoresheet) without the Highest Influence scoring.
2. Gain 1 Negative Renown token for each Sick person present on the: Influence track, Imperative tracks, Public building, Graveyard.

After calculating your total Renown, check your score against the table below and see which rank you have reached with your rule!

Renown	Rank	Renown	Rank
0 - 15	Commoner	31 - 35	Earl
16 - 20	Advisor	36 - 40	Duke
21 - 25	Baron	41 - 45	House Leader
26 - 30	Archbaron	46+	Emperor

Technologies

Following are the Technology cards in-depth rules and explanations:

1 | Breathing Apparatus (Top): Whenever you gather Sick People from the map (while moving), you can place one of them on the 1st slot of the Breathing Apparatus. While you have a Sick Person on the Breathing Apparatus and you play Research or Cure, you have to move that person one space to the right. When the Sick Person reaches the Healthy Person icon, that person is cured and placed on the rightmost free space of the Healthy Population track. You can only have one Sick Person on this Technology. First you must cure this Sick Person fully in order to place a new one on this Technology.

Note: Whenever you Cure Sick People, you may choose the order of placing people on the track. Example: Pay 1 Herbs to cure from Quarantine, then cure the 1 from the Breathing Apparatus for free, then pay 2 Herbs to place another from the Quarantine.

2 | Blast Furnace: Whenever you Construct in Villages, gain 1 additional Influence.

3 | Examination Desk: Whenever an opponent's Plague Doctor enters a location that contains one of your buildings, gain 1 Coin. You may gain multiple Coins in a single turn if the opponent's Plague Doctor enters multiple buildings that you own.

4 | Medical Mask: Before you enter a location, you can ignore 1 Sick Person in that location. You can do this ability in multiple locations during the same Move action. If you choose to ignore the Sick People, just leave 1 Sick Person in those locations and continue your movement. This Technology does not apply to roads.

5 | Disinfectant: Whenever you enter a location that contains an opponent's building, gain the resource of that location. You may gain multiple resources during a Move action. However, you cannot gain more than 1 resource from a location. If there are multiple buildings in a location, you only gain 1 resource from that location.

6 | Clone Experiment: When you Move, instead of moving, you may place your Plague Doctor in any location of the same size the current location of the Plague Doctor (City, Town, Village). This ability counts as 2 movement. You may continue to move only if you have additional movement. Standard Move rules apply.

7 | Construction Crane: Whenever you Construct in Towns, gain 1 additional Influence.

8 | Ambulance Cart: Whenever you Move, you may quarantine one Sick Person from each Location you enter - for free. This means that the first 2 Sick People will be free in a location. You can use this Technology multiple times per movement, which means that you get this effect in each unique location you enter. This technology does not apply to roads.

9 | Airborne Medicine: Whenever you Cure, you may remove one Sick Person from your Quarantine. Discard the Sick Person to the general supply.

10 | Plague Experts: Whenever you Assign, you can place up to 2 Healthy People on this Technology. Whenever you Research or Cure, you can use one or two of the Healthy People to assign them to the Capital City or a building.

11 | Scholars: Whenever you Research, you can reassign one of your People that is already assigned in the Capital to your Healthy Population track or one of your buildings.

12 | Experimental Lab: Whenever you Research, you can remove 1 Healthy Person from your Healthy Population track to gain 3 Sick People from the supply and place them in your Quarantine.

13 | Production Line: When you Produce, your Castle produces 2 of the same resources instead of the usual 1.

14 | Infirmary (Top): Whenever you gather Sick People from the map (while moving), you can place one of them on the 1st slot of the Infirmary. While you have a Sick Person on the Infirmary and you play Research or Cure, you must move that person one space to the right. When the Sick Person reaches the Healthy Person icon, that person is cured and placed on the rightmost free space of the Healthy Population track. You can only have one Sick Person on this Technology in order to place a new one on this Technology.

Note: Whenever you Cure Sick People, you may choose the order of placing people on the track. Example: Pay 1 Herbs to cure from Quarantine, then cure the 1 from the Breathing Apparatus for free, then pay 2 Herbs to place another from the Quarantine.

15 | Protective Uniform (Top): Whenever Sick People are placed in your Districts (during Pest Phase), you may block 1 Sick Person for each District. Return the blocked People in the supply.

Note: You can choose to ignore this Technology and gather the Sick People.

16 | Moving Permit: Whenever you Move, you do not spend any movement when moving through other player's buildings.

17 | Medicinal Trials (Middle): Action: Spend 3 Coins to take 2 Healthy People from the supply and place them on the rightmost available spaces of the Healthy Population track. To use this Technology, you must place an Assistant on this Technology as an action.

18 | Quarantine Tent (Top): The slot on this card counts as an additional Quarantine slot (you may place one Sick Person on it).

19 | Quarantine House (Top): The slots on this card count as two additional Quarantine slots (you may place two Sick Persons on it).

20 | Tool Cart: Whenever you Construct, gain the resource of the location where the building is constructed. This way, you may gain up to 2 resources if you construct with your Plague Doctor and Containment Camp. You gain these resources at the end of the Construct action, and these resources cannot be used to construct additional buildings in the same turn.

21 | Advanced Containment: Your Containment Camp cannot get destroyed in the Pest phase and will block the Sick People, if they were to be placed in its location. Whenever you place the Containment Camp on a location that contains at least one Sick Person, you immediately place one Sick Person on the rightmost space of the Healthy Population track from those gathered (and the rest in your Quarantine).

22 | Steel Horseshoe: Whenever you Move, you may move up to 4 times, instead of 2. Standard movement rules still apply.

23 | Syringe: When you finish playing the Cure action, you gain 1 Herbs.

24 | Quarantine Checkpoint: Your special buildings do not receive Sick People from Pest cards or spread from destroyed Locations. You can however, ignore this Technology (in the Pest phase) and choose which special buildings can receive and which cannot receive Sick People.

25 | Mobile Workshop (Middle): The moment you buy this Technology, you have to choose the resource it will produce for the rest of the game (except Coin). This Technology has to have a Healthy Person assigned on it so it can produce the resource with the Produce action.

26 | Loading Crane (Bottom): Increase the storage of all resources to up to 6. Note: If you place a Sick Person on the Quarantine storage slot, you lose the resources from this Technology card.

27 | Storage Containers (Bottom): Increase the storage of one resource to up to 7. You can only place one resource on this Technology. If you would gain a resource that would exceed your normal storage but you have a resource on this Technology, you do not gain that resource. Note: If you place a Sick Person on the Quarantine storage slot, you lose the resource from this Technology card.

28 | Adrenaline Shot (Middle): Action: You may play a combination of actions that has already been played this year. Instead of placing the Assistant on the Action grid, place the Assistant on this Technology, and name the combination of actions you are playing.

29 | Tuition: Whenever you Assign any number of Healthy People in the Capital City gain 1 Influence. You always gain only 1 Influence from this Technology, no matter the number of Healthy People you assign in the Capital City.

30 | Storage Pods: Whenever you Produce, gain the resource of the location your Plague Doctor is in. If the Plague Doctor is in an empty (destroyed) location, you do not receive a resource from this Technology.

Icon Glossary

• Trade Action — trade icon
• Move Action — footprints icon
• Construct Action — hammer icon
• Produce Action — cycle icon
• Research Action — magnifying glass icon
• Cure Action — cross icon
• Assign Action — meeple icon
• Lumber, Stone, Food, Herbs, Coin — resource icons
• Any Resource / Wild Resource — question mark / crate icon
• Storage — barn icon
• Science — flask icon
• Containment Camp, Influence, Most/Least Influence — board icons
• Renown Points, Renown Tokens, Negative Renown Points, Negative Renown Tokens — crown icons
• Move Imperative Token one slot up, Imperatives, Agenda, Technologies — Decree/Technology track icons
• City, Town, Village, Destruction Token, Starting Location, Assistants Ready Space, Take back a Healthy Person from Capital, Plague Doctor, Castle, District, Workshop, Factory, Treasury, Roads, Harbour — location and building icons
• Healthy Person, Sick Person, Dead Person — meeple icons

Rules Glossary

Following is a glossary of easily missed or overlooked rules:

Location Destruction: Immediately after resolving the Pest card, if a location receives its 4th Sick Person, return those Sick People to the supply and place a Destruction token on that location.

A location can only be destroyed from the Sick People that appeared from the Pest card.

Actions

Trade (Free Action): At any time during your turn, you can trade any 2 resources to gain 1 Coin. You can use this action multiple times during your turn, before, after or between your two actions.

Enhanced Action: Once per turn, you may spend exactly 1 Research token to enhance a top row action on your action grid.

Hindered Action: Hindered actions are less efficient than normal. To make a Hindered action normal again, remove the Sick Person from the slot above the action.

Movement and Quarantine

Moving: You can move your Plague Doctor up to two locations with each Move action. Each location costs you 1 movement, unless you have a building there.

The Capital City costs 0 movement to move through, however you cannot end your movement there.

Gathering Sick People from a location: When you gather Sick People from a location (Village, Town or City), the first Sick Person you gather is free (no Food required). Spend 1 Food for each Sick Person gathered beyond the first one. Place all the gathered Sick People in your Quarantine.

Gathering Sick People from a road: When you gather Sick People from a road, spend 1 Food for each Sick Person gathered. Place all the gathered Sick People in your Quarantine.

Quarantine: You can switch the places of your Sick People between the Quarantine slots above the top row actions, the Quarantine slot in the storage and the three regular Quarantine slots at any time.

Construct

Gain Influence after constructing a building: Gain the corresponding amount of Influence whether you are the 1st, 2nd or 3rd to construct a building in a location. Gain 1 less Influence for each opponent building at that location.

Produce

Gain Research Tokens: After producing the resources, gain 1 Research token for each Healthy Person that works in a Laboratory at the Healthy Population track.

Research

Discarding Technologies: If a slot is already occupied by a Technology, you may discard that Technology and return it back to the deck. Gain Renown tokens equal to the Renown award shown on the discarded Technology and place the new Technology in the empty slot. Shuffle the deck afterward.

Assign

When you play the Assign action, you may assign as many Healthy People as you want to your empty building slots on your player board as well as the Capital City.