The Fittest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Card Types
  • Character Card Anatomy
  • Action Card Anatomy
• Special Cards
  • Trial
  • Force Out
  • Renewal
  • Strong-Arm
• Special Cards (Cont.)
  • The Final Push
  • The Final Test
  • The Final Totem
• Playing the Game
  • 1: Flip Phase
  • 2: Negotiation Phase
  • 3: Attempt Phase
  • 4: Resolution Phase
• Game End and Scoring

Components

1 Totem Card, 6 Contestant Cards, 48 Action Cards

Setup

Each player randomly receives one Contestant card. Set aside remaining Contestants. Shuffle the Action cards, then deal three to each player. The player who most recently watched a reality show is the leader for the first Episode.

Card Types

Contestant cards represent who you are in the show. Each has an ability that gives you a unique advantage over other players. Contestants also have different values for the game's six Skills. These determine how capable you are of helping to complete the game's Challenges and Trials.

The Totem card indicates the current leader. When another player becomes the leader, that player takes the Totem card.

All other cards make up the deck. These cards have different uses:

Cards in your hand can be played for their Effect during the Negotiation Phase, or to Boost during the Attempt Phase. If at any time a player has more than five cards in hand, he or she must immediately discard down to five.

When a card is flipped and becomes the Challenge, what matters is the bottom half of the card. The Goals of the Challenge are represented by Skill symbols with numbers beneath. To succeed, the totals of all participants' Skills, Boosts and Bonus Flips must meet or exceed these totals. The number in the left bar represents the number of Prizes won if the Challenge succeeds.

When cards are in the Prize pile (placed behind a Character card), the value is represented by the number in the left bar. Cards in the Prize pile cannot be hidden.

Character Card Anatomy

• Name and Ability: The card's name and its ability text (for example, "The Scholar: When you become leader, you may look at the top 5 cards of the deck and return them in any order.").
• Skills: Six Skill values, each shown by a Skill icon with a number.
• Highest Skill: Used for scoring.

Action Card Anatomy

• Boost value (in-hand): The number shown beside the Skill icon in the top-left corner, which is added to that Skill when the card is played to Boost.
• # of Prizes (Challenge): The number in the left bar when the card is the Challenge.
• Prize value (in Prize pile): The number in the left bar when the card is in a Prize pile.
• Cannot play during a Trial: The grey icon on the card. The card cannot be played during a Trial.
• Effect (in-hand): The text box, which describes the card's Effect when played from hand.
• Goals (Challenge): The Skill icons with numbers beneath, shown in the bottom half when the card is the Challenge.

Note on icons: the rulebook does not name the six Skills. They are identified here by their printed icon and colour: red X, green plus, brown mask, purple diamond, teal spiral, and yellow S.

Special Cards

Trial

Trial cards take the place of Challenges, and pit players against each other individually. Play works similarly to a Challenge, with one Negotiation Phase for everyone to play Effects as usual, but each player, starting with the person to the left of the leader and proceeding clockwise, gets an individual Attempt Phase to decide whether to participate, then use Boosts and Bonus Flips to increase his or her Skill total. As with Challenges, players who don't participate draw a card. The player with the highest total puts the Trial card in his or her Prize pile and starts the next Episode as the leader.

Trial allows each player to choose which Skill to use at the beginning of his or her Attempt Phase.

The bottom half of a Trial card reads "TRIAL!" with the brown mask Skill icon, followed by: "Players may compete individually with a Bonus Flip. Winner puts this card in Prize pile, becomes leader."

Force Out

Target non-leader player cannot play Effects or participate in this Episode. (That player's current participation is negated.)

Force Out is an Action card with a Boost value of 3 on the red X Skill.

Renewal

Discard target Prize and replace it with the top card of the deck.

Renewal is an Action card with a Boost value of 3 on the purple diamond Skill. Its Challenge half shows two Goals separated by "OR": 30 on the yellow S Skill, OR 30 on the purple diamond Skill.

OR Challenges let you choose one of the two Goals to attempt to reach. The choice must be made before Boosts and Bonus Flips are played.

Strong-Arm

Target player is forced to participate in this Challenge for no reward. That player draws a card.

Strong-Arm is an Action card with a Boost value of 2 on the red X Skill, marked with the "Cannot play during a Trial" icon. Its Challenge half shows two Goals side by side, 20 on the teal spiral Skill and 25 on the red X Skill, with no "OR" printed between them.

Special Cards (Cont.)

Wild cards can be used to Boost any one Skill of the player's choice. Goals can be met by any one Skill of the leader's choice. (The choice must be made before Boosts and Bonus Flips are played.) Prizes do not get two bonus points during scoring for matching a character's best Skill.

Note: the sheet shows a pictorial "?" symbol in front of "cards" and in front of "Goals" in this paragraph; it has been rendered here as "Wild" for the first instance only, as the source text gives no word for it.

The Final Push

Increase any one of target player's Skills by 3 until the end of this Episode.

The Final Push is a wild card. Its card face shows a "?" symbol and the number 15 at the bottom.

The Final Test

Flip the top card of the deck. The Challenge also includes any listed Goals, and its Prize number is added to the total.

The Final Test is a Challenge card with a "5" in the left bar, the "Cannot play during a Trial" icon, and Goals showing all six Skill icons (green plus, purple diamond, brown mask, red X, teal spiral, yellow S) with the number 20 beneath.

When the ALL icon is used for a Goal, this means that all six Skills must meet or exceed this value for the challenge to succeed. (Cards with the ALL icon are Wild cards, as indicated in the sidebar, and follow those rules for Boosts and Prizes.)

Note: the sheet shows a pictorial "?" symbol in front of "cards" in this sentence; it has been rendered as "Wild cards" because the source text gives no word for it.

The Final Totem

You are now the leader. No players may play Totem cards for the rest of the Episode.

The Final Totem card has a "6" in the left bar and Goals showing all six Skill icons with the number 30 beneath.

Cards with the Totem icon allow players to change the leader for the current Episode.

The Effect of "The Final Totem" prohibits players from playing Totem cards for the rest of the Episode.

Playing the Game

The game is played through a series of Episodes.

1: Flip Phase

Flip the top card of the deck and place it in front of the leader. This card indicates a Challenge's Goals and Prizes. (If it is a Trial, see "Special Cards" for rules.)

2: Negotiation Phase

It's the leader's job to pull together an alliance of participants to succeed in the Challenge. Players may ask for a share of the Prizes in exchange for their participation. This can be as simple as asking for "one Prize," or as complicated as requesting "second pick and last pick." Once agreed to, these deals are binding, and the leader can't agree to any deal that's impossible (like promising two players first pick, or giving away more Prizes than available).

During this time, all players, including those not yet participating in the Challenge itself, may play cards in their hands for Effects. These have various uses. Once an Effect is complete, put it in the discard pile. If an Effect causes another player to become leader, put the Challenge card in front of the new leader. All previously-negotiated deals and participation-forcing effects are negated, and the new leader forms an alliance from scratch. (Effects unrelated to participation remain.)

Once the leader is done negotiating and all players who wish to play Effects have done so, proceed to the Attempt Phase.

3: Attempt Phase

Now, participants may play Boosts. To use a Boost, play a card. Its value is added to the group total for the Skill represented by the card's symbol and color. Once players are done playing Boosts, the leader gets a Bonus Flip. To use a Bonus Flip, turn over the top card of the deck and add its Boost value to all Skills. All Boosts and Bonus Flips are then put in the discard pile.

4: Resolution Phase

If the participants have met all Goals, the leader reveals a number of cards from the top of the deck equal to the Challenge's Prize value and distributes them according to the negotiated deals. If not already promised otherwise, the leader decides which prizes go where. (If any Goals aren't met, no prizes are awarded.)

Put the Challenge card(s) in the discard pile. Any players who didn't participate may draw a card. The player to the left of the leader becomes the new leader, and play continues with a new Episode.

Game End and Scoring

When the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck and continue. When a player tries to draw a card and can't, the game immediately ends. If there aren't enough cards left in the deck and discard pile to award all Prizes for a Challenge at the beginning of the Resolution Phase, the game immediately ends and no prizes are awarded.

Players add up their Prizes' value, plus two points for each prize that matches the contestant's highest Skill. The player with the most points wins!