The Thing Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Some Things to Help You Understand the Game
• Understanding the Cards
  • Draw Decks
  • Event and Encounter Cards
  • Character Cards
  • Task Cards and Tool Shed
  • Destruction Cards
  • "Burn" and "Wait and See" Cards
  • Suspicion Cards (for 5-6 players)
  • The Thing's Action Cards
  • Other Card Explanations
• Set Up
  • Prepare the Decks
  • Setting up the Outpost
  • The Players
• Mission Objectives
• The Plot Begins!
• Gameplay
  • 1. Encounter Phase
  • 2. Suspicion Phase
  • 3. Assign and Resolve Phase
  • 4. Thing-out Phase
  • 5. Check End Conditions
• Final Encounter
• "See What Happens"
• Card FAQ
• FAQ
• Complete Card List
• Complete Card List, 5-6 Players

Game Contents

• 1 Rulebook
• 12 six-sided dice
• 20 counter tokens
• Cards:
  • 28 Outpost Draw Deck 1
  • 20 Outpost Draw Deck 2
  • 18 Outpost Draw Deck 3
  • 29 Thing Draw Deck 1
  • 10 Thing Draw Deck 2
  • 10 Thing Draw Deck 3
  • 12 Character
  • 10 "Burn" or "Wait and see"
  • 16 Encounter
  • 8 Destruction
  • 4 Task
  • 1 Blair-Saucer
  • 1 Tool Shed
  • 1 The Thing Attacks

5-6 player expansion cards:

• 20 Outpost Draw Deck 1
• 5 Outpost Draw Deck 1/Suspicion
• 1 Outpost Draw Deck 2
• 1 Outpost Draw Deck 3
• 7 Thing Draw Deck 1
• 4 Thing Draw Deck 2
• 1 Thousand Mile to the Coast
• 1 Bad Blood
• 8 Thing's Action
• 1 Encounter
• 1 Blood Test Info

Some Things to Help You Understand the Game

Summary

Playing The Thing card game is similar to many co-operative games that already exist. At the beginning of the game all players except The Thing are on the same side striving for the same objective. As time goes on, more and more players will get infected, changing them to be on The Thing's side with a new objective of helping it win.

Secret Information

The Thing card game utilizes "secret information." Players cannot EVER reveal the cards in their hands nor tell others what cards they have. Players will be receiving infection cards that either turn them into a Thing player or leave them as a human. Players may not show this card. Part of the fun is trying to bluff your way around what others think about you while at the same time trying to determine who the other players truly are.

Discarding

All discards are face-down at all times during the game. This maintains the air of paranoia over who is playing bad cards and dumping good ones into the discard pile.

Roleplaying

This game is most fun if the players really get into their role. Feel free to watch the movie beforehand, put on mood music, turn the temperature down or otherwise create an eerie atmosphere for the full effect. Players can act like their characters or otherwise try and use dialogue that brings the mechanics of the game to life.

Understanding the Cards

Draw Decks

There are Outpost Draw Decks 1-3 and Thing Draw Decks 1-3. Throughout the game each player draws from their corresponding deck (The Thing player is the only one who can draw from The Thing Decks). Players start drawing from Deck 1. As encounters are revealed, some will allow players to begin drawing from other decks.

Tip: A "D6" is a six sided die. Any cards that have a numerical value for "X D6" specify how many six sided dice the card allows to be rolled. Example: 4D6, roll four six sided dice.

Event and Encounter Cards

These cards are labelled with "Act 1", "Act 2", "Act 3" or "The End?" and are the main driving force of the game.

• Events: These cards do not have any "crew, size, draw," or other features that Encounters have. The instructions should be followed on the card as written.
• Encounters: The cards can be completed following the rules of encounters (see Encounter Phase).

Character Cards

With a picture of the character on both sides as well as some differing abilities, character cards represent the people of the American Antarctic Research Team.

The characters the players pick to play as are known as the Outpost Players or are sometimes referred to as "played characters" (PC). All characters not selected are non-played characters (NPC).

Task Cards and Tool Shed

Task Cards (Radio, Research, Helicopter, Bulldozer) are placed in the Rec Room and on any round where an encounter is being attempted, tasks may also be attempted. Unless playing with 5-6 players, tasks may only be attempted by non-played characters (NPCs).

Tool Shed: Important — this card is also placed in the Rec Room. After the event "Blair goes Berserk," one NPC is selected to go into the Tool Shed. There they cannot use any ability or be affected by any card other than an infection card and are otherwise out of the game until the "Final Confrontation."

Destruction Cards

These cards destroy task cards, removing them and any tokens from the game (there is a Destruction Card named after each task). Usually The Thing player uses them or they come up during the "Blair goes Berserk" event.

After a task is destroyed, remove any Destruction Card with the same name from the deck and reshuffle.

"Burn" and "Wait and See" Cards

Used during the "Wait and see" event.

Suspicion Cards (for 5-6 players)

4 Suspicion cards as well as 1 "You are a Thing" Suspicion card. These are handed out with multi-player infection cards, the "You are a Thing" suspicion card can only be handed to a player along with a "You are now a thing" multi-player infection card.

The Thing's Action Cards

A special deck of action cards for The Thing to use throughout the game. The Thing player gets one each time an encounter is successfully passed. An Outpost player revealed as a thing during the "Blood Test" encounter may also receive these cards.

Other Card Explanations

Infection Cards

Infection cards come from The Thing's Draw Decks. There are regular infection cards and multi-player infection cards.

• Regular infection cards have "Human" or "Infected!" on them and can only be played on NPCs.
• Multi-player infection cards can be played on any player as noted.

Tip: Just because a player has an infection card does not mean that player is infected, some infected cards are benign. Others will explicitly state that a player is infected. If so that player is now on The Thing's side.

The Thing Attacks!

A single encounter card that The Thing player can play on any task or encounter that has an infected NPC player present. The players must resolve the encounter before continuing and take all negative effects, if any.

Blair-saucer

Another encounter card for The Thing. Throughout gameplay, Blair-saucer may have cards placed under it — from failed encounters or from Thing cards — and at the end of each round the Thing player can roll to see if the Blair-saucer is completed. If it is, The Thing is able to reach civilization and wins the game.

Bad Blood (for 5-6 players only)

This card goes in the Rec Room. During the Suspicion phase El Capitan selects a player. That player must discard a card underneath Bad Blood or place a token on "Thousand Miles to the Coast."

Thousand Miles to the Coast

A special encounter for The Thing. If at any time "Thousand Miles to the Coast" has 10 tokens, The Thing wins.

Set Up

Set up has three steps: prepare the decks, set up the Outpost, and choose the players.

Prepare the Decks

• Separate all the decks by their cover picture. Make sure to separate the character cards, Tool Shed, Bad Blood, The Thing Attacks, and Thousand Miles to the Coast cards as well.
• Take Outpost Draw Deck 1, set aside the 5 Suspicion cards (4 Suspicion, 1 "You are the Thing!").
• Take Thing Draw Deck 1, set aside the 7 Infection and 7 Multi-Player Infection cards. Keep them separate!
• Take the Encounter Deck. "See what happens" encounter should always be the bottom card. On top of that, without looking or revealing the cards, shuffle the Act 3 encounters and then place them on top of "See what happens." Do the same for the Act 2 encounters placing them on top of the Act 3 cards. The Act 1 cards are numbered, 1-6. Place them in order on top of the Act 2 cards with the #1 Act 1 card, "Antarctica, Winter 1982," on top.

Number of players

For 5-6 players — play with all cards:

• For 6 players, shuffle the multiplayer-infection cards and, without looking, remove 2 from the game.
• For 5 players, remove 1 "Thing" and 1 "Still Human" multiplayer-infection card. Shuffle the remaining and remove 1 from the game, again without looking.
• Then shuffle ONLY the remaining multiplayer-infection cards into Thing Deck 1. (Keep the regular infection cards separate for now).

For 3-4 players:

• Remove all 5 Suspicion cards from the game.
• Remove The Thing's Action Cards.
• Remove the "Bad Blood" card.
• Remove the "Thousand Miles to the Coast" encounter.
• Remove the "Somebody Blew out a Fuse in the Lab" event.
• Remove the following Outpost Draw Deck 1 cards:
  • "Maybe they found a fossil..."
  • "So how's this motherfucker wake up..."
  • "This thing doesn't want to show itself..."
  • "It's alright by me, Doc..."
  • "Blair, I'd like you to start an autopsy..."
  • "Clark - did you notice..."
  • "I ain't going with Windows."
• Remove the following from Outpost Deck 3 cards: (the Norwegian sniper in the helicopter) card.
• Remove 1 "Thing" and 1 "Still human" multi-player infection card.
  • For 4 players shuffle the remaining multi-player infection cards and, without looking, remove 2 more from the game.
  • For 3 players, remove 1 additional "Thing" and "Still Human." Shuffle the remaining and remove 1 from the game, again without looking.
• Then shuffle ONLY the remaining multiplayer-infection cards into Thing Deck 1. (Keep the regular infection cards separate for now).

For 2 players:

• Remove the same cards as in a 3-4 player game.
• Additionally remove all multi-player infection cards as well as "Man-in-Charge" and "MacReady Cuts Loose" event cards.

Now, shuffle all decks EXCEPT Thing Draw Deck 1. This Deck will not be shuffled until the 1st event card is revealed and resolved.

Setting up the Outpost

The middle of the table should be reachable by all players. This area will be known as the Rec Room. Thematically, think of each player sitting in the Rec Room until they leave to complete the Tasks, Encounters or otherwise move to a location or use a card.

In the Rec Room:

1. Place all 12 character cards.
2. Place the 4 unique Task cards in any order.
3. Place the Tool Shed card.
4. Place the Event and Encounter cards (cards should be prepared as explained above).
5. (for 5-6 players) Place the Bad Blood card.

In The Thing's Play Area:

6. Separate and place Thing draw decks 1, 2, and 3.
7. Place the "Blair-saucer" encounter.
8. Place the 8 Destruction cards.
9. Place "The Thing Attacks" card.
10. (for 5-6 players) Place The Thing's Action Cards.
11. (for 5-6 players) Place the 5 Suspicion cards (4 Suspicion, 1 You are a thing!) — remove 1 regular Suspicion card if playing with 5.
12. (for 5-6 players) Place "Thousand Miles to the Coast" encounter.

In the Outpost Players' Play Area:

13. Separate and place Outpost draw decks 1, 2, and 3.

The Players

• Choose a player to play as the Thing.
• All other players are the human Outpost Players and begin uninfected.
• The Outpost Players each choose a character from the Rec Room to play as. They place that character in front of them and receive 1 "Burn" and 1 "Wait and See" card each. These are the "played characters" and may also be referred to as "PC" by the cards.
• For the rest of the game any of the players not selected are not considered to be regular characters like the ones played by the Outpost Players. Instead they are non-played characters, or NPC's, and as such follow different rules.

Tip: Unless you want a more challenging game, it is recommended that at least 1 player chooses a character with the "Pilot" skill.

Mission Objectives

For Outpost Players, status: uninfected

The Outpost players are trying to make it through the encounters of the game without triggering any of The Thing's win conditions.

Once they resolve both the "Final Confrontation" and the "See what happens" encounter successfully, all uninfected players win and The Thing loses!

For Outpost Players, status: infected

Once infected, Outpost Players now have the objective of helping The Thing win. It is important for them to conceal their identity to help accomplish this goal.

If at any time The Thing wins, all infected players also win. A win for the uninfected players results in a loss for any infected player.

For The Thing

If at any time all players are either infected or dead, The Thing wins!

The Thing player receives the "Blair-saucer" encounter card. If it completes this encounter The Thing wins!

If at the end of the game the players fail either "Final Confrontation" or "See what happens," The Thing wins!

(for 5-6 player games) The Thing receives the "Thousand Miles to the Coast" special encounter card. If this card ever has 10 counters on it, The Thing wins!

The Plot Begins!

The Thing Card Game is played over a number of rounds or "Acts" the players have to survive until the Final Conflict is revealed. Each round begins by turning over either an Event card or an Encounter card. The first card of the game, "Antarctica, Winter 1982" is an event.

Flip over the first card and the game begins.

Following the instructions on the first event:

1. The Thing player should still have 7 Infection cards (3 "Human," 4 "Infected!"). It selects 2, so long as both are not "Infected!" and secretly places one each underneath any of the NPC characters. Any NPC that received an "Infected!" card is now an infected NPC, a Thing! The Thing player now shuffles the remaining infection cards into its Deck 1.
2. All players including The Thing player draw 6 cards from their respective Draw Deck 1. NO PLAYER CAN DRAW FROM ANY OTHER DECK NUMBER UNTIL AN ENCOUNTER CARD ALLOWS.
3. The Outpost Players select "El Capitan." They can select him through vote, randomly, or by any other method approved by the players. Several cards allow El Capitan a power or right to act and this player can convey his leadership through dialogue but El Capitan is the leader of the group in title only and the group is under no obligation to obey him.

Tip: When The Thing player selects the first 2 NPCs for infection, the players should know right away that one of them is not infected, possibly both.

Tip: El Capitan can change throughout the course of the game. When deciding who to change it to, if there is a tie the same player retains El Capitan.

Once this is completed, flip over the second encounter.

Gameplay

Gameplay resumes with each round broken into 5 phases:

1. Encounter
2. Suspicion
3. Assign and Resolve
4. Thing-out
5. Check End Conditions

Anytime actions: Both Outpost Players and The Thing player will have cards in their hand. Each are allowed to play them throughout the game so long as the card allows; some of these can be played at any time during any phase. Cards are always resolved in the order they are played.

Tip: If some cards bend or otherwise break some of the rules of the game, this is allowed.

1. Encounter Phase

Each round begins with the players turning over a new encounter or event card.

• IF the card turned over is an event, read and follow all instructions and then flip over the next card, skipping all other steps and beginning a new round.
• OTHERWISE each encounter represents a challenge the characters face in the game. All Outpost Players must assist with the encounters. (If players have any questions during "Blood Test" or "Blair Goes Berserk" encounter, please see the Card FAQ).

All Event cards (first card): Act 1 — "Antarctica, Winter 1982"; Act 2 — "Matters of Trust"; Act 2 — "Blair Goes Berserk"; Act 2 — "The Man-in-Charge"; Act 3 — "MacReady Cuts Loose"; (for 5-6 players) Act 2 — "Someone Blew a Fuse."

Each encounter has the following directions:

a) Draw: the players draw the number of cards indicated. Unless other decks have been unlocked by a previous encounter they can only draw from Deck 1. Note: At this time The Thing player draws 1 card for each Outpost Player, to a max of 3. It must also only draw from the allowed decks.

Example: It's a three player game. An encounter instructs all players to draw 1 card. All the Outpost Players (whether or not they are infected) draw 1 card and The Thing draws 2 cards — 1 card for each Outpost Player.

b) Crew: The minimum/maximum number of Outpost and NPC players that can be at the encounter. All Outpost Players must send their characters to each encounter. They then must invite additional NPC characters until the minimum number is met. Players cannot assign more players in this way than the maximum number allowed.

c) Skills: For each skill listed on the encounter that is not listed on one of the characters present at that encounter the Outpost Players roll 2D6 less when rolling for successes. You may never have a negative dice pool, but you could end up with no dice to roll. (for 2 players) Only 1D6 is lost for every skill not present.

d) Target: When rolling for successes, this number rolled and higher counts as 1 success.

e) Successes: The number of total successes needed for the encounter itself to succeed.

f) If the encounter fails, read and follow the consequences. Do the same for a success (if any).

2. Suspicion Phase

If The Thing player has any infection or multi-player infection cards in its hand, it may play one now. Infection cards are secretly played underneath an NPC. Multi-player infection cards are handed directly to Outpost Players. That player may look at it before placing it under his character sheet.

Only one infection card can be played and only during encounters, not events. Multi-player infection cards may be played on any player but count towards the one-an-encounter limit.

Tip: As The Thing, try not to be too obvious. Always infecting the same players, the obvious choices, or even failing to mix in "human" cards can make it easier for the players to guess what you're up to.

(for 5-6 players) When the Thing passes a multi-player infection card to an Outpost Player, it can also give the player a Suspicion card for them to keep in their hand with their other cards. Important: the Thing must only ever give the "You Are a Thing" suspicion card when it also gives the same player a "You are now a Thing!" multi-player infection card.

Bad Blood — Whoever is El Capitan must choose one player during this phase to discard a card — if they refuse put one token on the "Thousand Miles to the Coast" special encounter.

3. Assign and Resolve Phase

Assign

After The Thing player has played an infection card or passed, the Outpost Players next assign NPC's to the encounter or various tasks in hopes of getting as many successes as possible while hopefully trying to avoid assigning infected players.

All the Outpost Players should now "move" to the encounter. If the minimum player count is not yet filled players should decide which NPC's to add to the encounter first. Players then decide, of the remaining NPC's, whether to assign them to work on the tasks or help with the encounter. NPC's can be used in this way so long as the maximum crew size is not exceeded. Any NPC's not assigned to a task or encounter remain in the Rec Room — possibly tied to a couch…

Example: Childs decides it would be a good idea to use Bennings, MacReady, and Blair to work on the Bulldozer. This is okay, as the maximum crew for the Bulldozer is 3. No further NPCs could be sent to work on this task this turn.

(for 5-6 players) El Capitan selects one Outpost Player. That player may not participate in the encounter this turn however that player may instead assist with a task if he wishes. An Outpost Player then would add his dice to the success roll of the task the same as an NPC (cards may never be used on tasks). This is the only time an Outpost Player may be assigned to a task. Note: The same player may not be selected by El Capitan to sit out 2 rounds in a row.

Resolve

The players next choose in which order they want to resolve the tasks and encounter. Tasks and encounters are resolved in a similar manner with some differences.

Tasks: For each task in order, one by one, first add up the total number of dice that can be rolled by all players present.

Example: Players use MacReady, Childs, and Palmer on the Helicopter Task. That Task has two skills: Mechanic and Pilot. So in this case, the players would roll 5 dice. 3 for the dice listed on the NPCs + 1 for Child's Mechanic skill + 1 for Palmer & MacReady's Pilot skill. Even though both Palmer and MacReady have the Pilot skill, those players only get one extra die total.

For each skill required on a task, add 1 die if at least one character present at the task has this skill (no more than 1 die per skill).

Roll all the dice and add a token to the task for every success. NO CARDS MAY BE PLAYED BY ANY PLAYER TO CHANGE THIS RESULT.

If at any time the task has tokens equal to or more than the difficulty on the upper right corner, that task is completed. So long as the task remains in play, players may use the ability of a completed task at any time.

Note: If the Outpost Players complete and use either the Radio or Helicopter task, they may proceed directly to the "See what happens" encounter. Additionally, if the Helicopter is used only the Outpost characters — NONE of the NPC's — join in on the "Final Confrontation," whether the NPC's are infected or not.

Encounter: In the same way, again add up all dice from all players (including NPCs).

Example: The Outpost Players form a team to "Review Evidence." They are using Windows, Norris, and MacReady. To help win the encounter — since they lose 2D6 for not having Meteorology — one of the players tries to play the "That Thing wanted to be UHHsss!" But this card cannot be played because the team does not have the Biology skill required. Playing the "'Cos it's different 'an us see" card is legal, however, because the MacReady character has the Tough skill.

Instead of getting extra dice for having a skill, on an encounter the players instead lose 2D6 per skill that is not met by one of the characters present (1D6 per skill in a 2 player game).

After the roll, all players including The Thing can play cards to add/subtract dice, successes, etc. Cards requiring a skill must have someone with that skill present at the encounter to use. This continues until all players are done playing cards.

Note: Any player that has an infection card underneath him may also discard cards from their hand, adding 2D6 for each card discarded in this way. (For a 2 player game, a player may discard without having an infection card and gains only 1D6).

Success or Failure

After all cards and rolls are made, count the totals. All rolls at or above the target number add 1 success. If the total number of successes meets or is higher than the stated number of successes required, the players have beat the encounter and read and follow the "Success" effect on the card (if any). Otherwise the players must follow the "Fail" effect on the card.

(for 5-6 players) If an encounter is successfully completed, The Thing player may draw 1 of the 8 cards in The Thing's Action Card deck. This card can be played at any time as if it were a regular card.

Tip: This game is as much about hand-management as it is about the guessing game of who is who. While players should be wary of letting too many encounters fail, they should also note that it is just as bad to use up too many cards trying to pass every encounter.

4. Thing-out Phase

After the resolution of all tasks and the encounter, The Thing player may play its "The Thing Attacks!" card on top of an encounter or task that has an infected NPC player.

The Thing then reveals the "Infected!" card underneath that NPC, removes the NPC from the game, and the players must now face this new encounter following the instructions of the card and facing any consequences for failure.

Tip: Important! This is a crucial aspect of the game. While it doesn't seem like much, "The Thing Attacks!" can cripple players and cause a lot of damage. Players should be wary against assigning suspected NPC's too many times to tasks and encounters. At the same time however, players should be "testing the waters" often as once in a while sending suspicious NPCs to a task may be critical in helping to determine which ones are infected.

5. Check End Conditions

With the exception to "Final Encounter" and "See what happens" encounters, for the last phase of each round The Thing player first checks the Blair-saucer encounter. If it has any cards underneath this encounter The Thing may roll and see if it completes the saucer. If it does, The Thing wins and all uninfected Outpost Players lose.

The Thing next checks to see if all players are either infected or killed. If so, The Thing wins.

Lastly, if at any time "Thousand Miles to the Coast" has 10 counters on it The Thing player automatically wins.

If The Thing player has not won, proceed to the next encounter until the Final Encounter is reached or the players use the Radio or Helicopter.

Final Encounter

At the Game's End, there lies…

This card is shuffled among the Act 3 cards so players will not know exactly when the game will end.

When this encounter is revealed the Outpost players must first fight a Thing. The target numbers needed are described on the card just like a regular encounter. In any of the following battles all players may continue to play cards as normal.

After the first Thing has been dealt with and destroyed:

1. Any infected Outpost player that was already revealed by the "Blood Test" encounter now battles the Outpost Players similar to the fight above. This player may play "success cards" in his favour, increasing the difficulty by 1 per success.
2. The Thing player may reveal an infection card under an NPC character. If he was "Human" the character is removed from the game (it's assumed that he either ran off into the blizzard or was absorbed into The Thing's biomass). If he was "Infected!" he immediately becomes another Thing the Outpost players must fight just like the first. The Thing player may keep revealing NPCs one at a time, the players having to fight each one, until it decides to stop. The Thing could reveal all NPC's with an infection card in this way or none.
3. The Thing must now ask each of the Outpost Players, slowly and in clockwise order, if they wish to reveal themselves to be a Thing. All answers must be loud enough for all players to hear. Note: Uninfected Outpost players may not answer "yes" however infected players may answer "no" in hopes of fooling their fellow players.
4. If an infected Outpost player says "yes," they reveal themselves as a Thing and battle the other Outpost Players! This battle is the same as for a revealed infected player, see step 1. Note: until a player is revealed as a thing, whether NPC or Outpost player, that player MUST continue to help with these battles. He is not required to play any cards to assist however he still lends his character's dice to the fight. Also note: no NPC characters can "Thing out!" during "Final Confrontation." This therefore means cards like the Flamethrower can only be used for their secondary purpose of adding 5D6 to the battle.

If the Outpost Players fail any of these battles, all uninfected players lose and The Thing player wins!

After all players have revealed themselves or passed, if the players are still alive…

"See What Happens"

It's Not Over Yet

"Why don't we just wait here for a little while… see what happens…"

The "See what happens…" encounter emulates the possible decision that Childs and MacReady had at the close of John Carpenter's film. At the very end of the game the Outpost players have an important decision to make based on deduction, instinct, and some luck. Each player has two cards: "Burn" and "Wait and See." These cards are only used during the "See what happens" encounter. Note: Infected Outpost Players must always choose the "Wait and See" card.

For an uninfected Outpost Player, this encounter is a guessing game that will use all of their wits as well as everything they've observed up till now. These players will want to select a "Burn" card if they think there might still be a Thing among them. However they must guess carefully for if they select "Burn" and there are no Things left then they have just fried their comrades and lose. Players should select "Wait and see" if they think there are no Things left.

Note: Active discussion between the Outpost players — some of whom may be Things — is encouraged at this juncture. The Thing player is also permitted to talk up suspicions, if it wants to.

Each Outpost player secretly selects one of the two cards, placing it face-down in front of them. All the cards are revealed simultaneously.

Then, one by one, the Thing player must reveal the infection cards under each remaining NPC until all are viewable. Do not forget the NPC in the Tool Shed if he is still there. Next, the Outpost Players reveal the infection cards beneath their character cards one by one. The winner should now be known.

The Thing wins…

• If "Burn" is chosen by anyone, and there are no Things remaining.
• If "Wait and See" is chosen by everyone, and there are Things remaining.

Any Uninfected Outpost Players win…

• If "Wait and See" is chosen by all, and there are no Things remaining.
• If "Burn" is chosen by anyone, and there are Things remaining.

Card FAQ

"Blood Test" Encounter

If Blood Test is successful El Capitan may reveal infected NPCs one at a time, up to four. If a Thing is revealed it immediately triggers "The Thing Attacks!" encounter and the blood testing ends - no further NPCs can be tested.

(for 5-6 players) The players may either choose to allow El Capitan to test the NPCs — as described above — or they may choose to test each other.

If the players decide to test each other, conduct the scene as follows:

• The Thing points to any Outpost player that has an infection card. Once chosen that player can either reveal their infection card or refuse to be tested.
• When an Outpost Player refuses, remove 1 token from the "Thousand Miles to the Coast" card. The Thing must keep picking Outpost Players until all eligible players refuse or a player reveals himself.
• If a player reveals himself the blood test immediately ends.
• If that player turns out to be human that player may discard any suspicion and infection cards he has and must add 2 tokens to the "Thousand Miles to the Coast" card.
• If that player turns out to be infected they discard all their cards and draw up to 4 cards from The Thing's Action Cards. That player now can play against the players for the rest of the game until the "Final Confrontation."

"Blair Goes Berserk" Encounter

When El Capitan draws two cards from the destruction deck and chooses one, he is choosing the task that is destroyed (by the crazed NPC). Only 1 task is destroyed in this way for this event.

Destruction Cards: Important! Any time Destruction cards are drawn, that player should never reveal what his choices were. Reveal only the card that was destroyed. Afterwards that player must also secretly remove any other Destruction Card with the same name.

Tool Shed: After "Blair Goes Berserk" an NPC will be put into the Tool Shed. With exception to infection cards, that character is out of the game until the Final Confrontation. He may not be assigned tasks or encounters or have any cards played on him. He may still be infected by The Thing and can be revealed in the "Final Confrontation" and must be considered for "See what happens."

FAQ

Can I cancel an infection card as it's played, with "Cheating, Bitch"? Yes. Any card may be cancelled, even a card played by another Outpost player.

Does "Tough" mean I have to put 2 infection cards under MacReady to infect him? No. The "Tough" skill only applies to damage resolution during a Thing Attacks! encounter — MacReady, Clark, and Childs need to be selected twice by the Thing player to be removed from the game. Tough NPCs need only be infected by one card, like everybody else.

What happens if there is only one NPC with an infection card under it, and Shredded Longjohns is played? The card has no effect. To be clear, you shouldn't play the card unless 2 NPCs have infection cards under them.

The Garry character card has been killed, but somebody still played a "Tied to this fucking couch!" card — is this correct? Yes. And this rule applies to all situations in the game whereby the card's title quote has been spoken by a dead NPC. They are only card titles. If the game had to take in situational rule permutations regarding who said what and when, then the game would be about a hundred times more complex, for no extra fun! Anyhow, who knows if Garry didn't set a course of action in progress, before being killed…?

What happens if my character is killed during the game? You are out of the game. If you can't be killed, it's not much of a tension-building horror game. That said, this should happen very rarely, unless the players are very reckless. Plus, it's a quick game, so it's not like you're out for an hour twiddling your thumbs. Hold onto those flamethrower cards, because anyone could be one of those Things.

I'm the Thing player in a 4-player game, and I've just made Garry Thing-out. After a bunch of cards have been discarded, all the NPCs and PCs are now dead. Now, the only living character is Blair — and he's locked in the Tool Shed. Have I won? Yes. Even if Blair is revealed to be human, he can't do a great deal to stop the Thing's diabolic schemes from within the shed. The Tool Shed is an out-of-play area until the Final Encounter, so you have fulfilled one of the winning conditions for the Thing.

Can I use the Morphine Injection on an NPC in the Tool Shed? No.

If I have a suspicion card in my hand with two other cards, and the Thing Attacks! is played, how many cards do I discard? You discard your other two cards but retain the suspicion card — as they can never be discarded. Remember to declare the suspicion card in your hand to the other players — so they know why you're still holding a card — but do not show it to them. For the purposes of the attack and the possible killing of crew, this does not count towards reducing the strength of the Thing Attacks! encounter.

It seems to me the Blood Testing of other players breaks the theme, in that the players have to willfully submit to the testing - in the movie they were tied to a couch. There's the rub. This is a game and not the movie — it has to transcend the material in many ways. Forcing a player to effectively reveal their true nature — when they may not want to — can drain the game of tension and ultimately fun. We've tried it!

Complete Card List

The Outpost Decks (66 cards): 1 Heart condition; 1 Molotov cocktail; 1 Dynamite; 1 That thing wanted to be UHHSSSS!; 2 Maybe we'll just warm…; 1 I mean, he could be one of those things; 1 Shredded Longjohns; 1 Computer simulation; 2 Yeah, fuck you too!; 7 Flamethrower; 1 Somehow it gets thawed out…; 1 Fire alarm; 1 I'd say the ice it's buried in is…; 1 'cos it's different 'an us see; 1 I'd rather not spend the rest…; 1 Voodoo bullshit; 1 Clark, will you put this mutt…; 1 They're falling out of the skies…; 1 Mac wants the what?; 1 Cheating, Bitch!; 2 Blair's revolver; 2 Garry's popgun; 1 I know Bennings; 1 One of those things won't obey…; 1 It's weird and it's pissed off…; 1 I haven't been able to get hold of jack…; 1 hey, thanks for thinking about…; 1 How much more of this crap is there?; 1 Macready - tool shed; 1 You gotta be fucking kidding; 4 Jed; 1 Hey, Sweden!; 1 First goddamn week of winter; 1 Chariots of the gods, man; 1 Maybe we at war with Norway; 1 They taught the Incas…; 1 Get a hold of somebody, anybody; 1 Garry – generator; 2 Nauls – generator; 1 We'd better start closing off the outside doors; 1 And I suggest that we only eat…; 1 Copper – infirmary; 4 Shotgun; 1 Cassette recording; 1 I know how this one ends; 1 Norwegian's rifle; 2 Hey, Blair! You down there?; 1 I was wonderin' when El Capitan…

The Thing Decks (47 cards): 2 Multi-player infection/thing; 3 Multi-player infection/human; 5 Human; 9 Thing; 1 Assimilate!; 1 Something in the ice; 2 Spider-thing; 1 Suicide?; 1 Stretch-head-thing; 1 Somebody got to the blood; 2 Stretch-face; 2 Dog-thing; 1 It's GONE, Macready; 2 Fingers in flesh; 2 Dog-face-thing; 3 Dog assimilation; 1 My god, what the hell…; 1 Bennings-thing; 1 He's killed the rest of the dogs; 1 If it takes us over, then it has no…; 1 This thing doesn't want to show itself; 1 Anyplace but here; 1 Norris shadow?; 1 I hear funny things out here; 1 Watch Clark, and watch him close

Encounter (16 cards)

Act I: Antarctica, Winter 1982; Explore Norwegian research camp; Autopsy of Norwegian-thing; Battle in Dogtown; Review Evidence; Investigate Crashed Saucer site

Act II: Blair goes Berserk; Matters of Trust; The Man-in-Charge; Conduct Blood Test; Battle in Rec room

Act III: Destroy Blair-saucer; Macready cuts Loose; Destroy Outpost #31; Final Confrontation; Why don't we just wait here…

Other (17 cards): 8 Destruction cards; 3 Burn cards; 3 Wait and See cards; 1 The Thing Attacks! card; 1 Blair-saucer; 1 Tool Shed

Outpost crew (12 cards): Macready; Clark; Fuchs; Blair *; Nauls; Windows; Norris *; Palmer ; Garry; Copper; Childs; Bennings * — ( denotes Thing-out special ability)

Task (4 cards): Radio; Helicopter; Research; Bulldozer

Complete Card List, 5-6 Players

The Outpost Decks (27 cards): 1 Gasoline; 1 I ain't going with Windows; 1 Dynamite; 1 Morphine Injection; 2 Flamethrower; 1 Poor baby, you're starting to lose it; 1 Normal set of internal organs; 1 I'm just letting you know we're…; 1 I'd like you to start an autopsy right away; 1 I'm tired of talking, Fuchs; 1 So how's the motherfucker wake up; 1 Looking for answers; 1 Any of them move, you fry 'em; 1 Should be somebody a little more; 1 And everybody watch whoever; 1 Maybe they found a fossil; 1 Anything strange about the dog?; 1 It's getting late; 1 Norwegian Rifle in helicopter; 1 So some of you are still human; 1 It wants to hide inside an imitation; 4 Suspicion cards; 1 You are a Thing! Suspicion card

The Thing Decks (11 cards): 1 Multi-player infection/human; 1 multi-player infection/thing; 1 The Thing on the ceiling; 1 Spluttering Flamethrower; 1 Out of fuel?; 1 Another Thing bursts out!; 1 They're not dead yet; 2 Big one-eye in the kennel; 1 Transfixed with terror; 1 Unearthly screeching

Encounter (1 card): 1 Somebody blew out a fuse in the lab

Other (15 cards): 2 Burn cards; 2 Wait and See cards; 1 Bad Blood; 1 Thousand Miles to the Coast; 8 Thing Action Cards; 1 I'll show you what I already know