Undermined! Pairadice City
Undermined! Pairadice City Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Decks
The game contains 4 decks.
Rock Deck: Each turn you can attempt to dig deeper into this deck by mining Rock Cards. The number on the back of a Rock Card is the card's Hardness and represents how tough the rock is to break. On the front of the card is the reward for breaking that rock. Place the deck number side up to form the mine shaft you will all be attempting to dig. Included in the box are 2 separate rock decks which can be distinguished by the borders on their faces (gold or white.) For your first few games we suggest only using the white bordered rock deck. For information on the Gold rock deck see the "Other Modes Of Play" section.
Shop Deck: Buy Items that will help you dig through the mine, protect you from Perils and gain more Treasure. When you buy an Item place it in front of you face up. Players can have a maximum of 4 Items at any one time, and can buy items to increase this limit. Treasures do not count towards this limit.
Treasures & Perils Deck: This deck contains the precious Treasures you will unearth and Perils you will face. If this deck becomes empty, the game is over and the Player with the most Victory Points wins! You may have any number of Treasure cards at one time.
Events Deck: This deck contains Event Cards that will allow you to interact with other Players and change the state of play. Keep these in your hand and keep them secret! There is no maximum hand size for your event cards. There are two types of Event cards – single use Events and Ongoing Events. When you use an Event card, follow the text on that card then place it into the Event Deck discard pile. When you use an Ongoing Event card, it remains in play until an effect causes it to be discarded. Players can play any number of Event cards per turn. Event cards tell you when they can be used.
Event cards are not shown to other players until played. Items & Treasures are always face up. Each player's Dollar total and Victory Point total can be seen by all players.
Setting Up the Game
Each Player starts with the following:
- Iron Pick-Axe (This item has unlimited uses & cannot be discarded or removed from play)
- Standard Safety Gear
- TNT
- 2 x $1 coins
- 2 Event cards (Drawn face down from the top of the Event Deck)
Iron Pick-Axe, Standard Safety Gear and TNT are Starting Items and have a gold coloured text box to distinguish them from the other shop items so they can be easily found for game set-up. Remove any extra copies of the starting items from the shop deck and put them back in the box before playing. Iron Pick-Axe, Standard Safety Gear and TNT count towards your limit of 4 Items. Set aside the remaining dollar tokens for the Bank.
Shuffle each deck and place them face down as shown in the image below in the centre of the table (within reach of all players).
Each deck has its own discard pile (as shown below). If the Event Deck, Rock Deck or Shop Deck becomes empty, shuffle that deck's discard pile and make this the new deck.
Deal the top 5 cards of the Shop deck face up next to the deck. These items form the Shop and can be purchased by Players during their turn.
The Player who has most recently been underground starts the game, then Players take turns clockwise.
Winning the Game
When a Player has 12 Victory Points (VP), they immediately win the game.
The VP is indicated in the top left bubble on all Treasure cards.
The Steps of a Turn
A turn progresses through these steps in this order: Respite, Shopping, Preparation, Mining, End.
Respite Step: Take $2 from the bank & draw a card from the Event Deck. Once per turn you may then choose to discard 2 Event cards to draw an extra event card.
Shopping Step: First, you can sell Treasures. Each Treasure has a value in dollars shown in the bottom right of the card. If you want to sell 1 or more Treasures, place them in the Treasures & Perils Deck discard pile and take that many Dollar Tokens from the Bank. Players don't start with any Treasures, so get mining!
Next, you can buy one item from the Shop. To buy an item, pay Dollars equal to the Item's value (shown in the bottom right corner of the card) into the Bank. Place this card with your other items and add the top card from the Shop Deck to the Shop, replacing the item you bought. If you ever have more than your maximum allowed number of Items immediately discard items until you have your maximum number. You cannot normally sell items back to the shop; no refunds!
Items (continued): There are three types of Item:
- Tools: let you Mine the Rock Deck
- Explosives: can blast multiple Rocks in one go
- Equipment: provide bonuses & protection
Some Items have a limited number of uses, shown on the bottom left of the card, which are removed as the Item is used either for mining, or for the effect described on the card. If an Item has no uses left, it is broken and is put into the Shop Deck discard pile. Keep note of how many uses an Item has remaining (using Use Tokens). Note that if you use an item to mine and the mining attempt fails, this counts as a use of the Item.
Explosives are a high risk, high reward item! They have only 1 use, provide a large boost to Mine Rolls and can Mine multiple Rocks in one go. Due to their power, you CANNOT get help when using an Explosive to Mine. (See the 'Preparation Step' section for more on helping to mine). To use an Explosive, add their bonus to your Mine Roll, and destroy Rocks whose total Hardness is less than or equal to your roll (see the Explosives Example below).
Explosives Example: Jimmy the Kid uses TNT to mine, which provides +10 to his mine roll. Jimmy makes his mine roll and rolls a 6 and a 4, which is a total of 20 with the bonus from his TNT! The top card of the deck has a hardness of 8, so he mines the top card, and flips it over. The first card earns him $2 from the bank. The next card has hardness 10, for a total of 18. This total is less than Jimmy's total of 20, so he mines this rock too. He then reveals the second rock card, which tells him to reveal a card from the treasures and perils deck. The next card has 12 hardness, giving a total of 30. This is greater than Jimmy's total of 20, so Jimmy stops mining. Good job Jimmy!
Treasure Items: There are also some items in the shop deck that award Victory Points. These are called Treasure Items and when bought are placed in front of you like any other item and count towards your maximum number of Items.
When you have a treasure item in front of you, it increases your Victory Point value by the number of Victory Points shown. They are more expensive than most other items but can help you if you need that last little push for the win!
Preparation Step
Get ready to mine! Take the following actions in order:
- You may pay $2 to place the top Rock card on the bottom of the Rock Deck.
- Then pick the Tool or Explosive you wish to use to Mine.
- You can then ask for help from your fellow Players, as long as you are not using an Explosive Item to mine. If they agree, other Players help you by rolling one dice and adding the result to your Mine Roll. You do not have to accept all (or any!) offers of help. Help rolls do not benefit from Item bonuses. If you ask another player for help, they can ask for something in return. This could be payment, an item you own or for a promise of help in the future. However, beware that these promises are not binding and your rivals (and you) can go back on their word.
Helpers be warned – if a player that helps to mine rolls a 1, they will also experience any Perils encountered. If a Peril affects multiple players this way, each player must pay costs separately, and must use their own protective equipment to avoid the Peril.
Mining Step
Attempt to dig deeper into the mine!
- Make a Mine Roll by rolling two 6-sided dice and adding the Mine Roll bonus from your Item plus help rolls from other Players.
- If the result is equal to or higher than the Rock card's Hardness you mine the Rock! Remember, only Explosive Items can Mine more than one Rock at a time. If successful, flip the Rock card over into the Rock discard pile and resolve the effect on the front. The card may earn you Dollars or tell you to reveal a card from the Treasure and Perils Deck.
When you reveal the top card of the Treasure and perils deck, you either:
- Place a Treasure card face up in front of you, or
- Resolve the Peril's effect.
Remember, Treasures are not Items and so do not count towards your Item limit. Perils you encounter don't affect other Players unless they agreed to help and rolled a one. You gain all Treasures revealed (any Players helping do not gain treasure).
End Step
'At the end of your turn' effects happen, and effects that last until the end of the turn end.
Then your turn ends and the next player's turn begins.
Other Modes of Play
Once you have played a few games of Undermined! Pairadice City, we have some suggestions of a few changes you can make to add even more strategy to your game.
You may want to try increasing the Victory Point value required to win the game. Playing to 15 or even 18 points will extend the game and the fun, allowing you more time to devise more outlandish and varied strategies to blast your way to victory.
Included in the box is a second rock deck, with gold borders on the front (while being indistinguishable from the back). When combined with the standard rock deck this new rock deck has an overall higher hardness, along with some better rewards, and increases the challenge of the game. Use this combined deck if you want a tougher game, to encourage collaboration or for higher player counts.
As well as making the game more difficult, the extra rock deck forces players to vary their strategy and to approach the game differently, meaning the game will feel fresh time after time. We encourage players to mix and match these ways to vary the game, to find the combination which suits you and your player group!
Other Rules, Hints & Tips
Some effects force you to pay Dollars. If you do not have enough money, you must pay using Treasure cards with an equal or greater value by placing them into the Treasures & Perils discard pile. When using Treasure cards to pay, you receive no change. If you have no Treasures, then pay as much as you can.
For example, Jimmy the Kid has $4 and a Fossil worth $14. He reveals a Poison Gas peril, and so must pay $10. He does not have enough money, so puts his Fossil into the Treasure & Perils Discard Pile. He receives No Change. Oh no Jimmy.
Using some Items requires a Dollar payment. If you want to pay to use an Item, you must have money available, and cannot sell Treasures outside of the Shopping Step.
Players can sell and trade Items with one another, barter Items and Dollars to obtain help on Mining Rolls, or offer to use helpful Events in return for payment. Players CANNOT trade Event cards from their hands or trade Treasures they own.
Although you may be tempted to skip a Rock that looks too hard to tackle on your own, try and make a deal and ask for help.
What's on the Cards
- Deck name
- Card name
- Card type
- Card art
- Card effect
- Number of uses
- Item cost
- Treasure value
- Victory point value
- Rock hardness
- Flavour text