Who Should We Eat? Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to Win
• Components
• Card Breakdowns
• Setup
• Order of Play
  • 1. Morning Phase
  • 2. Afternoon Phase
    • Resolving A Quest Card
    • Resolving A Play Card
  • 3. Evening Phase
  • 4. Trial Phase
  • 5. Salvation Phase
• Event: If You Are Killed
• Event: Draw Straws
• Endgame
• Variants
• Knife Fight Examples
• Quick Reference

How to Win

You must work together to ensure there is enough food to go around, that everybody remains sane, and that steady progress is made on the raft to escape.

Running out of food will force you to decide as a group who gets eaten, which will make the raft easier to build, but also decrease the group's collective sanity. Players who are eaten become ghosts who meddle with the Survivors and make their escape even less likely.

Components

• 3 Tracks
• 1 Wooden Conch
• 4 Tracking tokens (Red, blue, green and yellow)
• 10 Straws (9 long and 1 short)
• 10 Straw Cards (Optional: may use instead of straws)
• 12 Character Cards (Double sided)
• 34 Ghost Cards (Purple back)
• 72 Survivor Cards (Red back) — 24 Food Cards, 24 Sanity Cards, 24 Build Cards
• 15 Quest cards (Yellow back)
• 16 Personality Cards (Turquoise back)

Card Breakdowns

Character Card (Living): shows the Meat value and the cards drawn each round, along with the character's Name.

Character Card (Ghost): shows the number of Ghost cards drawn each round.

Survivor Card: shows a Play effect and a Keep effect.

Ghost Card: shows a Haunt or Instant icon and a Play effect.

Quest Card: shows a Play effect (applied immediately and covered by the character card when claimed during a Draw Straws event) and a Permanent effect (the ability gained by the character after the Play effect has been resolved).

Setup

1. Place the tracks in the center of the table. Mark the starting points with the tracking tokens:
   • Food (red) = Number of players minus 1.
   • Sanity (blue) = 8 (this space is darkened to show this).
   • Build (green) = 0 (green token) and target (yellow token) based on number of players (indicated by yellow space on tracker).
2. Separate (by color on card front) and shuffle each deck of Survivor cards and place the draw piles (Food, Sanity, and Build) in their respective locations.
3. Shuffle the Quest deck and remove 3 cards. Put these cards back in the box without looking at them. Place the remaining deck next to the tracks, then reveal 3 quest cards face up to form the Quest selection.
4. Shuffle the Ghost deck and place it next to the tracks.
5. Deal each player a role card (Survivor-side up) and a Personality Card (face-up) – These indicate which cards Survivors will draw each round, as well as giving them each a specific attribute to affect their play.
6. Place the straws within reach.
7. Whoever last ate gets the Conch. The player with the Conch is called the Leader.

Order of Play

1. Morning Phase

During the Morning Phase, Survivors gather resources and choose what to bring back to the camp. Ghosts plot on how best to interrupt and upset the Survivors' plans.

a) Pass the Conch (skip in first round)

• Pass the Conch to the next Survivor to the left, draw a Quest card to refill the selection.

b) The Dead Return (skip in first round)

• Players that died on the previous evening, return as a Ghost in the morning. They flip their character card over to reveal the Ghost side.

c) Draw Cards

• Each player picks up their Keep card (if they still have one) from the previous round, to begin their hand of cards.
• Each Survivor draws a number of cards from the Survivor decks (Food, Sanity, and Build) as indicated on their character card, and each Ghost draws 3 Ghost cards from the Ghost Deck.
• If a character card has a number and a wild icon, that player draws that number of cards from any of the Survivor decks (Food, Sanity, and Build).
• Whenever a draw deck runs out, shuffle the associated discard pile and form a new deck.

d) Select Cards

• At the same time, players choose a card from their hand to place in their Play slot (placed face down above the character card) and one to place in their Keep slot for future use (face down below the character card).
• All cards not placed as Play or Keep cards are discarded face down. Ensure that they go in the correct discard piles based on the card's border.

2. Afternoon Phase

During this phase, each player will resolve their Play card, one at a time.

• Ghost players resolve their Play cards first. The Ghost who is closest in clockwise order to the Leader begins play, continuing clockwise until all Ghosts have resolved their Play cards.
• Once all Ghosts have resolved their Play cards, the Leader must select one of the available Quests to resolve.
• After the Quest is resolved, the Survivors will reveal and resolve their Play cards in clockwise order starting with the Leader.
• After a card is resolved, unless it is attached to a player, discard it face down to the appropriate discard pile.
• Skip any players that do not have a Play card remaining.

Resolving A Quest Card

• The Leader selects a Quest card from the face-up selection.
• The top half of the card is applied immediately by altering the trackers as indicated.
• All Survivors must then resolve a Draw Straws event.
• Whoever draws the short straw takes the Quest card and tucks the top half beneath their character card, inheriting the permanent effect on the bottom half of the card.

Resolving A Play Card

Ghost Cards

• Instants: Follow the instructions on the Ghost card.
• Haunts: Choose a Survivor and attach the card to their character card as an ongoing effect.
  • If the chosen Survivor already has a Haunt, discard it, then attach the new Haunt to their character card. A player may only ever have one Haunt at a time.
  • Haunts remains in effect until the Survivor is eaten or the game ends. Some ongoing effects trigger only upon Survivor death.

Survivor Cards (Food, Sanity, Build)

• Resolve the effect in the Play area of the card (top part). These effects mostly increase or decrease tracks. To resolve them, adjust the tracks accordingly. If there is nothing in the Play area of the card, discard it with no effect.

3. Evening Phase

During the evening phase, do the following in this order:

a) Reduce Sanity

• Reduce the Sanity track by 2. If this tracker ever hits zero the Ghosts win the game and the Survivors lose.

b) Reduce Food

• Reduce the Food track by the number of Survivors remaining.

c) Into the Night...

• If the Food track is below zero a trial must be held. Go to phase 4, the Trial Phase.
• If the Sanity track is above zero, and the food track is at or above zero, skip the trial phase (phase 4) and move on to phase 5: Salvation Phase.

4. Trial Phase

In case of a food shortage a trial must be held to determine which Survivor will feed the others. The current Leader is responsible for conducting the trial.

a) Trial rules

• If you are the Leader, you must get everyone's attention and make your opening statements, as well as set the rules for the trial. For example, you may state that each Survivor make a case in their defense one at a time. Perhaps instead you state that everyone may speak at the same time. As the Leader, you get to choose any rules you like. OTHER PLAYERS MAY NOT SPEAK DURING THIS STAGE OF THE TRIAL. Once you've set the rules, you can open the trial by banging the Conch once on the table.

b) Discussion and Possible Knifing

Once the Leader bangs the Conch on the table, this stage of the trial begins.

• Survivors may now discuss amongst themselves who should (or should not) be eaten. While this discussion should follow the rules set by the Leader, as with all meetings of humans, respect for meeting rules and general civility can quickly degrade!
• This stage is the ONLY stage during which a Survivor can use a knife in their Keep slot to attack another Survivor. To attack a player with a knife, reveal that you have a knife stored in your Keep slot and declare your target, resolving as below. Other Survivors can reveal a knife before the first one resolves. This causes a knife fight (see below).
• If only one knife was revealed, the target of an attack must reveal their Keep card if they have one.
• If the target's card is a knife, then a knife fight begins (see below). If it is a shield card, the player who attacked discards their knife. The shield card remains face up, protecting the player (it will be discarded at the end of the round).
• If the target of the attack did not have a shield, and a knife fight didn't break out, then they have been killed! Resolve the If You Are Killed event (see below). The knife that was used is now discarded.

Knife Fights

• A knife fight includes everyone who revealed a knife AND their intended victims. Everyone involved resolves a Draw Straws event (see below), the player that draws the short straw loses the knife fight and dies. Resolve the If You Are Killed event (see below).

c) Close discussion and vote

• If no one is killed by a knife attack, the Leader must initiate the vote. To initiate the vote, the leader bangs the Conch on the table twice.
• Knives cannot be revealed during a vote.
• The Leader counts down from three and all Survivors point at who they wish to eat. The Survivor with the most people pointing at them is killed (resolve the If You Are Killed event (see below).
• Remember: Ghosts can talk during the vote, but cannot cast a vote. Their hands are obviously invisible, so no one would see them pointing.
• Ties are broken by drawing straws. Resolve a Draw Straws event (see below).

d) Trial end

• If something happens during the trial (e.g., Keep card effects, knife attacks, voting for who to eat) and the Food track is moved to 0 or above, the trial is immediately over.
• If the Food track remains below 0 another trial must be held immediately.

5. Salvation Phase

• If there was no trial this round; check for victory. If the build track is at or above the target Raft (based on the number of remaining Survivors), the game ends and the Survivors will set sail in the morning. They have survived the perils of the island and retained enough Sanity to depart on a full stomach. The Survivors win, and the Ghosts lose!
• If there was at least one trial this round or the victory conditions were not met (the build track is not high enough for the number of remaining Survivors), discard revealed Keep cards and return to Morning Phase.

Event: If You Are Killed

If you are killed or otherwise die during the course of the game, immediately:

1. Reveal your Keep card, if you have one, and resolve any conditions that activate if you die then discard it.
2. Resolve any ongoing effects on cards attached to your character card that activate if you die and discard them.
3. Discard any other cards attached to your character, be they haunts, personalities or quest consequences.
4. Add your character's meat value (as indicated on your character card) to the Food track. NOTE: Do not flip your character card over to the ghost side yet! You will flip it on the morning of the next day.
5. Decrease the Sanity track by the amount indicated by the red number on the current space on the Sanity track. If this hits zero, the game is over immediately - the Survivors lose and the Ghosts win!
6. Lower the Raft target on the Build track by 2 to indicate the raft's new required capacity.

Event: Draw Straws

1. Identify the number of players that will be drawing straws. This is normally the number of remaining Survivors, but it could also be just two people who got into a knife fight during a trial. NOTE: 10 Straw cards are provided as an alternative to the tokens.
2. The Leader collects straws equal to the number of players participating in the drawing of straws, ensuring one of them is the short straw.
3. The Leader holds the straws in their fist, with the tops of each straw visible, ensuring that the short straw is not identifiable.
4. All participating players take a straw one by one, with the Leader keeping the remaining straw, if any.
5. If you drew the short straw, you have lost the draw and the consequence of this event (e.g., tie-breaker vote, loss of knife fight, attaching Quest card to your character card) applies to you.

Endgame

The game can end in four ways:

Survivors lose, Ghosts win when:

1. The sanity tracker hits 0 at any point.
2. A new Quest card cannot be revealed to fill the selection.
3. A trial phase begins when there are only 2 Survivors remaining.

Survivors win, Ghosts lose when: 4. The Build tracker is equal to or above the Raft target at the end of a round in which the Survivors did not have to go to trial.

NOTE: As players do not become ghosts until the morning after their death, they will neither win nor lose if the game ends on the turn they die. They do not share in a Ghost victory because they did not actively hinder the players and they do not share in a Survivor victory because they were not alive.

Variants

"Follow The Leader"

• If a vote is ever tied at a trial, the Leader chooses whether all of the Survivors draws straws, or just those who were tied.

"Knife Fight in a Phone Booth"

• If a knife fight ever breaks out, the Leader chooses whether all of the Survivors draws straws, or just the people who revealed knives. If the Leader chooses ALL Survivors draw straws, any Survivor who reveals a shield from their Keep slot (or an effect that removes them from voting), does not have to draw a straw.

"Dwindling Resources"

• If you are finding that the Survivors are winning the game too often, try removing more Quest cards during setup. This will give you fewer rounds in which to escape.

Knife Fight Examples

It can get pretty hectic out there, and sometimes it's hard to tell who's stabbing who in the hellish kangaroo court you've created on the island. Here are a couple of examples to help you along.

Example 1

Player A reveals their Keep card to be a knife and declares an attack against Player C. In response, Player C reveals their Keep card, which is also a knife. Players A & C now resolve a knife fight as previously described.

Example 2

Player A attacks Player C, much like before. Before C reveals their Keep card, Player D declares an attack on Player E. As two knives have been revealed, a knife fight breaks out between players A, C, D & E. As the knife fight has already begun, players C & E do not reveal their Keep cards unless they are killed.

Quick Reference

1. Morning Phase

• a) Pass the Conch (skip in first round)
• b) The Dead Return (skip in first round)
• c) Draw Cards
• d) Select Play and Keep Cards

2. Afternoon Phase

• a) Resolve Ghost Play Cards (in clockwise order from Conch)
• b) Leader chooses and resolves a Quest Card
• c) Resolve Survivor Play Cards (in clockwise order from Conch)

3. Evening Phase

• a) Reduce Sanity by 2
• b) Reduce Food by # of Survivors remaining
• c) Check for Trial
  • If Food is below 0, go to phase 4
  • If Food is at or above 0, skip to phase 5

4. Trial Phase

• a) Leader sets discussion rules
• b) Leader bangs conch to open discussion
• c) Group discusses who to eat (Knifing now allowed)
• d) Leader bangs conch to close discussion (Knifing no longer allowed)
• e) Vote

5. Salvation Phase

• a) If there was no Trial Phase, check for raft victory.
• b) Otherwise, discard all face-up keep cards and return to phase 1