Wilmot's Warehouse
Wilmot's Warehouse Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Box Contents
- 150 Product tiles
- 150 Customer cards
- 30 Mandatory Idea cards
- 1 Warehouse board
- 1 Employee handbook
Setting Up the Warehouse
A5 Logistics encourages its workers to take pride in correctly preparing their workspace. To motivate you further, we've even installed cameras!
- Place the Warehouse board where everyone can reach it.
- Draw 35 Product tiles randomly out of the bag. Make 5 face down stacks of 7 tiles each (without looking too closely at them). Put the stacks next to the board, one stack for each day of the week.
- Place 1 Mandatory Idea card on top of each day's stack of tiles, except Monday (4 total).
- Place all Customer cards in a face down pile next to the board.
- The most enthusiastic worker is Monday's first Shift Supervisor.
A Day at the Warehouse
Each day, everyone on the team will take turns, in clockwise order, being the Shift Supervisor. The Supervisor is responsible for revealing and placing exactly one tile from the day's stack onto the Warehouse board.
Here's how it works:
DRAW. The current Supervisor draws the top tile from today's stack and shows it to everyone.
DISCUSS. The team discusses what the tile art is and where it should go. Give it a story, a name, or otherwise decide how it's connected to the other tiles around the warehouse!
PLACE. The Supervisor places the tile into an open space in the warehouse and flips it face down. The current Supervisor has final decision making authority, but team members should always offer their opinions!
Here are the rules for placing tiles:
- The first tile of the game must be placed in the center space of the grid.
- All subsequent tiles must be placed in the grid adjacent to any previously placed tile: up, down, left, or right.
- When you place a tile onto a space, flip it face down. Once a tile is flipped over, no one can look at it again until the end of the game!
Repeat this process, rotating the Supervisor role, until all 7 tiles have been placed that day. At the end of the day, you can take as much or as little time as you like reviewing your tile placements.
To help your team remember where each tile is placed, it's helpful to make little connections between them, like:
- STORIES. It's a bear stealing a doughnut from the elephant who is talking about the sunny weather.
- PLACES. Put the factory with 3 chimneys next door to the yellow house under the bright sun.
- CATEGORIES. It's water pipes, put it with all the other weird cables under the house.
Mandatory Idea Cards
Two examples of Mandatory Idea cards and how they change a day at the warehouse:
CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL. Today, only the Shift Supervisor can look at each tile. They can describe and discuss its placement with the team, like normal.
COULD HAVE BEEN AN EMAIL. For each of today's tile placements, each worker may only say one word. They may repeat the word as much as they like. Think smart, speak less!
Starting the Next Day
Before placing any tiles, the next Shift Supervisor flips over the Mandatory Idea card from the top of the day's stack and reads it out loud. Everyone must follow those instructions for the day, to the best of their ability, even if it conflicts with the rules in this handbook.
For example, a "U TURN" card might instruct the team to immediately rotate the board 180˚.
If a worker does not follow the instructions on a card, there is no direct penalty. Continue your shift as if nothing terrible just happened. There is no need for employees to worry that they are being recorded and/or monitored by A5 Logistics.
If you would like an easier workweek, simply remove any Difficult Ideas from the game. If you would like an easier reality – you can also remove these from your brain! (Speak to HR if you would like to select this option.)
Repeat drawing, discussing, and placing tiles for each day of the week, until the end of the day on Friday, when all 35 tiles are face down in the warehouse.
Mandatory Idea cards come in two kinds: Normal Idea and Difficult Idea.
End of Game: Customer Rush
At the end of the day on Friday, after you've placed all 35 of the week's tiles, a rush of customers will arrive demanding products: some you have in stock, some you don't.
Your team must simultaneously search through the Customer cards and place them on their matching face down Product tiles in the warehouse as quickly and accurately as possible. To do that:
- Divide all the Customer cards evenly between team members. It doesn't need to be exact.
- Start a stopwatch on your phone at 0:00 seconds and counting up. You're trying to finish within 5 minutes, but faster is even better!
Right as the timer starts, as quickly as you can, each worker searches through their pile of Customer cards and places them on what they believe are the matching Product tiles. You will have to be quick, since most of the cards will feature art from tiles you didn't even place this game!
You all do this simultaneously, but can share and discuss cards, move cards around even after you have placed them, trade cards, and generally make a mess of things.
Once everyone is satisfied with their work and has shouted "FINISHED!" stop the timer. Flip over all the Product tiles and check if they match the card on top of them.
Count up all the tiles that were not paired with a matching card. For each unmatched tile, add 10 seconds to your final time.
Consult your team's performance review on the back of this handbook!
Your Team's Performance Review
Your total time equals the time on your stopwatch PLUS 10 SECONDS for each Product tile without a matching Customer card. Now scan the corresponding QR code: our state-of-the-art training program will calibrate your team for optimal personal and economic growth!
| Total Time | Performance Summary |
|---|---|
| Under 1:00 | How did you DO that? Wow! Report to management immediately. |
| 1:00–1:29 | Welcome to the A5 Logistics fast-track program. |
| 1:30–1:59 | Gosh! Look who's surfing those waves of systematic efficiency! |
| 2:00–2:59 | Congratulations: you met operational requirements! |
| 3:00–3:59 | Automation and You: could a robot help us with your job? |
| 4:00–4:59 | Consider signing up for some Mandatory Imagination Training? |
| 5:00 and over | TOP TIP: you are prohibited from sleeping while at work! |
Variants
For an easier week: Place 6 tiles per day. You can also remove or skip the harder difficulty cards.
For a harder week: Place 8 tiles per day. Also try adding a Mandatory Idea card on Monday.
Background
Wilmot's Warehouse is based on a popular videogame ...also called WILMOT'S WAREHOUSE. "A game for people who like to organise things." Available now on PC, Mac, Playstation, Xbox, iOS and Nintendo Switch. wilmotswarehouse.com
Credits & Thanks
GAME DESIGN: David King, Ricky Haggett, Richard Hogg
ART: Richard Hogg
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Alex Hague
PRODUCTION & VIDEO: SU&SD
DEVELOPMENT: Alex Hague, James Nathan Spencer, Justin Vickers
RULEBOOK DESIGNER: Kristen Leach
PUBLISHER: CMYK
MANUFACTURER: Strom MFG
THANKS: Nathan Black, Finji, The Gathering of Friends, Josh Hadley, The Hathaways, Katerina and family, Emily Liles, The Neeps, Playtest UK, Chris Pope, Rand., Adam Saltsman, Bekah Saltsman, Aster Wright.
Need anything? Email us at [email protected]