Bad Medicine

Bad Medicine


A Party Game by Gil Hova

GAMES FORMAL FERRET

Game Design
Gil Hova

Graphic Design & Illustration
Scott Hartman


Thanks to Howard Margulies for the initial suggestion for the game, Carrie Margulies for constant support, and all my playtesters! NYC-Playtest

In Bad Medicine, you and your opponents run huge pharmaceutical companies. Your goal is to create names and advertisements for new drugs to cure the current Malady — while downplaying any side effects the folks at the lab may have discovered.
Did we mention your Corporation is huge? It’s so huge that the people who formulate the drugs and the people who pitch the drugs don’t really talk to each other. So you may be as surprised as everyone else when you pitch your Corporation’s drug and discover what it actually does…
Every round, each player will FORMULATE a drug to treat the current round’s Malady. Then each player in turn will PITCH their formulated drug. When all pitches are done, everyone VOTES for their favorite drug. You get points for receiving votes.
After 4 rounds, the player with the most points wins!

COMPONENTS

200 Drug cards
8 Corporate Logo Tiles in 4 different colors; each color has a “Formulating” and “Pitching” tile.
1 Surgeon General Tile determines The current round’s start player and dealer
32 Voting Capsules in 8 Voting Capsules for 4 companies

2 Current Round Tiles
1 Malady Card
8 Quick Reference cards

INDIVIDUAL PLAY FOR 3-4 PLAYERS

Setup
Everyone takes one Corporate Logo Tile of a different color faceup (disregard the “Formulating” or “Pitching” icons), one Vote Capsule for every other corporation in play (not including your own!), and a 3-4 Player Quick Reference card.

Give the Surgeon General Tile to the last player who swallowed a pill.
Shuffle the Drug Cards into a draw deck.
Leave room for a discard pile.
Flip the top Drug Card face-up and place it beneath the Malady Tile so that only its bottom red text is showing. That will be the Malady to treat at the start of the game.
Stack the Current-Round Tiles with the “Round 1” tile on top.

Formulating
Bad Medicine contains Drug Cards that each have three sections: part of a drug name at the top, a descriptive keyword in the middle, and a side effect at the bottom.
The Surgeon General deals everyone 7 cards. Each player simultaneously formulates a drug to treat the current Malady by silently choosing 3 cards for its Name and 2 cards for its Description. Stack your chosen cards facedown in front of you.
You’ll have 2 cards left in your hand. Keep them for now. You will play them during the other players’ pitches as Side Effects.

INDIVIDUAL PLAY FOR 3-4 PLAYERS

Formulating
3 Cards for drug name
2 Cards for effects
2 Cards still in hand

Note:Later in the game, there might be more than one Malady. In that case, you may treat any or all of these Maladies.

Pitching
Starting with the Surgeon General, each player will try to sell the other players their drug. To start Pitching, reveal the 3 cards for your drug’s name and announce it.
Then, reveal one of your Description cards. Explain how your drug will treat the Malady, using the first card’s descriptive Keyword. Next, reveal the other Description card and explain how it too will treat the Malady using its Keyword.
When you’re done Pitching, everyone else will give you one of the two cards left in their hand for their Side Effects, shown in red on the bottom of the card. Shuffle them and choose the one whose Side Effect best fits your drug. Then tell everyone why it’s not as bad as it sounds!
The player whose Side Effect you chose gets 1 point. Score it by tucking one of the unchosen Side Effect cards beneath his Quick Reference Card. Discard all remaining cards you got from the other players as Side Effects.
Now everyone else draws back up to two cards in their hands to play as Side Effects and the next player Pitches. Keep going until everyone has Pitched.

INDIVIDUAL PLAY FOR 3-4 PLAYERS

Voting and Scoring
Once everyone has Pitched, every player chooses a Vote Capsule for the Corporation with their favorite pitch. Reveal them simultaneously.
Discard this round’s Malady and replace it with the Side Effect of the drug that got the most votes. If there’s a tie, all tied players’ Side Effects replace the current Malady. This will be the Malady (or Maladies) to treat next round.
Next, everyone scores 2 points for every vote they received. Score them by tucking Drug Cards beneath your Quick Reference Card, one card per point.

Everyone discards all remaining face-up Drug Cards and any Side Effect cards they have left in their hands. Flip or reveal the next Current-Round tile. Pass the Surgeon General Card clockwise and start Formulating again.
After the fourth round, the game is over and the player with the most points wins! If there’s a tie, then all tied players win.

INDIVIDUAL PLAY EXAMPLES

Formulating
In this example, a player has received these seven cards for the Malady of “rampant hair growth”.

She thinks about it and decides to come up with a drug named “Tufboozcha”, which will use the keywords “Body Temperature” and “Fingernails”.
She makes a stack with these cards at the top...

Tuf, Booz, Cha - 3 cards for drug name

...and these cards at the bottom...

Body Temperature, Fingernails - 2 cards for effects

...which leaves her with two cards in her hand

INDIVIDUAL PLAY EXAMPLES

Pitching
Our player now starts her pitch:

“Rampant hair growth getting you down? Talk to your doctor about Tufboozcha!” She reveals the top three cards in her stack.

She flips the next card in her stack and continues her pitch: “Tufboozcha works by occasionally dipping your body temperature…”

Then she flips the last card in her stack.
“...Which allows you to remove all that excessive body hair with only the force of your fingernails.”
Now it’s time for the Side Effect.
The other players pass the Pitching player the following cards from her three opponents. She shuffles them face-down and looks at them.

She chooses the third card, reveals it, and says, “We’ve heard reports from the lab that some volunteers reported fleshy appendages growing out of their chests. But we’re happy to say that most volunteers enjoyed having the extra limb for tasks like cooking or video game playing. We will be releasing a new clothing line that will suit your new body next fall.”

She gives one of her un-chosen Side Effect cards to the player who gave her the “Fleshy appendage grows out of chest” card. He sticks it underneath his Quick Reference card to show that he got a point for having his Side Effect chosen.

TEAM PLAY FOR 5-8 PLAYERS

When playing with 5-8 players, everyone will play on teams that rotate every round. One player on a team will Formulate a drug and pass it to the other player, who will Pitch it without having a chance to look at it first!
Setup
Give the Surgeon General Tile to the last player who swallowed a pill. If playing with 5 or 6 players, remove one Formulating Corporate Logo Tile and one Pitching Corporate Logo Tile of the same color from the game. Take all the other Corporate Logo Tiles and mix them face-down in the middle of the table.
Give everyone a set of Vote Capsules for all Corporations in play and a Quick Reference card.
Shuffle the Drug Cards into a draw deck. Leave room for a discard pile.

Flip the top Drug Card face-up and place it beneath the Malady card so that only its bottom red text is showing. That will be the Malady to treat at the start of the game.
Stack the Current-Round Tiles with the “Round 1” tile on top.

Assigning Teams
In a team game, players change Corporations at the start of each round. The Surgeon General will take the first Corporate Logo Tile. In a 5- or 7-player game, the Surgeon General will take one Formulating Corporate Logo and one Pitching Corporate Logo of the same color. (She can look at the fronts of the Corporate Logo Tiles to find them, and then mix the rest up when she’s done.) In 6- and 8-player games, the Surgeon General takes one random Pitching Corporate Logo.
Then, the next player in clockwise order from the Surgeon General takes a random Formulating Corporate Logo. Then the next player in clockwise order takes a random Pitching Corporate Logo. The next player takes a random Formulating Corporate Logo, and so on, until all Corporate Logos are taken.
Players then flip their Corporate Logos face-up in front of them. They should all now take a moment to look for their partners.

TEAM PLAY FOR 5-8 PLAYERS

Formulating
The Surgeon General deals every Formulating player 6 Drug Cards. The Formulating players treat the current Malady by silently choosing 3 cards for the Name, 2 cards for the Description, and 1 for the Side Effect of their drug. See the 3-4 player rules for details about Formulating.
Once the Formulating players have decided on their choices, they pass the 6 Drug Cards in exactly the order they want to their Pitching partners. (A Formulating player may want to stack his cards with the cards for the Name in order on top, the cards for the Description in order in the middle, and the card for the Side Effect on the bottom.)

3 Cards for drug name

2 Cards for effects

1 Card for side effect

Important: The Pitching players on a team are NOT allowed to peek at any of their cards!
If playing with 5 or 7 players, the Surgeon General will not pass her cards to anyone. She will simply Pitch the drug she Formulated. (Want a challenge? Have the Surgeon General pitch from a random deal of 6 cards, without looking at them first!)

Pitching
The Pitching players must now sell the Drug without having peeked at it first! The Surgeon General is always first to pitch. When she’s done, all other Pitching players make their Pitches in clockwise order.
During your pitch, flip the three cards for the Drug’s name and announce it. Then, flip cards one at a time—the first Description, the second Description and finally the Side Effect—describing each as you go before looking at the next. In other words, you cannot flip both Description cards simultaneously; you must flip one and try to explain how it works before flipping the next one.
When you get to the Side Effect, you must explain why it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Note: Unlike the 3-4 player game, there’s no scoring for Side Effects in a 5-8 player game.

Voting and Scoring

Once everyone has Pitched, every player chooses a Vote Capsule for the Corporation with their favorite pitch. Reveal them simultaneously.

Important: You can’t ever vote for your own Corporation!
Discard this round’s Malady and replace it with the Side Effect of the drug that got the most votes. If there’s a tie, all tied players’ Side Effects replace the current Malady. This will be the Malady (or Maladies) to treat next round.

Each vote your team received is worth 1 point for you, regardless of if you Formulated or Pitched. Score them by tucking Drug Cards beneath your Quick Reference Card, one card per point. Teammates are not allowed to consult with each other to coordinate their votes.

End of Round

After scoring, every player returns their Corporate Logo Tiles facedown to the middle of the table. Pass the Surgeon General card clockwise, reveal the next Current-Round tile, and assign new teams. As with 3-4 players, the game ends after 4 rounds. The player with the most points wins! If there’s a tie, then all tied players win.

TEAM PLAY EXAMPLES

Formulating
In this example, a player has received these six cards for the Malady of “rampant hair growth”.

She makes a stack with these cards at the top...

Booz, Met, Tuf - 3 cards for drug name

..these cards in the middle...

Ligaments, Tail - 2 cards for effects

...and this card at the bottom.

Must sleep 20 hours a day - 1 card for side effect

She passes the stack of cards to her Pitching partner. He can’t look at them yet!

TEAM PLAY EXAMPLES

Pitching
The pitching player now starts his pitch, still without having seen a single card. He starts: “It’s time you showed your rampant body hair who’s boss! We’d like to show you…”
He flips the top three cards from his stack.

“Boozmettuf! It will deal with your hair growth by…”

He flips the next card.

“...redirecting the growth of hair inwards, into your ligaments. This has the added benefit of making your ligaments hardier, more adaptable to cold environments, and more attractive. Also…”

He flips the next card.

“...If you don’t take Boozmettuf, the next step in the malady after rampant hair growth is the growth of a small tail. Boozmettuff is the only drug that keeps this tail from growing. It keeps you human!”

Now it’s time for the Side Effect. The player reveals the final card…
“Unfortunately, Boozmettuf can’t clear up all your conditions, and you may notice some animalistic behavior continuing to seep in. Most notably, you may notice that you’re sleeping 20 hours a day. But at least you’ll be waking up to a clean bed, with no shed hair!”