Friday Rules
Basic theme
You are Friday and spend your time on a deserted Island. After Robinson suddenly capsizes with his ship and runs ashore at your beach, your peaceful times are disturbed. To give Robinson a chance to leave the Island again, you start to teach him to improve his survival abilities against the hazards of the Island.
If Robinson beats two Pirates at the end of the game, he successfully leaves the island and you will have your beloved peace back ...
Idea of the Game
»Friday« is a solo adventure. While playing you are trying to guide Robinson through the game. He must win against two pirates without dying to finally leave the island again. At the start of the game Robinson is not very cunning. In this game the pile of fighting cards represents his abilities.
By comparison Robinson‘s health is in good shape and he starts with many life points.
You have two possibilities to help Robinson. You can either cleverly beat the hazards of the island and receive additional cards to improve Robinson‘s fighting abilities, or you deliberately lose against certain hazards and pay with Robinson‘s life points to remove unwanted fighting cards from play. During the game you will improve the quality and quantity of your fighting cards thanks to both possibilities and help Robinson with his newly gained abilities and knowledge to win against even more difficult hazards. However, life on the island is energy-sapping for Robinson so he is forced to always add aging cards to his fighting cards pile. These cards are all cumbersome, so you‘d better remember to keep them in mind when planning your next steps.
It is up to you. Use Robinson‘s life points cleverly and choose the correct hazards to keep Robinson healthy and strong for the final fights against both pirates.
The game offers several difficulty levels. Firstly, we explain the easiest game to you - Level 1. As soon as you win this level, you can try three additional levels and try to play against the next challenge.
Do you finally beat the game in Level 4?
Components
72 playing cards, consisting of:
- 3 step cards of green, yellow and red
- 59 fighting cards:
· 18 Robinson starting cards
· 11 aging cards
(8 normal, 3 difficult)
· 30 hazard/knowledge cards
- 10 pirate cards
22 life points
3 storage boards
Description of fighting cards -
Fighting value 1st, description, possible special abilities, aging difficulty(normal is labeled a1, difficult is labeled a2) if it is an aging card, life value(followed by a d). Hazard cards have the name followed by the value for the green, red, and yellow steps, followed by the number of free cards drawn.
Your first game starts in Level 1:
1. Sort the step cards and place the pile in front of you. The green card should be visible on top of the pile, below are the yellow and red cards. The game starts with the green step. 2. Remove the aging card »Very Stupid« from the game. Sort the remaining 10 aging cards in two piles (7x normal and 3x difficult ), shuffle both piles and place them as a single face- down stack on the aging storage board. Place the normal aging cards on top of the stack. You will need these aging cards later during the game.
3. Shuffle the 18 starting cards and place the face-down stack on the Robinson storage board in front of yourself. These are your first fighting cards.
4. Shuffle the 30 hazard cards and place the face-down stack on the hazard storage board. 5. Shuffle the Pirate cards, draw two random pirates and place them face-up as your final opponents. Place the remaining Pirate cards back in the game box.
6. Take 20 life points for Robinson and place them next to your Robinson stack. Place 2 more life points as the reserve next to the play area.
7. Set aside some space next to the Robinson and hazard stacks for the appropriate discard piles
Playing the game
During the game you will help Robinson to fight one hazard in each game turn. You start the game in the »green Step«, when the hazards are still mostly harmless. Sadly, the same is true for Robinson‘s abilities (meaning your fighting cards). You might lose several of the first fights against the hazards.
In each game turn you play the following actions in the order as written:
1. Drawing two hazard cards.
Draw the two topmost cards of the hazard pile.Choose one of the two cards as the actual hazard and place it face up in front of the Robinson stack. Discard the other card on the hazard discard pile.
2. Fight against the hazard.
The white box on the left side of the hazard card shows the number of fighting cards you can draw for free to fight against the hazard. During the »green Step« you must get fighting points equal or in excess of the green hazard value . You draw one fighting card after another from the Robinson stack and place them face up on the left side of the hazard card. You can draw and place new cards on the left side until the number equals the value of the white box.
After drawing the free cards you can »sacrifice« additional life points and place them back into the reserve to draw 1 fighting card for each sacrificed life point. You place the additional card(s) on the right side of the hazard card.
After drawing each fighting card you can always decide to use the special ability of any drawn faceup fighting card (regardless of left or right cards) in any order you like. You can use each special ability only once during the fight against the hazard and turn the chosen card 90°. Only after using the ability completely, you can activate the next ability of another card (see special abilities on page 10).
Note: You must definitely use the special abelites of the aging cards!
After you draw at least one fighting card against the hazard, you can decide to stop drawing additional cards, even if you do not draw all the free cards as written in the white box. You choose to do this for one of the two reasons: Either you have already won against the hazard (see »3. You win against the hazard?«) or you deliberately lose against the hazard (see »4. You lose against the hazard?«).
During the game it is very important for you to decide if you want to spend more life points to win a fight or to deliberately lose the fight and pay to remove worse cards. Both decisions are integral parts of your strategy. It is not unusual to lose several of the first fights in the »green step«.
This is part of this game!
The fight does not end automatically. You can use all remaining special abilities. Only if you want to end the fight, you compare your fighting points with the hazard value and finally finish the fight.
3. You win against the hazard?
If the sum of all fighting points of your face up fighting cards is at least equal or higher to the hazard value (matching the actual step), you beat the hazard and win the fight. Place the hazard card together with your played cards onto your discard pile. The gained hazard card converts to a new fighting card in your Robinson pile. You use the knowledge side of the card.
4. You lose against the hazard?
If you deliberately lose the fight and the sum of all fighting points of your face up fighting cards is less than the hazard value, you must pay life points to the reserve matching the number of points you are missing to win against the hazard (the difference of the hazard value and your total fighting points).
Example (you win against the hazard):
After Robinson sacrifices a life token he successfully explores the Island thanks to the card »genius«. From now on he can use the weapon in the following fights.
5. Start again at action 1.
If there are at least 2 hazard cards left in the hazard stack, start again with action 1. Draw 2 more hazard cards, choose one and fight against it in the actual Step.
If the hazard stack is empty, the game continues with the next (more difficult) step.
Place the topmost Step card back in the box and continue the game with the following Step (after the »green Step« you play the »yellow Step«, after the »yellow Step« you play the »red Step«. After finishing the »red Step« you finally fight against the pirates).
At the beginning of a new Step shuffle the hazard discard pile and continue again with action 1.
At the end of a Step, if there is only exactly one card left in the hazard pile, you draw this card and can decide if you want to fight against this card in the actual Step. Instead of fighting you can decide to discard this card without fighting it and continue with the next Step (similar to an empty hazard pile).
No more fighting cards in the Robinson stack
During the whole game, the following rules are active:
If you need or want to draw one or more fighting cards from the Robinson stack, but there are not enough cards left to draw, you draw the remaining cards until the stack is depleted. Afterwards you must take the topmost face-down aging card from the aging stack and shuffle it into the fighting cards (Do not look at the aging card!). Place all cards back on the storage board as the new Robinson stack and draw the missing cards.
You only shuffle the Robinson discard pile, if you need to draw another fighting card (not already at the time, when you draw the last remaining card of the Robinson stack).
The final showdown against the pirates
After you finish the hazard stack a third time, you fight against the two pirates. The remaining hazard cards in the hazard discard pile are not used anymore.
You choose one of the pirates, place him in front of Robinson and start the fight previously discussed on p. 4. The pirates act exactly like hazard cards. After you beat the first pirate, you place all drawn fighting cards on the Robinson discard pile and you must immediately fight against the other pirate.
You must win against the pirates! You cannot decide to lose and pay with life points. If your played Robinson cards do not have enough fighting points to beat the pirate, you must sacrifice life tokens to draw more Robinson cards.
Game End
After you beat the second pirate, you win the game.
If you need to pay a life token during the game and do not have any left you immediately lose the game. Having zero life points is OK, but if you need one more life token you lose the game!
A detailed example of a fight:
Robinson tries to beat »Wild Animals« during the green step of the game. He needs 4 fighting points to win the fight and get the knowledge card as a new fighting card.
After drawing the second free card, he already has 3 fighting points. But then he draws the aging card and reduces the total to 1 fighting point.
Robinson can make the following decisions:
1.The simple idea: First of all I draw the last of the 4 free cards (see white box of the hazard card).
2. The interesting Idea: Firstly I use the vision, look at the next 3 cards and sort them to get the most helpful card on top of the Robinson stack (I might discard the least helpful card, too). Secondly I draw this card for free and hopefully win the fight.
3. The tricky Idea: Firstly I use the vision, but place the worst card on top of the stack. Secondly I draw this card for free and with help of the strategy I exchange both the aging card and the worst card with the topmost 2 cards of the Robinson stack. I hopefully will win the fight afterwards.
4. A different Idea: I will again play the vision, again place the worst card (for this idea it hopefully has 0 fighting points) on top of the stack and draw it for free. Afterwards I deliberately lose the fight. At the moment this costs 3 life points: 4 (the hazard value of the wild animals) - 1 (sum of all my fighting values: 0+3-2=+1). I can use these 3 life points to destroy both the aging card (for 2 life points) and the worst card (most likely 1 life point) to get rid of them for the whole game. Of course this means that I will not win the wild animals as a new knowledge card with the 3 fighting points and the special ability »1x destroy«!
5. The risky Idea: I try to win and to destroy the aging card at the same time. Of course I cannot use the special ability of the wild animals, as I still fight against that hazard. But I might have another fighting card in my Robinson stack, which I can use to destroy the aging card. Firstly I draw the fourth card for free. Secondly I use the vision to look at the next 1, 2 or 3 cards of the Robinson stack. If I find the necessary card, I sacrifice 1 life point to draw the card and place it to the right of the hazard card.
If this plan fails I still have the special ability »2x exchange« of the strategy as my plan B. There are many more possibilities for Robinson, to fight against this hazard. Your best decisions in this example might also depend on the number of remaining life points, which fighting cards you already have in your Robinson stack...
Your big challenge is to find the best plan in this solo-adventure!
Now you are ready to play your first game. You can read about the special abilities of the fighting cards, when they show up the first time during a fight. Just ignore the special abilities of the pirates until you meet them.
Special abilities of the fighting cards
Starting and knowledge cards
During a fight you can use the special abilities of all drawn fighting cards in any order you like. When you activate a special ability, you must finish it before you can use the special ability of another card. +1 life: You can take 1 life point from the reserve and add it to Robinson‘s storage (Max. 22 life points).
+2 life: You can take up to 2 life tokens from the reserve and add them to Robinson‘s storage (Max. 22 life points).
+1 card: You can draw 1 additional fighting card for free (place it on the right side of the hazard card).
+2 cards: You can draw up to 2 additional fighting cards for free (place them on the right side of the hazard card).
1x destroy: Not all fighting cards in the Robinson stack are helpful for you.With this special ability you turn 1 of the other drawn fighting cards face-down. The abilities of this card are canceled for the actual fight, but the card still counts as a fighting card and has a fighting value of 0. This card cannot be removed anymore by another special ability! After the end of the fight you destroy this face-down card and remove it from the game.
1x double: You can double the fighting value of 1 of the other drawn fighting cards. You can only double a single fighting value once per fight. If you have multiple copies of this ability, you must use them on different fighting cards, this ability is not cumulative! This ability is only activated at the end of the fight, when you compare your fighting value with the hazard value.
1x copy: You can copy the special ability of 1 of the other drawn fighting cards, to use it again. You can copy the same ability with several »copy« abilities.
step -1: If you fight against a hazard in the »yellow Step« or the »red Step«, you can reduce the hazard value by one Step (e.g. if you fight against a »yellow Step« hazard, you now check the green hazard value instead of the yellow one). This action is only activated at the end of the fight, when you compare your fighting value with the hazard value. This special ability is useless against »green Step« hazards and pirates.
sort 3 cards: You can draw up to 3 cards one after the other from the Robinson stack and look at them. Afterwards you can discard up to 1 of these cards on the Robinson discard pile and place the remaining cards face-down back on the Robinson stack in the order you choose.
1x exchange: You place 1 of the other drawn face-up fighting cards on the Robinson discard pile (you can choose one card you already used for the special ability) and draw a new card as replacement. Place it on the same spot of the discarded card. If the new card has a special ability, you can use it now or later during the fight.
2x exchange: You can exchange up to 2 of the other drawn cards. You must finish the first exchange before starting the second exchange. You can directly exchange the newly drawn card during the second time (of course if you do this, you cannot use the special ability of this exchanged card).
1x below the stack: You place 1 of the other drawn drawn fighting cards back below the Robinson stack. If you choose one of the free cards from the left side of the hazard card, you can draw an exchange card. The Robinson stack must consist of at least 1 single card to use this special ability. If the Robinson stack is empty, shuffle the Robinson discard pile (see »No more cards in the Robinson stack« on page 7).
Aging cards
You must use the special abilities of the aging cards during the fight against a hazard card! If you destroy or remove one of these cards with help of another special ability, the special ability is canceled (this is the same while fighting against pirates).
-1 life: At the end of the fight you must pay 1 (additional) life point to the reserve, even if you win the fight. You cannot use this life point to destroy one of the drawn fighting cards!
-2 life: At the end of the fight you must pay 2 (additional) life points to the reserve, even if you win the fight. You cannot use these life points to destroy one (or more) of the drawn fighting cards! highest card = 0: When checking for the result of the fight, the highest unchanged positive fighting value of one of your drawn fighting cards counts as 0 fighting points. If you have several cards with the equally highest fighting value, only one card is affected.
stop: This card stops your drawing of free cards. If you must place this card on the left side of the hazard card, you immediately must stop drawing free cards, even if you did not get all the allowed free cards. If you place this card as one of the additional cards on the right side of the hazard card, this card only has a fighting value of 0. If you destroy or remove this card during the fight, you might be able to continue to draw free cards, as long as you still get free cards
Pirate cards
Five normal pirate cards only show the hazard value and the number of free cards , you can draw during the fight against these pirates. Five additional pirates also have special abilities, where these instructions may vary.
- Each additional fighting card costs 2 life points: After drawing all the free fighting cards, you must pay 2 life points for each additional fighting card against this pirate (instead of the usual 1 life point for each card). If you only have 1 life point left and still must draw cards, you place this life point back into the reserve and lose the game.
- Only half of the fighting cards count (aging cards must be part of this): You can only use the fighting points of half of the drawn fighting cards. You must use all drawn aging cards, they block one of the rare places. If you have an odd number of cards, you can round up in your favor.
- Each drawn fighting card counts +1 fighting point: At the end of the fight you add 1 fighting point for all drawn fighting cards (starting cards, aging cards, knowledge cards and via special actions turned cards) to your total.
- Fight against all remaining hazard cards: Add up all red hazard points of the remaining undefeated hazard cards (»red Step«) in the hazard discard pile for the hazard value of this pirate. Add up all values in the white boxes for the number of free fighting cards you can draw for this fight. (At the game end all these hazard cards still count -3 points when you determine your score!)
- +2 hazard points for each aging card added to your Robinson stack: Count the number of aging cards you needed to add to your Robinson stack during the game, before you start fighting against this pirate. Each of these cards adds +2 hazard points for the hazard value of this pirate. You can count the remaining aging cards on the aging storage board (you start with 10 cards on this board, 11 cards in level 3 and 4 - see below).
If you easily beat all the hazards...
The game offers you different difficulty levels. You can try to fight the growing challenges, until you finally win the game in the highest level! You need to make the following changes in Preparations:
Level 1 (as written in these rules): The aging card »Very Stupid« is removed from the game. Start with 18 Robinson starting cards and 20 life points plus 2 more life points in the reserve.
Level 2: Like Level 1. In addition you draw a face-down aging card and shuffle it together with the 18 Robinson starting cards (do not look at the aging card!).
Level 3:Like Level 2. Before performing all the steps above, shuffle the »Very Stupid« card together with the other aging cards.
Level 4:Like Level 3. Start with only 18 life points plus 2 life points in the reserve. This is the real game!
Scoring
After each game you can calculate your victory points. Will you get better with more experience?
1. Take all your fighting cards (together with your Robinson discard pile) and add all the fighting values. All aging cards have a value of -5 regardless of their real fighting points for this purpose.
2. Add 15 points for each defeated pirate card (undefeated pirates are ignored).
3. Add 5 points for each remaining life point you still have in Robinson‘s storage (you only have them if you win the game).
4. Subtract 3 points for each unbeaten hazard card still in the hazard discard pile. When calculating the scores you can compare your different games and successes in each Level. The higher the level, the more difficult it will be for you to get a high score.
... the things you always wanted to know:
During the whole game you always are allowed:
... to look through both discard piles (Robinson and hazard discard pile).
... to count the number of cards in all three draw stacks (Robinson, hazard and aging stack).
... to look at the destroyed cards.
This game is not a memory game, so you can access all open information.
The fighting points and special abilities of the Robinson starting cards and aging cards:
Robinson starting cards: 1x »2«, 3x »1«, 8x »0«, 5x »-1« und 1x »0 (+2 life)«
Normal aging cards: 1x »-1«, 2x »-2«, 1x »-3«, 2x »0 (highest card=0)«, 1x »0 (-1 life)«, 1x »0 (stop)«
Difficult aging cards: 1x »-4«, 1x »-5«, 1x »0 (-2 life)«