The black rat Players : 2 - 5

Age : 10 and up
Duration : 45 minutes.

Game design : Fréderic Moyersoen

GAME IDEA OBJECTIVE

We are in the 15th century and Europe is affected by the The objective of the game is to have the most victory points.
most terrifying outbreak of the plague, also called the Players earn points during the game by leaving the city, and
“Black Death”. at the end of the game by occupying zones. Some zones
In this game, you are leading a colony of rats - those pretty yield more points than others.
rodents which helped spreading the disease (flea were the
main cause). You try to survive the plague by avoiding in-
fected zones. Can you manage occupying the most interest- SET-UP OF THE GAME
ing food zones?  Each player takes all pieces of one colour (except black)
and places one piece on the “Start” box of the “Points”
track (as a Victory counter).
 Group the black pieces together in a pool next to the
Game components game-board.
 Mix the Food/Plague counters on the table with the Food
side concealed. Place one counter on each zone, then flip
 Game-board the counters over to their Food side.
 Rules of play  Shuffle the Action cards. Pile them in a facedown Draw
 100 Action cards stack.
 65 playing pieces  Draw 4 cards from the top of the Draw stack and place
(5x10 in each colour + 15 black) them face-up in a row in front of the stack.
 Finally, each player draws 6 cards from the Draw stack
as hand cards. Keep these cards secret for the other play-
ers.
Sick rat Important : You may not keep any “Black Rat”
 18 Food/Plague counters
card in your hand. In this case, shuffle the card
Recto Verso back in the Draw stack. Then, draw a replace-
ment card.

Draw stack Discard stack

Set-up of the game Pool of sick rats

One Food One rat per

counter per player on
zone start box. 4 Face-
up cards

Rats of one player

6 cards
per player
Version : 9.3
 Page 2 THE BLACK RAT

BASIC CONCEPTS
 The black pieces represent sick rats. The other piec-
es represent healthy rats.
 The Food counters represent the type of
food in a zone: cheese, fish or corn. Play-
ers can place new rats of their colour in
one of these zones.
 The other side of the counters shows a “Plague” BLACK RAT
zone. These zones are in quarantine. Players may When revealing a “Black rat” card, sick or healthy rats may
not add new rats, nor move rats into or out of a die. As this card may never be kept as a hand card, its effect
“Plague” zone. is triggered randomly when drawn.
 The map shows a city with a citadel Check for elimination in all Plague zones. Remove all sick
(white border), an inner city (yellow bor- rats from the zones where no healthy rats are present.
der) and the outskirts (green border). The
rats can move from one city quarter to Gate Exit For zones which contain sick and healthy rats, use the fol-
another by using the gates. They can also lowing procedure :
leave the city through the exit areas. The gates and exit
areas are indicated by triangles.  Place all rats (sick + healthy rats) from one zone in your
 Each Food zone yields a different number hand, shake it and ask the player at your left to draw one
of points. The space outside the city yields rat without looking.
also points.  The selected rat is removed from play.
Removed rats are placed back in their corresponding
SEQUENCE OF PLAY pools: either in front of a player, either in the black pool.
One player, selected randomly, starts the game. The game is
played in turns and continues in clockwise order.  Repeat this procedure for each sick rat, which was pre-
sent in the zone.
Initial Set-up Example : If 2 sick rats were present in a zone, select
One by one, players will place one rat in a zone of their randomly two rats.
choice. Continue taking rounds until each player has
placed 5 rats on the board. Finally, each player adds
one Sick rat in any zone on the game-board. Important:
each Sick rat must be played in a different zone. The corre-
sponding Plague counter is flipped to its Plague side.
Situation before elimination
Game sequence
From now on, starting with the next player, the game con- One Plague
tinues in the following way : zone with a
Each turn, a player plays a card from his hand, applies blue, red and
the effect of it and draws a replacement sick rat.
card.
When drawing a replacement card,
draw either one from the top of the
Draw stack or one from of the 4 dis-
played face-up cards. After selecting a
5 Choices to draw a
Effect
face-up card, draw a new card from the replacement card
Draw stack and fill the empty space in
order to have again 4 displayed cards. Select a rat randomly
Played cards are stacked on a face-up Discard stack. and remove it from
play.
CARDS If there is no sick rat
The cards propose a number of actions : in the zone anymore,
flip the Plague coun-
 Add a rat in a zone : New rat & Intrusion ter over.
 Move rats : Moving, Running & Attraction
 Infect a zone : New case & Breakout If there remains a
 Eliminate rats : Black rat sick rat in the zone,
 Cleanse a zone : Cleaning & Danger do not flip the Plague
counter over.
 Heal a rat : Healing
A full explanation of each card is provided on the last page
of these rules.
Version : 9.3
 Pagina 3 THE BLACK RAT

 Place the remaining rats back in their zone.

FINAL COUNTING
 Check the status of the zone : Zones with sick rats re- When you pass or when the game is finished, each rat, which
main Plague zones, while zones without sick rats be- is present in a Food zone, yields victory points.
come Food zones. Flip the Food/Plague counter to its
right side. Apply the following modifiers:
 Outskirts x2
Examples: When a single sick rat is discarded from a  Inner city x4
zone, the zone becomes a Food zone again. When a
sick rat remains in a Food zone, that zone remains a  Citadel x5
Plague zone. Example: You have 2 rats in the outskirts (2x2=4), 3 in the
inner city (3x4=12) and 1 in the citadel (1x5=5). Your total is
Status of zones 4+12+5=21.

Food zones = Adjust the victory counter according to the earned victory
zones without sick rats points. When the counter passes beyond 30, continue at 1 and
place an extra counter as a reminder at 30 points.
Plague zones =
The player with the highest total wins the game. In case of
zones with sick rat(s)
ties, the player with the most rats still on the game board
wins.
Flip counter when status changes.
Important note: Rats in Plague zones do not yield any point.
LEAVING THE CITY
Rats can move out of the city by passing the exit areas (red
Tactical hints
triangles). Six zones (1 in the Inner city and 5 in the outskirts) The game has 2 phases. In the beginning, rats try to leave the
allow moving out of the city. city. During the game, players shift sooner or later to another
tactic as it becomes more interesting to remain in the city.
Each rat, which is moving out of the city, yields immediately
3 victory points. Adjust the victory counter on the track, ac- In the first case, it is possible to gain quickly and definitively
cording to the earned points. some victory points, which is more hypothetical when remain-
ing in the city till the end.
Example: When one rat leaves the city, add 3 points to your
score. When two rats leave the city, add 6 points to your score The most rewarding tactic is to leave the city with a large
(2x3). group of rats instead of one by one. Of course, opponents will
prevent any concentration of rats by spreading the infection
After scoring points, place the escaped rats back in their towards these zones.
pools.
Players will need to find a balance between concentrating (to
optimise movements) and dispersing their rats (to remain un-
affected by the plague).
RAT LIMITS Towards the end of the game, players try to concentrate their
Should all 9 rats of a player stay in zones of the city, the play- rats in and around the citadel. Especially in the very last
er can only add a new rat by displacing a rat from another turns, players fight out a fierce struggle to occupy the best
zone (e.g. a Plague zone). zones. Keeping some tricky cards for the endgame is therefore
Similarly, should all 15 sick rats stay in zones of the city, new essential.
zones can only be infected by displacing sick rats from other
zones (e.g. a zone where your rats are present). Credits : To draw the game-board, I’ve downloaded some
screenshots from the PC-game “Robin Hood” (Spellbound
Studios) and customized the pictures. The rats are original
END OF PL AY artwork, drawn by myself
After a while, the Draw stack will be depleted. ***
From now on, instead of playing a hand card, you may also
pass. You score immediately all the points that your remain-
ing rats yield at this particular moment (see final counting).
Then, all your remaining hand cards are discarded and all
your rats are removed from the city.
You have finished the game and can not win nor lose any
point anymore.
The game continues in this way until all players have passed Any question or suggestion ?
or all hand cards are played. Post a thread in one of the forums on
Board Game Geek and I will answer it.

Version : 9.3
 Explanation of cards
Add an extra rat of your colour Add one (or 2) sick rat(s) in a
New rat in a zone, as indicated by the New case zone, as indicated by the card
card. (cheese, corn or fish) :

Example: You play a “New rat” Flip Food counter to Plague

card with a Cheese symbol and side.
place one rat in a Cheese zone.
Place one sick rat in a
Place one rat of your “cheese” or “fish” zone.
colour in a “cheese” zone.
A zone may contain any Flip Food counter over.

colour and number of rats.

New rat New rat
You may not select a New case New case New cases
Plague zone, nor a zone
with another food type.

Add an extra rat of your col-

Intrusion our in any zone, which is indi- Select a zone, which is adjacent
cated on the card (cheese, Breakout (and accessible) to a sick rat.
corn or fish). You may select a Food or Plague
zone).
You may not select a Plague Add one (or 2)
Intrusion zone, nor a zone with another sick rat(s) in that
Breakout
food type. zone.
Place one rat of your colour
Flip Food counter
in one of the 3 zones. Place one sick rat in a zone,
adjacent to another sick rat.
to Plague side, if
Flip Food counter over. not done yet.

Select one zone. Move one or

Moving more rats (of your colour) from Show and apply this card
that zone to one adjacent (and immediately.
accessible) zone (or exit).
Check for elimination in all
You may not move from or to- Plague zones.
wards a Plague zone.
Running After this, flip the Plague counter
Running = move same group over in zones which are cleared of
Move one group of rats
from your colour.
twice (not mandatory). sick rats.

Move one rat of any colour to- Flip over one Plague counter to
Attraction wards one adjacent (and accessi- Cleaning its Food side.
ble) zone (or exit). You may look at the type of the
In opposition to moving/running, counter before flipping it over.
you MAY move from or towards a
Plague zone. All sick rats in that zone are
removed from the game-board.
If a sick rat is moved, flip over the
Move one rat
Plague counters to their right side.
of any colour. Flip over one Plague counter.
Remove all Sick rats.

Select a zone. All sick rats are Select a zone.

Danger removed from the game-board. Healing Exchange one sick rat for a
rat of your colour.
Move all other rats in that zone
away to one or more adjacent (and If the zone is cleared, flip
accessible) zones (or exits). over the Plague counter.
If there is no adjacent Food zone
available, remove all healthy rats
too.
Exchange one sick rat
Move all healthy rats away
for a rat of your colour.
from one zone. Sick rats die.

Version : 9.3