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M.U.L.E. is about the bestest game evar, blah blah.
This game is not an accurate re-creation, but rather blah blah blah
The object of the game is to achieve the highest net worth for yourself, and the highest possible population for the planet, and your mom, blah blah blah
This game is part of the Mule Goes Crazy! project, which is a tribute in art and game design to this piece of computing history. For more information go to http://mulegoescrazy.org/
To play this game, you need:
Pencil and paper are also used to keep track of the last prices of each resource.
Players sit around a table, with enough space in front of each of them to lay out the cards they have in play.
After shuffling the deck, each player is dealt six cards and assigned 1000 Credits, 10 energy, and 5 Food.
The Store starts with 50 energy, 50 Food, 0 Smithore, and 0 Crystite. The Store has unlimited Credits.
The remaining cards are placed in the Draw pile.
Start by deciding who is the favored player. Be fair and choose the one with the least experience or the worst luck with the game, or be cruel and arbitrary and use coin flips or dice or something.
In subsequent turns, the player with the least amount of Credits is selected.
Before regular gameplay begins, each player may select one Land card from their hand and lay it down in front of them. Any player not holding a Land card during the Land Grant Phase is assed out.
One card is turned over from the Draw pile. If it is a Land card, the Land Auction begins.
If this is the first Land Auction, the opening bid is 200 Credits. Otherwise, if the previous Land auction was successful, use its closing bid minus 50 Credits; if it was not successful, use its opening bid minus 200 Credits. No opening bid may go below 0 Credits.
Start with the favored player, who may bid any amount starting at the opening bid, and move clockwise around the table (to each player's left hand side). Each player in turn may bid any amount higher than the current high bid. When no one else bids any higher, that player places the Land card in front of them as their own. If no players bid on a Land, the Land Auction phase is over.
If a Land Auction ends with a sucessful bid, the next card from the Draw pile is turned over and the process starts again until a non-Land card appears or a Land does not receive a bid. Remember the value from the last auction's closing bid (or opening
Any non-Land card turned over in the Land Auction phase is placed in the Discard pile.
The last player is the one with the most advantage, so start with the player on the favored player's left. The order for each player's turn is:
Draw cards from the Draw pile until the player has six cards in their hand.
Remember some cards have special rules printed on them that affect whether and how they may be played. Those rules take precedence over the ones printed in the instructions.
Here are some card types:
Mules are purchased from the Store, who manufactures them using Smithore. If the Store begins a turn with zero of either of these two resources, they cost more Credits.
A Mule's cost entry looks like:
Cost: 5 Smithore, 5 Crystite, 100 (200) Credits.
The number in parenthesis (200) is the cost if the Store is short on necessary resources.
When playing a Mule card, subtract its cost in Credits from your account, and its cost in Smithore from the Store. Place it in front of you, but not attached to a Land card.
If the Store ends up with 0 or less Smithore, leave it at 0. The additional cost for Mules will not take place until the next turn.
Interrupt cards may be played at any time, even during another player's turn.
Some interrupts have a cost required to invoke, and some are free.
Further instructions and effects are printed on the card.
Event cards may only be played during your turn. Some events only affect one player of your choosing, while others affect all of them. Only one Event card may be played per player per turn.
Events often have more severe effects than Interrupts.
These cards are special types of Events that affect every player.
The game's global score is based on Population cards. When one of these cards is played, it represents a direct increase in the number of colonists by [n] people. A Population card has a per-turn cost in Food and Energy, which are taken from the stock in the Store. If a Population card cannot be maintained, it is removed from play and sent to the Discard pile.
When a Facility card is played, it has a per-turn cost for a set number of turns, after which a Population card becomes assigned to it. A Facility has a global effect every turn that it remains in play. Any Facility that has lost its Population card at the end of the turn falls into disrepair and is sent to the Discard pile.
Population cards may be moved at any time, but this requires a majority vote among the players.
Upgrades may be played to a Land card or a Mule card, and usually affect their production. Spend the resources or Credits necessary, and place the upgrade on the Mule or Land it affects. Each Land and Mule may only have one upgrade. Any upgrade can be discarded during this phase by simply placing it in the discard pile. Upgrades otherwise stay in place until some other card expresly removes it.
After playing out cards, a player may place any of the remaining cards in their hand into the Discard pile, at their option.
In order to be useful, a Mule must be moved to a Land.
Each Mule has a moving cost printed on its card. To move a Mule, subtract that amount of resources from those you have (if you don't have those resources, you may not move the Mule). Place the Mule directly below the Land card to which it will attend.
Mules that are not assigned to a Land do not run away.
When finished, play passes to the next person.
Each Mule consumes a certain amount of energy. If the total amount of energy needed is not available, some or all Mules will have to be under-powered.
Only the Mule with the highest power consumption may be under-powered. If there is a tie, the player may select from among the highest. Continue under-powering Mules until there is enough energy to power the remaining Mules.
To under-power a Mule, flip its card over. When it comes to the production phase, any dice its Land would have contributed to output are automatically set to 1s, so a Land that would normally provide 3 dice of Energy will produce exactly 3 Energy when under-powered.
Each Land dictates how many dice it contributes to resource output. For each Land that is tended by a Mule, roll the corresponding number of dice for that Mule's resource, including any bonuses or upgrades, and add them to the total output for that resource.
Remember that under-powered Mules force all of their dice to a result of 1, and any Land without a Mule produces no resources.
If a player's Food level is above 10, subtract 5 from it.
If a player's Energy level is above 20, divide it by 2.