5 minute guide to Gremlins, Inc.

A set of rules for Gremlins, Inc., based on the tutorial by Chewie and Monika D.

The Basics

Hi there. Welcome you to our little gremlin town of big capitalistic troubles.

What do you do in Gremlins, Inc.™?

The goal of the game is to win by earning the highest score.

Your current score is shown inside the gear element on the avatar.






To earn score points, you must play cards.

On the cards, score points are indicated with a gear symbol:











To play a card, you must stop on the specific spot that this card requires.

That spot is shown in the lower left corner of each card.







Some cards can be played for free, while others require that you pay a certain amount of resources in order to play them (most often, this is money – ).

The price of the card (if any) is shown in the top right corner of the card. If the amount is crossed out – this means that you currently don’t have enough resources to play this card.

What about the money?

To earn money, you can pass through the Income spot, where you will get income - .





Another way to earn some money is to play a card that gives you money.

Just go around and click on everything with a plus on it, basically.

Moving around

The key to victory is to know where to go and when to do it.

On the playing field, there are three types of spots:

Regular spots
These have round icons.


Spots that affect players when they pass through
These are also round, but with a special symbol in their lower right corner.


Locations
These have the icons shaped like a small house, each of these spots is unique.

Note that you can stop in any location even when you’re passing through, i.e. if the location is one spot away from you and you’re playing a card with three move points – you’re still able to stop there.

At the beginning of your turn, all the spots where you can move to are highlighted.

When you hover over any card in your hand, the spots that you can move to using this specific card become marked out.


Each card has a value of how many spots you can move through, using this card for movement. We call this value “move points”. The indicator of move points is located in the upper left corner of each card.

Important! You can use each card either to move or to play for action, but not for both at the same time.

If you intend to play a certain card for action, make sure that you don’t spend it on moving around.

To move around the playing field:

1) click on the spot that you wish to move to;

2) click on the card you wish to use for the move.

(or the opposite).

You can move around the playing field according to the arrows that indicate the direction. Most are one-way, though some allow to move in both directions.









Some cards have only the move points shown in their upper left corners, and some have an additional symbol next to those – reflecting the special move rule of that card. Hover over the symbol of the special move rule on the card to read the specific rule.


In the lower left corner of each card you will find the icon of the spot where you can play this particular card. In the game, hover over a card to have a special icon appear next to the spots where you can play this card.

When you land on a spot, you can:

1) Play one card (from those that can be played on this specific spot). To play another card on the same spot, you will have to visit this spot one more time.

2) Use the special mechanics of the spot. You can read more about them in the Spots or Locations sections later on.

Player avatar

Each player in the game is represented by a player avatar that shows character portrait, player name and resource values.







On the playing field, players are represented by player tokens.





Your avatar is always shown at the top, followed by the avatars of other players in the same sequence in which they take turns.

You can spot the player that is currently taking the turn by their animated player token, and by an animated element on their player avatar.

Pluses make the world go round

Your income is the amount of money you gain when you pass through the Income spot (when you stop on this spot, you gain double income). When we talk about income in the game, we use this symbol: .




You can increase your income in the Bank.
Additionally, your income may change due to certain cards and Misfortunes.

Bribes and consequences

A bribe is the amount of money that you must pay when you pass the Bribe spot (when you stop on this spot, you pay double).





When we talk about bribes in the game, we use this symbol: .

Your bribe is equal to 20 money () + the value of your malice (this icon ).

For example, if you have 10, then your bribe is 30.


Whenever you stop on the Police spot, you must either roll the dice – or pay bribe sign to avoid the risk of getting arrested.

Who's who at a glance

Player avatars display the values of the resources that each player currently has.

Right next to these values are the indicators that reflect the special status of their owners.


this indicator designates the player who currently has the most money

this indicator designates the player who currently has the least money

this indicator designates the player who currently has the most malice

this indicator designates the player who will win the Elections if they were to happen right now



The currently leading player in the session has a green frame around their score indicator.




When the session is set up until a certain score value (e.g. until 20), the progress of each player is reflected through the progress bar on their score indicators.




This symbol designates the player who has an extra turn coming.



This symbol designates the player who will skip their next turn.



A player currently in the Jail has jail bars and a lock over their avatar. The number on the lock corresponds to the number of the turns that the player must spend in the Jail.

It's bad to be bad

Malice is a resource that you get whenever you do something malicious, e.g. arrest another player.

When we talk about malice in the game, we use this symbol: .



Malice is the only resource in the game that negatively affects its owners:

- with each malice icon point your bribe increases by +1;
- there’s quite a few cards in the deck that punish the player with the highest malice;
- the lower the malice, the higher the chance of winning the Elections – since the player with the least malice gets 3 extra votes ().

Let's talk Emotions

Emotions are used to communicate with other players, and to do so, you can simply click on the icons next to your resources, and instantly feel.







First icon will open a set of animated Emotions, each of them can also be summoned by using NumPad 1-6.








If you're into text, you can pick the second icon to see a list of messages, indicating various situations and what you'd like to share with fellow gremlins.

The Cards

Regular cards

When you play a card that doesn’t have any special rules, you pay its price (unless it’s free) and you gain the resources indicated in the lower part of the card.



Many cards have special rules that offer unique mechanics for each card. To spot the cards with the special rules, look for the cards bearing a gear symbol on the top.

Hover over this symbol, and the description of the specific special rule shows up. Click on this symbol to keep the description open at all times.





To turn on the description of the special rules on all the cards on the screen at the same time, press the “i” button on the interface panel.

Permanent cards

Take a look at this indicator, shown next to the player avatar.



This means that this particular player has an active permanent card right now. Click on the indicator to see the specific card. The symbol that we display on permanent cards is similar to the symbol that we display on the cards that have special rules, except that it has a bit of green color in the middle.

When you play a permanent card, it’s not discarded but rather remains active, and affects the game – until one of your opponents snatches it away from you (if they can!).

Secret/Criminal Cards

Some cards and Misfortunes allow you to look at the hands of your opponents. Normally, with this you’re trying to spot either secret or criminal cards.

Secret cards have their names written on the gray background. When an opponent spots such card in your hand, it is immediately discarded.

Criminal cards have their names written on the red background. When an opponent spots such card in your hand, it is immediately discarded – plus you are arrested!

Drawing cards

All the cards in the game come from the same deck that is used by all the players in the session. Once you play or discard a card, you get a new card from the deck. Most of the cards are unique (i.e. there’s only one such card in the deck), however certain cards have multiples. When the deck is depleted, all the previously discarded cards are reshuffled to get the new deck.


Right-clicking on any card in the game opens an information window with the detailed description of that card.

You can learn about all the cards in the game by browsing through them.







You can also access this description of the cards from the Main Menu.

Chaos Cards

Chaos Cards are an extra feature of the game that players can play with, or without. When playing with the Chaos Cards allowed, you get six special cards in addition to all the regular cards. These cards are available to every player in the session, and from the start.

Chaos Mode in game session settings sets the goal of that session to play all 6 Chaos Cards to end the game. It's very lengthy.

To access Chaos Cards, click on the tab next to your hand.


Note that Chaos Cards cannot be used to move around, they can only be played for action.

Once a Chaos Card is played by someone, it is discarded and becomes unavailable to everyone in this session.

Events

Player Conflict

When you choose where to move to on the playing field, you will see an indicator displayed over another player’s token, if you’re considering to move to the same spot (except for locations: these can house any number of players).

If you move to that spot – which another player already occupies – you will initiate a Player Conflict.




During the Conflict, each player bets a certain amount of money icon (in secret from the other). The one who bids the most, wins and pays that amount to the bank while the other player doesn’t pay anything and is arrested.

Jail Events

At the start of each turn that you spend in the Jail, you must choose your behavior.


If you choose bad behavior, you have a chance to earn resources as well as to speed up the increase in your Jail rank. However, you also face a higher chance of gaining malice and having to spend an extra turn in the Jail.



If you choose good behavior, you run a higher chance of shortening your sentence. However, you may lose some of your jail experience.




If you choose neutral behavior, any of the events from the other lines of behavior may happen. At the same time, there’s a slightly higher chance of receiving an amnesty.



At every turn spent in Jail, you get to choose a Jail event that will happen to you.

You can choose the first event that’s being offered, or skip it to get to the next one (note that you won’t be able to return to the one that you skipped).

Every turn that you spend in the Jail, you earn Jail experience: .




When you collect enough , your Jail rank increases.


As your Jail rank increases, you get access to more profitable Jail events. You are also able to skip more Jail events in one turn. Upon reaching the highest Jail rank in the game, you start to earn gear symbol simply for spending time in the Jail!

Press this button in the menu pannel in the game to access the Jail statistics for all the current players.

Elections

Elections happen every 20 rounds, unless forced by a misfortune/card.

This handy indicator shows how many rounds are left until the next scheduled Elections begin.

The player with the highest number of votes wins the Elections, earns the title of the Governor and receives a prize of 1.

Votes are of one the essential game resources, they are indicated by this symbol: .

In a few cases, you may need votes in order to pay for certain cards with special rules. However, generally you need votes icon to win the Elections.


As soon as the Elections kick off, the player with the least malice icon gets 3 as a bonus (if there are several such players, they all get such bonus).

The player with the most votes icon wins the Elections (if there are several such players, the winner is determined by random).


The player that wins the Elections becomes the Governor and receives a prize of 1.

When the Elections wrap, the number of votes icon that every player has is halved (by rounding it down: e.g. if you had 5 votes, you will end up with 2 votes).

As the Governor, you never pay any bribes: neither on the spots, nor due to any cards played by your opponents.

As the Governor, you are also untouchable for the police: you can stop on the Police spots without having to pay the bribes or roll the dice.

Finally, as the Governor, you can grab any bribes paid by the other players (however, you get malice icon1 for each bribe that you take – but who cares, right?).


The bribes that the Governor can grab are shown at the top of the screen. The bribes that the Governor did not grab by the time of their next turn, disappear.

Telegrams of Misfortune

Misfortunes are the special kind of (rather unfortunate) events. They happen most often when you pass through (or stop on) the Misfortune spot.


There’s also a chance to get a Misfortune as a result of the dice roll on the Risk spot, as well as on the Gamble spot. Finally, Misfortunes also happen due to certain cards being played by the opponents, as well as due to certain Jail events.

There is a total of 30 different Misfortunes in the game. All of them are unique. Once a particular Misfortune happens, it is discarded from the Misfortune deck. When a player has the choice between two Misfortunes, both are discarded (the chosen and the other one).





The more Misfortunes are discarded, the fewer remain in the deck, and a specific Misfortune that just happened can happen again only when the deck is reshuffled. Once all 30 Misfortunes have been discarded, the Misfortune deck is reshuffled and all the 30 Misfortunes become available again.

Each of the 30 Misfortunes has its own unique post stamp. The color and the shape of the stamp reflects the type of Misfortune. For example, the most dangerous Misfortunes have red stamps, and the least dangerous – green. Misfortunes that are connected to moving around the playing field have high stamps while Misfortunes that affect all the players in the session have wide stamps, and so on.


To know how many Telegrams of Misfortune and card in the deck are left, direct your eye vision to a helpful counter near cards in your hand. First one shows how many misfortunes are left, the other one is for, hm, cards.

Spots

Spots that work when passing through

On passing: Get your income income sign.
On stopping: Get double your income income sign.



On passing: Pay a bribe bribe sign.
On stopping: Pay double your bribe bribe sign. If you can’t pay bribe sign in full, pay whatever you can and get +1 for each incomplete .


On passing: Get a random misfortune.
On stopping: Choose a player who will pick from two Telegrams of Misfortune the one that will happen to you.

Regular spots

On stopping: Roll the dice. If you roll 1, get a Misfortune. You can buy insurance for 40. (If you have insurance and you roll 1, the Misfortune happens not to you but to the player of your choice).


On stopping: Pay a bribe bribe sign or roll the dice. If you roll 1, you are arrested. (does not apply if you’re the Governor).



On stopping: If you want, you may bet and roll the dice for the chance to get votes ().
The more you bet, the higher the chance of winning.



On stopping: You may roll the dice to try your luck.

1 = Misfortune; 2 = -50; 3 = -1 +1; 4 = +50; 5 = +2; 6 = +100.

Locations

Locations are the key part of the playing field.

Each has a unique set of game mechanics designed to help players rise to the top (while shoving the others off the road to success).

The Inferno

Change all your cards.

Get 100, 1.

The Casino

You may roll the dice to gamble
(note: you cannot win more money icon than you currently have).

1 = -100 | 4 = +25
2 = -50 | 5 = +50
3 = -25 | 6 = +100

The Court

If you want, you may pay 40 to steal 1 from the player of your choice.

The Treasure

Roll the dice to dig for treasure here.

1 = +10 | 4 = +100
2 = +25 | 5 = +150
3 = +50 | 6 = +200

The Bank

You may invest 50 to increase your by 10.

The Astral Plane

If you want, you may skip you turn here: lose 2 and get 3 new cards, 1 of which you may swap for any of your own.

The Office

If you want, you may sell 1 for 100 here.

The Plant

You may skip one turn here to get 50.
(You cannot skip several turns in a row)

The Dump

You may roll the dice to dig through the junk. ​If you are the poorest player at the moment, get +40 in addition to any results of the roll.

1 = -1 | 4 = +10
2 = nothing | 5 = +20
3 = nothing | 6 = +30

The Marketplace

You may sell 1 for 200 here.

The Jail

On being arrested – roll the dice to see how many turns you will serve. On every jail turn – get to pick up a jail card to play, then exchange it for another one once. The more turns you serve – the more your Jail Rank rises.

1 = 4 turns, +1 | 3 = 3 turns | 5 = 2 turns
2 = 4 turns, +1 | 4 = 3 turns | 6 = 2 turns

Credits

All of the development team worked on every aspect of the game at one point or another, but I'd like to thank our Game Designer (Alex) for, hm, actually making the game this tutorial is for, Andrew for bending Unity left and right to make stuff appear working, Sergei for trying to herd the whole thing, Paul for re-writing our server code one week prior to launch, and Monika for laying out the web-version of this tutorial, which I stole and will forever be credited for.

Updates to follow

[Hotklou]

And the thing about the bank. You won't necessarily pay 50 money. You pay your Current Income + 10, and then it increases by 10.
For instance, you have 42 income.To increase, you have to pay 52 money to increase it by 10. Then your income will be 52.

[Hotklou]

Found out something interesting. If a player is currently serving a jail sentence and he for some reason gets arrested again, he will increase the duration of his jail sentence by whatever the dice roll indicates. It stacks X-D

[killomey]

Muy buena guía

[DATTHOTUS]

AYUDA! Puse una pantalla de un gremlincs y solo suena musica y no se como quitarla Ayuda por favor

[Don Vincenzoo 57]

thanks

[Wishseeker]

I played and The Bank wanted me just 20 G...

[JaXoM]

Nice job

[Mindy]

Detailed and helpful! Thank you

[mrsinx]

je suis en amour avec se jeux,
j'ai meme une idee pour les consepteurs du jeux si sa les interaisse.

[Rolaran]

Leadhyena, it depends on the game type. Sometimes you're playing until someone reaches a certain score of gear points, sometimes you're playing a certain number of turns or amount of time. There's an indicator at the top center of the screen that tells you what type of game it is, and how many gear points you need to have or how long until a winner is declared.