Until the World Ends Zombie Apocalypse

The game comes with 54 cards in a metal tin. A video on YouTube shows you how to play:

THIS IS A STANDALONE GAME, BUT IS ALSO AN EXPANSION OF THE UNTIL THE WORLD ENDS ORIGIN DECK available here: Until The World Ends Prototype 2

Included in the tin is a Z-fold instruction manual with examples.

You can pair this item with the Zombie Expansion for additional fun.

How to play

The point is for each player to build timelines to score in a round. Rounds are played and scores are kept and the ending round ends with one or more players above the agreed to winning score (start with 100, adjust to lengthen or shorten games), and the highest player past the minimum score to win is the overall winner. Timelines can be wiped out, shifted, and modified by other cards in the game. Players can attempt to "snipe" using special cards, or give bonuses to aid player scoring by playing cards that help the common good.

Setup

1) get a piece of paper and mark columns for each player's round score; this is similar to the game Rummy where a score of a 100 or more wins the game 2) choose a dealer 3) shuffle and deal each player three cards to the left. on the next round the new dealer is to the left of the previous dealer 4) Place undealt cards in the center of the table to create the draw pile 5) Starting Play: turn order begins one left of the dealer whenever a card is played it should be read aloud

Rules of a turn

a) during a turn a player may either draw a card or play a card, drawing a card does not allow you to then play a card you must just draw the card. b) no player may hold more than than five cards. (if they hold five cards then the player may not draw, and must play when it is their turn) c) if a player has chose to draw, and does not receive an instantaneous, then the player should announce "I drew" to prompt the next player; otherwise, if the player's draw results in an instantaneous card it must be placed face up on the discard pile next to the draw pile. note: if a player has been dealt an instantaneous card they get to choose when to play it

Card Types

Instantaneous: There are several types of cards in this game; the first type is called instantaneous and generally is played the instant it is drawn. it usually includes instructions as to what has transpired and at that moment everyone must do what the instructions say.

Timeline Event Cards: The next type of card is an event card and is placed in their individual players timeline. only event cards cards that are labeled things like like disaster or personal have a color code; those color codes determine what kind of card has been played that timeline goes from left to right in the order of the event that has occurred I.E in the order that the cards have been played by that player

Timelines: you may not play cards in another player's timeline however cards may tell you to remove players timeline cards from all players or from specific players relative to the player playing the card cards with a star and a number indicate the score

Common area cards (Good Things): another type of card is a common card; common cards have a white title like good things common cards are placed face up in the common area affecting all players if it is a common card it may say plus or minus a value which is factored into the final score for each player for each round the common area cards are bonus cards and sometimes penalty cards that are added to a player's score at the end of the round they can be wiped out by other cards like instantaneous

Escalation Cards: cards similar to Common cards are escalation cards which affect score by a multiplier usually escalation cards have a color code that color code helps indicate what kinds of timeline events are affected by that escalation card and some cards may affect only those of a certain color code however if a card is specific and says Cosmic disasters then that means only Cosmic disasters a type of disaster is affected escalation cards also appear in the common area but are a separate set of cards which are sometimes referred to specifically by other cards for example you may have to eliminate all of your escalation cards but leave all of your good things cards escalation cards affect all players

Round Ending Cards: finally there are ending cards ending cards end the round but can be challenged when two players or more challenge the end of a game a player may play an ending card from their hand but not if they draw it they must play it the next time it is their turn if a player plays an ending card another player may play an ending card to cancel out both endings leaving them both in the discard pile an ending card is played by placing it face up at the top of the discard pile and declaring that the game is over but at that point someone may challenge by saying "Challenge" and playing an ending card but only if they have an ending card in their hand

Hoarding ending cards: if a player Hoards Five ending cards the round immediately ends and the player places their entire hand face up choosing their ending from the shown cards then allowing other players to choose one card exclusively to end their timeline if there are more than five five players multiple players can choose a card based on multiples of five 6 to 10 players means that two players can choose one ending 11 to 15 means three and so on

Scoring, play limits and combining decks, adding new decks: you can play with two to any number of players decks may be combined at the end of a round players count up the point values of their timeline factoring in any escalation good things and other modifiers caused by the ending card

the score is kept under their name on the score sheet each round is added up for each player and when one or more players crosses the game point value the highest score will be the player who has won the game games can be tied for a 1-hour game use 100 as the game point value though the game may only last a few rounds; cards are then collected shuffled and the next dealer deals the next round this is continued until at least one player crosses the 100 point value or another arbitrary point value set at the beginning of the game agreed to by all players

Layout and timeline facts (See video or instruction insert): an example layout is as shown the card marked a is the deck the draw pile the card marked B is the discard pile any c cards in this line are the common area which affect all players and are usually bonuses but may not be the player's timeline is marked as D and you would have a timeline for each player the arrow indicates the order of the timeline where the first card is played then the second then the third then the fourth as the timeline is built the timeline affects the final score when the game ends even if the game ends by one person all players count up their timelines if all cards in the draw pile are exhausted the discard pile is shuffled and the cards are dealt equally to all players by the dealer in this case we are breaking the Five Card limit Rule and Expediting the round because we have exhausted all the cards in the draw pile this hurries the round along but also allows for faster and more interesting gameplay play continues with the player to the left of the player who drew the last card if a player receives Five ending cards it can be played as though the game ends immediately if two or more players ERS have five or more cards all options are presented at the same time to all players to choose from starting with the person closest to the dealer the decks can be combined with other decks either of the same style or with one or more expansion decks at the end of the round all cards are collected and put back into the deck even if youve combined multiple decks all cards are placed into this deck and shuffled together

Final thoughts

The idea is basically that the world is end and on the way to the world ending there's a certain timeline of events that occurs whenever the player plays the card and they read it aloud it gives an opportunity for people to have a little discussion the idea is to encourage conversation about some of the things that happen in the news or that are happening in the game