Board game Panic in the Lab

They trained, you know, on their own, all sorts of crazy scientists who, instead of inventing useful things, breed huge slimy reptiles, and then cannot keep track of them. Now look for amoebas in the field during the day with... fire.

However, there is no time to grumble - we need to comb the laboratory. And the one who shows the best care and speed of reaction in this matter will win.

So, the goal of the game is to find certain amoebas that differ in shape, color and pattern as quickly as possible. Which fugitive needs to be caught this time is determined by a roll of four dice. The first three indicate the appearance of the amoeba, the last shows which laboratory it escaped from and where it went. Game tiles are laid out in a circle. After rolling the dice, we learn, for example, that a red-orange, one-eyed, striped amoeba crawled out of the yellow laboratory room and moved to the left (that is, counterclockwise). The task of each player is to find the fugitive faster than others, moving in the indicated direction from the tile indicating the yellow laboratory.

It would seem that everything is simple, but it was not so. Nasty protozoa can hide in ventilation shafts or crawl into mutation rooms, where their appearance changes beyond recognition. If you come across a ventilation tile on your way, skip all the tiles between this and the next shaft. If an amoeba crawls through the mutation room, it changes color, shape or size (this is indicated on the tile). It happens that an escaped protozoan manages to crawl through 4 mutation rooms, in which case it dies, and the winner is the player who pointed to the last mutation room that the amoeba visited.

When one of the participants touches the amoeba first, the others check to see if he made a mistake. If the choice was correct, the player receives one prize token; if not, he gives it away (if he already has tokens). The winner is the one who first collects five tokens.

If you are playing with very young children, the gameplay can be simplified by removing the ventilation and mutation room tiles.

In general, the rules of this charming game are elementary. The amoebas are contained in a beautiful tin box along with four brightly colored cubes and a bunch of plastic tokens. You can take Panic in the Laboratory with you anywhere, it is no larger than a pocket book, and besides, the box will never get wrinkled or get wet.

Game duration: 10-30 minutes
Number of players: 2-10