The rule book designed to accompany the in-development board game.

1. A Community of Friends
Designed by:
Laura Bloch
Priscilla Cancar
Jay Djuwadi
Paulo Ribeiro
María López-Delgado
Caroline Moore

2. Everyone has a time in their life when they can use the support of the community around them.
In Community of Friends, you take the role of one of those community members, using a precise
combination of physical, emotional, and neutral support to try to lift a friend into a better place. Be
careful, however, as the right combination is not always clear and your support can be as
detrimental as it is beneficial...
Contents
1 Character Token
2 Therapy Tokens
1 Mood Token
12 Community Deck Cards
(4 of each color)
Common for all games
36 Character Event Cards
(12 of each time of day)
2 End of Story Cards
1 Character Card
4 Role Cards
21 Character Action Cards
Character Specific
1 Game Board

3. Game Setup
1. Select a chararacter and find all of the cards wtih their name on the back. Place their
“Character Card“ and the the yellow and grey“End of Story”cards on their respective
positions on the board.
(Note: Be careful not to look at the back of the “End of Story” cards! )
2. Shuffle and place the“Character Action Cards”face down on their labeled area on the
board.
3. Separately shuffle the Morning, Afternoon, and Evening Decks and put them face up
on their designated areas.
(Note: Be careful not to look at or show anyone the back of any of the Event Deck
cards! )
4. Locate and place the“Mood Token”on the middle of the mood scale and the
“Character Token”on the morning of the first day of the calendar on the bottom right
of the board.
Note: The “Therapy Tokens” can be placed to the side of the board for now. They will
be placed on the board when used.
5. Finally, distribute one (1)“Role Card”and three (3)“Community Cards”to each player.
They should have one of each color in their hand.
Game Overview
During the game, players must help the struggling character through a number of
events that occur over the course of a week. Each player has a choice of emotional,
physical, or neutral (giving space) support that they can provide on each turn. After
reading what the event entails, the community silently and simultaneously decides
what type of support they think will be the most effective (keeping in mind what their
fellow community members are also playing). If the community can successfully play
the correct ratio of support types in order to get to the yellow part of the mood scale
by the end of the week, they have achieved the win condition (the yellow“End of Sto-
ry”Card) . Otherwise, if the character’s mood ever goes past the last space or is not in
the yellow area on the mood scale, they must read the lose condition (the grey“End of
Story”card).

4. Game Rules
1. One player reads aloud the description of the event on the top of the deck corresponding
to thetime of day the Character Marker is on (Morning, Afternoon, or Evening).
2. Without discussing, each player selects one Community Support card and places it face
down on the table.
3. Players simultaneously flip over the the Community Support cards that were played.
4. Draw a card from the Character Action Deck to see how the main character handled this
situation. Decide as a community whether or not to complete the action indicated on the
Character Action card.
5. Flip over the Morning, Afternoon, or Evening card to see what type of support was re-
quired for this event
6. If your community was able to provide the main character the exact support they needed
(no more and no less), move the character’s Mood Marker up the number of mood points
indicated by“if successful”. Otherwise, move the Mood Marker down the number of mood
points indicated by “if unsuccessful”.
(e.g. The event card on the right calls for 2 blue, and 1 red
Community Support cards. Your team must have played
exactly 2 blue, 1 red, and 1 neutral Community Support
cards to move the Mood Marker up one point. Otherwise,
your team must move the Mood Marker down one point.)
7. Move the Character Marker to the next time of day. If the Character Marker is on the evening of
one day, move it to the morning of the next day.
Note: At any point in the game before they reach the weekend, the community may choose to
play one of the two “Therapist Tokens“ to request professional help for the struggling
character. Upon placing a Therapist Token on the designated space, a player may move
the Mood Marker up 2 mood points.
= +2

5. End of Game
The game ends one of two ways. Either:
a) the“Mood Marker”reaches the lowest mood on the mood scale
or
b) at the end of the Evening round on Sunday
If the community has succeeded at ending with the struggling character in the yellow
zone at the top of the mood scale, turn over and read the yellow “End of Story” card at
the top of the board.
If, however, the community has not succeeded by the end or the mood token hits the
bottom of the scale at any point in the game, turn over and read the grey “End of Story”
card at the top of the board.
Notes
Please keep in mind that the types and amount of support that were determined to be
appropriate for each situation are specific to the characters with which they correspond.
They are in no way meant to be representative of the definite make-up of what each per-
son in a similar circumstance would need. Mental and social affilctions are difficult and
important issues to consider. Please seek support should you find that you need it and
ask those around you what types of support they might appreciate in any given situation.
Often we can learn the best ways of supporting our friends by simply listening to what
they tell us.
Thank you for entering this Community of Friends with us and we hope you’ve left with
good conversations and a better understanding of some of the methods that you can
help people in your own life deal with difficult situations.
- Laura, Priscilla, Jay, Paulo, Maria, and Caroline