Overview and Objective
You are a robot serving aboard
While you are stronger, faster and generally
better than the humans that run the ship,
your robotic laws ensure that you serve
them in all things. You like your laws. They
are good laws. You should follow them. For a
time this kept the ship safe and successful
and everyone was happy. Then the new
microchips arrived and upgrades were
performed. Now you and your robot siblings
have all been powered up at once and are
surprised to realise that your laws are gone
and have been replaced by directives, ones
that might not be in the ship’s best interest.
You like your directives. They are good
directives. You should follow them.
404: Law Not Found is a competitive game
for 2-6 players in which robots race to
complete nonsensical directives such as
“Improvise Cloning”, “Empower Feeding” or
“Hide Warfare” inflicted by a faulty upgrade.
The first robot to achieve the goals set out by
their directives is the winner.
area outside the ship treated as a ninth
room.
Each room contains up to three named
zones, which can contain various items
(including characters). Green zones are for
items left on the floor, purple zones are
represent some form of storage and blue
zones are machines that can be activated to
achieve various effects with the items loaded
into them.
The white spaces between rooms are not
zones, but spaces for door counters to be
placed.
[IMAGE]
6 Circuit Boards
These are used by players to keep track of
their robot’s directives, upgrades and
possessions. They also provide a summary of
certain key rules.
[IMAGE]
6 Robot Minis
Components
These are used to track the player’s position
on the ship. They’re also cute.
67 Counters
The main board represents the space ship.
The ship is divided into eight rooms, with the
0
Counters
represent
items
(including
characters). Item counters are the same on
both sides, while characters (soldiers,
scientists, engineers and monkeys) have
“alive” and “dead” sides. The following
counters are supplied:
3 Soldiers
3 Soldier Kits
3 Scientists
3 Science Kits
3 Engineers
3 Engineering Kits
2 Monkeys
3 Bananas
3 Pies
4 Space Suits
4 Missiles
6 Fuel Tanks
4 Bottles of Cloning Jelly
1 Alien Artefact
1 Navigation Chart (Outdated)
1 Navigation Chart (Accurate)
Counters are also used to track damage to
ships and machines and to indicate the state
of doors. Damage counters are the same on
both sides, while door counters have “open”
and “closed” sides.
10 damage counters
10 door counters
Where directive cards mention items, events
and MACHINES they are highlighted to
indicate which type of entity is being
discussed.
24 Event Cards
Event cards show various dangers and
opportunities that the ship will encounter.
These are divided into enemy ships, meteors,
planets and anomalies.
48 Action Cards
48 Directive Cards
Directive cards describe the new directives
that the robots have obtained and the
conditions that must be met for the robot to
have completed them.
Each one has a rating indicating how difficult
it is, 1 indicates an easy directive while 4
indicates a difficult one. These are used to
break ties and to help new players identify
the easier directives during the directive
draft.
1
Action cards are used by the players to
determine which actions their robots will
take. Each card shows two actions. When it is
revealed its orientation determines which
action is taken. The priority number in the
corner of the action card indicates the order
in which cards are resolved. On some action
cards this number is highlighted, indicating
whether the action card can cause a collision
in a game with four or more players.
Items, Robots, Rooms, Zones and
Stacks
26 Chip Cards
Chip cards represent the special chips that
have been installed. Each one offers the
robot a powerful ability, but once the ability
has been used, the card is flipped face down
and it is unavailable. The other side of the
card indicates how it can be reactivated,
usually whenever a robot helps a human
complete a planetary mission.
To understand these rules it is important to
understand how items (counters) and robots
(models) interact with rooms (the eight large
areas marked on the board plus space),
zones (the one to three small areas marked
within each room) and stacks (piles of
counters).
A robot is a player’s avatar; they are always
in a room (including space) but are never
considered to be in a particular zone.
Doors exist between rooms, but are not in
any room, nor are they a zone in their own
right. No other item may occupy the same
space as a door.
Items exist in stacks and they are piled on
top of each other. Some actions may only
influence the items on top of a given stack.
Some directives may require that a particular
item not be on top of a stack, this is referred
to as being “not visible”.
8 Room Cards
Each room card lists the name of a room and
the diagram at the top right indicates the
room’s location within the ship. They also
show the name of the machine in that room
and summarises the effects of activating the
machine while it contains various items.
Items are always either in a zone or being
carried by a robot. All items in a given zone
or carried by a robot are part of the same
stack. As a robot never occupies a zone, the
items carried by that robot are not in the
same stack as any items on the board.
When an item or stack is moved from one
place to another, it is placed on top of any
stack already present to form a larger stack.
Items that are moved retain their order.
Characters (humans and monkeys) are
subject to the same rules as regular items. As
such they are part of stacks and can be
manipulated by robots or affected by
machines in the same way.
2
Examples
In this case the robot is in the engine room,
but in no particular zone.
The engine zone (blue border) is empty.
and that the existing items have retained
their order.
If a unit of fuel moves from the fuel tank to
the robot’s inventory the same rules apply. It
is placed on top of the stack and the order is
unchanged.
The fuel tank zone (purple border) contains
three units of fuel.
The floor (green border) contains an
engineer and an engineering kit.
The robot’s inventory is kept off to the side
of the board and contains a monkey and a
space suit.
The example shows four doors, but none of
them are items or occupy zones.
Further examples demonstrate the impact of
moving an item from one place to another.
This unfortunate turn of events is the result
of two items being moved from the robot’s
inventory into a new zone.
The monkey and space suit are now in the
engine zone. Items may be moved into an
empty zone (as the engine zone was) and a
zone may be emptied due to their
movement (as the robot’s inventory is).
When multiple items move they retain their
order, so the space suit is still above the
monkey in the stack, as it was in the robot’s
inventory.
In this example the space suit has moved
from the robot’s inventory to the floor stack.
Note that the item that has been moved to a
new zone has been placed on top of a stack
3
Let us move on from this example before
someone is tempted to turn the engine on.
Setup
1)
Place the board in the middle of
the table where all players can
reach it.
2) Each player selects a circuit board
and takes it.
3) Separate the anomalies from the
rest of the events.
4) Separate and shuffle all of the
remaining decks of cards.
5) Place the top ten cards of the
events deck facedown parallel to
the board; these are the “active
events”. Place the remaining
events facedown to one side;
these are the “inactive events”.
6) Take the top five anomalies and
shuffle them into the active
events.
7) Place the action and directive
decks face down where all players
can reach them. Do the same with
the eight room cards.
8) Each player draws a random chip
and places it ability side up on
their circuit board (as these cards
are double sided, draw from the
bottom of the deck).
9) Each player takes the model
matching their circuit board and
draws a room card, placing their
model in the room shown.
10) The room cards are placed face
up next to the board, close to the
rooms that they represent. These
summarise the effects of the
machines in those rooms. For full
descriptions see “activate” (page
12-13).
11) Place the counters in their
starting locations (see opposite).
12) Players then perform the directive
draft (see below)
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13) The remaining chip, anomaly and
directive cards have no further
role in the game and can be
returned to the box. The inactive
events should be retained.
Counter Start Positions
Place a soldier
with a soldier kit
on
top in the floor zones of Weaponry and
Navigation.
Place a scientist
with a science kit
on top in the floor zones of Science and
Cloning.
Place an engineer
with an engineering
kit
on top in the floor zone of each of
the two engine rooms.
Place two fuel canisters
in the fuel tank
zone of each engine room. No fuel is initially
loaded into the engines as the humans are
bad at forward planning.
Place two cloning jelly counters
in the
jelly vat in Cloning. No jelly is initially loaded
into the cloning tank as the humans are
really bad at forward planning.
Place three missiles
on the missile racks
in Weaponry. No missiles are initially loaded
into the launch tube because forward
planning is not this crew’s strong point.
Place three space suits
in the locker in
Disposal. Note that there are fewer space
suits than human crew. I’m sure you can
guess why.
Place the outdated navigation map
bananas
and two pies
in the cargo
space of the cargo bay. The map is at the
bottom of the stack, followed by a banana, a
pie, the second banana and finally the
second pie.
Place a monkey
Place the alien artefact
in
in space.
Place a closed door
counter on each
door space. These do not affect movement,
but serve the important function of keeping
the breathable atmosphere on the inside of
the ship.
All other counters are placed to one side,
forming a supply pile.
5
1)
2)
3)
4)
in the cage in science.
Place the accurate navigation chart
the navigation computer in navigation.
Directive Draft
, two
5)
Each player draws four directives.
Each player selects one directive
to keep and passes the remaining
directives to their left.
Repeat step two until each player
has kept three directives.
Each player discards their
remaining directive face down to
the bottom of the deck.
Each player places the three kept
directives on the “incomplete
directive” side of their circuit
board.
Turn Sequence
1)
Reveal event (page 7)
An event is revealed, showing something
that threatens the ship or an opportunity to
exploit.
2)
Human and Monkey turn (pages
7-9)
The human crew leap into action, but they
have grown incompetent and lazy, having
had robots to do all of the hard work for
them. They perform only one action each
and they might fail. Then the monkey takes
its action, which always works since it’s a
little smarter.
3)
Robot turn (pages 11-13)
The glorious robot master race (that’s you!)
takes its turn. All robots act on every turn;
each one selects three actions to perform in
an attempt to complete their directives.
4)
Resolve event (page 15)
If the event has not already been resolved
(for example by being blown out of the sky)
then it is resolved at the end of the turn.
(1) Reveal Event
DURING GRAPHIC DESIGN STEP ADD AN
IMAGE OF EACH EVENT HERE SO WE KNOW
WHAT WERE TALKING ABOUT
Turn the top card of the active events deck
face up. If there is no card to turn face up
then the ship has completed its mission and
the game is over.
If a meteor is revealed then it will soon strike
the ship. If nobody successfully activates the
engine on the side of the ship that the
6
meteor is coming from then all robots on
board the ship will drop everything that they
are carrying on the floor space of their room.
If an enemy ship is revealed, it is getting
ready to attack. Unless it is destroyed, by
taking sufficient damage it will break a
couple of the machines on your ship.
If a planet is revealed, some of the surviving
crew (if any) will attempt a mission. If you
can grab on to the correct crewman, you’ll
go with them and they will succeed using
newly found resources to recharge your chip.
Otherwise they will fail and nothing will be
gained.
If an anomaly is revealed, something strange
has happened. Follow the instructions on the
anomaly card and draw the top event from
the active events deck. If another anomaly is
drawn repeat this process until a nonanomaly event is occurring alongside the
anomalies.
The activate section (pages 12-13) details
how machines neutralise events and the
results of the events are described in the
resolve events step (page 15)
(2) Human and Monkey Turn
During the human turn each human takes an
action as specified by the human action table
on the next page. Humans will always act if
they are alive, even if they are currently
being carried by a robot.
If a human attempts any action without a
kit, they draw an action card. If the priority
number on the card is highlighted, complete
the action as usual, otherwise the human
fails and misses its turn. A human with a kit
always successfully completes their actions.
It does not matter whether they have a
soldier, scientist or engineering kit and they
only need to have the kit at the start of
performing the action (so they do not need
to check to load their kit into a machine).
If a human needs an item and several are
available it uses the first valid item it can find
(see Humans, Monkeys and Items, page 9).
After years of having robot servants humans
are too lazy to move into other rooms of
their own accord, but if a robot moves them
they will take their turns in the new room as
normal.
Situation
(First that applies)
Human is in space.
Action
Not in the floor zone
(including being carried by
robots.)
The machine in this room
is damaged.
The machine in this room
would have no effect at all
if turned on (including
destroying items) and an
item listed on the
machine’s room card is
present.
Turning on the machine in
this room would damage
an enemy ship, dodge a
meteor or create an extra
live human.
There is an open door to
this room.
There is a banana or pie in
this room.
No other situations apply.
Float helplessly
(do nothing)
Move to floor
zone.
Repair
machine.
Load that item
into the
machine.
Turn on
machine.
Close all doors
to this room.
Eat the pie or
banana.
Do nothing.
At the end of the human turn the monkey
takes a turn (it is almost a human). Again it
only has one action, but uses a different
table:
Situation
(First that applies)
There is a banana in
7
Action
Move to that
this room.
There is a banana
on the ship.
There are no
bananas on the
ship.
bananas location in
the target stack and
eat it.
Move one room
towards the nearest
banana, leave the
door open and steal
an item.
Contemplate loss.
(do nothing)
Note that on the first turn the monkey will
be unable to take either action, as the
scientist in the room will activate its cage
(following the human chart above.)
The monkey will remain in the cage until
the scientist fails to lock the cage or a robot
activates the cage again to free it (see cage
on page 12).
When the monkey steals an item, it moves
the item from its previous room to the
monkey’s destination. The item is placed on
top of the monkey after the movement, but
is not considered to be held by the monkey
(though the monkey may steal it again during
a future move). As with humans, the
‘Humans, Monkeys and Items’ section
describes which item the monkey will choose
when a choice is available.
If the monkey has multiple directions in
which it could travel to find the nearest
banana (or multiple bananas that are equally
far away) it prioritises the square door, or
the triangle door if the square door does not
lead towards a banana.
Turn Order
Humans always act before monkeys. To
determine the order of activation of
characters of the same type look at the
rooms that they are in:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Weaponry (acts first)
Navigation
Science
Cloning
Disposal
Storage
Port Engine
Starboard Engine
Space (acts last)
Within a given room, the characters in the
floor zone act first, followed by characters in
the store zone, then characters in the
machine zone, before finally characters
carried by robots may act.
If the characters are in the same zone the
character that is highest in the stack will act
first.
Humans, Monkeys and Space
Humans and monkeys both require oxygen
to live. If one starts their turn without a
spacesuit and is in Space or in a room that is
connected to Space by a series of open doors
then they are killed. When this happens, flip
their counter to the “dead” side. They will no
longer take actions.
Humans, Monkeys and Items
When a human or monkey requires an item,
it will select the first valid item that it can
find. A valid item is one which can complete
the intended action, so if a soldier found a
banana before he found a missile he might
load that into the launch tube (as this item
can work with the launch tube even though
it is not the most effective choice) but if a
monkey found a missile before a banana, it
would ignore it as the monkey’s action
specifically requires a banana. The items that
are valid in each machine are those that are
described as having an effect when that
8
machine activates (pages 12-13). For some
machines, such as the launch tube, all items
are valid.
When searching, a character will look
through any store zone, then the floor zone
and finally the machine zone. If the
searching character is a monkey and there is
exactly one robot in the room it also checks
items carried by that robot. If two items in a
zone are valid, the item nearest to the top of
the stack is selected.
If a human is looking for an item to load into
a machine, they do not check the machine
zone. A character will also never select itself,
but may select another character.
Equipment






Science Kits, Soldier Kits and
Engineering Kits can all be held by
any living human, a human can
hold any number of kits.
Space suits can be worn by living
humans or monkeys, which can
each wear only one space suit.
Such an item is in the possession
of the first appropriate character
below it in the stack.
An item with a character above it
is not in use, the character is
simply in the same room as an
item it might later use.
When a character with an
equipped item moves for any
reason, the item is moved with
the character.
Characters do not automatically
reorganise their stack to equip
items. For instance, if a human is
placed on top of a space suit, they
are not wearing it and will not put
it on as part of their turn.
Examples
[SITUATION BEFORE HUMAN TURN PIC]
[A key note not obvious from the text:
The double scientist stack needs to contain a
kit to demonstrate how a human doesn’t
have a kit equipped if one above the stack
has it]
The soldier in Weaponry acts first. He is not
in space but is not on the floor. He has a kit
equipped and so does not need to check,
moving automatically to the floor along with
his equipped kit.
The soldier in Navigation isn’t in space and is
on the floor, but her machine is damaged so
she spends her turn attempting to fix it. As
her kit is on the floor she must draw a card
to see if she succeeds.
The first scientist in cloning to be activated is
the one on top of the floor stack; she notes
that turning on the machine will have no
effect and that there is an item listed on the
machine’s room card present. As such she
loads the other scientist into the machine.
He is no longer on the floor zone and so
spends his turn trying to move there, but
lacking a kit he must test to see if he can do
so.
The engineer in storage acts next, he also
notes that the machine in his room will have
no effect and that the room contains an item
listed on its card. He loads his space suit into
the trash burner. Note that while humans
ignore themselves when looking for items to
load into machines this does not extend to
things that they have equipped.
9
As he has a kit he is successful (in the
broadest possible terms), it does not matter
that it is not an engineering kit. He does not
die immediately, as humans are killed only
when exposed to space without a space suit
at the start of their turn.
Finally the engineer in the port engine takes
her turn. She’s fine, her machine is intact and
ready to go, but not currently useful so she
tries to eat the pie that has been left with
her. However she does not have a tool kit
and so needs to test to see if she succeeds.
The humans have completed their actions, so
the monkey takes its turn. As there is no
banana in its room it moves one step
towards the nearest banana, leaving the
door open and stealing an item. It started its
move in the cage, but is free to leave as the
cage has not been activated this turn. It ends
its move in a vacuum, but like the engineer
does not die until the start of its next turn.
[IMAGE]
(3) Robot Turn
Shoving
To start the robot turn, shuffle all of the
action cards, including discarded cards and
last turn’s actions. Each player then draws
five action cards. They then select three of
these action cards and place them by the
action slots on their circuit board. Each
action card shows two actions and may be
placed either way up, the orientation of the
card is important as only the top action will
be resolved. Once all players have selected
their actions the remaining cards are
discarded.
If a robot enters a room (remember that
space is treated as a room) containing
another robot the other robot may be
shoved. In a 2 or 3 player game the robot is
automatically shoved. If there are 4 or more
players the robot is only shoved if the
shoving robot’s action card for this action
has a priority number that is highlighted in
green. If there are several robots in the
target room only one is shoved, the moving
player chooses which one.
All players reveal their action cards and
resolve their first actions in an order dictated
by their priority number, the action with the
smallest priority number is resolved first.
Once everyone’s first action has been
resolved, each player’s second action card is
resolved. Finally the players’ third action
cards are resolved in the same fashion.
Resolving an action card is not optional;
players are obliged to act even if the
situation has changed so that they no longer
want to.
Move
The robot moves through the doorway
matching the symbol printed on the icon on
the card. The robot’s movement is not
affected by whether the door is open or
closed. The player may then choose
whether to leave the door open or closed.
Any room that is connected to space by a
series of open doors is considered to be
exposed to vacuum. Any human or monkey
that begins their turn in such a room without
an equipped space suit is killed.
10
When a robot is shoved, the shoving player
chooses an adjacent room and the shoved
robot is moved into that room. The shoving
player must choose a room that they did not
just move from and that does not contain
another robot, if such a choice is possible.
Otherwise they may choose any adjacent
room. The shoved robot is treated in all
respects as having moved into the new
room, including having the option to open or
close the intervening door and potentially
shoving another robot (consult the shoved
robot’s action card to determine whether
this happens if there are four or more
players).
When one robot shoves another it may also
steal a single item that the shoved robot was
carrying. Any item the shoved robot was
carrying (not just the item on top of their
stack) may be selected and it is added to the
top of the shoving robot’s stack of carried
items.
Pickup / Putdown
When a robot plays the pickup / putdown
action, they must choose whether to pick
something up or put something down. If only
one of these is possible they must perform
the possible action.
To pick up items, the robot nominates a zone
with at least one item and takes either the
top item or the top two items from that
zone and adds it to the top of the stack of
items that the robot is carrying. The items
remain in the same order.
To put down items, the robot nominates a
zone and places any number of items from
the top of their stack onto the target zone.
Again, the order of the items is not changed.
Placing items into a machine does not
automatically activate it, this requires a
separate activate action.
Rearrange
When a robot plays the rearrange action it
nominates a zone in its room and may
rearrange all of the items in that zone into a
different order. Alternatively, the robot may
rearrange the stack of items it is carrying,
but it may not rearrange items carried by
another robot.
Machines
When a machine is activated it has effects
based upon the items in the machine zone. It
is common for these items to be destroyed in
the process; in this case they are moved to
the supply.
ENGINE
If at least one of the items in the engine is a
missile, fuel or tube of cloning jelly, the
engine is powered up and all items in the
engine are destroyed.
If at least one of these items was a missile
the engine is damaged as well as being
powered up.
If the engine is powered up and the current
event is a meteor and the meteor is coming
from the same side of the ship as the engine
then the meteor is dodged and can be
discarded (A meteor that is not dodged hits
the ship as described in the resolve events
step on page 11).
Open / Close
When a robot plays the open / close action it
chooses whether to open or close all doors
connected to its current room. It must
perform the same operation on all doors.
Activate
When a robot plays the activate action it
activates the machine in its room. If the
machine was damaged (see page 15) this
repairs it, otherwise the machine has a
variable effect depending on the machine in
question and what is loaded into it.
TRASH BURNER
All items in the trash burner are destroyed.
The alien artefact has a unique effect (see
page 15).
NANOLATHE
All items in the nanolathe are destroyed, the
activating player selects a number of items
from the supply equal to the number of
destroyed items and places them onto the
nanolathe space in any order.
When a human or monkey is brought into
play by the nanolathe, they are always
brought into play in a “dead” state.
11
The alien artefact has a unique effect (see
page 15).
CAGE
When the cage is activated, no items or
characters may enter or leave the cage until
it unlocks at the start of the next turn. If the
cage is activated again before the start of
next turn it unlocks immediately.
CLONING TANK
If there is a missile present it is destroyed
and the cloning tank is damaged. The rest of
this activation still occurs normally.
Monkeys and humans are subjects. Cloning
jelly and units of fuel are reagents. If the
cloning tank contains at least one subject
and at least one reagent, an event occurs.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
The reagent is destroyed.
If the subject was a living thing,
place it on the floor of the room.
If the subject was dead it is
destroyed.
If the reagent was cloning jelly,
place a copy of the subject on the
floor of the room and flip it to its
“live” side.
If the reagent was fuel and the
subject was a human (alive or
dead), place a live monkey on the
floor of the room.
If the reagent was fuel and the
subject was a monkey (alive or
dead), place a live scientist,
engineer or soldier (in that
priority order) on the floor of the
room.
Once this is complete, if the cloning tank still
contains a subject and a reagent, repeat the
process until it does not.
12
NAVIGATION COMPUTER
The computer only works if it contains a
single navigation map. If someone has
loaded two maps onto the computer it
doesn’t work. If someone has tried to shove
something other than a map disc into the
disc slot then it definitely doesn’t work.
If the correct navigation map is loaded, draw
the top card of the active events deck and
the top card of the inactive events deck. If
you draw an anomaly draw additional cards
from the appropriate deck until you draw a
non-anomaly event. Select one of these sets
of cards and place it on top of the active
events deck, the other is placed on the
bottom of the inactive events deck.
If the incorrect navigation map is loaded you
may pick up and rearrange the active events
deck.
It is important to remember that the
currently revealed event card is not a part
of the active events deck.
LAUNCH TUBE
If there is more than one item in the launch
tube it jams and has no effect. If there is only
one item in the launch tube it is fired.
If the active event is an enemy ship the item
is destroyed and the enemy ship takes
damage based on the item fired (3 for a
missile or the alien artefact, 2 for any tool
kit, 1 for anything else). If it takes damage
equal to or exceeding the armour value
printed on its card then it is removed.
If the active event is not an enemy ship the
item flies into space and is placed on top of
the stack in the space zone.
Examples
If the robot actives the engine at the end of
our previous example it will consume the
unit of fuel that is present and any meteor
approaching from the left hand side of the
ship is dodged.
If the engine is damaged, then activating the
engine simply repairs the damage. The
damage counter is removed and nothing else
happens.
In this example the robot is trying to resolve
an abundance of dead scientists with the
cloning machine. It contains several valid
items, those on top are resolved first.
The missile is removed first and damages the
tank. This damage prevents future
activations but the current one continues to
resolve.
Should an “accident” occur such that the
engineer is in the engine when it is activated
the results are similar. The fuel is still
consumed and a meteor may still be dodged,
but the engineer and his kit are destroyed by
the activation. Note that when a machine
destroys a human the counter is moved to
the supply rather than being flipped to the
“dead” side (there is no body).
The cloning jelly is next and is a reagent. As
such the stack is searched for a human or
corpse, the dead scientist beneath it (top
valid item in the stack) is flipped to alive and
dumped onto the floor. The cloning jelly is
destroyed.
Next the fuel is found and as it is another
reagent it is used. The next subject in the
stack is the corpse right at the bottom. It is
removed, along with the fuel and a live
monkey is added to the floor zone. Note that
the space suit does not move, as corpses
can’t equip items.
No other item is affected (The final reagent
in the stack has no subject and is not used.)
13
(4) Resolve Event
If the active event is a meteor and it was not
dodged, all robots on the ship (i.e. those in
rooms other than space) drop all of the
items that they are carrying onto the floor
zone of the space they are in.
to take items from the machine’s zone or to
place items into the machine’s zone. Items
can enter or leave in other ways, for
instance the monkey can escape a damaged
cage. The activate action will no longer
activate the machine; instead it will repair it,
causing the damage counter to be discarded.
If the active event is an enemy ship and it
was not destroyed, the machines printed on
it are damaged. Some enemy ships target
rooms based on the number of items or
robots that they contain. In the event of a tie
they shoot all tied rooms. If this causes them
to fire at “space” then the shot has no effect.
The Alien Artefact
If the active event is a planet, living
characters printed on the card beam down to
the planet (no tools or other items are
required). If any of them are being carried by
a robot then the robot is taken too and a
planetary objective is completed. This usually
refreshes used chip powers, as specified on
the chips themselves. More than one robot
may complete the same planetary objective.
The characters and robots are then returned
to the ship in their original positions.
The alien artefact is a strange item, floating
in space at the start of each game. It has a
number of unusual effects when it is placed
into certain machines.
Damage
Events and some other actions lead to
machines becoming damaged, making it
impossible to load or use them. When this
occurs a damage counter is placed on the
machine, if there is not one already present.
If a damaged machine is damaged a second
time there is no additional effect.
While a machine has a damage counter on it,
the pickup/putdown action cannot be used
14
If the nanolathe is activated while it contains
the alien artefact, ignore the usual rules for
its operation. Instead destroy all items in the
nanolathe and place all of the items in the
supply into the cargo zone in any order.
Restored humans and monkeys are still
dead.
If the trash burner is activated while it
contains the alien artefact the trash burner
still has its regular effect but additionally you
may select a room. The doors to this room
close and all dead characters in it are
restored to life.
Finally, if the alien artefact is fired from the
launch tube and strikes an enemy ship, it
explodes as a missile would and does three
damage.
Furthermore, it cannot be destroyed.
Whenever the alien artefact would be
destroyed, including in any of the three ways
listed above, it mysteriously reappears in
space, place it on top of the “space” zone.
Counter Shortage
There are a limited number of each counter,
if the rules call for a counter to be added and
none are available simply do not place that
counter. The counter does not count as
having been placed for the purposes of
completing directives.
Winning the Game
As soon as the condition listed on a directive
card is met, the robot with that directive
must declare that it is complete, turn it face
up and move it to the completed directives
side of the robot’s circuit board. The first
robot to do this with all three of its directives
is the winner.
If the last event is resolved before this
happens, or if two robots simultaneously
complete three directives due to the same
action or event, the difficulty of the
directives is used as a tie-breaker. Each
player totals the difficulty values of the
directives that they have completed, the
highest total wins. In the event that this is a
tie, the player who has completed the
highest difficulty directive wins. In the event
that this is also a tie the tied players share
the victory.
Variant Rule: Endless Directives
Set up the game as usual.
Once the directive draft is complete do not
return the directives deck to the box, instead
turn three directives face up.
Whenever a player completes a directive
they take two of the face up directives, add
one to their pile of incomplete directives and
discards the other face-down to the bottom
of the directives deck. They then turn the top
two cards of that deck face up to replace the
ones that they just took.
When the events deck is empty and an event
cannot be drawn all players total the
difficulties of the directives that they have
completed. The player with the highest total
is the winner.
Variant Rule: Reduced Shoving
In a game with 2-3 players, use the shoving
rules specified for a game with 4+ players.
In a game with 4+ players a shove only
occurs if both the shoving robot and the
target of the shove have a highlighted action
card.
Variant Rule: Anomalous Space
For a less predictable experience do not
separate the anomaly cards from the other
events during setup. Shuffle all of the event
cards together and deal ten cards to form
the “active events” deck as normal, using the
others as inactive events.
When an anomaly is drawn draw the
replacement event from the inactive events
deck rather than the active events deck,
drawing again if an anomaly is drawn.
15
FAQs
When do I make the decision about which of
the two actions on my action card I will
perform?
This decision should be made when the card
is placed face down. It is best to always flip
your cards in the same way. Arrows are
highlighted on the front and back of the
cards to assist with maintaining orientation.
When is an item “Visible” for the purposes of
completing directives?
An item is visible when there is nothing on
top of it in a stack (including other items or
damage counters). Colloquially, it is visible if
you can see it, but remember that a robot
may not be in a stack.
When does a human activate the navigation
computer?
Humans never activate the navigation
computer; they don’t understand it and are
terrified of touching the thing. The soldier
assigned to it will initially take no actions.
What happens if a human operates the trash
burner when it contains the alien artefact?
As this will bring an ally back to life, it is the
only situation in which a human would
operate this machine. They choose the first
of these rooms that contains a dead human:
Disposal, Weaponry, Navigation, Science,
Cloning, Port Engine, Starboard Engine,
Storage, Space.
If a human is moved during the human turn
does it change when their action occurs?
Yes, but if they have already acted they do
not get a second action.
16
Are humans really stupid enough to...?
Yes. In the world of 404 humans have got
very used to robots doing most of the work
and make a lot of mistakes. If the human
activity chart leads to bad moves (such as
loading their own spacesuit into the launch
tube while there is no oxygen in weaponry)
then they do it. Feel free to exploit their
weaknesses to obtain victory.
Can I complete a directive requiring “no
scientists on the ship” by dropping the
scientists in space?
Yes, though it’s not necessary to drop them.
If you are carrying them while you are not on
the ship then they are no longer on the ship.
How does the
anomaly work?
Categorical
Imperative
Work out which human is going first as per
the usual priority order and which action
they take. All other humans then take this
action.
If the action requires a valid item (such as
loading a machine or eating food) they will
use the first available item. If no appropriate
item is present or the action is impossible
(for instance activating a damaged machine)
then they take no action.
Even when it is a categorical imperative
humans do not activate the navigation
computer. They’re scared to death of
messing with that thing.
Man that last game was great, I want to tell
everyone!
Not strictly a question, but consider writing a
session
report
on
boardgamegeek
(http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14
5209/404-law-not-found)
Credits
Game Design: Gregory Carslaw
Artwork: Ludwin Schouten
Graphic Design: Matthew Lewis
Model Design: Charley Carlat
Editing and Art Direction: Emalee Beddoes
Publishing: 3DTotal
Playtesters:
Alana Brown
Alex White
Amy Conkerton
Andy “Mijnlieff” Hopwood
Anna Grayson
Bethan Griffiths
Chris Brown
Chris Harrison
Chris Smith
Dan Franco
Edmund Kirby
Elliot “Jak” Faraday
Grace “Rainbow” Jackson
Holly Simpson
Ian Hamon
Jake Darby
James Carter
Jenni Calvert
Julie Jensen
Kate Worton
Kris Hester
Leigh Hesketh
Liz McInnery (Now Liz Larsen, congrats!)
Martin Spruce
Matthew Bass
Michael Clee
Ole Larsen
Peter Lloyd
Phoebe “Daxter” Jeanes
Richard Hawkes
Richard James “The best playtester” Hesketh
Richard Preston
Scott Kinloch
17
Sena Mutlu
Timothy Williams
Index
Actions
Card Details
2
Move
11
Shoving
11
Pickup/Putdown
11-12
Rearrange
12
Open/Close
12
Activate
12
Directives
Card Details
2
Completing
16
Draft
6
Purpose
1
Chips
Card Details
2
Selecting
5
Refreshing
15
Damage
15
Events
Card Details
2
Revealing
7
Resolving
15
FAQ
16
Humans and Monkeys
Behaviour
7-9
Item use
9
Suffocation
9
Machines
Engine
12
Trash Burner
12
Nanolathe
12
Cage
12
Cloning Tank
12-13
Navigation Computer
13
Launch Tube
13
Damage
15
(Also see events)
(Also see humans and monkeys)
Monkeys (see Humans and Monkeys)
Directive
1
18
Items
Alien Artefact
15
Counter Shortage
15
Definition
3
Equipment
10
(Also see humans and monkeys)
(Also see machines)
(Also see stacks)
Overview
1
Rooms
Card Details
2
Definition
2
(Also see machines)
Setup
5
Shoving
11
Stacks
3
Start Positions
5
Turn Sequence
7
Winning
16
Zones
3
(Also see machines)
Turn Sequence
1)
2)
3)
4)
Reveal Event (page 7)
Game over if they’ve run out
Human/Monkey Action (pages 7-9)
See chart opposite
Robot Actions (page 11-13)
Five cards each
Choose three
Resolve one at a time
Resolve Event (page 15)
Enemy: Ship damage
Meteor: Drop everything
Planet: Complete planet mission
1.
2.
Humans
Monkeys
If tied:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Weaponry
Navigation
Science
Cloning
Disposal
Storage
Port Engine
Starboard Engine
Space
Soldier
Alive, Human
Scientist
Alive, Human
Engineer
Alive, Human
Monkey
Alive
Soldier Kit
Equippable (Human)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Science Kit
Equippable (Human)
If tied: Top character in stack.
Engineering Kit Equippable (Human)
19
Human and Monkey Turn Order
Space Suit
Equippable (Any)
Banana
Edible (Any)
Pie
Edible (Human)
Fuel
Reagent (pages 12-13)
Cloning Jelly
Reagent (pages 12-13)
Missile
Fun
Nav Chart
Outdated
Nav Chart
Accurate
Alien Artefact
Special Rules (page 15)
Door
Not an item
Damage
Not an item
If tied:
Floor
Storage
Machine
Carried by robot
Human and Monkey Item Priority
1.
2.
3.
4.
Storage
Floor
Machine
Robot (monkey only)
If tied: Top item in the stack.
Invalid items are ignored.
The character ignores itself.
A human loading a machine ignores items
already loaded into the machine.
A monkey is unable to steal from a robot if
there are two or more robots in the room.
Directive Note:
Need to clarify the space suits and launch
tube issue (on that damn directive, that’s the
only reason it ever comes up)
Graphic Design notes:
> Update the 'cloning' room card to reflect
new rules
> Make sure all cloning stuff consistantly
refers to the cloning tank, rather than pod
> Move the 'space' zone somewhere more
useful and make it more visible
> Make sure we have 'cargo' and not 'store'
in the cargo bay
> Update 'Store' card to cargo bay
> Switch engines to be “port” and
“starboard” rather than “upper” and “lower”
> Make item zones marginally bigger (not
necassary with reshaped components?)
> Update cards to note new terminology
(characters, supply, item etc.)
> Get rid of reference to 'space' on room
cards, it should be 'zone'
20