I hear you're ready to play your first game of Level Up Nurse Squad. How about we cover how to set the game up and start playing?
Open the box and take out the instructions and throw them out.
Let's begin setting up your game space. Grab the question cards. The back of the question cards show you the core subject and subtopic of each question, as well as the point value of the questions on that card.
Each card has two questions, one on top and one on bottom.
Decide amongst all players whether you will ask the top row or bottom row questions during your game. There's no difference in difficulty or scoring between the rows.
Remove the rest of the cards from the package.
Separate the remaining question cards, shuffle well, and place them face down in the center of your play area.
You are left with white cards with people on them and yellow cards that say hazard.
Grab the cards with pictures of people on them. These are your avatar cards. You will play as one of these nurse recruits working to level up their nursing knowledge and join the elite Level Up Nurse Squad. The front side of these cards show your character as a recruit and the back as a member of the Nurse Squad. Read each avatar card and choose the recruit that best represents the kind of nurse that you want to be.
When working as a nurse, you will undoubtedly encounter obstacles in your shifts that slow you down. It's no different in our game. These are the hazard cards. Hazards allow you to challenge your opponent's nursing knowledge and potentially cost them points. You will learn more about hazard cards in a bit. Distribute the hazard cards evenly among all players. Since we have two players, each player will get four hazard cards. Each player should display their hazard cards face up in front of them.
Each player will take a turn selecting the avatar card representing the recruit that they wish to play as. Once a player has selected their avatar, they should place the card in front of them in the play area next to the hazard cards with the student side showing. You can then set the remaining avatar cards aside. You won't need them for the rest of this game.
The last step in setting up the game is to choose a scorekeeper. The scorecard should be visible to all players at all times, as knowing the score of the game could influence your decisions about when to play your hazard card.
Now it's time for the fun part, playing the game. Every game of Level Up Nurse Squad starts with the oldest player going first, with play moving in a clockwise direction. On a player's turn, they can choose to either attempt to answer a question card or elect to play a Hazard card against their opponent.
Since this game just started, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to play a hazard card yet. So Jeff chooses to attempt a question. The player to Jeff's right would draw a card and read the question out loud.
Jeff's clearly no slouch when it comes to nursing knowledge, earning him the number of points listed on the card. In this case, one point. The scorekeeper would add the points earned to Jeff's total score, and gameplay moves clockwise.
Meris also decides to attempt a one-point question card. Uh-oh, Meris got it wrong. Bummer. Luckily for Meris, if you answer incorrectly, you suffer no penalty. Her score simply remains at zero. The question card is placed question side up in the discard pile, and play continues clockwise.
But how do you use all these hazard cards exactly? Let's assume Jeff and Meris have answered some questions and have scored some points. On Jeff's next turn, he decides he wants to play a hazard card against Meris.
Meris must now attempt to answer the question on the next card. If she gets it correct, she neither gains nor loses points.
If she gets it wrong though, Meris would lose four points from her score. Let's see how she does.
Good job, Meris! She gets it right and does not lose any points. Jeff's turn is over, and gameplay moves clockwise back to Meris.
Meris decides to play a hazard card right back at Jeff.
Oh, no, against all odds, Jeff got it wrong. That means he gets four points deducted from his score, and gameplay continues back and forth until a player either reaches an agreed-upon score total to win, or all cards in the question pile have been used.
Whoa, looks like Meris not only took over the lead, but reached the agreed-upon score total to win. Meris is our winner, and she gets to flip her avatar card over to signify that she is leveled up and is ready to join the Level Up Nurse Squad.