How To Play

"Next Day!" is a co-op party board game where you and your friends work together to deliver packages. However, you're also competing individually to win the "Deliverer of Incredible Kindness award (D.I.K.)".

Here's the main idea: You'll be driving a van, picking up packages, finding their addresses on the board, and delivering them on time. Along the way, you'll face unique and wacky events related to the packages, which can put you in ridiculous situations. Teamwork is important to make deliveries on time.

How to Win and Lose:

• The team wins by earning as much money as possible by delivering packages. Each delivered package has a value that the team gets.

• Individually, you compete for the highest D.I.K. score. D.I.Ks are described as Challenges, and they are valued between one and three points.

• This is a high-score game, meaning you can't really "lose" in the traditional sense of not achieving the goal. However, the game will end if certain conditions are met before you finish delivering packages:

  1. The van gets too damaged and explodes. The van has engine damage slots, and you place engine damage tokens next to it during setup, implying these track damage.

  2. You run out of time on all packages you currently have. Time tokens are a key component.

  3. All players agree to stop the game by democratically voting to end it.

• If any of these conditions are met and the current driver can't immediately fix the issue (like repairing the van or collecting a new package if you ran out), the game is over.

Game Components: The game includes a board, a van piece, a die, time tokens (32 of them), engine tokens (10 of them), D.I.K. cards (51 of them), Package cards (14 of them), and Event cards (15 of them).

Setting Up the Game:

1. Put the game board in the middle of where you're playing.

2. Place the van piece in the centre, below the board.

3. Keep the packages, D.I.K. cards, event cards, time tokens, engine damage tokens, and the die within easy reach of everyone. Package cards should be face up showing their difficulty. D.I.K. cards should show the D.I.K. Award icon face up. Event cards should be in order with the event icon face up.

4. Optional setup for beginners: Separate the packages into easy, medium, and hard piles, shuffle each, and use these three piles instead.

5. Decide who starts as the driver. If you can't decide, the last person to receive a delivery starts.

6. The first driver takes the van piece and the die. They roll the die, and the van piece is placed on the metro station on the board that matches the number rolled. The board has six metro stations, each marked with a number.

Playing a Turn (Overview): Players take turns being the driver, moving clockwise around the table. The driver's turn involves using time tokens to perform actions. Other players aren't driving, but they are secretly trying to complete D.I.K. Challenges and also trying to figure out what D.I.Ks other players have to stop them.

The Driver's Turn:

• To start their turn, the driver performs the "changing seats" step, which means placing four time tokens into the designated slots on the van. These are the tokens the driver will spend.

• The van piece shows the cost of the different actions next to slots where time tokens are placed.

• There are four main actions the driver can take, each costing time. To use an action, the driver moves the required number of time tokens from the van onto an active package.

  • Moving the van: Costs time tokens. You move the van by the specified number of tiles. Moving from one metro station tile to another only costs time to move onto the second metro tile, not between them.

  • Collecting a package: This is the only free action. The driver takes the top card from the package deck, reads it aloud, and places it next to a marker on the board so everyone can see the address. Packages have slots where spent time tokens are placed, filling from top left, then right, then bottom slots. You cannot spend time on a package once all its slots are covered. The back of a package shows its score value and difficulty.

  • Delivering a package: This is done when the van reaches the tile shown as the package's address. You take all time tokens off the package and put them back in the general time token pile, then discard the package. Keep delivered packages in a separate pile to count them at the end. Note: If an event is triggered when delivering, you must resolve the event before discarding the package. If the event forces you to move, you will no longer be on the delivery address and will need to spend time to move back.

  • Repairing the van: This is listed as an action the driver can take and is relevant to game end conditions, but the provided text doesn't detail how it works or its cost.

  • Acquiring new D.I.K cards: Also listed as a driver action, details are covered below under D.I.Ks.

Events:

• Events are triggered when a time token is placed onto a package slot marked with a star icon.

• When an event slot is covered, the driver must select the Event card that matches the number on the slot. A picture of the package is on the Event card to help confirm it's the right one.

• The driver keeps the Event card hidden from others initially. They must choose one of the three scenarios (1, 2, or 3) listed on the card. Once a scenario is chosen, the driver flips the card over and reads the section corresponding to their choice. They cannot change their mind after flipping the card.

• The chosen scenario has outcomes listed at the bottom. These outcomes must be resolved in the game. Outcomes can include moving the van, changing a package's address (keep the event card with the package as a reminder), or removing time tokens from a package (discarding the package) which might also change the package's value (again, keep the event with the package as a reminder).

• After resolving the outcomes, the Event card is discarded.

• If an event slot is covered but that specific event has already been played, you just ignore it.

D.I.K.s (Deliverer of Incredible Kindness / Challenges):

• D.I.Ks are Challenges that players try to complete individually while the current player is driving. They are worth points towards the D.I.K. award at the end of the game.

• You get D.I.K. cards by collecting them as an action, or sometimes by receiving them from events.

• It's crucial to keep your D.I.K.s a secret.

• A D.I.K. card has four key pieces of information. You must do what the D.I.K. tells you without being caught.

• You can only claim a finished D.I.K. at a specific time: at the end of the current driver's turn, just as the next player is starting the "changing seats" phase. When this happens, any player can announce they have completed a D.I.K. and claim the card. Claimed D.I.K. cards are placed face up in a pile next to you.

• You can also accuse another player if you think they are doing a D.I.K. Challenge. To do this, you must have an active D.I.K. in your own hand. You declare you're accusing them and try to guess their D.I.K. Challenge. If your guess includes the title or any words from the "close enough" section of their D.I.K. card, you are successful.

• If you successfully accuse someone, you get to claim and keep the D.I.K. you guessed. You place it face up in your own pile, and it counts towards your score. The manual also mentions the accused player retains the D.I.K., which seems contradictory, but the main point is the accuser gets the card and the points. (Note: the source text is slightly ambiguous here, stating "they get to claim and keep the D.I.K they guessed. The accuser then retains the D.I.K...". I will interpret this as the accuser takes the card from the accused).

• Any D.I.K.s you haven't finished when the game ends are discarded.

Game End and Scoring:

• The game ends when one of the conditions listed above is met.

• First, players discard any D.I.K.s they didn't finish.

• Then, players count their D.I.K. points. The player with the most D.I.K. points wins the Deliverer of Incredible Kindness award and should be praised.

• After the D.I.K. winner is found, the team counts the total value of all delivered packages.

• You can record your score in the Work Log at the back of the manual.

Extra/Optional Rules: The manual suggests ways to make the game more exciting, like using a timer, creating your own packages and events, playing in "selfish mode" where drivers keep the value of packages they deliver, or trying a two-player mode (though it's not recommended as the game isn't designed for it).

In essence, you drive, deliver packages for team money, manage resources like time and van damage, deal with crazy events, and secretly complete silly challenges (D.I.K.s) while trying to catch others doing theirs.