"Hey Rick, it's Alejandro speaking. Um, so we asked ourselves, internally, we asked ourselves over here, what does a pancreas do? And the answer was, does it make pirates? No, it makes insulin, so we're starting a new . . ."

Working on a group project never goes the way everyone wants it to. As seen in the Rick and Morty episode “Anatomy Park,” there’s always that one person (we’re looking at you, Rick) who is willing to throw it all away because someone like Alejandro flippantly got rid of something that seems absolutely essential. Working together to create a theme park inside of a hobo can be particularly trying, as you deal with cramped working conditions and a myriad of diseases. Suffice it to say, it can end up being one hell of an experience in one-upmanship in this competitive tile-laying game.

Welcome to Anatomy Park!

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In Rick and Morty: Anatomy Park Game, you and up to three other players shrink down and take on the roles of Dr. Xenon Bloom, Annie, Poncho, Roger, and, of course, Rick and Morty as you work together to build Anatomy Park inside the body of Ruben, a homeless man. Players take turns moving about the Park, placing new Tiles, dealing with Diseases, and moving previously placed Tiles to better spots. Yeah, the Haunted Liver will look much better over … there.

Most of a player’s turn will be taken up by the Move and Action Phases. You have many options, but you can only perform one Move and one Action each turn. While you need to complete your Move Phase before your Action Phase, it is easier to explain Actions first, so we’ll start there today.

There are 5 Actions that can be chosen, one of which may be used per turn. These Actions are Draw, Place a Tile, Play a Focus Group, Shoot, or Exit.

Draw: You’ve got to brainstorm before you can do anything else! This Action allows you to pick up two new Tiles from the stack to add to your hand of Tiles. This is the easiest way to get new Tiles during the game since there is no “Free Draw” action. It also is important to note that if you have more than five Tiles in your hand at the end of a turn you will need to discard down to a total of five.

Tiles come in a few varieties: Attraction, Food, Ride, Exit, Transit, and Focus Group. Each of them will score a certain amount of Victory Points when placed in the Park. Attraction, Food, and Ride Tiles will be the heart of your park, sometimes literally, and each can come in either Blood Red, Bowel Brown, or Bronchial Blue.

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Place a Tile: When selecting this Action, you can place any Park Tile on an open space orthogonally adjacent to where your Character is currently located. Some of your Tiles will score more points if placed next to specific other Park Tiles, as noted on the Tiles themselves. Some Tiles will also ask you to place a Control Cube of your Character’s color on them as well, allowing you to receive end-of-game scoring benefits.

No park is complete without some sort of transport system. When the Mellow Yellow Transit Tiles are placed, additional Tiles from the Tile deck are placed face down beside them in a straight line in a single direction. These Transit Tiles are very useful when it comes to moving.

Play a Focus Group: The sixth type of Tile that you can have in your hand is a called a Focus Group. These are not Park Tiles, but instead are ways to score additional VPs, draw more Tiles, or replace a Control Cube on the board with one of your own. They’re hard to use, but so worth it!

As part of playing a Focus Group Tile, you get to make a free “Place a Tile” Action. However, just like how a real-life focus group is both useful and frustrating, there is a catch to playing one one of these Tiles in the game. The Park Tile you subsequently play must match the requirements on the Focus Group, which typically means you must place the Park Tile next to an Attraction, Ride, or Food Tile and also next to a Tile of a specific color. You may need to move a Tile to a new position to create such a spot.

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Shoot: You and your team aren't the only ones traversing this space. Ruben had a hard life before he was host to Anatomy Park and, because of that, Diseases are starting to fester! If a Disease is standing on your Character’s space at the start of your turn, you must discard a Tile. If there is more than one Disease, you'll have to discard more than one Tile. Nasty buggers.

Happily, Rick wouldn't let you go into the hostile gut of a hobo without some protection. Everyone has the ability to shoot Diseases. To do so, you roll the number of Combat Dice noted on your Character Card. If you roll a 6 on one or more of the dice, congratulations! You are as effective as one white blood cell among billions. You get the Rewards listed on the Disease Card.

If you miss, you’ll be able to move the Disease and you’ll also have to draw a Bodily Reaction Card, as Ruben’s failing body tries to cope with the fact that you shot him instead of the Disease. Bodily Reactions will have you act out the (usually embarrassing) title of the card. These cards can then cause new Diseases to show up in Ruben’s gut or result in other short-term and ongoing effects.

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Exit: One of the Bodily Reactions that you will likely eventually draw is a Heart Attack, which indicates that Ruben is about to die (sorry, Ruben!). You have two turns to make it to any Gross Green Exit Tile that was previously placed in Anatomy Park and use this Action. In the Basic Game, exiting before Ruben dies scores you 3 Victory Points. The Advanced Game uses secret Master Plan Cards, which we will get to in the next preview.

If you want to push you luck and try to get that last Focus Group in, you are welcome to try. However, the Bodily Reactions deck has a second Heart Attack card. When drawn, Ruben dies immediately and the game ends!

Not everything in the game is completely morbid. Unlike in the episode that gives the game its name, Ruben can actually live! The game ends with the Park opening successfully if the Tile stack runs out twice. However, this isn't very likely, as Ruben is a very sick man.

By now, you should be getting an idea of what you’ll need to do in Rick and Morty Anatomy Park Game, which will come out later in 2017. Next time, we’ll regurgitate more info about the different types of movement, as well as some deeper strategies. We’ll have the second part of this gameplay preview series thrown-up quicker than you can say “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub.” For more news on this and other exciting Rick and Morty games, keep an eye on Cryptozoic.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.