2021 · T-Man Games
The year is 1875 - the Wild West! Bandits & Thieves lurk about & before long Stealing & Shootouts begin. But this Wild West has a secret - the powerful Saloon Time Machine where you can erase the present! With a few supplies & a little luck, you may just survive these Tough Times!
Tough Times is an easy-to-learn die and card game for 2-4 players where you acquire and protect items by various methods to achieve stability!
SETUP:
Each player receives 5 Gold, an Invest in Gold card, and a random Job of the West card. Select a player to manage the bank and general store.
General Store cards are placed face-up and all remaining Gold Nuggets and Bars are placed nearby. Shuffle the Lucky Draw cards and place the deck face down. Remove Blizzard, Drought, and Famine from the Frontier Life deck and shuffle the rest into a face-down pile (they act like action cards). Once everyone has had their first turn, the abovementioned cards are shuffled back into the Frontier Life deck.
ON A PLAYERS TURN, THEY WILL:
PRE-ROLL (Optional - The player may do as many of these actions as they wish, in any order).
Buy & Sell Goods & Protect cards with the General Store.
Invest In Gold (Put any amount of Gold on or Take Gold off your Invest In Gold player card).
Pay 1 Gold to the Bank to exchange one of your Frontier Life cards for the top Frontier Life card in the deck.
ROLL (If you have 4 or less Frontier Life cards in your hand.
Roll the die. Draw that many cards from both the Lucky Draw & Frontier Life decks. E.G. Rolling a 1 means you draw 1 from EACH deck.
If you roll a 3, you may also do one of the following: get a lost Job back, free a Captured card, or get free from a Marshal card.
Cards You Draw:
Place Goods & Protect cards face up in front of you.
Secret Stash & Frontier Life cards go in your hand. (Secret Stash cards may be played at any time during the game).
FRONTIER LIFE
Play 1 Frontier Life card by placing it in the discard pile in the center of the table.
Discard down to 5 Frontier Life cards at the end of your turn.
Play continues clockwise with the next player repeating the above steps.
GAME END: A player has Stability when they have the following: Job, Family, Shack, Horse & Wagon & at least 10 Gold. When a player achieves stability, the Last Stand begins.
LAST STAND: an opportunity for opponents to play Secret Stash
cards to disrupt the player with stability.
Secret Stash cards can be played by any opponent in
any order.
There’s no limit on how many Secret Stash cards an
opponent or opponents may play.
If your opponents are unable to disrupt your Stability,
you win!
-description from the publisher
