SNAP Review – Bad Doctor: Chronic Chaos

Corey and Ian review this game of keeping patients alive… at least, during your turn. It’s actually good for you when (not if) patients die on another doctor’s turn! Listen to their thoughts in under 4 minutes, or read on below.

Bad Doctor was designed by Eric Magnan and Dan Germain and published by Mayday Games. It’s suitable for 2-4 players ages 10+, and plays in less than 40 minutes.

Setup

Put the four starting patients out on the table, and separate the other tiles into patients and treatments. Don’t forget to take your own doctor board and matching name tags!

How to Play

Patients have two areas that can be filled: treatments and complications.

On your turn, take two actions: either draw a new treatment tile, or “treat” a patient with one of the treatment tiles from your hand. To “treat” a patient, match the symbol on a patient’s malady (open edge) with one of your own treatment tiles, then place a name tag on the match.

If all maladies are closed on a patient, they are cured! But any patient you didn’t visit this turn gets a complication cube, making them one step closer to dying.

If a patient dies on someone else’s turn, you receive your name tags back from that patient and add them to your score pile. If you cure a patient completely on your turn, only your name tags from that patient get to score.

Strategy: place treatments on patients about to die, so you get the reward on someone else’s turn, but don’t forget to look for patients who have very few open maladies to see if you can cure them on your turn.

Nearly every treatment tile has a special action, so plan out your turn carefully to maximize your two actions each turn.

Impressions

Bad Doctor is our prescription for a fast and fun tile-laying game with easy-to-learn rules.

“I really really like it and love to play it with my family.”

Ian

The humor is slightly coarse, so you might want to stick with the recommended age of 10 and up. Kids that age will have no problem keeping up with the grown-ups.

The short play time makes it easy to play Bad Doctor multiple times every time you take out the box.

We highly recommend Bad Doctor. For under $30, it’s a prescription for pandemonium and laughter.

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The Family Gamers received a review copy of Bad Doctor from Mayday Games.