The rulebook is written by reading the game as built — real zones, actions, costs and endings.
A two-player deck-building battle in which you turn everyday baby-care tasks into Care Points while protecting your Patience and disrupting your opponent.
You win if your opponent’s Patience reaches 0. The game also ends at the end of the turn when the Supply Deck is exhausted, or at the end of turn 50; in either case, the player with more Care Points wins, with higher Patience breaking a tie. If both players are still tied after that, no further tie-break is specified.
You need:
There are two players. Shuffle a Starter Shift deck for each player and place it as that player’s Personal Deck. Shuffle the Household Supply deck and place it face down. Place the 10 Nap Token cards in their shared stack without shuffling.
Each player draws 5 cards. Each player starts with 25 Patience, 0 Effort, 3 Actions, and 0 Care Points. Fill the Supply Row with 5 cards from the Household Supply.
Your turn has two phases: Shift, followed by the automatic Lights Out phase.
At the start of your Shift, reset your Effort to 0 and your Actions to 3. Then resolve the start-of-turn effects of your Permanent cards in your Current Shift. For example, Shared Calendar gives you 1 Effort, while Chore Chart gives you 1 Effort and Sleep Training Plan gives you 1 Care Point.
During Shift, you may take actions in any order, as long as you can pay their costs and meet their requirements.
Play a card by spending 1 Action. Play the card from your Hand into your Current Shift and resolve its effect. If it has a printed Effort cost, pay that cost first. Cards without a printed cost require no Effort. Events and resource cards resolve when played; units also resolve their effects when played. Structures remain in your Current Shift because they are Permanent.
Buy from the Supply Row by spending 1 Action and the card’s printed Effort cost. Take one face-up card from the Supply Row. After the action, refill the row from the Household Supply until it contains 5 cards, or until the deck is empty. The purchased card becomes part of your deck through the normal discard-pile destination for purchased cards.
Activate an ability by spending 1 Action. The definition provides no separately activated card abilities, so there is currently no card ability for this action to activate.
Tidy Up by spending 1 Action. You must have at least 1 Effort and your opponent must control no structure with the Outpost behaviour. Spend all your Effort to restore the same amount of Patience.
Settle a Household Problem by spending 1 Action and having at least 1 Effort. Choose one opponent structure in their Current Shift. Pay Effort equal to that structure’s current health, reduce your Effort by that amount, set the structure’s health to 0, and move it to the opponent’s Laundry Basket. Structures with 0 health are discarded.
You may end your Shift when you choose. Ending it does not use an Action.
During Lights Out, discard every card in your Hand into your Laundry Basket. Discard every card in your Current Shift except cards with the Permanent behaviour. Then draw 5 cards from your Personal Deck.
| Action | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Play a card | 1 Action, plus printed Effort cost | Put a card into your Current Shift and resolve its effect |
| Buy from the Supply Row | 1 Action, plus printed Effort cost | Take one face-up Supply Row card and refill the row |
| Activate an ability | 1 Action | Activate an available card ability; none are currently defined |
| Tidy Up | 1 Action and all Effort | Requires Effort and no enemy Outpost; convert all Effort into Patience |
| Settle a Household Problem | 1 Action, plus Effort equal to target health | Destroy an opponent’s structure |
| End Shift | None | Begin the automatic Lights Out phase |
Units are useful people or tasks that resolve when played. Examples include Laundry Load, which gives 2 Effort, and Grandparent Visit, which gives Effort, draws a card, and scores Care Points.
Events resolve once when played. Quick Nap restores 2 Patience, while Trade Off damages the opponent’s Patience and scores Care Points.
Structures are Permanent household upgrades that stay in your Current Shift through Lights Out. They are Targetable Outposts and have health. Shared Calendar gives Effort at the start of your turn; Sleep Training Plan gives Care Points.
Resource cards provide one-time support. Coffee Refill gives 5 Effort when played, and Nap Token restores Patience and gives Care Points.
At the start of your Shift, your Shared Calendar gives you 1 Effort. You spend 1 Action to play Laundry Load, gaining 2 more Effort. You spend a second Action to play Bottle Wash, gaining 1 Care Point and 1 Effort. You now have 4 Effort, so you spend your third Action to Tidy Up, converting all 4 Effort into 4 Patience. At Lights Out, your played cards are discarded unless they are Permanent; Shared Calendar remains in your Current Shift.
The Supply Row refills after each action that changes it, up to 5 cards. If the Household Supply is empty, it stops refilling.
Patience cannot rise above 25 and cannot fall below 0. Effort cannot fall below 0. Actions reset to 3 and Effort resets to 0 at the start of each turn.
Only Permanent cards remain in your Current Shift during Lights Out. All other cards there, and every card in your Hand, go to your Laundry Basket before you draw 5 cards.
When a structure’s health reaches 0, it moves to its owner’s Laundry Basket. Structures can be targeted by Settle a Household Problem only while they are in the opponent’s Current Shift.
The game ends immediately when a player reaches 0 Patience. Supply exhaustion and the 50-turn limit wait until the end of the current turn. The winner in either end-of-turn case is determined first by Care Points and then by Patience. The definition provides no additional result for an exact tie.
No reshuffling rule is specified when a Personal Deck or the Household Supply runs out, so do not reshuffle or replace cards unless a card effect or future rule instructs you to.