In this asymmetric cooperative deduction game designed by Johannes Krenner, one player takes on the role of the eponymous Doctor Rat. The Doctor Rat is trying to ensure that all the groups of rats living with him on a landfill site all eat healthy meals that meet their specific nutritional needs and avoid eating foods which may be actually harmful to their health. For example, that grey rats cannot eat liquid food, or maybe black rats must eat food in portions of 3.
Tho' the Doctor Rat knows exactly what each group of rats should be eating (ie: food type, colour or quantity), the Doctor can only communicate with the other rats through the cards and tokens played. It is up to the rats to discuss the information they are given and make deductions based on the ticks or crosses in the results from previous rounds. They all have to survive for eight rounds (ie: no rat can accumulate more than two crosses) and the eighth round has to be flawless for the players to chalk up their collective win.
Doctor Rat is a game that will appeal to fans of Mysterium (Libellud) and Rear Window (Funko Games), tho' it plays more quickly. The rules make the game seem more complicated than it really is: the Doctor Rat player has to follow the differences between each round but other players don't need to trouble themselves overly with these idiosyncrasies.
The game is at its best with two or three players representing each group of rats as that ensures players debate their choices, which in turn informs the Doctor Rat player so they can subtly steer players away from erroneous deductions - albeit without giving verbal or non-verbal clues beyond the cards and tokens in the game. And if your rats ever find the game too easy, you can step up the difficulty by adding in 'complication' cards...
With art from Simon Douchy, Blue Orange have hit the ball out of the landfill site with the production of Doctor Rat. Our Board's Eye View 360 shows what the Doctor Rat player can see: within game, the other players will only be able to see the cards presented to them and the back of the Doctor Rat box. As you can see, the box opens up to form the Doctor's medicine cabinet, functioning both as a screen and card racks so that the Doctor Rat can see at a glance the dietary constraints of each group of rats. It all makes for a highly digestible package.