Aleah, Mason, Lauren
Game Title: Always Waiting
A cooperative competitive board game about care, time, and responsibility.
Goal
Keep your pets healthy, happy, and loved.
If you care for them well, you can adopt more pets.
If you neglect them… they don’t die.
They just wait.
Players
2–5 players
Time
30–45 minutes
Components
- 1 Game Board (a room with action spaces: Kitchen, Bathroom, Yard, Clinic, Bedroom, School, Park)
- Pet Cards (each with: Hunger, Cleanliness, Happiness, Thirst, Love, Intelligence meters)
- Status Cubes (to track each meter)
- Time Deck (event cards)
- Care Dice (1 six-sided die)
- Loneliness Tokens
- Adoption Cards
- Player Action Tokens
Setup
Each player starts with:
- 1 Pet Card
- All meters at 3
- 0 Loneliness Tokens
Shuffle the Time Deck and place it facedown.
Turn Structure
Each round = 1 Day
- Draw a Time Card
Something happens:- “You were busy today: -1 Happiness”
- “Rainy day: +1 Comfort if you’re home”
- “Forgot dinner: -1 Hunger”
- Player Actions (2 per turn)
Move to a room and perform its care action:
| Room | Action |
| Kitchen | Feed (+1 Hunger) |
| Bathroom | Bathe (+1 Clean) |
| Yard | Play (+1 Happiness) |
| Bedroom | Comfort (+1 Love) |
| Park | Hydrate (+1 Thirst) |
| School | Teach Trick (+1 Intelligence) |
| Clinic | Heal (remove 1 Loneliness) |
You may care for your own pet or another player’s.
Neglect Rule
At the end of each day:
- If any meter is 0, place a Loneliness Token on that pet.
- If a pet has 3 Loneliness Tokens, it becomes Waiting:
- You cannot adopt new pets.
- The pet no longer gains Happiness until comfort is given.
Adoption Rule
If all meters on one pet reach 5, draw an Adoption Card and gain a new pet.
Now you must care for both.
Emotional Mechanic
If you skip caring for a pet for 2 rounds:
Place the pet in the center of the board.
It is now waiting.
It does nothing until someone comforts it.
Win Condition
The game ends when the Time Deck runs out.
- Winner: Player with the most loved pets (highest Love total).
- Co-op Variant: Everyone wins if no pet is Waiting at the end.
Theme Message
Love isn’t automatic.
It needs time.
If you leave, it waits.