Bazyliszek
Bazyliszek Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents of the Box
The box contains:
- 1 game board with a score track
- 5 character pawns
- 90 room cards
- 10 shield tokens
- 5 tokens worth 40 points each
- rulebook
Object of the Game
The players take on the roles of brave treasure hunters who try to leave the basilisk's dungeons. They explore them by choosing cards that show individual cellar rooms. Every explored room brings victory points. But if a player gains two identical cards, that is, returns to the same room, they encounter the basilisk. Its gaze turns the player to stone.
Setup
Shuffle all the cards and divide them into two piles of roughly equal size. Set one pile aside. It will take part only in the second round of the game.
Spread the remaining cards randomly on the table, face down.
Place the board on the table. Each player chooses the colour of the character they want to play as, and places their character pawn on space "0" of the score track. Place the five 40-point tokens beside the board. Return the shield tokens to the box. They are used only in the simplified variant.
Gameplay
The game consists of two rounds. The first round is started and played by the players simultaneously, by revealing the room cards lying on the table.
Cards may be revealed with one hand only. When a player reveals a card, they must decide whether to visit that room or to skip it. The following rules apply:
- if a player visits a room, they keep the card: they cover it and place it in a pile beside them;
- if a player skips a room, they leave the card face up on the table, next to the rest of the scattered cards.
During the game, it is forbidden to look at your own face-down pile of visited rooms: each player must remember which cards they have already gathered there. It is also forbidden to snatch cards from other players' hands or to take cards from other players' piles of visited rooms. It is, however, allowed to take cards that were revealed earlier (by yourself or by another player) and are lying on the table.
When all the cards from the general pile have been revealed (regardless of whether every room has been visited or not), the round ends immediately and nobody may take new cards. Each player reveals their pile of visited rooms and the counting of points begins.
If a player has at least two identical cards (that is, the room shown on them presents the same objects, facing the same direction, i.e. not a mirror image of one another), the player has fallen victim to the basilisk. Such a player discards all the cards gained in this round onto the centre of the table and scores no points.
If a player has not fallen victim to the basilisk and has cards in their collection that are mirror images of each other, they score 5 points for each such pair.
For all other visited rooms (not repeated and not mirror images) the player receives 1 point each.
It is important that a player falls victim to the basilisk whenever they have at least two identical cards, regardless of whether they also have the mirror image of that card.
Safely visited room cards are set aside. Players mark their results by moving their character pawn on the board to the corresponding space. If at some point a player scores more points than there are spaces on the board, they receive a 40-point token, which they place in front of them on the table, and their pawn starts its journey around the board again.
Example: Przemek scored 48 points. He receives a 40-point token and moves his pawn to space 8.
When all players have revealed their piles and counted their points, proceed to the next round. All the cards from the centre of the table (representing rooms that were revealed and not visited by players, as well as those discarded by players who fell victim to the basilisk) should be shuffled together with the pile that was set aside earlier. Cards that a player has gathered in their scoring pile (in which there were not two or more identical cards) are not used. The next round is played with the pool of cards formed in this way, under the same rules.
The previous round has no effect on the second round. Players who fell victim to the basilisk may still play and score points in the second round, and the rooms visited in this round are scored independently of the cards kept from the first round. Points scored in the second round are added on the board to the points scored in the first round.
The winner is the player who has the most points after the game has ended. In case of a tie, the winner is the player who collected more pairs of mirror images in the second round.
If a winner still cannot be determined, the players share the victory together.
Examples
- A player visited 5 different rooms: they score 5 points.
- A player visited 1 mirror room and 3 additional rooms: 5 + 3 = 8 points.
- A player was caught by the basilisk because they stayed too long in the room with a barrel: 0 points (the player discards all their cards).
- A player was caught by the basilisk because they stayed too long in the room with a ghost (even though they have a mirror image of this room): 0 points.
- A player scores 11 points: 5 for the mirror room with a barrel, 5 for the mirror room with a ghost, and 1 for a single room with a rat and a treasure.
Simplified Variant
If you play with younger players, you may use the simplified variant. At the start of the game, each player receives one or two shield tokens. When checking visited rooms, a shield token may be used once to discard from your pile a card that would cause a meeting with the basilisk.
If players of different experience take part, we recommend evening out the chances. This can be done by giving younger players two shield tokens each, and older players only one (or none at all). Points are calculated by the same rules as in the basic variant.