Beest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Material
• Outline of Play
• Preparing an Expedition
• Hiding Sequences
• The Silent Guy
• Searching Through the Snow
• Meeting Other People
• Light at the End of the Tunnel?
• That's All?
• Scoring Tables

Game Material

The game box, 30 wooden markers with stickers, 6 bits of South Pole and 27 cave cards.

Outline of Play

Beest is a strange game. At the beginning of each polar expedition (round of play), fate lays her eyes on a player, and between them they share a dark secret: that player is doomed to be the Beest. He is possessed by an ancient evil - an unspeakable being which strives to ensnare the souls of all other players to become infected with the Beest themselves. This pack of lamentable souls then joins the original evil in hunting others. But only the Beest itself is powerful enough to turn a human soul black. Meanwhile, the innocent untainted players try to avoid becoming infected by teaming up with other untainted players. Or with players they think are untainted...

Preparing an Expedition

With three to five players: Take the box and empty it. From now on, it will be known as "the silent guy". Put the silent guy on the table, in front of an empty chair. It will function as a non-human player.

Each player, including the silent guy, receives a bit of the South Pole with an 'outgoing DNA samples' section (with arrows pointing outward) and an 'incoming DNA samples' section (with arrows pointing inward).

Take the wooden markers, which represent DNA samples. Before the first game, put a sticker on each marker.

The markers with the black figures belong to the future Beest. Use only the markers with point values up to the number of human players (so with four human players, use markers 1, 2, 3 and 4). Put them in an ordered pile with the highest numbered marker on top, all markers facing downwards.

For each human player, make one pile of colour-dotted markers, with each pile containing one colour only. These piles should be as high as the black one, that is, they have one marker for each human player. The colour-dotted side faces downward. Excess markers are put aside.

With six players: When playing with six people, do not involve the silent guy. In this case, make one pile with all five black markers, and five piles with colour-dotted markers.

Distributing the piles. The person who has traveled furthest to the South becomes the starting player. All human players except the starting player close their eyes. The starting player shuffles the piles of DNA samples. He then closes his eyes as the other players each choose a pile. One of the piles is given to the silent guy. With the starting player still keeping his eyes shut, one of the others moves the last pile around a bit so that no-one knows who has taken the black pile. The starting player then opens his eyes and takes the last pile.

Each player may look at his own pile. The piles are then put in the 'outgoing DNA samples' section on the bit of the South Pole. These represent each player's own DNA. Put all the cards face down on the table. Players' cards are open to everyone at any time. To start out, however, none of the players has a card.

Hiding Sequences

In the course of the game, each player, including the silent guy, develops a hiding sequence. This is a series of cards lying on the table, showing a cave system through which that player is running.

Each card shows a dot. From the hiding player's perspective, these dots should always be on the top of the card, thus pointing towards the middle of the table. The left side of the card shows one entry point; the right side shows two exits.

A hiding sequence cannot contain more than three cards. Cards can only be added by other human players. They are added to the right and removed from the left. Each player should remove his own cards in excess of three (from the left!) and place them a little to the side - even in somebody else's turn. In this way, other players can easily see his hiding sequence.

If an exit on one card is adjacent to an entry point on the next, the cards are said to fit. If the three cards fit, this establishes a line-of-entry: the player can be reached by other players.

The Silent Guy

The silent guy functions as an extra player. He does not play cards, but you may exchange DNA samples with him. He does have a hiding sequence of his own. He can also score points.

Searching Through the Snow

Play proceeds clockwise. Each human player does the following:

1. He or she takes away any cards in excess of two from his or her own 'hiding sequence' and from that of the silent guy (taking from the left side).

2. He or she then distributes these cards among the hiding sequences of the other players (including the silent guy). These cards are added at the right sides of these players' sequences.

When the game is up to speed, a human player should always have exactly enough cards to add a card to each other sequence on the table. As long as this is not yet the case - that is, during the first two turns - a human player may draw cards from the table until he has sufficient cards, and distribute these among his fellow expedition-ers. He must place exactly one card at each other player's sequence.

If a line of entry is established in exactly one other player's hiding sequence (this may be the silent guy), the player whose turn it is meets that player and must exchange DNA.

If more than one line of entry occurs, nothing happens: the Beest is wise enough not to attack people in groups.

Meeting Other People

If exactly two people meet (i.e., one line of entry is established), they must exchange DNA samples unless they have exchanged samples already. In other words, exchanging DNA samples occurs only between players that have not exchanged samples before.

Each player gives the other the top marker from his own outgoing DNA pile. After looking at it, the receiving player puts the marker in his 'incoming DNA' section. Other players should not under any circumstances be allowed to see the markers being exchanged.

If someone receives a marker showing a black DNA sample, he turns to the Beest side. From now on, his goal is to infect players by forcing them to exchange DNA samples with the original Beest.

Note that each individual marker can only be exchanged once per expedition, so you never trade markers that you got from another player. You also never exchange samples with the same player twice. You can check this by making sure you never have more than one marker of any colour in your incoming DNA pile.

If you get the last marker with a black figure from a player (especially if you get it from the Silent Guy), you must announce it; the game then ends.

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

The game ends when:

1. The original Beest player has exchanged all his black DNA samples. All players, including the silent guy, are now on the Beest side, and should thus have one marker with a black figure. All score points equal to the number indicated on this black marker. The original Beest player scores one point for each player (including the silent guy) in the game.

2. At the end of his turn, a non-Beest player has exchanged with everyone but the Beest player. Thus, he will have one DNA sample from each other player, and no black ones. Only those players who do not have any black figures score points equal to twice the amount of markers they have acquired.

Note that the silent guy cannot win in the second way, as he never gets a turn. However the game can end in one more way:

3. During his turn, any player except the original Beest may announce that another non-Beest player has won the game by exchanging DNA samples with all non-Beest players. If a player announces this, his statement is checked. Should he be right, all uninfected player(s) except the announcing player score two points for every marker they have; infected players do not score.

The player who announced the win gets one point for every player (including the silent guy) in the game. He does not get any points for uninfected DNA markers. If the player who rightly announced the win is infected, he substracts the number of Beests on his Beest marker. Note that the Beest itself may not announce someone else's winning the game.

Example: 4 humans are playing Beest with a silent guy. Thus, there are 5 players. One of the players has exchanged markers with all non-Beest players, which scores 3x2=6 points at game end. If this is announced by the first person to be infected by the Beest, he would score 5-4=1 points; if it is announced by the second one to be infected, he would score 5-3=2 points; if it is announced by an uninfected player who has exchanged DNA with two others, he would score 0 points for the markers + 5 points for the announcement = 5 points. If another player would end the game, he would only get 2x2 = 4 points.

It is of course possible to announce the Silent guy to have won. You may announce that you have won yourself only at the end of your turn, as described under point 2. In that case, you get 2 points for each marker you have acquired. If a wrong announcement is made, the game ends, and the announcing player forfeits 1 point per player participating (including the silent guy). No other players score points.

That's All?

Well, no. You are supposed to play a few expeditions, say three to five, to determine who wins.

As far as rules go: yes, that's all. The rest is strategy. You'll have to think very hard to figure this one out! The idea is that you should either be beest early on and let the Beest win, or not become beest at all. So, the first few rounds are basically random. But after that, you should know who the Beest is and you might be able to come up with a detailed, long-term plan of attack.

Scoring Tables

Scoring for 4 players (including silent guy)

Scoring item	Original Beest	Announcer	Other player infected	Other player uninfected
1 All infected	4	n/a	B	n/a
2 Non-Beest has met all non-Beests at end of his turn	n/a	n/a	n/a	2xC
3 Non-Beest has met all non-Beests, announced by other player	n/a	4-B	n/a	2xC
3 False announcement	n/a	-4	n/a	n/a

B = number of black figures received C = number of coloured markers received

Scoring for 5 players (including silent guy)

Scoring item	Original Beest	Announcer	Other player infected	Other player uninfected
1 All infected	5	n/a	B	n/a
2 Non-Beest has met all non-Beests at end of his turn	n/a	n/a	n/a	2xC
3 Non-Beest has met all non-Beests, announced by other player	n/a	5-B	n/a	2xC
3 False announcement	n/a	-5	n/a	n/a

B = number of black figures received C = number of coloured markers received

Scoring for 6 players (with or without box)

Scoring item	Original Beest	Announcer	Other player infected	Other player uninfected
1 All infected	6	n/a	B	n/a
2 Non-Beest has met all non-Beests at end of his turn	n/a	n/a	n/a	2xC
3 Non-Beest has met all non-Beests, announced by other player	n/a	6-B	n/a	2xC
3 False announcement	n/a	-6	n/a	n/a

B = number of black figures received C = number of coloured markers received

"n/a" marks a cell the printed table leaves crossed out (not applicable to that scoring item).