Bite Night
Bite Night Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Materials
- 50 Moon tiles
- 72 Rendezvous cards (36 basic cards, plus 4 x 9 advanced cards in 4 languages)
- The meaning of the cards is described on pages 12–15. (Printed reference as it appears in the source; in the 8-page PDF the card meanings are on pages 4–7 of the document.)
- 1 starting player card
- 1 deposit mat (coffin / graveyard)
- 1 score pad
Object of the Game
Players simultaneously grab and collect Moon tiles. Before each collecting round, you bring Rendezvous cards into play, face down. This is meant to give you points at the end of the game, provided you collect the corresponding Moon tiles. But only at the rendezvous in the moonlight will you learn how effective your own plans are — or whether you have bitten off more than you can chew.
Note: When you play the game for the first time, you should use only the 36 text-free basic cards. Advanced players should add the 9 advanced cards (the ones with text). The hearts on half of the Moon tiles come into play only in the game with the advanced cards. In the basic game, simply ignore the hearts.
Set-Up
The hungriest player lays the starting player card in front of him. Shuffle all Moon tiles and Rendezvous cards separately and deal them out as follows:
- With three players, each gets 9 Rendezvous cards and 15 Moon tiles.
- With four players, each gets 9 Rendezvous cards and 12 Moon tiles.
Put the remaining Moon tiles and Rendezvous cards back into the box.
Put your Moon tiles face down in a pile in front of you. Nobody is allowed to look at the tiles.
Take your Rendezvous cards into your hand; make sure the other players don't see them.
Place the deposit mat in the middle of the table so that the open coffin is visible. Have the score pad ready.
Course of the Game
You play as many cycles as there are players. With 3 players, a cycle goes through 5 rounds; with 4 players, 4 rounds.
One round consists of two parts:
- Players bring one Rendezvous card into play.
- Players grab three Moon tiles.
1) Placing a Rendezvous Card
Beginning with the starting player, and then in clockwise order, each player chooses one of his Rendezvous cards and puts it face down on the deposit mat. All cards played form a pile there. Important: Never change the order in which the Rendezvous cards have been placed.
When all players have placed one card, the deposit mat with the cards is shoved aside in order to make space for the "Moon tile-grabbing" that follows.
2) Grabbing Moon Tiles
Now things get lively and all players play simultaneously:
Each player takes 3 face-down Moon tiles from his pile. On the starting player's command "1-2-3," all players flip over their Moon tiles in the middle of the table. Each player immediately grabs 3 of these Moon tiles.
Note: The players try to grab Moon tiles whose motif and color are likely to give them points later on because of the Rendezvous cards that they secretly placed. Since the grabbing proceeds very quickly, you won't always get the Moon tiles you desire. But you can take this into account when you play the next Rendezvous card.
These are the rules for grabbing:
You may…
- grab Moon tiles revealed by other players or by yourself
- use both hands
You must…
- take exactly 3 Moon tiles per round
- grab only Moon tiles of the current round
Each player takes the Moon tiles he has grabbed and lays them face up as a collection in front of him, with a little distance from the center of the table.
At the end of each round, the starting player card is passed to the next player on the left. The deposit mat with the face-down Rendezvous cards from the previous round(s) is put back in the middle of the table. Then a new round begins.
When the last Moon tiles have been revealed and grabbed, the last round of a cycle ends. Now comes the RENDEZVOUS, and that means the evaluation of the cards played.
The Rendezvous — You Get Points!
First, each player puts aside the Rendezvous cards he has not brought into play. They will not be used any more in this cycle. Then the starting player of the first round places the starting player card in front of him. He takes the face-down pile of Rendezvous cards, turns the pile over without changing the order of the cards and puts it next to the deposit mat; this way, the card that was the first to have been placed becomes visible. After that, he turns over the deposit mat so that the graveyard is face up.
The player calls out the function of the visible card on the top of the pile. Then (all players) carry out this function. After that, the card is removed. The next Rendezvous card follows … and so on, until all functions have been carried out. When the entire pile has been resolved, the current cycle ends. The starting player card is passed to the player on the left, who becomes the starting player of the new cycle.
Ending and Winning the Game
Play as many cycles as necessary for each player to be the first starting player once. The player with the most points is the winner.
The Rendezvous Cards
Point Cards
Each player who has collected tiles required by the just-evaluated point card scores the points indicated on the top left of the card. You can score these points multiple times if you have the applicable tiles or combos in your collection more than once. Each tile may be scored only once per card. It may be scored again for following Rendezvous cards.
Example: Motif card "vampire" — six tiles in four different colors — score: 6+2=8 points.
Color set: 5 points each
For each complete color set (any 5 motifs in 5 different colors), you get 5 points.
Motif cards: 1 point each (+ bonus)
- vampire tiles
- monk tiles
- maiden tiles
- coffin tiles
- garlic bulb tiles
Each tile with the applicable motif gives you 1 point. If you have tiles with this motif in four different colors, you earn a bonus of 2 points. Five different colors for this motif give you a bonus of 4 points.
Colour cards: 1 point each (+ bonus)
- blue tiles
- red tiles
- yellow tiles
- green tiles
- purple tiles
Each tile with the applicable color gives you 1 point. If you have tiles in this color with four different motifs, you earn a bonus of 2 points. Five different motifs in this color give you a bonus of 4 points.
Pairs (same motif + same color): 3 points each
- 2 vampire tiles
- 2 monk tiles
- 2 maiden tiles
- 2 coffin tiles
- 2 garlic bulb tiles
You score 3 points for every two identical motifs in a color.
Combinations of the same color: 4 points each
- vampire + monk
- vampire + maiden
- vampire + coffin
- vampire + garlic
- monk + maiden
- monk + coffin
- monk + garlic
- maiden + coffin
- maiden + garlic
- coffin + garlic
You get 4 points for each applicable combination of two tiles in one color.
Example: Card "maiden + garlic" — two applicable combinations — score: 2 x 4 = 8 points.
Graveyard Cards
Put 2 of your own Moon tiles in the graveyard:
- 2 own vampires
- 2 own monks
- 2 own maidens
- 2 own coffins
- 2 own garlic bulbs
- 2 own tiles of your choice (two times available)
The effect of these Graveyard cards is that each player has to put 2 of his collected tiles in the graveyard (mat). If you have none or only one, then place none or one, respectively.
The next two Rendezvous cards do not count
Put the following two cards and this graveyard card away immediately, without carrying out their functions (two times available).
Graveyard closed • the next Graveyard card has no effect.
This card is put face up next to the pile. If a graveyard card comes up later in the evaluation, this card is put away along with the "Graveyard closed" card, without its function being carried out.
Advanced Cards
An advanced card is resolved by each player involved, one at a time, in clockwise order beginning with the starting player. Except for the "Garlic soup", the advanced cards redistribute Moon tiles. Especially the Moon tiles with a heart need to be taken into account; the players with these Moon tiles take the respective Moon tiles from other players if they are available and add them to their own collection.
Resurrection
Each coffin with a heart steals one Moon tile of the same color from the graveyard (if there is one available).
Example for Resurrection: see the illustrated example on page 6 of the source.
Blood Wedding
(The source prints the title as "Blood" above the card illustration and "Wedding" beside its text; the card is titled "Blood Wedding", as the Vow of chastity text confirms.)
Each maiden with a heart steals the monk with a heart of the same color from another player (if there is one available).
Neck Bite
Each vampire with a heart steals the maiden with a heart of the same color from another player (if there is one available).
Hoarding
Each monk with a heart steals the garlic with a heart of the same color from another player (if there is one available).
Servant
The Servant protects all coffins from the "Sunrise" card. The Servant is put face up next to the pile. If the "Sunrise" card comes up later during the evaluation, this card is put away along with the "Servant" card, without being carried out.
Vow of chastity
The Vow of chastity protects all monks from the "Blood wedding" card. The "Vow of chastity" card is put face up next to the pile. If the "Blood wedding" card comes up later during the evaluation, this card is put away along with the "Vow of chastity" card, without being carried out.
Garlic soup
Each garlic bulb counts 3 points; then, all the garlic is put in the graveyard.
Sunrise
Each vampire with a heart steals the coffin with a heart of the same color from another player (if there is one available).
Example for Sunrise: see the illustrated example on page 7 of the source.
Banishment
Each garlic with a heart banishes a player's own vampires of the same color to the graveyard.
Example for Banishment: see the illustrated example on page 7 of the source.
The Score Pad
The score pad has a column per player, headed with a name field and a cycles row (1 to 5 for the cycles of the game), with a points area beneath. Each column ends in a sum field and a total field.