Bushido Breaker
Bushido Breaker Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
Bushido Breaker is a 2-4 player hidden movement card game of deduction and calculated risks. You choose to play as the ninja or as the samurai while your opponent plays as the rival faction. In order to assassinate the shogun, the ninja must either disable alarms or kill all samurai.
The purpose of the samurai being to protect their shogun, they must either capture or kill all ninja.
Every round: the ninja will choose his action card and lay it face-down. Then the samurai will choose his action card and reveal it, telling the ninja what he is doing with it. If the samurai is successful, the ninja reveals his thwarted action. If the ninja is successful, his action takes effect and he secretly discards the card or places it back within his hand (if it's infinite uses).
Components
- 8 locations
- 44 action cards
- 8 special cards
- 7 samurai cards
- 1 tracking notepad (40 sheets)
Setup for 2 Players
Place the Shogun's Chamber card on the table. Place the following cards below the Shogun's Chamber in this order: Shogun's Corridor, Shogun's Castle, and Jigoku Dojo. To both sides of the Jigoku Dojo, place the gate cards. Now slide a samurai card slightly underneath every location except the Shogun's Chamber.
Setup for 3-4 Players
Place the cards as you would for the 2 player setup. Now take the Jigoku Dojo card and move it to the left of the Shogun's Castle. In the Jigoku Dojo's original location, place the Daimyo's Castle. To the right of the Shogun's Castle, place the Dining Room. All cards except the Shogun's Chamber have a samurai card underneath them.
Action Cards Setup
Action cards are the cards that will remain in your hand throughout the game, unless discarded. These cards (specific to the ninja or samurai) reflect the abilities you may use each turn.
For 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 player games: each samurai gets 5 Katana cards, 2 Yumi cards, 1 Search Room card, 1 Move card, 1 Check Alarm card, and 1 Check Exits card. Each samurai then secretly chooses 1 special card. For the breakdown of special cards, refer to page 10. Each ninja gets 5 Kunai cards, 2 Shuriken cards, 1 Hide card, 1 Move card, 1 Sabotage Alarm card, and 1 Smoke Bomb card. Each ninja then secretly chooses 1 special card.
In a 3 player game there is only 1 ninja against 2 samurai, so the ninja gets to choose 2 special cards and both samurai receive none.
(Note: the special cards breakdown is printed on page 9 of the rulebook; "page 10" is as printed in the source.)
Playing as the Ninja
As the ninja, choose to start in either Azuma (East) Gate or Nishi (West) Gate, without the samurai's knowledge. On the tracking notepad: write down your chosen location and check the box matching your action for this turn.
On your first turn, you have several options: 1) kill the samurai in your location with your Kunai 2) kill a samurai at an orthogonally (not diagonally) adjacent location with Shuriken 3) Hide at your location to confuse the samurai into thinking you moved 4) Move to an orthogonally adjacent location 5) Sabotage Alarm at your location 6) use your special card if applicable. Once your card is chosen, lay it face-down. This card must now remain unmoved.
Example: the ninja plays Kunai at Azuma Gate against a samurai who plays Check Exits. The Kunai is not countered, so the samurai card is flipped over (removed from play).
If your turn is successful (your action wasn't countered), complete the action without revealing your card. If it was an attack action (Kunai or Shuriken), simply flip or remove the samurai card from play. If noticed (a non-attack action has been countered), you must reveal the action you attempted. There is a check box on your notepad for every time you're noticed. If you are ever to be killed or captured (noticed twice), you can lay down Smoke Bomb to negate the round. For cards with limited use, keep 2 discard piles: 1 face-up (noticed pile) and 1 face-down. The samurai may look at your face-up pile at any time.
Playing as the Samurai
Point to which samurai card to use (1 action per samurai, per turn); select the action card you will use at that samurai's location.
If there are 2 people playing as samurai, wait for the ninja to lay down his card before discussing your plan. You have a counter to nearly every ninja action which either notices the ninja or kills him.
Choose which samurai you'd like to use, being unaware of which gate the ninja occupies. On your first turn, you have several options: 1) use your Katana to counter the Kunai at the same location 2) Check Alarm to notice the ninja's attempt to Sabotage Alarm same location 3) Check Exits to notice the ninja's attempted Move from your location 4) Search Room to find the ninja should he Hide 5) Move your samurai card to a new location; multiple samurai can be at a single location 6) use your special card if applicable.
Example: the ninja plays Kunai against a samurai who plays Katana at Azuma Gate. The ninja dies.
You could also choose a samurai at an orthogonally adjacent location to an entrance and use Yumi. This counters the ninja's attempt to throw a Shuriken at your samurai, thus killing the ninja. A more in-depth actions breakdown is on the following page.
Action Cards Breakdown
All actions are completed orthogonally or at your location.
Ninja
- Kunai (1 use): kill a targeted samurai at the same location.
- Sabotage Alarm (infinite uses): flip location card over. This alarm is now disabled.
- Move (infinite uses): move to adjacent location. Can only be used 2 turns in a row.
- Shuriken (1 use): kill the targeted samurai at an adjacent location.
- Hide (infinite uses): remain in your location. Can only be used 2 turns in a row.
- Smoke Bomb (1 use): use after your action if you will otherwise be killed or captured.
Samurai
- Katana (1 use): counter Kunai and kill the ninja at the same location. Blocks Shuriken, but ninja isn't killed or noticed.
- Check Alarm (infinite uses): notice the ninja's attempt to Sabotage Alarm in your location.
- Check Exits (infinite uses): notice the ninja leaving your location. Ninja reveals where he moved.
- Yumi (1 use): point to a samurai to counter and kill any ninja who attempts to use Shuriken against you. Blocks Kunai in your location, but doesn't notice or kill the ninja.
- Search Room (infinite uses): notice ninja's attempt to Hide in your location.
- Move (infinite uses): move samurai to adjacent location. Move also dodges Shuriken, but doesn't notice ninja.
Special Cards Breakdown
Move Diagonally is the only special that is done diagonally.
Ninja
- Shurikens (1 use): throw a Shuriken (other Shuriken cards not used) at targets in 2 locations, adjacent to you. Can be countered by Yumi or dodged, but can still successfully kill one of the two targets.
- Move Diagonally (2 uses): move diagonally into a location. Can be countered by Check Exits.
- Blowgun (1 use): secretly choose any samurai and shoot a poison dart at him. He will die after the next turn. This card is not revealed and can't be countered.
- Metsubushi (1 use): if you used Kunai and your target used Katana, lay this card down in order to negate Katana and still kill him.
Samurai
- Reinforcements (1 use): place 2 addition samurai anywhere except Shogun's Chamber. This card is only possible when there are 4 or less samurai and takes place between rounds.
- Repair Alarms (1 use): fix an alarm at any 2 locations. Takes place between rounds.
- Showdown (1 use): shift all players to Shogun's Corridor and remove the other locations, when 2 samurai are left. The ninja must kill both to win. Takes place between rounds.
- Revelation (1 use): at any time, force the ninja to reveal the last 4 actions on the tracking notepad. Takes place between rounds.
Winning and Losing
There are 2 ways the ninja can win the game:
- Killing all samurai, thus making the shogun a "sitting duck".
- By sabotaging 3 (2 players) or 5 (3-4 players) alarms and successfully moving into the Shogun's Chamber.
There are 3 ways the samurai can win:
- Killing all the ninja.
- Noticing each ninja twice.
- If the Ninja runs out of turns on their tracking notepad.
Additional Instructions
- If there are 4 players, both ninja players may be on the same or different locations, throughout the game. Samurai can talk as much as they want. Ninja however, cannot communicate.
- As the ninja, whenever you Move into a location with a Nightingale Floor, you must say: "CHIRP".
- The samurai has only 1 discard pile for limited use cards and his pile will be face-up.
- When Showdown is used, the ninja may still use Move as a bluffing mechanism, even though the ninja can't move until all Samurai are killed.
Special Circumstances
- There may be exchanges where 2 ninja target 1 samurai or his location, but the samurai's action successfully counters both. In this situation, both ninja lose.
- If a samurai counters 1 ninja, but the other ninja successfully kills him with a different action in the same round - the samurai's counter is negated and he dies.
- If there is only 1 samurai alive and 2 samurai players, 1 player gets the rest of both samurai players' action cards and they collaborate on his moves.