Ghostbumpers
Ghostbumpers Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the game
In this trick-taking game, you don't want to win too many tricks, because each trick carries the risk that your character gets scared and the round ends. The braver you play, the more points you can earn.
What do we mean by "trick"?
In this game, a trick is a short round in which each player takes exactly one turn to play one or more Monster cards from their hand face up. Once the trick is finished, the player who played the highest result wins that trick.
Components
- 67 Monster cards: 7x each of the values 1 to 4 and 6 to 9, 10x value 5, and 1x value 0/10 (all with the same back).
- 42 Character cards (6 sets of 7 cards). Each set includes 6 Unfazed cards and 1 Scared card.
- 1 Starting card
Setup
- Each player chooses a set of Character cards made up of 6 Unfazed cards and 1 Scared card. Place your chosen set face down in front of you as your personal Character deck.
- Take the Monster cards and remove some depending on the number of players:
- In a 3-player game, remove 3x the values 1 to 9.
- In a 4-player game, remove 2x the values 1 to 9.
- In a 5-player game, remove 1x the values 1 to 9.
- In a 6-player game, do not remove any cards.
- Return the removed cards unused to the box. Then shuffle the remaining Monster cards and place them face down in the middle of the table as the Monster deck.
- Have a sheet of paper and a pen ready to record your points or use the Deep Print Games App (see the end of these rules).
- Randomly choose one player to receive the Starting card.
Playing the game
Ghostbumpers is played over several rounds. Each round consists of three phases:
- Distribute Monster cards
- Set scare levels
- Play tricks
Phase 1) Distribute Monster cards
The player with the starting card shuffles the Monster deck and deals 9 cards face down to each player. The remaining deck is placed face down in the center of the table, leaving space next to it for the Monster discard pile.
Phase 2) Set scare levels
Each player does the following: After looking at your 9 Monster cards, secretly insert your Scared card anywhere you like within your Character deck. Then place your Character deck face down in front of you. Keep your 9 Monster cards in hand.
How scared should I be? In Phase 3, whenever you win a trick, you reveal one or more cards from your Character deck. You want to avoid revealing your Scared card. Placing the Scared card further down in your deck reduces your risk, but it also means you can't win as many points.
Example: Anni receives a few high-value Monster cards and expects to win 1 or 2 tricks. Therefore, she chooses to place her Scared card in her deck with four Unfazed cards below it and two above.
Phase 3) Play tricks
Once all players have set their scare levels, tricks are played until EITHER:
- the first Scared card is revealed, OR
- all hand cards have been played (usually after 9 tricks).
The first trick of each round is started by the player with the Starting card. Subsequent tricks in the round are started by the player who won the previous trick.
How to play a trick
The player starting the trick plays one or more identical Monster cards face up in front of them. Then the player to their left plays one or more identical Monster cards, then the player to their left, and so on, until every player has played once.
Important: Whenever you play two or more identical cards together, you must draw cards from the Monster deck to your hand, exactly one card fewer than you played. This ensures that after every trick, each player has the same number of Monster cards in hand.
If there are no cards left in the Monster deck, shuffle the Monster discard pile and place it face down as the new Monster deck. In the very rare case that the Monster discard pile is also empty, each player selects one card from their hand and discards it to replenish the Monster discard pile.
After everyone has played, compare the results:
- If you played a single card, its printed value is your result.
- If you played two or more identical cards, they form a decimal number: the number of cards played becomes the part before the decimal point, and their printed value becomes the part after the decimal point.
Example: 3 cards with the value 8 form a result of 3.8, which is lower than a single card with the value 4.
The player with the highest result wins the trick. If players are tied for highest, the tied player who played latest wins the trick.
The winner of the trick must immediately reveal the top card of their Character deck and place it face up next to their deck. Then, for each Monster card of value 5 in the trick, they must reveal an additional Character card.
Example: Anni plays a 1. Hedda plays a 4. Emely plays two 5s (valued at 2.5). Lukas plays a 4. Since Lukas played the latest 4, he reluctantly wins the trick and must now reveal the top three cards of his Character deck: one for the trick itself and two more for the two 5s.
If the winner of the trick does not reveal their Scared card while turning over Character cards, nothing further happens. They simply leave their revealed Unfazed cards next to their deck.
All played Monster cards (from all players) are placed face up into the Monster discard pile, and the next trick begins.
End of a round
If the winner of the trick reveals their Scared card while turning over Character cards, or if no one has any Monster cards left in hand, the round ends. Then, points are awarded:
- If a player ended the round by revealing their Scared card, that player receives no points.
- Each of the other players (or everyone if the round ended due to nobody having any Monster cards in hand) does the following: Reveal cards from your Character deck one by one until your Scared card appears. For each Unfazed card still in your deck after that, you receive 1 point. If the first card you reveal is your Scared card (because it is the current top card), you receive 2 points for each Unfazed card still in your Character deck after that instead.
Example: Lukas reveals his Scared card and ends the round. He scores 0 points. Emely reveals three Unfazed cards before her Scared card appears; for the 2 Unfazed cards that remain in her deck afterwards, she scores a total of 2 points. Hedda turns over her top card and... it's her Scared card! Since she still has 3 Unfazed cards left in her deck, she scores 6 points. Anni, who opted for Paranoia scoring (see below), placed her Scared card at the very bottom of her deck. As there are no cards in her deck after revealing it, she scores 0 points.
After you record all points, gather all Monster cards (the ones from the table, from the discard pile, and any in the players' hands) and shuffle them back into the Monster deck. Then, the player with the starting card passes it to the player to their left, who begins a new round by distributing the Monster cards.
Additional rules
Paranoia scoring
If you're feeling brave, you can opt for Paranoia scoring by placing your Scared card at the very bottom of your Character deck at the start of the round.
This is not easy to pull off, but if you win a trick and the very last card you reveal is your Scared card (thus there are no cards left in your deck), the round ends immediately as usual. However, only you receive points, specifically 10 points, while all other players score nothing.
This only applies if you yourself end the round by revealing your Scared card, not if it ends in any other way.
The 0/10 Monster card
When you play this card, choose aloud whether it counts as 0 or 10. Now, for this trick, the following rule applies: the winner does not reveal any cards from their Character deck (even if there were 5s in the trick). Instead, they must take the bottom card of their Character deck and place it face down on top. If there is only one card left in their deck, nothing happens.
Tip: If you opted for Paranoia scoring, the 0/10 card might thwart your plans. But perhaps you anticipated this and placed your Scared card somewhere other than the very bottom.
End of the game
The game ends:
- In a 3-player game: after 6 rounds (each player had the starting card 2x)
- In a 4-player game: after 8 rounds (each player had the starting card 2x)
- In a 5-player game: after 5 rounds (each player had the starting card 1x)
- In a 6-player game: after 6 rounds (each player had the starting card 1x)
Then, add up the points from all rounds. The player with the most points wins. If tied, the victory is shared.
As an alternative to having the game end after a certain number of rounds, you can agree before the game on a target score (e.g., 25 points). Then keep playing rounds until at least one player reaches or exceeds that many total points.
To record and tally your scores, the Deep Print Games App is recommended. It offers virtual scoring pads for this and many more Deep Print Games titles.