Greed Quest Rulebook

Source note: transcribed from the Steve Jackson Games GreedQuest rules (Version 1.0, © 2004, design by Joseph McEvoy; the PDF was a Tesera-hosted copy). The two-page PDF is laid out in columns around board graphics; the one-line effect text printed in some board-room illustrations (for example Rooms 4, 6, 7 and 8, whose room-effect boxes are drawn on the board art) is not present in the text layer and is not reproduced. Notes on particular rooms are given where the text states them.

Introduction

After a weary journey across blah blah blah and a night at the inn spent in the arms of the blah blah blah of your dreams, you have crossed the dark swamps of Blah Blah Blah and arrived at the entrance to Dungeon Blah Blah Blah in search of the dragon's blah blah -- no, wait, in search of the dragon's treasure!! That's not blah, that's ... that's ... that's treasure!!! Of course, you have to be the first to find it, and you aren't alone. Bleh.

GreedQuest pits you against your buddies in a race to the center of the dungeon. Reach the dragon's lair first and get his hoard - then be the first person to make it out again!

Components

This boxed game includes six 28-card decks (one for each player), an 11" x 17" full-color gameboard, one die-cut sheet with six characters and six plastic bases to hold them, and these rules.

Rules of the Game

Every player gets his own deck of 28 cards. All decks have the same cards; this is not a game of deck-building, but a game of luck and strategy. Each player starts the game by shuffling his deck and drawing a hand of 5 cards. Place the stand-up figures representing each adventurer into the first room, "Ye Same Olde Tavern."

Every turn is the same - each player selects a card from his hand and lays it face-down on the table, so that it overlaps the edge of the map. When all players have laid a card on the table, they flip over the cards and resolve the turn according to the rules below. (As a matter of courtesy, no one should move another player's piece unless specifically requested.) Cards should be discarded once they have taken effect (except for The Meek Shall Inherit and Curse!, which are left out until the end of their turn as reminders of their effects).

At the most basic level, the highest Go! card played on a turn is the winner, and the player gets to move forward one room. But turns are rarely so cut and dried ...

At the end of the turn, each player draws enough cards from his deck to bring his hand back up to five cards. When all players have drawn, the next turn begins. As soon as a player draws the last card from his deck, he shuffles the discards, turns them over, and continues.

At the end of a turn on which a player first reaches Room 12, "The Hoard," he reverses direction. On the next turn, he starts moving out again (with his load of loot!). "Forward" and "backward" are always defined in terms of the direction the piece is moving - the arrows on the character figures are there to help keep track. The first player who reaches Room 12 and makes it back to Room 1 has won the game! (If two players reach Room 1 on the same turn, both win - although individual groups may choose to establish house rules to break the tie, including having them fight a duel; see below.)

If the result of a move would carry a player into Room 1 or Room 12 and back out again, the extra movement is wasted. We don't care how munchkin you are, you can't bounce off the walls.

The Cards

Each deck has the following cards, which take effect in the order listed here:

1. Loot the Bodies!
2. Dragon ATTACK!!
3. The Meek Shall Inherit
4. Curse!
5. Dragon Sighting
6. Secret Door
7. See Ya!
8. Go! (2 each of values 1 through 8, plus WILD!)
9. Even Chance/Odd Reversal
10. Tracking (2)

Loot the Bodies!

You come upon the scene of a recent battle ... and there's stuff to be had! Discard this card and your whole hand and draw five new cards immediately (an exception to the rule that drawing cards takes place at the end of your turn).

Dragon ATTACK!!

Rrrrrrrrrrarrrrrrr! When the dragon attacks, everyone takes cover! All cards in play are canceled - unless two or more Dragon ATTACK!! cards are played on the same turn, in which case the dragons are too busy attacking each other to pay any attention to the adventurers; discard the Dragon ATTACK!! cards immediately.

The Meek Shall Inherit

This potent item affects the natural order ... for this turn only, the player of the lowest Go! card is the winner! If two or more The Meek Shall Inherit cards are played on the same turn, then those players go off and fight a probate battle; discard all The Meek Shall Inherit cards immediately.

Example: Steve plays Go! 3. Monica plays Go! 6. Andrew plays The Meek Shall Inherit. Normally, Monica would have the winning (highest) Go! card, but Andrew's play means that Steve has the winning card instead.

Curse!

This potent curse causes everyone to get all turned around - instead of moving forward, everyone moves backward! This affects the player of the winning Go! card, as well as anyone who plays See Ya! or Secret Door. It does not affect Tracking cards, however. Multiple Curses played on the same turn overwork the gods of Bad Karma, who cancel the cards in retribution; discard the Curse! cards immediately.

Example: Paul plays Curse! Lisa plays Tracking. Hunter plays Go! 5, and Savannah plays Go! 4. Hunter has the winning Go! card, but because of the Curse!, he moves one room backward instead of forward. Then Lisa moves one room closer to Hunter, because her Tracking is not affected by Curse!.

Dragon Sighting

Everyone in your room and the room behind you hears a rumor of a dragon in the area. All Go!, Tracking, and See Ya! cards played by people in those two rooms are discarded immediately without effect.

Secret Door

Heyyyy ... look what I found! Move two rooms forward.

See Ya!

Move one room forward for every Go! card in play.

Go!

There are 16 Go! cards in each deck - two of each number from 1 to 8. The person who plays the highest Go! card on a given turn moves one space forward ... unless another card or rules in a room change this! If two people both play the same winning Go! card, then both move.

Go WILD!

This special Go! card may be any whole number from 1 to 8 ... and you don't have to declare what number it is until you've seen all the other cards! Once its value has been set, it is treated as a regular Go! card in all respects.

Even Chance/Odd Reversal

Even Chance takes effect when played on a turn where the winning Go! card was even. The player of Even Chance swaps rooms with the person who played the winning Go! card. If the winning card is odd, or there was no winning Go! card, then nothing happens. Orientation is preserved; if you were moving into the dungeon before this card's effect, you're still moving into the dungeon afterward.

If two or more players both play Even Chance on a winning (even) Go! card, they fight a duel (see below), with the winner deciding who changes places. (If there is no winner, then no one moves.) If two or more players both play the same (even) winning Go! card, they fight a duel, with the winner deciding who switches places with the player of Even Chance. (If everyone loses, then the person who played Even Chance gets to pick who to trade with.) In the rare event that there are ties on both sides, resolve the Even Chance duel first.

Example: Fade plays Even Chance. Cyndy and Wayne both play winning Go! 8 cards. They fight a duel, which Cyndy wins; she gets to decide whether to trade places with Fade herself or make Wayne trade.

Odd Reversal is exactly like Even Chance, except that it takes effect when the winning Go! card is odd.

Tracking

This card is simple - you move one room closer to the player of the winning Go! card. (Yes, this means you might move backward - caveat adventurer!) If there is more than one winning Go! card, you may choose which player to track. If the player of the winning Go! card ends up in the room you're already in, or if there is no winning Go! card this turn, stay put.

Dueling

In some situations, two or more players must fight a duel to determine what happens. Dueling rules are simple; each player plays a face-down card from his hand, and the highest Go! card played wins the duel. If more than one person plays the highest Go! card, the duel continues among only those players. If no players play a Go! card, then everyone loses (what effect that has depends on the purpose of the duel).

For purposes of dueling only, a Go WILD! card beats all other Go! cards.

Example: Giles and Fade must fight a duel. Giles and Fade both play a Go! 7. The duel continues; Giles plays a Go! 3 and Fade plays Even Chance. Giles has won the duel.

Players in the same room, but heading in opposite directions, do not have to duel.

The Board

The rules in the rooms supersede the rules on the cards - so be careful what you play! Notes on particular rooms follow:

• Room 1: Ye Same Olde Tavern. The special effect just means that players in this room are immune to the Curse! card.
• Room 2: The Uneventful Journey. Dragon Sighting and Dragon ATTACK!! cards played in this room are immediately discarded without effect.
• Room 3: The Hidden Entrance. A player who is alone and plays a Tracking card may end up tracking someone in Room 2 or Room 4. In that case, he "overshoots" and moves to Room 1 or Room 5, respectively. If he tracks someone who ends up in Room 3, however, he stays put.
• Room 5: The 20' Deep Bottomless Pit. The subtraction does not "wrap around"; someone who plays a Go! 2 ends up with a 0, and someone who plays a Go! 1 ends up with a -1. This can be very helpful if The Meek Shall Inherit! is played!
• Room 6: The Pointless Puzzle Room. These effects happen before the card sequence begins, so no card played here has any effect on the other players. To leave this room, the card must be unique; Go WILD! does not match any numbered Go! card. Example: Michelle is in Room 6 and plays Curse! Mark, who is not in Room 6, also plays Curse! Since Michelle's card is not unique, she does not get to move - but her card is discarded, and Mark's Curse! still takes effect.
• Room 8: The Unusually Frustrating Trap. Playing Loot the Bodies! definitely counts as emptying your hand! Playing the last card from your hand does not until the end of your turn - so if you play your last card and it moves you out of Room 8, you do not lose a turn.
• Room 9: The Preplanned Random Encounter. When you first move into this room, draw to refill your hand (if necessary) - but do not play from your hand after that point.
• Room 10: The Room of Total Darkness. Secret Door and See Ya! cards played in this room are immediately discarded without effect.

Variant Games

The basic game isn't enough for you, eh? Well, then, try some of these rules on for size ...

Short Game

For a shorter, faster game, ignore all room special effects except the effect for Room 1. (This is also a good game for people just learning to play GreedQuest, since it avoids the complexity the room effects add to the game.)

Shortest Game

As above - but instead of moving to Room 12 and back to Room 1, the first player to reach Room 12 is the winner. With experienced players, this game is often over within five minutes!

This Is My Room! You Can't Have It!

There can be only one leader. If two (or more) players are in the lead at the end of a turn, they have to duel! The duel takes place between turns, after players have replenished their hands. The winner of the duel stays put; the others have to move back one room. If no one wins, then all the leaders move back one room and the duel is over.

Battle of Attrition

There are two versions of this variant:

Survival of the Fittest. Any card which is played without effect (e.g., a losing Go! card or a Curse! which was canceled by another Curse!) is dead - remove it from play. When discards are reshuffled, do not include dead cards. If a player gets down to five cards in his deck (so that he has no draw pile at all), then he must return to Room 1 if he was facing inward, or Room 12 if he was facing outward, and lose his next turn while he reshuffles all his cards and draws a new hand.

Uniqueness Is Where You Find It. Each non-Go! card is unique and may only be played once. Instead of going into the discards for reshuffling, it is dead, as defined above.

In either case, reaching Room 12 for the first time allows you to resurrect dead cards and return them to your deck; shuffle the discards and the draw pile (but not your hand!) together to form a new draw pile, then draw to refill your hand.

Strategy

The worth of the cards changes as the game progresses. Some cards are purely defensive (Dragon Sighting and Curse!), some are designed purely to move you closer to the Hoard (See Ya! and Secret Door), but most can cut both ways. (Playing Tracking is a very smart idea in some situations, and completely stupid in others!) Since you'll only have five cards to pick from, it's important to save the more potent cards for when you really need them. Sometimes the best possible play is a Go! 4 or 5, which is unlikely to win the turn even if The Meek Shall Inherit is played - this is especially true if you suspect that another player has played Curse!

It's also important to note that gameplay changes with the number of players in the game. A three-player game tends to move quickly, as many turns will be three Go! cards; a six-player game can get bogged down in turn after turn where little to nothing happens - or can blow wide open if one player uses See Ya! when everyone else plays Go! cards.