Grind House Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Components
• Setup
• Hero Boards
  • How to Take Wounds
• Cards
  • Personas
  • Becoming a Ghost
  • Items
  • Room Cards and Final Room Cards
• Gameplay
  • The First 4 Rooms
  • The Final Room
  • Volunteering Extended Rules & Examples
  • Example of Play
• Scoring
• Optional Expansion Rules
  • Krampus
  • Cthulhu
  • Carnival

Objective

Grind House is a game of pressure, chance, and horrors. To win the "ten million dollar prize," you must explore the house and survive any challenges presented by The Host. Explore the rooms, get out alive with the fewest wounds, and the money is yours. Die trying? No worries. You still have a chance at winning as a ghost! The Host promises the money will be delivered to your next of kin.

Components

NOTE: Included in this box, but not listed below is the free "Krampus Expansion" (Marked with EX-03 on Persona & Item Cards. Room cards have an X-mas Wreath printed on the back). Separate the Krampus expansion cards before playing your first game. See Krampus components list and expansion rules below.

• 6 Player Boards
• 7 Blood Dice
• 36 Wound Tiles (6 each in 6 Player Colors)
• 23 Item Cards
• 25 Persona Cards
• 54 Room Cards and 17 Final Room Cards
• 1 Playmat
• This Rulebook

Setup

1. Place the Playmat in the center of the play area.

2. Shuffle each card deck separately (Room cards (Doors), Final Room cards (Doors with red glow), Persona cards, and Item cards).

Replay Note: You Shuffle the Room cards for your first playthough, but to ensure a new experience for subsequent plays, do not shuffle it again until you have made it through ALL of the Rooms.

3. Deal out 4 Room cards facedown on the Playmat from left to right, and then 1 Final Room at the end of the row. Place the remaining Room cards and Final Room cards back in the box. If any cards require you to draw a new Room card or Final Room card, take it from the box.

4. Deal each player two Item cards. Each player will secretly choose one, and discard the other. Shuffle the discarded Item cards back into the deck. Place the deck facedown in easy reach of all players.

5. Deal each player two Persona cards. Each player will secretly choose one and discard the other. Return all discarded and unused Persona cards to the box. They will not be used for the rest of the game.

6. Give each player a Character Sheet and the matching Wound tiles including: 1 Head, 1 Torso, 2 Arms, and 2 Legs. All are double-sided and should be set to the side until needed.

7. Give each player 1 six-sided die.

8. All Players now roll their dice. The Player who rolled the highest is the first player. If there is a tie, keep rolling until one player rolls highest and becomes the first player.

Hero Boards

Each player starts uninjured. Whenever a Player takes a wound, place a Wound tile with its 1-point side face up over the affected body part. If that body part is wounded again, flip the tile to its 0-point, severed side.

If a Player is required to wound a Limb but they have none left, the Player must choose to take either a Torso or Head wound instead.

If the Torso or the Head ever suffer 2 wounds, you die and become a Ghost.

How to Take Wounds

After revealing a Room card, Player 1 suffers a head wound. Player 1 already has one wound on their head, marked with a Head Tile with the Wounded "1 point" side up.

To take this new wound Player 1 now has to flip their Head Tile to its severed side.

Once flipped, the Head Tile shows the Ghost icon. This signifies that Player 1 is now dead and becomes a Ghost. Player 1 now must follow the Ghost rules of their Persona card.

Cards

Personas

Persona cards give each Player character a unique background and a goal beyond merely surviving. Unless a Room or Item card specifically asks you to reveal your Persona, do not show it to any other Players. You may, however, talk (or lie!) about your Persona if you like.

Note: Some Persona cards require Players to reveal their card at the beginning of the game. Be sure to complete any of these actions before the first room is flipped.

Becoming a Ghost

If you die during the game, immediately reveal your Persona to everyone and read the bottom half of the card aloud. You are now a Ghost, and you will haunt the remaining Survivors. Instead, for the rest of the game, whenever a Room is resolved (including the one you died in), Ghosts may perform the Ghost actions listed on their cards. This is done in clockwise order beginning with the First Player.

Items

Items may be played at any time, even if you are a Ghost. Items may be played on yourself for a benefit or on others with different effects. The card will note who it can target. There is no limit to the number of items you may carry. Keep them secret until played. Any discarded Item cards are placed in a faceup discard pile next to the Item Deck.

Room Cards and Final Room Cards

Room cards tell the story of The Host's macabre and gruesome games where Players are forced to pay the price, some the ultimate price, as they move forward towards survival and victory.

"Survivors" vs. "Players": Many Rooms have requirements based on the number of Survivors or Players. These words are not interchangeable. Survivors are anyone who is not a Ghost, while Players are all the people at the table whether they are alive (Survivor) or dead (Ghost).

"Dice Rounds": Some rooms ask the players to roll dice in a number of "Rounds." In a Dice Round, all Survivors and/or Players must roll their dice. A Round of dice rolling could be simultaneous, clockwise, or in a given Player order. The Room card will detail how the dice are to be resolved and over how many Rounds.

"Volunteering": If a Room card calls for a single Volunteer and nobody steps up, Players must elect one. This can be done by vote, rolling dice, nose goes, drawing straws, rock-paper-scissors, being elected by the First Player, or any other agreeable method. There are extended rules and examples of this below.

"Wounds and Limbs": If a Room requires a Player to wound a Limb, they may wound only their arms and legs. A general (non-Limb) wound may be taken to any body part the Player chooses. Otherwise, the Room cards will specify the exact body part to be wounded.

The closed side of the Room card has the name of the room you are about to enter. The open side of the Room card provides the story and rules for that room.

Gameplay

Grind House is played by exploring 4 normal Rooms, and then 1 Final Room. Rooms are explored one at a time.

The First 4 Rooms

1. To begin, the First Player flips the first Room card and reads the card aloud.

2. If they come to a STOP, stop reading and resolve any rules and initial requirements set in this section of the card. Simply perform any actions set forth by the card's text. Each card is unique!

3. If there was a STOP, once all actions on the top half of the card have been accomplished, move on to the bottom half and read any flavor text and rules. Once all the requirements for a Room are met, then the Room is considered completed.

4. After the card is complete, any players who are Ghosts may now perform actions before the next Room is flipped. Ghosts perform their actions in a clockwise fashion around the table, starting from the First Player.

5. Finally, the First Player Token moves one player to the left and the game continues with the new First Player flipping the next Room card.

Note: The First Player can be a Ghost.

The Final Room

Once four Rooms have been completed, it is time to venture into the Final Room. The Host is pleased you made it, but be wary; The Final Room is quite a bit more dangerous and requires a little more time and effort to complete.

The rules for playing the Final Room are identical to the other Rooms with one exception: once a Final Room is complete, Ghosts do not get to perform any more actions. The game ends immediately, and Players move onto scoring.

Final Room cards have a red door frame.

Volunteering Extended Rules & Examples

Some Rooms require one Survivor to take the initiative and volunteer to determine the Room's outcome. While it is often a frightening prospect for one Player to invite undue harm upon themselves, volunteering may sometimes be beneficial. Some Rooms may reward the volunteer, or even punish the Survivors who did not rise to the challenge.

If no one at the table steps up and volunteers in a Room, it is up to the group to decide how that individual is chosen. While there is no specific rule on how to make this selection, here are a few examples for some recommended ways to determine one (un)lucky soul.

The Democratic Method: One survivor nominates another Survivor to be the volunteer, and puts it to a vote by show of hands. If the majority of Players agree, then that Survivor must volunteer. This method works well if there is one Survivor who is more wounded than everyone else, and the rest of the group is trying to ensure their survival. It's also an ideal method for Survivors who have personas that want to see specific Survivors live or die by the end of the game, such as Related, Bitter Enemy, or the Scientist.

The First Player Method: The Player who is currently the First Player simply chooses one Survivor to be the volunteer. This is the preferred method for groups who do not like to debate and want to move on with the game.

The Dice Method: All Survivors roll a die and the person who rolled the lowest number becomes the volunteer. This method works if nobody wants to be held responsible for the outcome of whatever task lies ahead for the volunteer. Remember, some ghosts can perform potentially deadly actions at the end of each room, and nothing creates a grudge like being the one who shoved them headfirst into the grave.

Example of Play

In this example, Jon, Dani, Jaime, Ned and Sam are two Rooms into a 5-player game. Jon is currently the First Player, so he flips over the next room card and reads the first half of the card aloud. Jon is an honorable person, so he doesn't read past the STOP line until everyone at the table has completed their current instructions.

The card instructs the Survivors to give themselves numbers around the table. Jon starts by saying, "one," followed by Sam, who says "two." Jaime says, "three," and Dany says "four." Ned died earlier in the game and has revealed his Persona to be the Leader. Because he is now a Ghost, he does not participate until the end of the Room.

Next, each of the Survivors must secretly use their die to vote for one other Survivor to be killed. Jon looks at each character mat to find out who is the most Wounded and sees that Jaime has already lost his right arm. Jon figures Jaime is the most likely to die anyway, so he sets his die to 3, and keeps his hand over the die to keep the result hidden for now. Sam arbitrarily decides to vote for Dany and secretly sets his die to 4.

Jaime looks at his Persona card, "Bitter Enemy," which tells him that to win the game he wants Dany dead, so he sets his die to 4 as well. Finally, Dany takes her turn, who comes to the same conclusion as Jon and goes after Jaime by setting her die to 3.

Now that all the Survivors have finished the top half of the card, Jon reads the bottom half, which instructs the Survivors to reveal their choices. It is a tie and, according to the Room card, this means that everyone must take a Wound and vote again. The Survivors all know that if their head or torso suffers two Wounds, they will die, so they each choose a limb token and place it on their character on the "Wounded" side.

In Grind House you usually either win... or you die.

Scoring

Whether or not you've made it out alive, it's time to assess the damage. Every Survivor tallies up the points on their body parts as follows:

• Healthy Body Parts = 2 points
• Injured Body Parts = 1 point
• Severed Limbs = 0 points

In addition to Body Part points, Survivors may also gain additional points for accomplishing their personal goals on their Persona card. Reveal it to the table now and add in any extra points.

The Survivor(s) with the most points wins, but Ghosts may also win if they complete their Ghost objective on their persona card.

Note: If all Survivors die at any point, the game ends immediately. However, Ghosts may still win depending on their Ghost objective. If no Players win, the Host does!

Optional Expansion Rules

The first time you play an expansion, we recommend you play it on its own without mixing it into the core game. Later, feel free to mix and match with the core rooms and core rules.

Krampus

Components (Included in Core Game): 12 Room Cards, 6 Final Room Cards, 6 Persona Cards, 6 Item Cards.

No special rules or new mechanics here; it's just chock full of holiday spirit... and terror! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Cthulhu

Components (Included in a Separate expansion): 10 Room Cards, 4 Final Room Cards, 2 Persona Cards, 2 Item Cards, 6 Insanity Tokens, 2 Insanity Cards.

The Cthulhu expansion to Grind House adds a new mechanic called Insanity. If a Player gains an Insanity token, then they must make an Insanity Check by rolling two dice at the end of each Room after all Ghost actions are completed. Once dice are rolled, compare your dice total to the Insanity Cards and suffer any consequences. A Survivor may not have more than one Insanity Token at a time. If instructed to take an additional Insanity Token, do not do so.

Note: Similar to Ghost actions, Survivors do not have to perform an Insanity Check after the Final Room is completed.

Carnival

Components (Included in a Separate expansion): 10 Room Cards, 4 Final Room Cards, 2 Persona Cards, 2 Item Cards, 12 Carnival Tickets.

The Carnival expansion to Grind House adds a fun and simple new mechanic using Tickets. Survivors can win Tickets in various Carnival Rooms and they serve two possible functions.

Extra Points: Each Ticket held by a Survivor at the end of the game adds +1 Point to their score.

Negate a Wound: Anytime a Survivor would take 1 or more wounds, they may choose to Negate 1 wound by discarding two Tickets. If they would take more than 1 wound, they may only negate 1 of the wounds for every 2 tickets discarded.

If a Survivor dies, they must discard all of their Tickets.