Hellton Palace Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview and Goal of the Game
• Game Components
  • 2 Hotel boards
  • 36 Guest cards
  • 18 Irritation tokens
  • 6 Doorbell tokens
  • 2 Groom pawns
  • 10 Groom tiles
  • 36 Coin tokens
  • 24 Pillar tokens
• Setup
• Course of the Game
  • 1. Welcome a New Guest
  • 2. Dismiss Your Grooms
  • 3. Hire Your Grooms
  • 4. Do the Tour of the Rooms
    • Serve the Guest
    • Do Not Serve the Guest
    • Irritation Tokens
  • Example of a Turn
  • 5. Collect Rents or Recover a Doorbell
• End of the Game
  • If one of these conditions occurs in the First player's Hotel
  • If one of these conditions occurs in the Second player's Hotel
• Description of the Effects
  • The Different Door Hangers
  • Vocabulary
  • What?
  • Who? Where?
• The Different Grooms
• Special Effects

Overview and Goal of the Game

"To win, your opponent must lose!!!"

Admit it, the mere thought of this victory condition delights you! Welcome infernal guests and hire Grooms to serve them. Choose not to satisfy your customers (and accept the negative effects) or to satisfy them (and also accept the effects, negative as well, but different). When the guests have ransacked the premises with method and diligence, the last hotel still standing wins the game. Simple, you see? What could possibly go wrong?

Game Components

2 Hotel boards

Each board represents a Hotel, divided into 3 columns and 5 floors:

• 3 floors of rooms: each floor has 3 rooms, numbered from 1 to 9 in all, used for the Tour of the Groom pawn.
• 1 Hall on the ground floor: here is a counter that can hold up to 3 Doorbell tokens.
• 1 Basement: here are the spaces for the Pillar tokens, separated into 3 groups of 4 Pillars. They are aligned with the columns of rooms.

36 Guest cards

Each card represents the occupant(s) of a room. In the centre is an illustration, along with the guest's name. On the right an open door is shown: the price of the room, symbolized by a certain number of coins. On the handle hangs a door hanger defining the (harmful) consequences of your service.

Some cards are double-sided. They may be placed on the side of your choice.

The cards intended for introductory games are marked by the asterisk shown above the room's price.

18 Irritation tokens

Irritation tokens indicate whether a Guest is satisfied or not.

6 Doorbell tokens

Doorbell tokens reflect the general level of satisfaction of your Guests. It is important to keep as many as possible.

2 Groom pawns

Each Groom pawn tracks the progress of the Tour of the rooms, which starts in the Hall. It moves from room to room, in order, from 1 to 9.

10 Groom tiles

Each player has an identical set of 5 Groom tiles. On the front, the Groom waits at his desk: a sign there shows the price to hire him as well as his effect. On the back, you can see him at work (hired / non-hired sides: "non engagé" = not hired, "engagé" = hired).

36 Coin tokens

Coins, earned by serving Guests, are the currency of the game and allow you to hire Grooms. Coins have a value of 1 or 3. You may make change at any time.

24 Pillar tokens

Pillar tokens represent the state of your Hotel. They are placed on the Pillar spaces in the Basement of each Hotel. They are split into 3 groups of 4 Pillars, corresponding to the 3 columns of rooms of the Hotel.

Setup

1. Each take a Hotel board and unfold it in front of you.
2. Place the Irritation tokens and the Coin tokens between the two of you.
3. Take the 5 Groom tiles of your Hotel's colour and place them, non-hired side up, next to your Hotel.
4. Place the 12 Pillar tokens of your Hotel on the spaces of your Basement.
5. Place the Groom pawn of your Hotel's colour in your Hall, along with 3 Doorbell tokens on the counter.
6. Shuffle the 36 Guest cards. Put 18 back in the box. Place the remaining 18 face up near the boards, in 3 rows of 6 cards. For double-sided cards, the side chosen does not matter.

For a first game, we strongly advise playing with the 18 cards marked with an asterisk. Even once set up, you may look at the other side of double-sided cards. The last player to have stayed in a hotel becomes the First player.

Course of the Game

Each play your turn until one of the defeat conditions occurs. On your turn, perform the following steps in order:

1. Welcome a new Guest
2. Dismiss your Grooms
3. Hire your Grooms
4. Do the Tour of the rooms
5. Collect rents or recover a Doorbell

1. Welcome a New Guest

Choose a Guest card from among the cards available near the boards. Take this card and place it in a free room on the floor corresponding to the row it comes from:

• Guests taken from the highest row must be placed on the 3rd floor of the Hotel.
• Guests taken from the middle row must be placed on the 2nd floor of the Hotel.
• Guests taken from the lowest row must be placed on the 1st floor of the Hotel.

If you have no free rooms left on a given floor, you cannot take a Guest from the corresponding row. If you take a double-sided Guest, place it on the side of your choice.

If all 18 Guest cards have been taken, skip this step.

Example: (illustrated) a Guest is taken from a row and placed in a free room on the matching floor of the Hotel.

2. Dismiss Your Grooms

Take back your 5 Groom tiles and place them, non-hired side up, next to your Hotel.

The five Grooms are: the Mason, the False Reservation, the Placer, the False Placer, and the Diplomat.

3. Hire Your Grooms

You may hire as many Grooms as you wish, in the order of your choice. However, each Groom can only be hired once per turn. To hire a Groom, proceed as follows:

• Pay the cost shown on the chosen tile by returning the necessary coins to the supply. If you cannot pay the cost in full, you cannot hire this Groom.
• Flip the Groom tile to its hired side, and apply its effect. The description of the effects is on page 11.

Example: You have 8 coins. You decide to hire the Mason to recover a Pillar and the Diplomat to remove an Irritation token from a customer of your Hotel. This costs you 5 coins in total. You could hire one of the three other Grooms, but you prefer to keep your "fortune" in anticipation of the next turn.

4. Do the Tour of the Rooms

During this step, move your Groom pawn from room to room, starting with room no. 1, up to no. 9.

When your Groom reaches an empty room, ignore it (after having checked that the chocolate on the pillow hadn't melted) and move on to the next room.

When your Groom reaches an occupied room, choose whether or not to serve the Guest.

Serve the Guest

If you serve a Guest, first remove its Irritation token (if it has one) and put it back in the supply. Then, whether or not you removed an Irritation token, apply, in order from bottom to top, the effects shown on its door hanger. The description of the basic effects is on page 10, and that of the more specific effects on page 12.

This Guest may be satisfied now, but your lack of infernal manners has surely had consequences on the rest of the Hotel.

Do Not Serve the Guest

If you do not serve a Guest, several scenarios may occur:

• If the Guest has no Irritation token, add one to it, taken from the supply.
• If the Guest already has an Irritation token, apply the steps described in the Irritation Tokens box below.

Irritation Tokens

At any time during the game, if you must add a second Irritation token to a Guest, do not do so. Instead, remove the one it already has and put it back in the token supply. (After throwing a big tantrum, the Guest finally calms down.) Then, remove a Doorbell token from your Hall and place it next to your Hotel. If you thus remove your last Doorbell, go to End of the Game on page 9.

Once your choice is made and the consequences applied, move on to the next room. Once your Groom pawn has moved to the next room, you can no longer go back to the previous room. Going back on a decision is not professional.

When the Tour of the rooms is finished (after room no. 9), put your Groom pawn back in your Hall.

Example of a Turn

We are on the 5th turn. The Hotel is still standing. Only two Pillars are missing, but one Doorbell has been broken and the two Guests on the 2nd floor are irritated. The opposing Hotel made a False Reservation, forcing us to take Molo, the only customer left in the lowest row, and to place him on the 1st floor.

Morning briefing with all staff: nothing to report. For 2 coins, we hire the Placer: he will swap the new Guest's room with one of his neighbours, namely Miss Von Scream, whom the Diplomat will immediately soothe (for 3 coins).

Not only does the service begin with a single irritated Guest, but moreover we should be able to serve everyone!!!

1. Miss Von Scream, happy to be served, starts singing. Molo, just above, gets irritated, and 1 Pillar is destroyed.
2. The Snorer in room 7 can make as much noise as he wants: there is no one who could be irritated in his column.
3. Anubis and his dogs irritate their neighbour the Snorer and destroy 1 Pillar.
4. The Duchess makes the 2 Doorbells we have in the Hall ring out and irritates 2 customers of the Hotel's choice... It will be Anubis and Miss Von Scream.
5. Room 6: Molo, with his jokes, irritates those and the ones already irritated in his column or his row. This does not concern Miss Von Scream who, furious, destroys 1 Doorbell. As a result, she feels much better. Just like Molo, since he was served.

At the end of the service, 3 customers are satisfied: Miss Von Scream, the Duchess and Molo. We now have the choice between collecting their rents (4 coins) or recovering 1 Doorbell. I think we're going to make the wrong choice...

5. Collect Rents or Recover a Doorbell

During this step, choose one of the following options:

• Collect the rents: Take from the supply as many Coin tokens as indicated on the doors of your satisfied Guests (that is, those without an Irritation token). Irritated Guests do not pay their rent.
• OR Recover a Doorbell: If you have fewer than 3 Doorbell tokens in your Hall, take 1 and place it in your Hall.

It is then your opponent's turn, who starts their turn at step 1, Welcome a New Guest.

End of the Game

The end of the game is triggered as soon as one of these conditions is met:

• A player no longer has any Doorbell tokens in their Hall.
• One of the 3 groups of 4 Pillars no longer contains any Pillar tokens.

If one of these conditions occurs in the First player's Hotel

The First player's turn stops immediately. Leave the Groom pawn where it is, in front of the room of the last Guest served.

The Second player then takes a last turn, so that everyone has played the same number of turns.

If this last player manages to complete the whole Tour of the rooms without reaching an end-of-game condition, they win.

If they reach an end-of-game condition before the end of their Tour, compare the number of the last room served before the end by the two Groom pawns. The player whose Groom is in front of the highest room number wins. If there is a tie, the player with the fewest irritated Guests wins the game. If there is still a tie, you share the defeat.

If one of these conditions occurs in the Second player's Hotel

The First player wins.

Description of the Effects

The Different Door Hangers

The "What?" pictograms are almost always combined with a "Who? Where?" pictogram, indicating which effect to apply to which target(s). If there are not enough targets to apply an effect fully, apply it as much as possible anyway.

Vocabulary

• Satisfied: A Guest is satisfied if it has no Irritation token on it.
• Irritated: A Guest is irritated if it has an Irritation token on it.

What?

• Add an Irritation token to the Guest concerned.
• If the Guest concerned is satisfied, add an Irritation token to it. Otherwise, nothing happens.
• If the Guest concerned is irritated, remove its Irritation token as well as a Doorbell token from your Hall. Otherwise, nothing happens.
• Remove a Pillar token from the column of this Guest, unless otherwise indicated.
• Remove a Doorbell token from your Hall.
• Flip this card over.

Who? Where?

• (Arrows to the four sides) The effect concerns the adjacent Guests in the row and/or column of the Guest concerned.
• (Four-way arrow) The effect concerns all the Guests in the row and/or column of the Guest concerned.
• (Target, black) The effect concerns another of your Guests (of your choice) or a Pillar in the column of your choice in your Hotel.
• (Target, green) The effect concerns another of your Guests chosen by your opponent, or a Pillar in one of your columns chosen by your opponent.

The Different Grooms

• The Placer: Swap the room of the Guest welcomed this turn with one of the Guests orthogonally adjacent to it.
• The False Placer: Designate an irritated customer in the opposing Hotel. The opponent must then swap its room with one of their orthogonally adjacent Guests.
• The Mason: Put a Pillar token back on an empty Pillar space of your choice in your Basement.
• The False Reservation: Place this Groom tile facing the row of available Guests of your choice. On their next turn, your opponent will be forced to welcome a new Guest from this row. The chosen row of Guests must correspond to a floor having at least one empty room in the opposing Hotel.
• The Diplomat: Remove an Irritation token from the Guest of your choice in your Hotel.

Special Effects

Each special effect is shown on the door hangers as a combination of pictograms; described here as printed:

• Remove a Doorbell token from your Hall if you have at least one hired Groom.
• Remove one of your Pillar tokens (in the column of your choice) for each Groom currently hired by your opponent.
• Remove one of your Doorbell tokens if the Guest in the room with the same number in the opposing Hotel is satisfied.
• Remove one of your Pillar tokens in the column of your choice for each Doorbell token in your Hall.
• Remove one of your Doorbell tokens if there are as many Doorbell tokens in your Hall as in your opponent's.
• This Guest copies the effects of the door hanger of the Guest located in the room bearing the same number in the opposing Hotel. If this room is empty, nothing happens.
• Add to this Guest as many Irritation tokens as it has irritated adjacent Guests in its row and/or column.
• Add an Irritation token to other Guests of your choice for each Pillar present in this column. You may add several tokens to the same Guest (thus removing the Doorbells that come due).
• Remove a Pillar from this column for each satisfied adjacent Guest.
• Remove a Pillar from this column for each irritated adjacent Guest.
• Add an Irritation token to other Guests of your choice for each Doorbell token in your Hall. You may add several tokens to the same Guest (thus removing the Doorbells that come due).
• Remove one of your Doorbell tokens if the value of your opponent's Coin tokens is strictly greater than yours.
• Remove a Pillar in the columns to the left and right of that of the Guest concerned.
• Add to this Guest as many Irritation tokens as there are irritated Guests in its row and/or column.