Inquisitio Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Preparation
  • Starting condition
• The Game
  • Bribing the Interrogator
  • Yielding to the Torture
  • Optional confession
• An Example Round
• Final Trial and Scoring
  • Guilt points
• Tips
• Card Notes
  • Interrogator cards
  • Evidence row
  • Torture cards

Game Contents

• 18 Interrogator cards
• 18 Torture cards
• 18 Confession cards
• 27 Feature cards
• 5 Player cards
• 10 Help cards
• 42 Coin cards (14 x 3, 14 x 2, 14 x 1)
• 10 wooden Markers

Preparation

Shuffle the Interrogator cards and set them in the middle of the table face down. Do the same for the Torture cards.

The Confession cards are sorted by type and placed on the table face up.

Shuffle the Feature card deck. Each player gets 2 random Feature cards and 10 Coins worth of Coin cards. Players keep these cards hidden in their hands. Each player also takes a Player card, 2 different Help cards and 2 wooden Markers. The Markers are used to keep track of Health and Sanity on the Player card.

Depending on the amount of players – 3, 4 or 5 – each player starts with 6, 5 or 4 Health and Sanity points, respectively. The remaining Feature card deck is placed on the table face down.

Sort the remaining Coin cards according to value and place them on the table face up to form a Bank.

Starting condition

• 3 players: 6 Health and Sanity
• 4 players: 5 Health and Sanity (printed as "Halth" in the source)
• 5 players: 4 Health and Sanity

Use the Markers to keep track of Health and Sanity.

The Game

The starting player is selected randomly. He turns the top card of the Interrogator and Torture decks face up and begins a new round. Players always have two options on their turn: bribing the Interrogator or yielding to the Torture.

Bribing the Interrogator

You may convince the Interrogator to leave you alone and to concentrate on the next player in clockwise order by paying him coins. The base cost of bribing is 2 Coins. This cost is increased by one each time the Interrogator is bribed, as he gets greedier. So the first player would pay 2 to pass the turn. The next player would have to pay 3, the next 4 and so on. In this way the turn may come back to the original player, in which case he may bribe the Interrogator again with a valid cost. The Coins are paid to the Bank.

• Pass the turn to the next player.
• Cost is 2 Coins +1 for each consecutive bribe.
• Optional: change the Interrogator (and Torture) card(s) by paying 2 extra Coins.
• The cost of bribing for the next player increases normally by 1 and is not reset to 2.

Optional bribe: When bribing, the player may discard the current Interrogator card and turn a new one from the deck, by paying 2 extra Coins on top of the normal bribing cost (by paying a large sum, the player manages to convince the Interrogator to drop the case). The player may also choose to change the Torture card after seeing the new Interrogator card without an extra cost. For example, if the first player wants to change the Interrogator card, the bribing cost is 4 Coins (2+2). For the next player the cost for bribing still remains 3, despite the change of Interrogator card (5 if he also wants to change the Interrogator).

Yielding to the Torture

• Reveal all hidden Features that match the symbols on the Interrogator card.
• Take the amount of Coins indicated by the Torture card.
• Optional: make a confession.
  • Reduce Torture effects by 2.
  • Take a Confession card matching the symbol on the Interrogator.
  • Make an accusation against another player.
  • Add the Interrogator to the Evidence row instead of discarding it.
• Take the damage indicated by the Torture card.
• Discard the Torture and Interrogator cards and turn new ones from the decks.

If the player has any hidden Feature cards that match the Features on the Interrogator card, the player must reveal them all (the Interrogator searches the player and finds the Features). Revealed Feature cards are placed face up on the table in front of the player. In addition, he receives the amount of Coins indicated by the current Torture card from the Bank (the victim's relatives manage to smuggle some Coins for the poor prisoner).

Optional confession

A player may choose to confess to the crime indicated by the Interrogator card symbol by taking a matching Confession card and placing it face up in front of him. By confessing, the player may reduce the negative effects of the Torture card by 2 (any combination of Feature cards or damage). In addition, the player who made the confession may make an accusation against another player by naming any Feature. All Features are listed on the other Help card for reference. If the accused player has hidden Feature cards matching the named Feature, he must reveal them. Confession is not allowed if the player will die or go insane regardless of the damage reduction received by confessing (the player goes insane or dies of the torture before he has a chance to confess). The confession is mandatory if it is the only way for the player to stay alive or avoid going insane.

Then the player suffers the effects of the Torture card. Red square indicates physical damage and blue square indicates mental damage. Subtract the number of Health and/or Sanity points indicated by the number(s) in the square(s). If a player's Health or Sanity drops to zero, he dies or goes insane and is removed from the game.

Yellow square indicates that the player must draw twice the shown number of Feature cards from the deck and choose half of them (the Torture caused new Features, like wounds or burns, that may be later seen as witches' marks). The discarded Feature cards are placed at the bottom of the deck. The player keeps the drawn cards hidden.

Sidebar: When drawing extra Feature cards remember to draw twice the amount and choose half to keep.

Finally, the Torture card is discarded. If the player did not make a confession, the Interrogator card is also discarded. If the player made a confession, the Interrogator card is placed in the Evidence row. The row should be arranged so that the symbols on the cards in the Evidence row are clearly visible to all players. The players are not allowed to look through the Discard piles during the game.

Now the next player in clockwise order from the tortured player becomes the starting player. He turns a new card from the Torture and Interrogator decks and starts a new round.

Sidebar: Game ends when all cards from the Interrogator card pile have been played.

An Example Round

Figure caption: Three players are playing. The Interrogator and Torture decks are at the centre of the table, as is the Bank. The Evidence row is to the left, next to the Discard pile. New Interrogator and Torture cards have just been turned face up and a new round is starting. One player has confessed to Blasphemy twice and has also had to reveal a Scar Feature. Another has confessed to going to Witches' Sabbath. The third player has only had to reveal two Numb Spots so far as a result of an accusation.

Diagram labels: Shuffled (face down): Interrogator card deck; Feature card deck; Torture card deck. Sorted by type (face up): Confession cards; Coin cards. Leave room for the Evidence row. Each player takes: 10 Coins; 2 Feature cards; 1 Player card; 2 Help cards; 2 Markers.

Three players, Laura, Jouni and Jussi are playing the game. Laura begins by turning the top cards of the Interrogator and Torture decks face up. The turn passes to Jouni, who decides to pay 2 Coins to the Bank for bribing the Interrogator. Turn passes to Jussi, who decides to change the Interrogator card in addition to bribing. He pays 5 Coins (3 for bribing and 2 extra for changing the card). He discards both cards and draws new ones from the deck as he also decides to use the option to change the Torture card. (Printed as "chance" in the source.) Laura chooses to bribe the Interrogator by paying 4 Coins. Jouni does not have 5 Coins for bribing and takes the option of yielding to the Torture. The displayed Torture card is the "Strappado" and the Interrogator card has symbols "Participating in Witches' Sabbath", "Wound" and "Burn". Jouni has two hidden Wound cards in hand. He reveals them by placing the cards face up on the table in front of him. Additionally he takes 3 Coins from the Bank, as indicated by the Torture card. As he now has two revealed Wound cards, confession does not seem a viable option. However, Jouni has only 1 Health left so he is forced to make the confession. He takes a "Participating in Witches' Sabbath" Confession card and places it beside the revealed Wound cards in front of him. Then he makes an accusation against Jussi for having a Burn. Jussi has two hidden Burn cards in his hand, which he reveals. Jouni reduces his Sanity by one point as he can't take Health damage and decides not to draw new Feature cards. Finally, he adds the Interrogator card to the Evidence row, discards the Torture card and turns new cards from both piles. The play continues from Jussi, who has the option to bribe the Interrogator with 2 Coins or yield to the Torture…

Final Trial and Scoring

The game ends when all cards from the Interrogator card pile have been played. Note that the game also ends if a player pays the optional bribe and discards the last Interrogator card. Each remaining player calculates how many matches their Confession cards have with the symbols in the Evidence row. Each match gives 3 Guilt points. Similarly, they calculate the matches of revealed and hidden Feature cards with the symbols in the Evidence row. Matches with revealed Feature cards give 2 and with hidden Feature cards 1 Guilt points each. Multiple similar cards are calculated separately.

For example, a player has 2 Blasphemy Confession cards at the end. He also has 2 revealed and 1 hidden Scar Feature cards. In the Evidence row there are 3 Blasphemy symbols and 2 Scar symbols. The player gets 18 (29) Guilt points from the two Blasphemy cards, 8 (24) points from the two revealed Scar cards and 2 points from the hidden Scar card, making a total of 28 Guilt points.

Now it is time to pass the sentence. The player(s) with most Guilt points is burned at the stake and loses the game. The remaining players calculate their final scores by multiplying their remaining Health and Sanity points by 3 and subtract from this total the amount of Guilt points they have. The player with the highest final score is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with more Coins wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared.

Guilt points

• Confession cards: 3 points for each match to the symbols in the Evidence row.
• Revealed Feature cards: 2 points for each match to the symbols in the Evidence row.
• Hidden Feature cards: 1 point for each match to the symbols in the Evidence row.

The player(s) with the most Guilt points is burned at the stake.

Final score = 3 * (Life + Sanity) – guilt points.

The player with the highest final score is the winner.

(The source's Guilt points summary reads "Life"; the body text uses "Health".)

Tips

• Try to play so that the Interrogators who are interested in the Features (and Confessions) you have end up in the Discard pile and the ones who are interested in opponents' end up in the Evidence pile.
• Feature cards drawn at the early stages of the game are often more dangerous, because you have less knowledge of which features will be considered to condemn a witch and each round still left to play brings a risk of having to reveal them.
• Try not to confess the same crime multiple times. The second confession will be seen as a confirmation of guilt and you will gain extra Guilt points from the old confession also.
• Consider carefully before paying extra Coins to discard an Interrogator, since you may end up helping other players and reducing your own Coin supply may lead to disaster later.

Card Notes

Interrogator cards

The symbol on the upper right corner of an Interrogator card defines the crime of which the Interrogator accuses the player.

The two Feature symbols on the lower right corner define the Features which the Interrogator in question believes to mark a witch and he is not interested in any other Features.

Evidence row

Evidence row depicts the statements of Interrogators who were able to acquire a confession from a player. These views on which Features and confessions condemn a witch, will be taken into consideration by the judges and will decide the outcome of the final trial.

Torture cards

While the Torture deck features a wide variety of torture methods, the inquisition was typically restricted to methods which did not cause the victim to bleed. The most horrendous methods were mainly used by secular courts. Additionally, the inquisition (Latin: Inquisitio) typically did not seek for accomplices through torture unlike most secular courts. The death penalty was also more common in trials by secular courts than by the inquisition. Therefore, most witch trials that led to mass executions were orchestrated by secular courts. Read more about the inquisition and witch trials on Tuonela's website: http://www.tuonelaproductions.com/

Card legend (diagram): Interrogator card – "What the player is accused of" (the crime symbol) and "Features the interrogator is looking for" (the two Feature symbols). Torture card – "Name of the torture", "Coins gained from the torture", and "Effects of the torture card" (the red and blue squares and the yellow square described above).