Lobotomy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Live Together or Die Alone
Gameplay Overview
Component List
Component Overview
Preparation
Game Play
Searching
Memories
- Memory Token
- Memory Deck
Skills
Items & Inventory
- Inventory Card
Combat
Insanity
Death
- Stomp!
- Death
Doors
Scenarios
Final Clash
- Victory and Defeat
- Special monsters and mini-bosses
Glossary
Tokens
Scenario Guide

Live Together or Die Alone

Lobotomy is a co-operative game where 1-5 players win or lose together a team. The challenges that the team must face and ultimately overcome are all created and controlled by the game itself.

As a team you need to discuss plans and share tasks to stand any chance of victory. The choice is simple: work together against the hospital and your own delusions, or die alone, strapped to a bed and plagued by nightmare visions.

Gameplay Overview

The game is played on a modular board made up of pieces representing different parts of the hospital. The players' characters and all the monstrous hospital staff and patients appear as miniatures taking turns to act.

The players' turns are spent moving, exploring, regaining their memories and trying to defeat the monsters, search for items to help them escape or performing any other card- or scenario-based actions.

The monsters spend their turn trying to stop the players - not only chasing after them and attacking, but summoning more monsters and triggering scenario-specific events that can be deadly to the players. And all while the Warden, the head of the hospital, does his nightly patrol around the wards...

Each game starts with a single scenario, with more being added as the game plays on. Players win if they complete all scenarios before the Warden finishes his patrol around the hospital. But if his journey ends before you escape, then the only way out is through him.

Component List

This Rulebook
Scenario Guide
Central Board Piece
11 Quarter Board Pieces
10 Six-Sided Dice
1 Twelve-Sided Die
1 Four-Sided Die
1 Chaos Die
1 Defense Die
8 Character Cards
32 Basic Skill Cards
80 Memory Cards
100 Mental Disorder Cards
40 Movement Cards
60 Inventory Cards
17 Monster Cards
20 Scenario Cards
1 First Player Token
Door Tokens
Locker Tokens
Body Tokens
Memory Tokens
60 Red and Blue Tokens
8 Character Miniatures
8 Character Color-Bases
64 Monster Miniatures
1 Warden Miniature

Component Overview

This section gives a description of each component in the game. Please note that Board Pieces are also commonly called Tiles and decks of cards may use abbreviated names, e.g. a deck of Memory Cards may be referred to as a Memory Deck.

Scenario Guide

The Scenario Guide gives the specifics of each scenario. It details their setup, objectives, rules, special events, monster statistics and any handicaps used in games with fewer than 5 players.

This is the guide to use when choosing and setting up scenarios.

Central Board Piece

This tile always appears in the centre of the board and is the starting position for the characters.

Four other quarter board tiles are attached, one to each corner, to create the complete map of the hospital.

Quarter Board Pieces (Quarters)

These tiles represent different wings of the hospital and are placed against the central board piece (one at each corner).

Different quarters can be used each game allowing for a variety of different board configurations.

Chaos Die and Defense Die

These dice allow players to boost their power or defense by sacrificing a little more of their precious sanity.

For more information on these dice, see the Insanity Section on p22.

4-Sided and 12-Sided Dice (Randomization Dice)

These two dice, sometimes called the D4 and D12, are used to randomize the appearance and spawning points of monsters, memories and objectives on the board. For more about this, please see the section on Randomization (p6).

6-Sided Dice

These dice, sometimes called D6, are used when attacking, testing statistics and for many other game mechanics that rely on randomly determined outcomes. When you need to roll several dice the number to roll is shown before the D, e.g. 3D6 means to roll 3 of these 6-sided dice.

Character Cards

These give information about characters: their statistics, mental disorders, starting equipment and backstory.

They have designated places to keep track of health and insanity during play.

Basic Skill Cards

Each character has a set of 4 Basic Skills available to them, shown by their name on the backs of the cards.

Players receive 2 of their cards during setup and can obtain the rest later along with other skills.

Memory Cards

Each character has a designated deck of 10 Memory Cards containing the secrets of their past. Good memories grant skills and items. Bad ones have a random outcome and can even harm them.

Mental Disorder Cards

These are divided into 5 decks: Aggression, OCD, Anxiety Neurosis, Schizophrenia and Phobia.

All these cards are skills usable by characters with the given disorder. Each deck has it's own thematic effects (e.g. Aggression focuses on offense).

Inventory Cards

There are 3 decks of Inventory Cards: weapons, equipment and drugs.

Players store and use inventory cards to do many things including fighting, defense, and healing.

Movement Cards

One of these cards is revealed at the start of the monsters' turn. It controls the appearance of new monsters and tokens, and the occurrence of random events, scenario events and boss movement.

Monster Cards

These contain information about monsters: their statistics, attacks and rules.

Scenario Cards

These help players pick a random scenario and also provide a summary of the scenario setup, objectives and rules.

For more detailed information, please refer to the Scenario Guide.

First Player Token

This indicates which player goes first on the players' turn. After the first player has finished, the rest of the team go one after another going clockwise.

At the end of the turn the token is passed to the person on the left (clockwise).

Door Tokens

These are placed face-up where a door is marked on the board.

The reverse-sides have locked or barricaded doors, shown by lock symbols and barricades, and the barriers difficulty.

Locker Tokens

These are placed face-up on spaces with a locker symbol. The reverse-side displays the difficulty of the search test that must be passed to obtain weapons, equipment and drugs.

Body Tokens

These are placed face-up on the board during setup, dictated by the individual board tiles selected.

Players can search bodies to obtain items or encounter monsters.

Memory Tokens

These are places where characters can gain a recollection about their past, allowing players to draw cards from their memory decks.

Some are randomly placed on the board during setup, with more appearing as the game progresses.

Special Tokens

These special tokens are used with certain skills, attacks and scenarios.

Each of these is described on the card that introduces them.

Red and Blue Tokens

These are used to keep track of ability cooldowns and insanity. They also mark the durability of weapons, partial damage done to monsters and more.

Plastic Miniatures

Characters and monsters are represented on the game board by miniatures. Some of the larger monster models require minimal assembly (no glue required).

Character Color-Bases

Each player puts their character figure on a base of a different color to avoid confusing their character with another player's.

Preparation

Before Play

Difficulty Level

Before starting, players choose the difficulty level they would like. This determines the length of the game and how many scenarios must be completed to win.

1 scenario – Paranoid Beginner – 30-45 minutes
2 scenarios – Seemingly Normal – 60-100 minutes
3 scenarios – Crazy Hard – 120-150 minutes
4 scenarios – Insanely Impossible – 150+ minutes

Characters and Players

Lobotomy is designed for 3-5 characters. If there are fewer than three actual players, someone will have to control more than one character (e.g. playing alone requires the player to control at least three characters; two players can control two characters each). The game mechanics adapt to the number of characters, so a game with 3 characters will have fewer monsters than a game with 5 characters, and the objectives of scenarios will be easier etc.

Your First Game

We recommend that your first game should be played at paranoid beginner difficulty (1 scenario) to familiarise yourself with the rules. The hardest part of the game is beginning a new scenario when the previous one isn't yet finished. Lobotomy does not have complex rules, but there are a lot of things going on on the board, a new scenario introduces even more elements to the game. A good grasp of the basics will help you cope with this transition.

Setup

Board Setup

Select a scenario or shuffle the Scenario Cards and draw one. Read it's description, see if it requires a specific quarter board tile.
Take the Central Board Piece and place it in the middle of the table. You'll notice a letter in each corner – A, B, C and D.
If the scenario specifies a Quarter Board Piece, place the tile specified next to the central board piece at the corner marked A (as shown below). If no tile is specified proceed to the next step.
Choose, or randomly select, Quarter Board Pieces for each remaining corner. Place the unused tiles back in the box.
Shuffle the remaining Scenario Cards and put them face-down next to the board.
Separate Mental Disorder Cards into 5 decks according to the card backs. Shuffle each deck and place them close to the board.
Separate Inventory Cards into 3 decks: weapons, equipment and drugs. Shuffle each deck and place it close to the board.
Place the model of The Warden on space A1 (the space marked with a number '1' on the Quarter Board Piece attached to the central tile at corner A).
Shuffle the Body Tokens face-down. Place one Body Token on the pentagram in the Central Board Piece.
Place one Body Token on each Quarter Board Piece on one of the highlighted places. If possible, place the body on a highlight without any furniture (or just seating on) it. Otherwise select a highlight at random from those available on the tile.
Turn all the Door and Locker Tokens face-down and shuffle them. Place random Door Tokens on doorways and place Locker Tokens on all highlighted areas unoccupied by another token.
Place two Memory Tokens on each Quarter. Randomize their positions by rolling a D12 twice for each quarter and placing Memory Tokens on the spaces marked with the numbers rolled (with no more than 1 Memory Token in any single space).
Separate the basic monsters (patients, nurses and scavengers) from the rest. Randomize 1 patient and 1 scavenger for each Quarter Board Tile. Additionally, randomize 2 nurses in a 4-character game and 4 nurses in a 5-character game (but there can be no more than 1 nurse per Quarter).
Follow any additional setup steps required by the scenario.
Finally, perform the setup for each character (see below).

Randomization

Often the game will ask you to randomly pick a location. Usually this is to place something (a monster, token or objective) on the board in a random place. To randomize, roll a D4 and a D12. The 4-sided die indicates the Quarter (with 1 being A, 2 being B, etc.) and the 12-sided die indicates the exact space in the quadrant with a marked number (from 1 to 12).

Rolling 1 (on the D4) and 7 (on D12) leads to this space, A-7.

Character Setup

Each player chooses a character and receives their character's Character Card, 4 Basic Skill Cards, 10 Memory Cards, a miniature of the character and a colored base. The character-specific cards all have the character name on the card backs.
Put the Character Card in front of you.
Shuffle the character's Memory Deck and place it next to your Character Card, face-down.
Pick 2 of your Basic Skills Cards and place them next to your Character Card. Place the unselected skill cards under your Character Card for use later in the game.
Find the character's mental disorders on their Character Card. For each disorder draw one card from the corresponding Mental Disorder Deck. Place just one of the drawn cards next to your Character Card and discard the rest.
Look through the 3 decks of Inventory Cards for any starting equipment listed on your Character Card and place them next to your Character Card. Shuffle the Inventory Decks afterwards.
Place your character's miniature (and colored-base) on an unoccupied space in solitary confinement (the Central Board Piece).
The craziest player receives the First Player Token.

The final layout: the Character Card with a Memory Deck, 2 Basic Skills, one Mental Disorder skill and starting equipment.

Goal of the Game

Players win if they complete the objectives of all scenarios (e.g. normal difficulty – 2 scenarios). However, time is limited by how long it takes the Warden (boss) to patrol the hospital. The Warden cannot be attacked by players and starts his patrol on the A1 space. Usually once per round he moves one space forward – from A1 to A2 and so on, moving from the 12th space on one board to the 1st on the next, e.g. from A12 to B1.

His journey finally ends when he reaches a space determined by the difficulty: A12 in beginner mode (1 scenario), B12 in normal mode (2 scenarios), C12 in crazy mode (3 scenarios) and D12 in insane mode (4 scenarios).

After reaching the end space, the Warden moves to the pentagram on the Central Board Piece and the players can only win by defeating him in a nearly impossible battle. For more information, see the Insomnia Track (p23) and Final Clash (p27).

Character Card

A. Picture

B. Name

C. Backstory (doesn't affect play)

D. Life (HP) - The number by the drop of blood symbol is the character's life. Every point of damage the character takes is marked damage tokens placed on the Character Card. Healing the character removes these tokens. When the amount of damage tokens matches (or exceeds) the life statistic, the character is taken back to solitary confinement. For more information, see Death (p24).

E. Insanity - Insanity is tracked here. Characters start the game with no markers on the track but when they use insanity, or lose sanity, a marker is placed on the track and moved up the scale.

F. Action Points (AP) - AP indicates how many actions a character can perform in each turn. Please see List of Actions (p8).

G. Attack Rating (AR) - AR is the minimum result that a player must roll on a D6 to successfully damage an enemy. Low attack ratings makes fighting easier. For details, see Combat (p16).

H. Defense (Def) - Defense indicates the amount of damage that a character absorbs from each attack without losing health. More information in Combat (p16).

I. Imagination (I) - Imagination is tested when a character tries to bend reality. High imagination makes tests easier. See Imagination Test (p9), Search Test (p12) and Unlocking Test (p25).

J. Mental disorders - This lists the character's illnesses. Characters may use skills from corresponding Mental Disorder Decks.

K. Starting equipment - Equipment the character starts with.

L. A character's unique innate ability.

Game Play

Game Rounds

A Game Round consists of 2 turns.

The players' turn - when players make their actions one after the other.
The monsters' turn – drawing a movement card, resolving it, moving monsters and attacking with them.

The Players' Turn

The player with the first player token goes first, performing actions until he either chooses to stop or has spent all his character's AP. Play then passes clockwise (to the left) for the next player to perform actions until they choose to stop or spend their AP limit. When a player has had their go, any unused AP are lost - they cannot be spent after another player this round and they are not carried over to the next round. When all players are done, the first player token is passed clockwise and the monsters' turn starts.

Available Actions

Here is the list of actions characters can perform for 1 AP cost:

Move one space in any direction (see Movement, below).
Search a locker or body in their current space (see Searching, p12).
Reveal a Door Token or attempt to open a locked door (more in Doors, p24).
Pick up a Memory Token (more in section Memories, p13).
Attack with a skill, weapon or fists (see Combat, p16).
Trade inventory items with other characters. You spend 1 AP and you can give and take any number of items to and from any number of players on the same space (if they agree).

The following actions have varying costs, and may even be free.

Use a skill or an inventory item. Sometimes they cost more than 1 AP, or no AP at all. For more information, see Skills (p13) and Inventory (p15).
Interact with some scenario-based objectives etc.

Running

At the beginning of the turn a player can declare that his character is running. If he does, he gains 2 AP but any action points used this turn MUST be spent on movement. The character can still use skills, items and attacks but only if they cost zero action points.

Movement

The board is divided into spaces and there is no limit to the amount of characters, monsters and tokens that can occupy one space at a time. At the cost of 1 action point a character can move to an adjacent space if it is not blocked by walls, door tokens and other visible obstacles.

You cannot normally move from a space containing any monsters. However, some items and abilities do allow you to escape and move through monsters (i.e. stealth). Movement is not blocked by other characters, tokens, markers or scenario-based objectives unless a card or scenario says otherwise. Some Quarters have a complicated layout, but the passages and obstacles will be always highly visible (e.g. a hole in the wall, a fence). Adjacent spaces are also clearly visible as they are separated by a continuous line. Ethereal units are an exception to these movement rules and they can move through walls, doors etc. Characters can also leave and move through spaces containing enemies who are all ethereal.

Green arrows indicate spaces the character can move to for 1AP. Red arrows indicate spaces that cannot be moved to as they are blocked by walls.

Line of Sight

The line of sight (LoS) determines if two characters or a character and a monster can see each other. You must check that there is LoS whenever a character wants to use a ranged attack or skill, and during movement in the Monsters' Turn.

To check if there is a LoS between two spaces you must be able to draw a straight line from any point on one space to any point on the other space. LoS is blocked by walls, closed doors and other clearly marked obstacles. LoS is not blocked by other characters and monsters. For more on doors and LoS, please see page 25.

Green lines indicate unobstructed lines of sight. Red lines indicate that the targets cannot be seen by the character.

Imagination Test

Some events, monsters and items can force a character to test their imagination. To do this, roll 2D6 (two six-sided dice) and add the results. If the final result is EQUAL to or LOWER than the character's Imagination value, the test is passed successfully, otherwise the test is failed. Some Imagination Tests have an additional modifier that is applied to the Imagination value for the test. For example, a character with 9 Imagination attempting an Imagination (-2) Test would need to roll 7 or lower to pass.

Monsters' Turn

After the last player finishes his turn reveal the top card of the Movement deck to start the Monsters' Turn.

A - Event description
B - Special event symbol
C - Memory spawn symbol
D - Warden movement symbol
E – New monsters spawn

Use the revealed Movement Card to resolve the Monsters' Turn in the order presented below. Some cards do not have all the symbols, in which case just skip the related steps.

Event Effects
Special Event
Spawn Memory Tokens
Move the Warden
Move Monsters
Spawn New Monsters
Monsters Attack

Step 1. Event Effects

Start by reading the event description, it may have effects that may happen immediately or will affect the rest of the turn. For example an event can force all team members to instantly perform a test, or it can empower monsters, which will affect them later in the turn.

Step 2. Special Event

Check the Movement Card for the special event symbol. There are three types of special event, denoted by color:

Green (on twenty cards)
Blue (one in five cards)
Red (one in ten cards)

Now, check all unfinished Scenario Cards for the special event symbol and follow the instructions on any with the matching color. There are also some monsters and inventory items that can interact with special events (it is stated on their cards). Special event effects trigger in the order: scenarios, then monsters, then items and other.

Special events

Surge green – "One, two.. He's coming for you." Randomize a Slasher on the board, he will move during this monster turn. There can be a maximum of 3 Slashers on the board at the same time. After exorcising 2 haunted spaces don't spawn an additional Slasher if there are 2 or more of them on the board.

Surge blue – "Three, four.. Better lock the door." Lock all doors in rooms with characters in them. Place random door tokens on the door spaces.

Surge red – "Five, six.. Grab a crucifix." Until the end of this turn all Slashers gain ethereal movement, ethereal attacks and +1 AP.

Follow the instructions on all current scenario cards depending on the color.

Step 3. Spawn Memory Tokens

If the memory spawn symbol is on the movement card randomize one memory token on the board (see Randomization on p6). If the symbol is not present or all 12 memory tokens are already on the board go to the next step.

Step 4. Move the Warden

If the warden movement symbol is on the Movement Card then the Warden advances one space along the Insomnia Track.

For example if the warden is on space A1, he is moved to A2. If the warden is on space number 12 then he travels to space number 1 on the next quarter (e.g. from A12 to B1).

More information about this can be found in Insomnia Track on p23.

Step 5. Move Monsters

All the monsters move towards players. This step is further explained on the next page (p11).

Step 6. Spawn New Monsters

Up to three monsters will be listed on a single movement card. Randomize each monster on the board. If there are three monsters on the card and fewer than 5 characters are playing ignore the third monster. See also Special Monsters and Mini-Bosses (p27).

Step 7. Monsters Attack

Monsters attack any players on the same space as them. This step is further explained on page 20.

Monster Card

A. Name
B. Attack Types
C. Special Abilities
D. Action points (AP)
E. Health (HP)
F. Attack Rating (AR)
G. Defense (Def)

Some monsters will also have additional rules and Special Abilities shown on their Monster Cards, which make them move or attack in unique ways.

For example one could have an interaction with a special event symbol of a particular color.

Monster Movement

Monsters use all their action points on movement – each space moved costing 1AP. Once they reach a space containing a character they stay on it. Monsters can still attack (at the end of the Monsters' Turn) even if they have no AP remaining.

When moving:

If a monster can see any number of characters (has Line of Sight to them, p9) it moves towards the nearest one.
If a monster cannot see any characters then it moves towards the closest unseen character.

If there is a tie for closest character, both seen or unseen, players decide which one draws the monster's attention.

Please note that Ranged Monsters (p21) move slightly differently.

Although character A is closer, the monster cannot draw a line of sight (LoS) to him and so can not see him. The monster moves towards character B.

Here the monster cannot see any character at all, so will move towards the closest character (A).

This monster sees both characters but they are equal distance away. In this case, the players get to decide which one the monster will move towards.

Please note that when moving, Ethereal monsters and characters may move through walls, and locked or barricaded doors. However, they cannot see or attack through these solid barriers! There are some exceptions to these rules but they are described on the applicable Monster Cards, Movement Cards or Scenario Cards. For example, Nemesis always moves towards the same character.

Monsters and Doors

Monsters can move through Door Tokens that have not yet been revealed (and are still face-down). When characters reveal a door but do not successfully open or break through them on the same turn, the Door Token remains face-up on the board. Only Ethereal monsters can move through these revealed doors, meaning that non-ethereal monsters can be trapped in a room or forced to find another way to the characters. For more on this, see Doors (p24).

Tip for Moving Monsters Faster

There can be dozens of monsters on the board at the same time, and some may be quite far from the characters (10+ spaces). In this case counting the exact distance to each player can be slow and inconvenient. Instead just intuitively move the monsters towards the nearest corridor or to the center of the board. Each player can "look after" one board quarter and move the monsters closest to him or her. This will reduce the time spent moving the hordes.

Monsters Attack

In the last step of the Monsters' Turn, every monster in the same space as one or more characters (or within range and LoS of a character for ranged monsters) attacks. Each monster attacks just once (unless the Monster Card or scenario rules say otherwise) and attacking does not consume any AP. After all monster attacks are resolved a new game round begins with the Players' Turn. For details on this, please see Monsters Attack (p20).

Searching

When a character is on a space with a Locker Token or a Body Token, he can use 1 action point to search it (search action). Once searched, the token is then discarded.

Body Search

If a character uses a search action on a body token he reveals it (flips it upside down) and draws an Inventory Card indicated on the back (weapon, equipment or drug).

Some Body Tokens have monster symbols instead of item symbols in the back and they automatically spawn the indicated monster in that place - especially inconvenient as characters cannot move from a space containing monsters.

Locker Search

If a character uses a search action on a Locker Token he reveals it (flips it upside down) and performs a Search Test.

From left to right, the symbols represent weapons, equipment and drugs. Each item has a number assigned that represents its cost. There is also a monster symbol (which is not on all Locker Tokens). Once revealed the player has to perform a Search Test that will allow him to "buy" inventory cards but risks spawning a monster at his feet (if there is a monster on the token).

Search Test

Look at your character's Imagination statistic and roll that number of six-sided dice (e.g. if you have 8 Imagination, roll 8d6). Each result of 4, 5 or 6 is a success, the rest are failures. Successes can be traded for Inventory Cards at the cost represented on the back of the token. For example, above, 3 successes are needed to buy a card from the drug Inventory Deck. With enough successes you can "buy" multiple cards during a single search, but you may only get one from each category (weapon, equipment, drugs) and each needs to be paid for separately.

If you do not have enough successes to buy any inventory card, the test is failed and if there is a monster symbol then the monster indicated spawns on the same space.

Note that although Search Tests use imagination they are not the same as Imagination Tests described earlier (p9).

A character searches a Locker Token to find that a weapon card costs 2 successes, equipment costs 4 successes and drugs cost 3 successes each. As the character's Imagination is 7, he rolls 7 six-sided dice. Five dice are successes, having results of 4 or more. With 5 successes, the player could buy both a weapon and a drug (2+3) or buy just the equipment card for 4 successes. As the player passed the test (rolling enough successes to buy at least 1 item) the monster shown on the token will not spawn.

Memories

Memory Token

When a character is on a space with a Memory Token, the player may perform a memory action and draw a Memory Card from his personal Memory Deck at the cost of 1AP. The Memory Token is discarded and the player reads the Memory Card (following any instructions on it).

Memory Deck

Each Memory Deck consists of 10 cards, five of which are personal memories from the character's life. Remembering these will bring back useful skills and items. The remaining cards are the same for all characters, describing traumatic memories from the hospital.

After drawing a Memory Card, read it and follow the instructions on it. Then place any skills and items gained next to your character for them to use. Please note that personalized items cannot be traded to, or used by, other characters.

Even if you draw a bad memory, after following the instructions on it, keep it next to your character.

At any time in the game, without any AP cost, you can trade 2 Memory Cards for 1 of your character's Basic Skills (placed under you character card during set-up). If you do that, discard the Memory Cards spent (do not put them back in the Memory Deck). Remember that some memory cards are one-use-only, so after using and discarding them you cannot trade them in for a Basic Skill.

Other personalized items from the Memory Deck can be used for a limited number of times or may be weapons (affected by durability). Until an item is exhausted or a weapon destroyed they can still be traded for a Basic Skill.

Skills

Characters have 4 personalized Basic Skills and can gain any number of additional skills from the Mental Disorder Decks (OCD, Schizophrenia etc.). Skills are mostly used during your character's own turn (there are exceptions) and there are multiple ways they can affect the gameplay.

Skill Card

A. Name
B. Type
C. Cooldown
D. Cost
E. Rules

Skills are divided into three types: attack, utility and defense.

Attack Skills are offensive and mostly focus on dealing damage to monsters. They can only be used during your turn and have a single, instant effect. For more, please see Combat (p16).

Utility Skills have a wide range of versatile effects that are neither offensive nor defensive in nature. They can only be used during your turn, unless the card specifically states otherwise. Some of them have a one-time effect; other card effects may be permanent or last until the end of the round.

Defense Skills strengthen your character against the enemy, weakening their attacks or even allowing you to evade them. Their effects always last until the end of a round. Note that only Defense Skills (and only those that cost 0 AP) can be used during the Monsters' Turn (before they attack). See Monsters - Target (p20).

The Cooldown Counter

Once a skill is used, you have to wait some time before you can use it again. This time is measured using the Cooldown Counter. It has two parts – the brighter part with the first couple of numbers and the darker part with two highest, additional numbers. After using a skill place a token on the highest bright field. The use of the darker fields is explained in Insanity, p22.

At the beginning of each character's turn, decrease all their cooldowns by 1. If the Cooldown Counter is on one before decreasing it, remove the token and the skill is ready to use again. You can also decrease a cooldown of one of your skills by one every time one of your attacks kills one or more monsters.

One of the key decisions in Lobotomy is how to manage your skills. Will you use your skills economically, because you never know when the skill will be really needed? Or will you use your skills as often as you can?

As always, finding the middle ground will probably be the best solution.

Skill Costs

In order to use a skill you often need to spend a set number of action points. If a character does not have enough action points to meet a skills cost, then he cannot use the skill.

However, there are many skills that cost 0AP that the character will always be able to use during his turn. Zero-cost Defense Skills can even be used during other players' turns and during the Monsters' Turn.

Specific Skill Rules

Every skill has a description that states how and when the skill works. Attack Skills contain mostly symbols that are explained in the chapter on Combat (p16). Utility Skills and Defense Skills require a player to read the card's rules and follow them to use the skill. Many skills allow you to do something not normally allowed by this rulebook. In these cases the specific instructions on the cards have priority over this rulebook. This exception applies all cards, whenever their rules and effects conflict with the rulebook.

Skill Capacity

At any time, each character can have a maximum of 6 skills. If you gain another skill that takes you over this limit (memory cards do not count towards the limit), you have to discard one skill (back to its original deck). The discarded skill can be the new one just drawn or any one of the character's existing ones, even if it's on cooldown.

If the skill you are discarding is not on cooldown, you are allowed to use it one last time, by paying the usual cost.

Items & Inventory

Inventory cards are obtained by performing a Search Action on Locker Tokens and Body Tokens, as described in Search, (p12). You can also get items from the Memory Deck and events. Each character has a maximum inventory capacity of 4. Most items take up 1 inventory slot but some items work differently as noted by these keywords on inventory cards:

Large – an item that takes up 2 inventory slots.
Small – an item that takes up no space (0 inventory slots).
Armor – you can only have 1 such item.

You can discard any of your inventory cards at any time (or give them to other players with a trade action).

If you draw an inventory card that would make you exceed your inventory size, you must get rid of cards until you are within capacity again. You can do this by discarding one or more cards back to their decks. The discards may include the new card or any existing cards. You can also get rid of some cards by exhausting their remaining charges, but you cannot use the freshly drawn card until you make room for it in your inventory.

Inventory Card

A. Name
B. Art
C. Rules
D. Durability

Weapons deal damage to monsters. Almost every weapon has a durability value (bottom right corner).

Durability is lost from using the weapon in battle (and opening barricaded doors) and is tracked by placing tokens on the weapon card. If the amount of tokens is equal to the durability, the weapon is destroyed and discarded. A weapon without a durability value it is indestructible. For more on Weapons and durability, see Combat (p16).

Equipment may be any kind of item from magical tomes to zombie teeth. Their rules are always specified on the Inventory Card.

They can be used only during your turn (unless stated otherwise). The number in the bottom right is the amount of charges/uses. Every time the item is used, place a token on the card. When the number of tokens equals the number of uses, the item is discarded.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, each piece of equipment can be used any number of times in a single turn if it has enough charges left.

Most equipment costs 0AP to use. Any variation from this will appear on the Inventory Card itself.

Armor - If an Equipment Card has the keyword Armor, the number in the bottom right represents it's Durability. Every time a character possessing armor takes damage, the player may choose to place tokens equal to the damage on the armor card instead of losing health.

If the number of tokens is equal to the durability, the card is discarded. If you take more damage than the armor's remaining durability in one attack, you can only prevent the amount of damage equal to the card's remaining durability (the rest of damage will be dealt to your character).

Remember that you can only ever have one single Armor card in your inventory at any time. If you draw another Armor card, you can give it to another character on your space for free (no trade action needed). If there are no characters on your space you will have to discard one of the Armor cards (either the old or the new one).

Drugs are used to buff or heal characters.

Despite it not being shown on their cards, all drugs are treated as 'Small' and so take up zero space in the character's inventory.

Drugs always cost 0AP to use but can only ever be used during your turn.

The number in the bottom right corner is the number of times that they can be used before they are exhausted and discarded. Like any other item use tokens to track the number of times each drug has been used.

The effects of drugs are all cumulative, irregardless of whether the drugs used are the same sort or different types.

Combat

Players' Attacks

If a character is on a space with a monster, or in-range with LoS for a ranged attack, the character can use an attack action.

There are three ways to fight: using bare fists, using a weapon card and using an attack skill. The cost of an attack action is 1AP unless stated otherwise by the weapon or skill card. Each character can attack multiple times in a turn providing they have enough action points.

The Attack Test

Each attack is resolved by an Attack Test.

1. Choose a Target

The player chooses an enemy to attack. It must be on the same space or in range with Line of Sight for Ranged attacks.

2. Choose an Attack

Characters may attack with fists, a weapon or a skill.

3. Attack Roll

All attacks are performed with six-sided dice (D6). The number of D6 rolled depends on the chosen attack. Fist attacks always roll three six-sided dice. Weapon and skill cards state how many attack dice they use.

4. Count Successes

Successes are dice showing numbers EQUAL to or HIGHER than the characters attack rating (AR). For example, if a character has AR 5+ it means that only dice with results 5 and 6 are successes. The results on dice in Attack Tests are called Attack Rolls. If an effect gives +1 to attack rolls, it means to add 1 to the result on each die, e.g. if a character has +2 to Attack Rolls, then dice with results of 3 count as 5s, and so are successes if they have AR of 5+.

5. Special Effects

Symbols on weapons and skills (p18) strengthen attacks or modify them. Rules and outcomes of attacks can also be changed by items, monsters, events and scenarios.

6. Defense

Reduce the number of successes by the target's Defense statistic value.

7. Damage

The remaining number of successes is the damage dealt to the target (though this may be further changed by the effects of items and other cards).

If the amount of damage is equal to or higher than the monster's remaining health, then a Final Blow has been dealt and the monster is destroyed and removed from the board. If the amount of damage is lower than the monster's remaining health, place tokens that represent the amount of damage dealt next to the monster's miniature (or on it's Monster Card for bosses).

Move the tokens with the monster miniatures as they move to track how much damage has been dealt to each monster.

Whenever your attack deals the Final Blow (to one or more monsters) you can reduce the cooldown of one of your skills by 1.

Attack Types

Fists

Every character can use an Attack Action to attack with bare fists when there is a monster in the same space. It does not require any weapons or skills and rolls 3D6 in the Attack Test (p16).

For example, a character with no weapons or skills decides to do an Attack Action using bare fists and so rolls 3D6 in an Attack Test. The character has an AR of 4+ so rolling 4 or higher is a successes. The character rolls 3, 5 and 6, meaning 2 successes. The monster has 1 Defense so the amount of successes is lowered by one meaning that the character dealt 1 damage and so places 1 token next to the monster. Before the attack, the monster had 4 health so the character's punches leave it 3 health remaining.

Attack with a Weapon

If a character has a weapon card, he can attack with it. The player performs an Attack Test and rolls the amount of D6 stated on the card. After the Attack Roll you apply any special rules given by the card.

Weapons have durability and can wear out through use. If you roll at least one "1" result (before modifications) place a token on the card. If the number of tokens on the card is equal to the weapon's durability (in the bottom right corner) it is destroyed and discarded after the attack. Occasionally, some weapons have different durability rules explained on their weapon card.

Imagine a character performing an Attack Action with a Steel Cross weapon against an ethereal enemy. First he has to choose which monster to attack, in this case he picks the one that already has 1 damage token. Then the character rolls 5D6 as listed on the weapon card.

As the character has an AR of 3+, dice with results 3 or higher are successes. The roll of 1, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 6 provides four successes. Normally we would subtract successes for the monster's Defense, but the monster is ethereal and the weapon has the Holy symbol (more in Attack Symbols, p18) which reduces ethereal monsters' Defense to zero. The monster has 4 health but it already had 1 damage dealt to it earlier. Four successes mean 4 damage, which is more than enough to deal the Final Blow to the monster and remove it from the board. Note that the 1pt of surplus damage does not transfer to the second monster.

Because there is at least one "1" result on the dice, the player places one durability token on the weapon. Finally, because the character dealt a Final Blow, he can now reduce the cooldown of one of his abilities by 1.

Attack with an Attack Skill

Characters can use Attack Skills (that aren't on cooldown) by paying the AP cost shown on the Skill Card. Special symbols (see next page) on the Card indicate attack types and any effects that are applied after the Attack Roll. As with any skill, after using an Attack Skill remember to place a token on the cooldown counter.

A character attacks using the Dragon breath Skill. This skill costs 1AP (as it doesn't say otherwise) and lets the player choose one of two attacks: a strong (7 dice) single-target attack or an area of effect (AoE) attack that can hit every monster in a single space. Each attack is ranged (with a range of 1) and has the fire effect.

The player chooses the AoE attack that does not require a target, and affects all enemies on a space. The Skill Card states that the player roll 4 six-sided dice for each monster on the space, so, as there are 3 monsters, he rolls 12D6.

The character has an AR of 4+ and rolls 7 successes. In AoE attacks the amount of successes is reduced only by the defense of the monster with the highest defense on the space. In this case it is 1, but the Dragon breath attack also has the Fire Attack Symbol (see opposite), which means that you lower the enemy's defense by 1, meaning we finish up with 7 successes and three monsters.

In an AoE attack you must deal at least 1 damage to each monster on the space and then the rest can be distributed as you choose. The player decides to deal 4 damage to monster #1 (killing it with a Final Blow), 2 damage to monster #2 and 1 damage to monster #3. The destroyed monster is removed and damage tokens are placed next to the remaining monsters.

Once damage has been allocated, the player places a token on the highest bright field of the Dragon breath cooldown counter.

Finally, because the character dealt a Final Blow, the player reduces one of his skill cooldowns by 1 (maybe even the Skill just used).

Attack Symbols

Some attacks, by both monsters and characters, have symbols indicating special effects that the attack uses.

Fire reduces the enemy's Defense against this attack by 1. This is not a permanent reduction.

Holy attacks reduce the Defense of ethereal enemies to 0, for the purposes of this attack.

Ghostly attacks reduce the Defense of non-ethereal enemies to 0, for the purposes of this attack.

Power attacks stun the enemy (knock its miniature over) if at least 1 damage is dealt.

Frost freezes the enemy (put a Frost Token next to it) whenever at least 1 damage is dealt.

AoE attacks can deal damage to multiple enemies in a single space.

Ranged attacks don't require the attacker and the target to be on the same space. Instead the target must be in range and with LoS.

Weapon Attack – Attack with one of your weapons with all bonuses from the weapon and Skill Cards.

The following two conditions have keywords but no symbols:

Precision – Dice rolling a "6" in the Attack Roll ignore the enemy's Defense.

Critical – Results of "6" in the Attack Roll each cause 2 damage (instead of 1) if they manage to get past Defense.

Holy and Ghostly Attacks

If an enemy is ethereal it will be stated on it's Monster Card, all monsters without the ethereal symbol are non-ethereal. All characters are non-ethereal (some skills, equipment and scenarios can change that).

Power Attack

Any enemy (except a Boss monster) is stunned by a Power Attack that causes at least 1 point of damage. When stunned, knock down the miniature of the damaged monster or character. Additionally, when a monster is stunned it may be pushed 1 space in any legal direction (not through walls, etc.)

A stunned character must pay 1AP to get up at the beginning of his turn. A stunned monster must also pay 1AP to get up next turn (and so can move one space fewer than usual that turn). Until they pay to get back up, stunned characters and monsters have 0 Defense and lose all Avoidance (if they had any).

Frost Attack

Characters and monsters are frozen by Frost Attacks that do at least one point of damage. If this happens, place a Frost Token next to the damaged monster or character.

Frozen characters and monsters must pay 1AP to lose the token at the beginning of their turn. Recovering monsters attacking in the same turn (that they lose the Frost Token) also roll one less Attack Die on their first attack.

Ranged Attack

Ranged Attacks are able to attack enemies that are not on the same space as the attacker. Every ranged attack has a value indicating the maximum number of spaces you can be from the target, though they can still be used on closer targets (even ones on the same space as you). They do require a clear Line of Sight (p9) between the attacker and target.

Ranged Attacks can safely target a monster on the same space as another friendly character. They can also travel through spaces with other monsters and characters to affect targets behind them. The Attack Test for Ranged Attacks is the same as any other attack.

Area of Effect (AoE) Attack

AoE Attacks can damage multiple monsters on a single space. The card for an AoE Attack states the amount of dice per enemy that is used in the Attack Test.

For example, the Dragon Breath skill says to roll 4D6 for each enemy on the target space. So if there are 5 enemies there, it gives 5*4=20D6 Attack Dice. If there is just 1 enemy then the attack uses 1*4=4D6 Attack Dice.

During the Attack Test of an AoE Attack, the number of successes rolled is only reduced by the Defense of the monster with the highest Defense value after applying modifications (e.g. by other special Attack Symbols like Fire, Ghostly or Holy).

After determining the number of successes, the player distributes damage to the monsters - any characters on the target space are unharmed. First he has to deal at least 1 damage to each monster on the space. After that he can assign the remaining damage as he chooses. If the amount of successes is too low to assign 1 damage per monster, the player chooses which monsters are dealt 1 damage for each success and no monster can be damaged twice.

Remember that killing one or more monsters with an AoE attack lets you reduce the cooldown of one of your skills by 1 (regardless of how many monsters were actually dealt a Final Blow).

Precision Attack

Precision allows Attack Dice rolling a natural (unmodified) "6" to ignore the enemy's Defense.

For example, consider a monster with 2 defense. A character (of AR 5+) attacks with a 5D6 weapon with the precision attack symbol. The results are 6, 6, 5, 2 and 1 - so 3 successes. Normally, after reducing the amount of successes by the enemy's defense there would be 1 success left. However, the precision attack allows the two results of "6" to ignore the defense. The result with a "5" is still affected and absorbed by the Defense so in the end there are 2 successes. As only natural rolls of "6" count toward this effect, if the character had a +1 to Attack Rolls, the "5" result would be a "6" but would not be a natural "6" so would still be stopped by Defense.

Critical Attack

The critical attack modifier makes any Attack Dice results of natural (unmodified) "6" each deal two damage if they make it pass the enemy's Defense.

For example if a 2 Defense monster is attacked by a 5+ AR character using a 5D6 weapon with the critical attack symbol. The character rolls 6, 6, 5, 2 and 1 - meaning 3 successes. They are reduced by the monster's 2 defense, leaving just 1 success, but because the one remaining success is a natural "6" (and not, for example, a "5" modified by +1) it deals 2 damage instead of one.

Defense always reduces successes starting with the lowest results. So in this case, it negates the "5" and one of the "6"s.

Monsters' Attack

Monsters attack at the end of the Monsters' Turn. Unless you have a friendly monster at your gaming table, all of the monster Attack Tests (dice rolls) are actually performed by players (preferably the ones with the worst luck). Monsters attack the same way as characters do, with a few exceptions.

Monsters - Target

If there is more than one character on a space, or within range and LoS for ranged attacks, monsters target the character with the lowest Defense statistic.

If two or more potential targets have the same Defense, then the character with the least remaining health is selected.

If there is still a tie then the players choose which one is attacked.

Players can use Defense Skills to increase Defense or Heal before monsters pick a target (so can influence who is attacked). Players can also use Defense Skills to increase Defense after a monster picks a target. This won't cause the monster currently attacking to change its target but will affect any subsequent monster attacks.

Example: Two characters are on the same space as two monsters. Character #1 has 1 Defense and 3 Health remaining. Character #2 has 1 Defense and 6 Health remaining.

The first monster is initially going to attack character #1 because the characters have the same defense but #1 has less health. To avoid being attacked, #1 uses a Defense Card that gives him +1 Defense for this turn. Now character #2 has the lowest Defense and so the monster targets him.

After the monster has settled on #2, this character uses a Defense Skill to increase his Defense by 1 until the end of turn. Although characters are tied for the defense again, the monster had already chosen to attack #2 before they used their Skill.

The monster attacks, dealing 5 damage to #2. Both characters now have 2 defense, but #1 has 3 health remaining and #2 has 1 health left. The second monster will target #2 as he has the least remaining health.

As an attack from the second monster could kill #2, player #1 decides to focus all following monster attacks on himself by Throwing a Tantrum (a special skill that uses Insanity, see p22).

Monsters - Attack table

Scenario-related monsters, bosses and mini-bosses have a list of attacks described on the Monster Cards. After the monster has chosen a target, roll a D6 to find out which attack it unleashes.

Monsters - Priority

When there are multiple monsters on a space, there is a set order in which they attack. A monster with the Boss keyword goes first, then Elite and finally, Basic. Monsters with the same keyword attack in no particular order (you can choose).

Once one monster attacks, all other monsters on the same space must attack after him (if they can). Only after all attacks on one space are resolved you can start the same process on another space.

Overwhelm

Monsters are stronger when they co-ordinate to attack targets on the same space. The first monster attacks normally, but subsequent attacks get an extra attack die for every previous monster to attack a target on that space. So the second monster attacks the same space has 1 additional attack die, the third monster has 2 additional dice and so on.

If monsters switch to another target on the same space this bonus is not cancelled. The bonus resets each round.

Example of Priority and Overwhelm: Space A has a character with two monsters, one Elite and one Basic. Space B contains a character with a Boss and two Basic monsters. Space C has a single ranged monster who can attack space B.

Players decide to resolve space A first. On that space the elite monster attacks first and then the basic monster attacks with +1 Attack Die for Overwhelm (e.g. if it normally attacks with 4D6, it now attacks with 5D6).

After all monsters on space A have attacked, the players decide to resolve space B.

On space B, the Boss attacks first, then the two Basic monsters attack with +1 and +2 Attack Dice from Overwhelm.

Finally, the Ranged monster attacks the character on space B, with an Overwhelm bonus of +3 (for the 3 monsters on space B that have already attacked the character on space B).

Monsters - AoE Attack

Monsters' AoE Attacks affect every character on the space where the monster's target is. When a monster attacks with an AoE it rolls the amount of Attack Dice stated on the Monster Card and you determine how many successes there are. This is not affected by Attack Roll modifications from characters.

The number of successes is applied to each character, who individually reduce the amount by their own Defense. The remaining amount is the damage that they receive. In this way, each player can receive a different amount of damage from a single AoE attack.

Example: A monster with a 5D6 AoE attack is on a space with 2 characters. It has 2+ AR and rolls 2, 2, 3, 4 and 5 – 5 successes. Character #1 has an item that says monsters attacking him have -1 to Attack Rolls. Normally, this would change the "2"s into "1"s, making them failures. However, as AoE attacks are unaffected by Attack Roll modifications the 5 successes remain.

Character #1 has 1 Defense, so receives 4 damage. Character #2 has 2 defense and used a Defense Skill card +1 Defense before the attack. By raising his effective Defense, Character #2 blocks 3 of the 5 successes leaving him to take 2 damage.

Ranged Monsters

If a monster has a Ranged symbol on the Monster Card, it means that it can attack from a distance. Ranged Attacks are resolved the same way as other attacks but require the monster and target to be within range and having LoS, not necessarily on the same space.

During Monster Movement, a ranged monster does not move all the way to the character's space; instead stopping when it is close enough to a character to use an attack. If a monster is closer to the character than its range, it moves away from the character, to be as far from all characters while still being able to attack.

Unlike characters, monsters can leave a space with enemies on it.

Insanity

Insanity represents a character's mental state and allows them to bend reality. It can be used both offensively and defensively.

The Insanity Counter on the Character Cards is used to track your current Insanity. All players start the game without a token on the counter and only place a token on the number 1 the first time that they use or lose insanity. The token is moved progressively upwards when the character uses or loses it again.

Insanity can be used on Insane Abilities listed below and can be lost through events, bad memories or facing specific monsters. If insanity is regained move the token down the track to a lower number.

Insane Abilities

Chaos Die - Use 1 Insanity during your turn to add the Chaos Die to your next Attack Roll. The Chaos Die is rolled with the other Attack Dice and the number of skulls rolled is the number of successes added to your Attack Roll. One of the results on the chaos die is a "+1" symbol. It is a +1 buff to Attack Rolls, meaning that the values shown on all other dice in this attack are increased by 1. You can use Insanity multiple times per turn to add the Chaos Die to any number of attacks but not twice for the same attack (although some skills and weapons make it possible to have more than one Chaos Die for a single attack). If a skill or weapon attacks twice, the Chaos Die is only added to the first roll.

Chaos Die skulls are automatic successes in attacks, but do not count as "6"s for special rules like Precision and Critical attacks.

Imaginary Locker - Use 1 Insanity and 1AP during your turn to place a random Locker Token (from off the board) on your space. This ability can only be used after the warden has reached space B1 of the Insomnia Track (p23).

Only the character summoning an Imaginary Locker can search it (at the cost of another 1AP).

Defense Die - In the Monsters' Turn, after a monster targets you (or the space you are on for AoE attacks), but before it performs an Attack Roll, you can use 1 Insanity to roll the Defense Die. The number of shields shown on the die is added to your Defense against this one attack.

Tantrum - At any moment during the Monsters' Turn you can use 1 Insanity to throw a Tantrum, drawing the monsters' attention and protecting friendly characters on the same space. For the rest of the turn, as long as you are still alive, any monster attacks aimed at targets on your space will target you, no matter how much (or how little) Defense or Health you have left. Note that fellow characters on the same space can still be harmed by AoE attacks as normal.

The player using this skill is obligated to shout out "Tantrum!"

Insanity Penalties

The two highest values on the Insanity Counter have +1CD and +2CD symbols next to them. If you reach this level of insanity the reality starts to blur and your skill cooldowns become longer.

Normally, when you use a skill, you place a token on the highest bright field of the Cooldown Counter (p14) on the Skill Card. When your insanity reaches a value with a +1CD or +2CD symbol you instead place the token on the first (+1CD) or the second (+2CD) dark field of the cooldown counter.

When your insanity reaches it's maximum, you cannot use Insane Abilities anymore until you regain it. If you are at the maximum value and something forces you to lose Insanity again, you are taken back to solitary confinement. See Death (p24).

Example: The character shown has 1 health remaining, three action points and is on a space with monster A (4 Health and 1 Defense). Monster B is coming his way so he wants to move away this turn, but a character cannot leave a space with a monster on it. The character wants to kill the monster with his first action and use his remaining AP to get away from the second monster.

To have more chance of killing Monster A, the player uses 1 Insanity to add a Chaos Die to his next attack, putting his character up to 6 insanity. He now spends 1AP to attack with a 5d6 weapon. He has 5+ AR and rolls 6, 5, 2, 1, 1 on D6s and 2 skulls on the Chaos Die, giving 4 successes. However, the monster's Defense of 1 decreases this to 3 damage - not enough to kill it. The player puts 3 damage tokens next to the monster and reduces the durability of his weapon by one (because he rolled at least one "1").

As he is still on a space with a monster, the player decides to attack with a skill using his second AP. As the monster had 1 health remaining he kills it easily. However, he has 6 Insanity, and his Insanity Counter shows a +1CD symbol, so when he must mark the Cooldown Counter (of the skill he just used) on the first darker field (second to highest). Additionally, as he dealt the Final Blow to the monster, he can reduce the cooldown of one skill by 1.

Having killed monster A, he uses his final AP to move 1 space away from monster B. The Players' Turn ends. The Monsters' Turn starts and monster B catches up to the player and attacks.

The player has 1HP left and 1 Defense so uses a zero-cost Defense Skill to gain +1 Defense (it's cooldown is increased by 1 due to Insanity). Then, he uses his last Insanity point to roll a Defense Die. His Insanity is now 7 with a +2CD symbol. If he had used Insanity first, and the Defense Skill later, it's cooldown would have been increased by 2. The character naturally has 1 Defense, +1 Defense from the skill, and rolls 3 shields on the Defense Die for a total of 5. The monster attacks with a fire attack (reducing Defense by 1) and has 4 successes, meaning a result of zero damage and the character lives to fight again!

Insomnia Track

The Insomnia Track is the path the Warden travels that acts as a flexible time limit for the game.

The Warden starts the game on space A1 and moves forward one space (e.g. from A1 to A2) every time a Movement Card with a Warden Movement Symbol (p9) is revealed. The Warden's movement can be also affected by memories, events, skills and by using Insomnia Shifts (see below).

When the Warden is supposed to move and is already on the space marked with a 12, he moves to the number 1 space on the next Quarter (e.g. from A12 to B1).

The length of the Insomnia Track depends on the game difficulty. The path at ends at:

A12 in Paranoid Beginner (1 scenario)
B12 in Seemingly Normal (2 scenarios)
C12 in Crazy Hard (3 scenarios)
D12 in Insanely Impossible (4 scenarios)

If the Warden is supposed to move past the end of the Insomnia Track, he instead moves to the pentagram in the Central Board Piece for the Final Clash (p27).

Insomnia Shifts

Insomnia Shifts are additional skills that characters can use. Using an Insomnia Shift makes the Warden advance on the Insomnia Track, so they should be used with caution or as a last resort.

Insomnia Shift – Defy Time

Move the Warden 1 space forward on the Insomnia Track to gain +1AP. Each player can use this just once per turn.

Insomnia Shift - Defy Gravity

Move the Warden 1 space forward on the Insomnia Track to change a die result by 1 (either up or down). This can only be used once per roll and cannot affect Chaos and Defense Dice.

Example: A character at maximum Insanity is forced, by an event, to pass an Imagination Test (p9) or lose 1 Insanity. The character has 7 imagination and so needs to roll 7 or less on 2D6.

The player rolls "2" and "6" - a fail! Normally, he would now lose insanity and die, but, instead, he uses Insanity Shift – Defy Gravity to change the "6" into a "5", pass the test and survive (at the cost of advancing the Warden).

Death

Stomp!

Be extremely careful when the Warden is close by. Whenever the Warden sees a character on the same space as he is, he stomps it recklessly. This can happen during any part of the Game Round and can be triggered by any character without stealth.

When he stomps, roll Chaos Dice twice and deal damage to the character for each skull rolled. This damage cannot be prevented by anything (such as skills, armor, Defense Die). The character is also stunned (has to pay one action at the beginning of its next turn to get up). After stomping, the warden automatically moves again to the next space on the Insomnia Track.

And you know what happens if any character's on that space too!

Death

A character dies when they lose all health (the amount of damage tokens on their character card is equal to their health statistic) or when they are forced to lose Insanity when they are already at the maximum value. When a character dies follow these steps:

Move the character's miniature back to one of the solitary confinement cells (starting positions) in the Central Board Piece.
Recover all Health and 2 Insanity points, e.g. if you were on 5 Insanity you now have 3 Insanity.
All items in the inventory lose one Durability or a charge. Cooldowns on skills remain unchanged.
Move the Warden forward three times on the Insomnia Track.
During the Final Clash death is permanent – remove the dead character from the board.

Doors

During setup, place Door Tokens between spaces that have a highlighted door symbol. Players cannot move between spaces with Door Tokens until they open them. Opened doors are removed from the board.

When a character is on a space with a door token they can flip the token upside down for 1 action point. What happens next depends on what is revealed on the back of the Door Token. After you open the door, or if there are no symbols on the back, remove the token from the board. If you fail to open them, leave the revealed token in its place.

Door Types

Open Doors have no symbols on the back of the token. Remove them from the board after revealing.

Barricaded Doors have a symbol of a fence and a numeric strength value. Once you reveal a barricaded door you have to destroy them by force. You can place 1 damage token on a barricaded door by spending 1AP or by placing a token on any of your weapon cards (spending weapon Durability).

When the number of damage tokens on the door is equal to the strength value on the barricade symbol, the door is opened and the token is removed from the board.

Spending weapons' Durability does not cost any additional action points and you can spend some or all Durability of any number of weapons (remembering to destroy and discard any weapon reaching maximum durability). Indestructible weapons without Durability cannot be used to open Barricaded Doors.

Example: A character uses 1 AP to reveal a door on his space. It turns out to be Barricaded Door with a strength value of 6. The character has no weapons so he uses his remaining 2 AP to place 2 damage tokens on the barricade.

The next character decides to use all their actions for movement this turn, so he declares that he is Running (p8) to gain 2 extra AP and moves to the space with the Barricaded Door. He has two brand new weapons with no Durability tokens on them and places 2 durability tokens on each weapon, as that is a free (0AP) action. He can place 4 damage tokens on the barricade which, with the previous 2 placed by the first character, gives 6 in total.

As the strength value on the Barricaded Door token is also 6, the door is opened and removed from the board. The second character still has actions left but, as he declared Running, can only spend them on movement. He choses to enter the room that had been blocked by the barricade.

Locked Doors have a symbol of a lock and a strength value on the reverse. When you reveal a Door Token (for 1AP) and it turns out to be a Locked Door, you gain a free attempt at opening it (using an Unlocking Test, below). The player doesn't have to use the free attempt - they may want to leave a door locked if a monster is on the other side.

If you try to open a Locked Door but fail, the token stays on the board. You (or any other character) in a space with a revealed Locked Door can pay 1AP to attempt to unlock it (by passing another Unlocking Test).

Unlocking Test

An Unlocking Test is a test using your character's Imagination attribute. You roll as many six-sided dice as you have points of Imagination (e.g. if you have 7 Imagination, you roll 7D6) and every die showing a 4, 5 or 6 is a success, the rest are failures.

If the number of successes is EQUAL to or HIGHER than the strength value of the lock symbol, the door is opened and the Door Token is removed from the board.

If a character fails to open the door they can repeat the test on the same turn for another 1AP but the test becomes harder. Add +1 to the strength of the lock for every previous attempt by this character this turn. The extra difficulty disappears at the end of each character's turn.

Example: A character reveals a door token for 1 action point. It turns out to be a Locked Door with a difficulty of 5. The character gets one attempt at opening the door for free. He has 7 imagination so he rolls 7D6 and gets 3 successes - not enough to open the door. As the character has one action left, he spends it on another attempt to open the door. Because this is his second try this turn, the difficulty has risen up by 1 and the door is now strength 6. He rolls 7D6 and gets 1 success - much less than the 6 needed!

The door stays on the board and an another characters comes to the space. The second character has 6 imagination and the difficulty is back to 5. He rolls 5 successes and removes the token from the board.

Monsters and Doors

Monsters can move through unrevealed Door Tokens and through open doorways (when the token has been removed from the board.

However, sometimes the Door Token is revealed and the characters are unable (or unwilling) to open the door during the players' turn, leaving it barricaded or locked. Monsters cannot walk through these revealed Door Tokens. When the monsters move, they will have to find an another way towards the characters or may even be trapped in a room (in this case the monsters move towards the nearest character).

Line of Sight and Doors

Door Tokens block Line of Sight (p9), however once a Door Token is removed from the board, the open door modifies the line of sight rules.

When a character is standing on a space with an opened door it sees everything inside or outside the room normally. However, when a character is one or more spaces away from an open door, it sees only the first space of the room through the door.

These rules also apply to monsters when you determine if they can or cannot see a character during Monsters Movement (p11).

Examples of LoS through doorways can be seen on the next page.

Lines in the picture represent the lines of sight. The character can see the monsters indicated by the green lines and cannot see them when the line is red. Because the character stands on a space with the door, they can see all the monsters inside the room on the left. However, the character is one space away from the door on the right, so can only see the first space behind the door and cannot see the monster deeper in the room.

Scenarios

Scenario Cards

Scenario cards describe quests that players must fulfill to win the game (1, 2, 3 or 4 scenarios are played, depending on the difficulty). A Scenario Card is only a summary of a scenario. Full descriptions of each scenario can be found in the Scenario Guide.

Scenario Jump

Regardless of difficulty, the game always starts with a single scenario. Only when the requirements are met for the Scenario Jump will another scenario start automatically.

Scenario Jumps only happen in games with more than 1 scenario ('Seemingly Normal' difficulty or higher) and only if there are still scenarios left to complete at the chosen difficulty level.

When the Scenario Jump happens, start a new scenario by revealing a new random Scenario Card (if it requires a specific Quarter not used in this game, discard it and reveal a new Scenario Card). Then, read the Scenario Card and follow the rules specified in the setup.

The Scenario Jump will always happen before the scenario is finished, so at any one time there can be multiple scenarios active - meaning more monsters, special events and additional rules.

Scenario Card

A. Objective – Conditions that have to be fulfilled to finish the scenario.
B. Special Events – Events happen when a revealed Movement Card (p9) has the corresponding color of Special Event Symbol.
C. Scenario Jump – The point or conditions in the scenario that trigger the start of another scenario.

Finishing a Scenario

After the players complete the Objective of a scenario, remove all scenario tokens from the board (any remaining monsters stay on the board until they are defeated, unless the Scenario Card states otherwise).

Every character receives both the following rewards:

Regain 1 Insanity.
Draw a card from each Mental Disorder Deck listed on your Character Card, pick one of those cards to keep and discard the rest (back to their respective decks).

Players only receive rewards for completing scenarios if the Final Clash (p27) has not already begun.

Final Clash

The Warden travels along the Insomnia Track (p23) until he reaches the final space (A12 on Paranoid Beginner difficulty, B12 on Seemingly Normal difficulty and so on).

When the Warden is on the final space and is moved forward again, he moves to the space with the pentagram on the Central Board Piece and the Final Clash begins.

If players manage to finish all scenarios before the Final Clash has begun, they win the game, escape the hospital and the Warden waits impatiently for new patients to harass.

If the players did not complete all scenarios in time, they still have one last chance to win: they must defeat the Warden (Chief Hospital Administrator) in battle. The Warden's rules and attacks are described on his Monster Card.

After the Warden has been placed on the pentagram, turns pass normally, and the warden moves and attacks like any other monster during the Monsters' Turn.

Players can still finish scenarios during the Final Clash, but they will not receive any rewards for doing so. However, finishing all scenarios during the Final Clash stops any more Movement Cards from being revealed during the Monsters' Turn. This can make defeating the Warden a little easier, as there will be no more Special Events triggering and no new monsters will spawn.

Important: During the Final Clash, character deaths are permanent (they no longer respawn in solitary confinements).

Victory and Defeat

If at least one player is alive when the Warden is defeated, or if you manage to complete all scenarios before the Final Clash, you win, leave the hospital and your fate is, for now, undetermined.

You lose if all players die during the Final Clash, and your sorry story ends as you are dragged away to the hospital's basement for a lobotomy procedure that takes away all your memories, personality and soul.

Special monsters and mini-bosses

Special monsters have a blue star and mini bosses have a red star next to their names on monster cards. When setting up the game you can decide to spice up the game by adding these extraordinary monsters. In the basic version of the game there is one mini-boss, Nemesis. Some additional monsters were available as Kickstarter exclusives, other can be ordered on our website: www.titan-forge.com or purchased at our stand during the annual international game fair in Essen, Germany.

Special Monsters and Mini-Bosses may be picked or chosen at random during setup. You can select more than one, but too many can slow down the game. Place the monsters' miniatures near the board.

During the game, if the revealed Movement Card has a blue or red star in the monster spawn section do not spawn the monsters from the Movement Card. Instead place a random monster of that type on the board (roll a D6 for each and spawn the one with the highest result).

There can be any number of special monsters on the board but only one mini-boss, so if another red star appears and the previous mini-boss is not yet defeated, spawn the normal monsters from the movement card. Same thing happens if a star appears and there are no more special monsters and mini-bosses. Read and follow the monsters' rules, as they bring extra challenges and force players to adapt their tactics. Some monsters even have special rewards for defeating them.

We recommend using special monsters and mini-bosses every time if you have them to hand.

Glossary

Nemesis

After the Nemesis appears on the board all players roll a die. The one with the lowest result will be the target of the Nemesis.

The Nemesis only moves towards and attacks this poor, unlucky, haunted player. Other characters do not feel the presence of the Nemesis. Unlike the unlucky target character, they can leave the space with the Nemesis on it and cannot target, attack or affect it in any way. The statistics of the Nemesis are the same as the haunted player's statistics from his Character Card but improved by 1 (e.g. if the character's AR is 5+ then Nemesis has 4+). However Nemesis always has just 1AP.

When the Nemesis is on the same space as it's target, it attacks, choosing from two possible attacks (shown on the Monster Card).

The first type of attack is made using a random weapon from the character's inventory (bare fist attack if they have no weapons) with +3 added Attack Dice.

The second attack type is made using an Attack Skill randomly chosen from the character (if they have any). If the character has no Attack Skills, then the Nemesis uses the first type of attack.

These attacks do not use up durability or cooldowns of cards and may be different on each turn depending on the character's inventory and the dice rolled to randomly determine which weapons or skills are used.

Glossary

Space - A separate field on the board. There is no limit to how many players, objectives, tokens and monsters may be on it at any given time.

Token – A small token used to count damage, durability, cooldowns and more.

Quarter – One L-shaped Game Board Piece.

Round – A Players' Turn followed by a Monsters' Turn.

Players' Turn – The phase in which characters use their actions.

Monsters' Turn – The phase in which the Movement Card is revealed and monsters move and attack.

Line of Sight (aka LoS) – The line determining if characters and monsters can see each other.

Running Bonus – Two extra actions you may receive if you spend actions on movement only.

Cooldown Counter – Part of a skill card used to track the cooldown of the skill.

Insanity Counter – Part of the Character Card showing the brain and used to track the character's Insanity.

Skill (aka Ability) – A character's personal skill card, a Mental Disorder Card or a Memory, Insane Skill, Insomnia Shift.

Basic Skill – One of 4 skill cards assigned to a character with their name on it.

Insane Skill – A skill used by any character at the cost of Insanity.

Insomnia shift – A skill used by a character at the cost of moving the Warden forward.

Insomnia Track – The path along which the Warden travels.

Natural Roll – Result of a dice roll before any modifications.

Randomization – A roll of D4 and D12 dice that pinpoints a specific space on the board, the D4 indicating the Quarter and the D12 being the numbered space on that Quarter.

D6 – Six-sided die. A number before the 'D' indicates how many dice to roll, e.g. 4D6 means roll four six-sided dice.

D3 – A three-sided die; there is no D3 in Lobotomy so in order to get the result roll a D6 and use the following table (1 and 2 – 1; 3 and 4 – 2; 5 and 6 – 3).

Friendly Character – All other characters, a monster under character's control, anything else specified as a 'Friendly' in a scenario.

Enemy – Anything that is not friendly, mostly monsters.

Inspiring Presence – Having Inspiring Presence allows all Friendly Characters on the same space to gain an additional attack die.

Stealth – A character with stealth can leave spaces even if it has monsters on it.

Avoidance (x) – A character or monster with Avoidance can avoid some incoming damage from attacks. For each damage dealt roll 1D6; if the result is equal to or higher than the avoidance value, x, then this point of damage is prevented. Note that when a Critical Attack causes double damage, roll for Avoidance against each point of damage separately.

Monster Keyword Glossary

Basic Monster – The most common sort of monster - usually a nurse, patient or scavenger. Basic Monsters usually have just one weak attack with no additional rules.

Elite Monster – No special rules but they have an attack table that makes them use a random attack each turn. Some rules and cards will affect only elite monsters or will be unable to target them.

Boss Monster – Cannot be stunned or controlled in any way.

Ethereal – Monsters that can move through walls and other obstacles; characters can leave spaces with only ethereal monsters on them unless a character also becomes ethereal some way. Ethereal characters can walk through walls and leave spaces with non-ethereal monsters.

Memorable – After killing a memorable monster each player that dealt at least one damage to it or was on the same space with it during the Final Blow can draw a Memory Card.

Runner – During Monster Movement if a character is in sight, the runner instantaneously moves to the space with that character. If multiple characters can be seen, the players may decide which the runner moves towards.

Eternal Grudge – A Monster with Eternal Grudge respawns when defeated (as at scenario setup unless stated otherwise). Final Blow and Memorable rewards are only awarded when the monster is defeated after Eternal Grudge has been removed/nullified.

Unholy – After targeting and before attacking an unholy monster a character must pass an Imagination Test. If the test fails the character uses up an action point but does not attack. If the test is passed, the character attacks normally and does not have to pass the test again for any other attacks on that target this turn.

Immunity (x) – Indicates immunity to the stated attack type (e.g. immunity fire). All attacks against the monster lose the stated attack symbol.

Double Attack – The monster attacks twice during each attack phase. If the monster has an attack table, the second attack type is chosen separate to the first and so both attacks may be different.

Aura of Despair – Players have 1 less AP while the aura is active.

Aura of Reality – As long as the aura is active, each player loses 1 hp at the start of his/her turn.

Convert – Take control of 1 Basic or Elite monster. The monster cannot be healed in any way, he loses 1 health at the start of your turn. The monster is treated like a player (so attacked by monsters) but he can only attack once per round.

Burrow – If this monster took any damage during the Round, then at the end of the Monsters' Turn it burrows into the floor before appearing elsewhere in the hospital; Randomize the monster.

Smash (x) – The monster attacks each player on his space with x dice before his normal attacks (or movement). Roll for this attack once, each player subtracts Defense and loses that many health.

Armed to the Teeth – When this monster enters the game a Weapon Card is drawn and given to him. When he attacks, add the weapon's Attack Dice value to his attack. If the weapon has any additional abilities, the monster uses them too. He doesn't use any optional abilities (like losing durability to gain additional dice). The weapon loses durability as normal.

If the monster is killed by a character on the same space, the player can take this weapon (with any durability tokens it has).

Leech Soul – When attacking, this monster heals Health equal to the damage dealt.

Blood Bond – When within 4 spaces of another monster of the same type, gain +1 to Attack Rolls and an additional attack action.

Tokens

Special tokens used with certain skills, attacks and scenarios (introduced on the card that uses them):

Frost, Cassette, Diary, Incense, Balloon, Thrall, Vampire, Haunting, Altar of Blood, Altar of Madness, Altar of Horror, Safe, Dream World, Weakness, Mist, Holy, Spiders, Key, Objective, Taunt, Memory, Roots.

Scenario Guide

"The human race will disappear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear. Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles."

-H. P. Lovecraft

In Lobotomy, scenarios are represented by Scenario Cards. This guide contains detailed instructions and rules for each of them.

Difficulty Level

Before starting the game, players decide on the difficulty. The difficulty level decides the number of scenarios that must be completed to win, the end space of the Warden's Insomnia Track and the length of the session.

1 scenario – Paranoid Beginner – A12 – 30-45 minutes
2 scenarios – Seemingly Normal – B12 – 60-100 minutes
3 scenarios – Crazy Hard – C12 – 120-150 minutes
4 scenarios – Insanely Impossible – D12 – 150+ minutes

Goal of the Game

Players win if they complete the objectives of all scenarios (e.g. 2 scenarios for Seemingly Normal difficulty). However, the time to do so is limited and is represented by the Warden (boss) patrolling along his Insomnia Track.

The Warden starts on the space marked as A1 and his journey ends when he reaches the end space determined by the difficulty, e.g. C12 in Crazy Hard mode (3 scenarios).

If the Warden moves again after reaching the final space, he moves to the pentagram on the Central Board Piece and the Final Clash begins - players can no longer win the game without defeating him in a nearly impossible battle.

Finishing a Scenario

After the players complete the objective of a scenario, remove all scenario tokens from the board (any remaining monsters stay on the board until they are defeated unless scenario card states otherwise). Every character receives both the following rewards:

Regain 1 insanity.
Draw a card from each Mental Disorder Deck listed on your Character Card, pick one of those cards to keep and discard the rest (back to their respective decks).

Players only receive rewards for completing scenarios if the Final Clash (p27) has not already begun.

Scenario Specifications

Objective - Requirements that have to be met to finish a scenario.

Setup - Information on how to begin the scenario. They are used at the beginning of the game and every time a new scenario is revealed.

Rules - Specific information on how to apply and interact with a scenario with all monsters' statistics, required costs, values and gameplay clarifications.

Scenario Jump - Regardless of difficulty, the game always starts with a single scenario. Only when the requirements are met for the Scenario Jump will another scenario start automatically.

Scenario Jumps only happen in games with more than 1 scenario ('Seemingly Normal' difficulty or higher) and only if there are still scenarios left to complete at the chosen difficulty level.

The Scenario Jump always happens before the scenario is finished, so results in multiple scenarios being active at once.

Monsters - Monsters' statistics and explanation of their special abilities.

Special events - Explains the additional special events that trigger when their symbols (blue, red or green) appear on the movement cards.

Handicap - Modifications to be applied when the number of characters is lower than five. The handicap scales the difficulty of scenarios. When playing with 3 characters, both the 3-character and 4-character handicaps are applied.

List of Scenarios

The following scenarios are included in the Scenario Guide. They have been gathered by name in alphabetical order (ignoring 'The' at the start):

The 13th Day of Christmas
The Antichrist
Asylum Field Day
Balloon Frenzy
Big Bad Wolf
Blood Bond
The Blood God's Offering
The Body Snatchers
The Book of Revelation
Dream World
Frankenstein's Tower
The Lesbian Vampire Diaries
Memories
The Mist
Momma's Home Cooked Dinner
Monster Control
Moonlight Shadow Ritual
One Day at the Circus
Rescue Mission
Twin Defense
Vampire's Desires

The Patient Casefile Scenario Format

The scenario details in the Scenario Guide are presented in the format of patient casefiles from Melville City Psychiatric Hospital.

With the odd exception, each casefile follows the same layout:

A - Scenario Name
B - Images and notes for any Quarters or tokens used in this scenario. If only a single token of a type is shown, then only one of those tokens is needed. However 2 or more tokens of any one type indicates that multiple tokens are needed.
C - Ongoing Symptoms - Scenario Rules.
D - Flavor text.
E - Adverse Reactions - Scenario Special Events.
F - Prior Treatment - Scenario Handicaps.
G - Complications - Scenario Jump.
H - Suggested Treatment - Scenario Objective.

Lobotomy Rulebook

Table of Contents

Live Together or Die Alone
Gameplay Overview
Component List
Component Overview
Preparation
Game Play
Searching
Memories
- Memory Token
- Memory Deck
Skills
Items & Inventory
- Inventory Card
Combat
Insanity
Death
- Stomp!
- Death
Doors
Scenarios
Final Clash
- Victory and Defeat
- Special monsters and mini-bosses
Glossary
Tokens
Scenario Guide

Live Together or Die Alone

Lobotomy is a co-operative game where 1-5 players win or lose together a team. The challenges that the team must face and ultimately overcome are all created and controlled by the game itself.

Gameplay Overview

Component List

This Rulebook
Scenario Guide
Central Board Piece
11 Quarter Board Pieces
10 Six-Sided Dice
1 Twelve-Sided Die
1 Four-Sided Die
1 Chaos Die
1 Defense Die
8 Character Cards
32 Basic Skill Cards
80 Memory Cards
100 Mental Disorder Cards
40 Movement Cards
60 Inventory Cards
17 Monster Cards
20 Scenario Cards
1 First Player Token
Door Tokens
Locker Tokens
Body Tokens
Memory Tokens
60 Red and Blue Tokens
8 Character Miniatures
8 Character Color-Bases
64 Monster Miniatures
1 Warden Miniature

Component Overview

Scenario Guide

The Scenario Guide gives the specifics of each scenario. It details their setup, objectives, rules, special events, monster statistics and any handicaps used in games with fewer than 5 players.

This is the guide to use when choosing and setting up scenarios.

Central Board Piece

This tile always appears in the centre of the board and is the starting position for the characters.

Four other quarter board tiles are attached, one to each corner, to create the complete map of the hospital.

Quarter Board Pieces (Quarters)

These tiles represent different wings of the hospital and are placed against the central board piece (one at each corner).

Different quarters can be used each game allowing for a variety of different board configurations.

Chaos Die and Defense Die

These dice allow players to boost their power or defense by sacrificing a little more of their precious sanity.

For more information on these dice, see the Insanity Section on p22.

4-Sided and 12-Sided Dice (Randomization Dice)

6-Sided Dice

Character Cards

These give information about characters: their statistics, mental disorders, starting equipment and backstory.

They have designated places to keep track of health and insanity during play.

Basic Skill Cards

Each character has a set of 4 Basic Skills available to them, shown by their name on the backs of the cards.

Players receive 2 of their cards during setup and can obtain the rest later along with other skills.

Memory Cards

Each character has a designated deck of 10 Memory Cards containing the secrets of their past. Good memories grant skills and items. Bad ones have a random outcome and can even harm them.

Mental Disorder Cards

These are divided into 5 decks: Aggression, OCD, Anxiety Neurosis, Schizophrenia and Phobia.

All these cards are skills usable by characters with the given disorder. Each deck has it's own thematic effects (e.g. Aggression focuses on offense).

Inventory Cards

There are 3 decks of Inventory Cards: weapons, equipment and drugs.

Players store and use inventory cards to do many things including fighting, defense, and healing.

Movement Cards

One of these cards is revealed at the start of the monsters' turn. It controls the appearance of new monsters and tokens, and the occurrence of random events, scenario events and boss movement.

Monster Cards

These contain information about monsters: their statistics, attacks and rules.

Scenario Cards

These help players pick a random scenario and also provide a summary of the scenario setup, objectives and rules.

For more detailed information, please refer to the Scenario Guide.

First Player Token

This indicates which player goes first on the players' turn. After the first player has finished, the rest of the team go one after another going clockwise.

At the end of the turn the token is passed to the person on the left (clockwise).

Door Tokens

These are placed face-up where a door is marked on the board.

The reverse-sides have locked or barricaded doors, shown by lock symbols and barricades, and the barriers difficulty.

Locker Tokens

These are placed face-up on spaces with a locker symbol. The reverse-side displays the difficulty of the search test that must be passed to obtain weapons, equipment and drugs.

Body Tokens

These are placed face-up on the board during setup, dictated by the individual board tiles selected.

Players can search bodies to obtain items or encounter monsters.

Memory Tokens

These are places where characters can gain a recollection about their past, allowing players to draw cards from their memory decks.

Some are randomly placed on the board during setup, with more appearing as the game progresses.

Special Tokens

These special tokens are used with certain skills, attacks and scenarios.

Each of these is described on the card that introduces them.

Red and Blue Tokens

These are used to keep track of ability cooldowns and insanity. They also mark the durability of weapons, partial damage done to monsters and more.

Plastic Miniatures

Characters and monsters are represented on the game board by miniatures. Some of the larger monster models require minimal assembly (no glue required).

Character Color-Bases

Each player puts their character figure on a base of a different color to avoid confusing their character with another player's.

Preparation

Before Play

Difficulty Level

Before starting, players choose the difficulty level they would like. This determines the length of the game and how many scenarios must be completed to win.

1 scenario – Paranoid Beginner – 30-45 minutes
2 scenarios – Seemingly Normal – 60-100 minutes
3 scenarios – Crazy Hard – 120-150 minutes
4 scenarios – Insanely Impossible – 150+ minutes

Characters and Players

Your First Game

Setup

Board Setup

Select a scenario or shuffle the Scenario Cards and draw one. Read it's description, see if it requires a specific quarter board tile.
Take the Central Board Piece and place it in the middle of the table. You'll notice a letter in each corner – A, B, C and D.
If the scenario specifies a Quarter Board Piece, place the tile specified next to the central board piece at the corner marked A (as shown below). If no tile is specified proceed to the next step.
Choose, or randomly select, Quarter Board Pieces for each remaining corner. Place the unused tiles back in the box.
Shuffle the remaining Scenario Cards and put them face-down next to the board.
Separate Mental Disorder Cards into 5 decks according to the card backs. Shuffle each deck and place them close to the board.
Separate Inventory Cards into 3 decks: weapons, equipment and drugs. Shuffle each deck and place it close to the board.
Place the model of The Warden on space A1 (the space marked with a number '1' on the Quarter Board Piece attached to the central tile at corner A).
Shuffle the Body Tokens face-down. Place one Body Token on the pentagram in the Central Board Piece.
Place one Body Token on each Quarter Board Piece on one of the highlighted places. If possible, place the body on a highlight without any furniture (or just seating on) it. Otherwise select a highlight at random from those available on the tile.
Turn all the Door and Locker Tokens face-down and shuffle them. Place random Door Tokens on doorways and place Locker Tokens on all highlighted areas unoccupied by another token.
Place two Memory Tokens on each Quarter. Randomize their positions by rolling a D12 twice for each quarter and placing Memory Tokens on the spaces marked with the numbers rolled (with no more than 1 Memory Token in any single space).
Separate the basic monsters (patients, nurses and scavengers) from the rest. Randomize 1 patient and 1 scavenger for each Quarter Board Tile. Additionally, randomize 2 nurses in a 4-character game and 4 nurses in a 5-character game (but there can be no more than 1 nurse per Quarter).
Follow any additional setup steps required by the scenario.
Finally, perform the setup for each character (see below).

Randomization

Rolling 1 (on the D4) and 7 (on D12) leads to this space, A-7.

Character Setup

Each player chooses a character and receives their character's Character Card, 4 Basic Skill Cards, 10 Memory Cards, a miniature of the character and a colored base. The character-specific cards all have the character name on the card backs.
Put the Character Card in front of you.
Shuffle the character's Memory Deck and place it next to your Character Card, face-down.
Pick 2 of your Basic Skills Cards and place them next to your Character Card. Place the unselected skill cards under your Character Card for use later in the game.
Find the character's mental disorders on their Character Card. For each disorder draw one card from the corresponding Mental Disorder Deck. Place just one of the drawn cards next to your Character Card and discard the rest.
Look through the 3 decks of Inventory Cards for any starting equipment listed on your Character Card and place them next to your Character Card. Shuffle the Inventory Decks afterwards.
Place your character's miniature (and colored-base) on an unoccupied space in solitary confinement (the Central Board Piece).
The craziest player receives the First Player Token.

The final layout: the Character Card with a Memory Deck, 2 Basic Skills, one Mental Disorder skill and starting equipment.

Goal of the Game

Character Card

A. Picture

B. Name

C. Backstory (doesn't affect play)

E. Insanity - Insanity is tracked here. Characters start the game with no markers on the track but when they use insanity, or lose sanity, a marker is placed on the track and moved up the scale.

F. Action Points (AP) - AP indicates how many actions a character can perform in each turn. Please see List of Actions (p8).

G. Attack Rating (AR) - AR is the minimum result that a player must roll on a D6 to successfully damage an enemy. Low attack ratings makes fighting easier. For details, see Combat (p16).

H. Defense (Def) - Defense indicates the amount of damage that a character absorbs from each attack without losing health. More information in Combat (p16).

I. Imagination (I) - Imagination is tested when a character tries to bend reality. High imagination makes tests easier. See Imagination Test (p9), Search Test (p12) and Unlocking Test (p25).

J. Mental disorders - This lists the character's illnesses. Characters may use skills from corresponding Mental Disorder Decks.

K. Starting equipment - Equipment the character starts with.

L. A character's unique innate ability.

Game Play

Game Rounds

A Game Round consists of 2 turns.

The players' turn - when players make their actions one after the other.
The monsters' turn – drawing a movement card, resolving it, moving monsters and attacking with them.

The Players' Turn

Available Actions

Here is the list of actions characters can perform for 1 AP cost:

Move one space in any direction (see Movement, below).
Search a locker or body in their current space (see Searching, p12).
Reveal a Door Token or attempt to open a locked door (more in Doors, p24).
Pick up a Memory Token (more in section Memories, p13).
Attack with a skill, weapon or fists (see Combat, p16).
Trade inventory items with other characters. You spend 1 AP and you can give and take any number of items to and from any number of players on the same space (if they agree).

The following actions have varying costs, and may even be free.

Use a skill or an inventory item. Sometimes they cost more than 1 AP, or no AP at all. For more information, see Skills (p13) and Inventory (p15).
Interact with some scenario-based objectives etc.

Running

Movement

Green arrows indicate spaces the character can move to for 1AP. Red arrows indicate spaces that cannot be moved to as they are blocked by walls.

Line of Sight

Green lines indicate unobstructed lines of sight. Red lines indicate that the targets cannot be seen by the character.

Imagination Test

Monsters' Turn

After the last player finishes his turn reveal the top card of the Movement deck to start the Monsters' Turn.

A - Event description
B - Special event symbol
C - Memory spawn symbol
D - Warden movement symbol
E – New monsters spawn

Use the revealed Movement Card to resolve the Monsters' Turn in the order presented below. Some cards do not have all the symbols, in which case just skip the related steps.

Event Effects
Special Event
Spawn Memory Tokens
Move the Warden
Move Monsters
Spawn New Monsters
Monsters Attack

Step 1. Event Effects

Step 2. Special Event

Check the Movement Card for the special event symbol. There are three types of special event, denoted by color:

Green (on twenty cards)
Blue (one in five cards)
Red (one in ten cards)

Special events

Surge blue – "Three, four.. Better lock the door." Lock all doors in rooms with characters in them. Place random door tokens on the door spaces.

Surge red – "Five, six.. Grab a crucifix." Until the end of this turn all Slashers gain ethereal movement, ethereal attacks and +1 AP.

Follow the instructions on all current scenario cards depending on the color.

Step 3. Spawn Memory Tokens

Step 4. Move the Warden

If the warden movement symbol is on the Movement Card then the Warden advances one space along the Insomnia Track.

For example if the warden is on space A1, he is moved to A2. If the warden is on space number 12 then he travels to space number 1 on the next quarter (e.g. from A12 to B1).

More information about this can be found in Insomnia Track on p23.

Step 5. Move Monsters

All the monsters move towards players. This step is further explained on the next page (p11).

Step 6. Spawn New Monsters

Step 7. Monsters Attack

Monsters attack any players on the same space as them. This step is further explained on page 20.

Monster Card

A. Name
B. Attack Types
C. Special Abilities
D. Action points (AP)
E. Health (HP)
F. Attack Rating (AR)
G. Defense (Def)

Some monsters will also have additional rules and Special Abilities shown on their Monster Cards, which make them move or attack in unique ways.

For example one could have an interaction with a special event symbol of a particular color.

Monster Movement

When moving:

If a monster can see any number of characters (has Line of Sight to them, p9) it moves towards the nearest one.
If a monster cannot see any characters then it moves towards the closest unseen character.

If there is a tie for closest character, both seen or unseen, players decide which one draws the monster's attention.

Please note that Ranged Monsters (p21) move slightly differently.

Although character A is closer, the monster cannot draw a line of sight (LoS) to him and so can not see him. The monster moves towards character B.

Here the monster cannot see any character at all, so will move towards the closest character (A).

This monster sees both characters but they are equal distance away. In this case, the players get to decide which one the monster will move towards.

Monsters and Doors

Tip for Moving Monsters Faster

Monsters Attack

Searching

When a character is on a space with a Locker Token or a Body Token, he can use 1 action point to search it (search action). Once searched, the token is then discarded.

Body Search

If a character uses a search action on a body token he reveals it (flips it upside down) and draws an Inventory Card indicated on the back (weapon, equipment or drug).

Locker Search

If a character uses a search action on a Locker Token he reveals it (flips it upside down) and performs a Search Test.

Search Test

If you do not have enough successes to buy any inventory card, the test is failed and if there is a monster symbol then the monster indicated spawns on the same space.

Note that although Search Tests use imagination they are not the same as Imagination Tests described earlier (p9).

Memories

Memory Token

Memory Deck

Even if you draw a bad memory, after following the instructions on it, keep it next to your character.

Skills

Skill Card

A. Name
B. Type
C. Cooldown
D. Cost
E. Rules

Skills are divided into three types: attack, utility and defense.

Attack Skills are offensive and mostly focus on dealing damage to monsters. They can only be used during your turn and have a single, instant effect. For more, please see Combat (p16).

The Cooldown Counter

As always, finding the middle ground will probably be the best solution.

Skill Costs

In order to use a skill you often need to spend a set number of action points. If a character does not have enough action points to meet a skills cost, then he cannot use the skill.

Specific Skill Rules

Skill Capacity

If the skill you are discarding is not on cooldown, you are allowed to use it one last time, by paying the usual cost.

Items & Inventory

Large – an item that takes up 2 inventory slots.
Small – an item that takes up no space (0 inventory slots).
Armor – you can only have 1 such item.

You can discard any of your inventory cards at any time (or give them to other players with a trade action).

Inventory Card

A. Name
B. Art
C. Rules
D. Durability