Mall of Horror Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Box Contents
• Objective of the Game
• Setup
  • Initial Placement of Characters
  • Initial Placement of Zombies
• Gameplay
• Voting
• a) Search the Truck
• b) Elect the Chief of Security
• c) Arrival of the Zombies
• d) Choose Destinations
• e) Move Characters
• f) Zombie Attack
  • Special Case: the Parking Lot
• End of Game
• Credits

Box Contents

• 1 board containing:
  • 6 locations (3 shops, a supermarket, a security room, and a parking lot). Each of these 6 locations has a yellow card showing:
    • the location number
    • the number of spaces available for characters (represented by blue pins)
  • No location may ever hold more characters than its yellow card indicates. The Parking Lot (location number 4) has unlimited space, but zombies attack there as soon as they spot a victim.
• 5 markers for indicating closed and/or zombie-overrun locations
• 21 character tokens in 6 colors
• 30 zombie figures
• 6 voting wheels (1 per player)
• 4 dice
• 1 dice box
• 21 action cards (3 Threat cards, 3 Security Camera cards, 3 Sprint cards, 3 Hardware cards, 6 Weapon cards, 3 Hidden cards)
• 1 Chief of Security badge

Each player receives:

• A Pin-Up, whose terrified screams draw zombies. Worth 7 points.
• A Tough Guy, strong enough to hold zombies at bay. Worth 5 points.
• A Gunman, who uses his weapon as a very persuasive argument when he wants others to do as he says. Worth 3 points.

In a 3-player game, each player also receives one more character:

• A Little Girl (the Pin-Up's younger sister). Worth only 1 point.

Objective of the Game

Each player controls 3 characters (4 in a 3-player game) whom they want to keep alive during the Zombie Attack while waiting for help to arrive. The winner is whoever manages to save the most of their own characters over the course of the game. To achieve this you will need to turn your opponents against each other, so that their characters get eaten while yours survive unharmed!

Setup

Each player chooses a color, takes the matching 3 characters (Pin-Up, Tough Guy, and Gunman) and a voting wheel. In a game with 3 or 4 players, place the "closed location" marker on location number 2: it will not be used during the game. In a 3-player game, each player also receives an extra character: the Little Girl. In a 3-player game, you must play with the following colors: yellow, red, and blue.

Each player places their voting wheel in front of them so the others can see which color they are playing.

The oldest player goes first. They take the Chief of Security badge and place it in front of them. They shuffle the action cards and deal one face-down card to each player. The rest of the cards are placed face-down in a deck next to the board.

Initial Placement of Characters

The first player rolls 2 dice. They choose one of them and place one of their characters at the location matching that number. No location may hold more characters than the number of pins on its yellow card indicates. So if one die shows a location that is already full, the player must choose the other die. If both locations are full, they may place their character at any location that still has room. Play continues clockwise. Subsequent players do the same, until every player has placed all their characters.

Initial Placement of Zombies

The first player rolls 4 dice. They place a zombie in front of each location indicated by the dice.

Gameplay

The game is played over a series of consecutive rounds. Each round consists of the following 6 phases:

a) Search the Truck b) Elect the Chief of Security c) Arrival of the Zombies d) Choose Destinations e) Move Characters f) Zombie Attack

Voting

During the game, players will often have to choose a character who will:

• go to the truck in the parking lot (location number 4) during phase a) Search the Truck.
• become Chief of Security during phase b) Elect the Chief of Security.
• be sacrificed to the zombies during phase f) Zombie Attack.

All players with a character at the voting location secretly choose a color on their voting wheels, then everyone reveals their choice simultaneously.

The character whose color appears most often on the voting wheels is chosen. You may vote for yourself.

If a player has several characters at the same location, they have as many votes as they have characters there. If their color is chosen, they decide which of their characters present at that location is selected.

In case of a tie, a second vote is held in which every player takes part: players who have no character at the location where the vote is taking place get one vote. Only the tied characters may be voted for.

In case of another tie:

• during the vote to decide who goes to search the truck (phase a, Search the Truck), no one goes to the truck.
• during the vote to elect the Chief of Security (phase b), no one is elected Chief of Security.
• during the vote to choose a character to sacrifice (phase f, Zombie Attack), that character is chosen at random.

In turn order, before a vote, players holding Threat cards may play them to gain one extra vote in the current vote. The played cards are then discarded. A player may use several Threat cards in a single vote.

During a vote, the Gunman can more easily persuade others to vote his way by threatening them with his weapon. He gets an extra vote in every vote where he is present.

a) Search the Truck

All characters present at the Parking Lot (location number 4) vote to decide who among them will search the truck for supplies. The chosen character draws three action cards. They keep one of them, and give a second one to a player of their choice (that player does not need to have a character at the Parking Lot). They place the third card at the bottom of the deck.

When the deck of action cards runs out, it means the truck is now empty, and this phase is skipped for the rest of the game.

b) Elect the Chief of Security

All characters present at the Security Room (location number 5) vote to elect a Chief of Security for this round. The chosen player takes the Chief of Security badge and places it in front of them.

For the rest of the round, every action is performed first by the Chief of Security, then by the other players in clockwise order.

Note! If this location is empty, or if two ties occur during the vote and no one is elected Chief of Security, the Chief of Security from the previous round remains in place.

c) Arrival of the Zombies

The Chief of Security places 4 dice under the dice box and shakes it. No one is allowed to peek at the result of this roll. The dice indicate the locations where 4 zombies will arrive.

Only the Chief of Security may secretly peek at the result of the roll, and only if they were elected Chief of Security this round. So, if the Security Room (location number 5) is empty, or if two ties occurred during phase b) Elect the Chief of Security, no one is allowed to peek at the result of the roll.

At this point, in turn order, players holding Security Camera cards may play them. After doing so, they too may peek at the result of the roll if they wish. Played cards are then discarded.

d) Choose Destinations

All players secretly choose a location to which they will move one of their characters. To do so, they select the destination location on their voting wheel.

Careful: only the destination location is chosen, not which character will move there.

Regardless of the situation, a character must always be moved: you cannot simply leave a character where it currently is (so if all of a player's characters are at the same location, they may not choose that location as their destination).

If a Chief of Security was elected this round, they must choose their location before the other players and announce their choice.

Then, all other players secretly choose their locations, but do not move their characters yet.

e) Move Characters

All players reveal their chosen locations. Then the Chief of Security reveals the zombie dice in the dice box, showing the locations where the 4 zombies will appear. The 4 zombies are placed in front of the locations indicated by the dice. In a 3- or 4-player game, if a die shows location number 2, which is closed, that die is ignored.

Note: if an empty location already has 8 or more zombies in front of it, that location's fate is sealed: characters may no longer go there, and no more zombies may be added there. All zombies in front of that location are removed from the board. This rule does not apply to the Parking Lot (location number 4).

In turn order, each player chooses one of their characters and places it at the location they chose using their voting wheel.

The player must choose a character that is not already at that location. Players holding Sprint cards may play them during this turn and discard them to change their destination. They may move their character to a location other than the one originally chosen, and may even return to the location they left.

If a player moving a character finds that their intended destination has become full, they may not place the character there and must instead end their move at the Parking Lot (location number 4).

If a character already at the Parking Lot (location number 4) would have to move to a location that has become full, it instead stays at the Parking Lot (location number 4). How convenient!

f) Zombie Attack

Once all moves have been made, determine which location holds the most characters. The smell of fresh meat attracts one additional zombie, who must immediately be placed in front of that location. If several locations are tied for the most characters, none of them attracts an extra zombie.

In addition, the location with the most Pin-Ups is the loudest, and it too attracts an additional zombie, who must immediately be placed in front of it. If several locations are tied for the most Pin-Ups, none of them attracts an extra zombie.

Now check every location in turn, starting at location number 1 and ending at location number 6, to determine whether the zombies manage to break in and devour the living.

If the number of zombies in front of a location is greater than or equal to the number of characters at that location, the zombies break down the door and get inside to feed. All players with at least one character at that location vote to choose which one of them gets eaten.

Note! The Tough Guy counts as two characters when totaling up how many characters are holding off the zombies. So 2 Pin-Ups and 1 Tough Guy can hold off 3 zombies, but cannot withstand 4 zombies (since it only takes an equal or greater number of zombies for them to break in).

Note: the Supermarket (location number 6) is large, and it is impossible to guard every entrance. 4 zombies are enough to break in, even if there are more than 4 characters present.

Before each vote, every player with a character at that location may play one or more of their cards. The Chief of Security does so first.

Hardware: this card may be used to temporarily reinforce the door and thereby hold off 1 extra zombie (for example, 3 Pin-Ups plus a Hardware card can hold off 3 zombies). This card cannot be used at the Parking Lot (location number 4). This bonus only counts for the current round. This card cannot be played to stop 4 zombies from entering the Supermarket (location number 6).

Weapon: immediately kills one or two zombies (depending on the number of zombie silhouettes shown on the card). There are 6 different types of Weapon cards in the game.

Hidden: the player's character hides in a corner and does not take part in the vote. It does not vote, and it cannot be voted for either. However, this character still counts when totaling up the number of characters needed to hold off the zombie attack. This card only counts for the round in which it is played.

Each card played is immediately discarded from the game.

Once every player has had a chance to play one or more cards, if there is still a threat outside (i.e., there are still enough zombies to break into the location), a vote is held and a character is eaten. Remove that character from the game.

After the feast, remove all zombies in front of that location from the board. If the zombies failed to get inside, or if they are in front of an empty location, they remain in play.

Special Case: the Parking Lot

Every zombie present at the Parking Lot (location number 4) eats one of the characters also present there, regardless of how many zombies there are.

As many votes are held as there are characters present. The votes must be resolved one at a time, removing the eaten character from the board after each vote (naturally, characters already eaten do not take part in subsequent votes). If there are still zombies left but no more characters to eat, the remaining zombies are immediately removed from the board. Every player with a character at that location may play one or more cards before each vote. The Hidden card remains in effect for every vote held at this location for the rest of the round, from the moment it is played.

Note: it can happen that a card becomes useless after certain events occur during the game. The card must still be discarded from the game regardless. For example, a player may play a card to hide one of their characters. Another player then kills 2 zombies with a Weapon card, which reduces the number of zombies below the number of characters present at that location. The attack does not happen. The Hidden card is still discarded from the game, even though it turned out not to be needed.

If, at the end of an attack, a player has no character tokens left, they may no longer take part in the game, but they may still take part in group votes (the second votes that occur after a tie in the first round of voting). At the end of the following round, that player may return as a zombie: they may place a zombie at a location of their choice at the end of phase d) Choose Destinations.

The next round then begins.

End of Game

The game ends when the rescue team arrives (which is, of course, far too late to save everyone). Help arrives when one of the following two situations occurs:

• All characters still alive are at the same location (except for the Parking Lot, location number 4).
• Only 4 characters remain alive (in a 6-player game, the game ends when only 6 characters remain).

The rescue helicopter arrives to save the survivors. Each living character brings its owner as many points as it is worth. The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the player with the most cards in hand wins.

Credits

© Asmodee Editions. Mall of Horror is a registered trademark of Asmodee Editions. Mall of Horror was designed by Nicolas Normandon, with illustrations by Aleksi Briclot and Benjamin Carre.

Polish edition: Rebel Centrum Gier, ul. Matejki 6, 80-232 Gdańsk. Polish version produced for Rebel.pl. Translation (French/English to Polish): Katarzyna Bodziony-Szweda. Layout: Szymon Szweda.