Monsters vs. Heroes: Victorian Nightmares
Monsters vs. Heroes: Victorian Nightmares Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Each deck contains:
- 30 character cards (each card with a special skill)
- 6 faction cards (3 for "Heroes" and 3 for "Monsters")
Set Up
Each player receives a randomly dealt faction card that he keeps face down, in front of him, during the game. Remember to remove any remaining faction cards from the game, without looking at them.
Before the game starts, players must check their faction, being sure to keep it secret until the end of the game.
Shuffle the character cards to form a deck, show the top card and place it face up next to the drawing deck, starting a discard pile. Then, each player draws three cards to form his starting hand of cards.
Before play begins, each player can decide to keep the starting hand, or discard it to draw three new cards, which he must keep. At this point, the game starts.
The last player to have seen a horror movie goes first (the youngest, if there is a tie). Then, game turns go on clockwise.
How to Play
During his turn, every player has two options: play a card from his hand or draw a card from the top of the deck.
When the player plays a card from his hand, he always plays it in his area, in front of him on the table. The cards on the table will affect the player's score at the end of the game. It's not possible to play a card in another player's area (unless allowed by the played character card).
A player may only have a maximum hand of three cards, which means, if he already has three cards in his hand, he is forced to play one of them, and cannot draw any cards from the deck.
If a player doesn't have any cards in his hand, then he must draw a new card from the deck.
When the player plays a card from his hand, he reads its skill aloud and applies all effects. If the text says, "you may," it means the player is not forced to use that skill. All other skills are mandatory, even if they have a negative effect on you!
Note: There is no limit to the number of cards in play in a player's area.
If a player plays a card whose effect is mandatory, but it cannot be applied (for example, if it discards a card not in play at the moment), then the card is played in his area, but the skill just doesn't apply.
When a card is "discarded," the card must be put into the discard pile. The cards in the discard pile are public information.
When a skill targets a card "on the table," it refers only to cards in play in any player's area, not in the discard pile or in the deck.
Character Cards
The black or white icons in the upper-right corner of the card will affect the players' final score.
- Cards with an orange name and at least one white sun symbol are considered Hero cards.
- Cards with a green name and at least one black skull symbol are considered Monster cards.
- Cards with a purple name are neutral cards and may or may not have a point value.
Neutral Cards
A neutral card is always immune to all effects targeting "Heroes" or "Monsters," but not to effects targeting just "cards."
In London After Midnight, there aren't any neutral cards. In Sherlock in Hell, the only neutral cards are the "Woman in Black."
End of the Game
When the last character card is drawn, the game ends immediately. Cards in each player's hand are discarded and do not count for the final score.
All players now reveal their faction cards, showing their alliance for the game: "Heroes" faction card for Hero player, "Monsters" faction card for Monster player.
How to Win
Check all the cards in every player's area, adding up the number of sun icons and skull icons present on their cards.
A player who plays for Heroes scores 1 point for each sun icon, but loses 1 point for each skull icon.
A player who plays for Monsters scores 1 point for each skull icon, but loses 1 point for each sun icon.
Remember, some character cards have more than one icon, so count them all!
Each faction card also shows the names of two characters (for example, "The Creature" and "The Werewolf"): if a player has one or both characters in his area, he scores 2 additional victory points.
Whoever scores the highest number of points is declared the winner of the game. In case of a tie, the winner is the highest scorer who was the last to play.