Nightmare Forest: Dead Run Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Object of the Game
• Types of Cards
  • Forest Cards
  • Types of Non-Zombie Cards
  • Gear Cards
  • Character Cards
  • Zone Cards
• The Dice
• Wound Counters
  • Taking a Wound
• Battling the Zombies (and Each Other)
  • Using Gear
  • More Than One Zombie
  • Flip and Fight
  • One Hand versus Two Hands
  • Two Weapon Rule
  • Noise Check
• Searching for Gear
• Throwing Gear
• Winning
  • If You Are the Only One Left
• Game Set-Up
  • The Cards
  • Forest Set-Up
  • Getting Ready
• How to Play
• Optional Rules
• More Options

Game Contents

• 100 Forest/Zombie Cards
• 34 Gear Cards
• 6 Character Cards
• 3 Zone Transition Cards
• 2 Cheat Sheet Cards
• 7 Dice
• 30 Wound Counters
• 1 Game Manual

Object of the Game

The goal of Nightmare Forest: Dead Run is to be the first camper to escape from the campground to the road…alive!

To get to the road you will have to fight your way through the furry zombie infested forest that lies between your campground and the road.

Types of Cards

Forest Cards

Forest cards come in two types – Zombie Animal cards and Non-Zombie cards.

Zombie Animal Cards: The Zombie Animal cards contain the name, image, defensive value (health points), and flavor text. Mix these cards with the Non-Zombie cards and stack next to each zone of the forest. You may encounter these zombies as you try to escape the campground through the forest.

The cards come in four Zone types:

• Zone 1 Zombie Cards have a green background and a 1 on the back of the card.
• Zone 2 Zombie Cards have a yellow background and a 2 on the back of the card.
• Zone 3 Zombie Cards have an orange background and a 3 on the back of the card.
• Zone 4 Zombie Cards have a red background and a 4 on the back of the card.

Non-Zombie Cards: The Non-Zombie cards contain the name, image, description and effect information about the card. These cards will be mixed with the Zombie Animal cards and stacked next to each zone of the forest.

The cards come in four Zone types:

• Zone 1 Non-Zombie Cards have a green background and a 1 on the back of the card.
• Zone 2 Non-Zombie Cards have a yellow background and a 2 on the back of the card.
• Zone 3 Non-Zombie Cards have an orange background and a 3 on the back of the card.
• There are no Zone 4 Non-Zombie cards, Bigfoot ate them all!

Types of Non-Zombie Cards

Survivor Cards: There are three cards that are labeled as Survivor Cards. You may find these three survivors while escaping the forest. They join you in your rush to escape. Their abilities are listed on their card. Survivor Cards cannot be taken from you by other players and do not count towards your gear limit, but you can only have one with you at any time.

Overgrown Card: You will need to fight your way through the overgrowth to proceed. The amount of damage needed to proceed appears on the overgrown card.

Clearing an overgrown card: Overgrown cards can be cleared in two ways; 1) use a special gear card that can clear overgrown cards or 2) deal damage to the overgrown card.

The gear cards that just clear overgrown cards have text that explains how to use them to clear the overgrown cards. If you don't have the gear to clear the overgrown card, you have to do damage to the overgrown card to clear it. You have the choice to deal damage by using a weapon, rolling dice, discarding dice or a combination of the three. You can roll one die at a time and for each success, you place a wound counter on the card. Once the number of counters equals or exceeds the value needed to clear the card, you remove the counters and discard the overgrown card. You can choose to discard a die for a guaranteed single success; this die is then considered used for this turn. Place one wound counter for each die you discard.

You do not gain any dice back once you clear an overgrown card and a weapon used to do damage is used for this turn.

Items Cache Card: You have discovered a cache of boxes in the woods. It contains gear that may help you in your race to escape. The card will tell you how much damage is required to break open the lock.

Opening an Items Cache: You can open an items cache card in two ways; either using special gear cards that can just open an items cache card or dealing damage to the items cache card.

The gear cards that just open items cache cards have text that explains how to use them to open items cache. If you don't have the gear to open the items cache you have to do damage to the items cache to open it. You can choose to deal damage by using a weapon, rolling dice, discarding dice, or a combination of the three. You can roll one die at a time and for each success, you place a wound counter on the card. Once the number of counters equals or exceeds the value required to open the items cache, remove the counters and discard the items cache card and draw the number of gear cards indicated (end of turn gear limit still applies). You can choose to discard a die for a guaranteed success; this die is then considered used for this turn. You can place one wound counter for each die you discard.

You do not gain any dice back once you open an items cache and a weapon used to do damage is used for this turn. You can choose to ignore items cache cards and continue your dash out of the forest.

Gear Cards

The gear cards contain the name, image, description and effect information about the piece of gear on them.

These cards are in a separate pile near the forest. Draw these cards when you have any action that instructs you to draw a gear card. If you run out of gear cards, shuffle the ones that have been discarded and draw from the shuffled deck.

Gear cards remain face down until they are used the first time, then they are turned face up and stay that way. A gear card that is face down cannot be taken from you by another player. It can only be stolen once it has been used for the first time and is then left face up. If you steal gear with the Leather Gloves gear card, it is immediately usable, even if the previous owner had used it and had not discarded it.

At the end of your turn you have to discard gear cards until you have a maximum of three (3) gear cards in your possession, whether they are face up or down.

There are two types of gear cards; weapons and miscellaneous gear.

Weapon Card: Contains specific information that is not on a miscellaneous card:

• The number in the upper left corner (and a damage bar across the top) indicates how much direct damage they inflict when used on a zombie, overgrown card, or items cache. If this number will destroy a zombie without rolling dice, the zombie is destroyed and no dice are gained back. If this number does not outright destroy the zombie, add this number to the number of hits rolled on your attack roll and use that total to determine if you have destroyed the zombie.
• The number of green soundwave sections above the ear on the left side of the card indicates how noisy the weapon is when used. See the Noise Check section. No sound waves means the weapon is silent.
• The hand icon indicates how many hands are needed to wield the weapon.
• The bullet icon indicates how many 'shots' a weapon has available.

Miscellaneous Gear Card: Contains text that explains how the card works:

• If a miscellaneous gear card with a (+) symbol indicates how many damage tokens you can remove from your character when you discard the gear.
• If a miscellaneous gear card with a shield icon indicates how many damage tokens you can block and keep from being inflicted on your character when the gear is discarded.

Duct Tape Card: There are two duct tape gear cards in the game. This very special material can be used, in certain conditions, to combine certain weapon cards into a single, more powerful weapon.

Some weapon gear cards have a duct tape icon in the lower right corner of the item image area of the card. You can combine guns with this symbol with one handed weapons, also displaying this same symbol, and result in a single weapon that is more powerful than either of the weapons used to create it.

To craft this new weapon you will need one (1) gun with the duct tape symbol, one (1) one-handed weapon with the duct tape symbol, and the duct tape card itself. If you discard the duct tape card, you can then place the one-handed card under the gun card and the damage value of the gun is increased by one (1). This has no effect on the number of shots the weapon has available. This can be done at any time during a player's turn, when they are not required to resolve a fight with a zombie (see Flip and Fight below).

When you use all the shots of the gun and discard the weapon, you must discard both weapons to the gear discard pile as separate weapons.

Character Cards

The character cards contain the name and image of the character.

The character cards are used to track your progress through the forest as you flee from the campground to the road.

Zone Cards

The Zone cards get laid out along the side of the forest and show you where the zones of the forest transition. It reminds you to draw a gear card when you enter the next zone, for the first time. You only get to draw this extra gear card once. It also allows you to use an extra die while in that zone and beyond.

You are considered, for the sake of drawing the extra card or using the extra die, to be in the next zone once you have flipped the zombie card face up in the next zone. The location of your character card does not determine the zone you occupy. Character card location is only a factor in determining at who you can throw gear (see Throwing Gear section).

The Dice

There are seven six-sided dice in the game. One side has two (2) hit symbols, three sides have one (1) hit symbol and two sides are blank. Each hit symbol represents a "hit" when you are attacking a zombie.

You get an extra die to you in your pool each time you move into a new zone (2 — 4).

Wound Counters

Each player gains wound counters as they are hit by the zombies (the quantity needed to be eaten by the zombies depends on the version of the game being played). Wound counters are small red acrylic tokens used to track how much damage you have taken from the zombies.

Taking a Wound

When a player attacks a zombie and fails to destroy it, they will take a wound when the zombie hits them back. When a player takes a wound from a zombie, they pick up one of the wound tokens and place this on their character card. When a player receives five (5) wounds (three (3) in the Speed Game – see below) they are out of the game and have become zombie food.

All zombies deal one (1) wound when they hit you, except the Zone 4 "boss" zombies. The Zone 4 zombies deal two (2) wounds when they hit you.

If you use a gear item that prevents a counterattack (shield icon), it prevents only one (1) damage from a zombie counterattack.

Battling the Zombies (and Each Other)

In Nightmare Forest, trying to escape the forest inevitably leads to you battling the zombies that fill the forest in front of you. When you are progressing through the forest, flip the forest card in your path. If the card you flip is a zombie, you must defeat it before you can move on to the next part of the forest.

The defensive value of that zombie appears on the upper left hand corner of a zombie card. To defeat the zombie, you have to deal that much damage, or more, to the zombie in a single attack to defeat it. Anything less than that number is ignored by the zombie and will not defeat it. Zombies do not accrue damage from attacks. A zombie is either defeated and removed from the forest, or it continues to fight. If you do not defeat a zombie during your attack, you must meet or exceed the defense value in a subsequent attack, to successfully defeat the zombie and move forward.

You have a pool of dice you can use each turn to search for gear and or try to defeat zombies. The number of dice available to use is based on which zone you are in (Zone 1 = 4 dice, Zone 2 = 5 dice, Zone 3 = 6 dice, and Zone 4 = 7 dice). When you fight, you declare the number of dice you will use to attack the zombie and roll them. Each die can only be used once per turn. Once you have rolled any dice in an attack (or a gear search), set them aside for the rest of the turn, as they are expended.

The number of hit symbols that appear indicate the amount of damage you have inflicted to the zombie. If the number meets or exceeds the defensive number on the zombie, the zombie is removed from the forest and discarded from play. When a zombie is defeated, if you rolled any dice for your attack you get one (1) of them put back in your dice pool and it can be re-used in this turn. That die is considered refreshed.

If the number of hit symbols from your roll is less than the number on the zombie card, you have failed to defeat the zombie and you take a wound. Place one of the red wound counters on your character card (two if it is a Zone 4 "Boss" zombie) and decide if you want to try to fight the zombie again. You can also choose to use other non-weapon gear cards, and/or search for gear.

If you are concerned about defeating the zombie with just dice, you always have the option to use weapon gear items to help you in your fight.

Using Gear

When you engage in battle with a zombie, you can decide to use a weapon (gear) you possess to assist you in your attack. You have to declare any weapon(s) you are going to use in your attack, before you make your attack roll.

You may only use one weapon per attack (dice roll) when battling the zombies, see Two Weapon Rule below for an exception. When you attack, you turn the card sideways to show that it was used this turn. The value on upper left corner of the weapon card is the number of automatic hits the weapon generates. You then apply that number to your attack success total.

Note: If the weapon value is greater than or equal to the zombie defense value, you can defeat the zombie using just the weapon and do not need to roll dice for the attack. If you do not roll dice then you do not get a die back for defeating the zombie.

If the number of hits you roll, plus the number of hits from the weapon, is equal to or greater than the number on the zombie card, the zombie is defeated. When a zombie is defeated, if you rolled any dice for your attack you get one (1) of them put back in your dice pool and they can be re-used this turn.

You may not end your turn with more than three (3) pieces of gear. If you have declared your turn over, you need to discard gear cards until you have only three (3). The limit applies to all gear cards, regardless of whether they are face up or face down.

More Than One Zombie

A space in the forest can have more than one (1) zombie in it, but never more than two (2). When you are trying to clear the space in front of you, you can always choose the order in which you want to battle the zombies. At any time an action indicates that you should add a zombie to the space you are engaged in and there are already two (2) zombies, you DO NOT add another zombie.

Flip and Fight

At any time you flip a forest card and reveal a zombie, you must fight the zombie immediately; you cannot search for gear before you fight. However, if you flip a zombie card located in the next zone, you gain a free gear card and an extra die that may help you in defeating the zombie.

You can choose to NOT fight zombies on your turn, if you wish, as long as you have not flipped a zombie over.

One Hand versus Two Hands

Nightmare Forest weapons come in two varieties, one handed and two-handed.

The number of hands needed to wield a weapon is indicated on its gear card, with the hand symbol and a number. For example: The tent stake requires one hand to wield and the rifle requires two hands to use.

One-Handed Weapons: When you are in combat, you can use any number of one handed weapons in a row as you fight your way through the zombies. You can only use one weapon per combat roll, unless you use the two weapon rule (see below) and fight under those rules. You cannot use a one-handed weapon after using a two-handed weapon, unless you have discarded the two-handed weapon (not thrown it at another player).

Two-Handed Weapons: When you are in combat, you can only use one two-handed weapon during your turn, as you fight your way through the zombies. You cannot use a two-handed weapon after using a one-handed, unless you have discarded the one-handed weapon (not thrown it at another player).

Two Weapon Rule

At any time, a player can choose to use two one-handed weapons at the same time, to attack a zombie. If they choose to do this, they can combine the hit value from the two weapons in the single attack.

This action has to be declared before the attack. The player cannot have thrown any gear or used any weapons, this turn. Additionally, they cannot use any weapons or throw any gear for the remainder of a turn if they have used two one handed weapons at the same time.

Noise Check

Some weapons in Nightmare Forest generate noise, and this can attract other zombies to the location where the weapon was used. Noise check is always performed after that combat is resolved in which the weapon is used.

To see if a weapon generates noise when it is used, look at the ear symbol on the left side of the gear card.

• No green sound waves (bars) indicate that the weapon is silent and has no chance of attracting a zombie.
• One (1) green sound wave (bar) indicates that the weapon is somewhat noisy.
  • Roll one of the used dice. If a single hit symbol appears, you add a Zone 1 zombie (face down) to the location your camper occupies, if there are no face up zombies. If there is a face up zombie, you add the new zombie to the same space as the face up zombie. The limit of two zombies in the same space in the forest always applies. Any other symbol (or lack of one) means no zombie was summoned to the space.
• Two (2) green sound waves (bars) indicate that the weapon is noisy.
  • Roll one of the used dice. If a single hit symbol or the double hit symbol appears, you add a Zone 1 zombie (face down) to the location your camper occupies, if there are no face up zombies. If there is a face up zombie, you add the new zombie to the same space as the face up zombie. The limit of two zombies in the same space in the forest always applies. A blank means no zombie was summoned to the space.
• Three (3) green sound waves (bars) indicate that the weapon is extremely noisy and automatically attracts a Zone 1 zombie to the location your camper occupies, if there are no face up zombies. If there is a face up zombie, you add the new zombie to the same space as the face up zombie. The limit of two zombies in the same space in the forest always applies.

Searching for Gear

In Nightmare Forest, battling zombies will require you to find gear during the game and use it to your advantage in either defeating the zombies or using it to slow your friends escape (see Throwing Gear).

You can choose to search for gear at any time during your turn, except right after you flip over a zombie card. You have to resolve at least one fight with the zombie you have just flipped over, before you can take any other actions.

When you search for gear, you can roll as many dice as you wish, but just like with combat, once you roll a die it is used up for that turn and you set it aside. When you roll a die, if a single hit symbol appears you can draw one gear card. If the double hit symbol is rolled you draw two cards and have to discard one of the two cards you drew (this discard cannot be thrown at other players). If you roll a blank, then you were unable to find any gear. Gear you find is placed face down in front of you until it is used.

Throwing Gear

Since only one player can escape the forest alive, you might at times, need to slow another player down in their dash to freedom.

At any time, during your turn, you can throw gear at any player(s) who is ahead of you in the forest. You cannot throw gear at people beside you or behind you, nor can you throw gear at people who have flipped over their Zone 4 zombie.

For determining if you and another player are at the same level in the forest, look at the space the player card occupies. You are considered to occupy the space farthest down your path without a zombie in it.

To throw the gear, you discard it and declare the player that is the target. The throwing player then rolls one of the attack dice and sees the results. If the single or double hit symbol appears, the noise attracts a Zone 1 zombie to the spot in the forest where the target player is located. This means the zombie goes into the space the character card is currently occupying (face down). If the next zombie has not been flipped, the card goes under the character and has to be fought before flipping the next zombie.

If the next zombie has already been flipped, the new zombie goes into the same square as the flipped zombie (face down). The player may fight the zombies in any order they wish.

Note: If there are already two (2) zombies in the same space the zombie would be added to, they cannot have gear thrown at them.

Winning

The first player to defeat their zombie in Zone 4 (and any additional Zone 1 zombies that may have appeared in Zone 4) escapes to the road is the winner.

If You Are the Only One Left

If all the other players have died and you are the last player in the forest; you have two (2) turns or a number of turns equal to the number of cards between you and escape, whichever is higher, to escape the forest or you are eaten.

Game Set-Up

The Cards

1. Separate the 100 Forest/Zombie cards, these are the cards with the green, yellow, orange, and red highlighted card backs. They are also numbered 1 — 4. Separate the cards each into their own stack (using color and number) and shuffle each stack separately.
2. Shuffle the 34 gear cards and set them aside.
3. Separate the 6 character cards and set them aside.
4. Separate the 3 zone transition cards and set them aside.

Forest Set-Up

1. Decide what end of the table is the campground (starting point). The other end of the play area is the road (ending point).
2. Take the green, Zone 1 forest cards and deal two (2) rows of cards, face down, near the campground starting area. There should be a number of cards in each row equal to the total number of players and perpendicular to the path from the campground to the road.
3. Take the yellow, Zone 2 forest cards and deal two (2) rows of cards, face down, near the campground starting area. There should be a number of cards in each row equal to the total number of players and perpendicular to the path from the campground to the road.
4. Take the orange, Zone 3 forest cards and deal two (2) rows of cards, face down, near the campground starting area. There should be a number of cards in each row equal to the total number of players and perpendicular to the path from the campground to the road.
5. Take the red, Zone 4 (Boss) forest cards and deal one (1) row of cards, face down, near the campground starting area. There should be a number of cards in each row equal to the total number of players and perpendicular to the path from the campground to the road.
6. The left over zone cards are placed face down next to the forest. Each Zone stack placed at the midpoint between the two (2) rows of those matching forest cards.
7. Place the zone transition cards at the point where the zones change and place one (1) combat die on each transition card.

Note: The total number of cards in each row should be equal to the number of players playing.

Getting Ready

1. Each player rolls four attack dice and player with the most number of hits goes first, if tied re-roll. (Or the last player to go camping, goes first.)
2. The starting player picks their camper and then everyone else chooses clockwise.
3. Starting with the first player each player places their character card at the beginning of one of the paths through the forest – each player must have their own path.
4. Starting with the first player, each player draws one (1) gear card from the pile and places it face down in front of themselves.
5. RUN!

How to Play

At the start of a player's turn, they gather the appropriate amount of dice to use for this turn. The number of dice available to use is based on what zone they are in (Zone 1 = 4, Zone 2 = 5, Zone 3 = 6 and Zone 4 = 7).

The player decides to fight zombies or search for gear on their turn until they run out of dice that haven't been used or they decide to pass their turn. Then the next player takes their turn.

The player has to fight their way through all the face down cards in their path and be the first player to escape the forest.

Optional Rules

Speed Game: To speed up Nightmare Forest you can choose to only deal out one row of Zone 2 and Zone 3 zombies but you can only take three (3) wounds before you are eaten.

Deadlier Forest: This rule is designed to make the forest deadlier and the players much less likely to survive, when you want a challenge.

When the game tells you to add a Tier 1 zombie, you instead add a zombie from the Tier pile that is equal to the current Tier level. If you are fighting in Tier 3 and attract a zombie with noise, you would add a card from the Tier 3 draw pile, instead of the Tier 1 draw pile.

More Options

Check the SolarFlare Games' website occasionally for other optional rule variants and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that may be published in the future.