Personal Demons
Personal Demons Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 20 Liminal Seals (yellow)
- 20 Abyssal Seals (blue)
- 20 Infernal Seals (red)
- 1 Cloth Bag
- 12 Hefty Cards
- 12 Sin Trackers
- 16 Colossal Cards
- 8 Score Trackers
- 4 Reference Cards
- 4 Summoning Circle Boards
- 1 Leader Card
- 36 Round I Cards
- 12 Fear Cards
- 36 Round II Cards
- 24 Royal Cards
- 36 Round III Cards
- 24 Fragment Small Cards
- 34 Courage Small Cards
Overview
Staying on top of your demons is hard work. They plague you every day, rattling around inside your skull. They drag your mood down, hike your stress up, cloud your judgment, and con you into making bad choices. Generally, they just make life gross and unlivable and I'm glad you've taken the initiative to fight back.
In Personal Demons, you and up to three other players join in a therapeutic ritual to overcome your inner demons. Recognizing the patterns that enable your demons is the key to success as you carefully summon them into your circle and then seal them away, even if just for a short while. The more demons you seal away, the more you learn about yourself and your sins, giving you the strength and courage you need to conquer ever greater demons that plague you.
Other players may take inspiration and courage from your triumphs and gain renewed vigor to help them deal with their own demons more effectively.
At the end of each ritual, the player that made the most progress should be heaped with praise and congratulations, but all players should be admired for their diligence and eagerness to overcome their demons. Everyone wins in therapy.
Setup
This is the setup for multiplayer games. See Solo Meditation for the differences in setup for solo play.
General Setup
A. Ready Seals: Place all of the wooden seals into the cloth bag and put it in reach of all players.
B. Prep Extras: Shuffle the Royal deck, Fragment deck and Courage deck then place all three in the centre of the table in reach of all players.
C. Organise Rounds: Shuffle the Round I, II & III decks individually and place them nearby.
Board Setup
D. Open Portals: Give each player a summoning circle board.
E. Set Score: Give each player two score trackers. These are placed on the opposing sides of the score track with each arrow pointing at zero. Ensure the side that says "100" is face down.
F. Acknowledge Sins: Give each player three sin trackers, which resemble black candles. These are placed at the start of the three sin gauges (Glut, Hate, Want).
Emotional Baggage
G. Take Courage: Deal each player one Courage card. They display this card face up near their summoning circle; its ability affects only them.
H. Acknowledge Fears: Shuffle the Fears deck and deal one to each player. Each player immediately places it face up in one of the 16 spaces of their summoning circle.
I. The Curse of Knowledge: Give each player a reference card.
J. Identify Personal Demons: Shuffle the hefty cards and colossal cards together and deal each player two of each. Each player reviews the four hefty/colossal cards and selects two to keep, in any combination. Colossal cards marked "Advanced" aren't recommended for your first game. Return all unused cards to the box. The selected cards are kept secret, near the player. That player may review them at any time.
Begin the Ritual
K. Deal the Demons: Take the Round I deck and deal each player a hand of six cards.
L. Nominate a Leader: Give the Leader card to the player who had the most demonic day. Whoever holds the Leader card is responsible for guiding the turn cadence. This card is held and passed with the rest of the cards in your hand.
Flow of Play
The game is played in three rounds, each of which has three phases: Summoning, Scoring & End.
This is a delicate ritual. Failure to perform each step in unison can cause confusion, sow distrust and create chaos. That's how the demons win. Unison is important!
Summoning Phase
The summoning phase consists of six turns in which players select cards from their hand and play them into their summoning circle and take optional bonus actions. This phase ends after the sixth turn and play moves on to the scoring phase. Each turn has six steps: Place, Reveal, Sin, Seal, Bonus & Pass, which are performed in unison by all players.
1. Place
Each player selects one demon card from their hand and places it face down in their summoning circle in a valid location (see Placement Rules for details on valid locations).
LEADER: Tell all players to pick and place a card.
2. Reveal
All players simultaneously reveal the card they placed, OR they may choose to leave their card face down. If they do so, they may place one seal of any color on the back of it, cracked (black) side up, and then increase any one sin gauge by 1. This is useful if a player cannot meet the requirements of any card in their hand or just doesn't want to play any of them.
LEADER: Check if all players have placed their card then say 'reveal'.
3. Sin
Each player looks at the bottom of the card they placed to find its sin type and amount. They increase that sin gauge by the amount indicated. If the card says "of Hell," the player increases all three sins by 1. No sin gauge may exceed six; any additional sin gained is lost.
LEADER: Remind all players to gain their sins.
4. Seal
Each player checks to see if they have completed one or more valid sigils (see Forming Seals) and places the correct color of wooden seal on top of them, active (white) side up.
LEADER: Remind all players to seal their demons.
5. Bonus
OPTIONALLY, each player may take ONE bonus action, starting with the Leader and proceeding clockwise. The bonus actions are: Face a Fear, Summon a Fragment, Summon a Royal, or Summon a Personal Demon (see Bonus Actions). If a player declines to take a bonus action, they may not change their mind once another player in sequence has taken a bonus action.
LEADER: Check if any players wish to take ONE bonus action.
6. Pass
All players pass their entire hand, including the Leader card, clockwise. Proceed to step one of the next turn unless this is the sixth turn, then proceed to the scoring phase.
Holding the Leader card makes you responsible for keeping cadence that turn and gives you priority when taking bonus actions.
LEADER: Check if all players are ready, then say 'pass'.
Once the sixth turn is complete, move on to the Scoring Phase.
Scoring Phase
Players score each of their seals, Knights and any special rules provided by their Courage cards (see Scoring for details).
End Phase
Once scoring is complete, move to the End phase. Skip this phase at the end of round III; the game ends immediately after scoring. This phase has three steps:
- Discard all Knights & Fragments (and any cards underneath the Knights). Remove any seals the Fragments helped to form.
- All players draw a new Courage card and discard down to three Courage cards each and proceed to the next round.
- Deal six cards from the next round's deck to each player.
Demon Anatomy
Each demon is unique, but they all have a few things in common (apart from being awful). Demons from outside of the round I, II & III decks may differ; refer to the Bonus Actions section for details.
Requirements
Some demons have a requirement to summon. You must have the indicated seals somewhere on your summoning circle in order to summon it. There are four types of requirement:
- Abyssal — Requires one blue seal
- Infernal — Requires one red seal
- Liminal — Requires one yellow seal
- Pandemonial — Requires one additional seal of any color
Requirements may be met by any seal on your summoning circle, whether it's active, cracked, sealing a demon, or merely placed on the back of a face-down card. Seals that would be removed by a placed card may still be used towards the requirements for that card. All seals are valid for requirements. Seals are never spent, they simply need to be present in order to meet the requirement to summon.
Name
Normally, knowing a demon's name gives you power over it. Not in this game. You'll have to assert your power over it some other way.
Sigils
Each demon has part of a sigil in each of its four corners. There are four types of sigil:
- Abyssal — Blue/Crosses
- Infernal — Red/Triangles
- Liminal — Yellow/Circles
- Pandemonial — Purple/Starburst
By placing demons next to one another, you may complete a sigil of a single color, allowing you to place a seal on it. Or you might mismatch them and create an invalid sigil if you're not careful. Purple seals are wild and count as any color. A valid sigil must contain only one color plus any amount of purple (see Forming Seals).
Value
A demon's value determines how many points you receive each time you score the demon (see Scoring).
Type
There are eight types of demons: Devil, Imp, Shade, President, Noble, Royal, Knight, Fragment. Many Courage cards will refer to a demon's type. Some demons may have two types and any effect that refers to either of those types is relevant to that demon.
Sin Type & Amount
When you reveal a demon, you increase the indicated sin gauge by the amount shown by the Roman numeral on the bottom right. No sin gauge may exceed six, any additional sin is lost.
There are three types of sin: Glut, Hate & Want. Demons "of Hell" are associated with all three sins and would gain you one of each sin. Malphas, for example, would gain the player one point of Want.
The three sins represent humanity's greatest transgressions distilled into their purest forms.
Forming Seals
Any time you reveal a demon or play one as a bonus action, check to see if you've formed any valid sigils and place seals on them.
Valid sigils:
- MUST have all four quarters
- MUST contain no more than one color (red, blue or yellow) plus any amount of purple
- MAY be entirely purple
- SEAL with the correct color
Invalid sigils:
- MUST have all four quarters
- MAY contain purple BUT contain more than one other color (red, blue or yellow)
- DO NOT SEAL
Wild corners
Every summoning circle comes with four built-in wild corners. Make sure you utilize them when forming seals!
Completely wild
If a sigil contains only purple, you may choose ANY COLOR SEAL to place on it. It will remain that color until it's removed or the game ends.
Abyssal seals
If a sigil contains only blue plus any amount of purple, place an Abyssal blue seal on it with the active (white) side face up.
Liminal seals
If a sigil contains only yellow plus any amount of purple, place a Liminal yellow seal on it with the active (white) side face up.
Infernal seals
If a sigil contains only red plus any amount of purple, place an Infernal red seal on it with the active (white) side face up.
Hell is divided into three increasingly deep circles: Limbo, The Inferno & The Abyss.
Active seals
- Count toward requirements
- Score all demons they touch during the scoring phase and then flip to the cracked side
Cracked seals
- Count toward requirements
- Do not score during the scoring phase
Playing on top of other cards
Any time you play a card on top of other cards, any seals that touch it are removed once the card is revealed. (Note that the removed seals may still be used towards the requirements to summon the card.)
You then check to see if any new seals have been formed. This may result in the same seal being removed and immediately replaced, but it's important to understand that a new seal has been formed. In this way, you might trade a cracked seal for an active seal or trigger a Courage ability. Playing on top of other cards is essential to victory.
Bonus Actions
As an optional step of each turn, starting with the Leader and proceeding clockwise, each player may take ONE bonus action from four options: Face Fear, Summon Fragment, Summon Royal or Summon Personal Demon.
Most bonus actions require spending an amount of sin, which must always be spent from a single sin gauge. To do this, move your sin tracker down the required amount of steps on the gauge.
Face Fear (FREE bonus action)
Discard your Fear and score according to seals you've formed.
As a bonus action for no cost, a player may discard the Fear from their board. When they do, they review their seals to see if they've scored any additional points by meeting the Fear's requirements. Each Fear has four scoring tiers, each of which requires more seals to be present on the player's summoning circle. Check which tier the player has achieved and they immediately score that many points. You may face your Fear before you meet the lowest requirement, it just won't earn you any points. Fears are a nuisance and it may be useful to get them out of the way.
Any seal on your summoning circle is valid for scoring your Fear, whether it's active, cracked, sealing a demon, or merely placed on the back of a face-down card. Seals that would be removed by discarding your Fear may still be counted towards scoring that Fear.
Summon Fragment (bonus action, cost: II — spend 2 of a single sin)
Spend 2 of a single sin to draw and immediately play a small card from the Fragment deck. You must have at least one empty or half-empty space to summon from the Fragment deck.
There are two types of small cards in the Fragment deck: Fragments and Knights. There are twice as many Fragments as Knights.
Small Knights have no sigils and may not form seals, but always score 3 during the scoring phase. All small cards are discarded during the end phase. Small cards may be summoned either right-side up at the top of a space, or inverted at the bottom of a space. Two small cards can fit into a single space. They may not be oriented vertically. After placing, immediately check if you have formed any new valid sigils and place active seals on them.
Summon Royal (bonus action, cost: IV — spend 4 of a single sin)
Spend 4 of a single sin to draw and immediately play a card from the Royal deck.
There are two types of cards in the Royal deck: Royals and Knights. There are twice as many Royals as Knights.
These are placed just like normal demons from your hand, but may not be placed face-down. Royals always have at least three wild sigils. Knights have no sigils and may not form seals, but always score 6 during scoring and are discarded during the end phase.
After placing, immediately check if you have formed any new valid sigils and place active seals on them.
Summon Personal Demon (bonus action, cost: VI — spend 6 of a single sin)
Spend 6 of a single sin to play one of your hefty or colossal cards, if you meet the requirements.
Colossal cards require you to spend a specific sin to summon them.
Personal Demons are more difficult to summon than others. Before using a bonus action to summon one, check that you have enough sin to summon it, enough seals to meet its requirements and a valid place to put it. They also have special abilities that activate when summoned to help the entire group.
Costs & requirements: In the upper left-hand corner you'll see the cost and requirements for Personal Demons. They both require 6 of a single sin to be spent, but colossal cards require a specific sin. Both also have steep requirements, so ensure you have the required seals present somewhere in your summoning circle.
Both sizes of Personal Demon demand sacrifice to be summoned and must be placed on top of an equivalent number of face-up demon cards (two for hefty cards, four for colossal cards).
- MUST be placed on top of face-up regular demon cards ONLY
- MAY NOT be placed over empty spaces or half-empty spaces
- MAY NOT be placed over Fears
- MAY NOT be placed over face-down cards
- MAY NOT be placed over small, hefty or colossal cards
Remove any seals your Personal Demon touches, then immediately check if you have formed any new valid sigils and place active seals on them.
Abilities: Overcoming one of your Personal Demons is a big deal. It inspires and gives renewed courage and determination to the other players that witness it.
When you summon a hefty card, all players, including yourself, immediately take a Courage card and then discard down to three Courage cards if needed.
When you summon a colossal card, activate the ability at the bottom of the card, which gives a benefit to all players except yourself.
Placement Rules
There are four sizes of card: small, regular, hefty and colossal. All of them need to be placed carefully and legitimately.
Regular cards
All cards from the Round I, II & III decks and the Royal deck are regular sized cards and have the most versatility in how they can be placed. Valid placements are:
- In empty spaces
- On top of face-down regular sized cards
- On top of face-up regular sized cards
- On top of one or two small cards in the same space
Note that cards from Round I, II & III decks may also be placed face down in any of these ways. Cards from the Royal deck may NEVER be placed face down.
Small cards
All cards from the Fragment deck are unique in that they may be inverted when placing. They may not be placed on top of other cards. The two valid placements are:
- Right-side up at the top of empty spaces
- Inverted at the bottom of empty spaces
Small cards may not be placed vertically.
Hefty cards
Hefty cards MUST be placed on top of exactly two face-up demon cards. They may not be played on top of Fears, empty spaces, face-down cards, small cards, colossal cards or other hefty cards. The only valid placement is: on top of exactly two face-up, regular-sized demon cards.
Colossal cards
Colossal cards MUST be placed on top of exactly four face-up demon cards. They may not be played on top of Fears, empty spaces, face-down cards, small cards, hefty cards or other colossal cards. The only valid placement is: on top of exactly four face-up, regular-sized demon cards.
Sixteen spaces
There are exactly 16 spaces on each summoning circle, arranged in a 4×4 grid. All regular and small cards must be played in one of these 16 spaces. All hefty and colossal cards must be played within these 16 spaces and may not span outside of them.
Right-side up
With the exception of Fragments, all cards must be played in upright orientation, with the text right-reading. Some Courage cards allow you to break this rule.
Fears must remain visible. No card may ever be played on top of a Fear. They must always remain visible for as long as they're on your summoning circle.
Fears
Fear cards clog up your summoning circle, and deciding when to face them and score bonus points is key to your long-term strategy.
Fear setup
At the start of the game, all players must place their Fear in any one of the 16 spaces on their summoning circle, face up and right-reading. It will live there, nagging at you, inhibiting your ability to overcome your demons until you decide to face it and discard it. This could be massively rewarding; overcoming your fear is something to be celebrated!
Fear value
During the scoring phase, Fears score just like normal demons. All Fears have a value of 1 and any active seals that touch the Fear will score that Fear for one point each.
Facing your Fear
As a bonus action, you may discard your Fear from your summoning circle and check to see if the seals you've formed will score you any additional points (see Bonus Actions).
In the center of the Fear, you'll see four point values associated with four lists of requirements. When you discard your Fear, count all active and cracked seals on your summoning circle and score the highest point value for which you meet or exceed the requirements.
Courage
Courage cards give unique abilities to individual players. Each player may only have a maximum of three Courage cards at any one time.
Unique abilities
Courage cards give unique abilities ONLY to the player who owns them. These might be new ways to score, new ways to play cards, or other unique abilities that benefit you in different ways. If the rules on the card contradict the standard game rules, the Courage card takes priority.
As you gain new Courage abilities, look for synergy between them, your Fear, your personal demons, and the cards in your summoning circle.
Taking Courage
At the start of every round and each time any player summons a hefty card, all players draw a new Courage card. If the Courage draw pile is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck.
Three Courage maximum
Each player may have, at maximum, three Courage cards. If taking Courage would give you more than three cards total, you must select three cards among them to keep and discard the rest.
Discarded Courage cards are placed in a discard pile next to the deck.
Scoring
There are three scoring phases, one at the end of each round. Three things are scored during this phase: Active seals, Knights & Courage.
Use the score trackers on both sides of your summoning circle to track your score. The right score tracker is used for the ones and the left tracker for the tens. Any time the right tracker exceeds nine, move it back to zero and move the tens to the next increment. If your score exceeds 99, flip the left tracker over to the side that says "100" and move it back to 0.
Score active seals
Start at the top-left and work across and down your summoning circle, looking at each of your wooden seals in turn.
- Cracked seals do not score.
- Active seals score all cards they touch. Count up the value (in the upper right corner) of all cards the wooden seal touches and increase your score by that amount, then flip that seal to the cracked side.
A single card may be scored multiple times if multiple active seals touch it. Active seals score ALL cards they touch, regardless of size or type.
Example: A blue seal touches cards worth 0 + 3 + 2, scoring 5 points total. Another blue seal touches cards worth 1 + 3 + 4, scoring 8 points total. A red seal touches cards worth 1 + 1 + 4, scoring 6 points total. A cracked yellow seal scores nothing.
Score Knights
Always score all of your Knights, even though they are unsealed. Knights are always discarded during the end phase, after scoring. Knights from the Royal deck always score six points and are discarded during the end phase. Knights from the Fragments deck always score three points and are discarded during the end phase.
Score Courage
Check if you have any Courage cards that gain you additional points during the scoring phase:
- Eight Courage cards (Imps, Devils, Shades, Royals, Presidents, Nobles, Fragments & Knights) gain you additional points for each card of the named type that you have in your summoning circle, whether they are sealed or not.
- The Score Sins Courage card gains you one point for every two total sin you have remaining across all three of your sin gauges.
- All other Courage cards either gain you points immediately when a condition is met or have other benefits and are ignored during the scoring phase.
End of Game
Once the third round scoring phase is over, the game ends.
The player with the most points has made the most progress in this ritual and should be given a huge round of applause.
In the case of ties, all tied players share the victory. More winners is better. Regardless of who scored the most points, all players should be admired for the hard work they put into overcoming their personal demons. Hopefully you learned a lot and will make better progress in the next ritual. It's all steps forward. I'll say it again: everyone wins in therapy.
Solo Meditation
You can still conquer your demons alone with the solo meditation mode of gameplay. It operates much the same as the group ritual, with a few changes.
Setup changes
Perform the general, board, and emotional baggage setup (steps A–J) exactly as described in Setup.
In addition, take six sin tracker candles and set them upright in a row near your board. You will knock these over to track how many turns you have left in each round. Do not draw a hand of six cards each round.
Flow of play changes
The flow of play is the same as described in Flow of Play, except turns start with a new DRAW step and a new DISCARD step replaces the PASS step at the end.
1. Draw
Draw a hand of cards from the current round's deck equal to the difficulty you've selected — either three, two or one card(s).
Choose difficulty:
- Angelic (Easiest): Draw three cards at the start of each turn, play one, discard the rest.
- Human (Moderate): Draw two cards at the start of each turn, play one, discard the other.
- Devilish (Hardest): Draw only one card at the start of each turn. You must play that card.
2–5. Place, Reveal, Sin, Seal, Bonus
Follow steps 1–5 just as described in Flow of Play.
6. Discard
Discard any cards remaining in your hand and knock down one of the six sin tracker candles you set up at the start of the game. If this is the sixth candle you've knocked down, move to the scoring phase, otherwise proceed back to the draw step of the next turn.
Scoring & End Phase
These phases proceed as described in multiplayer. In addition, at the end of round I & II, set your six sin tracker candles back upright.
Final scores
At the end of round III scoring, the game ends. Your goal is to score as high as possible and the guide below indicates how well you applied yourself to this meditation. You should aim to out-master yourself the next time you meditate on your demons.
| Score | Rating |
|---|---|
| Below 75 | Lacking focus |
| 75–100 | Fine |
| 100–125 | Good |
| 125–150 | Great |
| 150–175 | Amazing |
| 175–200 | God-like |
| Above 200 | Surely impossible? |
Score exactly 66 and you're in perfect parity with your demons: Demonic.
Appendix
Summoning and facing your demons is a complicated business, I'm sure you'll have questions. Hopefully they're all covered here.
FAQs
Q: What happens if we run out of seals in high player counts? A: Seals are considered to be unlimited, please use placeholders to represent the missing seals.
Q: What happens if I can't play any of the cards in my hand? A: If you cannot meet the requirements for any cards in your hand, you MUST play one of them face down without revealing it, even if it means playing a face-down card on top of a face-up card.
Q: Can I play a face-down card on top of a face-down card? A: Yes. This might be helpful to save space and will give you the opportunity to replace the seal that was on the back of the original face-down card with a seal of another color, if useful.
Q: What happens if I score more than 99 points? A: Flip the left tracker to the side that says '100' and move it back to zero. Optionally, gloat about it.
Q: Can I spend a combination of sins from two different gauges to pay for a bonus action? A: No, the entire cost must be paid with a single sin. In the case of colossal cards, it must be the specific sin named in the upper-left of the card.
Q: What happens if I draw a Fragment I cannot place? A: You must have a valid placement option to draw a Fragment. You may not draw from the Fragment deck if you do not have at least one empty space or empty half-space.
Q: If a colossal card grants me an ability, do I have to use it? A: Some of these abilities are optional (and will use the word 'may' to denote this). All players except the one who played the colossal card have the choice of using the ability. However, colossal card abilities that force the player who summoned it to discard some or all of their demons are not optional, you must discard them.
Courage clarification
Abyss, Inferno, Limbo: These cards do not count as 'creating' a seal.
Keeper: During the end phase, for each Knight and Fragment on your summoning circle, you may choose whether or not to discard it.
More Sins: If you summon a demon 'of Hell', you don't gain any additional sin. The Courage card's effect only triggers when you gain a single sin at one time.
Pan-Demonium: This card may count as any one color seal at any time, but it may only count as a single seal towards any requirement. This card does not count as 'creating' a seal.
Pile Up: You only gain two points total, regardless of how many demons the card you place covers.
Score Sins: At the end of scoring, count up the total value of all three of your sin gauges, added together. Divide that number by two and round down. Gain that many points.
Discarding
Courage discard: All Courage cards are discarded to a Courage discard pile. If the draw pile is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.
Fragment discard: All cards from the Fragment deck are discarded to a Fragment discard pile. If the draw pile is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile. If both piles are ever empty, players may not draw from the Fragment deck.
Royal discard: All cards from the Royal deck are discarded to a Royal discard pile. If the draw pile is ever empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile. If both piles are ever empty, players may not draw from the Royal deck.
Reference
Round order
Summoning phase: Six turns, six steps each: Place, Reveal, Sin, Seal, Bonus, Pass.
Scoring phase: Score seals, Knights & Courage.
End phase: Discard Knights and Fragments, draw Courage, deal next round.
Bonus actions
Only one per turn. Pay the cost from a single sin and:
- FREE: Face Fear
- II: Summon Fragment
- IV: Summon Royal
- VI: Summon Personal Demon
Seals
Active seals: Count toward requirements. Score all demons they touch during the scoring phase and then flip to the cracked side.
Cracked seals: Count toward requirements. Do not score during the scoring phase.
Sigils and requirements
- Abyssal — Blue/Crosses — Requires one blue seal
- Infernal — Red/Triangles — Requires one red seal
- Liminal — Yellow/Circles — Requires one yellow seal
- Pandemonial — Purple/Starburst (Wild) — Requires one additional seal of any color
Sins
Glut, Hate, Want, Hell (all three).
Types
Devil, Imp, Shade, President, Noble, Royal, Knight, Fragment.
Icons
- All players take Courage
- Activate ability on summon
- Place no cards on top of this