Possession: A Daemonic Card Game

Possession: A Daemonic Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

The Rules

The Rules, or, How to Possess without being Exorcised

The players & the Narrator

You are the players, evil Daemons battling for the souls of men.

You will take turns being the Narrator over the course of the game. The Narrator tosses the Time Coin, draws the Victims and the Location, distributes the cards, and decides how some cards' effects are resolved.

The first thing to do is to select a Narrator: the player whose birthday falls earliest in the year shall be first. Then proceed to the Set Up.

The Set Up

Place the board in the centre, within easy reach of each player. The board is part of the Playing Area (more than that, it's the heart of it!)
Shuffle the Daemon cards. Each player draws one, face down, without revealing it to the others. Each Daemon has a unique ability, and deciding when to reveal your Daemon to use it is part of the strategy involved in this game.
Organize the Game Deck depending on the number of players:
- 3/4 PLAYERS: use the whole Game Deck.
- 2 PLAYERS: remove 2 random Heroes, 6 random Possession Cards. Use the rest of the Game Deck.
NOTE! Always set The Troll aside from the Game Deck, ready to be used if Fate is cruel. If you have the Adventure Cards, keep them separate as well.
Give the Narrator's Token to the player who is currently the Narrator.
Each player takes a Possession Token and a Willpower Token, and places the Possession Token on the board at the value 3, which is the starting value. Decide amongst yourselves which daemon you are (1, 2, 3 or 4) as this choice does not affect the game.
Take all Life tokens and put them over the pentacle on the board.
The Narrator shuffles the Game Deck, the Victims and Location Decks, then places them on the board, to the right of the map. If you have the Adventure Cards, shuffle The Crooked Tower into the Location Deck.

You are now ready to play!

Anatomy of a Daemon Card

Name of Daemon
Daemon's Special Rules
Player's Starting Possession Value

The Goal

The game ends at the end of the FIFTH TURN. At this point, each player adds up the total current Strength and Life of every Victim they control. The player with the highest final score is the winner! In case of a tie, the player with the highest Possession Value is the winner.

The First Turn

The Narrator draws the Victims from the Victims Deck, and plays them face up. The number of Victims drawn is based on the number of players:

2/3 PLAYERS: 2 Victims
4 PLAYERS: 3 Victims

The Narrator tosses the Time Coin. This establishes whether this turn is played during the Day (Sun-face) or at Night (Moon-face). This affects many cards, which work differently during the day and at night. In addition, Day and Night also have a general effect:

Day (Sun-face): +1 to all Nemeses played this turn (+2 for Heroes), shown with the Sword symbol.
Night (Moon-face): draw an extra Victim.

After having established the Time, the Narrator draws a Location Card. It can interact with the Time, and can affect some Victims. This is the moment to resolve all these effects, including those of the following symbols:

SANCTUARY (hand symbol): +2 (increase the score of the Willpower value by 2 for each player)
GLOOM (noose symbol): -1 (decrease the score of the Willpower by 1 for each player, to a minimum of 0)

Now each player is dealt a hand of 8 cards (it can be more if a Location indicates as much), drawn from the Game Deck. The Narrator deals them clockwise.

The number of cards dealt is also called the Hand Cap; some cards can change it.

The Location Card indicates which player starts the turn: left, right, or opposite of the Narrator (in a 3-Players game the current Narrator decides who is opposite). If the Location card says reshuffle or stay, then the Narrator starts. This player is known for the rest of the Turn as the First Player.

Anatomy of a Victim Card

Life (heart symbol): how many wounds a Victim can sustain before dying.
Willpower (circle symbol): how hard to possess a Victim is.
Strength (sword symbol): how hard a Victim will fight against a Nemesis.

The Victim's characteristics (Life, Willpower, Strength) are shown on the card, followed by the Name of the Victim, the Victim's special rules, and a Flavour Text.

Notes on Victims: the Willpower of a Victim increases the value of the Willpower score of the player who possesses him or her; this should be reflected in the Willpower score of the player on the scoreboard. Life can increase or decrease because of fights, Events, Equipment Cards and the special rule of each specific Victim (use tokens to keep track of these changes). Strength bonuses triggered by a Victim's special rule last until the end of the turn.

Some Victims have a type, like merchant or arcanist (more on that in the expansions) – this permits them to interact with other cards and locations.

Finally, some cards refer to the gender of a Victim: check the illustration or the name, it will tell you if the Victim is male or female.

Anatomy of a Location Card

Name of Location
Location's Description
Symbols (Sanctuary or Gloom and type)
Card's special rules
Flavour Text
Direction Instruction

Notes on Locations: when you draw a location the first thing to do is to look at its symbols and immediately modify the Willpower score of each player if the location has Sanctuary or Gloom. Also check if the location increases or decreases the life of some or all Victims, and use the life tokens to reflect it. More than just a rule, this is a good habit! Then proceed with the rest of the location's rules and/or interactions with the victims or with the Time Coin.

[Playing the Turn]

Now each player plays one card from their hand, starting with the First Player and moving clockwise. The time during which each player plays one card is called a Round. You can't play more than one card at a time, but there is an exception to this rule: the Man-at-arms and Serjeant-at-Arms Nemeses.

Each Turn players can play 4 cards each, so a Turn is made up of 4 Rounds. It is possible to have no cards left in your hand you can play, that's ok, just declare that you pass.

Note on TRAP! cards: some Equipment or Event cards say TRAP! followed by a condition that will trigger it. When such conditions are met, you must play that card to your disadvantage (for example an Equipment that's a TRAP! must be played on one of your Victims). TRAP! cards can only be played this way.

Because you are a Daemon, you can try to cheat and sneak your way out of it: you can decide not to play the card, but if you are discovered (usually when you pass the rest of your hand to another player) you lose 2 Possession cards of your opponents' choosing from your playing area.

The cards in your hand are of 4 different types: POSSESSION CARDS (they increase your possession value, helping you take control of more Victims), EQUIPMENT CARDS, NEMESIS CARDS (they enable you to try to kill opposing Victims) and EVENT CARDS.

Possession Cards

Each time you play a Possession Card, it increases your possession value by an amount equal to the card value (adjust your score on the board accordingly). During your Round (before or after you play your card), if your possession value MINUS the Willpower value is equal or higher to the Willpower of one of the Victims in the playing area, you can immediately claim control of him or her. You can take control of more than one Victim per Turn, but never more than one each Round.

IMPORTANT: your possession value must, at all times, be equal to or greater than your Willpower value. If, at any time, it is not, you must restore a positive balance by losing as many Victims as you need to. You can choose which Victim(s) to lose. Lost Victims go back to the Playing Area, carrying with them their equipment cards and any Life tokens on them.

Example: This is Daemon 1's playing area. She plays as the daemon Ar-min-thee'he'r' (see above, anatomy of a Daemon Card) and has 2 Possession Cards for a possession value total of 7. She already controls the Actress as Sin Victim, whose Willpower value is 4, which means she has an unused possession value of 4.

Below is part of the playing area, where there are two Victims, one with Willpower 5 and one with Willpower 3. Daemon 1 cannot possess the Necromancer Dilettante because 5 is greater than 4, but she can possess the Insomniac, because 4 is higher than 3 (obviously!). Daemon 1 moves the Insomniac into her playing area.

Losing a Victim

When you lose a Victim, DO NOT discard it. Instead, as mentioned above, place it back in the playing area with all the equipment the Victim has and all the life tokens on the card, alongside all the Victims not yet controlled. Victims returned to the general play area can now be controlled as normal by any player who has enough possession value to claim them.

Anatomy of a Possession Card

Type of Card
Name of Possession
Card's Special Rules
Card's Possession Value

Note on losing Possession Cards: if you are forced to randomly discard one or more of your Possession Cards, shuffle them, face down, and have one opponent take as many as needed and put them in the discard pile.

Equipment Cards

These cards can be played on any Victim in the playing area. Remember to follow the TRAP! rule whenever it applies to one or more Equipments in your hand (these cards can only be played on your Victims).

Equipments can have a value increasing the Life (use a Life Token with the appropriate value to record the new total) or Strength of the Victim on whom they are played; others will increase the total Willpower value (remember to move the token on the scoreboard accordingly!). Some confer a special rule to the Victim.

Those Equipment Cards that allow the Victim to avoid some game effects are usually for one-time use: once they have negated the effect, discard them.

A Victim can have only one Weapon at any one time, and one Armour for each of the body, head and hand slots. A Victim with a two-handed weapon cannot have one-handed armour (e.g. a shield).

When a Victim is discarded, the Equipment Cards on it are discarded as well.

Anatomy of an Equipment Card

Name of Equipment
Characteristic's Bonus (in this case Strength)
Type of Card
Type of Equipment
Card's Special Rule
Flavour Text

Example: This is Daemon 1's hand. Amongst other things, she has "A Formidable Vintage" Equipment Card – a TRAP! when the Turn is set in a Location with the Entertainment symbol.

During the Turn set-up, the Location "Jousting Grounds" is played, which has an Entertainment symbol. This means Player 1 has to play "A Formidable Vintage" on one of her Victims. Yes, she can still choose which one. After playing it she adjusts the scoreboard to reflect the increase in Willpower.

Nemesis Cards

These cards represent the men and women fighting the Daemons and those they possess. When you play a Nemesis Card, choose a Victim controlled by another player and play it against them. Only Nemeses with the same name can be played against a single Victim each turn.

Heroes are the most powerful Nemeses, so much so that they are indicated on the card as a Hero, not Nemeses (remember, all Heroes are also Nemeses!). Heroes have better characteristics than average, and they deal 2 wounds if they win a fight (see below: Fights), on top of having a unique rule and being even stronger during the day.

Each Nemesis' main stat is the Strength value – how powerful it is. The other stats are there only in the extremely rare occasion that they get Possessed in turn, or that they are wounded (find out more on that in the expansions!).

Anatomy of a Nemesis Card

Name of Nemesis
Characteristics: Life, Willpower, Strength
Type of Card
Card's Special Rule

Example: This is Daemon 2's current hand. Amongst other things, he has two "Man-at-Arms" Nemesis Cards. Below is Daemon 1's current Victim. Daemon 2 decides to deal with the "Insomniac" this Turn, and plays both Men-at-Arms against her. Remember that, although he plays them simultaneously, they still count as 2 cards played for this Turn. (Man-at-Arms and their leaders, the Serjeant-at-Arms, are the exception to playing only one card at a time. Serjeant-at-Arms is also the exception to the rule that says only Nemesis with the same name can be played against the same Victim).

Event Cards

These cards represent the vagaries of Fate and the freak accidents that can happen in Ninebridges and its countryside. Each card has a special effect that is immediately resolved the moment the card is played – perhaps making a Nemesis stronger, or forcing a Player to lose a possession card.

Some Event Cards affect the whole Playing Area, some can be TRAPS!, some can be played only during the Day or at Night, or if a Location has a specific symbol, while others still have specific targets. In the last case, the player who played the card decides who are the target or targets. In case of uncertainty, the Narrator will decide.

Anatomy of an Event Card

Title of Card
Type of Card
Card's Special Rule
Flavour Text

Fights

After every Player has played all the cards allowed for their turn (or they have passed for lack of cards to play), fights are resolved, the Narrator deciding the order.

A fight is carried out in a simple manner: compare the Nemesis' Strength (or the total Strength if more than one Nemesis is attacking) against the Victim's (taking into account all bonuses from possible Events, Equipment, Locations and the Time Coin). If the Nemesis' Strength is equal to or higher than the Victim's, the Nemesis wins the combat and each Nemesis in the fight causes the loss of 2 Lives to the Victim. Priests and the Exorcist don't wound a Victim but have other effects – as always, follow the card's text. If the Victim wins, nothing happens (apart from the fact that they survived!). Discard the Nemesis no matter the outcome.

ESCAPE: some cards (or the Victim's rules) allow a Victim to escape; this means that they can, if their player wishes it, avoid the current fight (discard the Nemesis anyway). IMPORTANT: cards stopping an escape trump any means the Victim has of escaping.

Example: Following the example above, we now go over the fight between Daemon 2's two Man-at-Arms Nemeses and Daemon 1's Insomniac. The combined Strength value of the two Nemesis is 4, higher than the Insomniac's 3, who loses the fight. Because each Man-at-Arms deals 2 damages, the Victim suffers 4 wounds, which leaves his Life characteristic at 0. The Insomniac is dead, and Daemon 1 discards him. Then she adjusts his Willpower score, decreasing its value by 3 (equivalent to the Willpower of the Insomniac). Daemon 2 discards the two Nemeses.

The Turn's End

After the fights have been resolved, the turn ends.

Quickly check the score of each player (in terms of total Life+Strength of their controlled Victims), and give the Ascendancy Token 1 to whoever is ahead, Ascendancy Token who is second, etcetera. This tells the players who needs to be taken down a notch next turn!

[Transcriber's note: the printed text reads "Ascendancy Token 1" for the leader and "Ascendancy Token who is second" for the runner-up, with no numeral given for second place; transcribed as printed.]

Look at the current Location Card, it will tell you what to do with the cards left in your hand, and with the Narrator's Token:

RIGHT: players give their hand to the player to their right. The Narrator's Token goes to the player to the right of the current Narrator.
LEFT: players give their hand to the player to their left. The Narrator's Token goes to the player to the left of the current Narrator.
OPPOSITE: players give their hand to the player opposite them. The Narrator's Token goes to the player opposite the current Narrator. In a 3 player game, the Narrator chooses one player with whom to exchange cards, while the other will receive the Narrator's Token.
STAY: for this turn the players keep their hands. The Narrator keeps the Token.
RESHUFFLE: reshuffle all the hands into the Game Deck. The Narrator's Token remains with the current Narrator.

Beginning of a New Turn

The Narrator draws new Victims, tosses the Time Coin and then draws a new Location. Remember to check for every possible interaction between cards.

Players are given as many cards as they need to bring their hand up to 8 cards (or more if the Location or Victims they possess allow it).

Proceed with the Turn as you had done with the First Turn.

End Game & Declaring a Winner

The Game ends at the bottom of the Fifth Turn, after the last fight has been resolved.

At this point every player adds up the sum of their Victims' current Life and Strength value, do not forget to add all the temporary bonuses gained for the duration of this turn (often coming from events or the location).

The player with the highest total wins! In case of a tie, the player with the highest Possession Value wins. In case the result is still a tie, the player with the lowest Willpower value is the winner!

Appendix 1: a Game of Solitary

or, about survival et loneliness

Possession, a daemonic card game, has been designed mainly as a group game, but that doesn't mean that you can't test your skills alone against the defenders of Ninebridges! How does it work, you ask?

First of all, you need to alter your Game Deck: remove the TRAP! cards Lean, Mangy, Hungry; The Dead Are Restless; Roaming Undead (the Solitary is already quite challenging without them). Then remove ALL the Nemesis Cards, and one each of the five types of Possession Cards.

Proceed as normal, but you also have to shuffle the Nemesis Cards together, to form a new deck. Draw one Victim, toss the Time Coin, draw a Location, draw a hand of eight cards from the Game deck.

Each turn every Victim you possess is attacked by a Nemesis, drawn from the top of the Nemeses Deck (engage at the beginning of the turn every Victim you already possess, or right after you possess them). If you draw a Man-at-Arms or a Serjeant-at-Arms, draw again and if it's another Man-at-Arm or Serjeant-at-Arms pile them up against the same Victim. Keep at it unless you draw another kind of Nemesis, in that case either put it on another non-engaged Victim, or discard it).

Remember to play any TRAP! event card that might be triggered. On top of that, every Turn you must play a non-TRAP! event from your hand (if you have it).

As normal, fights are resolved at the end of each turn after you've played 4 cards.

If you have drawn a Left/Right/Opposite Location, keep at least 4 cards in your hand at the end of the Turn. Otherwise follow the normal rules.

You win if, at the bottom of the Fifth Turn, you possess at least two Victims.

Glossary

or, the Devil's Dictionary

A. ASCENDANCY TOKENS: to be used at the end of each turn to indicate who is in the lead.
B. BOARD: to be placed in the centre of the gaming area, it is part of the general playing area, it acts as a scoreboard for Possession and Willpower of each Daemon, there's a map to show you where each location is in the territory, you can put the Life Tokens on the pentacle and the decks in the column to the right of the map.
D. DAEMON CARDS: they represent you in the game, each one with a different special rule. Keep yours a secret and face down until you judge it's the right moment to reveal them, to activate their special rule.
DAMAGE: any kind of loss of Life.
DAY/NIGHT: the two possible outcomes of tossing the Time Coin each Turn, it can influence cards and situations. During the Day, all the Nemeses get +1 Strength (Heroes +2). At Night, draw one more Victim.
DISCARD/DISCARD PILE: to discard means removing a card from the game. Once discarded a card goes into the discard pile. There is a discard pile for each deck. Some effects allow you to take back discarded cards.
E. EQUIPMENT CARDS: found in the Game Deck. You can play them on Victims. A Victim can have only one Weapon equipped at any one time, and the same goes for armours at each different spot. Two handed weapons cannot be combined with one-handed armours. When Victims are discarded their Equipment is discarded as well.
ESCAPE: escape allows a Victim to avoid the current fight. Cards that deny escaping overrule any form of escape card, ability or situation.
EVENT CARDS: found in the Game Deck, Event Cards allow you, when played, to create situations advantageous to you (unless they are a TRAP!), or disadvantageous to one or more of your opponents. If targets are needed for the Event, the player who has played the Event chooses the target, unless otherwise specified. Whenever you play an Event, its effects are resolved immediately.