Quiet House Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Components
• Setting up the Game
• Playing the Game
• Movement Rules
  • Basic Movement Rule
  • Advanced Movement Rule
• Communication Paddle
• End of the Game
• Variants
• Score Table

Overview

Quiet House is a cooperative game where players take turns moving statues to create arrangements that meet a specific goal.

At the beginning of the game, Goal Tiles are placed around the Game Board, indicating how the statues should be placed to achieve victory. However, players only have partial information about the goals and cannot communicate with each other.

You need to carefully observe how others move statues during their turns, make smart guesses about goals they know, and collaborate effectively with them to complete the correct arrangement together.

If players can achieve the correct arrangement before the game ends, they win together.

When statues are arranged as shown in the example image, the placement of statues satisfies all Goal Tiles, allowing players to win the game.

• Monkey must be the statue closest to the left wall. Mirror must be the second closest.
• Mouse must be the statue closest to the top wall. Candlestick must be the second closest.
• Rook must be the statue closest to the bottom wall. Mirror must be the second closest.
• Mouse must be the statue closest to the right wall. Rook must be the second closest.

Note: "closest to the wall" does not necessarily mean "adjacent" to the wall. See the Mouse in the illustration: it is the closest to the right wall, but it is not adjacent to it. To match the Goal Tile, you simply need to make sure that there is no other statue between the Mouse and the wall.

Important: Players cannot share information about the goals they see with other players.

Players can see only four Goal Tiles during the game. A player sitting in the bottom corner, as shown in the illustration, can see only the four Goal Tiles marked with an eye icon.

Components

• 1 Game Board (front side standard; back side marked with a spider-web icon in the corner, the advanced side)
• 4 Communication Paddles (each with a heart side and a whirlwind side)
• 25 Time Cards (fronts show a statue; backs show a score from 1 to 5)
• 5 Movement Rule Cards (Rook, Candlestick, Monkey, Mouse, Mirror). The backs of all Movement Rule cards, except the Mirror, are identified with a spider-web icon.
• 5 Goal Tiles (bright wall), each with a front and a back
• 5 Goal Tiles (dark wall), each with a front and a back
• 5 Statues: Mirror, Mouse, Rook, Monkey, Candlestick

Setting up the Game

1. After taking out all components from the game box, place the bottom of the game box in the center of the table.

2. Players sit at each of the four corners of the box. In a 2-player game, sit in opposite corners. In a 3-player game, leave one corner empty. Distribute one Communication Paddle to each player. Place the remaining paddles (if any) back into the box.

3. Lay out all 5 Movement Rule Cards where everyone can see them. Players can discuss or randomly decide which side of each Movement Rule Card to use. Note that the side with a spider-web icon is more challenging. The Mirror Movement Rule Card has identical faces, so either side can be displayed. In the first game, use the standard side (without the spider-web icon).

4. Place the Game Board on the tray on the bottom of the game box. In the first game, place it on its standard side (without the spider-web icon).

5. Scatter the 5 statues on any squares of the Game Board. The Mouse must be placed on one of the squares marked with a red dot, and two statues cannot be in the same row or column.

   Important: This is the most crucial game rule. At no point during the game can there be more than 1 statue in a given row or column.

6. Sort out the Goal Tiles by color (bright and dark) and shuffle each set separately. Place one Goal Tile of each color face down at one side of the table. Do not reveal the front side of these tiles. Insert the remaining Goal Tiles into the gap between the Game Board and the box, as shown in the illustration. Ensure that you are aligning the color with the light on the external wall (bright color wall with bright Goal Tiles, dark color wall with dark Goal Tiles). During this process, each player should only see the front side of Goal Tiles that they are allowed to see.

   Important: From now on, you cannot talk with other players; you will only communicate through your moves or by using your paddle (see Communication Paddle below).

7. Place all Time Cards with the back side facing up and create 5 stacks according to their back (one stack for each number). Each stack will have 5 cards. Shuffle each stack separately. Then, place the stacks of cards one above the other, starting with the stack of "1" and continuing in ascending order. This completes a Time Deck of 25 cards with the stack of "5" on the top.

Playing the Game

The player who has most recently watched a movie or read a book involving ghosts becomes the starting player. Players take turns clockwise from the starting player. On your turn, you do the following:

1. Flip the top card from the Time Deck so that anyone can see it. The card indicates a statue that you cannot move during your turn. (Stack all the cards that you draw in front of you, so that only the last one is visible.)

   • Example: You can't move the Monkey statue on this turn.
   • This icon means that if you choose to move the Mirror statue, it will be moved according to the Monkey movement rules (see Movement Rules below).
   • If players win the game this turn, they score as many points as indicated in the bottom right corner of the card (see End of the Game below).

2. After that, choose one of the following two actions:

   2-A. Move a statue: Choose any statue (except the one on the Time Card) and move it according to its own movement rules. Then, pass the turn to the player on your left.

   You must always respect the base rule: There can NEVER be more than one statue on a given row or column.

   2-B. Declare the puzzle as solved: If the position of the statues matches the four Goal Tiles that you see, instead of moving a statue, you can declare that the puzzle has been solved. If you do, show your Communication Paddle to the other players on its heart side. The other players immediately reveal their paddle as well, showing the heart side if the statues are in correct position according to the four Goal Tiles that they see, showing the whirlwind side otherwise. If all players showed the paddles on their heart side, the game ends immediately with a victory. Otherwise, if at least one player shows their paddle on the whirlwind side, nothing happens and the game continues with the player on your left.

   Note: 2-B can only be performed when the position of the statues matches the four Goal Tiles visible to you. Otherwise, 2-A must be performed. Through the 2-B action, you can provide information to other players while also challenging for victory.

Movement Rules

Each statue moves according to its own movement rule. The Basic Movement Rule is used on the standard side of the Movement Rule Cards; the Advanced Movement Rule (marked with a spider-web icon) is used on the spider-web side.

Basic Movement Rule

• Rook: Moves horizontally or vertically by any number of steps.
• Candlestick: Moves to any square it may reach within 1, 2 or 3 steps; it may change direction and jump on statues.
• Monkey: Swaps its position with any other statue (including the one from the current Time Card). Note: to swap with the Mouse, both statues must be in a red-dot square.
• Mouse: Moves to any red-dot square ("teleport"). It can never occupy any other squares than red-dot squares.
• Mirror: Moves as the statue from the current Time Card.

Advanced Movement Rule

• Rook: Moves horizontally by any number of steps, then vertically by any number of steps. It must move at least one step in both the horizontal and vertical directions.
• Candlestick: Moves to any square exactly 3 squares away horizontally and/or vertically from its current position. It may move to one free square among the colored squares in the illustration.
• Monkey: Moves to any square diagonally adjacent to another statue.
• Mouse: Movement rules remain unchanged, but make sure to place the Game Board on its spider-web side.
• Mirror: No advanced rule is printed for the Mirror (its faces are identical).

Communication Paddle

This paddle serves two purposes: you will use it to indicate the success or failure during a "Declare the puzzle as solved" action, but you can also use it to express your feelings when other players play their turn.

You can show the whirlwind side in a wide range of situations: feeling bored, unsatisfied with the situation, not understanding their move, etc. Similarly, you can show the heart side for various reasons: simply feeling good, wanting to compliment, agreeing with their move, etc.

Of course, there are limitations to the feelings you can convey with just the whirlwind side and the heart side. However, as silent ghosts, you are only able to communicate to that extent.

End of the Game

If, during a "Declare the puzzle as solved" action, all players show the heart side of their Communication Paddle, it means that the statues are placed correctly according to all the Goal Tiles: the game ends immediately. Players win together and score as many points as written on the last revealed Time Card.

If there are no more cards to draw because the Time Deck is empty, players lose the game. Don't be discouraged; there's always another opportunity to succeed.

There is more than one winning position for each configuration: it's the order of the statues that matters, not their absolute position on the Game Board.

The rulebook shows three examples of win situations (diagrams omitted here).

Variants

Challenge yourself by increasing the difficulty to earn bonus points. You can add as many of the variant rules below as you like. You can gain an additional point for each added rule. However, the maximum score achievable in a single game remains at 5 points.

1. Except during the "Declare the puzzle as solved" action, players cannot use Communication Paddles.
2. During the Setting up the Game phase, place the Goal Tiles as follows: Goal Tiles no longer indicate which statues should be the closest and the second closest to the respective wall, but instead they indicate which statues should be the closest and the fourth closest.

Score Table

If you have won the game, find the combination of movement rules used in this game and record or update your score in the table. Place as many 'X's as points earned. The maximum score is 5.

Score descriptions:

• 1 point: The ghosts, exhausted after barely completing the statue arrangement once the sun had risen, couldn't overcome the heaviness of their eyelids. Without even sharing the joy of success, they succumbed to sleep. "We'll do better next time," they all vow in their dreams.
• 2~3 points: The ghosts completed the statue arrangement before dawn, but they still feel a sense of regret. Better strategies may come to mind, but it's time to rest now. They shake hands with others who have shared the struggle and return to their respective resting places. Although it was challenging to move the statues all night, it turned out to be more enjoyable than expected. As they drift off to sleep, the ghosts consider trying again the next night.
• 4~5 points: The ghosts, with excellent silent communication and a stroke of luck, quickly completed the statue arrangement. The eyes of the ghosts sparkle with joy as they enthusiastically exchange high-fives. There's still plenty of time until sunrise. The ghosts joyfully party inside the mansion, flying around and celebrating. It feels like everyone has become friends.

The score table has columns for Rook, Candlestick, Mouse and Monkey (the Mirror has no advanced side). Each row is one combination of advanced sides, marked by spider-web icons on the columns whose advanced rule is used. The two printed tables together contain all 16 combinations. Each row has five boxes for recording points 1 to 5.

Left table, rows from top to bottom:

1. No icons (all standard)
2. Rook
3. Candlestick
4. Mouse
5. Monkey
6. Rook, Candlestick
7. Candlestick, Mouse
8. Mouse, Monkey

Right table, rows from top to bottom:

1. Rook, Monkey
2. Rook, Mouse
3. Candlestick, Monkey
4. Candlestick, Mouse, Monkey
5. Rook, Mouse, Monkey
6. Rook, Candlestick, Monkey
7. Rook, Candlestick, Mouse
8. Rook, Candlestick, Mouse, Monkey