Shadow Ninjas
Shadow Ninjas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 16 Shadow Tokens (4 with Ninja Cats)
- 2 Guard Dog Tokens
- 2 Red Dice
- 2 Blue Dice
- 2 Green Dice
- 2 Purple Dice
- 2 Orange Dice
- Double-sided Game Board
Object of the Game
The objective of Shadow Ninjas depends on which role you choose.
- Ninjas must get to any one of the four koi carp tanks inside the building without being seen by a Guard. Each Ninja token has a Shadow on the opposite side to hide it.
- The Guards must find all of the Ninjas before any of the Ninjas reach a koi carp tank.
Shadows can be moved by the Ninja players to divert the Guards. These are the same on both sides.
Set Up
Decide which side of the board to play, and place it in the center of a table.
First, decide who is going to be the Guard player. Next, divide the Shadow tokens equally among the Ninja players, depending on how many are playing.
- 4 Ninja players: each gets 1 Ninja and 3 Shadows
- 3 Ninja players: each gets 1 Ninja and 4 Shadows
- 2 Ninja players: each gets 2 Ninjas and 6 Shadows
- 1 Ninja player: Ninja player gets 4 Ninjas and 12 Shadows
The Ninja players take the two dice that match the color of their Ninja Cat. If playing with two Ninjas, players use one die of each matching color. If playing with four Ninjas the player can choose any two color dice. The Guard plays with the red dice.
The Guard player now looks away.
The Ninja players take turns placing their tokens, one at a time, on any grey square outside the garden. No two tokens can occupy the same square.
Note: make sure that all of the Ninja Cats are placed face down and don't let other players see which tokens have the Ninjas hidden beneath them.
Lastly, the Guard Dog player places the two Guard tokens on any two different koi carp tank squares.
Playing the Game
Turns
Starting with the Guard and moving clockwise, players take turns rolling their two dice and moving playing tokens. Ninja players can only move Shadow tokens and Guards can only move Guard tokens. To move, assign each die to a different playing token and move the number of spaces up to the amount on the die.
Note: Ninja players may move ANY of the Shadow tokens, even if it is not one of the tokens that they placed on the board at the start of the game. This means they could be moving another player's Ninja with or without realising it!
Moving Tokens
- Tokens may move up to the number of squares rolled on the dice. They are not obliged to move the full number.
- Tokens may not move through walls or other objects.
- Tokens may not move diagonally.
- Only one token may occupy a square at a time.
- Guard tokens may move into the grey section of the board.
Moving Past Tokens
If a player wants to move a token past another token, they place the token they are moving on the square next to the occupied square, and then swap the two tokens around. This swap counts as moving one square.
Detection
If at any point during the game (even halfway through a move), a Shadow token is 'seen' by a Guard, the Guard player flips the token over. Being 'seen' means that there is a straight line of squares (not diagonal) between the Guard and the Shadow. Guards cannot see through walls or objects but can see through other tokens.
Note: any Shadow token moving into the line of sight of a Guard token will be flipped over, even if a full move takes it out of sight again.
If a Shadow token is flipped over and it reveals another Shadow, nothing happens and the Shadow remains on the square. If a Shadow token is flipped, and it reveals a Ninja Cat, then that Ninja Cat has been caught and is removed from the game. A Ninja player who has had all of their original Ninja Cats removed is out of the game.
A Guard can flip all Shadow tokens in their line-of-sight, even those behind other Shadow tokens.
Note: Guards cannot detect diagonally.
Getting Lost
A Ninja player can choose to skip their turn and, instead of rolling the dice and moving, they may look at the bottom of any four tokens without showing any other players.
Reaching the Koi Carp Tank
If a token reaches a koi carp tank (the number rolled does not need to be exact) it gets flipped over. If a Shadow is revealed then the token is placed back on any of the grey starting squares and can be moved again later in the game. If a Ninja Cat is revealed then it has successfully eaten the koi carp. Yum!
Winning the Game
If the Guard player sees all the Ninja Cats before a single koi carp is eaten, they win the game. If a Ninja Cat gets to any koi carp without being seen, then the player whose Ninja reaches the koi carp wins the game.
Alternative Version
If you are playing with younger players, instead of removing a detected Ninja (and a player) from the game, place the token back on one of the grey starting squares; the player can then start again. If the Guard player detects all the Ninjas at least once before a koi tank is reached then they win the game. If a Ninja token reaches a koi tank, then the player whose Ninja it is wins the game.
Editor's note: the printed rules contain two typos, transcribed here as "rolled" (printed "roed" in the Reaching the Koi Carp Tank section) and "successfully" (printed "successfuy"). Source: Shadow Ninjas Rules of Play, 3 pages (Cheatwell Games / Outset Media, 2024), read from page images.