Sinister Institute Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Content
• Setup
• Goal of the Game
• Overview and Game Ending Conditions
• How to Play
  • Example: 3 players game
• Player Actions
• Emergency Plan
• Fainting
• End of the Game
• Player Turn Summary
• Fainting Summary
• Setup Summary
• Items Summary
• Scoring Summary
• Suffering Damage

Content

• 25 Map tiles: 9 School tiles and 16 Swamp tiles (double-sided, back and front)
• 32 Story cards (double-sided)
• 20 Ritual cards (double-sided)
• 32 Item tiles (double-sided back): 5 Boots, 6 Talismans, 5 Herbs, 6 Pendants, 10 Soul pieces
• 1 Points board
• 1 Points tracker
• 1 Evil Sorcerer
• 8 Minions
• 4 double-sided Class cards
• 4 double-sided Aid cards
• 4 Player boards
• 4 Health trackers
• 4 Level trackers
• 4 Pawns
• 10 Portal tokens

Setup

1. Place the Whispering Hallway Map tile face-up in the centre of the table. Place the other 8 School tiles face-down randomly in a ring around it to form a 3x3 grid, with the Whispering Hallway in the centre.
2. Place the 16 Swamp tiles face-down randomly in a ring around the School tiles to complete a 5x5 grid, again with the Whispering Hallway in the centre.
3. Shuffle all the Items together and place them face-down in a draw pile beside the Map tiles. A face-up discard pile will form beside it during the game. If the draw pile is ever exhausted, create a new one from the tiles in the discard pile. Place the Portal tokens nearby as well.
4. Flip over the 4 School tiles orthogonally adjacent to the Whispering Hallway tile and place an Item from the draw pile face-up on each Item icon on these Map tiles. Important: the orientation of the tiles should be random, not chosen by the players.
5. Place the Evil Sorcerer on the top-left Map tile.
6. Place all the Minions in a supply area near the Map tiles and the Points board nearby. Place the Points tracker on the 30 space of the Points board.
7. Shuffle all the Story cards and place them in a face-down draw pile next to the Points board:
   • In a 4 players game, return 4 cards to the box without looking at them, they will not be used.
   • In a 3 players game, remove 5 cards.
   • In a 2 players game, remove 6 cards.

Setup example for 2 players, Blue and Red: (figure only; no further text)

Goal of the Game

In Sinister Institute, you will be completing Rituals in order to defeat the Evil Sorcerer.

To do so, you'll explore the School and the Swamp that surrounds it, by flipping the tiles and moving on them, and collect the Items you'll find scattered around this world.

Each Ritual is worth a certain amount of points, and once completed you score it by reducing the health of the Evil Sorcerer on the Points board by that amount.

Bring the health of the Evil Sorcerer down to zero before the Story deck runs out or all the Minions are placed to win the game!

Overview and Game Ending Conditions

Randomly choose a starting player. They take the first turn, and then play moves clockwise around the table.

The game continues until

• the Story deck runs out, which means you all lose the game, or
• all 8 Minions have been placed, which means you all lose the game, or
• you manage to reduce the health of the Evil Sorcerer to zero, which means you all win together.

The health of the Evil Sorcerer in a game at normal difficulty is initially set at 30. After playing a few times, you might like a greater challenge. To play at advanced difficulty, set the initial health of the Evil Sorcerer at 35. To play at deadly difficulty, set it to 39.

How to Play

On their turn, the active player draws the card on top of the Story deck and does the following, in order:

1. Move the Evil Sorcerer

   Move the Evil Sorcerer the number of Map tiles listed above the dots that indicate the number of players in the game:

   • 2 players | 3 players | 4 players. (The Evil Sorcerer's Movement Instructions panel shows one icon per player count, with 2, 3 and 4 dots.)

   The Evil Sorcerer moves left to right, one Map tile at a time and it is considered to be occupying the entire Map tile so it does not matter which space he is placed on.

   If the Evil Sorcerer gets to the end of a row of Map tiles, it continues to the left-most tile of the next row down. If it gets to the end of the bottom row of Map tiles, it continues on the left-most tile of the top row (where it started the game).

   If at any time during its movement the Evil Sorcerer enters a Map tile with any player Pawns on it (regardless of which space they are on), these players each lose 1 health point and move their Health tracker accordingly on their personal board.

2. Place Minions

   If the Evil Sorcerer ended its movement on an explored Map tile without a Minion on it, place a Minion on this tile. Check if all 8 Minions have now been placed: if so, the game ends immediately in a loss.

   A Minion is considered to be occupying its entire Map tile, so it does not matter which space you put it on. If this Map tile has any player Pawns on it, these players each lose 1 health point. In this case, the Minion has also been Defeated and so it is discarded. This also means you lose 2 health points if the Evil Sorcerer lands on your tile and causes a Minion to be placed.

Example: 3 players game

Example of a 3 players-game, with Blue, Red and Green. Blue being the active player:

First, Blue draws the top card from the Story deck. There are 3 players, so the Evil Sorcerer moves 6 Map tiles on the 5x5 Playing grid.

Then, the Evil Sorcerer moves left to right, following the purple arrows. Note how, being on the last tile of the row (A), the Sorcerer moves to B, the left-most Map tile on the next row down. Along its path, the Sorcerer enters a tile occupied by Red, reducing that player's life by 1. To indicate that, Red moves their Health tracker 1 space towards 0 on their Player board.

C is the last Map tile of the 5x5 Playing grid, therefore the Evil Sorcerer moves back to D, the Map tile where it was placed on Step 5 of the Setup.

Both Blue and Green are on this Map tile, so they suffer 1 damage each, again moving their own Health tracker.

Since the Evil Sorcerer ended its movement on an explored tile (D), you place a Minion there. However, being at least a player Pawn there, the Minion is immediately Discarded back to the supply, and those players suffer 1 more damage each, resulting in a total of -2 health points (-1 from the Sorcerer and -1 from the Minion) - Ouch!

They all had 5 Health at the beginning of Blue's turn. Red loses 1 because the Evil Sorcerer entered their tile. Blue and Green lose 1 because the Sorcerer entered their tile and 1 more (= 2) because of the Minion that was placed and immediately Discarded.

Finally, Blue reads aloud the Event text on the bottom half of the Story card they just drew. After discussing it with the other players, Blue decides to collect one of the available Herbs, that will help them gain back some of the health they just lost. It is now time for Blue to perform up to 4 actions.

Player Actions

Next, the active player may perform up to 4 actions, as described below, in any order they want. You may take an action multiple times in a turn, if you want to.

The available actions are: Move, Explore, Pick Up, Drop, Use Item, Level Up, Complete Ritual, Class Special Action.

• Move

  Move your Pawn to an adjacent space. Spaces are bounded by the edges of tiles, walls and trees. The Map tile grid "wraps around" at the edges, so a space at one end of a row or column is adjacent to the space at its other end.

  If, after moving, your pawn is now on a space with the Evil Sorcerer, you lose 1 health point.

  If the Map tile contains a Minion you lose 1 health point, and also Defeat the Minion, returning it to the supply.

  Move action example: From their starting position (A), Blue can:

  • move left to enter a School tile,
  • move up or right to enter a Forest tile.

  They can not move down, because the two spaces, even though on the same Map tile, are separated by the trees and connected only via a dotted line (i.e. you'll need a Portal to connect these spaces).

  Blue wants to reach the Forbidden Cave (C), and therefore they decide to perform the Move action twice: with the first movement, they enter the Mystic Meadow (B), then, since the two ends of a row (or column) are considered to be adjacent, they move right again and enter the space of the Forbidden Cave (C). There, the Minion is considered to occupy the entire tile, so no matter which space Blue is on, they Defeat the Minion, returning it to the supply, and suffer 1 damage, moving their Health tracker on their Personal board accordingly.

• Explore

  Flip over a face-down (unexplored) Map tile that is adjacent to the space you are in (remember that adjacency "wraps around" the grid edges). Remember that the orientation of the tile should be random, not chosen by any player.

Emergency Plan

You can spend all your 4 Actions to either place a Portal on your space or rotate an explored Map tile, without spending any of the required Item, and even if you do not have them in your Backpack.

Fainting

If you are ever reduced to 0 health (even on another player's turn), immediately Faint and do the following, in order:

1. Drop all your Items on the space where your Pawn is (the Evil Sorcerer heals 1 per Soul piece you Drop!)
2. Place your Pawn on the Whispering Hallway Map tile. If the Evil Sorcerer is on the Whispering Hallway, ignore it. If a Minion is on the Whispering Hallway, return it to the supply (and lose no health).
3. Heal back to 5, by moving your Health tracker accordingly.
4. Return the top card from the Story deck back to the box, without looking at it. This means you now have less time to win the game (if the story deck is already empty then this is the final turn of the game).

Fainting example: Blue draws the top Story card from its deck, which tells them to move the Evil Sorcerer 2 spaces (A). The Evil Sorcerer ends their movement on the Map tile where Red is, dealing them 1 damage. Red has only 1 health left: they Faint (B). First, Red Drops the Soul piece they had in their Backpack, healing the Evil Sorcerer of 1 (C); then, they place their Pawn on the Whispering Hallway Map tile, in the middle of the grid. A Minion is there, and it's immediately discarded (D). Finally, Red heals back to 5 and discards the top card of the Story deck (E). To conclude the Evil Sorcerer phase, Blue places a Minion on the School tile where the Sorcerer ended its movement (F).

End of the Game

If at the start of a player's turn there are no cards in the Story deck, then time has run out and all players lose the game.

If there is a total of 8 Minions on the Map tiles, the Evil Sorcerer became too strong and all players lose the game.

If, at any moment, the players collectively bring the life of the Evil Sorcerer down to zero, they all win the game!

Player Turn Summary

I. Draw 1 card from the Story deck.

1. Move the Evil Sorcerer according to the amount of players in the game.
2. Place a Minion on the tile the Evil Sorcerer landed on, if the tile is explored and has no Minion on it.
3. Follow the instructions of the Event on the bottom half of the Story card you just drew.

II. Perform up to 4 actions:

• Move to an adjacent space
• Explore an adjacent unexplored Map tile
• Pick Up an Item in your space
• Drop an Item to your space
• Use an Item you have in your Backpack
• Level Up your Class Special Action
• Complete your Ritual
• Use Class Special Action (only once per turn).

Fainting Summary

In the following order:

• Drop all Items (Evil Sorcerer heals 1 per Soul piece dropped).
• Move to the Whispering Hallway.
• Heal to 5.
• Remove the top card from the Story deck.

Setup Summary

Story cards draw pile:

• 4 players: remove 4 Story cards
• 3 players: remove 5 Story cards
• 2 players: remove 6 Story cards

Difficulty level:

• Normal: Points tracker starts at 30
• Advanced: Points tracker starts at 35
• Deadly: Points tracker starts at 39

Items Summary

• Boots: Take up to 4 Move actions.
• Talisman: Choose any explored Map tile and rotate it however you choose. All Items and Pawns on the Map tile remain in their spaces.
• Pendant: Take 1 Portal token and place it on a dotted line connected to your space. The 2 spaces that this Portal connects are now considered to be one larger space.
• Herbs: Gain 3 Health. Max health is 5.

Scoring Summary

• Points as listed on each completed Ritual.
• 1 point per Class Level gained.
• 1 point per Soul piece in a Backpack.

Suffering Damage

• Evil Sorcerer in your Map tile: -1 health.
• Minion in your Map tile: -1 health and Discard Minion.