Spectral
Spectral Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Find and claim gems while avoiding curses! The game ends when all players consecutively pass or when one player runs out of treasure hunter pieces. Then all the cards are flipped face up, the locations of all gems and curses are revealed, and the player with the most points from gems and unspent treasure hunter pieces wins.
Components
- 28 cards (16 standard, 12 advanced)
- 4 shuffling sleeves
- 5 player pads
- 5x9 treasure hunter pieces (4x value 1 token, 3x value 2 token, 2x value 4 token)
- 48 gem tokens (16x value 3 gems, 12x value 4 gems, 8x value 6 gems, 12x value 12 gems)
- 8 rubble blocks
- 5 pencils
- 4 curse tokens
- 2 horizontal axis markers
Setup
- Each player selects a treasure hunter band and takes the matching player pad and 9 treasure hunter pieces. Give each player a pencil.
- Separate the 16 standard cards into 4 stacks based on their card type (A, B, C, D).
- From here on, keep the cards facedown (do not look at the fronts). Shuffle the 4 stacks of cards individually.
- Insert each stack into a separate shuffling sleeve. Shuffle the 4 sleeves.
- Remove the cards of each sleeve and spread them out facedown into separate rows to form a 4x4 grid of cards. Note: The 4 cards in a shared sleeve should be spread out into the same row. Be sure to leave enough space between each card (at least the height of a treasure hunter piece). Add the horizontal axis markers onto each side of the grid, denoting the midline that separates the top 2 rows from the bottom 2 rows.
When Playing with Beginners
Flip the middle 4 cards face-up. Place out a 12-value gem or a curse token onto each card that the face-up cards are pointing to (see The Cards). Each player returns one treasure hunter piece of each type (1, 2, and 4) to the box.
Note: This is a good opportunity to show beginners how to mark their player sheets and how to start deducing hidden information.
When Playing with 2 Players
Place a rubble block between each pair of cards along the vertical and horizontal centers.
When Playing with 3 Players
Place a rubble block in each of the spaces between the 4 middle cards.
Gameplay
Randomly select a start player. Beginning with the start player and proceeding clockwise, players take turns until the end of the game. On your turn, you must do one of the following:
- Stake out a hallway and look at one adjacent room card
- Pass
Stake Out a Hallway and Look at One Adjacent Room Card
When staking out a hallway, select any space between two adjacent cards and place one or more of your treasure hunter pieces there. If the space is empty (no pieces or blocks occupy it), then you may place any number and combination of your treasure hunter pieces there. If the space is occupied (by your pieces, an opponent's pieces, or a rubble block), then you must place at least double the value of pieces there compared to the value of the occupying pieces. Then, the pieces that previously occupied that space are returned to their owner's supply (or to the box if it is a rubble block).
The values of the treasure hunter pieces are indicated by the number of depicted treasure hunters (1, 2, or 4). The value of a rubble block is 2.
After claiming the space, the player may look at one of the two adjacent room cards. Without revealing the card to other players, the player picks up the card, looks at its face, records this information on their player pad, and returns the card facedown.
Example: Tim wishes to stake out a hallway that is occupied by Nicole. The space has 3 treasure hunters. Tim must place a total of 6 or more treasure hunters in order to claim this space. He places one medium piece (2 treasure hunters) and one large piece (4 treasure hunters). He returns Nicole's two pieces back to her. He then peeks at one of the adjacent cards and records this information on his player pad.
Pass
When a player decides to pass, their turn is skipped and the next player takes their turn. It can be advantageous to pass when you are satisfied with the position of your treasure hunter pieces or when you wish to deduce more information before placing your next token. The spaces that opponents choose to claim can give you hints about what they know. But be careful! If all players consecutively pass, then the game ends immediately and you won't have any more chances to stake out hallways.
The Cards
Each card points to exactly one other card, and at the end of the game it will place either a treasure or a curse on the card it is pointing at. Your goal is to deduce where each specific card is positioned and thereby know where the treasures and curses will end up.
There are 4 rows of cards labeled A-D. Each row contains one of each of the following 4 card types:
Two Diagonal Glyph
Points at the only card that is 2 cards away diagonally.
Corner Quadrant Glyph
Points at its one diagonal neighbor within its same quadrant.
Two Clockwise Glyph
Points at the card that is 2 cards away from it clockwise in its circle. The 4x4 grid of cards is made up of an outer circle of 12 cards and an inner circle of 4 cards.
Horizontal Reflection Glyph
Points at the card reflected over the horizontal axis.
Recording and Deducing Information on Your Player Pad
The top half of your player pad tells you the exact distribution of cards in the grid. The bottom half is where you'll record the exact position of each card as well as where the gems and curses will end up.
Whenever you see a new card, cross it off from the top half and record where it is in the bottom half. Don't forget to place a tally mark wherever it will place a gem or curse! If this is the first card you've seen in this row of the grid, be sure to record the letter of this row (A, B, C, or D) because you know that all the cards in this row will be the same letter. Once you've seen 3 of the 4 rows, then you can deduce what letter the last row is!
Whenever you tally a curse, be sure to X out all of the spaces surrounding the curse. You don't want to place your treasure hunter pieces in these spaces! (More on that later).
As you cross out more cards on the top half of your pad, you'll be able to start deducing where the remaining cards could be and most importantly where they'll be placing their gems and curses. To narrow down the possibilities, fill in any square where a gem or curse might be placed. If that sounds like a lot of information to process, then we recommend that you start by deducing the possible locations of the four curses — these are the most important areas to avoid positioning your pieces.
For more information on how to best use your player pad, see the inside front cover of the pad.
Example: Nicole knows that the top row is row D, but she has only seen one treasure card (the top right card). By looking at the top half of her player pad, she knows that the curse card in row D will place a curse token on the card reflected over the horizontal axis. This tells her that one of the three cards in the bottom row will have a curse placed on it by the Row D curse card. Nicole fills in the curse tally squares of these 3 cards. Because these are higher risk cards to place her pieces next to, she'll try to avoid them until she has a better idea where the Row D curse card is.
Game End & Scoring
The game ends in one of two ways:
- All players consecutively pass. If this happens, the game ends immediately.
- One player places their last treasure hunter piece. If this happens, then all players get one more turn before the game ends. Note: Even the player who triggered the end of the game will get one more turn because an opponent might claim their space and bump pieces back into their supply.
Once the game has ended, all the cards are flipped face-up. From left to right and top to bottom, resolve each card one at a time by placing a 12-value gem or a curse on the card it is pointing at. If you played with the beginner setup, then you already resolved the 4 middle cards.
After all cards have been resolved with gem and curse tokens placed out, then the curse tokens are resolved. Any treasure hunter pieces that surround a curse token are returned to the box (not to the players' supplies). Finally, treasure hunter pieces that remained in the grid will earn the gems from adjacent cards.
Awarding Gems
If only one player has their pieces adjacent to a card with gem tokens, then that player receives all the gem tokens on the card. If more than one player has pieces adjacent to a card with gem tokens, then the gems will be split up between the players. Gems are split evenly according to the number of spaces a player occupies around the card (not the number of treasure hunters that they placed). If a gem has no treasure hunter pieces adjacent to it, then no players will earn this gem. Break a 12-value gem into smaller gems as needed (four 3s, three 4s, two 6s).
Players score points from the values of the gems they earned as well as from their unspent treasure hunters. Note: Treasure hunter pieces removed by curses are returned to the box and do not score points.
Example: A gem value of 12 is split 2 ways. Green earns a gem value of 6. Blue earns a gem value of 6.
Example: A gem value of 48 is split 4 ways. Green earns a gem value of 12. Yellow earns a gem value of 12. Red earns a gem value of 24.
Example: A gem value of 24 is split 3 ways. Yellow earns a gem value of 16. Red earns a gem value of 8.
Example: These treasure hunters perish for being adjacent to a curse token. They are discarded to the box. Gem tokens that share the same card as a curse token will never be claimed.
You will score points for each individual treasure hunter depicted on each piece. The value of each treasure hunter depends on the player count:
| Players | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points per treasure hunter | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
The player with the most points is the winner! In the case of a tie for victory, the player with the fewest cursed treasure hunters wins (i.e. the player who returned the fewest treasure hunters to the box from curses). If there is still a tie, the victory is shared.
Scoring Example: In this 4-player game, Teal has 46 points for their gems (3+3+4+12+12+12) and 12 points for their unspent treasure hunters (2 points x 6 treasure hunters) for a total score of 58 points.
Advanced Modules
After everyone has tried the standard game a few times, we recommend you explore the advanced modules!
The advanced modules utilize the 12 advanced cards which replace some of the standard cards during setup. There are 3 modules which you can implement into the game (flip, swap, and freeze). We recommend you either play with 1 entire module included or 1 card from each module included.
Advanced cards have two end-game effects on the card they are pointing at:
- They place a gem token on the card (like normal)
- They flip, swap, or freeze the card
Setup
Setup the game following the normal rules but with these changes: Find the standard cards that match your selected advanced cards.
Return those standard cards to the box. On the top half of your player pads, each player should record the advanced cards that are being included in the game. Then proceed with setting up the card grid like normal (steps 2-5 of Setup).
At Game End
When playing with multiple modules, resolve each module in this order: 1. Flip > 2. Swap > 3. Freeze
Flip
At the end of the game, before placing out gem and curse tokens, each Flip card will flip facedown the card it is pointing at. These facedown cards can still have gem and curse tokens placed on them, but they no longer affect the cards they were pointing at. Be sure to resolve the Flip cards in alphabetical order, as sometimes a Flip card will flip (and thus neutralize) another Flip card.
Swap
At the end of the game, before placing out gem and curse tokens, each Swap card will swap positions with the card it is pointing at. Rotate a Swap card 90 degrees to help remind you that you've performed its swap. Be sure to resolve the Swap cards in alphabetical order, as sometimes a Swap card will swap positions with another Swap card.
Freeze
At the end of the game, before placing out gem and curse tokens, each Freeze card will freeze the card it is pointing at. Rotate a frozen card 90 degrees to help remind you that it is frozen. A frozen card does not place a gem or curse on the card it is pointing at — rather, that gem or curse stays on the frozen card. If a Freeze card is frozen by another Freeze card, it keeps the gem on itself but still freezes the card it is pointing at.
Credits
- Game by: Ryan Courtney
- Development by: Tim Kizer
- Illustration by: Kwanchai Moriya
- Graphic design by: Brigette Indelicato
- Published by: Nick Murray & Kyle Spackman
- Edited by: Jon Healey