Spooktacular Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Monsters
• The Theater
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Player Turns
  • Play a Card
  • Adding Guests
  • Move
  • Spook
  • Devour
• Unique Abilities (UAs)
• Golden Rules
• Game End
• FAQ
• Solo Mode
• Credits

Components

• 60 Guests (12 each in red, purple, yellow, blue, and green)
• 1 Guest Bag
• 1 Map (theater board)
• 10 Score Trackers
• 10 Tickets
• 3 Room Locks
• 39 Monsters (wooden figures)
• 25 Basic Action Cards
• 62 Unique Action Cards
• 20 Monster Boards
• 5 Cassettes (Doombox)
• 6 Dishes (Hell Chef)
• 6 Traps (Doctor Terror)
• 6 Hives (Grimhive)
• 7 Jars & 1 Mummy's Tomb (Mummygator)
• 1 Dumbbell (Remover)
• 9 Team Members (Screamin' Eagle)
• 7 Doors (Angler)
• 4 Spook Futures (Beasts of Business)

Monsters

Each monster has the following parts:

1. Monster Difficulty:
   • Easy - First time players.
   • Intermediate - Players who understand the game.
   • Advanced - The group understands the game.
2. Setup: The top part of setup tells you your unique setup steps during Setup. The bottom part shows any additional components your monster might have, including their figure(s).
3. Turn Steps: Do each step in order to take your turn.
4. Unique Abilities (UAs): Monsters have UAs that make them play differently than other monsters. Each UA is shown in a different box.

Example: The Deadline is an Advanced monster.

• Setup: 1. Place 1 Phone in any room. 2. Place remaining Phones on each space of the switchboard below. 3. Draw 3. (Components: 8 Phones, Cards B5 U3)
• Turn Steps: 1. Choose a Phone. All your cards and effects this turn are resolved from that Phone. Play a card. 2. ANSWER THE PHONE. 3. Place a Phone in any room without one. 4. Draw back to 3 cards.
• Unique Ability - Answer the Phone: Return a Phone from a room with another player's monster to an empty space on your switchboard. Perform the space's effect, with that monster as the Answering Monster. Repeat this until there are no more Phones in rooms with monsters, or no more empty spaces on the switchboard below. The switchboard spaces read: gain 1 point per Phone you returned this turn, including this one; you and the Answering Monster's player each draw 2 cards; place another Phone in any room without one; you and the Answering Monster's player gain 2 points; add 2 guests to the Answering Monster's room and gain 2 points; move the Answering Monster; devour in the Answering Monster's room.

The Theater

The theater is the board where the game takes place.

1. Rooms: Rooms can hold any number of guests and monsters.
2. Doors: Each room is connected by doors.
3. Score Track: The score track is used to track your score during the game.

Setup

1. Each player picks a monster board. They get a set of basic action cards, any unique action cards their monster has, and any additional components noted at the bottom of the setup section. Shuffle your basic and unique cards to make a deck.

2. Place the map board in the middle of the table. Place locks on rooms depending on the player count. These rooms will not be used in this game.

   In a 2-3 player game, the top-right room is locked.

3. Each player names their favorite horror movie. The one who names the best movie is the first player.

   The players decide that Dracula's Bride's Mistress' Grandma is the best horror movie, so player two is the first player.

4. Assign each player a score tracker based on their seating from the first player and put it at 10. Keep a second score tracker for reference. Create a pile of tickets. The pile should have 2 tickets per player in the game.

5. Put all guests into the bag, then put a number of guests into each room equal to the number of doors, minus 1.

6. From the first player and going clockwise, each player follows their monster's setup steps. Some setup steps might refer to a UA. See the Unique Abilities (UAs) section for more information.

7. Begin the game, starting from the first player's turn.

Above: a setup for 4 players. The numbers in the corner of each room indicate a room's door count for quick reference. The bottom room is locked, and will not be used in this game.

Gameplay

Spooktacular is played over a series of rounds, where each player takes a turn.

Players perform the turn steps on their monster in order, then pass the turn to the player to their left. Game end is triggered when one of two conditions are met:

1. One player reaches 50 or more points.

OR

2. All tickets have been taken.

Player Turns

On a player's turn, they follow the steps listed on their monster board. Playing cards, adding guests, moving, spooking, devouring, and interacting with your monster's unique abilities are common things you might do on a turn.

Use turns to score as many points as you can!

Play a Card

To play a card, do the effect on the card, then discard it. If you would ever run out of cards and need to draw a new one, shuffle your discard into your deck, then draw.

What follows are some examples of basic effects cards might have you perform.

The Flex card allows Remover to DO FEARSONAL FITNESS. They perform the effect of the space their dumbbell is on, which is to draw 3 cards.

Example - Remover's Weightloss Plan track: Starting Space has no effect; the next space reads "Draw 3 cards."; the space after that reads "Add 2 guests. Gain 2 points."

Adding Guests

When an effect tells you to add guests, take guests randomly from the guest bag and add them to the room that your monster is in.

The Search card reads "Add 3 guests! Play a card!" The Clown Car card reads "Add 3 guests! Spook!"

Move

Moving lets you move your monster or other components like guests from one room to another by moving to a connected room through a door. Some effects will specify that you move a certain type of piece. If it's not specified, then you should move your own monster figure.

If move doesn't specify a target, it means you.

Coaching allows Remover to move guests from connected rooms into her room. The yellow guest does not move, as it is not connected to Remover's room by a door.

Spook

Spooking is one of the main ways to score points. When you spook your room, for each door, move a guest out of that door into the connected room. Then, count how many guests moved through doors and score 1 point for each guest moved.

Haunt allows Remover to spook, moving all 3 guests in her room out through different doors. Remover gains 3 points. The second spook on Haunt does nothing as there are no more guests in her room to spook.

Devour

Devouring is a way to gain points. When you devour a guest in your room, set it to the side of your board in your devour pile. Unless otherwise stated, effects that devour only devour in the room you are in.

If you have a guest of each color in your devour pile, return them to the bag and get a ticket. Keep it face-down, nobody may look at it until the game ends. If you would need to gain a ticket and cannot, gain 5 points instead.

After turning in a set of devoured guests, add 3 guests to the room with the least figures. If there is a tie, you choose.

A yellow and red guest are devoured, completing a set. The Remover player gains a ticket.

Unique Abilities (UAs)

Each monster has a different way to interact with the game and score points. Read your monster board for more information. Learning the ins and outs of your monster is the best way to use the map to your advantage and score the most points.

Some UAs happen as a turn step (or even a setup step). These will be indicated by the UA name. When this type of UA comes up, do what the matching UA says.

Example: Turn Steps read "1. Play a card. 2. Do FEARSONAL FITNESS." The Fearsonal Fitness UA box (shown with a purple header) reads: "Perform the effect of the current position of the Dumbbell in the WEIGHT LOSS PLAN."

Some UAs are effects that only you need to understand. These are indicated by a purple header behind the UA name.

Example - Trigger a Trap (purple header): "Select one of your traps and activate its effect, in its room." The four traps are Tesla Coil, Flamejet, Secret Door, and Cloning Chamber.

Some UAs all players should understand. These are indicated with an orange header behind the UA name and a warning icon. Some of these may only happen at a certain time, so make sure you understand all of your UAs to make sure they work correctly.

Example - Mummy's Tomb (orange header, warning icon): "The Mummy's Tomb is a room that is connected to the room it is in. Guests cannot be added to the Mummy's Tomb. Guests can enter but cannot exit the Mummy's Tomb. Other monsters cannot enter the Mummy's Tomb."

Golden Rules

If a card or other game effect instructs you to do something, do as much as possible. For example, if an effect said "Devour 3 times. Move", and your room only had 2 guests, you would devour those 2, then move.

If an effect does something that contradicts a rule, that effect takes precedence over the game rule.

Game End

As soon as any player reaches 50 points OR there are no more tickets to take, this signals the end of the game. Finish the round, with the current turn player, and any remaining players left taking their turns.

All players gain points equal to the points showing on any tickets they may have. The player with the most points on the score track is the winner! If players tie, the player with the most tickets wins. If players are still tied, those players share the victory.

FAQ

Q: What happens if I need to resolve part of an effect (like playing a card), but I can't? A: Nothing happens. Any other parts of the effect still resolve.

Q: An effect tells me to do something but I don't want to. Can I choose not to perform an effect? A: Effects in this game are not optional unless explicitly stated (using "may" or "up to").

Q: What is the difference between a player and a monster? Mash says to move all monsters, but I gain points per player. Aren't those the same thing? A: Certain monsters such as ReGoo have more than 1 monster figure. Mash would move all of ReGoo's Blobs but the Mashing player would still only regard that as having moved 1 player (thus only gaining 2 points from the ReGoo player despite moving multiple of ReGoo's Blobs).

Q: When an effect tells me to place my monster in any room, can I place it into the room it is currently in, choosing to stay in place? A: Yes.

Q: An opponent has 3 points and I attempt to steal 5 points from them. What happens? A: You do as much as you can, so you steal 3 points.

Q: What is a figure? A: A figure is any wooden monster or guest game piece.

Solo Mode

To experience the terror of Spooktacular alone, you can challenge an automated Killtron with a modified set of rules:

At the end of Setup:

Create 3 decks for Killtron using the following cards:

• Deck A: Grapple, Roll Out, Jumpscare
• Deck B: Mash, Search, Arc Lightning
• Deck C: Haunt, Exterminate, Consume

(Guidance System and Killtron's monster board will not be used.)

Shuffle these decks separately and place Killtron in the room with the most doors.

Killtron starts with 5 (Easy), 10 (Normal), 15 (Hard), or 20 (Nightmare) points depending on how hard you want to make the game.

Killtron always takes the first turn.

Gameplay:

On its turn, Killtron reveals the top card of each deck simultaneously then resolves them in A->B->C order. After resolving them, Killtron discards those cards into separate discards. If Killtron needs to reveal cards and its decks are empty, it reshuffles its discard piles to form new decks, then proceeds as normal.

Killtron ignores all "play a card" and "draw" effects.

1. When moving, if Killtron's final revealed card is Exterminate or Haunt, Killtron will move to the room with the most guests. If there is a tie between rooms, Killtron chooses to move into the room with more doors (even if the rooms those doors lead to are blocked).
2. When moving, if Killtron's final revealed card is Devour, it moves to the room with the most guests of different colors that are not present in its devour pile. If there is a tie between rooms, Killtron chooses to move into the room with more guests of different colors.
3. When spooking, Killtron will always move the guest towards the top first then go clockwise from there. It will always move all red guests first, then yellow, green, blue, then purple.
4. When using Grapple, Killtron will always try to move a player into its room. If there is a tie, it chooses the player with the most points. If it cannot move a player, Killtron moves a guest of a color that does not currently exist in its devour pile instead (if blue and red are in the Killtron's devour pile, it will try to Grapple any guest that isn't blue or red). Killtron prioritizes colors in this order: red > yellow > green > blue > purple.
5. When using Mash, Killtron moves other players into the room with the least guests. If there is a tie, Killtron chooses to move other players into the room with less doors.

If Killtron is asked to make a decision that isn't covered by the above rules, the player after Killtron in turn order makes the decision for it.

Auto-Killtron can be added as an additional player to any game with 4 or fewer players.

Credits

Lead Designer: D. Brad Talton Jr. Project Lead: Joshua Van Laningham Development Lead: Marco De Santos Publisher: Level 99 Games

Original soundtrack available on Bandcamp.