Spukstaben
Spukstaben Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 60 Spukstaben cards
- 1 print shop board
- 10 ghost cubes
- 10 shield tokens
- 1 hourglass (approx. 60 seconds)
- 1 scorepad and 4 pencils
Game Idea and Goal
You are working at an old-school letterpress print shop where hordes of little ghosts appear at night to steal your precious type pieces. These ghosts are called "Spukstaben," a portmanteau of the German words "Spuk" (a spooky commotion) and "Buchstaben" (letters).
You'll find more information about the type pieces in the bottom of the game box.
The Spukstaben Cards
Each Spukstaben card shows:
- Instant effect (top left): always active.
- Letter: the type piece the Spukstabe has stolen, shown as a letter or letter combination.
- Condition (bottom edge): only active in stages 2 and 3.
- Shield (bottom left): only active in stage 3.
- Ghost track: the track along the right side of the card, for the ghost cube.
Setup
- Place the print shop board in the middle of the table. Below the rooms you will need space for several cards as the game progresses. All cards lying below a room are considered to be in that room.
- Shuffle all the Spukstaben cards and place them as a face-down draw pile on the type case in the Composing Room of the print shop.
- Set out the ghost cubes and the hourglass. In stage 3 you will also need the shield tokens.
- Everyone takes a sheet from the scorepad and a pencil.
Use the side of the board showing the instant effects. You will only need the shield effects on the other side starting in stage 3.
For a more difficult game, you can play with fewer than 10 ghost cubes. Each unused ghost cube earns you 1 bonus point at the end of the game.
The rooms of the print shop, in order from the type case toward the exit, are: Composing Room, Press, Office, Door. Escaped Spukstaben cards are placed in the space to the right of the Door.
Game Play (Stage 1)
You play 10 rounds, in which everyone always takes their turn at the same time. Go through the following steps in order, each round:
A. New Spukstaben appear B. You look for accurate words C. You scare the Spukstaben D. All Spukstaben move on
After round 10, the game ends and you calculate your score. Then you find out how successful your night at the print shop was.
A. New Spukstaben Appear
At the start of each round, check how many new Spukstaben appear in the print shop. In round 1, when the print shop is still completely empty, draw 6 Spukstaben cards from the draw pile. Place these cards, in any order, into the Composing Room (3 cards), at the Press (2 cards), and in the Office (1 card).
Whenever you place a new Spukstaben card in a room, you must immediately take a ghost cube from the supply and place it on the ghost track on the right side of that card. This ghost cube shows how many times the Spukstabe must be scared to make it drop the stolen type piece and flee. Place the ghost cube on the space of the track that corresponds to the number of players.
No more ghost cubes in the supply?
If you have no ghost cubes left in the supply to place on a new Spukstaben card, that Spukstabe immediately escapes with the type piece! Place the card to the right of the print shop's Door. Every escaped Spukstabe has a negative effect on your final score.
From round 2 onward, draw as many new Spukstaben cards as indicated on your scorepad sheet, and place them in the Composing Room. To do this, look at the column that corresponds to the number of players, and the row for the current round. For example, in a two-player game you draw 2 cards each in rounds 2 and 3, then 3 cards from round 4 onward, and so on.
The Instant Effects
From round 2 onward, you must take into account the instant effects found in the upper left of the Spukstaben cards. There are two kinds of instant effects: nimble Spukstaben and Spukstaben with siblings.
- Nimble Spukstaben do not appear in the Composing Room, but in another room of the print shop. Place them directly in the corresponding room.
- Spukstaben with siblings bring along a sibling. Draw 1 additional Spukstaben card and place it in the print shop following the usual rules.
Note: If a new Spukstabe escapes immediately because there is no ghost cube left for it in the supply, its instant effect is not carried out!
B. You Look for Accurate Words
Turn over the hourglass. Now you all have 1 minute to each write one word on your sheet — in the row for the current round. Each word may be at most 10 letters long.
Which words are allowed?
An overview of valid words can be found at the end of this rulebook (see "Valid Words and Dealing with Mistakes"). There you will also learn what to do with invalid words and spelling mistakes.
Make sure to use as many letters from the Spukstaben cards in play as possible in your words, because only then can you successfully scare the Spukstaben in the next step.
Your own word is secret — you may not tell it to the others. However, you may and should give each other hints, so that you use different words this round. To do this, you may name up to three Spukstaben that you will scare with your word this round.
Always pay close attention to which Spukstaben could soon escape from the print shop if you don't scare them with your words this round!
Example B: In round 1, Melli writes down STREICH (prank). She gives the hint that she will scare the Spukstaben with CH and EI. Johannes decides on the word KREISRUND (circular).
C. You Scare the Spukstaben
First, take turns naming the words you wrote down. If you wrote down exactly identical words, you must cross out all but one of them. A Spukstabe can only be scared once per word.
Now scare the Spukstaben with your words. The rule is: each letter you used can scare exactly one Spukstabe. A Spukstabe can be scared if it is trying to steal a type piece marked with one of the letters used.
You may decide the order in which you resolve the words yourselves, but resolve each word completely before moving on to the next. Go through a word letter by letter:
I. If there is a matching Spukstabe for a letter, you scare it. If there are several matching Spukstaben, you choose exactly one of them.
II. Move the ghost cube on the scared Spukstabe's ghost track down 1 space. If this ghost cube was already on the lowest space, return it to the supply instead. This Spukstabe drops its type piece and flees immediately. Return the card to the box.
III. Each Spukstabe can be scared exactly once by any one word. If there is no longer a Spukstabe that can be scared for a letter, its effect fizzles.
Note: A Spukstabe with a letter combination (e.g. EI, AU, CH) is scared only by that exact same combination appearing in a word (e.g. the EI in GLEICH, but not in GEHIRN).
Example C: For her word STREICH, Melli moves the ghost cubes on S, R, EI, and CH down 1 space each. For his word KREISRUND, Johannes may move the ghost cubes on K, R, EI, S, and U. He cannot use the second R in his word, because the ghost cube for R can only be scared once by the same word.
Melli and Johannes have scared the Spukstabe with EI twice. This pushes its ghost cube off the bottom of the ghost track. The Spukstabe drops its type piece and flees immediately. The card goes back in the box, the ghost cube back into the supply.
D. All Spukstaben Move On
In the last step, move all remaining Spukstaben in the print shop one room further toward the Door. If a Spukstaben card is already at the Door, that Spukstabe escapes from the print shop with the type piece. Return the ghost cube from that card to the supply, and place the card to the right of the print shop's Door.
Note: Move the Spukstaben carefully so that the ghost cubes remain in their current positions on the ghost tracks.
This ends the round. The next round starts again with new Spukstaben appearing.
Example D: Melli and Johannes move all remaining Spukstaben one room further. They are lucky that no Spukstaben card was yet at the Door.
The Special Round 10: The Joint Power Word
In the final round, no new Spukstaben appear. In addition, the rules for steps B–D change as follows:
Instead of your own, different words, in this round you search together for one last power word. As usual, you have 1 minute for this. Discuss carefully, because with this one final word you should scare as many remaining Spukstaben as possible.
If you scare a Spukstabe with the power word, its ghost cube does not slide down 1 space — instead you take it directly off the ghost track. The Spukstabe flees without its type piece and you put its card back in the box! Spukstaben that you fail to scare in the last round escape with their type pieces. Place these cards to the right of the print shop's Door.
End of the Game
After 10 rounds, your adventure in the print shop ends. Now determine how successful your night was. The rule is: the fewer Spukstaben that escaped with valuable type pieces, the better your result.
Calculate your score with the following formula, after counting the escaped Spukstaben (= cards to the right of the Door):
Score = 15 − number of escaped Spukstaben + bonus points
You get bonus points in two ways:
I. If you don't need a power word in round 10 because there are no Spukstaben left in the print shop, you get 1 bonus point.
II. For each ghost cube that you already left out during setup, you get 1 bonus point.
Now look at the table below to see how well you did:
| Score | Rating |
|---|---|
| 0–5 | Word Waste — For you, it's urgent: practice, practice, practice! |
| 6–8 | Word Twist — A start, but that can surely still improve. |
| 9–11 | Word Acrobatics — You're already fairly capable letter night-watchers. |
| 12–13 | Word Enthusiasm — The print shop can really count on you! |
| 14–15 | Word Fireworks — You are the pride of the printing trade! |
| 16 and more | Word Magic — Fantastic! Rumor has it the Spukstaben are already scouting a new print shop for their nightly mischief... |
Increasing the Difficulty Level
Once you are practiced at scaring the Spukstaben, you can increase the difficulty by up to two additional stages. In both, the demands on suitable and accurate words become greater.
Stage 2: Conditions for Scaring the Spukstaben
In addition to the instant effects, when scaring certain Spukstaben you must now also meet conditions. These conditions are found at the bottom edge of the relevant Spukstaben cards.
- max. length 6 — The Spukstabe is only scared if the word is at most 6 letters long.
- not at the START / not at the END — The Spukstabe is only scared if the letter combination is not at the start, or not at the end, of the word, respectively.
- not as CH/SCH / not as SCH — The Spukstabe is only scared if the letter(s) are not part of the stated letter combination within a word.
Stage 3: Shield Effects of the Spukstaben
In addition to the instant effects and the conditions, certain Spukstaben carry a shield that protects them from being scared. For stage 3, also set out the shield tokens during setup. Also flip the print shop board to the side showing the shield effects.
When playing at this stage, you must make sure to always place all cards one after another from top to bottom in the rooms, forming a grid. The first card in a room lies directly against the board, with further cards following below it. If a Spukstabe flees after being scared, all other Spukstaben cards initially stay in their place. When you move the Spukstaben one room further in the last step of a round, keep the order of the cards, but close the gaps by shifting all cards toward the board (see Example D, under "All Spukstaben Move On").
The shields are found in the lower left of the Spukstaben cards. There are two kinds of shields: Arrows and Doublers.
Shields with Arrows
These Spukstaben are supported by up to two other, neighboring Spukstaben, which the arrows point to. To scare a Spukstabe with such a shield, you must also scare all the supporting neighboring Spukstaben with the same word. If you succeed, move the respective ghost cube 1 space on all cards involved. In addition, the Spukstabe itself immediately loses the protection of its shield. You now immediately place a shield token on the shield, covering it.
Note: If one of the supporting Spukstaben also has a shield, that must be taken into account as well. If, on the other hand, a Spukstabe currently has no neighbors — meaning all its arrows point to empty space — it can be scared completely normally. In this case, however, you do not cover its shield.
Shields with Doubler
To scare this Spukstabe, you need the matching letter twice in the word used. Together, these two letters scare the Spukstabe exactly once. Move the ghost cube 1 space and place a shield token on the shield. This Spukstabe is no longer protected by its shield.
Note: The two identical letters used do not need to be directly adjacent to each other in the word used. In addition, you may not use the second of these two letters to scare another Spukstabe.
Variants
You can use the variants described here at all three stages.
No Time Pressure
To learn the game, or when playing with children, you can simply leave out the hourglass. Give everyone enough time to find an accurate word.
Let No One Escape!
Pay special attention that at most one Spukstabe with a type piece escapes per player. If even one more Spukstabe escapes the print shop, you immediately lose the game.
Valid Words and Dealing with Mistakes
Basically, the following applies to all your words:
- Each word may be at most 10 letters long.
- Write Ä, Ö, and Ü as they are.
- Write ß as double-S.
- Words you have used in previous rounds may not be used again in exactly the same form.
Valid words are:
- All words found in the Duden (the standard reference dictionary of German), in their common base form or singular form (e.g. anbauen [to cultivate], Bäuerin [female farmer], Bauer [farmer], laufen [to run], Läuferin [female runner], Läufer [runner], bekannt [known], Bekannte [female acquaintance], Bekannter [male acquaintance], unerhört [outrageous], ungetragen [unworn]).
- Sensibly compounded nouns (e.g. Hausboot [houseboat], but not Autovogel [car-bird]).
Invalid words are:
- Proper names (e.g. of people, things, brands, or movie characters).
- Geographic terms (e.g. names of cities, countries, mountains, or rivers).
- Abbreviations (e.g. asap, lol, LKW [truck]) or made-up words with unclear spelling.
- Words with letters or groups of letters appended only to lengthen them (e.g. kletternd [climbing], kleinster [smallest], sinnvollsten [most sensible], Stühlchen [little chairs], Tischlein [little table]).
House rules: Of course, as a team you can always decide to define the validity of words differently.
How do you deal with a mistake in a word?
- Correct all spelling mistakes.
- If you used a word not in its base form, convert it to the base form.
- Other invalid words must be shortened so that a valid word remains.
Very important: Always decide as a team, and always in the spirit of the game and the fun of playing!