The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Slaughterhouse
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Slaughterhouse Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 4 Trespasser boards
- 4 Trespasser movers (insert into bases)
- 4 Hidden tokens
- 8 cubes
- 3 Sawyer boards
- Hitchhiker figure, Leatherface figure, Old Man figure
- Chainsaw Panic Meter
- 20 Sawyer cards
- 20 Desperation cards
- 14 Items (start in Freezer Box)
- 22 Scenario Items
- 12 Personal Items
- 8 Vehicle cards
- 5 Scenario cards
- 5 Reference cards
- Grandpa mover (insert into base)
- 24 Injury cards
- 10 Achievement cards (separate bag, see Achievements)
- 20 Noise/Fear tokens
- 5 Searched tokens
- 8 Horror tiles
- 6 Fire tokens
- 7 Scenario tokens
Game Setup
- Place the House boards in the middle of the play area. Make sure they are oriented the same way, according to the weather vane in the corner of each board.
- Separately shuffle the Desperation and Injury decks, and place them face-down near the boards.
- Sort the Noise/Fear tokens, Searched tokens, and Fire tokens into a supply near the boards.
- Choose which Scenario card you'd like to play, read the introduction out loud, and place it red side up near the boards. For your first game, play Scenario A. Who Will Survive?
- Decide who will play as the Sawyer Family. All other players will play as the Trespassers. For your first game, have the most experienced game player be the Sawyer player.
Sawyer Player Setup
- Place the Chainsaw Panic Meter and the three Sawyer boards in front of you with the standard (not Brutal) sides up. Note: If there are three Trespassers, choose one Sawyer board to flip to the Brutal side. The Brutal side gives that Sawyer one additional action each turn. If there are four Trespassers, flip all three Sawyer boards to their Brutal side.
- Place a red cube on the Start space of the Panic Meter and the highest space of each Sawyer board.
- Take the three Sawyer Family figures and the Grandpa mover. Place the Old Man figure in the Pantry of the Downstairs board. Leave the other Sawyers near the Panic Meter for now.
- Shuffle the Sawyer deck and place it face-down next to your boards. Draw four cards from your deck and take four Fear tokens from the supply. Keep your cards secret from the Trespassers.
- Take four random Horror tiles. Look at them and choose where to place them face down. You can place each Horror tile in any named room (with a white label) on either board, except the Foyer, where the Trespassers will start. Each room can have only one Horror tile.
Trespasser Player Setup
- Each Trespasser player chooses a color and takes the matching board, mover, Hidden token, and cube. Return any remaining Trespasser boards and their matching components to the game box. Note: If there is only one Trespasser player, they choose two Trespassers to play as.
- Place your cube on the 4 space of your Trespasser board and place your mover in the Foyer.
- Shuffle the Personal Item cards and reveal six. From oldest to youngest, each Trespasser takes one. Return all remaining Personal Items to the game box.
Scenario Setup
- Take the Item deck from the Freezer Box then complete the Item card setup on the Scenario card. Return any unused Scenario Item cards back to the game box.
- Shuffle the Item deck and split it in half as evenly as possible. Place each half on the Item deck space of each House board. If one half is larger, place that half on the Downstairs board.
- Mix up five Vehicle cards, according to the Vehicle card setup on the Scenario card, and place one face down on each Vehicle space of the Downstairs board.
- If the Scenario card has any token setup, complete it. Return any remaining tokens to the game box. Then flip the Scenario card over, read the game objectives, and leave it next to the boards.
Example Setup — Scenario A. Who Will Survive?
Setup:
- Item cards: Add the six Scenario A item cards to the Item deck before shuffling and splitting it.
- Vehicle cards: Use the Orange Car, Blue Truck, Green Van, and two other random Vehicle cards.
Game Overview
One of you plays as the dreadful Sawyer family, while the others play as the Trespassers who have found themselves at this nightmarish farmstead. The game is played in rounds. Each round starts with each Trespasser taking a turn. Then the Sawyer player takes a turn for each member of the Sawyer family currently on the board. The game ends once all the Trespassers have either escaped or been killed. But in this game, there are no winners—there are only survivors.
Rolling Dice
During the game, the players will roll dice to check how successful their actions are. A single slash counts as one success. The skull-and-crossbones symbol counts as two successes. If you roll at least one success, your roll is successful, although your action may be stronger if you roll more successes. If you roll all blanks, you miss.
Noise & Fear
When the Trespassers take actions, they may make Noise. Be careful—the more Noise you make, the more afraid you may become, which will make the Sawyer Family stronger. Sawyers don't make Noise.
Each time you make Noise, take one Noise/Fear token from the supply and place it Noise side up in front of you. If the supply is empty, you don't make any more Noise until tokens are returned to the supply.
At the end of your turn, if you have any Noise in front of you, roll two dice. For each success, discard one Noise token back to the supply. Then flip any remaining Noise tokens to the Fear side and give them to the Sawyer player. The Sawyer player can spend Fear tokens on their turn to draw and play cards.
Drawing & Burying Cards
Whenever a Trespasser draws or reveals an Item card, they take it from the Item deck on the board their mover is currently on. Whenever a card is buried, it's placed on the bottom of its deck. (This game has no discard piles.) When a player buries an Item, it's placed on the bottom of the deck that player's mover is currently on, even if they drew it from the other Item deck. When burying multiple cards at once, the player burying them chooses the order to place them.
Carrying Movers & Tokens
Trespassers and Sawyers can only carry things when a rule or card specifically allows them to. You must start your action in the same space as the mover or token you are carrying, and then the mover or token moves where you do. You can only carry one thing (one mover or one token) at a time. You cannot carry a dead Trespasser (see Dead Trespassers).
Trespasser Turns
At the start of each round, the Trespassers take turns one at a time and in any order. A Trespasser must finish their turn before another Trespasser can start their turn. The order you take your turns can change from round to round.
On your turn, take up to four actions, as explained below. You can take actions multiple times and in any order. Track your actions using the cube on your board.
Trespasser Actions: Move, Run, Search, Swap
MOVE: Move one space to an adjacent space. You can move across a dotted line or through a door, but not diagonally. Make Noise if you move through a door.
RUN: Make Noise and move two spaces. Make additional Noise for each door you move through. You cannot run up or down the stairs. If your run is interrupted by an attack, your move ends immediately.
SEARCH: In a space with a Search Symbol, make Noise and roll two dice. For each success, reveal an Item from the matching deck. Take one revealed Item and bury the rest. The Sawyer player covers the Search Symbol.
SWAP: Give or take any number of Items from one Trespasser, alive or dead, in your space.
Rooms
Rooms are areas contained by walls and indicated by a white label. They can be just one space or multiple spaces. Any time a "room" is referred to, it applies to any and all spaces in that room.
Doors
Whenever a Trespasser moves through a door, they make Noise.
Windows
Nobody can move through a window unless a card or ability specifically lets them. If you move through a window on the Upstairs board, you jump down to any space on the Downstairs board between the two Window Symbols on the same side of the house.
The Stairs
The spaces with the stairs in them are stair spaces, and are considered adjacent. However, using the stairs makes Noise and you cannot run on the stairs. When you take a move action in the stairs space, you may make Noise to place your mover in the stairs space on the other House board.
Map Features
Spaces are separated by dotted lines and walls, doors, windows, and stairs.
Board Interactions
HORROR: Whenever a Trespasser enters any space of a room with a face-down Horror tile, their move ends immediately and they reveal it. Some Horror tiles have an immediate effect, then are removed from the game. Others remain face up for the entire game and affect all spaces in that room.
VEHICLES: Whenever a Trespasser ends a move or run action in a space with a face-down Vehicle card, they reveal it and it remains face up for the rest of the game. Some Vehicles also have an immediate effect when revealed.
GRANDPA: The Panic Meter will bring Grandpa onto the board (see Panic Meter). Whenever a Trespasser enters a space with Grandpa, their move ends immediately and the Sawyer player rolls one die to attack them (see Attack Or Other Action).
FIRE: Some cards will bring Fire tokens onto the board. Whenever a Sawyer or Trespasser starts their turn in a space with Fire, or ends a move or run action in a space with Fire, roll two dice to attack them. Sawyers may lose actions, as explained under Sawyer Player Turn, and Trespassers may be injured, as explained under Injuries. If you move through Fire, but end your action in another space, you are not attacked.
REGIONS: The House boards are made up of three regions: downstairs, upstairs, and outdoors. Some cards and abilities refer to what region you are in, or players being in the same region as each other.
Search & Item Rules
SEARCHED: Whenever a Trespasser searches, the Sawyer player takes a Searched token and covers the Search Symbol in that space. That space can't be searched again until the token is removed. After all five tokens are on the board, whenever a Trespasser searches, the Sawyer player chooses any Searched token to remove in order to cover the space that was just searched.
ITEM LIMIT: Trespassers can have up to four Item cards at once. Personal Items do not apply to this limit. If you ever take more Items, you must immediately choose Items to bury to get down to the limit. Remember to bury them at the bottom of the Item deck on your current board.
Swap
Choose one Trespasser in your space and give or take any number of Item cards from them. When a Trespasser is dead (see Dead Trespassers), their Items remain on their body, and you may still swap with them. Remember, you cannot exceed your Item Limit, even when swapping.
Desperation Cards
During the game, you'll gain Desperation cards that give you a powerful one-time ability. You may only play these on your turn, but they do not require an action. Bury the card after it's played.
Item Cards
Item cards provide special abilities or additional actions you can take. If the card text starts with ACTION, it requires an action to use. Some Items can only be used once per turn or once per round, as written on the bottom of the card.
Attacking Sawyers
Some Desperation and Item cards let you attack a Sawyer in your space. Roll the dice stated on the card. For each success, the Sawyer you attacked loses an action on their next turn—they move down the cube on their board. By attacking, you can reduce a Sawyer's actions to zero. You cannot attack Grandpa, since he doesn't take actions.
Ending Your Turn
Once you've taken your actions, even if you took fewer than four, move your cube to zero to show that you're done.
If you have any Noise tokens in front of you, roll two dice and discard one token for each success. Flip over any remaining tokens to the Fear side and give them to the Sawyer player.
Now it's the next Trespasser's turn. If all Trespassers have taken a turn, they all reset their cubes to 4 on their boards and it's the Sawyer Player's turn.
Hiding
HIDING SPACE: If you end your turn in a space with a Hide Symbol and there are no Sawyers in your space, you automatically hide. Replace your mover with your Hidden token. Sawyers cannot attack or carry you when you are hidden. At the start of your next turn, replace the token with your mover. Multiple Trespassers can be hidden in the same space.
Sawyer Player Turn
After each Trespasser has taken a turn, it's the Sawyer player's turn. They start by drawing cards from the Sawyer deck. The number they draw for free is shown below the cube on the Panic Meter. They may draw additional cards by spending two Fear tokens per card.
After drawing all their cards, the Sawyer player takes a turn with each Sawyer on the House boards. At the start of the game, only the Old Man takes a turn. As the Panic Meter rises, the other Sawyers will be brought out (see Panic Meter). If multiple Sawyers take turns, each Sawyer must finish their turn before another Sawyer can start their turn. The order the Sawyers take their turns can change from round to round. Grandpa never takes a turn.
Each Sawyer takes as many actions as shown by the cube on their board. This may be less than the maximum, or none at all, if the Trespassers attacked them this round. The actions, as explained below, can be taken multiple times and in any order. Track each Sawyer's actions using the cube on their board.
Sawyer Actions: Move, Hunt, Attack Or Other Action
MOVE: Move one space, following the same movement rules as Trespassers. Sawyers do not make Noise or reveal Horror tiles or Vehicle cards. Sawyers cannot run. Grandpa cannot move on his own, but any other Sawyer can carry him when they take a move action.
HUNT: You can hunt a Trespasser to try to pull them out of hiding. If you are in a space with a Hidden token, roll one die, and if you roll at least one success, that Trespasser is no longer hidden. They replace their token with their mover and can now be attacked or carried as normal.
ATTACK OR OTHER ACTION: A Sawyer can take any of the actions on their own board. Each Sawyer has one attack action that lets them attack one Trespasser in their space. For each success, reveal the top card of the Injury deck. Then choose one of the revealed Injuries to give to that Trespasser (see Injuries), and bury the rest.
Attack example: The Hitchhiker uses their Straight Razor attack action to attack the orange Trespasser in their space. They roll two dice and get two successes. So they reveal two Injury cards from the deck.
The Sawyer Boards
OLD MAN — Start Space: Pantry
- Wallop — Attack Action: Roll two dice. You cannot give a Trespasser their fourth Injury. (Bury it instead.)
- Sweet Talk — Action: If there's a Trespasser in your space, roll three dice. Take one Fear for each success.
- Hogtie — When you take a move action, you may carry one Trespasser.
- Actions: 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
LEATHERFACE — Start Space: Red Hallway
- Chainsaw — Attack Action: Roll three dice. You may give up to two revealed Injuries instead of one.
- Relentless — When you kill a Trespasser, draw two cards.
- Actions: 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
HITCHHIKER — Start Space: Any Outdoor Corner
- Straight Razor — Attack Action: Roll two dice.
- Creep — Action: Move one space through a downstairs window.
- Vagabond — When you move, if you start outdoors, you may move two spaces instead of one. (Cannot use with Creep.)
- Actions: 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
Injuries
When a Trespasser is given an Injury card, the card's effect applies immediately. A Trespasser can never receive a type of Injury that they already have: hand, foot, head, or heart. If they can't receive any of the revealed Injuries, bury them all.
Injury example: The yellow Trespasser already has foot and head Injuries. The Hitchhiker cannot give them another foot Injury. They give them the heart Injury card and bury the other card.
Dead Trespassers
If a Trespasser has four Injuries—one of each type—they have been killed. Immediately raise the Panic Meter (see Panic Meter), and lay down their mover. That Trespasser takes no more turns, but the game continues until all Trespassers escape or die. The dead Trespasser can still be swapped with, but cannot be carried.
Sawyer Cards
Each Sawyer card can be played in one of two ways: during a Trespasser's turn when the condition on the card occurs, or during the Sawyer player's turn for the effect in the red bar at the bottom of the card. Each card can be used for only one effect—not both. After playing the card, bury it.
TRESPASSER TURN: When the condition on the card occurs, you may play the card and spend the indicated number of Fear tokens to get its effect. This happens immediately and may interrupt the Trespasser's action.
FREE ACTION: When taking a turn with a Sawyer, you may play the card to get the free action indicated in the red bar at the bottom. This doesn't require Fear tokens or one of the Sawyer's normal actions.
REROLL OR PANIC METER: Any time on your turn, you may play the card and reroll any dice once, or spend six Fear tokens to raise the Panic Meter. You cannot do both. You cannot do this on a Trespasser's turn. You cannot play two reroll cards on the same roll.
Sawyer card example: When the green Trespasser enters the Old Man's space, the Sawyer player plays "I Got Ya" and spends three Fear tokens. The Trespasser's move ends immediately and the Old Man attacks them by rolling two dice, as shown on his board.
Panic Meter
Whenever you are told to raise the Panic Meter, the Sawyer player moves the cube one space to the right on the Chainsaw. The label above the space happens immediately, as explained below. The number of cards below the space indicates how many cards the Sawyer Player draws for free at the start of their turn.
DESPERATION: Each Trespasser draws a card from the Desperation deck. These cards are kept secret from the Sawyer player.
SAWYER: Place that Sawyer on their start space, as shown on their board. That Sawyer is available to take turns immediately. Grandpa can be placed on any space you choose, but doesn't take turns.
End of Game
The game ends when all the Trespassers have either escaped or been killed.
ESCAPING: When a Trespasser escapes, as explained on the Scenario card, remove their mover from the board. That Trespasser takes no more turns. If there are any Trespassers left, the game continues until they escape or are killed.
There are no winners—there are only survivors.
The Freezer Box
The Freezer box is used to store your Item deck, which can change from game to game depending on the murders that happened in the farmhouse. At the end of the game, combine the two Item decks from the boards. Take all the Scenario Item cards (with a letter in the bottom right corner) from the deck and all Trespassers and return them to the game box.
Any living Trespassers return their Personal Item cards (yellow) to the game box and return their other Item cards to the Item deck. Any dead Trespassers return all their Item cards, including Personal Items, to the Item deck. Then if you aren't setting up another game, put the Item deck in the Freezer box.
Note: If there are fewer than six Personal Item cards in the game box (which will be needed to set up the next game), reset the Personal Items by removing them all from the Item deck.
Achievements
These cards do not start in the game and are unlocked by completing achievements! Once you've done an achievement, check it off below, get the indicated cards from the bag, and add them to the appropriate deck. Achievement cards will have a star in the bottom corner.
Sawyer Player's Achievements
- Kill a Trespasser with Grandpa's attack. Add the two "The Best There Ever Was" Sawyer cards to the Sawyer deck.
- In Scenario D. I Dare You, kill all the Trespassers before they can take a picture with a Sawyer. Add the two "Not So Fast" Sawyer cards to the Sawyer deck.
- In Scenario E. Things Happened Here, kill a Trespasser in a room that matches a documented set of Evidence cards. Add the two wild Injury cards to the Injury deck.
Trespassers' Achievements
- Escape with at least two more Personal Items than you collectively started with. Add the Butcher's Apron Item card to the Item deck.
- In Scenario A. Who Will Survive?, escape in at least two vehicles. Add the Dig Deep Desperation card to the Desperation deck.
- In Scenario B. Burn It Down, escape to end the game when Leatherface is in a space with a Fire token. Add the Chainsaw Item card to the Item deck.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grandpa considered a Sawyer? Yes. A card or effect that refers to a Sawyer applies to him. If a card lets him attack, he rolls one die. However, he cannot take actions or be attacked.
Can a Trespasser search in a space with a Sawyer? Yes. A Sawyer in their space doesn't affect anything a Trespasser does, except hide.
When a Trespasser is attacked by Fire or a Horror tile, which Sawyer is attacking them? None of the Sawyers are attacking and the attack abilities on their boards don't apply. But the Sawyer player still rolls the attack, reveals Injury cards, and chooses which one to give.
When a Trespasser comes out of hiding, are they entering their space? No. Entering a space requires moving.
Can Old Man use his Sweet Talk action on a hidden Trespasser? Yes.
Can Leatherface give a Trespasser two of the same type of Injury? No. A Trespasser can never have two of the same type of Injury, no matter who gives it, or even if they draw it themselves. Bury those Injuries instead.
What spaces are considered indoors? Only spaces in the upstairs and downstairs regions are considered indoors. The Barn, Sunflower Garden, and Junkyard are rooms, but the spaces in them are outdoors. The front porch is not a room and is outdoors.
Are the stairs their own space? No. The stairs on the Downstairs board is in the Foyer space and the stairs on the Upstairs board is in the space with the two doors and the window.
Can dice be rerolled multiple times? No. If any dice are rerolled, they may not be rerolled again, even if you have another card or effect that would allow it.
Can a card or effect let you do something that another card or effect prevents? No. For example, if a Trespasser is in a room with the Slick Horror tile, they may not play a Running on Adrenaline Desperation card to run.
Can a card move or place a Sawyer who's not on a House board? No. Cards and effects cannot apply to Sawyers that haven't been reached on the Panic Meter yet.
What happens if I raise the Panic Meter when it's on the last space? Nothing. Once it reaches the last space, the Panic Meter has no further effect.