The Curse of Misfortune Lane

The Curse of Misfortune Lane Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

1 - Rulebook
8 - Location panels
7 - Kid characters
3 - Monster characters
55 - Location cards
30 - Monster cards

Game Overview

Every Friday the 13th, an ancient curse unleashes a horrible monster on the helpless citizens of Misfortune Lane. The adults hide indoors clutching lucky trinkets while their weapons gather dust. This year their kids have decided to end this dreadful cycle once and for all.

Gameplay is divided into two phases: Day and Night. During the Day, one to four players (the kids) will steal supplies from the adults around town to help them defeat the monster. However, one player (the monster) will litter the town with cursed objects to distract them. During the Night, the kids will try to use their supplies to defeat the monster and break the curse while the monster will use all of their powers to stop them.

Object of the Game

In The Curse of Misfortune Lane, a single player represents the Monster of Misfortune Lane, while the remaining players represent the kids of the town. Gameplay is divided into two phases: Day and Night. During the Day, the kids gather resources to combat the monster, while the monster uses bad luck to slow them down. Once the kids gather enough tools (or when no rounds remain), the Night begins. Using the items gathered in the Day, the kids attempt to slay the monster before the Night is over. If the monster survives, he or she wins.

Game Setup

Place the 8 location panels on the table.
Distribute location cards to their corresponding location panels.

(The rulebook's figure shows an Antique Shop location card with its location icons, and beneath it a Monster card and a Vintage Crossbow Kid/item card labelled "Deal 1 damage to the Vampire", with the Antique Shop location panel.)

Shuffle each of these decks facedown. The treehouse will only have a single card at this time (ambush).

Decide which player will be the Monster; everyone else will be a Kid.
The Monster player secretly selects their Monster. Keep this card hidden from the other players.
The Kid players each select one Kid. These choices are visible to everyone.
The Monster picks up all Monster cards with the day symbol on them to form their stash (the monster's inventory).
The Monster places each of the ladder cards on two different location decks.
Start playing! The remaining cards won't be used until Night.

The Monster's stash of cards should consist of two black cat cards, three broken mirror cards, two ladder cards, and one disaster card.

Day - Round Order

The Day consists of six rounds. The rounds can be tracked by the number of Monster cards remaining. Each round consists of the following four steps:

Investigate
Influence
Deposit
Discussion

Player turn order proceeds clockwise starting with the oldest Kid until everyone has a turn during the round. Each new round the starting player is the next oldest Kid. After the youngest Kid has been the first player, the turn order resets to the oldest Kid and the process repeats throughout the game.

Investigate

From oldest to youngest, each Kid Searches one location. To Search, draw and reveal the top card of a chosen non-treehouse location deck. If the card is an encounter, resolve it. Otherwise, place the revealed card into your inventory. Decide to press your luck and repeat this process (at the same location) or end your turn.

(The rulebook's figure shows an Encounter card, which reads: "Return your campsite cards, end your turn", and is played at the Campsite location.)

When the oldest Kid has either stopped drawing or triggered an encounter their turn ends. The next oldest Kid takes their turn, Searching a location of their choice. After all Kids have taken a turn Searching and the Monster has played a card for Influence, enter the Deposit step.

You can draw as many cards from a single location as you want, just beware of encounters!

Influence

The Monster must play exactly one card from their stash and play it after Investigate.

Each card in the Monster's stash will help inhibit the Kid's Investigate. Try to keep your identity hidden, while protecting the location decks that exploit your weakness.

Deposit

Each Kid must place all cards from their inventory into the treehouse deck. Once a card is stored in the treehouse, it must remain there until Night.

Discussion

At the end of any Deposit step, the Kids can unanimously vote to wait until Night and skip the remaining Day rounds. If the kids do not vote to wait in the treehouse, then the next round begins.

Waiting at the treehouse allows a confident group to maximize their treehouse deck power without bloating the deck with useless cards.

Day Objective - Kids

As the Kids, your goal during the Day is to determine the identity of the Monster based on their actions, and deposit as many relevant items as possible. Luck items are reliable forms of protection against all the monsters, but the Monster-specific weapons are the key to turning the tide against the Monster.

Do your best to acquire the correct Monster weapons and plenty of luck items while avoiding the encounters.

If you are confident in the Monster's identity, don't be afraid to end the Day before too many incorrect monster cards weaken your deck.

(The rulebook's figure shows a Silver Candelabra item card, which reads: "Deal 1 damage to the Werewolf", found at the Church location.)

Day Objective - Monster

As the Monster, your goal during the Day is to prevent the Kids from drawing relevant Monster weapons as much as possible. Those cards shift the balance out of your control.

Reveal your identity too soon, and they will know exactly what they need. Bluff too aggressively, and you could leave yourself vulnerable.

The Monster icons on each location panel indicate the relevant Monster weapons found there.

Night - Setup

Night has come and the Monster has reached full power. The Kids gather at the treehouse for one final confrontation.

Reveal the Monster's identity to the kids and rebuild the Monster stash using the monster cards with the Night symbol (a moon). Add the 4 Monster cards with the corresponding Monster Symbol to the stash.

Zombie (Monster symbol)
Vampire (Monster symbol)
Werewolf (Monster symbol)

Remove all cards from the table except for the treehouse location, treehouse deck, monster character, kid characters, monster's stash, and monster's health card.
Place treehouse encounter cards into the treehouse deck according to the number of cards:

1-12 cards = 0 Encounters
13-25 cards = 1 Encounter
26-38 cards = 2 Encounters
39+ cards = 3 Encounters

Shuffle the treehouse deck facedown.
Set the Monster's starting health according to the number of Kids playing:

4 Kids = 8 Health
3 Kids = 7 Health
2 Kids = 6 Health

The Monster's new stash will be made up of two black cat cards, one broken mirror card, and the four unique Monster cards.

(The rulebook's figure shows the Werewolf Monster card with a health card reading 8.)

Night - Round Order

After the Day, an additional seven rounds occur known as the Night. Each round consists of the following four steps:

1. Influence (Passive) 2. Investigate

3. Influence (Active) 4. Confront

If the Monster survives the 7th round, the Kids lose.

The Kids continue in the same turn order as during the Day.

Influence (Passive)

At Night, the Monster has a passive power that triggers at the beginning of every round.

(The rulebook's figure shows a Vampire Monster card, whose power reads: "Hypnosis: Reveal the top card of the treehouse, you may discard it". Beneath it is a treehouse encounter card: "Discard your inventory, end your turn", at the Treehouse.)

Investigate

Kids take turns Searching just like during the Day, but there is now only a single deck to draw from.

Beware! The treehouse ambush is guaranteed to force ALL Kids to discard their entire inventory.

Influence (Active)

Like the Day, the Monster can choose any card from their stash and play it after the Investigate step.

Confront

During Confront, the Kids combine their inventory to determine the amount of damage dealt to the Monster.

For each 7 points of luck, reduce the Monster's health by 1 point.

(The rulebook's figure shows three luck items, a Rabbit's Foot (+3 Luck), a Wishbone (+2 Luck) and a Rabbit's Foot (+3 Luck), next to the Zombie Monster card and a health card, with a reduction of 1.)

For each relevant Monster weapon, reduce the Monster's health by 1 point.

(The rulebook's figure shows a Blacklight item card, which reads: "Deal 1 damage to the Vampire", found at the Police Station, reducing the Vampire's health by 1.)

Afterwards, the Kids must place all of their cards into the discard pile. Begin the next round.

The treehouse deck should never be empty because the ambush encounter causes the entire discard pile to reshuffle all of the cards back into the treehouse deck!

Night Objective - Kids

As the Kids, your goal is to reduce the Monster's health to 0 before the end of the seventh round. Use your luck cards and Monster weapons to damage the Monster during Confront.

Don't forget! Each Kid's unique abilities still apply at Night.

Night Objective - Monster

Survive! If the Kids cannot eliminate you in 7 rounds, you win and the ancient curse remains unbroken.

Luck cards are useless to the Kids if they do not add up to at least 7 points in a turn. Vanishing a single luck card can ruin their entire turn if it puts their total luck below 7 that turn.

Friday the 13th has finally passed. Will the rising sun reveal a town freed from the clutches of an ancient curse or a monster towering over it's victims?

Keywords

Encounter - One card found within each non-treehouse location deck that forces all cards (from that location) in a kid's inventory to be Returned to that location deck. Ladder cards and broken mirror cards cannot be Returned by Encounters.

Inventory - Cards that each player is holding during a round.

Return - Place the card(s) into the corresponding location deck and reshuffle that deck.

Vanish - Remove the selected card from the game. This card will not return during this play session.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I search a location that has already been searched by another player this round? - Yes!

Can zombies vanish from Stan's inventory? - Yes, his unique ability only applies to monster weapons.

Can Sally force a player to draw an extra card after they have ended their turn? - Yes, her unique ability can be applied once to any player before the Investigate step is complete.

How does Ambush card work for the kids that didn't draw it? - Any kids that have cards when the Ambush is drawn must discard their inventory. Any kids that have not played this round continue their turns unaffected.

Two Player Games

When playing with only two players, the kid player must select two kid characters to play during the game instead of one.

During the Night, the Monster's health will be set to 6 because there are two kid characters.

(The rulebook's figure shows The Kimberly Twins Kid card, age 14, whose tag-team ability reads: "During each search, draw two cards, keep one and return the other".)