The Guest
The Guest Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
At the start of the game, there are 2 sides: the healthy crew members (whom we will call Humans from here on in) and the crew members infected by the Guests (who will be Guests from here on). The goal of each team is to take out the other team. Nobody knows which crew members are infected by Guests. But be very careful: a third side could emerge if someone loses their mind.
Components
Character cards
- Human – Your victory condition is to eliminate all Guests from the game. (10 Human)
- Guest – Your victory condition is to eliminate all Humans from the game. (4 Guest)
- Commander – You are the Commander! Among your duties is to restart or resolve a vote in case of a tie. (1 Commander)
Game deck cards
The numbers below are the card counts as printed on the card list.
| Count | Card | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Vote | When this card is revealed, the active player ends their turn and the Voting Phase begins. |
| 4 | Blaster Prototype | Choose one player and apply the effect below based on their status: If they have an Active Infection, eliminate that status. If they are Human, eliminate them from the game. If they are a Guest, change their character card to Human. |
| 3 | Misplace | Select a random card from each player. Shuffle these cards and deal them out to all the players. |
| 2 | Life Support | Draw 3 cards from the game deck. |
| 3 | Transplant | Choose two players, look at their Character cards, mix them up and give them back randomly. |
| 4 | Amputate | Eliminate an Infection from a player before it is fully activated. |
| 2 | Adrenaline |
Setup
Before starting the game, 2 decks are formed: One is for the Characters, and the other is the game deck.
Determining each player's role: Take 1 Character card per player. The number of Guest cards is set according to the number of players, and all the rest will be Human. Then, deal 1 random card to each player (this card must be kept secret from the rest of the players).
| Number of players | Number of Guests |
|---|---|
| 5 to 7 players | 2 Guests |
| 8 to 10 players | 3 Guests |
| 11 to 12 players | 4 Guests |
Example: For a 6-player game, the Character deck will have 2 Guests and 4 Humans.
Creating the game deck: Take all the Vote cards and the Commander card and place them to one side. With the rest of the cards, make a deck and shuffle it thoroughly. Next, deal 3 cards to each player. Each player must then discard 1 of their cards out of their hand. These are used to make a common discard pile in the middle of the table (normally, Status cards are discarded by the players at this time).
Once this is done, take Vote cards (according to the number of players) and shuffle them into the playing deck and leave it in the center of the table within reach of all players.
| Number of players | Number of Votes |
|---|---|
| 5 to 6 players | 12 Votes |
| 7 to 8 players | 11 Votes |
| 9 to 10 players | 10 Votes |
| 11 to 12 players | 9 Votes |
When all of this is ready, give the Commander card to a player, who can be chosen by chance or by voting. This player will represent the Commander and will play their turn first, then the turns will continue, moving to the left.
Card Structure
- Illustration
- Name of the card
- Effect of the card (the Human, Guest and Madness cards show your goal)
- Type of card
The card diagram also carries a marker that shows when the card can be played. The printed key does not number this marker, so it is not listed above.
Card Types
- Green: Can only be played during your turn.
- Yellow: Can be played at any time.
- Grey: Can only be played in response to another card.
- Red: These are Statuses. They affect the way your game plays out and/or your victory conditions.
- Purple: (Commander) This is a Character card and remains visible to all the other players.
- Orange: These are Character cards that remain secret from all of the other players (unless an effect states otherwise).
- Blue: (Vote) This card's effect must be carried out as soon as it is drawn from the game deck.
Gameplay
The players will take turns as described below until a Vote card is revealed, which triggers a Voting Phase. After the vote is finished, turns continue until the next vote, and so on until the end of the game (see End of the Game).
On your turn, you do the following in order:
- Draw (required): Each turn, the active player draws a card from the game deck. As soon as any player draws a Vote card, they must show it to everyone and the Voting Phase immediately begins.
- Play (optional): The active player may play any number of cards they wish from their hand before passing the turn to the player on their left. In this phase, it is possible to interact with the other players through cards played or by speaking with them in an attempt to find the Guests, while the Guests attempt to pass as Humans.
The active player always has priority when playing a card. From there the priority passes to the left.
Voting Phase
The crew meets to vote and decide who among them is infected with the Guest. After discussing and debating, they will vote for a player and the one with the most votes will be thrown out of the airlock into space and that is how the crew will attempt to stop the threat.
It is possible that special effects apply to the votes (cards for Bribes, Diplomatic Immunity, and Suspicions).
Note that all players participate in the vote, not just Humans, and have a say in who will be ejected.
The Commander is always the first to vote and, if there is a tie, is the one who will break the tie by choosing which of the tied players is ejected or by choosing to start the vote over.
If the vote is restarted, any cards played to modify the results of the first vote have no effect on the new vote.
The player who gets the most votes will be eliminated from the game and they must show their Character card to the others.
After the vote, if the game has not come to an end (see End of the Game), then keep playing, with the Commander again taking the first turn. If only one side is left, whether the Humans or the Guests (or the third side if a crew member has the Madness card), then the game immediately ends and the surviving side wins.
End of the Game
The game ends after any Voting Phase which leaves only members of a single side alive, whether it is the Humans, the Guests, or a player with the Madness card. All members of the survivors' side win the game, including any who were eliminated earlier.
Remember: At the start of the game, the number of Guests and Humans is set. If all members of a side have been openly identified, that side loses.
In-Depth Description of the Cards
Diplomatic Immunity: The player with the second-most votes is eliminated instead.
Commander: If the player who is the Commander is eliminated, they must first pass their office to another player of their choice and then reveal their identity.
Infection: When a player draws this card, they must immediately place it face-up in front of them with position 1 pointing toward them. When it is their turn again, or if they draw another Infection card, they must rotate it to the next position. If they reach position 3, that player becomes a Guest. If they were already a Guest, they do not reveal their preexisting identity.
Madness: A player with this card must eliminate the members of their own side before the opposing side (and thereby bring an end to the game before the mad player's mission is complete). If you hold this card, there is no other way to win the game.
Bribe: Whoever plays this card chooses a new vote for the player they choose.
Restriction: The canceled card goes into the discard pile.