The Mysterious Library Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setting Up the Game
• How to Play
  • Actions
  • Drawing Adventure Cards
  • Drawing Map Cards
• The End of the Game

Contents

• 1 game board
• 15 ruins
• 12 projector blades
• 4 book tiles
• 5 characters
• 64 playing cards

Game details: an adventurous, cooperative game for ages 8 and up. 2-4 players. Duration: 45 minutes.

Setting Up the Game

• Place the game board in the middle of the playing area.
• Sort the tiles: the books (x), the projector blades (y) and the ruins (z) by shape. Stack them up next to the board for easy access! Check the Appendix for reference (x,y,z).
• Sort playing cards in separate decks: character cards (b), library cards (a) and map cards (c). Mix action cards (e+f) and book cards (d) into an adventure card deck. Check the Appendix for reference (a,b,c,d,e,f).
• Choose a character card each and its corresponding figure. The ones that you don't need can be returned to the box. Place your figures on the fireplace area, this is your headquarters. It is the starting point and after the successful mission, you must return here.
• Choose a reader from each of the different coloured library cards. These readers need to be saved during the game. Put the other cards back in the box.
• Mix the map cards and put the map card deck facing down next to the game board. Pick the top four cards and place a book tile on each room on the game board indicated by the map cards. These book tiles mark the rooms where the readers disappeared and where you should go when you collected all the four parts of the book (cards) in the matching colour. Next, mix the map cards back into the deck thoroughly, because...
• ... you have to pick four cards from the top of the same deck again! On each room indicated by the map cards you must put one projector blade (they can be in the same room as your book!)
• Put Mr. Mean in the gallery beside his desk. He moves around the gallery, avoiding direct contact with you.
• Finally, each player should pick up two cards from the adventure card deck. These cards are open and should be placed in front of the players facing up to make it possible to work together at all times. If you picked a Whirlwind or a Mr. Mean card, mix it back into the deck and pick another one instead (only in the first round). Let's start!

Note: the English pages refer to an Appendix for the piece and card codes (x, y, z and a to f). No English Appendix is included in the English section of the source file (pages 2 to 5), so the codes are given here as printed.

How to Play

The player with the best chance/abilities for disarming the most projector blades will start the game. The other players follow clockwise around the game board.

When it is your turn, you can:

• complete 3 actions
• draw 2 adventure cards
• draw map cards according to Mr. Mean's current position. As he moves around the gallery the numbers will indicate how many blades he will place in the library.

Actions

You can take up to 3 actions per turn. Select a combination of any of the following 5 actions:

1. Move
2. Disarm the projector blade in your current room
3. Give a book card
4. Set a book reader free
5. Use your special ability

IMPORTANT! Using your character's special ability IS an action! (Except for Misha.)

1. Move: You can move your figure into an adjacent room for 1 action. (There is a door into another room in each room – don't get confused by the top view of the game board!)

2. Disarming the projector blade: This costs you 1 action and is only possible if your character is in the same room as a blade. Disarming means taking the projector blade off the board and putting it back in the pile.

3. Give a book card: To free a reader in a book, you need to gather 4 pieces of the book in the same colour. Book cards that pop up during your adventure can be given to each other, depending on which book gives you the greatest chance to put together. You can only hand over a book card to another player if you are both in the same room and it is your turn. (One card is for one action.) You may only GIVE a card! (Except for Emma who can decide whether to give or ask for a card.)

4. Set a book reader free: When you have all 4 pieces of a scattered book (in the same colour), you need to get it to the appropriate room (marked with a book tile on the board in the matching colour). It will cost you one action to pick the book up. Place the book on the rescued person's library card and s/he is then freed from the book! IMPORTANT: Do not forget to place the book cards on the discarded adventure card's pile!

5. Use of each character's special abilities:

• Janka is the holder of the Light Breaker. The Light Breaker disarms a projector blade completely. Janka can disarm a blade in an adjacent room once per turn and for 1 action.
• Emma's special ability is that she does not need to be in the same room as the player whom she wants to give or get a book card. She can use her special ability several times per turn. In every single round giving or asking a book card costs her one action.
• Misha is a paper magician, he can have an extra card in his hand during the game (6 altogether). Misha's ability does not cost an action!
• Emil is the master of map reading, he knows all the secret corridors, so once per turn, he can go to any of the rooms and it costs him 1 action.

Drawing Adventure Cards

After your actions, draw two adventure cards from the deck and place them next to your other adventure cards facing up! Adventure cards can be the following:

1. Book Cards (d): Each book is made of four scattered pieces of the same colour. They have to be gathered by one player in order to free a reader in a book.

2. Helping Cards (e):

• Secret Corridor Card will help one or more players in the same room to get to any other room in the library (even if they have to go through ruins).
• The Light Breaker Card can disarm the projector blade in any of the rooms of the library. When this card is used, you can remove one blade from anywhere on the game board, even if no one is in that room.
• Flight Card allows any two players to exchange up to 2 cards with each other.

During the game, it is possible for anyone to use more than one Helping Card at any time! Even if it is another player's turn and it is NOT counted as an action. Used cards should be placed on the discarded pile of adventure cards.

3. Harmful Cards (f):

• If you draw the Mr. Mean card, you have to move him one step anticlockwise on the gallery. He will become more and more dangerous (as the numbers are getting higher).
• If you draw a Whirlwind card, things will get more muddled: mix up the discarded pile of map cards and put it on top of the map card deck! (This increases your chance to pick a card of a room with a projector blade on which will make the room collapse.)

If you picked a Harmful Card, don't keep it! After you have completed the instruction, put it in the discarded pile of the adventure cards! (You don't get another one, it is only valid for the first round of the game!)

IMPORTANT! You may have up to 5 cards in your hand, including the book cards and the Helping Cards. If you receive or pick another card so you have more than five cards, you must select and discard down to five cards. If you choose to discard a Helping Card, you may use its action right before discarding.

If the adventure cards are running out, mix the discarded pile back and continue the game!

Drawing Map Cards

Mr. Mean activates the projector blades one by one in the library. The blades are inserted into the book starting a devastating process. If you don't stop them in time, then the room gets destroyed.

Pick a number of cards (one at a time) from the top of the map card deck equal to Mr. Mean's current position (the numbers on the gallery).

• Place a projector blade in a room on the game board indicated by the card(s), then put the card(s) on the discarded map card deck. (The blade can be placed in a room with someone already in it.)
• If the map indicates a room with a projector blade already in it (not disarmed yet), that room collapses. Remove the projector blade and replace it with a ruin in the shape of that room. Remove the map card of the collapsed room out of the game! It is forbidden to step in or go through a ruined room! If a room collapses with a player inside, they have to escape to an adjacent room. If all the adjacent rooms have already collapsed and the player has nowhere to escape, the game is over.

If the map card deck runs out, mix back the discarded pile of the map cards and continue the game!

The End of the Game

If you successfully set all the four readers free and you all get back to the headquarters, you can get out of the library through the secret door behind the bookshelves. You have won the game!

Unfortunately, your adventure was unsuccessful if:

• any player gets stuck in the ruins: they cannot escape from the room (nobody has a Secret Corridor Card to save them)
• any of the rooms collapse while a book is in it.
• all of you cannot return to your headquarters because of the ruins in your way
• your headquarters collapses – then you cannot get out of the library

If you are already really good at the game, you can give Mr. Mean an advantage by placing his figure one or more fields forward at the start.