The Purple House Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Important Note about Card Sleeves and Marking
• Setup
• Choose Difficulty
• Flow of the Game
• Flow of a Round
  • I. Scouting Phase
    • 1. Deal House Cards
    • 2. Modify House Cards
    • 3. Shuffle & Display House Cards
  • II. Escape Phase
    • 1. A White Lady is Revealed
    • 2. Clues Match
    • 3. Clues do not Match
  • III. End of Round
• End of the Game
• Kid-Friendly Variant
• Scoring Variant

Components

• A. 25 House cards (door back)
  • 16 Clue cards: Lamps, Chairs, Wardrobes, Clocks numbered 1 - 4
  • 8 White Lady cards
  • 1 Ube (Guide Dog) card
• B. 25 Corner X transparent markers
• C. 5 Center X transparent markers
• D. 5 Handkerchief cards
• E. 4 Candle cards
• F. 1 Starting Player Key
• G. 25 Square Card Sleeves

Important Note about Card Sleeves and Marking

Before playing, place all 25 House cards into the provided square sleeves. We recommend that you do not remove these cards from the sleeves, even after your game session ends.

In The Purple House, the card sleeves are an integral part of the game. Besides protecting the cards, they allow players to mark the doors with Xs using the transparent markers. To mark a card, insert an X marker into the card sleeve on the back (door) side of the card. The X marker will now be visible against the door and the card will be marked from then on.

Setup

1. Each player takes Handkerchief cards and X markers based on the table below. Then place your Handkerchief card face-up in front of you.

   Players	Handkerchief	Corner X	Center X
   1	3	3	3
   2	2	2	2
   3-5	1	1	1

2. Shuffle the already sleeved 16 Clue cards, 3 White Lady cards, and 1 Ube card to form the starting 20-card House deck. Set aside the already sleeved extra 5 White Lady cards to form the Ghost deck.

3. Create your game scenario by inserting Corner X markers into the sleeves of random House cards according to the table below. We recommend each player helping to sleeve specific orientations (e.g. Upper Left) to speed up the setup. After the 20 cards are ready, shuffle the House deck again. NOTE: DO NOT look at the fronts of the House deck at any time during setup!

4. Take the set aside White Lady cards of the Ghost deck and insert a total of 4 Corner X markers into their sleeves following the table below. Afterwards, shuffle the Ghost deck with the White Lady cards face-up without looking at the markings and place it on the table.

Choose Difficulty

Before starting, all players jointly decide on the game's difficulty level. We suggest Easy difficulty for your first game.

Depending on the chosen difficulty, the number of starting Candle cards and the number of Ghost cards added at the end of each round are adjusted according to the table below:

Difficulty	Candles	Ghosts
Easy	4	1
Normal	3	1
Hard	3	2
Impossible	2	2

Flow of the Game

A game consists of up to 3 rounds. Players take turns flipping House cards in search of an escape. However, flipping an incorrect card or the White Lady extinguishes one or more candles, and the round ends once all candles are out. The game ends when all 16 Clue cards are revealed or after 3 rounds.

Flow of a Round

Each round consists of three phases: Scouting, Escape, and End of Round. Unless all 16 Clue cards are revealed, repeat these phases for up to 3 rounds. The game ends immediately upon revealing all 16 cards, or after Round 3.

• I. Scouting Phase
• II. Escape Phase
• III. End of Round

After Round 1 or Round 2, End of Round leads back into a new round. After Round 3, or once all Clue cards are flipped face-up, the game is over.

I. Scouting Phase

In this phase, each player splits from the group, going into different rooms to find clues before meeting up with the rest to report their findings. Hence, no player may communicate with each other during the Scouting phase!

1. Deal House Cards

Starting from the Key player, deal cards clockwise from the deck according to the player count in the table below:

Players	1	2	3-4	5
Deal Cards	7	4	3	2

If there are not enough cards in Rounds 2 and 3, deal all the remaining cards in the deck as evenly as possible among the players.

Once dealt, players cannot communicate or show their cards until the end of the Scouting Phase.

2. Modify House Cards

Each player looks at their House cards secretly, trying to remember the Clues on the House cards and the orientations of the Xs on their backs.

Then, all players simultaneously mark or modify their cards to help identify them in the upcoming Escape Phase. The number of cards each player may mark or modify is based on the table below:

Players	1	2	3-5
Cards to Modify	3	2	1

When a player marks or modifies a House card back, they choose 1 of 3 possible modifications below from the 3 different items they hold:

A. Insert a Centre X marker into the sleeve of a House card.

B. Insert a Corner X marker into the sleeve of a House card. The player can choose the position of the X in either of the 4 quadrants by rotating the Corner X marker as they insert it into the sleeve (e.g. Upper Left, Lower Right etc).

C. Use your Handkerchief card to rotate or remove one single X marker in a House card, then flip the Handkerchief card face-down to show it's used.

• If a player removes an X marker, discard the X marker from the game.
• If a player chooses to rotate an X marker, they first remove one X marker from a House card then insert it again into the same card but with a different X orientation.
• Centre X markers cannot be rotated.

Additional Rules for Modifying Cards:

• A House card can have as many X markers inserted into it as long as 2 Xs do not overlap in the same position.
• Once a Handkerchief card or X marker is used by a player, that player can no longer use that item for the remainder of the game. You should have received exactly enough items at the start of the game for your total actions throughout the 3 rounds.
• A player MUST do a modification if possible, but if they have no valid modification to carry out, they do nothing. e.g. The Handkerchief is your only modification left and the House cards you receive only have Xs in the centre position.

3. Shuffle & Display House Cards

When finished modifying cards, players indicate they are ready by covering their cards with both hands.

Once all players are ready, shuffle all House cards (players' cards and the remaining House deck) together face-down.

Lay them out face-down to form the House area, then proceed to the Escape Phase.

II. Escape Phase

After gathering crucial information, players are now moving together from room to room to try to find a path through the haunted house. They must use the clues they remembered while scouting to open the correct doors in sequence. Or at least - the clues they THINK they remembered!

During this phase, players may now freely discuss Scouting memories — such as White Lady sightings, furniture types, and card markings — and rearrange grid cards without peeking at their fronts. The goal is to clear House cards to the Path area by sequentially flipping cards that match the Current Room in symbol (Lamps, Wardrobes, Chairs, Clocks) or number (1-4).

Starting with the Key holder, players take turns clockwise flipping 1 card, resolving it based on the 3 scenarios below (White Lady, matching card, or non-matching card), and passing the Key to the left.

The first Clue or Ube card flipped in the Escape Phase becomes the initial Current Room; thereafter, the last revealed Clue or Ube card remains face-up in the House area to serve as the Current Room.

For example, if the Current Room has a Cabinet symbol and the number 2: 3 Cabinets matches it by symbol, 2 Lamps matches it by number, and 4 Clocks does not match as neither symbol nor number matches.

1. A White Lady is Revealed

If a White Lady is revealed, extinguish 2 candles then flip it back face-down.

If this causes all candles to be extinguished, skip to iii. End of Round.

2. Clues Match

If a subsequent flipped Clue card matches the Current Room in either number or symbol, the newly flipped Clue card becomes the Current Room. Move the previous Current Room from the House area to the Path area. The cards in the Path area are considered cleared and will no longer be part of the House deck except Ube (see Ube the Guide Dog).

Organize the cleared cards in the Path area by symbol and number so that players can see which House cards are remaining in the deck.

For example: the Current Room is 2 Cabinets. Flipping 2 Lamps matches it by number, making 2 Lamps the new Current Room. 2 Cabinets is then moved from the House area to the Path area.

Ube the Guide Dog

Ube is considered wild and matches with all Clue cards. The Chair, Lamp, Clock, and Cabinet, are on the card as a reminder.

Ube moves to the Path Area when cleared for the first time each round. However, at the end of each round, it returns to the House deck. The icon on the bottom right reminds you to return it to the deck.

3. Clues do not Match

If the revealed Clue card does not match the Current Room in either number or symbol, extinguish 1 candle then flip the card back face-down.

If there are candles remaining, continue the round. If this causes all candles to be extinguished, skip to iii. End of Round.

For example: during Round 2, the Current Room is 2 Lamps. When 4 Clocks is flipped, it does not match 2 Lamps in either symbol or number, so flip it back face-down, and extinguish 1 candle. Since this was the last candle of Round 2, the round ends immediately. Proceed to iii. End of Round, then begin a new round.

Hitting a Dead End

If at any point there are no possible cards in the House area that match the Current Room, you have hit a Dead End (you can check the Path area to determine this.) NOTE: If Ube is still in the House, you have not hit a Dead End. Look for Ube instead!

Upon hitting a Dead End, immediately do the following:

1. Move the Current Room card to the Path area.
2. Extinguish 2 Candles.

If there are candles remaining, continue the round as though starting a new Escape Phase. If all candles have been used, skip to iii. End of Round.

For example: the Current Room is 3 Clocks. Because all other Clocks, 3s, and Ube are already in the Path area, 3 Clocks is a Dead End.

III. End of Round

When all candles are extinguished (flipped face-down), the Escape Phase for the round ends. Carry out the following to end the round if at the end of Round 1 or 2:

1. Return all remaining House cards in the House area (including the Current Room which is the last face-up card) to the House deck. Leave the cleared cards in the Path area.

2. If Ube is in the Path area, return it to the House deck.

3. Add random White Lady cards from the Ghost deck to the House deck based on the chosen difficulty (1 for Easy and Normal, 2 for Hard and Impossible). Then, shuffle the House deck. Do not look at the orientations of the Xs on the backs while you do this!

   For example, in Easy difficulty, at the end of a round, add 1 White Lady card from the Ghost deck into the middle of the House deck. Insert the card face-up so players cannot see the orientation of the X.

4. Reset your candles by stacking the Candle cards based on your difficulty level back into a pile with the candle side facing up.

At the end of the first or second round, start a new round by returning to the Scouting Phase. The player holding the Key will be the starting player in the next Escape Phase. If it is the end of the third round, skip steps 1 to 4 above and proceed to the End of the Game.

End of the Game

The game ends in two ways:

• When all 16 Clue cards have been flipped face-up, the game is over and ends in a win. You have connected all of the rooms and have found the secret passage out of the house!
• When the third Escape Phase is over, if the players have not been able to reveal all 16 Clue cards, the game is over and ends in a loss. You are trapped in the Purple House for all eternity, doomed to the same fate as the White Lady… until the next game, at least!

Game End Example: It is Round 3 with only 1 candle left. The Current Room is 4 Lamps, and there are 7 face-down House cards on the board (the final Clue, Ube, and 5 White Ladies).

The game may end in a few ways:

• Reveal the final Clue: The game ends, and all players escape together!
• Reveal a White Lady: The last candle is extinguished, all players are trapped...
• Reveal Ube: Turn passes to the next player, leaving only victory or defeat on the next turn...

Kid-Friendly Variant

This variant is an easier mode for people who are playing with children or new players who need more guidance. Play as usual, but players may talk and discuss throughout the Scouting Phase.

Scoring Variant

This variant allows players to score their game to compare their top score from their previous Purple House visits, or versus other adventurers!

Score points as follows:

• Number of Clue cards cleared (max 16 for a win).
• Candle cards remaining (if you clear the game in earlier rounds, add potential candles from later rounds).
• Add 5 points for a Win.
• Multiply the total score by your difficulty level multiplier: Easy ×0.75, Normal ×1, Hard ×1.5, Impossible ×2.

Score	Ending
~ 21	Unfortunately, you live here now, so you may as well try again!
22 - 30	Congratulations wanderers, your wits have redeemed you. Can you take risks to reach greater heights?
31 - 37	Brave explorers - you have travelled to the depths and made it back to tell the tale!
38 - 44	You are legendary adventurers whose names will be remembered. Be proud of this forever!
45 +	Are you secretly Ghostbusters?