Vampire Hunter Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Important Notes
• Object
• Contents
• Assembly
• Batteries
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. Flip a Card
  • 2. Check If Your Hunter Is on a Trap
  • 3. Roll and Move Your Hunter
  • 4. Turn Over Adjacent Facedown Tiles
  • 5. Battle Adjacent Monsters
  • 6. Battle Drakus
• Hints
• Optional Advanced Play
• How the Game Can End

Important Notes

Playing in dim lighting: The board, tiles, and dice in this game magically alter when the tower light changes from red to blue. It is best to set up the game with the room lights on. Then, dim them. The red or blue light in the tower will be on throughout play, so you are never really in the dark. But you may want to leave one or two night-lights on so you can move around the room easily if you need to. Now, make sure all players are sitting close enough to the gameboard to see the changes, and have fun!

Object

Make your way into Drakus' castle, fighting the monsters as you go. Find Drakus before his escape ship arrives and defeat him once and for all!

Contents

Gameboard, Vampire's Tower, 4 Vampire Hunter Pawns, 1 Ship Pawn, 28 Tiles, 1 Drakus' Coffin Tile, 2 Castle Walls, 36 Cards, 2 Dice, Label Sheet

Assembly

• Remove the Vampire Hunters, ship pawn and dice from the plastic bag. Discard the bag.
• Twist the Vampire Hunters from the plastic tabs and discard the tabs.
• Carefully detach the tiles, coffin and castle walls from the cardboard parts sheet. Discard the cardboard waste.
• Place the window label from the label sheet onto the tower as shown in Figure 1A.
• Following the instructions on the label sheet, place the labels onto the 2 dice.

Batteries

Insert batteries: Loosen the screw on the battery compartment, located on the underside of the tower and remove the door. Insert 4 C-size batteries (we recommend alkaline), making sure to align the + and - symbols with the image inside. Replace the door and tighten the screw.

CAUTION: To avoid battery leakage:

• Be sure to insert the batteries correctly and always follow the game and battery manufacturers' instructions.
• Do not mix old and new batteries, or alkaline, standard (carbon-zinc), or rechargeable (nickel-cadmium) batteries.
• Always remove weak or dead batteries from the product.

Setup

Figure 1 shows the tower, castle walls, dining room, crypt, graveyard, marsh, card deck and start space. Figure 1A shows the assembled tower with castle walls. Figure 2 shows the red deck and blue deck, and the Night, Day and Ship cards.

1. Place the gameboard so all players can reach and see things clearly.
2. Insert the 2 castle walls into the sides of the tower by sliding them down into the slots as shown in Figure 1.
3. Place the tower in the center of the gameboard so the walls split the gameboard into the outside (Graveyard and Marsh) and inside (Dining Room and Crypt). See Figure 1.
4. Separate the tiles into 5 piles (garlic, gravestones, ravens, bats and skulls). Give each player one garlic tile. Hold onto this, you will need it later. Place any extra garlic tiles back in the box. Randomly place the remaining tiles on the matching gameboard spaces so that gravestones, ravens, skulls and bats are faceup.
5. Place the coffin, Vampire-side down, on its matching space in the Crypt.
6. Place the ship pawn on the numbered track at the edge of the gameboard. It goes on 10 for 4 players, 9 for 3 players, or 8 for 2 players. Point the ship toward the number 1.
7. Prepare the card deck. This is a little tricky. Separate the cards into a red deck and a blue deck (shown in Figure 2).
   • For 4 players: Shuffle each deck separately. Then put the red deck facedown on top of the blue deck.
   • For 3 players: Separate the red deck into 3 piles - "Night," "Day" and Ship (these are "Day" cards with a picture of a ship on them). Remove 4 red "Night" cards and 1 red Ship card and put them back into the box. Shuffle each deck separately. Then put the red deck facedown on top of the blue deck.
   • For 2 players: Separate the red deck into 3 piles - "Night," "Day" and Ship (these are "Day" cards with a picture of a ship on them). Remove 6 red "Night" cards and 2 red Ship cards and put them back into the box. (Refer to Figure 2.) Shuffle each deck separately. Then put the red deck facedown on top of the blue deck.
8. Place the combined deck on the gameboard as shown in Figure 1.

Gameplay

The player who owns this game goes first. Play then passes to the left.

On your turn do the following things in order:

1. FLIP A CARD
2. CHECK IF YOUR HUNTER IS ON A TRAP
3. ROLL AND MOVE YOUR HUNTER
4. TURN OVER FACEDOWN ADJACENT TILES
5. BATTLE ADJACENT MONSTERS
6. BATTLE DRAKUS

1. Flip a Card

Flip a card and place it faceup next to the pile. If the card says "Night," make sure the light is blue. If the card says "Day," make sure the light is red. To change the light, press the tower turret (Figure 3). If the light is already set correctly, continue your turn. If the card shows the vampire's ship, move the ship pawn one day closer to the 1! If you can't remember which light is day and which is night, just check the sundial on the gameboard near the tower base. It'll show you!

Figure 3 shows a finger pressing the tower turret.

Important: If the ship reaches the tower before any hunter reaches Drakus, he escapes. In this case, Drakus wins.

2. Check If Your Hunter Is on a Trap

If you changed the light to night (blue) and your pawn got caught on a Pit Trap space, move it immediately BACK to the entrance of the room or area you are in and continue your turn from there. More than one hunter can be on an entrance space at the same time. NOTE: This only applies to your pawn, not to other hunters who may be on Pit Traps when you change the light.

3. Roll and Move Your Hunter

Gently roll the numbered Movement die onto the center of the gameboard. Be careful not to knock over or move anything when you roll. Here are the movement rules...

• Number: The number you roll is the most you can move. You can choose to move fewer spaces or not to move at all.
• Direction: You cannot move diagonally.
• Other hunters: You can move over another hunter, but you cannot end a move on a space with another hunter. Exception: More than one hunter can be on the Start space and room or area entrance spaces.
• On tiles: You cannot end your move on top of any tile.
• Over facedown tiles: You cannot move over a facedown tile. You have to go around it.
• Over and next to faceup tiles: Tiles are flipped faceup when a hunter ends his/her turn next to them. See #4 below. You can move over a faceup tile as long as it is not a monster (zombie, wolf, werewolf, or vampire). You have to stop and battle a monster whenever you end your move next to one. If you start your turn next to a monster you have the option to stay and fight or run away!
• Pit traps: You cannot move over a visible Pit Trap, but you can end your move on one if you want to be sent back to the entrance of the room or area you are in.
• Secret passages: Secret Passages are shortcuts. You can move over or land on a Secret Passage. When you move onto or start your move on a Secret Passage space, you can move directly to the other matching Secret Passage space in the same room or area for free and continue your move from there. Other hunters do not block Secret Passages, but remember, you cannot end your move on the same space as another hunter.

4. Turn Over Adjacent Facedown Tiles

In this game, "ADJACENT" means next to but not diagonally. If you move adjacent to one or more facedown tiles, you must turn them all faceup! Below are what you might find when you turn over the tiles.

• Weapon tiles: There are three types of weapon tiles: garlic, swords and stakes. You will need one of each to defeat Drakus. Each hunter began with a garlic tile but you have to find the other two weapons. If you find (turn over or end your move next to) a weapon that you need, take it and keep it in front of you! If you don't need it, because you already have one, leave it there faceup.
• Encounter tiles: Any tile other than a weapon is an encounter tile. Mist, gravestones, and villagers are safe tiles and cause no effect. Wolves, werewolves, zombies and vampires are monster tiles and must be battled.

5. Battle Adjacent Monsters

If you end your turn next a monster, you must stop and do battle. Monsters never move. If you are next to more than one monster, battle them one at a time, in any order you choose, until all of the monsters (or you) are defeated. To battle, roll the Battle die onto the center of the gameboard. Try not to knock anything over or out of place.

• Roll a "Hit," and you defeat the monster! Remove the monster's tile from the board.
• Roll a Skull, and the monster has defeated you! Move your hunter back to the entrance at the beginning of the room or area you are in. REMEMBER: The entrance to the Graveyard is the Start space.

6. Battle Drakus

You have finally made your way through the castle, into the crypt and onto one of the spaces adjacent to the Master's coffin.

• First, you must switch the tower light to blue.
• Next, turn the coffin tile over to reveal Drakus. He can no longer escape by his ship, so remove the ship pawn and the deck of cards from the gameboard.
• Drakus must be defeated 3 times, once by each weapon (garlic, sword and stake) in order to destroy him!
• Choose a weapon to attack with. Just make sure the weapon you choose is one you have in front of you.
• Roll the Battle die.
• If you rolled a "Hit" place the weapon tile on the foot of the coffin to show that Drakus has been "wounded" by this weapon. Now select a second weapon and continue the battle by rolling again. If you are successful 3 times in a row, you have destroyed the Master Vampire and won the game!
• If you rolled a skull, you have lost the battle! Leave any weapons that wounded Drakus on the foot of the coffin. Then immediately move your hunter back to the entrance of the Crypt room. You keep the weapon you lost the battle with. This weapon can be used again if you can make it back to the edge of the coffin. Your turn is now over.
• The player who battles successfully with the 3rd weapon, destroys Drakus and wins! That player places the 3rd weapon tile at the foot of the coffin and presses the tower turret to switch the light to red. Watch what happens to Drakus as the sun rises!

Hints

• The gameboard is best seen if viewed from above. So get close!
• Throwing the dice hard may cause tiles to shift and hunters to fall over. Be careful!
• Search for both weapon tiles (sword and stake), you'll need them to battle Drakus.
• Once you have all three weapons, avoid tiles and proceed quickly to the crypt.

Optional Advanced Play

For a more challenging game... start the Vampire Ship one space closer than those indicated in the Setup. Also, before you can battle, you must have a stake to go against a Vampire and a sword to fight a Wolf or Werewolf. NOTE: You do not need a weapon to fight a Zombie and you do not lose weapons if you lose a battle (just keep them in front of you for future battles).

How the Game Can End

You win if you are the player who successfully defeats Drakus in a battle with the 3rd weapon. Drakus wins if his ship arrives before a Vampire Hunter reaches one of the spaces next to the coffin within the crypt.