Vampire Nights Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Overview
• Game Setup
• Start of the Game
• General Rules
• Overview of a Night
  • Exploration Phase
    • Movement
    • Exploring the Mansion
    • Garden Rules
    • Reveal a Room
    • React to Room's Effect
    • Vampire Encounter
    • Turning into a Vampire
    • Rescuing Villagers, Collecting Loot and Scoring Points
    • Passing with a Guard and End of Exploration Phase
  • End of Night Phase
    • Claiming Loot
• Room Tiles and Scoring
  • Vampires (19x)
  • Villagers (15x)
  • Dog (2x)
• Item Cards

Components

2–4 players, 30 minutes, ages 10+

• 8 Guards
• 54 Room tiles
• 25 Item cards
• 4 Entrance tiles
• 4 Garden tiles
• 15 Bite cards
• 2 Player aid cards

Game Overview

Vampire Nights is played over 3 nights (rounds). Each night consists of 2 phases: an Exploration phase and an End of Night phase.

During the Exploration phase, players will explore the Mansion's Rooms taking turns clockwise, tracking Villagers, defeating Vampires and discovering Loot. During the End of Night phase, players will loot valuables and/or rescue Villagers they left behind during the Exploration phase and prepare the Mansion for a new night. The player with the most loot points at the end of the third night wins.

Game Setup

Remove cards/tiles, depending on player count:

• 2 players: all tiles/cards with a 3 and 4 symbol.
• 3 players: all tiles/cards with a 4 symbol.

Each player chooses 2 Guards of the same color.

Shuffle all Item cards face-down to form the Item deck. Deal 4 random Item cards face-down to each player.

Shuffle all Room tiles face-down to form the Room deck. Leave some space to form discard piles next to these decks.

Shuffle all Bite cards face-down to form the Bite deck.

Set up the Mansion with a number of columns equal to player count. Each column includes from top to bottom:

1. 1 face-up Entrance tile at the top.
2. 5 face-down Room tiles drawn from the top of the Room deck. Reveal the third Room tile in each column by flipping it.
3. 1 face-up Garden tile at the bottom.

Start of the Game

Players then place their Guards, in any order, on the Entrance tiles according to their preference. There is no limit on how many Guards an Entrance tile can hold.

Then each player discards one Item card from their hand.

Finally, randomly select a starting player. Play taking turns, clockwise.

General Rules

Item cards are discarded face-up, while Room tiles are discarded face-down!

If either deck runs empty, shuffle the according discard pile to form a new face-down draw pile.

Two Rooms inside the Mansion are considered "adjacent" if they are "next to" each other vertically or horizontally, not diagonally.

Overview of a Night

Exploration Phase

Taking turns, players will explore their way from the Entrance towards the Garden, by moving one of their Guards plus, if useful, play Item cards. Alternatively, a player can pass with one Guard (see Passing with a Guard below).

Movement

Each turn, players must move one Guard one Room or space forward or sideways on their turn. Specific Item cards (see Item Cards) can allow for other movement. Guards cannot move backwards or backtrack.

Exploring the Mansion

Players may encounter Vampires. Defeating or repelling them removes a Room tile, creating an "empty Room". So does looting or fulfilling a certain challenge. Players can enter or skip these empty Rooms, even if occupied by other Guards and move to the next available (empty) Room.

Garden Rules

Each Garden tile has three sections: two regular and one secret. Only one Guard can occupy a section at a time. The first Guard to enter a Garden tile takes space #1, the next one takes space #2.

The Cloak of Invisibility (see Item Cards) grants access to the secret space.

A Guard cannot move, or be moved from one Garden tile to another Garden tile.

Reveal a Room

When entering a face-down Room it must be turned face-up.

React to Room's Effect

Upon entering a Room, there are three possibilities: encounter a Vampire or Villager, discover a treasure or face a certain challenge.

Vampire Encounter

When a Guard encounters a Vampire without a helpful item to defend himself, he gets bitten. That player must draw the top card from the Bite deck and discard one of his Room tiles, if he has any. This must be repeated each time a Guard gets bitten!

Turning into a Vampire

The information shown on the Bite card (Shield or Vampire) must be kept secret at all times during the game. As soon as a player holds 2 (or more) Bite cards showing a Vampire, he turns into a Vampire himself! From now on this player scores points as a Vampire (see Room Tiles and Scoring). In order to keep his new identity hidden, the affected player must still draw a Bite card and discard 1 Room tile, if he has any, each time one of his Guards gets bitten!

Rescuing Villagers, Collecting Loot and Scoring Points

As a Guard, you can choose to rescue Villagers by using Blessed Water (see Item Cards). Rescued Villagers are added to the player's Loot pile, earning them points at the end of the game. So is treasure Loot, collected by using the Bag (see Item Cards). Regarding defeated Vampires, scoring is less obvious (see Room Tiles and Scoring).

Passing with a Guard and End of Exploration Phase

If a player decides not to move any Guard during his turn, he must lay one of his Guards on its back to indicate this Guard is done exploring. If a player has passed with both his Guards, this player's Exploration phase is over, and he must wait until the End of Night phase to get involved in looting (if applicable).

Important: no two Guards can pass in the same (empty) Room!

The Exploration phase ends immediately for all players when either enough Guards – number of players +1 – reach the Garden or all players have passed with both their Guards. This immediately triggers the End of Night phase.

End of Night Phase

During the End of Night phase, players have the opportunity to loot valuables and/or rescue Villagers they left behind during the Exploration phase.

Important: If there is a (empty) Room with more than one Guard, take turns in starting player order, moving any concerned, still active Guards to unoccupied spaces, until that is no longer the case.

Then proceed to Looting. Once all the Looting is done, at the end of nights one and two there is a short upkeep to prepare the Mansion for the next night. At the end of night three, proceed to End of the Game and Winner.

Claiming Loot

At this stage, only Villagers, the Dog, Cursed Stones and Coins are Loot. Only players with Guards inside the Mansion ((empty) Rooms, Garden) loot.

One by one, each player with an eligible Guard in a column must take one lootable Room tile within their reach. A Guard's reach goes in a vertical line back to the Entrance, including the Room tile it stands on.

Start in the leftmost column of the Mansion with the Guard furthest away from the Entrance. Then proceed Guard by Guard, towards the Entrance. Repeat until all lootable tiles in that column have been taken. Move to the next column and repeat until all columns have been looted. If necessary, move any Guards on Loot tiles aside temporarily.

Important: Looting is mandatory! Beware of the Cursed Stones (see Room Tiles and Scoring). Claimed Loot is kept face down in each player's personal Loot pile. Players can look at their personal Loot pile at any time.

Upkeep

After all Loot has been distributed, proceed with the following upkeep:

• Discard remaining Room tiles face-down.
• Reset the Mansion according to the initial Game Setup rules.
• Keep unused Item cards from the previous night and deal out 3 more per player.
• Place Guards on an Entrance of choice, same as in night one.
• Finally each player discards one Item card of their choice, old or new.

Repeat this upkeep after night two.

Looting Example

In column A, Player Yellow selects Loot before White and Blue. Yellow saves the Mother the White Guard is positioned on, leaving nothing for White. Blue has no Loot within its range. Finally Yellow saves the Dog.

In column B, Player White rescues the Father. Yellow, still at the Entrance, can't claim Loot, even if there was any left.

In column C, Player Blue loots the Daughter, the Coins and the Cursed Stone.

Note: the 2 Minions, the Lady, the Spiderweb and the 3 remaining hidden Room tiles are discarded (face-down) during upkeep.

End of the Game and Winner

Play through all three nights following the rules. After the final night, players calculate their respective total score by summing the points from their collected Room tiles (see Room Tiles and Scoring). The player with the highest total score wins the game!

In case of a tie, the player with the lowest amount of Bite cards wins.

In case of another tie, the player with the lowest amount of Loot tiles wins.

Room Tiles and Scoring

Here is a breakdown of the different tiles you will encounter.

• Cat (2x): Discard 1 Coins tile if you have any. Discard the Cat.
• Chest (2x): Draw 1 Item card. Discard the Chest. The drawn card can be used in the same turn.
• Coffin (1x): To claim the Coffin for 8 points, have both your Guards in the Room, OR with only one Guard in the Room, discard 2 Loot tiles and/or Item cards and score 10 points instead. The Coffin cannot be looted during the End of Night phase.
• Coins (6x): Score 3 points per Coins tile in your Loot pile at the end of the game.
• Cursed Stone (6x): A single Stone is worth 6 points. However, if a Guard player has more than one Stone at the end of the game, each Stone is only worth 2 points! The curse has no effect on Vampire players. Each Stone keeps a value of 6.
• Spiderweb (1x): Immobilizes a Guard for one turn. Use your other Guard if it has not passed yet. Otherwise skip one turn. If this is the last remaining active Guard in the game, it has no effect. The Spiderweb is discarded at the End of Night phase!

Vampires (19x)

• Lord/Lady (3x each): Guard players score 5 points for each Lord/Lady they have at the end of the game.
• Minion (13x): Guard players score 2 points for each Minion they have at the end of the game.

Each set of 3 different Vampires scores Guard players 15 points, replacing individual Vampire scores.

Important: Players turned Vampire no longer score for (sets of) Vampires at the end of the game, as their objective has (secretly) changed, but they can still defeat/repel them, to prevent other players from scoring points.

Villagers (15x)

• Father/Mother/Daughter (5x each): Each Villager scores 2 points for Guard players, 4 points for Vampire players. Each set of 3 different Villagers scores: 9 points for Guard players, 12 points for Vampire players, replacing the individual Villager scores.

Dog (2x)

Important: a Dog can only be saved during the End of Night Phase.

Each Dog scores 0 points for Guard players, 0 points for Vampire players. Each set of 3 different Villagers + Dog scores: 14 points for Guard players, 18 points for Vampire players, replacing the individual Villager scores.

Item Cards

You can play more than one Item card during your turn!

The Cloak of Invisibility, the Jump Potion, the Mirror and the Mask act as movement modifiers during the Exploration Phase, replacing basic movement.

• Cloak of Invisibility (1x): Access the secret Garden space. Play upon entering the Garden or in a later turn, but before the End of Night phase!
• Jump Potion (2x): Jump one Room plus empty spaces if wanted, in a straight line, revealing only the Room your Guard lands on, if applicable. You can jump into the Garden!
• Mirror (2x): Move your Guard in a diagonal direction, skipping empty spaces if wanted. The Mirror does not work in the Garden!
• Mask (1x): Swap the positions of one of your Guards with an adjacent opponents Guard, ignoring any empty spaces in between. Both Guards may not yet have passed. The Mask can be used to swap #2/#1 in the Garden!

The Crossbow, Garlic, Sacred Cross and Stake allow Guards to defeat Vampires or protect themselves from them. Once a player turns Vampire these items still keep their effect, but their tactical use changes accordingly.

• Crossbow (2x): Defeat the first Vampire in a horizontal or vertical line of sight, 1 or 2 (empty) Rooms away, regardless if these are occupied by another Guard, yours and/or opponents. The Crossbow can be used from the Entrance!
• Garlic (2x): Protect your Guard in the current Room from getting bitten. The Vampire can still bite other Guards entering the Room.
• Sacred Cross (2x): Repel the Vampire from the current Room. Discard the Vampire to the Room discard pile. Discard the Sacred Cross to the Item discard pile.
• Stake (5x): Defeat the Vampire in the current Room and add it to your personal Loot.

The Bag and Blessed Water allow you to instantly loot the according Room tile during the Exploration phase, without having to wait for the End of Night phase.

• Bag (2x): Secure the Coins or Cursed Stone from the current Room and add it to your personal Loot.
• Blessed Water (2x): Rescue/capture the Villager from the current Room and add it to your personal Loot.

The Torch grants knowledge on up to two Rooms while the Magnifying Glass allows you to get hold of an item of choice.

• Torch (2x): Secretly look at up to two Rooms, horizontally or vertically adjacent to one of your Guards, skipping empty Rooms in between.
• Magnifying Glass (2x): Choose an Item card from the Item discard pile and add it to your hand. You may play the chosen card in the same turn.

For the sake of readability, the pronouns "he", "him" and the noun "player" are used synonymously and refer to all people.