Verflucht!
Verflucht! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 40 Creature cards, valued 1 through 40
- 40 Item cards, valued 1 through 40
- 5 Seal cards (green side: intact Seal; red side: broken Seal)
The Idea of the Game
You are all stuck in a mansion full of cursed creatures. Every card you turn over will either be a Creature or an Item: Use the items to banish the creatures before they attack you. You'll need to coordinate your efforts and play together, though - only then can you hope to make it through the night safe and sound!
Setting Up the Game
Mix and shuffle all the Creatures and Items together and put them on the table all jumbled together. Depending on the number of players, lay out the following number of Seals:
- 1 player: 3 Seals
- 2 or 3 players: 4 Seals
- 4 or 5 players: 5 Seals
Put the Seals next to each other with the green side up. Leave room on the table to display Creatures over the course of the game.
Playing the Game
You need to play together, because you will win - or lose - together! The bravest player begins. Then the turn to play passes in clockwise order. On your turn, play through the following steps:
- Draw 1 card, face-down, from the table and look at it without showing it to the other players: If the card is a Creature, put it face up in the display area next to the Seals; if it is an Item, add it to your hand. There is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your hand.
- After that, play as many Items as you like in order to banish Creatures.
Then it's the next player's turn.
Banishing Creatures
Only you can banish Creatures during your turn, the other players cannot! To banish a Creature from the display, you have to play one or more Item cards from your hand. The total value of the Items must be equal to or greater than the value of the Creature. You have to banish each Creature separately. When you successfully banish a Creature, put that Creature and all Items used to banish it aside, in a face-up discard pile.
Example: Sam plays a 12 and a 14 to banish the 26 Creature, and also uses his 22 to banish the 16. All five cards are put on the discard pile.
Talking to the Other Players
You may - in fact, you should - talk to each other at any time about the current state of the game. You can tell the other players which Creature/s you can banish yourself, and which ones you can't. Also, feel free to make suggestions about which Creatures the other players should banish when it's their turn. The only thing you're not allowed to tell the other players is the VALUES of the Items in your hand!
The Creatures Attack
A Creature attack occurs when either of the following happens:
a. You add a sixth Creature to the display; or b. Some of the Creatures in the display form a group.
When an attack occurs, you have no choice but to immediately banish one or more Creatures, depending on the situation:
a. The Sixth Creature
When you add the sixth Creature card to the display, the Creature with the highest value attacks. You must banish that Creature immediately using your Item cards. If you can't do that, you have to use a Seal.
Example: Dean puts a 19 into the display area (which then holds 4, 19, 21, 29, 33 and 37). Since this is the sixth Creature, the 37 attacks. No problem for Dean, however, he can swiftly banish it with his 38.
b. Creature Groups
Two or more Creatures in the display form a group if their values are adjacent to each other. The group attacks you and you have to banish all the Creatures in the group. The following special rules apply to a group attack:
- All players can take part in banishing the group (even though it's not their turn). However, any other Creatures in the display can still only be banished by the player who is taking their turn. You need to agree who is going to banish which Creature before playing any Item cards, and each Creature must be banished by a single player: you may not combine Items from several players against a single Creature or group.
- A player may banish more than one Creature in a group at the same time. To do so, the total value of his/her Items must be at least equal to the total value of the Creatures he/she is going to banish.
If you are not able to banish all the Creatures in the group, you have to use a Seal.
Example: Charlie puts a 20 into the display (which also holds 4, 19, 21 and 29), which now forms a group with the 19 and the 21 already there. The three Creatures attack. Sam banishes the 21 with his 23, and Dean banishes both the 19 and the 20 with his 9 and his 30.
If adding the sixth card to the display also creates a group of Creatures, only the group attacks. The Creature with the highest value does not attack - unless it is part of the group.
Using a Seal
During an attack, you can use a Seal to remove an attacking Creature from the display. If all players agree to use a Seal, flip it over from the green side (showing an intact Seal) to the red side, which shows a broken Seal. Shuffle the Creature removed by the Seal back into the face-down cards. When you use a Seal on a group attack, remove all of the attacking Creatures and shuffle them back into the face-down cards.
The End of the Game
All players jointly lose the game if, when one or more Creatures attack, you are not able to banish all the attackers and you have already used up all the green Seals.
All players jointly win the game if you have drawn all the face-down cards and successfully resolved all attacks. Each player then takes one last turn and can banish Creatures with their remaining Item cards. Then, for each green Seal you have left, put one Creature from the display on the discard pile, beginning with the Creature that has the lowest value.
The total value of the Creatures remaining in the display area after that is your score. The lower your score, the better you held your ground on Lord Somerset's estate.
Example: Of the five Creatures remaining in the display (7, 23, 28, 32 and 38), Charlie can still banish the 32 with her 5 and her 28. Sam, Charlie, and Dean have two active Seals left, which they use to remove the 7 and the 23. Their joint score is 28 + 38, so 66 total.
Playing Cursed Solo
If you are playing on your own, the only thing that changes is the number of Seals. All other rules remain the same.