Zaar Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Purpose
• Game Preparation and Pawns
• Cards Categorization
  • Room Cards
  • Suspended Room
  • Shortcut Rooms
  • Windcatcher Corridor
• Event Cards
• Pawns
• Coins
  • Life and Wisdom Coins
  • Tool Coins
• Tools Abilities
  • Peganum
  • Amulet
  • Boswellia
• Geomancy Dice (Raml) and Astrolabe
  • How to Use the "Raml"?
  • How to Throw Geomancy Dice
  • How to Use the Astrolabe?
  • Reading the Astrolabe
  • How to Rotate the Plates
• Battle and Results
• Getting a "Command" from Backside of Astrolabe
• Commencing the Command
• How to Start the Game
• Player Turns
  • Picking Cards
  • Moving
  • Utilizing Tools
  • A Player's Turn Is Over in the Following Conditions
• Game Levels
  • Level 1: Finding a Sacred Room
  • Level 2: Removing the Spell Plaques and Trapping the Demon
  • Level 3: Fighting the Demon and Surrender
  • Level 4: Escaping the Mansion
• Missions
  • Make a 4-Room Corridor from Bloody Rooms
  • Put Two Humid Rooms with A and B Plaques Door to Door
  • Put Three Windy Rooms with A, B and D Plaques
  • Make a Square with Three Smoggy Rooms
  • Make a Square with 4 Types of Rooms
  • Hit Four Events
  • Remove the Last Spell to Specify the Demon's Room
  • Find the Sixth Letter of the Demon's Name
  • Find the Seventh Letter of the Demon's Name
• Game Ending

Game Purpose

Enter a dreaded and abandoned mansion which consists of rooms. Most rooms have spell plaques. These plaques are home to the demon. You have to revoke the spells to limit the chances of the demon to conjure, and his name to become evident little by little. When all the spell plaques are removed and only one plaque remains, the demon is trapped in that plaque. You go to a direct battle and defeat the demon. Then you escape from the mansion from getting trapped in the ruining debris. The winner is the ally who survived and has gathered the most coins.

Game Preparation and Pawns

1. Place the game cloth on the table. It is an amber textile. The hexagonal markings are a guide to place room cards. The numbers on the hexagons represent the enclosure areas. Enclosure number 1 is the place to put the first room card to start the game. The second layer of cards, which are placed during the next steps of the game, create the second enclosure. The third enclosure are hexagons around the second enclosure. The table on the side of the game cloth is where the demon's name will appear during the game.
2. The game includes 72 hexagonal cards: 52 rooms and 20 event cards. Each room card is an illustration of a room and might have one or more doors. Player pawns will enter or exit the rooms through these doors. Most rooms have a spell plaque. To start the game, pick a room card which: (1) has a spell plaque, and (2) has equal or more doors than the number of players. Put this room on the 1st enclosure (center hexagon). "Bloody Chamber", "Smoggy Chamber" or "Moss Chamber" with six doors, and "Panjdari" with five doors, are suitable. Shuffle the rest of the cards and put them to the side of the game cloth, accessible to all players.
3. Each player needs to pick a pawn and put it on the first room. To pick a pawn, throw the geomancy dice; the player with the lowest number will choose first.
4. Each player has a specific number of life, wisdom and tool coins. The number of coins for each player is explained in the pawns section.
5. Put the geomancy dice and the astrolabe accessible to players. You are ready to begin the game, but before that it is better to get to know the rules.

Cards Categorization

Room Cards

Room cards are categorized based on their characteristics. Rooms without a spell plaque are called Sacred rooms. The demon does not exist in these rooms. You will recognize them by the white border and black dots, which represent the doors. All other rooms have spell plaques.

Room signs: Bloody, Smoggy, Humid, Windy and Sacred. In addition to the signs, the rooms are color-coded based on category.

Spell plaques in the rooms are Abjad letters (the alphabet's first four letters, like A, B, C, D).

Suspended Room

This room is the only one not categorized in these five groups. This room will provide free movement in the mansion for players. As soon as a player pawn enters this room, the room can move freely to any given destination as the players wish.

• This room's walls can block other rooms' doors (since its placement is temporary).
• This room's replacement does not count as a move, but entering and exiting counts as one move.

Shortcut Rooms

"Broken Porch", "Broken Stairway" and "Jive Khane".

Shortcut rooms can be used to transfer your pawn to a sacred room in a higher or lower enclosure, but this is not mandatory. If a player pawn enters these rooms, they can throw the geomancy dice and play based on the instruction on the room card. (Find the attachment.)

Windcatcher Corridor

As soon as a player enters this room, they will be repositioned to a sacred room in the lower enclosure. Falling from Windcatcher Corridor to a sacred room does not count as a move.

• If you enter "Windcatcher Corridor" through a short-cut, you have to transfer to a sacred room on a higher or lower enclosure. If there is no sacred room in a higher or lower enclosure, go to a sacred room in the next enclosure. If there was no sacred room on the way to getting to the highest or lowest enclosure, get to the nearest sacred room.
• If there are several sacred rooms in the near enclosures, you can choose one freely.
• If the player wants to use the shortcuts in the 4th level of the game and cannot get the required number, they will stay in the room. Based on 4th level rules, if you stay in the same room for two rounds, the room will collapse. The player will lose all coins and be dismissed from the game. (Refer to the 4th level instructions on page 7.)

Event Cards

Some cards are not rooms, but an event which is happening in the room. A commandment is written on these cards, which needs to be followed by the player who picks an event card. The command has to be fulfilled in the current round or the next rounds.

1. You are obliged to fulfill the command immediately and take that card out of the game.
2. If the command is continued on to next rounds, keep the card in front of you until the end of the effect.
3. Put the event card back into the deck, as it has no effect on you if you picked it while you have an ongoing event in front of you.

Example event card texts printed in the rulebook:

• "Based on the letters on the dice you might lose a coin or nothing happens."
• "The player has three rounds to get to 'Motreb Khane' room and gain 2 wisdom coins."

Pawns

The six player pawns represent the Zaar allies, placed in the pawns bag.

• Normal-mode game: All pawns are the same and enter the game with three life, three wisdom and no tool coins. Characters' special abilities are not considered in this game.
• Advanced-mode game: Player pawns enter the game with different numbers of life, wisdom and tool coins. Each player has a special ability as well.

Characters (advanced mode):

• Warrior: 4 life, 3 wisdom, no tool. Special ability: can utilize the values of the backside of dice as well.
• Monk: 3 life, 4 wisdom, 1 Amulet. Special ability: can teleport (travel spontaneously) between sacred rooms.
• Knight: 4 life, 4 wisdom, no tool. Special ability: can buy a tool with two coins.
• Alchemist: 3 life, 3 wisdom, 1 Peganum. Special ability: can pass through walls.
• Wise: 3 life, 3 wisdom, 2 Boswellia. Special ability: always achieves extra winning if they defeat the demon.
• Physician: 2 life, 4 wisdom, no tool. Special ability: if they finish the round in a sacred room, they earn two life coins and must give one to another player.

Coins

Life and Wisdom Coins

In total there are 48 life and 48 wisdom coins in the coins bag. The main value of the game is these coins. Players try to gain as many coins as possible during the game. The player with the most coins is the winner of the game if they can survive.

Coins have another important role as well:

• The number of cards that each player can pick equals the number of their wisdom coins.
• Each player can move between the rooms equal to the number of their life coins.

More info on this subject is provided later in the instructions.

Tool Coins

Game cannot be played without life and wisdom coins, but tool coins are auxiliary and can add extra abilities to players. There are 21 tool coins in the bag, containing 7 Boswellia, 7 Amulet and 7 Peganum.

Tool coins can be utilized in two ways by players who own them:

1. Utilize its ability and give away the coin.
2. Put the coin in the mansion to utilize its ability whenever you want.

You can gain tools in three different ways:

1. It can be part of the player's selected character at the beginning of the game.
2. It can be gained through event cards.
3. Players can buy tools at any part of the game by putting 3 coins (life or wisdom or any combination) back into the coins bag and picking a tool coin.

• You can buy tools, but they cannot be sold to gain back life or wisdom coins.
• In the 4th level of the game you can buy tools before your first move. No tools can be bought after the first move is made.

Tools Abilities

Peganum

1. It will revoke the spell plaques in the room which your pawn is present in and all adjacent rooms which are connected directly by a door.
2. If present in a room, that room will not collapse during the 4th level of the game.

Amulet

1. You have the privilege of using both your life and wisdom coins during one round. Example: a player who has 2 life and 4 wisdom coins can give away an amulet during a round and have 4+2 life and 2+4 wisdom during that round.
2. If put on a wall between two rooms, can make a new door on that wall.

Boswellia

1. A player can give a commandment. By giving away the Boswellia coin, the player commences the first part of the command from the backside of the astrolabe. For example, they can say "is not in B plaques" and revoke all spell plaques with B sign. Or they can remove an event which is commanding them. For example, according to an event their pawn has to stay out of the game until a bloody room is opened. They can give away Boswellia and move their pawn to any bloody room.
2. If Boswellia is put in a room, it can make a secret passage. Meaning the player can travel from a sacred room to that room which Boswellia is placed on it before (this travel counts as one move), or travel back from that room to any sacred room.

The player who put a tool coin in the game can remove the tool during any part of the game and put it out.

Geomancy Dice (Raml) and Astrolabe

How to Use the "Raml"?

Raml is the Persian name for Geomancy Dice! The geomancy dice is utilized for below:

1. It will catch the demon on the spell plaques.
2. It can remove the spells.
3. It is a tool to fight the demon on level 3.

How to Throw Geomancy Dice

Whenever you enter a room with a non-revoked spell plaque, you have to throw it once. Roll the geomancy dice in your hand and throw it from a distance of 5-8 inches from the surface on the game cloth.

If the letter from the top dice (the dice with Abjad letters) is the same as the plaque letter, this means the demon is trapped in the room. Otherwise it means the demon is not present in the room at that moment.

If the demon is trapped, you can finish your round and the next player continues. Or you can fight with the demon and revoke the spell plaque.

Abjad letters on Raml: similarity of the letter to the spell plaque will trap the demon in the room. Abjad are the four first letters in the ancient alphabet (like A, B, C, D).

How to Use the Astrolabe?

The astrolabe shows the way to remove the spell. If the demon is trapped by the geomancy dice, you have to use the astrolabe to fight the demon.

Reading the Astrolabe

Use the front side of the astrolabe with the dragon figure. The first two top plates can be rotated individually. The astrolabe has to be rotated by two elements:

1. The letter trapping the demon (similar on the geomancy dice and the spell plaque of the room).
2. Room category, which is known by the color of the margin and sign on the doors. This is representing demon powers present in the room.

How to Rotate the Plates

Rotate the second plate (underneath) clockwise for the sign to show the spell plaque letter. (The letter is already shown; rotate until it's shown again.)

Then rotate the top plate until it shows the demon power of the room (shown by the margin color and door signs). If this is already shown, rotate until it's shown again.

A message will be shown from the notch between the two plates. This is the result from the astrolabe and will determine the fight results. Usually it shows a number which is present on the geomancy dice; it will remove the spell. Entirely, there are 5 results as well, listed below:

1. Revoked. In this situation, without the need to throw the geomancy dice, the spell is revoked. You have earned "extra winning". Please refer to the fight result table.
2. It will not be revoked this round. You don't need to throw the geomancy dice with this result. The spell is not revoked and you have not lost anything. It's a draw in the battle.
3. If the pawn is in a .... room, sacrifice a life. (The category is blank in the printed text.) If the room category is similar to what the astrolabe is saying, you have to lose a life. You are lost in the battle.
   • If the room category is not the same as mentioned on the astrolabe, you are safe. It's a draw in battle.
4. The number of battle with demon. In this situation the numbers and position of those numbers on the geomancy dice have to be the same as the result of the astrolabe. (The printed illustration shows the numbers 0 and 3 in a three-square strip.)
5. Only one or some squares are shown, each with a figure. In this situation you have to get the number or all numbers on the geomancy dice; the position does not have a significance (more info in the results section).

• Before throwing the geomancy dice again, check on the numbers. If the numbers are already meeting the requirements of the result from the astrolabe, you have won the battle in the first hit and earned extra winning.

Battle and Results

Battle is done with the geomancy dice to meet the requirements of the astrolabe and remove the spell.

If the geomancy dice on the table are not meeting the requirements already, the player can throw it equal to the number of wisdom coins to meet those conditions. (Refer to below table.)

If the spell is revoked, pick two coins from the bag randomly. Take one for yourself and put the other one on the plaque from the backside with Revoke carved on it.

Battle Result	Losing a Life Coin	Revoke the Spell	Backside of Astrolabe
Draw	x	x	x
Lose	✓	x	x
Win	x	✓	x
Extra Win	x	✓	✓

• Draw: neither you nor the demon could hit each other. The spell is not revoked.
• Lose: if the player throws the raml to the number of their wisdoms and could not get the required numbers, the demon has won. The player will lose a life coin.
• Win: if you meet the required numbers on the geomancy dice, you win the battle and revoke the spell.
• Extra win: if the letter on the geomancy dice is the same as on the plaque in addition to required numbers, you have removed the spell and hit the demon as well. In this case you have to use the backside of the astrolabe.

Getting a "Command" from Backside of Astrolabe

If you earned extra winning, you can turn the astrolabe around and ask for a command. The instructions are shown on the front side.

There is an arrow showing clockwise or counterclockwise rotation. Beside the arrow there are shown 1, 2 or 3 dots. You have to turn the backside to the number of dots and in the requested direction to get a command.

The arrow and the circles say when you turn around the astrolabe how many times and in which direction you have to turn it. The example shows 2 turns clockwise.

Commencing the Command

The backside command has two parts, e.g. "Is ot in smoggy rooms / X" (as printed).

(1) A command will revoke a couple of spell plaques. All spell plaques which are not revoked already will be revoked on the rooms being pointed to on the command. Coins will come out of the bag and be put on the revoked plaques. In the example, you have to cover the plaques on the smoggy rooms opened so far in the game, if not revoked already, by putting Revoke coins (picked randomly from the coins bag).

(2) A letter from the demon's name. On the demon's name table, cover the requested letter from the astrolabe with randomly picked coins from the bag. Each letter is shown 3 times on the table.

• The command could be pointing to a spell which is not existing in the mansion. For example, saying "is not in A plaques" when there are no A remaining which are not revoked already. Then this part of the command is not helping you. But you can use the name letter part.
• Also, you could get a command showing a demon's name letter which has been revealed earlier. In this case you are not getting any help from this part, but you may still use the first.

You can start the game now.

How to Start the Game

The player whose birthday is closer will start the game. Turns will rotate clockwise.

Player Turns

Each player can do the following in each turn:

• Picking cards and adding rooms to the mansion
• Moving
• Using tool coins

Picking Cards

Each player can pick cards to the number of their wisdom coins (or less).

A- If you picked a room card: You can place it in any part of the mansion, if it meets these conditions: (1) It is connected to the rest of the mansion, and (2) no wall is blocking any doors.

• The rooms are placed in hexagon markings. You might use the area beyond the game cloth, but do not enter the demon's name table.

B- If you picked an event card: You have to obey the command only. Your turn is over and you cannot pick any more cards or do anything else.

• Until you have an event card in front of you, no other event card will be affecting you. If you picked one, put it back on the deck in a random place.
• You cannot revoke any spell plaque during the first level of the game. If an event is related to revoking a spell plaque in this part, that event is void; discard it from the game.

Moving

Each player can move to the number of their life coins (or less) during a turn. Relocating pawns from any room to an adjacent room which is connected through a door is counted as a move. A player can only exit any room if the demon is not present in that room.

• During the game your direction is always free. You can enter a room several times or move back and forth between two rooms.

Utilizing Tools

Each player can buy as many tool coins as they need during their turn. Each player can utilize as many tool coins as they need during a turn.

Players are free to do any combination of activities during their turn without a specific sequence. Open a new room first, then move, or use a tool first, then move and open a new room at the end.

A Player's Turn Is Over in the Following Conditions

• When they have finished all the activities based on the number of lives and wisdoms they have. Meaning, they have opened new rooms to the number of their wisdom and moved to the number of their life and used all the tools they needed.
• If a player wants to end their turn at any time (even if they have not opened any rooms and not moved at all).
• Confronting the demon: if the player is throwing the geomancy dice in a room and the letter is similar to the room's spell plaque, they have to end the turn either if they battle with the demon or not.
• Confronting an event card: if the player is picking an event card, their turn is over after obeying the commandment of the card.

Game Levels

Level 1: Finding a Sacred Room

At the first level, players have to find a sacred room in the mansion. The game will proceed to level 2 once a sacred room is found. Players don't have to enter the sacred room; finding a sacred room in the mansion is sufficient.

You cannot use the astrolabe in level 1. Players are free to move to other rooms, but if confronted with the demon, they cannot battle and have to end their turn.

Level 2: Removing the Spell Plaques and Trapping the Demon

You can use the astrolabe in this level. You have to move to the rooms with spell plaques, revoke the spells, and find the demon's name letter by letter. This level will end if you trap the demon in the last spell plaque.

There are two conditions for this step:

1. Only one plaque has to be left in the mansion with spell that is not revoked.
2. At least 3 letters from the demon's name are revealed. Meaning, there are at least 9 coins on the demon's name table.

When both these conditions are met, you have successfully trapped the demon in a plaque. As soon as the first player gets to this room with the last plaque, the game proceeds to level 3 and no more cards can be picked.

If another room with a new plaque is opened before a player reaches the demon's room, the demon is lost and that new room might be the demon's room. You have to continue the game until there is only one spell plaque left.

• It is possible that an astrolabe commandment revokes all the spell plaques in the mansion. You have to open new rooms in this situation to be able to trap the demon in a spell plaque.
• In the very special case that all the spell plaques are revoked (all room cards are placed on the game cloth) you have won without passing the 3rd level (final fight with the demon). Level 4 will start in this case.

Level 3: Fighting the Demon and Surrender

When a player gets into the room with the last spell plaque, they can name that room the demon's room. In this case the game will enter level 3, final fight with the demon. Players can't take more cards. They can move their pawns to the demon's room on their turn and start fighting.

Again, players use the geomancy dice to fight with the demon, but geomancy dice numbers are not dictated by the astrolabe. The Demon's name table will specify the numbers. The geomancy dice has to be similar to the numbers on rows or columns of the table.

Winning on a turn: Each player will throw the geomancy dice to the number of their wisdom. If they match each combination of numbers (written on the rows or columns), they can take the coins spread on those rows or columns and finish the turn.

Losing in a turn: If a player throws the geomancy dice to the number of their wisdom and did not grab any coins, they will lose a life and finish the turn.

The printed example captions read: "With 020 on geomancy dice the coins on this row is yours." and "To win the coins on this column you need 010 on geomancy dice." (The numbers are reproduced as printed.)

Final winning: This process will continue until there are no coins left on the table. In this instance, the demon is completely destroyed and level 4 will begin.

• The coins gained at this level are added to players' belongings and will make them stronger for the battle.
• The pawn entering the demon's room cannot leave the room until the fight is over (when all the coins on the table are collected) and does not have the choice to refrain from the fight.

Level 4: Escaping the Mansion

Upon succeeding the battle with the demon, level 4 will begin. In this level the mansion starts to collapse. Each player can move once in a turn, irrespective of their life coins. Only the pawns which can enter into sacred rooms will have the chance to escape the mansion and survive.

The player who hit the demon last and took the last coin on the table will begin the first move. Each player will have a chance to buy a tool before starting to move. And each player has to do both of these actions:

1. Take the coins in the room as a prize.
2. If there is not another pawn present in the room which is being abandoned, destroy the room (turn the card upside down and put it back in place).

• Sacred rooms will not be destroyed.
• If you reached a sacred room, you are not obliged to leave the mansion and may continue moving to other rooms to gain more prize.
• If a pawn stays in a room for 2 turns, the room will collapse, the player will lose their coins and leave the game.

Missions

During level 2 you can get a prize by doing any mission. Any place on the mansion that you have accomplished a mission, take 3 random coins from the bag and add to your belongings.

• In these missions (related to room placement), a single room cannot be used in two different missions.

Make a 4-Room Corridor from Bloody Rooms

If four bloody rooms are placed in a way that there are direct doors between the first room to the last (the 2 middle rooms have to have opposing doors), the player who placed the last room will be prized.

Put Two Humid Rooms with A and B Plaques Door to Door

If two humid rooms with spell plaques A and B are connected with a door, the player who placed the second room will be prized.

(AB in Persian means water.)

Put Three Windy Rooms with A, B and D Plaques

If three windy rooms with spell plaques A, B and D are placed adjacent to each other, even if there are no connecting doors, the player who placed the third room will be prized.

(BAD in Persian means Wind.)

Make a Square with Three Smoggy Rooms

If you placed three smoggy rooms beside each other in a way that each room is connected to the other two via doors, the player who placed the third room will be prized.

Make a Square with 4 Types of Rooms

If 4 different types of rooms (humid, smoggy, windy and bloody) are placed close to each other in a way that all rooms are connected (even indirectly), the player who placed the last room will be prized.

Hit Four Events

Irrespective of your success after any event card, put each event card that you passed on your belongings. The player with four event cards will be prized.

Remove the Last Spell to Specify the Demon's Room

When a pawn entered the last room with a plaque, and that room was announced the demon's room, the player who removed the last spell plaque will be prized.

Find the Sixth Letter of the Demon's Name

The player who gets a command from the backside of the astrolabe and finds the sixth letter (non-repetitive) of the demon's name will be prized.

Find the Seventh Letter of the Demon's Name

The player who gets a command from the astrolabe and finds the seventh letter (non-repetitive) of the demon's name will be prized.

Game Ending

When all the players have left the mansion and survived or been buried under the ruins, the game will finish. The winner is the survivor with the most coins.

• The coins left in the mansion on the game cloth do not belong to any player.
• Tool coins are considered one coin in the final count.