Card of the Dead
Card of the Dead Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
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56 cards (23 Zombie cards, 27 Surprise cards, 6 Action cards)
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Rulebook
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56 cards (23 Zombie cards, 27 Surprise cards, 6 Action cards)
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Rulebook
Cards
Action cards
Action cards are the bits and tricks that may (possibly) save you from being eaten. Use them: being eaten is a poor alternative. The number in the upper right corner of an Action card is its escape points (for when stealth is better than bravery). We will talk about escaping later.
Action cards have yellow titles.
Surprise cards
In life, as you know, all sorts of things happen. Surprise cards are exactly that. In situations where you are trying to avoid meeting zombies, anything can be deadly. We have all, at least once in our lives, run into a dead end while fleeing from a crowd of sinister zombies, right? Surprise cards have blue titles.
Zombie cards
Zombies want to eat you. You probably know this already, but in the rules we try to avoid any ambiguity. Zombie cards have green titles.
If a game situation requires you to pass a Zombie card to your neighbour, pass a Zombie card. If there is no Zombie card, pass a Zombies card. And if there is neither, pass a Full Zombie card. If there is none of these three, pass nothing — nothing happens.
Setup
For a start, prepare supplies of food and water, and barricade the doors. That's almost everything. There's just one small thing left.
- Shuffle all the cards into a deck and place it face down in the centre of the table.
- Each surviving player draws 10 cards from the deck and may keep up to three Action cards with 1 escape point in hand, returning the rest to the deck. If three such cards could not be drawn, it is not your day.
- Shuffle the deck again and return it to the table.
The player who last went to the supermarket goes first.
Your Turn
Draw the top card from the deck. What happens next depends on your luck:
- if you drew an Action card, take it into your hand;
- if you drew a Zombie card, it lunges at you, fingers outstretched — place this card in front of you face up;
- if you drew a Surprise card, immediately carry out everything written on it, and discard it.
Then you may play one Action card from your hand (including the one you have just drawn). If you do not want to, you may play none. An Action card can be played in one of two ways: apply its ability or gain escape points.
- If you apply its ability, carry out everything written on the Action card, and discard it.
- If you gain escape points, place the Action card in front of you so that everyone can see how many escape points you have at the moment.
Getting Cramped
If the zombies have surrounded you, you can no longer play Action cards for escape points. Use the table to see when you are surrounded. Only zombies laid out directly in front of you count.
| Number of survivors | Zombies needed to surround you |
|---|---|
| 2 | 5 |
| 3–4 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 |
Time for Lunch
If the zombies have eaten you, you are out of the game until the end of the round. Use the table to see when you are eaten. Only zombies laid out directly in front of you count.
| Number of survivors | Zombies needed to eat you |
|---|---|
| 2 | 7 |
| 3–4 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
End of Round
The round ends in one of three cases.
- All but one have been eaten. That one remaining player receives 5 survival points.
- One of the survivors has escaped the city. Then each uneaten player receives survival points equal to their escape points. Use the table to see when you escape.
| Number of survivors | Escape points needed to escape |
|---|---|
| 2 | 7 |
| 3–4 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
- The deck has run out of cards. Then each uneaten player receives survival points equal to their escape points.
When the round has ended, shuffle all the cards and start a new round from the setup stage. The player who went second in the previous round goes first.
Winner
The game lasts 3 rounds. Whoever gathers the most survival points over the three rounds becomes the hero of the zombie apocalypse. They will celebrate their victory in a bunker stocked with supplies or in a government shelter. If two players finish the game with equal scores, they share the victory, the title, the prizes, and the right to inherit the Earth (and, with luck, to resettle it).