Castle Party
Castle Party Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Goal of the Game
As groups of monsters arrive at the castle for the party, you place them inside so that they are as comfortable as possible—and thereby earn as many points as possible in your drive to win this monstrous game!
Materials
- 4 double-sided castle whiteboards, with two playing levels
- 4 dry-erase markers
- 50 Monster cards (10 Skeletons, 10 Witches, 10 Vampires, 10 Ghosts, 10 Frankensteins)
- 5 Monster King/Queen cards (Skeleton, Witch, Vampire, Ghost, and Frankenstein)
- 5 Unicorn cards
- 20 Shape cards
- 3 Clock cards
Setup
Each player takes a castle whiteboard and a marker. Then the players choose the level of the game they will play (details for the advanced version are on page 7). Take note which side of the table you are sitting on because the orientation of the cards is very important during the playing of the game.
The Monster cards are shuffled together with the Unicorn cards. Three cards are dealt to each player, and the rest of the cards are kept face down in a pile in the center of the table.
Then, the Shape cards are shuffled and split into four face-down piles. A Clock card is added to three of the piles and they are then each shuffled separately. After that, a single deck is formed by placing the first pile (the one without the clock card) on top of the other three piles. Then this single deck is placed face down on one side of the table.
Game Turn
The player who most recently went to a party goes first, with play passing to the left.
On your turn, you must turn over the top Shape card from the deck and place it in the middle of the table where everyone can see it. Then, the players will work together to create a group of guests in a shape that matches the figure on the Shape card.
First, you decide which way to orient the Shape card, according to your own interests. Then, take one of the Monster cards from your hand and place it on the table near the Shape card, lined up with the "X" on the Shape card.
Then, the player to your left adds one of their Monster cards so that it is touching the first card, following the shape of the figure that is on the Shape card. Keep playing in this way until you have reproduced the shape of the entire figure on the table with Monster cards. Every time a player places a Monster card in contact with at least one of the already placed ones, they immediately draw a new card from the deck and add it to their hand.
Once the figure has been completed, ask if anyone wishes to carry out a special action on the figure (see "Special Actions," below). Whether or not a special action is used, then it's time to add the group to the parties. Each player chooses where they want to place the group that has just arrived within their own castle.
To add the group to your castle, draw symbols matching each of the monsters in the group so that each one is placed in a separate box on your whiteboard. The positions of your guests relative to each other must exactly match the shape of the Monster cards laid out earlier as you see it based on your location at the table. You cannot turn or alter the shape before drawing the monsters: You must place the group in your castle in the same orientation as seen from your position.
Monster symbols: Witch, Skeleton, Ghost, Frankenstein, Vampire, Unicorn — each drawn in a Basic form and a King/Queen form.
You may leave part of a group outside your castle ("in the moat"), as long as they keep their position in accordance with the Monster cards. At the end of the party, all guests in the moat outside your castle walls are subtracted from your score. Those that are on the drawbridge waiting to get in instead award 0 points at the end of the match.
Once all of the players have drawn the Monsters in their own castles, all of the cards are removed and the game continues with the next player's turn. Shape cards and Monster cards are placed in their corresponding discard piles EXCEPT for the King/Queen Monster cards and the Unicorns, which are removed from the game once they have been used. If you run out of Monster cards before the game ends, take the discard pile and shuffle it to form a new deck.
The player to the left of the one who played the last Shape card turns over a new card from the Shape card deck and play continues as before. If it makes it easier, you can mark which player just turned over a Shape card and therefore whose turn is being played: You can use any object you have at hand as a marker to indicate the active player, such as a punch glass or a mirrored disco ball.
Special Actions
Once a group of guests has been completed but before they are added to the castles, the player that revealed the Shape card in play announces whether they wish to perform a special action or pass. If they pass, the next player to their left may perform the special action or pass, and so on until someone says they wish to perform a special action or all players have passed.
You can use each of the special actions only once throughout the length of the game: mark the ones you have used on your whiteboard. The actions and their effects are:
- Lights out: You can rearrange the Monsters that make up the group by switching their positions, but the shape and orientation of the figure must remain unchanged. No Monsters can be added or removed. This change affects all players.
- Masked ball: You can draw one of the Monsters from the group as though it were a different type (except for Kings and Unicorns). This change does not affect the other players, who must still draw the Monster on their boards as it appears in the original group.
- Change in orientation: You can turn the figure before anybody draws it. This change affects all players.
Every time you use a special action, remember to check it off your whiteboard. You cannot use it again for the rest of the game.
Events During the Party
At three moments during the party, all players must score their points. Each time a Clock card is revealed, each player must choose one of the Events they have available to score at that moment.
The Events are on the whiteboards and each player can use each of them to score only once during the game. They must note down the result in the corresponding space on their whiteboard. These Events and their effects are:
- Fireworks: The player counts 1 point for each Monster (regardless of its type) located in a space just in front of their Castle windows, ready to enjoy watching the fireworks go off in the sky.
- Conga: The player counts the largest group of Monsters in the same family that are connected to one another (orthogonally—diagonal does not count) and scores 1 point per space occupied by that group.
- Toast to the Pumpkin King: The player draws the Pumpkin King symbol in an empty space on their whiteboard and scores 1 point for each different monster that is in one of the eight boxes that surround him (each of the Kings also counts as a different type).
In the rulebook's worked example, if the player decides to score the Fireworks, they would get 6 points; if they choose the Conga, they would get 5 points (scoring the group of Vampires); while, if they opt for the Toast to the Pumpkin King, they would receive 5 points.
End of the Game
The game comes to an end at the moment that the third and final Clock appears. Before calculating the Final Score, each player must first score their last remaining Event.
Final Score
Each player adds up their Final Score in the following manner and notes down the results in the corresponding boxes:
- Points for Groups of Guests: The player gets 1 point for each Monster that is orthogonally connected (in contact only by the sides) in the single largest group of its kind in their party. Any other groups of that type are not scored. If the King of that type of Monster is part of the largest group, the player gets 1 additional point for each Monster in the group that is around him, touching the King on one side or corner diagonally (meaning that at most the player will receive 8 additional points). ATTENTION: Any Monsters that are outside of your castle are not included in any group.
- Points for Unicorns: The player gets points for the largest group of orthogonally adjacent Unicorns: −5, 1, 5, 10, or 15 points if there is one, two, three, four, or five Unicorns, respectively.
- Points for special actions: The player gets 2 points for each special action they did not use during the game.
- Penalty for Guests in the Moat: The player has 1 point taken away for each monster that ends up in the moat outside their castle walls. Those guests that are on the drawbridge are not counted at all: they do not take away from the player's score, but do not provide any points either.
Rave Version
Experienced hosts can play using the castle located on the back of their whiteboards, with the shiny frame around it.
The general rules are the same as in the basic version, but here we have 5 gathering points within the castle, specific to the tastes of each type of monsters who have been invited. Keep in mind that the spaces indicated for these gathering points cannot be occupied by any other kind of guest.
- Wall of speakers: The Frankenstein monsters love to breakdance right where the ear-bleeding sounds come out.
- Punch: Everyone knows how much vampires love to suck down a drink.
- Mirrored ball: The ghosts love the effect the colored lights have on their translucent bodies.
- DJ: Skeletons love to shake their bones as they dance around the disc-jockey.
- Hors d'oeuvres table: Here are plates full of bite-sized portions of the most dubious and unpleasant origins that the witches who gather around the table seem to enjoy so much.
In this variant of the game, in addition to the points from the basic version, players also get an additional point for each Monster that is in contact with their favorite gathering point (to a maximum of four per gathering point), regardless of whether they make up part of the largest group of their type or not.
Credits
Authors: Eugeni Castaño and Josep M. Allué Illustrator: Laurielle Editor: David Esbrí Proof reader: Marià Pitarque Translation: Andrew Campbell Layout: CeciRC
Scoring Examples
The rulebook closes with two fully-worked scoring examples (a basic-version "Party" example and an advanced-version "Rave Party" example) showing a completed castle whiteboard, the Fireworks/Conga/Toast to the Pumpkin King events scored together for illustration, and the resulting Final Score tally. These examples are presented as annotated diagrams of a filled-in whiteboard rather than running text, walking through the same scoring rules described above with sample numbers.