Code of Nine Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components
Preparation
Playing with 3 Players or with the Expert Rules
How to Win the Game
Flow of the Game
Details on the Locations
- Location Symbols
Score Calculation at Game End
Memory Card List
Locations List

Components

28 Memory cards

Each card has a number (1) in the top left and an instruction (2) (effect). Cards 19–28 are noted "Expert" (instead of Normal) (3); use them only with the Expert rules. All cards also have an order number (4) in the bottom right. This is the order in which the card instructions are applied at the end of the game.

1 Board

The board has a number of locations; these are grouped into sections, showing which rounds they are active. You place your Action pawns on these locations to perform the action of that location, and to show that you have been there.

In the middle of the board, you have the Ruins. This is where various tokens are placed during setup, and it's from here that players take items.

31 Item tokens

These are put in the Ruins at the start of the game and will be acquired by the players as the game goes on. Some are worth VP ([Victory point]), others not. The inherent VP value of the items may be changed by the Memory cards.

16 Coins
8 Statues
4 Books
1 White Legacy
1 Black Legacy
1 Medal (Expert Game)

4 Will markers

The Will markers are put on the player boards to note how much Will the player has.

Start Player marker

The Start Player marker indicates who will go first in the next round.

12 Action pawns

The Action pawns are put on the board to show which action the player takes.

1 Round marker

It is used to track the current round.

4 Player sheets

One for each player. Here players mark how much Will they have left (1), the two Memory cards they receive at the start (2), their unused Action pawns (3), gained items, and any released Legacy (4).

(The Will gauge only goes to 15, but this is not a top limit. Should your Will surpass 15, keep track of that in any suitable way. Will can never go below 0.)

Score sheets

Used to calculate score. If you need more, visit www.zmangames.com.

4 Memory lists

One for each player, to keep track of which possible Memories there might be in the game.

Preparation

Place the board on the side you wish to play. The side with the Yellow 1 is for the Normal Game and the one with the Red 1 is for the Expert Game. The Expert side is more challenging.
Put the Item tokens in the Ruins on the board, as depicted; the 8 statues, the 16 coins, and the 4 books in the middle of the board. The 2 Legacies are placed on top of the Round 2 section. Put the Medal in the box, unless you are playing the Expert Game. If you are playing the Expert Game, put the Medal under the "Cult of Honeybook" action.
Each player takes a player sheet, a Will marker and the 3 Action pawns in their color. If you're playing with 3 players, put the fourth player sheet beside the board to represent the ghost player.
Choose a start player and give them the Start Player marker. The start player gets no Will to start with, but the second and third player get 1 Will each, and the fourth player (if any) gets 2 Will. If playing with 3, the ghost player gets no Will at all.
Shuffle the Memory cards (only use the Expert cards if you're playing the Expert Game) and deal 2 facedown to each player. At this point, players may perform a one-time change of their Memory cards if they wish, at the cost of 1 Action pawn (effectively reducing the number of actions they may take during the first round). All players who wish to change Memory cards return both their cards to the deck, and pay one Action pawn. The Memory cards are then shuffled and re-dealt to those who changed.
Each player chooses which of their two Memory cards is placed in their Abyss, and which is placed in their Shoal (during the game, other players may take actions to look at these cards. The Abyss is more difficult to look at than the Shoal). Players may always look at their own Memories, but may not show them to others unless the rules say so. Players may never swap cards between the Shoal and the Abyss.

If you're playing with 3 players, deal two Memory cards to the ghost player, putting one in the Abyss and one in the Shoal.
If you're playing with the Expert rules, after dealing, put one of the remaining Memory cards faceup on the designated space on the board. This is the Ninth Memory. The effects of the Ninth Memory will not be applied to scoring, but actions in the game let players exchange one of their Memory cards with the Ninth Memory!

The rest of the Memory cards are put back in the box and may not be looked at by anyone.
Set the Round marker on the "1 only" space to show the current round. You are ready to play.

Playing with 3 Players or with the Expert Rules

Code of Nine is designed for 4 players, but is perfectly playable with three; you simply add a ghost player. The process of doing so is noted in blue throughout the rules.

We do not recommend starting with the Expert rules. Once you have played the game several times, you may advance to the Expert rules when you are ready to do so. Expert rules include more possible Memory cards, a rule for the Ninth Memory and other things. The required changes are described in red throughout the rules.

How to Win the Game

The player(s) with the most VP at the end of the game wins.

However, how VP are gained varies from game to game. At the start of the game, each player gets two Memory cards that describe what will earn you VP at the end of the game. Some Memory cards also contain what might give penalty points, and what might cause a player to not be able to win at all! Each player gets two of these cards, which means that there will be eight such cards in each game.

And all eight of these Memory cards are valid for all players.

You have 15 actions that you must use to gain points. You will gather items and Will to perform powerful actions. You might be able to peek at other players' cards, and you need to balance your assets.

When all players are done, all 8 Memory cards are revealed, and players count their points. The player(s) with most points wins.

Flow of the Game

The game is divided into five rounds. Every round, each player will get up to three turns, during which he places one of his Action pawns to note which action he is taking.

Starting with the Start player, and going clockwise, each player takes their turn until all players have run out of Action pawns. A player who has Action pawns left may not choose to pass. If you run out of Action pawns, your turn is automatically skipped.

On your turn, choose a location to place your Action pawn and perform the associated action. You may place an Action pawn on any location associated with the current round or any previous round, but never on locations associated with future rounds. Also, you may not place an Action pawn on a space already occupied by another Action pawn, or where you are unable to pay the placement cost.

Once you have placed and performed the action, then it is the next player's turn to place an Action pawn. This continues until all players have run out of Action pawn, at which point the round ends.

When the round ends, perform any "end of round" effects, give back all Action pawn to all players, advance the Round marker to the next round, and then start the next round. Continue until both Legacies have been released, or you have finished round 5, at which point the game ends.

Details on the Locations

The locations on the board have symbols that depict what action you will take. For reference, all location effects are also explained below. Each location has a name (1), a cost (2) (this is noted in the circle where you place your Action pawn; most of the locations are free) and an effect (3), depicted by the symbols. Also, the locations with red text are attack effects; they will do something bad to your opponents.

Location Symbols

Player references:

You — Turn player
Other — Non-turn player
Any — Any player
Max — Player with most items

Symbols:

Board
Coin
Statue
Book
Will
Black Legacy
White Legacy
Start player
Memory of Shoal
Memory of Abyss
Any item
Victory point

Only used in the expert game:

9th Memory
Medal

Score Calculation at Game End

Once the game ends, reveal all Memory cards (even the ghost player's), and then calculate the score. As a base, players will get VP from the items they have gained during the game. However, the Memory cards may affect the value of each item, so do not total your score before going through the Memory cards. It is possible for your final score to be less than 0.

All Memory cards have an order number in the bottom right. Apply the cards in order, starting with the lowest number, and count each player's score as you go through them. All cards with the same number concern VP for the same item, and may be applied simultaneously. Do not forget that Statues, Books and Legacies have inherent VP, even if no Memory card refers to them.

You may use the score calculation sheet if you wish. There you can note the points for each item type, and there are references to what cards affect the points for that item. (Please note that on the score sheet, if no one has the card "There were the words," the number in column 8 should be 1, regardless of how many books people have.)

Memory Card List

Code	Name	Effect	Order
01	All that glimmers	All [coin] gain +1 [Victory point].	2
02	Divulged lies	All [coin] lose 1 [Victory point].	2
03	The fate of those who do not own	If there is one player with the least [coin], that player cannot win the game.	1
04	Beautiful numbers	If there is one player with the most [coin], he gains 4 [Victory point].	2
05	The small figure	All [statue] gain 2 [Victory point].	3
06	Showed me a glimpse of	The [statue] of players with exactly 1 [statue] gain 3 [Victory point].	3
07	Despair	All VP from [statue] are negative.	3
08	Knowledge is power...	All [book] gain 2 [Victory point].	4
09	...and a curse	All players with exactly 2 [book] lose 10 [Victory point].	4
10	Stacked knowledge	All players with at least 2 [book] gain 1 [Victory point] per [any item] they have.	4
11	White stone of connecting hearts	The [White Legacy] gains 3 [Victory point].	5
12	Black stone of closing hearts	The [Black Legacy] gains 3 [Victory point].	5
13	Gray stone of broken hearts	Both [White Legacy] and [Black Legacy] lose 3 [Victory point].	5
14	The small wisdom that filled the hearts	Both players who released the [White Legacy] and [Black Legacy] gain 10 [Victory point].	5
15	Collecting things	If there is one player with the most [any item], he gains 5 [Victory point].	6
16	Me	If there is one player with the most [will], he gains 5 [Victory point].	6
17	I don't want any of that. Get lost!	If there is one player with the least [any item], he gains 8 [Victory point]. If there is one player with the most [any item], he loses 8 [Victory point].

The following cards are used in the Expert Game:

Code	Name	Effect	Order
19	High ambition	If there is one player with the most [coin], he gains 10 [Victory point]. However, if Code 15 is in the game, that player cannot win the game.	2
20	There were the words	All players' [Victory point] are multiplied by their number of [book] (which may be zero). This card is invalid if Code 27 is in the game.	8
21	The Last Tune of Dancing Hearts	Both players who released the [White Legacy] and [Black Legacy] gain 50 [Victory point].	5
22	The Last XVII of Sunken Hearts	Both players who released the [White Legacy] and [Black Legacy] cannot win the game.	1
23	Lining up things	All players gain 2 VP per set of [1 [coin], 1 [statue], 1 [book]] they have.	6
24	Things that make me sad	All players with at least 1 [will] lose 3 [Victory point]. This card is invalid if Code 16 is in the game.	6
25	Throw it away!	All players gain 3 [Victory point] for each item ([coin], [statue] or [book]) that they do not have.	6
26	A fearful truth	The [Medal] gains 5 [Victory point]. During the game, should anyone look at this card, show it to all players.	7
27	THAT	If Code 26 is in the game, the winner of this game is the player with the least [Victory point].	8
28	Forget all	The [Medal] loses 50 [Victory point]. If Code 07 is in the game, both this card and Code 07 are invalid.	7

Locations List

Round	Location	Cost	Effect
1 only	Her Library	1 Will	You get 1 [book] Book from the Ruins (if any left).
1 only	Mechanism of Fortune	Free	You get 3 [coin] Coins from the Ruins (if the Ruins have less than 3 [coin] Coins, you get whatever remains).
1-5	Cash Cow Shed	Free	You get 2 [coin] from the Ruins (if the Ruins have less than 2 [coin], you get whatever remains).
1-5	Where the Lights Sink	Free	You get 1 [coin] (if any left) from the Ruins and 1 [will]. Adjust your [will] gauge.
1-5	An Old Cross	Free	You get 1 [statue] from the Ruins (if any left).
1-5	Clocktower	Free	First, you get the [Start player] (unless you already have it). Then you may return a [coin], [statue] or [book] to the Ruins.
1-5	Allure Show (attack)	Free	First you look at another player's Shoal card. Then, you may choose a player other than yourself who gains a [coin], [statue] or [book] from the Ruins.
1-5	Quarry of Wills	Free	You gain 1 [will] (adjust your gauge). This action is available even if there already are Action pawns here.
1-5	Beyond the Tunnel	Free	You gain 2 [will] (adjust your gauge).
1-5	Hearth of Thoughts	Free	You gain 3 [will] (adjust your gauge).
1-5	Sooty Watchtower	Free	Look at another player's Shoal card. For the remainder of the round, all Memory card-looking effects targeted at you have no effect.
1-5	Cult of Honeybook (attack)	1 Will	Expert game only. Choose any player (including yourself) who must take the [Medal], either from the board, or from the player who currently has the [Medal]. If the [Medal] is taken from the board, that player also gains 4 [will]. (Adjust his gauge.)
2-5	Venerable Cathedral	Free	First, look at another player's Shoal card. Then you must gain either 1 [statue] or 2 [will]. If there are no [statue], you must gain the 2 [will].
2-5	The Place Where They Looked at the Old World