Dining with Dracula Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Summary
• Objective
• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Day Phase
  • Collect Resources (time cost: 1 Hour)
  • Repair a Souvenir Stand (time cost: 2 Hours)
    • Souvenir Stand Bonuses
  • Using a Tourist
  • Tourist Special Abilities
• Dinner Phase
  • The Dinner Entrance Fee
  • Converting Favor Tokens and Gift Cards to Victory Points
  • Preparing for the Next Round
  • Moving the Bus
• Gift Cards
• Bites
  • Removing Bites
• Game End & Victory
  • Tiebreaker

Game Summary

In Dining with Dracula, you will be vying for Dracula's affection to become the next heir to his expansive Tourist domain.

To gain the upper hand, you'll be collecting resources, repairing souvenir stands, and snagging the occasional Tourist to do your bidding. Of course, all this work takes time, and there are only so many hours in the day to complete everything you want to do.

After each day is done, you'll spend an intimate dinner with the Count himself and brag about what you've done to earn his attention.

Objective

You only have 4 rounds to earn Dracula's affection and the right to inherit his domain by collecting the most Victory Points (VP) by the end of the game.

Components

• 1 Game board
• 4 Player boards
• 30 Tourist Ability cards
• 4 Custom Hero meeples
• 8 Tourist meeples
• 4 Player Reference cards (not included in the prototype)
• 24 Gift cards
• 9 Bus Location cards
• 1 Round marker
• 1 First Player marker (not included in the prototype)
• 25 Favor tokens
• 1 Cardboard Bus (not included in the prototype)
• 135 Resource tokens (15 each of: Wood, Brick, Metal, Sheep, Blood Packs, Holy Water, Beer, Doughnuts, and Garlic)
• 60 Cubes (15 of each player color)
• 15 Bite tokens (not included in the prototype, use cubes instead)

Setup

Your road to vampiric fame and fortune starts here!

1. Place the Game board in the center of the playing area.
2. Set the Tower Clock to 12 o'clock and place the Round marker on the 1st "sun" space of the Round track at the top of the board.
3. Shuffle the Tourist Ability cards and place the deck face down near the board. Draw 8 cards and place them face up next to the board.
4. Shuffle the Gift cards and place the deck face down near the board. Deal 3 Gift cards face up to each player.
5. Separate and place all resources (Wood, Brick, Metal, Sheep, Blood Packs, Holy Water, Beer, Doughnuts, and Garlic) in a general supply near the board. (some wood resources are different in the prototype)
6. Give each player 1 Player board, and the Hero meeple and cubes of their chosen color. Each player places: a. 1 cube on the "0" space of the Victory Points track on the game board. b. Their Hero meeple at Dracula's table on the board.
7. Place all 8 Tourist meeples in the Bus. (Bus not included in the prototype).
8. Shuffle the Bus Location cards and place the deck face down near the board.
9. Draw 5 Bus Location cards. After each card is drawn, move the Bus to the indicated location and place 1 Tourist from the Bus on the resource space of the location.

For locations with 2 resource spaces, place the Tourist on the left space.

After 4 Tourists are placed, leave the remaining 4 Tourists in the Bus and place the Bus at the location indicated by the 5th card.

Completed Setup (diagram in the original rulebook)

Gameplay

There are only 4 days and nights to convince Dracula that you're his heir apparent… make the most of every hour to gain his favor!

Each round of "Dining with Dracula" has 2 distinct phases - the Day Phase and the Dinner Phase.

During the Day Phase, you'll place your Hero meeple on a location space to perform an action. Depending on where your Hero is placed, you may also activate a Tourist for a second action.

Each of these actions has a specific time cost that is taken from a communal Tower Clock on the board used by all players. Once all 24 hours of the Day Phase have been used, play moves to the Dinner Phase.

In the Dinner Phase, you'll pay Bribes to join Dracula at the dinner table, which allows you to convert the Favor tokens you've earned during the round into Victory Points (Dracula's affection).

Day Phase

It may look like a sleepy town, but when the Tourists arrive, this little hamlet truly comes to life…

Starting with the player who has the First Player token and moving clockwise, each player will take a turn by placing their Hero meeple on a location space, paying the necessary time cost (as well as any resource costs), and performing the action listed.

A location has two different types of action spaces. The available action types are:

• Collect Resources (oval spaces, 1 Hour cost)
• Repair a Souvenir Stand (square spaces, 2 Hours cost)

Paying the time cost by moving the clock forward 1-2 hours is done BEFORE the action is resolved. Any action that would take the clock past 24 hours may NOT be completed. For example, if the clock is at 11PM, you cannot use the "repair" action, because it would cost 2 hours.

Also, a Hero must move - they may NOT remain on the same space from the previous round and use its action again. However, they may move to another space at the same location or any available space at another location.

Note: You may NOT place your Hero on the same space as another Hero. However, you MAY place your Hero on the same space as a Tourist (see Using a Tourist, pg. 09). Locations may have multiple Heroes and Tourists.

Collect Resources (time cost: 1 Hour)

Get to those valuable spaces quickly and snap up the resources you need!

All location resource spaces give a player 1 or 2 resources (more if certain Tourist Ability cards are used). Place your Hero on the desired space, move the clock forward 1 hour, and take the resources indicated from the supply.

Ex. You place your Hero on the first resource space of location #1. Move the clock forward 1 hour and take 2 Wood resources from the supply.

Repair a Souvenir Stand (time cost: 2 Hours)

They may be run-down now, but once you've had a go at them, they'll start pulling in Tourists by the droves…

There are either 1 (Locations 1-3) or 5 (Locations 4-9) Souvenir Stand spaces at each location. Each of these Souvenir Stands must be repaired in sequence from left to right (see example), and each may be repaired by only 1 player.

To repair a Souvenir Stand, perform the following steps in order:

Place your Hero (or Tourist meeple) on the first available location repair space (from left to right).

1. Move the clock 2 hours forward.
2. Pay the resource costs.
3. Take the listed number of Favor tokens.
4. Place 1 of your cubes on the space to show it has been repaired.

Ex. You place your Hero on the first available repair space at "Garlic Stand" location (the first 2 spaces have already been repaired). Move the Clock 2 hours forward, and pay the indicated 1 Wood + 1 Metal resources. Take 2 Favor tokens and place a cube of your color on the space.

Note: Once the first 12 Hours have been spent, move the Round marker to the "moon" space to denote that there are only 12 hours remaining in the Day Phase.

Souvenir Stand Bonuses

Repairing Souvenir Stands can lead to 2 potential bonuses:

• If you have a majority of a location's repaired Souvenir Stands at the end of the game, you will receive 1 Victory Point.
• If you were the last player to repair a Souvenir Stand (your cube would be the furthest to the right), you are considered to control the location and will gain free resources when a new Tourist arrives at your location from the Bus.

Using a Tourist

Tourists are the bread and butter of Dracula's empire… and once you figure out how best to use them, you'll be gaining resources and repairing souvenir stands like nobody's business!

In addition to your Hero's action, you may also potentially use a Tourist during your turn in 2 ways:

1. If a Tourist is on ANY space at the same location where your Hero was placed, the Hero's action is first performed as normal, and you may then perform an additional action by activating the Tourist. Move the Tourist to ANY unoccupied space of ANY location and perform the action there.

   Other spaces at a location may be occupied by Heroes or Tourists, but you may place the Tourist on any UNOCCUPIED space at the location.

   Note: The space can be at your current location or ANY other location!

2. If your Hero is at the same location as the Bus, a Tourist may be taken from the Bus by paying 1 Doughnut or 1 Beer (no time cost). The Tourist can either be immediately activated to perform a second (or third) action as above OR may be kept on the Hero board to be used as a Bribe during the next Dinner.

   This may be done IN ADDITION to activating a Tourist from a space at the same location (you would have 3 actions in a single turn).

Note: Time costs are paid for BOTH the Hero's and the Tourist's actions, but not if the Tourist meeple is kept as a Bribe for the next Dinner.

Tourist Special Abilities

When using a Tourist to complete an action, players MUST also activate a Tourist Ability card. This is done AFTER the space's action has been completed.

1. Choose 1 of the face up Tourist Ability cards to activate.
2. Use the stated ability. Extra resources generated by Tourist Ability cards MUST MATCH the resources produced by the location (unless otherwise stated on the card).
3. Flip the card face down - it may not be used by other players until the 8 cards are refreshed.

When the last of the 8 face up Tourist Ability card is used, no matter how many hours are left on the clock, all 8 are discarded and 8 new cards are dealt face up from the deck. If there are no more cards to be drawn, shuffle the discards to create a new deck.

Ex. The clock is at 22 hours. Hannah places her Hero on the "Garlic Stand" location resource space, which has a Tourist. She moves the clock 1 hour forward to 23 hours and takes 1 Garlic resource.

Now, she chooses the "Senor Medeira" Tourist Ability and places the Tourist on the resource space at "Forest Shed" location. The clock is moved to 24 hours and Hanna receives 3 Wood resources from the supply (2 from the space and 1 from the Tourist Ability). The Tourist Ability card is then flipped over.

Note: Hannah could NOT use the Tourist to repair a Souvenir Stand as the time cost (2 hours) would have moved the clock past 24 hours.

Once all 24 hours of the Day Phase have been spent (12 "sun" hours and 12 "moon" hours), play moves to the Dinner Phase.

Dinner Phase

Nothing beats a nice, filling meal after a hard day's work… unless YOU'RE the dinner!

After doing the work of the day, it's time to have dinner with Dracula at the stroke of midnight. Return all Tourist meeples back to the Bus (outside the board) and move Hero meeples to Dracula's table (bottom of the board) and the following steps are completed in order.

1. Starting with the player who has the First Player token and moving clockwise, each player pays the Dinner Entrance Fee and converts Favor tokens to Victory Points.
2. Advance the Round marker to the next round.
3. The First Player token moves to the next player to act (the player to the left of the player that had the last turn during the Day Phase).
4. Each player draws new Gift cards to replace completed cards until they have at least 3.
5. All Tourist cards are shuffled and 8 new cards are dealt.
6. All Location cards are shuffled, 5 are drawn to move the Bus, and new Tourists are placed in the same way as during setup.

The Dinner Entrance Fee

Decide whether you will give Dracula a Bribe to attend the Dinner or receive a Bite.

Attending dinner will give you the right to convert Favor tokens and Gift cards into Victory Points.

To attend Dinner, at least 3 Bribes must be paid and can be any combination of the following:

• Sheep = 1 Bribe
• Blood Pack = 2 Bribes
• Tourist = 3 Bribes
• Completed Gift Card = 1 Bribe (Tracked on the player board - the leftmost cube is always used to pay. You may only use 1 Bribe from your Gifts track per Dinner.)

If you do not have the Bribes needed to pay the Dinner entrance (or choose not to use them), you receive a Bite token from Dracula and place it on your Hero board in the designated spot (see Bites, pg. XX).

Note: If a player has Tourists from the Bus on their player board, they MUST use those Tourists to pay the Dinner Entrance Fee or lose the Tourist at the end of the Dinner Phase.

Converting Favor Tokens and Gift Cards to Victory Points

If you have decided to pay the Dinner Entrance, you may then convert your Favor tokens from repaired Souvenir Stands and Gift cards into VP. For each 1 Bribe paid, you may convert either:

• 1 Favor token into 1 VP - Return the Favor token to the supply and move your cube forward on the VP track 1 space.

  OR

• 1 Gift card into VP - Pay the resources required by the Gift card and move your cube forward on the VP track by the number of points shown on the card. Discard the converted card and immediately draw a new Gift card. Also, add a cube to the first open space on your Gift card track, taking any bonuses (see Gift Cards, pg. 14).

Ex. Alice pays 1 Tourist, 1 Blood Pack, and 1 Sheep for a total of 6 Bribes. She may make up to 6 conversions into VP.

She has 5 Favor tokens from repairing Souvenir Stands and 1 Gift card of value 3 that she can complete.

She returns the Favor tokens back to the supply, and moves forward 5 spaces on the VP track.

For the Gift card, she pays the resources listed (1 Wood, 1 Brick, 1 Metal, 1 Donut, and 1 Holy Water), and moves forward 3 spaces on the VP track. The converted card is discarded and she immediately draws a new Gift card. In addition, Alice adds a cube on the first open space of her Gift cards track.

Note: You will decide to pay the dinner entrance AND convert Favor tokens before the next clockwise player decides to attend the dinner or not.

Preparing for the Next Round

Advance the Round marker to the next round at the top of the board. If all rounds have been completed, skip the remaining steps and proceed to Game End & Victory (pg. XX).

In addition, all Tourist cards are shuffled and 8 new cards are dealt face up to be used in the next round..

Moving the Bus

Return ALL Tourists back to the Bus. (the actual bus not included in the prototype)

As in setup, the player with the First Player token draws 5 Bus Location cards. After each card is drawn, move the Bus to the indicated location and place 1 Tourist from the Bus to resource space of the location. After all 4 Tourists are placed, move the Bus to the location indicated by the 5th card.

At each location where the Bus stops, the player who controls the location (furthest cube to the right) immediately receives 1 resource of the same type produced by the location.

Gift Cards

Dracula loves gifts, especially obscure and hard-to-find treasures. Use your resources wisely to acquire gifts you can give to Dracula during dinner…

Gift cards are individual objectives that you may fulfill to gain Victory Points. You receive 3 Gift cards during setup and refill any completed Gift cards immediately after converting them to VP.

You may complete your Gift cards for VP during the Dinner Phase if you have the required resources and have paid the dinner entrance (3 or more Bribes).

Note: Completing a Gift card counts as 1 Bribe from your dinner entrance fee, regardless of how many VP it gives you.

The resources are returned to the supply and you move your cube on the VP track ahead by the number of points listed. The card is discarded and a new Gift card is drawn.

In addition, for each newly completed Gift card, add a cube to the first open space of your Gifts track. Some spaces award bonus resources or more Gift cards. When you place a cube on an award space, immediately take the bonus listed.

For the +1 and +2 Gift card bonuses, this increases the number of Gift cards in your hand. In the example below, the first +1 bonus space has a cube. The player should now have 4 cards in their hand instead of 3.

The cubes on your Gifts track may also be used as a Bribe to pay for future Dinners (see The Dinner Entrance Fee, pg. XX). When using a cube as a Bribe, you always pay with the leftmost cube on the track.

Note: You take the bonus EVERY time you place a cube on an award space. When a new Gift card is completed, fill the first empty space from the left to right. This is why you always use the leftmost cube to pay for dinner entrance, making it more difficult to achieve the same bonus multiple times.

Bites

Take one step out of line and you'll feel Dracula's fury as his fangs sink into your soft neck…

Getting Bites from Dracula reduces your ability to convert Favor tokens to VP during the Dinner Phase. For each Bite, the total amount is lowered by 1.

Ex. Steven pays 2 Blood Packs and 1 Sheep as the Dinner Entrance, giving him the right to convert 5 Favor tokens, However, he has 2 Bites, so he may only convert up to 3 Favors into VP.

A player may have a maximum of 3 Bites. Place the bite tokens on the designated spaces on the player board. If more Bites would be given, they are simply ignored.

Removing Bites

A player may choose to pay 1 Garlic or 1 Holy Water to return a Bite token back to the supply. This can be done at any time on a player's turn if the player has the required resource.

Game End & Victory

The time has come… to count up points! Muhahaha! Will you take over as Dracula's successor or be left behind your more entrepreneuring opponents?

The game ends once 4 entire rounds (both Day and Dinner Phases) have been played.

After the 4th Dinner, each location is evaluated in order and a 1 VP bonus is given to the player that holds the majority of Souvenir Stands at the location. At least 2 Souvenir Stands must be at the location for the bonus to be awarded.

In the case of ties, no VP bonus is awarded.

Once Souvenir Stand VP bonuses have been received, the player that is highest on the VP track is declared the winner.

Tiebreaker

1. If 2 or more players are tied with the highest number of VP, the winner is the player who repaired the most Souvenir Stands.
2. If still tied, the player who has the most cubes on their Gifts track is the winner.
3. If still tied, the player who has the last cube on the most repaired Souvenir Stand wins.
4. If still tied, the victory is shared between the tied players.