Fury of Dracula (Third/Fourth Edition)
Fury of Dracula Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Using This Booklet
The purpose of this Learn to Play booklet is to teach new players how to play Fury of Dracula. This booklet includes all the rules players need to begin playing, but omits many rules exceptions and specific card interactions. It is recommended that players read this booklet in its entirety before playing their first game.
This game also includes a Rules Reference, which describes detailed rules and has the various exceptions that were omitted from this booklet. During the game, consult the Rules Reference when questions arise.
Game Overview
FURY OF DRACULA is a one-versus-many deduction game inspired by Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula. One player controls Dracula and up to four players assume the roles of his hunters. During the game, Dracula will attempt to elude the hunters as he spawns new vampires across Europe, while the hunters try to find and destroy Dracula, thereby ending his reign of terror.
Components
- 1 Game Board
- 1 Rules Reference
- 5 Character Sheets
- 5 Plastic Figures (4 Hunter Figures, 1 Dracula Figure)
- 4 Hunter Sheets
- 1 Dracula Sheet
- 75 Event Cards
- 70 Location Cards (25 Dracula, 50 Hunter, 10 Sea, 60 Land)
- 28 Encounter Cards
- 38 Item Cards
- 12 Hunter Combat Cards
- 13 Dracula Combat Cards
- 5 Power Cards
- 4 Hunter Reference Cards
- 1 Reference Map
- 6 Storm Tokens
- 4 Fog Tokens
- 2 Bats Tokens
- 3 Despair Tokens
- 1 Influence Marker
- 4 Bite Tokens
- 16 Ticket Tokens
- 1 Consecrated Ground Token
- 31 Damage Tokens (24 "1" Damage, 7 "5" Damage), double-sided
- 8 Roadblock Tokens
- 3 Heavenly Host Tokens
- 4 Rumor Tokens
- 1 Time Marker
Setup
WHEN setting up a game of Fury of Dracula, players perform the following steps:
- Place Game Board: Unfold the game board and place it in the center of the play area within reach of all players.
- Set Influence Track: Place the influence marker on space "0" of the influence track.
- Set Time Track: Place the time marker on the yellow Monday (day) space on the time track.
- Assign Roles: One player chooses to control Dracula and should sit near the side of the board showing the trail. The remaining players each choose a hunter to control. Each player takes their respective character sheet and figure, each hunter takes one hunter reference card, and Dracula takes the reference map.
- Prepare Hunter Cards: Shuffle all item cards and place them facedown near the board. Then shuffle both the hunter and Dracula event cards together into a single deck and place it near the item deck. Sort the hunter combat cards by type and place them in three distinct piles near the item deck.
- Prepare Dracula Cards: Sort the encounter cards and Dracula combat cards into two separate decks and individually shuffle them. Then create the location deck by organizing the location cards numerically. Place all three decks facedown near Dracula's side of the board.
- Create Token Pool: Place the ticket tokens facedown near the board and randomize them. Then separate the remaining tokens by type and place them in piles near the board.
- Draw Encounter Cards: Dracula draws five encounter cards for his starting hand.
- Place Hunters: Each hunter places his or her figure on a city on the board. Lord Godalming is placed in Constanta, Dr. John Seward is placed in Marseilles, Mina Harker is placed in Brussels, and Van Helsing is placed in Amsterdam. When playing the advanced game, each hunter chooses their own starting city (see "Advanced Game Setup" on page 2 in the Rules Reference).
- Choose Dracula's Starting Location: Dracula chooses a starting location. Instead of placing his figure on the board, he secretly searches his location cards for the card matching the location where he wishes to start. Then he places that card facedown on the first space (leftmost space) of the trail. Dracula cannot choose a sea zone, Castle Dracula, or a city that a hunter occupies as his or her starting location. After placing a location card, Dracula places his figure on the red circle near the first space of the trail. Do not place an encounter card.
Fewer Than Five Players: If there are three hunter players, one player controls two hunters. If there are two hunter players, each player controls two hunters. If there is only one hunter player, that player controls all four hunters.
Players as Hunters or Dracula: When playing Fury of Dracula, each player controls one character—one of the hunters or Dracula. When a rule or effect refers to either a hunter or Dracula, unless otherwise stated here or in the Rules Reference, it is referring to both the player and the specific character (hunter or Dracula) that player controls.
Object of the Game
DURING Fury of Dracula, the hunters play as a team and so win or lose the game together. The hunters are searching for Dracula as he travels through Europe in secret. Dracula's objective is to advance the influence track to space "13" by creating new vampires and defeating the hunters. The hunters' objective is to find and defeat Dracula before his influence engulfs Europe.
A Guide for New Hunters: Hunters should focus on tracking down and killing Dracula. Doing so takes time and cooperation. During the early part of the game, hunters should use actions to move around the map, hoping to find a location that is on Dracula's trail.
Hunters may find it helpful to spread out to cover more ground. But most important, while hunters move around during the early part of the game, they should gather as many useful items, events, and ticket tokens as possible so that, when they are closer to finding Dracula's location later in the game, they can efficiently corner him and defeat him.
Playing the Game
FURY OF DRACULA is played over a series of game rounds. Each round consists of a hunter phase followed by a Dracula phase. Rounds continue until the game ends (see "Winning the Game").
Hunter Phase
Each hunter phase contains both a DAY and a NIGHT. During the day, hunters can move around Europe and search for Dracula. During the night, hunters can investigate and prepare for the upcoming day.
First, each hunter performs one ACTION during the day. Then each hunter performs one action during the night. Players perform actions in numerical order according to the activation order number that is printed on the upper-left corner of each character sheet.
There are seven different actions a hunter can perform. They may also PASS, giving up their action. Each hunter reference card provides a brief description of these actions. Hunters perform actions as follows:
Move Action
When hunters perform a move action, they move their figure on the board to indicate their new location, which must be either a city or a sea zone (see "What Are Locations?" below). Hunters can only perform move actions during the day.
A hunter may move by road, by railway, or by sea as follows:
Road: A hunter can move from one city to an adjacent city (see "What Are Roads and Railways?" below).
Railway: When a hunter has a ticket token, they can spend it to move by railway, choosing one of the two values on the spent ticket token to determine how many railways can be used to move to a new city. This is described in detail later.
Sea: When a hunter is in a port city, they can move to an adjacent sea zone. If a hunter is in a sea zone, they can move to either an adjacent port or an adjacent sea zone. If a hunter is in a sea zone during the day, they must move. If a hunter is in a sea zone during the night, they must pass.
What Are Locations? There are two types of locations on the game board: CITIES and SEA ZONES.
Each city has a name and is either a large or small city. Some cities are also PORTS. Each port is adjacent to a sea zone and has an anchor icon to indicate this.
Sea zones are spaces on the board that are divided by borders. Two sea zones that share a border are adjacent.
What Are Roads and Railways? Roads and railways are lines that connect cities to other cities. If two cities are connected by one road, they are adjacent. Two large cities that are not adjacent to each other may both be adjacent to the same small city.
Each railway connects one city to another city. Hunters can use railways to move greater distances or between cities that are not adjacent. A hunter can move by railway between two large cities even though they are not adjacent.
Hunter Movement Example: It is day, and the hunters perform actions in turn order:
- Lord Godalming is in Toulouse, and he chooses to move by road. There are several cities adjacent to Toulouse, and he chooses to move to Barcelona.
- Dr. Seward is in Marseilles, and he chooses to move by railway. He spends one of his ticket tokens that has a "3/2" on it. He chooses to move to Cologne, which is three railways away.
- Van Helsing is in Genoa, which is a port. He chooses to move by sea, so he moves to the Tyrrhenian Sea.
- Mina Harker had moved from the Mediterranean Sea to the Tyrrhenian Sea during the previous hunter phase. During this day, she must move by sea. She chooses to move to the adjacent port city of Rome.
Supply Action
To prepare for the deadly and inevitable confrontation with the Count, the hunters need to gather supplies by drawing item and event cards.
When a hunter performs a supply action in a large city, they draw the top item card from the item deck and place it in their hand. If a hunter is in a small city, they do not draw an item card.
Then an event card is drawn. Event cards are drawn differently during the day and the night as follows:
Day: During the day, hunters take a card from the top of the event deck. If the top card of the event deck has a hunter icon, the hunter draws the card and places it in their hand. If the top card of the event deck has a Dracula icon, the card is placed facedown in the discard pile, and the hunter does not draw another card.
Night: During the night, hunters take a card from the bottom of the event deck. If the event card on the bottom of the deck has a hunter icon, the hunter draws the card and places it in their hand. If the event card on the bottom of the deck has a Dracula icon, Dracula takes the card and places it in his hand.
After a player draws an event card, they must then check to see if it should be played immediately.
Rest Action
When hunters perform a rest action, they recover one damage.
Trade Action
When hunters perform a trade action, they choose another hunter in the same city as them. The hunters can show each other their item cards and ticket tokens, but not their event cards, and give any of those item cards and tokens to each other. This exchange is private (see "Table Talk").
Reserve a Ticket Action
To move by railway, hunters need to reserve tickets. When a hunter performs a reserve a ticket action, they take a ticket token from the token pool, looking at it before placing it in their play area. Each hunter can have no more than two ticket tokens.
Search Action
Dracula has the ability to hide encounter cards at locations he has visited. Hunters can use the search action to reveal and interact with these cards. This is explained in more detail later.
Special Action
When hunters perform a special action, they resolve either an effect from a card in their hand or an ability from their character sheet that specifies it can be used as an action.
Delayed: Some game effects will cause a hunter to become delayed. When delayed, the hunter places their figure on its side and their turn immediately ends. Then, instead of performing their next action, the hunter must stand their figure upright and the hunter is no longer delayed.
Dracula Phase
After each hunter has finished performing a night action, the Dracula phase begins. During the Dracula phase, Dracula leaves misery in his wake as he recruits supporters, creates vampires, and warps the forces of nature. During each Dracula phase, Dracula moves and then places an encounter card at his new location. Dracula cannot pass.
Moving
Dracula can move by road and by sea, but he cannot move by railway. Instead of moving his figure on the board like hunters, Dracula tracks his movement by placing location cards facedown on THE TRAIL. Dracula's location deck has one location card for each city or sea location on the board, as well as Castle Dracula.
To move, Dracula slides all cards already on the trail one space to the right (see "Dracula Movement Example" below). Then he secretly chooses one card from the location deck and places the selected card facedown on the first space of the trail. The location on the card he chooses must be adjacent to his current location. Dracula can use the reference map and location cards to help him determine his movement possibilities, remembering that he is only able to travel by road or by sea.
What is the Trail? The trail has six spaces and represents the locations where Dracula is and has been. Dracula uses the trail to covertly track his movement and to place encounter cards, which allow him to create vampires and hinder the hunters' attempts to find him.
The first space on the trail corresponds to Dracula's current location and is also where Dracula places location cards and encounter cards during the Dracula phase. Unless Dracula is revealed, his figure occupies the circle above the first space of the trail.
Each space of the trail can contain one of Dracula's hideouts. A HIDEOUT comprises all cards and tokens on one of the trail's spaces. This is typically a location card with an encounter card.
During each Dracula phase, before Dracula chooses a location card, all hideouts on the trail slide to create space for Dracula's chosen card. Each hideout slides one space following the direction of the arrows.
Sea location cards have a different card back from city location cards, which makes it dangerous for Dracula to move by sea because his location card will alert the hunters that he has done so. Additionally, each time Dracula moves from a port to a sea zone, he suffers two damage. Each time Dracula moves from a sea zone to another sea zone, he suffers one damage.
If Dracula moves to a city that a hunter occupies, Dracula is REVEALED and the location card is turned faceup (see "Revealing Dracula" below).
Dracula Movement Example: Dracula started the game in Nantes, moved to Clermont-Ferrand during the second day, and is now in Bordeaux.
Since the Nantes and Clermont-Ferrand cards are already on the trail, Dracula's movement options are limited to Toulouse, Santander, and the North Atlantic.
He cannot move to Paris or Sargossa as they are not considered adjacent, having only railways and no roads connecting them to Bordeaux. He chooses to move to Santander and removes that card from the location deck.
He slides all of the hideouts on the trail one space, then he places Santander in the first space of the trail. Finally, he chooses an encounter card from his hand and places it on top of Santander.
Placing an Encounter Card
After Dracula moves, he chooses an encounter card from his hand and places it facedown on top of the location card on the first space of the trail. However, if Dracula placed a sea location or Castle Dracula on the trail this turn, or if he is currently revealed, he cannot place an encounter card.
Encounter cards allow Dracula to impede the hunters in various ways by laying traps and creating vampires. If Dracula ever has fewer than five encounter cards in his hand, he draws encounter cards until he has five cards.
Winning the Game
DRACULA wins the game by advancing the INFLUENCE TRACK to space "13." He can advance the influence track in several ways as follows:
- Maturing a vampire encounter card advances the influence track by a number of spaces specified on that card.
- Resolving the "Fangs" combat card against a mesmerized hunter advances the influence track by one.
- Defeating a hunter advances the influence track by two, plus one for each despair token on the board.
The hunters win the game if Dracula has 15 damage tokens on his character sheet, thereby defeating him (see "Damage").
Additional Rules
THIS section provides additional rules required to play Fury of Dracula. For further clarifications or specific game effect interactions not covered here, see the Rules Reference.
Dawn and Dusk
During the hunter phase, DAWN occurs before day and after the end of the Dracula Phase, and DUSK occurs before night and the hunters perform their night actions. During dawn and dusk, players advance time and then fight Dracula if he is revealed (see "Revealing Dracula").
The TIME TRACK has both day and night spaces. At dawn, the time marker advances from a night space to a day space, and at dusk, the time marker advances from a day space to a night space. Each day and night space has an abbreviation for a day of the week.
When the time tracker advances from Sunday night to Monday day, a week has passed. To indicate this, players place a DESPAIR TOKEN on one of the three spaces in the center of the time track. There is a small graphic on the track to remind players to do this.
Despair tokens represent Dracula's creeping influence over the unsuspecting citizens. These tokens have an effect over how much the influence track is advanced when hunters are defeated (see Dracula's "Rage" ability on his character sheet). Additionally, Dracula's "The Fury of Dracula" ability on his character sheet triggers after all three despair tokens are placed on the board, and the number of despair tokens has an effect on how Dracula can play combat cards (see Dracula's "Pride" ability on his character sheet and "Combat").
Event and Item Cards
Event cards provide both hunters and Dracula with helpful effects and allies. Item cards provide hunters with useful assets that are most commonly used in combat with Dracula.
Event Cards: After a player draws an event card, they must read the card to determine when it is resolved. The top of each event card contains timing text that indicates when the card can be played. Some cards need to be played immediately while other cards can be used later at specific times.
To play an event card, a player reads the text on the card and resolves the described effect. Then the player places that event card faceup in the event discard pile.
Event cards can have multiple effects, and players must decide which effect to use when playing the card—some of these cards can be played as an ALLY. These cards have an "Ally" effect at the bottom of the card. When a hunter card is played as an ally, it is placed in the ally slot on the board. When a Dracula card is played as an ally, Dracula places that card faceup in his play area.
There can be only one hunter ally in play at a time. If a hunter chooses to use the ally effect on an event card and there is already an ally in play, the old ally is replaced with the new one. Similarly, Dracula can only have one ally in play at a time. When an ally is removed from play, it is placed faceup in the event discard pile.
Item Cards: When a hunter draws an item card, they take the top card from the item deck and places it in their hand. Most hunter cards can only be used in combat (see "Combat"). These cards each contain a banner. Item cards without a banner describe when they can be played.
If a hunter is already at their hand limit (see "What Are Hand Limits?" below) when drawing item cards, they immediately discard down to their hand limit after drawing.
What Are Hand Limits? Each hunter sheet has two card slots, one at the top that is used for item cards and one at the bottom that is used for event cards.
Most hunters have a hand limit of three for each card type (item and event cards), which is depicted by a hand limit icon on their character sheet in that card type's slot.
Hunters can place their cards on these slots if they don't want to hold them in their hands—this is helpful for players who need to manage multiple hands when controlling more than one hunter.
Dracula has a hand limit of four event cards, which is shown in the event card slot on the bottom of his character sheet. He does not have a hand limit for encounter cards. Instead he has a minimum hand size of five (see "Placing an Encounter Card").
If any deck runs out of cards, its respective discard pile is shuffled to create a new deck, being sure to keep any facedown cards facedown as you shuffle.
Ticket Tokens
Ticket tokens allow a hunter to move by railway. A hunter gains ticket tokens by performing a reserve a ticket action.
To move by railway, a hunter must spend one of their ticket tokens by revealing its faceup side. Then the hunter moves using one of the values on the ticket token before returning it facedown to the token pool. When moving, a hunter can use a white railway, a yellow railway, or a combination of both colors.
Ticket tokens have white and yellow values, which determine how many railways a hunter can use to move to a new city. If a hunter moves using only white railways, they must use the white value on a ticket token to determine the maximum distance they can move. If a hunter moves using only yellow railways or a combination of white and yellow railways, they must use the yellow values on ticket tokens to determine the maximum distance they can move. If a ticket token does not have a yellow number, it cannot be used to move using yellow railways.
Maturing Encounters
During the Dracula phase, all hideouts on the trail slide to create space for Dracula to place a new card. If there are six hideouts on the trail when this happens, the hideout on the sixth space is MATURED.
When Dracula matures a hideout, he may resolve the matured effect on that hideout's encounter card, if applicable, and discard the card. Then Dracula returns the location card from the hideout to the location deck. Unless otherwise specified by a card effect, the location is not revealed.
Maturing: The bottom of some encounter cards have a red section that has a MATURED EFFECT. If a hideout is removed from the trail during the Dracula phase, Dracula may mature any of the encounter cards in that hideout by resolving the text in the "Matured Effect" section on those cards.
Vampire Encounters: There are three encounter cards that contain the word "Vampire" ("New Vampire," "Aristocratic Vampire," and "Reckless Vampire"). These encounters are called VAMPIRE ENCOUNTERS. These cards have a matured effect that, when resolved, advances the influence track.
The matured effect on a vampire encounter will instruct Dracula to CLEAR specific hideouts on the trail. When a hideout is cleared, all location cards in that hideout are returned to the location deck, all encounter cards in that hideout are discarded without resolving any of their matured effects, and all tokens in that hideout are placed back in the token pool.
Table Talk
During the game, players can talk with one another and share information about the cards in their hands. However, all communication must be open and in the presence of Dracula. If hunters share cards with one another, they must share those cards with Dracula as well.
When a hunter performs a trade action, both hunters who are part of that trade action can trade item cards and ticket tokens in secret and communicate in private without Dracula seeing those cards and tokens or hearing that conversation.
Finding the Trail
After a hunter ends their movement on a city, Dracula must check all of the cards on the trail. If that location is a hideout on his trail, Dracula reveals the location card from that hideout by flipping it faceup. The revealed location card remains faceup until it is returned to Dracula's location deck.
Ambushing: After a hunter ends their movement on a hideout that has one or more encounter cards in it, Dracula can choose to AMBUSH that hunter. The ambush must happen immediately after the hunter moves or is moved into the city; Dracula cannot ambush at any other time. To ambush, Dracula chooses an encounter card in that hideout, then reveals and resolves the card's effect, ignoring the matured effect. After he resolves that card, unless otherwise specified, it is discarded without further effect. If Dracula chooses not to ambush, the encounter card remains as part of that hideout, and Dracula may ambush in the future when a hunter ends their movement on that location.
Search Action: If Dracula does not ambush a hunter, it may be because he is hoping to mature newly created vampires. When a hunter is on a location with an encounter card, they may perform a search action to resolve all of the encounter effects on those cards, in whatever order the hunter chooses, ignoring the matured effect.
Revealing Dracula: If either a hunter ends their movement on the city where Dracula is located (the location card on the first space of the trail) or if Dracula moves to the same city as a hunter, Dracula is revealed.
When Dracula is revealed, the city card corresponding to his current location is turned faceup and his figure is placed on the board on that city. Then a combat occurs during the next dawn or dusk. Dracula cannot be revealed while he is on a sea zone.
Combat
If a hunter is on the same city as Dracula at dawn or dusk, and only at those times, combat occurs.
Before combat begins, the hunter takes one each of the "Dodge," "Punch," and "Escape" cards from the hunter combat card piles and adds them to their hand of item cards—these cards do not count toward their hand limit. Then Dracula shuffles the Dracula combat deck and draws five cards from it to use during the combat. Players resolve a combat by following these steps:
- Choose Combat Cards: Each player chooses one card from their hand and places it facedown in the play area. The hunter must choose one of their cards that has a banner. This includes item cards with a red banner or combat cards ("Punch," "Dodge," and "Escape") with a yellow banner.
- Reveal Combat Cards: Both players simultaneously reveal their chosen cards.
- Compare Combat Icons: The players check if the combat icon on Dracula's card matches a highlighted combat icon on the banner of the hunter's card. If it does, the effect on Dracula's revealed combat card is canceled. Dracula then flips that card facedown and it remains in the play area until combat ends.
- Resolve Dracula's Effect: If Dracula's revealed combat card was not canceled, Dracula resolves the effect on the card. He then flips that card facedown and it remains in the play area until combat ends. Note that Dracula's "Pride" ability on his character sheet restricts when he can play the "Escape as Mist" and "Escape as Bat" combat cards.
- Resolve Hunter's Effect: If the hunter's card was not canceled by resolving Dracula's card, the hunter resolves the effect of their card, and it remains in the play area.
- Refresh Hands: If Dracula has less than five cards in his hand, Dracula draws the top card of the Dracula combat deck. During each subsequent round, the combat card the hunter played during the previous round is returned to their hand.
Players continue resolving combat rounds until combat ends in one of the following ways:
- Dracula has played six combat cards after the effects of all combat cards are resolved.
- Dracula wins the game by advancing the influence track to space "13."
- The hunters win the game by defeating Dracula.
- All hunters involved in the combat are bitten, defeated, or have escaped.
- Dracula satisfies the conditions of his "Pride" ability and plays and resolves "Escape as Bat" or "Escape as Mist."
Multiple Hunters in Combat: Although the above rules are written with only one hunter in combat, multiple hunters can be in the same combat with Dracula.
If there are multiple hunters in Dracula's current location, each hunter chooses a card. Then, before cards are revealed, Dracula chooses one hunter to be the ENGAGED HUNTER. Only that hunter can block Dracula's combat card, and only that hunter is affected if Dracula's card is not blocked. Then all of the hunters' cards are resolved. See the "Combat" glossary entry in the Rules Reference for additional information.
After combat ends, each hunter in the combat places their hunter combat cards ("Dodge," "Punch," and "Escape") back in the combat card piles near the board. Dracula shuffles all Dracula combat cards into his deck and, if he escaped, his figure is placed back in the red circle above the first space on the trail.
Combat Example: During the second week, Dracula and Mina are in the same location at dusk, so a combat occurs. Dracula draws five cards from his combat deck, and Mina takes the three hunter combat cards, as well as her one revealed item card (see "Bitten Hunters"), and adds them to her hand of item cards.
Since it is the second week of the game, there is only one despair token on the board. If Dracula wishes to escape, he will have to wait until at least Round 3 to play an escape card.
Round 1: None of the icons on the "Punch" card's banner match the icon on "Claws," so it resolves. It is night, so Mina suffers four damage. Then Dracula flips "Claws" facedown and Mina resolves "Punch," which causes Dracula to suffer one damage. No one was defeated, so combat continues. Dracula draws one combat card from his combat deck, and Mina leaves "Punch" faceup in front of her.
Round 2: This time one of the icons matches "Strength," so it is canceled and flipped facedown. Mina then resolves "Dodge," which has no effect. Dracula draws one combat card from his combat deck. Mina leaves "Dodge" faceup in front of her and takes "Punch" back into her hand.
Round 3: There are no matching icons and Dracula satisfies the "Pride" ability on his character sheet, so he resolves his card, causing combat to end immediately—before Mina can resolve her "Pistol" card.
Damage
Each time a hunter or Dracula suffers damage, they take a number of damage tokens from the token pool equal to the amount of damage suffered and places them on their character sheet. If a hunter or Dracula recovers damage, they remove a number of damage tokens from their character sheet equal to the amount of damage recovered and returns them to the token pool.
If the total value of damage tokens on a character sheet equals or exceeds the character's health value, that character is DEFEATED. When a hunter is defeated, their figure is immediately removed from the board and the influence track is advanced two spaces plus the number of despair tokens on the time track (as described by Dracula's "Rage" ability on his character sheet). Then, at dawn, the hunter's figure is placed on the nearest hospital location. These locations are marked by a double icon (see "Special Locations"). Then the hunter discards all of their event and item cards and returns all damage, bite, and ticket tokens to the token pool. If Dracula has been defeated, the hunters win the game.
Bitten Hunters: When a hunter is BITTEN, they place a bite token on a bite space on their character sheet. If there are one or more bite tokens on a hunter's character sheet, they are WEAKENED. A weakened hunter must keep one event card and one item card revealed. Since Mina is permanently weakened, she always keeps an event card and an item card revealed.
Revealed item and event cards are placed on the item and event cards slots on the top and bottom of each character sheet (see "What Are Hand Limits?"). These revealed item cards are hidden during combat.
If a hunter is bitten but has no spaces to place a bite token, they are defeated. Therefore, Mina is defeated when she receives her first bite token, while Van Helsing is defeated when he receives his third bite token.
Fighting Dracula's Vampires
If during a search action the hunter is instructed to "fight this vampire," a combat occurs. When fighting a vampire, players use the same rules for combat as they would in a combat with Dracula, and Dracula controls his vampires.
Each vampire has a health value printed on its card. When a vampire suffers damage, players follow the same rules used when either a hunter or Dracula suffers damage, placing damage tokens on the encounter card instead of a character sheet. If the total value of damage tokens on the encounter card equals or exceeds the vampire's health value, it is defeated and its encounter card is discarded. If a vampire is still alive after a combat ends, any damage that vampire suffers stays on its card, and the card is returned faceup to its hideout.
Dracula cannot play escape cards for his vampires until he has three combat cards in play, regardless of how many despair tokens are on the board.
Event and Encounter Tokens
Some event and encounter cards instruct players to place tokens on the board that have lingering game effects and are as follows:
Bats Token: Bats tokens are placed under hunter figures as a reminder that Dracula can move that hunter to an adjacent city as the hunter's next action when that hunter is next able to perform an action. After moving a hunter, Dracula removes the bats token, placing it back in the token pool.
Consecrated Ground and Heavenly Host Tokens: If the consecrated ground token is placed on a location that is on the trail, that location and any encounters on it are revealed. Dracula cannot enter that location. If the location is Dracula's current location, he must move to a new location during the next Dracula phase. Heavenly host tokens have the same effect as consecrated ground tokens, but they are removed at dawn.
Fog Token: If a city contains a fog token, hunters cannot perform search actions while on that city. Additionally, hunters cannot move or be moved in a way that would cause them to enter, leave, or pass through a city that contains a fog token. Dracula may choose to avoid a combat in a city that contains a fog token. At the end of each dusk, one fog token is removed from each city on the board that has at least one fog token.
Roadblock Tokens: A hunter cannot move through a road or railway that contains a roadblock token. When Dracula places a roadblock token, he places it on either a road or railway—the token is placed on the board with the road or railway side faceup as appropriate. At the end of each dusk, Dracula removes one roadblock token from the board.
Storm Tokens: A hunter cannot move into a sea zone that contains a storm token. At the end of dusk, Dracula removes one storm token from the board.
Special Locations
There are some locations on the board that function differently than other locations, as follows:
Castle Dracula: The location card for Castle Dracula has a different back so hunters know when the card is played. When Dracula places this card on the trail, he heals five damage. If a hunter is on Castle Dracula, he cannot supply or reserve a ticket.
Hospitals: Hospitals are spaces on the board attached to cities. There are hospitals in Madrid, Rome, and Budapest. When a hunter is defeated, they are placed at the nearest hospital (measured by roads) at dawn. If there are two equidistant hospitals, Dracula chooses which of those hospitals the hunter is placed at. The hunter figure is placed on the top portion of the hospital location.
Then the hunter discards all of their event and item cards and returns all damage, bite, and ticket tokens to their respective pools.
While a hunter is at a hospital, they can perform a supply action, but only drawing item cards when they do. During the day, a hunter at a hospital can perform a move action to move from the hospital to the attached city location.
What Now?
Now that players have read this Learn to Play booklet, they know all the rules necessary to play their first game of Fury of Dracula. Players should consult the Rules Reference as questions arise during the game.
After playing their first game, players should read the next section "Advanced Rules." These rules expand Dracula's options, making the game more dynamic for Dracula and more difficult for the hunter players.
Advanced Rules
AFTER players play their first game, they should use the following additional rules. These rules add depth to playing as Dracula, allowing him to have more locations with encounters than just the six spaces of the trail, providing him with access to the five power cards, and introducing rumor tokens that can mislead the hunters or increase Dracula's influence.
Lairs
Instead of maturing a hideout, Dracula may convert a hideout into a LAIR by placing it on one of the three lair slots on the side of the board. If a hideout contains a sea location, it cannot be converted to a lair.
When a hideout becomes a lair, Dracula places an encounter card from his hand on the lair. As such, a lair can have multiple encounter cards on it. When Dracula moves during future phases, he can move to a lair by placing that lair on the first space of the trail, converting it back to a hideout. To do this, Dracula must be able to move to the location in that lair following normal movement restrictions. When Dracula places the lair on the trail, he still places another encounter card on that space as if he had placed a location card from the location deck.
Dracula may clear a lair at any time, and he must clear a lair if all encounter cards are removed from that lair.
One benefit of using lairs is that there are more locations with encounters that Dracula can use to ambush hunters. Also, since an additional encounter card is placed on the lair, this allows Dracula to draw more encounter cards, increasing the chances of drawing more vampire encounter cards.
Power Cards
To represent his dark might, Dracula has five power cards that he can use during the Dracula phase to mislead and distract the hunters. Each power card contains a summary of its effect that, unless otherwise specified, is revealed when the card is played before placing it facedown on the trail. Dracula uses power cards as follows:
Feed: This card allows Dracula to recover damage. To use "Feed," Dracula places this card on the first space of the trail instead of moving; he does not place an encounter card on it. Then he recovers up to three damage.
Dark Call: This card allows Dracula to draw more encounter cards. To use "Dark Call," Dracula places this card on the first space of the trail instead of moving; he does not place an encounter card on it. Then he suffers two damage and draws five encounter cards. There is no limit to the number of encounter cards that Dracula can have in his hand.
Wolf Form: This card alters the way in which Dracula can move. To use "Wolf Form," Dracula places this card on the first space of the trail along with a facedown location card from his location deck. Then he suffers one damage. The location card Dracula chooses can be up to two cities away from his current location by road, allowing Dracula to move farther and pass undetected through an adjacent city that a hunter may occupy.
Misdirect: This card allows Dracula to clear a hideout on the trail. To play "Misdirect," Dracula chooses a hideout on the trail and clears it. Then he places "Misdirect" on the space of the trail that was cleared. After placing "Misdirect" on the trail, Dracula places a card (location or power) on the first space of the trail as normal. Dracula cannot use "Misdirect" to clear a hideout that contains a power card, Castle Dracula, his current location, a sea location, or a location that is associated with "Hide" (see below).
Hide: This card has the same card back as the location cards and allows Dracula to mislead the hunters by pretending to move while staying in the same location. To use "Hide," Dracula places it facedown on the first space of the trail and places an encounter card on it. Dracula cannot resolve the matured effect of that encounter card. Hide is associated with the previous location that Dracula occupied as long as that location remains on the trail. As such, if a hunter ends their movement on a location that is associated with "Hide," Dracula can ambush a hunter using encounter cards on both that location and the "Hide" card. If a location associated with "Hide" is revealed, the "Hide" power card is also revealed.
Rumor Tokens
Rumor tokens represent gossip, perhaps started by Dracula himself or due to superstitious locals seeing someone, or something, they could not explain. Dracula can use rumor tokens to further advance the influence track or potentially distract hunters who are close to his trail.
Dracula begins the game with one rumor token (see "Advanced Game Setup" on page 2 in the Rules Reference), and he gains an additional rumor token each time a despair token is placed on the time track (see "Dawn and Dusk").
After Dracula places an encounter card during the Dracula phase, Dracula can place one rumor token on one of the hideouts on the first three spaces of the trail. If Dracula matures a vampire encounter from a hideout that contains a rumor token, he advances the influence track by an additional three spaces (see "Maturing Encounters").
A rumor token remains as part of a hideout or a lair until there are no encounter cards on that location card or the location card on that hideout or lair is returned to Dracula's location deck. When a rumor token is removed from a location or hideout, it is returned to the token pool.