Hellboy: The Dice Game
Hellboy: The Dice Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 1 deck of 40 Exploration Cards (the Exploration Deck)
- 3 red plastic Wound cubes
- 6 yellow Attack Dice (least powerful)
- 3 orange Attack Dice
- 2 red Attack Dice
- 1 black attack die (most powerful)
- 1 blue special die
- Rules sheet
You will also need some paper and a pen or pencil to keep track of everyone's scores.
Rules
Players take turns trying to explore as far as they can through the Exploration Deck, while battling enemy Frog Monsters, enemy Bosses and gathering Clues before they are overwhelmed or decide to escape.
Set-up
Shuffle the Exploration Cards and place them face down in reach of all players, along with all the dice and the Wound cubes.
Exploration Cards
The Exploration Deck contains Room cards (containing Frog Monsters, Bosses and Clues) and Event Cards. Room cards will show the following things:
- Clues = the number of Clues the card can score this turn once it is resolved or defeated.
- Fight Value = the Fight Value of Frog Monsters or Boss, which needs to be matched or beaten.
- Damage = the amount of damage a player will take, if they fail to defeat the Frog Monsters or Boss in the room. For each Skull shown on the card, the player will lose one Wound token.
- Special Effects = some Bosses have special effects that influence the attacks the player makes.
Event Cards give you a set of instructions to follow. Once an Event Card is put into play, the instructions must be followed and then the card is discarded. Sometimes an Event Card will cause damage to a player, causing them to lose a Wound cube.
Boss Special Effects
Some cards, like more powerful enemy Bosses, or random events that occur while you are exploring, have special effects. Match the symbols on the card with the description below to find the effect.
The symbols in the tables below are icons on the rules sheet; the textual descriptions of them are the transcriber's, since the sheet prints them only as pictures.
| Symbol | Effect |
|---|---|
| Blue die with re-roll arrow, Skull and red Wound cube | If this card is not defeated after an attack, roll the blue die again. On a Skull, the player loses another Wound cube. |
| Crossed-out single burst and crossed-out double burst | Any single-burst (adds one) or double-burst (adds two) results are ignored when fighting this Boss. |
| Crossed-out X2 | Any X2 results are ignored when fighting this Boss. |
| Re-roll arrow and highest-die arrow | Player must re-roll their highest scoring Attack Dice in each attack when fighting this Boss. |
Events
| Event | Effect |
|---|---|
| Red Wound cube with figure | Hole in the Floor: Lose a Wound cube. Discard this card and the next one. Put the card after that into play. |
| Figure with Clue (magnifier) | Take a Risk: Discard your most powerful die (pass to the next player). Gain one Clue for this turn's current score. |
| Red Wound cube, Clue and figure | Brave Move: If you wish, you can lose a Wound cube. and gain one Clue for this turn's score (retain this card as a reminder). Otherwise, discard this card. |
| Blue die | Accident: Roll the blue die. If the result is Skull, X2 or re-roll arrow, lose a Wound cube. Discard this card. |
| Yellow die and Clue | Lucky Find: If you wish, you can roll one of your remaining Dice. If it scores a Clue, add 1 to your Clues for this turn's score. Discard the die otherwise. A die that scored a Clue cannot be used later in the turn to attack. Discard this card. |
Who goes first?
The player wearing the most red, or who looks most like Hellboy, goes first.
A Turn
- A player begins their turn with all the Attack Dice and the blue special die, plus all three Wound cubes.
- Start by taking the top card from the face-down Exploration Deck, and placing it face up in the middle of the table – this card is now in play. Once a player has turned over a card, they must defeat any monsters on it, or resolve any special effect on it before they can declare to end their turn.
- Once a card has been taken by a player to score, or has been discarded, it is no longer in play.
Attacking Frog Monsters and Bosses
When a card is put into play that contains Frog Monsters or a Boss with a Fight Value, the player must battle them by attacking them until they are defeated, or the player is Knocked Out!
To make an attack
- Take the blue special die and up to three other Attack Dice of your choice.
- Roll all the dice together.
- Add up the number of pips scored on the Attack Dice. This is the Attack Score.
- Look at the result of the blue die:
| Blue die result | Effect |
|---|---|
| Skull | The player loses a Wound cube – even if they also defeat the enemies on the card. |
| X2 | The player doubles the result on one of Attack Dice (of their choice) for this roll. |
| Single burst or double burst | Adds one or two to the Attack Score for this roll. |
| Cancel icon (skull in a circle) | Cancels one Skull on the card that would otherwise cause damage this attack. |
| Re-roll arrow | Allows the player to reroll one Attack Die of their choice. The second result stands. If a special effect would also cause a re-roll, the special effect is resolved first. No die can be re-rolled a second time. |
- If the Attack Score for the roll matches or beats the current Fight Value shown on the card, the player has defeated the enemies in the room and places the card in front of them – it is no longer in play. All Attack Dice that were rolled (or left on the card from previous rolls) are passed on to the next player to the left and are not available to the current player again this turn. The blue die is always retained by the player.
- If the Attack Score fails to beat or match the current Fight Value, the player will lose Wound cubes equal to the number of Skulls shown on the card. Any Attack Dice (not the blue dice) that did score are placed onto the card showing their actual rolled result (ignoring any X2 result). The Fight Value on the card is reduced by that much, so the card will be easier to defeat on the next roll. All other Attack Dice rolled are passed on to the next player and are not available to the current player again this turn. The blue die is always retained by the player. Note that Wound cubes lost should also be passed to the next player.
- If the enemies were not defeated and the card is still in play, the player must attack again and continue to do so following the process above until the enemies in the room are defeated, or the player is Knocked Out.
Knocked Out
Once a player has lost all three Wound cubes, or they run out of Attack Dice to roll while a card is still in play, they have been Knocked Out and their turn immediately ends. They score nothing this turn – put all the cards collected this turn, and any card they failed to defeat, on the discard pile. Play then passes to the next player on the left. B.P.R.D. trainers will recover the downed agent so the player can try again on their next turn.
Scoring
Once they have defeated or resolved their first card in the turn, a player can decide to end their turn at any time instead of taking a new card and putting it into play. The only other time a turn is ended is if the player is Knocked Out. If a player voluntarily ends their turn instead of playing a new card, count up all the Clues they have accumulated this turn on the cards they kept in front of them. Add this to their running total of Clues and then discard those cards (you might wish to use a pen and paper for this). Play then passes to the next player on their left.
No more Exploration Cards?
Shuffle the current discard pile and create a new Exploration Deck face down in the middle of the table.
Winning the game
Continue taking turns until one player ends their turn with a running total of 15 (or more) Clues. All other players then get a final turn each to try and beat them. The player with the most Clues is then the winner.
If there is a tie, the leaders (only) continue to play tiebreaker turns until a winner is found.