Hjärnor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• The Goal of the Game
• The Game Board
• Rules
  • Sound
  • Models
  • Base Contact
  • Line of Sight
  • Measuring
  • Tests
• The Round
  • Hero Phase
  • Time Points
  • Actions
  • Attacks
• Weapon Effects
• Zombie Phase
  • Zombie Movement
  • Zombie Attacks
• End Phase
  • Attracting Zombies
  • Resisting Infection
  • Cleaning Up

Components

With these rules you can play a simplified version of Hjärnor, which still gives a feel for the game and teaches you the basics.

A game session takes about 20–45 minutes. Hjärnor uses inches (") as its unit of measurement. One inch is about 2.5 cm. To play you need:

• Game board: 60 x 60 cm
• Hero models: 4
• Zombie models: 20–25
• Crawler models: 5
• Buildings: 4 boxes, cardboard squares or similar
• Vehicle: 1 model or toy car

If you own a smaller game board, for example from Zombicide, you can use it and easily convert the inch measurement from 2.5 cm to 1.6 cm.

The Goal of the Game

Your goal is for each hero to destroy one zombie and find one trinket (pryttel). When you have done this, you must escape in the car. Keep track of what each hero has achieved!

The Game Board

Place the four buildings on the board so that two streets roughly 20 centimetres wide are formed, crossing in the middle of the board. The buildings must stand at least 6" from the centre of the board. Feel free to add trees, fences, bushes or rubbish bins. Place a car in the middle of the board, and place the four heroes, one hero beside each car door. Place two zombies 4" from the edge of the board, along one of the roads, and two more the same distance from the opposite edge.

There must be eight doors in total on the board. Make sure to mark clearly where the buildings have doors. Every building must have at least one door.

If the buildings you are playing with cannot be opened, you may instead place the models on the roof of the building to show that they have gone inside.

The scenario can be played with the included heroes, or with heroes created according to the Hjärnor rulebook. If you create your own heroes, they may have equipment and weapons that are not described in these rules. Skip rules that are not described here, or use as many rules as you like.

Rules

In Hjärnor all players play together against the game. There is no single winner: either the group completes the task they set out to do together, or they do not.

Sound

Sound markers show that something makes a noise; for example, some weapons make a sound each time they are used. The car standing in the middle of the board idles and therefore makes a sound each round.

Models

Models cannot stand on top of other models or on their bases. It is also not possible to move a model so that its base passes through or over another model's base. The exception is heroes who can always move through other heroes; they simply pass by each other.

Models' bases must be round and 1" in diameter.

Base Contact

When two models are positioned so that their bases touch, they are said to be in base contact. Base contact is required for a hero to use a melee weapon against a zombie, or for a zombie to attack a hero. A hero in base contact with a zombie cannot move.

Line of Sight

For models to be able to see each other, you must be able to draw a line of sight between them. A line of sight is an imaginary line from some point on one model's base to the other model's base.

Measuring

All measurement between models is taken from their bases. Keep in mind that if you measure a movement from the front edge of a base in its starting position, you must also measure to the front edge of the base where it is placed. It is not allowed to measure in advance.

Tests

In Hjärnor a test is one dice roll, regardless of what the roll is about. A test is always made with one or more Hjärnor dice. It is also possible to use ordinary 6-sided dice instead of Hjärnor dice. Read the results as follows:

• Botch or 1: Catastrophic failure, –1 success
• Blank or 2 and 3: Failure, no result
• Hit or 4 and 5: 1 success
• Star hit or 6: 1 success, and also roll a new die and read it as normal

When all dice in a test have been rolled, including the extra dice for star hits, the results are added together, and the sum of successful dice with botches subtracted becomes the number of successes. Extra dice for star hits must be rolled before the result is totalled. If the result is at least one success, the test has succeeded. If the number of successes is 0, the test has failed. If the result of a test is less than zero, the test is fumbled. A fumble has different results for different tests, but they are rarely good...

Example: Mattias must make a test with three dice. He rolls a blank, a hit and a star hit, for a total of two successes, and must also roll one more die for the star hit! He rolls a botch and must subtract one from his two successes. The result is therefore one success.

The Round

A round is divided into three phases, which are played in turn order. There is no limit on the number of rounds; you continue playing until you have met the victory conditions or have been defeated.

Hero Phase

In the hero phase the heroes act in any order they choose. One hero may begin to act, then pause to let another hero take an action, and then continue. If the heroes' actions do not affect each other, several players may play at the same time.

Time Points

Everything a hero does costs time points (TP). Each round the heroes have 6 TP each to spend on actions. TP that a hero does not spend cannot be saved for the following round.

Actions

Actions are everything a hero actively undertakes. Some actions only have a TP cost, and some actions involve a test. All heroes may perform actions in any order they wish. A hero may perform the same action several times in the same round unless otherwise stated. How many dice the hero rolls is determined by the basic attribute the action is based on: roll as many dice as the hero has in an attribute such as agility, plus any bonus for the test depending on the action. If the action does not state a basic attribute, no test is required. Each action has an effect, which describes what happens if the action succeeds.

Walk (Gå): Movement across flat ground.

• TP: 1
• Dice: –
• Effect: 1" movement
• Failure: –
• Fumble: –

Sprint (Lägga på en rem, literally "to put a belt on"): The hero dashes a short distance with everything it has. This action can only be taken once per round.

• TP: –
• Dice: Agility
• Effect: 1" movement per success
• Failure: –
• Fumble: The hero trips where the test was made. Lay the hero down.

Stand Up (Resa sig upp): The hero rises from a prone position. Place the hero upright where it was lying.

• TP: 2
• Dice: –
• Effect: The hero stands up
• Failure: –
• Fumble: –

Search for Trinkets (Leta pryttlar): Finding exactly the right things needed requires the hero to be careful and organised. Trinkets can only be searched for indoors, and trinkets cannot be searched for while the hero is in melee.

• TP: 2
• Dice: Intelligence
• Effect: The hero finds one trinket per success
• Failure: –
• Fumble: The hero finds a zombie, which is placed in melee with the hero.

Escape by Car (Att fly i bil): To be able to escape, the heroes must be in contact with the car. The hero who is in contact with the driver's door spends 2 TP so that the heroes can escape the area. Everyone standing by a passenger door follows automatically.

• TP: 2
• Dice: –
• Effect: All heroes in contact with the car are removed from the board
• Failure: –
• Fumble: –

Attacks

Attacking with a weapon is like the other actions: you pay a TP cost and roll a test. Depending on the number of successes, the following happens:

• Fumble: Misfire at range, or the weapon gets stuck in melee. 1 TP is needed to use the weapon again.
• 1 success: The zombie falls over.
• 2 successes: The zombie falls over and becomes a crawler. Replace the zombie model with a crawler model. If the hit was on a crawler, it is instead destroyed.
• 3+ successes: The zombie is destroyed.

A melee weapon can only be used against zombies that the attacking hero is in base contact with. A ranged weapon can be used against zombies in line of sight within the range stated on the weapon. The whole model does not need to be within range; it is enough that the distance between the bases is less than the distance stated on the weapon. A hero in base contact with a zombie cannot use a ranged weapon, and it is also not possible to attack with a ranged weapon against a zombie that is in base contact with another hero.

Weapon Effects

Some weapons have additional effects when they are used. Some of these are optional, others must be used. Each weapon states which weapon effect or effects it has.

• Knockback (Knuff): When at least one success is rolled, move the zombie 2" away from the hero that attacked, regardless of the rest of the attack result.
• Sweep (Svep): Before the attack, the hero may choose to divide hits among all opponents in base contact. Only one attack test is rolled, but the successes are divided equally between all zombies in base contact with the hero.
• Sound (Ljud): Creates noise. Each time a hero attacks with a weapon that makes a sound, place a sound marker at the hero's base.

Zombie Phase

In this phase the zombies act. Zombies are slow and quite predictable, but if there are enough of them they are really dangerous. In the zombie phase everything happens in a predetermined order.

Zombie Movement

Zombies move 4" per round. Crawlers crawl 2". Each zombie moves only once. Zombies that are lying down cannot walk; instead they simply stand up, last in the movement phase. Activate the zombies in the following order, moving all whose criteria are met:

• Towards the nearest hero it can see within 11", bend down to check whether the zombie can see the hero!
• Towards the nearest sound marker within 18"
• Zombies that are lying down stand up.

(The three bullet points above are marked in the source with symbol icons for "sight", "sound" and "lying down"; the icons are described here in words.)

Zombie Attacks

A zombie that, after movement, is in base contact with a hero attacks that hero. Zombies attack in a group: if a hero is in contact with three zombies, all three roll at the same time against the hero. However, a zombie in contact with several heroes can only attack one of them. Divide the attacks as evenly as possible between the heroes, then take one target at a time and roll as many dice as there are zombies attacking that hero, as a normal test. Read the number of successes below:

• 1 success: The hero trips and becomes infected.
• 2 successes: The hero trips, takes one wound and becomes infected.
• 3+ successes: The hero trips, takes two wounds and becomes infected.

For each wound a hero takes, mark one cross in health on the character sheet. A hero who has taken a total of 6 wounds is dead and can no longer take part. Remove the model from the board.

When a hero becomes infected, mark one cross in infection on the character sheet. It is now counted as infected and must roll to see whether the infection spreads in the end phase.

End Phase

In the end phase you roll to see whether more zombies are attracted, roll infection tests, and clean up the board.

Attracting Zombies

Zombies are attracted by people and sound. Roll a test with as many dice as the number of heroes and sounds on the board together. The result of the test is the number of zombies attracted. These appear outside random doors, one at a time. Give each door on the board a number from 1 to 8, and roll an 8-sided die for each zombie attracted to determine which door it is placed by.

Resisting Infection

Each hero who has become infected by zombies during the scenario must, in the end phase, make a test with 3 dice to see whether the infection spreads through the body. On a failure the infection increases by 1; on a fumble the infection increases by 2. A success keeps the infection at the same level as before; the amount of infection can never be reduced.

A hero who gets 10 crosses in infection becomes a zombie. Replace the hero with a zombie model. It will now act like the other zombies and can no longer be controlled.

Cleaning Up

If there are zombies left in buildings where there is no longer any hero, remove these zombies. They are not counted as destroyed! Remove sound markers from the board. The sound marker on the car may be left in place, as the car will make a sound next round too.

Then the next hero phase begins! The game continues until the heroes choose to escape by car or can no longer continue because they are dead or zombies. If the heroes drive away in the car and each hero has destroyed a zombie and found a trinket, the heroes win!