Hunted: Kobayashi Tower
Hunted: Kobayashi Tower Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Player Board
- 69 Hunted Cards & 3 Starting Cards
- 17 Location Cards
- Reference Card
- 1 2-Player Card
- 21 Tokens: 13 Ammo, 3 Key, 2 Hit, 3 Regroup
- 3 Tracker Cubes
- 10 D6, 3 D8, 2 D10
Winning and Losing
To win, work your way through the building and rescue your wife; if you run out of time or if your health is reduced to zero, you lose.
Setting Up the Game
- Place the player board in front of you, one cube on the space for six health, and the other cube on the space for twenty time; place two white d6 next to the player board.
- Place the Handgun card to the right of the player board and put three ammo tokens and four blue d6 on the card.
- Place the Chocolates card to the right of the Handgun card.
- Shuffle the Hunted deck and place it above the player board.
- Remove the Roof card from the Location deck. Draw fourteen Location cards and shuffle them. (Discard the rest.) Draw the top two cards from the deck without looking at them. Shuffle these cards with the Roof card and place the three cards at the bottom of the Location deck. Place this deck above the Hunted deck.
The game is now ready to begin. A diagram of a suggested play area is presented on the next page.
The suggested setup places the Location deck and Hunted deck above the player board, with the Main Row for revealed cards between them and the player board below. Your starting weapon is the Handgun (with 3 ammo tokens and four six-sided dice) and the Chocolates card, which can be discarded to reroll any number of dice you just rolled.
Gameplay
Hunted: Kobayashi Tower is played over a series of turns in which you move through the building rescuing hostages and salvaging items and weapons, while trying to survive the onslaught of terrorists that are trying to track you down before you reach the roof.
Your main stats, health, and time are located on the player board. Interacting with both the Hunted and Location decks will modify these stats and will be tracked on the player board. You may never go above twenty time or six health.
On your turn, you have the choice of two actions: draw a card from the Hunted deck or hide.
- Draw a card - draw the top card from the Hunted deck and place it face up in the row above your player board. The revealed card has icons that indicate what actions are available to you; the various cards that comprise the Hunted deck are described in greater detail in the Hunted deck section. If the draw deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to create a new draw deck.
- Hide – the hide action is used if you want to clear the current row of cards. To complete this action, discard all cards in the row to the discard pile and reduce the value on the time track by one. Using the hide action can help you avoid terrorists but at the cost of losing time.
Decks
There are 2 main decks in the game: the Hunted deck and the Location deck.
Hunted Deck - comprised of several types of cards including weapons, items, hostages, events, and terrorist cards; these card types are described in greater detail in their individual sections.
Location Deck – comprised of various locations throughout Kobayashi Tower.
The icons listed on each card indicate different actions, activations, and bonuses available for you to utilize:
- Move
- Search
- Key
- Noise
- Item
- Weapon
- Hostage
- Location
- Test
- Terrorist Power (3)
- Draw a Card (+1)
- Starting Card
- Regroup
Activating Cards
When you choose the action to draw a card, the top card from the Hunted deck is placed face up in the row above the player board. You may then make decisions based on what action icons are available on the card's left side.
Action icons are used to activate cards in the row to gain benefits from the activated card. When a card has had its action icons used to activate another card, move it to the discard pile. Activating weapon, item, and hostage cards will move them into your inventory for later use, while door and hallway cards move to the discard pile to allow you to immediately draw location cards to move to different parts of the building and get one step closer to reaching the roof.
Note that only one card can be activated at a time, and you can only use one action icon on a card when you discard it. However, you can activate any number of cards (if able) during a turn.
Example: you've drawn three cards and have a Hallway, a Grenade, and an Ammo in the row. The Ammo and Grenade each provide one Move action, and the Hallway provides one Search action. The Hallway costs two Move actions to activate. You could discard both the Grenade and the Ammo to provide two Move actions, activating the Hallway card. When the Hallway is activated, you gain its benefit: discard the Hallway card and draw one Location card. (You're getting closer to the roof!) Or instead, you could choose to discard the Hallway card to provide one Search action and use it to place the Ammo into your inventory. (Those terrorists are going to pay!)
Items, Tokens, Hostages, and Weapons
As you move through the building, you have the chance to salvage weapons and items, which will help in getting to the roof. When activated, these cards are placed in the inventory, located to the right of the player board. Note that there is no limit to how many cards can be added to the inventory. Any item in your inventory can be discarded to gain the benefit listed on the card.
Items – Salvaged items can be used to heal, find hostages, get rid of terrorists, etc.
Regroup Tokens – Regroup cards can be activated from the Hunted Row by losing one time. When activated, the card grants you a regroup token. These tokens can be discarded after any die roll to add two to a die.
Key Tokens – Some cards in the game grant key tokens; you may discard one key token at any point to activate a card in the row that requires a key icon.
Hostages – As you travel through the tower, you can find hostages that you can attempt to save. Each hostage that is saved provides additional points during end game scoring… that is, if you don't die first…
Be careful though – some terrorist cards have a hostage icon along their left side and if you take damage from one of these terrorists in a fight, they attack the hostages you've rescued first. If damage is taken from one of these terrorists, instead of moving your health cube, discard a hostage card from your inventory and remove it from the game. Discard a face-up hostage before a face-down one.
Each hostage card has an effect that can be activated while it's in your inventory. After gaining the effect, flip the card face down. The card will remain in your inventory until the end of the game or until a terrorist/event card forces you to discard it.
A hostage card shows the actions that give access to its effect, its card type, the actions it costs to add the hostage to your inventory, and the hostage effect that can be used by flipping the card face down.
Weapons – When a weapon is activated and placed in your inventory, place the indicated number of ammo tokens and dice on the weapon's card.
A weapon card shows the actions that give access to its effect, its card type, the actions it costs to add the weapon to your inventory, the number of times you can reload, and the number and type of dice used.
The dice indicate how many shots you can take before the magazine is empty, and the ammo tokens represent how many magazines the weapon has before being discarded. When you use the dice while fighting terrorists, they are removed from the weapon card and cannot be used again until you reload.
To reload a weapon, discard a magazine token, reduce the value on the time track by one, and place dice back on the card that are equal to the value listed for the weapon.
Grenades can only be used once and are used to attack one or multiple terrorists during a fight.
Any time you use a weapon, reduce the value on the time track by one.
Location and Event Cards
Activated Hunted deck cards can prompt you to draw cards from the Location deck. Cards such as doors and hallways have location icons in the top right corner, and when activated, these cards allow you to draw one location card for each location icon, up to a maximum of two location cards. If one card is drawn, you must complete the action on that card (unless it is designated as optional); if two cards are drawn, you must choose one card to play and discard the other (other than the Roof card.)
Many location and event cards require you to attempt a test. Any card drawn requiring a test must be resolved before doing any other action. To resolve a test, you will roll dice (based on current health and noted at the top of the player board) and will try to roll equal to or greater than five.
If multiple dice are rolled, only one of the dice can be used to resolve the test; you may not add dice together to achieve the target number. Refer to the text on the specific card for the results of a successful or unsuccessful test.
There are several cards that have instructions to draw from the top of the Hunted deck in search of a specific card. When this occurs, draw cards one at a time, stop when you find the noted card, and shuffle the other cards that have been drawn back into the deck. For example, if a card says, "Draw five cards and if you find a terrorist card, it attacks you," draw cards one at a time; if a terrorist card is revealed, you must fight it, but you do not have to draw any additional cards after revealing the terrorist card.
Event cards that cause you to fight a terrorist do not clear the row.
Some event cards trigger when the card is drawn.
There are also some cards that force you to fight a terrorist if you fail a test. There is no card to represent this terrorist, but carry out the fight as normal.
Terrorist Cards
While searching the tower for your wife, it is inevitable that terrorists will be encountered. When drawing from the Hunted deck, if a terrorist card appears it is placed face up in the row with any other revealed cards.
With only one terrorist card in the row, you have the opportunity to hide (described previously) to discard all cards, including the terrorist, at the cost of one time. However, if there is ever a terrorist card already in the row and another terrorist card is drawn or if there are ever two or more bell icons and a terrorist in the row, you must immediately discard all cards in the row and fight the stronger terrorist, discarding the weaker. The card with the greatest number of terrorists on it is considered the stronger one; if the number of terrorists is the same, fight the one with the higher sum of target numbers.
Please note that a card with multiple terrorists on it only counts as one terrorist card.
A terrorist card shows the minimum dice roll value needed to defeat it, whether terrorists with a hostage icon attack hostages in your inventory first, the number of cards to draw (indicated on the card), and that the card triggers when two or more bell action icons are in the row or if a second terrorist card is drawn.
Fighting
To fight a terrorist, you will roll dice depending on the weapon that you're using and attempt to roll numbers equal to or greater than the number(s) on the terrorist card. The amount of dice will be limited by the type of weapon, ammo, and how many dice you want to roll. If you have multiple weapons in your inventory, only one of them may be used during a round of combat.
After the terrorist encounter has been initiated, you first decide how many dice will be used for the initial assault. This number represents how many ammo rounds are being shot at the terrorist. Rolling more dice increases the number of chances of killing the terrorist but also uses up ammo faster. You may only roll as many dice as the weapon currently has on its card.
Once the number of dice has been determined, you roll. To defeat the terrorist card, you must roll equal to or greater than the target number(s) on the card. (Dice may not be added together to achieve a target number. A single die may only be used to attack one enemy.)
Every time you roll dice in a fight, you lose one time. (You do not lose time when you play a card to reroll dice.)
When fighting multiple terrorists, each of the card's target numbers must be hit to defeat the card. When you land a hit on one of these cards (but the card has not yet been defeated), you may place a hit token on the card to remind you which number has already been hit. You do not have to hit that number again on a future roll.
If you do not defeat the terrorist card in the first round of combat, then you lose one health by moving the health cube on the player board to the next lowest number. The fighting process is then repeated until either the terrorist is defeated, your health hits zero, or you run out of time. If the terrorist is defeated, place it in the discard pile, and you may resume drawing cards from the Hunted deck.
Grenades
To use a grenade, discard the grenade card from your inventory, lose one time, and roll an eight-sided die. If the number rolled is equal to or greater than a terrorist's target number, it counts as a hit.
If you are fighting multiple terrorists, and the number rolled is equal to or greater than multiple target numbers added together, you take out multiple terrorists. For example, the roll of a 7 would take out a 4 AND a 3. (You may only use one grenade card at a time.)
Fighting Barehanded
If you ever run completely out of ammo or if you want to save ammo for a later fight, flip the handgun card over to reveal the "bare hands" side. Now, anytime you need to make a roll during a fight, you may only roll one 6-sided die per round of combat. You still lose one time when rolling, just like when using a weapon. If you find more ammo, you may flip the card back over to the handgun side after losing one time to reload.
Winning a Fight
After you defeat a terrorist card, you may draw cards from the Hunted deck equal to the number of terrorists on the card. (A card with two terrorists lets you draw two cards.) If any of the drawn cards are an item, weapon, or hostage, you may immediately add one of them to your inventory for free. Slide the other cards back into the middle of the deck.
Reaching the Roof
Once you reach the Roof location card, you have one final battle in an attempt to stop Lars from escaping. If you're able to hit him three times, you defeat him, rescue your wife, and win the game.
Endgame Scoring
While there's only one way to win, you can track your wins and compare your best score using the following scoring conventions:
- +2 points for every health point you have left
- +1 point for every time unit you have left
- +3 points for every face-up hostage card in your inventory
- +1 point for every face-down hostage card in your inventory
Additionally, experienced players can increase the game difficulty by beginning the game with four health and/or seventeen time.
2 Player Mode
2 player mode allows you to partner up with a teammate to take on the terrorists together! Players will share time but will have separate health tracks. Player 2 will take on the role of either Sgt. Pratt or Agent O'Neil who will work with you to help take out the terrorists and rescue the hostages.
The game plays just like single player but with a few key differences. To play with two players, set up the game like normal, except begin the game with only four health (which is your max) and only two magazine tokens for your handgun, and remove the Sgt. Pratt or Agent O'Neil card from the Hunted deck.
Then, give player two:
- A handgun card, two magazine tokens, and four 6-sided dice
- The "player 2" health tracker card and a cube. Place the cube on the four space.
You'll play the game exactly like one-player mode, but you'll alternate taking turns. On your turn, you have two options:
- Draw
- Hide
Draw
When you choose the draw action, draw a card and place it in a row in front of you. You may now use it to interact with other cards in your row. Each player will have a separate row of cards in front of them. A player may not interact with cards in the other player's row. When you're done with any card interactions, it is the other player's turn.
Hide
If you choose to hide, lose one time and discard the cards in front of you. The cards in the other player's row are unaffected. It is now the other player's turn.
Time
Anytime either player does something that costs time, player 1 will reduce the value on the time track by one.
Winning and Losing
Just like the regular game, if you make it to the roof location and defeat Lars, you win. However, if either player goes to zero on their health tracker or if time runs out, both players lose.
The Shared Row
Since you're working together, you're able to place cards in a shared row that is accessible to both players. After taking a draw action, you may move one card from your row to the shared row. The card is now considered to be in both players' rows. This means a card with a noise icon counts as one noise for both players. Etc.
A player must take a draw action before interacting with any cards in the shared row.
If the cards in a player's row get discarded due to a terrorist attack or a hide action, all the cards in the shared row also get discarded. The other player's row is unaffected.
Inventory Cards
When you gain a card from the row, it goes into your inventory. At any time, if you want to give an inventory card to the other player, spend one time and place it in their inventory.
Both players have access to the "Chocolates" card, and either player may use it during the game.
Fighting
When a player fights a terrorist, the first round of the fight works the same as the normal game. However, for the second round and on, the players may decide who is going to fight the terrorist for that round. (This also applies to the final fight with Lars.)
Choices
Anytime a choice needs to be made in the game (locations, events, etc), the player who drew the card(s) gets the final say.
Credits
- Designer: Gabe Barrett
- Artist: Jorge Velez
- Graphic Design: Drew Corkill
- Rule Book Edited By: Scott Trueheart & Wojciech Golowkow