Miskatonic School for Girls

Miskatonic School for Girls Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Contents

40 Starting Class Cards
51 Student Cards, 4 Student Event Cards
46 Faculty Cards, 4 Faculty Event Cards
18 Transfer Student Cards
20 Substitute Cards
4 Turn order cards
4 House Boards
4 Sanity Counters
8 "Make your own" blank cards

Card types: Starting Class, Faculty, Faculty Event, Student, Student Event, Transfer, Substitute.

Set-Up and Preparation

The Starting Class

Each player takes two copies of each students from the Starting Class except for Keziah Mason (only one copy) and Natalie Peaslee (three copies). These cards are shuffled and placed face down on the player's House Board (where it says "Deck").

Substitutes and Transfer Students

Take all the copies of the Transfers and Substitutes and place them face up in their own piles (see diagram).

School Store Decks

Shuffle the Faculty and the Faculty Events into a single deck. Place that deck face down in the School Store (see diagram).

Shuffle the Student and Student Events into a single deck. Place that deck face down in the School Store (see diagram).

Store Shelves

The Faculty and Student Shelves are the three spots next to their respective decks. They start the game empty.

2-Player Game Special Rule #1

Remove all copies of the "Grace Traceofyith" and the "Whipper' Wills" from the Faculty Deck before your game starts. These are no fun in a 2-player game.

Game Set-Up Diagram

The diagram shows a House Board for each player at the left and right, with the School Store in the centre. The Substitute pile and the Transfer Student pile sit beside the store. The Faculty Deck is followed by three Faculty shelf spots and the Faculty Store Discard Pile. The Student Deck is followed by three Student shelf spots and the Student Store Discard Pile. A third House Board is shown along the bottom of the diagram.

The House Board

This is where all the action takes place! Each board will belong to a separate House within the School and each player will use one for the game.

The House Board has the following areas (lettered on the board):

A. Sanity Tracker (numbers on paddle). Each player starts the game with a token on the 20 of their Sanity Tracker. 20 represents a completely healthy and sane group of students. As you continue through the game your sanity is compromised, slowly slipping from your grasp! When you reach 0, you've gone completely insane and lost the game.
B. Purchase Pile. The Purchase Pile of your House Board will hold the Student cards you purchase each turn along with the Faculty cards purchased for you by the other houses. These become the first cards you draw in your next turn.
C. Deck. The Deck area will hold the cards that you'll draw at the start of each turn. If your deck has no cards in it any time you need to draw a card, shuffle up your Discard pile and place it face down as your Deck in the appropriate spot on your playmat.
D. Classroom. The Classroom area is where Faculty will do their best to bleed your students of their sanity.
E. Discard. The Discard area is where you place your used cards at the end of each turn.
F. Locker. Some cards go to the right of your House Board. Cards in the Locker don't go to your discard pile and stay in play until some card effect would remove it.

The Cards

Students (including Transfer Students and Starting Students)

The Student Cards are innocent, young females heading towards a bright future! (or not...) By adding these cards to your deck, you are filling your deck with opportunities to defend your house against the Faculty members that plague it.

Faculty (including Substitutes)

The Faculty Cards are the staff members at the School for Girls. Actually Lovecraftian monsters and insane cultists, these cards will be purchased for you by your opponents.

Keywords and Abilities

The card diagram labels the parts of a card as: Nightmare Point Production, Friendship Point Production, Girl Power, Resolve, Health, Damage, Nightmare Point Cost, and Friendship Point Cost. Keywords such as "Locker," "Aggressive," "Friendly," "BFF Ability," "Defeat," and "Survive" appear in the card text.

Event Cards: Faculty, Student

There are "Event Cards" hidden throughout both the Student and Faculty Decks. Event cards are single effects that happen the turn they are revealed. Each card is unique; some events can be good, others not so much. When an event card appears on the School Store shelf, read its effect to find out what happens. After the event happens, all cards on the shelf are discarded and 3 new cards are put out. Events that don't go to Lockers are removed from the game.

The Locker

Some cards have a special keyword, "Locker." These cards, when purchased, are moved to the right of the player's House Board (to the player's Locker). They remain there for the rest of the game and continue to have their effect. Some events go to a player's Locker as well. Locker cards that produce Nightmare or Friendship points don't work the turn they are purchased.

Locker cards have numbers printed in the Nightmare and Friendship production area as well as the Girl Power and Resolve areas. You can ignore these numbers for now, they are there for future expansions.

How to Play

Winning

The player who resists going insane (reaching 0 on the Sanity Tracker) the longest wins!

Who Goes First

Randomly figure out who takes the first turn. Play goes clockwise from that player.

A Turn

1. Go to the Bank. Draw your cards!

Draw your Purchase Pile into your hand, then draw from your Deck until you have 5 total cards in your hand.

2. Stock the School Store. Ensure there are 3 cards on each shelf to choose from.

On the first turn, there will be no cards in the Store Shelves. Flip 3 cards from the top of the Student Deck into the 3 empty slots on the Student shelf. Do the same with the Faculty Deck/shelf.

In following turns, there might be some empty spots on the store shelves due to cards having been purchased on the previous turn. If there are empty slots, move the cards to the next spot on the shelf and fill the early slots with cards from the respective deck. If there are no spots left on the shelves at the beginning of this phase, then discard the card at the end of the shelf, slide the remaining cards over, and fill the first slot with a new card from the deck.

If the Faculty or Student deck ever run out, reshuffle the respective discard piles.

3. Pay your Tuition. Make your purchases using the points provided by the cards in your hand.

Determine the amount of Friendship Points and Nightmare Points you have to spend (these are found on the cards you drew in your hand). Some cards have numbers in both the Friendship and Nightmare Point areas; these cards only produce one or the other (your choice).

During your turn, you may purchase one (and ONLY one) student from the School Store. Put that student into your Purchase pile. If you can't (or choose not to) buy a student from the School Store, then add a Transfer Student to your Purchase pile.

Then you may purchase one (and ONLY one) Faculty from the School Store. Put the Faculty you purchase into the Purchase pile of the player to your left. If you can't (or choose not to) buy a Faculty, add a Substitute to the Purchase pile of the player to your left.

Don't put cards from your hand immediately into your Discard pile after you make a purchase; wait until the correct time.

Side note, "Aggressive" and "Friendly": If a Faculty Member is purchased with an "Aggressive" keyword, send it straight to the Classroom of the player it was purchased for, where they must deal with it immediately (have Class and Class dismissed.) If a Student is purchased with a "Friendly" keyword, send it straight to your Classroom where they are used in that turn's class. This student does not count against the number of cards you draw when you Take your test.

4. Pre-Class! Use any Pre-Class abilities printed on cards in your hand.

Pre-Class abilities help you in your fight to stay sane. You may choose to use any Pre-Class abilities of the cards in your hand. Cards with Pre-Class abilities have a slight glow around their Friendship Point Production icon to help you pick them out.

After you use your Pre-Class abilities, move all Faculty members in your hand to the Classroom, then move all Student cards in your hand to your Discard pile.

5. Class! Draw your BFFs and Pet Teachers, and Defend your Sanity!

Draw one card from your Deck for every Faculty member in your Classroom (if you have three Faculty members in your Classroom, draw three cards from your deck). Students drawn are your BFFs and they go straight to your Classroom to join the Faculty Members you put there during the Pre-Class step. Faculty cards drawn are called Pet Teachers; you may put Pet Teachers into any player(s) discard pile - they might not help you keep your sanity, but at least they'll go bother someone else now!

Add up the total Girl Power of all your BFFs. (The printed text reads "a your BFFs"; read here as "all your BFFs".) Distribute that power in any manner you choose to the Faculty Members in your Classroom. Any Faculty that takes Girl Power equal or greater than its health is defeated and moved to your discard pile. If any of these Faculty have "Defeat" abilities, they happen now. Next, add up the damage on all remaining Faculty in your Classroom; you lose sanity points equal to that damage minus the Resolve total on all of your BFFs. "Survive" abilities on any Faculty that are still in your Classroom at this point happen now.

Note: Distribute BFF Girl Power in any way you'd like from your Students to the Faculty. For example, you can combine the Power of two Students to defeat one Faculty Member or split the damage from one Student among multiple Faculty Members.

Side note, "BFF Ability": Student cards with BFF abilities are activated when a Student is drawn as a BFF. If the Student is removed from the classroom before its effect resolves, the effect is canceled.

6. Class Dismissed.

Move cards in the classroom to your discard pile to end your turn. The next player takes a turn.

Side note, "The Mad Cackle": The Sanity tracker on the house board has 4 different colors. Any turn you move your sanity tracker from one color to another, you must laugh/cackle as if you are going insane. Failure to do this allows your opponents to taunt you as a spiritless hack of a human.

2-Player Game Special Rule #2

In a 2-player game, Pet Teachers go into your own discard pile, not your opponent's.

Game End

When a player loses their last point of Sanity, the player is eliminated from the game. The last player with any Sanity left wins!