Sinners
Sinners Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
145 cards, 54 soul tokens, 5 player mats, this rulebook. 2-5 players (40-60 min).
Overview & Objective
The game is played over a series of rounds. In each round, players draw fresh hands of cards, take turns laying cards down face up in front of them. The cards in front of each player form their respective Churches. The round ends when only one player remains with cards in his/her hand or the last card is drawn from the Draw Deck. The players then proceed to scoring. The first one to collect 100 (or higher) souls (in total of 3 or more rounds), wins.
Game Setup
If playing a 2-player game, use only one of the decks to play; if playing with 3 or more players, use both decks. Before the beginning of each round, separate the Murderer cards from the rest of the deck and pile them face down to form Limbo. The number of Murderer cards used in the game is twice the number of players. (4 murderers for a 2 player game, 6 murderers for a 3 player game etc.) The rest of the Murderer cards remain in the box.
Separate the Demon Deck from the remaining cards, shuffle the remaining cards and put them face down to form the Draw Deck.
At the beginning of every round each player is then dealt 12 cards face down from the Draw Deck and one Murderer card face up to be placed in front of them (on their player mats).
After looking at the dealt hand, the starting player (the eldest player) chooses 1 of the 9 Demons from the Demon Deck, puts the Demon card next to his/her Murderer card, face-up. Then the second player does the same and passes the remaining Demon Deck to the third player and so on.
In the first round, the Demon summoning starts with the eldest player and goes on according to the players' age. The youngest player is the last one to summon a Demon to his/her Church.
In the end, each player starts the round with one Murderer card and one Demon card, face up in their Churches and twelve cards in their hands.
There are two (initially empty) discard piles, one on either side of the Draw Deck.
Cards Explanation
A. Worth These are the points a card will score at the end of a round. If it is in your Church, it will score positive points (with Murderer/Death Demon). If it is in your hand it will score negative points.
B. Name This is the name of the card. Murderer cards just have Murderer written in this area.
C. Type Each card is labeled as a Sinner/Doer of Good or a Sacrament. Demon cards just have Demon names written in this area. Not all copies have the same value (see A).
D. Abilities Each card has additional abilities printed on it. These take effect as soon as the cards are added to your Church.
E. Gender Each Sinner is either male or female. Demons, Murderers and Doers of Good are genderless.
Gameplay
In the first round, the eldest player goes first. In later rounds, the player with the lowest number of souls goes first. Turns proceed counter-clockwise (to the right). Each player's turn has three phases: Phase A: (Draw), Phase B: (Play), Phase C: (Discard).
Phase A: (Draw)
On your turn, you must take one of the following two actions:
- View the top 2 cards of the Draw Deck, add 1 to your hand and discard the other card to the top of the Either Discard Pile. This action is called Preaching. If there is only 1 card left in the Draw Deck, just add that card to your hand.
- Draw the top card of Either Discard Pile. If the top card is a Sacrament card, you cannot draw from that discard pile.
Phase B: (Play)
During this phase, you may take one of the following three actions:
- You may take a set of at least 3 Sinner cards with the same Sin from your hand and place them face up in front of you, below your player mat, as part of your Church. You can play Deceivers to reduce the number of copies you need to start the set (by one card per Deceiver played). You may only initiate one new set each turn.
- If there is already a Sinner card or a set of Sinner cards in your Church, then you may extend your set by adding one or more Sinner card with the same sin.
- You may take a Sacrament card from your hand and place it on your player mat, as part of your Church. You may only play one Sacrament card each turn.
Phase C: (Discard)
At the end of your turn, you must place a card from your hand face up on the Discard Pile (not the discard pile you used during Phase A). Each player finishes their turn with this mandatory discard. The last card in a player's hand must be discarded to the Discard Pile. You cannot finish your hand unless you discard the last card. The Discard Pile you discard your last card to should be different than the one you used in Phase A. Once you have no cards in your hand, you sit out (skipping your turn) until the end of the round.
Ending a Round
There are two ways that a round can end:
- Only one player with cards left in hand remaining, or
- The last card in the Draw Deck is drawn.
This means that, in a two player game, the game ends as soon as either player runs out of cards. After the end of each round, the game fully resets and a complete new setup occurs before starting another consecutive round.
Scoring a Round
At the end of every round, if you don't have a Murderer card in your Church you score 0 point, the cards in your Church or in your hand do not matter. If you summoned Death, you can still claim souls without a Murderer (refer to the Demon Deck reference for details). If a player has at least one Murderer in their Church, all cards in that player's Church score positive points equal to the sum of their worth. All cards remaining in a player's hand score negative points equal to their worth. Note that Deceivers always worth negative points, whether they are in your hand or in your Church, unless of course you have Doers of Good in your Church to cancel those negative points.
End of the Game
The player who first claims 100 or higher souls, wins, after a series of rounds. If there's a tie at the end of the game, the player who has the most Sinners at his/her church, wins. If there's still a tie, the player who performed the most Sacraments wins. If there's still a tie, you should go ahead and play one more round.
Alternate Gameplay Variant
For beginners, and players who don't like drafting cards before starting each round, the whole Demon Deck could be removed and the game is played according to the usual rules, skipping the Demon summoning phase.
Card Reference
There are 7 different Sacrament cards:
| Card Name | Number of Cards | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Baptism | 3x2 | Take one card from Limbo and add it to your church. |
| Penance | 3x2 | Send a Sinner from any player's church to Limbo. |
| Matrimony | 2x2 | Add 1 male and 1 female Sinner of any color from your hand into your church. |
| Eucharist | 1x2 | Lure all the Gluttonous/Greedy Sinners in play from each player's church into yours. |
| Confirmation | 1x2 | As long as this card is in your church, nobody can leave your church. |
| Holy Orders | 2x2 | Perform the Preaching action again. If you have a Doer of Good in your church, you can discard the Confirmation Sacrament from any player's church when playing this card. |
| Anointing | 1x2 | Look at any player's hand. Take a Sinner of your choice and replace it with a Sinner in your hand. |
There are 9 different Demon cards:
| Card Name | Ability |
|---|---|
| Death | You don't have to have a Murderer to claim souls. |
| Sin | If you have fewer Sinners in your church than the other churches... score +10 points. |
| Belial | Deceivers in your church don't score negative points. Each score 0. |
| Beelzebub | If you are the first to finish... score +13 points. |
| Mulciber | If you are the last one with remaining cards in your hand... score +10 points. |
| Asmodeus | If you have more Lustful Sinners in your church than the others... score +10 points. |
| Leviathan | Only you can score +1 point per Sacrament in play. |
| Mammon | If you have none of Greedy and Gluttonous Sinners in your church... score +10 points. |
| Moloch | If you have more Wrathful Sinners in your church than the others... score +10 points. |
There are 9 different Sinner cards (each with different frame color) and 1 Doer of Good card:
| Card Name | Number of Cards | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| Gluttonous | 5x2 | If you have 3 or more of this Sinner: This set is worth +2 points for every other type of Sinner in your church. |
| Slothful | 5x2 | If you have 3 or more of this Sinner: You may add just 2 Sinners of the same color instead of 3. |
| Envious | 5x2 | If you have 3 or more of this Sinner: During scoring, score +1 point per Sacrament in play in each player's church. |
| Doer of Good | 5x2 | Each Doer of Good cancels the penalty of one Deceiver (scoring 0) in your church. You can make sets with Doers of Good. They can help administer Holy Orders Sacrament. |
| Wrathful | 5x2 | If you have 3 or more of this Sinner: When taking a card from either of the discard piles, you may take any card you like. First time Wrathful population in your church reaches 4 or more: Each player must discard a Sinner from their church. |
| Selfish | 5x2 | If you have 2 or more of this Sinner: When preaching, you may keep 1 extra card that you view. |
There are 10 Murderer (each valued 5) cards: You must have at least one murderer in your church to be able to collect the souls of sinners.
Scoring Example
This example below shows a 2-player game setup. The setup photograph is not transcribed.
This example above shows a 3-player end of first round scoring.
In this round above, Player 1 discarded his last card and finished the round. He summoned Beelzebub which gives him a +13 points bonus since he finished the round first. He has 2 Murderers (+10), 2 Envious (+3), 3 Slothful (+6), 3 Greedy (+4), 2 Lustful (+6), 1 Gluttonous (+2) Sinners and scored 44 in total.
Player 2 also has 2 Murderers (+10), he has 4 cards remaining in his hand, 1 Slothful (-2) and 1 Deceiver (-2), Sacrament Cards remaining in hand don't give you negative points. In his church, he has 3 Wrathful (+3), 2 Proud (+5) and 1 Deceiver valued -3 but Deceivers in his church don't affect his score since he summoned Belial. He scored 14 in total.
Player 3 has 1 Murderer (+5), 3 Selfish (+8), 3 Envious (+5, plus 1 bonus point for each Sacrament in play +11), 3 Gluttonous (+3, plus 2 bonus points for every other type of Sinner in his church +8), 1 Slothful (+2), 1 Proud (+3), scored 45 in total.