Spanta
Spanta Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- a) 16 Dice (4 of each colour)
- b) 1 Starting Player Card
- c) 8 Objective Cards
- d) 72 Ghost Cards
Spanta's Objective
As a good custodian, your objective is to capture ghosts and return them to their proper place, but not all of them are worth points. You must follow your Objective Card, which tells you which shapes and colours of ghost will score you points at the end of the game. Get the highest number of points and become the best custodian.
Ghosts
Every night the Spanta cemetery fills with little ghosts who want to make mischief. We must capture them and, to do so, we have the invaluable help of powerful artefacts capable of anything: the dice!
Each of these ghosts has a particular shape and colour. There are 4 shapes and 4 colours. To take a ghost into your hand you must use 2 dice that meet the condition shown on the ghost card. To place a ghost in front of you so that it scores at the end of the game, you must have 2 ghosts in your hand that share either the same colour or the same shape, and discard one of them to place the other in your play area.
- The page 2 illustration shows two examples: a pair of ghosts of the same colour (one card with the 4+ icon, one with the 3- icon), and a pair of ghosts of the same shape.
Wildcard Ghost
There is one very special ghost, the wildcard. This wildcard is very useful in the Placement phase (see page 6), because it lets you place any ghost in your play area.
This ghost also appears on your Objective Card. Depending on its appearance it has one of these 2 meanings:
- Any shape and any colour.
- Any shape but only the colour indicated (green).
Note: the wildcard can never be in your play area. It is always discarded so that another ghost can be placed.
Objective Cards
The ghosts have escaped again and, as every night, you receive the order to capture them. Catch those ghosts and take them to their proper place. Objective Cards indicate which ghosts will score you points at the end of the game.
These cards are divided into 2 parts: Formation and Bonus.
- Formation: shows the order in which ghosts must be placed in front of you to score. Each complete sequence gives you 4 points. You may repeat the sequence as many times as you like.
- Bonus: each ghost you have in your play area at the end of the game that meets these conditions gives 1 extra point for each condition it meets.
The white colour on ghosts acts as a wildcard colour; you must look at the shape.
To complete the Formation you need, in order, from left to right:
- 1 ghost of that shape and any colour,
- 1 yellow ghost of any shape, and
- 1 ghost of that shape but of any colour.
To complete the Bonus you need:
- Ghosts of that shape and any colour.
- Ghosts of the green colour and any shape.
Tip: to score the most points, try to make the shape and colour of the bonuses repeat as many times as possible.
- Shape bonus: ghosts with this shape give you 1 extra point.
- Colour bonus: ghosts with this colour give you 1 extra point.
Example: at the end of the game, Casper has completed the Formation once, scoring 4 points. He also gets 3 points from the shape bonus and 2 points from the colour bonus. In total Casper scores 9 points.
Setup
- Each player chooses a colour and takes the dice of that colour.
- Deal each player one Objective Card at random. This card is secret from the other players, and you may check it as many times as you like during the game.
- Prepare the ghost deck following the table:
| Players | Ghosts | Wildcards |
|---|---|---|
| 2 players | Remove the ghosts with icon 3 and 4 | Use all wildcards |
| 3 players | Remove the ghosts with icon 4 | Remove the wildcards with the white-ghost icon |
| 4 players | Use all ghosts | Remove all wildcards |
Note: the table in the source prints the icons 3 and 4 as numerals only. They are read here as the "3 or fewer" and "4 or more" ghost icons shown on page 8 (see the Ghost Icons section), which is the only reading consistent with the card icons. The white-ghost icon is the wildcard icon.
- Shuffle the ghost deck and place it face down on the table, within reach of all players.
- Flip 2 Ghost Cards from the deck for each player and place them in the centre of the table in 2 rows. This area is called "the cemetery."
- The first player is the one who has seen a ghost most recently. Seeing one in a film, series or video game also counts. And if you know someone who is very into it, they count as a ghost too. The first player takes the Starting Player Card.
Round
A game of Spanta consists of several rounds. Each round is divided into the phases Roll, Capture, Placement and Cleanup, explained below.
1. Roll
First, all players simultaneously roll all their dice. Then they may stop, or re-roll as many dice as they like, up to 2 more times. In total, each player may make up to 3 rolls.
Rolls are secret (you may hide your roll behind one of your hands). When all players have made their 3 rolls or have stopped, all players reveal their dice.
- Dice you keep after each roll are set aside as saved dice.
- The dice you have not set aside after your last roll form your final dice pool.
Example: Casper rolls his 4 dice and gets 3, 4, 5 and 6. He keeps the 4 and the 6 and re-rolls the 3 and the 5, getting a 2 and again a 6. He decides to re-roll the 4 he kept earlier, and this time gets a 3. Although the 3 is of no use to him, he cannot roll again.
2. Capture
The starting player takes 2 of their dice and places them on a ghost in the cemetery, under these conditions:
- The 2 dice must meet the requirement shown by the icon on the card (see the Ghost Icons section, page 8).
- Dice cannot be placed on a card that already has dice on it.
Once placed, the turn passes to the player on the starting player's left. Play continues until all players have placed all their dice or cannot meet the requirements of any card. When this happens, players take the ghosts they have captured into their hands and recover their dice.
Example: Casper places 2 matching dice on the wildcard ghost. Then Pegajoso places 2 dice that form a ladder on the pink ghost. It is now Myrtle's turn, and she realises that Casper could only place 2 odd dice, so she moves ahead and places her odd dice on the blue ghost. During the second turn, Casper cannot place his last dice. Pegajoso places his 2 even dice, and finally Myrtle places her 2 matching dice.
3. Placement (Optional)
In this phase, players may look through their hand for 2 ghosts with the same colour, or 2 ghosts with the same shape. One of the ghosts is discarded so that the other can be placed in their play area. These are the ghosts that will score at the end of the game.
- A wildcard ghost may be discarded to place any ghost.
- Ghosts are always placed to the left or to the right of the ghosts already placed, never between two ghosts.
- This action may be repeated as many times as you like. At the end of this phase, the maximum number of cards in hand is 5.
Note: the wildcard ghost is only used to be discarded so that another ghost can be placed. A wildcard can never be in a player's play area.
Example: Myrtle has 5 cards in her hand and can place 2 cards in her play area. She decides to discard the wildcard and place the yellow ghost to the left of the green ghost. Then she decides to discard a blue ghost to place another blue ghost to the right of the pink ghost.
Note: you cannot place a ghost between two ghosts.
4. Cleanup
Discard all the cards remaining in the cemetery, then draw 2 cards from the deck per player and place them face up in the centre of the table in 2 rows.
The starting player of the previous round passes the Starting Player Card to the player on their left, and a new round begins.
End of the Game
The game ends when, at the end of a round during the Cleanup phase, there are not enough ghosts left in the deck to refill the cemetery.
Players reveal their Objective Cards and count points:
- Each correct Formation of 3 ghosts scores 4 points.
- Each ghost of the bonus colour scores 1 point.
- Each ghost of the bonus shape scores 1 point.
The player with the most points wins. If there is a tie, the winner is the player with more ghosts in their play area. If the tie persists, the winner is the player with more ghosts in their hand.
Ghost Icons
- Ladder: place 2 dice with consecutive values (e.g., 3 and 4).
- Equal: place 2 dice with the same value (e.g., 2 and 2).
- Odd: place 2 dice with odd values (e.g., 3 and 5).
- Even: place 2 dice with even values (e.g., 2 and 6).
- 4 or more: place 2 dice with values equal to or higher than 4 (e.g., 4 and 5).
- 3 or fewer: place 2 dice with values equal to or lower than 3 (e.g., 2 and 1).
Variant Rules
Special Objective Cards
In this variant, players do not need to worry about the order in which they place their ghosts in their play area. There are no points for Formations. Players must try to capture as many ghosts as possible that meet one of the conditions on their Special Objective Card.
Each Special Objective Card has one shape and colour worth 2 points, and another shape and colour worth 1 point. These objectives work like the bonuses: you may make any combinations you like to obtain the maximum score. Some ghosts will only give you 1 point, others 2 points, others 3 points, and some ghosts can give you up to 4 points. Combine shapes and colours as well as you can!