The Blessed Dark
The Blessed Dark Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 32 Spell Cards
- 20 Blood Tokens
- 3 Ritual Dice
Goal
Be the cultist with the most FAVOR by the time the last card is drawn from the spell deck.
Setup
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Remove "The Dark One" card from the deck and place it to the side, face-up, between the players. Shuffle the remaining spell cards and place them nearby.
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Deal each player 3 spell cards (all players then choose one card to immediately place face-up on the table, adding it to their Grimoire before the game begins). They keep the remaining two cards in their hand.
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Give each player 2 starting blood tokens. Set the rest aside to form the blood pool.
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Choose a starting player, and you are ready to begin! The first player takes their turn, then play continues clockwise.
Gameplay
On each player's turn, they must choose only ONE of the following actions.
- Draw a spell card and add it to your hand (5 card hand limit).
- Draw 2 blood tokens from the blood pool, if blood is available.
- Add a spell card to your Grimoire by placing it on the table in front of you.
- Refresh all of your exhausted spells.
- Conduct a ritual by rolling the 3 ritual dice (up to 3 attempts) and casting a legal spell of your choice based on your roll. See ritual rules below.)
Conducting Rituals
To attempt to cast spells, you must conduct a ritual. This entails rolling the 3 ritual dice and then determining if the results allow you to successfully cast any of the spells you have already placed in your Grimoire.
The more spell cards you place, the more options you will potentially have each time you conduct a ritual. You do not have to cast a spell if you complete its requirements.
To conduct a ritual: roll the 3 dice, and cast any single spell you are able to based on the roll, by assigning dice to the spell and paying the blood cost (if applicable). Dice should only be assigned when you have met the criteria to complete the spell.
If you do not cast a spell on the first attempt, you may choose to re-roll any or all of the dice twice per ritual. (You have 3 roll attempts total).
Once a spell is cast, however, you forfeit further ritual rolls on that turn. Only one spell may be triggered during a ritual.
Blood modifier: you may spend extra blood to increase or decrease the value of a dice by 1 for each blood you spend. More than one blood can be spent in this way, and more than one dice can be influenced in this manner per ritual.
If you are unable to cast any spells or choose not to trigger any spells after three roll attempts, the ritual fails, your turn ends, and play continues.
Blood Magic
Some spells require that you also pay a blood cost (indicated by the blood drop icon on the card). If you do not have enough blood to complete the spell requirements, you may not cast the spell.
Casting/Exhausting Spells
When you cast a spell during a successful ritual, you must pay any blood requirements, resolve any effects, and then EXHAUST the spell (turn the card sideways) to indicate it has been spent (see the exception below).
Exhausted spells may not be cast again until a player spends a turn to REFRESH their spells. When refreshing spells, turn all of your exhausted spell cards (aside from summoned demons) back to their original vertical orientation.
Exception: if a spell card has a skull icon instead of the exhaust symbol (the exhaust symbol being the sideways-arrow icon), that card is removed to the discard pile once it has been cast.
Summoning Demons
DEMONS are the primary way to gain FAVOR, giving you a scoring advantage. They are summoned by completing certain summoning spells.
Once SUMMONED via a successful ritual, demon spells remain exhausted for the rest of the game unless they are banished. They are no longer considered spells once they have been summoned. Note: demons can only be summoned by completing their dice roll and paying their blood requirements during a ritual. Spells that would simply exhaust an unsummoned demon do not summon it.
Demons earn you FAVOR that is scored at the end of the game. They can be taken out of play, however, by certain spells.
Summoning The Dark One
The first player to roll three-of-a-kind during a ritual may choose to sacrifice all of their blood to summon THE DARK ONE (they must have at least one blood in order to summon it). Move the Dark One card to your Grimoire and exhaust it. The Dark One is immune to all spells and cannot be removed from play, once summoned.
If other subsequent players roll three-of-a-kind and have blood to sacrifice, they may steal The Dark One for themselves.
Bonus Power: if you have already summoned + currently have control of The Dark One, and you roll three-of-a-kind again, you may cast an unexhausted spell for free (ignoring the roll numbers and the blood cost). This counts as the 1 spell you may cast during a ritual.
Game End
The game ends immediately when the last card is drawn from the deck. The player who draws the last card may choose to add it to their Grimoire, but no further actions can be taken. Additionally, choosing to draw or not draw the remaining card can be a strategic maneuver to control when the game ends.
Scoring
At the end of the game, each player will earn FAVOR as follows:
- Gain 1 FAVOR for each spell that is currently placed in your Grimoire (do not count unsummoned demon spells).
- Gain any additional FAVOR from your demons that have been successfully summoned and remain in play.
- Subtract 2 FAVOR each for any demon summoning spells you have in your Grimoire that remain unsummoned by the end of the game.