The Ratcatcher: The Solo Adventure Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Objective
  • Game Setup
• Game Play
  • An Active Township
• The Ratcatcher's Turn
  • 1.1 - Recoup movement & attack dice
  • 1.2 - Ratcatcher Turn (Player Turn)
  • 1.3 Spending Attack Dice
  • 1.4 Special Abilities
  • 1.5 Gather Cheese
  • 1.6 Tallyman
  • Place New Locations
• The Ratcatcher
  • Attributes
  • Attribute Upgrades
  • Abilities
• Rats
  • Step 2.0 - Rats' Turn (A.I. Turn)
  • 2.1 Rats' Move
  • 2.2 Traps (Triggered)
  • 2.3 Rat Attack
  • 2.4 Rats Eat (Consume)
  • 2.5 Spawn: Nemesis
  • 2.6 Spawn: Rats
  • Run Out of Rats?
  • Place New Locations
• Clean Up Phase
• Nemesis Rats
  • The Nemesis Board
  • Rat Tracker
• Peculiar Rats
• Cleanup Phase Summary
• Credits

Setup

Objective

The Ratcatcher's objective: to rid the city of as many rats as possible on their way to gathering as much Magical Cheese as possible.

WIN - The Ratcatcher is victorious if you achieve any one of the following criteria:

• The Ratcatcher collects 10 Magic Cheese tokens
• or The Ratcatcher slays the Nemesis Rat

LOSE - The Ratcatcher is defeated if the Rats achieve one of the following criteria:

• The Rats consume 10 Magic Cheese tokens
• or The Ratcatcher is reduced to 0 wounds

Win/Lose conditions are checked at the end of both The Ratcatcher & Rats turn.

For your first game, select the Ratcatcher Madam Cage & Nemesis - the Rat King as pictured in the game setup (opposite).

Game Setup

1. THE RATCATCHER:

Choose a single Ratcatcher character. Place the chosen Character Board in an easy to reach place on the play area. Setup the character board as follows: Using the reset icon as a guide place the indicated number of tokens on the character board.

• Place the indicated number of D6 dice on the Attack track, filling the track up to the icon.
• Place the black cube (movement token) on the indicated space on the Movement track.
• Place a single red cube (health token) on the space on the wound tracker.
• Place a number of Trap tokens equal to The Ratcatcher's Trap volume in the upper right-hand corner of the Character Board.

2. TALLYMAN:

Take the Tallyman card. Place this card to the side of the Character board within easy reach. This is where Captured rats will be kept.

3. NEMESIS:

Choose a Nemesis, place the chosen Token & corresponding Nemesis' Board within easy reach. Place the red cube (health token) on the space on the Nemesis' wound tracker.

4. TOWNSHIP CARDS:

Find and place the township marked #00 in the center of the play space. Shuffle all remaining township cards from the township deck and place them within easy reach. Townships in play are referred to collectively as the City.

Draw 1 Township card, connect it to an available township connector in the city & then draw another repeating this process until the 2 new township cards in place.

To connect a township card to the city the connector on the card in the new card must be touching a connector of a card in the city. The orientation of township cards does not matter, nor do the zone outlines need be lined up. Township cards may never overlap.

5. POPULATE THE TOWNSHIP CARDS:

Take your chosen Ratcatcher's corresponding character token, and place it in the start zone, on Township card #00.

• CHEESE - place a single Magical Cheese token on each marked slot.
• "?" TOKEN - If necessary draw a random "?" Token from the pile in the Reserve, "?" side is face up. Reveal the token's type and place the revealed token on the relevant slot on the township card. Add any corresponding token on the newly placed "?" Token. Repeat this process for each unique "?" slot.
• POTIONS - If necessary place a single of the appropriately colour potion (denoted by the colour) on each icon.
• Place all the remaining tokens (except Rats) into piles; these are henceforth called the Reserve.
• SPAWN RATS - spawn/rat's nest - Fill the Rat sack with all 64 Rat tokens, shake to randomise. Taking a single Rat token from the Rat Sack, place the Rat on a Spawn slot. Rats Nests will be a recurring Spawn location, whilst spawn points are only used when a township is first placed. Repeat this process for every Rat's Nest & Spawn slot.
  • If a Black rat is placed, immediately spawn an additional rat at that black rat's location. There is no limit to the number of rats spawned in this manner.

Now ready yourself Ratcatcher, for today you could become a hero!

Game Play

The game of The Ratcatcher revolves around a series of turns that form a repeating cycle.

1. The Ratcatcher's Turn:

• 1.1 Recoup
• 1.2 Actions: Your Ratcatcher will choose actions from the options listed below until they run out of the relevant resources or choose to end their turn.
• 1.3 If there are fewer than 2 Magic Cheese tokens within the city, then an Explore action is taken, expanding the city with additional township cards.

2. The Rats' Turn:

Only Rats in active townships (see below) are activated. Rats activate in the following order:

• Nemesis Rats
• Peculiar Rats
• Common Rats (Brown, Black, White)

Rats will follow a turn cycle as follows:

• 2.1 Move
• 2.2 Trigger Traps
• 2.3 Bite
• 2.4 Consume
• 2.5 Spawn
• 2.6 If there are fewer than 2 Magic Cheese tokens within the city, than an Explore action is taken, expanding the city with additional township cards.

3.0 Clean Up:

• Remove all placed Special tokens within the city returning them to the Reserve.
• Tidy up the playing area.

An Active Township

A Township card is ACTIVE if any of the following criteria are applicable:

• Your Ratcatcher present.
• The Township is adjacent to the Township containing The Ratcatcher.
• At least a single Magical Cheese token is present.
• A Nemesis or Peculiar Rat is present.

The Ratcatcher's Turn

1.1 - Recoup movement & attack dice

At the beginning of your Ratcatcher's turn reset the attack dice on your character board. Remember to include any extra dice that have been unlocked.

Reset your movement value. Remember to increase to the new maximum slot that has been unlocked.

Reset up to your Ratcatcher's maximum number of Trap tokens.

Tokens NOT recouped at the beginning of the Ratcatcher turn:

• WOUNDS: Must be collected from the city or purchased from the Tallyman to refill.
• SPECIAL ABILITIES: May be refilled by collecting from the board, purchasing from the Tallyman, or unlocking a refill upgrade on the Character Board. These are collected whenever a Ratcatcher enters a zone containing a token. Your Ratcatcher may never have more then their maximum number of special tokens.

1.2 - Ratcatcher Turn (Player Turn)

During your Ratcatcher's turn they're seeking to vanquish rats and gather Magical Cheese. This can be done using the various skills and actions listed on the character board.

Available Actions

Spending movement points: Move to an adjacent (connecting) zone. One Movement point is used to move between each zone. Each township is broken into a series of spaces, these zones are separated by lines that crisscross the card.

If there are Brown/Peculiar Rats in the zone and you chose to leave that zone - then the Rats will immediately attempt to Bite the Ratcatcher.

Deploy a Trap. Each Ratcatcher's Trap has an associated cost. By spending the number of movement points indicated on your character board you may place a single Trap of that type in the character's current zone or any connected adjacent zone. Only a single trap can be placed in each zone. Each Ratcatcher has a limited number of Trap tokens that can be placed each turn: this is listed on each character board.

1.3 Spending Attack Dice

Attacks may target their currently occupied zone, by taking & rolling one or more dice. Before rolling, select one (1) or more dice (D6) to be rolled in the current attack. An attack must be fully resolved before rolling for any additional attacks.

Dice with a result equal to or greater than the Ratcatcher's Accuracy are hits. Each hit is allocated to one or more Rats and/or Nemesis within the target zone.

Any die result lower than the Ratcatcher's current Accuracy are misses, these dice are immediately returned to the Reserve.

Wounding a Rat: Each successful hit may be allocated to a rat. All common & Peculiar Rats have only 1 wound. A Rat with a Defence value will require a number of hits that exceeds this value to be Captured.

Once a target Rat has been allocated a number of hits and the total is greater than its current Defence value, then that rat has been Captured; immediately add it to the Tallyman card. If the captured rat is a Peculiar Rat, keep its card close by.

Mortal Wounds: Any Attack dice result of 6 will automatically hit & immediately cause a single wound on the target regardless of the target's Defence value. There is no limit to the number of mortal wounds per attack.

1.4 Special Abilities

Unlock: By assigning a magic cheese you may unlock a chosen ability. Once active place the maximum number of the relevant tokens on the character board.

Activating a special ability can be done anytime during the Ratcatcher's turn. Each time a special ability is used, take the relevant token from the character board & either place that token on a Township or immediately return it to the Reserve as indicated by the relevant ability. A Special token is picked up if your Ratcatcher is within the same zone and has room on their character board.

A special ability with zero tokens cannot be used. All special tokens will expire at the end of the current turn.

1.5 Gather Cheese

If your Ratcatcher currently is within a zone containing a Magic Cheese token and the zone contains zero rats, you may gather that cheese token. Take the relevant Magic Cheese token, placing it on to your Character Board. Allocate the gathered Magic Cheese token on an available upgrade slot on the character board. (Any unlocks, upgrades or recoups trigger immediately.)

1.6 Tallyman

Trade in rats for rewards with the tallyman. By returning the indicated number of rats to the Rat Sack the Ratcatcher may claim the relevant listed reward.

Place New Locations

If there are fewer than two Magic Cheese tokens in the city, then a mandatory Explore Action is undertaken. This will expand the city using additional township cards.

The number of newly placed township cards is indicated by the expansion indicator (1-3) in the top left corner of the Ratcatcher's currently occupied township card.

Placing a Township Card:

Target any available connector. Make sure that the township card will fit with at least a single connection made.

Take the topmost card from the Township Deck placing it next to the targeted connector.

• Township may be connected to any Active Township.
• There is no limit to the number of connections a Township may have.
• Township cards may never overlap.
• Only when two connections meet is a zone counted as adjacent.

The Ratcatcher

Ratcatchers are experts in their field, having spent years hunting the rodents through the nests of towns and cities, near and far. These mercenaries and peddlers of rodent disposal now stand on the precipice of fame and glory; all they have to do is their job, right?

Attributes

Each Ratcatcher has a range of unique statistics denoting their attributes, skills, strengths and weaknesses.

Attack: the number of Attack dice available to your Ratcatcher on your turn.

Movement: The number of movement points indicate how much time and energy the Ratcatcher can spend over your turn.

Spending movement points:

• Move to an adjacent (connecting) zone.
• One Movement point per zone moved.

Deploy a Trap: Once the cost has been paid in Movement points a Trap token can be placed in either your Ratcatcher's current location or an adjacent location. A Trap is triggered after the Rats' movement phase is completed and one or more Rats have ended their movement in the zone containing the Trap.

Once a Trap has made its attacks, return the Trap to the Reserve. If a Trap fails to find any targets, return it to the Reserve. Only a SINGLE Trap token may be placed in a zone at any one time. Rats Captured by a Trap attack are added to the Tallyman card as per standard Attacks.

Accuracy: The required result on any dice rolled during an attack. Each result of equal or higher counts a hit that may be allocated to Rats within the target zone.

Defence: This is the number of hits ignored during a Rat attack. If the number of hits exceeds this Defence attribute then your Ratcatcher suffers a single wound. Your Ratcatcher will only ever take a single wound when Common Rats Bite. Each Peculiar Rat will bite individually.

Wounds: Represents the ongoing health of your Ratcatcher. If your Ratcatcher ever takes a wound from a Rat attack, move the Wound token down the wound track a single level. If a Ratcatcher collects a health token, advance the wound token up a single level of the Character Board.

Your Ratcatcher may never have a total wound total higher then the current number of available wounds. If your Ratcatcher's wound track is reduced to 0, then the Ratcatcher is dead and the current game is over - you have lost.

Attribute Upgrades

Located on the Ratcatcher, Nemesis & Rat tracker Board, these slots indicate the required amount of cheese necessary to unlock the linked attribute.

Whenever your Ratcatcher gains a Magical Cheese token, place the cheese token on an available designated slot(s) on the character board.

After placing a Magical Cheese token, and if all the available slots are filled after for a particular attribute, place the relevant +1 token in the available upgrade slot. A health upgrade will add an additional wound to the Ratcatcher's current total health. Other available slots upgrade your Traps with more powerful attacks or varied abilities.

With the special abilities slot a player may choose to allocate a gathered cheese to instantly refill the selected token type.

Each upgrade can only be unlocked once.

Abilities

These unique abilities represent skills that will give the Ratcatcher the edge necessary for victory.

Your Ratcatcher can use these abilities any time during their turn simply by discarding (or placing - see abilities) the appropriate coloured token. If your Ratcatcher has no available tokens for a given ability then that ability cannot be used until more tokens have been gathered.

Ability tokens are a finite resource and will need to be carefully managed during the adventure so they are not wasted needlessly.

If no more tokens are available in the reserve then no token are spawned.

Tokens on inactive townships will be returned to the reserve. There are a few uncommon circumstances for your Ratcatcher to collect more tokens to fuel their special skills, so keep a keen eye out for these opportunities.

Rats

Step 2.0 - Rats' Turn (A.I. Turn)

During the Rats' turn, the rats will seek out the Magical Cheese to bring to their malevolent master. Rats perform their turn in the following order:

2.1 Rats' Move

Move all of the Rats (Rat Tokens) on Active townships directly towards their target priority. Rats activate in the following order:

• Nemesis Rat - See the Nemesis board for movement.
• Peculiar Rat - See each Peculiar Rat card for movement value.
• Common Rats
  • Brown Rats - The Ratcatcher
  • Black Rats, White Rats - Nearest Magical Cheese

White & Black rats that are in the same zone as a Magic Cheese token will not leave.

Tie Breakers: Destination Zone closest to your Ratcatcher's current location. All rats move towards the zone that would bring them closest to the Township with the highest indicated number.

Equal Distance: If two paths to a target destination are of equal distance, the player will choose which path will be taken by the rats.

2.2 Traps (Triggered)

If there is one or more Rats sharing a zone with a Trap token, this will trigger that Trap. Resolve the triggered Trap in accord with the Trap's ability on the character board. Dice for this attack are taken from the Reserve. Rats move normally over trap tokens.

2.3 Rat Attack

Rats in the same zone as the Ratcatcher will make a Bite attack. A Ratcatcher may face up to three bite attacks in the same turn, from the common, Peculiar, & Nemesis rats.

Common Rats - Add up the total Bite values of all common rats in the Ratcatcher's zone. If the total exceeds the Ratcatcher's defence, the Ratcatcher suffers one wound.

Peculiar Rats - If at least one Peculiar Rat in the Ratcatcher's zone has a Bite value that exceeds the Ratcatcher's Defence, the Ratcatcher suffers one wound. If more than one Peculiar Rat is in the zone, do not add their Bite values together.

Nemesis Rat - see the Nemesis Rats section below.

A Ratcatcher will only take a maximum of one wound from common rats and one wound from Peculiar rats, regardless of the number of such rats in the zone.

2.4 Rats Eat (Consume)

Inspect each zone with a cheese token. If there are 5 or more rats sharing the zone with the cheese, then the rats will "consume" the Magic Cheese.

Nemesis Rats, count as 5 rats when consuming. Peculiar Rats, count as 3 rats when consuming.

One at a time remove the Magic Cheese token and move the token on the Rat Tracker up by one level. Apply any effects immediately before continuing.

Then return all White & Black common Rats that were in the affected zone, placing them all back to the Rat Sack.

Rats will Consume cheese even if your Ratcatcher is at the same location.

Brown Rats never perform "consume" and are not returned to the rat sack as a result of consume.

2.5 Spawn: Nemesis

When the cheese token on the Rat tracker reaches the 'Spawn Nemesis' space, spawn the Nemesis by placing the relevant Nemesis Token on any Rat's Nest icon in the township currently occupied by the Ratcatcher.

2.6 Spawn: Rats

Shake the Rat Sack and draw a single Rat Token for each Rat Nest in the city, placing the token in the respective zone. Continue Spawning until each Active township has had a new Rat added to all the Rat Nest's.

Black Rats: Each Black Rat within an Active Township counts as a single Rat's Nest and SPAWN a single Rat each spawn phase.

When placed, Black Rats always spawn an additional rat.

Run Out of Rats?

If at any stage a Spawn cannot be completed, because there are not enough Rat Tokens currently within the Rat Sack to fulfill the current Spawning, follow the Rat Recovery Process (below) completing each step before proceeding to the next, until all Spawning can be fulfilled.

Rat Recovery Process:

• Return all Rat Tokens from non-active township cards.
• Force tally, return all rats currently on the Tallyman card. Claim only a single reward (chosen by the player) if the required number of Rat Tokens are returned to the Rat Sack.
• Return all Rat Tokens from the lowest populated township (not containing your Ratcatcher).

Place New Locations

see Place New Locations, above.

Clean Up Phase

• Remove any Rat Tokens & Special Tokens from inactive Township cards. See Active Townships, above. Returning Rats to the Rat Sack & the Special Tokens to the Reserve. "?" Tokens are not removed in this manner.
• Remove all Special Tokens that were used during this turn. Returning them to the reserve.
• Return any Trap tokens to your character board.

Nemesis Rats

Nemesis Rats are true horrors of their species. The Magical Cheese has twisted their mind and body into something spawned from the most terrible of nightmares. As catalysts of the Rat infection, destroying them is of the utmost importance and seems the only logical path to freeing the kingdom.

The Nemesis Board

The Nemesis Boards are used firstly to track the Rats' progress during the game, and secondly to give a quick overview of all the current Nemesis statistics and abilities.

Rat Tracker

Each time a piece of Magic Cheese has been eaten by the rats, it is removed from the Township and the Tracker advances one step upwards on the Nemesis Track. Any abilities or special effects take effect immediately.

If an increase (or Mutation) is indicated then place the corresponding +1 token on the appropriate space on the Nemesis Board.

When required, Spawn the Nemesis following the procedure below.

Spawning the Nemesis

When the cheese token on the Rat tracker reaches the 'Spawn Nemesis' space, spawn the Nemesis by placing the relevant Nemesis Token on any Rat's Nest icon in the township currently occupied by the Ratcatcher.

From this point in the game the Nemesis will activate in the Rat Phase with the Nemesis Rat activating first (see Rat Attack, above).

Attacking (Nemesis)

If the Nemesis is in the same zone as the Ratcatcher during the Bite Phase, the Nemesis will target the Ratcatcher with a single attack. Roll the number of dice indicated by the Nemesis Rat's Bite. Any result equal to or exceeding the Accuracy of the Nemesis, is a successful hit. For each hit that exceeds the Ratcatcher's Defence value causes a wound.

Mortal Wounds - Each Attack dice result of 6 will automatically hit & cause a wound on the target regardless of the target's Defence value.

Wounding a Nemesis:

All Nemesis Rats have a Defence value. To wound a Nemesis, the number of allocated Hits must exceed the target's Defence.

A Nemesis will suffer a wound for each hit over the Defence value. For each wound dealt move the Nemesis's Wound token down the relevant number of slots.

If a Nemesis is reduced to zero (0) wounds then the Nemesis is Destroyed and the Ratcatcher is victorious.

Moving:

Nemesis rats move before all other Rats. Each Nemesis rat moves in the same manner. Roll a single D6 and move the Nemesis the indicated number of zones towards its dictated target.

Targeting: A Nemesis Rat will move towards its closest target as indicated by the Target icon on its card.

Spawning:

Each Nemesis has a spawn value. This is used in the Spawn Phase just as a Rat Nest centred on the Nemesis' currently occupied zone.

Special Ability:

Each Nemesis has their own unique ability. All such rules are on the Nemesis Rat Board.

Peculiar Rats

The magic cheese can have wonderful and miraculous effects, this effect is not limited to humanity only, the rats are eating the cheese and it has some peculiar effects on them.

Possessing a malevolent intelligence and mutated into something strange, various Peculiar Rats have appeared. Their eccentric behavior has drawn the curious Ratcatcher into a conundrum, too good to pass up?

Spawning (Peculiar): A player may be instructed to spawn a Peculiar Rat, either when the Rat Tracker reaches certain spaces, or when a Peculiar Rat "?" token is drawn. When this occurs draw the top card from the Peculiar Rat deck and place the corresponding token in the relative zone with the cheese or "?" Token. Once completed the Peculiar rat will activate as normal in the next rat action phase. Peculiar rats are not a common rat.

Moving: Peculiar rats move after the Nemesis, but before regular rats. Each Peculiar rat moves in its own way so check their card.

Targeting: A Peculiar Rat will move towards its closest target as indicated by the Target icon on its card.

Attack: Compare the Bite value of the Peculiar Rat vs the Defence of the Ratcatcher.

Capturing/Reward: any time a Peculiar Rat is Captured, do not add it to the tallyman. Instead gain the Captured Rat's profile card; listed on that Peculiar Rat's profile card is a reward, this reward may be claimed at any time during your turn. Return the Captured Rat's token to Reserve. Discard the Captured rat's card. If the card offers a choice of several rewards, pick one.

If a reward is chosen and the number of tokens taken would exceed capacity, any excess tokens are returned to the Reserve.

Cleanup Phase Summary

Step 2.7 - Place New Locations

see Place New Locations, above.

Step 4 - Clean Up

• Remove any Rat Tokens & Special Tokens from inactive Township cards. See Active Townships, above. Returning Rats to the Rat Sack & the Special Tokens to the Reserve. "?" Tokens are not removed in this manner.
• Remove all Special Tokens that were used during this turn. Returning them to the reserve.
• Return any Trap tokens to your character board.

Credits

Game Design/Game development/Illustration/Graphic design - Matthew Aslin

Editing: Matthew Donaldson, Nathan Pullen

The Designer would like to thank - My spouse Sonja without whom this project and many others would have never been, I love you. My girls and baby boys thank you for putting up with daddy's madness. The many, many play testers who gave their time and effort - without a doubt you made this game better. My fellow games designers in Australia, whose great work and advice have helped motivate and inspire me, you all know who you are and thank you so much!