The Vampires Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Before You Start
• Playing a Card
• Action Cards
  • Garlic Card
  • Mirror Card
  • Coffin Card
  • Bite Card
• Defeating a Vampire
• Ending Your Turn
• Who Wins?

Contents

90 cards (13 vampire cards, 13 weapon cards, 5 garlic cards, 2 mirror cards, 4 coffin cards, 4 bite cards and 49 attack cards)

Before You Start

Find the 13 vampire cards, shuffle them and place them in a pile face down to one side. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them face down in the centre of the table to form a draw pile.

Each player takes 5 cards from the draw pile which consists of 3 different kinds of cards:

• Attack cards
• Weapon cards
• Action cards

Have you gone vampire hunting before? No? Then watch carefully. You cannot defeat every vampire with the same weapon. The colour of the vampire card tells you which weapon you will need in order to catch that vampire. So, for a 'red' vampire, you'll need a red weapon card.

Hunters, are you ready? Take the top four vampire cards from the vampire pile and place them face up in the centre of the table. These are the active vampires. Brrr!

The deadliest vampires are worth 4 points, the less bloodthirsty ones are worth 1, 2 or 3 points.

• Vampire worth 1 point: 4 cards in the game
• Vampire worth 2 points: 3 cards in the game
• Vampire worth 3 points: 3 cards in the game
• Vampire worth 4 points: 3 cards in the game

The player who smells the most of garlic goes first. Play moves clockwise (to the left). On your turn, play one card from your hand, following these rules…

Playing a Card

1. Players may only place one card on each free (empty) side of a vampire card. This can be either an attack card or an action card.

2. You can only play an attack card if the side of that card is the same colour as the colour of the vampire card concerned, in this case, red. Note: this does not apply to garlic cards and mirror cards (see: Action cards).

3. You must place each attack card the right way up to connect with the vampire card. That means a card must not be placed upside down or on its side.

4. A weapon card is always placed last and below the bottom card. So only when there a 4 cards already lying around the vampire card, together forming a cross. This is the only way to defeat a vampire (see: Defeating a vampire).

You must play one card from your hand on every turn, unless:

• You have the last attack card as well as the matching weapon card in your hand to complete the cross of one of the vampires. In that case you can play 2 cards in the same turn.
• You want to replace a garlic or mirror card that was played before with an attack card from your hand according to the rules above. If you do so, you must be able to connect the garlic or mirror card again in that same turn and carry out the matching action (see: Action cards).
• You cannot connect any of your cards to one of the vampires on the table, and you do not have an action card that you can play (see: Action card). You must then place one of the cards from your hand on the discard pile and draw a new card from the draw pile.

Action Cards

There are 4 types of action card that can be used during the game:

Garlic Card

Oof, what a gruesome garlic smell! With this action card you force the next player to miss a turn. Play a garlic card instead of an attack card and end your turn. Several garlic cards can be laid around one vampire.

Mirror Card

How sad: vampires don't have a mirror image! You can play a mirror card instead of an attack card. When you do, you must swap all of your remaining cards with another player then end your turn. Before you swap, top up your hand to 5 cards. Several mirror cards can be laid around one vampire.

Coffin Card

Wake up, fangs! By playing a coffin card a new vampire will wake up. Take a vampire card from the top of the vampire pile and place it face up on the table. Put the coffin card on the discard pile and end your turn.

Please note: Only a maximum of 6 vampires should wake up during the game. You cannot play this card if there are already 6 vampire cards lying on the table or if there are no vampire cards left on the vampire pile.

Bite Card

Get away with those horrible teeth! Play the vampire bite card to choose which active vampire starts biting. Remove all cards lying around that vampire and place them on the discard pile, along with the vampire bite card, then end your turn.

Defeating a Vampire

A vampire is defeated when the cross is complete. That means it must be surrounded by 4 cards and a matching weapon card placed below the bottom card.

A weapon card can only be played if the colour of the weapon card matches that of the vampire card, in this case, red. If you played the weapon card, grab the vampire card and put it in front of you on the table. Place the surrounding cards on the discard pile.

If there are less than 4 active vampires on the table, pick up a new vampire card from the vampire pile (if available) and place it on the table.

Check the number of points you have scored on the vampire card and end your turn.

Ending Your Turn

At the end of your turn you must top up your hand to 5 cards by picking up from the draw pile. It's now the next player's turn.

Note: When the last card has been taken off the draw pile, shuffle the cards in the discard pile to make a new draw pile.

Who Wins?

The first player to score 6 (or more) points wins the game and is the terror of all vampires!