Tokyo Ghoul: Bloody Masquerade Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective of the Game
• Victory
  • Instant Victory
  • Objectives
• End of the Game
• Content
  • Core Game
  • Variants
• Setup
  • Number of Clue Cards
• Gameplay
  • Preliminary Phase
  • The Round Sequence
• Objectives
  • Instant Victory
  • Killing
  • End Gaming Objectives
• Locations
• Location Actions
  • Interrogation (optional)
  • Suspicion (required for all)
  • Cover Up Tracks (optional)
  • Attack (optional)
  • Suspicion Markers
• Mask Variant
  • Content
  • Setup
  • New Rules
• Support Variant
  • Content
  • Setup
  • New Rules
  • Victory Conditions
• Characters
  • Humans
  • CCG Inspectors (also called Doves)
  • Ghouls
  • Mask Variant Characters
• FAQ
• Quick Reference
  • Round Sequence
  • Objectives (see page 8)
  • Action Locations (see more pages 9-10)

Objective of the Game

Each player plays as a Human, a Ghoul, or a CCG Inspector.

Your identity must be kept a secret until the end of the game. Each player has one or more Objectives to complete in order to be declared the winner. Example: survive if you are a Human, devour a Human if you are a Ghoul, or kill a Ghoul if you are an Inspector...

Victory

Each character has Objectives to achieve or an Instant Victory condition to meet.

Instant Victory

Collection: If the player has a combination of Clue cards in hand at the beginning of his turn, he must reveal them immediately. He is then declared the only winner of the game.

Objectives

Objective completion is only checked at the end of the game.

Killing: The player must kill the character type shown on his card in order to be declared the winner.

Staying Alive: The player must stay alive until the end of the game and have the requested Clue cards in hand in order to be declared the winner.

End of the Game

The game ends when:

• A player claims, at the beginning of his turn, his Instant Victory condition (he is declared the sole winner of the game).
• A player triggers an attack to kill another player.
• All Suspicion markers have been given out: the game ends after the active player's turn.

If the game ends because of the death of a player or if the Pool of Suspicion markers has been emptied out, each player must disclose their identity before checking everyone's victory conditions and determine the winner(s) of the game. Under these conditions, there may indeed be several winners!

Content

Core Game

• 1 Game board
• 8 Location tiles, giving access to actions described on pages 8-9
• 24 Clue cards: 6 Dove, 6 Food, 6 Coffee, 6 Transformation
• 40 Suspicion markers
• 8 Investigation boards
• 1 Action token
• 11 Character cards and 11 character tokens of 3 different types: 5 Ghouls, 3 Inspectors (also known as Doves), 3 Humans

Variants

Mask

• 8 Clue cards: 8 Mask
• 5 Character cards and 5 character tokens: 1 Human, 1 Kaneki, 3 Ghouls

Support

• 8 Support tokens: 7 Neutral tokens, 1 Transformed Kaneki token

Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the table.
2. Each player places an Investigation board in front of him.
3. Randomly place the 2 Location tiles with red edges face down on the 2 dedicated locations.
4. Randomly place the other Location tiles face up around the game board.
5. Place the Action token on the red edge tile indicated by the start symbol. It will be moved clockwise from one Location tile to the next.
6. Place the Suspicion markers in the center of the board according to the number of players (refer to the table below): they form the Pool.
7. Build up a pile of Character tokens according to the table below. Place the corresponding Character cards on the game board, so everyone can take note of each character's goals.
8. Deal the Character tokens face down to the players. Each player discovers his identity and keeps it a secret by placing the token face down next to his Investigation board.
9. Take the Clue cards according to the indication below, then shuffle the Clue cards and deal 3 of them face down to each player.

Players	Ghouls	Doves	Humans	Suspicion markers (in the Pool)
4	1*	1	2	12
5	2*	1	2	20
6** a	2	1	3	24
6** b	2	2	2	24
7** a	3	1	3	35
7** b

Be careful, do not choose RIZE for a 4-player game.

* For the first games, pick a Ghoul among HINAMI and NISHIKI.

** Beyond 6 players, choose one of the setup a or b.

Number of Clue Cards

Take all the Coffee, Food, Transformation and Dove cards with a cost equal or lower than the number of players.

"4+" means this card is played in games of 4 to 8 players.

That said, when there are 4 players "5+", "6+", "7+" and "8+" cards are removed from the game.

For 8 players, take all the Clue cards.

Gameplay

Preliminary Phase

Before starting the first game round, players will exchange Clue cards.

• Each player has 3 Clue cards in hand at this point.
• Each player chooses 2 Clue cards from his hand, then shows them simultaneously to the player on his left.
• Every player then gives 1 Clue card, face down, to the player on his right. Everyone must give and receive a card at the same time. That way, each player gives his card before discovering the card he receives.
• Each player must start the game with 3 Clue cards in hand. The preliminary phase is complete and the game can now begin!

A piece of advice for the first games: If a player showed you two identical cards, do not give him a card of the same color. Indeed, this may allow him to meet an Instant Victory Condition at the very beginning of his turn - if his character features one.

The Round Sequence

The players play clockwise and take turns asking questions and exchanging information. The person whose turn it is to play is called the active player. The first active player can either be the host of the game or anyone else determined by the participants.

1. Checking the Instant Victory conditions for the active player.

   • If the active player meets his character's potential Instant Victory conditions, he must announce it at the beginning of his turn before moving the Action token. Once the Action token has been moved, it is no longer possible to claim an Instant Victory: the player has to wait for the beginning of his next round.
   • If the active player is an Inspector, he can now activate his Special Action (i.e. before moving the Action token, see page 8).

2. Movement of the active player. Every turn, the active player must move the Action token to a visible Location. It can be moved 1 or 2 Locations during a turn. Hidden Locations are not taken into account. The different Locations are introduced on pages 8-9.

   Example: The player can go from A to B or C. Hidden Location H is not taken into account.

3. Flipping over the Location tiles.

   • The visible Location the active player left is turned face down: it becomes a hidden Location until it is "skipped" again. (During the first round, the starting tile is not flipped over.)
   • The hidden Location tiles "skipped" by the Action token are turned face up and thus become visible Locations.
   • The visible Locations "skipped" by the Action token remain face up.

   Example continuation: The player moved 2 Locations (from A to C). The Location A is turned face down. The "skipped" hidden H are turned face up.

Objectives

The Objectives and Instant Victory conditions are unique to each character and are explained below.

Instant Victory

Collection: Collect 3 Clue cards of the indicated type (green, red, yellow or purple Clue card, as shown on the character's card). This Instant Victory can only be claimed by the active player at the beginning of his turn. In this case, he is then declared the sole winner of the game.

Killing

Kill a Human, a Ghoul or an Inspector.

To kill another character, the active player must be on one of the two dedicated Locations (red edge Locations). Only characters with a Killing Objective can activate this Attack action.

Special Actions for the Inspectors (to be activated at the beginning of the active player's turn before moving the Action token):

If the player is an Inspector, he also has the ability to kill another character outside the dedicated Locations: instead of moving the Action token at the beginning of his turn, he may decide to kill the player of his choosing from the game if that player has at least X Clue cards in front of him (X = 1, 2 or 3 depending on the Inspector's card).

This special action can be activated if and only if the player who plays the Inspector has at least two blue Dove Clue cards in his hand.

NOTE: The Inspectors play as a team and win or lose together!

End Gaming Objectives

Staying Alive: Stay alive AND collect 2 Clue cards of the indicated types (green, red, yellow or purple Clue card, as shown on the character's card).

Survival of the Partner:

• TOUKA is alive at the end of the game.
• NISHIKI is alive at the end of the game.

Note: in that case, even if the player has been killed (or if he is alive but does not have the Clue cards required to win), he wins the game.

Example: Kimi was killed by the attack of one Inspector. All the Inspectors lose because they failed to kill a Ghoul. On the other hand, even if she died, Kimi still wins because Nishiki is still alive at the end of the game. All the other players also check their End Gaming Objectives.

Locations

The tiles depict iconic Locations from the anime that players can visit in order to perform various actions.

The different actions of each Location are described in the order in which they must be resolved, from left to right.

The red edge tiles represent a Location where it is possible to attack another player. They are placed face down at the beginning of the game.

Location Actions

Each Location tile shows its actions, which are carried out in the order shown, from left to right.

Interrogation (optional)

The active player may interrogate the player of his choice. He asks that player to show him two Clue cards. The active player can then decide to exchange 1 of his own cards with one he was just shown.

Suspicion (required for all)

Players draw suspicion on them. In other words, the latter must take 1 Suspicion marker from the Pool and place it on the dedicated square on their Investigation board.

• All players who have at least 2 identical Clue cards corresponding to the color of the Location (Coffee, Food or Dove) draw suspicion on them.
  • Coffee (2 identical cards): 1 Suspicion marker
  • Dove (2 identical cards): 1 Suspicion marker
  • Food (2 identical cards): 1 Suspicion marker
• All players who have at least 2 identical Clue cards (all types) draw suspicion on them.
  • Example: Mike has 2 Food cards. Therefore he must take 1 Suspicion marker and place it on his Investigation board.
• All players who have at least 1 Transformation Clue card draw suspicion on them.
  • Example: Mike has 2 Transformation cards in his hand. He places 1 Suspicion marker (and only 1) on his Investigation board.

Cover Up Tracks (optional)

• The active player can remove 1 Suspicion marker from the Investigation board of a player of his choice (including himself) and put it back into the Pool.
• The active player can give 1 Suspicion marker from the Pool to the player of his choice.

Attack (optional)

This action is available only for players with a Killing Objective.

• The active player may decide to attack the player who has the most Suspicion markers (himself excluded). In case of a tie between several players, the active player chooses the one he will attack among those tied. The attacked player is killed. This action triggers the end of the game.
• The active player can attack the player of his choosing, if that player has at least 3 Suspicion markers on his Investigation board. The attacked player is killed. This action triggers the end of the game.

Suspicion Markers

When a player has 3 Suspicion markers on his Investigation board, he must show the 3 cards in his hand instead of 2 during an Interrogation.

Mask Variant

This variant adds additional Characters and a brand new way to play with the addition of the Mask Clue cards, allowing players to hide what cards they have in hand.

Content

In addition to the basic setup:

• 8 Mask Clue cards
• 5 character cards and 5 character tokens: 1 Human, 1 Kaneki, 3 Ghouls

Setup

The Setup phase remains identical, except for the changes below:

• The addition of new characters (see table on page 5).
• Add as many Mask cards as there are players to the Clue cards. Deal all the cards. Thus, each player receives 4 cards.
• If a player gets at least one Mask Clue card, he must place one face up in front of him (on his Investigation board). Players who have no Mask Clue card in their starting hand place the Clue card of their choice face up in front of them.
• Then, go back to the preliminary phase.

New Rules

All the rules of the basic game apply, with the following 4 changes:

• After an interrogation and an exchange, a player must always have 4 Clue cards (hand + card placed on his Investigation board). (Printed as "Investigating board" in the source; corrected here.)
• Whenever a player must place a Clue card face up on his Investigation board, he must reveal a Mask Clue card if he has one. Interrogations and exchanges take place exactly as in the basic game.
• If a player gets a Mask Clue card during an exchange and the Clue card face up on his Investigation board is not a Mask Clue card, he must replace it immediately with the Mask Clue card he just received.
• During an Interrogation, the cards revealed on the Investigation board of the two players may be part of the exchange. In this case, the cards in the Investigation board will need to be replaced.

Support Variant

This optional rule adds a variation to the way attacks are resolved by giving the defender the possibility to defeat the attacker.

Content

In addition to the basic setup:

• 8 Support tokens: 7 Neutral tokens, 1 Transformed Kaneki token

Setup

The setup is identical to that of the basic game or the Mask variant, depending on what version is being played. After dealing the Clue cards, build a stack of Support tokens, face down. Add as many tokens to the game as there are players, including 1 Transformed Kaneki token.

Example: 5 players = 1 Transformed Kaneki + 4 neutral tokens.

Then, each player receives a Support token, looks at it and puts it face down in front of him.

New Rules

• Each player can look at his Support token at the beginning of the game.
• At the end of his turn, the active player can look at any Support token, OR exchange his own Support token with another player's token.

Example of the resolution order for the active player:

1. Moving the Action token.
2. Activation of Locations and resolutions of the different actions.
3. Ability to look at any Support token (including his), OR make an exchange with the player of his choice without looking at it.

Victory Conditions

When an attack is triggered by the active player, it is resolved as in the basic game: at first, the active player and the targeted player both reveal their Character tokens. Both players then simultaneously reveal their Support tokens.

• If neither of the two players has the Transformed Kaneki token, the attacking player kills the player he is targeting (as in the basic game).
• If the attacking player has the Transformed Kaneki token, he kills the targeted player (as in the basic game).
• If the player targeted by the active player's attack has the Transformed Kaneki token, he kills the attacker. The player who launched the attack therefore loses the game. The victory conditions are then checked for all the other players still in the game.

Characters

The character roster below lists each character's name and type as printed. The short character biographies printed in the manual are flavour text and are omitted.

Humans

• KANEKI Ken
• NISHINO Kimi
• NAGACHIKA Hideyoshi

CCG Inspectors (also called Doves)

• MADO Kureo
• AMON Kotaro
• SUZUYA Juzo

Ghouls

• NISHIO Nishiki
• KAMISHIRO Rize
• KIRISHIMA Touka
• TSUKIYAMA Shu
• FUEGUCHI Hinami

Mask Variant Characters

• UTA
• YOSHIMURA
• YOMO Renji
• KANEKI Ken (half Human, half Ghoul)
• KOSAKA Yoriko

Note: Kaneki is only brought into play when there are 2 Ghouls in the game, i.e. from 5 players up. During the setup phase, this alternate version of Kaneki can be considered either a Ghoul or a Human (at players' choice). During play, he is considered both a Human and a Ghoul. Therefore, he can be attacked by Ghouls and Doves.

FAQ

Do I have to exchange one of my cards when I do an Interrogation? The exchange of a card after an Interrogation is always optional. The active player does not have to make an exchange if he does not want to. He can even just pretend to do so, for example by putting his hands under the table, behind his back, or by turning around.

How many cards should I have in hand after an exchange? After an Interrogation and an exchange, you must always have 3 Clue cards in hand, unless you are playing the Mask variant in which case you need to have 4 Clue cards (3 in your hand and one on your Investigation board).

If the player I am questioning has a card face up on his Investigation board, can I take it? Yes. The player who is interrogated still secretly shows you two cards from his hand. But you can decide to take the card face up in front of him instead of one of the cards shown during the Interrogation. In this case, the questioned player chooses another Clue card in his possession and must place it face up on his Investigation board.

If I have a visible card on my Investigation board, can I give it away during an Interrogation? Yes, if you are the active player and are carrying out an Interrogation, you can give the Clue card that is placed in front of you face up in exchange for taking the questioned player's card. You will then place a new card from your hand face up on your Investigation board.

Can I bluff? The identity of your Character must remain a secret at all times until the end of the game. You should never disclose your Clue cards outside of an Interrogation. However, nothing prevents you from misleading your fellow players by saying out loud that you have such or such card in your hand... In other words, bluffing remains a valid and recommended strategy.

Can I play the 2 variants at the same time? Yes, you can! Once you've gotten a good grip on the basic game, you can enhance the game with variants. The Mask and Support variants are compatible with each other and with the basic game.

Quick Reference

Round Sequence

1. Verification of the Instant Victory conditions of the active player. Inspectors can use their Special Action.
2. The active player moves the Action token 1 or 2 visible Locations.
3. The Location tiles are flipped over:
   • The visible Location the active player left is flipped face down.
   • Hidden Location tiles that have been skipped by the Action token are flipped face up.
4. The active player carries out the actions displayed on the Location.
5. The person sitting to the left of the active player now becomes the new active player.

Objectives (see page 8)

• Instant Victory by Collection: Victory conditions to be checked at the beginning of the active player's turn. Collect 3 Clue cards depicted.
• Victory by Killing: Perform this action only on red edge Locations, or by using the Inspectors' Special Action (see page 8). Kill a Human, a Ghoul or an Inspector.
• End Gaming Objective Staying Alive: Victory conditions to be checked at the end of the game (see page 3). Stay alive AND collect the Clue cards depicted.
• Additional End Gaming Objective Survival of the Partner: Victory conditions to be checked at the end of the game (see page 3). No matter what happens to the player, he is among the winners if his partner is still alive.

Action Locations (see more pages 9-10)

• Suspicion (required for all): All players who have depicted cards place a Suspicion marker on their Investigation board.
• Cover Up Tracks (optional): Take 1 Suspicion marker from the Pool and give it to the player of your choice.
• Cover Up Tracks (optional): Remove 1 Suspicion marker from one Investigation board and put it back into the Pool.
• Interrogation (optional): Ask another player to show you 2 Clue cards. You can then decide to exchange 1 of your own cards.
• Attack (optional): You can attack one player who has at least 3 Suspicion markers on his Investigation board. This triggers the end of the game!
• Attack (optional): You can attack the player who has the most Suspicion markers. If there is a tie, you choose. This triggers the end of the game!