Vudulhu
Vudulhu Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 36 Curse cards (12 Gaunt, 12 Ghast, 12 Deep One)
- 8 Artifact cards
- 8 Place cards
- 10 Great Old One cards
- 1 Target card
- 1 Cthulhu doll
- 5 Ingredient dice
- 6 score spheres
- 1 scoreboard (inside the box)
Game Setup
Before starting a game of Vudulhu, you must prepare the materials. Take all the cards of the game and divide them by type, creating 4 decks: the Curses deck (all cards with a yellow back), the Great Old Ones deck (purple background; the back of the cards is the one with the black silhouettes), the Artifacts deck (blue back) and the Places deck (brown back). Shuffle the 4 decks separately and place them in the centre of the table, face down, in a spot easily accessible to all players.
Each player draws one Curse card from the Curses deck: this card makes up the player's starting hand. Each player chooses a colour, takes the score sphere of that colour and places it on the "0" of the track drawn on the inside of the box.
Place the Target card in the centre of the table together with the Cthulhu doll and the 5 Ingredient dice. Draw a card from the top of the Places deck and place it face up in the centre of the table. All players must comply with what is written on the revealed Place card (see "Places", on the back, for more information on how these cards work). You are ready to start!
1. Course of the Game
Before going on with the rules, let's take a look at one of the Curse cards, the heart of the game mechanism. Look among the Curse cards for the card Tenta'kolas so that we can see it in detail.
- Description: The description of the curse, that is, its effect on the player hit by the Curse once you have played it. In this case, whoever is hit by this Curse must grab objects as if they had tentacles in place of hands.
- Cast Points: The number shown next to the symbol indicates how many points you score when you cast this curse.
- Interruption Points: The number shown next to the symbol indicates how many points you score when a player interrupts this curse.
- Ingredients: Here the ingredients needed to cast the curse are shown. In this case, you will need at least one die showing the first ingredient symbol and one die showing the second ingredient symbol in order to cast the curse on your opponents. The wild symbol is a joker: you can therefore use a symbol of your choice to complete the sequence.
2. Turns
Play proceeds in turns, clockwise. The player who does the best Cthulhu impression starts: that player receives the Cthulhu doll and the 5 Ingredient dice, then takes all the dice, rolls them and:
The player can use these 5 dice, which show as many ingredients, during their turn by discarding them to perform various actions. Warning: once discarded, a die is no longer available for that turn. All actions can be performed several times in a turn. The possible actions are:
A. Cast a Curse B. Re-roll the Dice C. Draw a Curse D. Draw an Artifact
A. Cast a Curse
The player looks at the Curse card(s) in their hand: if the rolled dice show all the symbols shown on one or more cards, the player chooses which Curse card to cast, then discards the dice that represent the symbols of that Curse. They reveal that card to all the other players, reading the text aloud, and indicate (by calling them by name or pointing) the opponent hit by the Curse. Then they place the Target card in front of the player just hit, taking it from the player who had it until that moment (or from the centre of the table if it is the first Curse cast in this game).
Warning: The Target card indicates the last player hit by a Curse. It is not possible to cast a Curse on a player with the Target card in front of them, because in the game you can never target the same player 2 times in a row.
From that moment on, the chosen player must perform the action shown on the card exactly in the times and ways described. See later "How do Curses work?".
Finally, the player whose turn it is places the Curse card just cast in front of themselves and advances their sphere on the scoreboard by as many points as are shown next to the Cast Points symbol of the card.
B. Re-roll the Dice
If the player is not satisfied with their roll, they may decide to re-roll the dice one or more times during their turn but, for each re-roll, they must first discard a die of their choice (so, during their turn the player can re-roll the dice up to 4 times, barring effects due to other cards). During a re-roll, the player is not obliged to re-roll all the dice and may freely choose which to keep and which to re-roll.
C. Draw a Curse
By discarding any 2 dice, the player may draw a card from the Curses deck and add it to their hand. In this way they will increase their arsenal of Curses and it will be easier to obtain a valid combination with a roll of the dice.
D. Draw an Artifact
By discarding any 2 dice, the player may draw a card from the Artifacts deck and add it to their hand (see later "Artifacts").
3. Passing the Turn
When the player whose turn it is no longer has enough dice to perform any action, usually zero or one, they pass the turn to the player on their left, giving them the Cthulhu doll. Warning: the Cthulhu doll serves to indicate the player whose turn it is and to mark the end of one player's turn and the start of the next player's turn, which is important to determine the correct execution of some Curses (see later, "How Curses work").
4. End of the Game
As soon as a player totals or exceeds 13 points, the game ends and that player is the winner! A player can also win outside their own turn thanks to Interruption points!
Example
Fabio rolls the dice and gets 1 Crystal, 2 Ghosts, 1 Raven and 1 Skull (1). He can cast the curse "Shantak!" right away. He uses the Ghost and the Skull (2) to cast it on Simona: from now on Simona must neigh like a Shantak before passing the voodoo doll (the Cthulhu doll). Fabio would also like to cast "Zompadimensione!" but does not have the Pumpkin ingredient among the remaining dice. He decides to tempt fate and spends one die (the one with the Raven) to re-roll as many as he wants among those available: he re-rolls the Crystal (the Ghost is needed for the Curse, so he does not re-roll it). Unfortunately he gets a Skull and, unable to cast the curse, decides to use the 2 remaining dice (3) to draw an Artifact card and so end his turn.
5. How Do Curses Work?
Once the Curse is cast, the player hit by the Curse must do exactly what is described by the card, for the rest of the game. For example, once hit by the Curse Tenta'kolas (see "Course of the Game") the chosen player must grab objects as if they had tentacles in place of hands.
Each Curse describes exactly when to perform the action given in the description:
- "Before rolling the dice" - before rolling the dice at the start of the turn (first roll only).
- "Before passing the Voodoo" - before passing the Cthulhu doll to the next player.
- Not specified - Where not expressly indicated, Curses are continuous and take effect for the whole duration of the game. For example, the Curse "Mazz'cheppuzz" obliges the player it hits to play the whole rest of the game holding their nose with their hand, on pain of interruption of the Curse.
During the game the players hit by Curses might, by their own will or through distraction, interrupt the Curses cast on them. They might, for example, forget to croak like a Bialkee before rolling the dice, or might need to get up from the floor to stretch their legs. At the moment a player interrupts a Curse, the player who cast it can report the fact, declare the Curse interrupted and receive the Interruption Points. The Curse is then discarded and put back at the bottom of the Curses deck, and from that moment the player who was hit by it no longer has to comply with it.
Artifacts
We have seen that by discarding 2 dice you can draw an Artifact. But what are they for? And how are they used?
Artifacts, unlike Curses, rarely give points, but they can help you during the game: some allow you to re-roll the dice, others allow you not to suffer a Curse, still others allow you to use the dice of other players. Read the Casting Condition to find out how to use the Artifact. The Effect will tell you what happens.
- Casting Condition: This part describes the condition for being able to use the Artifact. In this case, it is enough to play and discard it during your own turn.
- Effect: This part describes the effect of the card. If an action is described, the player must perform it in order to activate the Artifact. For example, to be able to draw cards with the Necronomicon, they must first shout "THEY ARE COMING, THEY ARE COMING!", otherwise the artifact will have no effect!
Great Old Ones and Places (on the back)
Great Old Ones
There are 2 Great Skulls on the scoreboard. Every time a player reaches or passes one with their sphere, they will begin to sense the presence of a Great Old One! The player draws a card from the bottom of the Great Old Ones deck and places it in front of them without turning it over. From that moment on they must comply with what is written on it for the whole game or suffer the consequences! If the deck is exhausted the player does not receive any Great Old One! If you like, when you draw the first Old One... lower the lights!
- Penance: This side describes the rule to be respected so as not to trigger the Great Old One's penalty. If at any moment the player who owns it fails to respect it, they turn the card over.
- Penalty: This side describes the penalty that the Great Old One imposes on the player for the rest of the game after they have failed to respect the penance described on the other side of the card (madness has its drawbacks...).
Places
There are 3 Place symbols on the scoreboard. The first player to reach or pass one with their sphere draws a card from the top of the Places deck and replaces the Place card already present, if any, with the one just drawn, putting the old Place card at the bottom of the Places deck. From this moment all players must comply with what is written on the revealed Place card. At the moment one or more players simultaneously break the condition of the card, they will suffer the penalty shown on it. After that, the card is put at the bottom of the Places deck. Warning: in this case it must not be replaced with a new Place card. It is in fact possible that at some moments of the game there are no active Place cards.