Watch Out Beetlejuice
Watch Out Beetlejuice Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
8 dice, 28 Beetlejuice cards, 52 Resident cards.
Setup
- Shuffle the Beetlejuice cards and place them face down underneath the box lid, which represents Beetlejuice's grave.
- Place the box bottom next to Beetlejuice's grave. You will discard Beetlejuice cards into it.
- Shuffle the Resident cards and place them in the middle of the table to form the House draw pile.
- Draw 3 Resident cards and place them face up next to the House pile.
How to Play
On your turn, try to scare off Residents to score as many points as possible before your opponents... or Beetlejuice.
Each Resident can only be scared by specific combinations of paranormal manifestations that you achieve by rolling the dice up to three times. The sides on each die have symbols representing one of the paranormal manifestations that you can perform:
- Cockroach Swarm
- Ghostly Apparition
- Headless Corpse
- Transformed Barbara
- Transformed Adam
- The sixth side represents Beetlejuice
Between each die roll you can set aside one or more dice that you want to keep.
Each die only counts towards the combination for a single Resident. So if 2 Resident cards require the same symbol, you will need multiple dice showing that symbol.
You are never allowed to reroll a Beetlejuice symbol.
You can never reroll only one die. You must always reroll at least 2, even if that means rerolling a die that you would rather have set aside.
Card Examples
The Resident cards show what roll they can be scared by. Three examples are printed on the sheet:
- Resident marked 3 (Cockroach Swarm card): can be scared by rolling 3 Cockroach Swarm symbols.
- Resident marked 3 (window card): can be scared by rolling 3 Cockroach Swarm symbols, or 3 of the second symbol shown ("3x [icon] / 3x [icon]").
- Resident marked 4: can be scared by rolling 3 Ghostly Apparition symbols and 1 of the second symbol shown ("3 and 1").
Note: the printed Resident-card examples show symbol icons only. The second and third example symbols are given as pictures on the sheet; they are not labelled in the printed text, so they are not named here.
End of Turn
Your turn ends because of any of the following situations:
- After 3 dice rolls
- Collect any Residents you successfully scared, then reveal new Resident cards so there are always 3 face up on the table. Place the scared Residents you collected, face up in front of you.
- You may end your turn without using all 3 rolls if you are happy with the result and/or you don't want to run the risk of summoning Beetlejuice.
- Collect any Residents you successfully scared, then reveal new Resident cards so there are always 3 face up on the table.
- If your dice show 3 or more Beetlejuice symbols...
- End your turn immediately without collecting any Resident cards, even if you had what it took to scare them.
- Then either summon Beetlejuice or banish him back to his grave.
Beetlejuice
Rolling 3 or more Beetlejuice symbols during a player's turn summons the eponymous bio-exorcist:
- Beetlejuice rises from his grave: Move the box lid to reveal the face-down Beetlejuice deck.
- He scares a Resident: Place the Resident with the highest point value face down on the table next to Beetlejuice's grave. Then draw a new Resident card to take its place.
- He plays tricks on the players: At the start of their turn, each player must draw a Beetlejuice card and apply its effect before rolling the dice.
After applying the effect, discard the Handbook for the Recently Deceased into Beetlejuice's grave and roll your dice.
Banishing Beetlejuice
Rolling 3 or more Beetlejuice symbols while Beetlejuice is already in play sends him back to his grave. End your turn immediately without collecting any Resident cards, even if the relevant conditions are met. Discard the Beetlejuice cards into the box bottom and put the box top over the Beetlejuice deck again.
Beetlejuice Cards
There are 3 types of Beetlejuice cards:
- 1-skull card: When a player draws a 1-skull card, it affects that player only. Discard this card at the end of your turn.
- 2-skulls card: When a player draws a 2-skulls card, they apply its effect during their turn and then give the card to any other player. At the start of the receiving player's turn, they must draw and apply a new Beetlejuice card in addition to the effect of the 2-skulls card they were given. If you have 2 active 2-skulls cards at the end of your turn, choose one to pass to another player and discard the other into Beetlejuice's grave.
- 3-skulls card: When a player draws a 3-skulls card, its effect applies to everyone until Beetlejuice is sent back to his grave. There can only be one active 3-skulls card in play so if a new 3-skulls card is drawn it replaces the existing one, which is discarded into Beetlejuice's grave. At the start of their turn, subsequent players draw a new Beetlejuice card and apply its effect in addition to that of the 3-skulls card already in play (unless they draw another 3-skulls card). Discard the Beetlejuice cards into the box bottom and put the box top over the Beetlejuice deck again.
Beetlejuice Card Effects
The effects printed on the Beetlejuice cards are:
- 1 less re-roll this turn. The 1-skull and 3-skulls card effects apply cumulatively.
- Remove 1 or 2 dice for this turn. The 1-skulls and 3-skulls card effects apply cumulatively.
- Replace the Residents. If this card is visible after drawing a Beetlejuice card, replace all the Residents in the middle of the table before rolling the dice (put discarded Residents underneath the House draw pile).
- You can't use the pictured dice symbol(s) to scare the Residents. Shown on two cards with crossed-out dice symbols.
- It now takes 4 Beetlejuice symbols to banish Beetlejuice. (Shown on a card marked "x4".)
Handbook for the Recently Deceased
The House draw pile contains a special type of card: 3 copies of the "Handbook for the Recently Deceased".
You win the Handbook for the Recently Deceased by obtaining all 6 symbols on your dice roll. If you meet this condition at the end of your turn, collect the card and place it in front of you.
The Handbook card shows six effects, one for each of the six dice symbols, printed in this order on the sheet:
- Choose which of the following effects to apply.
- Ignore the effect of any Beetlejuice card.
- You may roll the dice up to 4 times.
- You may summon or banish Beetlejuice.
- Collect any one Resident from the middle of the table.
- You may reroll one Beetlejuice symbol.
Note: the six effects are printed beside six dice-symbol icons on the Handbook card; the icon-to-effect pairing is not labelled in the printed text, so the effects are listed in printed order without naming the symbols.
End of the Game
The game ends when either a player or Beetlejuice has scared 5 Residents.
If the end of the game is triggered by:
- A player: All players add up the points on their scared Residents. Whoever has the most points wins the game.
- Beetlejuice: He wins and all the players lose.
Optional: After determining the winner, compare your Resident card score against Beetlejuice's Resident score, to see if you have outscored the Ghost with the Most.
"Expert" variant: Before starting the game, players may agree to scare 8 Residents instead of the usual 5 for a tougher challenge.
ENJOY THE GAME!