Pandemonium

## Overview

*Pandemonium* is a survival horror tabletop game with miniatures. No zombies here, just classical horror with all kind of evil creatures and a lot of fun.

Collaborate with your partners in order to survive, but trust no one because all of them hide a dark past and a deadly secret.

You can explore, hide, run, create barricades, battle monsters and even create combos, but be afraid of the darkness if you want to survive. Call for help, repair the light generator, create deadly traps and discover ancient secrets while you decide your next move: escape the house or defeat the evil in it.

Are you ready to enter Pandemonium?

## How to Play

In each round, each player will have a set of 6 cards, which allow them to perform various actions.

This will start as a hand of 6 Monk cards, but some of those will be replaced by Character cards over the course of the

   game.

A card may be in one of the following states:

-*In Hand:* Cards not yet used or discarded

-*Used:* When *used* (after performing an action), it is placed face down in front of the player, in a “used pile.”

-*Discarded:* Separate from the “used pile,” each player should create a discard pile for card discarded rather than used (see actions).

When all players have played (used or discarded) all 6 of their cards, the turn ends, and 2 epidemics will spread on the map – making them more difficult to control, and possibly removing player chips in the process.

At the end of a turn, players will pick back up their face-down “used” pile, which will be their active hand of cards for the next turn (there should still be 6 cards, which may be all monk cards, or may be a mix of character and monk cards).

The game ends if only one outbreak remains, or if no epidemic tokens can be placed.

### **Preparation**

-Place the board between the players

-Each player takes a set of **monk chips** in the color he/she has chosen, and a set of 6 **monk cards**.

-Shuffle **character** cards into a deck

-Shuffle **coun'***try'* cards into a deck

(For a shorter game, randomly remove 6 country cards from the deck)

-Draw 6 country cards, and position them, in the order drawn, from top to bottom along the left side of the board

-Place a “focus of infection” ring on the board in each of these 6 countries

-Draw 6 character cards, and position them, in the order drawn, from top to bottom along the right side of the board

\*\*NOTE: In the following sections the rules will refer to a “list” of country cards or character cards – the “lists” are these placements of six cards on each side of the board.

-Lastly, randomly select a player to receive the “First Player” token

### **Starting a Round**

In turn, each player must take one action, using one or more of the cards. The players alternate taking actions as long as unplayed cards remain in hand.

There are four possible actions:

1) Place a Monk Chip

2) Take a character card

3) Use a special character card

4) Eradicate an epidemic

### **Place a Monk Chip**

You can place monk chips on the board to gain control of outbreaks, or to change the order of the country cards. The number of chips that can be placed on a turn depends on the combination of cards used:

-Using 1 Monk card = Add (or remove) **1** monk chip

-Using 2 *different* Character cards = Add (or remove) **1** monk chip

-Using 2 *identical* (monk or character) cards = Add (or remove) **3** monk chips

\*A character card alone does not allow a chip to be placed

\*Chips placed on a turn can be placed either on the board, or on *one* of the two sets of cards along the sides of the

   board (country or character).

Placing Monk Chips on the Board:

The goal of all players is to isolate the infections from each other.

An epidemic is considered isolated when no path on the board can be drawn to any other epidemic without encountering a player monk chip.

When an infected country is thus cut off from the others, count the monk chips contributing to this blockade: If a blockade consists of two or more *full* rows/layers of monk chips, only the closest to the focus of infection are counted (see examples). The player with the most gains control, and is the only one that may attempt eradication.

In the case of a tie, all tied players may attempt eradication on their turns.

Example:

The purple player controls the The orange player adds a The purple player reacts
kingdom of Castile without chip, but the barrier does before it is too late. There is
problem (2 vs 1) not change (2 vs 1) now a tie (2 vs 2)

*Placing chips on a country card*:

Placing chips on the countries cards will instantly **change the order of the cards**. After chips are placed, country cards are arranged in order from top to bottom, with the cards holding the most chips at the base, second highest number of chips above that, etc. In the case of a tie between two cards, no change  occurs.

*Placing chips on a character card*:

The order of the character cards works the same way as with the country cards.

Example:

The orange player does not want an epidemic in Aragon, which is second in Fig. A. He then places a chip on the country card for it to drop a notch (Fig. B). To make it drop further, it must gain a greater number of chips (Fig. C):

IMPORTANT: For these two card groups, eliminate a chip on each cards, dice yet or there will be at least one each (ie. The first card of each list should never keep a token).

### **Take a Character**

\*This is necessary to eradicate epidemics.

-To take the top card of the character card list, you must discard any card to your discard pile

-To take the *second* card down, you must *discard* any card, plus place an additional card on your face-down “used” pile. An additional “used” card must be placed for each place down on the list the card is that you wish to take. For example, to take the bottom (6th) card, one card is placed on the *discard* pile, and 5 cards are placed on the *used* pile.

-The newly acquired card is placed face down on the *used* pile in front of you

-The remaining character cards on the side of the board are shifted up to fill the now empty spot, and a new character card is drawn from the deck and placed at the bottom.

*Note: We will position (automatically and free) as many chips of any player that there*

*on the previous map, so that the card is the last well in the list. This procedure is*

*valid for the tips of characters, and for that country.*

### **Use a Special Character**

When the function of a special character is triggered, the player must discard it to their discard pile. In return, a previously discarded monk card is returned to the face-down *used* pile (keeping the current number of cards at 6). Instructions for each of these special characters are written on the cards. There are six special characters:

-**The Virgin:** Can replace any color card (but cannot replace a special character). This is a “joker” or “wild” card

-**The Bishop:** Can eradicate an epidemic containing **only black**, or a home isolated infection which has not yet spread. NOTE: The black tokens do not earn points, but the Bishop may be useful to eliminate an epidemic that is becoming too widespread.

-**The Inquisitor:** Can take a random character card from an opponent's hand. The taken card is placed face down on the *used* pile in front of the thieving player. (NOTE: In this case, as it is the victim that will be short a card, *that* player gets a monk card back instead of the thieving player, which is returned immediately into hand rather than on the used pile).

-**The Alchemist:** Can replace 2 epidemic chips on the board. Remove any 2 chips from the same epidemic, then draw 2 random replacement chips from the bag to put in their place. The original 2 chips are placed back into the bag.

-**Solder:** Can replace 2 monk chips on the board with the player's own.

### **Eradicate Epidemic**

Once a player has control of an epidemic (see monk chip placement), that epidemic can be eradicated.

An epidemic will contain colored chips, matching the colors of the character cards (**NOTE:** epidemics containing only black tokens, or that have not yet spread, cannot be eradicated aside from the use of a Bishop).

To eradicate an epidemic, the controlling player must discard one card of each color represented in the epidemic. *For example:* if an epidemic contains 3 yellow chips and 1 blue chip, a player must discard1 yellow card and 1 blue card. The player then takes back a discarded monk card for each character card used during the eradication.

All of the chips included in the eradicated epidemic are then placed in front of the player, to be scored at the end of the  game.

After an epidemic is eradicated, a **new epidemic** is immediately declared as long as there are still cards in the country deck. A new card is drawn from the deck, and placed in the list of infected countries along the side of the board – at the bottom if there are no cards with player chips, or directly above any cards with player chips of chips are present. Take the “focus of infection” ring that was previously on the now eradicated epidemic, and place it on this newly drawn country on the board.

### **End of a Round**

The round ends when no players have any cards remaining in hand to be played.

At this point, two outbreaks will spread – these will always be the first two countries on the list of country cards at the side of the board.

The spread of each epidemic is done individually, starting with the first/top country:

The First Player randomly draws **epidemic chips** from the bag, placing one in each space adjacent to the epidemic (this may be just the spaces next to the “focus of infection” ring if the epidemic has not spread before. Most of these tokens are black, but may also include colored chips matching the various character cards.

-**If player monk tokens are adjacent to epidemic tokens that are about to spread,** those monk tokens are removed from the board and sent to the “cemetery” (the center of the map which was historically spared) and replaced with the new epidemic chips. Monk tokens removed in this way will be worth negative points at the end of the game.

-**If the epidemics joins with another epidemic** (they become adjacent), they are merged and become a single large epidemic.  To combine, on the list of countries on the side of the board, take the card for the *lower* of the two countries, and place it under the card for the *higher* country.

As this frees up a spot on the list of country cards, draw a new country card from the deck, and place it, the same as if a card were removed during eradication (see that section). Take the “focus of infection” ring that was previously on the lower of the two combined epidemics, and place it instead on this new country.

When the round is finished, the First Player passes the First Player token to the player on the left, and a new round begins.

*Example situation:*

Only Sicily and Poland are not isolated.

Ankara is controlled by Orange (3-0), England by Orange (3-2), Castile by Violet (2-1), and Denmark by Orange (7-6).

While both players fought for small epidemics (England and Poland dangerous they must get care...) epidemic Sicily is already spread twice. It will not be difficult to isolate, but it must remain vigilant, because the appearance of an epidemic in Hungary, or worse, Bulgaria

### **End of the Game**

The game continues until there is only one epidemic, or until epidemic tokens have run out. In both cases, the game stops instantly.

Remaining epidemics may not be eradicated by the players, and will be negative for all points. It is therefore possible to finish the game with a negative score. If all players have a negative score, we can consider that nobody won.

Each has its points:

**+3 Points** per country card

**+5 points** per color token

From this total, **subtract 2 points** per monk lost during the spread of epidemics, **AND** the value of chips and cards present in the remaining epidemics.

Whoever has the most points wins the game.

In case of a tie, whoever has the most country cards wins.

## Links and References

Official Website - Kickstarter

BoardGameGeek Review