A game about soul carriers
In the game, you will become the guides of souls working in Purgatory from time immemorial. You transport shadows to the Afterlife, which shines with eternal light, but you yourself do not have the right to step onto that shore. But they say that if enough demons cross over to the Other Side, the system on the Other Side will turn upside down, and you will also get a chance to get off the boat... I wonder what the other guides think about this?
This is a game with secret roles, in which teams from three different factions will try to expose the intentions of their opponents and transport to the Other Side exactly those passengers who will bring victory to their team!
Preparation for the game
At the beginning of the game, each player will randomly and secretly receive one of three possible cards: a soul, a demon, or a jester. These cards will determine your affiliation with one of three factions:
- Soul Guides seek to transport as many souls of ordinary mortals to the other shore as possible, collecting souls of the same color (souls of relatives from the same family) into one boat.
- Demon Guides will cooperate to transport as many demons as possible, and will also try to plant them next to souls of the same color (for camouflage).
- The Jester will try to prevent the opponents from earning too many victory points.
Depending on the number of players, participants may also get to know their allies at the beginning of the game. Members of each faction work together and share victory points for the shadows transported.
In addition to the faction card, players also receive one random demon card and one random soul card. The game lasts three rounds, and you will use all three cards received during the game.
Gameplay
Each of the three rounds is divided into three phases:
- Passenger Placement Phase. In each round, two boats of the corresponding round are placed on the table: this is important, because the places of each boat depict a different number of votes and different offerings. All players take turns placing one card from their hand face down on any free space in one of the boats. As soon as you place a card, immediately receive the number of vote tokens shown (you will need them in the third phase) and an offering card (you will need them in the second phase).
- Offerings Use Phase. During the funeral ritual, people also prepare special gifts for the spirits - offerings, which will have a special use in Purgatory. During the second phase, participants will take turns using their offerings. Offerings are played in order from lowest to highest value on the card.
These cards allow you to peek at cards placed by other players or even move them, find out the colors of the cards or change them using masks. There are three decks of offering cards in the game, and all of them have different effects. You can use one set throughout the game or change the decks between rounds.
- Voting Phase. In this phase, participants simultaneously secretly select tokens with the image of a raven or a wolf (symbols of the two boats in the game) and add any number of their votes to them. Squeeze the selected tokens in the palm of your hand and reveal it as soon as everyone has decided on a choice. Count the number of votes for each boat: it crosses to the other shore. Put the other boat aside. The cards on the boats are not revealed until the end of the game.
After that, place the boats on the table with the next round mark and start a new round from the first phase. After the third round, the game ends and the final victory points are counted.
Ending the game and determining the winners
Each of the three factions will have different conditions for gaining points that will bring them victory:
- The Jester cannot earn victory points at all, and always receives 6.5 or 8.5 VPs, depending on the number of players. He wins if no faction has scored more points.
- Soul Carriers earn 1 VP for each soul transported and receive additional VP for souls of the same color in the boat: 1 VP for two souls, 2 VP for two, and 3 VP for four souls.
- Demon Carriers earn 1 VP for each demon transported and 1 additional VP for each demon sitting in the boat next to the transported demon and of the same color as it.
- The faction with the most victory points wins.
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