Create a deck of Contract Cards. Place 5 of them faceup on the table.
Deal all players a deck of 6 Dice Cards: numbered 1–6, where 2 of them have an action.
The game ends when a player has scored 6(+) contracts. They win.
On your turn, pick one Contract from the center of the table. (Then refill to 5 from deck.)
Every contract poses a challenge. You may decide to go it alone … but you’ll usually want other players to help. You can ask as many (or as few) as you like, but it’s up to them if they accept or not.
The players who enter the contract are called Souls. The number of them is called the Turnout.
Then, execute the challenge, doing as it says.
- Players take turns rolling, in clockwise order, starting from the active player.
- If you must roll multiple times, keep previous results out of your deck. (To remember what they were.)
Some cards have special powers:
- These powers trigger immediately once rolled ( = revealed).
- These powers only work if you’re not alone. (They generally act on other Souls, not yourself.)
If you pass the challenge on the contract, you get the reward listed. Otherwise you get the penalty.
Crucially, the reward or penalty is always multiplied by the Turnout. For example, a reward of “+1 hand card” turns into “+3 hand cards” if the Turnout was 3.
You decide how to distribute the reward/penalty over all Souls. The only thing you can’t do, if Turnout > 1, is give everything to one Soul (such as yourself). You can be quite selfish … but it might come back to bite you later.
That’s it!
The challenge of a contract is written in the center. They are randomly generated (in a smart way), which is why there’s no full list detailing all of them.
The contract’s reward is within the green zone at the top. Its penalty is within the red zone at the bottom.
Any score/cards removed or gained are shown to the rest of the table.
There are only two possible penalties/rewards.
SCORE (Get/Lose): You need these to eventually win the game.
- If you get score, it means grabbing a Contract card and placing it facedown in your score pile. The first card scored is always the contract you just played; any more contracts for scoring are simply drawn from the deck.
- If you lose score, it means removing a random Contract card from your score pile and shuffling it back into the deck.
CARD (Get/Lose): Use these to change your cards and what you can or can’t roll.
- If you get card, draw a card from the deck into your hand.
- If you lose card, discard any card from your hand.
Played the base game and ready for more? Or looking to tweak the game to fit your playing group better? Check out these variants and expansions!
To make the game easier, only select the 1-star and maybe 2-star contracts.
To make the game more cooperative, you must always try a challenge with at least 2 players. (The first player you pick is forced to cooperate with you.) However, a forced player does not get a penalty if it goes wrong.
To make the game more chaotic, start every player with 6 random cards (instead of neatly ordered numbers).
To vary the objective,
- Instead of counting every contract as being worth 1, every contract is worth as many points as the number of stars on it.
- The game ends as soon as somebody has accumulated 12(+) stars (over all their scored contracts).
- They win!
This expansion adds a few contracts that play with our Souls.
FORCED: This contract has a minimum Turnout. Until you’ve reached that number, you force other players to join in. (You can exceed it, but then it’s voluntary again.)
BATTLE: This contract is a challenge against each other. You select another player, who can’t refuse, and you both do the contract.
In this case, it’s not a test that you either fail or don’t. Instead, both players must simply do better at the challenge than the other, or they lose. The winner gets the reward; the loser gets the penalty.
Other players are allowed to voluntarily join the battle too (if they think they can beat you). If so, take turns between all participating players, in clockwise order. Multiple winners (in case of a tie) are fine.
This expansion adds a few new number cards.
- Wildcard: is any number you want, at any time.
- Duo: has two numbers. Pick the one you want after revealing it. (Once chosen, it can’t change anymore)
It also adds a few more special powers and higher/lower numbers in general.
