Ghost onboarding Manual
How to Play
You're dead. Might as well be good at it.
Welcome to the afterlife! Yes, there's paperwork. You're a ghost, freshly assigned to Briarwood Court -- a quiet suburban cul-de-sac full of oblivious residents who have absolutely no idea you exist... yet. Your job is to haunt them. Try to act professionally. The Department of Supernatural Affairs is watching you, evaluating your performance, and filing reports about everything you do.
This page is a work in progress. Rules and components are still in development and subject to change.
Mission Parameters
Object of the Game
Out-haunt, out-wit, and out-sabotage your opponents to become the Ghost With The Most. The neighborhood is going to fight back. That's fine. They're terrible at it.
The Haunt Protocol
How a Round Works
Each round, a set of Haunt cards flips face-up. Every player secretly summons 1-3 Ability cards toward Haunts they want to win. Then everyone reveals in turn order.
Here's the catch: Any matching abilities cancel each other. If two ghosts go after the same Haunt with the same ability type, neither one wins it. So, you're not just deciding what abilities to use. You're trying to read what everyone else is going to do, and whether you can outmaneuver them. Relics are weaponized power-ups you reveal at the right moment to inflict chaos and turn the tide.
Surviving cards win their Haunts. Relics do their thing. Points are scored. The Neighborhood Threat Level Meter ticks up. Briarwood Court fights back with Backlash. A new round begins.
Keep going until someone wins, or until the neighborhood gets organized enough to attempt an Exorcism. At that point, ghosts fight it out to survive. You can still win the game, but the Exorcism changes everything. The D.S.A considers the Exorcism to be a bad thing.
If the exorcism happens, all is not lost, however. Collect enough Haunt Insurance throughout the game and you might just survive. But, there can be only one... Ghost with the Most!
The D.S.A. wishes you luck. The D.S.A. does not actually wish you luck. Good haunting.
Equipment Manifest
What's In The Box
Ability Cards
Each round, the D.S.A. issues you a hand of ability cards. Rattles. Flickers. Chills. The heavy stuff. Summon abilities to match Haunts for points or unleash their Secondary Effects to change your stake at the table. The D.S.A. expects results.
Haunt Cards
Haunts are specific haunting assignments issued by the D.S.A. Match your Abilities to win the Haunt and score the points. Be advised: Other ghosts are trying to win these same Haunts, and matched pairs cancel each other.
Relic Cards
Steal points. Cancel bids. Generally ruin someone else's afternoon. Relics are chaos in card form, and the D.S.A. neither endorses nor discourages their use.
Backlash Cards
The more you haunt Briarwood Court, the more agitated the neighborhood becomes. Backlash cards are their response. The good news: these people are just about as incompetent as they are alive. The bad news: they're trying anyway... and they have a cat.
Target Cards (Haunt Insurance)
Some residents are more rattled by certain kinds of haunting than others, and the D.S.A. keeps a file on it. Win a Haunt matching a Target's type, and you automatically bank Haunt Insurance, a safety net that only pays off if things go really wrong for you at the end of the game.
Anomaly Token
Each round, one player assumes the role of the Anomaly. This player commits cards last each round, but reveals cards first. You can still score points as the Anomaly player, but it's harder. Lucky for you, it rotates around the board.
Neighborhood Fright Meter
This meter tracks how nervous Briarwood Court is getting. As you and your fellow ghosts rack up points, the meter creeps forward through four stages of dread: Oblivious, Uneasy, Alarmed, and Panicked. The further it climbs, the harder the neighborhood fights back.
Ghost Cards
Choose one of four Ghost Cards to keep track of your score.