1. Game Overview

Zombies and vampires are roaming the streets, looking for families of humans to eat. Help them by assembling blood or brains cards into families, so the monsters can drag them off to the graveyard for a big feast.

Once you have a blood family, you need a vampire to go to the graveyard. Likewise, if you have a brains family you need a zombie to go to the graveyard. These are your eaters (zombies and vampires).

But wait - to complicate matters, scantily-clad temptresses roam the villages, seducing whoever or whatever they encounter. A succubus can steal your opponents families and eaters over to your side. She doesn't care which graveyard has the feast! She's just out for some girlish fun.

Is there any hope for the poor, doomed humans? Yes! Powerful holy men hunt down evil, and when they speak, eater monsters explode.

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2. Starting the Game

• Deal five cards to each player.
• Place the remaining deck off to one side. This is the Draw pile.
• When someone discards, start a Discard pile next to the Draw pile, face-up.
• Pick up your cards and keep them hidden in your hand.

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3. Basic Game Play

Terminology

Cards in this game are played either from your hand or from the table. Their powers and abilities may change depending upon which location they are played from, so it is important to differentiate.

• From the hand: Cards you hold in your hand are played 'from the hand'.
• To the board: The board is the table. Cards played 'to the board' go on the table in front of you.
• From the board: this means you play a card from the table in front of you, not from your hand.

Each player starts the turn with five cards.

• If you do not already have five, draw until you have five.
• Then do one of the following, but not both:
  1. Play one or more cards from your hand to the board, or
  2. Discard one card

There are three types of cards you can play to the board on your turn:

• Food
  1. Brains food. These look like humans with green brains. Feed to zombies.
  2. Blood food. These are humans with red hearts. Feed to vampires.
• Eaters
  1. Zombies. Attach them to brains families (a run of brains cards).
  2. Vampires. Attach them to blood families (a run of blood cards).
• Party Crashers
  1. Succubuses. Use them to steal a visible family or Monster Mash.
  2. Preachers. Use them to destroy a visible eater.
  3. NOTE: this type of card is an INSTANT. It can be played at any time, even on another player's turn.

To begin with, start laying down food families. In standard play, a family is 3 or more humans of the same type (blood or brains) numbered in consecutive, ascending order such as (3,4,5) or (3,4,5,6,7) but not (3,4,3) or (9,1,2). Cards are numbered from 1 to 9, so the biggest possible family is 9.

To start a family you need at least two consecutively numbered humans from your hand of the same type. For example, the 1 and 2 of brains. Then you place those two on the board at the same time. You cannot start a family on the board with just one card. It gets easier. Once you have started a family, you can add to it one card at a time, in later turns.

You can also play eaters to the board, either by attaching them to one of your families, or storing them in your Monster Mash.

Party Crashers can be used on your turn too. Either play them against an opponent, or put them in your Monster Mash.

The more cards you get rid of, the more cards you can draw on your next turn and the faster you collect food. But there are advantages to hoarding cards in your hand. No one can see them. And more importantly, no one can steal or destroy them. Here is the first point of strategy... hoard or reveal?

The Monster Mash is simply a holding tank for your vampires, zombies, succubi and preachers. More on that below.

HOW TO WIN
Take 9 humans to the graveyard to win a game. Typically this is done in two or three stages, with a few families of 3 each, or a family of 3 and 6 respectively. A corresponding eater must accompany the family to the graveyard.

EXAMPLE: a player starts a brains family by laying down the 3-4 of brains. On her next turn, she draws the 5 of brains and immediately plays it along with a zombie from her hand. She feeds the feast, taking the family and the zombie to the graveyard. Someone notes her score -- 3. She has 6 to go. Her turn is now over.

Now that you have the basics, let's envision the board. Here's an illustration of a two-player layout.

WINNING SETS
Since games last only 10-15 minutes, it's common to play until the set winner is known (best of 3 or 5 games).
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4. The Cards

The SUCCUBUS is of type Party Crasher steals any 1 family or Monster Mash that is visible on the board. She can steal one and only one. For example: she cannot steal both an opponent's blood family and a vampire in the Monster Mash, but rather has to make a decision to steal EITHER the blood family OR the Monster Mash. She can be played instantly, at any time, on any player... except after a player has announced an intention to go to the graveyard (the other player must complete the full utterance "X to the graveyard" in order to block her... a partial utterance is not enough, nor is an inexact utterance). To play, you must say 'Seduce'. Fail to do so, and lose the card to the discard pile.

Instantly play a succubus on top of another succubus to hijack the stolen object. You might steal back your stolen family. Or player 4 might steal the family player 3 just stole from player 2 who stole it from player 1.

Once used, the succubus is placed on the discard pile.

The PREACHER destroys any 1 eater (zombie or vampire) visible on the board and is of type Party Crasher. He can be played instantly, at any time, on any player. To play, you must exclaim 'The power of Christ compels you!'. Fail to do so, and lose the card to the discard pile.

To negate the preacher, play an inverted preacher on him. This is an 'Evil Preacher' and you must say 'The power of evil compels you, (substitute favorite synonym for 'evil' here)!'. Note that the swear word is NOT optional, and if you do not say the phrase exactly like this, with some kind of swear word at the end, you lose the card to the discard pile!

And so on... a preacher can negate an evil preacher with another 'The power of Christ compels you!', etc.

Once used, the preacher is placed on the discard pile.

The VAMPIRE feasts on blood families and is of type Eater. You must have one of these to take a blood family to the graveyard. To play, you must say 'Blood' in a creepy voice. Fail to do so, and lose the card to the discard pile.

The ZOMBIE feasts on brains families and is of type Eater. You must have one of these to take a brains family to the graveyard. To play, you must say 'Brains' in a creepy voice. Fail to do so, and lose the card to the discard pile.

A brains human is recognized by the large green brain and is of type Food.

A blood human is recognized by the huge blood syringe and is of type Food.

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5. Game Flow

Regarding Party Crashers

After this type of card is played, it goes to the discard. It is added to the discard pile in the order played.

Example: A player throws down a zombie on their brains family of five and says 'Brains!' Before they are able to say, '5 to the graveyard', an opposing player says 'Seduce' and tosses down a succubus, and steals the whole brains family plus the zombie. The succubus goes on the discard pile. The stealing player immediately say '5 to the graveyard!' and begin scooping up their loot. Another player throws down a preacher with the phrase 'Christ compels you!'. Since the prayer was said incorrectly, the prayer fizzles out and that preacher is placed immediately on the discard pile. This same player has a second preacher and throws it down, and this time, gets the phrase right, exclaiming, "The power of Christ compels you!". Now the zombie explodes and is destroyed. The preacher and zombie are placed in discard. Player two, who successfully stole the brains family, gets to keep the brains family on his area of the table. Now he needs to get another zombie to haul that family to the graveyard.

After Taking A Family to the Graveyard

Turn your family face-down, and place it in your graveyard. Take the vampire or zombie out and place it in discard. If the draw deck gets flipped, recycle the corpses in your graveyard to the shuffle deck, and record your score on a piece of paper.

Discarding Strategies

Since you can only draw 1 card per turn, it is not advantageous to play only 1 card to the board. Avoid this. You might as well just discard, and lighten your hand of a card not needed.

Instead, wait until you can discard 2 or more to the board. This will ensure that on your next turn, you can accelerate by drawing 2 cards -- or more!

By now you know you can play a run of 2 or more blood or brains families to the board. Here's a tip. You can also play 2 or more monster cards (zombie, vampire, preacher or succubus) to the board simultaneously.

Example: On turn 1, Cathy discards normally. She now has 4 cards. John attempts to go to the graveyard, so Cathy plays a Preacher from the hand, preventing him. She now has three cards. On her turn, she draws another Preacher, and a 3 of Brains, which matches up with her 2 of Brains. So on her turn, she plays the 2-3 of brains to the board, and also puts her Preacher and a Vampire she has, to the board, into the Monster Mash. She's down to 1 card. On her next turn, she will draw 4 cards! She stands a good chance of drawing a match for her brains family or another monster card. This is an excellent strategy.

Monster Mash Strategy

Putting your monsters on the table is not a good idea. But it is useful! You may decide to risk it. On the one hand, storing monsters in your Monster Mash is a good way to empty out your hand, and let you draw more cards on your next turn. On the other hand, it allows anyone with a succubus to STEAL your entire Monster Mash. Be sure you understand the risk associated with storing any monster on the board. It's definitely a gamble.

Vampire / Zombies Binding

There are two ways to play a vampire or zombie to the board.

1. Put it in your monster mash. At this point it is not FEEDING. You have not USED it. Therefore you do not have to say 'Blood!' or 'Brains!' in a super creepy voice.
2. Attach it to a family. Now it starts to EAT. And you have to activate it by saying 'Blood!' or 'Brains!' in a super creepy voice. Failure to do so will mean you lose the monster, and it goes into discard (however another player has to call you on your mistake and/or lack of enthusiasm).

Once a vampire or zombie has begun feeding, it cannot be interrupted (detached from its host family). You cannot take a 3-4-Zombie, pull the zombie off, and attach it to a different 7-8-9 family. This is illegal. You can add humans to the 3-4 family. That is your only choice with regard to this zombie. Or you can get a fresh zombie and add it to the other, separate 7-8-9 family.

Nor can you break up a 2-3 family that is already on the board, to pull off the 2 and add it to the 3-4-Zombie family. The 2-3 family is a unit, and cannot be broken. Once you start a family, it cannot be broken up -- ever. It is permissible to join families in whole units though. If you had a 3-4-Zombie family, and wanted to add a 5-6, there would be no conflict.

So we see there is a distinct disadvantage to prematurely attaching a feeding monster to a family. At this point the monster is 'bound' and can't be moved. Also, a succubus could steal your family, and this would include any monster that was feeding on it. So if you have a 3-4-Zombie family on the table, and I have a 2 of Brains and a Succubus, I can steal your family, complete it with the 2, and go immediately to the graveyard.

Let's explore then, why it is a GOOD idea to attach feeder monsters to families, and to do so right away. It is to prevent steals. Look, it takes time to say the required phrases. If you have a 3-4 of brains on the board, and a zombie in the Monster Mash or in your hand AND a 2 of brains or a 5 of brains in your hand, you have to speak very, very fast. You have to say two things. First, after you lay down your 2 or 5 of brains onto the table, completing your family, and then put down your zombie, you have to say 'Brains!' in a creepy voice. Then right after that, you have to say '3 to the graveyard!'. If you fail to get through the second phrase fast enough, anyone with a succubus can steal your whole family plus the zombie. That's why you might want to attach the zombie ahead of time, and get the 'Brains!' utterance out of the way. This will speed up matters when you finally get a 2 or 5 of brains. At that point, no one will have any warning, and you can just slap down the final family member and say '3 to the graveyard' before anybody knows what is happening... and viola! You have just scored 3!

6. Collectible Cards (Rares)

Two cards are available to backers of this project at this time. They are not included in the regular deck. Only 100 will be printed.

A devil wife is a most powerful creature. She makes the succubus look like an awkward librarian. Her powers of seduction are truly irresistible and unique. She has the following abilities.

• Can be placed on the board singly, in the family area, as a permanent card, and cannot be stolen.
• Can also be played as a regular one-time steal, from the hand. After her power is spent (see below) she is placed in discard.
• When placed as a permanent on the board, and on the owner's turn, she can seduce any one card away from the discard pile or any other player's family or Monster Mash... including from their hand! Owner can blindly select a card from any other player's hand. This effect does not terminate and cannot be countered. If the owner does not yet have five cards, he or she can also draw new cards up to the maximum of five.
• When played from the hand as a steal card, the owner can discard up to 5 cards, and correspondingly steal up to five cards, from anywhere -- including people's HANDS. She can look through their hands and decide what she wants... but cannot play anything she steals until next turn.

She can be killed in the following manner.

• By an Exorcist played from the hand. Remove her from play.
• By two preachers (can come instantly from anywhere, from any combination of players). She flips a coin. On tails, she dies. On heads, the preachers all explode, and she blindly picks a card from everyone's hand. On her next turn she may discard as many cards as needed to get down to four.
• By stealing a preacher from someone's hand
• If she picks an Exorcist out of someone's hand, a spiritual explosion of epic proportions occurs. Her owner loses all cards on the board and in the hand... to other players. They are shuffled and dealt equally among the opponents. Her owner's score plummets by 6... even if that turns it into a negative number. In addition, the owner loses a turn, and it is now the Exorcist owner's turn AND he or she KEEPS the Exorcist.  

And now... the Exorcist.

Learned in the ways of the scripture, a Biblical scholar, yet he walks a dark road filled with shadows and things unspeakable. Over time he's lost track of whether he uses white or black magic, prays to angels or demons. All he knows is that he wields power, and he can kill the parasites that prey on humanity. He has the following abilities.

• When played as a one-time expendable card, from the hand, all visible monsters including succubuses and the Devil Wife explode. This can be played at any time, and there is no counter. All even-numbered humans on the board go free.   None of the Exorcist owner's cards are affected. The card is removed from play and does not go into the discard pile.
• When placed in the Monster Mash, protects this area from all steals.
• When sitting in the Monster Mash, he exudes a massive maelstrom of pain, uncertainty, chaos and confusion. Any monster (excluding preachers but including Devil Wives) attempting anything must flip a coin. On a tails, the monster is confused, fails to do whatever it was trying to do, and must wait until next turn to try again. This includes an Eater trying to take a family to the graveyard.

He can be killed in the following manner.

• By a Devil Wife played from the hand. Remove him from play.
• By two succubuses  (can come instantly from anywhere, from any combination of players). Exorcist flips a coin. On tails, he is taken off-guard and is dragged off for some sexy times (place him in discard). On heads, he succeeds in shutting out temptation by hiding in his cloister (put him back in your hand). He must stay in hiding (in the owner's hand) for three turns, and during that time he cannot be used.
• Anyone who takes a family to the graveyard under the Exorcist's watch will force him to do a self-loathing check. He flips a coin. On tails, he commits suicide, and is removed from play.

We recommend only shuffling in the rares when you are playing with two Grave Feast decks.

Stay tuned for more documentation on how to play this fun game!