Card Game

What a Mansion!

An On Hand(tm) Rogue-like inspired tabletop card game

For: One to Four players

Necessary Items:
Standard deck of 52 playing cards
Five Six Sided Dice
Poker Chips(ideally 5 colours)
Scrap paper for notes
These rules.

What a Mansion! is a game inspired by both classic survival horror video games as well as proceduraly generated Rogue-like video games. In it you are exploring a randomized mansion that is built around you as you progress; the layout of rooms, locked doors, enemies and traps will be determined by the order of the cards drawn from the decks. Each player takes control of a character and performs actions to explore the mansion, defeat monsters, find items and eventually escape.

Setup:

The Deck of cards should be separated into two piles.  The first pile should be the Two through Ten of spades, all four Kings, and all four Aces.  The second pile should include all other cards: the Two through Ten of diamonds, hearts, and clubs, the four Queens, and the Four Jacks(minus the two Joker cards).  The first deck (spades, kings, and aces) is the Mansion deck, while the other stack of cards is the resource deck.  Each deck should be shuffled well before play begins.

You will need a number of poker chips or similar tokens in different colors in order to keep track of things within the mansion.  Ideally you should have five colors (red for monsters, white for resources, black for hazards, green for player health and blue for player ammo).  If you have(or purchase) cheap chips you can simply use a  marker to label chips for specific uses regardless of color, or you can use tabs of paper, colored beads, dice of different colors or other tokens to represent board state effects as long as every player is familiar with and can agree on each one's use.

Each player should roll a die to determine play order, highest goes first.  In the event of a tie, the tied players should roll again to determine order.  Once order is determined each player then chooses, in order, a character from the list below.  Each player should take a number of appropriate coloured(or labled) poker chips to correspond to their levels of health and ammo.  Once each player has done so, play can begin.

Character Cards:
Each character has a character card below.  This card determines how many dice the character has access too in any given situation. Below is a brief description of each character card stat:

Fight: This represents the character's equipment and acumen in combat when using weapons.  It's assumed that each character carries and uses a gun or guns to defend themselves.  In order to use Fighting rolls, the character must have at least one ammo chip, and Fighting rolls use this many dice at minimum.  Ammo chips are spent to take Long Range Attack rolls, and a character loses an ammo chip any time they Botch a Fighting roll.

Struggle: This represents the character's ability to fight at close range, including not only melee attacks, but also their ability to dodge, block, and shake off foes.  Struggle rolls are used to attack at close range when not making Fighting rolls, to resist damage from enemies and hazards, and to attempt to clear out hazard squares. Struggle rolls use this many dice at minimum. A character, when moving from room to room, can ignore the chance for damage from hazard dice less than or equal to their Struggle score.

Health: A character starts with this many Health chips.  This is also the character's maximum health, a character can not have more health chips than this score.  Whenever a character fails to avoid damage, he loses one health chip.  If a character ever takes damage when they do not have a health chip, that character is downed.

Ammo:  A character starts with this many ammo chips.  Having any number of ammo chips allows a character to take standard Fighting Rolls. A character must spend (ie discard) an ammo chip to take a Long Range Fighting Roll.

Carry: This represents the maximum number of resource cards the character can carry with them.  Any cards in excess of this number must be discarded at the end of the character's Inventory Management phase. Additionally, whenever a player searches or scrounges for items, this number represents the minimum number of dice rolled.

Swat Member
	Fight		3
	Struggle	1
	Health		3
	Ammo		2
	Carry		2
	Talent:
Shoulder Through: When attempting to clear Hazards, the Swat Member may ignore up to a single 1 rolled per attempt. This means the die neither removes a success die nor does it count toward a chance at a botched clearing roll. If the Swat Member clears a 4 die hazard in one roll, he gains a Victory Point.

Special Forces
	Fight		2
	Struggle	1
	Health		3
	Ammo		3
	Carry		2
	Talent
Master of Unlocking: The Special Forces girl can attempt to force open a locked door using resources.  She may discard up to five points worth of resources to the deck and roll that many die.  Four or more successes means she unlocks the door; shuffle the locked door into the mansion deck. Unlocking a door this way earns her a Victory Point.

Rookie Cop
	Fight		2
	Struggle	2
	Health		3
	Ammo		2
	Carry		2

	Talent
Door Kicker: When the Rookie first opens a door, after the room dice are rolled, if he still has an action he may choose to enter the room and attack any monster inside using that action.  Entering the room and attacking this way does not risk damage from Hazard dice.  If the Rookie successfully defeats a monster of 4 or more dice this way, he gains a Victory Point.

Tough Gal
	Fight		2
	Struggle	1
	Health		3
	Ammo		2
	Carry		3

	Talent
Self Sufficient: Tough Gal only needs two successes, not three, to gain a chip on a Reload or Healing action. If Tough Gal successfully earns two or more chips with a single action, she gains a Victory Point.


Play should begin on a fairly large, open space such as a tabletop or floor where there is enough room to lay out multiple cards.  A square approximately four inches across should be laid out and designated as the Entryway, from which the players will explore.  Players can exit from the entryway on each of three sides(top, left and right) to gain access into the mansion.

Play order:
A Round of play goes in order around the table based on the starting roll, with each player taking a Turn.  Once each player has taken a turn, the Sinister Movement phase is taken(see below).  Play for the next Round then begins with the first player's turn once more.

Parts of a Turn:
Actions
Scrounging
Inventory Management

Player Actions
A player can typically take two actions on each of their turns. The actions available to them depend on the room they are in and their equipment.  Player actions include:

Attack: The player  makes a Fighting roll against the monster in the room with them. This does not risk the player taking damage from the monster.  However, if there are hazards in the room, the player must make a struggle check against the hazards dice value to try to avoid damage.

Melee: The player may attempt to strike the monster in hand to hand combat.  This uses the character's Struggle roll. A player who makes a melee attack does not risk damage from Hazards, however if the monster is not Stunned after resolving their attack, it can make an attack against the player.  The player does not get a chance to defend themselves.

Long Range Attack: The player may attempt to attack a monster in an adjacent room.  This is a fighting roll.  The player does not risk damage from the monster or from hazards in the room they are in, however the use of this ability costs an ammo chip.

Careful Attack: Much like a normal attack, this is a fighting roll against an enemy in the same room, however a careful attack never risks damage from hazards. A careful attack costs both of a chracter's actions in a turn; it cannot be used if the character has taken another action that turn, nor can a character who makes a careful attack take any other action after that attack resolves.

Victory Points
Players accrue victory points as they complete objectives, fulfill their talents, and explore the Mansion. Victory points are awarded for each of the following actions:
1 point is awarded for each Door unlocked
1 point is awarded for each Puzzle solved
1 point is awarded for being the first to search the Library (3 of spades)
1 point is awarded for being the first to search the Storehouse (6 of Spades
1 point is awarded for being the first to search the Office (9 of Spades)
1 point is awarded to each player the first time that player searches the laboratory (10 of Spades)
1 point is awarded in Serum Run for successfully escaping
1 point is awarded in Containment for the first player to escape
1 point is awarded for a player who ends the match with full health
1 point is awarded for every five points of resources a player ends the game with
1 point is awarded for each special item (knife, flashbang, grenade, first aid spray) the player ends the game with

Additionally each player has a talent, which can earn them Victory Points.  A player can earn victory points from their talent each time the requirements are met.

Styles of Play:

Containment: In order to complete Containment mode you have to completely lay out the full mansion, and eliminate all enemies, and make it back to the Entryway to escape. Once at least one player makes it to the entryway and escapes, the game is over. It is not necessary to eliminate all hazards.  Victory is determined by the number of VP gained, it is not necessary to escape to win.

Serum Run: In this mode you only have to explore until you find the Library, the Office, and the Laboratory.  You have to search(scrounge) in each one, and then make it back to the entryway to escape. You MUST successfully escape for your VP to count.

Turn Based: A quicker game can be run using 5, 10, or 15 rounds of play.  The goal is to explore as much as you can, and earn as many VP as you can in the limited number of turns.  Escape is not necessary, and VP counts whether or not you survive.