InscryptionRulebook V2310
InscryptionRulebook V2310
InscryptionRulebook V2310
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About the Game Setup
Here’s a diagram of how to law out the board:
Want to watch a video tutorial? Head to: Player A’s Side
www.crypticcrafter.com/videos
What’s in the box? ◊ Deal each player 10 Squirrel cards in their squirrel space.
◊ Place the item cards, swap cards, upgrade cards and smoke cards in
- 80x30cm Printed Play Mat - Magnetic Golden Tooth their shared spots on the right side of the board.
- Card box with 204 cards - 4x LED Candles Note: The back design of the cards is different for each card category.
◊ 20 Squirrels - Bone Tin ◊ The remaining cards can be placed in the shared draw pile.
◊ 94 Normal Creatures - 50x Bone Tokens Note: Some bonus and unused cards have been printed. Details on page 19
◊ 23 Rare cards - Heart Tin ◊ Place the Scale to the left side, and place the magnetic tooth on the zero
◊ 17 item cards - 50x Heart Tokens space.
◊ 4 Smoke cards - Brass Bell ◊ Place the bell near the scale, or where both players can comfortably
◊ 7 Upgrade cards - 20x Card Sleeves reach.
◊ 31 Swap cards - Skull coin ◊ Place two candles at either end of the scale, to represent each players
◊ 5 Blank Death Cards - Rulebook (you’re reading it) lives. Remember to turn them on!
◊ 3 Bonus Cards - 2x Sigil Reference Guides ◊ Place the bone and heart tokens to the right side of the board, or where
- Wooden Scale - Wooden Storage Box both players can comfortably reach.
4 ◊ Give each player a Sigil Reference Guide. 5
Types of Cards Dealing the Cards
There are three types of cards: Each player has 20 cards of their own, made up of a selection of
creature cards. Choosing the cards is done out in the open, so both
Normal Creature cards players know what their adversary has.
These take up the majority of the cards, and have various Note: If rare cards are not already shuffled in, make sure you add them and shuffle well.
abilities, denoted with Sigils (more about Sigils on Page 11 & 20)
◊ From the communal draw pile, 3 cards are laid face up.
◊ Player A chooses 1 card. Player B then chooses 1 card. The
Rare Cards remaining card is put to the side.
◊ This is repeated until both players have 10 cards.
Less common cards with stronger or more powerful abilities.
Shown with a Golden background and ornate border. ◊ The order of picks is switched and Player B now has first
choice.
Other Cards ◊ Repeat this process until both players have 20 cards.
◊ Each player shuffles their selection and places it on their
Other cards have a grey background, and the symbol shown to draw pile.
the left. They can not be sacrificed as they are not ‘alive’.
These cards are often picked up as an item, or are the result of You have now created your creature decks!
a creature card’s sigil effects. All the remaining cards are returned to the communal draw pile, and
Examples are no longer used in this game.
On the rare occasion a player runs out of cards, play continues and no
additional creature cards are given to that player.
The board is a 4x2 grid represented by paw symbols. a. Following the arrow on the board, your cards attack and deal
Each player owns the 4 spaces on their side of the board. damage one by one to the card directly opposite*, removing
their wooden heart tokens. (see Card Health & Damage, pg 12)
Inscryption is a turn based game. Flip the provided coin to determine
who goes first! b. If there is no card opposite, deal damage directly to your
adversary and measure it on the scale. (see The Scale, pg 11)
On your turn, the order of play is as follows:
TIP! Don’t forget your card’s sigil and it’s effects!
1. Draw
Important Note: On the first turn for both players (including the
a. On the first turn for each player, draw 3 creature cards, and 1 first turn after either player has lost a life) no matter how much damage
squirrel. would be dealt, a maximum of 3 can be counted on the scale.
This is to avoid players being killed immediately before they’ve
b. On all other turns, you must draw either a creature card had a chance to defend themselves.
from your draw pile, or a squirrel.
5. End of Turn
2. Play Cards
a. Your adversary begins their turn.
a. Play as many or as few cards as you want in any of your
spaces, provided you have the required resources available b. Each time the Scale lands on 4 for either player, that player
b. Only one card is allowed in each space at a time receives an item card (see Items, pg 16 & 23)
TIP! Don’t forget to collect your bones! (see Card Costs, pg 10)
c. When the Scale has reached 5 for either player, that player
3. Ring the bell dies and one of their candles is extinguished.
(See Player Death, pg 14)
Signify your turn is over with a ring of the bell.
Each player has two lives, so you can expect to play either 2 or 3
rounds per game. Approx 40-60 minutes total.
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*May be affected by a sigil
Card Costs The Scale / Damage
All cards come at a cost. Whether it is blood, bones, or simply space Damage is kept track of by using the scale, which starts at zero.
on the board.
In order to play a card, you must first examine its cost, which is When a player deals damage to their adversary, they move the tooth
shown in the top right. There are three options: towards their adversary, indicating the amount of damage dealt.
Blood The tooth constantly moves back and forth each round.
◊ To play a card you must sacrifice your creature cards, If the tooth reaches the end of the scale (equal to 5 damage), the
corresponding to the number of blood drops shown in the player loses a life. (See Player Death, pg 14)
top right corner.
◊ To sacrifice a card, it must already be in play on your side of
the board. You ‘kill’ the creature you want to sacrifice and
remove it from the board into your dead pile. The sigils
Squirrels go back to their pile.
◊ Sacrificing always grants 1 blood per card, no matter the What is a sigil? - It’s the symbol in the middle bottom section of the
card’s cost*. card that modifies the card’s behavior in a major way.
◊ This is repeated for as many blood drops that are required. Not all cards have a sigil, some have multiple.
◊ Blood drops must be used immediately on a single card, and
can not be stored or transferred onto multiple cards. Please see the index at the end of this rule book for all details. (page 20)
◊ All cards must already be on the board before the Also provided on a separate sigil reference guide for each player.
sacrificing begins.
Bones Examples
No cost
Touch of Death Airborne Sprinter &
◊ The card is free to play. Eg, squirrels.
Fledgling
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*May be affected by a sigil
Card Health & Damage Further Rule Details
Squirrels
The sigils that require additional cards are: Fecundity, Loose Tail, Ant Spawner, Rabbit
Hole, Bees Within, Trinket Bearer, Bellist, Dam Builder.)
Eg: Loose Tail sigil will grant you a wriggling tail card.
Dam Builder sigil will grant you up to two dam cards.
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Card Details Extra / Unused cards
Further information for if you are unsure what a card does! For completion reasons, almost all act 1 cards have been printed from
the video game. During playtesting, many of these cards abilities did
Long Elk Rules not translate well to a balanced two player board game, so these cards
◊ Drops a vertebrae card in it’s previous space whenever it are printed but not used.
The cards and the reason for their omission are listed below.
moves.
Of course, feel free to play with the cards if you want to try them out!
Child 13 Rules
Amalgam ◊ Each time it is used for a sacrifice, it alternates between a Sleeping
version and a Flying version.
◊ If you’ve played the video game, you might be confused ◊ If it is sacrificed 13 times in a row (extremely unlikely) it turns into
about this card. It is included for use, but the original tribe Hungry Child
mechanic is not present in this board game. So it has no ◊ Too complicated to keep track of both of these rules simultaniously.
added benefit as you may have expected.
Printed for aesthetic reasons
◊ Leshy Card
◊ Standard Smoke Cards
◊ Sexy Black Goat
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Sigils
Bone King Leader
When this card dies, 4 Bones are Creatures adjacent to this card on the
and strike your adversary directly. card moves right relative to the owner,
Bifurcated Strike Unkillable
Active on attack after it cannot move right, it switches
This card will strike each opposing When this card perishes, it returns to
directions, this repeats.
space to the left and right of the spaces your hand.
Mighty Leap Active after attack
across it. Active on card death
This card blocks opposing Airborne
Active on attack
creatures, making them hit this card Hefty
Fecundity
instead of the player directly. The same effect as the sprinter card.
Trifurcated Strike When this card is played, a copy of it
Always Active (Seen above) However this card pushes
This card will deal damage to the enters your hand. The copy does not
all other cards along with itself.
opposing spaces left, right, and have this sigil.
Fledgling Active after attack
opposite of it. Active when first played
After surviving for 1 turn, the card
Active on attack Copies of card found in Swaps Pile
grows into a stronger form. Corpse Eater
Active at start of next turn If a card that you own dies by combat,
Sharp Quills Loose Tail
Stronger forms found in Upgrades Pile this card may be played from your hand
Each time this card is struck, the The first time this card would be
on its space for free even during your
striker is dealt 1 damage. struck, a tail is created in its place
Touch of Death adversary’s turn.
Active on damage and this card moves to the right (or if
This card instantly kills any card it Always Active
no space, the left). The tail is struck
damages.
Burrower instead and can be sacrificed.
Active on attack Waterborne
This card will move to any empty space Active once only during adversary’s attack
On your adversary’s turn, this card flips
that is attacked by an enemy to block Wriggling Tail card found in Swaps Pile
Many Lives upside down. Anything attacking this
it.
When this card is sacrificed, it does not card’s space attacks the owner directly.
Always Active
perish. Active on adversary’s turn
Ant Damage
Always Active
Guardian The damage dealt by this card is equal
Worthy Sacrifice
When an opposing card is played to the number of ant cards you own
Stinky This card counts as 3 Blood rather than
opposite an empty space, this card that are currently in play.
The creature opposing this card loses 1 Blood when sacrificed. Excess blood
moves to that space. Always Active
1 damage. is not stored for later.
Always Active
Always Active Always Active
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Items
Ant Spawner Bellist
When this card is played, an Ant enters When this card is played, Chimes are
your hand. created on adjacent empty spaces. Can be used any time on your turn and are single use.
Active when first played See page 18 for more info. Pliers
Ant cards found in Swaps Pile Active when first played. Use the pliers to rip out a tooth. You gain one point on the scales.
When this card is played, a rabbit Dam Builder You may (figuratively) cut up one of your adversary’s cards. It is killed.
Rabbit cards found in Swaps Pile Active when first played Your adversary will entirely skip their next turn.
Each time this card is struck, a Bee Ringer All your creatures will attack as though they have the Airborne Sigil this turn.
Active during adversary’s attack how close it is to the bell: From 4 at the Fish Hook
Bee cards found in Swaps Pile space closest, to 1 at the furthest. Hook one of your adversary’s cards and take it as your own. You must have an empty
Hoarder
Magpie’s Lens
When played, choose any card from Handy
Single-use version of the hoarder sigil.
your deck to add to your hand. Your This card’s damage is dependent on
adversary has to be shown the card. the number of cards you are holding in
Squirrel in a Bottle
Shuffle the deck. your hand.
Add a Squirrel to your hand and return this item to the bottom of the item pile.
Active when first played Always Active
Item cards found in Items Pile After this card is destroyed, an Opossum is created in it’s place.
Hoggy Bank