The Cards: However, Drawing a Card Is Not Al- Doctor, You Must Be Alone in a Room There Are Four Types of Cards: Ways Allowed
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™ elcome to J. Robert Lucky Mansion, a ram- Take a deep breath. Remember why you’re here. Wbling country estate seven miles north of no- And then start sneaking around in the dark. If you where. It’s a stormy midsummer’s evening, ten seconds run across a weapon, grab it. If you bump into Doc- after midnight. And someone has just shut off the lights. tor Lucky, give him what for. You have hated Doctor Lucky for as long as you can Trying to kill Doctor Lucky is pretty easy, as long remember, and you’ve secretly been awaiting this per- as no one’s looking. But they don’t call him “Doctor fect chance to take the old man out. Maybe he destroyed Lucky” for nothing. He’s got an uncanny knack for your dry cleaning business; maybe you think he’s the slipping out of harm’s way. king of the vampires. Perhaps he’s the only person But don’t despair; after enough attempts, you’re standing between you and the family fortune. Or maybe guaranteed to wear the old codger down. You just his cat just keeps peeing in your shrubs. Whatever your need a clever plan, a good bluff, and a little more reason, it’s good enough to push you over the edge. And luck than everyone else. now you absolutely can’t wait to put the lying old bas- So gather in the Drawing Room and get cracking. tard away. Somebody’s going to kill Doctor Lucky tonight, and And, though you don’t know it, everyone else in it might as well be you. the house wants to kill him too. To Win: from above or below, but you can’t Reshuffle the deck and deal a hand Kill Doctor Lucky. Pretty simple. walk though it. People in the Gallery of six cards facedown to each player. can see (and be seen by) every room On Your Turn: The Board: straight down to the Piazza, plus the On your turn you can do several Doctor Lucky’s mansion has 32 Nursery, the Master Suite, and the Li- things: take a free step, play move “rooms,” including 24 named rooms brary. cards and/or room cards, try to kill and 8 unnamed rooms (6 hallways and Doctor Lucky, and/or draw a card. 2 stairways). When you try to kill the The Cards: However, drawing a card is not al- Doctor, you must be alone in a room There are four types of cards: ways allowed. You can’t draw a card with him. You must also be out of sight A move card moves you or Doctor if you played cards or made a murder of the other players. Lucky a specific number of rooms. attempt, and you can’t draw a card if Sight lines work like this: If a player A room card moves you or Doctor you end up in an unnamed room. can stand in one room and look straight Lucky to a specific room. Step 1—Moving: (horizontally or vertically) through any A weapon card is used to make an You may take one free step in any di- number of doorways into your room, attempt on the life of Doctor Lucky. rection to an adjacent room. Hallways he can see you. So someone in the A failure card is used to try to foil a Kitchen can see (and be seen by) peo- murder attempt. ple in the Master Suite, the west stairs, the two hallways, the Trophy Room, To Begin: Kill Doctor Lucky includes: the Wine Cellar, and the Winter Gar- To determine who starts, one player • a game board den (see Figure 1). deals cards from the deck faceup, • a deck of 96 cards You can’t see diagonally through one to each player, until someone • this rule book doors, though, so, for example, some- gets a room card. That player will go • 30 spite tokens one in the Foyer can’t see someone in first, and Doctor Lucky will start in pawns and stands for seven players, the Carriage House (see Figure 2). the selected room. All of the players • The Gallery overlooks the Dining start in the Drawing Room. Doctor Lucky, and his dog Hall. You can see through the railing and stairways count as rooms. For card to move to the Piazza, you could else gets one chance to foil it using example, you can’t step directly from then take a step to the Foyer. failure cards, which each have failure the Kitchen to the Trophy Room—but Step 2—Making a values of 1, 2, or 3. you can step to the hall between them Murder Attempt: Starting with the player on your (see Figure 3). In this step, you may try to kill Doc- left, each player gets one opportunity Along with your free step, you can tor Lucky. To do this, you must to play any number of failure cards, also play move cards and room cards be alone in the room with him, which are added together to deter- during this part of your turn. You can and you must be out of sight of mine the failure total. If the failure to- play as many of each as you like, be- every other player. As noted earlier, tal meets or exceeds the murder total, fore or after your free step. players can see along straight lines (but your murder attempt has been foiled. Using Move Cards: These cards not diagonally) through all doorways If the player to your right—the last move you or Doctor Lucky any num- and through the Gallery railing. player with the opportunity to foil the ber of steps up to the move value on When you make a murder at- murder attempt—can prevent the mur- the card. This movement is in ad- tempt, you may play a weapon card. der of Doctor Lucky, he must do so. (In dition to your free step. When you If you play a weapon card, your the Old Dog variants, this rule does not move Doctor Lucky with a move attempt uses the murder value of that apply to murder attempts on the dog.) card, move him as if he were a nor- weapon. If you try to kill Doctor Lucky If your attempt is foiled—and they mal player, not by following room without playing a weapon card, your usually are—remove the used failure numbers. attempt uses a murder value of 1 (this cards from the game and collect a Using Room Cards: These cards means you’re trying to kill the old spite token. move either yourself or Doctor Lucky man with whatever is on hand, or If the other players can’t foil your to a specific room. You can take your you’re just poking him in the eye with attempt, you win! free step before or after playing a your finger). You can’t play more than Controlling failure cards is a big part room card. For example, if you use a one weapon or make more than one of strategy. Although your early mur- murder attempt on the same turn. der attempts may fail, it’s critical to Some weapons have a higher make them so you can build a supply murder value in particular rooms. It of spite tokens and force failure cards takes planning and good luck to get out of other players’ hands. You can Master Suite the most out of those cards! also force those cards out simply by re- If you have any spite tokens (see the fusing to play any yourself, but this can sidebar at right), your murder total is be dangerous: if you pass at the wrong automatically increased by the num- time, you might let someone else win! ber of tokens you have. For example, Discarding: Used move cards, Lancaster if you play a “Murder Value: 2” weap- room cards, and weapon cards go into Room on card and have three spite tokens, a discard pile. If the deck runs out of the murder total of your attempt is 5. cards, reshuffle only these cards to re- Foiling the Attempt: Once you’ve place the deck. made a murder attempt, everyone Once a failure card is played, it’s out of the game for good. Put it back Trophy in the box to keep it out of play. Room Kitchen Foyer Step 3—Drawing: You can draw a card at the end of your turn—but only if you’re stand- Carriage House ing in a named room, and you didn’t Wine Cellar Piazza Trophy Kitchen Room Winter Garden fig. 2 Sight lines cannot go fig. 3 fig. 1 through doors diagonally. For example, you cannot see from You must step into the hall Rooms with sight lines the Foyer to the Carriage House. on your way from the Kitchen to the Kitchen. to the Trophy Room. play a card or make a murder at- If you’re clever, you can take sev- tempt this turn. Drawing represents eral turns in a row. Just move into Spite Tokens taking time to snoop around the the room that Doctor Lucky will visit You get a spite token after you mansion for something useful, so if next, then wait for him to join you. make a murder attempt. Spite you’ve played cards or attempted to There are several rooms where you tokens automatically increase the kill Doctor Lucky, you can’t draw. If can do this three times in a row with- murder total of your attempts.