Cluedo Variant - Zombie Mansion

By Matt Spriggens - www.havedesignwilltravel.com

Game Description
ZOMBIE MANSION is a variant of the boardgame, Cluedo. Zombie Mansion uses a lot of the same components of the game, however, it is a rethemed version with completely new rules and play system. If Cluedo was a video game, Zombie Mansion would be referred to as a total mod - an
entire modification of the original game so that it barely represents the game that it once was.
The following rules borrow heavily from two of my favourite boardgames El Grande and Yspahan. This game was designed / prototyped / tested, all
within the span of a day, so I haven't spent much time changing it or refining it back - it seems to work okay as it is. If I get more time one day, I might
come back to it and see if I can add or change some mechanics to work a little bit more effectively / elegantly or just make it a little less derivative.
Also, for any comments / suggestions / feedback, I can be contacted at: matt @ havedesignwilltravel dot com
The game suits 2 to 4 players and takes about 60 minutes to play.
You will need the following items:

A copy of Cluedo, the boardgame (or printouts of the components see appendix)

9x six-sided dice 7 white dice and 2 yellow dice

Action Tower + Round Track (printout)

Scoring Track (printout)

Shamble Zone (printout)

16x Zombie counters of each colour (printout or can use coloured wooden cubes)

1x Zombie Lord token (printout or can use a chess piece or miniature or something similar)

1x Meat Marker (printout)

2x turn markers (printout or can use coins)

1x Graveyard Board (printout)

Background
Whilst one-hundred guest, all the finest examples of high society, converge on the mysterious manor for a huge dinner party, things begin to stir in the
night. It's not very long before all of the attendees have assembled and are wandering through the mansion when scratching noises are heard at the
windows and moaning sounds ring out through the hallways... the ZOMBIES have arrived!!!
You, the player, take the role of a zombie master, sending your minions into the house to eat the brains of the human party-goers. Rival zombie masters
are also getting greedy and have sent in their own zombies to divide your share of the meal. You must outwit them to control the various zones of the
mansion and eat bigger and better brains to truly be crowned, The King of the Zombies!
To help you do so, you have pinpointed a specific guest that may provide you with a meal like no other in the mansion. Professor Plum, for example,
has a huge intellect and, therefore, also a giant brain giving you much more to feast on... but be careful! These guests are also likely to fight back
with whatever weapons they can find, if they are given the chance.

Goal of the Game

The player must send their zombies into the various zones of the mansion and attempt to control them (have more zombies in there than other players)
before the round is completed and scored. The player will receive more points by controlling zones with human victims, especially if it is your target
victim. At the end of the game, the player with the highest score is the winner.

Sequence of Play

Setup

Game Turn
Fill the Action Tower
Player's Actions

End of the Round

Self Defence
Move the Meat
Scoring

End of the Game

2-Player Game

3-Player Game

4-Player Game

Wildcards

SETUP

The boards are placed as shown on the next page. The Cluedo board (7) is the main game board. The Scoring Track (8) is placed on the centre
of the board as shown. The Shamble Zone (9) board is placed over the centre of this the Scoring Track.

Place the Action Tower + Round Track (3), and Graveyard Board (10) next to the game board.

Place the turn marker on space one of the turn counter (6), and similarly, with the round counter. Place the meat counter (4) on the Shamble
Zone board.

All weapon, victim and location cards (5) are all shuffled together and placed in a face down stack kept within reach.

Each player chooses a colour and takes the appropriate zombie counters (or cubes, if available) and the corresponding Cluedo player marker
(12). They place a counter of their own colour on the starting spot of the Scoring Track.

The oldest player will play first, and consequently takes the Zombie Lord token (11).

The Zombie Lord takes the deck and keeps flipping until a location card comes up. They must place their Cluedo player marker (the Target
Victim) in this room on the board. Do this for all players. Reshuffle all of the cards well and place the deck next to the board.

Component Description:
1. Dice 7 white dice + 2 yellow dice
2. Zombie Counters These represent zombies on your team entering the mansion.
3. Action Tower At the beginning of each turn, the first player deals out the top four cards on to the open spots on the Action Tower (spots 2 to
5) and then casts the dice, dividing them up on the Action Tower board according to their value.
Following the turn order (clockwise), each player chooses a dice group and takes the action corresponding to the chosen group.
These actions allow the player to place zombies or victims; move zombies or victims; acquire a weapon card; score a specific location, or; score
general points.
The tower already has two spots occupied by default actions the first spot, and the sixth.
4. Meat Token The meat is moved during the general scoring phase of each round, attracting all shambling zombies to the room it turns up in.
5. The card deck This contains all 21 of the original Cluedo cards, all shuffled up together.
6. The Turn Track This shows what the current turn and round the play is up to. The turn counter should be moved up one place at the end of
every turn; The round counter should be moved up one place at the end of every round.
7. The Play Area This is the original Cluedo game board, with the Scoring Track and Shamble Zone boards on top of it.
8. The Scoring Track Players move their coloured counters around the scoring track each time they receive Victory Points (VP). The track
snakes around in a clockwise direction. If any scores become greater than 60, the remainder should be recorded on a separate piece of paper.
9. The Shamble Zone board
10. The Graveyard This is the discard pile for any zombie counters, cards, or other unused items in the game.
11. The Zombie Lord token This token represents the starting player of the current round of play.
12. Each player's Target Victim - The original Cluedo player markers, represent the human victim you want to capture.

PROGRESS OF THE GAME

The game is divided in to turns and rounds. Once EXACTLY four turns have been completed, one round is complete and a new round begins. Once all
game rounds are finished, the game has ended.

Game Turn
The turn is where most of the main actions occur on the board. It is divided into two phases:
1. Fill the Action Tower
2. Player's actions

Phase 1. Fill the Action Tower

The first player takes the deck of cards and deals out four cards from the top face-up and places them in order on the second, third, fourth and
fifth spots on the Action Tower board. Spots one and six are already occupied.

The first player takes the 7 white dice, to which 2 yellow dice may be added by sacrificing one of their own zombies that is in-play.

The first player casts the dice (the 7 white dice - and the 2 yellow dice if they paid for them), sorts them according to the rolled numbers
(without paying attention to their colour). So the 1s go together, the 2s go together, etc...

Then, the first player puts the groups of dice on the Action Tower board in the appropriate spots according to the rolled values. All the ones go
on the first spot, all the twos go on the second spot, etc...

Yellow dice: after the first players action (see phase 2 below), yellow dice will be removed from the supplies board, possibly resulting in
empty squares. As a consequence, yellow dice only benefit the first player.

Phase 2. Player's Actions

Starting with the first player and going clockwise, each player may take the following actions:
A) Select a group of dice and corresponding action (compulsory)
B) Execute action/s (optional)

A Select a group of dice and corresponding action

The player removes one of the dice groups from the Tower board. The chosen group will not be available to the remaining players anymore. Depending
on the spot of the Action Tower, the player may then execute their chosen action, using an Action Dice rating equivalent to the number of dice in the
chosen dice group.
B Execute action/s
Once a dice group and corresponding action have been selected, the player may execute their action.
Room / Location Card:

Add zombie counters (up to maximum of Action Dice rating) from the player's supply, to the corresponding room. Each zombie counter placed
in the room costs 1 Action Dice. This action may not convert Action Dice to the Shamble action.

If the Action Dice rating is 3 or more, the room may be scored (see Scoring section below). This costs 3 Action Dice. Any leftover Action
Dice may be converted to the Shamble action.

Human Victim Card:

If the victim is not in play, the player may take the corresponding Cluedo character marker of the appropriate colour, and place it in any of the 9
main rooms on the board. This costs 1 Action Dice, and the player must sacrifice one zombie from their supply. Any leftover Action Dice may
be converted to the Shamble action.

If the victim is in play, the player may move the victim marker to an adjacent room. They may do this up to a maximum of the Action Dice
rating. Each move costs 1 Action, Dice. The player must sacrifice a total of one zombie from their supply (regardless of how many moves the
victim makes). Any leftover Action Dice may be converted to the Shamble action.

If the Human Victim card represents the current player's Target Victim (ie, the same colour Cluedo marker as the player's zombies red
zombies = Miss Scarlett), the player need not sacrifice a zombie to move the Victim.

Weapon Card:

The player may take the weapon card and place it in front of them, at a cost of 1 Action Dice. The player must also sacrifice a zombie from
their supply. Any leftover Action Dice may be converted to the Shamble action.

The player may have as many weapon cards in front of them as they like, at any one time. However, all weapon cards will be returned to the
deck at the end of the round.

Miscellaneous Brains! Action:

The player takes no action, but rather has a direct scoring, using the Action Dice rating as the Brain Dice value (see Brain Dice in the
Scoring section below). This action may not convert Action Dice to the Shamble action.

Shamble Action (default action):

This action allows the player to move a zombie from the supply in to the Shamble Zone, at the cost of 1 Action Dice per zombie.

It also allows any zombie already in the Shamble Zone to move directly into ANY of the main 9 rooms on the board, at the cost of 1 Action
Dice per zombie..

A zombie may not move directly from the supply to the Shamble Zone, and then into one of the main rooms on the same turn.

This action also allows a zombie in one of the main rooms to move in to an adjacent room, or move into the Shamble Zone, at the cost of 1
Action Dice per zombie.

No one zombie may move more than once in each turn.

If the player selects a different action but has left over Action Dice, they may also use the Shamble action to use up the remainder of their
Action Dice.

If the player has no zombies left in the supply when they are forced to sacrifice a zombie, they must select a zombie already in play to sacrifice.

Similarly, if they select a Room / Location card, or are using the Shamble action, but have no zombie counters left in their supply, they may
take a zombie already in play to use in its place.

If there is no available dice groups left on the Action Tower (ie, all dice have been removed from the tower), the player may take a default
Shamble action, with an Action Dice rating of 1. A player may only select this action if there are no remaining dice on the tower, and must
take an alternative dice group if one is available.

End of the Turn

The Action Tower board is emptied and all cards are reshuffled. Move the turn counter forward, and the player to the left of the current first player
becomes the new first player, and gets the Zombie Lord token.
Continue playing turn by turn until 4 turns have been completed, and the round is over. In a 2-player game, each player will have two turns each. In a
3-player game, the first player will have two turns while the other players will have just one. In a 4-player game, every player will have only 1 turn
each round.

End of the Round

The end of each round signals a general scoring of the current play situation. This scoring happens 4 times in a 2-player and 4-player game, and 3 times
in a 3-player game. Once the final round is completed, the game is over and the person with the highest number of Victory Points (VP) is the winner.
Before the scoring, there are a couple of other events that may change the course of the play situation.
1. Self Defence

In the current play order, each player with a weapon card in their possession may choose to use the weapon during this phase the human
victims fight back against the zombies. The player that uses the weapon card may choose any zombie in play to remove from the board and
place in the graveyard, as long as there is a human victim counter in the room. Used weapon cards are discarded to the Graveyard.

They may remove one zombie for each weapon card used.

Any weapon cards that are in a player's possession after every player has had a turn, are placed back on to the discard pile for the next round.

2. Move the Meat

Before 'moving the meat', the Shamble Zone is scored (see Scoring section below)

Take entire card deck and shuffle it well. Deal out cards until a room / location card is flipped. This is the room that the meat is moved to... and
consequently, ALL of the zombies in the Shamble Zone also move to this room. If the meat is already in play, it moves from its current location
to the new location, and the zombies in the Shamble Zone ONLY will also move to this room.

3. Scoring
Once the meat is moved and the Shamble Zone is emptied, a general room scoring occurs.

Going from the top-left room in the mansion around in a clockwise direction, each room is scored, according to the amount of zombies in the
specific location.

Each player counts the number of zombies they have in the room. The player with the highest number, takes the first scoring position; the
second highest takes second; the third has the final scoring position. There is no fourth place.

If there is a tie for a position, all parties in the tie drop back one position, pushing consecutive parties back. For example, if Red and Blue have
4 zombies, Green has 3 and Yellow has 1 both Red AND Blue drop down to 2nd position, and Green takes 3rd position. Yellow does not score
for this room.

In the case of a 3-player game, only the first two positions are scored. In the case of a 2-player game, only the first position scores.

The following chart shows how many Brain Dice are awarded for each scoring position of the different rooms.
Number of Brain Dice received for Scoring Positions in a room
Scoring Position

1st

2nd

3rd

Normal Room

Shamble Zone

Human Victim Bonus

If the room has one or more human victims in it (represented by the original Cluedo player counters), the player who wins the first position of the room
receives 1 bonus Brain Dice for each victim. If the human victim is the player's Target Victim, they receive 2 bonus Brain Dice instead of 1.
Meat Bonus
EVERY scoring party in a room with the meat marker will gain 1 bonus Brain Dice when scoring that room. This will only occur in the 9 main rooms,
and not when the meat starts in the Shamble Zone.
Brain Dice
The Brain Dice represent the amount of brains the zombies can munch on in each room. Each brain is a different size, so there is a chance that the
zombies found a victim with a larger brain.

Every scoring player casts a number of dice equal to his Brain Dice total for the current room.

For a roll of 1 to 5, the player scores 1 VP and moves their counter up one place the score track.

For a roll of 6, the zombies have found a large brain; the player scores 2 VP and moves their counter up two places the score track.

End of the Game

The game ends when the final round is completed and scored. The player with the highest score wins. In case of draw, tied players share the victory.

2-Player Game
There are 4x turns and 4x rounds in the game. Each turn consists of 1P action; 2P action; 1P action; End of Turn.

3-Player Game
There are 4x turns and 3x rounds in the game. Each turn consists of 1P action; 2P action; 3P action; 1P action; End of Turn.

4-Player Game
There are 4x turns and 4x rounds in the game. Each turn consists of 1P action; 2P action; 3P action; 4P action; End of Turn.

Wildcards

A weapon card has a particular usage that comes into effect at the end of a round (see Self Defence in the Ending a Round section),
however, if a player in control of one or more weapon cards chooses, they may spend ONE (max) of them as wildcards during the Player's
Actions phase.

The use of any wildcards must be announced as the player selects a group of dice and corresponding action.

Each weapon that is used is put back into the discard pile, and a bonus +1 Action Dice rating is added to the total of the selected dice group /
action.

This bonus is in effect for this action only.

The player may not select an action with no dice on the tower, or an action that has already been used, to add the bonus to. They must still select
a valid dice group on the tower.