Each player plays the role of a different character, either Van Helsing or Dracula.

Van Helsing wins the game if he manages to kill Dracula by removing all his Health Points (HP). Dracula wins the game by either turning all 4 inhabitants of the same District into vampires or surviving until the end of the 5th round.

Round Setup

The deck (4 suits, each from 1 to 8) is shuffled and each player receives 5 cards.

Each card faces a District. Cards cannot be swapped or rearranged unless a game effect allows you to do so. This is very important, as each card will affect the District that it faces at the end of the round.

The color tokens, associated with the 4 suits, are randomly ranked at the begining of the game. They then can be manipulated with card effects. The rightmost token (with no tokens above or below it) marks the trump suit.

Dracula always goes first.

Gameplay

The game is played in a maximum of 5 rounds. Each round, players alternate taking turns, drawing a card and discarding a card to trigger its effect.

On your turn, the topmost card is drawn from the deck. Then, you can either discard this card, or swap it with any of your 5 cards and discard the chosen card. The effect of the discarded card is then triggered.

Instead of drawing (and discarding) a card, a player can call the end of the round. You can only choose this action if there are at least 6 cards in the discard pile. Your opponent takes their last turn, then the round ends.

Card Effects

Cards effects must be triggered if possible.

End of the Round

A round ends when a player uses their turn to call it or when the deck is empty.

Then, all Districts are resolved one by one, from left to right in the direction the weathervane is pointing. For each District, your card is compared with the opponent’s card:

1) First compare the cards for trumps. If one of the two cards is a Trump Card, it wins. If both cards are Trump Cards, the highest value wins;

2) If neither is the trump card compare for value, the highest value wins.

3) However, if both values are tied, the higher color (on the Color Ranking Board) wins.

Whenever Dracula wins a District, he turns one Human Token into a Vampire in that District.

Whenever Van Helsing wins a District, he removes one of Dracula’s Health Points.

If one of the end game conditions (4 Vampires in the same District or 0 HP for Dracula) is met during the resolution of a District, the game ends immediately.

End of the Game

If Dracula loses his last HP, Van Helsing wins the game.

If Dracula turns all 4 inhabitants of the same District into vampires, or if the game reaches the end of the fifth round, Dracula wins the game.