The Rules

Introduction

This assignment uses is a simplified version of the game The Fury of Dracula. The game involves the arch-vampire Dracula, four intrepid vampire Hunters and the splendid cities of Victorian Europe. The aim for the hunters is to kill Dracula before he releases hordes of vampires over Europe. The aim for Dracula is to evade the hunters long enough to realise his Grand Plan (to release hordes of vampires over Europe).

How the Game works

Overview

Dracula and the Hunters move around the cities and seas of Europe. Every time a Hunter moves into the same city as Dracula they have an encounter and Dracula loses some blood. The catch is Dracula knows where the hunters are but the Hunters do not know where Dracula is. But he does leave clues… for if a Hunter enters a city where Dracula has been in any of his last 6 turns then the Hunter discovers traces of his passing and can deduce precisely when he was there. For this reason Dracula’s last 6 moves are called his trail.

The Hunters work as a team, spreading out and hunting for Dracula. At the start of the game they have a score of 366 points, every turn that passes the score slowly diminishes. The Hunters need to kill Dracula before they are reduced to an embarrassingly small score.

The fine print

Dracula’s primary goal is to evade the Hunters, and thus avoid being staked. However, Dracula also leaves nasty surprises (traps and immature Vampires) behind him in every city he visits.

Traps are slightly harmful things like wolves, or mysterious sugar bowls, or sinister pot plants. Sometimes traps are called “minions” (not be confused with these). When a Hunter encounters a Trap the Hunter loses a few life points.

Every 13 rounds Dracula leaves behind a new immature Vampire, sleeping away. After 6 rounds the Vampire matures; it wakes up and flies away to wreak havoc, and the game score is reduced by 13 points. However, if any Hunter can get to the city where the Vampire is sleeping before it matures, they can stake it and save the points (and make the world a nicer place in which to live).

Note that Dracula places a Trap/Vampire as soon as he enters a city (i.e. as his action — see below), not when he leaves the city.

If a Hunter loses all their life points they are magically transported to the Hospital at St Joseph and St Mary, and next turn they are returned to full health. On the other hand, if Dracula loses all his blood, he is vanquished.

Hunters can move by road, rail, or sea. Dracula can only move by road or sea; he hates trains. He isn’t all that keen on moving water either, and every turn he spends at sea loses him 2 blood points.

Moving by road means moving from one city to another city it is directly connected to by a single road segment. Moving by rail is less reliable, sometimes Hunters can move up to 3 rail segments at a time, sometimes 2, 1, or 0.

Moving by sea is neat; you can rapidly travel a long way. Unfortunately, Hunters can never encounter Dracula while they are at sea. Even if he is in the same sea as a Hunter the two always pass each other unknowingly, like ships in the night. Furthermore Hunters are not even able to discover whether the sea they are passing through is in Dracula’s trail or not. To balance this Hunters know whenever Dracula goes to sea and whenever he lands again at a city.

Poor Dracula

Dracula’s movement is much more constrained than the Hunters’.

In particular he can’t make any MOVE currently in his trail. This generally means he can’t revisit any city or sea in his trail, except by making a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move:

• he may make a HIDE move and remain in the city he is currently in for a second turn. He cannot HIDE at sea. Dracula can only have one HIDE move in his trail at any time.

• he may make a DOUBLE_BACK move and revisit one city or sea in his trail, however whenever he makes a DOUBLE_BACK move the Hunters know he has done so. Dracula can only have one DOUBLE_BACK move in his trail at any time.

Once the location move has fallen off his trail he may make that move again (i.e. move back to that location) even if a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move for that location remains in the trail.

The Rules of the Game

Score

• The game score starts at 366 points.
• The score decreases by 1 each time Dracula finishes a turn.
• The score decreases by 6 each time a Hunter is teleported to the hospital.
• The score decreases by 13 each time a Vampire matures (i.e., falls off the trail).
• Dracula wants the score to be low; the Hunters want the score to be high.
• The game will normally finish before the score reaches zero, however if it ever reaches 0 we say Dracula has utterly won, the world is doomed, the game stops at once… and we all look accusingly at the Hunters…

Dracula

• Dracula starts with 40 blood points.
  • Dracula is permitted to exceed 40 blood points.
• Dracula loses 10 blood points each time he encounters a Hunter.
• Dracula loses 2 blood points if he is at sea at the end of his turn (he hates water!)
• Dracula regains 10 blood points if he is in Castle Dracula at the end of his turn and has not yet been defeated (even if he has been automagically teleported there; see Dracula’s Turn below).
• When Dracula has no blood points left, the game is over, and the score at that time becomes the final score.

Hunters

• There are 4 Hunters: Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Mina Harker.

• Each Hunter starts with 9 life points.
  • Hunters are not permitted to exceed 9 life points.
• A Hunter loses 2 life points if they encounter a Trap.
• A Hunter loses 4 life points if they encounter Dracula.
• A Hunter gains 3 life points each time they rest in a city (i.e., if they end their turn in the same city they ended their previous turn in)

Sequence of play

• In a round of the game, each of the five characters has their turn in the sequence:

  • Lord Godalming,
  • Dr. Seward,
  • Van Helsing,
  • Mina Harker,
  • and then Dracula has his turn.

  and then the same again for the next round, and so on.

• Each character’s turn consists of a MOVE and then (possibly) some ACTION.

• In the first round, each character can MOVE to whichever location they like, except that Dracula cannot move to the Hospital of St Joseph and St Mary (too many crucifixes).

• The game finishes if and when, at the end of any turn, Dracula has 0 blood points (or less), or the game score is 0 points (or less).

Hunter’s Turn

Hunter’s Move

• Road moves: a Hunter can move to any city directly connected to the current city by a road.

• Sea moves: a Hunter can move from a port to an adjacent sea, or a sea to an adjacent sea, or a sea to an adjacent port city.

• Rail moves: Each turn, the maximum distance via rail is determined by the sum of the round number (0..366) and the Hunter number (0..3)

  • sum mod 4 is 0: The Hunter may not move by rail this turn.
  • sum mod 4 is 1: The Hunter may move to any city adjacent to the current city via a rail link (i.e., up to one rail hop)
  • sum mod 4 is 2: The Hunter may move to any city adjacent to the current city via a rail link, or any city adjacent via rail to such a city. (i.e., up to two rail hops)
  • sum mod 4 is 3: The Hunter may move to any city adjacent to the current city via a rail link, or any city adjacent via rail to such a city, or any city adjacent via rail to such a city. (i.e. up to three rail hops)
  • When the rail move is to a non-adjacent city, the Hunter does not actually enter the intermediate cities, so any encounters there do not occur.

Hunter’s Action

At the start of the ACTION phase of any Hunter’s turn:

• If the Hunter arrives in any city in Dracula’s trail, then …
  • all Hunters can see which positions in the trail have MOVEs that resulted in Dracula being in that city (they cannot see the actual moves)
  • the Hunter encounters, in sequence, all Traps for that city which are in the current trail, then any immature Vampires, and then at last confronts Dracula himself if he is also in the city. Each of these events occurs in turn until either the Hunter is reduced to 0 or less life points or all the encounters have occurred.
    • When a Trap is encountered the Hunter instantly loses 2 life points and the Trap is destroyed.
      • If there is more than one Trap at a location the Hunter encounters the Traps one at a time until either the Hunter is reduced to 0 or less life points, or until all the Traps are encountered, whichever occurs first.
    • When an immature Vampire is encountered it is killed instantly with no effect to the Hunter. (well done!)
    • If Dracula is encountered then he instantly loses 10 blood points and the Hunter instantly loses 4 life points.
• Whenever a Hunter is reduced to 0 or less life points they are instantly automagically teleported to the Hospital of St Joseph and St Mary (and can do nothing else for the remainder of their turn)
  • while in the hospital, they have zero life points
  • on their next turn, they have 9 life points again and can leave the hospital
  • the magical teleportation to the hospital does not show up in the game history; players will have to deduce that they are in the hospital.

At the end of the ACTION phase of any Hunter’s turn:

• If the Hunter is in the same city or sea they were in last turn, they are treated as resting, researching or recovering from combat. The Hunter gains 3 life points by doing this (up to a maximum of 9 points).

Dracula’s Turn

• The Hunters can see Dracula’s location whenever he ends his turn in his castle, or in a city currently occupied by a Hunter
  • this holds even if his most recent move was a HIDE
  • even if a Hunter is already at the location Dracula has moved to, no encounter occurs at this time, as dealing with encounters only happens in the action part of a Hunter’s turn

Dracula’s move

• If the trail is already full (i.e. has 6 moves in it), then the oldest MOVE in the trail is first removed from the trail

  • when a MOVE leaves the trail its corresponding encounter is treated as follows:
    • if it was a Trap it just vanishes without a trace (yay!)
    • if it was a Vampire it has matured (eek!)

• If there is no legal move possible for Dracula he automagically Teleports to Castle Dracula as his MOVE

• Each non-teleport MOVE by Dracula is either a LOCATION, a HIDE, or a DOUBLE_BACK

  • Any LOCATION move must be to a location that is adjacent to his current location, except that …

    • it cannot be a location in his most recent 5 moves
    • adjacent does not include by rail (Dracula never travels by rail)
    • he can never move to the hospital of St Joseph and St Mary

  • A HIDE move means he stays in the same city he was in at the start of his turn, except …

    • he cannot make a HIDE move if he already has a HIDE move in his trail
    • he cannot HIDE at sea

  • A DOUBLE_BACK move is a move to a location adjacent to his current location and which is currently in his trail, except …

    • he cannot make a DOUBLE_BACK move if he already has a DOUBLE_BACK move in his trail
    • if he makes a DOUBLE_BACK move, the Hunters know …
      • that his most recent move is a DOUBLE_BACK
      • the position in the trail of the location he has doubled back to

Dracula’s Action

• Dracula’s current MOVE is placed in the trail.
• If Dracula is at sea he loses two blood points.
  • Hunters know whenever Dracula is at sea.
• If he is in a city Dracula places an Encounter in that city.
  • An Encounter is either an Trap or an immature Vampire.
  • Dracula places an immature Vampire if he is in a city AND if the number of the round is divisible by 13 (ie in round 0, then in round 13, then 26, and so on).
  • Otherwise, if there are currently less than 3 Traps in that city, he places a Trap.
  • Dracula cannot place an Encounter at sea.
  • Dracula can place an encounter for a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK or teleport move to a city location (possibly making two or more Encounters for that city so long as the previous MOVE(s) remain in the trail).
• The game score is reduced by 1 point.

Special Rules

Research

• If a Hunter rests, and each of the other Hunters rested in their most recent turn, then we say they have been doing collaborative research, and the 6th move in Dracula’s trail is immediately revealed.
  • nothing is revealed if there are not yet 6 moves in the trail

HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK moves

• If a Hunter enters a city for which a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK is still in the trail, then all Hunters learn that the move was a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK, and they also learn (recursively if doubling back to a HIDE, etc.) the nature of the move to which the HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK relates.
• If the Hunters research a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move, then all Hunters learn that the move was a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK, and they also learn (recursively if doubling back to a HIDE, etc.) the nature of the move to which the HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK relates.
• The Hunters can see whenever the sixth move in the trail is a HIDE move, but this does not mean that they learn the nature of the move to which it relates (because that move is no longer in the trail)

No more secrets

• The Hunters can co-operate using messages to rid the world of Dracula as swiftly as possible.
• Sadly Dracula gets to hear everything the Hunters say to each other.

Extra Rules

• Dracula cannot place an Encounter in a city if there are already 3 Encounters in that city.