[BHH] Rules

[DMDarcs]

GAME OVERVIEW
In Betrayal at House on the Hill, each player chooses a character to explore a creepy old house. As you explore the house, you discover new rooms. Each time you enter a new room, you might find something. . . or something might find you. Explorers get better (or worse) depending on how they deal with the house's surprises. The house is different each time you build it.

At some random point during the game, one explorer triggers a scenario called a haunt. When the haunt is revealed, one explorer betrays everyone else. That explorer becomes a traitor bent on defeating his former companions. The rest of the explorers becomes heroes struggling to survive. From then on the game is a fight between the traitor and the heroes. . . often a fight to the death.

The game has 100+ haunts, and each one tells a different story. Each one of them is yours to explore as you live or die in the House on the Hill.

OBJECT OF THE GAME
Explore the house and make your character stronger until the haunt scenario begins. After that, your goal is to complete your side's victory condition first, either as a traitor or a hero.

HOW TO PLAY
Staring with the character who's birthday is next and following in order that you signed up on the board, each player takes a turn exploring the house.

ON YOUR TURN...
...you can do as many of the following actions as you want, in any order:
* You can move.
* You can discover a new room.
* You can attempt a die roll. (All dice in this game are 1d3-1.)
* You can use items or omen cards.
* You can attack (once during your turn after the haunt starts).

Before the haunt starts, you must make a haunt roll at the end of your turn if you draw an omen card. The game administrator will automatically make this roll for you. The game has a few new twist after the haunt starts.

MOVING
On your explorer's turn, you can move up to a number of spaces equal to your character's current Speed. Whenever a game effect makes you draw a card, you must STOP moving for the rest of your turn.

DISCOVERING A NEW ROOM
When your explorer enters a doorway, and there isn't a room on the other side, a new room tile will be drawn. Some tiles will only appear on certain floors (ground floor, basement, upper floor, or roof). Some tiles work on more than one floor. The game administrator will add each tile as logically as possible, creating adjacent rooms with connecting doors.

An explorer can move through a door if it connects to another door in an adjacent room. Doors are always open. The one exception is the front door. It's always locked. You can't leave the house or use the front door unless a haunt says otherwise. (Outside rooms, like the Patio, are still part of the house.)

Staircases connect floors. The Grand Staircase always connects to the Upper Landing. The Stairs from Basement always lead to and from the Foyer through a secret door. (You can't use the Stairs from Basement until you discover that room in the basement.) Staircases cost 1 point of movement to use.

Some rooms have dumbwaiters. You can move from those rooms to the landings either one floor up or down, assuming such a floor exists, by spending 2 points of movement. If you don't have enough Speed to move that far, you can't use the dumbwaiter. The landings are the Basement Landing, Grand Staircase, Foyer, Entrance Hall, Upper Landing, and Roof Landing.

Some rooms also have rules on them, which apply to your explorer each time you enter the room. Some rooms affect movement. A few rooms will have special rules that will come up when revealed.

OMENS, ITEMS, AND EVENTS
The first time you discover certain rooms will cause you to draw an omen, item, or event card.

If the room has an event card, the administrator will describe the event. Follow its instructions, which may require you to attempt rolls. If the rolls are non-optional, the administrator will make the necessary rolls. The card is then discarded unless it says otherwise or has an ongoing effect.

If the room has an item card, you now have it in your possession. You may use it once immediately and once on each of your turns, unless it says otherwise.

If the room has an omen card, you now have it in your possession. You might have to do something immediately. At the end of your turn, the administrator will make a haunt roll for you.

USING ITEMS AND OMEN CARDS
You can use an item once at any point during your turn. Most omen cards are also items you keep, and they're used like other items.

Once during your turn, you can do each of the following.
* Give an item to another explorer in the same room (assuming you both agree).
* Drop any number of items. Another explorer (or you, for that matter) can later pick up some or all of the items in the pile, removing the token if all of the items are picked up.
* Pick up one or more items from a pile of items.

Some items can't be traded, but they can be dropped or picked up.

Some omens aren't items at all, so they can't be dropped or traded. They're companions that follow the explorer who has custody of them.

ATTEMPTING A DIE ROLL
Many times during the game, you'll need to roll dice. For instance, you might need to roll dice for a card you've drawn, or when your explorer moves onto a room tile.

The administrator will take care of all non-optional rolls.

All dice in this game are 1d3-1.

Sometimes a card or room tile will tell you to attempt a roll based on one of your explorer's traits (Speed, Might, Sanity, or Knowledge). When that happens, roll as many dice as your explorer currently has in that trait. For example, if your explorer must attempt a Sanity roll, and she currently has a Sanity of 4, you will roll 4d3-4. The card or tile will tell you the results of your attempt.

MAKING AN ATTACK
Once during your turn, you can attack an opponent in the same room. You can't attack anyone until after the haunt starts.

When you make an attack, roll a number of dice equal to your Might. Your opponent does the same. Whoever rolls a higher result inflicts physical damage to the other explorer or monster. That player defeats his or her opponent. The amount of damage equals the difference between the two rolls. (For example, if you roll a 6 and your opponent gets a 5, you would inflict 1 point of physical damage.) If there's a tie, no one gets hurt.

When you take physical damage, you lower your explorer's Might and/or Speed traits a total number of spaces equal to the amount of damage you took.

Once the haunt begins, if any of your traits moves down to the X, your explorer dies. Before the haunt starts, no one can die - that is, no trait can go below the lowest number on their trait track (it stays at the lowest value instead).

Sometimes a card or a haunt lets you make an attack with a trait other than Might. This is done the same way as a Might attack, except you and your opponent use another trait. For example, if you make a Speed attack, you and your opponent roll dice based on Speed. Speed attacks inflict physical damage like Might attacks.

When a card or haunt lets you attack with Sanity or Knowledge, then you inflict mental damage. You and your opponent move down your Sanity and/or Knowledge traits.

You can't use a trait to attack an opponent who doesn't have that trait. For instance, if a monster doesn't have Sanity, you can't make a Sanity attack against it.

Sometimes when you attack, you do something other than damage your opponent. For instance, you may be able to steal an item.

Monsters are only stunned when you defeat them, unless a haunt specifies otherwise.

DISTANCE ATTACKS
The Revolver allows you to attack someone in a room within your line of sight - a path that leads through an uninterrupted straight line of doors. You take no damage if the subject of your distance attack defeats you. Some monsters can also make distance attacks.

STEALING ITEMS
If you attack someone and inflict 2 or more points of physical damage, you can steal a tradable item instead of doing the damage. You can't do this with a distance attack.

MAKING A HAUNT ROLL
Before the haunt starts, you must roll 6d3-6 at the end of your turn each time you draw an omen. This is called a haunt roll. If you roll less than the total number of omen cards all players have drawn this game, the haunt starts. The player who starts the haunt with this roll is called the haunt revealer.

For example, if you draw an omen card on your turn, and the players have already drawn a total of 4 omen cards during the game, you need a result of 4 or less on your haunt roll to start the haunt.

REVEALING THE HAUNT
When a player makes a haunt roll and starts the haunt, the administrator will determine which haunt has been revealed. . . and who is the traitor.

The haunt is determined by the name of the omen and the room that player's explorer was in when the omen was drawn.

The haunt revealer is NOT necessarily the traitor.

Special Cases: If two or more people could be the traitor, and one of them is the haunt revealer, then that person is the traitor If neither one was the haunt revealer, than the next player in the turn order after the haunter revealer is the traitor.

HAUNT SETUP
The following will happen at the start of the haunt:
* The traitor will be sent a private message detailing the haunt.
* The rest of the players become heroes. The game administrator will open up a new topic for the players detailing the haunt. The heroes should lso talk briefly about their plan for survival. The traitor should not read this forum. Honor system, folks.
* When everyone is ready, the administrator will start a new topic. Anything the haunt says will happen right away will happen Right Now. (For example, sometimes tokens will appear, or cards will be drawn.)

HAUNT TURN ORDER
The first turn always starts with the player after the traitor in the turn order. Each of the heroes gets a hero turn. After each hero has had a turn, the traitor gets a traitor turn. After the traitor's turn, any monster controlled by the traitor get a monster turn. (One player gets two turns: one for the traitor and one for the monsters.)

The heroes and the traitor are all still explorers. They can do the same things they did before the haunt was revealed, except they don't have to attempt further haunt rolls (even if one of them gets an omen card). The traitor's moves will be revealed to all players, but do not have to be explained; the same condition applies to all heroes.

After the haunt begins, explorers can die. If one your explorer's traits moves down to X, then that explorer dies. Sometimes during a haunt, a hero may become a traitor when he or she "dies".

Sometimes the traitor is transformed or otherwise disposed of at the start of the haunt, but the traitor still gets a turn after all the heroes do. If there is no reason for this turn, the administrator will notify players. Even if the traitor dies, as long as the monsters can complete the haunt's goals, the monsters still get their turn (and the traitor controls them).

MOVING PAST OPPONENTS
For each opponent in a room with you after the haunt starts, an explorer must use one extra space of movement to leave that room. An opponent is an explorer or monsters that wants to stop your movement. No matter how many penalties you have on a turn, you can always move at least one space.

Stunned monsters don't slow an explorer's movement in this way.

THE TRAITOR'S NEW POWERS
When your explorer becomes a traitor, you can use the following abilities (unless told otherwise):
* You can use or ignore any non-damaging room effects or cards you draw.
* You can choose not to be affected by an event. if you choose to be affected by one, though, you have to accept any rolls or penalties.
* After you finish your turn, you move and attack with all of the monsters, if any. Even if you die, you still control the monsters. In some haunts, the monsters are still able to complete a haunt's goals after you are dead.

HOW MONSTERS WORK
Monsters behave a little differently than explorers do. All of the following rules are in effect unless a haunt says otherwise.
* Monsters move differently. At the start of each monster's turn, a die roll determines that monster's speed. Groups of the same type of monster (Bats or Zombies, for instance) will receive one roll for the whole group.
* Most monsters can't be killed. If a monster suffers any damage, it is stunned and misses its next turn. Stunned monsters can't slow an explorer's movement.
* Like explorers, a monster can attack only once during its turn. Monsters often use traits other than Might to attack. They can't make Special Attack unless told otherwise.
* Like traitors, monsters can ignore all non-damaging room features.
* Monsters can't explore new rooms.
* Monsters can't carry items (unless told otherwise). If a monsters that is allowed to carry items is stunned, it drops all items in its room. It can't pick up the items until it has an active turn.

WHAT HAPPENS TO MY STUFF IF I DIE?
If you die and you have a companion, it stays in the room where you died. If another explorer enters the room, he or she gains custody of that companion. Any other items you have drop to the floor. Other players can go to the room to pick up your items.

WINNING THE GAME
The first side (traitor or heroes) that completes its goals for the haunt wins the game.

A least one hero must survive in order for the heroes to win. However, some haunts include goals that are written so that the traitor can still win the game after he or she dies.