Séance Party is a supernatural battle card game where players control spirits to defeat opponents or strategically use their ESP to outwit them.
- 2-4 players
- 60 card deck minimum for a shared party game. Or a 30 card deck total per player for a séance battle!
- rpg dice set: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20)
- pentagram tracker
- 5 Zener cards per player: Circle, Cross, Wave, Square, Star
Place the deck where all party players can access it OR place your own deck near you during séance competitve games.
Each player gets 5 Zener cards, placed next to each other in the order: Circle, Cross, Wave, Square, Star. Zener cards are placed with the word "Dormant" on top to indicate that they are in the dormant position.
Set the Pentagram between all players with a planchette in the center of it. Then place a d4 (triangle magenta die) near each of the pentagrams points.
Each player starts with a dice pool representing all polyhedral dice. These dice may be used for boosts and card effects.
Deal 5 cards from the top of the deck face down as Spirit Energy to each player. Place these cards horizontally into the Spirit Energy area so it is easy for all players to know how much spirit energy a player has. Players lose when they have no face down Spirit Energy left on their board.
Defeat the most players by getting rid of all of their Spirit Energy or charge all 5 of your Zener cards.
Card Back
The back of a Seánce Party card is pictured here and is used heavily during a game.
In the center is the Pentagram. The pentagram features all five of the symbols found on Zener cards. If you do not have an extra card to be used as a pentagram one is easily created using the skin of your enemies and the blood of your coven.
At the top of the card you will see the word "veil." Sometimes cards are placed into the veiled state. Simply flip them face down with the word veil at the top.
At the bottom of the card you will see the word "curse" written upside down. All cards can be used as a curse. Before they are activated as curses they are placed face down on the board with the word "curse" at the top.
On both sides of the card you will see the words "Spirit" and "Energy." When spirit energy is powering a spirit, cards are placed face down underneath the spirit horizontally. The word "spirit" or the word "energy" from each card being used as spirit energy should be visible at all times.
Card Front
The front of two Séance Party cards are pictured here. On the left is a spirit. Spirit cards say "vessel" at the top and "phantom" at the bottom. On the right is a spell. Spell cards say "hex" at the top and "curse" at the bottom.
All cards feature a symbol at the top left called a zener symbol which are used to play cards to the board. On the right you can see this card's element, attack parameter, and speed parameter. Attack is always denoted with a die type. The one featured here on "Red Bean Bomb" is a 6 sided die. Each die type has an associated color with it and a specific shape. Speed is always denoted using a number. At the bottom of the art, in the framing, you can see a small description of the card. Cards may also have effect text. This effect text will cover a small part of the card art.
Curses
This card is upside down and is now in a "cursed" state. Spells becomes curses and spirits become phantoms when they are upside down. Cursed cards have their own elements, attack parameters, and speed parameters. Any effect the card has while cursed will be written here.
Rounds
Séance Party is played in rounds and each round looks like this.
- Start
- Curse
- Speed
- Player Turns
- End
A bulk of the game is played in the "Player Turns" step of the round. But mastering the other steps in the round will be the key to your victory.
Start
During the start step all players perform all of these actions in order.
Curses may not be activated during the start step.
- Flip all Zener cards face up if they are currently not in use.
- Unrest any rested cards on the board.
- Refill your hand to 5 cards. If you already have 5 or more, draw one.
- Move any face up spirit energy cards to your hand.
Curse
In this step all players will set any amount of curses to the board from their hand. Place cards face down on top of the card's matching zener symbol.
Curses may not be activated during this step.
Speed
All players determine player speed. Who ever has the highest speed will take a turn first.
To determine player speed, all players will reveal their hands and add together the speed parameter found at the top right of each of their cards. When totaling the speed from cards in hand never use the cursed speed stat printed at the bottom of the card.
Then, each player may add the speed stat of all cards that are present on their board. If a card on the board is cursed then use it's cursed speed stat.
The total after these calculations is the players speed stat.
Players may decide if they want to boost their speed result. The player with the highest speed always chooses if they do or don't want to boost their speed first then priority goes to the next fastest player. Once each player has made a decision to boost or not, the final result of each players speed will determine turn order.
Curses may be activated during the speed step from any player at any time.
Player Turns
Most of the game is played through turns and there can be any amount of turns in a single round.
A round only ends when players decide to end instead of attacking.
Each turn has two phases. The "Before Attack" and "Attack" phase.
Before Attack Phase: You may do the following.
- Activate an ability of a card on board or in hand.
- Resolve an effect.
- Attach a card to a spirit from your board.
- Play a card
Attack phase: Choose one of these actions.
Once an action is taken your turn is over. Play passes to the next fastest player.
Curses may be activated by any player during any player's turn at any time. Watch out!
The four main actions of Séance Party.
Play
You may only play one card per turn.
When playing a card, your opponent can try to counter it by guessing its suit. If they guess correctly, your card is returned to your hand. If they guess incorrectly your card comes to the board.
Choose a card from your hand that matches a face-up zener card on your board and present it face down. The opponent with the most cards in hand guesses its zener by showing a card from their hand. If they match, both cards are returned to their owner's hands and the turn player may draw a card. If they don't match, your card is played to the board.
After playing a card or being countered the turn player flips the corresponding zener card face down.
Finally you must move the planchette on the pentagram to an adjacent symbol. Follow the lines from the current symbol to find an adjacent symbol. If the planchette is unplaced it may be placed wherever the current player desires. The planchette only moves as a part of the "play" action or via card effect. When the planchette is moved, pick up the die that is at the new symbol and put it into your dice pool, then place a new die of the next highest rank in its place.
If you manage to play a card that matches the current symbol on the pentagram, charge the matching zener card and take another turn. Remember, charging all 5 zener cards is a second way to win a game of Séance Party!
If you played a spirit, possess it using face down cards from the spirit energy area. The spirit energy cards remain face down when added to the spirit.
If you have no face down cards in the spirit energy area you will not be able to possess new spirits. Without spirit energy, spirits may still activate their "play" effects but are trashed after their effect is resolved.
Attack
Choosing to attack starts a battle! This is the main way to get rid of the opponent's spirit energy. Follow all the steps in the battle section of the rules.
Pass
If you prefer to not attack, you do not have to. If all players pass, the round automatically ends.
In only the first round of the game each player is forced to pass until every player has started a turn.
End
Choosing to "end" ends the current round for all players. All players must have started at least one turn in the round before a player can end.
Once a die is gone from the dice pool it is gone from the game.
Boost
You are allowed to boost using dice from the dice pool or any card from your hand. Some cards have special "Boost" effects which activate when used this way.
The Pentagram influences card plays. Whenever you successfully play a card matching the symbol indicated by the planchette, you may charge that zener card.
To charge a zener simply rotate the correct zener card so that it says "charged" at the top.
The planchette only moves as a part of the "play" action or via card effect.
Spirits
Spirits are the main fighting force of Séance Party. Spirit's must be possessed to stay on the board.
To possess a spirit, move any amount of face down cards from the spirit energy area underneath your new spirit when it is played. These cards remain face down. Then you may add one card from your hand to the spirit either face up in the spirit's inventory or face down as additional spirit energy.
Spirits learn spells by placing them face-up underneath the spirit with the parameters of the spell card peeking out from the top. This is a spirit's inventory area. Each spirit's inventory is the same amount as their spirit energy.
Spells
Spells are allowed to be on the board without a spirit and wait to be learned by one. Once learned, spells are permanently attached to the spirit and are sent to the trash with the spirit.
Curses
Any card can be used as a curse! You will place the desired card face down on top of the corresponding face up zener card during the curse step.
When a cursed card comes to the board it must be played upside down.
Some curses have one time use effects esepcially when used on other player's turns. When you use a curse in this way it is "burned" afterwards. Burning a curse places it in the trash.
When you choose to attack, a battle will start. Follow these steps to complete the battle.
- Choose a spirit on your board and rest it.
- Choose a target. Either an opponent's spirit or direct attack upon a player if they have no spirits.
- Both players determine their spirit's attack power by adding the attack parameter of all cards in their stack.
- Defending player may boost.
- Attacking player may boost
- Whoever has the higher attack wins and deals damage. If there is a tie, both spirits deal damage.
- The battle ends.
The amount of damage done is dictated by the types of the cards in your stack and their amounts.
Here are some examples.
- If you have 4 bolt cards then you will do 4 bolt damage.
- If you have 2 fire cards then you will do 2 fire damage.
- If your stack has 3 ice cards and one life card then you can choose to do either 3 ice damage or 1 life damage.
Remove spirit energy from the target according to how much damage that was dealt. Place those cards face up in the spirit energy area. If a spirit has no spirit energy that spirit is killed and it along with everything attached to it goes to the trash.
When a spirit loses spirit energy without dying it retains whatever inventory is attached to the spirit. This can lead to spirits that have more cards attached to them than their inventory limit. This is called being "overpacked." A spirit can remain overpacked if it became that way due to losing spirit energy.