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
- a damage counter that starts at 5 and can count up to 10
Place the deck where all party players can access it OR place your own deck near you during séance competitve battles.
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.
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.
Players are defeated when they hold 10 cards in their hand. Alternatively you can win the game when you chargeall 5 of your Zener cards.
A party game is over when players can't refill their hand. Whoever has the least amount of cards in hand and spirit energy on the board wins! In a seance battle a player loses when they are not able to fill their hand at the beginning of a round.
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. It 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.
"Veil" is written at the top of the card. When cards are placed into the veiled state flip them face down with the word veil at the top.
"Curse" is written at the bottom of the card upside down. All cards can be used as a curse. Before they are activated as curses they are placed face down on the board on top of a zener 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.
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 have 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. Each die type has an associated color. 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 in either vertical position. (cursed or uncursed)
- Refill your hand to your current damage. You start each game with 5. If you already have the correct amount of cards or more, draw one.
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 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.
Then, each player reveals at least one card in their hand to be added to the speed total. Only the speed parameter found at the top right of cards may be used and not the cursed speed stat.
The total after these calculations is the players speed stat.
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 may 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 may 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 top of the deck. The spirit energy cards remain face down when added to the spirit.
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
There is alot of dice rolling in Séance Party. When you roll a number that is too low you may "boost" that number. You are allowed to boost using as many dice from the dice pool or cards from your hand as you'd like. Some cards have special "Boost" effects which activate when used this way. Card's that are used as boosts are burned and go to the trash.
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 deck underneath your new spirit when it is played. These cards remain face down.
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.
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. These cards say BURN in their effect text. When you use a curse like this you may choose to use the effect and send the card to the discard pile after the effect is complete (burning) or you may forgo the effect and keep the card on the board.
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 and it's stack.
- Choose a target. Either an opponent's spirit or a direct attack upon a player.
- If a player is chosen as a target the defender may have an unrested spirit become the target instead.
- Both players determine their spirit's attack power by adding the attack parameter of all cards in their stack. Players have no attack power.
- 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 into the owners hand. If a spirit has no spirit energy that spirit is burned and it, along with everything attached to it, goes to the trash.
When a player is attacked directly the damage is added to that players damage counter. At the beginning of a round each player must fill their hand to the amount equivalent to their damage.