Masque of the Red Death by IDW is now available via Local Kickstarter at Just Games. Back it using the PayPal button below, and get all the fabulous Kickstarter only editions when the game is released. Estimated delivery is July 2018. You will save yourself all shipping costs (around $13 saved) and support an awesome game and local retail at the same time.
For more about this game, read on! Note that the button above is for local pickup only. If you want to have the game shipped anywhere in the US (for example, you used to live in Rochester but moved), you can pay for the “Plus Shipping” which will charge you for the estimated shipping cost. We do not ship outside the USA at this time.
Masque of the Red Death is a deduction and movement programming game for 4 -7 players set in the grim world of the short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Players are nobles attending an extravagant masked ball while a plague ravages the country. Players are trying to do what nobles do – feast, dance, celebrate –become as popular as they can. But rumors swirl as the night goes on, and everyone feels oddly nervous each time the clock chimes. The nobles might be wise to spend some time listening to these rumors. It is becoming increasingly clear as midnight approaches that something sinister awaits. At midnight, a horrible figure in the guise of the Red Death appears at the masquerade! It stalks amongst the rooms of the abbey, killing the nobles it comes across. The most popular noble wins… but that only matters if you survive the night.
The game takes place in the peculiar abbey of Prince Prospero. The abbey is divided into 7 rooms; each decorated and lit in a particular color.
Players start with a set of 9 identical action cards and one unique personality card. These action cards include things like: Discuss, Dance, Admire, Mock, Flirt.
Each turn, players will:
1. CHOOSE a card from hand to play (simultaneously)
2. PERFORM THE ACTION one at a time, to gain popularity or rumors
3. MOVE to an adjacent room (after everyone’s actions are complete – optional)
As each turn goes by, the clock gets closer to reaching midnight. As players gather rumors, they begin planning out their movements after midnight to avoid the Red Death. They can make changes to their plan at any time… until 12:00. The Red Death will visit 2 rooms at each time: 12:00, 12:10, 12:20, 12:30, 12:40, 12:50.
Players must plan out movements behind their player screens to avoid being in the rooms that the Red Death visits.
At midnight, the game drastically changes. Players can no longer change their planned movements and they must now hope they gathered enough information to avoid the Red Death! Players enact their planned 12:00 movement, either moving their figure clockwise, counter-clockwise, or staying in place. Then the two 12:00 Red Death cards are revealed (one at a time, for suspense).
The Red Death visits the rooms shown on the cards, killing all nobles in those rooms – removing their figures from the abbey and the popularity track. Surviving nobles enact their planned 12:10 movement, and the 12:10 Red Death cards are revealed once again. This repeats for each time slot until the 12:50 time is resolved. The most popular surviving noble wins! May this victory give you strength as you contemplate the inevitability of death amongst the corpses of your fallen countrymen…
