How to play
You are investigators in Charles House Asylum on the night of a new moon. The house is against you, played by the computer or by another person.
The goal
At first you only have a lead: find out who is taken, and how. Search the house and listen to the patients. When someone finds the Night Register , the true objective is revealed (one of three), and you must finish it before the last bell. The house wins if it takes 2 patients from Ward 3, if the last bell rings first, or if every investigator falls.
Your turn
Each investigator has 2 actions a round, used in any order:
Move up to 2 rooms (click a gold room on the plan). Broken investigators move 1.Explore : open the door to a ? room next to you (you stay where you are).Search something in the room, Listen to a patient, Attack a monster, Rest to heal a wound or calm a horror, open a locked door , or do the objective.
Free actions cost nothing: picking things up, giving items to someone in your room, using some items.
Dice
A test rolls as many dice as your skill (Might, Agility, Wits, Lore, Nerve). A 5 or 6 is a success. A 4 is Insight: it counts if you spend a Clue, which happens for you, only when it turns a fail into a pass. The line under each button gives the test and your chance.
The house's turn and the bells
When everyone has acted, the house gains threat and spends it on cards: monsters, slammed doors, whispers. Then its monsters move and attack anyone in their room (each success on your test blocks 1 harm), and the bell rings. There are 9 bells . From bell 4 (midnight) it can take a Ward 3 patient who has no investigator beside them.
Body and mind
Fill your wounds and you are Broken (1 room per move). Fill your horror and you become Lucid : you draw a secret Madness card and gain the Sight. Fill a track a second time and you fall. Leaving a room with a monster in it takes an Agility test.
On the screen
Hover over (or tap) a room or monster on the plan to see what's there.
The strip above the plan shows everyone's wounds (W), horror (H), Clues and actions. Click a face to act as that investigator, or i for the full card.
Keys: 1 –9 the action buttons, E end the turn, Tab the next investigator, H this page.
New to it? Learn to play on the title screen walks you through a first night, one step at a time.
Back to the night