Introduction Summary and Objective - · PDF fileIDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design...

IntroductionYou are all nobles at a magnificent masquerade ball, trying to gain popularity and improve your social standing. However, something is amiss. Rumors swirl and, with each chiming of the ebony clock in the abbey, hearts fill with dread and despair. It becomes increasingly clear that, as midnight approaches, something sinister awaits.

Summary and ObjectiveAs nobles, you will spend the evening going from room to room gaining popularity, but don’t neglect the latest gossip and rumors you all bring throughout the ball. Before midnight strikes, each noble must plan out six movements to make after midnight.

When midnight strikes, the Red Death will appear and move from room to room. You cannot be in a room that the Red Death visits if you hope to survive! Between some of the Red Death’s movements, the nobles will move as well, trying to avoid the Red Death’s next destination. If you manage to survive the Red Death, you will win if you have more popularity than any other surviving noble.

Note: The short story “The Masque of the Red Death” (written and published by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842) is reproduced in its entirety at the back of this rulebook. We encourage you to read the story aloud before you play the game for the first time.

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“In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because

it is excessively discussed.” -Edgar Allen Poe

Discuss

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1 ABBEY BOARD

7 PLAYER SCREENS

14 PRINCE TILES

42 MOVEMENT TILES

7 POPULARITY TRACKERS

1 PRINCE STANDEE

1 RED DEATH STANDEE

7 NOBLE STANDEES

1 CLOCK STANDEE

1 PRINCE BOARD

73 ACTION CARDS 54 RUMOR CARDS

63 Standard Cards

42 Gossip Cards

10 Personality Cards

12 Evidence Cards

7 PLAYER BOARDS

Look at 1 Red Death card in any time slot, then look at 1 Red

Death card in a different time slot.

Personality

12:00

Immediately look at 1 R E D DEAT H card for the time

shown, then discard this card.

12:40

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Setting up the Masquerade1. Take nobles. Each player takes 1 Noble

standee, their Popularity tracker of the same color, and the matching player board and player screen to put over it.

2. Set popularity. Take the Popularity trackers from each player and place them all randomly, one after the other, in clockwise order on the Popularity track, beginning with the 1 space.

As shorthand, these rules refer to the player highest (furthest clockwise) on the Popularity track as the most popular player, and refer to the player lowest on the Popularity track as the least popular player.

3. Deal unique Personality Action cards. Separate the 10 unique Personality cards (marked with ) and deal one to each player, then return the remaining unique Personality cards facedown to the game box.

4. Take Action cards. Each player takes an identical set of the nine standard Action cards. So each player should receive 1 of each of the following cards: Discuss, Dance, Jest, Admire, Mock, Flirt, Swindle, Threaten, Menace.

5. Make Movement tile supply. Form a supply of 42 Movement tiles within easy reach of all players. It does not matter whether the tiles are face-up or facedown.

6. Place Prince tiles. Shuffle the 14 Prince tiles and return two tiles facedown to the game box. Then draw, one by one, the remaining 12 Prince tiles. As each Prince tile is drawn, randomly place it face-up on an empty time slot of the Prince board.

7. Place the Clock standee. Place the clock standee somewhere that all players can see it, and at least 1 player can reach it. Set the time to 8 (VIII on the clock face).

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“In one case out of a hundred a point is

excessively discussed because it is obscure; in

the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because

it is excessively discussed.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

Discuss

Look at 1 Red Death card in

any time slot, then look at 1 Red


Personality

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8. Place Prince standee. Place the Prince standee on the Abbey board in the room that matches the color of the Prince tile on the “8:00” time slot of the Prince board.

9. Place Rumor cards. Separate the 42 Gossip Rumor cards from the 12 Evidence Rumor cards (see p. 14 to reference card type). Split the 42 Gossip Rumor cards into six stacks matching the six time slots: “12:00” to “12:50.” Then, flip each stack facedown, shuffle it, draw 2 Rumor cards, and place them facedown in the matching time slot along the bottom of the Abbey board. Do this for all six stacks. These 12 Rumor cards placed along the Abbey board are called Red Death cards.

10. Make Rumor deck. Shuffle the 30 remaining Gossip Rumor card with the 12 Evidence Rumor cards together to form the Rumor deck.

11. Place Noble standees. Starting with the least popular player and proceeding clockwise, each player places their other Noble standee on any room on the Abbey board. Multiple Noble standees can share the same room.

THE ABBEY’S ROOMSThe Abbey has seven rooms. Each room has a unique color and icon. Each room is also adjacent to 2 other rooms.

The time is 8:00 in the evening, and the guests are filing into the abbey. Each room is full of opportunities for juicy gossip and rumors. The masquerade ball is ready to begin!

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Discuss

“In on

e case

out o

f a hu

ndred

a poin

t is

excess

ively d

iscuss

ed bec

ause it

is obs

cure ; in

the ni

nety-n

ine re

mainin

g it is

obscu

re bec

ause

it is e

xcessi

vely d

iscuss

ed.”

-Edgar

Allen

Poe

Discu

ss

PersonalityPlay this card along with

another Action card. Resolve that Action card twice, and do

not discard it.

Perso

nality

Gain

4 pop

ularity

. Then

, retur

n

all of

your o

ther d

iscard

ed

Actio

n card

s to y

our ha

nd.

BLUE

WHITE VIOLET BLACK

PURPLE GREEN ORANGE

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Playing the MasqueradeThe masquerade takes place over 12 rounds. During each round, perform the following steps in order:

1. The Prince RewardsAny player whose Noble standee is in the same room as the Prince standee gains 1 popularity. If multiple players gain popularity, they each gain 1 popularity, gaining it in order from most popular to least.

As your popularity changes, move your Noble’s Popularity tracker along the Popularity track on the Abbey board. There are a few rules that must be followed while moving on the Popularity Track, for these rules please see The Popularity Track on page 14.

The Board

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12:00 12:20 12:4012:10 12:30 12:50Red Death Card Track

Popularity Track

Blue Room

Purple Room

Green Room

Black RoomViolet Room

White Room

Orange Room

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2. The Nobles MingleFirst, each player secretly chooses one Action card from their hand, and then the players reveal their cards simultaneously.

Next, starting with the least popular player and moving clockwise around the table, each player resolves their revealed Action card. (More details in The Action Cards on page 12.)

Finally, each player may move their Noble standee to an adjacent room. The players may move simultaneously to save time. However, if any player disagrees with moving simultaneously, the players move in order from most popular to least popular.

3. The Prince MovesRemove the Prince tile from the current time slot on the Prince board, then move the Prince standee to the room shown by the Prince tile on the next time slot.

After these three steps, the round ends. To show this, advance the clock hand on the Clock Standee to the next notch on the clock face. In total, there are 12 notches on the clock face that equate to 12 standard rounds of play.

At the end of the 12th round, the clock strikes midnight, indicating the climax of the evening and a change in the way the game is played.

First, make sure every player has finished placing Movement tiles, as described in the next chapter, Planning for Midnight. Once every player has decided they are finished, their Movement tiles cannot be moved or exchanged. Then, follow the instructions in The Clock Strikes Midnight! on page 9.

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Discuss

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Planning for MidnightYour Player board has six empty spaces matching the six time slots on the Abbey board. At any time throughout the game, you can freely take Movement tiles from the supply and place them on the six spaces on your Player board, one tile per space.

These Movement tiles will determine how your Noble standee moves throughout the Abbey after midnight, as you try to avoid the Red Death. Movement tiles are double sided :

• Clockwise: Your Noble standee will move to the adjacent clockwise room.

• Counterclockwise: Your Noble standee will move to the adjacent counterclockwise room.

• Stay: If you wish to stay in the room you currently occupy, then do not place a token on this time.

Keep your Player board behind your Player screen so you don’t give information away to other players! Also, make sure to put any unplaced tiles back in the supply, so the other players can use them.

REMEMBER: The room your Noble standee is in when the clock strikes midnight will be where you will begin your movements after midnight.

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The Clock Strikes Midnight!The prince has been killed! Remove the Prince standee from the Abbey and place the Red Death standee in the center of the Abbey.

The nobles now try to avoid the Red Death. Each round from midnight and on resolves in a precise order:

1. Nobles reveal their planned movements. Remove your player screen from covering your Player board and Movement tiles. All players should be able to see how all the others have decided to move. This step is only preformed at 12:00, Player boards should remain revealed for all subsequent rounds.

2. Nobles move. All players will move their Noble standee according to the Movement tiles they have placed on the 12:00 spot. Again, movement can be done simultaneously, however, if any player disagrees with moving simultaneously, the players move in order from most popular to least popular.

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3. Red Death moves. Reveal the first Red Death card in the “12:00” time slot, and place the Red Death standee in the room shown on the card. The Red Death kills all nobles in this room; remove all Noble standees from this room and remove their matching Popularity tracker. Then, reveal the second Red Death card in the “12:00” time slot and place the Red Death standee in the indicated room, killing all nobles there, as before.

4. Red Death returns to the shadows. After resolving both Red Death cards in the “12:00” time slot, place the Red Death standee back in the center of the Abbey board.

5. Advance the clock. Once the clock has advanced to the next indicated time, in this case 12:10 would be next, players repeat steps 2-5 in the same order as outlined above. Continue this until the clock has advanced for the final time, which will reset the face to 8:00.

Determine the winner. The winner is the most popular player among those who survived the Red Death. May this victory give you strength as you contemplate the inevitability of death amid the corpses of your fallen countrymen…

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At 12:00, Baroness Lethargy resides in the Blue room, Countess Covetous is in Purple, and

Archbishop Animus is in White.

The first 12:00 Red Death card is revealed: Green—everyone is

safe! The second 12:00 Red Death card is revealed: Purple! Countess Covetous is killed, removing her standee and Popularity tracker

from the Abbey board.

The two surviving players reveal their Movement tiles for 12:10. Baroness Lethargy has chosen to move clockwise, into the Purple room, while Archbishop Animus has chosen to stay in White.

The first 12:10 Red Death card is revealed: Black—everyone

is safe! The second 12:10 Red Death card is revealed: Violet—everyone survives this, as well.

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The Action CardsEach round, each player must play one Action card. To play an Action card, you must be able to resolve all of its effects, whether positive or negative.

When you play an Action card, resolve all of its effects in the order written on the card, left to right. After resolving the Action card’s effects, discard it face-up to the left side of your Player board.

Certain unique Action cards will return your discarded Action cards to your hand. Otherwise, there is no way to return a played Action card to your hand.

A nearby noble is a player whose Noble standee is in the same room as your Noble standee. If there are multiple nearby nobles, you choose which nearby noble to target.

Whenever you play an Action card that instructs you to look at or take 1 Rumor card from a nearby noble’s hand, you must specify a time slot (e.g., “12:30”).

• If your target noble has one card of that time slot, they must give you that card to look at or take.

• If your target noble has multiple cards of that time slot, you must pick one card randomly from only those cards.

• If your target noble has no cards of that time slot, you must pick one card randomly from their entire hand.



Discuss

Look at 1 Red Death card in any time slot, then look at 1 Red


Personality

STANDARD ACTION CARDS

Action Cards

Card Ability

Card Name

Effect Text

PERSONALITY ACTION CARDS

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Draw 1 card from the Rumor deck. Do not discard Discuss

when played.

Gain 3 popularity, and a nearby noble gains 3

popularity.

Look at 2 Rumor cards from a nearby noble’s hand. You may specify a different time slot for

each card.

Gain 2 popularity. During this round, you may move

twice, rather than once. Do not discard Dance when played.

Gain 2 popularity, and a nearby noble loses 2 popularity.

Take 1 Rumor card from a nearby noble’s hand.

Gain 3 popularity.

Gain 1 popularity and look at any Rumor card from a nearby

noble’s hand.

Lose 1 popularity and take 1 Rumor card from a nearby

noble’s hand.

Action Card Icons



Discuss

Admire

“That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

Admire

+3 +3

Swindle

“I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

Dance

“Indeed, there is an eloquence in true enthusiasm that is not to be doubted.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

+2

Mock

“To villify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

+2 -2

Threaten

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

Jest

“Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are

least able to utter them.”-Edgar Allen Poe

+3

Flirt

“The best things in life make you sweaty.”-Edgar Allen Poe

+1

Menace

“I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.”

-Edgar Allen Poe

-1

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The Rumor CardsThroughout the game, players will have chances to draw cards from the Rumor deck. Keep your Rumor cards in hand. You may not reveal or give them to other players, unless prompted by an Action card.

When you draw gossip, take note of the time and room (e.g., “12:10” and blue). At this time, this room will be safe from the Red Death.

When you draw evidence, immediately look at one of the two Red Death cards for the time slot shown on the card, and take note of the time and room (e.g., “12:30” and orange). At this time, this room will be plagued by the Red Death; avoid it at all costs. You may only look at the Red Death card once, and then you must discard the Evidence card to a shared face-up pile.

The Popularity TrackPopularity trackers cannot occupy the same space on the Popularity track. When moving a Popularity tracker forward or backward on the Popularity track, count only the open spaces, ignoring any spaces occupied by another Noble’s Popularity tracker.

If you move past 40 on the Popularity track, place a Movement tile from the supply beneath your Popularity tracker to show that you are on your second lap. Likewise, if your Popularity tracker moves backwards, to 40 or below, remove the Movement tile.

12:00

Immediately look at 1 R E D DEAT H card for the time

shown, then discard this card.

12:30

GOSSIP RUMOR CARDS

Rumor Cards

Time

Room Icon

Effect Text

EVIDENCE RUMOR CARDS

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Variant Game ModesIf you’re looking for a greater challenge, you can make the Red Death even more difficult to survive.

During setup, place 3 Rumor cards (instead of 2) on each time slot along the bottom of the Abbey board. Doing this means fewer Rumor cards will be available to the players, and the Red Death will visit 3 rooms (instead of 2) during each time slot after midnight!

Archbishop Animus shares a space with the Prince at the beginning of the round, meaning he gains 1 popularity. Since Baroness Lethargy occupies the next space on the

track, he skips over her Popularity tracker in the 8 space to place his Populartiy tracker on the 9 space

on the Popularity track.

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he “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the

redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince’s own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could

take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.”

It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different; as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with

T

Masque of the Red Deathby Edgar Allan Poe

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the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet—a deep blood color. Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.

It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company;

and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of sixty minutes (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies), there came yet another chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as before.

But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not.

He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fête; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm—much of what has been since seen in “Hernani.” There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these—the dreams—writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen

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as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted windows through which stream the rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.

But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus, too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.

In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even

the prince’s indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood—and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.

When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which, with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its rôle, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.

“Who dares?”—he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him—”who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!”

It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.

It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and stately step, made closer approach to the

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speaker. But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince’s person; and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the purple—through the purple to the green—through the green to the orange—through this again to the white—and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when the latter, having

attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry—and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

Game Designer: Adam Wyse

Graphic Designer: Sam Barlin

Art Direction: Sam Barlin

Box Illustration: Gris Grimly

Interior Artwork: Gris Grimly

Editing: Jerry Bennington, Spencer Reeve, Kyle Merkley, and Joshua Yearsley

Product Development: Jerry Bennington, Nate Murray, and Spencer Reeve

Product Management: Shauna Monteforte

Playtesters: Chelsea Birch-Wyse, Paula Wyse, Matt Hakkola, Aydan Wyse, Nate Murray, Brent Lloyd, Paul Saxberg, Orin Bishop, Joe McDaid, Tom Sarsons, Melissa Anderson, Tim Weber, Matt and Sabrina Wyse, Ed and Myrna Wyse, Sue and Duff Jolly, Amber and Tammy Hogan, Andy and Doreen and Alex McMillan, Jennifer and Sebastian and Jarid Dusenbury, Jason Neil, Tom and Jenny Wilson, Nick and Christine Hutniak

Special Thanks To: Ted Adams, Greg Goldstein, Chris Ryall, and Robbie Robbins

© 2018 Idea and Design Works, LLC. All Rights Reserved. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. 2765 Truxtun Road, San Diego, CA 92106.

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