From the Desk of Donovan Raidor
From the Desk of Donovan Raidor
The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa is a mind game for a large group of people. At least one copy of Hasbro's miniatures-based strategy game Heroscape is required to play. The 'backstory' and characters in The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa are based within the Valhallan realm from Heroscape, but the game system and vast majority of components are not used at all (only the army cards, red wound markers, glyphs, and one black 'round' marker are needed). Six players are an absolute minimum, but ten or more players are best. With just 1 Heroscape Master Set, you will only be able to support 8 players maximum in a single game. With 1 additional Master Set (2 total) and at least 1 of each of the available Expansions for Heroscape, a single game of The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa can include up to 22 players. An even number of players is preferable, but not mandatory. People of all ages may play, but due to the logistic subtleties, The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa is most suited for players ages 10 and up. Based on a classic party game called 'Mafia' or 'Werewolf', The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa has a few minor mechanics changes and has had its content 'toned-down' to make it more suitable for younger players. The game is simple in form, but can become quite complex in execution, depending on the intelligence and enthusiasm of the players. Overall, the game plays out like a 'live-action murder-mystery', ...just with Valhallan Warriors and Mindshackled Puppets. The rules below are an adaptation of those for Curse of the Wolfen, which were in turn compilations of materials from several different sources online. I make no claims as to the creative originality of this material, in whole or in part. The majority of what follows is paraphrased from the English translation of the rules for 'Lupus in Tabula', a version of the original 'Werewolf' game currently available commercially from daVinci/Mayfair Games. Enjoy.
(Click here for more information about the online games at www.heroscapers.com)
| Prologue | First Night | Summoning |
| Materials | Days | Winning & Cheating |
| Goal & Setup | Other Nights | Scoring |
| Game Basics | Paralyzed | Night Chart |
There are two factions in The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa, the Valhallan Warriors and the Mindshackled Puppets. The Mindshackled are trying to paralyze all the Warriors one-by-one during the Night, while the Warriors seek to find and neutralize the Mindshackled hiding among them during the Day. One of the Warriors has special visions to assist him, but the Mindshackled are cunning and leave no clues to their identities. Naturally, only one faction will prevail.
SETUP
Assemble a group of players and seat them around a table or open playing area on the floor. Give each player one wound marker, to keep until it is needed. Next, create a pool of Glyphs that will be used to assign the players their roles. The Glyphs that make up the pool depend upon the number of players in the game, as detailed above. The pool should always include 1 Glyph of Mitonsoul and 1 Glyph of Dagmar. With 6 players, there is only 1 Glyph of Brandar. For 7-12 players, add a second Glyph of Brandar. With 13-18 players, include a third Glyph of Brandar, and for 19 or more players, add the final Glyph of Brandar as well. Any other random Glyphs (besides Mitonsoul, Dagmar, and Brandar) should then be added to the pool until the total number of Glyphs is equal to the total number of players.
If any player volunteers to be the Storyteller, remove the Glyph of Mitonsoul from the pool and give it to that player (disputes may be settled with a friendly game of Rock-Scissors-Paper). Otherwise, flip all the Glyphs face down, shuffle them around, and allow each player to draw a single Glyph randomly. Whoever received the Glyph of Mitonsoul becomes the Storyteller, and reveals his role immediately, placing his Glyph face-up in the play area. The rest of the players should each secretly look at their own Glyph, but must not reveal it to anyone until the game is over. Maintaining the secrecy of the players' roles is critical to the success of the game! A player who receives a Glyph of Brandar will assume the role of a Mindshackled Puppet for this game. All of the other players will be the Valhallan Warriors. The Warrior who drew the Glyph of Dagmar is a Visionary, and will receive psychic visions each night that may help him discover the identities of the Mindshackled.
After the secret roles have been distributed, each player is given a character identity. The Storyteller's character is the elderly Kyrie captive described in the introduction story, and he will be the first unfortunate victim of the mind-numbing Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa. Each of the other players will assume the identity of one of the characters from Heroscape, as determined by the army cards. The Storyteller will shuffle the stack of army cards, then deal out one card at random to each player other than himself. These characters are the members of Ullar and Jandar's forces that were trapped in the cave when Ne-Gok-Sa's trap was sprung. Players may (but are not required to) role-play their character during the course of the game to add depth to the player interactions. For example, a player dealt the Johnny 'Shotgun' card might speak in a Southern drawl or pretend to dust off his cowboy hat often, while the recipient of a Venoc Viper card might only use gestures, pantomimes, and hissing noises to communicate, etc. (If desired, one Heroscape figure representative of each army card may be given to each corresponding player as a visual aid.) Though the character identities are public knowledge (everyone in the cave can plainly see which characters are trapped with them), each player's secret role is not. Only the Mindshackled know who they are, and who is still loyal to Jandar's cause. The Mindshackled are the wolves is sheep's clothing…
Each turn of the game is divided in two cyclic stages: a Night followed by a Day. At Night the Mindshackled paralyze one player of their choice. During the Daytime, all of the players debate about which one of them is most likely a Mindshackled, then that player is rendered unconscious with the Wellspring water. One of the Warriors (the Visionary) has Nightly visions that may or may not help him discover the Mindshackled, but he must use this information carefully, as openly claiming to be a Visionary will surely make him the next victim of the Mindshackled...
* The Storyteller
The Storyteller does not belong to either the Warrior or Mindshackled faction; he is a neutral observer who manages the flow of the game. The Storyteller's character is the Kyrie captive from the prologue, and will be automatically Paralyzed during the first Night stage of the game. For the remainder of the game, he will oversee the various phases of each Day and Night stage, enforce the rules of play, arbitrate any minor disputes that might arise, and announce when the game has ended and which side has won. The Storyteller may take notes about the players' roles for his own personal use if desired, but any such notes should be kept concealed from the players at all times, so that no identities are compromised.
* A Note on Gender
Throughout these rules, all players are assumed to be male for the sake of simplicity, and thus referred to with the masculine pronouns 'he', 'his', and 'him'. If there are female players in the game, the Storyteller should take extra care to avoid giving away anyone's identity by accidentally using gender-specific terms. When referencing the players' secret roles, the Storyteller should always use the specific role titles like 'Visionary' or 'Mindshackled' instead of pronouns like 'she' or 'him'.
* Nights and Sleeping
At Night, all players except the Storyteller 'fall asleep' by bowing their heads and closing their eyes. During the Night, as the Storyteller announces each phase by role title, the corresponding player(s) will 'awaken', lift their heads and open their eyes, then interact silently with the Storyteller as appropriate for their role(s). The Storyteller will then send those players back 'to sleep' before calling on the next phase of the Night and the next player(s). In this way, players will be able to communicate their choices or intentions to the Storyteller secretly, without any of the other players learning their identities. It is very important for the players who are currently 'awake' to be absolutely silent, so as not to give away their identities. To help maintain secrecy during the Night, players should each make a 'Night Noise': some low-level background interference that will cover up any accidental sounds made by the other players. Examples of Night Noise include lightly patting the table, humming softly, tapping a foot on the floor, etc. Night Noise should be loud enough to prevent the sleeping players from hearing the movements or gestures of the players who are awake and interacting with the Storyteller, but soft enough that the Storyteller's instructions can still be clearly heard by all. Also, players should be careful not to stop their 'Night Noise' when it is their turn to wake up for the Storyteller. If you're the only one at the table humming "Bridge on the River Kwai", and someone notices that the humming stops when the Storyteller awakens the Mindshackled, you might not make it through the next Day without a sip from the Wellspring…
The first Night of the game is slightly different than all of the subsequent Nights. During the first Night, the Storyteller is simply finding out which players have which roles. After the players have memorized their roles, all of them will fall asleep. The Storyteller may read the prologue story to the players at this time, if he desires. The Storyteller will then call aloud each of the various roles in the game, one at a time, and the appropriate player(s) will awaken to make eye-contact with the Storyteller, then go back to sleep. For example, the Storyteller will say aloud, "Visionary, awaken. Open your eyes and find me." After the Visionary opens his eyes and the Storyteller knows who he is, the Storyteller will say, "Visionary, go back to sleep." The Storyteller will then call upon the Mindshackled, saying, "Mindshackled, Awaken. Open your eyes and look around to find each other and me." Once he knows who the Mindshackled are, and they have all seen each other, he will say, "Mindshackled, go back to sleep." The Storyteller will then know all of the players' roles and be able to properly arbitrate the game. Note that the Storyteller will never call upon the normal Warriors to awaken at Night, as they have no special powers to use.
After all of the Nighttime activities are concluded, the Storyteller announces that it is Day, and asks everyone to awaken. All players open their eyes. The Storyteller informs the players that one of them was paralyzed during the previous Night, and points to that player, who immediately becomes Paralyzed (see below). (On the very first Day, it will be the Storyteller's character that is found in a mental stupor, but for each dawn following, it will be the player chosen by the Mindshackled that Night.) The remaining players must now choose someone they suspect is a brain-numbing Mindshackled, then incapacitate him with the Wellspring water. Players should talk among themselves in order to attempt to identify the Mindshackled. Though there are no restrictions on what may be said by the players (truth, misdirection, lies...), remember that players may not actually reveal their Glyphs to anyone. The Mindshackled will obviously try to throw suspicion on the Warriors (especially anyone they think is the Visionary). The Visionary will try to incriminate any Mindshackled he's discovered, without revealing his identity and making himself the most likely victim of the Mindshackled in the coming Night. The only information the Warriors have is what other players say and who becomes Paralyzed. Accusing someone of being Mindshackled is suspicious. Not accusing anyone is also suspicious. Agreeing with another player a lot is suspicious, and therefore so is pretending not to agree with another player. Never voting to incapacitate a particular player is very suspicious for both of them. It is important that the Storyteller not speak outside his official capacity, even to correct a blatant misstatement about a matter of record, lest he inadvertently divulge information about someone's identity. It us up to the players to decide who is Mindshackled, without the aid of the Storyteller.
* Voting
The Storyteller should limit the wild speculation to about 1 minute per 'conscious' (non-Paralyzed) player. After this time has elapsed, the Storyteller informs the players that discussions are over for the Day. Players then begin casting their votes for who should receive a dose of the Wellspring water. Starting with the player sitting to the right of the last player Paralyzed, each player in clockwise order gives his wound marker to the player he believes should be given the water. Players may vote for themselves if they wish, but they must give their wound marker to someone (nobody may 'abstain'). After all players have cast their votes, the player with the most wound markers immediately becomes Paralyzed (see below), but may still not reveal his Glyph. If the vote is a tie, each of the tied players may defend themselves with a brief speech, less than one minute long. The voting should then be repeated a second time. If this second vote is still a tie, the Storyteller must break the tie by placing one black 'round' marker into a hat, bag, cup, or other convenient receptacle, along with enough red wound markers to equal the number of tied players. The tied players should then each blindly draw one marker from the cup. The player who draws the black marker is Paralyzed.
When voting is concluded, the Day is over. The Storyteller asks all players to go to sleep, and the next Night stage begins. Each Night after the first is conducted according to a set sequence, with the different players awakening to interact with the Storyteller when their roles are announced. (A Night Sequence Chart with a summary of these phases in proper order follows these rules.) The Storyteller will call upon and interact with the Visionary first, then the Mindshackled. The Visionary's role must be played every Night, even if the Visionary has already been Paralyzed. In order to not give away his identity, the Storyteller will simply call out the Visionary phase as usual, then end the phase after a brief pause, giving the remaining players reason to believe that the role is still in use. The Storyteller should be careful to always talk towards the center of the group at Night. If, for example, he turns to face the Visionary when he says "Visionary, awaken," the Mindshackled may detect the change in acoustics.
* The Visionary
Perhaps he is a latent telepath. Maybe his mind was somehow altered by the nearby Wellspring. Then again, it might just have been the chunk of debris that hit him in the head during the rockslide. Whatever the cause, this Warrior has been haunted by psychic visions since the cave-in. Once per Night, he has a vision about one other player of his choice and discovers if that player is a Mindshackled or a normal Warrior. Each Night after the first, the Storyteller announces the Visionary phase by saying, "Visionary, awaken. Open your eyes and choose your player." The Visionary may then quietly point to any other player of his choice, Paralyzed or not. The Storyteller will silently respond with a thumbs-up if the Visionary pointed at a Mindshackled or a thumbs-down otherwise. The Storyteller then calls the end of the Visionary phase with, "Visionary, go back to sleep," and continues with the Mindshackled phase of the Night.
* The Mindshackled
When the Storyteller calls the Mindshackled phase each Night (after the first) the Mindshackled awaken and quietly agree on one Warrior to Paralyze. It is critical that they remain silent during their deliberations, so as not to give themselves away. Any sign language is acceptable, including pointing, nodding, raising eyebrows, and so on. The Mindshackled should try to reach a consensus quickly, usually in less than 1 minute per 'conscious' Mindshackled. When the Mindshackled have reached a decision, the Storyteller should also point at the player they have chosen so that the Mindshackled may nod in confirmation. If the Mindshackled are unable to reach a unanimous agreement on who is to be Paralyzed within the time allotted, then the Storyteller must randomly select a non-Mindshackled player to become Paralyzed, by any method of his choice. Once the Mindshackled victim has been confirmed by the Storyteller, the Mindshackled will be sent back to sleep and the Night is over. The Storyteller then awakens all the players and announces that the player chosen by the Mindshackled has entered a trance while they slept. That player immediately becomes Paralyzed and gives his wound marker to the Storyteller (see below). It is now Day, and the entire cycle begins again.
In The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa, Paralyzed players are still a part of the game. Any player who has been targeted by the Mindshackled or given Wellspring water after a Day vote becomes Paralyzed. His wound marker is given to the storyteller for the rest of the game. During the following Days (but not Nights), a Paralyzed can freely talk and try to actively persuade other players in any way. This represents the 'mindless babbling' these Warriors spew while their body lies rigid and useless (and it's a great way to keep players active in the game even after their characters have been stupefied). Note that a Paralyzed player may not participate in the voting process during the Day (they no longer have wound markers to use as votes). At Night, Paralyzed players close their eyes just like all the other players, and they do not have any special abilities, regardless of the role they had while they were still conscious (even if they were Mindshackled). Remember that even though they are not 'active', Paralyzed players must still keep their true identities a secret. Any Paralyzed player who shows another player his Glyph before the end of the game is immediately removed from the game, just as if he had been Summoned (see below).
Players can make any kind of claims they wish about their true roles (from honest truths to bald-faced lies), but a player who actually reveals his Glyph to anyone (other than the Storyteller) may no longer participate in the game. Their 'character' will vanish instantly from the cave, as if they had been magically Summoned away by their commanding General. If a character is Summoned, it always brings an abrupt end to the current phase of the game. Any Summonings during the Day immediately end that Day, without any further discussion or voting. Likewise, any Summonings at Night bring an end to that Night and dawn occurs immediately, without further use of any special powers or any Paralysis taking place (even if a victim had already been chosen). Players who get themselves Summoned do not become Paralyzed; they are whisked completely out of the game. They may no longer talk, comment, vote, or otherwise participate in the game in any way. While it is a legal game option, getting Summoned is strongly discouraged, as that player is basically removing himself from the game entirely.
The Day and Night cycles continue until one of two victory conditions is met. If the last Mindshackled is Paralyzed, the Storyteller immediately announces that the game has ended and the Warriors have won. On the other hand, if the Mindshackled have Paralyzed (or cause to be Paralyzed through voting) enough Warriors so that their numbers are equal (for example: 2 Mindshackled and 2 Warriors still conscious, or 3 and 3, or 1 and 1, etc.), then the Storyteller calls the end of the game with a victory for the Mindshackled (as they would now be able to overwhelm the Warriors openly). Note that factions always win as a team. If the Warrior faction wins, then all of the Warriors have won, including those whose characters were Paralyzed. If the Mindshackled faction wins, then the whole Mindshackled group wins, even any Paralyzed ones. Once the game is over, all the players may finally reveal their Glyphs and congratulate the winners on their outstanding performances (or unbelievable luck).
CHEATING
Though it as an abominable concept, this note should be made for the official record. Cheating is WRONG. It takes all the fun out of the game. A focal concept of this game is secrecy, and any deliberate attempts by players to learn information that they should not know is ILLEGAL. For this reason, anyone caught by the Storyteller attempting to peek at other players' activities during the Night, or steal a glance at other players' Glyphs, will be considered to have been Summoned, and will be immediately removed from the game (...and ideally the room and the building, if not the city in question...). That said, the occasional player or Storyteller error is an unavoidable fact of life. If the Storyteller accidentally reveals someone's identity, or a player mistakenly awakens during the wrong phase at Night, the players should try to minimize the damage done and continue the game if possible, or if the game is spoiled, simply toss in their Glyphs and army cards and re-deal a new game.
In a situation where several games will be played over the course of one sitting, or where a regular group of players meets often to play The Curse of Ne-Gok-Sa, the following scoring system may be used to determine an overall winner and/or individual standings within a league. After each game is concluded, 3 points are given to each player in the winning faction, 1 point is given to each player in the losing faction, and 2 points are given to the Storyteller. Players who are Summoned receive no points. In addition to this basic score, a total of 2 bonus points are awarded by the players themselves; 1 to the player in the group who best acted out and/or role-played the character identity on his army card, and the other 1 to the player in the group who made the game the most fun. After everyone's Glyphs have been revealed and everyone has had a good laugh, these bonus points are disbursed as follows. Each player should give his army card to the single player he thinks acted the most 'in-character', then give his Glyph to the player that he feels contributed the most to making the game enjoyable. This process is obviously a subjective matter of personal opinion, and is not really open to debate or discussion. A player may give his Glyph and/or card to anyone he chooses, even the Storyteller or himself (though giving a card or Glyph to oneself is considered poor form), or he may choose not to hand out his card and/or Glyph at all. Once all players have given away their cards and Glyphs (or opted not to do so), the player with the most army cards gets 1 bonus point for being the best role-player, and the player with the most Glyphs gets 1 point for adding the most enjoyment to the game. Both bonus points may be given to the same player if he has the most army cards and the most Glyphs. In the case of a tie in one or both categories, each player in the tie receives a full bonus point. At the end of the gaming session, the player with the most campaign points is considered the winner. For standings in a regular league, each individual's ranking should be determined by his total points divided by the total number of games he has played.
Night Sequence Chart
First Night (Setup) The Storyteller should call upon and identify the players' roles, as follows:
The cave-in is over and the dust has settled; it is Day. Everyone, awaken and discover that I am Paralyzed.Subsequent Nights The Storyteller should conduct the players' phases in this order:
The Night is over; the sun is rising. Everyone, awaken and see whom the Mindshackled have Paralyzed.
(Click here for more information about the online games at www.heroscapers.com)