
4 game boards
9 village tiles
3 tao dice
1 special Tao die
1 curse Die
55 ghost cards
10 incarnation of Wu-Feng cards
20 tao tokens
20 Qi tokens
4 taoist figurines
4 Yin-Yang tokens
8 haunting figurines
2 Buddha figurines
1 marker for inactive Taos
1 enfeeblement mantra token
4 inactive Power tokens
3 neutral Power tokens
1 rulebook
2 play aids
1 sheet to record your games
The village is represented by nine tiles, each of which illustrates a
different area. Around that are placed the tiles for each player, where
the ghosts will appear on their starting locations.
The players, as a group, will have to exorcise the
specters which will appear as the game goes on, often faster than
expected... As at the beginning of his turn, a player brings a ghost
into play and places it on a free spot. And more than one can come in
at the same time. There are many types of specters which will need to
be sent back to hell more or less quickly, as some can haunt the
village and "destroy" tiles. If there's too many of them at a given
time, the players risk losing some of their life points (Ki points).
On his turn, a priest can move on a tile in order
to exorcise adjacent ghosts or to benefit from the power of the
villager living on the tile.
To exorcise, he must roll three dice (the Tao
dice) and end up with enough face up colors of the ghosts' color.
Thankfully, one of the dice's face is a wild color which can be used as
any color. To exorcise a black ghost of power 2, you need to roll three
black or white (the bonus color). The players also benefit from Tao
tokens which can pad out the dice roll. They gain these by entering
certain village tiles, by exorcising certain ghosts or thanks to their
special powers. When they are on the same tile, a priest can give Tao
tokens to another priest in order to help with his exorcism.
Each tile of the village allows the players to
benefit from a different bonus. The cemetary allows, for example, to
bring a dead priest back to life, while the herbalist allows to recover
spent Tao tokens, etc. It will also be possible to get traps or move
ghosts.
The priests have three or four Ki points
(depending on the difficulty level of the game). They also get a
Yin-Yang token they can spend in order to make two actions in a single
turn. Exorcising certain powerful ghosts allows to recover a spent
Yin-Yang or Tao tokens. The special powers available to the players
allow to recover Tao tokens, move more than one square or move another
player, to benefit from an extra Tao die, etc. They strengthen the
required collaboration by giving each priest a specialty.
To win, the players must defeat the incarnation of Wu-Feng,
a boss who arrives at the end of the game, once the players have been
worn out by the hordes of ghosts breaking in since the beginning of the
game. And if you decide to play on a harder difficulty mode, there will
be many incarnations, each more dangerous than the last.
The ways to lose are, of course, even more numerous. The players
lose if three of the village's tiles are destroyed, if the draw pile is
emptied while the incarnation of
Wu-Feng is still in play, or, simply, that all the priests are dead.