Ghost Stories

Centuries ago, countless lives were lost in the battle against Wu-Feng, Lord of the Nine Hells. Eventually Wu-Feng’s dark forces were defeated. His mortal body was cremated and locked in a sacred urn that was secretly buried beneath an unassuming village. Neverthless, Wu-Feng still commands terrible power, and after an age of searching, he has discovered the location of his ashes. An army of ghosts descends upon the village, and only a few selfless Taoist priests stand ready to protect the villagers and defend Wu-Feng’s ashes…

Ghost Stories is a cooperative board game that invites one to four players to become Taoist priests protecting a village and fighting back a tide of hungry ghosts. Wu-Feng calls upon all his power to recover his ashes, and only by fighting hordes of ghosts and defeating the incarnations of Wu-Feng himself can you safeguard the village. The Taoists lose the game if they are all killed, if the ghosts drive the villagers away, or if Wu-Feng arises and the Taoists fail to destroy him before time runs out! With four difficulty levels, unique powers for each of the Taoists, a massive variety of ghosts, and variable village setups, Ghost Stories challenges you in new ways every time.

The Dead Rise

A massive army of ghosts issues forth from the Nine Hells to destroy a peaceful village and bring Wu-Feng back to the realm of mortals. The Taoist priests are all that stands in the way of these malicious spirits, and even as you fight to keep the village safe, more ghosts arise with every passing moment.

At the beginning of every turn, you must draw the top card of the Ghost deck and put it into play. There are fifty-five Ghost cards in the deck and each ghost has unique strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. Some ghosts are Haunters, and their figures advance towards the village, haunting village tiles and pushing the Taoists closer to defeat. Other ghosts are Tormentors, which force you to roll the Curse die to disastrous effect. Still other ghosts feature even more uncanny abilities—they may prevent you from using special powers or prove immune to standard attacks.

Every ghost is dangerous, but you’ll need to defeat them if you want to win. Hidden near the bottom of the Ghost deck is an incarnation of Wu-Feng. You must destroy this incarnation to win the game, but before you can face Wu-Feng, you must fight your way through the all ghosts that stand in your way. What’s more, if the ghosts begin to overwhelm your defenses, you’ll quickly start losing Qi. A Taoist who loses all Qi is slain!

Turn Back the Darkness

In Ghost Stories, the village you must protect is composed of nine tiles, arranged in a three-by-three square randomly assembled at the beginning of each game. The ghosts approach from the borders of the village, but you can never be certain where new ghosts will appear. Immediately after you bring a new ghost into play at the beginning of your turn, you have the chance to move through this village and take your own actions to combat the forces of Wu-Feng.

You can move your Taoist to an adjacent tile and then either battle an adjacent ghost or ask the villagers on your current tile for assistance. Each building in the village offers unique aid for your fight against Wu-Feng’s ghosts. You may gain the help of Buddhist priests, whose prayers will weaken all ghosts of a certain type, or you may use the Pavilion of the Heavenly Winds to move a ghost and a Taoist to new spaces. The sorcerer may vanquish a ghost on your behalf, but she demands some of your Qi as his price. You might even visit the cemetery and raise a slain Taoist from the dead to join the fight once more.

The villagers can offer powerful help, but the onus of defeating the ghosts rests on you, the Taoist priests. You battle ghosts by rolling the Tao dice, but each ghost has a certain resistance to the powers of the Tao. You must roll the appropriate symbols on your Tao dice to defeat a ghost, and fortunately, you also have other tools to help you.

Each Taoist has two special powers, and at the beginning of the game, you’ll choose which power you want your Taoist to use. You may gain the strength of the mountain and roll additional Tao dice, or you might be able to fly across the village with a single move. In addition to special powers, every Taoist can collect a number of mystical components, including sticky rice, silver bells, incense sticks, and Taoist mirrors. With these, you can weaken a ghost’s resistance before you destroy it forever with the power of the Tao dice.

It’s Going to be a Long Night…

Ghosts are rising from the forested hills and rice paddies that surround the quiet village. As a Taoist priest, the protection of these citizens rests in your hands. Prepare your soul for battle and destroy the servants of Wu-Feng in Ghost Stories!

Contents

• Four game boards
• Nine village tiles
• Five custom dice
• 65 cards
• 53 tokens
• Fourteen plastic figurines
• Rules, player aids, and a sheet to record your results