Assignment 2
The Rules

Introduction

This assignment is a simplified version of the game The Fury of Dracula. The game involves the arch-vampire Dracula, four intrepid vampire hunters and the splendid cities of Victorian Europe. The aim for Dracula is to evade the hunters for long enough to realise his Grand Plan - to release hordes of vampires all over Europe, while the aim for the hunters is to kill Dracula before he can do so.

How the game works

Overview

Dracula and the hunters move around the cities and seas of Europe. Every time a hunter moves into the same city as Dracula and survives his traps, they have an encounter and Dracula loses some blood.

Dracula knows where the hunters are, but the hunters do not know where Dracula is. But he does leave clues… for if a hunter enters a city where Dracula has been in any of the last 6 rounds, the hunter discovers traces of his passing and can deduce precisely when he was there. For this reason, Dracula’s last 6 moves are called his trail.

The hunters work as a team, spreading out and hunting for Dracula. At the start of the game they have a score of 366 points, and for each round that passes the score slowly diminishes. The hunters need to kill Dracula before their score is reduced to an embarrassingly small number.

More details

Dracula’s primary goal is to evade the hunters, and thus avoid being staked. However, Dracula also leaves behind nasty surprises (traps and immature vampires) in every city he visits.

Traps are slightly harmful things like wolves, or mysterious sugar bowls, or sinister pot plants. Sometimes traps are called “minions” (not be confused with these). When a hunter encounters a trap, the hunter loses 2 life points.

On the first round and every 13 rounds after that, if Dracula is in a city, he leaves behind a new immature vampire, instead of a trap. After 6 rounds the vampire matures; it wakes up and flies away to wreak havoc, and the game score is reduced by 13 points. However, if any hunter can get to the city where the vampire is sleeping before it matures, they can stake it (and make the world a nicer place to live).

Note that Dracula places a trap/vampire as soon as he enters a city (i.e. as his action — see below), not when he leaves the city.

If a hunter loses all their life points, they are magically transported to the Hospital at St Joseph and St Mary, and the game score is reduced by 6 points. At the start of their next turn they are restored to full health. On the other hand, if Dracula loses all his blood, he is vanquished and the game is over.

Hunters can move by road, rail, or sea. Dracula can only move by road or sea; he hates trains. He isn’t all that keen on moving by water either, and every turn he spends at sea costs him 2 blood points.

Moving by road means moving from a city to another city via a single road segment. Moving by rail is less reliable - sometimes hunters can move along 3 rail segments at a time, sometimes just 1 or 2, and sometimes not at all!

Moving by sea is neat; you can rapidly travel a long way. Unfortunately, hunters can never encounter Dracula while they are at sea. Even if a hunter is in the same sea as Dracula, the two always pass each other unknowingly, like ships in the night. Furthermore, hunters are not able to discover whether the sea they are passing through is in Dracula’s trail or not. To balance this, hunters always know whether Dracula is in a city or at sea.

Poor Dracula

Dracula’s movement is much more constrained than the hunters’. In particular, he can't have two identical moves in his trail. This generally means he can’t revisit any city or sea that he has been to in his last 5 moves, except by making a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move:

• He may make a HIDE move and remain in the city he is currently in for a second turn. He cannot HIDE at sea. Dracula can only have one HIDE move in his trail at any time.

• He may make a DOUBLE_BACK move and revisit one city or sea in his trail, however whenever he makes a DOUBLE_BACK move the hunters know he has done so. Dracula can only have one DOUBLE_BACK move in his trail at any time.

Once a move has fallen off his trail (or is about to fall off his trail) he may make that move again (i.e. move back to that location) even if a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move to that location remains in the trail.

The rules of the game

Score

• The game score starts at 366 points.
• The game score decreases by 1 each time Dracula finishes his turn.
• The game score decreases by 6 each time a hunter loses all their life points and is teleported to the Hospital of St Joseph and St Mary.
• The game score decreases by 13 each time a vampire matures (i.e., falls off the trail).
• Dracula wants the score to be low; the hunters want the score to be high.
• The game will normally finish before the score reaches zero; however, if it ever reaches 0 we say that Dracula has utterly won, the world is doomed, and we all look accusingly at the hunters…

Dracula

• Dracula starts with 40 blood points.
  • Dracula is permitted to exceed 40 blood points.
• Dracula loses 10 blood points each time he encounters a hunter.
• Dracula loses 2 blood points if he is at sea at the end of his turn (he hates water!)
• Dracula regains 10 blood points if he is in Castle Dracula at the end of his turn (even if he has been automagically teleported there; see Dracula’s Turn below).
• When Dracula has no blood points left, the game is over, and the game score at that time becomes the final score.

Hunters

• There are 4 hunters: Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Mina Harker.
• Each hunter starts with 9 life points.
  • Hunters cannot exceed 9 life points.
• A hunter loses 2 life points if they encounter a trap.
• A hunter loses 4 life points if they encounter Dracula.
• A hunter gains 3 life points each time they rest (i.e., if they end their turn in the same city or sea that they were in at the start of their turn and didn't attempt to move to another location).

Sequence of play

• In each round of the game, each of the 5 characters has their turn in the following sequence:
  1. Lord Godalming
  2. Dr. Seward
  3. Van Helsing
  4. Mina Harker
  5. Dracula
• Each character’s turn consists of a move and then (possibly) some action.
• In the first round, each character can move to whichever location they like, except that Dracula can never move to the Hospital of St Joseph and St Mary (too many crucifixes).
• The game finishes if, at the end of any turn, Dracula has 0 blood points (or less), or the game score is 0 points (or less).

Hunter’s turn

Hunter’s move

There are four kinds of moves a hunter can make:

• Road move: A hunter can move from a city to any adjacent city by road.
• Sea move: A hunter can move from a port city to an adjacent sea, from a sea to an adjacent sea, or from a sea to an adjacent port city.
• Rail move: A hunter can move from a city to another city via a limited number of rail links. Each turn, the maximum allowed distance via rail is determined by the sum of the round number (0..366) and the hunter number (0..3):
  • sum mod 4 is 0: The hunter may not move by rail this turn.
  • sum mod 4 is 1: The maximum allowed distance via rail is 1.
  • sum mod 4 is 2: The maximum allowed distance via rail is 2.
  • sum mod 4 is 3: The maximum allowed distance via rail is 3.
  Note: When the rail move is to a non-adjacent city, the hunter does not actually enter the intermediate cities, so no encounters occur in those cities.
• Rest: A hunter can rest by staying at their current location.

Hunter’s action

At the start of the action phase of a hunter’s turn:

• If the hunter arrives in any city in Dracula’s trail, then…
  • All hunters can see which positions in the trail have moves that resulted in Dracula being in that city.
  • The hunter encounters, in sequence, each trap currently planted in that city, then any immature vampires, and finally Dracula himself if he is also in the city. Each of these events occurs in turn until either the hunter is reduced to 0 or fewer life points or all the encounters have occurred.
    • If a trap is encountered, the hunter loses 2 life points and the trap is destroyed.
      • If there is more than one trap at a location the hunter encounters the traps one at a time until either the hunter is reduced to 0 or fewer life points, or until all the traps are encountered, whichever occurs first.
    • If an immature vampire is encountered, it is destroyed instantly with no effect to the hunter. (well done!)
    • If Dracula is encountered, he loses 10 blood points and the hunter loses 4 life points.
• As soon as a hunter is reduced to 0 or fewer life points, they are instantly teleported to the Hospital of St Joseph and St Mary, and can do nothing else for the remainder of their turn.
  • While in the hospital, they have zero life points
  • At the start of their next turn, their health is fully restored and they can move again.
  • The magical teleportation to the hospital does not show up in the game history; hunters will have to deduce that they are in the hospital.

At the end of the ACTION phase of a hunter’s turn:

• If the hunter is in the same city or sea that they were in at the start of their turn and they didn't attempt to move to another location, they are treated as resting, researching or recovering from combat. The hunter gains 3 life points by doing this (up to a maximum of 9 life points).

Dracula’s turn

Dracula’s move

• If the trail is already full (i.e. has 6 moves in it), then the oldest move in the trail is first removed from the trail.
  • When a move leaves the trail its corresponding encounter is treated as follows:
    • If it was a trap, it just vanishes without a trace (yay!)
    • If it was a vampire, it has matured (eek!)
• If there is no legal move possible for Dracula he teleports to Castle Dracula as his move.
• Each non-teleport move by Dracula is either a LOCATION, a HIDE, or a DOUBLE_BACK.
• If Dracula moves to Castle Dracula or to a city occupied by a hunter (via any means), his move is immediately revealed.
• Note that encounters only happen during hunters' turns, so if Dracula moves to a city occupied a hunter, no encounter occurs at this time.

LOCATION moves

• A LOCATION move is a move to a location that is adjacent to Dracula's current location by road or boat (not rail - Dracula never travels by rail).
• Dracula cannot make a LOCATION move to a location if he has already made a LOCATION move to that same location in the last 5 rounds.
• Dracula can never move to the Hospital of St Joseph and St Mary.

HIDE moves

• If Dracula makes a HIDE move, then he stays in the same city that he was in at the start of his turn.
• Dracula cannot make a HIDE move if he has made a HIDE move in the last 5 rounds.
• Dracula cannot make a HIDE move while he is at sea.

DOUBLE_BACK moves

• If Dracula makes a DOUBLE_BACK move, then he can move to a location adjacent to his current location that he has been to in the last 5 rounds.
• There are five possible DOUBLE_BACK moves:
  • DOUBLE_BACK_1 - Dracula moves to the location that he moved to last round (i.e., he stays at his current location)
  • DOUBLE_BACK_2 - Dracula moves to the location that he moved to 2 rounds ago, as long as that location is adjacent to (or the same as) his current location.
  • DOUBLE_BACK_3 - Dracula moves to the location that he moved to 3 rounds ago, as long as that location is adjacent to (or the same as) his current location.
  • DOUBLE_BACK_4 - Dracula moves to the location that he moved to 4 rounds ago, as long as that location is adjacent to (or the same as) his current location.
  • DOUBLE_BACK_5 - Dracula moves to the location that he moved to 5 rounds ago, as long as that location is adjacent to (or the same as) his current location.
• Dracula cannot make a DOUBLE_BACK move if he has already made a DOUBLE_BACK move in the last 5 rounds.

Dracula’s action

• Dracula’s current move is placed in his trail.
• If Dracula has moved to a sea, he loses two blood points.
• If he has moved to a city, he will place an encounter in that city if there are not already three encounters there.
  • An encounter is either an trap or an immature vampire.
  • If the round number is divisible by 13 (i.e., the round number is 0, 13, 26, or so on), Dracula places an immature vampire.
  • Otherwise, he places a trap.
  • Dracula cannot place an encounter at sea.
  • Due to the HIDE, DOUBLE_BACK and teleport moves, it is possible for Dracula to create two or more encounters in the same city.
• At the end of Dracula's turn, the game score is reduced by 1 point.

Special rules

Research

• If a hunter rests, and each of the other hunters have rested in their most recent turn, then we say they have been doing collaborative research, and the 6th move in Dracula’s trail is immediately revealed.
  • If this move is a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move, then the move that the HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK refers to will also be revealed, and so on until a LOCATION move is revealed. (See 'Revealing moves' in the Clarifications section below.)

HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK moves

• If a hunter enters a city, and a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move to that city is in Dracula's trail, then that move is revealed, and the move that the HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move refers to will also be revealed, and so on until a LOCATION move is revealed. (See 'Revealing moves' in the Clarifications section below.)
• If the hunters research a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK move, then the move that the HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK refers to will also be revealed, and so on until a LOCATION move is revealed. (See 'Revealing moves' in the Clarifications section below.)
• HIDE moves are revealed when they become the last move in Dracula's trail. However, unlike with research, the move that the HIDE move refers to is not revealed.

No more secrets

• The hunters can co-operate using messages to rid the world of Dracula as swiftly as possible. Sadly, Dracula gets to hear everything the hunters say to each other.

Extra rules

• Dracula cannot place an encounter in a city if there are already 3 encounters in that city.

Clarifications

Revealing moves

If a move in Dracula's trail is revealed via either research or a hunter moving to that location and the move was a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK, how does that work?

The move that the HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK refers to will also be revealed. If that move is also a HIDE or DOUBLE_BACK, the move that that refers to will also be revealed, and so on until a LOCATION move is revealed.

For example, suppose that Dracula made the following sequence of moves: Cadiz (CA), Granada (GR), Madrid (MA), Double Back 3 (D3), Lisbon (LS), Santander (SN), Saragossa (SR), and that the hunters have not yet visited any of these cities.

To the hunters, Dracula's move history would look like: City Unknown (C?), City Unknown (C?), City Unknown (C?), Double Back 3 (D3), City Unknown (C?), City Unknown (C?), City Unknown (C?). If a hunter then visited Cadiz, the Double Back 3 move would be revealed (which doesn't mean much as hunters know when Dracula performs a DOUBLE_BACK), but the initial move to Cadiz would also be revealed, since the Double Back 3 refers to the move to Cadiz. The hunters can then use this to deduce that Dracula was in Cadiz four moves ago.