The grimoire of madness

The grimoire of madness
Game data
author	Maxime Rambourg
graphic	Xavier Gueniffey Durin
publishing company	United States : IELLO , France : IELLO, Germany : Heidelberger Spieleverlag , IELLO, Spain : Devir , Bureau De Juegos Poland : Portal Games , Japan : Hobby Japan, Italy : uplay.it edizioni, Czech Republic : REXhry People's Republic of China : Broadway Toys LTD, Hungary : Reflexshop
Publishing year	2015
Art	Board game
Teammates	2 to 5
Duration	60 to 90 minutes
Age	from 12 years
Awards
Kennerspiel des Jahres 2017: Recommendation list

The Grimoire des Wahnsinns (original title: The Big Book of Madness ) is a cooperative board and card game by the French game designer Maxime Rambourg , which was published in 2015 by Iello in English and French. In 2016 it was published in German by Iello in Germany together with Heidelberger Spieleverlag . In the game, the players try to defeat monsters in the role of sorcerers' apprentices who want to escape from a magic book they have opened.

In 2017 the game was included on the recommendation list of the Kennerspiel des Jahres .

Theme and equipment

In The Grimoire of madness it is thematically about trying a group of sorcerer's apprentices to defeat monsters "from one of them opened against the transfer of their teachers spellbook, the Grimoire want of madness" escape. To do this, they have a number of basic spells linked to the four elements of water, air, fire and earth as well as energy from these sources at their disposal, which they can develop in the course of the game.

In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:

• a game board with a card tray for the magic book and the madness and curse cards as well as a round indicator
• 136 element cards, 34 of which per element are water, air, fire and earth with the values ​​1, 2 and 3,
• 35 madness cards,
• 48 curse cards,
• 56 magic cards, including 20 base spells and 36 library spells,
• 8 character sheets (4 different types, one male and one female),
• 17 Grimoire cards, including 4 book covers, 12 book pages and a last page,
• a marker for the active player,
• 16 element markers,
• a ritual marker in the form of a wooden book, and
• a round marker in the shape of a hat.

Style of play

The game takes place over 5 rounds, in each of which a new page of the magic book is opened and a new monster with new curses must be defeated and banned. A round always consists of several moves, which are given by the ritual marker as a timer. On the last page of the book you will find the strongest monster that must be defeated as the final boss in order to win the game.

All players have their own deck of cards in the form of a draw pile of element cards, to which more and more madness cards are added as the game progresses. Cards to be played and banished are drawn from your own deck and later placed in a separate discard pile. As soon as the deck is used up, a madness card is discarded from the supply and the entire deck is shuffled to form the new deck. In addition to the deck, each player has their own character sheet and a set of up to five spells that they can use using elements during their turn. The character sheet also offers three berths where element cards can be laid out, which all players can use on their turns.

Game preparation

At the beginning of the game, the game board is placed in the middle of the table. The curse cards are sorted by elements, then each type is shuffled individually and placed face down next to the board. The number of required madness cards, depending on the number of players, is counted and the cards are placed on the board. The element cards are also sorted according to elements and numbers, the 2 and 3 cards are placed in a total of eight open stacks next to the playing field. The magic book is compiled from the magic book cards. It consists of the last page, 5 randomly chosen middle pages and a book cover. The library spells are mixed according to elements and levels, then placed in ascending order from top to bottom on one pile per element and laid out, the top card is placed face up on the pile. The element markers are placed next to the playing field. The round marker is placed on the top line (round 1) of the chosen level of difficulty and the ritual marker is placed on the starting space of the ritual circle (ritual space ↺). Finally, a starting player is determined.

Each player chooses a character sheet and receives the 1 element cards indicated on the sheet as well as the four basic spells. The player places the four basic spells face up in front of him and shuffles the element cards to form a deck, which he places face down in front of him.

Game flow

Phases per turn Concentration phase Monster phase Action phase Regeneration phase

The game is played turn-based in clockwise order and begins with a starting player. Each turn consists of four phases in which the active player and the monster carry out their respective actions. The turn begins with the concentration phase , in which the active player refreshes all of the spells he used during the last turns and thus exhausted (and turned by 90 °).

Then the monster phase starts , in which time advances and the current monster acts. The ritual marker is moved forward one space and all effects of the new space and the corresponding curses (spaces 2 to 5) are applied. If the marker comes to the ritual field with the circle arrow ↺ (or is there in the first round), a check is made to see whether there are still curses on the field. If this is the case, each player suffers the damage described on the right side of the grimoires and the current monster escapes. Then all remaining curses are cleared and placed under the curse pile. When there is no more curse on display, the players have succeeded in defeating and banishing the current monster, and they each receive the reward advertised. Then the ritual marker is immediately placed on the next space (1) and a new monster is revealed by opening the next page of the book. All described arrival effects of this monster are performed and affect all players. The round marker is advanced by one space, since a new round starts with the new monster, and indicates how many additional new 4-element curses are placed on the board. Finally, the monster-specific curses are laid out.

In the action phase , the active player carries out all the actions available to him. With the help of his element and magic cards he can cast spells, learn new spells, gain additional element cards, banish curses and cure his own madness. He can carry out any number of actions and also individual actions multiple times, as long as he has enough element cards in hand or in the support zones of the other players to carry out. All element cards used are placed on the respective discard piles:

• In order to cast a spell that has not been exhausted, all costs are first paid in the form of element cards, then the described effect is carried out and the magic card rotated by 90 ° (exhausted). The effect of the spell can be increased by paying the element cost multiple times and casting the spell multiple times accordingly. Each spell, simple or enhanced, can only be cast once per turn and then remains exhausted until the player's next turn.
• To learn a new spell from the library, it must be face up on the respective pile. To get it, the player must discard two elements of the type of spell and can then place it in his play area. Each sorcerer's apprentice may have a maximum of 5 spells on display. If the number is exceeded, another spell must be removed from the game. A newly learned spell may be used immediately on the current turn.
• In order to gain a new element card, this can be purchased for the respective value with element cards. A 2 element card costs two, a 3 element card three elements of the corresponding type. The element cards used are removed from the game, the newly acquired cards are put on the discard pile and are only shuffled into the deck when you next shuffle.
• To dispel a curse, a player must discard the four elements shown on the curse from their hand or the support zones. If a curse is removed, it is removed from the field and the active player receives a 2-element card of his choice as a reward.
• To cure his own madness, the player must use any two element cards. With this he can cure a madness card from his hand or from any support zone and put it back on the madness pile.

The action phase is followed by the regeneration phase , in which the player has to reduce his hand cards to six cards by discarding them or increasing them by drawing them. When reducing, a player may not discard any madness cards, and if a player has six madness cards in hand at the end of his turn, he is eliminated from the game. After this phase the player marker is passed on to the next player.

Playing

The players win the game if they manage to leaf through the entire spellbook and in the end defeat and banish the last opponent. It does not matter whether individual monsters were able to escape on the previous rounds. You lose the game if

• a player would have to draw a madness card, but the madness deck is empty,
• all players have gone mad and eliminated or
• they fail to defeat the final monster.

variants

The game can be played in different degrees of difficulty and also in several variants. The normal game corresponds to the standard game according to the rules, in the Terror variant all players start with a madness card from the madness deck and in the nightmare variant all players replace their 2 element card in the starting deck with a 1 element card.

Expenses and reception

The game Das Grimoire des Wahnsinns was published in 2015 for the International Game Days in Essen by IELLO as The Big Book of Madness in an English and a French edition. In 2016, IELLO also published the game in Germany together with Heidelberger Spieleverlag in German. It was subsequently published internationally by various publishers in Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese and Chinese.

In 2017 the game was included on the recommendation list of the Kennerspiel des Jahres and commented by the jury as follows:

“You are sorcerers' apprentices at the Great Academy of the Elements. Your professor told you about the "Grimoire des Wahnsinns", a huge tome of mystical magic. At the same time, however, he warned you against ever opening this book. But as sorcerers' apprentices are like that, you did just that at the first opportunity. Now terrible monsters are pouring out of the book. You must capture them side by side without losing your mind. Can you achieve the common goal of this original deck building game? Certainly only if everyone pulls together and makes the best possible use of their abilities through the elements! And don't get overconfident even if you are successful, because the next level of difficulty is already waiting for you! "

- Jury game of the year

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Rules of the game for Das Grimoire des Wahnsinns at Heidelberger Spieleverlag (today Asmodee); accessed on August 18, 2018.
2. ↑ Versions of Das Grimoire des Wahnsinns in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on August 18, 2018.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Das Grimoire des Wahnsinns in the game database of the Spiel des Jahres eV; accessed on August 18, 2018.

Web links

• The grimoire of madness at Heidelberger Spieleverlag (today Asmodee )
• The Big Book of Madness at IELLO Games
• Das Grimoire des Wahnsinns (The Big Book of Madness) in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English)
• The grimoire of madness in the Luding games database