Ghosts, ghosts, treasure hunter!

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Ghosts, ghosts, treasure hunter!
Game data
author Brian Yu
graphic Pierô
publishing company Mattel Games
Publishing year 2013
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 30-45 minutes
Age from 8 years

Awards

Ghosts, ghosts, treasure hunter! (Original English title: Ghost Fightin 'Treasure Hunters ) is a cooperative children and family game by the American game designer Brian Yu . The game for two to four players, ages eight and up, takes around 30–45 minutes per round. It was published by Mattel Games in 2013 and won the Children's Game of the Year award in 2014.

Theme and equipment

The game is about a treasure hunt of several treasure hunters who are looking for hidden gems in an old house. Since the house is haunted, players are constantly faced with ghosts to face.

In addition to the instructions, the contents of the game box consist of:

  • a game board with the floor plan of the haunted house. The house consists of a total of 12 rooms, fully alphabetized from A to L, and the corridors connecting them.
  • four pawns
  • six ghost figures
  • 24 ghosts
  • 19 cards
  • a cube
  • two special cubes
  • 8 treasure tokens

The rules of the game describe instructions for a basic game as well as an advanced game.

Style of play

Before the game, the game board and other game material are prepared. Each player chooses a pawn and places it in front of the entrance door. A ghost figure is placed in each of the rooms with the letters C, F, I and L; a treasure jewel is placed in all rooms marked in red (the numbering is ignored for the basic game). For the basic game, all cards with the designations "Draw 2 + Shuffle", "Draw 3 + Shuffle", "Blue Doors Closed" and "Green Doors Closed" are removed, the rest of the cards are shuffled and placed face down on the corresponding space outside the House.

Base game

The players play in turn and are allowed to perform various actions that must take place in a fixed order. First, the player rolls the number die. The die is used to determine how many spaces the player's pawn may be placed and whether a new ghost figure must be placed in a room. If the die next to the number shows a ghost symbol (from 1 to 5), the player draws the top ghost card from the deck and turns it face up onto the discard pile. If the card shows a letter, a ghost figure is placed in the corresponding room; with a "SHIP" card, the deck of cards is shuffled with the discard pile and no ghost is placed. Then the player moves his pawn forward by a maximum of the specified number of spaces, whereby he can let excess eyes expire. The house must always be entered through the front door and you can only move between rooms by using the room doors or the hallway. Only one figure may stand on a corridor space and the figures located there may be skipped, several figures can be in a room. The player can choose to stand still, but still has to roll the dice and, if necessary, draw a card. The turn always ends when the player collects treasure jewels, lays treasure jewels or fights ghosts.

If a player's turn ends in a room with a treasure, he can pick it up and place it in the character's backpack. If there is also a ghost in this room, it must be fought, whereby the jewel remains in the backpack. Ghosts are fought with the symbol die. A player takes one or, if there is more than one player in the room, two symbol dice and throws them. If he throws a ghost symbol, a ghost is defeated and removed from the room. If he does not roll a ghost symbol, the ghosts stop and the player can try again in the next round or leave the room without attacking again. If there are three ghosts in a room, it begins to haunt there and the three ghost figures are replaced by a ghost figure; if another ghost figure is to be placed in the room in a subsequent round, it is placed in the next room alphabetically. If 6 rooms are affected by the ghost, the game ends and the players have lost. If a pawn with a treasure jewel is in a haunted room, it cannot leave it as long as the haunted room is present. A ghost can only be resolved if it is fought by two other players in the same room. If there are two pawns in the room, one player rolls both symbol dice; if he throws at least one spooky symbol, the spook is removed from the board.

To win the game, players must get all 8 treasure jewels out of the house and be outside the house themselves before the 6 rooms are haunted. If you can do this, you have won the game together. If you do not succeed before there are six ghost figures on the field, you have lost. The players also lose if all of the game figures are alone in a haunted room with a treasure in their backpack and thus cannot support each other in fighting the haunted figures because they are not allowed to leave the respective room.

Rules for advanced users

The rules for advanced players differ from those of the basic game mainly in a few additional rules that make the treasure hunt more complex. In the variant, all cards are used, including the cards labeled “Draw 2 + Shuffle”, “Draw 3 + Shuffle”, “Blue Doors Locked” and “Green Doors Locked”. The treasure jewels are also placed on the room with the number side down. The game itself is then played according to the base game.

If a player draws the cards "Draw 2 + Shuffle" or "Draw 3 + Shuffle", he must draw more cards before he reshuffles the pile and distribute the number of ghosts as he moves. Further "shuffle" cards are ignored, but another card is drawn. If the player draws a "doors locked" card, the corresponding doors on the playing field are locked and the pawns are no longer allowed to use them. Only doors of one color may be locked at the same time. The doors only open again when another "doors closed" card or a "shuffled" card is drawn.

While the treasure jewels are collected in any order in the basic game, they have to be found in numerical order in the advanced game. When a pawn comes into a room with a treasure, the player may turn it over to see its number. They can then be collected in any order, but must be taken out of the house in the correct order. The end of the game is the same as that of the base game.

Expenses and reception

The game ghosts, ghosts, treasure hunter! won the Children's Game of the Year award in 2014 . The jury for Children's Game of the Year describes the game with the words: “The basic game inspires elementary school children. The whole family will be excited about the advanced version. ”The discussion was based on the age recommendation. Like the 2014 Game of the Year , Camel Up , will be Ghosts, Ghosts, Treasure Hunter! awarded as a game for children from 8 years of age and is therefore too complex for younger children between four and seven years, who are the core target group of the children's game of the year. The jury later justified its vote by stating that it reserves the right to “think outside the box and consider both good games for the youngest and recommended games for everyone who has outgrown the age group for classic children's games, for classic family games but are still too young. ”She also differentiates:

“The children's game of the year 2014 'Ghosts, Ghosts, Treasure Hunters' is a children's game that adults also like to play. In contrast to the classic family game, however, it is not suitable for pure adult games.
The game of the year 2014 'Camel up', on the other hand, is a family game in which children also like to play, but which is still too much for them in pure children's groups. "

- Jury for children's game of the year 2014

The award came as a surprise, especially for Mattel, and the suddenly great media interest in Germany meant that the game, which was produced entirely in the United States, was sold out very quickly and there were bottlenecks in retail in the next few months.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g game instructions ghosts, ghosts, treasure hunters!
  2. ↑ a b Ghosts, Ghosts, Treasurer! on the jury 's website for Children's Play of the Year ; accessed on December 16, 2016
  3. ↑ a b c Sabine Koppelberg: "Nachgekartet": Thoughts on the children's game of 2014 , April 10, 2015

Web links