Game Play

SUMMARY
In Idle Hands, each player is a demon, assigned by Hell to lure mortals into damnation. They accomplish this by tempting their victims into committing each of the seven deadly sins--avarice, envy, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath. The more heinous the sin, the more credit the tempter reaps when it comes time to promote new Demon Lords.

The deck has 96 cards: a 42-card Hand set, a 42-card Deck set, and a 12-card Victim set. The Hand and Deck sets each have six cards of each sin; the Victim set has 12 unique victims. Before playing, the three sets should be separated and shuffled.

THE BASIC GAME
The Victim set is not used in the Basic game. Before play begins, deal out the Hand set equally among the players. If there are 4,5 or 8 players, remove two cards from the Hand set and two cards from the Deck set before dealing, and place them face-up on the table.

The most evil player, as chosen by player consensus, begins the game, and play proceeds counter-clockwise from her. On his turn, each player plays one card from his hand onto an existing pile of cards, and then draws a card from the Deck set, immediately playing it onto an existing pile. If you cannot play onto an existing pile, you may start a new pile. You may not play a card onto a pile which already has a card of the same sin. When a player plays the seventh sin onto a pile, she takes that pile and earns a point. When a total of ten piles has been taken, the player with the most points wins.

THE INTERMEDIATE GAME
The Intermediate Game is played like the Basic Game, except that the value of individual sins comes into play. Each sin has a value equal to the number in the upper left-hand corner. These values range from 3 to 12. Each pile taken is worth the sum of the values of its composite sins. Thus, a player who wins a particularly valuable pile may win over a player who wins more less valuable piles.

THE ADVANCED GAME
The Advanced Game introduces the Victim set. Victims serve as bases for piles; they add a face to the souls you are condemning. At the beginning of the game, four Victims are dealt face-up on the table. If there are 4, 5, or 8 players, each Victim gets one sin at the beginning of play. When a player cannot play a card on any Victim currently in play, a new Victim is dealt.

Some Victims have multipliers for certain sins, affecting the value of cards played on them. This represents the value that Hell places on certain exploits--i.e., tempting a soldier into wrath isn't much of an achievement, but tempting him into gluttony shows that you have the imagination to go far. When you count up the values of each pile at game end, multiply each sin's value accordingly.

OPTIONAL RULES
More Victims: You can use the Victim set in the Basic and Intermediate games for more flavor--it's always more fun to damn the Judge than to damn a faceless heap of cards. However, in the Basic and Intermediate games, Victim cards have no game-mechanical effect.

Demonic Specialties: Each player selects a sin to specialize in at the beginning of the game, before cards are dealt. Throughout the game, if a player doesn't like a Deck card she's drawn, she may instead play a Hand card of her specialty sin and bring the Deck card into her hand.

CREDITS
Game Designer: Michael Wilson (cucullin19@hotmail.com)
Art Director: Jason Wiener (jwiener@madwomb.com)
Production Consultant: Jen Davis
Playtesters: Steve Andreadis, Alex Court, Adam Lee, Mike Moss, Noah Nelson, Susannah Paletz, Martin Reames, Anthony Robinson, Michelle Wolfson, Julian Yap
Special Thanks to Maureen O'Sullivan