Soulaween
"Soulaween" is the most bustling festival at Death School!
The name derives from a proverb of the school, "Soul to win", which means reaping souls to claim victory. Legend has it, that long ago at Death School there was an accident, causing souls to flee and disperse in chaos. The teachers and students took it as a race, competing the speed of recollecting souls, and solved the crisis of the realm of death. This year, Papa Death, Osiris, Hei & Bai Wuchang along with their trainees converge in "Soulaween", with Teacher Vulture as their judge, are ready to engage in the rival of "reaping souls"……!
Soulaween is a 2-player board game that features simple yet tricky rules and variable player powers. During the game, each player acts as a trainee of the death god, whose goal is to reap the fleeing souls by "putting" and "flipping" the soul pieces. Whoever gets 3 sets of souls becomes the winner of "Soulaween"!
Number of players: 2
Game duration: 9 mn
Complexity: 2 / 5
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Play Soulaween and 959 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
- In “Soulaween”, each player acts as a guide of souls or a trainee, whose goal is to reap souls that line up in a chain. In order to achieve that, one has to “Put” and “Flip” the Soul Pieces cleverly. Whoever reaps 3 sets of souls before the opponent does wins “Soulaween”!
- There are simple mode and standard mode to choose from. We suggest that first-timers try the simple mode first to get familiar with the game, before they play the standard mode.
Game Flow (Simple Mode)
- The game starts from whoever wears a sweater lately and proceeds in the following order:
1. Put: Take a Soul Piece from the supply and put it into an empty cell on the Mat. You can decide which side you’d like the Piece to face up.
2. Flip: Flip the Pieces that are adjacent (vertically and horizontally, but not diagonally) to the Piece you just put on the Mat.
3. Reap: After “Flip”, if there’s a chain of 4 Pieces with the same side facing up (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally), remove the chain from the Mat and return the 4 Pieces back to the supply, and take 1 Token 
as a mark of having reaped 1 set of souls.
Note 1: You can reap only 1 chain per turn. If there are more than 1 chain, such as 2 parallel chains or a cross, you have to choose 1 from them to reap, and leave the remaining Pieces on the Mat.
Note 2: You must reap the Pieces if there is a chain during your turn, no matter it’s made by you or not.
4. (Cleanup): At the end of your turn, if there’s no empty cell, remove all the Pieces of the same side as the Piece you put on that turn, and return them to the supply
- After the first Piece is put, players alternate turns, repeating the flow above and putting 1 Piece per turn. At the end of “Reap”, if you have 3 Tokens of Teacher Vulture, you win, and the game ends immediately.
Standard Mode
- The game flow of the standard mode is the same as the simple one, but it may vary because of the character’s abilities, which might change one’s rule of “Flip” or “Reap”, or even the victory condition. The following is a detailed explanation of each character’s ability:
- Little Death / Papa Death
You must collect 1 Token of each kind to win the game.
When 4 Pieces of the same side are facing up, ...
... forming a 2x2 square, take the Cloth Token 
... forming a tilted “L”, take the Scythe Token 
... forming a chain, take the Needle Token 
Note 1: You can have only 1 Token per kind. If the pattern you’ve reaped appears again, nothing happens.
Note 2: You can take only 1 Token per turn. When multiple patterns appear on the Mat, choose only 1 to reap.
- Anubis / Osiris
When you “Reap” a chain of Pieces, take 1 Anubis Token, and make its side the same as the Pieces you just collect face up. When your opponent tries to gain the next Token, in addition to following their character’s ability, they can only reap the Pieces that are of the same color as your Anubis Token.
Note 1: There can be only 1 restriction by this ability. If you collect 2 Tokens before your opponent collects any, they will only be restricted by the second Token you get.
Note 2: The restriction only applies to the next token your opponent tries to collect. Once they collects a Token, the restriction will be cancelled.
- Hei & Bai Wuchang
Before the game starts, you should decide which Wuchang you’d like to play at first, and rotate the card to make the active Wuchang appear standing upright.
During the game, every time when your turn ends, you must decide whether you’d like to rotate your character card to change the rule of your next “Flip”.
Hei Wuchang: Flip vertically and horizontally adjacent Pieces.
Bai Wuchang: Flip diagonally adjacent Pieces.
Note: Hei Wuchang wears a black and flat brimless hat, while Bai Wuchang wears a white cone hat.
Additional Information
- "Soulaween" is an abstract strategy board game published by Play With Us Design (玩聚設計). The story derives from a Taiwanese short animation "Deathigner". If you are interested in Soulaween, please feel free to follow us.
- Play With Us Design official Website: https://pwud.ga/
- Play With Us Design LinkTree：https://linktr.ee/PWUDesign
- Deathigner short animation: https://youtu.be/Mptpw8fQ-lw
