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Fury of Dracula: Players’ Guide

Dracula wanders the roads of Europe,

planting his Vampire minions, playing a game of

cat and mouse, attempting to seize victory on an

unsuspecting world. The only thing standing

between him and 6 points, is you, the Hunters.

This Players’ Guide is my attempt to aid the

hunters and to reduce the frustration that

Hunters often feel when playing against Dracula.

As in any game, players who know the rules

better, and have a deeper understanding of the

game have a great advantage. Too often it’s the

owner of the game, the one who knows the rules

best, who ends up playing the role of Dracula.

This puts the Hunters at a big disadvantage as

they often aren’t sure of what to do and what

strategies should be employed. Often the

decisions you make on what cards to keep and

which to throw away aren’t tested until many

turns later and leaves players with a feeling of

“how can I prepare if I don’t know what to

prepare for?” By reading this Guide, hopefully

those disadvantages will be overcome.

A Brief Overview of the Game

At its heart, Fury of Dracula is a game of

evasion. Dracula attempts to evade the hunters

long enough to get those 6 points and win the

game. The players’ turns are typically simple:

move, then search (pick up your cards) then pass.

I think it’s important as a player to try and do

this as quickly as possible as the game will

become quite long if you spend each turn

agonizing over whether to draw a card or not.

A strong word of advice: don’t be afraid

to discuss your plans in front of Dracula. This is a

cooperative game, and by randomly wandering

around the map without cohesion just makes it

that much easier for Dracula to win. Keep in

mind you can show each other your cards at any

time, and you aren’t required to show Dracula

either.

What to Expect from: The Event Deck

The event deck consists of 75 cards, 25 of which are for Dracula and 50 for the Hunters. You’ll probably be

drawing an Event card every turn until you meet Dracula (don’t keep drawing cards after that if you can

avoid it as an unlucky draw could see you giving a choice card to Dracula and you losing the game). Let’s

look at our enemy’s deck first and see what he’s capable of doing.

Dracula’s Events

Of the 25 cards in available to Dracula, there are

5 very powerful ones that are worth looking at

closely.

EVASION: Perhaps the most powerful card in the

deck for Drac, this is a play immediately card that

allows Dracula to move to any city on the board

and place a new encounter, effectively an extra

turn. This card can be crippling late game since

all your efforts to track down Dracula have now

been wasted and a new trail is being formed.

This may leave players without enough time to

even get to Dracula before the game ends, since

Hunters don’t move very quickly. If you know

where Drac is and this card hasn’t been played

yet, STOP DRAWING EVENTS!!!! Otherwise you

run the risk of losing Drac and starting the game

over again.

DEVILISH POWER (2): Drac can cancel a player’s

Event card; discard an Ally or Heavenly Host

marker.

UNEARTHLY SWIFTNESS: Drac moves again.

TIME RUNS SHORT: Move the time marker

forward one (except if it’s on Small Hours).

Of the remaining cards, Drac has three Ally cards;

not all that powerful. He also has 6 combat cards,

three which give him a +1 on the die, and 3 other

tricks. There are 6 “delay” cards where Drac can

stop you from boarding trains (2), blow you

around on the ocean (1), block a road or train

track between cities (1), stop a player when they

move across the east/west boundary line or

move into a port (1). Lastly there are 5 other

cards of lesser power.

The Hunters Events

50 card breakdown: 19 Play Immediately, 3 Allies,

and 28 Keep. Here are the most powerful:

HYPNOSIS (2): On a D6, 3-6 means that Dracula

must show his location and any baby vamps in

his trail!

SENSE OF EMERGENCY (2): Same as the Resolve

power, allows you to teleport anywhere on the

map at the cost of a few health.

LONG DAY (2): Moves the time marker back one

(except if it’s on Dawn).

GOOD LUCK (2): Similar to Drac’s DEVILISH

POWER, but also gets rid of road blocks.

CONSECRATED GROUND (1): Effectively seals off

a city so that Drac may not enter or pass through.

Ever.

VAMPIRE LAIR (1): Start a combat with Drac and

if you win he loses a point.

Of the remaining cards, Hunters have three Ally

cards of which Jonathon Harker is the best,

revealing Drac’s 6th trail card (only works on his

6

th

trail card)! Sweet! There are 12 other cards

that reveal or attempt to reveal Drac’s trail in

some way. Twelve cards affecting combat

including 3 “+1 on the die” cards. Five cards

affect travel, 3 for trains, and 2 for sea. Eight

cards for other smaller effects.

POWER

10

REVEAL

12

COMBAT

12

TRAVEL

5

OTHER

8

ALLY

3

What to Expect from: The Equipment Deck

You may only get equipment cards from large

cities, so you’ll be drawing from this deck less

often. Still, you’ll soon have a full complement of

weapons in no time and you’ll need to decide

what ones to keep and what to throw away.

The deck has 40 cards and consists of 7 non-

combat weapons and 33 weapons. Let’s start by

looking at the non-combat cards first.

DOGS (2): Make you immune to 3 of Dracula’s

events, and gives a +4 to initiative in combat,

which means you’re most likely to win ties in

most situations. I’d rather just have a gun. ☺

☺

☺

☺

FAST HORSE (3): Move an extra road and discard.

Okay, I guess…

LOCAL RUMORS (2): reveal an encounter in

Drac’s trail. Good for finding that Baby Vamp.

ANTI- AGENT WEAPONS

PISTOL (5): The best weapon vs. agents! A +1 to

your roll? Great!

SACRED BULLETS (3): A one use weapon that

kicks Agents butts good. Not that great against

Drac.

RIFLE (4): Yup, #3 vs. Agents. Not surprisingly,

not so good vs. Drac.

KNIFE (5): A decent weapon that you can toss

once you acquire one of the above cards. I would

even say throw it for a one shot weapon like

Sacred Bullets as combats aren’t frequent

enough to worry about not getting a new

weapon again soon.

ANTI-DRAC WEAPONS

STAKE (4): Best against Drac, but has a chance of

breaking when used vs. Knives, Pistols and Punch,

win or lose. For best card survival, only whip this

out after those cards have been played (or don’t

use it against agents).

HOLY WATER (3): Hurts Drac good, but is a once

only weapon.

CRUCIFIX (3): #3 vs. Drac. Is defense against a

few Drac encounters.

GARLIC (4): An ideal weapon that prevents Drac

from fleeing for 3 turns so that you may pummel

him.

HEAVENLY HOST (2): May be used in combat to

end combat, but works best to just secure a city.

Best Weapon Set

Pistol

Stake

Garlic

What to Expect from: Dracula’s Encounters

There are two types of encounters, ones that

need to be matured (i.e. are activated once they

have fallen off Drac’s trail) to have full effect,

and those that don’t. There are 45 tiles, and they

are constantly being mixed, so you can never

predict what will be drawn. Here’s what you can

expect.

MATURE ENCOUNTERS (6) Cause various bits of

trouble for the Hunters, especially when

matured.

NEW VAMPIRE (6): Once matured Drac get’s 2

points and his trail is cleared down to one card.

This is his main way to get points in the game.

Hunters encountering this one at night have a 1-

3 chance of being bitten if they don’t have a

Crucifix or Heavenly Host.

COMBAT ENCOUNTERS (8)

When encountered, you’ll be fighting an Agent

armed with a Knife, Rifle, Knife and Pistol, or

everything. They get a +1 to die rolls in Eastern

Europe. If you don’t have a good weapon to use

against an agent, then RUN! The only way you

can kill an agent without a weapon is if you and

they both play Punch and you win the die roll.

Not likely to happen since agents are armed with

weapons. God help you if you encounter the

Pistol agent in Eastern Europe and Drac plays a

trap card (+3).

DELAY ENCOUNTERS (9)

When a Hunter encounters one of these, they

often lose a turn, or may be controlled by Drac

for a turn (BATS (3)).

LOSE CARDS/LIFE ENCOUNTERS (16)

A Hunter encountering one of these will often

lose an event or weapon card, and or life points.

What to Expect from: Dracula’s Powers

Drac has 5 special power cards he can use, two of

which can only be used at night.

HIDE: This card is the most annoying. It allows

Drac to stay an extra turn in a city, confusing the

heck out of everyone cuz you don’t know when

he uses it.

DARK CALL: Drac can draw 10 encounter tiles,

then discards. Typically used when Drac needs a

NEW VAMPIRE tile.

DOUBLE BACK: DRAC can grab a card in his trail

or catacombs and use it for his new location.

FEED: Drac can gain a life point. Night only.

WOLF FORM: Drac may move UP TO 2 cities

away. Still can’t pass through HEAVENLY HOST or

CONSECRATED GROUND city, though he can walk

through a city with a Hunter in it.