How to Play

The Bloody Inn

1-4 players 30-60 min 7.1 Board Game Geek Rating

Players run a murderous inn in 1830s France, killing wealthy guests for profit. Each round, guests arrive and players take actions by discarding cards: bribing guests as accomplices, building annexes, murdering visitors, or burying bodies for money. Police investigations penalize unburied corpses. After two deck cycles, the wealthiest player wins this darkly-themed card game.

Published 2015

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place the game board

Put the Inn gameboard in the center of the table

Distribute player components

Each player chooses a color and receives 8 Key/Room Service tokens and the wooden disc in their color

Set starting wealth

Each player places their wooden disc on the 5F space of the Wealth Track

Distribute check tiles

Each player takes one 10F Check tile; place the others near the Inn board to form a supply pile

Deal starting cards

Each player takes two Peasant cards in hand and one Player Aid card in front of them; extras go in the game box

Determine first player

The greediest player (most coins in pocket) takes the First Player card

Place key tokens on doors

Determine open rooms based on player count:

Build the Traveler deck

Remove cards based on player count and game length:

Position the deck

Shuffle and place the Traveler deck Living side up at the entrance, near the 0 on the Wealth Track; removed cards go in the box without looking

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Draw and place travelers

First Player draws the top card from the Entrance Stack and places it on any room that is both open (has a Key token) and unoccupied (has no Traveler)

Fill all rooms

Repeat until there is a Traveler in each open room

Perform two actions

Starting with the First Player and continuing clockwise, each player performs one action, then each player performs a second action

Bribe a Guest

Select a Traveler from a room or one/two Peasants from the Bistro

Build an Annex

Select an Accomplice from your hand depicting an Annex (Police and Peasants cannot become Annexes)

Kill a Guest

Select a Traveler from a room or a Peasant from the Bistro

Bury a Corpse

Select a Corpse from in front of you

Pass and Launder Money

Exchange cash for an equal amount of 10F checks, or exchange checks for an equal amount of cash

Police Investigation

If a Grey Police card is still in a room, pay the Gravedigger 10F (cash or checks) per unburied corpse; if you cannot pay the full amount, pay everything you have; discard all unburied corpses to the game box

Travelers leave

Earn 1F per Guest in a room of your color; place all remaining Guest cards in the Exit Stack

Pay Wages

Move your Wealth Track disc back 1F per accomplice (they do not accept checks); unpaid accomplices go to Exit Stack (Peasants to Bistro); pass the First Player card to the left

Reshuffle for second season

When the Entrance Stack empties the first time, shuffle the Exit Stack to form a new Entrance Stack