designed bY: Vesselin Alexiev

COMPONENTS

4 DUNGEON DECKS 12 WANDERING

(21 CARDS EACH) MONSTER CARDS

5 HERO CARDS 1 MERCHANT CARD

6 ABILITY CARDS

7 BOSS CARDS

15 EQUIPMENT CARDS
20 CUBES & 11 DICE

9 MODIFIER CARDS 22 TOKENS & 6 DISCS

Lead a trio of relentless hunters into the cursed depths of
a long-abandoned fortress in The Cursed Castle. What
once stood as a noble stronghold is now a desolate ruin,
haunted by the living dead, deranged humans, and savage
creatures from the wilderness. Face treacherous traps, vile
curses, and unspeakable horrors as you delve deeper into
the darkness. Will you uncover the castle’s dark secrets
and conquer its evil, or will you become another lost soul,
consumed by the very darkness you sought to destroy? The
castle awaits, daring you to face its horrors and emerge
unscathed. Prepare for a journey into madness…

OVERVIEW
The Cursed Castle is a solo, rogue-like dice-rolling ad-
venture. Lead your heroes as they descend deeper into the
abandoned halls through dice manipulation and clever
resource management. Discover powerful artifacts, fight
through legions of vile creatures, and most importantly –
survive to the end of the dungeon!

PLAYTIME
The game includes four dungeons that each take about 30
minutes to play through.

WINNING AND LOSING

You win if you defeat the final boss at the bottom of the
dungeon deck.

You lose if all your heroes die, get corrupted, or go insane.

SETUP
1. Prepare the Dungeon Deck:
A: Select the dungeon you want to face. (Dungeon cards
are numbered 1-4 in their bottom right corners.)
B: Remove the dungeon’s mini-boss (the card with a
blue outline).
C: Shuffle the dungeon deck.
E: Place the mini-boss and the merchant card in the
middle of the deck.
F: Select or randomly choose a boss card and place it at
the bottom of the deck. Put the remaining boss cards
back in the box.
2. Place the 6 ability cards with their white side up.

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5
3

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3. Select or randomly choose 3 hero cards, and place them
in front of you with their white outline side up. (If this
is your first game we suggest starting with the Magus,
Champion, and Ranger.) Place the remaining heroes
in easy reach.
4. Find each hero’s starting equipment card, and place
them above the hero cards (the hero’s picture is on the
back of their card).
5. Shuffle the Equipment cards and each Boss Modifier
deck (labeled hard, nightmare, and torment) separately
and place them face down nearby.
6. Place the 3 white dice and 3 black dice in front of you.
Place the remaining dice, tokens, and cubes in nearby piles.
7. Place the treasure chest tokens face down, and mix
them up in easy reach.

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OVERVIEW OF PLAY
Cursed Castle is played in rounds, each consisting of the
following phases:

ROUNDS
The game is played in rounds until reaching the final boss
at the bottom of the dungeon deck. Each round is divided
into 6 phases:
1. Draw and place dungeon cards
2. Roll enemy dice and place them on enemy cards
3. Roll hero dice
4. Use dice and cubes to activate ability and equipment
cards
5. Assess results
6. Cleanup

1. DRAW AND PLACE DUNGEON CARDS

• The dungeon has four spaces for cards. The first three
spaces are for enemies, and the fourth space is for traps,
chests, special enemies, etc.
• At the beginning of a round, draw cards from the dun-
geon deck until the first three spaces have an enemy.
• Whenever a card with a red border is drawn, place it on
the fourth space. If multiple red-border cards are drawn,
place them on top of each other - only one red-border
card can be active at a time.
• When a Barricade card is drawn, immediately draw
another card and place it on top of the Barricade so that
only the bottom section is showing. This adds one more
cube you must use to defeat the enemy.

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2. ROLL ENEMY DICE AND PLACE THEM ON
ENEMY CARDS
• Roll the three black dice. These dice have six sides but
only three numbers: 1, 2, 3.
• Place ones on top of the enemy card in the first space,
twos on top of the enemy card in the second space, and
threes on top of the enemy card in the third space.
• A card may have more than one die on it, and all cards
with a die are considered “activated,” explained in phase 5.
3. ROLL HERO DICE
• Roll the three white dice and place them in front of you.
You’ll use the numbers rolled to activate cards.
4. USE DICE AND CUBES TO ACTIVATE CARDS
ABILITY CARDS
• Ability cards have two possible
actions.
• The first action is to gain a
cube. When a die is placed on a
card with a matching number,
gain that color cube. For example, when a die showing
two pips is placed on a card with a red die that shows
two pips, you gain a red cube.
• The second action can be activated by any die, no matter
the number.
• A die that matches the indicated number on the card
activates both actions.
• Activating shrines and defeating enemies with a star
icon allow you to level up and flip an ability card to
its upgraded side which can give you an extra possible
second action or allow multiple numbers to activate the
first action.
• An ability card may only be activated once per round.
• Each ability card is explained in the Appendix.

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EQUIPMENT CARDS
• Equipment cards can be acti-
vated to gain more actions.
• Cards with a cube icon on the
left require a cube to be placed
on them to activate. If the icon is black with a white
outline, any cube can activate it. If the icon is a specific
color, only that color cube can activate it.
• Cards with a box icon require a die to be placed on them
to activate. If the box has a number, the die must have
that many pips.
• Cards with a corruption icon require you to take a cor-
ruption token when the action is activated.
• Each equipment card is explained in the Appendix.

HERO CARDS
• Skill Checks: Most enemies re-
quire various cubes to be defeated,
however, many require a skill check,
which is indicated by a number
inside of a square. To do a skill
check, place any number of dice
on a hero card. Each hero has a
number at the top of its card that
gives a bonus to skill checks, and
the total value of the die or dice plus the bonus must
be equal to or greater than the skill check’s number to
defeat it.
• Attacks: At the bottom of each hero card, you’ll find
boxes to place cubes to use for attacks. To defeat an
enemy card, you must match the cubes on its card with
cubes placed on hero cards.
• Many heroes gain a bonus action when a cube is placed
in its attack area. These bonuses are explained in the

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 Appendix. A bonus action may only be activated once
per round.
• If a hero is activated for a skill check, it cannot have
cubes placed on it for attacks.

EXAMPLE TURN
Steve rolls a 1, 3, and 6 on his hero dice. He places the 1 on
a yellow ability card that gains him a yellow cube, and he
uses its second action to flip the 6 over to become a 1. Then,
he places the 3 on the blue ability card to gain a blue cube.
After that, he places the 1 on a red ability card to gain a red
cube and activates the ability to duplicate the blue cube.
After using his three dice, he has 1 yellow cube, one red
cube, and two blue cubes. Bob has an equipment card that
lets him turn one blue cube into two yellow cubes, so he
places a blue cube on the card and gains two yellow cubes.
He now has three yellow cubes, one red cube, and one
blue cube.
He places a yellow cube on the Champion which allows
him to roll the red die. He rolls it and gets a 5. He then
places the 5 on the Magus to be able to do a skill check with
a +3 modifier based on the Magus’s card. Next, he places
one yellow, one red, and one blue cube on the Ranger to do
three attacks. The yellow cube on the champion will also
be used to attack.

5. ASSESS RESULTS
• From left to right, assess attacks, skill checks, and
damage starting with the hero cards and moving to the
enemy cards.
• Move cubes from the hero cards to the enemy cards. As
soon as all the cube requirements on an enemy card are sat-
isfied, it is considered defeated and will not attack. If a card
is not defeated, the cubes remain on it for future rounds.

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• For successful skill checks, place a black cube on the
space to indicate it has been satisfied.
• After placing attack cubes, the remaining enemies
attack the heroes.
• At the top of each enemy card, there are two zones. The
left one tells you what happens when the enemy is ac-
tivated. The right one tells you what happens when the
card is not activated.
• Cards with a black die on them are considered activated,
and the icons in the left zone trigger. A card with mul-
tiple dice on it triggers multiple times. For example, if a
card that does one damage has three dice on it, it’s going
to do three damage!
• A card without a black die is considered unactivated, and
if there are icons on the card’s right zone, they trigger.
• If a red-bordered card in space four has an icon at the
top, and the card has not been defeated, it triggers. If a
red-bordered card with an icon next to the skill check
box at the bottom has been fulfilled, you gain the ben-
efit. If it has not been fulfilled, place the card in the
discard pile.
• Each icon is explained in the damage, status effects, and
healing section.
6. CLEANUP
• Remove cubes from defeated enemies, and place those
cards in the discard pile.
• All unused cubes go back to the supply.
• Move remaining enemy cards to the left if spaces one
and/or two are open.
• If the red-bordered card in space four has an hourglass
icon, move it to the discard pile. If it has a chain link
icon, leave it in space four.
• If there are empty spaces in the dungeon row, draw
cards until those are full, and begin a new round.

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CAPTIVES, CHESTS, SHRINES,
AND THE MERCHANT
During your dungeon run, you will encounter cards with
a timer signified by an hourglass icon. These cards will be
available only the round they have been drawn, and dis-
appear during the cleanup phase. The player may choose
whether to engage or ignore the card, but fulfilling its re-
quirements grants a benefit.
Captive cards require a skill check, which if passed suc-
cessfully allow the player to draw an extra hero at random
during cleanup, who will take the place of a killed hero. If
you rescue a captive when all three of your heroes are still
alive, place the new hero off to the side. When a hero dies,
replace it with the new one.
Chest cards require a skill check to open. During cleanup,
if a chest is opened, the player draws an item from the pile
of face down tokens with a treasure chest back. Place the
token in front of you to be used at any time. This also hap-
pens when a player fulfills the skill check option to defeat
a Mimic. Items are explained in detail in the Items section
of the Appendix.
Shrine cards allow you to level up. During cleanup, if the
skill check for a shrine has been fulfilled, select one of your
ability cards and flip it to its yellow, upgraded side.
The Merchant shows up around halfway through a dun-
geon. During cleanup, if the skill check for the merchant
has been fulfilled, draw two equipment cards. Keep one
and place it in front of you. Discard the other.

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DAMAGE, STATUS EFFECTS, AND
HEALING
When an enemy is not defeated, it will often deal damage
and cause status effects to the heroes.
Damage: When you take damage, you’ll flip hero
cards over to their red, damaged side. If you only
take one or two damage, you may choose which
cards to flip. Three damage would flip all heroes. When a
hero takes a second damage, he or she is considered defeat-
ed and removed from the game.
Poison: When you take poison damage, place a
poison token in front of you. During future cleanup
phases, take one damage for each token you have.
However, you never take damage for poison until the end
of the following round. For example, if you have one poison
token in front of you from the previous round and receive
another token in the current round, you would only take
one damage during cleanup. At the end of the next round,
if both tokens are still in front of you, you would take two
damage. You may not have more than three poison tokens
in front of you.
Corruption: Corruption builds up when facing
certain enemies and using certain equipment.
When you receive corruption, place a corruption
token in front of you for each icon on the enemy cards.
If you ever receive a fourth corruption, one of your heroes
dies. You may either select the hero to discard or roll a die
to randomly determine it.
Bleed (icon): When an enemy inflicts a bleed effect,
place a bleed token on one of your heroes. A hero
with a bleed token may not activate its bonus action
when a cube is placed on its card.

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 Stun: When an enemy hits you with a stun effect,
roll a d6 to randomly determine which ability card
is affected. (Each ability card has a number in its
bottom right corner.) If the number rolled affects a card
that already has a stun token, roll again. An ability card
with a stun token on it can only be used to activate its first
action, not its second. So, you can still gain a cube from it,
but you can’t use it for anything else.
Madness:When an enemy crawls inside your
brain and causes madness, replace a white die with
a purple die for each madness you receive. At the
beginning of the enemy attack phase, if all three of your
dice are purple, one of your heroes goes insane and is re-
moved from the game. You may either select which hero
or randomly determine it. After a hero goes insane, replace
all three purple dice with white dice. Madness cannot be
healed.
Dice Lock: During the enemy’s attack phase, if an
enemy is still in the dungeon row with this icon,
place one of your dice on the card. This die will not
be available to you next round. If you lose all three of your
dice, you lose the game.
+1 Enemy Die: During cleanup, if an enemy is
still in the dungeon row with this icon, add one
black die to the enemy’s die roll next round.
Steal: During the enemy’s attack phase, if an enemy
is still in the dungeon row with this icon, you lose a
random equipment card. If this icon triggers when
an enemy is activated, lose an equipment card for each time
the card is activated.
Incite: Activate the enemy card to the left and
the card to the right of this card. This does not
include space four.

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 Raise Dead: Randomly draw an enemy from the
discard pile and add them to the dungeon row.

Rejuvenate: Remove one cube from the bottom of

the enemy’s card. You may choose which one.

Persist (icon): Cards with this icon remain on the

fourth space until you defeat them. However, if a
new red-bordered card is drawn, it gets placed on
top of the persisting card.

Fleeting (icon): Cards with this icon get discarded

during the cleanup phase.

Healing: When a healing action is activated, you

may either flip a damaged hero card face up or
remove a status effect token.
Block: Ignore a damage or status effect.

Leveling Up: During cleanup, after you’ve activat-

ed a shrine or defeated an enemy with the level up
icon, select one of your ability cards and flip it to its
yellow, upgraded side.

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BOSS FIGHTS
The boss is the final card in the dun-
geon deck. Once it’s drawn, you must
defeat it to overcome the dungeon and
win the game.
If other enemies are in the dungeon
row, they are also part of the final
battle, but they do not need to be de-
feated in order to win.
The boss’s placement in the dungeon row does not matter.
All black dice will be used to activate the abilities across the
top of the boss’s card. Ones activate the first ability; twos
the second; threes the third. However, other enemies in the
dungeon row are activated like normal, so if an enemy is in
the first space and the boss is in the second space, and you
roll three ones, you would activate the enemy three times
and the boss’s first ability three times.
To defeat the boss, you must fulfill all the cube and skill
check requirements on its card.
For a more challenging game,
draw a boss modifier card and
place it below the boss card. These
are labeled hard, nightmare, and
torment, and they add more re-
quirements to defeat the boss.

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ADVANCED MODES
These are alternate game modes intended for players who
have gone through the Cursed Castle a few times and want
more of a challenge.

WANDERING MONSTERS
During setup, add a deck of extra enemies to the dungeon.
These decks of wandering monsters are labeled A, B, and
C and provide extra challenge and variety to a dungeon.

TWO BOSSES
During setup, split the dungeon deck into thirds instead
of halves. At the bottom of the first third, place the dun-
geon’s mini boss and the merchant. At the bottom of the
second third, place a boss card. And at the bottom of the
final third, place another boss card. Boss fights play out as
normal – now there’s just two of them!

THE GAUNTLET
For a longer and more challenging game, see if you can
complete multiple dungeons in a row with at least one hero
left standing.

FULL PARTY
To balance out the difficulty, remove the captive card from
the dungeon, and begin the game with one or more heroes
in reserve. When a hero dies, immediately replace it.

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HERO REFERENCE

Skill: 2 Skill: 2
Attack: Deal up to 2 Attack: Deal up
damage to one enemy. to 1 damage.
Ability: You may reroll Ability: Roll the red die
one unused die. and add it to your dice pool.

Skill: 4 Skill: 2
Attack: Deal up to 3 Attack: Deal up
damage. to 1 damage.
Ability: You may
move one enemy die
to another card.

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Skill: 3 Skill: 1
Attack: Deal up to 1 Attack: Deal up
damage to 2 damage.
Ability: Gain a cube of
any color

Skill: 3 Skill: 2
Attack: Deal up to 2 Attack: Deal up
damage. to 1 damage.
Ability: Heal 1. Ability: Block one
damage.

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Skill: 3 Skill: 2
Attack: Deal up to 1 Attack: Deal up to 1
damage to one enemy. damage regardless of
cube color.
Ability: Change a cube in
front of you to any color. Ability: does damage
to an enemy regardless
of color.

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ABILITY REFERENCE

First Action: Leveled Up Action:

Gain 1 red cube. Double a cube in your
Second Action: supply. (e.g. one red cube
Double a cube in your becomes two red cubes)
supply. (e.g. one red cube Or Heal 1.
becomes two red cubes)

First Action: First Action*:

Gain 1 red cube. Gain 1 red cube.
Second Action: Second Action:
Add or subtract 1 from a Add or subtract 1 from a
hero die. hero die.

First Action: Leveled Up Action:

Gain 1 red cube. Reroll up to two hero dice
or change a red cube into
Second Action:
a blue cube.
Reroll up to two
hero dice.

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First Action: Leveled Up Action:
Gain 1 yellow cube. Flip a hero die to its op-
Second Action: posite side (e.g. a 6 would
Flip a hero die to its become a 1) or Heal 1.
opposite side (e.g. a 6
would become a 1).

First Action: Leveled Up Action:

Gain 1 yellow cube. Gain 1 yellow cube or
Second Action: Heal 1.
Gain 1 yellow cube.

First Action: First Action*:

Gain 1 blue cube. Gain 1 blue cube.
Second Action: Second Action:
Change a blue cube into Change a blue cube into
any other color. any other color.

* When Haste, Arcane Eye, and Polymorph are leveled

up, you are able to use two numbers to activate the card.
However, you may still only activate a card once per round.
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EQUIPMENT REFERENCE

Boots of Swiftness: Mystical Scroll:

Place a cube to add 2 to a Place a die with a 6 to
skill check value. gain a red cube.

Spiked Pauldron: Backpack:

Place a die to block 1 Store up to 1 cube from a
damage or status effect. previous round.

Seer Stone: Pendant of Life:

Place a cube to change Place a die to heal.
any die to a 1 or 6.

Giant’s Gladius:
Place a cube to change
the color of a cube in
front of you.
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Corrupted Pendant: Decaying Mask:
Take 1 corruption to Place a cube and take 1
either add or subtract up corruption to change one
to 2 from one of your dice. of your dice to any side

Pendant of Power:
Place a die to either add
or subtract 1 from an
enemy die. The die cannot
go below 1 or above 3.

ITEM REFERENCE

Red Potion: Black Potion: Shield:

Flip a hero card Remove 1 status Block 1 damage
face up. effect. or status effect.

Numbers:
Change a hero die by +1/-1, +2, +3
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