Page 1 Page 2 SCP: Apollyon A horror-themed co-op board game for 1-6 players SCP:Apollyon is a cooperative, turn-based horror-themed board game based on the SCP Foundation, a fictional modern organization that undertakes whatever means necessary to discover anomalous objects and contain them from the public that they threaten. 1-6 players each take on the role of a Site Director, a high ranking Foundation member responsible for the management of their own Foundation Blacksite. Players must work together to maintain the all- important Masquerade by containing the unending flow of anomalies, and maybe, just maybe, subverting one of many possible XK-Class End-of-World Scenarios. It is inspired by and similar to games such as Spirit Island and Arkham Horror Summary: 1-6 players, 90-120 minutes, Ages 15+ Complexity: 6/10 Goal The Foundation has discovered, through incontrovertible anomalous means, that an undetermined Apollyon-class anomaly will appear in six months time. Apollyon is the classification given to anomalies considered impossible to contain, and in this case are certain to cause at least the end of the world, if not the end of reality as we know it. Players have six months to prepare their sites by building up their assets and their character rosters. As they do, they’ll also need to constantly respond to Situations – various anomalous happenings all across the globe that may well be evidence of a new anomaly wreaking havoc on the human population. If Players fail to manage the constant stream of threats to humanity, they risk Breaking the Masquerade, and revealing to the world the dire straits they’re really in – or worse, losing control over the world to the anomalies. Page 3 Table of Contents SCP: Apollyon ......................................................... 2 Overview .................................................................. 4 The Masquerade .............................................. 4 Situations ............................................................ 4 Mobile Task Forces (MTFs) ............................. 6 Anomalies ........................................................... 7 Assets .................................................................. 9 Rolling for Successes ..................................... 10 Gameplay .............................................................. 11 Setup ................................................................. 11 Gameplay Phases ........................................... 12 1) Intel Phase ................................................... 12 2) Growth Phase ............................................. 13 3) MTF Phase .................................................. 14 3a) Assignments ........................................ 14 3b) Missions ............................................... 15 4) Event Phase ................................................ 15 5) Site Phase ................................................... 16 6) End Phase .................................................... 16 Winning the Game .......................................... 17 Mechanics ............................................................. 18 Containing an Anomaly .................................. 18 Partial Containment ................................... 19 Overcontainment ........................................ 19 Resolving a Situation ...................................... 19 False Alarm .................................................. 21 Engaging an Anomaly ..................................... 22 Neutralization Trial .......................................... 23 Breaching Containment ................................. 23 Breach Cascade .......................................... 24 Breach Check ................................................... 25 Broken Masquerade ....................................... 26 Tokens ................................................................... 26 Masquerade Token ........................................ 26 Wound Token .................................................. 26 Cognitohazard Token ..................................... 26 Lost Token ....................................................... 27 Minion Token ................................................. 27 Counter Token ................................................ 28 Asset Token/Containment Token ................ 28 Study Token .................................................... 28 Skills ...................................................................... 28 Keywords/Tokens ........................................... 29 Alternate Play ....................................................... 31 Last Words ............................................................ 32 Tips .................................................................... 32 Credits and Attributions ................................. 33 Page 4 Overview The Masquerade The mission statement of the Foundation is to protect Humanity from the horrific truths that live in the darkness around every turn. If the facade of normalcy were ever to break on a large scale, the sheer panic could potentially end hundreds of thousands of lives, as well as destabilizing countless power structures. Thus, it is your job as Site Director to ensure the Masquerade never breaks. That’s why you are equipped with many tools – high grade amnestics (memory erasing drugs), disinformation teams, and of course, undercover agents in every government around the world. You start with a Masquerade Tracker. If it ever falls to 10, you will incur a SK-Class “Broken Masquerade” Scenario, also known as a “Lifted Veil” Scenario. Please note that allowing such a Scenario to occur will greatly decrease Humanity’s likelihood of survival. If the Masquerade Tracker ever drops to 0, then you have lost the world to the anomalies, and your best option may simply be to utilize the self-neutralization pill supplied to you when you received your promotion to Site Director. Situations and Anomalies will have a Masquerade cost ( ), which must be paid from the Masquerade tracker. This can represent many things – usually largescale civilian casualties, but it could refer to the release of a memetic cognitohazard that reveals anomalous secrets, a single man in Time Square turning himself inside out once an hour, or generally anything that could cause a headache for the Disinformation Bureau. Best not to think about the first option – in this line of work, sometimes you can’t afford to. Situations Situations are constantly happening all over the globe – anomalous reports, from missing persons to people falling straight upwards, any absurd happenstance you can imagine. Though you have to rely on your information network to learn about these situations, the only way to figure out what’s really happening is to send in a Mobile Task Force (an MTF). Make sure your Page 5 agents are prepared for combat – you can only hope that a routine inspection won’t turn up some kind of horrific killing machine. Although, that would be on the gentler side of the anomalies the Foundation has to deal with on a regular basis. Each situation has a Danger rating, displayed on the lower left side of the card. That’s the Foundation’s best estimate as to how well equipped your team should be before you send them off, based on eye-witness reports. It’s helpful – but never totally accurate. Be prepared for anything... especially to lose your team. Each situation also has a Masquerade cost, displayed on the lower right side of the card. These have to be paid as soon as a situation shows up – but don’t worry. Anytime you successfully resolve a situation, your minions do their dirty work and you recoup the Masquerade losses. That’s if you successfully resolve the situation, though... Danger ratings along with the recommended Force/Health for the MTF that takes them on. Page 6 Mobile Task Forces (MTFs) Throughout the game, you will collect Character cards, which represent your agents that can be sent into the field. You’ll get the opportunity to collect them into one of two Mobile Task Forces (MTFs) and send them off to a variety of missions. Characters an array of Skills , which always come first and in bold. Refer to the end of this rulebook to see the list of skills. They provide various bonuses, or allows Characters to go on specific missions. They have a Force Rating, which refers to a Character’s ability to bring down an anomaly in the field, and a Health rating, which refers to the numbers of wounds they can sustain before they are Destroyed When characters are on an MTF, the team’s “Force rating” is equal to all of their Force values added together. The same is true for any skills that have a value attached to them, such as “Amnestics 2”. When an MTF is assembled, players may assign it to one mission per turn, during the MTF Phase. A player who has assembled two MTFs may send them each on different missions – or even the same mission. Some missions require that at least one of the characters in your MTF have access to a requisite skill. 1 – Name. 2 – Picture. 3 – Skills. (See Pg. 25) 4 – Force Rating. 5 – Health Rating. Page 7 Anomalies Anomalies, or SCP objects, are the main threat you must face. What denotes an object, creature or location as anomalous are effects that appear to defy common explanation. Each anomaly is given a designation (usually SCP- followed by a number) and an object classification. It’s important to note that this classification refers only to the difficulty each anomaly presents to contain, and does not necessarily reflect human danger. “Apollyon classification is reserved for highly destructive active anomalies which are functionally impossible to contain — something past Keter. An Apollyon-class anomaly is an anomaly more or less guaranteed to ultimately destroy the world, no matter what is done to stop it. The only thing which can avert that particular XA-class scenario is if something else, likely some other Apollyon-class anomaly, destroys the world first. Their relative threat level is measured not in material containment resources but in inevitable years.” - There is No Antimemetics Division Common SCP Object Classifications used in SCP:Apollyon Page 8 Each anomaly has a Threat rating and a Subdue rating, which represent the danger they pose and how difficult they are to contain respectively – but also, many anomalies will have secondary effects that change the rules while they are revealed. If you want to get rid of these effects, you’ll need to Contain the anomaly. Any Card Text on the anomaly that does not specify that it is a specific keyword, such as a Monthly Effect or First Contact! , is considered to be always active, unless it is Contained. Being Contained refers to being subdued, in Temporary Containment, or in Active Containment. When you attempt to resolve a situation, you will almost always draw and immediately engage one of these anomalies. If you manage to subdue it, you take it back to your site and can pay the Containment Cost to place it into active containment. If you fail to subdue the anomaly, it will escape into the public zone, where it will cause untold panic, and likely many deaths. It will gain any Monthly Effects that it has, and its Masquerade Cost must be paid from the Masquerade Tracker every turn with no recourse as long as it remains in the public. 1: Colloquial Name 2: Object Classification 3: Containment Cost 4: SCP Designation 5: Masquerade Cost 6: Card Text 7: Threat Rating 8: Subdue Rating Page 9 Assets Each Site Director has an Asset Pool, which contains a set of tokens that represent the assets their site has on hand. There are three kinds of Assets – Resources, Personnel, or Space. A single token refers to a replenishable monthly unit - a single Resource token could potentially refer to a steady influx of a hundred thousand dollars every month, where a single Personnel token would refer to a team of Foundation operators working round the clock for a month, or a monthly replenishable supply of D-Class agents. A site's Resources tokens ( ) roughly measure its capital and means or ability to get access to rare materials and perform construction projects needed to contain an anomaly. A site's Personnel tokens ( ) measure the available number of active-duty Foundation members or D-Class sacrifices it has on-hand to spend on containment procedures. A site's Space tokens ( ) refer to the amount of physical space inside the site. When you Spend a token, you may use any Asset token in your Asset Pool, or you may re- purpose one of the Containment tokens being used in Active Containment, following the rules of Partial Containment (See Containing an Anomaly , pg 17). However, be warned – Partial Containment is highly dangerous, and you will not get a chance to upgrade to full containment until the Site Phase. When you Spend a token, they are not lost. A Spent token is normally taken off your asset pool and placed to the side – it can’t be used until it gets replenished at the end of turn. However, certain effects can Destroy your tokens, which means you must discard them permanently. A Space token may never be Destroyed , unless otherwise explicitly specified, and is just counted as Spent.. Page 10 Rolling for Successes For many mechanics in SCP: Apollyon , you will need to understand what it means to Roll for Successes. When you Roll X for Successes, that means rolling X six sided dice and counting how many are greater than or equal to the Success measure. Unless otherwise stated, the Success measure is 3. If it’s not specified how much you’re rolling (Such as simply saying Roll for Success), then you are only rolling 1. Ex. That means if you are instructed to Roll your Force rating for Successes, you first find your Force rating (which in this example is 5), and then roll 5 dice, counting how many are equal to or above 3. The number of rolls greater than or equal to 3 is your final result. Ex. If you are asked to Roll for Success, you roll 1 dice. If it is greater or equal to 3, it is a success. In many places, this is abbreviated for brevity. The shorthand we use is "Roll your Force (4)", which indicates that you should Roll your Force rating for Successes, with a success measure of 4. Often, when Rolling for Successes, you are trying to meet or pass a Target number of successes, but that may not always be the case. Page 11 Gameplay Setup Set the Masquerade Tracker to 10, and then add 5 for each Player. Shuffle each deck – all 6 anomaly decks, as well as the Character, Asset, Event, and Situation decks. Make sure to shuffle the Situation Deck without looking, then place it in the middle of the table, with the “Unknown Situation” side face-up. Place the other decks in an easy-to-reach place. If you are playing in Campaign mode (pg. 25), remove all previously-beaten Apollyon cards from the deck before shuffling. Each player takes one “Site Facility” board from the bag and places it at their spot around the table, as well as an Asset Pool. They each choose a color, and take the two corresponding Colored MTF Markers, labeled MTF-01 and MTF-02. Each player gets a Space token, a Personnel token, and a Resource token, as well as drawing two cards from the Character deck. Players also start with one anomaly in Active Containment. They must choose to draw between the Safe ( ), Euclid ( ), or Keter ( ) anomaly decks, and then place the resulting anomaly directly into Active Containment in their site. When they do this, they immediately get the Containment Cost for the anomaly and place it on the card. It is fully contained. Draw one card from the Apollyon ( ) deck, and keep it face down! Place it in a place where it will be on all player’s minds all game – this is the foretold Apollyon anomaly that everyone must prepare for. Humanity must find a way to survive! Page 12 Gameplay Phases SCP: Apollyon is played over 6 turns, each representing a single month. Every turn passes through several phases, as detailed below: 1) Intel Phase 2) Growth Phase 3) MTF Phase 3a) Assignment 3b) Missions 4) Event Phase 5) Site Phase 6) End Phase 1) Intel Phase If any cards have start-of-turn effects, they apply before anything else. Any Lost ( ) Characters may roll their Recovery Checks . If it’s the final turn, flip over the Apollyon card and start processing its effects. Then, Situations are dealt. Anytime a Situation is Dealt, it is dealt to one of the Situation slots in the Situation Zone, with the “Unknown Situation” side face up (The side with the big question mark). Players pay the Masquerade cost on the card immediately, and then place that number of Masquerade tokens on top of the card. These are to remind the players how much Masquerade they will recoup when the Situation is resolved. To get the number of Situations you deal this turn, first, you deal 1 Situation for every 2 players at the table, rounding up (examples below). Then, each player rolls an Intel Check. An Intel Check entails Rolling for Success (4). For each failure rolled, you deal one Situation. 1-2 Players – 1 Situation 3-4 Players – 2 Situations 5-6 Players – 3 Situations Page 13 There are a maximum of eight slots in the situation zone. If playing with 3 or fewer players, there are only six slots (ignore slots 7 and 8). If the Situation zone is full when you try to deal a Situation card, instead flip the new card over and draw the corresponding anomaly. That anomaly moves directly to the public zone without engagement. Discard the Situation, and all text on it is null. You do not get any rewards, and you don’t have to pay the Masquerade cost. 2) Growth Phase Players will work together to pool their resources and figure out the optimal way to grow. Players may do a number of things in this phase in any order: Transfer , Draw , Promote , and Study Transfer : Each player may transfer up to 1 Asset token or 1 Character card to another player this turn. Draw : All players at the table create a single Draw Pile by drawing Asset or Character cards. The total number of cards that can be drawn is X + 1, where X is equal to the number of players in the game. Players will discuss and negotiate who needs which card, and then each player will take at most 1 card from the pile. Any cards in the Draw Pile not taken are discarded. Each Asset is worth 1 card draw from the pile, and each Character card is worth 3 card draws. If a scenario or anomaly is drawn during this time, it is ignored and discarded, and another card is drawn. Promote : P layers may Destroy 2 Personnel tokens to draw 1 Character card, Destroy 2 Resource tokens to create 1 Space token, or Destroy 1 Space token to draw 1 Asset card.. This may be done as many times as they are able to. Study : Each player may choose any one Contained anomaly (anywhere) and Spend a Personnel to add 2 Study tokens ( ) to it. Study tokens may be stacked infinitely, and each gives Neutralize 1 to any Neutralization attempts. Page 14 Page 15 3) MTF Phase 3a) Assignments The MTF Phase begins with assignments. Players first assign their Character cards to a team, and then they assign each MTF to a mission. You can assign a Character to either MTF-01 or MTF-02 by placing it into the corresponding MTF zone in your site. There is no limit to the number of Characters that may be assigned to an MTF, but the order of them does matter, so try to keep them placed in a straight line. When a Character is assigned to an MTF, they are considered to be away from the Site until the End Phase, and so are unable to respond to emergencies or take advantage of any site- bound skills. You can assign a Character to the Site garrison by leaving it in your hand. They are still active and will be important for handling site duties, such as managing containment breaches or other site-based skills. You may also place a Character “On Vacation”. To do so, place them to the side of the site. This clears a single Cognitohazard token ( ) from them, which can be useful for getting them back in action, but, they are deactivated. Their abilities may not be used, and they are removed from regular play until the end of turn. Once all Characters are assigned, you may assign each MTF to various missions by moving the appropriately-colored MTF markers to the location of the mission. There are a number of missions you may undertake, but some of them require you to have at least one member with the prerequisite skill. Here is a list of possible missions: • Investigate – Send your team to resolve an active situation. You may alternatively draw the top card of the Situation deck, placing it to the side, and resolve that. If you do intercept an upcoming situation this way, it has no Masquerade cost. (See Resolving a Situation , pg 18) • Capture – Send your team to engage an anomaly in the public zone. (See Engaging an Anomaly , pg 21) • Scout – Send your team to acquire resources. Roll a six sided die for each Scout on the Page 16 team. ◦ 1: Engage a Euclid anomaly. ◦ 2: Engage a Safe anomaly. ◦ 3 – 4: You may draw twice from the Asset Deck. ◦ 5 – 6: You may draw once from the Character Deck. Only after all Characters and Teams have been assigned, you may move on to the next subphase. 3b) Missions Players may decide to resolve their missions in any order they like. It’s worth noting that the order can make quite a difference, as certain situations or anomalies could produce global effects that affect other missions. If two different MTFs collaborate on a mission, such as Investigating the same situation, they attempt the mission together. They may add their Force together and distribute the Wounds across either team. Any Characters acquired during this phase are placed “On Vacation”. 4) Event Phase If the players are using Event cards for this game, one is drawn immediately and its effects are processed. If not, players may roll the Event die, and process the results as follows. 1: Each player has a Breach Cascade 2 – 3: Each anomaly in Partial Containment has a Breach Check 4 – 5: Each anomaly in Temporary Containment immediately Breaches Containment 6: Draw and distribute 1 Character per 2 Players. After drawing an Event card or rolling the Event die, certain Skills or Anomalies may have effects that occur during this phase. Scientists , for example, may gain a Study token, Amnestics regenerate Masquerade, and some anomalies may induce their effects. Page 17 If the Apollyon card is active, do not draw the Event Card/roll the Event die. Instead, it engages all active Characters at once. This includes Characters in MTFs AND inside site garrisons, but not Characters “On Vacation” or Lost ( ) 5) Site Phase First, MTFs return subdued anomalies to their home-sites. The MTF is still out of commission this turn and does not rejoin the garrison yet. MTFs may instead bring subdued anomalies to any other site that has agreed to it. Any anomaly brought to a site immediately enters one of the site's Temporary Containment fields. An anomaly in Temporary Containment does not gain their anomalous effects, and is otherwise totally contained. However, Temporary Containment is prone to failure, and Temporarily Contained anomalies will often Breach Containment After all MTFs have returned, players may do two major things : Contain Anomalies , and attempt a Neutralization Trial Players may allocate their assets however they wish during this phase, including Under- or Overcontaining an anomaly. 6) End Phase If any card has an end-of-turn effect, they happen first. Then, all characters (who are able to) remove all Wound tokens and return to the player’s hands, including any characters who are “On Vacation”. All Spent Assets return to players’ Asset Pools, excepting Assets that are now Containment tokens. Once all Characters have returned to the garrison, Players must pay the Masquerade cost for all anomalies that are loose in the public zone. Any anomaly that is not Contained then applies their Monthly Effect , if applicable. Time passes, and it is now the next turn. The timer to the final turn ticks down. Begin the Intel Phase. Page 18 Winning the Game Play continues in this fashion until the Turns Remaining timer hits zero. During the final turn, at the end of the Intel Phase, flip up the Apollyon card that was set aside during Set-up. It moves into the public zone. Pay it’s Masquerade cost immediately. Most Apollyons come preloaded with a devastating effect that will permanently and severely cripple Foundation operations. On top of that, every Event phase, rather than an event, the Apollyon will engage ALL Characters. After this, play will continue as normal until the players either contain the anomaly, or their Masquerade tracker drops to 0. The Masquerade tracker dropping to 0 is the only loss condition under normal circumstances, but certain Apollyons have additional win and loss conditions. If players manage to subdue and place the anomaly into Active Containment, they win! Humanity has found a future, and the Foundation will survive. If playing in Campaign mode, make sure to write down the name of the Apollyon card you defeated. Page 19 Mechanics Containing an Anomaly During the Site Phase, you will have the opportunity to Contain any anomalies that are held within Temporary Containment. There are two Containment zones in your site –Temporary Containment and Active Containment. Temporary Containment is an all-purpose facility where you place anomalies subdued in the field until you can afford to pay their Containment Cost and construct a specific containment unit built to their specifications. Temporary Containment is very dangerous . It is highly recommended to place anomalies (especially the more dangerous ones) into Active Containment at the soonest possible opportunity. However, for all other purposes, Temporary Containment does count as Containment. Each anomaly has a Containment Cost , which refers to a number of Asset tokens displayed on the anomaly card. In order to contain the anomaly, you must Spend the full Assets specified in the Containment Cost (It is possible to dip below this amount later. See Partial Containment down below). When you Spend Assets for containment, rather than simply removing them from your Asset pool, you place them on top of the anomaly. They are now considered Containment tokens instead, and remain with the anomaly. Once you’ve paid the cost, you may place the anomaly into Active Containment. You must add it to the row with the least number of contained anomalies - though you may add it to any slot in that row. If you fill up the first two rows, and still have the required space tokens, you may begin filling up a third row, following the same rule that all anomalies must be added to the row with the least anomalies. If your third row becomes empty, and there is room left in your first two rows, the third row disappears until it is needed again. This may continue onto 4th, 5th, 6th rows, ad infinitum, following these rules. When containment is vacated (such as if an anomaly is Neutralized or Breaches Containment ), you get all your Containment tokens back as Asset tokens. However, when an anomaly attempts to Breach Containment, it very well might Destroy the containment tokens Page 20 used in its containment. Partial Containment Throughout the course of the game, due to Containment Breaches (or poor planning), you may end up taking Containment tokens off of an anomaly in Active Containment. At any point that you have less Containment Tokens than specified on the card, it is considered to be in Partial Containment . While in Partial Containment, it remains in the Active Containment zone on your site, but it is in much greater danger of a breach. When removing Containment tokens from Active Containment, you may never remove a Space token. If you do, the anomaly ceases to be Partially Contained and returns to Temporary Containment. Overcontainment Similarly, during the Site Phase, players may choose to place additional tokens on an anomaly in Active Containment. They act as though normally contained, but will by nature be much more secure when it comes to surviving a Breach Check Resolving a Situation Situations appear and harbor potential anomalies that must be investigated by an MTF. They start with the “Unknown Situation” face up, which is the side with a big question mark. A situation is a piece of intel that has been data-mined from official government servers or gathered by undercover agents from local law enforcement, and is a situation that very well could be anomalous in nature. It could represent a series of potentially anomalous disappearances, strange happenings, or eyewitness reports of a gruesome murder – in any case, an MTF must be sent to investigate before further harm can be done.