General Klutz was playing with his nuclear warheads again, bu this time he accidentally armed one, and the clock is ticking! Due to a grievous lack of foresight, Ferrball locked all the doors and windows, and the only way out is to blast through the skylight using the one remaining jetpack... which some idiot decided to store in a locked safe! Be the first player to crack the safe's code, and you will rocket to victory, leaving your opponents behind in dayglow oblivion!

Ferrball's Mansion is a wacky card game for 2-6 players who like to laugh. The game is based on a sketch comic I drew in middle school in the mid-90s. Inspired by the Inquest magazine's game Space Station Zemo, I adapted my comic to a board game of search and destroy. Even with extensive work, the game was rather uneventful, and it didn't capture the hectic cartoon craziness I was looking for. In 2004, I re-engineered the board game into this card game. Since day one I knew I had a good game on my hands; my friends wanted to play it again and again! Ferrball's Mansion currently is the product of myself, three close collaborators, and 18 months of extensive playtesting. I hope you enjoy my creation! To all those who helped get Ferrball's Mansion where it is today, I owe you a hearty Thank You!

A Rules Summary

Object of Game: Using cards in the play deck, set code sequence so that it matches your code card on your turn while you are still alive.

Setup: Each player gets one character and one code card. The code sequence starts out blank. Each player draws a starting hand of as many cards as their Carry stat. Discard any traps drawn, and draw to replace them. Each player starts with health equal to his or her Health stat. The player with the lowest Health goes first.

On your turn: You have a number of moves equal to your current Move stat. For each move, choose one of the following:

• draw a card
  
• play a card from your hand
  
• use a character or item Ability
  
• attack another player

Traps: Whenever you have a trap in your hand, you must play it immediately, and do what it says. Exception: discard and replace traps that are in your starting hand, or any that you draw when you return from death.

The weight of your items in play cannot exceed your Carry stat. If at any time your items weigh too much, you must destroy your items until your Carry stat is no longer exceeded.

Your maximum hand size is equal to your current Carry stat. You may ignore it during your turn, but must observe it during all opponents' turns. At the end of your turn, or during any other player’s turn, you must discard any excess cards in your hand.

Followers: Follower stat modifiers go into effect immediately when played, and end when they are destroyed. Followers can be sacrificed at any time to prevent any amount of damage to you, or to prevent sudden death from a trap.

Attacking: There are two types of attacks:

• Fighting: Each player may use one fighting weapon, if they have one. Both players roll 2d6, and add their Fight stat and any other modifiers they have from Weapons or followers. The winner is the player with the higher result. The loser takes damage equal to the difference between the two results.
  
• Shooting: This requires a shooting weapon. The attacker shoots at the defender once, and makes the appropriate roll. The loser takes that amount of damage. If the defender has a shooting weapon, the defender may then shoot back once at the attacker. The dice are rolled, and the attacker takes that amount of damage.

Death: You die as soon as you have less than 1 health; you then have 0 health. Destroy all of your items and followers, and discard your hand. You are considered out of the game for card effects purposes, but still get a turn. On your turn, you may either:

• gain 3 health (up to your printed Health stat) and stay dead until your next turn, or
  
• re-enter the game at your current health total, and draw a new starting hand. You must have at least 1 health to do this. This is called respawning. (You cannot win while you are dead.)

• Complete RULES to FM: download PDF (29kb)

• Download PDFs of FM card fronts (309kb) and card backs (28kb)

• Ferrball's Mansion notes on SDG

This game is still a work in progress; I reserve the right to change the cards and rules as I see fit. But don't worry. You can keep with the game's development by revisiting this website. If you do download a copy of the game, please leave the filename as is. This will help you know if your copy is the latest version.

These cards are formatted for 2"x4" Avery business cards. You can also make a copy by printing this on sheets of cardstock and cutting out the individual cards. (Be careful, though, if printing to precut cards. It is very IMPORTANT that you disable the AutoMargin that most PDF readers assign to a document for printing. If you don't do this, it'll shrink the perfectly formatted pages by about 1/4" on each side, and the card edges won't line up with the cut lines. If you need help with this, contact me.)

Got a question? Contact me!

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