by Mike Reading

Art by Murray Grelis

Rules Version 1.0

2 Players, Age 8+, 20-30 Minutes

Description
One player is Emily, trying to survive the night; the other player is the
Bogeys. No one knows who Emily is until a player picks up the
ʻEmilyʼ card. How long can they hide their secret before the other
player guesses? Once the ʻRun Emily Runʼ card is reached there
can be no more bluffing. Front

Each round centres round a haunted house made up of cards.

House cards start face up but as play continues they are placed face Back
down and the house becomes increasingly mysterious. Three
rounds are played to complete the game.

The pack includes; 2 Run Emily Run cards, 2 Emily cards, a Front
card, a Back card and 12 each of Orange Bogey, Green Bogey,
Hiding and Curio cards.

Set up
Before play, glue the two Run Emily Run cards back to back to make
a double sided card. Only one Emily card is used in the game, the
other is a spare, place it somewhere safe! The Front and Back cards
may be glued on the inside front and back of the card case if you
wish, otherwise, set them aside.

Print the play mat available in the file section of the

BoardGameGeek [boardgamegeek.com] ʻRun Emily Run!ʼ game
entry. The play mat should be A3 size and looks best in colour.

The deck contains 2

Objective
When the player who draws the last card from the stock pile finishes Run Emily Run cards
their turn, the round ends. The Emily player wins the round if the
Emily card is in the house, in the same room as a card from the
Hiding suit (Figure 1). Otherwise the Bogey player wins. The Bogey
player also wins (and the game ends immediately) if they take the
Emily card from the house into their hand. Regardless of who wins,
both players score for the melds they complete.

The Deal
Choose a random dealer to start, the deal alternates each round.
Set aside the Emily card and the Run Emily Run card then shuffle
the remaining pack.

Fig 1
 Building the house
The house is made up of 12 cards face up in pairs.
Each room has two cards of the same number. To
build the house, reveal cards from the pack one at
a time and place them face up in the appropriate
room on the play mat.

If you do not have the play mat -- A pair of ones

forms the attic. Below that, three pairs in a row
form the living room (twos), bedroom (threes)
and kitchen (fours). Below them two pairs form
the cellar (fiveʼs) and secret tunnel (sixes).
Place the attic cards at an angle like the slope
of a roof. Place the cellar and tunnel cards
horizontal.
The optional A3 playmat can be
Once a room has a pair, put further cards of that number to downloaded from Boardgamegeek,com
one side until all rooms are complete then shuffle those
cards back into the pack.

Deal 6 cards face down to each player to form their private hand.
Deal 10 cards face down to start the stock pile. Place the Run
Emily Run card on top of the stock pile. Deal one card face up
alongside the stock pile to form the base of the discard pile.
Add the Emily card to the remaining pack, shuffle, then place
the pack face down on top of the Run Emily Run card to
complete the stock pile.

Play
The round starts with the player to who did not deal.
A playerʼs turn consists of drawing, placing melds and
layoffs, and discarding.
Fig 2 Fig 3
Drawing
First the player draws two cards from the top of the stock pile
OR from the top of the discard pile if the discard pile has at
least two cards.

Placing melds and layoffs

Then the player may put as many melds or layoffs on the table as
they wish. A meld is a matching set of cards placed in front of the
player. Three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order
(Figure 2) OR three or more cards of different suits and the same
number (Figure 3). A layoff is a card added to an existing meld
belonging to either player. The layoff must continue the meld
(Figure 4). Two identical cards can not be placed in the same meld
(Figure 5). Fig 4

During their turn, players may take any number of face-up cards
from the house to add to their melds or layoffs. These cards must
be immediately replaced by face down cards of any suit or value
from the playerʼs hand. If the player can not replace a house card,
they may not take it.

If a player makes a meld with 4 or more cards or adds a layoff to

any 3 card meld, they may immediately swap one face down card
from their hand for one face down card from the house, if possible.

Fig 5
Discarding
Players finish their turn by placing a card face up on the discard pile
only if they have not placed a meld or layoff during their turn,
otherwise by announcing they have finished.

Gavels and unique cards

The Emily card indicates which player is Emily. This card is not used
in melds or layoffs or discarded. The card must be kept in the hand
until it is placed face down in the house to replace a face-up card
that has been taken during a playerʼs turn.

The Run Emily Run card acts as a marker. When it is reached in the
stock pile, it is set aside ready for the next round and is not counted
as a drawn card. At this point both players know the Emily card has
been taken.

The Curio suit acts as a gavel, cards with special abilities.

Whenever you place a Curio card in a meld you may choose to
immediately use the special ability written on the card. If you place
several Curio cards you may choose to immediately use any or all
of those special abilities.

Strategy
At the start of the round neither player has a role. Players could
collect cards into their hands, or quickly take advantage of easy
melds from the house.

As one player becomes Emily (by picking up the Emily card) they
need to keep this secret. For that player to win they must eventually
place the Emily card in the house as a face-down card, in the same
room as a card from the Hiding suit. However, once the card is
placed in the house it runs the risk of being taken by the Bogey
player!

At the Run Emily Run marker card, both players can be sure who is
Emily and who is the Bogey player. From this point the Bogey player
must try to find the Emily card or reduce the number of Hiding suit
cards in the house.

Scoring
At the end of the round both players score the total of the highest
card in each of their melds. The winning player receives a bonus of
as many points as there are cards face down in the house. Three
rounds are played and scores totalled to determine the overall game
winner.

Playtesters
We are very grateful for insight and comments from
BoardGameGeek [boardgamegeek.com] playtesters Hendal,
Marvac, and Jumpseat.