Kakurenbo: Eye of the Nine

Dungeon crawling. Dice battles. Mind games. These are the ways of the ninja.

Hide, seek, and kill your way through a labyrinth of shifting rooms, traps, bitter rivalries, and the long fabled nine onryō of the Iron Sky Ninja Clan!

Kakurenbo (かくれんぼ): the Japanese word for "hide and seek.”

In a land of order and chaos, players move stealthily between light and shadow, fighting or fleeing, living or dying.

Two players select a rival clan, Golden Sun or Silver Moon, and take on the role of the nine ninja chosen to return their abducted leader and exact their revenge. By taking turns placing cards from the Shiro (castle) deck onto the table, players construct and explore the giant Iron Sky Ninja Clan Castle, all while hunting, eluding, fighting each other and the Iron Sky Nine!

In each castle room a battle unfolds between the three clans, as you endeavor to survive long enough to free your leader. Connect nine of your clan’s rooms or defeat your rival’s ninja to enter the final battle with the Iron Sky Nine!

STORY

Carved high into the mountains, the entrance to the long abandoned Iron Sky Castle beckons its next visitor. Brutal tales of the vanished Iron Sky Ninja Clan and their forbidden jutsu (technique) have spread far across Japan. Many have entered seeking the ninja scrolls believed to reveal this taboo knowledge, but none have ever returned.

The daimyo (feudal lords) of the Golden Sun and Silver Moon Clans, both rumored to have hailed from the Iron Sky Ninja Clan, remain hostile adversaries. With an uncanny rise to power, their wealth and influence grew exponentially throughout the years. As did their rivalry.

On a clear, quiet night, each of the clan’s leaders were silently abducted. No signs of a struggle. Only a letter left behind, signed by the opposing clan. It demanded bloodshed, an end to the feud, and the Iron Sky Castle as its battlefield.

Both clans send their ninja to the vacant castle to free their daimyo and defend their clan’s honor. Quickly they realize the Iron Sky Ninja Clan is alive and well, and the Golden Sun and Silver Moon Clans are caught in their web. From the fire, the Iron Sky Nine emerge to seek vengeance on their former disciples and put an end to both of their clans.

HOW TO PLAY

THE RIVALRY BEGINS! Players each choose their clan, the white Golden Sun Clan or the black Silver Moon Clan, and collect their nine ninja cards and Combat Die.

BUILD AND EXPLORE THE IRON SKY CASTLE! Players take turns placing cards from the Shiro deck onto the table. This deck is the bottom corner and entrance to the castle. Each card in this deck is a castle room, colored to match one of the three clans. Players want to connect nine of their clan's rooms OR defeat all nine rival ninja in combat to enter the final battle with the Iron Sky Nine.

After being placed on the table, the card's room will be played. There are four different types of rooms in the Shiro deck: Kakurenbo (hide and seek, rival ninja dice fights), Shrine (resurrect a fallen ninja), Ninja Scroll (learn a forbidden technique, collect a Ninja Scroll card) and Iron Sky Lair (dice battle, winner collects the defeated Iron Sky Nine's cursed weapon).

HIDE & SEEK! Each ninja card in the player's hand matches a space on the floor of a Kakurenbo room. The color of the Kakurenbo card indicates which player is hiding or seeking. For black cards, the Golden Sun player is hiding while the Silver Moon player is seeking, and vice versa. The seeker rolls the red Iron Eye Die to determine which spaces on the castle room floor they can search (and possibly roll a trap (Damasu deck card) for the seeker). The hider then chooses a space to hide in that corresponds with a ninja still alive in their hand and places it face down on the table. The seeker guesses which spaces they think the hider may be in. The hider turns over their card and reveals the hidden ninja. If the guess was correct and the ninja was found, players enter combat by rolling their Combat Die. If the guess was not correct, the room and turn are over. The next player draws the next Shiro deck card.

DIE TO DIE COMBAT! The player's Combat Die are used in raging battles with the Iron Sky Nine (be the first to roll a combat sequence), high stakes challenges to reclaim your Shrine or Ninja Scroll, and intense turn based fighting in Kakurenbo rooms!

DEFEAT THE IRON SKY NINE! If any of the Iron Sky Nine ninja cards remain after a player successfully connects nine of their clan’s colored rooms OR defeats all their opponent’s ninja, the players enter into Final Battle. The number of ninja left alive in the winning player’s hand represent the number of chances (Final Battle cards) they have to find and defeat the last of the Iron Sky Ninja Clan. Getting one last chance at revenge, the defeated player (whose ninja have all died) will now play as the Iron Sky Nine, making the remaining Iron Sky Nine ninja cards their hand!

PRINTABLES! Have a 3D printer at home? Ready to take dice battles to the next level? Is it time to stop chasing your die all over the table? Check out the Kakurenbo: Eye of the Nine printables!

Choose between a game box design that transforms into a dueling dice tower or a mini version that doubles as a dueling dice tray.

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