Your Friend, The Vampire

A Puzzly, Push-Your-Luck Dark Comedy Solo Game

Try the game out on Tabletop Simulator!

Story

You are a Vampire, a creature of the night that has sustained yourself for thousands of years; only leaving the safety and comfort of your esteemed manor to feed on the blood of the living. In the many long years you’ve lived your solitary life however, you’ve grown tired of the lonely nights in the library, the empty echoes of the halls, and the idle cobwebs that dangle over your coffin. Is it possible that you’re...sad?

You’ve decided that it’s time to seize your happiness again, and make some friends! Humans are fickle creatures with a much shorter life expectancy than yours, but surely having some companionship will help break you out of your funk.

You approach the nearby Town, carefully observing the many activities and behaviors of the humans around you in order to forge a powerful bond with them. You must tread carefully however, as a myriad number of dangers will present themselves to you while you attempt to create connections with others. Garlic, Vampire Hunters, and even the dreaded Sun will be obstacles in your path, as well as fighting off the urge to give in to your base vampiric instincts and feed on every Human in your sight (a little thing you’ve started to call “having an Accident”).

...But enough about last Tuesday! Today, you are a social butterfly, and you’ll stop at nothing to achieve the goal before you: the untimely friendship of every human you meet.

Gameplay

Your goal in Your Friend, The Vampire is to make a certain number of Friends by lining up rows/columns of Activity cards in the Town (a 3x3 grid of cards) in specific orders to match the symbols on Human cards. Exchanging Activity cards allows your Vampire to become friends with Humans who also like those activities. When a row/column of symbols match a Human card in play, you can exchange them to make that Human your Friend.

But beware - as a Vampire, you are susceptible to your own base instincts, which may accidentally cause you to gain Sadness (adding Sadness cards to the Town Deck).

If too many Sadness cards appear in Town, or if you can’t take any more Sadness cards from the supply when necessary, you lose the game, and your Vampire dies of a broken heart in complete solitude.

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You'll use your vampiric influence to shift cards around the Town, and replace them with new cards from the Town Deck. Removing certain cards can negatively influence certain Humans who like certain Activities, making it harder to claim them and get the amount of Friends you need to win the game. Equally important to keep track of is the Sun, which changes position every turn and prevents you from Influencing the card currently being touched by it, limiting your movement options and posing a threat to your Vampire.

On top of this, you'll need to worry about the appearance of Vampire Hunters, Garlic, and other cards from the Town Deck that could potentially throw your plans into disarray.

And whatever you do, never shift cards around in Town in such a way that you form a line of three Bloodied cards. Do that, and your Vampire loses control and has a little...Accident. You'll gain loads of Sadness to the Town Deck and be forced to discard all the currently available Humans from the game! So many potential friendships, gone!

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But not everything is against you! You have special Vampire Powers that can be used to give you an edge in your efforts. The only cost is making sure you have enough Bloodied cards available in the Town in order to use them. More Bloodied cards mean a higher likelihood of triggering an Accident, but surely the trade-off will be worth it if you plan for the worst!

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Being a Vampire in a world filled with Humans can be a scary thing, but the promise of friendship is always worth getting out there! Plan accordingly, take calculated risks, and you'll be making lifelong companions in no time!

Artwork, writing, and game design by Tanner Simmons (2021) ©

Tanner Simmons is an artist, webcomic author, and board game designer from Oak Park, Michigan. You can contact him with any questions at mindoftannersimmons@gmail.com