One day, many years after the confrontation between Dracula and

Van Helsing, a sailing ship washed up once again on the shores of

Whitby, England. With no survivors on board, the ship was stained
with blood, and the cabin was ominously marked with boxes of dirt.
Realizing that Dracula had landed in England again, the citizens of
Whitby urgently turned to vampire-hunter Professor Van Helsing for
help.

It is here, tonight, that their final confrontation takes place. Will Van
Helsing be able to take down Dracula before all of Whitby's citizens
are turned into vampires?

Goal of the Game

Each player plays the role of a different character, either Van Helsing
or Dracula.

Van Helsing wins the game if he manages to kill Dracula by removing

all his Health Points (HP). Dracula wins the game by either turning
all four inhabitants of the same District into vampires or surviving
until the end of the game.

2
Components

32 Color cards 2 cardholders

4 colors, each with values 1 to 8

Human side Vampire side

20 Human/Vampire tokens 1 Color Ranking board

1 City board

12 Health Point tokens 1 Ship marker 4 Color tokens

3
Setting up the Game
Dracula 4

5 Round Track

2 7

Van Helsing

4
 1 Place the City board between the two players and place the Color
Ranking board beside the City board.

2 Each player chooses a character to play. It does not change during

the game. Each player takes a cardholder and places it in front of
them. Leave some space between your cardholder and the City
board, as you'll reveal some cards there.

3 Place four Human tokens in each District (Human side up).

4 Dracula starts with 12 Health Points (HP). That player takes the
matching tokens.

5 Place the Ship marker on the first spot of the Round track of the
City board to keep track of the rounds.

6 Randomly place the four Color tokens on the four spots of the
Color Ranking board.

7 Shuffle all the cards and place the cards as a draw deck within
reach of both players. Leave some room next to the draw deck for
the discard pile.

8 Each player draws five cards, one at a time, and places them in
their cardholder in the order they were drawn. The first card
drawn faces the first District (the District with a single dot).

6 Dracula always goes first.

IMPORTANT
Each card must face a
District. You cannot swap
or rearrange cards unless a 3rd
District 5th
game effect allows you to do District
1st
so. This is very important, District 4th
as each card will affect the 2nd District
District
District it faces at the end of
the round.

The order of each District

is indicated by a dot on the
City board.

5
Gameplay
The game is played in a maximum of five rounds. Each round, players
alternate taking turns, drawing a card and discarding a card to trigger
its effect.

On your turn, draw a card from the deck. Then discard this card to
the discard pile or swap it with any of your five cards and discard the
chosen card to the discard pile instead. The effect of the discarded
card is then triggered, and must be enacted if possible. Your turn is
now over and your opponent takes their turn.

• You always have five cards during a round and each of the five
cards faces one of the five Districts, indicated by the card’s
position in the cardholder.
• Cards in your cardholder must be visible only to you. If a card is
revealed by a discarded card’s effect, place it on the table in front
of the position it would have occupied in the cardholder. The
revealed card is still considered to face the District corresponding
to that position. The cardholder space for that card must remain
empty.
• The revealed card remains visible until it is discarded. If a card is
swapped with another card, both cards keep their status (that is,
if a card is already revealed, it remains revealed when swapped,
otherwise it is placed in the cardholder).
Instead of drawing (and discarding) a card, a player can call the end
of the round. You can only choose this action if there are at least six
cards in the discard pile. Your opponent takes their final turn, then
the round ends.

End of the round

A round ends when a player uses their turn to call it
or when the deck is empty.

All Districts are resolved one by one, from left to

right in the direction the weathervane is pointing.
For each District, compare your card with the
opponent’s card.

6
 Highest
Color
• If one of the two cards is a Trump card, it wins.
• Otherwise, if both cards are Trump cards, the
highest value wins.
Trump
• Otherwise, if neither of the two cards is a Trump Color
card, the highest value wins. If both values are tied,
the higher color (on the Color Ranking board) wins. Lowest
Color

Whenever Dracula wins a District, he turns one Human token into a

Vampire in that District by flipping it to the Vampire side.

Whenever Van Helsing wins a District, he removes one of Dracula’s

Health Points.

If one of the end game conditions (four Vampires in the same District
or 0 HP for Dracula) is met during the resolution of a District, the
game ends immediately. You do not resolve the remaining Districts.

Otherwise, players resolve the next District. When all five Districts
have been resolved, players move the Ship marker and start a new
round. The game ends after five rounds (if none of the end game
conditions are met before then).

New Round
Discard and shuffle all the cards and place the cards as a draw deck
within reach of both players. Each player draws five cards, one at
a time, and places them in their cardholder in the order they were
drawn. The first card drawn faces the District with a single dot.

End of the game

If Dracula loses his final HP, Van Helsing wins the game.

If Dracula turns all four inhabitants of the same District into

Vampires, or if the game reaches the end of the
fifth round, Dracula wins the game.

7
Card effects
When a card is discarded, its effect must be enacted if possible.

1 Reveal one of your cards.

2 Reveal the top card of the deck.

3 Reveal one of your opponent’s cards.

4 Swap two of your cards.

5
Play another turn. This effect applies even if your
opponent has called the end of the round on their turn.

6
Swap one of your cards with your opponent.
Both cards must face the same District.

7 Swap the Trump Color token with another Color token.

8
You can’t discard an 8 card unless there are at least six
cards in the discard pile. Immediately end the round.
Your opponent does not play their turn.

EXAMPLE: RESOLVING CARD EFFECTS

It’s Dracula’s turn. He
draws Purple 2 from the
Van Helsing deck. He discards it to reveal
the top card of the deck.
Purple 5 is revealed.

Dracula

8
It’s now Van Helsing’s turn. He draws the Purple 5 from
the top of the deck. He could discard it to play another turn,
but he decides to swap it with his Yellow 6 .

Dracula

Van Helsing

Purple 5 must remain visible,

which means that Van Helsing
must place it in front of the spot
where Yellow 6 was.
Van Helsing

By the effect of the discarded Yellow 6 , Van Helsing swaps his

Red 4 with the opponent’s Green 4 facing the same District.

Dracula

Van Helsing

Both cards need to

keep their status. So
the Red 4 moves to
Dracula’s cardholder
and the Green 4 is
Van Helsing placed in front of Van
Helsing’s cardholder.

9
 It’s Dracula’s turn. He draws Red 3 from the deck. He swaps it
with his Purple 7 then discards Purple 7 to swap the Trump
Color token with another.

Van Helsing

Dracula

He swaps the Green Color token with the

Red one.

EXAMPLE: RESOLVING DISTRICTS

The round ends. Yellow is the Trump Color.

Yellow 2 (Van Helsing), as a Trump card, wins in

the first District: Dracula loses 1 HP.

In the second District, there is no Trump card. The

card with the highest value wins. Purple 5 (Van
Helsing) wins in this District: Dracula loses 1 HP.

10
In the third District, there is no Trump card either. Both cards
have the same value. Because Red is higher ranked than
Green , the Red 4 (Dracula) wins in this District.

The final Human token in this District is flipped into a Vampire.

The game immediately ends, and Dracula wins the game. The
two remaining Districts are not resolved.

Dracula

Van Helsing

11
Credits
Game Design: Maxime Rambourg & Théo Rivière
Illustration: Weberson Santiago
Graphic Design: Eva Dream
Editing: Tylor Kim
Additional editing and proofreading: Antoine Prono (Transludis)
Producer: Marco Jung
© 2023 Mandoo Games Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

This edition published by

25th Century Games under license.
Editing: Joel Finch
www.25thCenturyGames.com