Lobotomy

In Lobotomy, players are patients working together to

escape from Melville City Psychiatric Hospital.

In a haunting mix of survival horror, dungeon crawling and

roleplay, you become characters plagued by reality-bending
disorders. Disorders that make you see the staff as horrifying
abominations and common objects as magical artifacts.

You have an escape plan but even trivial tasks seem like
strange other-worldly missions. Hopefully you can use that to
your advantage before the chief hospital administrator finishes
his rounds and straps you back to your beds.

Throughout all your struggles to escape, one question will

continue to bother you: are you really escaping
from the lobotomy, or are you this way because
 Live Together or Die Alone Component List
Lobotomy is a co-operative game where 1-5 players win or lose
together a team. The challenges that the team must face and ultimately - This Rulebook - 17 Monster Cards
overcome are all created and controlled by the game itself.
- Scenario Guide - 20 Scenario Cards
As a team you need to discuss plans and share tasks to stand any - Central Board Piece
chance of victory. The choice is simple: work together against the - 1 First Player Token
- 11 Quarter Board Pieces
hospital and your own delusions, or die alone, strapped to a bed and
plagued by nightmare visions. - 10 Six-Sided Dice - Door Tokens
- 1 Twelve-Sided Die - Locker Tokens
Gameplay
- 1 Four-Dided Die - Body Tokens
The game is played on a modular board made up of pieces representing - Memory Tokens
different parts of the hospital. The players’ characters and all the - 1 Chaos Die
monstrous hospital staff and patients appear as miniatures taking turns - 1 Defense Die
to act. - 8 Character Cards - 60 Red and Blue Tokens
- 32 Basic Skill Cards - 8 Character Miniatures
The players’ turns are spent moving, exploring, regaining their
memories and trying to defeat the monsters, search for items to help - 80 Memory Cards - 8 Character Color-Bases
them escape or performing any other card- or scenario-based actions. - 100 Mental Disorder Cards - 64 Monster Miniatures
- 40 Movement Cards - 1 Warden Miniature
The monsters spend their turn trying to stop the players - not only
chasing after them and attacking, but summoning more monsters and - 60 Inventory Cards
triggering scenario-specific events that can be deadly to the players.
And all while the Warden, the head of the hospital, does his nightly
patrol around the wards...

Each game starts with a single scenario, with more being added as
the game plays on. Players win if they complete all scenarios before the
Warden finishes his patrol around the hospital. But if his journey ends
before you escape, then the only way out is through him.
 Component Overview
This section gives a description of each component in the game.
Please note that Board Pieces are also commonly called Tiles and decks
of cards may use abbreviated names, e.g. a deck of Memory Cards may
be referred to as a Memory Deck.
- Scenario Guide
The Scenario Guide gives the specifics of each
scenario. It details their setup, objectives, rules,
special events, monster statistics and any handicaps
used in games with fewer than 5 players.
This is the guide to use when choosing and
setting up scenarios.
- Central Board Piece
This tile always appears in the centre of the board
and is the starting position for the characters.
Four other quarter board tiles are attached, one
to each corner, to create the complete map of the
hospital.
- Quarter Board Pieces (Quarters)
These tiles represent different wings of the
hospital and are placed against the central board
piece (one at each corner).
Different quarters can be used each game allowing
for a variety of different board configurations.
- Chaos Die and Defense Die
These dice allow players to boost their power or
defense by sacrifing a little more of their precious
sanity.
For more information on these dice, see the
Insanity Section on p22.
- 4-Sided and 12-Sided Dice (Randomization Dice)
These two dice, sometimes called the D4 and D12,
are used to randomize the appearance and spawning
points of monsters, memories and objectives on the
board.For more about this, please see the section on
Randomization (p6).
- 6-Sided Dice
These dice, sometimes called D6, are used when
attacking, testing statistics and for many other
game mechanics that rely on randomly determined
outcomes.When you need to roll several dice the
number to roll is shown before the D, e.g. 3D6 means
to roll 3 of these 6-sided dice.
- Character Cards
These give information about characters: their
statistics, mental disorders, starting equipment and
backstory.
They have designated places to keep track of
health and insanity during play.
- Basic Skill Cards
Each character has a set of 4 Basic Skills available
to them, shown by their name on the backs of the
cards.
Players receive 2 of their cards during setup and
can obtain the rest later along with other skills.
- Memory Cards
Each character has a designated deck of 10
Memory Cards containing the secrets of their past.
Good memories grant skills and items. Bad ones have
a random outcome and can even harm them.
- Mental Disorder Cards
These are divided into 5 decks: Aggression, OCD,
Anxiety Neurosis, Schizophrenia and Phobia.
All these cards are skills usable by characters with
the given disorder. Each deck has it’s own thematic
effects (e.g. Aggression focuses on offense).
- Inventory Cards
There are 3 decks of Inventory Cards: weapons,
equipment and drugs.
Players store and use inventory cards to do many
things including fighting, defense, and healing.
- Movement Cards
One of these cards is revealed at the start of the
monsters’ turn. It controls the appearance of new
monsters and tokens, and the occurrence of random
events, scenario events and boss movement.
-Monster Cards
These contain information about monsters:
their statistics, attacks and rules.
- Scenario Cards
These help players pick a random scenario
and also provide a summary of the scenario setup,
objectives and rules.
For more detailed information, please refer to
the Scenario Guide.
- First Player Token
This indicates which player goes first on the
players’ turn. After the first player has finished,
the rest of the team go one after another going
clockwise.
At the end of the turn the token is passed to the
person on the left (clockwise).
- Door Tokens
These are placed face-up where a door is marked
on the board.
The reverse-sides have locked or barricaded
doors, shown by lock symbols and barricades, and
the barriers difficulty.
- Locker Tokens
These are placed face-up on spaces with a locker
symbol. The reverse-side displays the difficulty of the
search test that must be passed to obtain weapons,
equipment and drugs.
- Body Tokens
These are placed face-up on the board during
setup, dictated by the individual board tiles selected.
Players can search bodies to obtain items or
encounter monsters.
- Memory Tokens
These are places where characters can gain a
recollection about their past, allowing players to
draw cards from their memory decks.
Some are randomly placed on the board during
setup, with more appearing as the game progresses.
- Special Tokens
These special tokens are used with certain skills,
attacks and scenarios.
Each of these is described on the card that
introduces them.
- Red and Blue Tokens
These are used to keep track of ability cooldowns
and insanity. They also mark the durability of
weapons, partial damage done to monsters and
more.
- Plastic Miniatures
Characters and monsters are represented on
the game board by miniatures. Some of the larger
monster models require minimal assembly (no glue
required).
- Character Color-Bases
Each player puts their character figure on a base
of a different color to avoid confusing their character
with another player’s.
 Before Play Setup

Difficulty Level Board Setup

Before starting, players choose the difficulty level they would like. 1. Select a scenario or shuffle the Scenario Cards and draw one.
This determines the length of the game and how many scenarios must Read it’s description, see if it requires a specific quarter board tile.
be completed to win.
2. Take the Central Board Piece and place it in the middle of the
1 scenario – Paranoid Beginner – 30-45 minutes table. You’ll notice a letter in each corner – A, B, C and D.
2 scenarios – Seemingly Normal – 60-100 minutes 3. If the scenario specifies a Quarter Board Piece, place the tile
specified next to the central board piece at the corner marked A (as
3 scenarios – Crazy Hard – 120-150 minutes
shown below). If no tile is specified proceed to the next step.
4 scenarios – Insanely Impossible – 150+ minutes
Characters and Players
Lobotomy is designed for 3-5 characters. If there are fewer than
three actual players, someone will have to control more than one
character (e.g. playing alone requires the player to control at least
three characters; two players can control two characters each). The
game mechanics adapt to the number of characters, so a game with 3
characters will have fewer monsters than a game with 5 characters, and
the objectives of scenarios will be easier etc.
Your First Game
We recommend that your first game should be played at paranoid
beginner difficulty (1 scenario) to familiarise yourself with the rules.
The hardest part of the game is beginning a new scenario when the
previous one isn’t yet finished. Lobotomy does not have complex rules,
but there are a lot of things going on on the board, a new scenario
introduces even more elements to the game. A good grasp of the basics
will help you cope with this transition.
4. Choose, or randomly select, Quarter Board Pieces for each
remaining corner. Place the unused tiles back in the box.
5. Shuffle the remaining Scenario Cards and put them face-down
next to the board.
6. Separate Mental Disorder Cards into 5 decks according to the
card backs. Shuffle each deck and place them close to the board.
7. Separate Inventory Cards into 3 decks: weapons, equipment
and drugs. Shuffle each deck and place it close to the board.
8. Place the model of The Warden on space A1 (the space
marked with a number ‘1’ on the Quarter Board Piece attached to
the central tile at corner A).
 9. Shuffle the Body Tokens face-down. Place one Body Token on the
pentagram in the Central Board Piece.
10. Place one Body Token on each Quarter Board Piece on one of the
highlighted places. If possible, place the body on a highlight without
any furniture (or just seating on) it. Otherwise select a highlight at
random from those available on the tile.
11. Turn all the Door and Locker Tokens face-down and shuffle them.
Place random Door Tokens on doorways and place Locker Tokens on
all highlighted areas unoccupied by another token.
12. Place two Memory Tokens on each Quarter. Randomize their
positions by rolling a D12 twice for each quarter and placing Memory
Tokens on the spaces marked with the numbers rolled (with no more
than 1 Memory Token in any single space).
13. Separate the basic monsters (patients, nurses and scavengers)
from the rest. Randomize 1 patient and 1 scavenger for each Quarter
Board Tile. Additionally, randomize 2 nurses in a 4-character game and
4 nurses in a 5-character game (but there can be no more than 1 nurse
per Quarter).
14. Follow any additional setup steps required by the scenario.
15. Finally, perform the setup for each character (see below).
Randomization
Often the game will ask you to randomly pick a location. Usuallythis
is to place something (a monster, token or objective) on the board in
a random place. To randomize, roll a D4 and a D12. The 4-sided die
indicates the Quarter (with 1 being A, 2 being B, etc.) and the 12-sided
die indicates the exact space in the quadrant with a marked number
(from 1 to 12).
Rolling 1 (on the D4) and 7 (on D12) leads to this space, A-7.
Character Setup
1. Each player chooses a character and receives their character’s
Character Card, 4 Basic Skill Cards, 10 Memory Cards, a miniature of
the character and a colored base. The character-specific cards all have
the character name on the card backs.
2. Put the Character Card in front of you.
3. Shuffle the character’s Memory Deck and place it next to your
Character Card, face-down.
4. Pick 2 of your Basic Skills Cards and place them next to your
Character Card. Place the unselected skill cards under your Character
Card for use later in the game.
5. Find the character’s mental disorders on their Character Card. For
each disorder draw one card from the corresponding Mental Disorder
Deck. Place just one of the drawn cards next to your Character Card
and discard the rest.
 6. Look through the 3 decks of Inventory Cards for any starting
equipment listed on your Character Card and place them next to your
Character Card. Shuffle the Inventory Decks afterwards.
7. Place your character’s miniature (and colored-base) on an
unoccupied space in solitary confinement (the Central Board Piece).
8. The craziest player receives the First Player Token.
The final layout: the Character Card with a Memory Deck, 2 Basic
Skills, one Mental Disorder skill and starting equipment.
Goal of the Game
Players win if they complete the objectives of all scenarios (e.g.
normal difficulty – 2 scenarios). However, time is limited by how long
it takes the Warden (boss) to patrol the hospital. The Warden cannot
be attacked by players and starts his patrol on the A1 space. Usually
once per round he moves one space forward – from A1 to A2 and so on,
moving from the 12th space on one board to the 1st on the next, e.g.
from A12 to B1.
His journey finally ends when he reaches a space determined by the
difficulty: A12 in beginner mode (1 scenario), B12 in normal mode (2
scenarios), C12 in crazy mode (3 scenarios) and D12 in insane mode (4
scenarios).
After reaching the end space, the Warden moves to the pentagram on
the Central Board Piece and the players can only win by defeating him
in a nearly impossible battle. F
 or more information, see the Insomnia
Track (p23) and Final Clash (p27).
Character card
A.Picture B.Name C.Backstory (doesn’t
affect play) D.Life (HP)- The number by the drop of blood
symbol.is the character’s life. Every point of damage the character
takes is marked damage tokens placed on the Character Card.
Healing the character removes these tokens. When the amount of
damage tokens matches (or exceeds) the life statistic, the character
is taken back to solitary confinement. For more information, see
Death (p24).
E. Insanity - Insanity is tracked here. Characters start the game
with no markers on the track but when they use insanity, or lose
sanity, a marker is placed on the track and moved up the scale.
F. Action Points (AP) - AP indicates how many actions a
character can perform in each turn. Please see List of Actions (p8).
G. Attack Rating (AR) - AR is the minimum result that a player
must roll on a D6 to successfully damage an enemy. Low attack
ratings makes fighting easier. For details, see Combat (p16).
H. Defense (Def) - Defense indicates the amount of damage that
a character absorbs from each attack without losing health. More
information in Combat (p16).
I. Imagination (I) -Imagination is tested when a character tries to
bend reality. High imagination makes tests easier. See Imagination
Test (p9), Search Test (p12) and Unlocking Test (p25).
J. Mental disorders - This lists the character’s illnesses. Characters
may use skills from corresponding Mental Disorder Decks.
K. Starting equipment - Equipment the character starts with.
L. A character’s unique innate ability.
 Game Rounds
A Game Round consists of 2 turns.
1. The players’ turn - when players make their actions one after the
other.
2. The monsters’ turn – drawing a movement card, resolving it,
moving monsters and attacking with them.
The Players‘ Turn
The player with the first player token goes first, performing actions
until he either chooses to stop or has spent all his character’s AP. Play
then passes clockwise (to the left) for the next player to perform actions
until they choose to stop or spend their AP limit. W hen a player has had
their go, any unused AP are lost - they cannot be spent after another
player this round and they are not carried over to the next round).
When all players are done, the first player token is passed clockwise
and the monsters’ turn starts.
Available Actions
Here is the list of actions characters can perform for 1 AP cost:
- Move one space in any direction (see Movement, below).
- Search a locker or body in their current space (see Searching, p12).
- Reveal a Door Token or attempt to open a locked door (more in
Doors, p24).
- Pick up a Memory Token (more in section Memories, p13).
- Attack with a skill, weapon or fists (see Combat, p16).
- Trade inventory items with other characters. You spend 1 AP and
you can give and take any number of items to and from any number of
players on the same space (if they agree).
The following actions have varying costs, and may even be free.
- Use a skill or an inventory item. Sometimes they cost more than 1
AP, or no AP at all. For more information, see Skills (p13) and Inventory
(p15).
- Interact with some scenario-based objectives etc.
Running
At the beginning of the turn a player can declare that his character is
running. If he does, he gains 2 AP but any action points used this turn
MUST be spent on movement. The character can still use skills, items
and attacks but only if they cost zero action points.
Movement
The board is divided into spaces and there is no limit to the amount
of characters, monsters and tokens that can occupy one space at a time.
At the cost of 1 action point a character can move to an adjacent space
if it is not blocked by walls, door tokens and other visible obstacles.
You cannot normally from a space containing any monsters.
However, some items and abilities do allow you to escape and move
through monsters (i.e. stealth). Movement is not blocked by other
characters, tokens, markers or scenario-based objectives unless a card
or scenario says otherwise. Some Quarters have a complicated layout,
but the passages and obstacles will be always highly visible (e.g. a hole
in the wall, a fence). Adjacent spaces are also clearly visible as they
are separated by a continuous line. Ethereal units are an exception to
these movement rules and they can move through walls, doors etc.
Characters can also leave and move through spaces containing enemies
who are all ethereal.
Green arrows indicate spaces the character can move to for 1AP.
Red arrows indicate spaces that cannot be moved to as they are
blocked by walls.
 Line of Sight Monsters’ Turn
The line of sight (LoS) determines if two characters or a character After the last player finishes his turn reveal the top card of the
and a monster can see each other. You must check that there is LoS Movement deck to start the Monsters‘ Turn.
whenever a character wants to use a ranged attack or skill, and during
movement in the Monsters’ Turn.
To check if there is a LoS between two spaces you must be able to A - Event description
draw a straight line from any point on one space to any point on the
other space. LoS is blocked by walls, closed doors and other clearly B - Special event symbol
marked obstacles. LoS is not blocked by other characters and monsters. C - Memory spawn symbol
For more on doors and LoS, please see page 25. D - Warden movement symbol
E – New monsters spawn

Use the revealed Movement Card to resolve the Monsters’ Turn in

the order presented below. Some cards do not have all the symbols, in
which case just skip the related steps.
1. Event Effects
2. Special Event
3. Spawn Memory Tokens
Green lines indicate unobstructed lines of sight. Red lines indicate 4. Move the Warden
that the targets cannot be seen by the character. 5. Move Monsters
Imagination Test 6. Spawn New Monsters
Some events, monsters and items can force a character to test their 7. Monsters Attack
imagination. To do this, roll 2D6 (two six-sided dice) and add the
results. If the final result is EQUAL to or LOWER than the character’s Step 1. Event Effects
Imagination value, the test is passed successfully, otherwise the test Start by reading the event description, it may have effects that may
is failed. Some Imagination Tests have an additional modifier that is happen immediately or will affect the rest of the turn. For example an
applied to the Imagination value for the test. For example, a character event can force all team members to instantly perform a test, or it can
with 9 Imagination attempting an Imagination (-2) Test would need to empower monsters, which will affect them later in the turn.
roll 7 or lower to pass.
Step 2. Special Event
Check the Movement Card for the special event symbol. There are
three types of special event, denoted by color:
- Green (on twenty cards )
- Blue (one in five cards)
- Red (one in ten cards)

Now, check all unfinished Scenario Cards for the special event
symbol and follow the instructions on any with the matching color.
There are also some monsters and inventory items that can interact
with special events (it is stated on their cards). Special event effects
trigger in the order: scenarios, then monsters, then items and other.
Step 5. Move Monsters
All the monsters move towards players. This step is further explained
on the next page (p11).
Step 6. Spawn New Monsters
Up to three monsters will be listed on a single movement card.
Randomize each monster on the board. If there are three monsters
on the card and fewer than 5 characters are playing ignore the third
monster. See also Special Monsters and Mini-Bosses (p27).
Step 7. Monsters Attack
Monsters attack any players on the same space as them. This step is
further explained on page 20.

Follow the instructions on all current scenario cards depending on

the color.
Step 3. Spawn Memory Tokens
If the memory spawn symbol is on the movement card randomize
one memory token on the board (see Randomization on p6). If the
symbol is not present or all 12 memory tokens are already on the board
go to the next step.
A. Name E. Health (HP)
Step 4. Move the Warden
B. Attack Types F. Attack Rating (AR)
If the warden movement symbol is on the Movement Card then the
Warden advances one space along the Insomnia Track. C. Special Abilities G. Defense (Def)
For example if the warden is on space A1, he is moved to A2. If the D. Action points (AP)
warden is on space number 12 then he travels to space number 1 on the
next quarter (e.g. from A12 to B1).
More information about this can be found in Insomnia Track on p23. Some monsters will also have additional rules and Special Abilities
shown on their Monster Cards, which make them move or attack in
unique ways.
For example one could have an interaction with a special event
symbol of a particular color.
 Monster Movement
Monsters use all their action points on movement – each space
moved costing 1AP. Once they reach a space containing a character
they stay on it. Monsters can still attack (at the end of the Monsters’
Turn) even if they have no AP remaining.
When moving:
- If a monster can see any number of characters (has Line of Sight
to them, p9) it moves towards the nearest one.
- If a monster cannot see any characters then it moves towards the
closest unseen character.
If there is a tie for closest character, both seen or unseen, players This monster sees both characters but they are equal distance
decide which one draws the monster’s attention. away. In this case, the players get to decide which one the
Please note that Ranged Monsters (p21) move slightly differently. monster will move towards.

Please note that when moving, Ethereal monsters and characters

may move through walls, and locked or barricaded doors. However,
they cannot see or attack through these solid barriers!There are
some exceptions to these rules but they are described on the
applicable Monster Cards, Movement Cards or Scenario Cards. For
example, Nemesis always moves towards the same character.
Monsters and Doors.
Monsters can move through Door Tokens that have not yet been
revealed (and are still face-down). When characters reveal a door
but do not successfully open or break through them on the same
Although character A is closer, the monster cannot draw a line
turn, the Door Token remains face-up on the board. Only Ethereal
of sight (LoS) to him and so can not see him. The monster moves
monsters can move through these revealed doors, meaning that
towards character B.
non-ethereal monsters can be trapped in a room or forced to find
another way to the characters. F or more on this, see Doors (p24).
Tip for Moving Monsters Faster
There can be dozens of monsters on the board at the same time,
and some may be quite far from the characters (10+ spaces). In this
case counting the exact distance to each player can be slow and
inconvenient. Instead just intuitively move the monsters towards
the nearest corridor or to the center of the board. Each player can
“look after” one board quarter and move the monsters closest to
him or her. This will reduce the time spent moving the hordes.

Here the monster cannot see any character at all, so will move
towards the closest character (A).
 Monsters Attack
In the last step of the Monsters’ Turn, every monster in the
same space as one or more characters (or within range and LoS
of a charcater for ranged monsters) attacks. Each monster attacks
just once (unless the Monster Card or scenario rules say otherwise)
and attacking does not consume any AP.After all monster attacks
are resolved a new game round begins with the Players’ Turn. For
details on this, please see Monsters Attack (p20).
Searching
When a character is on a space with a Locker Token or a Body
Token, he can use 1 action point to search it (search action). Once
searched, the token is then discarded.
Body Search
If a character uses a search action on a body token he reveals it
(flips it upside down) and draws an Inventory Card indicated on
the back (weapon, equipment or drug).
Some Body Tokens have monster symbols instead of item
symbols in the back and they automatically spawn the indicated
monster in that place - especially inconvenient as characters cannot
move from a space containing monsters.
Locker Search
If a character uses a search action on a Locker Token he reveals
it (flips it upside down) and performs a Search Test.
From left to right, the symbols represent weapons, equipment
and drugs. Each item has a number assigned that represents its cost.
There is also a monster symbol (which is not on all Locker Tokens).
Once revealed the player has to perform a Search Test that will
allow him to “buy” inventory cards but risks spawning a monster at
his feet (if there is a monster on the token).
Search Test
Look at your character’s Imagination statistic and roll that
number of six-sided dice (e.g. if you have 8 Imagination, roll 8d6).
Each result of 4, 5 or 6 is a success, the rest are failures. S uccesses
can be traded for Inventory Cards at the cost represented on the
back of the token. For example, above, 3 successes are needed to
buy a card from the drug Inventory Deck. With enough successes
you can “buy” multiple cards during a single search, but you may
only get one from each category (weapon, equipment, drugs) and
each needs to be paid for separately.
If you do not have enough successes to buy any inventory card,
the test is failed and if there is a monster symbol then the monster
indicated spawns on the same space.
Note that although Search Tests use imagination they are not the
same as Imagination Tests described earlier (p9).

A character searches a Locker Token to find that a weapon
card costs 2 successes, equipment costs 4 successes and drugs cost
3 successes each. As the character’s Imagination is 7, he rolls 7
six-sided dice. Five dice are successes, having results of 4 or more.
With 5 successes, the player could buy both a weapon and a drug
(2+3) or buy just the equipment card for 4 successes. A  s the player
passed the test (rolling enough successes to buy at least 1 item) the
monster shown on the token will not spawn.
Memories
Even if you draw a bad memory, after following the instructions
on it, keep it next to your character.
At any time in the game, without any AP cost, you can trade
2 Memory Cards for 1 of your character’s Basic Skills (placed
under you character card during set-up). If you do that, discard
the Memory Cards spent (do not put them back in the Memory
Deck). Remember that some memory cards are one-use-only, so
after using and discarding them you cannot trade them in for a
Basic Skill.
Other personalized items from the Memory Deck can be used
for a limited number of times or may be weapons (affected by
durability). Until an item is exhausted or a weapon destroyed they
can still be traded for a Basic Skill.
Skills
Characters have 4 personalized Basic Skills and can gain any
number of additional skills from the Mental Disorder Decks (OCD,
Schizophrenia etc.). Skills are mostly used during your character’s
own turn (there are exceptions) and there are multiple ways they
can affect the gameplay.

Memory Token
When a character is on a space with a Memory Token, the player
may perform a memory action and draw a Memory Card from his
personal Memory Deck at the cost of 1AP. The Memory Token is
discarded and the player reads the Memory Card (following any
instructions on it).
Memory Deck
Each Memory Deck consists of 10 cards, five of which are
personal memories from the character’s life. Remembering these
will bring back useful skills and items. The remaining cards are the
same for all characters, describing traumatic memories from the
hospital.
After drawing a Memory Card, read it and follow the
instructions on it. Then place any skills and items gained next
to your character for them to use. Please note that personalized
items cannot be traded to, or used by, other characters.
 Skills are divided into three types: attack, utility and defense.
Attack Skills are offensive and mostly focus
on dealing damage to monsters. They can only
be used during your turn and have a single,
instant effect. For more, pleases see Combat
(p16).
Utility Skills have a wide range of versatile
effects that are neither offensive nor defensive in
nature. They can only be used during your turn,
unless the card specifically states otherwise.
Some of them have a one-time effect; other card
effects may be permanent or last until the end
of the round.
Defense Skills strengthen your character
against the enemy, weakening their attacks or
even allowing you to evade them. Their effects
always last until the end of a round. Note that
only Defense Skills (and only those that cost
0 AP) can be used during the Monsters’ Turn
(before they attack). See Monsters - Target (p20).
The Cooldown Counter
Once a skill is used, you have to wait some
time before you can use it again. This time is
measured using the Cooldown Counter. It has
two parts – the brighter part with the first
couple of numbers and the darker part with two
highest, additional numbers. After using a skill
place a token on the highest bright field. The
use of the darker fields is explained in Insanity,
p22.
At the beginning of each character’s turn, decrease all their
cooldowns by 1. If the Cooldown Counter is on one before
decreasing it, remove the token and the skill is ready to use again.
You can also decrease a cooldown of one of your skills by one every
time one of your attacks kills one or more monsters.
One of the key decisions in Lobotomy is how to manage your
skills. Will you use your skills economically, because you never
know when the skill will be really needed? Or will you use your
skills as often as you can?
As always, finding the middle ground will probably be the best
solution.
Skill Costs
In order to use a skill you often need to spend a set number of
action points. If a character does not have enough action points to
meet a skills cost, then he cannot use the skill.
However, there are many skills that cost 0AP that the character
will always be able to use during his turn. Zero-cost Defense
Skills can even be used during other players’ turns and during the
Monsters’ Turn.
Specific Skill Rules
Every skill has a description that states how and when the skill
works. Attack Skills contain mostly symbols that are explained
in the chapter on Combat (p16). Utility Skills and Defense Skills
require a player to read the card’s rules and follow them to use the
skill. Many skills allow you to do something not normally allowed
by this rulebook. In these cases the specific instructions on the
cards have priority over this rulebook. This exception applies all
cards, whenever their rules and effects conflict with the rulebook.
Skill Capacity.
At any time, each character can have a maximum of 6 skills. If
you gain another skill that takes you over this limit (memory cards
do not count towards the limit), you have to discard one skill (back
to its original deck). The discarded skill can be the new one just
drawn or any one of the character’s existing ones, even if it’s on
cooldown.
If the skill you are discarding is not on cooldown, you are allowed
to use it one last time, by paying the usual cost.
 Items & Inventory Equipment may be any kind of item from magical tomes to
zombie teeth. Their rules are always specified on the Inventory
Inventory cards are obtained by performing a Search Action Card.
on Locker Tokens and Body Tokens, as described in Search, (p12).
You can also get items from the Memory Deck and events. Each They can be used only during your turn (unless stated otherwise).
character has a maximum inventory capacity of 4. Most items take The number in the bottom right is
up 1 inventory slot but some items work differently as noted by the amount of charges/uses. Every
these keywords on inventory cards: time the item is used, place a token
on the card. When the number of
Large – an item that takes up 2 inventory slots. tokens equals the number of uses,
Small – an item that takes up no space (0 inventory slots). the item is discarded.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise,
Armor – you can only have 1 such item.
each piece of equipment can be used
You can discard any of your inventory cards at any time (or give any number of times in a single turn
them to other players with a trade action). if it has enough charges left.
Most equipment costs 0AP to use.
If you draw an inventory card that would make you exceed Any variation from this will appear
your inventory size, you must get rid of cards until you are within on the Inventory Card itself.
capacity again. You can do this by discarding one or more cards Armor I f an Equipment Card has the
back to their decks. The discards may include the new card or any keyword Armor, the number in the
existing cards. You can also get rid of some cards by exhausting bottom right represents it’s Durability. Every time a character
their remaining charges, but you cannot use the freshly drawn card possessing armor takes damage, the player may choose to place
until you make room for it in your inventory. tokens equal to the damage on the armor card instead of losing
health.

If the number of tokens is equal to

the durability, the card is discarded.
If you take more damage than the
armor’s remaining durability in one
attack, you can only prevent the
amount of damage equal to the
card’s remaining durability (the rest
of damage will be dealt to your
character).
Remember that you can only ever
Weapons deal damage to monsters. Almost every weapon has a have one single Armor card in your
durability value (bottom right corner). inventory at any time. If you draw
another Armor card, you can give it
Durability is lost from using the weapon in battle (and opening
to another character on your space for
barricaded doors) and is tracked by placing tokens on the weapon
free (no trade action needed). If
card. If the amount of tokens is equal to the durability, the weapon
there are no characters on your space
is destroyed and discarded. A weapon without a durability value it
you will have to discard one of the Armor cards (either the old or
is indestructible. For more on Weapons and durability, see Combat
the new one).
(p16).
Drugs are used to buff or heal characters. 3. Attack Roll
Despite it not being shown on their cards, all drugs are treated as
‘Small’ and so take up zero All attacks are performed with six-sided dice (D6). The number
space in the character’s inventory. of D6 rolled depends on the chosen attack. Fist attacks always roll
three six-sided dice. Weapon and skill cards state how many attack
Drugs always cost 0AP to use but dice they use.
can only ever be used during your
turn.
4. Count Successes
Successes are dice showing numbers EQUAL to or HIGHER
The number in the bottom right than the characters attack rating (AR). For example, if a character
corner is the number of times that has AR 5+ it means that only dice with results 5 and 6 are successes.
they can be used before they are The results on dice in Attack Tests are called Attack Rolls. If an
exhausted and discarded. Like any effect gives +1 to attack rolls, it means to add 1 to the result on each
other item use tokens to track the die, e.g. if a character has +2 to Attack Rolls, then dice with results
number of times each drug has of 3 count as 5s, and so are successes if they have AR of 5+.
been used. 5. Special Effects
Symbols on weapons and skills (p18) strengthen attacks or
The effects of drugs are all cumulative, irregardless of whether modify them. Rules and outcomes of attacks can also be changed
the drugs used are the same sort or different types. by items, monsters, events and scenarios.
6. Defense
Combat Reduce the number of successes by the target’s Defense statistic
value.
Players’ Attacks
7. Damage
If a character is on a space with a monster, or in-range with LoS
for a ranged attack, the character can use an attack action. The remaining number of successes is the damage dealt to the
There are three ways to fight: using bare fists, using a weapon card target (though this may be further changed by the effects of items
and using an attack skill. The cost of an attack action is 1AP unless and other cards).
stated otherwise by the weapon or skill card. Each character can If the amount of damage is equal to or higher than the monster’s
attack multiple times in a turn providing they have enough action remaining health, then a Final Blow has been dealt and the
points. monster is destroyed and removed from the board. If the amount of
damage is lower than the monster’s remaining health, place tokens
The Attack Test
that represent the amount of damage dealt next to the monster’s
Each attack is resolved by an Attack Test. miniature (or on it’s Monster Card for bosses).
1. Choose a Target Move the tokens with the monster miniatures as they move to
track how much damage has been dealt to each monster.
The player chooses an enemy to attack. It must be on the same
space or in range with Line of Sight for Ranged attacks. Whenever your attack deals the Final Blow (to one or more
2. Choose an Attack monsters) you can reduce the cooldown of one of your skills by 1.

Characters may attack with fists, a weapon or a skill.

 Attack Types
Fists
Every character can use an Attack Action to attack with bare
fists when there is a monster in the same space. It does not require
any weapons or skills and rolls 3D6 in the Attack Test (p16).
For example, a character with no weapons or skills decides to
do an Attack Action using bare fists and so rolls 3D6 in an Attack
Test. The character has an AR of 4+ so rolling 4 or higher is a
successes. The character rolls 3, 5 and 6, meaning 2 successes. The
monster has 1 Defense so the amount of successes is lowered by
one meaning that the character dealt 1 damage and so places 1
token next to the monster. Before the attack, the monster had 4
health so the character’s punches leave it 3 health remaining.
Attack with a Weapon
If a character has a weapon card, he can attack with it. T  he
player performs an Attack Test and rolls the amount of D6 stated
on the card. After the Attack Roll you apply any special rules given
by the card. 
Weapons have durability and can wear out through use. If you
roll at least one “1” result (before modifications) place a token
on the card. If the number of tokens on the card is equal to the
weapon’s durability (in the bottom right corner) it is destroyed
and discarded after the attack. Occasionally, some weapons have
different durability rules explained on their weapon card.
Imagine a character performing an Attack Action with a Steel
Cross weapon against an ethereal enemy. First he has to choose
which monster to attack, in this case he picks the one that already
has 1 damage token. Then the character rolls 5D6 as listed on the
weapon card.
As the character has an AR of 3+, dice with results 3 or higher
are successes. The roll of 1, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 6 provides four successes.
Normally we would subtract successes for the monster’s Defense,
but the monster is ethereal and the weapon has the Holy symbol
(more in Attack Symbols, p18) which reduces ethereal monsters’
Defense to zero. The monster has 4 health but it already had 1
damage dealt to it earlier. Four successes mean 4 damage, which
is more than enough to deal the Final Blow to the monster and
remove it from the board. Note that the 1pt of surplus damage
does not transfer to the second monster.
Because there is at least one “1” result on the dice, the player
places one durability token on the weapon. Finally, because the
character dealt a Final Blow, he can now reduce the cooldown of
one of his abilities by 1.
Attack with an Attack Skill
Characters can use Attack Skills (that aren’t on cooldown) by
paying the AP cost shown on the Skill Card. Special symbols (see
next page) on the Card indicate attack types and any effects that
are applied after the Attack Roll. As with any skill, after using an
Attack Skill remember to place a token on the cooldown counter.

A character attacks using the Dragon breath Skill. This skill
costs 1AP (as it doesn’t say otherwise) and lets the player choose
one of two attacks: a strong (7 dice) single-target attack or an area
of effect (AoE) attack that can hit every monster in a single space.
Each attack is ranged (with a range of 1) and has the fire effect.
The player chooses the AoE attack that does not require a
target, and affects all enemies on a space. The Skill Card states that
the player roll 4 six-sided dice for each monster on the space, so,
as there are 3 monsters, he rolls 12D6.
The character has an AR of 4+ and rolls 7 successes. In AoE
attacks the amount of successes is reduced only by the defense of
the monster with the highest defense on the space. In this case it
is 1, but the Dragon breath attack also has the Fire Attack Symbol
(see opposite), which means that you lower the enemy’s defense
by 1, meaning we finish up with 7 successes and three monsters.
In an AoE attack you must deal at least 1 damage to each
monster on the space and then the rest can be distributed as you
choose. The player decides to deal 4 damage to monster #1 (killing
it with a Final Blow), 2 damage to monster #2 and 1 damage
to monster #3. The destroyed monster is removed and damage
tokens are placed next to the remaining monsters.
Once damage has been allocated, the player places a token on
the highest bright field of the Dragon breath cooldown counter.
Finally, because the character dealt a Final Blow, the player
reduces one of his skill cooldowns by 1 (maybe even the Skill just
used).
Attack Symbols
Some attacks, by both monsters and characters, have symbols
indicating special effects that the attack uses.
Fire reduces the enemy’s Defense against this attack by
1. This is not a permanent reduction.
Holy attacks reduce the Defense of ethereal enemies to
0, for the purposes of this attack.
Ghostly attacks reduce the Defense of non-ethereal
enemies to 0, for the purposes of this attack.
Power attacks stun the enemy (knock its miniature over)
if at least 1 damage is dealt.
Frost freezes the enemy (put a Frost Token next to it)
whenever at least 1 damage is dealt.
AoE attacks can deal damage to multiple enemies in a
single space.
Ranged attacks don’t require the attacker and the target
to be on the same space. Instead the target must be in range
and with LoS.
Weapon Attack – Attack with one of your weapons with
all bonuses from the weapon and Skill Cards.
The following two conditions have keywords but no symbols:
Precision – Dice rolling a “6” in the Attack Roll ignore the
enemy’s Defense.
Critical – Results of “6” in the Attack Roll each cause 2 damage
(instead of 1) if they manage to get past Defense.
Holy and Ghostly Attacks
If an enemy is ethereal it will be stated on it’s Monster Card,
all monsters without the ethereal symbol are non-ethereal. All
characters are non-ethereal (some skills, equipment and scenarios
can change that).
 Power Attack
Any enemy (except a Boss monster) is stunned by a Power Attack During the Attack Test of an AoE Attack, the number of successes
that causes at least 1 point of damage. When stunned, knock down rolled is only reduced by the Defense of the monster with the
the miniature of the damaged monster or character. Additionally, highest Defense value after applying modifications (e.g. by other
when a monster is stunned it may be pushed 1 space in any legal special Attack Symbols like Fire, Ghostly or Holy).
direction (not through walls, etc.)
After determining the number of successes, the player distributes
A stunned character must pay 1AP to get up at the beginning
damage to the monsters - any characters on the target space are
of his turn. A stunned monster must also pay 1AP to get up next
unharmed. First he has to deal at least 1 damage to each monster
turn (and so can move one space fewer than usual that turn). Until
on the space. After that he can assign the remaining damage as he
they pay to get back up, stunned characters and monsters have 0
chooses. If the amount of successes is too low to assign 1 damage
Defense and lose all Avoidance (if they had any).
per monster, the player chooses which monsters are dealt 1 damage
Frost Attack for each success and no monster can be damaged twice.
Characters and monsters are frozen by Frost Attacks that do at Remember that killing one or more monsters with an AoE attack
least one point of damage. If this happens, place a Frost Token next lets you reduce the cooldown of one of your skills by 1 (regardless
to the damaged monster or character. of how many monsters were actually dealt a Final Blow).
Frozen characters and monsters must pay 1AP to lose the token
at the beginning of their turn. Recovering monsters attacking in
the same turn (that they lose the Frost Token) also roll one less
Attack Die on their first attack.
Ranged Attack
Ranged Attacks are able to attack enemies that are not on
the same space as the attacker. Every ranged attack has a value
indicating the maximum number of spaces you can be from the
target, though they can still be used on closer targets (even ones on
the same space as you). They do require a clear Line of Sight (p9)
between the attacker and target.
Ranged Attacks can safely target a monster on the same space
as another friendly character. They can also travel through spaces
with other monsters and characters to affect targets behind them.
The Attack Test for Ranged Attacks is the same as any other attack.
Area of Effect (AoE) Attack
AoE Attacks can damage multiple monsters on a single space.
The card for an AoE Attack states the amount of dice per enemy
that is used in the Attack Test.
For example, the Dragon Breath skill says to roll 4D6 for each
enemy on the target space. So if there are 5 enemies there, it gives
5*4=20D6 Attack Dice. If there is just 1 enemy then the attack
uses 1*4=4D6 Attack Dice.
 Precision Attack
Precision allows Attack Dice rolling a natural (unmodified) “6”
to ignore the enemy’s Defense.
For example, consider a monster with 2 defense. A character
(of AR 5+) attacks with a 5D6 weapon with the precision attack
symbol. The results are 6, 6, 5, 2 and 1 - so 3 successes. Normally,
after reducing the amount of successes by the enemy’s defense
there would be 1 success left. However, the precision attack
allows the two results of “6” to ignore the defense. The result with
a “5” is still affected and absorbed by the Defense so in the end
there are 2 successes. A  s only natural rolls of “6” count toward
this effect, if the character had a +1 to Attack Rolls, the “5” result
would be a “6” but would not be a natural “6” so would still be
stopped by Defense.
Critical Attack
The critical attack modifier makes any Attack Dice results of
natural (unmodified) “6” each deal two damage if they make it pass
the enemy’s Defense.
For example if a 2 Defense monster is attacked by a 5+ AR
character using a 5D6 weapon with the critical attack symbol.
The character rolls 6, 6, 5, 2 and 1 - meaning 3 successes. They
are reduced by the monster’s 2 defense, leaving just 1 success, but
because the one remaining success is a natural “6” (and not, for
example, a “5” modified by +1) it deals 2 damage instead of one.
Defense always reduces successes starting with the lowest results.
So in this case, it negates the “5” and one of the “6”s.
Monsters’ Attack
Monsters attack at the end of the Monsters’ Turn. Unless you have
a friendly monster at your gaming table, all of the monster Attack
Tests (dice rolls) are actually performed by players (preferably
the ones with the worst luck). Monsters attack the same way as
characters do, with a few exceptions.
Monsters - Target
If there is more than one character on a space, or within range
and LoS for ranged attacks, monsters target the character with the
lowest Defense statistic.
If two or more potential targets have the same Defense, then the
character with the least remaining health is selected.
If there is still a tie then the players choose which one is attacked.
Players can use Defense Skills to increase Defense or Heal before
monsters pick a target (so can influence who is attacked). Players
can also use Defense Skills to increase Defense after a monster picks
a target. This won’t cause the monster currently attacking to change
its target but will affect any subsequent monster attacks.
Example: Two characters are on the same space as two
monsters. Character #1 has 1 Defense and 3 Health remaining.
Character #2 has 1 Defense and 6 Health remaining.
The first monster is initially going to attack character #1
because the characters have the same defense but #1 has less
health. To avoid being attacked, #1 uses a Defense Card that gives
him +1 Defense for this turn. Now character #2 has the lowest
Defense and so the monster targets him.
After the monster has settled on #2, this character uses a
Defense Skill to increase his Defense by 1 until the end of turn.
Although characters are tied for the defense again, the monster
had already chosen to attack #2 before they used their Skill.
The monster attacks, dealing 5 damage to #2. Both characters
now have 2 defense, but #1 has 3 health remaining and #2 has 1
health left. The second monster will target #2 as he has the least
remaining health.
As an attack from the second monster could kill #2, player
#1 decides to focus all following monster attacks on himself by
Throwing a Tantrum (a special skill that uses Insanity, see p22).
 Monsters - Attack table
Scenario-related monsters, bosses and mini-bosses have a list
of attacks described on the Monster Cards. After the monster has
chosen a target, roll a D6 to find out which attack it unleashes.
Monsters - Priority
When there are multiple monsters on a space, there is a set order
in which they attack. A monster with the Boss keyword goes first,
then Elite and finally, Basic. Monsters with the same keyword
attack in no particular order (you can choose).
Once one monster attacks, all other monsters on the same space
must attack after him (if they can). Only after all attacks on one
space are resolved you can start the same process on another space.
Overwhelm
Monsters are stronger when they co-ordinate to attack targets on
the same space. The first monster attacks normally, but subsequent
attacks get an extra attack die for every previous monster to attack
a target on that space. So the second monster attacks the same space
has 1 additional attack die, the third monster has 2 additional dice
and so on.
If monsters switch to another target on the same space this bonus
is not cancelled. The bonus resets each round.
Example of Priority and Overwhelm: Space A has a character
with two monsters, one Elite and one Basic. Space B contains a
character with a Boss and two Basic monsters. Space C has a single
ranged monster who can attack space B.
Players decide to resolve space A first. On that space the elite
monster attacks first and then the basic monster attacks with +1
Attack Die for Overwhelm (e.g. if it normally attacks with 4D6, it
now attacks with 5D6).
After all monsters on space A have attacked, the players decide
to resolve space B.
On space B, the Boss attacks first, then the two Basic monsters
attack with +1 and +2 Attack Dice from Overwhelm.
Finally, the Ranged monster attacks the character on space B,
with an Overwhelm bonus of +3 (for the 3 monsters on space B
that have already attacked the character on space B).
Monsters - AoE Attack
Monsters’ AoE Attacks affect every character on the space where
the monster’s target is. When a monster attacks with an AoE it rolls
the amount of Attack Dice stated on the Monster Card and you
determine how many successes there are. This is not affected by
Attack Roll modifications from characters.
The number of successes is applied to each character, who
individually reduce the amount by their own Defense. The
remaining amount is the damage that they receive. In this way,
each player can receive a different amount of damage from a single
AoE attack.
Example: A monster with a 5D6 AoE attack is on a space with
2 characters. It has 2+ AR and rolls 2, 2, 3, 4 and 5 – 5 successes.
Character #1 has an item that says monsters attacking him have
-1 to Attack Rolls. Normally, this would change the “2”s into “1”s,
making them failures. However, as AoE attacks are unaffected by
Attack Roll modifications the 5 successes remain.
Character #1 has 1 Defense, so receives 4 damage. Character #2
has 2 defense and used a Defense Skill card +1 Defense before the
attack. By raising his effective Defense, Character #2 blocks 3 of
the 5 successes leaving him to take 2 damage.
Ranged Monsters
If a monster has a Ranged symbol on the Monster Card, it means
that it can attack from a distance. Ranged Attacks are resolved the
same way as other attacks but require the monster and target to be
within range and having LoS, not neccesarily on the same space.
During Monster Movement, a ranged monster does not move all
the way to the character’s space; instead stopping when it is close
enough to a character to use an attack. If a monster is closer to the
character than its range, it moves away from the character, to be as
far from all characters while still being able to attack.
Unlike characters, monsters can leave a space with enemies on
it.
 Insanity

Insanity represents a character’s mental state and allows them to

bend reality. It can be used both offensively and defensively.
The Insanity Counter on the Character Cards is used to track
your current Insanity. All players start the game without a token on
the counter and only place a token on the number 1 the first time
that they use or lose insanity. The token is moved progressively
upwards when the character uses or loses it again.
Insanity can be used on Insane Abilities listed below and can
be lost through events, bad memories or facing specific monsters.
If insanity is regained move the token down the track to a lower
number.
Insane Abilities
Chaos Die - Use 1 Insanity during your turn to add the Chaos
Die to your next Attack Roll. The Chaos Die is rolled with the
other Attack Dice and the number of skulls rolled is the number of
Tantrum - At any moment during the Monsters’ Turn you can
successes added to your Attack Roll. One of the results on the chaos
use 1 Insanity to throw a Tantrum, drawing the monsters’ attention
die is a “+1” symbol. It is a +1 buff to Attack Rolls, meaning that the
and protecting friendly characters on the same space. For the rest of
values shown on all other dice in this attack are increased by 1. You
the turn, as long as you are still alive, any monster attacks aimed at
can use Insanity multiple times per turn to add the Chaos Die to
targets on your space will target you, no matter how much (or how
any number of attacks but not twice for the same attack (although
little) Defense or Health you have left. Note that fellow characters
some skills and weapons make it possible to have more than one
on the same space can still be harmed by AoE attacks as normal.
Chaos Die for a single attack). If a skill or weapon attacks twice, the
Chaos Die is only added to the first roll. The player using this skill is obligated to shout out “Tantrum!”
Chaos Die skulls are automatic successes in attacks, but do not Insanity Penalties
count as “6”s for special rules like Precision and Critical attacks.
The two highest values on the Insanity Counter have +1CD and
Imaginary Locker - Use 1 Insanity and 1AP during your turn to +2CD symbols next to them. If you reach this level of insanity the
place a random Locker Token (from off the board) on your space. reality starts to blur and your skill cooldowns become longer.
This ability can only be used after the warden has reached space B1
of the Insomnia Track (p23). Normally, when you use a skill, you place a token on the highest
bright field of the Cooldown Counter (p14) on the Skill Card. When
Only the character summoning an Imaginary Locker can search your insanity reaches a value with a +1CD or +2CD symbol you
it (at the cost of another 1AP). instead place the token on the first (+1CD) or the second (+2CD)
Defense Die - In the Monsters’ Turn, after a monster targets you dark field of the cooldown counter.
(or the space you are on for AoE attacks), but before it performs When your insanity reaches it’s maximum, you cannot use
an Attack Roll, you can use 1 Insanity to roll the Defense Die. Insane Abilities anymore until you regain it. If you are at the
The number of shields shown on the die is added to your Defense maximum value and something forces you to lose Insanity again,
against this one attack. you are taken back to solitary confinement. See Death (p24).
 Example: The character shown has 1 health remaining, three
action points and is on a space with monster A (4 Health and 1
Defense). Monster B is coming his way so he wants to move away
this turn, but a character cannot leave a space with a monster on it.
The character wants to kill the monster with his first action and use
his remaining AP to get away from the second monster.
To have more chance of killing Monster A, the player uses 1
Insanity to add a Chaos Die to his next attack, putting his character
up to 6 insanity. He now spends 1AP to attack with a 5d6 weapon.
He has 5+ AR and rolls 6, 5, 2, 1, 1 on D6s and 2 skulls on the
Chaos Die, giving 4 successes. However, the monster’s Defense of 1
decreases this to 3 damage - not enough to kill it. The player puts 3
damage tokens next to the monster and reduces the durability of his
weapon by one (because he rolled at least one “1”).
As he is still on a space with a monster, the player decides to
attack with a skill using his second AP. As the monster had 1 health
remaining he kills it easily. However, he has 6 Insanity, and his
Insanity Counter shows a +1CD symbol, so when he must mark the
Cooldown Counter (of the skill he just used) on the first darker field
(second to highest). Additionally, as he dealt the Final Blow to the
monster, he can reduce the cooldown of one skill by 1.
Having killed monster A, he uses his final AP to moves 1 space
away from monster B. The Players’ Turn ends.The Monsters’ Turn
starts and monster B catches up to the player and attacks.
The player has 1HP left and 1 Defense so uses a zero-cost
Defense Skill to gain +1 Defense (it’s cooldown is increased by 1 due
to Insanity). Then, he uses his last Insanity point to roll a Defense
Die. His Insanity is now 7 with a +2CD symbol. If he had used
Insanity first, and the Defense Skill later, it’s cooldown would have
been be increased by 2. The character naturally has 1 Defense, +1
Defense from the skill, and rolls 3 shields on the Defense Die for a
total of 5. The monster attacks with a fire attack (reducing Defense
by 1) and has 4 successes, meaning a result of zero damage and the
character lives to fight again!
Insomnia Track
The Insomnia Track is the path the Warden travels that acts as a
flexible time limit for the game.
The Warden starts the game on space A1 and moves forward
one space (e.g. from A1 to A2) every time a Movement Card with
a Warden Movement Symbol (p9) is revealed. The Warden’s
movement can be also affected by memories, events, skills and by
using Insomnia Shifts (see below).
When the Warden is supposed to move and is already on the
space marked with a 12, he moves to the number 1 space on the
next Quarter (e.g. from A12 to B1).
The length of the Insomnia Track depends on the game difficulty.
The path at ends at:
A12 in Paranoid Beginner (1 scenario)
B12 in Seemingly Normal (2 scenarios)
C12 in Crazy Hard (3 scenarios)
D12 in Insanely Impossible (4 scenarios)
If the Warden is supposed to move past the end of the Insomnia
Track, he instead moves to the pentagram in the Central Board
Piece for the Final Clash (p27).
Insomnia Shifts
Insomnia Shifts are additional skills that characters can use. Using
an Insomnia Shift makes the Warden advance on the Insomnia
Track, so they should be used with caution or as a last resort.
Insomnia Shift – Defy Time
Move the Warden 1 space forward on the Insomnia Track to
gain +1AP. Each player can use this just once per turn.
Insomnia Shift - Defy Gravity
Move the Warden 1 space forward on the Insomnia Track to
change a die result by 1 (either up or down). This can only be used
once per roll and cannot affect Chaos and Defense Dice.
Example: A character at maximum Insanity is forced, by an
event, to pass an Imagination Test (p9) or lose 1 Insanity. The
character has 7 imagination and so needs to roll 7 or less on 2D6.
The player rolls “2” and “6” - a fail! Normally, he would now
lose insanity and die, but, instead, he uses Insanity Shift – Defy
Gravity to change the “6” into a “5”, pass the test and survive (at
the cost of advancing the Warden).
 Stomp!
Be extremely careful when the Warden is close by. Whenever
the Warden sees a character on the same space as he is, he stomps
it recklessly. This can happen during any part of the Game Round
and can be triggered by any character without stealth.
When he stomps, roll Chaos Dice twice and deal damage to the
character for each skull rolled. This damage cannot be prevented
by anything (such as skills, armor, Defense Die). The character is
also stunned (has to pay one action at the beginning of its next turn
to get up). After stomping, the warden automatically moves again
to the next space on the Insomnia Track.
And you know what happens if any character’s on that space
too!
Death
A character dies when they lose all health (the amount of damage
tokens on their character card is equal to their health statistic) or
when they are forced to lose Insanity when they are already at the
maximum value. When a character dies follow these steps:
1. Move the character’s miniature back to one of the solitary
confinement cells (starting positions) in the Central Board Piece.
2. Recover all Health and 2 Insanity points, e.g. if you were on 5
Insanity you now have 3 Insanity.
3. All items in the inventory lose one Durability or a charge.
Cooldowns on skills remain unchanged.
4. Move the Warden forward three times on the Insomnia Track.
5. During the Final Clash death is permanent – remove the dead
character from the board.
Doors
During setup, place Door Tokens between spaces that have a
highlighted door symbol. Players cannot move between spaces
with Door Tokens until they open them. Opened doors are removed
from the board.
When a character is on a space with a door token they can flip the
token upside down for 1 action point. What happens next depends
on what is revealed on the back of the Door Token. A  fter you open
the door, or if there are no symbols on the back, remove the token
from the board. If you fail to open them, leave the revealed token
in its place.
Door Types
Open Doors have no symbols on the back of the token. Remove
them from the board after revealing.
Barricaded Doors have a symbol of a fence and a numeric strength
value. Once you reveal a barricaded door you have to destroy them
by force. You can place 1 damage token on a barricaded door by
spending 1AP or by placing a token on any of your weapon cards
(spending weapon Durability).
When the number of damage tokens on the door is equal to the
strength value on the barricade symbol, the door is opened and the
token is removed from the board.
Spending weapons’ Durability does not cost any additional action
points and you can spend some or all Durability of any number of
weapons (remembering to destroy and discard any weapon reaching
maximum durability). Indestructible weapons without Durability
cannot be used to open Barricaded Doors.
 Example: A character uses 1 AP to reveal a door on his space.
It turns out to be Barricaded Door with a strength value of 6. The
character has no weapons so he uses his remaining 2 AP to place 2
damage tokens on the barricade.
The next character decides to use all their actions for
movement this turn, so he declares that he is Running (p8) to
gain 2 extra AP and moves to the space with the Barricaded Door.
He has two brand new weapons with no Durability tokens on
them and places 2 durability tokens on each weapon, as that is a
free (0AP) action. He can place 4 damage tokens on the barricade
which, with the previous 2 placed by the first character, gives 6 in
total.
As the strength value on the Barricaded Door token is also
6, the door is opened and removed from the board. The second
character still has actions left but, as he declared Running, can
only spend them on movement. He choses to enter the room that
had been blocked by the barricade.
Locked Doors have a symbol of a lock and a strength value on
the reverse. When you reveal a Door Token (for 1AP) and it turns
out to be a Locked Door, you gain a free attempt at opening it (using
an Unlocking Test, below). The player doesn’t have to use the free
attempt - they may want to leave a door locked if a monster is on
the other side.
If you try to open a Locked Door but fail, the token stays on
the board. You (or any other character) in a space with a revealed
Locked Door can pay 1AP to attempt to unlock it (by passing
another Unlocking Test).
Unlocking Test
An Unlocking Test is a test using your character’s Imagination
attribute. You roll as many six-sided dice as you have points of
Imagination (e.g. if you have 7 Imagination, you roll 7D6) and
every die showing a 4, 5 or 6 is a success, the rest are failures.
If the number of successes is EQUAL to or HIGHER than the
strength value of the lock symbol, the door is opened and the Door
Token is removed from the board.
If a character fails to open the door they can repeat the test on
the same turn for another 1AP but the test becomes harder. Add
+1 to the strength of the lock for every previous attempt by this
character this turn. The extra difficulty disappears at the end of
each character’s turn.
Example: A character reveals a door token for 1 action point.
It turns out to be a Locked Door with a difficulty of 5. The
character gets one attempt at opening the door for free. He has 7
imagination so he rolls 7D6 and gets 3 successes -not enough to
open the door. A  s the character has one action left, he spends it
on another attempt to open the door. Because this is his second
try this turn, the difficulty has risen up by 1 and the door is now
strength 6. He rolls 7D6 and gets 1 success - much less than the 6
needed!
The door stays on the board and an another characters comes
to the space. The second character has 6 imagination and the
difficulty is back to 5. He rolls 5 successes and removes the token
from the board.
Monsters and Doors
Monsters can move through unrevealed Door Tokens and
through open doorways (when the token has been removed from
the board.
However, sometimes the Door Token is revealed and the
characters are unable (or unwilling) to open the door during the
players’ turn, leaving it barricaded or locked. Monsters cannot walk
through these revealed Door Tokens. When the monsters move,
they will have to find an another way towards the characters or
may even be trapped in a room (in this case the monsters move
towards the nearest character).
Line of Sight and Doors
Door Tokens block Line of Sight (p9), however once a Door
Token is removed from the board, the open door modifies the line
of sight rules.
When a character is standing on a space with an opened door
it sees everything inside or outside the room normally. However,
when a character is one or more spaces away from an open door, it
sees only the first space of the room through the door.
These rules also apply to monsters when you determine if they
can or cannot see a character during Monsters Movement (p11).
Examples of LoS through doorways can be seen on the next page.
 Lines in the picture represent the lines of sight. The character
can see the monsters indicated by the green lines and cannot see
them when the line is red. Because the character stands on a space
with the door, they can see all the monsters inside the room on
the left. However, the character is one space away from the door
on the right, so can only see the first space behind the door and
cannot see the monster deeper in the room.
Scenarios

Scenario Cards A. Objective –

Scenario cards describe quests that players must fulfill to win the
game (1, 2, 3 or 4 scenarios are played, depending on the difficulty).
A Scenario Card is only a summary of a scenario. Full descriptions
of each scenario can be found in the Scenario Guide.
Scenario Jump
Regardless of difficulty, the game always starts with a single
scenario. Only when the requirements are met for the Scenario
Jump will another scenario start automatically.
Scenario Jumps only happen in games with more than 1 scenario
(’Seemingly Normal’ difficulty or higher) and only if there are still
scenarios left to complete at the chosen difficulty level.
When the Scenario Jump happens, start a new scenario by
revealing a new random Scenario Card (if it requires a specific
Quarter not used in this game, discard it and reveal a new Scenario
Card). Then, read the Scenario Card and follow the rules specified
in the setup.
The Scenario Jump will always happen before the scenario is
finished, so at any one time there can be multiple scenarios active -
meaning more monsters, special events and additional rules.
Conditions that have to be fulfilled to finish the scenario.
B. Special Events –
Events happen when a revealed Movement Card (p9) has the
corresponding color of Special Event Symbol.
C. Scenario Jump –
The point or conditions in the scenario that trigger the start of
another scenario.
Finishing a Scenario
After the players complete the Objective of a scenario, remove
all scenario tokens from the board (any remaining monsters stay on
the board until they are defeated, unless the Scenario Card states
otherwise).
Every character receives both the following rewards:
1. Regain 1 Insanity.
2. Draw a card from each Mental Disorder Deck listed on your
Character Card, pick one of those cards to keep and discard
the rest (back to their respective decks).
Players only receive rewards for completing scenarios if the
Final Clash (p27) has not already begun.
 Final Clash
The Warden travels along the Insomnia Track (p23) until he
reaches the final space (A12 on Paranoid Beginner difficulty, B12
on Seemingly Normal difficulty and so on).
When the Warden is on the final space and is moved forward
again, he moves to the space with the pentagram on the Central
Board Piece and the Final Clash begins.
If players manage to finish all scenarios before the Final Clash
has begun, they win the game, escape the hospital and the Warden
waits impatiently for new patients to harass.
If the players did not complete all scenarios in time, they still
have one last chance to win: they must defeat the Warden (Chief
Hospital Administrator) in battle. The Warden’s rules and attacks
are described on his Monster Card.
After the Warden has been placed on the pentagram, turns pass
normally, and the warden moves and attacks like any other monster
during the Monsters’ Turn.
Players can still finish scenarios during the Final Clash, but they
will not receive any rewards for doing so. However, finishing all
scenarios during the Final Clash stops any more Movement Cards
from being revealed during the Monsters’ Turn. This can make
defeating the Warden a little easier, as there will be no more Special
Events triggering and no new monsters will spawn.
Important: During the Final Clash, character deaths are
permanent (they no longer respawn in solitary confinements).
Victory and Defeat
If at least one player is alive when the Warden is defeated, or if
you manage to complete all scenarios before the Final Clash, you
win, leave the hospital and your fate is, for now, undetermined.
You lose if all players die during the Final Clash, and your sorry
story ends as you are dragged away to the hospital’s basement for a
lobotomy procedure that takes away all your memories, personality
and soul.
Special monsters and mini-bosses
Special monsters have a blue star and mini bosses have a red star
next to their names on monster cards. When setting up the game
you can decide to spice up the game by adding these extraordinary
monsters. In the basic version of the game there is one mini-boss,
Nemesis. Some additional monsters were available as Kickstarter
exclusives, other can be ordered on our website: www.titan-forge.
com or purchased at our stand during the annual international
game fair in Essen, Germany.
Special Monsters and Mini-Bosses may be picked or chosen at
random during setup. You can select more than one, but too many
can slow down the game. Place the monsters’ miniatures near the
board.
During the game, if the revealed Movement Card has a blue or
red star in the monster spawn section do not spawn the monsters
from the Movement Card. Instead place a random monster of that
type on the board (roll a D6 for each and spawn the one with the
highest result).
There can be any number of special monsters on the board but
only one mini-boss, so if another red star appears and the previous
mini-boss is not yet defeated, spawn the normal monsters from the
movement card. Same thing happens if a star appears and there are
no more special monsters and mini-bosses. R  ead and follow the
monsters’ rules, as they bring extra challenges and force players to
adapt their tactics. Some monsters even have special rewards for
defeating them.
We recommend using special monsters and mini-bosses every
time if you have them to hand.
 Nemesis Glossary

After the Nemesis appears on the board all players roll a die. The Space - A separate field on the board. There is no limit to how
one with the lowest result will be the target of the Nemesis. many players, objectives, tokens and monsters may be on it at any
given time.
The Nemesis only moves towards and attacks this poor, unlucky,
Token – A small token used to count damage, durability, cooldowns
haunted player. Other characters do not feel the presence of the
and more.
Nemesis. Unlike the unlucky target character, they can leave the
space with the Nemesis on it and cannot target, attack or affect it in Quarter – One L-shaped Game Board Piece.
any way. The statistics of the Nemesis are the same as the haunted Round – A Players’ Turn followed by a Monsters’ Turn.
player’s statistics from his Character Card but improved by 1 (e.g.
Players’ Turn – The phase in which characters use their actions.
if the character’s AR is 5+ then Nemesis has 4+). However Nemesis
always has just 1AP. Monsters’ Turn – The phase in which the Movement Card is
revealed and monsters move and attack.
When the Nemesis is on the same space as it’s target, it attacks,
choosing from two possible attacks Line of Sight (aka LoS) – The line determining if characters and
(shown on the Monster Card). monsters can see each other.
The first type of attack is Running Bonus – Two extra actions you may receive if you spend
made using a random weapon actions on movement only.
from the character’s inventory Cooldown Counter – Part of a skill card used to track the cooldown
(bare fist attack if they have no of the skill.
weapons) with +3 added Attack
Dice.  Insanity Counter – Part of the Character Card showing the brain
and used to track the character‘s Insanity.
The second attack type is
made using an Attack Skill Skill (aka Ability) – A character’s personal skill card, a Mental
randomly chosen from the Disorder Card or a Memory, Insane Skill, Insomnia Shift.
character (if they have any). Basic Skill – One of 4 skill cards assigned to a character with their
If the character has no Attack name on it.
Skills, then the Nemesis uses Insane Skill – A skill used by any character at the cost of Insanity.
the first type of attack.
Insomnia shift – A skill used by a character at the cost of moving
These attacks do not use the Warden forward.
up durability or cooldowns
of cards and may be different Insomnia Track – The path along which the Warden travels.
on each turn depending on Natural Roll – Result of a dice roll before any modifications.
the character’s inventory and
Randomization – A roll of D4 and D12 dice that pinpoints a specific
the dice rolled to randomly
space on the board, the D4 indicating the Quarter and the D12
determine which weapons or
being the numbered space on that Quarter.
skills are used.
D6 – Six-sided die. A number before the ‘D’ indicates how many
dice to roll, e.g. 4D6 means roll four six-sided dice.
D3 – A three-sided die; there is no D3 in Lobotomy so in order to
get the result roll a D6 and use the following table (1 and 2 – 1; 3
and 4 – 2; 5 and 6 – 3).
Friendly Character – All other characters, a monster under
character’s control, anything else specified as a ‘Friendly’ in a
scenario
Enemy – Anything that is not friendly, mostly monsters.
Inspiring Presence – Having Inspiring Presence allows all Friendly
Characters on the same space to gain an additional attack die.
Stealth – A character with stealth can leave spaces even if it has
monsters on it.
Avoidance (x) – A character or monster with Avoidance can avoid
some incoming damage from attacks. For each damage dealt roll
1D6; if the result is equal to or higher than the avoidance value, x,
then this point of damage is prevented. Note that when a Critical
Attack causes double damage, roll for Avoidance against each point
of damage separately.
Monster Keyword Glossary
Basic Monster – The most common sort of monster - usually a
nurse, patient or scavenger. Basic Monsters usually have just one
weak attack with no additional rules.
Elite Monster – No special rules but they have an attack table that
makes them use a random attack each turn. Some rules and cards
will affect only elite monsters or will be unable to target them.
Boss Monster – Cannot be stunned or controlled in any way.
Ethereal – Monsters that can move through walls and other
obstacles; characters can leave spaces with only ethereal monsters
on them unless a character also becomes ethereal some way.
Ethereal characters can walk through walls and leave spaces with
non-ethereal monsters.
Memorable – After killing a memorable monster each player that
dealt at least one damage to it or was on the same space with it
during the Final Blow can draw a Memory Card.
Runner – During Monster Movement if a character is in sight, the
runner instantaneously moves to the space with that character. If
multiple characters can be seen, the players may decide which the
runner moves towards.
Eternal Grudge – A Monster with Eternal Grudge respawns when
defeated (as at scenario setup unless stated otherwise). Final Blow
and Memorable rewards are only awarded when the monster is
defeated after Eternal Grudge has been removed/nullified.
Unholy – After targeting and before attacking an unholy monster
a character must pass an Imagination Test. If the test fails the
character uses up an action point but does not attack. If the test is
passed, the character attacks normally and does not have to pass
the test again for any other attacks on that target this turn.
Immunity (x) – Indicates immunity to the stated attack type (e.g.
immunity fire). All attacks against the monster lose the stated
attack symbol.
Double Attack – The monster attacks twice during each attack
phase. If the monster has an attack table, the second attack type is
chosen separate to the first and so both attacks may be different.
Aura of Despair – Players have 1 less AP while the aura is active.
Aura of Reality – As long as the aura is active, each player loses 1
hp at the start of his/her turn.
Convert – Take control of 1 Basic or Elite monster. The monster
cannot be healed in any way, he loses 1 health at the start of your
turn. The monster is treated like a player (so attacked by monsters)
but he can only attack once per round.
Burrow – If this monster took any damage during the Round, then
at the end of the Monsters’ Turn it burrows into the floor before
appearing elsewhere in the hospital; Randomize the monster.
Smash (x) – The monster attacks each player on his space with x
dice before his normal attacks (or movement). Roll for this attack
once, each player subtracts Defense and loses that many health.
Armed to the Teeth – When this monster enters the game a
Weapon Card is drawn and given to him. W  hen he attacks, add
the weapon‘s Attack Dice value to his attack. If the weapon has any
additional abilities, the monster uses them too. He doesn’t use any
optional abilities (like losing durability to gain additional dice). The
weapon loses durability as normal.
If the monster is killed by a character on the same space, the player
can take this weapon (with any durability tokens it has).
Leech Soul – When attacking, this monster heals Health equal to
the damage dealt.
Blood Bond – When within 4 spaces of another monster of the
same type, gain +1 to Attack Rolls and an additional attack action.
 “ Finishing a Scenario
“The human race will disappear. Other races will appear and
disappear in turn. The sky will become icy and void, pierced by
the feeble light of half-dead stars. Which will also disappear.
Everything will disappear. And what human beings do is just as
free of sense as the free motion of elementary particles.”
-H. P. Lovecraft
Scenario Guide
In Lobotomy, scenarios are represented by Scenario Cards. This
guide contains detailed instructions and rules for each of them.
Difficulty Level
Before starting the game, players decide on the difficulty. The
difficulty level decides the number of scenarios that must be
completed to win, the end space of the Warden’s Insomnia Track
and the length of the session.
1 scenario – Paranoid Beginner – A12 – 30-45 minutes
2 scenarios – Seemingly Normal – B12 – 60-100 minutes
3 scenarios – Crazy Hard – C12 – 120-150 minutes
4 scenarios – Insanely Impossible – D12 – 150+ minutes
Goal of the Game
Players win if they complete the objectives of all scenarios (e.g.
2 scenarios for Seemingly Normal difficulty). However, the time to
do so is limited and is represented by the Warden (boss) patrolling
along his Insomnia Track.
The Warden starts on the space marked as A1 and his journey
ends when he reaches the end space determined by the difficulty,
e.g. C12 in Crazy Hard mode (3 scenarios).
If the Warden moves again after reaching the final space, he
moves to the pentagram on the Central Board Piece and the Final
Clash begins - players can no longer win the game without defeating
him in a nearly impossible battle.
After the players complete the objective of a scenario, remove
all scenario tokens from the board (any remaining monsters stay
on the board until they are defeated unless scenario card states
otherwise). Every character receives both the following rewards:
1. Regain 1 insanity.
2. Draw a card from each Mental Disorder Deck listed on your
Character Card, pick one of those cards to keep and discard the rest
(back to their respective decks).
Players only receive rewards for completing scenarios if the
Final Clash (p27) has not already begun.
Scenario Specifications
Objective
Requirements that have to be met to finish a scenario.
Setup
Information on how to begin the scenario. They are used at the
beginning of the game and every time a new scenario is revealed.
Rules
Specific information on how to apply and interact with a scenario
with all monsters’ statistics, required costs, values and gameplay
clarifications.
Scenario Jump
Regardless of difficulty, the game always starts with a single
scenario. Only when the requirements are met for the Scenario
Jump will another scenario start automatically.
Scenario Jumps only happen in games with more than 1 scenario
(’Seemingly Normal’ difficulty or higher) and only if there are still
scenarios left to complete at the chosen difficulty level.
When the Scenario Jump happens, start a new scenario by revealing
a new random Scenario Card (if it requires a specific Quarter not
used in this game, discard it and reveal a new Scenario Card). Then,
read the Scenario Card and follow the rules specified in the setup.
The Scenario Jump always happens before the scenario is finished,
so results in multiple scenarios being active at once.
 Monsters The Patient Casefile Scenario Format
Monsters’ statistics and explanation of their special abilities. The scenarios details on the following pages are presented in the
Special events format of patient casefiles from Melville City Psychiatric Hospital.

Explains the additional special events that trigger when their With the odd exception, each casefile looks similar to the
symbols (blue, red or green) appear on the movement cards. following image.

Handicap
Modifications to be applied when the number of characters is
lower than five. The handicap scales the difficulty of scenarios.When
playing with 3 characters, both the 3-character and 4-character
handicaps are applied.
List of Scenarios
The following scenarios are included in the following pages. The
have been gathered by name in alphabetical order (ignoring ‘The’
at the start).

The 13th Day of Christmas

The Antichrist
Asylum Field Day
Balloon Frenzy
Big Bad Wolf
Blood Bond
The Blood God’s Offering
The Body Snatchers
The Book of Revelation
Dream World
A - Scenario Name
Frankenstein’s Tower B - Images and notes for any Quarters or tokens used in
The Lesbian Vampire Diaries this scenario. If only a single token of a type is shown,
Memories then only one of those tokens is needed. However 2
The Mist or more tokens of any one type indicates that multiple
tokens are needed.
Momma’s Home Cooked Dinner
C - Ongoing Symptoms - Scenario Rules.
Monster Control D - Flavor text.
Moonlight Shadow Ritual E - Adverse Reactions - Scenario Special Events.
One Day at the Circus F - Prior Treatment - Scenario Handicaps.
Rescue Mission G - Complications - Scenario Jump.
H - Suggested Treatment - Scenario Objective.
Twin Defense
Vampire’s Desires