The Bloody Inn
Welcome travelers, recruit accomplices, build annexes and manage suspicious police visits in this darkly comic economic card game where every action has a cost.
The Bloody Inn is a 2015 card game from Pearl Games in which players manage an inn while secretly operating a lucrative criminal enterprise. The gameplay combines hand management, guest recruitment, annex construction and risk management around police investigations.
This guide focuses on the rules that generate the most confusion: paying an action’s rank cost, returning cards with matching aptitudes, handling corpses, counting francs correctly and using the official solo mode.
Why this game stands out
Guests play multiple roles: potential workers, sources of money, construction projects or liabilities. Because you have only two actions per round, every investment competes with the need to prepare for an unpredictable police investigation. The same card can be far more useful as a retained accomplice than as a lucrative victim.
Game at a Glance
Welcome
Fill open rooms with arriving guests.
Act Twice
Recruit, construct, eliminate, bury or manage money.
Resolve Morning
Investigations, room income and wages.
Count Wealth
Cash and checks determine the winner.
How The Bloody Inn works
The game takes place across two seasons, each comprising multiple rounds. Guests arrive at the inn, then players take two actions per round before any police investigation, room income and wages are resolved. Your aim is to make more francs than your rivals through careful card management, annex construction and the game’s darkly comic theme.
Each Guest card can represent a traveler in a room, an accomplice in your hand, a constructed annex or an unburied corpse. Understanding these different uses is the key to playing well.
Setup and starting resources
Each player starts with two Peasant accomplices, a player aid that doubles as a barn, a colored score marker on the 5-franc space, and one 10-franc check. Each receives eight double-sided room-key/room-service tokens. You place one of your colored keys on an available room.
In a two- or three-player game, three extra rooms open using neutral white keys; in a four-player game, four neutral rooms open. Adjust the number of traveler cards according to the player-count and game-length table in the official rules, then shuffle them into the Entrance Stack.
The default game starts with limited cash and few accomplices. This encourages early bribery and modest annex construction before attempting larger actions.
The three phases of a round
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Evening | The first player deals incoming travelers into all open rooms. |
| Night | Everyone takes one action, then everyone takes a second action. |
| Morning | Police may investigate; remaining travelers depart; players receive room income and pay accomplice wages. |
This two-pass action order matters. You cannot automatically complete two actions uninterrupted: another player may take or eliminate a traveler before your second action comes around.
All five actions explained
| Action | Effect | Typical purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Bribe a Guest | Take a traveler from an inn room into your hand as an accomplice; peasants can also be recruited | Expand your future action capacity |
| Build an Annex | Play an accomplice from your hand as a permanent annex | Gain benefits and burial capacity |
| Kill a Guest | Turn a traveler into an unburied corpse in your area | Prepare a later burial for money |
| Bury a Corpse | Place a corpse under an annex with capacity and collect its money | Convert a risky corpse into earnings |
| Pass / Launder Money | Pass, optionally convert wealth into checks or cash checks in | Avoid the 40-franc cash cap |
The first four actions share a hand-management cost. For most targeted guest or annex cards, you play from hand as many cards as the target’s rank. Cards suited to that action return to your hand; other spent cards leave your hand. This creates a strong incentive to recruit accomplices with useful action affinities.
How guest rank and action aptitude work
Guest cards have ranks from 0 to 3. A rank-3 action may require three cards from your hand in addition to the target card. If you lack enough accomplices, you cannot pay that cost.
Some cards show an aptitude icon for bribery, annex building, killing or burial. When used as cost cards for their matching action, they return to your hand rather than being discarded. Rank-zero targets generally need no hand cards, allowing economical actions even with a small hand.
Example: when building a rank-2 annex, you normally play two other cards from your hand as the cost. If one has the annex-building aptitude, that card returns to your hand after payment; the other is discarded to the appropriate destination.
Building annexes and burial capacity
An annex is constructed from an accomplice card in your hand. Place the selected card living-side-up in your area after paying its rank-based action cost. Its ongoing or immediate special ability now applies.
Annexes also provide room for bodies. A corpse can be buried under an annex only when sufficient capacity is available, as determined by that annex’s rank and the number already buried there. The player aid/barn provides the special starting burial location described in the rules.
Before killing a high-value traveler, verify you will have an annex capable of accepting that corpse. Being wealthy on paper does not help if the police arrive before you can bury it.
What happens during a police investigation?
If at least one Police guest remains in an open room when morning arrives, the authorities investigate. Every player with unburied corpses must pay the village gravedigger 10 francs per corpse, and those unburied bodies are removed.
You may use checks to pay the gravedigger. If you cannot pay the full amount, you pay what you can and still remove the exposed bodies. Buried corpses already safely placed beneath annexes are not treated as unburied bodies during this investigation.
This creates the central risk calculation: eliminating a guest can eventually generate money, but a corpse left exposed may produce a heavy penalty rather than a reward.
Rooms, morning income and wages
After investigating, each player earns 1 franc for each occupied inn room bearing their own colored key. Neutral white-key rooms do not award room income to any player. The remaining travelers then move to the Exit Stack, living-side-up.
Finally, you pay 1 franc per Guest card remaining in your hand as wages. Wages come from cash on the Wealth Track, not checks. If you lack sufficient cash, unpaid accomplices are lost; Peasants return to the bistro rather than the standard Exit Stack.
Holding a large hand helps perform high-rank actions, but repeatedly paying wages can make unused accomplices expensive.
Money laundering and the 40-franc limit
Your cash total on the Wealth Track cannot exceed 40 francs. Extra cash you would earn beyond that is lost unless you previously made space. During a Pass action, you may convert cash into 10-franc checks, or convert checks back into cash according to the rules.
Checks count toward final wealth and can pay police penalties, but they cannot be used directly for accomplice wages. Consequently, keeping a small cash reserve while banking excess wealth in checks is often safer than converting absolutely everything.
When does the game end?
The game spans two passes through the travelers. When the Entrance Stack empties the first time, shuffle the Exit Stack to create the new Entrance Stack. When it empties the second time, resolve the final round, subject to the special rule that the last round is skipped if fewer travelers are present than players.
Resolve any outstanding unburied corpses and end-game annex abilities. Then add the player’s cash on the Wealth Track to 10 francs for each check. The highest wealth wins. A tie is broken by the number of corpses successfully buried under annexes; remaining ties are shared.
Official solitaire variant
The Bloody Inn includes an official solo game. Use a specially reduced guest deck, one player key, three neutral keys and additional Peasant setup as described in the solitaire rules.
The crucial exception is that an unburied corpse during a police investigation or at game end means you lose, rather than simply paying the normal multiplayer penalty. Surviving the scenario and building the highest wealth possible are the primary solo goals.
The rulebook provides achievement bands for long solo games, including the 110–129 franc “Troubling Innkeeper” band and higher rankings.
Eight strategy principles
- Bribe for action aptitude, not just rank. Reusable matching cards help perform expensive actions repeatedly.
- Build burial capacity before killing. Unburied victims can trigger serious penalties when police remain at the inn.
- Observe police occupancy. An exposed corpse is riskier if a Police card could remain in the morning.
- Protect cash for wages. Checks preserve wealth but cannot pay accomplices.
- Use laundries before reaching 40 francs. A capped cash track can waste valuable burial income.
- Balance hand size and upkeep. More accomplices improve options but increase morning costs.
- Watch turn order carefully. An opponent may take your intended guest between your first and second actions.
- Prepare for the second season. Knowing which cards are in the Exit Stack can help anticipate returning traveler types.
These recommendations are based on the game’s action economy and risk structure; they are not claims of firsthand playtesting.
Is The Bloody Inn right for you?
It is best for players who enjoy tightly coupled hand-management decisions, resource pressure, opportunistic card drafting and deliberately macabre humor. Despite the theme, the rules operate primarily as an economic card game.
The base game supports 1–4 players including the separate solitaire variant. It is less appropriate for groups uncomfortable with a game explicitly themed around killing and concealing guests. It is not a horror campaign or a combat adventure.
The Bloody Inn FAQ
Can you play The Bloody Inn solo?
Yes. The rulebook includes a solitaire variant with stricter rules for unburied corpses.
How many actions do you take?
Two per round, taken across two passes around the table.
How many seasons are there?
Two, based on the first and second passage through the Entrance Stack.
What does a guest’s rank mean?
It primarily determines how many hand cards are required to perform actions involving that guest or their annex.
Do matching aptitude cards get discarded?
No. Cost cards with an aptitude for the chosen action return to your hand.
Do police always investigate?
No. An investigation occurs when at least one Police card remains in an open room during morning resolution.
How much is the unburied corpse penalty?
Ten francs per unburied corpse in the standard multiplayer game.
Can checks pay wages?
No. Wages must come from the cash Wealth Track.
How much cash can you hold?
No more than 40 francs on the Wealth Track; checks hold additional wealth.
What decides the winner?
Total francs from cash and checks, after applicable final effects and penalties.
Sources and editorial scope
- Pearl Games: official English rulebook
- RulesPal: complete searchable rules reference
- BoardGameGeek: base-game details
Content checked October 11, 2026. Explanations and strategy are independent editorial summaries, not copied rulebook passages or claims of personal playtesting. Editorial policy and corrections.