Nightmare IV: The Video Board Game (Elizabeth Bathory: Vampire)

Storyline

Countess Elizabeth Bathory hosts a cruel, vampiric game, addressing the players as “flesh” and demanding they answer her with “Forever, my lady.” She threatens players who break her rules, promising curses, banishment, and suffering. The narration frames the game as a battle to survive her whims and gather keys.

Gameplay and Rules Highlighted

• Choose who starts: Everyone rolls; the highest roller begins.
• Follow the Countess’s prompts: Players take turns rolling dice. Different results trigger rulebook instructions, challenges, rewards, or penalties. Page 6 assigns a task, page 7 uses four dice rolls to determine and read a reward, and page 8 applies a curse.
• Roll your assigned number: Some prompts let players earn a key by rolling their own marked number. Group challenges may apply only to players with even- or odd-numbered marks.
• Take risks for keys: Black Rose cards ask players to choose “pleasure or pain.” Depending on the card and the roll, they may keep it, earn a key, move to a marked gravestone, or lose turns.
• Complete personal challenges: The oldest or youngest player may need to roll a total matching their birth month to win a key; failure costs turns. Another challenge asks a player to roll their exact age, with rolls that are too high requiring them to restart the attempt.
• Watch for curses and elimination: Certain rolls send players to page 8, while other prompts can banish a player, make them miss turns, or eliminate the player whose marked number is rolled. A protective card can prevent a curse.
• Handle special board events: Players may be moved to the nearest gravestone marked X, and pieces trapped in the “black hole” are sometimes released. Coin tosses, highest- or lowest-roll contests, and even- or odd-number rolls can also award or cost keys.
• Endgame prompt: Near the close, the players roll, and the highest result receives the others’ “gifts.” The subtitles do not explain the full victory condition.

Gamers and Sources Featured

No individual gamers are named in the subtitles. The featured character is Countess Elizabeth Bathory. The video source is Analogue Archives.