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- BGG #9,564
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Legends of Sleepy Hollow
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- 2022
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The Four Doors
2025
Rules assistance for The Four Doors
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–5 players
- 30 min
- 10+
- Complexity 1.8/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for The Four Doors
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
The Four Doors is a board game released in 2025 for 1–5 players, 30 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Matt Leacock, Ben Pinchback, and Matt Riddle and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Cooperative Game, and Multi-Use Cards.
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About the game
The Shadow Veil wants to cover the land with darkness, so your challenge in The Four Doors is to collect the relic from behind each door, then gather everyone at the beacon in order to light it. On a turn, a player takes up to three actions: drawing a card, moving to an adjacent door, giving a card (or relic) to someone at your door, illuminating a shadow card from your door by discarding a card that bears a lantern of the same color, or finding a relic by discarding four cards of the color matching your door. Each adventurer has a special power that modifies an action or offers a new action. Each door has a relic behind it, and once you find a relic, the holder can use its power by discarding a card bearing the relic's symbol, sometimes as an action on its own, sometimes not. To end a player's turn, they draw two cards, then place "shadows" from the deck equal to the shadow level. If a fourth card would be placed on either side of a door, flip the card to its partially closed side; if the door would flip a second time, remove it from play. If the players don't already have this relic, they lose. Each time players need to shuffle the deck, the shadow level increases — and this level will increase more quickly as the game progresses since some cards, such as spells that provide a one-time effect, are removed from play instead of being discarded. If you have no cards to shuffle or the shadow level tops out, the players lose.
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- Game Factory
- Lifestyle Boardgames Ltd
- Happy Camper
Questions and answers
The Four Doors supports 1–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for The Four Doors is 30 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists The Four Doors for ages 10 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
The Four Doors has a complexity rating of 1.8 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
The Four Doors belongs to these categories: Fantasy. Its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Cooperative Game, and Multi-Use Cards. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of The Four Doors are: Matt Leacock, Ben Pinchback, and Matt Riddle. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists The Four Doors as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.