Defenders of Hogwarts Rulebook

The official Defenders of Hogwarts rulebook is published by MinaLima as a free PDF, and you can download it directly from their own server — no Kickstarter account, no email signup, no pledge required:

📄 Download the official Defenders of Hogwarts rulebook (PDF)

The file is hosted at media.minalima.com and dated June 2026 — a 17-page PDF (31 numbered pages in its print layout). If you’d rather not read the whole thing on your phone, the sections below explain how the rulebook is organised and where to look for each subsystem — followed by the parts of the game that confuse new players most.

Rulebook spread © MinaLima — Game Components (left) and Game Overview (right) with the full starting table setup.

What the rulebook covers

The rulebook walks through the game in this order (page numbers are the rulebook’s own):

1. Game Components (p.4–5) — every board, pawn, deck and token in the box, with card counts, plus the two Defence Shield recipes.
2. Game Overview (p.5) — the House Players’ goal versus the Dark Arts Player’s, including both asymmetric win conditions.
3. Game Set Up (p.6–9) — board, side board and player board setup, step by step, including how many Dark Arts Pawns each player count gets.
4. General Key Concepts (p.10–13) — movement, the 4 obstacle types, Protected Areas, Fly Off Points, Secret Passageways, Hogwarts Tokens, Bonus Spaces, the Library, and how card drawing works.
5. House Player Cards Guide (p.14) / Dark Arts Player Cards Guide (p.15) — anatomy of each side’s cards.
6. House Player Turn (p.16–17) — the three Main Actions (Explore, Learn, Replenish), Free Actions, Stunning.
7. Hogwarts Loyalty Track (p.18–19) — advancing, the Dark Detector, and the Room of Requirement.
8. Dark Arts Player Turn (p.20–21) — Explore and Replenish, deploying, zone-locked effects, Bumping.
9. Dark Arts Path (p.22) — advancing the marker, Event Cards, and the 3 Progress Tokens.
10. Game End (p.23) — exactly when the game stops and who has won, including the draw condition.
11. Icon Quick Reference (p.24) and Glossary (p.25–29).

If you’re learning the game from scratch rather than looking up one specific rule, read our How to Play guide first: it puts the same rules in the order you actually meet them at the table.

The three rules everyone gets wrong

1. “Replenishing is a free action.” It is not. Refilling your hand to 5 cards also stands your pawns back up and advances the Dark Arts Marker 1 space along the Dark Arts Path. Refilling is the single strongest thing the Dark Arts Player has going for them, and the House Players hand it to them. The only draws that don’t move the marker are those from events, Library Book Cards and Bonus Spaces.

2. “The Dark Forces play by the same board rules.” They don’t. Locked Doors, Protective Spells, Physical Objects and Water stop House pawns dead unless a card says otherwise — the Dark Arts Player moves through all of them freely. Your only safe rooms are the 4 Protected Area Spaces they can never enter.

3. “Drafting puts the card in my discard pile.” It doesn’t. Every card you take with the Learn Action goes on top of your Draw Deck, face-down — you’ll draw it the next time you refill, not several turns later. Players who misread this build their deck much more slowly than they should.

What’s in the box (component counts from the rulebook)

• Boards: 1 Main Board (Hogwarts map), 1 Side Board (Dark Arts Path + Hogwarts Loyalty Track), 1 Room of Requirement Board Piece, 4 House Player Boards, 1 Dark Arts Player Board.
• Pawns & markers: 4×4 House Player Pawns, 7 Dark Arts Pawns, 4 House Markers, 1 Dark Arts Marker, 7 Hogwarts Tokens, 1 Dark Detector, 4 D.A. Coins, 8 Parchment Scrolls, 3 Dark Arts Progress Tokens, 5 Player Aid Cards.
• House decks: 4 Starter Decks (7 cards each), House Player Acquire Deck (42), Library Book Deck (11), House Player Location Deck (21).
• Dark Arts decks: Starter Deck (7), Acquire Deck (20), Dark Arts Player Location Deck (4), 3 Event Card Decks (5 cards each — white, orange, red; 15 total).
• Shields: 2 types of Defence Shield, 3 of each (6 total).

Frequently asked rule questions

• How do House Players win? Any single House Player wins the game immediately by collecting any 2 Defence Shields. A shield costs 3 items when you land on its space: 1 Library Book Card, 1 Parchment Scroll, and 1 Dark Detector or 1 D.A. Coin — whichever is pictured on that shield (3 shields want each).
• How does the Dark Arts Player win? Secure all 3 Dark Arts Progress Tokens (Giant — White Zone, Acromantula — Orange, Dementor — Red), take a Dark Arts Player Location Card, and land 3, 2 or 1 pawns there simultaneously — the number drops the deeper into the Red Zone they are when they take the card.
• How many cards in hand? Five. House Players refill by discarding any number and drawing to 5; the Dark Arts Player draws to 5 but can never discard.
• What happens when two pawns share a space? If a House pawn lands on a Dark pawn, both are stunned (sideways) and the House Player moves the Dark pawn to an adjacent space. If a Dark pawn ends on a House pawn, the House pawn is bumped back to the Great Hall and the Dark pawn returns to its pool.
• How do stunned pawns come back? Via your own Replenish Action — all of your pawns stand up.
• What moves the Dark Arts Marker? Three things only: a House Player taking Replenish, an Event Card instructing it, and the Dark Arts Player gathering all 4 House Markers from bumping.
• Is there a solo mode? No. The box is 2–5 players and the rulebook is explicit that 1 player must play as the Dark Arts Player — with four or five players, the houses outnumber the enemy.
• What happens if nobody wins? When the marker reaches the last space of the path, everyone draws up to 5 cards and may not Replenish again. If all players run out of cards before either side completes its goal, the game ends in a draw.

Rulebook FAQ and errata

MinaLima has been posting campaign updates since the game funded on 24 July 2026, and rule clarifications have been arriving in the comments. When a ruling is clarified or the PDF is revised, we’ll log it here rather than leaving you to dig through a Kickstarter comment thread. This page reflects the June 2026 rulebook; if a newer printing changes a rule, the PDF above is the authority.

Download the rulebook

👉 Official Defenders of Hogwarts rulebook — PDF (media.minalima.com)

We don’t host the file or mirror it — always grab it from MinaLima’s own server so you’re reading the current version.

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