In Loose In The Library, the players are apprentices in a cursed library. Literary terrors have escaped from the books and are roaming the shelves. The long-suffering Librarian has set you a number of different challenges. Who will be the first one to capture the Kraken, Fenrir, or Grendel's Mother? Or terrors with specific symbols? Or use a fictional object? Each challenge is worth points, as are the terrors themselves. You will have both public challenges for which everyone competes and private challenges which you score only for yourself at the end.
You capture the terrors by drawing fictional and historical heroines into your hand. These inspirational women provide you with different symbols, and so you are looking for the right combination of symbols to allow you to capture the terrors currently visible in the middle of the table. You're after Martian Robots? That's two red hearts and two green ovals, please. Luckily Anne of Green Gables and Marie Curie have you covered! Succeed in capturing a terror, and you get a reward. It may be a magical object, or a piece of helpful library equipment — such as the photocopier, which allows you to duplicate symbols on your book cards, or the library clock, which gives you an additional action.
At the end of the game, add up the points gained from captured terrors and completed challenges. The player with the highest score wins.
Loose In The Library is played in multiple different ways. There are three chapters, with the possibility of more to come. Each chapter uses the same cards, but has slightly different mechanics. Chapter 1 is the base game. Chapter 2 introduces negative points. Chapter 3 includes drafting. Play them all in order, then decide which one will become your standard version!
—description from the designer