In an old sanatorium, some evil forces that live there want to destroy your characters since you visited the place 15 years ago. You escaped then, but the evil is determined to destroy you.

If all characters die, game is lost. If any or all survive a global score is achieved so you can have your own survival ranking. Espinas is a cooperative game where all players try to survive.

Espinas is a narrative game, in wich the players develop a terror history.

The game is played around a board that depicts a diagram with the turns (a clock from 0100 to 0315 in quarter increments) and place to set the different decks.

Game is played in two phases of 10 rounds and a final optional epilogue.

First phase is the Exploration. One player starts the game exploring the Entrance, composing a escene that includes an hour, a character, a scenario and an event, including some key elements dictated by the cards.
All players add more escenes, guided by the cards until all rounds are played.
Next phase is the regression phase. Players have to remember all key elements of the exploration. If a player fails to do so a Spine card is resolved as a penalty.
Once all rounds are played, i.e. all exploration escenes are remembered, if one or more players still alive, they ara victorious. If all players are dead... well... they lost!