20 Strong: Tanglewoods
20 Strong: Tanglewoods Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
This rulebook, 5 hero cards, 1 Big Bad Wolf Boss Card, 5 wolf pack cards, 40 enemy/fable cards, 15 item cards, 15 forest cards, 1 Trailhead Card, 1 Grandma's Cabin Card, 1 Merchant Card, 1 Reference Card.
This core box also contains 20 dice, one gold tracker chip and chip holder, and the 20 Strong: General Rules of Play booklet that covers the rules shared by every game in the 20 Strong system.
Winning & Losing
To win Tanglewoods: Red, you must traverse the forest, reach Grandma's Cabin, and defeat the Big Bad Wolf.
As in all games of 20 Strong, if your Health is ever reduced below 1, you lose.
Setup
- Dized. For a quick start use the interactive DIZED Tutorial. It will walk you through the setup and game rules step by step while you play! Simply scan the QR on page 2.
- Choose a Hero. Choose freely among the five hero cards. Some require you to begin on one side of the card or the other, but if the one you choose does not, you may select a side freely as well. Place it on the table as shown in the Table Diagram. Return the rest of the hero cards to the box.
- Stats & Gold. Set your Health, Strategy, and Recovery dice to the values on your hero card and place them near it. Turn your chip — called the gold tracker in Tanglewoods: Red — to its numerical side; then set it to 20 minus the sum of your three starting stats.
- Prepare the Play Area. Lay out the various cards and decks as shown in the Table Diagram and described below.
- Stock the Shop. Shuffle the item cards into a deck with their ordinary (orange) and upgraded (red) sides facing the same direction. Place them on the table as shown with the ordinary sides face-up. Put the Merchant Card on top of them.
- Cultivate the Forest. Shuffle the forest cards with their daytime (green) and nighttime (purple) sides facing the same direction. Return five at random to the box; then place the remaining 10 as a deck on the table as shown, with the daytime sides face-up. Put the Grandma's Cabin Card on top of them. Put the Trailhead Card on the table as shown, leaving space above it for your path. Place your Health die on top of the house icon; this die is used to show your current location as you travel through the forest.
- Cry Wolf. Shuffle the five wolf pack cards with their wolf (illustration) and power-up (red background) sides facing the same direction. Place them as a deck on the table as shown with their wolf sides face-up. Put the Big Bad Wolf Card on top of them.
- Prepare the Minions. Shuffle the enemy/fable cards with their enemy (showing three stats) and fable (showing the book icon) sides facing the same direction. Place them on the table as shown with their enemy sides face-up. This is the Minion Deck.
- Ready Your Reference. Keep the Reference Card handy, placing it on the table as shown. The "Brothers Grimm" side is ignored unless using a universal hero without a secondary side.
- Scout. Deal out cards from the top of the Minion Deck into the scouting line (see "The Scouting Line" below), a horizontal line of single cards as shown, until the number of minions you can see — including the one on top of the deck — is equal to your Strategy.
- Unit Dice. Separate out one unit die of each color (yellow, green, blue, purple, and red) and place these in a banished area as shown, unless your hero instructs otherwise. Put the rest in your dice pool, also as shown.
- Difficulty Scaling. Referring to the table in "Difficulty Scaling" below, choose a difficulty level and make that level's adjustments to setup, if any.
The Scouting Line
The scouting line reflects the way your Strategy helps you foresee some of the dangers you will face in the forest.
The number of cards visible in the scouting line should always be equal to your Strategy. This includes both the single cards in the line as well as the top card of the deck.
Any time cards are taken from the line (usually to activate them for an encounter), they're taken from the left end of the line. If more cards must be activated than there are cards in the line, they're drawn directly from the deck until the need is filled.
Cards taken from the scouting line are not immediately replenished. When several cards must be drawn from the scouting line at the same time, the line is not refilled until all of those cards have been drawn. Only after all necessary cards have been drawn do you refill the line by sliding cards to the left and filling the empty spaces behind them until the line again reflects your Strategy stat.
Any time your Strategy increases, immediately add more cards to the line from the deck. Make no changes if your Strategy decreases — you already know what those cards are, so there's no sense restacking them onto the deck.
Component Reference
Hero Cards
Each hero card shows the hero's name, its ability, and its flip trigger, along with the starting values for Health, Strategy, and Recovery.
Grandma's Cabin & Trailhead
Each of these cards has a daytime side and a nighttime side. Like a forest card, each side shows a node, a path, and thresholds.
Reference Card
The Reference Card summarizes the Table Diagram (showing where the Dice Pool, Health Die, Hero Card, Gold Tracker, Strategy & Recovery Dice, Wolf Deck, Wolf Discard, Item Deck, Item Discard, Exhausted Dice, Scouting Line, Minion Deck, Minion Discard, Forest Deck, Banished Dice, and Big Bad Wolf / Merchant / Grandma's Cabin "on top" positions belong) and the node/outline icons:
- Explore (select up to three unit and/or crit dice, and then roll one at a time): On a miss, add a nighttime forest card to the path. On a basic hit, add a daytime forest card to the path. On a crit, in addition to adding a daytime card, gain +1 gold. The rolled dice are exhausted after use.
- Enemy: Enemy conflict.
- Wolf: Wolf pack conflict.
- Book: Draw a fable.
- Campfire: +1 Health, +1 Recovery, or +2 Strategy.
- Home: Start/End.
- Weary: You have 1 fewer die (do not adjust the die).
- Blighted: Enemies have +2 Health, +1 Damage, and cannot be bribed.
- Mob (multiple borders): +1 enemy for each mob icon surrounding this node.
- Toll: Banish any die or pay 2 gold.
- Trap: Roll a die. On a hit, recover up to two dice. On a miss, flip your current forest card to its nighttime side.
- Standard: No additional effect.
Forest Cards
Each forest card has a daytime side and a nighttime side. Both sides show a node, a path, and thresholds.
Enemy/Fable Cards
The enemy side of each card shows the enemy's name, Health, Damage, effect, reward, and Bribe cost. The fable side shows the card's name and its effect.
Wolf Pack Cards
The wolf side of each wolf pack card shows the wolf's name, Health, Damage, effect, and reward. The power-up side shows the card's name, an endgame rule or restriction, and flavor text.
Item Cards
The ordinary (orange) side of each item card shows its name, effect, and gold cost. The upgraded (red) side shows the upgraded item's name and effect.
Big Bad Wolf Card
The regular side shows the Big Bad Wolf's name, Health, Damage, and effect. The upgrade side (the Bigger, Badder Wolf) shows its own name, Health, Damage, and effect.
Traversing the Forest
As you play Tanglewoods: Red, you'll journey through a series of forest cards, proceeding from node to node, always following the lines that connect them, and using your Health die to mark your current location. You can only move forward through the forest (up the cards), never backward (down the cards).
Every node comprises a node type and node outline, both of which give you crucial information about what happens there.
- A node's type tells you what kind of encounter it represents: an enemy, Wolf Pack, fable, or campfire. Each node's icon is shown and explained on the Reference Card and later in these rules (see "Travel Phase" below).
- A node's outline modifies the way you interact with it. You might be weary, the node might be blighted, you might face a mob, there could be a toll, or you might have a trap to deal with. The different node outlines are shown and explained on the Reference Card.
Observe the effects of a new node's outline before you begin to resolve its type. For example, when you enter a node with a trap outline, you must roll a die. If the roll misses, the forest card flips and you might find yourself on a new node type with a different outline (the latter of which you must then also resolve before moving on to resolve the node's effect).
Day and Night
Each forest card shows its daytime or nighttime face independently of the other forest cards in your path, and independently of the other forest cards you've already traversed.
It will nearly always be the case that some forest cards are in daytime while others are in nighttime — that's simply the nature of the Tanglewoods.
If you are ever instructed to flip the forest card you currently occupy, pick up your Health die, flip the card, and then place your die back on the node in the same place as your previous node. Remember you must resolve the outline and type of your new node when this happens.
Round Structure
Each round in Tanglewoods: Red has the Activation and Engagement parts as explained in the 20 Strong core rules. That said, depending on what kind of node you're on and what happens during Activation, you will sometimes skip the round's entire Engagement.
Activation consists of an Exploration phase, Travel phase, and Bribery phase. Each of these steps is described in detail in the sections that follow.
Exploration Phase
The Exploration phase is optional in each round. The first step of the Exploration phase is exploring. This allows you to place new forest cards in your path before you move onto them. Not only does this give you information about what's coming up, it also allows the possibility to place new forest cards with the daytime side face up. A forest card's daytime side is less dangerous than its nighttime side.
To explore, choose one, two, or three ready unit and/or crit dice from your dice pool. Then, roll them one at a time, in whatever order you wish. For each result (and before rolling the next die, if any remain), do the following.
- Miss. Draw a forest card from the bottom of the deck, turn its nighttime side face-up, and add it to the end (top) of the path. Exhaust the die.
- Basic Hit. Draw a forest card from the bottom of the deck, leave its daytime side face-up, and add it to the end (top) of the path. Exhaust the die.
- Crit. Follow the instructions for a basic hit. Then, gain 1 gold.
If you're called on to draw and place a forest card but the deck has been depleted, you're nearly to the final battle! See "When the Forest Runs Out" below.
After exploring, you get to visit the merchant (see "Visiting the Merchant" below) before moving on to the Travel phase.
Travel Phase
In the Travel phase, naturally, you travel through the forest.
To travel, move your Health die along one of the lines to the next node. As a reminder, you can only ever move forward (up the card), never backward (down the card). What happens next depends on what type of node you have arrived at. Each is described below. Remember to observe the effects of the node's outline before resolving its type.
If your movement brings you to one of the three upper thresholds at the top of the card (these are not considered nodes) and there is no other card in the path above your current card, draw a new card from the bottom of the Forest Deck, turn it to its nighttime side, and match its lower thresholds to the upper thresholds on the card you've just passed through. Then, continue traversing one of the lines from that threshold pair to the next node of your choice.
Minion
Minion nodes represent non-boss enemies you must face, bribe, or otherwise deal with before continuing on your journey.
When you arrive at a minion node, add one or more enemies to the active area. By default, add one enemy to the active area. However, if you are facing a mob (one of the node outline types), activate an additional enemy for each mob icon on the node outline.
Activate enemies from the left end of the scouting line until you've added as many as the node requires. If the node needs more enemies than you've scouted, draw them directly from the deck without the benefit of previewing the enemies you must face. See "The Scouting Line" above for further details.
Next, proceed to the Bribery phase.
Wolf Pack
The members of the wolf pack are the potent henchmen of the Big Bad Wolf. For the purposes of game effects, they are considered boss enemies. However, unlike most bosses, wolves do not trigger Tanglewoods: Red's endgame and are resolved like normal engagements.
When you arrive at a wolf node, add one wolf card from the bottom of its deck to the active area. If you are facing a mob, also add the appropriate number of enemies (count the mob icons in the node outline) to the active area. Take these enemies from the scouting line as if this were a minion node.
Next, proceed to the Bribery phase.
It's possible to defeat all five wolves and still have wolf nodes you can visit. If you travel to a wolf node and there are no more wolves to defeat, skip that node and move to the next node connected to it.
Fable
Fables are the special locations, events, equipment, and opportunities that tend to arise in fairy tales.
When you arrive at a fable node, draw the bottom card from the Minion Deck, turn it to the fable side, and follow its instructions (to be clear, drawing fables does not affect the scouting line).
Most fable cards are resolved immediately and discarded to the Minion Deck discard pile with the enemy side face up. However, some instruct you to set them somewhere else, usually to track an ongoing or delayed effect. Note that fable cards that you are instructed to place "next to your hero" do not count as items. Fable cards are not considered to be in your active area unless specifically stated.
If, after resolving the fable card, there are any enemies in the active area, proceed to the Bribery phase. Otherwise, unless instructed otherwise, skip the Bribery phase and the entire Engagement (including the Recover Dice step).
Campfire
Sweet respite! Campfires offer you the opportunity to recover and build your capabilities.
When you arrive at a campfire node, choose one of these three options.
- Health. Increase your Health stat by 1.
- Strategy. Increase your Strategy stat by 1 (and don't forget to immediately reveal another minion in the scouting line).
- Recovery. Increase your Recovery stat by 1.
Skip the Bribery phase and the entire Engagement (including the Recover Dice step) for turns spent at campfire nodes.
Bribery Phase
If your Travel phase ends with any enemy cards in the active area, you have the opportunity to bribe them with gold instead of being forced to engage them.
Each non-boss enemy has a Bribe stat. To bribe an enemy, pay this much gold from your gold tracker. Then, discard that enemy to the appropriate discard pile.
Bribed enemies confer no rewards, nor have they been "defeated" for any rule that references defeat. They have simply been removed as obstacles to your progress.
If there are any enemies remaining in the active area after you have finished bribing, proceed to the Engagement part of your turn, starting with the Strategy phase as normal. Otherwise if there are no enemies remaining, proceed directly to the Cleanup step of the Resolve phase.
Engagement: Strategy Phase
In the Strategy phase, you use the dice in your pool to battle active enemies.
The steps of this phase — Commit Dice, Roll Dice, and Apply Dice — work as in the 20 Strong core rules. You can repeat this phase's steps a number of times equal to your Strategy, also as in the 20 Strong core rules. Refer to the 20 Strong General Rules of Play if you need a refresher.
Once you are finished with the Strategy phase, continue to the Resolve phase.
Engagement: Resolve Phase
In the Resolve phase, you realize the consequences of the Strategy phase.
The steps of this phase — Suffer Damage, After Effects, Exhaust Dice, Recover Dice, Gain Item Rewards, and Cleanup — are just like they are in the 20 Strong General Rules of Play, with the exception that there is no Gain Item Rewards step.
Notes About Cleanup
Many non-battle nodes resolve by sending you to the Cleanup step. These types of nodes generally don't bring many — or even any — cards or dice to your active area. Since the only thing that happens in your Cleanup step is to move both defeated and undefeated cards in your active area to the relevant discard pile(s), this is basically just a reminder to clear the active area after encountering those nodes but before moving on to the next round.
Visiting the Merchant
The merchant provides the opportunity to pay gold for items that may help you on your travels.
Each time you visit the merchant, do the following.
- Stock the Shop. Reveal one, two, or three item cards, according to the number of dice you rolled while exploring. Take them from the bottom of the Item Deck. Set them out with their ordinary (orange) sides face up. These become the shop, and can be individually purchased with the buy merchant action. If the Item Deck is ever empty when you would draw an item, reshuffle the discarded items into a new deck.
- Pay Gold. You may pay gold on any of the four merchant actions shown on the Merchant Card. You may do the same merchant action as many times as you wish and can afford per visit (exception: you can only Buy as many times as there are available items), and you may perform the merchant actions in any order. To perform a merchant action, simply pay the listed cost, which is deducted from the running total on your tracker. You can only choose options you can afford. You may also choose not to take any merchant actions.
- Tidy Up. Once you are done taking merchant actions, discard any shop items you didn't purchase to the item discard pile.
Gold
Gold is a resource in Tanglewoods: Red that's tracked with your 20 Strong chip. Generally, gold is spent to bribe enemies and buy from the merchant, and gained by defeating enemies. Using gold is straightforward — paying gold reduces your total, gaining it increases your total — but there are a few necessary clarifications and additional rules.
- Your stockpile of gold can never exceed 20.
- You can never reduce your total below zero.
- If an effect or opportunity requires you to pay some amount of gold and you don't have enough, you neither spend any gold nor receive the effect or opportunity. If, however, you are required to lose gold, you must lose the amount stated or, if you cannot, as much as possible.
- Gold is not a stat. Your store of gold can't be modified by effects that increase or decrease stats.
Discarding & Reshuffling Summary
Tanglewoods: Red has many different decks, and each one behaves a little differently. This section summarizes the rules for how each deck's discard pile behaves, and what happens if you need to draw from a given deck but it has been exhausted.
- Wolf Pack Deck: When wolf pack cards are defeated, put them in the Wolf Pack Deck discard. This deck is never reshuffled.
- Minion Deck: When these cards are discarded for whatever reason (bribed, defeated, or otherwise addressed), place them into the Minion Deck discard, enemy-side up. If the Minion Deck is ever empty (including if you are allowed to see more cards in the scouting line than remain in the deck), immediately reshuffle the discard to form a new deck.
- Item Cards: When item cards are discarded for any reason, place them in the Item Deck discard with their ordinary (orange) sides face-up. If you need to draw from this deck but it's empty, reshuffle the discard to form a new deck.
- Forest Cards: Move the forest cards you've passed through into an out-of-play pile to preserve table space. Just make sure to avoid flipping them because their daytime or nighttime state may be relevant later on. When the forest cards run out, that means the game is nearly over and all you have left to do is reach Grandma's Cabin. There is never a forest card discard, nor are the forest cards ever reshuffled.
When the Forest Runs Out
When you'd normally place another forest card but the deck is gone, place the Grandma's Cabin Card with its current side face-up.
Continue moving as normal. When you reach the Grandma's Cabin node, the endgame begins, and it's time to battle the Big Bad Wolf.
Endgame
The endgame is a battle against the Big Bad Wolf. When you arrive at the Grandma's Cabin node, set up the final battle as follows.
- The Wolf Emerges. Put the Big Bad Wolf Card in the active area – or, if you'd like a tougher challenge, the Bigger, Badder Wolf, who is found on the back of the Big Bad Wolf Card.
- Power-Ups. Take all of the wolf cards remaining in the Wolf Pack Deck and flip them over to their power-up (red) sides. Add these to the active area as well. These are additional rules and restrictions you must cope with during the final battle. Normally, the Wolf Pack discard is ignored during this boss fight, but if you're facing the Bigger, Badder Wolf, they may return to play, so pay careful attention to the boss's written abilities.
- Battle! Fight the Big Bad Wolf over as many endgame rounds as it takes to determine whether you win or lose this game. Carry out this endgame per the 20 Strong General Rules of Play with the following exceptions.
- Dice applied to undefeated enemies are not exhausted during the Exhaust Dice step.
- The conflict continues until all active enemies are defeated.
Universal Heroes
When playing with a non-Tanglewoods universal hero, take note of the Brothers Grimm Card (on the other side of the Reference Card). Any time a game effect would cause your hero to flip, instead replace it with the Brothers Grimm.
Difficulty Scaling
The difficulty table runs from 0 to 10. These 11 levels allow you to make Tanglewoods: Red easier or harder.
You must choose your difficulty level during setup; it can't be altered during play.
If you are a beginner to 20 Strong, try your first game at zero. If you have played 20 Strong before, try your first game at 5. If you succeed, move up a level until you can beat the game at 10, and if you're finding the game too difficult, feel free to move down a level.
| Difficulty Level | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0 | +1 to any two stats and remove one random Wolf Pack card from the game. |
| 1 | +1 to any two stats. |
| 2 | +1 to any stat and start with 20 gold. |
| 3 | Recover Health and Recovery from the banished area and gain one random item. |
| 4 | Start with 20 gold and one random item. |
| 5 | After setup, you may shuffle one scouted enemy back into the deck, replacing it with the new card from the top of the Minion Deck. |
| 6 | Add one nighttime forest card to your path or banish two dice. |
| 7 | Reduce starting gold to 5 and add one nighttime forest card to your path. |
| 8 | -1 to any stat. |
| 9 | -1 to any stat and also choose to apply either the 6, 7, or 8 difficulty modifier. |
| 10 | Flip the Trailhead and Grandma's Cabin Cards to nighttime (they cannot be flipped back). |
Round Flow
- Activation
- Exploration Phase (optional)
- Exploring
- Visit the Merchant
- Travel Phase
- Bribery Phase
- Exploration Phase (optional)
- Engagement (sometimes skipped)
- Strategy Phase (repeat = Strategy stat)
- Commit Dice
- Roll Dice
- Apply Dice
- Resolve Phase
- Suffer Damage
- After Effects
- Exhaust Dice
- Recover Dice
- Cleanup
- Strategy Phase (repeat = Strategy stat)
Credits
Publishers: Adam Carlson & Josh Carlson
Game Design & Development: Josh Carlson, Logan Giannini, Ryan Howard, & Salem Scott
Illustration: Serena Schiani & Manny Trembley
Creative Writing: Logan Giannini
Graphic Design: Melonie Lavely, Bree Lindsoe, & Chelzee Lemm-Thompson
Rulebook: Jeff Tidball
Cultural Consultation: Jason Perez
Editing: Shannon Wedge