20 Strong: Too Many Bones
20 Strong: Too Many Bones Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
This deck contains the rulebook you're reading, a deck box, 4 Tyrant cards, 5 Gearloc cards, 29 1Pt Baddies, 14 5Pt Baddies, and 16 encounter cards (comprised of 8 Tyrant encounters, 4 Mohlnor encounters, and 4 Lockpicking encounters). It also contains a universal hero backup plan card. You will need the chip, chip holder, rulebook, and 20 dice from base 20 Strong as well.
Winning & Losing
To win Too Many Bones, you must defeat the game's Tyrant, but you can only face the Tyrant after a certain number of days have elapsed. The more Tyrant encounters you defeat along the way, the better your chances of success will be.
As in all games of 20 Strong, you lose if your Health stat die is reduced below 1.
Setup
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Choose a Tyrant and Gearloc. Choose a Tyrant to face and place it near the play area with its setup side face up. You can read both sides of this card at any time. Then, choose a Gearloc to represent you. Place its innate side (as opposed to its "innate +1" side, which has an icon bordering its name) face up. The "universal" card is only used if playing a universal hero from a different deck.
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Prepare the Stacks. Divide the remaining cards into three face-up stacks by type: 1Pt Baddie cards, 5Pt Baddie cards, and all encounter cards. Remove four random Tyrant encounters from the encounter stack and return them to the box. Then, shuffle the three stacks.
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Set the Day Counter. Place the chip with its counter side face up in the chip holder beside the Tyrant, and set it to 0. This is the day counter.
Gearloc Cards
Each Gearloc has two abilities: an innate ability and a backup plan ability.
Innate Abilities
Each Gearloc card has an innate side and an innate +1 side. Gearlocs begin play on their innate side. They can improve to their innate +1 side by using their backup plan, exhausting a full set of four backup plan dice.
Backup Plans
Each Gearloc card has a printed backup plan ability and four backup plan slots where dice can be placed.
In the Apply Dice step of Engagement, you may slot one or more dice showing misses into your backup plan. Each backup plan slot has a color, and only misses of the matching color can be placed in a given slot.
Backup plan abilities can be used at any time (unless specific timing is otherwise indicated). To use the ability, you must exhaust one die from your backup plan. You can do this multiple times as long as you have enough dice. For example, Duster's backup plan allows her to adjust the BQ by +1 or -1 Baddie Pt. You could use this ability twice in a row, exhausting two dice from her backup plan, in order to adjust the Baddie Pts for that day by a total of -2.
Once per game, if all four of your backup plan slots are filled, you can use your backup plan to flip to your Gearloc to their innate +1 side by exhausting all four of your backup plan dice. This improves your Gearloc's innate ability and adds +1 to their Strategy and Recovery stats.
Some rewards offer additional backup plan abilities, called Backup Plan Extensions. The extension's number indicates how many backup plan dice must be exhausted to use the ability.
Dice in the backup plan are not considered to be committed, applied, or in the active area. Backup plan dice cannot be returned or recovered. You can only move dice from your backup plan to your exhausted area by using a backup plan ability or flipping your Gearloc to their innate +1 side.
Difficulty Ranking
When you are ready to increase the challenge of Too Many Bones, the ranking system allows you to do so.
The ranking system starts at Rank 1, which plays as the normal rules describe. Each time you win a game, move to the next ranking. Each time you lose a game, move back to the previous ranking.
For each rank beyond Rank 1, during setup, add an additional Tyrant encounter to the encounter stack and either banish one die or exhaust three dice.
| Ranking | Tyrant Encounters | Total Encounters |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Prepared | 4 (remove 4) | 12 |
| 2: Daring | 5 (remove 3) | 13 |
| 3: Seasoned | 6 (remove 2) | 14 |
| 4: Heroic | 7 (remove 1) | 15 |
| 5: Legendary | 8 | 16 |
Flow of a Day
Activation
- +1 to day counter
- Choose: encounter or battle. Activate BQ if applicable.
Engagement (skip if no battle)
Strategy Phase (repeat = Strategy stat)
- Commit Dice
- Roll Dice
- Apply Dice
Resolve Phase
- Suffer Damage
- After Effects
- Exhaust Dice
- Recover Dice
- Gain Item Rewards
- Return dice on unlocked lockpicks
- Cleanup
- Discard only defeated Baddies
- If all defeated: rest or scout. Otherwise, repeat Engagement.
Game Adjustments
Games of Too Many Bones follow the common rules of 20 Strong with the following adjustments.
New Terminology
- Day: Rounds are called days.
- Baddie: Enemies are referred to as Baddies. Baddies are conflict cards. Each Baddie has a Baddie type. This has no inherent impact but is referred to in some Baddie effects.
- Battle: A battle contains the Engagement part of the day. A battle may consist of multiple Engagements within the same day.
- Face-up: Some cards will refer to face-up Baddies. This includes all undefeated Baddies in the active area, as well as Baddies on top of stacks.
Activation
In each day's Activation, you must first advance the day counter by 1. Then, decide whether to have a standard battle or an encounter.
Battle
Before a battle occurs, either because a standard battle is selected or as part of an encounter, Baddies will become active. The BQ (battle queue) is the number of Baddies that must be activated. BQ: Baddie Pts means that the total number of Baddie Pts to activate is equal to the day number. Activate cards from the tops of Baddie stacks using the smallest number of cards possible, such that the total Pt value equals the current day number. For example, BQ: Baddie Pts on day four would result in activating four 1Pt Baddies. On day six, you would activate one 5Pt Baddie and one 1Pt Baddie, and so on. When a Baddie activates, the card underneath it in the stack is immediately available to be activated. Standard battles always use BQ: Baddie Pts.
After Activation, the battle begins. To complete a day's battle, you must defeat all of the active Baddies. Thus, battles work similarly to the standard endgame rules. During the Cleanup step, do not discard undefeated Baddies. If undefeated Baddies remain, you must repeat Engagement yet that same day. This is considered a new Engagement within the same battle.
Hits cannot "build up" on a Baddie across different Engagements in the same battle. These dice are still exhausted in the Exhaust Dice step.
Encounters
There are three kinds of encounters, each described below. Encounters are not conflict cards.
- Tyrant encounters result in a battle with an escalated challenge. When selected, place the Tyrant encounter beside your active area and activate the BQ, following any modifications on the encounter card. Then proceed to battle.
- Mohlnor encounters offer a choice between a peaceful option and a battle with an additional 1Pt Baddie. If the peaceful option is selected, follow its text, skip Engagement entirely, and discard the encounter. You can only select the peaceful option if you are able to fulfill it in its entirety. If the battle option is selected, discard the encounter, activate the BQ, and proceed to battle.
- Lockpicking encounters provide a significant reward but must first be unlocked. Lockpicking encounters can only be selected if you have an available item slot. When you select a lockpicking encounter, place it in your inventory and skip Engagement entirely. Lockpicking cards take up an item slot and cannot be discarded until unlocked (unless an item must be discarded and it is the only option). The reward also cannot be used until unlocked. Unlocking a lockpicking card requires you to apply hits to them during battle. The card shows what color of hits it requires. During the Exhaust Dice step, do not exhaust dice on lockpicking cards. In the Gain Item Rewards step, if a lockpicking card has the required hits on it, it is unlocked. Return the dice applied to it to your dice pool (rather than exhausting them), flip it over so only its reward text is showing, and gain its reward. Dice on lockpicking cards are not considered to be committed, applied, or in the active area.
No Baddies, No Engagement
If there are no Baddies in the active area after Activation, skip Engagement. This means that on days without a battle, you will not commit, roll, apply, exhaust, or recover dice.
Cleanup
As noted previously, do not discard undefeated Baddies in the Cleanup step.
After discarding cards in Cleanup, if all Baddies are defeated, you may either rest or scout.
- Rest: +1 Health
- Scout: Select the top card of the 1Pt Baddie stack, 5Pt Baddie stack, or encounter stack. Move it, still face up, above the stack to create a new stack. If there is already a card there, place the newly scouted card on top of it. The top card from both stacks are available for activation. Note that only the original stack can be scouted, so cards can only move from the bottom stack to the stack above it. If the bottom stack runs out, shuffle the top stack and place it back where the bottom stack was. Note that Mohlnor encounters have consequences that you must follow if you scout them.
If both stacks of a card type are empty, pull all cards of that type from the discard, shuffle, and create a new stack.
If no battle takes place, the entire Engagement is skipped, and therefore you do not have a Cleanup step and cannot rest or scout.
Endgame
In Activation, if the day counter's value equals or exceeds the Minimum Days on the Tyrant's card, you may choose to face the Tyrant instead of choosing an encounter or standard battle. If the day counter ever reaches 12, you must face the Tyrant that day.
When you choose the Tyrant battle, place the Tyrant's card in the active area. Carry out its setup instructions found on the face-up side of the Tyrant card. Then, flip the Tyrant card to the other side, which details the Tyrant's effects.
The magnitude of the Tyrant's abilities is affected by your previous success in facing Tyrant encounters. The more Tyrant encounters remaining in the encounter deck, the more difficult the final battle will be.
Battle proceeds according to the normal endgame rules.
If you successfully defeat the Tyrant and all other Baddies it activates as part of the final battle, you win the game!
Universal Heroes
When playing Too Many Bones with a universal hero, take the universal hero backup plan card during setup, choose which side to use, and place it next to your hero card. This is your hero's backup plan. Your hero does not have an innate +1 and cannot flip the card.