Anime Saga Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Setup
• Component Details
  • Board
  • Dice
  • Character Sheet
  • Skill Mini-Cards
  • Action Cards
  • Challenge Cards
  • Attribute Card
  • Enemy Cards
  • Lord of Darkness Cards
• How to Play
  • Turn Order
  • Turn Actions
  • Picking Up and Discarding Cards
  • Facing Challenges
  • Facing Enemies
• Training and Skills
• Fame Points and End of Game
• Quick Setup
• Quick Turn Reference

Components

• 1 foldable rigid board
• 9 character sheets
• 5 character life markers
• 10 player fame markers
• 1 enemy life marker (black)
• 2 challenge progress markers
• 72 character skill mini-cards
• 40 action cards
• 24 challenge cards
• 6 Lord of Darkness cards
• 1 attribute card
• 16 enemy cards
• 4 dice: 2 blue (attack) and 2 green (defence)

Objective

In Anime Saga, the players compete to obtain the highest Fame score until they manage to defeat the Lord of Darkness, which ends the game.

As in a good classic anime story, the heroes cannot be defeated by the villains. With effort, the adventurers will certainly defeat the Lord of Darkness. The big question is: how will they do it, and who will be the protagonist of this story?

When contributing to advance a Challenge, or when helping to fight an enemy, players receive Fame Points and advance in the game, helping to complete each step of the journey that the group of heroes must take to find and defeat the Lord of Darkness.

Setup

A) Separate the Enemy cards [1], Challenge cards [2], Action cards [3], Lord of Darkness cards [4] and Skill cards [5].

B) Shuffle the ENEMY, CHALLENGE and LORD OF DARKNESS decks separately. Randomly set aside a number of cards from each deck as shown in the table.

• 3 Challenges and 2 Enemies
• 4 Challenges and 3 Enemies
• 5 Challenges and 4 Enemies
• 6 Challenges and 5 Enemies

C) Build a deck by placing a CHALLENGE card at the BOTTOM of the pile, then an ENEMY card on top of it, then another CHALLENGE card, and another ENEMY card, until the separated cards run out. Finally, place a LORD OF DARKNESS card underneath all the others. This pile is placed on the board in the area marked [DECK].

D) Separate the Action cards.

Use only the cards designated for the number of players, as indicated near the lower left corner of the cards.

The cards that are removed must be kept aside and will not be part of the game. The remaining cards to be used must be shuffled.

For games with 4, 3 or 2 players, some cards must be removed. Remove all cards with the following number:

• 2 players: remove all cards marked 3+, 4+ and 5
• 3 players: remove all cards marked 4+ and 5
• 4 players: remove all cards marked 5

E) Deal FOUR ACTION CARDS, at random, to each player.

Randomly distribute the REMAINING ACTION CARDS onto the five numbered spaces on the board. Each pile thus formed must have 4 cards, which are revealed and arranged so that all players can see the top of the cards.

F) Each player receives a character sheet at random.

Players may also choose their characters if they prefer. In that case, they decide the order in which the choice is made, using a die.

G) Once the characters are chosen, each player takes the MINI-CARDS OF SKILLS for their character. Each player receives the eight Skill cards that have their character's name on the top.

At this moment, the player also chooses the initial skills of their Character. (See page 10.)

H) The BLACK MARKER is placed on the board at the minimum value of the ENEMY LIFE TRACK.

I) Each player takes 3 MARKERS of the same colour and places one on their character sheet, TO MARK THEIR CURRENT LIFE POINTS, which start at the maximum value indicated.

J) The other TWO MARKERS of each player are placed on the board, in the FAME POINTS area: one on the Blue scoring area and the other on the Green scoring area, marking a minimum score of 1 and 0, respectively.

After deciding the initial turn order, the players who finish in second, third, fourth and fifth place receive an initial bonus of Fame Points:

• 1st and 2nd player start with 1 Fame Point
• 3rd and 4th player start with 2 Fame Points
• 5th player starts the game with 3 Fame Points

A player's FAME POINTS are always the SUM of the two tracks, Blue and Green. Whenever a player gains Fame Points, they must be marked by advancing on the Blue track. Only when a player goes past the 20-point mark on this track do they begin to advance on the Green track, so that their total score is marked correctly.

Finally, take 3 CARDS FROM THE TOP OF THE ENEMY AND CHALLENGE DECK and place them face up in the areas named CURRENT EPISODE, NEXT EPISODE and SPOILER.

The cards always follow the order of the arrows on the board, whenever the card in the "Current Episode" area is discarded.

Component Details

Board

• [1] DECK: the deck of Enemy and Challenge cards is placed here.
• [2] SPOILER / NEXT EPISODE / CURRENT EPISODE: the revealed Challenge, Enemy or Lord of Darkness cards are placed here. The active card is always the one in the Current Episode area.
• [3] FAME POINTS: Fame Points, which represent the victory points in Anime Saga, are marked here. Note that below the Green score are the bonuses that players who reach a high score receive. They are cumulative.
• [4] ENEMY LIFE: the current Life Points of the enemies the players are facing are marked here. Whenever a player reduces an Enemy's Life to zero, they immediately gain 2 extra FAME POINTS, as indicated in this area of the board.
• [5] PILES 1 TO 5: the piles of ACTION CARDS available for players to buy are placed in this area.

Dice

The game has two pairs of dice: a pair of blue dice, used for attack, and a pair of green dice, used for defence.

Normally, during a combat, the player rolls one blue die and one green die, representing their Attack and Defence for that turn.

Character Sheet

• [1] CHARACTER NAME.
• [2] SKILL: these are the character's initial Skill Points. When doing the setup and receiving the skill cards, choose those which, together, reach the exact value indicated. The player starts the game with these skills in play.
• [3] MAXIMUM LIFE: this space marks the Initial Life and the Maximum Life the character can reach. Skill cards may raise the limit.
• [4] ATTACK: this value is added to all of the character's attacks.
• [5] DEFENCE: this value is added to all of the character's defences.
• [6] LIFE: mark your current life in this space. At the start of the game, the player must always begin with the marker at the value indicated as MAXIMUM LIFE [3] on their character sheet.

If a character begins a turn with 0 life points, the player may only perform the Heal action that turn, and must end the turn immediately. If an effect takes away more life points than the character has, the player loses 1 Fame Point for each life point the character cannot lose.

There is no other consequence of having your life points reduced to 0. As a good Anime Hero, your character always gets back up, no matter how wounded they are.

Skill Mini-Cards

• [1] SKILL NAME.
• [2] SKILL COST: the number of Skill Points needed to acquire it.
• [3] ADVANTAGE: the description of the bonuses the Skill grants.
• FAME POINTS: some cards carry this bonus, which indicates that you must receive the amount specified in Fame Points at the end of the game.

Action Cards

• [1] ACTION NAME.
• [2] ATTRIBUTE: Action cards come in 4 different attributes: Strength, Agility, Power or Intelligence. Attributes have unique colours and symbols. They are used to complete challenges, to cancel enemy skills, and to form combinations that make the actions of some cards more powerful.
• [3] ACTION TYPE: every Action card has a unique ability. The type of Action identifies its ability, which can also be used to cancel negative effects of Challenges.
• [4] DESCRIPTION: here the player will find a brief summary of the card's effects. It is important to note that the effects of cards do not happen when they are used to contribute to a Challenge or to cancel negative effects of Challenges and Enemies. Except for Combat cards used against an Enemy, they can be used to make their effect and cancel abilities at the same time.

ACTIONS CAN BE OF THE FOLLOWING TYPES:

• TRAINING: used to gain Skill Points and new skills.
• FAME: allows the player to receive Fame Points as an Action.
• COMBAT: the special ability of this card can only be used during a combat with an Enemy or the Lord of Darkness. Using it does not consume the player's Action for the turn, and it grants an Attack or Defence bonus in combat, or allows a die to be rolled again.
• TRADE: can be used at the start of the player's turn to exchange with any Action card on the board. Using it does not consume the turn's Action. The player may make several Trades in a turn.
• HEAL: used to recover life more efficiently.

Challenge Cards

• [1] CHALLENGE NAME.
• [2] ATTRIBUTES: each Challenge requires a combination of 8 attributes to be overcome.

Players use the attributes of their Action cards to contribute to the Challenge until all 8 attributes are reached and it is overcome.

No player may contribute attributes beyond the limits indicated on the Challenge card.

Only six Strength attributes may be contributed to the Challenge "Crossing the Desert of Death", as well as only two Intelligence attributes.

• [3] SCORE: when contributing to a Challenge, the player receives 1 Fame Point for each attribute they have successfully contributed.
• [4] NEGATIVE EFFECT: when contributing to this Challenge, the player suffers the negative effect described on the Challenge card. However, if they play cards, in that turn, that show the symbols indicated in the area [5], THIS NEGATIVE EFFECT IS IGNORED.
• [5] REQUIREMENT: the player must check whether the cards played for the action of contributing to the CHALLENGE show the symbols indicated. If they do not, they must suffer the NEGATIVE EFFECT OF THE CHALLENGE. If they do, they may ignore the negative effect.

A player may play a card that does not contribute an attribute to the Challenge in order to meet the Requirement and avoid the Negative Effect. Even so, they must still contribute at least one attribute needed for the Challenge during their play, in order to receive the score.

Attribute Card

This card is used to mark how many of each attribute have already been contributed to a Challenge.

Whenever a player contributes to a Challenge, mark the current number of attributes already added by placing one of the black markers on the card and moving it to show how many attributes of each type have been added.

Enemy Cards

• [1] NAME.
• [2] LIFE: this is the Enemy's initial Life. When an Enemy is placed in the "Current Episode" area of the board, place the black marker on the Enemy Life area, marking this value.
• [3] DAMAGE: this is the damage the enemy deals during a combat.
• [4] DEFENCE: this is the Enemy's Defence. When it receives damage during combat, reduce that damage by this value.
• [5] NEGATIVE EFFECT: as with Challenges, when facing an Enemy, before resolving the combat, the player must receive its Negative Effect, unless they play cards that meet the Requirement on the left.
• [6] REQUIREMENT: as with Challenges, Enemies require the player to play cards to avoid the Negative Effect. However, unlike Challenges, Enemies require a combination of Attributes for their Negative Effect to be deactivated. The player may play any cards they wish to meet the Requirement. They have no other effect during combat, unless they are Combat action cards. In that case, they may be used to meet the Requirement and perform their effect at the same time.
• [7] FAME POINTS: whenever a player attacks an enemy, they receive 1 Fame Point for each point of Life removed from the Enemy.

Lord of Darkness Cards

The Lord of Darkness card works in the same way as an Enemy card, with one change:

• The Lord of Darkness has two Negative Effects, [1] and [2], as well as two Requirements, [3] and [4]. Each Requirement must be met separately.

The player could meet only the requirement of the "Curse" effect (Amaldiçoar) if they have one Agility attribute and one Intelligence attribute, or could choose to meet only the requirement of the "Dirty Blow" effect (Golpe Sujo). To meet both, the player would need two Agility attributes and two Intelligence attributes.

How to Play

Turn Order

The player who most recently watched an anime will be the FIRST PLAYER TO TAKE THEIR TURN. Alternatively, the players may randomly choose one player to start.

The first and second players begin the game with 1 Fame Point; the third and fourth with 2 Fame Points, and the fifth with 3 Fame Points.

The game proceeds from the first player, clockwise, with each player taking their turn and passing to the next player, until the LORD OF DARKNESS is defeated, which IMMEDIATELY ENDS THE GAME.

Turn Actions

Each player has a single Action to perform on their turn.

ACTIONS CAN BE OF THE FOLLOWING TYPES:

• HEAL: the player spends their turn and advances their current life by one point on their character sheet. If the character's current life is zero at the start of a turn, the player must choose this action and end their turn, and may not perform any other option, including Heal or Trade cards.
• CONTRIBUTE TO A CHALLENGE: the player may contribute to a Challenge. This action is only available if there is a CHALLENGE CARD IN THE CURRENT EPISODE AREA of the board. More on how to attempt Challenges on page X.
• FIGHT AN ENEMY: the player may fight an Enemy. This action is only available if there is an ENEMY OR LORD OF DARKNESS CARD IN THE CURRENT EPISODE AREA of the board. More on how to fight Enemies on page 17.
• BUY CARDS: when choosing this action, the player may buy one of the piles of cards on the board. Remember that the limit of Action cards in hand is always ten; any extra card must be discarded at the end of the turn. More on buying and discarding on page 16.
• PLAY ACTION CARDS: some Action cards may be played as the player's turn Action. The player may only play cards of the same Action Type, with different colours, as a single Action. This uses up the turn's Action, but grants an effect based on the Action Type and on how many cards of that type with different colours were played.

Fame:

• 1 card = 0
• 2 cards = 1
• 3 cards = 3
• 4 cards = 5

Heal:

• 1 card = recover 2
• 2 cards = recover 4
• 3 cards = recover 6
• 4 cards = recover 10

Training:

• 1 card = 1
• 2 cards = 2
• 3 cards = 3
• 4 cards = 4

All the cards must have the same symbol, but different colours.

IMMEDIATELY after gaining Skill Points, the player must choose Skill cards for their character that add up to this value and place them face up next to their character sheet. More on Training and Skills on page 18.

After the turn's Action, the player must observe the limit of ten cards in hand and discard any cards beyond that limit. Then they must take all the cards used and discarded by them during their turn and redistribute them to the numbered Piles on the board. The way to do this is explained below.

Picking Up and Discarding Cards

One of the possible actions on your turn is to choose one of the piles on the board and collect all of its cards.

Whenever a player uses an Action card, it must be placed in their discard pile, as must all cards discarded for exceeding the ten-card hand limit.

At the end of the player's turn, the last thing to do is to take their entire accumulated discard pile and distribute the cards, one at a time, onto the numbered piles on the board, effectively returning cards to the piles so other players can buy them on subsequent turns.

The cards must be distributed one at a time, IN THE ORDER CHOSEN BY THE PLAYER DOING THE DISTRIBUTION. Each card must always be placed on the pile with the fewest cards.

If more than one pile is tied for the lowest number of cards, the player may choose which of those piles to place the card on.

It is important to note that the cards must be placed one by one, so that which piles have the fewest cards changes with each card placed.

ALTERNATIVE RULE FOR A FASTER GAME

For faster games, an alternative rule is to distribute the cards to the piles at random. To do this, shuffle the cards to be returned to the piles and then place them one at a time, always onto the pile with the fewest cards. If piles have the same number of cards, choose the pile with the lowest number.

Facing Challenges

When a Challenge is the Current Episode, the player may use their Action to contribute toward the objective of gaining Fame and advancing the game.

To do so, the player must play Action cards from their hand with the aim of contributing the attributes needed to complete the Challenge.

When contributing to a Challenge, each symbol that has been played must be added, using the Attribute cards, to the current total of contributions to the active Challenge. No attribute may receive a contribution greater than the number required by the card. Any contribution beyond what is needed, or of attributes the Challenge does not need, must be disregarded.

The player receives 1 Fame Point for each attribute they contributed in their play.

The player also suffers the negative effect of the Challenge, unless among the cards played in the turn they have played cards that meet the requirement of both symbols highlighted in the lower left corner of the card.

When a Challenge is complete, that is, all of the attributes it requires have been paid by the players, it comes to an end and must be discarded to the discard pile beside the board.

After the Challenge is discarded, move the card in the Next Episode area, following the arrow, to the Current Episode area. In the same way, move the card in Spoiler to Next Episode, and finally, turn over a card from the top of the Enemy and Challenge deck, placing it in the Spoiler area.

Facing Enemies

When an Enemy or the Lord of Darkness is the active card, that is, when it is in the "Current Episode" area, the player may choose to face this opponent in a combat. To resolve a combat, follow these steps:

1. Roll one Attack die (blue) and one Defence die (green).
2. The player then plays whatever cards they wish.
3. Check whether the cards played meet the requirement of the two attributes needed to cancel the Enemy's negative effect.

If facing the Lord of Darkness, the player may choose which Negative Effect to deactivate, or may meet both requirements to deactivate both effects simultaneously.

4. If the negative effect is not cancelled, it must be applied.
5. The player must add the ATTACK VALUE on their Character Sheet, together with all active skills that grant extra attack, and the value on the blue die. THIS WILL BE THEIR ATTACK VALUE FOR THIS TURN.
6. The player must add their Defence in the same way they did with attack, to obtain their DEFENCE VALUE.
7. The player may now play COMBAT CARDS to roll the dice again for any result they did not like, or may seek to make combinations of Combat cards of different colours to add Attack or Defence bonuses before resolving the combat with the enemy.

Combat cards played in step 2, with the aim of meeting requirements and cancelling negative effects, may have their bonus or dice-rolling effects activated in this step.

8. Reduce the Enemy's Defence from your Attack value; this is the damage the player will deal to it. Reduce the Enemy's life on the board by this value and receive the indicated Fame Points. (The enemy attacks even if its life has been reduced to zero.)
9. Now the Enemy attacks. Take the Enemy's Attack value and subtract your Defence value. THE PLAYER LOSES LIFE POINTS EQUAL TO THE RESULTING VALUE.
10. If the Enemy reaches ZERO LIFE, IT IS DEFEATED AND THE PLAYER RECEIVES 2 EXTRA FAME POINTS. If it is not defeated, the player's turn ends and the next player will have the chance to fight the enemy.

If the enemy is defeated, its card must be discarded, placed in the Discard area beside the board. After doing so, the player must move the card in the Next Episode area, following the arrow, to the Current Episode area. In the same way, move the card in Spoiler to Next Episode and, finally, turn over a card from the top of the Enemy and Challenge deck, placing it in the Spoiler area.

If your character loses all of their life points, the player still receives the Fame Points from the combat. If the damage suffered is greater than the current life, the player must lose 1 Fame Point for each Life Point they cannot lose. Their next turn must necessarily be used to recover life.

Training and Skills

At the start of the game, each player has a number of initial skill points for their character. Before starting the game, the players must choose which skills they will use with their character. They must be chosen and revealed simultaneously by all players.

During the game, players will have the opportunity to acquire new skills through Training cards. When performing the action of a Training card, the player may receive between 1 and 4 skill points, which must immediately be used to buy new skills.

A player may always distribute their skill points as they wish when choosing which skills to acquire. For example, a player with 3 skill points may choose a single skill of cost 3, or a skill of cost 2 and another of cost 1.

After choosing which skill to train, the player must place it face up on the table next to their character sheet. Skills may not be exchanged afterwards.

If a player gains more skill points to spend on a Training action than they want or can use, any remainder is lost. The player may not save skill points to use later.

Some skill cards require cards to be discarded from the hand. Cards discarded in this way do not count for any other effect, including cancelling negative effects of Challenges or Enemies.

Skills grant advantages to the player, which can range from Attack or Defence bonuses to unique effects of each character.

Fame Points and End of Game

The objective of the game is to be the player with the greatest number of Fame Points at the end of the game, which occurs when the Lord of Darkness is defeated.

As soon as a player removes the last Life Point of the Lord of Darkness, the game immediately ends.

Each player must check their skills, as some of them may grant extra points, and then count those scores.

Once the score from the combat against the Lord of Darkness and any extra skill points have been counted, the game ends.

Players add up their Fame Point score as indicated on the Green and Blue Fame tracks, and the winner is the player with the highest Fame value.

Ties are decided by the player with more life points, and then by the player with more cards in hand. If the tie remains after all these criteria, the game ends with the tied players as joint winners.

Quick Setup

1. Separate the ENEMY, CHALLENGE, ACTION, LORD OF DARKNESS and SKILL cards.

2. Build the ENEMY AND CHALLENGE DECK with the number indicated for each type of card, placing them interleaved: one Challenge, then one Enemy, and finally placing the Lord of Darkness card at the end of the pile.

3. Separate the ACTION CARDS. Check the indication in the lower left corner of the cards.

4. Deal FOUR ACTION CARDS at random to each player. Then randomly distribute the REMAINING ACTION CARDS onto the five numbered spaces on the board.

5. Each player MUST RECEIVE A CHARACTER AND THEIR SKILL CARDS.

6. The Black Marker must be placed on the board at the minimum value of the Enemy Life Track.

7. Each player must place their markers on their Life and Fame Points. The second player starts with 1 Fame Point, the third with 2 points, and so on.

8. Finally, take 3 CARDS FROM THE TOP OF THE ENEMY AND CHALLENGE DECK AND PLACE THEM FACE UP IN THE CORRESPONDING AREAS of the board.

Quick Turn Reference

Each player has a single action during their turn.

BUY CARDS: the player buys one of the piles of cards on the board.

HEAL: pass the turn to recover 1 life point of the character.

CONTRIBUTE TO A CHALLENGE: the player uses cards with the appropriate colours to advance the resolution of the Challenge. Use the Attribute cards to mark the values already added. The player receives 1 Fame Point per Attribute contributed.

FIGHT AN ENEMY: if an Enemy is in the current episode, the player rolls an attack die and a defence die, adds the result to their character's values, skills and combat cards to determine the damage inflicted on the Enemy, and the damage the Enemy inflicts on the character. The player receives 1 Fame Point for each point of damage dealt. If the Enemy's life is reduced to zero by the attack, the player gains 2 more points.

If the player has not paid the symbols in the lower left corner, they suffer the negative effect of the enemy or Challenge.

PLAY ACTION CARDS: the player plays cards of the same symbol with different colours. The more cards of different colours with the same symbol played together, the greater the effect the player receives:

• Fame: 1 card = 0; 2 cards = 1; 3 cards = 3; 4 cards = 5
• Heal: 1 card = recover 2; 2 cards = recover 4; 3 cards = recover 6; 4 cards = recover 10
• Training: 1 card = 1; 2 cards = 2; 3 cards = 3; 4 cards = 4

At the end of the turn, all discarded cards are returned to the piles, one at a time, always placing each card on the pile with the fewest cards.

• Whenever a value must be divided, round the value down.