Arena: The Contest – Tanares Adventures
Arena: The Contest – Tanares Adventures Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Introduction
- Formatting, Text Boxes
- Chapters and Appendices
- The Golden Rules
- Part I — Combat
- Chapter 1 — Introduction to Heroes
- Chapter 2 — A Hero's Turn — Actions
- Chapter 3 — Attack Timeline
- Chapter 4 — Effects
- Chapter 5 — Off-Turn / Other Resources
- Chapter 6 — Controlling More Than One Hero
- Chapter 7 — Villains
- Chapter 8 — Rounds and Reactions
- Part II — Campaign
- Chapter 9 — City Phase — Overview
- Chapter 10 — City Phase — Management Game
- Chapter 11 — Journey Phase — Adventure
- Chapter 12 — Journey Phase — Quest
- Chapter 13 — Elements of the Scenario
- Chapter 14 — End of Quest / Rewards / Campaign Log
- Chapter 15 — World Phase
- Part III — Appendices
- Appendix A — New Combat Role: The Commander
- Appendix B — Attack Card Replacements for the Campaign
- Appendix C — Short Glossary
- Appendix D — Specific Effects
- Appendix E — "Solo" Team Deathmatch
- Appendix F — Using Expansions
- Appendix G — Rules To Be Unlocked
- Appendix H — One-Shot Quests
Components
Components Needed from Arena: the Contest Game Box
Campaign Mode (PvE) uses these components from the Arena: the Contest game box.
Always used: game board; Scenario Tiles; d20 (twenty-sided die); chest miniatures; HP Tokens; colored rings.
Probably used: miniatures of selected heroes; attack cards of selected heroes; villain figures (varies with Quest); Team Token (blue).
Sometimes used: Fate Cards; prisoner miniatures; tokens (Time, XP, "+70"); orb miniatures; Flask Cards.
Components (Tanares Adventures)
Poster
- 1 Poster Map (City Phase / World Phase)
Books
- 1 Journal
- 1 Quest Guide
- 1 Rulebook
- 1 Quickstart Guide
- 1 City Book
- 1 Campaign Log
Double-sided Tiles and Tokens
- 6 Room Tiles
- 4 Object Tokens
- 8 Role Tokens
- 27 Condition Tokens
- 2 NPC Tokens
- 2 First-Aid Tokens
- 32 Skill Tokens
- 1 Boss Squared Disk
- 11 Villain Tokens
- 9 Hero Tokens
- 2 Corrupted Zone tiles
- 14 Ice tiles
- 2 Planar Rift tiles
- 4 Quest Tiles
- 10 Barricade tiles
(The Corrupted Zone, Ice, Planar Rift, Quest Tile and Barricade pieces are distributed among 16 tile pieces.)
Plastic Pieces
- 1 Boss Snap-on Base
- 4 Hexagonal Snap-on Bases
- 40 Mana Cubes
- 12 Fatigue Cubes
- 67 Miniatures (medium)
- 1 Miniature (large)
Pads and Sheets
- 8 Skill Pads
- 14 Heropads
- 3 Bosspads
- 3 Player Aid pads
Cards (Magnum Gold size)
- 98 Monster Cards
- 7 Boss Cards
Cards (Mini-Euro size)
- 126 Item Cards
- 60 Loot Cards
Cards (Standard size)
- 6 Companion Cards
- 56 Hero-exclusive Attack Cards
- 20 Replacement Attacks
- 114 Role-based Attack Cards
- 41 Hero Cards (Character Cards)
- 63 Solo Cards
- 10 AI PvP Cards
- 98 NPC Cards (Character Cards)
- 24 Boss Fight Cards
- 12 Boss v Boss Cards
- 28 City Structure Cards
- 83 Quest Cards
- 45 Adventure Cards
Introduction
Game Modes
There are several ways to experience Tanares. The main division is Cooperative (Coop) and Competitive (or PvP — "Player versus Player").
Cooperative: Campaign Mode. Also called "player versus environment," 1 to 4 people assemble a single Team to beat varied challenges, in scenarios built for your entertainment.
- Each individual scenario is called a quest.
- In Campaign Mode, your Team plays a sequence of quests in the context of a single background story. But the story is not the only thing that progresses: your heroes level up, improve their home base, and build relationships with a variety of characters.
- This game (Tanares Adventures) teaches you how to play quests and campaigns.
Player versus Player (PvP). A fast-paced tactical combat for 1 to 8 players. The most skilled strategists usually assemble a synergistic Team and manipulate odds to win the competition.
Tanares Adventures and PvP
Tanares Adventures neither teaches nor changes the rules of PvP. It only adds the following novelties:
- New Terrain Tiles: Ice, Rift, Barricade, Corrupted Zone, and Mission Tile. (Chapter 13)
- New Combat Role: the Commander. (Appendix A)
- New Conditions: Distracted, Bleeding, Preserved, and Shielded. (Appendix D)
- New Variation: "Team Deathmatch — Solo Mode" (i.e., "play against the machine"). (Appendix E)
Variations. Both PvP and Coop have several variations, such as "PvP — Team Deathmatch," "PvP — One versus All," and "PvP — Boss versus Boss." If a variation requires a specific expansion, find its rules in that expansion's rulebook.
- Appendix F lists all expansions Dragori has released thus far.
Read This If You're Familiar With Arena
- ALL Epic Campaign rules are different in Tanares Adventures.
- The spirit of the combat system remains mostly the same, but you still need to check all combat rules herein (or in the Tanarean QuickStart).
- The most significant combat rule changes, in relation to Arena, are highlighted with this symbol: (Changed from Arena).
Rules that are different in PvP (and how Tanares changes them):
- Heropad / Heroic Action / Scroll / Artifact (not used).
- Special Attacks (Team Token not required).
- Primary Attacks (more cards in hand; hand cycles).
- Some heroes' exclusive Attack Cards (alternate version used).
- Tanks' Passive (don't require vision of triggering target).
- Benefits/Drawbacks (are considered effects).
- Reactions (only how to incite them remains the same).
- Focus (only heroes can; allies don't disturb it).
- Benefits and skills may move you before the strike.
- Mob (only heroes can; adjacent villains do not protect each other).
- Attack Timeline (several additions).
- Turn Order (not fixed).
- Object Traits (ignored).
- Ruins (only affects combatants that move themselves by any means).
- Altars (3 DMG is not taken when you use it).
- Bosses (effects such as Cursed/Weakened apply).
Where to Start?
A) If you want to play PvP, ignore this book. PvP rules are found in Arena: the Contest.
B) If you want to play Coop, keep reading and ignore Arena — ALL rules (including combat rules!) are here, in Tanares Adventures.
- If "B" is your choice, we recommend you play Tanares's Campaign first. Then, experience Arena's Campaign (as a prequel story).
Formatting, Text Boxes
Before we begin to explain the game, here are a few things that you will see repeated multiple times throughout the chapters. Since this rulebook is meant for short consultations on a specific topic, it would be good to know the following:
- Words in dark green (such as these) are thematic introductions to the rules that follow them. They give you context and make the bullet points seem more intuitive and comprehensible. Most concepts and definitions are found in this formatting.
- Raw rules come in bullet points, such as this one.
- Text in sub-bullets like this are complements or sub-rules: you must read them with the main bullet in mind.
- Long examples come in text boxes. If a long example would get in the way of the core rules, we may put it in text boxes that look like this one — skip it if you already understood the rule.
- ANANAB'S CORNER (cases): example of a skippable box. If you're reading this book to learn the game, skip text boxes that look like this one: they contain ultra-specific rules that, come next weekend, you're likely going to forget. Read these only when your basic knowledge of a subject gets you stuck in a tricky, specific game situation.
- E.g. = "Exempli gratia" = "for example" = Following these letters, you'll find the description of a concrete situation, for better understanding of an abstract rule.
- I.e. = "Id est" = "that is" = This always comes after a sentence and, following these letters, you'll either find a repetition of what you've just read (but in other words), or a logical consequence to it, for better clarity of a rule that our playtests indicate may be found obscure by the reader.
- E.g., "This effect applies to all combatants (i.e., heroes and villains)." = We want to reinforce what "combatant" meant (perhaps because playtests showed that people were forgetting to apply the effect on villains).
- Bold letters = either an important concept that is at the core of the section, or an important detail about the rule, that we think it's important to highlight.
- Capitalized Initials = often reserved for game components (e.g., Skill Token) or concepts of the game (e.g., we say "Companion" instead of "companion" when you might confuse a specific type of combatant in the game for a teammate or fellow player).
Tanares Adventures — Rule Sources
Tanarean QuickStart.
- A quick-to-read, user-friendly material. It gives you an overview of the combat rules.
- We recommend you read it first: a quick overview of the game improves your retention of its specific rules.
Quest Guide (Introduction).
- The first pages of the Quest Guide contain a user-friendly overview of the campaign rules (Team assembly, Campaign Log, etc.).
- This is a "learn as you play" experience: you will begin the story and play two quests before the regular cycle of City/Journey Phases begin.
- This is NOT optional: you must go through the Introduction to begin a Campaign.
The Optimal Experience. Every player has their own preferred method of learning (and teaching) the game. Nevertheless, here's our recommendation:
- Read the QuickStart for an overview of the combat rules.
- Begin the Campaign in the Quest Guide — Introduction. It contains an overview of the campaign rules.
- If, during the game, you have questions these materials don't answer, consult this Rulebook.
Rulebook.
- Contains all the official rules, with "corner cases" and examples for almost all situations you may face on the board.
- Since its main purpose is being precise and comprehensive, we recommend it for brief, episodic consultations.
Chapters and Appendices
This Rulebook is divided into three major sections, each with several chapters. Here's an overview of them:
Part I — Combat. How heroes and villains must fight each other on the board.
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Heroes and Their Components. What heroes are: their different categories (Combat Roles) and basic build (Stats). What heroes use: heroes employ a variety of resources in combat — we introduce you to the components that represent them.
- Chapter 2: A Hero's Turn — Actions. How heroes move: your turn divides into two parts (Move Action and Prime Action). Learn in this chapter the different activities you may perform on your Move Action. What types of attacks heroes make: you may spend your Prime Action taking a second Move Action or making an attack. Learn the three different types of attack (Basic, Primary, Special).
- Chapter 3: Attack Timeline. How heroes attack: go through all the steps of an attack (such as the verification of Vision and Range, the Strike Phase, and more).
- Chapter 4: Effects. Everything that changes the situation of a component or combatant on a fight happens through effects. Learn how to interpret and apply the rich, varied description responsible for the game's tactical depth. Understand the various durations and conditions.
- Chapter 5: Off-Turn / Other Resources. What heroes do when it's not their turn: this chapter talks in detail about the Skill Pad and its mana cubes you spend to apply effects on the turns of allies and villains. Non-attack cards heroes use: their rules are brief and simple. We explain Items (Weapons and Armor), and NPCs (whose power is often used once, and before the fight even begins).
- Chapter 6: Controlling More Than One Hero (1-3 players). The small set of modifications you should implement to the game if you're playing "solo," or with fewer than four players. With it, you can fully control a single hero and complete your Team with simplified versions of heroes that will, nevertheless, provide you with valuable assistance.
- Chapter 7: Villains. Having finally exhausted the rules concerning heroes, we introduce you to villains: the enemies you'll face on quests. Understand their components and behavior (how villains move, who they target), and learn what is unique about the powerful bosses.
- Chapter 8: Rounds and Reactions. Learn how heroes and villains exchange turns and how the different villain statuses (Fatigued, Unprovoked, Retaliation, Guards) are intimately connected with Turn Order and Rounds. And since we're in the topic of hero/villain exchanges, learn how their bad positioning may incite each other's Reactions.
Part II — Campaign. How to make progress in the game when you're not fighting villains. What is happening, and what your goals are: We briefly explain what is happening in the world, and what you must do to steer it in the right direction. This Introduction helps you make sense of all the rules coming in the next chapters.
- Chapter 9: City Phase — Overview. What heroes do between quests: Everything begins with your home base — and returns to it, after you're done fighting villains. How heroes level up: It's in the City Structures that you improve as a hero — practicing and learning new attacks, purchasing items, and more. Building an army: Four heroes can work miracles, but to win a war you should recruit Assets and build a strong Resistance. Learn what Character Assets are and how you can use them.
- Chapter 10: City Phase — Management Game. How to allocate resources and develop the City: To accomplish your goals, you must frequently tend to your City, a machine you must build and polish. Learn how to allocate your Assets and resources to upgrade (and use!) Structures or perform other actions, such as recruiting more heroes or Assets to your cause, purchasing items, and more.
- Chapter 11: Journey Phase — Adventure. How to equip and prepare your heroes: Learn what components you need to grab to prepare for the upcoming quest. But before you can get there, you must choose an Adventure Card and make progress in the story developed in the Journal, where your decisions determine the quest you'll play!
- Chapter 12: Journey Phase — Quest. How to set up a table and read quest instructions: understand the Quest Guide, read the map to assemble the board, and learn what are Facts and the Kemet Hunt, as both apply modifications to the circumstances in the quest, as a result of your past decisions and performance. How to win a quest: Part I taught you how to fight. Learn here about Primary Objective and Extra Challenge, what happens when Rounds end, Events start, or things don't go your way and your heroes die.
- Chapter 13: Elements of the Scenario. The scenarios of our 100+ quests are rich with a diversity of elements that change the dynamics of combat — get to know Ice and Lava, Swamp and Ruins, Portals and Altars, and more.
- Chapter 14: End of Quest. Rewards. Campaign Log. Learn what happens at the end of a quest, either you win or lose it (aside from gaining Loot Cards). The end of a quest is a major moment in the story of the campaign, and all relevant things you do must be registered in the Campaign Log. Register new Facts. Gain a Quest Card and its Mastery/War points. Take notes, keep track of your Kemet Hunt level, and move on using the Calendar.
- Chapter 15: World Phase. Every four quests, at the end of a Week, you play a World Phase instead of a City Phase. With similar mechanics, its main purpose is gaining War Points that unlock rewards, especially the Campaign Perks.
Part III — Appendices. Specific heroes, Game Modes, or Expansions that you might never play; therefore, you might not need these rules to play the core game.
- Appendix A: New Combat Role — The Commander. This game introduces the Commander Combat Role to the Tanarean Universe. Its main feature is going to the board with a second figure: the Companion. Learn how to play with it.
- Appendix B: Attack Card Replacements for the Campaign. A few attack cards from heroes coming in older editions of Dragori releases are not compatible with the PvE rules of Tanares Adventures. We list them and talk about their replacements (their cards come in Tanares Adventures' box).
- Appendix C: Short Glossary. This non-exhaustive list contains expressions that repeat throughout the game, for a quick reference when you forget the difference between "draw a card" and "pick a card." Where appropriate, you'll find examples and rules related to specific expressions, for when you find something like "all combatants in a 3x3 area" in an attack card's target description.
- Appendix D: Specific Effects. Some Benefits, Attack Effects, and Conditions happen multiple times, and their execution may raise questions. We go through them one by one and explain the rules that apply.
- Appendix E: Team Deathmatch — Solo Mode. Learn how to play the PvP (Team Deathmatch) version of the game (taught in Arena: the Contest's Rulebook) when there are no human players to oppose you.
- Appendix F: Using Expansions. Many of Dragori's releases (such as the Dragon Collection box) are compatible with this game. We list how each of them can be used alongside Tanares Adventures.
- Appendix G: Rules To Be Unlocked. Throughout the campaign, some events will unlock a whole set of rules you'll need to apply thenceforth. Although simple and intuitive, sometimes you may feel the need to consult them, so we've organized them in this section, according to the order we expect you to unveil them.
- Appendix H: One-Shot Quests. In this section we teach you how to play any quest outside of the context of a campaign — that is, without City Phase, Character progression, and story development. Simply browse the Quest Guide, choose a quest that appeals to you, and follow the instructions in this appendix.
The Golden Rules
If two rules contradict each other, apply the most specific rule.
- E.g., if the Rulebook says "only Ranged Attacks incite Reactions" and an Instruction on Quest 123 says "Melee Attacks incite Reactions, and Ranged Attacks don't," apply the latter, because it is more specific (it applies only during Quest 123, while the Rulebook applies in all other occasions).
- E.g., if, on Quest 123, you play a card that says "Nothing incites Reactions this turn," you may apply this effect, as it is more specific — unless the quest Instructions specifically say that "no effect can prevent this."
Players decide all ties.
- When multiple courses of action are possible within the rules, you can decide even the behavior of villains or neutral elements of the scenario.
- E.g.: "At the end of Round, one hero or villain closest to the metal rod is struck by lightning and takes 10 DMG." = If there are three heroes and one villain equally close to the metal rod, you may choose the lightning to strike the villain (even though it seems like an element of nature that is out of your control).
Part I — Combat
Chapter 1 — Introduction to Heroes
Heroes, Team, and Allies
A Hero is the Character you (the player) control. Through the hero you will accomplish objectives, defeat enemies, and make decisions on and off the board.
- All quests must be played by one Team. A Team is a group of exactly four heroes.
- All heroes in a Team are each other's allies.
- Not all allies are heroes: sometimes other characters may join the party (e.g., a combatant you need to save or escort, an NPC, or a Commander's Companion).
Hero Card
The Hero Card represents each hero's unique identity. It informs:
- Your set of off-combat Abilities (used in story events and City Phase).
- Your unique Passive Power (triggered during attacks).
- Your Combat Role (which determines your Skill Pad and, by extension, Stats).
Combat Roles
A Combat Role is a classification that determines the hero's tendencies, stats, and attacks, indicating the optimal function your character would perform in combat.
There are eight combat roles, each with its own color and symbol. Heroes of the same Role share identical Stats. Although the Combat Role gives a clue about how a hero would fight, keep in mind that heroes have exclusive attacks and Passive Power effects that make them all vastly diverse from all others, as both their powers and their optimal behavior on the board depend on these unique features.
- Teams cannot have more than one hero of the same Combat Role.
Offensive Roles — usually the main source of concentrated damage. Every Team is recommended to have one of the two:
- Brute: Close combat attacker who cares more about dealing extra damage against isolated targets than about its own safety.
- Shooter: No one deals more damage from range, but they're the easiest to die.
Defensive Roles — usually the main source of defense and reactions against enemy moves. Every Team is recommended to have one of the two:
- Tank: Die-hard leader who tries to remain close to enemies to protect strategically important teammates.
- Bruiser: Solid all-around melee fighter and protector, jack of all trades, master of none but oftentimes better than master of one.
Strategic Roles — usually the main source of debuffs and repositioning. Every Team is recommended to have one of the two:
- Tactician: Versatile close combat expert that excels at exploiting positioning to debuff and disrupt enemies.
- Controller: Ranged master of chaos, who manipulates the battle from a safe distance while causing powerful adverse effects to enemies.
Support Roles — usually the main source of healing and buffs. Every Team is recommended to have one of the two:
- Healer: Low damage supporter who is greatly efficient in making teammates last longer and, contrary to popular belief, they're moderately difficult to kill.
- Commander: Specialist in buffs, they can deal moderate damage through a Companion they unleash on the battlefield. (See Appendix A.)
"Special" Role. Dragori has already released more than 50 different heroes; some of them were made with particular powers, Stats, and passives that don't fit any of the Roles above — these belong to the "Special" Combat Role. You may use these heroes to have fun in unique compositions, but you cannot start a Campaign with them.
Combat Stats
While attacks and effects represent what a hero can do, Stats represent what your hero is, such as how much it can normally move (MOVE STAT), how likely it is to defend or evade an enemy attack (DEFENSE STAT), how much damage it can take (HP STAT), etc.
- Hero Stats are found in Skill Pads; villain Stats are found in Villain Cards.
- Your Stats may be different than the number on the Pad. Some elements in the game can change them (e.g., Armor increases Max HP).
Max Hit Points (Max HP)
Your Hit Points Stat indicates how much damage you can take. If your HP drops to zero, you die.
- Combatants begin quests with full HP: put their HP Tokens on slots that correspond to their Max HP Stat.
- HP Track: The HP Track runs around the main board and has numbered slots (from 0 to 70).
- Damage (DMG) taken reduces HP by the same amount (e.g., if you take 10 DMG and your Token is on slot 50 of the HP Track, move this Token to a lower position — in this case, slot 40).
- (Changed from Arena) HP can never have a negative value. Its minimum amount is always zero.
- When you receive a Healing Effect (HEAL), move your Token to a higher position.
- (Changed from Arena) You cannot move past your Max HP (any exceeding hit points to regain are lost).
- Moving the Token around the Track is how DMG and HEAL are tracked.
Death
- Death happens when a combatant's HP drops to zero.
- Dropping to zero HP during an attack: you are only considered dead after the attack that killed you is completely resolved (see Attack Timeline, Death).
- Dropping to zero HP outside of an attack: immediately replace your figure for your HP Token. You are dead.
- (Changed from Arena) When you die, replace your figure for your HP Token. It marks your Square of Death.
- Die = Kill. Whenever a villain dies, consider as if you have killed it (even if a hero was not responsible for reducing its HP to zero).
- E.g., a quest's Primary Objective says "Kill all villains" — You still meet the Objective if a villain kills itself on Lava or suffers collateral damage from another villain's effect.
Basic Attack
The number in this Stat indicates the damage you deal when you hit a Basic Attack. This is your most basic resource, for the rare occasions when you cannot (or should not) make stronger attacks.
- The icon next to the damage value indicates the Range of a Basic Attack: 1 square (Melee Attack), 2 squares (Melee Attack), or 8 squares (Ranged Attack).
Defense
The Defense value indicates how likely an attack targeting you will miss. A high defense means your hero is good at dodging or blocking.
- Combatants must roll a die for every strike of their attacks.
- Strikes HIT only if the result of the roll matches or exceeds their target's Defense.
Movement
The distance you can normally travel on your turn.
- Indicates how many movement points you are allowed to spend in a Move Action (see next chapter).
Reaction DMG
- Reactions automatically deal the damage indicated in this Stat (see Chapter 8).
Table Setup — A Hero's Corner
This section is a visual representation of all components through which your hero will perform their actions in combat. This is a mere introduction — their rules are more thoroughly explained ahead. In this chapter, we briefly talk about Hero Cards and the Stats found in the Skill Pad. Chapters 2-3 teach how to read and use the different types of Attack Cards.
Find the table setup of the City Phase in Chapter 10, and the table setup of a quest (including villains and books) in Chapter 11. Components are listed and numbered according to the order you will find them in this Rulebook.
Key to the hero's table setup diagram:
- A — Hero Card: Each hero has its card, with a unique Passive Power and Abilities that are used on the City Phase or Journal.
- B — Skill Pad: In PvE Mode, heroes use the Skill Pad that matches the Combat Role. It contains Stats and Skills.
- C — HP Token: placed on the HP Track (see below) to display a combatant's current HP. The color of the miniature or colored ring must match the color of the token. There are round and hexagonal shapes to differentiate villains of the same color or combatants of different Teams.
- D — HP Track: place and move Tokens to keep track of combatants' current Hit Points (HP). Also used to track other statuses (HP of doors/prisoners, passage of time, etc.).
- E — Figure/miniature: miniatures placed on the Battlegrid (see below) to indicate the position of a combatant or element of the scenario.
- F — Battlegrid: where the fight happens. Place miniatures, Tiles, and Tokens on it. Size: 24x16 squares.
- G — Primary Attack Card (not flipped): Each hero plays the quest with 4 Primary Attacks. Their maximum levels are determined by your City Structure. You can only make attacks whose cards are not flipped.
- H — Primary Attack Card (flipped): When an attack resolves, flip its card. If all Primary Attack Cards are flipped when your turn begins, unflip them all (see "Cycle").
- I — Special Attack Card (in hand): Each hero plays the quest with 2 Special Attacks. They can be made only once per quest.
- J — Special Attack Card (spent): When a Special Attack is made, visibly remove it from the match. (Some effects may recover it.)
Chapter 2 — A Hero's Turn — Actions
Turn Structure
- You have one Move Action and one Prime Action per turn.
- These two actions may be spent in any order during the hero's turn.
- E.g., You may spend a Move Action and then a Prime Action, OR a Prime Action and then a Move Action.
- But you may NOT move just a little bit, attack (which is a Prime Action), and then resume your Move Action.
Move Action — spend Movement Points to:
- Move.
- Interact.
- Or, as the only activity on the Move Action: Sidestep, or Focus.
Prime Action — one of:
- Extra Move Action (a second Move Action).
- Sidestep (see Move Action).
- Basic Attack.
- Primary Attack.
- Special Attack.
- Focus (see Move Action).
Move Action
Move Action is the primary way of repositioning combatants during the match. It is intimately connected with good performance in combat, as all attacks require Range and Vision of your target, Passive Powers are often related to the position of combatants in relation to others, Reactions depend on being adjacent to an enemy, and villains sometimes target one hero instead of another based on their positioning.
Movement Points
- Check the Move Stat on your Skill Pad. You have that many movement points to spend on your Move Action.
- You forgo all unspent movement points if your Move Action ends.
- E.g., If your Move Stat is 6 and you move a single square, you still have 5 movement points to spend. Still, you can no longer SIDESTEP, as that must be the only activity performed on a Move Action.
- E.g., if you MOVE only one square and then declare an attack (signaling the beginning of a Prime Action, and, therefore, the end of your Move Action), it doesn't matter that you didn't spend all your points: you can no longer perform any other Move Action activity.
MOVE
- Spend 1 movement point to: leave the square you currently occupy and enter a valid adjacent square.
- You may freely combine orthogonal and/or diagonal moves when you spend multiple points.
- "MOVE 1" = "Move 1 square" = "Move to an adjacent square."
- "An enemy adjacent to you" = "An enemy in [1] of you."
- You may step on (i.e., move through) squares occupied by allies, but you cannot end your move on them (see "Movement Restrictions" ahead).
Possible Activities
- On your Move Action, you may MOVE AND INTERACT; OR SIDESTEP; OR FOCUS.
- MOVE and INTERACT spend movement points: as long as you have points to spend, you may perform them multiple times and in any order.
- SIDESTEP or FOCUS spend the Move Action: you must forgo all your movement points, and you must not perform any other activity (before or after) on that Move Action (including SIDESTEP — or FOCUS — a second time).
INTERACT
- Spend 1 movement point while adjacent to an interactable object to INTERACT with it.
- Most quests require or allow you to interact with objects for a variety of reasons (e.g., to repair a statue, to open a chest, to disarm a trap, etc.). This is done by spending 1 movement point while adjacent to the object with which you're interacting.
- (Changed from Arena) Some Quest Guide instructions may require additional conditions (e.g., spending HP, possession of a Key Token, etc.).
- Interactions do not incite Reactions (even if the effect of the object with which you're interacting moves you).
- DO NOT remove the object from the grid (unless it instructs you to).
SIDESTEP
If not for the possibility of spending it to gain another Move Action, you could consider this your "Attack Action." Also, in rare circumstances, quest instructions may allow you to spend your Prime Action on something else.
Sidestep is a special movement where the combatant swiftly enters an adjacent square to avoid inciting Reactions.
- You may spend your Prime Action to make an attack, OR to gain a second Move Action.
- SIDESTEP is leaving your square to land in an unoccupied adjacent square.
- SIDESTEP never incites Reactions. (This is the major difference between a SIDESTEP and spending 1 movement point to MOVE.)
- Loss of movement points. You cannot SIDESTEP or FOCUS if, by any reason, you have fewer movement points than your Move Stat.
- Excess of movement points. If an effect has made you gain more points than your Move Stat, you still cannot perform more than one activity in your Move Action, if you want to SIDESTEP or FOCUS.
- You can only SIDESTEP to a square if that square could be entered with a single movement point. (E.g., you cannot SIDESTEP through the corners of Barriers, or onto Ruins/Swamp Tiles.)
- You cannot SIDESTEP if you are Slowed (Condition).
Movement Restrictions
Diagonal movement
- Diagonal movement is not allowed through the corners of Barriers (i.e., Walls, Doors, and Barricades), but it is allowed through Obstacles, Combatants, and other Tiles.
- (Changed from Arena) If you PUSH, PULL, FLEE, or RUN, spend 2 movement points to move through the corners of Barriers (see Appendix D).
- If you move diagonally through a corner shared with a Terrain Tile, you will suffer its effects as if you had just entered and then left it a single time (e.g., you take damage when you move through the corner of a Lava Tile or you have to spend an extra movement point to go through a corner shared with Ruins).
Middle and end of a movement
- Enemies, Barriers, Obstacles: You cannot step on squares they occupy.
- Allies: You can move through them, but you cannot end your move on the square they occupy.
- Terrain Tiles: You can move through and end your move on them.
Two Move Actions. If you choose to spend your Prime Action taking a second Move Action, you may SIDESTEP twice, or SIDESTEP and then MOVE (for example). The restrictions found in this chapter apply within the confines of a single Move Action.
Merging movement points. You may spend the last point of the first Move Action with the first point of the second Move Action (e.g., you have only one movement point left in your first Move Action and you need to enter a Swamp square, an action that requires 2 movement points).
Types of Attacks
There are 3 types of Attacks you can make:
- Basic Attack.
- Primary Attack.
- Special Attack.
Basic Attack
A hero's simplest form of aggression, for the rare occasions when more powerful attacks are unavailable or you want to hold your hand.
- The symbol on your Stat indicates the range.
- The number on your Stat indicates the damage dealt (if it hits).
- The Basic Attack is not represented by a card — they are all the same:
- Basic Attack — 1 square or 8 squares (depends on the Role) / 1 enemy.
- Benefit: +1 bonus to roll.
- Hit: Basic Attack Stat DMG.
- Miss: Nothing happens.
Special Attack (gold border)
Each hero has two unique Special Attacks that only they, and no other hero, can bring to a quest. These are your deadliest resources — but each can be made only once per quest.
Available / Spent
- Your hero starts the quest with both of its Special Attacks available and unspent.
- Once a Special Attack is declared, it is considered "spent" and becomes unavailable until the match ends.
Tracking lasting effects
- If an attack applies effects that require tracking, put its card on top of the card of the affected combatant.
- (Changed from Arena) After this effect ends, remove the Special Attack Card from the match.
- Applied Special Attacks are immune to effects. You cannot regain or otherwise make a Special Attack whose card is currently applied on a combatant. (After the card is removed from the match, effects may recover it, copy it, etc.)
Interrupt Special Attack
Interrupt is a particular and rare category of Special Attack that has its own set of rules. Its major feature is that you make it on another combatant's turn, as a response to a declaration of attack.
- Pay attention to the moment of declaration described on the card: this is the only attack that does not spend a Prime Action.
- (Changed from Arena) Like all attacks, you must roll a die to determine if it hits the target.
- The Level of an attack is relevant for two reasons: some effects take them into consideration (e.g., "flip an attack. Then, HEAL 4 per level of the attack flipped").
- (Changed from Arena) The set of four Primary Attack Cards you may take to each quest is restricted by level.
- Preparing your set of Primary Attacks: see Chapter 11 — Adventure (Step A — Prepare Your Team).
- "Enemy making an attack" = Your Interrupt's Attack Timeline happens, and entirely resolves, between the enemy's declaration of attack and declaration of target (i.e., before the attack roll).
- Villains are considered to declare their attack immediately after their Move Action ends. (See Chapter 7.)
- If the Interrupted attack cannot continue (for any reason): The attacker can no longer attack this turn (their Prime Action has already been spent).
Primary Attack (silver border)
You begin the campaign with four Primary Attacks (two that belong exclusively to the hero you chose, and two that belong to your Combat Role). As the campaign progresses, you unlock Primary Attacks of higher level, based on your Combat Role.
Cycle (Primary Attacks)
In a quest, you should time and plan your Primary Attacks well. When such an attack resolves, its card is flipped and becomes unavailable. Only when all your Primary Attacks have been flipped can you "unflip" them all, at the start of your turn — this is called "completing a cycle."
- There is no limit to how many times you can repeat the same Primary Attack in a match (just respecting one Prime Action per turn, and the Cycle — see ahead).
Types of Primary Attack Cards
- There are two types of Primary Attack Cards:
- Hero-exclusive Attack Cards. Hero-exclusive cards are characterized by the presence of the hero's illustration: only that particular hero may use them. (These are the cards with which you play PvP.)
- Role-based Attack Cards. These have no character illustrations in them — only the symbol and color of a Combat Role. (Changed from Arena) These can be Level 0, Level I, Level II, or Level III.
- (Changed from Arena) All exclusive attacks are considered "Level Zero."
Flipping
- When you declare a Primary Attack, separate its card from the others.
- When this attack finishes resolving, flip its card.
- If the attack applies a Temporary or Permanent Effect, do not flip its card. Instead, put it on top of the card of the affected combatant.
- (Changed from Arena) Only after this effect ends or expires must the Attack Card rejoin your set, flipped (see "Effects — Duration").
- Special Attack Cards are not part of the Cycle (but their Permanent Effects end when you complete one). They are never flipped; instead, remove them from the match when their effects end. DO NOT recover a spent Special Attack when you complete a Cycle.
- Separated Cards are immune to flipping. Some effects allow you to flip a card; you cannot target an attack that has already been declared and didn't finish resolving.
- Flip the Card only when its attack resolves. Some effects require you to count the number of flipped attacks; the attack currently being made cannot be included (see next Chapter — Attack Timeline).
Completing the Cycle
- If, at the start of your turn, all of your Primary Attack Cards are flipped, do the following, in order:
- All of your currently-applied Temporary and Permanent Effects (if any) end.
- (Changed from Arena) Primary Attack Cards in this situation return to you.
- (Changed from Arena) Special Attack Cards in this situation are removed from the match.
- Unflip all of your Primary Attack Cards. (This completes a Cycle.)
- Reactivate an Item. Whenever you complete a Cycle, you may reactivate ONE of your Items (if any of them is on cooldown) — see Chapter 5 — Items.
- All of your currently-applied Temporary and Permanent Effects (if any) end.
(If you are playing the Campaign's Introduction: Take the first turn, to effectively start Quest 01.)
Chapter 3 — Attack Timeline
On almost every turn, a hero's main action is the attack. With the Attack Damage, heroes get their enemies closer to death, and via its Effects, they change the circumstances of battle in their favor. Plan ahead!
The variety of targets, ranges, and effects makes this one of the most complex actions you will learn, but, as you'll see, it all works very intuitively.
Before you allow the number of steps in the Attack Timeline to intimidate you, rest assured that, in the vast majority of cases, this is how you will spend your Prime Action:
- Choose an Attack Card in your hand.
- Select a suitable target within Range.
- Roll a die and compare the result to that target's Defense.
- If you roll lower than their Defense, you MISS and deal Residual Damage (R-DMG).
- If you roll equal or higher, you HIT and apply Attack Damage to your target, as well as the Effects described in the Attack Card.
Sometimes, however, complex situations may demand knowledge of the order of steps you and your opponents have to follow. For that, follow the Timeline and sections ahead.
A Hero's Attack Timeline
Declaration Phase
- Declare your Attack. (Separate its card, unless it's a Basic Attack.)
- Benefit / Drawback¹.
- Declaration of Target(s). (If it's a Ranged Attack, villains might React.) Check Description. Check Range. Check Vision.
Strike Phase² (some skills apply before or after the roll) 4. Roll the die (= natural roll). 5. Apply Result Modifiers (e.g., Mob/Focus, Items, skills, Conditions, Benefit bonuses). 6. Check Final Result (HIT or MISS).
- A) Strike HITS (roll equal or higher than target's Defense).
- Apply Passive Power, if triggered (once a turn).
- Apply Attack Damage to the target hit. (+5 DMG if you rolled a natural 20) (once a turn).
- B) Strike MISSES (roll lower than target's Defense).
Execution Phase³ 7. Apply additional effects.
- A) At least one strike hit. If available, you may apply, in any order:
- Your Weapon's Active Power; and/or
- Attack Card Effects (in the order listed in the card).
- B) All strikes missed. Apply the effect in the Attack Card's "Miss" field (if any). (If you apply a "Miss" field effect, you gain 1 mana cube.)
- 8A (Special Attack): Remove or Apply Card. (Instant/no effects): remove from match (it's spent). (Temporary/Permanent): put it on the card of the affected combatant.
- 8B (Primary Attack): Flip or Apply Card. (Instant/no effects): flip it. (Temporary/Permanent): put it on the card of the affected combatant.
- Apply Death Consequences (if combatants dropped to 0 HP after the Strike Phase).
- The Attack is considered RESOLVED.
¹ Benefits must apply at this moment only when another is not inferred from their text (some may apply even in the Execution Phase).
² Once a Strike Phase begins, combatants that drop to zero HP (by any means) can no longer HEAL, but are considered dead only at the end of the Attack Timeline.
³ If the attack has multiple strikes, restart the Strike Phase until all strikes are determined either a Hit or a Miss (Step 7 applies just once, even if there have been multiple hits).
Declaration Phase
Description
To be valid, a target must match the description in the card of the declared attack. For example, you cannot target an ally if the attack card's target description states "1 enemy."
- 1 enemy: choose any villain.
- 1 ally: choose any combatant on your team, except yourself.
- 1 hero: choose yourself, or an ally.
- 2 enemies: choose one or two villains. (You may strike each of them once.)
- 3 enemies: choose one, two, or three villains. (You may strike each of them once.)
(Step 1) Declaration of Attack
- Simply put, state the name of the attack you want to make.
- Remember to declare your target before rolling the strike. Since combatants have different Defenses, cheaters will try to see how high they roll before revealing who they are targeting.
- This declaration spends your Prime Action.
- You can only declare an attack if it will enter the Strike Phase.
- (I.e., you must not declare an attack if you cannot find how it may strike a valid target.)
- Declare the order of all targets before rolling the first die. Then, make rolls one by one, verifying whether each target got hit (or missed), before moving on to the Execution Phase.
- E.g., You may not take advantage of a Benefit… and then forgo the rest of the attack.
- E.g., You may not take advantage of a Benefit… if there will be no valid target to declare afterward.
- E.g., You may not take advantage of a Benefit… and then declare an invalid target.
Multiple targets. See the target description on the card and Appendix C.
Rare target descriptions
- If there are no valid targets to declare, you may apply your attack's Benefit if, after it resolves, a target will become valid (e.g., because the Benefit allows you to move into range and/or vision of a target that was previously invalid).
Rewinding your actions. If, after declaring an attack and applying its Benefit/Drawback, you verify that you cannot declare a valid target, unspend your Prime Action, recover the card that you have separated, and undo all other actions (especially Benefits) you may have performed since the attack was declared.
(Step 2) Benefit / Drawback
- Some attacks have a particular way of executing that brings the attacker a Benefit or Drawback. Read the Attack Card instructions.
- Benefits are optional. Drawbacks are mandatory.
- Check Appendix D to understand various specific Benefits.
(Step 3) Declaration of Target
After you have declared your attack and possibly executed its Benefit (or Drawback), you must declare who you will attack, and it must be a valid target.
- A target is valid when it matches the description in the Attack Card and you can see it (Vision) within a proper distance (Range).
- You must not declare an invalid target. (See "Declaration of Attack.")
- Read in Appendix C how to interpret descriptions such as "All combatants in a 3x3 area," "Enemies in a straight line," "Enemy/ally making an attack."
Range is how far your attack can go. If the number of squares between yourself and your target is equal or lower than the number in your attack's Range, the target is within a valid distance.
- When counting squares, exclude the square you occupy and include the square your target occupies.
- E.g., if two figures are in adjacent squares, the distance between them is one square. If there is one vacant square between them, their distance is two squares.
- Range 1: Melee Attack. You must be adjacent to the target.
- Range 2: Melee Attack. You can be [1] or [2] away from the target.
- Range 8: Ranged Attack. You may be up to [8] away from the target.
Vision is the third prerequisite when validating a Target (alongside Description and Range). It means you can see a square on the grid because at least one straight line between this square and your square is not blocked.
- Two squares have vision of each other whenever you can trace a straight line between them.
- Only Barriers (i.e., Walls and/or Doors) block this line.
- (Changed from Arena) Obstacles, Terrains, Barricades, and combatants do not block vision.
Determining your Vision
- Trace imaginary straight lines from the corners of your square. They cannot cross the edges of squares occupied by Walls and/or Doors (not even graze through a corner).
- If at least one line touches any corner of a square, you have vision of what is on that square.
- Diagram key (Vision): no vision where the lines cross vertices/edges of squares occupied by Barriers; vision where at least one corner of the occupied square can reach a corner of the target's square without interruption from Barriers.
Tips (for difficult cases)
- You don't need to stick to corners. The four corners (or vertices of the square) are the farthest points from its center. If you can see that any other part of the square can be touched, rest assured that at least one corner can be touched, also.
- Props. You can use rulers, strings, or any other straight object to link corners.
Note: All attacks require rolling a die — even if you target an ally or a dead combatant.
- (Changed from Arena) Some attacks allow multiple strikes.
Strike Phase
The Strike is an attack's attempt to HIT a target. It is characterized by the roll of a die and confrontation with the target's Defense Stat. Many times the natural roll will be high (or low) enough for you to quickly know whether the strike hit (or missed). However, when it is a close call, carefully check the roll modifiers in play.
Moment. Purpose.
- The Strike Phase begins after all declared targets have been deemed valid.
- Its purpose is to determine whether the attack hits or misses these targets.
Definition. Exclusive for Attacks.
- Strike = Roll a d20 (i.e., a die with 20 sides) against a valid target's Defense Stat.
- In combat, attacks are the only action that require rolling a die: skills, Items, Passives, and all other effects apply automatically.
- You may ignore this entire step whenever an effect says that the result of an attack is "automatic."
- A natural 20 is always a hit, and a natural 1 is always a miss.
- E.g., a natural 20 roll will hit your target even if its current Defense exceeds 20 and you have multiple penalties to your roll.
The most common Roll Modifiers
- Bonus to roll: Attack Benefit; Blessed Condition (roll twice, choose best number); Altar Terrain (blesses the attacker); Items (weapons).
- Penalty to roll: Attack Drawback; Cursed Condition (roll twice, choose worst number); Distracted Condition (-3).
The most common Defense Modifiers
- Boost to Defense: Protected Condition (+3); Mob/Focus (exposes the target — see below).
- Penalty to Defense: Exposed Condition (-3).
The importance of Mob and Focus. Tactically speaking, they are the most important modifiers. While the others depend on specific effects, cards, and Terrains, smart Teams with good decisions and positioning can constantly use Mob and Focus to impact their performance.
Focus
With no distractions around them, ranged combatants can Focus and make an extra-careful attack that is more likely to hit its targets.
- ALL targets of focused strikes are considered Exposed.
- (Changed from Arena) This applies even if your target is an ally.
- To strike a target with Focus, all of the below must be true:
- It must be your turn.
- (Changed from Arena) You must forgo your Move Action (it is spent focusing).
- (Changed from Arena) When you roll the die, there can be no enemies within [3] of you.
- (Changed from Arena) Benefits, skills, or effects of the attack can still move you, but focus is lost if you are within 3 squares of an enemy when you roll the die.
Diagram caption: "1, B and C are potential targets of focused attacks."
Mob
A Mob is two or more heroes that approach a villain from distinct angles. When this happens, the villain has to divide its attention, which impairs its ability to defend itself.
- Villains are considered Exposed to ALL strikes from heroes in a Mob.
- You cannot Mob allies.
- You strike with Mob when both of the below are true:
- An ally and you are both adjacent to your target.
- (Changed from Arena) This ally is not adjacent to you.
Diagram captions: "Mob" (allies A and B both adjacent to enemy 1, from distinct angles). "Not Mobbed by B" — in this second example, a square separates allies A and C, which means they Mob enemy 1. However, there are no squares separating ally B from another ally adjacent to enemy 1, which means B is not in the Mob. In other words, enemy 1 is Exposed to attacks made by A and C, but not to attacks made by B.
Critical Hit
- Critical Hit (once per turn). If you've rolled a natural 20, not only the strike is an automatic hit, but you may deal +5 Attack Damage to the target. (Sometimes you may not want to deal it, e.g., the target is your ally.)
Multiple Strikes and Multiple Targets
- Multiple strikes: restarting the Strike Phase. Some attacks allow you to strike multiple targets (or to strike the same target more than once, so it can take Attack DMG multiple times). In these cases, instead of continuing to the Execution Phase, restart the Strike Phase.
- Multiple targets: no distribution of Attack DMG. The reason Attack Damage belongs to the Strike Phase (and not the Execution Phase) is that it must be dealt in full to each target hit (while Attack Effects, on the other hand, apply just once). Some rare attacks explicitly instruct you to divide the DMG between all targets hit; in these cases, restart the Strike Phase sooner.
Passive Power
A special power that most often enhances the first strike you hit on your turn. Its trigger is determined by your Combat Role, but the effect is unique for each hero — often giving it a combat "signature" that influences that hero's positioning and behavior in combat, when compared to other heroes of the same Combat Role.
- Passive Powers are entirely described in your Hero Card (or Villain Cards).
- Trigger: the condition that you must meet to produce the Passive Effect.
- (Changed from Arena) Effect: the automatic combat consequence of meeting the trigger.
- You can only apply your Passive Effect once per turn, on your turn, immediately after its trigger is met for the first time (i.e., before any other effects, or the Attack Damage, apply).
Tank's Passive Power. The Tank's Passive is triggered by: "Enemy started its turn in [1] of you and declares an attack."
- Unique moment. Since Tanks' main function in combat is to protect its allies from attacks, it is the only Combat Role whose Passive triggers on a villain's turn.
- Since a villain can die on its way to its target, the Passive triggers at the last possible moment before the villain rolls its attack's strike.
- Effects require vision and range of their target. E.g., the villain (target of the Passive's Effect) starts its turn adjacent to the Tank, but it then moves behind a wall to attack one of the Tank's allies. Since the Tank no longer has vision of its target, it cannot apply its Passive Effect.
- Since there's no distance restriction described in the Passive's Effect, the Tank needs (besides vision) to be in [8] of the effect's target (see next Chapter to learn how to interpret and apply effects).
(Step 6) Check Final Result (HIT or MISS)
A) The strike hits.
- If the final result of the roll (i.e., the natural roll + modifiers) matches or exceeds the target's current Defense Stat, the strike is a HIT.
- The Passive Power of most attackers will trigger at this moment. If this is the first time in the turn that it happens, apply its effect immediately.
- Next, deal Attack Damage to the target hit.
B) The strike misses.
- If the final result of the roll is lower than the target's current Defense Stat, the strike is a MISS.
A strike may miss, and its attack be considered a hit: the case of multiple strikes. Most missed strikes result in a missed attack (because most attacks allow a single strike). However, an attack with multiple strikes is considered completely missed only when none of its strikes hits a target. If at least one strike hits, you get to apply Attack/Weapon effects in the Execution Phase (see next section).
Execution Phase
The Execution Phase begins after all strikes have been resolved as either a hit or a miss, and ends with the death of combatants (if any). It is at this moment that you might apply a variety of possible effects and give a destination to the Attack Card (flipped/removed/applied).
- Begin this Phase only after all possible strikes have been made (and determined either a hit or a miss).
(Step 7) Apply Additional Effects
- A) Hit. The attack is considered a hit when at least one of its strikes hits a target. Your attack HITS when the result of at least one of its strikes is successful (your natural die roll, plus modifiers, results in a number equal or above your target's current Defense Stat). If this happens, you get to apply Attack Damage and Effects.
- If your attack was a hit, you may apply, in any order:
- Your Active Weapon's Power (if any); and/or
- (Changed from Arena) The "Effect" field of the Attack Card (if any, and in the order listed in the card).
- If your attack was a hit, you may apply, in any order:
- B) Miss. The attack is considered a miss when all of its strikes miss their targets.
(Step 8) Give the Attack Card a Destination
- Basic Attack: skip this step (it uses no card).
- Special Attack Card: remove it from the match (it is considered spent).
- Primary Attack Card: flip it (see "Cycle").
- Attacks that apply Temporary or Permanent Effects (Primary or Special): put the Attack Card on top of the card of the affected combatant (i.e., Hero Card, Villain Card, or Boss Card). See "Effects — Duration."
(Step 9) Apply Death Consequences
After applying the consequences of the Miss or Hit steps of the Attack Timeline, the attack is considered resolved. Combatants with zero HP at this point are considered Dead.
- Outside of an Attack Timeline (i.e., before the Strike Phase begins, or after an Execution Phase ends), combatants that drop below 1 HP immediately die.
- In the Attack Timeline, a combatant is considered dead only when the attack resolves at the end of the Execution Phase.
- E.g., if Tide of Blades hits a target with 2 HP, that target's HP Token drops to slot zero of the HP Track, but the figure remains on the grid. You may still move it with the attack's effect so that you can deal damage to other enemies who become adjacent to the still-living target.
- Heroes with 0 HP cannot regain HP. Before this point in the Attack Timeline, even though a combatant must not be considered dead yet, only First Aid and "revive" effects can change the HP of combatants with 0 HP (i.e., you cannot use a skill to HEAL an ally that has just been dropped to zero HP by a villain).
Miss (Step 7, B)
- An attack is considered MISSED when none of its strikes hit a target.
- A missed attack doesn't apply attack damage and effects, but it applies a Residual Effect, described in the card's "Miss" field — often 5 R-DMG (Primary Attack) or 15 R-DMG (Special Attack).
- (Changed from Arena) Residual DMG may increase in attacks of higher levels.
- The difference between regular damage (DMG) and Residual Damage (R-DMG) is that R-DMG cannot drop a combatant below 1 HP (i.e., R-DMG cannot kill).
- E.g., if the missed target has 6 HP and it takes 15 R-DMG, its HP is reduced to 1 — the excess R-DMG is lost.
- Gaining Mana. Whenever a hero applies a "Miss" effect (as a result of missing its entire attack), it gains 1 Mana Cube (see "Mana Cubes" and "Skill Pad" in Chapter 5).
- Basic Attacks have no card and no "Miss" field. Therefore, they apply no residual DMG/effects, and you do not gain a Mana Cube when you miss one.
- (Changed from Arena) R-DMG can remove/flip +70 HP Tokens. A +70 Token may occupy slot 1 of the HP Track, but that doesn't mean its combatant has 1 HP.
- Residual DMG ignores Conditions, EXCEPT:
- Shielded X Condition: shielded combatants reduce by X the next DMG or R-DMG they take.
- (Changed from Arena) Effects that explicitly mention the Residual Damage in their description.
- E.g., there is no change to the amount of R-DMG dealt by an Empowered attacker against a Vulnerable target, as both Conditions {Empowered and Vulnerable} affect only strikes that hit.
(Step 10) The Attack Resolves
- Death during a quest. Killing villains. First Aid. Please check other death-related instructions in Chapter 12.
- Several effects in the game contain the expression "after the attack resolves." It just means that all steps above must have been fulfilled. In other words, the attack has ended and will no longer produce an impact on the fight.
- (Changed from Arena) "During the attack" means any moment between the Declaration of Attack (Step 1) and its resolution (Step 10).
Chapter 4 — Effects
Damage-dealer. Life-saver. Game-changer. Effects are special modifications to the circumstances of the match. Not always directly related to the loss or gain of Hit Points, they give combat a new layer of strategic depth and richness.
- Effect is any text that may (or must) be applied in consequence of a specific situation or action. It changes the circumstances (e.g., HP, cards, position) of a combatant or component in the fight.
The following table is not exhaustive.
| Components with effect descriptions | Phenomena that may apply effects |
|---|---|
| Attack Card / Villain Card | "Benefit/Drawback" (when the attack is declared); "Effect" (when the attack hits); "Miss" (when the attack misses) |
| Hero Card / Villain Card | Passive Power |
| Skill Pad | Skills; Total Charge; Mana Power |
| Item Card (unflipped) | Item's Active Power |
| NPC Card | Quest Power |
| Quest Guide | Interaction with the scenario (e.g., with a Door); Quest Features |
| Rulebook | Critical Hit (when a strike rolls a natural 20); Terrains (e.g., step on Lava = take 4 DMG); Dark Surge (when a villain can reach no targets); First Aid (when a dead hero's turn comes) |
The diversity of effects is what makes this game so rich. But this comes with the need to correctly interpret a variety of descriptions. If you learn how to read them, most of your potential doubts will never arise.
Target
Effects may apply on the target of your attack, other combatants, or even yourself, according to the effect's description.
- Do not mistake the target of an attack with the target of an effect:
- The target of an attack is described in its own field, in the Attack Card.
- To apply Attack Damage, you must roll against its Defense.
- The target of an effect is described in the effect's description.
- To apply an effect, you DO NOT need to roll a die against its target.
- The target of an attack is described in its own field, in the Attack Card.
- When target of attack = target of effect. If an effect description says "target" (e.g., Effect: PUSH 2 the target), it is saying that the target of the attack is the target of the effect, also.
- If it says anything else (e.g., Effect: PULL 4 another enemy), it means that the target of the effect may be different.
Validating the target of an effect. An effect can apply on a target (no roll required!) if all these three requirements are met:
- Description. The target fits in the text of the effect.
- Range. 8 squares, unless the text describes another range.
- Vision. Between the target and the applier of the effect, unless the text describes another reference.
If there are no valid targets. The effect is lost and the action that would have produced it resumes as if the effect didn't exist.
Interpreting Target Requirements. Implied Meanings.
- The distance to (or position of) a target is always described or implied.
Here are the most important rules and implicit meanings about the three target requirements that you should keep in mind:
"Hero" ALWAYS includes "you."
- Whenever an effect's description describes its target as "you," or a "hero," the hero applying the effect may target itself (and, naturally, ignore vision/range requirements).
- E.g., "You MOVE 3" = Target restrictions are irrelevant because you're targeting yourself.
- E.g., "HEAL 5 a hero" = You may heal yourself or another hero in [8] of you.
- E.g., "HEAL 5 an ally" = You must heal another combatant that is not an enemy (i.e., excluding you, including a Companion). This combatant must be in [8] of you.
"In [8] of you."
- Whenever another restriction is missing, "IN [8] OF YOU" is implied. This means that the target of an effect must be at most 8 squares away and in vision of the applier of the effect.
- Number between brackets. The brackets represent the edges of two squares, and the number in the middle, the distance between them. This always implies vision.
Interpreting a Difficult Effect Description
Most effects are pretty intuitive. Let's see how to interpret a complicated one and learn a few KEYWORDS.
Imagine your hero has the following Attack Effect:
"All villains MOVE 2 and take 5 R-DMG. Then, an ally in [3] of one of them HEALS 5."
"In" = "within." The target doesn't need to be in exactly [8], but anywhere in that range.
(First part) Once an effect begins to apply, range and vision are no longer prerequisites.
- Since it doesn't say "anywhere" or "on the grid," you can only apply this effect on villains in [8] of you. "Villain" is any enemy (all combatants that are not you or your allies).
- You need to have vision of a villain to begin to move it, but once it begins to move, you can move it outside of this range and outside of your vision.
- E.g.: MOVE 3 the target. To begin to move the target, it needs to be in [8] of you, and in your vision. However, you no longer need to verify these conditions after you begin to apply the effect — Even if the first move puts the target 9 squares away from you, and the second move hides the target behind a wall, you may still move it a third square, as the description states "MOVE 3."
- Consider that beneficial effects you own (especially regarding movement and targeting multiple enemies) are "up to" and "you may."
- E.g.: The effect of one of your attacks reads "MOVE 5 an ally." This is something that you can use to your advantage in the fight, so it is a beneficial effect. You may choose not to move your ally if you don't want to. If you want to move it, you may move your ally up to 5 squares (i.e., you may move it 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 squares).
- E.g.: The target of one of your attacks is "3 enemies." If there is only one enemy alive, or in range, naturally you can make this attack against this single enemy (striking it just once, and forgoing the possibility to strike others).
- E.g.: "You must MOVE 5, in a single direction, at the end of round." Even though it can be argued whether this is beneficial or harmful, you don't need to think about it. The description says you don't have a choice (and, by the way, you cannot choose to move less than 5 squares, because "must" includes the whole sentence).
- "All villains."
- Since it doesn't say "must," you may decide not to move any of these villains in [8].
- Since it doesn't say "exactly," each villain that you move may be moved just 1 square.
- The owner of the effect (you) controls this movement.
(Second part) "Then,"
- This part of the effect must happen after the first, but is independent from it (i.e., you don't need to move a villain to apply it, unless it says "If you do").
- Consider that harmful effects against you and your Team are "exactly," and/or "you must."
- E.g.: The effect of a villain reads "MOVE 5 a hero, toward its closest Lava square." This is an enemy effect, so it is harmful. You must apply this effect, you must move your hero toward the nearest lava square, and you'll move less than 5 squares only if you have already reached your closest Lava square.
- E.g.: One of your own attacks has a Drawback. That drawback must be applied to its full extent.
- E.g.: One of your own effects requires you to pay 5 HP. You must pay exactly 5 HP (naturally, you cannot pay "up to" 5 HP, and if you don't have enough HP to pay, you cannot apply the effect).
- "an ally" means a combatant in your Team that is not you.
- "in [3] of one of them" means 1, 2, or 3 squares away of any of the villains mentioned in the first part (moved or not).
- This is a specific distance (and reference): therefore, your ally can be more than 8 squares away from you and outside your vision; it just needs to be in vision and at most 3 squares away from any of the villains encompassed in the first part.
- "HEALS 5" means the chosen ally regains 5 HP (move its HP Token up).
Durations
Effects are produced, affect a target, and then end. Knowing their duration allows you to plan your moves around how long they will last.
Effects are either Instantaneous, Temporary, or Permanent.
- To remember a lasting effect and track who is being affected, place the Attack Card that applies it on the card of the affected combatant.
- In addition to the card, you can put a Role Token next to the affected combatant's figure, to remember it is under an effect (and which hero applied it).
Instantaneous
- These are not identified as such in the effect's description — logic dictates that their effects end as soon as they're applied.
- You will read "Ends if used" in the description of lasting effects, to indicate that, if they are considered in combat, they must end before their normal moment of expiration.
- These resolve completely on the same Turn they are applied.
- E.g., "HEAL 5 an ally," "MOVE 4 the target," "Revive a dead ally."
Temporary
- Lasts until the start of the next turn of the combatant that applied it.
- The start of the next turn of the Attack Card's owner is the maximum duration of a temporary effect. Some might end sooner.
- When the effect ends:
- If it's a Primary Attack, return it to its owner, flipped.
- If it's a Special Attack, remove it from the match. (It's considered "spent.")
- If the target of the effect dies, the effect ends.
- E.g., "reduce your next damage to zero" = When you receive damage, the effect prevents it, and then ends. If you never receive damage, this effect ends when the hero that applied the effect starts its next turn.
- If the owner of the Attack Card dies, its Temporary effect remains active until the dead hero's next turn begins.
Maximizing Temporary Effects. Since the Temporary Effect you apply may last until the start of your next turn, you can maximize its duration by delaying your next turn as much as possible (see "Turn Order").
- E.g., you're fighting a Boss and one of your attacks applies a Temporary "Vulnerable" Condition (once per turn). If you are the first to take a turn this round and the last to take a turn next round, your three teammates can take advantage of this Condition six times (three this round, and three in the next round).
Permanent
- Ends only when:
- The affected combatant dies; or
- The hero who applied it ends a Cycle (see "Primary Attacks").
Conditions
A Condition is a combat status that effects apply on combatants. They are either Harmful (because they reduce a combatant's performance) or Helpful (because they improve a combatant's performance in some way).
- Conditions stack.
- E.g., a "Weakened" combatant normally deals -3 Attack Damage. A combatant can be Weakened twice and deal -6 Attack Damage, instead.
- You must consider and apply them at the first opportunity.
- You lose the Condition after it is considered for the first time — even if it didn't impact the fight.
- E.g., you are Protected (+3 to Defense). A Weakened enemy (-3 to Attack Damage) rolls a "2" against you (both conditions end if used). Your Defense had a necessary bonus against this strike, so you lose your Condition — even though you'd have been missed anyway. However, your enemy did not hit you, so its -3 damage penalty was never considered — so it remains Weakened.
- There is no limit to the number of effects (Permanent and/or Temporary) that can affect the same combatant at the same time.
- E.g., you are Blessed (once per turn). Your attack allows you to strike 3 targets. You roll a die against the first target, and it is a natural 20. You cannot choose to roll twice against the second target — you must roll twice against the first one.
Condition Token: "Ends ONLY if used." This is a special rule for Condition Tokens, mostly applied by Villain Cards.
- Put them on the board, next to the figure of the affected combatant.
- These tokens remain on the affected combatant until one of the following happens:
- Their effect is considered in combat (even if it didn't impact the result of a strike); OR
- The combatant dies; OR
- A DISPEL effect removes them.
Glossary. Check Appendix D to understand various specific Effects and Conditions.
Conditions List
Helpful Conditions
- Blessed: Roll twice, use best result. Apply only to Primary Attacks. Does not stack. Cancels Cursed.
- Empowered: Deal +3 Attack DMG against enemies.
- Hastened: You do not incite Reactions. Cancels Slowed.
- Preserved: If you would die, your HP becomes 5 instead. Increase it by 5 for each Preserved Token on you.
- Protected: +3 to Defense against enemies.
- Shielded X: Take -X DMG (hit) or R-DMG (miss) from enemy attacks.
- Toughened: Take -3 DMG from enemy attacks. Does not affect R-DMG (miss).
Harmful Conditions
- Bleeding: Take 2 R-DMG for each square you enter by spending movement points. Does not apply on Forced Movement.
- Cursed: Roll twice, use worst result. Apply only to Primary Attacks. Does not stack. Cancels Blessed.
- Distracted: -3 to attack roll against enemies.
- Exposed: -3 to Defense against enemies.
- Slowed: You can't Sidestep or move by Benefits. Cancels Hastened.
- Vulnerable: Take +3 DMG from enemy attacks.
- Weakened: Deal -3 Attack DMG against enemies.
Chapter 5 — Off-Turn / Other Resources
Your hero's main actions in a fight are moving and attacking, both of which are done on your turn. This doesn't mean, however, that you will just stand still while you watch your enemies and allies exchange turns, because you have several skills that can be used outside of your turn.
When you embark in an Adventure, other than your set of Attack Cards, you'll bring with you Items (Weapon/Armor), and an NPC Asset. Items provide you with a permanent passive bonus, and, when active, you may apply their active power when you hit an attack (Weapon), or when you are targeted by one (Armor). NPC Cards give you a unique Quest Power, most often applied just once, and before the quest even begins.
Skill Pad
Heroes possess true grit and powerful spirits fueled by mana. The particularly exciting moment of slaying a foe gives heroes an empowering feeling, while missing an attack strengthens a hero's resolve. Heroes "on fire" are more capable of acting outside of their turn, either to punish enemies or to act in synergy with allies.
Before a quest begins, assign four Skill Tokens to four of the fourteen different skills listed in your Skill Pad. Some skills are more powerful, but will require you to spend more mana.
Reading a Skill Pad
- Combat Role. Each Combat Role has a particular set of skills. You must match the color and Role of the Skill Pad with that of your Hero Card.
- Stats. Check your hero's Stats here (see Chapter 1).
- Some effects may cause you to flip your Skill Token to that of another Combat Role. Your Stats are always those on the side of the Skill Pad that is facing up.
- Skill Boxes.
- A skill box consists of skill name, cost (in mana cubes), effect, and Skill Token slot.
- It is divided vertically by 3 power levels, and horizontally by Ally / Villain turn.
- Before a quest begins, assign your four Skill Tokens to four different skills, by placing each on a Skill Token slot.
- You can only use skills to which a Skill Token has been assigned.
- Total Charge. As soon as all your Skill Tokens are charged, a powerful effect is discharged (see more ahead).
- Mana Power. This is the only power of the Skill Pad that you can use on your own turn. Especially useful when you have 5 (the maximum) and you think you'll earn more before spending the ones you have.
- Reminder about Range ([8]) and Vision. Unless another distance or reference is explicitly described, you may apply all of your effects only on targets in [8] of you and in your vision.
- Rule reminder. This part of the Skill Pad is a note about a rule that affects not only skills, but all other effects in the game (from attacks, Passives, Items, Total Charge, etc.), as seen in the previous chapter.
Mana Cubes
- In the game box, you'll find eight sets of little cubes, each in the color of a Combat Role.
- Their name is mana cubes.
Earning mana cubes
- Each hero gains 1 mana cube when a villain dies.
- Each hero gains 1 mana cube when a Boss loses a "+70" HP Token.
- If you apply an attack's "Miss" effect (as a result of missing all of its strikes), you gain 1 mana cube.
- Dead heroes continue to earn mana cubes. (But only living heroes may spend them.)
- Gaining mana cubes is independent of vision/range. E.g., you may be 14 squares away from a villain's square of death, and still gain 1 mana cube when it dies.
Using a Skill
Skills are powers that heroes can use outside their turn by spending mana cubes. When all heroes combine their skills, devastating effects may happen in a single turn, allowing you to experiment with many different strategies and combos.
- When you use a skill, its effects apply immediately.
- To use a skill, you must verify all of the following:
- Moment. Check when it can be used.
- Cost. Pay the necessary amount of mana.
- (Changed from Arena) Charge the Skill Token. (Unless it's already flipped, in which case, it remains charged, and you must pay one extra mana.)
- (Changed from Arena) Quantity. You must not have used another skill that turn.
- Maximum skills per turn: 1 (hero); 4 (Team).
Skill Tokens
- Skills on the RED half of the Skill Pad can only be used on villain turns.
- Skills on the BLUE side can only be used on turns taken by allies.
Assigning
- At any time before each quest begins, you must assign four tokens to different skills by placing them on their respective slots.
- (Changed from Arena) Skill Token level. Your first Token set is gained at the beginning of the Campaign, and evolve as you progress. Tokens are level I, II, or III. You may not assign a Token to a skill of higher level (e.g., you may assign a level II Token to a level 2 skill or a level 1 skill).
- Reassigning. Skill Tokens are assigned at the beginning of each Journey Phase. Afterward, unless a command or effect specifically allows you to reassign Tokens, you cannot move them to other skill slots until the quest ends.
Moment of use
- The level of the chosen skill cannot be higher than the level of the Token.
- You CANNOT use skills on your own turn — even if it's the correct turn, some skills may describe additional restrictions.
- Start of turn: you cannot use it if the owner of the turn has already taken any action.
- (Changed from Arena) Before Roll: use at any time between the start of turn and a strike (i.e., die roll).
- (Changed from Arena) After Roll: use after the die rolls, but before any other conflicting action is taken (e.g., you cannot boost the result of the roll if R-DMG has already been dealt as a result of a Miss).
- Before/After the roll. Death. If an attacker dies before the Strike Phase (i.e., before the roll), that villain dies immediately (i.e., the attack doesn't continue). Otherwise, the attacker, even with 0 HP, is considered dead only after the attack resolves (i.e., the rest of the attack happens as usual).
Paying the mana cost
- If you don't have enough mana cubes, you cannot use the skill.
- The cost of each skill is indicated below its name in the skill box and is equal to the Level of the skill:
- Level I skills cost 1.
- (Changed from Arena) Level II skills cost 2.
- (Changed from Arena) Level III skills cost 3.
- (Changed from Arena) If a Skill Token is Charged, the skill to which it is assigned costs 1 additional mana.
Charging
- A Token has a "charged" (+ mana) side and an "uncharged" side. Each Token begins the quest uncharged. Flip it to "charged" when you use the skill to which it was assigned.
- (Changed from Arena) "+ mana" means that the skill to which that Token was assigned costs one additional mana cube.
- Using a skill whose Token is already charged does NOT flip it back to uncharged (besides certain specific effects, only by "Total Charge" can Tokens "unflip").
- To pay the cost, remove the mana cubes from your mana pool (to wherever you store the cubes outside of the Skill Pad).
- Charging a Skill Token and not paying HP. If a skill's effect requires you to pay HP and you don't have enough (or you don't want to pay), you may pay the skill's cost only to charge the Skill Token (and not apply the effect).
- All skill effects last, at most, until the end of the turn when they're applied.
- Conditions applied by skills are "once per turn" (i.e., considered just once, and on that turn). E.g., if a skill applies Empowered 3 on a hero, and that hero hits two targets, only its first target takes +3 Attack Damage.
Special Skill Pad Effects
These are not considered skills; your Skill Pad allows you to apply them, nevertheless.
Total Charge. You flip a Skill Token to its "charged" side whenever it's not charged and you use its assigned skill. When all four Tokens in your Skill Pad are charged, they immediately flip back and "discharge" a powerful effect (the skills return to their original cost).
- (Changed from Arena) Whenever a Skill Token becomes charged, if all your Skill Tokens are charged, apply the following, immediately and automatically: unflip all your Skill Tokens back to "uncharged," and apply the effect described in your Skill Pad.
Mana Power.
- Once per turn, and only on your turn, you may spend X mana cubes from your mana pool to charge X of your own Skill Tokens.
- (Changed from Arena) This only charges the Skill Token; the skill's effect is not applied.
Passive Bonus (Items)
- According to their level, Weapons add +1, +2, or +3 to ALL attack rolls (even if the attack has multiple targets or strikes).
- Armors add +5, +10, or +15 HP to the Max HP Stat found in your Skill Pad.
- Passive bonuses apply at all times you're equipped, even if the Item is on cooldown.
Increasing your Max HP
- Since combatants, as a standard, begin the quest with full HP, add the value of your Armor and your Skill Pad Stat to determine where to put your HP Token.
- If you take damage, you can HEAL up to this new value.
- If your Max HP exceeds 70, put the "+70" Token underneath your HP Token.
- Using +70 HP Tokens. E.g., if your Max HP becomes 80, put your HP Token on slot "10" of the HP Track before the quest begins. When you take your tenth point of damage and drop your HP Token below slot 1, remove the +70 Token and "jump" your HP Token to slot 70 (i.e., you now have 70 HP).
Items
Equipping
- Before each quest, each hero can equip one Weapon and one Armor the Team owns.
- Until the quest ends, equipped Items cannot be changed, exchanged between heroes, or unequipped.
Active Power
- Items begin the quest "active" (i.e., illustration facing up).
- If your item is active, you may apply its Active Power at the following moments:
- Weapon: after your attack HITS a target (see "Attack Timeline").
- Armor: after a villain strikes you (i.e., after the roll, regardless if it hit OR missed).
- As soon as you apply an Active Power, flip that Item's card. It is on "cooldown."
- When you complete a Primary Attack Cycle, you may reactivate ONE of your items on cooldown (i.e., flip it to the "active" side).
Reading an Item Card
- Name and illustration.
- Passive Bonus (see above).
- Active Power (see above).
- Item Level. Items can be Level 0 (the initial ones), Level I, Level II, or Level III. What items you may open and buy is determined by the level of your City Structures.
- Item Cost. These icons indicate the type and quantity of Loot Cards you must spend to buy the item during the City Phase.
- Item Type Icon. There are 4 types of items: Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Heavy Armor, and Light Armor.
- Combat Roles allowed. The card comes with the colors and symbols of the Combat Roles that can equip the item.
- Melee Weapon / Heavy Armor: Brute, Tactician, Bruiser, and Tank.
- (Changed from Arena) Ranged Weapon / Light Armor: Shooter, Healer, Controller, and Commander.
On the other side of the card you can find a reminder of the passive bonus.
NPC Cards
During the campaign, many special Non Playing Characters found in missions or in the City may join your cause, for a variety of reasons. When they do, they become Assets. These are not heroes, but they can tag along with one. Their company provides heroes with a special power they can use before a quest begins.
- Each hero may be accompanied by one NPC.
- (Changed from Arena) The same NPC cannot serve two heroes on the same quest.
- Advanced NPCs provide their heroes with a Quest Power (often an enhancement to hero-customization possibilities).
- (Changed from Arena) Whenever possible, apply the Quest Power before the quest begins (e.g., gain +10 initial HP, gain 1 mana cube).
We go through all the details of an NPC Card in Part II (Chapter 9). For the combat, all that matters is this small text box, which contains the NPC's Quest Power.
Chapter 6 — Controlling More Than One Hero
You may skip this chapter if exactly four players will play the Campaign.
Teamwork is paramount in Tanarean combat, and four Heroes is often an optimal number to conduct highly specialized operations without drawing too much attention to themselves. This chapter explains the Comrade system, a small set of modifications you should implement to the game if you're playing "solo," or with fewer than four players.
- NPCs from Week 6: "In addition to 5 mana cubes, begin the Quest with +10 initial (not Max) HP."
- NPCs from Week "?": Consider as if they were from Week 5.
Team Composition
- Teams must have exactly four heroes of different Combat Roles.
- Each player must control at least one regular hero (i.e., your Team may not have four Comrades).
- (Changed from Arena) E.g., two players could have two regular heroes and two Comrades on their Team, or four regular heroes and no Comrades.
The Five Comrade Cards
Comrade (/ˈkɑːm.ræd/): a friend or trusted companion, especially one with whom you have been involved in difficult or dangerous activities.
In the Comrade system, each player fully controls and levels up a single hero. Depending on the number of players, this hero will be in the company of one or more "comrades" that will provide you with valuable assistance. In other words, comrades are simplified versions of heroes.
- Comrades have Combat Roles and act like heroes, but they use only five cards.
1x Hero Card
- Your Comrade has a unique identity, and it is represented by the Hero Card.
- Passive Powers and Abilities apply as usual.
1x NPC Card
- Its Abilities are considered as usual, but ignore its Quest Power.
- The Quest Power of Comrades' NPCs is always "begin with as many [mana cubes] as my Week number."
2x Special Attack Cards
- All Comrades have the same two Special Attacks: Lesser Impulse and Greater Impulse. These are the same throughout the entire Campaign.
- (Changed from Arena) They follow all the usual Special Attack rules (e.g., they are removed from the match after being used).
1x Comrade Primary Attack Card
- There's only one of these cards for each Combat Role, per level.
- You may upgrade this card as the Campaign progresses.
- This card is Level 1 when the campaign begins.
- You may purchase a 1-level upgrade for each of these cards in the City Phase (see Chapter 10, Spending Stage).
- Key to the Comrade Primary Attack Card:
- A — Combat Role and card level.
- B — Minimum City Structure level required to use.
- C — Cost to buy it.
- D — Benefit. All Benefits are the same: they offer a hit bonus, or a chance to move before the attack roll.
- E — Damage and Effect. The damage is always the same at all levels of a Combat Role. It's the effect that gets stronger.
- F — Simple Skill (see next section).
- G — Stats.
Flip Effects
- No Cycle. Since Comrades have only one Primary Attack, it never flips. Ignore Cycle-related rules.
- "Flip an attack" / "Flip a Skill Token": HEAL 3 the Comrade, instead. These are considered beneficial effects because they would mean a faster Cycle or a faster Total Charge (if the Comrade used Skill Tokens).
- This may happen several times in a turn (e.g., if a Comrade were to flip two attacks, it must instead HEAL 3 twice, for a total of 6 HP regained).
- Ignore harmful impossible effects. Impossible effects are those that mention a component the comrade doesn't use.
Borrowing Mana Cubes
- Standard heroes (i.e., not Comrades) can pay their skills with the mana their Comrades have earned.
- You may use mana from multiple Comrades, anywhere, dead or alive, at the same time.
- E.g., on an ally's turn, you (i.e., with your "standard, non-comrade" hero) want to use a Level 3 skill whose Token is charged (i.e., it costs 4 mana cubes). You have 5 mana cubes. You borrow 1 from the card of a dead comrade and 2 from another comrade that is 20 squares away from you. The fourth cube you pay from your own mana pool. This exemplified procedure is within the rules.
Skills and Comrades
Simple Skill
- Comrades don't use the Skill Pad, but they earn mana cubes.
- Comrades may use their simple skill on allies' and villains' turns (at any time), for a single effect: damaging a villain or healing a hero (depending on the Combat Role).
- (Changed from Arena) Spend more mana cubes at the same time to increase the amount of damage/healing.
- This is considered a "Skill Effect." (Some quests mention it.)
Chapter 7 — Villains
Villain is the generic expression Tanares Adventures uses for all combatants that represent enemies of heroes in the battlefield. These may be the Kemet, a huge dragon, a monster, a Boss, a human, or any other opposing combatant.
Reading a Villain Card
- Villain's name, illustration, and miniature.
- Alternate miniatures. Some of Dragori's expansions have more specific miniature versions of some villains (especially Bosses). The card, Quest Guide, or Journal always describes all the options you may use.
- You will never be short of miniatures to place on the board (e.g., even if you don't own the Gold Dragon, you may use the 3x3 huge dragon that comes in Arena: the Contest).
- Stats.
- Their Move is always 5 and Reaction DMG is always 8.
- Their HP and Defense vary according to the type of monster.
- Level. Villains in Tanares Adventures come in three levels: 1, 2, and 3.
- Attack. Name, Range, DMG, Effect, Miss, and Critical Hit/Unprovoked bonus reminder.
- "Villain" is represented by a symbol on cards and other components.
- Favorite Target.
- Villains of the same color always target the reachable hero that best follows this parameter (see more ahead).
- Passive Power.
- This follows the same rules applied to heroes: when the villain hits its attack, verify whether the trigger was met. If it was, apply the Passive's Effect immediately (i.e., before the Attack DMG).
Villain miniatures are gray; attach colored rings to their base to easily distinguish them. This is necessary to link each miniature to an HP Token and Villain Card. There will never be two villains of the same color and type on the board.
A Villain's Turn
In order of importance, villains want to attack their favorite target, move as little as possible, and take the least possible amount of damage while meeting these higher priorities.
Priorities
- Target.
- Shortest Path.
- Safest Path.
Favorite Target. Villains have a favorite type of victim and target them with priority over all others. Red villains (Violent) want juicy targets for their strikes; blue villains (Mystic) practice their aim on distant targets; green ones (guardian) identify the most dangerous mana pool; finally, orange villains (noxious) are drawn to the target which is closest to death.
- Red (+HP): The hero with highest HP within reach. (The closest one, if two or more are tied.)
- Green (+ mana cube): The hero with most mana cubes within reach. (The closest one, if two or more are tied.)
- Orange (-HP): The hero with lowest HP within reach. (The closest one, if two or more are tied.)
- Blue (+ distance icon): The farthest hero within reach.
- If the tie persists, players must choose one of the tied targets.
E.g.: It's the turn of the red villain. The hero with highest HP is 20 squares away: it's not within reach. Two heroes have 40 HP and are [4] away. One hero has 35 HP and is [1] away. Since a villain chooses the closest among its favorites, it won't attack the hero with 35 HP, but one of the two with 40 HP (players' choice, because both are equally close).
(Before the Attack)
- Determine a target.
- Check if the Favorite Target is reachable.
- Take into account movement-impairing Terrain Tiles (e.g., Ruins, Ice).
- DO NOT take into account damage they may take on the way (e.g., Reactions, Lava).
- If, even after moving, the villain would not reach its Favorite target, repeat the process with the second favorite (and so on), until a reachable target is found.
- If no hero can be reached, the villain Dark Surges (see the next section).
- Check if the Favorite Target is reachable.
- Move as little as possible. If the villain needs to move to reach its Determined Target, spend as few movement points as possible to do so.
- Move as safely as possible. If multiple paths tie as the shortest, take the one that deals the least amount of combined damage (i.e., from Reactions and Terrains).
- If multiple paths are shortest and safest in equal measure, the players choose which the villain takes. (Usually, the most important choice is the villain's final square, to facilitate your Mob/Focus/Reactions on future turns.)
- 3.5 — Special Adjustment. A villain will SIDESTEP if:
- The shortest path is not moving at all; AND
- It can avoid DMG (Terrain and/or Reactions); AND
- Its Determined Target will be kept in range and vision.
An "Easy" Example
In the vast majority of cases, you will find it pretty easy to calculate the movement of a villain.
Consider that the following villain (Move Stat: 5) is ORANGE and that its attack is Range [1]:
- Favorite Target: ORANGE villains go after the hero with lowest HP. It doesn't matter that there is a closer hero nearby, because the hero with 20 HP is reachable with 5 movement points.
- Shortest path: The hero with the lowest HP cannot be reached with less than 5 movement points, and there are several possible paths that spend 5 movement points (remember: moving diagonally spends 1 movement point, also).
- Safest path: Lava deals less damage than a Reaction, so the villain will not get in [1] of the hero with 70 HP, even if that means stepping on lava. However, there's a way to get to the Determined Target while receiving no damage whatsoever. This way is as short as the other options, so the villain avoids both the Reaction and the Lava. This is very intuitive, as that is the way you'd move your own heroes.
"Closest" (hero): This refers to the distance in squares (even if the presence of Barriers/Obstacles requires spending more movement points to get there, in comparison with a more distant hero).
"Shortest" (path): This refers to the number of movement points spent (sometimes you need more movement points to get to something which is closer).
A "Difficult" Example
Now, let's break down one of the most "difficult" examples we can conceive and follow the villain's thought process, step by step.
1 — Turning the Favorite Target into a Determined Target
- 1.1. The hero with lowest HP has 20 HP, so the villain will see if it is reachable.
- 1.2. Ice Tiles work like Ruins when a combatant is moving itself, so it would need to spend 6 movement points to reach the hero with lowest HP.
- 1.3. The Favorite target is unreachable (villains' Move Stat is 5). The villain will check its second Favorite (i.e., the hero with lowest HP, excluding the unreachable one).
- 1.4. Two heroes tie as the second-lowest HP, with 45 HP each. The villain checks which is closest.
- 1.5. It doesn't matter that there is a Wall forcing the villain to move more to reach hero on the right corner: both are 3 squares away (note: it also doesn't matter that one of the heroes is not in vision, because it can be in vision after the villain moves).
- 1.6. Both are equally close and both are reachable, so, the PLAYERS CHOOSE which gets attacked.
- 1.7. Note, again: we are not in the "shortest path" step yet, therefore players MAY choose the one that requires more movement points to reach.
- 1.8. However, let's assume, in this case, that the players DETERMINE that the hero next to Lava will be attacked.
2 — Determining the Shortest Path
- 2.1. We are no longer considering the distance in squares. The important factor is how many movement points the villain will spend. Consider that the ORANGE villain (Move Stat: 5) is Retaliating, and its attack is Range [1].
- 2.2. The villain could easily go around Ice and Lava and reach its DETERMINED target spending 4 movement points and taking no Lava DMG.
- Next, consider that the Team of heroes has a 5th member that may be targeted (which happens in some Quests):
- 2.3. However, the movement that spends the fewest movement points uses diagonal movement to spend only 3 movement points = this is the shortest path.
- 2.4. Seven different paths spend 3 movement points and thus tie as the shortest (note: you may not move through enemies, but you may move through their diagonal).
- 2.5. Since different paths tie as the shortest, we move on to the next step.
3 — Determining the Safest Path
- 3.1. All seven paths require entering Lava (moving diagonally through a tile is considered as entering that tile), therefore lava damage is unavoidable.
- 3.2. If the villain's first move is to spend 2 movement points to enter Ice, it will be in [1] of the Tank, and then it will need to leave that hero's adjacency: a Reaction would be incited.
- 3.3. Any other first move would put the villain in [1] of the Brute, and then the Brute's Reaction DMG would be unavoidable.
- 3.4. To sum up: all shortest paths necessarily take Lava damage AND Reaction DMG.
- 3.5. However, Brutes deal MORE Reaction DMG than Tanks (8 and 6, respectively). Therefore, the safest path is moving onto Ice first, to incite the Tank's Reaction instead of the Brute's.
- 3.6. There are two paths that are equally short and equally safe to reach the Determined Target:
- a) Enter Ice and then move diagonally (away from the Brute) (3 movement points, 10 DMG).
- b) Enter Ice and then move orthogonally and to the left (away from the Tank) (3 movement points, 10 DMG).
- 3.7. The players choose which of these two paths the villain takes. In the case above, assume the Brute will take the next turn. It wants to Sidestep (to avoid the Blue Villain's Reaction) and attack the Orange villain with a Range-[1] attack and with Mob. Therefore, players choose the second option, to make the Orange villain reachable after the Brute Sidesteps:
- The players decide that the hero with 70 HP will be attacked — even if that means taking Lava DMG that would not be taken if the hero with 20 HP were targeted.
- With 10 movement points, the villain could easily go around Lava and take no DMG to attack the hero with 70 HP. However, the higher priority is the shortest movement, so the villain will step on Lava to spend only 6 movement points.
(Optional Implement) Survival Instinct
Figuring out how villains will Retaliate or otherwise take their turns is one of the most important tactical aspects of the game. In the right conditions, you can "manipulate" who the villain will target and where it will be positioned for future Rounds, giving your savvy heroes an edge that will be much needed against the villains' overwhelming forces and numbers.
The game is fun, fast, quick-paced, and manageable if you apply the behavior and villain priorities described in this chapter; therefore, we wholeheartedly recommend you DO NOT implement this option.
However, if you absolutely cannot stand the idea of a villain killing itself on Lava just so it moves fewer squares, you can implement the "survival instinct." This adds a Priority Zero: surviving. This would come even before step 1 (Favorite Target). In other words, the villain will not move in any way it would die from, and it will not attack if that means dying.
Dark Surge
- A villain Dark Surges when all heroes are outside its reach.
- When this happens, the villain takes 3 R-DMG to increase its Move Stat to 10 (this turn only).
- (Changed from Arena) Then, its Favorite Target becomes its closest hero (this turn only).
Dark Surge Example. Villains will still follow the behavior described in the previous section:
- No one of the heroes can be reached with 5 movement points.
- Therefore, the villain Dark Surges: it pays 3 HP to increase its movement points to 10.
- Even though this is an ORANGE villain whose attack is Range [1], its Favorite Target is no longer the hero with lowest HP, but the hero closest to the villain.
- Two heroes can be reached with 6 movement points, while the other two can only be reached by moving 7 squares. There's a tie, so, the players choose which hero will be attacked.
- NOTE: It no longer matters who has more HP, and it still doesn't matter what the safest path is.
The hero with lowest HP would be the orange villain's target. But the orange villain has 2 HP, so it would die to the unavoidable Reaction of the hero with 70 HP. If you've decided to apply the not recommended "survival instinct" implement, you can change the villain's target to the hero with 70 HP, which avoids inciting a Reaction. And if you really hate yourself, you can simply change the order of steps 2 and 3 of the villain behavior. Doing this will make the safest path have priority over the shortest path. Again, this is only "recommended" if you really can't stand the idea of villains stepping on Lava unnecessarily, or coming near Heroes and take Reactions just to move fewer squares.
Bosses
Bosses are special villains not represented by one of our 100+ "common" cards. Designed especially for a quest's unique situation, their Stats and Powers are often found near the end of the quest instructions.
Stats / Stat Sheets
- Bosses' Stat sheets come in the Journal or Quest Guide. Pay attention to them, since all Bosses have +3 to attack roll and are Blessed, and their Move Stat may not be 5 like all other villains.
- Most Bosses have more than 70 HP (the final slot in the HP Track): that's why, on the other side of a Boss Token, you'll find a "+70."
- (Changed from Arena) Bosses cannot recover "+70" Tokens in any way (i.e., even if they heal, the excess healing is lost).
- (Changed from Arena) When a Boss loses a "+70" Token, all heroes gain 1 mana cube.
- E.g., if a Boss has 100 HP, put the Boss's HP Token on slot 30 of the HP Track. When it takes its 30th point of damage, transfer this Token from slot 1 to slot 70 whilst flipping the Boss Token from its "+70" side to its regular side.
Bosses have Special Passives. They have unique effects and don't follow the standard color-related triggers.
Boss Card
- Even though the Boss's Stats come either in the Quest Guide or in the Journal, the game comes with Boss Cards. They are mainly used to:
- Track the Boss's Favorite Target (it is the same of any other villain of its color).
- (Changed from Arena) Remember special combat rules and Boss Perks (find them next).
- The base of Boss miniatures is colorless. Even though most Bosses have a color that determines their Favorite Target, don't attach a colored ring to its miniature.
Boss Perks
Either due to a stronger resolve, more experience in the battlefield, or outright stubbornness, Bosses are willing to take more damage just so they can have the opportunity to act and make it more likely for heroes to fail. While they take normal effects as usual, effects that would prevent them from attacking or taking a turn the way they want to are converted into damage.
- Bosses cannot be controlled by heroes.
- Boss attacks cannot be negated, copied, or removed.
- Effects cannot make a Boss become Fatigued (i.e., Bosses Fatigue only when they take a turn).
- Bosses take 12 DMG whenever they would suffer one of the effects above.
(During the Attack)
- Villains can never attack with Mob or Focus.
- Whenever a villain forces a hero to move, it tries to put it on the most damaging path possible.
Passive Power
- Whenever a villain attack hits, check whether the Trigger was met and apply its effect immediately (i.e., before applying the attack damage and effect).
- If it misses its attack, no Passive Power is applied (only R-DMG).
Effects
- On a hit, some villain attacks apply effects.
- Red and Blue villains apply instant effects.
- Green monsters either heal or apply buffs on another villain with the lowest HP (Green Condition Tokens).
- Orange monsters either steal mana or apply debuffs on their target (Orange Tokens).
Condition Tokens
- These Tokens stack.
- E.g., if a villain has three Empowered 3 tokens and one Weakened 3 token, its next Attack Damage receives an overall +6 boost (+9 from Empowered, -3 from Weakened). Since the condition has been considered in combat, all tokens are removed — even if the target had 1 HP and the extra damage ended up making no difference in the fight.
- If there are no available tokens in the game (i.e., they're all in use), the Condition is not applied.
- There are 9 copies of each Token. One side displays a Helpful Condition, and the other, a Harmful Condition.
Chapter 8 — Rounds and Reactions
There are three parts to this chapter:
- We'll talk about Turn Order and Rounds, as you need to know how heroes and villains must exchange turns.
- (Changed from Arena) Closely connected with the above is the different categories of villains: you'll learn how a villain Retaliates, when it is Unprovoked, and what are villain Guards.
- Then, we'll talk about a special action that both kinds of combatants (i.e., heroes and villains) take against each other: the Reactions, that punish enemies' careless moves and positioning.
Villain Guards
Villains are usually unaware of the presence of heroes, and they roam dungeons and other settings in groups. These villains are Guards. They don't take turns and will never attack while they're Guards. When a hero comes close to (or attacks) at least ONE of the Guards in the group, the entire group loses the Guard status and may immediately Retaliate and/or take turns in that same Round.
- Guards are inactive villains: combatants that can't attack or take turns.
- Guard Groups are indicated like this in the Quest Guide instructions and map.
- Example label from the rulebook: "GUARD 3: Soulborn Kemet (110-R) and (111-B), and Ghost Lord Boss (B2). See EVENT 3."
- While they are Guards, villains are Shielded 6.
- SHIELDED 6 means that they take 6 less damage from attacks. (Even Residual!)
Activating Guards
- A villain immediately loses this status, forever ceasing to be a Guard, if any one of these are true:
- It is declared a target of any attack or effect.
- It gets affected in any way by any attack, benefit, skill, passive power, or effect.
- (Changed from Arena) A non-Guard combatant (i.e., hero or villain) moves within [3] of a Guard (regardless of that combatant's final position).
- (Changed from Arena) Another villain in the same Guard Group becomes active.
- Activated ex-Guards must be included in the Turn Order (like any other villain).
- (Changed from Arena) They become immediately ready to Retaliate, or to take their Unprovoked turn this Round (see next section).
- Activated villains immediately lose the SHIELDED Condition. E.g., it is possible to move within [3] of a Guard (activating it) and then attack that villain — it will no longer be Shielded against the attack (and will Retaliate after this turn ends).
- Quest Features that apply effects: pay close attention whether they affect villain Guards (and, if they do, they activate only when specifically instructed).
Round / Fatigue / Guards
A Round is a single set of turns taken by all active combatants (i.e., excluding villain Guards). The END OF ROUND comes when all combatants are Fatigued.
A turn is the unit of "time" in a Round when an active combatant can perform a Move Action and a Prime Action, or when the end of round effects take place. When a combatant takes its turn, it is Fatigued and needs to wait until the next Round to take another turn.
Fatigue
- Whenever a combatant finishes its turn, it is Fatigued. Place a Fatigue Cube (i.e., the big black cube) on that combatant's card.
- Fatigued combatants cannot take turns.
- (Changed from Arena) If all heroes are Fatigued, any villains that are not Fatigued (and not in Guard) take turns, in any order chosen by the players.
End of Round
- The END OF ROUND comes after all active combatants (excluding villain Guards) are Fatigued. It is signaled by a symbol on the Quest Guide and in Quest instructions.
- Quest instructions may apply several effects at this moment (see Chapter 12).
Restarting the Round
- The last end-of-round effect is that all combatants lose their Fatigue markers.
- (Changed from Arena) Then, the next Round begins. Combatants become ready to take turns again.
Turn Order / Provoking Villains
Turn Order is the set of rules that govern which combatants may, or must, take the next turn.
Every Round, heroes take the first turns while villains take some time to prepare a powerful attack. However, when a villain is attacked, it is provoked into action, and acts immediately afterward. This is called Retaliation.
- In a Round, heroes act first, and in any order chosen by the players.
- (Changed from Arena) This order may change every Round.
Retaliation
- When you make an attack on your Prime Action, the first NOT-Fatigued villain you target must take the next turn. This is called a Provoked Retaliation.
- (Changed from Arena) This villain takes the next turn even if your strike against it misses.
Unprovoked Villains
- These are villains that were not provoked into Retaliating this Round: they are Unprovoked.
- If, after all heroes have acted, there are active villains not yet Fatigued, these villains will not attack because they were provoked; they will attack because they are ready to take their turn. This gives their Attack Damage an Unprovoked bonus.
- Unprovoked villains roll the die, and, if their attack hits, it is considered a Critical Hit, regardless of their natural roll (i.e., their Attack Damage receives a +5 bonus).
- If an Unprovoked villain rolls a 20, there is no additional consequence: the attack still deals +5 DMG.
Example: Retaliation with multiple strikes
- The hero taking a turn has an attack that allows it to strike three enemies. Villain A is Fatigued, villains B and C are not Fatigued. Before this hero declares its first target, one of its allies uses a skill and deals DMG to villain C. This has NO impact on the Turn Order, because it is a skill, not an attack made by the owner of the turn. Then, this owner declares the order of its strikes. The first roll will be against villain A's Defense (it hits), then against villain B (it misses), and, finally, against villain C (it hits). Villain A is Fatigued, so it won't Retaliate. Villain B is not Fatigued. Therefore, it is the first not-Fatigued target that suffered an attack in the turn. It doesn't matter that the attack against it missed, it will be provoked into taking the next turn. Finally, villain C is not Fatigued, also. However, it was not the first not-Fatigued villain targeted by the attack of the owner of the turn. Therefore, villain C will NOT Retaliate (not even after villain B takes its turn).
Reactions
A Reaction is automatic damage an enemy deals to the owner of a turn to punish its careless actions. It's incited by nearby movement or Ranged Attack.
- A Reaction is an effect that deals "X" DMG to an inciting enemy, "X" being the value of the incited combatant's Reaction Stat.
- Villains always deal 8 Reaction DMG.
- Reaction DMG is an effect, not an attack. (I.e., it is dealt automatically and requires no roll against the inciting enemy's Defense.)
- Some cards say "Reaction Attack." That's because, on PvP Game Mode, Reactions are a type of attack. Whenever you see this while playing a quest, ignore the word "attack" and consider that the rest of the effect applies as described, and according to the rules of this chapter.
- Only effects and conditions that specifically mention "Reactions" may affect them. (E.g., a Vulnerable villain will not take more Reaction DMG, even if it incites an Empowered hero.)
Inciting a Reaction
- You incite the Reaction of an enemy in [1] of you when it's your turn AND you:
- Declare a MOVE on your Move Action; and/or
- (Changed from Arena) Declare the target of a Ranged Attack on your Prime Action.
The rule above summarizes all you need to know about how a Reaction is incited. Nevertheless, let's break it down:
Moment: against turn owner
- A combatant can only incite a Reaction on its own turn.
- (Changed from Arena) I.e., you may deal Reaction DMG only against the owner of the turn. Your Interrupts never incite Reactions. You cannot take Reaction DMG on turns that belong to others.
Positioning: enemies in [1]
- A combatant can only incite a Reaction from enemies in [1] of it.
- (Changed from Arena) I.e., you may deal Reaction DMG only against an enemy that is [1] of you.
- Ranged combatants deal Reaction DMG, too. Combatants whose attacks are Ranged can strike and deal Reaction DMG to enemies in [1] of them.
Causes (Move Action): MOVE
- A combatant incites Reaction from enemies in [1] if it MOVES on its Move Action.
- The Reaction may prevent the attack from continuing (if it kills the attacker). Since the Declaration of Target precedes the Strike Phase, combatants that drop to 0 HP immediately die.
- A combatant may take Reaction DMG from the target of its attack. (If the attack, despite being Ranged, is being made against an adjacent target.)
- Ranged Basic Attacks made while applying skills do NOT incite Reactions. That's because skills are not attacks you make on your Prime Action.
- Merely declaring the attack does not incite Reactions; only the declaration of target does.
- Other Move Action activities (SIDESTEP, INTERACTION) don't incite Reactions.
- (Changed from Arena) Movements outside of the Move Action (e.g., Benefit, effects, Ice) don't incite Reactions.
- Reaction DMG is dealt before the movement resolves; the landing square is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if the inciting combatant is moving away from its enemy or remains in [1] of it: the only important thing is that it is in [1] of an enemy and then decides to MOVE.
- Besides, only after the Reaction resolves the inciting combatant may move (i.e., you may desist from moving after taking the Reaction; if the inciting combatant dies, its square of death will be on the square from which it incited the killing Reaction, not the square to which it intended to move).
Causes (Prime Action): declare target of Ranged Attack
- A combatant incites Reaction if it declares the target of a Ranged Attack on its Prime Action.
- E.g., you declare a Ranged Attack while in [1] of an enemy, but this attack has a Benefit that allows you to move away from this enemy. Since the Benefit applies before the declaration of target, you do not incite this enemy's Reaction.
Limitations: once per turn, the first time it is incited
- The owner of the turn can take Reaction DMG only once in its turn, and, necessarily, the first time it is incited.
- Villains always deal Reaction DMG (the first time you incite one on your turn).
- (Changed from Arena) Heroes may opt to forgo dealing Reaction DMG that turn.
- E.g., a villain in [1] of a hero whose Reaction Stat is low MOVES. You know that, a couple of squares ahead, that same villain will be moving while in [1] of a hero that deals more Reaction DMG = since Reaction DMG must be dealt only the first time it's incited, your only two options are dealing the lower Reaction DMG of the first incited hero, or not dealing Reaction DMG at all to that villain, that turn.
Melee attacks. Melee Attacks never incite Reactions. Some Melee Attacks allow you to be more than [1] away from your target; even then, only Ranged Attacks incite Reactions.
Differences Between PvP and PvE
If you're used to Reactions from playing Arena, the only similar rule is how they're incited. You may skip this section if you don't intend (or don't know how) to play PvP.
| Tanares Adventures (PvE) | Arena: the Contest (PvP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Is it an Attack? | No (automatic DMG) | Yes (requires a strike roll to hit) |
| DMG dealt | Heroes: Reaction Stat. Villains: 8 DMG | Basic Attack Stat + loss of 1 movement point |
| Is Reacting optional? | Heroes: yes. Villains: no | Yes |
| Maximum frequency on a turn | 1x (once per turn, the first time it is incited) | 4x (once per enemy per turn) |
Part II — Campaign
Chapter 9 — City Phase — Overview
Welcome to Part II of this Rulebook! This game is all about making difficult decisions. The rules found in Part I help you make combat decisions, either in preparation for it (such as team-building decisions), or during it (such as how to position yourself, what attack to make, and which villain to attack).
Part II (Campaign) explains everything that happens when your heroes are not fighting villains. Some decisions are in the Journey Phase (such as how to equip your heroes, what adventure to make, and several story decisions that ultimately determine what you'll be doing on the board); other decisions are in the City Phase (such as how to build the city, what problems to focus, which NPCs to recruit, how to allocate your limited time and resources, how to level up your heroes); and others, still, are in the World Phase (which War Points to gain by increasing your presence in different Regions of the Empire).
(The story narrative of the City Book's opening pages is not reproduced here; the rules below are complete.)
Beginning the Campaign
- To start a new Campaign, simply open the City Book and begin reading it: the first pages kick-start the story and take you through building a Team.
- The content before and after Adventures A and B (Quests 01 and 02) are "tutorials" that give you an overview of how the Campaign works and introduce you to important characters and elements of the story.
- After the first two quests, your decisions begin to impact the story; you'll track Phases and your unique Adventure Path in the CALENDAR.
Characters of Wharfugee: Heroes / NPCs
- At first, you're just another group of heroes in the middle of the chaos. Wharfugee has many visitors, important characters and other heroes, but they don't work for you — as you help the city grow and solve people's problems, these people may be convinced to join your cause.
- Teams of four heroes are perfect for highly-sensitive special missions called Quests.
Character Cards
They represent the important people found in Wharfugee.
- The back of these cards is always the same; their front part is one of two types:
- A) Hero Card — the playable heroes you can use on quests (see Part I);
- B) NPC Card — (non playable characters).
- You can have cards with any Week number in it.
- You begin the campaign with a deck full of "Initial" cards: all of them basic officers of the Ironhand, assigned to help you. After adding your four initial heroes to it, the deck will have 28 cards.
- In the City Phase, all Characters improve your ability to manage the city.
- In the Journey Phase, heroes can play quests, and NPCs can accompany heroes to provide them with a special Quest Power.
Abilities
Ability is a technique or skill with which a hero or NPC resolves relevant off-board situations.
- All Character Cards produce one or more of the following abilities:
- Force: Combat technique, vigor, violence and strength. The ability to physically coerce or compel.
- Diplomacy: The ability to solve situations peaceful and collaboratively. Personal charisma, empathy, and the skill of producing convincing arguments.
- Spycraft: The ability to sneak or remain undetected, or to obtain information or objects with restricted access. The art of espionage.
- Intelligence: The ability to come up with creative strategies or plans, or to process and analyze information; general knowledge.
- Each ability ranges from 0 (the minimum) to 6 (the highest for heroes).
Reading an NPC Card
- Name and image of the NPC.
- Week. Every City Phase, you must shuffle all NPC City Cards from the week you're in. Then, draw four of them to put on the City Map. These are called "face-up NPCs."
- Cost. If this card is on the City Map, you need to produce this much in a single turn to conquer it (i.e., it leaves the City Deck to join your Character Deck).
- "Initial" cards are in your Character Deck from the beginning.
- Quest Power. Advanced NPCs possess Quest Powers. Each hero may be accompanied by one NPC and use the power described in this text box.
- Abilities produced (in tests or when played in the City Phase).
- City Power. Some cards do more than simply produce Abilities. Most often, this boosts the production of another card that has already been played.
- Synergy symbol (lightning): this symbol indicates that you may play this card on another hero's turn, to combine the powers of multiple cards.
Weeks. For instructive reasons, each line in the Calendar is considered a "Week." Each week consists of a set of four Journey+City Phases. Do not mind about how many days each Adventure or Quest seems to take: a week will end only when four sets of Journey+City Phases are completed.
World Phase. The last City Phase in each Week is actually a "World Phase" — you'll learn about it when you get to it (see Chapter 15 for more).
City Deck
The City Deck represents all the heroes and NPCs that haven't joined your cause (yet).
- The City Deck contains the Character Cards you don't own.
- Hero Cards: put them all together (each may be obtained at any given week).
- NPC Cards: separate them by Week (they come and go as time passes).
- (Changed from Arena) You have a shorter window of time to recruit a Week-specific NPC.
- When you gain a new Character, its card leaves the City Deck to join your Character Deck.
Character Deck
A set of cards representing the NPCs and heroes that have joined your cause and are willing to work under your command. There are many ways to recruit someone, such as paying a hero's expenses, or displaying sufficient Diplomacy before an NPC visiting Wharfugee.
- The Character Deck consists of Character Cards you own.
- The minimum number of cards in a Character Deck is 24.
Removing Characters
A substantial part of improving your deck involves removing worse cards to improve your chances of drawing better ones.
- You may only remove cards from the Character Deck:
- A) Temporarily, to assemble a new Team for the upcoming quest.
- (Changed from Arena) The four heroes (exactly) and four NPCs (at most) must return to the deck when a new City Phase begins.
- B) Permanently, when an effect specifically allows it (e.g., from the Ironhand Outpost).
- (Changed from Arena) When this happens, remove the Character Card from the game (i.e., don't return it to the City Deck).
- A) Temporarily, to assemble a new Team for the upcoming quest.
- You must ignore the "remove" command if it would put your deck under 24 cards at the end of that turn.
City Structures
Some commoners punch sandbags in their backyard with the dream of becoming a hero. Most heroes, however, come from well-equipped imperial training schools, with good instructors and the best facilities in the continent.
Likewise, the better your City Structures in Wharfugee, the better your training grounds and your connections with visitors and the rest of the world. This reflects on your capabilities as a hero.
The four City Structures are at the core of the campaign's "level up" system for the following components:
- Primary Attack Cards (maximum levels you can bring with you to the quest).
- Items (level of the Weapons and Armors you may purchase).
The four City Structures:
- Tavern (Controller/Tactician) — Kept by Sara, the Seer. You can recruit heroes here.
- Weapon Shop (Brute/Shooter) — Kept by Zalir, the Scholar. You can exchange Items here.
- Natural Lab (Healer/Commander) — Kept by Huradrin, the Druid. You can transmute resources here.
- Ironhand Outpost (Tank/Bruiser) — Commanded by Sedura, the Captain. You can remove Characters from your deck here (they are sent elsewhere).
(If you are playing the Campaign's Introduction): Continue reading "Warriors: 1 point" (City Book).
Reading City Structure Cards (on the City Map)
Structure Card
- Maximum number of cubes you may allocate on the City Map.
- Name and Level of the Structure.
- Illustration (it gets improved as you build extensions).
- Combat Roles that can use Primary Attack Cards of these levels.
- Level and type of the Item it may open.
- Power (you can spend cubes earned during the City Phase to produce different effects).
City Map
- A — Abilities you must produce in the Management Game to gain 1 mana cube.
- B — Place gained cubes here. They can be spent only on this Structure.
- C — Spend 2 cubes to generate this resource.
- D — Spend 1 cube to open 2 Items of this type.
- E — Spend 1 cube and these resources to Upgrade the Structure to the next level.
Chapter 10 — City Phase — Management Game
This is how you get to choose where and how to invest your limited resources. Your Characters look up to you, and will contribute as you deem fit to help the city and its Structures develop.
Investment Decisions
You may allocate Characters on challenges that represent an investment on your heroes, on recruiting Characters, or on the City itself.
- You may invest in the city and see good long-term results (e.g., spend resources to upgrade the Weapon Shop so that it offers better items in the future).
- Your Characters produce abilities. You can send them to produce abilities:
- a. on Expeditions to foreign lands (that will pay you resources);
- b. to Recruit visiting NPCs (so you can have more Characters to allocate in future City Phases and use on Journey Phases);
- c. on City Structures (to run errands and help build them).
- If you neglect the city, you may have more resources, but there will come a time when you won't be able to adequately spend them, because the city did not develop at the pace you needed.
- You may invest in Characters to obtain some power during quests and use their great City Powers to accelerate the resource output of management activities.
- If you neglect the Characters, your City may become a stronger machine, but you may find that your weak Character Deck can't generate enough resources to keep up with the City's increased costs.
- You may decide to buy Items to invest on yourself and become more powerful.
- If you neglect yourself, you won't be able to keep up with the development of enemy forces. Your worse performance on quests may yield fewer resources to spend in town.
Management Game — Overview
The City Phase Management Game is played in three stages: Assembling, Playing, and Spending (followed by the Wrapping-Up Stage).
Components (City Phase table; letters refer to the City Phase table diagram)
- A — City Map: Place it on the table to play the Management Game of the City Phase.
- B — 4 Face-up NPC slots: Open four random NPCs from the current Week.
- C — City Structure slots: Put your current-level cards here. During the Spending Stage, you may spend mana cubes and resources to upgrade their level and/or apply various effects, such as opening Items, adding a hero to your Character Deck, exchanging Items or Loot Cards, etc.
- D — City Structures Deck (28 cards): If you upgrade your current City Structure, you need to replace it with a higher-level card.
- E — Initial Character Deck (24 cards): You begin the campaign with 24 Ironhand Officers that have low ability production and no Quest Power. This deck is constantly enhanced as you begin to conquer face-up NPCs and obtain new Hero Cards.
- F — City Deck (74 cards): The Characters you don't own. The face-up NPCs come from here.
- G — Face-up NPC Cards (4/City Phase): Pay their cost to move them to your Character Deck (i.e., the NPC is conquered). They are subdivided by Week (each NPC arrives in Wharfugee at a different moment).
- H — Deck of Items (164 cards): You may spend mana cubes earned in the Playing Stage to randomly open these during the Spending Stage. When purchased with Loot Cards, they leave this deck and become your Team's property. They are divided into 4 types (melee and ranged weapons, heavy and light armors), and have 4 levels (levels 0, 1, 2, and 3).
- I — Mana Cubes: In the Playing Stage, they track the challenges you've conquered. In the Spending Stage, they are exchanged for Loot Cards, NPCs, and City Structure actions.
Overview of the stages
- 1 — Assembling Stage.
- Step 1: Grab and shuffle your Character Deck (include the Hero and NPC Cards used in the last Adventure).
- Step 2: Grab and assemble the City Map, then place cards and decks in their respective fields.
- 2 — Playing Stage.
- Step 1: Each hero draws a hand of four Character Cards.
- Step 2: Each hero has a single turn to play as many cards as it wants, placing them when they accomplish ability challenges.
- 3 — Spending Stage.
- Step 1: Gain Characters and Loot Cards from Expeditions, based on the mana cubes that have been placed on them.
- Step 2: Spend resources and earned mana cubes to upgrade City Structures, and/or perform their actions.
- Step 3: If you have opened Items, you may spend resources to buy them.
- Wrapping-Up Stage.
- Step 1: Move the Discard Pile back into your Character Deck.
- Step 2: Separate components you may use during the Journey Phase (e.g., heroes and NPCs, Items bought, mana cubes).
- Step 3: Store the City Map and all cards you will only use in the next City Phase (e.g., City Deck, Structures, Loot Cards).
1 — Assembling Stage
The state of Wharfugee: NPCs found in town today, and the City Structures in their current level.
(Step 1) Open the CITY MAP and shuffle your CHARACTER DECK.
- Your Character Deck can always be "saved" in a dedicated space inside the game box.
- The only Character Cards you own that will be outside the Character Deck are the heroes and NPCs used in your last Adventure. You must include them in the shuffle.
(Step 2) Shuffle all NPCs from the current Week that you don't own. Draw 4 and put them face-up on the map.
- Don't shuffle the Hero Cards you don't own (always leave them at the bottom of the City Deck).
- Fewer than four NPCs left. Since some NPCs may become Characters (or die) during Adventures, there's a small chance you may play a Management Game with fewer than four cards from that week remaining. If this happens, just put all cards that remain (if any) on the City Map, and leave the other slots empty.
(Step 3) Grab a bunch of mana cubes of any colors. Put your four CITY STRUCTURE CARDS on their respective slots.
- Cards of your current level must always be saved or noted.
2 — Playing Stage
Each of the four heroes in your Team must lead a group of Characters (heroes and/or NPCs), employing their abilities to accomplish a variety of challenges.
(Step 1) Each hero draws a hand of four Characters (total: 16 cards).
- Fewer than four players. Regardless of how many players there are in the game, a Team always has four heroes. Therefore, you must always draw four hands of Characters: each is led by a different hero (you may keep their miniatures close to the hands drawn in this step).
- Drawing your own Hero Card (or not). Heroes in a Team split to run their own errands when they return to Wharfugee. If your Hero Card is not drawn, it just means that you're healing wounds or preparing for the next Adventure (that hero is merely leading a Character Team). Oft-times, though, your Hero Card will be drawn, which means you're part of your own Team, or that of another hero.
(Step 2) Each hero plays a single turn.
- As in quests, there is no fixed turn order: it is up to you to determine which hero takes the first turn, and so on.
- Each hero has a single turn to play as many cards in hand as it wants.
- If all cards have been played, or if a hero decides to "pass" its turn, track it with a Fatigue cube.
- The Playing Stage ends when all four heroes have played a turn and are Fatigued — even if there are still unplayed cards in someone's hand.
- Free player communication. You can see the contents of each hand and freely communicate with other players to plan a course of action.
- Instant City Powers. Like skills in quests, cards with this symbol (lightning) may be played in another hero's turn — even by Fatigued heroes.
Allocating Character Cards
- To play a Character Card, simply place it near one of the following challenge areas:
- Expeditions (to gain Loot Cards).
- Face-up NPCs (to gain them for your Character Deck).
- City Structures (to gain mana cubes to be spent in various effects).
- Don't shuffle the Hero Cards you don't own (always leave them at the bottom of the City Deck).
- You may distribute your hand into several challenges, but each Character Card can affect only one challenge.
- E.g., the same Character cannot help conquer two different Expeditions (or an NPC and an Expedition) on the same City Phase, even if it produces more ability points than necessary.
- (Changed from Arena) I.e., you cannot assign a card's Force to an Expedition and the same card's Diplomacy to another Expedition.
- (Changed from Arena) I.e., if an NPC requires 2 Diplomacy to be conquered and the Character you play produces 5 Diplomacy, you cannot assign the exceeding Diplomacy to an Expedition.
- When played on your turn, Characters produce the ability points described in the lower part of their card. In addition, "Advanced" NPCs apply a City Power (e.g., searching the City Deck for a Hero Card, or permanently removing a Character from your deck).
- When played outside your turn, only the Instant City Powers apply: that Character doesn't produce other powers or abilities.
- Only NPCs have these powers: Hero Cards must be played on your turn (or not at all).
Conquering Challenges
- Challenge is the minimum ability that you must produce to conquer a specific Expedition, NPC, or City Structure.
- (Changed from Arena) Some challenges require points from more than one type of ability (e.g., Force and Intelligence). In these cases, you must produce the required minimum of all types of abilities.
- The abilities must be produced in a single turn.
- (Changed from Arena) At the end of each turn, move all played cards to the Discard Pile.
- Any ability points produced in excess, or not used, are lost.
- (Changed from Arena) At the end of each turn, move all played cards to the Discard Pile.
- If you conquer an Expedition or City Structure challenge, immediately place a mana cube on their designated space on the City Map.
- If you conquer an NPC, put the mana cube on top of its card.
3 — Spending Stage
Reap the rewards collected by the Characters you've assigned, use the Structures to invest in the city, and/or buy Items to prepare for the upcoming journey.
(Step 1) NPCs / Expeditions: remove their cubes (if any), then draw Loot Cards (if earned).
- Follow the instructions on top of the "Expeditions" and "NPC" areas (conquering them may grant you Loot Cards).
- Move conquered NPC Cards to your Character Deck.
(Step 2) City Structures: spend their cubes (if any).
- If your Characters have accomplished challenges in a City Structure, you will have cubes on that Structure. These may not be spent elsewhere.
- You may spend cubes in a Structure (sometimes in conjunction with resources) to:
- Gain one Loot Card of a specific type.
- (Changed from Arena) Upgrade that particular Structure by one level.
- (Changed from Arena) Open (not buy!) two random Items of a specific type and level.
- (Changed from Arena) (Tavern): Gain new heroes.
- (Changed from Arena) (Ironhand Outpost): Remove Characters you no longer want in your Deck.
- (Changed from Arena) (Natural Lab): Swap your Loot Cards for others of different types.
- (Changed from Arena) (Weapon Shop): Exchange items for others of the same type and level.
- If you decide to upgrade a Structure, all of its benefits and effects come into effect immediately.
- When you pay the cost for upgrading a structure, if it is getting a level higher than expected for the week, you must pay 3 additional loot cards (any loot, even if they are not the same type of upgrade costs). The expected Structure level is always 1 above the current week (e.g.: Week 1: Structures Level 2. Week 3: Level 4 and so on).
E.g., if you have enough Loot Cards and 4 mana cubes on the Tavern, and you want to upgrade it from level 1 to level 2, it is better to upgrade it before gaining a new hero, because the new level allows you to choose your new hero from a larger pool of options — and at the same cost.
Multiple purchases. Provided that you have enough cubes to pay its cost multiple times, you may apply the same effect (e.g., upgrading the Tavern) multiple times on the same City Phase.
Gaining heroes from expansions you don't own. Tanares Adventures comes with many Hero Cards from characters whose miniatures and Attack Cards are found elsewhere in the Tanarean Universe. During the City Phase, if you draw one you don't own (e.g., Uster, who comes in the Legendary Box), you may remove it from the game and draw cards until you get a hero you do own. You may also choose to keep it, for the exclusive purpose of improving your Character Deck for the City Management Game.
(Step 3) Items (if opened): you may buy them.
- An Item's cost is printed in the lower right section of the card. To buy it, you must pay that specific amount and type of resources with your Loot Cards and sacrifice the same type of item of an immediately lower level (e.g., to buy a level 2 melee weapon, you must sacrifice a level 1 melee weapon).
- Note: You can always buy items of lower levels.
- (Changed from Arena) You may NEVER sell items already purchased or use their cost to reduce the price of a new item.
- Items you buy are added to your Team's property (i.e., any hero may equip them, if their Combat Role allows it). You may immediately equip them for the next quest.
- You may own more Items than the number of heroes in your Team.
- (Changed from Arena) Save any Items that become obsolete: they may be used later.
(Playing with Comrades) Step 4 — (OPTIONAL) — Purchase Comrade Primary Attack cards of higher level.
- Since the Hero Cards and Special Attack Cards of Comrades remain the same throughout the campaign and Comrades don't use Items, this is the way to level them up.
- You can only buy a card one level above the one you own (i.e., you cannot "skip" levels).
- (Changed from Arena) You may buy more than one level in the same City Phase, though.
- Cards of higher levels become available to purchase when your City Structure is at the appropriate level. This requirement is signaled in the Comrade Card.
- Purchasing new Comrade Cards does not depend on City Structure powers, or on cubes earned in the City Management Game. If you want to get a new card, simply spend resources to pay their cost, and they're yours.
- Once a new card has been bought, remove your lower-level card from the game.
4 — Wrapping Up Stage
Separate the components that will be used in the next Phase of the Campaign, then store and save the components that will only be seen in the next City Phase.
(Step 1) Move your Discard Pile back into your Character Deck.
(Step 2) For the upcoming Journey Phase, grab:
- The 4 Hero Cards and 4 NPC Cards you want to use.
- Items you own and with which you want to equip them.
- The mana cubes you've used (to represent mana).
- New Attack Cards you've unlocked (by upgrading a City Structure).
- All Items you own. They may be still equipped on heroes that returned from the previous Journey Phase, Items that are owned but unequipped, or Items that were just acquired in this City Phase.
(Step 3) Return all other components to their original places:
- This includes the City Map, heroes you don't own, NPCs you haven't conquered, and Items opened but not bought. You don't own these.
- City Structures, Items not equipped, and Loot Cards may be stored in a separate "Save Game" space (they are cards you own).
- Alternatively, you may flip the City Structure cards. Each contains different reminders about game rules to ease your way forward.
Chapter 11 — Journey Phase — Adventure
This is the moment of action. Assemble a Team with four Hero Cards you own, assign NPCs you own, equip Items you own, and determine which of the available Adventures you will try to accomplish with them.
Adventures are most often missions suited for a small and highly-specialized tactical group. Fisherman's Wharf is currently under enemy control, so there is no shortage of quests demanding the presence of experienced, powerful heroes.
Journey Phase — Overview
- A — Prepare your Team. Assemble and equip a Team with four heroes of different Combat Roles. (Changed from Arena) Select Attack Cards, assign Skill Tokens, equip Items, and choose NPC Assets.
- B — Adventure. (Changed from Arena) Choose an Adventure Card (among those available). Read the story of the adventure in the Journal (Adventure Chapter).
- C — Mission set-up. Set up the board and read the instructions in the Quest Guide. (Changed from Arena) Apply modifiers (e.g., Facts, Kemet Hunt) from the Journal (Quest Chapter).
- D — Play the quest. Fight villains on the board to accomplish Objectives/Challenges. (Changed from Arena) Gain Loot Cards, Facts, Quest Cards, Mastery/War points, and advance the Calendar.
Components
- A Hero's Corner. This was seen in detail in Chapter 1 (read the list of components there). A table will have four of these. You're supposed to assemble your hero's corner at the very beginning of the Journey Phase, in preparation for the upcoming quest (choose your hero and its accompanying NPC, select Primary Attacks, equip Items, and assign Skill Tokens).
- Adventure Cards. Choose one of your available Adventure Cards at the beginning of each Journey Phase. They brief you about the expected mission and give the story some context.
- Journal. The book with the story of the Campaign, description of events, moral choices, the quest's secret events, and more. Each Adventure Card will direct you to one of its Adventure Chapters (A, B, C, and so on), which ends with the revelation of the quest you must play. After a quest has begun, it may require you to consult additional information in the Quest Chapter of the Journal (numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on).
- Campaign Log. These sheets record the Quests you won, story Facts you've earned, and more. Everything you record here is a result of your decisions and choices, making your Campaign uniquely distinct from all others.
- Quest Guide. The essential book with each quest's instructions, Primary Objective, Extra Challenge, Events, and map.
- a — Map. The essential visual guidance to assemble the board, positioning Tiles and combatants.
- Tool Tokens: Grapping [sic — printed "Grapping"] Hook, Key, Tome, and Torch. These are often given to one specific hero to distinguish it from others in the Team (e.g., only the bearer of the key can open a specific door). The Tome and Torch tokens have an "illuminated" and an "opaque" side.
- Quest Items. There are four 1x1 Quest Items, each with a different color and symbol. Their use and effects vary according to quest instructions. Usually placed on a card or on a square of the board, in which case their square continues being valid (it is not an Obstacle; you may move through or end on them).
A — Prepare Your Team
Choose who will leave town, and equip them as well as possible.
(Step 1) Assemble a Team.
- Among your owned Characters, grab all Hero Cards, and select four heroes from different Combat Roles.
(Step 2) Customize and equip your hero.
- Grab the Skill Pads and assign your four Skill Tokens to different skills.
- Equip one Weapon and one Armor that you own, of types that suit your Role.
- (Changed from Arena) Once an Item is equipped, it may not be unequipped or given to another hero until the next Journey Phase begins.
- Put the HP Tokens on HP Track slots, according to your Max HP.
- Choose your four Primary Attack Cards.
- Choose one NPC for each hero.
Increased options as you make progress in the Campaign. Remember that your pool of Attack Cards depends on the level of the City Structure related with your Combat Role (all of the same level are available for choosing); your Skill Tokens are upgraded in time; and you may only choose NPCs that are in your Character Deck.
- Comrades. Remember that they use different, simplified components (see Chapter 6).
Preparing your set of Primary Attacks. Before each Quest begins, your set of Primary Attack Cards needs to meet the following restrictions:
- Number. You must have exactly four Primary Attacks.
- (Changed from Arena) Type. You cannot pick other heroes' exclusive attacks. (I.e., you may only pick your hero's exclusive attacks, and Attack Cards of your Combat Role.)
- (Changed from Arena) Level. Determined by your current City Structure card.
- Each of the four City Structures improves the attacks of two Combat Roles.
- City Structures of higher levels unlock Attack Cards of higher levels.
- Once a level is unlocked, all Primary Attacks of that level are available for selection.
- The City Structure only indicates the maximum levels. You may pick lower-level cards, if you want.
- Example printed in the rulebook: your City Structure card allows each hero of these particular Combat Roles to begin a quest with one Level II attack, two level I attacks, and one Level 0 attack ("2-1-1-0").
- You can change your hand of Primary Attacks before every quest (e.g., to try a different build, or to include stronger cards your City Structure unlocked).
B — Adventure
(Step 1) Read and choose one of the ADVENTURE CARDS available.
- ADVENTURE CARDS represent which missions are up for grabs in town. They give a brief background story and forebode what you may face on the board.
- This is the moment you decide your priorities, as the number of problems in the war often exceeds the time you have to solve them (i.e., you must make sacrifices).
- When you're ready to leave town, grab your deck of available ADVENTURE CARDS to choose which you want to play.
- (Changed from Arena) You may read available cards at any time.
Reading an Adventure Card
- Adventure Chapter. Each Adventure Card has a unique letter. If you decide to play this Adventure, head to Chapter "D" of the Journal and start reading it. This letter is often referred in instructions to gain or remove Adventure Cards from your pool of available ones. Pay special attention to these instructions, not to mess something up!
- Art of the Scenario. Illustrates the part of the world where the Adventure probably takes place (sometimes your decisions will take you elsewhere).
- Chapter — Title. A reminder of the Adventure's unique letter, and its name (it coincides with the name of the Adventure Chapter in the Journal).
- If neglected. It hints to the consequences of losing the Adventure (or not doing it in time).
- Context. Additional story information, for you to better orient and set your priorities.
- Expected Mission. What you will likely face in the Adventure, or solve on the board.
- If possible, immediately apply their Quest Power (e.g., gain 1 mana cube).
Deciding which Adventure to play. Campaign Perks.
- Campaign Perks are powerful boons your Team gains as it progresses in one of the four War tracks. The more you advance in one particular track (e.g., "Spies"), the more powerful are the Perks you gain, so you may want to rush ahead in one of the four types of points and obtain its Lv. 3 Perk as soon as possible.
- War Points are gained when you complete Regional challenges in the World Phase, or when you win a Quest and receive its Mastery Points. Both Regions and Masteries are things you can keep in mind when reading an Adventure Card. (See the list of Campaign Perks in Appendix G, and World Phase rules in Chapter 15.)
Information to obtain in an Adventure Card. There are three major factors in deciding which Adventure to play:
- (i) Story/Problem: the Adventure may concern a problem that you deem too significant to neglect in the story.
- (ii) Themes/Masteries: even though you can't tell which specific Masteries you may gain, the theme described in the card oft-times give you a pretty good hint. If you are on the hunt for a particular War Point, you may want to pay attention to it.
- (iii) Region: each Region on the World Map is connected with specific types of War Points. Winning a Quest that takes place in a Region you want to conquer accelerates your presence in that Region, so keep a look out for the Regions mentioned in the Adventure Card.
The information is not omniscient. Adventure Cards represent the best information you are able to attain with your Characters and other people in Wharfugee, but things don't always go as planned.
Availability of Adventure Cards. You have a short window of time to solve the problems described in Adventure Cards (e.g., if you must intercept a Kemet ship before its troops disembark, you can't "sit" on this Card forever: eventually, the troops will disembark, and its related Adventure Card will be removed from the game).
- Each Adventure Card is in one of three situations:
- It may be gained. Before the Campaign begins, that's all of them. They are not yet in your hand.
- It may be played. Your Team has, in hand, all Adventure Cards you were instructed to gain, but not yet instructed to remove.
- It is removed from the game. These cards may never be gained or played in this Campaign.
(Step 2) Head to the Adventure Chapter of the JOURNAL indicated in the Adventure Card chosen.
Journal
- The JOURNAL is the element of surprise and variety in the Campaign. It tells the story of your Team, based on the Adventures you choose, and other decisions you make during your journey.
- Divisions and Chapters.
- The Journal has two Divisions: Adventures and Quests. Each of them subdivides into Chapters.
- Adventure Chapters are identified by a letter (A, B, C…) that matches its Adventure Card.
- Quest Chapters are identified by a number (1, 2, 3…) that matches its chapter in the Quest Guide.
- A quest is the consequence of your Adventure decisions; the same Adventure can take you to different quests.
- Sections.
- Each Chapter in the Journal is divided into Sections. The first section in a chapter is number 1, the second is number 2, and so on.
- (Changed from Arena) E.g., the seventh section of Adventure Chapter D is numbered [D.7]. No other section in the Journal has this identification.
- E.g., the second section of Quest Chapter "89" is numbered [89.2]. No other section has this number.
- When you see a number within brackets at the end of a sentence, it is telling you to head to that Section.
- E.g., if the third Section of Chapter 48 wants you to head to the tenth Section of Chapter 48, it will simply say "Go to [10]."
- E.g., if Chapter 48 wants you to head to the seventh Section of Chapter 26, since it is a different chapter, it will tell you "Go to [26.7]."
- Each Chapter in the Journal is divided into Sections. The first section in a chapter is number 1, the second is number 2, and so on.
(Step 3) Read your way to the beginning of the quest.
- The Journal will always instruct you where to go next. Pay special attention to instructions in bold italics, especially if they're in red.
- Alternatives. You decide how the story of your adventure unfolds. Letters followed by different courses of action represent alternatives. You must choose one of them and head to the Section they indicate.
- Ability Tests. Some situations in the adventure require you to perform a particularly difficult task. Sometimes you will use skills or make attacks before the quest even begins, but the most frequent way of verifying whether you succeed or fail in a challenging task is checking if you meet that task's ability threshold.
- The standard ability test is rolling a d20 and then adding to the result the total points of that ability that your Hero Card and its accompanying NPC Card produce. Then, verify if you meet that task's success threshold and follow the Journal (each test comes with comprehensive instructions).
- Pay attention to the many variations this test may have. E.g., adding two different abilities, subtracting an ability, adding the Spycraft of a single hero of your choice who sneaked ahead, not counting the abilities produced by NPCs, bonuses received from Facts or Masteries, and others.
Cubes, Tool Tokens, markers.
- Keep Tool Tokens in your dedicated storage: many Adventures use them (e.g., the hero you choose to enter the dark tunnel may receive the Torch Token, and that can have an impact in the quest).
- A marker such as "(slot 5)" means that you must put a Fatigue cube on slot 5 of the HP Track: this will likely change something when the quest begins.
Chapter 12 — Journey Phase — Quest
You've assembled, prepared, and equipped a Team. You've chosen an Adventure Card and read its story in the Journal. It is now time to play the Quest: a mission that develops on the board, following Quest Instructions found in the QUEST GUIDE.
- At one point of the Adventure, the Journal will tell you to go to the Quest Guide — that's when the "Mission Set-up" begins.
- (Changed from Arena) You will not return to the Adventure Chapter again — you may close the Journal at this point.
Step 1: Read the Quest / Setup the Board
What follows is a list of sections found in the Quest Instructions, presented according to their order of appearance in the QUEST GUIDE (from top-left to bottom-right).
- Illustration, Number, Title. A graphic representation of the scenario where the quest takes place (this may be different from the location of the Adventure).
- The number of a quest matches the number of its chapter in the Quest Guide and Journal.
- Introduction. A brief description of what is happening (or must happen) in that particular quest.
- Whenever you see bold words with a capitalized first letter (here or elsewhere), it is the name of a Feature of that quest (see ahead).
- Primary Objective. A quest's "win condition."
- The quest is immediately over when you accomplish it (e.g., you cannot try to accomplish the "Extra Challenge" after the Primary Objective was already met).
- See Chapter 14 to learn what happens after you win a quest.
- If You Lose. Instructions to follow if you lose the quest. There are three ways to lose a quest:
- A dead hero's turn must begin and you don't have a First Aid Token to revive it. (In this case, heroes are considered to have aborted the mission to save the fallen teammate.)
- You didn't, or won't, meet the Primary Objective.
- (Changed from Arena) Sometimes, circumstances on the grid are such that achieving the Primary Objective becomes impossible.
- E.g., the Primary Objective reads "Kill the Boss," and only Necromantic Statues can deal damage to the Boss. If all Statues have been destroyed and the Boss is still alive, it is pointless to keep playing, even if you can heal yourself and forever avoid lose condition number 1, above.
- (Changed from Arena) Sometimes, circumstances on the grid are such that achieving the Primary Objective becomes impossible.
Step 2: Apply Modifications (Journal / Quest)
After you've assembled the map and read the Special Rules, you're almost ready to take the first turn. You just need to quickly check the Journal, as your past actions and Adventure decisions may have an impact on the situation on the board.
This is your journey through components before the fight begins: Adventure Card > Journal (Adventure Chapter) > Quest Guide > Journal (Quest Chapter).
Facts
Your Adventure decisions and quests played sometimes change the facts of the story. This creates long-lasting consequences that impact the future of your Campaign.
- You gain a fact and register it in the Fact Log whenever the Journal instructs you to mark a fact. All facts are alphabetically listed in the Log, and, whenever the name of a fact appears, it is in bold green followed by (fact).
- Be careful about sentences such as "If you have (…) (fact)" or "If you have marked (…) (fact)": You are not earning these facts; instead, you must check whether you have marked them in the past. The context easily gives away whether you're earning or checking a fact.
Blue Team Token
- Almost all consequences of your past decisions apply once and immediately in the quest, so you don't need to keep them in mind. E.g., gaining cubes or Tokens, dealing DMG, swapping one villain for another, changing the position of elements in the map, putting a Fatigue cube on a combatant are all examples of effects that may be forgotten after they're applied.
- Some Effects, however, alter Features, which means they may apply multiple times in a quest. These are marked by the "illuminated" side of the Blue Team Token.
- Your Team Token is, by default, always considered to be on its "dark" side. Flip it to the side with the blue light only when prompted. This lasts only until the quest ends.
- If you see something like this in the quest instructions, apply the instruction in this box only if you did not flip your Team Token. You can never apply both instructions, as your Team Token will either be on the dark side or on the illuminated side.
- Since the background of this instruction is in the color blue, apply it if you've flipped the Team Token to BLUE.
(If you are playing the Campaign's Introduction): Continue reading Section [2.1] of the Journal (Quest Chapter).
Changing Levels — Kemet Hunt
Facing more troops means you earn more rewards, but you can spend time to erase your tracks and make it more difficult for the Kemet to follow you.
The enemy army is aware that heroes (the major X-Factor to the outcome of this war) are actively working to disturb their plans for the continent. If you perfectly accomplish missions and steal Kemet treasures (chests) along the way, the Kemet become more preoccupied and may hunt you down, sending additional troops and even monsters after you. This results in surprise attacks against your camp in the middle of the road — or even in the middle of quests, if some of their scouts monitoring your activity in the Penumbra can figure out where you're heading. On the other hand, if you lose quests or die, the Kemet become less preoccupied with you and divert their troops to higher-priority targets (i.e., your Kemet Hunt Level decreases). You might choose to spend time to erase your tracks, but facing additional forces in your Journey awards more Loot Cards.
- Your Kemet Hunt Level may change only after a quest ends.
- You MAY increase your Kemet Hunt Level by 1 if you:
- Won the quest (Primary Objective); AND
- Accomplished the Extra Challenge; AND
- (Changed from Arena) Didn't spend First Aid Tokens; AND
- (Changed from Arena) Opened no chests (you may grab them, just not use them).
- You MUST reduce your Kemet Hunt Level by 1 if you:
- Lost the quest; OR
- Spent a First Aid Token.
- You MAY ALWAYS reduce your Kemet Hunt Level, as much as you want.
- Remember: you will gain fewer resources if you do, and you will only be able to increase it by 1 on each quest, following the rules above.
- Note: You don't need to memorize the following: all Kemet Hunt instructions are in the Journal and in the Log.
- (If you are playing the Campaign's Introduction): Continue reading "Strategists: 1 point" (City Book).
Rewards
- At the end of any quest (win or lose), you gain "X" additional Loot Cards, "X" being your current Kemet Hunt Level.
- You begin the Campaign on Level "zero;" the maximum Level is "6."
Side-effects
- High Kemet Hunt Levels force you to:
- (Level 1) Spend Special Attacks before the quest begins.
- (Levels 2-4) Place additional villains (or place some villains instead of others) in a quest.
- (Level 5) Chests no longer appear on the board.
- (Level 6) Start of Quest: Distribute 75 DMG between the heroes as you want.
- The effects are cumulative (e.g., if you're on Level 3, apply the effects from Level 2 and 1, as well).
- In the map, stars mark the additional villains you must place. Two stars means that you must place this villain only if your Kemet Hunt Level is 2, or higher.
Step 3: Fight!
You've read the Quest's Features and map. The board is assembled. After checking whether cubes, Facts, or the Kemet Hunt impact the beginning of the Quest, the Journal will instruct you to take the Quest's first turn. When you do, the Quest effectively starts!
Most of what happens during combat is explained in Part I of this Rulebook. Next, we'll talk about the three most frequent and most important situations that happen during a quest: DEATH, END-OF-ROUND, and EVENTS.
Death
- When a villain dies, remove its figure and its HP Token from the board. Then, put both on its card (a similar villain might spawn later on and you'll need to reuse these).
- When a hero dies, remove its figure from the grid. Then, put its HP Token on the square the figure occupied. This is the hero's square of death.
- Combatants may freely occupy and step on this square, since the Token does not influence rules of combat.
- (Changed from Arena) Attacks that target "a dead combatant" must consider that the dead combatant is on this square (for the purposes of Range and Vision).
- Dead combatants cannot HEAL. End all active effects on them.
- (Changed from Arena) Effects applied by a dead combatant remain as if it lived.
- E.g., you are Blessed and apply a Temporary Curse on an enemy. If you die, the Blessed status is removed, but the Curse remains until the start of your next turn (see Duration of Effects — Temporary Effects).
- While dead, a hero continues to gain mana cubes — but they cannot be spent (see "Skill Pad").
- Other than ending effects applied on a dead hero, everything else remains the same. E.g., don't change the status of the dead hero's Primary Attacks cycle, Items on cooldown, Special Attacks spent and available, quest components carried, etc. That's because either that hero will revive, or the quest will end (in loss — see "First Aid," ahead).
First Aid
- Heroes that drop to 0 HP are "dead" for the combat around them — but not dead "for good." Only "revive" effects, or First Aid provided at the start of their next turn, can put them on their feet.
- If you run out of First Aid kits and that dead hero's turn comes, the mission must be aborted so that hero can receive special attention and return to Wharfugee for medical care (i.e., you lose that quest).
- Dead heroes must be included in the Turn Order (i.e., you must not end a Round if there's not a Fatigue cube on a hero, even if that hero is dead).
- At the start of a dead hero's turn (and only then), you must spend a First Aid Token to HEAL 10 all living heroes. Then, the owner of the turn revives with 30 HP on the square it died on (or its closest unoccupied square).
- Every Quest, you have two First Aid Tokens to spend (i.e., they automatically replenish before the start of each new Adventure).
- (Changed from Arena) When revived, the owner of the turn may take a Move and a Prime Action that turn, as usual.
- If your two First Aid Tokens have been spent, you lose the quest at the start of any dead hero's turn.
- Winning the quest with a dead hero and two First Aid Tokens spent. If you have spent both of your First Aid Tokens and a hero dies, you don't lose the quest automatically — only when that dead hero's turn comes. If you accomplish the Primary Objective before that hero's turn needs to start, you win the quest (that hero is considered to have been rescued and saved in time).
- A dead hero's turn must start, at the latest, when all other heroes in the Team are Fatigued. If a Fatigued hero dies, you must wait until all non-Fatigued heroes and villains take their turn, apply end-of-round effects, and then you may wait for all living heroes take their turn (and Fatigue again) until a dead hero must take its turn. This must happen before an Unprovoked villain takes its turn.
- You must not spend a First Aid Token to revive a hero outside of that hero's turn. Sometimes you may want to revive a hero so that, for example, it can become a villain's target, or so that it can be healed by an end-of-round effect. You must not: only at the start of a dead hero's turn must you spend a First Aid Token.
End-of-Round
- When all active combatants are Fatigued, skim through the quest instructions and look for the End-of-Round symbol.
- Apply its instructions/effects in the order these symbols appear in the Quest Guide.
- (Changed from Arena) Then, all combatants lose their Fatigue cubes, and a new Round begins.
- End-of-Round effects in the Journal. In these rare cases, apply the Journal's effects in order, after resolving the effects from the Quest Guide.
- "Once per turn" effects apply as if the end-of-round were a turn. E.g., if a combatant is moved at the end of Round, it can take Lava DMG just once.
Events
- If the situation described in the Initial Setup must significantly change before you can accomplish the Primary Objective, new villains (and sometimes even Features) will appear in Events.
- The Quest Guide always mentions what must happen before a new Event can start.
- E.g., "If all villains are dead, read [43.5] (to continue the quest)." This means that, if you get to the end of a Round after having killed all villains currently on the board, you must head to Section 5 of Journal Chapter 43. Sometimes there's a little story to read (and/or hidden instructions to follow) in the Journal. This always happens in between Events, when combat ceases for a few moments to place new Tiles and villains on the grid.
- Each Event has a color in the instructions and on the map.
- (Changed from Arena) You don't need to read an Event's instructions before it begins.
- Components that must spawn in an already-occupied square. If that square cannot be shared (e.g., Terrain + hero is possible, Tile + Tile is not), move the component that was first on the grid to its closest free square available (if multiple positions are possible, the players choose).
- Changing rooms: dead heroes. Whenever all heroes are transferred to another part of the board, put the HP Token of a dead hero in one of these new squares (e.g., Portal Tile, Stairs — its body is considered to have been carried by its teammates, as they are about to provide First Aid).
- Companions. If the transferred hero is a Commander, always transfer its Companion to a free square in [2] of it.
Chapter 13 — Elements of the Scenario
The scenarios of our 100+ quests are rich with a diversity of elements that change the dynamics of combat — get to know Ice and Lava, Swamp and Ruins, Portals and Altars, and more.
Chests
- You may grab two Chests in every quest. They represent magic essences that the Kemet treasure.
- A hero in [1] of a chest may spend 1 movement point (i.e., interaction) to grab the chest. It now belongs to the Team.
- At the end of any hero's turn, the Team may discard a chest to HEAL 30 any hero, then heroes with 20 HP or less HEAL 10.
- Kemet Hunt increase. If you open a chest, you won't be able to increase your Kemet Hunt Level after the quest ends.
Door
- Door is a removable tile that separates rooms. Once opened or destroyed, such rooms become accessible.
- Doors come in different colors, each with its own Token. The edges of tokens follow the color of the tiles, allowing you to track and distinguish their HP.
- You may put locked or unlocked doors on the grid, according to the side of the tile.
- To open an unlocked door, you need to be adjacent to it, spend 1 Movement Point, and declare that you are opening that door.
- After that, you may resume your Move Action and spend your remaining movement points (if any).
- Once you open or destroy a door, remove its tile. You cannot close the door again.
Orbs, Levers and Prisoners
- Orbs, Levers and Prisoners are obstacles with specific rules in each Quest.
Wall
- Wall is a tile that separates rooms and blocks combatants' vision of what's on the other side.
- You cannot move through squares occupied by walls.
- You cannot move diagonally through the vertices of squares occupied by walls.
- You cannot attack or move walls.
- Walls block Vision.
Lava / Spikes
These terrains represent dangerous squares on the Battlegrid. They cause damage to heroes that enter them or finish their turns on them. NEVER treat Lava and Spikes differently, unless a Quest instructs otherwise.
- You take 4 damage when entering a lava tile (voluntarily or forced by some Effect).
- If you are already on a square with lava, entering another square with lava has no consequence. (E.g., if you can move an enemy 2 squares, and such enemy is on a lava tile, moving it to an adjacent tile with spikes causes no damage, but taking it OUTSIDE the lava tile and then forcing it to enter the tile again causes 4 damage).
- If you end your Turn on lava, you take 4 damage.
- If you move diagonally through a lava tile, you take 4 damage as if you had entered it.
- You can take lava damage only once per turn (E.g., if you move diagonally through the vertex of a square with spikes (1), then, further ahead, you step entirely on a lava tile (2), and finish your turn on this lava tile (3), even though you have met the conditions for taking lava damage three times, you only lose 4 HP).
Altar
- Combatants on it are Blessed (once per turn).
- The condition is immediately lost if, by any reason, the combatant leaves to a non-Altar square (e.g., it uses the attack's Benefit to move before the die is rolled).
Stairs
- Unless otherwise stated, this Terrain Tile applies no combat effects: its sole purpose is to visually indicate the initial placement of heroes in a quest.
- If there is more than one of these in the Initial Setup, you may distribute heroes among them as you please (e.g., all heroes in one Tile, or a few heroes here and others there, etc.).
Ruins / Swamp
- If a combatant is moving itself (i.e., in its Move Action, or applying an effect it owns), count each square (not Tile!) with Ruins as two. Ignore this if the movement is caused by any other source (e.g., Ice, an enemy skill, an ally's attack effect, etc.).
- (Changed from Arena) You may not Sidestep onto Ruins (unless you spend two Move Actions).
Different skins, same rules. The difference between some Tiles is purely cosmetic. That is, unless the quest instructions explicitly differentiate them, their rules and effects are the same. Such is the case for Lava/Spikes, Stone Wall/Wall of Bones, Ruins/Swamp.
New Terrain Tiles
The following Tiles are found in Tanares Adventures's game box, instead of Arena: the Contest's.
Room Tiles
- Quantity: four 6x6, two 8x6.
- These are characterized by the fact that other Tiles may occupy their squares (e.g., Lava, Walls).
- They produce no particular effect: each quest will describe how they work. Sometimes, they may even be placed off the main board!
Ice Combatants must tread slowly on the slippery ice. When forced onto it by an enemy, though, the combatant speeds away in a straight line, possibly hurting itself or others who happen to be in the way.
- Quantity: 8 Tiles = 2x2, 2x2, 2x2, 2x2, 4x2, 4x2, 3x3, 3x3.
Treading carefully (= moving yourself or allies)
- Whenever a combatant moves itself or an ally, consider as if Ice squares were Swamp squares.
- E.g., An ally's skill makes you RUN 6. Ignore the Ice Tile, because Swamp only affects combatants that move themselves.
- E.g., A Boss's Special Passive PUSHES 3 another villain. Ignore the Ice Tile, because Swamp only affects combatants that move themselves.
- E.g., You start your turn on Ice and apply an Attack Benefit that says "You MOVE 5". If the next square you enter is not Ice, you must spend just one of these five points (because you'd be leaving an Ice square, not entering it). You must spend two of the Benefit's five points to enter an Ice square, because it is considered Swamp when you move yourself (by any means, not just on your Move Action).
- E.g., There's an Ice Tile between a villain and its Favorite Target. A villain moving itself must spend two points to enter an Ice square, because it considers it Swamp. If that makes its target unreachable, it will look for another target. If no heroes can be reached, it will Dark Surge. When it Dark Surges, it will continue spending two points to enter an Ice square, because Swamp effects apply against combatants that are moving themselves by any means.
Slipping (= the source of the moving effect is not your Team)
- If a quest Feature or enemy effect makes a combatant enter an Ice square, the following Ice effects apply:
- The part of the effect that was moving that combatant ends.
- (Changed from Arena) That combatant must continue moving in that same direction until it steps on a square that is not ice. Then, that combatant must move another three squares in that same direction.
- If that combatant can move all these squares, no Ice DMG is dealt.
- As it lands on a normal square, the combatant is immediately considered off-ice and must thus move another 3 squares in the same direction. However, it enters another ice square, so the effects of ice apply all over again. In this case, the combatant will stop moving earlier due to an ally in the way, and both will take 4 DMG. The combatant is not considered in control of its movement, so it cannot move through an ally. (Another way to stop on Ice is moving there by yourself, in which case, Swamp rules apply instead.)
- E.g., A Boss's Attack Effect says: "PUSH 4 all combatants in [2] of this; each of them takes 10 DMG." If the first hero PUSHED immediately enters Ice, that part of the effect is interrupted (i.e., the Boss can no longer PUSH that hero more squares, before or after Ice effects are applied). However, the rest of the effect must still resolve after that hero finishes slipping (i.e., other combatants may be PUSHED, and all targets of the effect will take 10 DMG — including the hero that slipped on Ice and interrupted the PUSH effect against itself).
- By the way, if the Boss PUSHES another villain, that villain will not slip on Ice — it will ignore it altogether, because you slip on Ice only when moved by an enemy (the Boss and another villain are allies), and Swamp only applies when you move yourself (the villain is being PUSHED by another combatant).
Applying Terrain DMG (stopping beforehand)
- While it is slipping, a combatant must stop just before it leaves the grid or enters a square with an Obstacle, Barrier, or figure. If this happens, the slipping combatant takes 4 DMG.
- (Changed from Arena) If it was another combatant blocking the path, that other combatant takes 4 DMG, too.
- E.g., You slip on Ice and then move 3 squares in the same straight line after leaving the Tile. You stop next to a Wall. It occupies the next square in your path. You take no Ice DMG because you are considered to have been able to stop yourself right before hitting the Wall. If you had moved just 2 squares and had to stop because of the Wall, you take 4 DMG.
- SHIELDED Condition cannot reduce Terrain DMG.
- While slipping, you cannot move through allies. No one is in control of this movement, and the ally is not considered to have time to swiftly allow you through its square.
Planar Rift
- Quantity: 2 Tiles = 2x2, 2x2.
- Also called by its shortened version, Rift.
- A hero on a Rift may spend 1 movement point to MOVE 1 any combatant in [4] of this hero.
- (Changed from Arena) This effect can be used a maximum of 3 times each turn.
- E.g., since movement points are spent one by one, hero A on a Rift moves two combatants: a villain and an ally. As soon as the villain is [5] away from the hero, it cannot be moved again. Note that hero A in the example spent movement points to move itself, both before and after spending other of its available points to use the Rift's power.
Barricade (New Barrier)
- Quantity: 10 Tiles = 4x2, 4x2, 3x1, 3x1, 2x2, 2x2, 2x1, 2x1, 2x1, 2x1.
- Barricades block movement as if they were Walls.
- Barricades don't block Vision. Combatants can target and attack through them.
- Room tiles. Full line = wall. Dashed line = barrier. The room tile diagram labels are: Camp, Cemetery, Armory, Library, Laboratory, Prison. These 4 squares in the Camp Tile follow Lava rules.
Mission Tile
- Quantity: 4 Tiles = 2x2, 2x2, 2x2, 2x2.
- This tile may have a variety of different PvE effects, described in a quest's instructions.
- It has no use on PvP, unless you and your opponent agree in creating a new effect.
Corrupted Zone
- Quantity: 2 Tiles = 3x3, 3x3.
- Combatants on this tile are Vulnerable 3, AND negate ALL new effects applied by, or targeted against, combatants on this tile, except Benefits/Drawbacks. (This includes attack effects, heroic actions, passive powers, Items, artifacts, scrolls, skills, or any other source of effect.)
- The entirety of the effect is negated, even if the attack has multiple targets and some of them are out of the Corrupted Zone.
- (Changed from Arena) This does not affect effects already applied on combatants.
Chapter 14 — End of Quest / Rewards / Campaign Log
Quests are the most important events that take place in your Campaign. After any quest ends, your Heroes return to their usual status, as they were when you prepared them for the Journey. Among others, they return to full HP, recover spent Special Attacks, lose unspent mana cubes, etc. In addition, you will:
- Collect rewards based on your performance (Loot Cards);
- Register facts of the story (Log);
- Gain a Quest Card and its respective Mastery and War points (Log);
- Write down, in the Calendar, the letter of the Adventure Card and number of the Quest played, and your next Kemet Hunt level (it may not change);
- Finally, begin that Phase's City/World Phase (Calendar).
All of the above comes instructed in the Journal, to which the quest directs you after you win (or lose) it. Nevertheless, this Chapter provides you with an overview of how the involved components work.
What to do after you win a quest — Do not set the table down or store components yet. Accomplishing the Primary Objective doesn't mean the quest has ended, because things might happen in the Journal. Sometimes you may want to immediately have dinner or stop for any other reason and continue the campaign the following day or weekend: we strongly advise against that, for the Journal may request a brief follow-up — or you may end up forgetting whether the Extra Challenge has been met, for example.
After a quest properly ends, the Journal will send you to a specific Section that lists all final rewards and instructions. Those for the quests you lose are found in Section [001], and the rewards and instructions for the quests you win are found in Section [002].
Loot Cards / Resources
Loot is the game's "currency." Earn Loot Cards from quests and during the City Phase, then spend resources on City Structures and Items.
Loot Cards are usually earned as a reward for winning quests; their main purpose is allowing you to purchase different things in the City Phase's Management Game.
- Each Loot Card contains 1 unit of a resource.
- There are four types of resources:
| Type of resource | Number of Loot Cards | Most common uses |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 20x | The basic generic imperial currency, accepted by most people in most places. |
| Wood | 14x | An important crafting resource for boats, bows, furniture, and various structures. |
| Gem | 10x | Imbued with intangible properties of the Tanarean Magic Field, it is most commonly used in magic Items and Armor. Their small size and high value makes them accepted in trades at times. |
| Iron | 16x | Despite its heaviness, this metal can be molded into all sorts of utensils, such as keys, pans, the heaviest of shields, or the finest of arrowheads. |
- Unless otherwise stated, gained Loot Cards must be drawn (i.e., randomly pick the top card of a shuffled Loot Card deck).
Standard ways to gain resources (no need to memorize)
| City Phase (Management Game) | Quantity drawn |
|---|---|
| Conquer Expeditions | 1 per mana cube earned; +1 per 3 mana cubes earned |
| Conquer three NPCs | 1 |
| City Structure Power (spending mana cubes) | 1 (chosen, not drawn) |
| Journey Phase | Quantity drawn |
|---|---|
| Win a Quest (3-12 resources) | 3 (Primary Objective); 2 (Extra Challenge); 1 per unspent First Aid Token; 1 per Kemet Hunt Level |
| Lose a Quest (0-7 resources) | 2 (if milestone was reached); 1 per Kemet Hunt level |
Standard ways to spend resources (no need to memorize)
- The following requires specific types of resources:
- Upgrade a City Structure.
- (Changed from Arena) Recruit a hero (Tavern).
- (Changed from Arena) Exchange Armors or Weapons for others of the same level (Weapon Shop).
- (Changed from Arena) Exchange/transmute one type of resource for another (Natural Lab).
- (Changed from Arena) Release Characters to the Ironhand (Ironhand Outpost — i.e., remove the worst cards from your Character Deck).
- (Changed from Arena) Purchase Items.
- The Journal may bring other ways of winning, losing, or spending resources.
Quest Cards
Your reward for winning (or getting far enough) in a quest is a card that represents your presence in a Region of the world. It also tells you the Masteries you've gained, which advance a specific War track.
- Contrary to Adventure Cards, which you gain before playing their Adventure, Quest Cards are gained after you win a quest (or accomplish a milestone described in the Quest Guide, if you lose).
- As soon as the Journal instructs you to gain a Quest Card, register its two Mastery and two War Points in the Log (see "Campaign Log").
Reading a Quest Card
- Number and Name. This is mere identification. It matches the number and name of that quest's chapter, both in the Journal and in the Quest Guide.
- Art of the Scenario. Illustrates the scenario where the Quest takes place.
- Region of the World. This is important only in the World Phase (see Chapter 15).
- Combat Role symbols. The second effect of a removed Quest Card is doubling the abilities produced by Hero Cards of two Combat Roles. These are represented here so you can have a visual aid when thinking about your actions in the World Phase.
- World Phase Effects. In the World Phase, you may remove this Quest Card from the game to apply both effects listed in a single turn.
- Mastery / War Points. Record these in the Log immediately after gaining the Quest Card.
- One-Shot Game Mode. This box does not apply in a regular Campaign. See Appendix H.
Campaign Log
The Campaign Log is a 4-page sheet where you will take notes about things happening in the world and with your Team as your unique story progresses. When your campaign ends, no other player in the world will have a set of Facts and Calendar like yours.
Reading a Campaign Log
- Campaign Perks.
- A. Mark here when you decide to gain a Campaign Perk (at the 9th, 23rd, and 42nd War Points of each category).
- B. Cross the entire box if you decide to lose this Perk. You can have 3 active perks. If you pay 2 loot cards (any of them) at the start of the quest, you can have a fourth perk active for that quest. The decisions to gain and/or lose are permanent.
- Phase Calendar.
- A. After a Journey Phase ends, take note, here, of which Adventure Card you've played.
- B. You'll note in the next Journey Phase slot the Kemet Hunt level under which the next quest will be played.
- C. Mark this slot when you complete a City Phase.
- D. Mark this slot when you complete a World Phase. Remember to read, in the City Book, the "World Phase" chapter of the week that is ending before proceeding.
- List of Quests. The Journal will instruct you to mark the star of quests you win. These may impact future quests and adventures.
- Regions.
- A. After playing all turns in a World Phase, mark here each War Point you've gained in that region.
- B. Mark this slot if its Region is Conquered (i.e., you've earned a total of 6 in that Region, across all World Phases).
- War Points.
- A. Mark the next empty slot whenever you gain a War Point. This happens when you gain a War Point in the World Phase or an associated Mastery in a Quest Card. If you mark a star-qualified slot, read its chapter in the City Book.
Calendar
You will need to take breaks during this long, long campaign. The Calendar helps you keep track of the very last thing you've finished, while keeping a complete record of your campaign for posterity.
- All Phases and their number are here, in sequence.
- Register here the Adventures and Quests you've played.
- Take note of your Kemet Hunt Level.
- Track what activity must come next (City Phase, World Phase, or Journey Phase).
- A Week has four Journey Phases (see Calendar).
- Play a City Phase after the first three Journey Phases of the Week.
- After the fourth Journey Phase of the Week, play a World Phase and end the Week.
- You must take notes in the Calendar only after a City Phase or Journey Phase ends.
- Adventure letter / Quest name and number. Write them down here only when instructed by the Journal, after the end of a quest.
- Kemet Hunt Level. In the example printed in the rulebook, you've ended the last quest, which was played under Kemet Hunt Level 2. You opted not to decrease your level, and you couldn't increase it because you opened a chest. Therefore, your level stays the same, which means that the NEXT quest will be played with this level. This is the only note you make BEFORE a Phase ends (actually, before it even begins!).
- End of a City/World Phase. When you finish a Management Game in the City Map or World Map, put an "X" or any other mark in that Phase's slot.
Quests
- A list of all quests in the game. When you win a quest, you'll be instructed to paint the next to its name.
- Mastery Points are awarded only at the end of quests, whenever you gain a Quest Card. Whenever you gain a Mastery Point, you gain its associated War Point.
Facts
- Simply mark one of the slots when instructed.
Puzzles (see Appendix G)
- The first unmarked slot is the puzzle you must attempt next.
Masteries, Regions, and War Points
The Resistance is not confined to Wharfugee. Once enough word of your heroic deeds spreads through the imperial lands, Warriors, Diplomats, Strategists, and Spies begin to gather and contribute to the cause against the Kemet. The strength of this aid is measured in War Points.
Two factors influence how many War Points of each category you gain:
- (i) Masteries (e.g., Prestige with Peoples, Penumbral Plane): How much of an expert you are in specific fields, or how much of a type of plot your Adventure decisions have developed.
- (ii) Regions (e.g., Kolbjörn, Storm Oceans): How much presence you have in each of the twelve Regions that compose the Imperial World Map.
- You can recruit and build all types of Resistance anywhere in the world, but all Regions have a main type (e.g., Warriors), and a secondary type (e.g., Diplomats) — choose carefully where you will build a presence when making Adventure decisions, and when the World Phase comes.
Example (printed): If you win a quest that saves a halfling community and its Quest Card awards you with +2 Prestige with Peoples, paint the first two unpainted slots of the line "Prestige with Peoples." THEN, paint the first two unpainted slots of its associated War track — that is, the line "Diplomats." Your relationship with Sara, the NPC that represents this War category, will improve. Besides, note that you have marked a slot qualified by a star. This means you must open the City Book on the Chapter called "Diplomats: 1 point."
War Milestones. Rewards.
- As soon as you mark a slot qualified by a small star, open the City Book and read the Chapter "[War category – Number of the slot]."
- The War milestones in the City Book advance the story and secrets of the NPC that represents that War Category and reward you with a variety of boons (e.g., heroes, Loot Cards). The most important rewards, though, are the Campaign Perks (see Appendix G).
Multiple War milestones. In the World Phase, accomplishing Regional challenges rewards you with multiple War Points. In some cases, you may reach two or more milestones at a time. If this happens, simply read more than one City Book chapter in a row.
Maximum reached. If you gain a War Point but you already have 42 points of that category, gain instead 1 point in your least-advanced category.
Regions. Mark here each War Point that each Region gains in the World Phase.
Dedicated Storage — The "Save Game" Sheet
- You must put all components your Team gains during a Campaign in a dedicated storage. If you ever need to mix components again (e.g., you want to begin a second campaign with a group but you don't want to lose your "solo" campaign progress), we've made a printer-friendly sheet for you to record the names of Characters, Items, and other components you own.
- Do not confuse it with the Campaign Log. The Save Sheet does not come in the game box and is not meant to be used on a regular basis.
- If you want or need printable copies of the Campaign Log and Save Sheet, find them at the publisher's website (https://www.dragorigames.com/sample/log.pdf).
(If you are playing the Campaign's Introduction): Resume the Chapter "Diplomats: 1 point" (City Book).
Chapter 15 — World Phase
Note: this part of the game is played for the first time only by the end of the first Week. Only then we recommend you go through this chapter.
The World Phase is very similar to the Management Game of the City Phase: you'll draw 4 hands of 4 Characters and produce abilities in different Regions. Each challenge accomplished grants you 1 mana cube in that Region, and each mana cube grants you 1 War Point.
- Follow City Phase rules for everything that doesn't contradict this chapter.
Gaining War Points is the only purpose of the World Phase. It greatly accelerates your path toward the almighty Campaign Perks (see their list in Appendix G).
- You have a partial presence in Regions that have gained at least one but fewer than six mana cubes. Put 1 Helpful (green) Condition Token on the map for each mana cube marked in your Log, so you can see how many each Region needs to have six and be fully Conquered.
- (Changed from Arena) All Regions with Tokens must have a Fatigue cube, also.
(Step 3) Grab your Quest Cards and put them on their Regions.
- Quest Cards are gained at the end of the Journey Phase (see Chapter 14). While not used in a World Phase, keep the ones you gain in your Team's dedicated storage.
Wharfugee
Wharfugee is a special Region that is considered always Conquered and follows special rules. It is adjacent to three Regions: Outumn, South Stravian, and West Seashores.
- Put 1 mana cube on Wharfugee for every 3 Force, 3 Diplomacy, 3 Intelligence, and/or 3 Spycraft produced here.
- E.g.: if you play a Hero Card that produces 6 Force, 3 Spycraft, 1 Diplomacy, and 1 Intelligence, Wharfugee gains 3 mana cubes.
- Characters are usually more effective in other Regions. Play them here only if you find no better use.
- In the Playing Stage, you may spend 1 mana cube from Wharfugee to produce 1 point of any ability in any Region. (This may be done multiple times per turn and Phase.)
(Step 4) Shuffle your Character Deck and draw four hands of four cards.
- A total of 16 Characters must be drawn, regardless of the number of players.
- Include in it the Hero and NPC Cards used in the last Journey.
Assembling Stage
(Step 1) Open the World Map. Check "Regions" in your Log.
- The World Map is on the other side of the City Map. It contains a very comprehensive step-by-step of the rules contained herein.
- Take the opportunity to browse the Campaign Perks in the Log and determine which War Point you want the most.
(Step 2) Place Tokens, hero figures, and Fatigue cubes on all Regions.
- Regions on which you've gained 6 total mana cubes in previous World Phases are fully Conquered. Place any hero figure on them.
- Put a Fatigue cube on all other Regions (i.e., those without a hero figure, that have not been fully conquered in the past). The black Fatigue cube represents Kemet forces that are in the way and must be eliminated before you can improve your presence in that Region.
Playing Stage
- Each player takes a single turn, in any order.
- NPCs cannot apply City Powers or Instants (lightning symbol). They produce only what is in their lower left section.
- Play each Character card in a single Region to remove its Fatigue cube, or, if it's already removed, to accomplish its ability challenge.
- (Changed from Arena) Abilities not required by that Region's challenge are lost, as well as spare points not complemented by other cards from your hand at the end of your turn.
Reading the World Map (key to the printed World Map)
- A — Regional borders. If two Regions are divided by this line, they are considered adjacent to each other.
- B — Region's name.
- C — Fatigue cube slot. In the Assembling Stage, put a Fatigue cube on each Region not fully conquered. You can only play Characters in these Regions after producing 2 Force to remove it.
- D — Regional challenge. If that Region has no Fatigue cube, you may play Characters in a Region to produce these abilities. Every time the challenge is accomplished, that Region gains 1 mana cube.
- E — Color order. Depending on how many total mana cubes that Region has earned across all World Phases, you'll gain a different type of War Point in the Spending Stage.
- F — Color code. Compare it with the color order to see which type of War Point to gain. Note that white is any type of War Point.
- G — Quest Card. You may remove it from the game to apply two effects in one turn in that card's Region (or an adjacent Region, if the Quest Card's Region is fully conquered).
- H — Hero figure. It marks a Region that has already gained 6 mana cubes, and is thus fully Conquered.
- I — Green Token. It marks mana cubes gained in the past by Regions that are still not fully conquered.
- J — Mana Cube. See "D."
- K — Campaign Log (Regions). In the Assembling Stage, consult it to check your total presence in each Region. In the Spending Stage, mark mana cubes earned by each Region this World Phase, and their respective War Points.
Playing Stage (continued)
- Every time you accomplish a Regional challenge, put a mana cube of any color on that Region. The same Character Card can accomplish the same challenge multiple times (as long as it produces sufficient abilities).
Removing Fatigue Cubes
- Produce 2 Force to remove a Region's Fatigue cube. After it's removed, Character Cards can then be played in it, to accomplish its challenge.
- Spare points from the card that removed the Fatigue cube may contribute to that Region's challenge.
- E.g.: If a Regional challenge requires 4 Force and 3 Spycraft, a Hero Card that produces 6 Force and 3 Spycraft can remove that Region's Fatigue cube and gain 1 mana cube for that Region at the same time.
- (Changed from Arena) You can only remove Fatigue cubes from Regions adjacent to a Region without a Fatigue cube.
- E.g., in the first World Phase, when only Wharfugee is conquered, you must spend 4 Force before you can play a Character on Storm Oceans = two to remove the Fatigue cube from Outumn, and then another two to remove Storm Oceans' Fatigue cube.
- Note: unless you gain 6 mana cubes and conquer a Region, its removed Fatigue cube will return in the next World Phase!
Using Quest Cards
- You may use a Quest Card if, and only if, you play a Character in its Region on that turn.
- The Region to which a Quest Card belongs is named in its header. If that Region is conquered, you may use it as if it belonged to any Region adjacent to that.
- You can use only the Quest Cards your Team has gained. If used, remove that card from the game at the end of that turn (you may never use it again).
- When used, apply the two effects described in it. They are active for that turn, only.
- (Changed from Arena) Regions described in the first effect don't need to have a Fatigue cube for it to apply.
- Multiple heroes may benefit from the boost to their abilities, as long as they belong to the correct Role and come from the same hand (i.e., they are played on the same turn).
Spending Stage
The name of this step mirrors what you'll grow accustomed to in the City Phase, but in reality, this stage consists of one simple procedure: each mana cube each Region has gained in the Playing Stage will be converted into War Points in your Log. Which type of War Point depends on the number of the mana cube.
-
Printed example (South Stravian): the first and fifth mana cube this Region gains must convert into "Warriors" (red). The second, fourth, and last (sixth) mana cube every Region gains is "any" (you choose which). And the third mana cube gained here is "Spies," according to the color code. This means that this Region can grant you a maximum of 5 Warriors Points, or 4 Spies Points, or 3 of Diplomats or Strategists Points. Choose your points wisely: once a choice is made, you can never go back.
-
If you begin the World Phase with 4 green Tokens here and then gain 1 mana cube, it means that this is the fifth mana cube this Region has gained: you must mark a "Warriors" Point, and you're one mana cube away from Conquering this Region.
-
Resolve 1 Region at a time. For each mana cube gained last Stage:
- Mark it in the Log (on its Region).
- Gain 1 War Point (check which by the Region's color order).
- If you mark a star-qualified slot, read it in the City Book: you will gain a reward and unveil secrets of the NPC that represents that War category.
-
Any exceeding mana cube gained after the sixth is lost.
Wrapping-Up Stage
- Just like at the end of a City Phase, separate the components that will be used in the next Journey Phase, and store other components your Team owns in your dedicated storage.
- The end of a Week is usually an important moment in the story. Therefore, the last step of a World Phase is reading a chapter of the City Book.
- E.g.: if you're ending your first World Phase, read the Chapter "World Phase — Week 1".
Part III — Appendices
Appendix A — New Combat Role: The Commander
The Commander is the new Combat Role from Tanares Adventures. Like Healers, it exercises a support function in the Team, which is why we recommend you have one of the two Combat Roles (but not both).
The Commander fights alongside another figure: the Companion. Since Commanders are not that different from other heroes, this section dedicates to the rules that primarily apply to the Companion.
The Companion
Placement
- Place the Companion in [2] of its Commander after all heroes have been placed on the board, but before a quest or match begins.
- If a quest instruction transfers the Commander to another location, immediately place the Companion in [2] of it.
Non-hero combatant
- Companions are considered combatants for all purposes: to attack (or be attacked), to make / incite Reactions, to check Mob/Focus, etc.
- Heroes in its Team consider it an ally and villains consider it an enemy. Neither considers it a hero.
- I.e., effects that apply on heroes cannot target Companions. (E.g., "HEAL 6 a hero" cannot heal a Companion, even if it is the Commander applying the effect, but "HEAL 6 an ally" can.)
Elements of the Scenario
- Unless otherwise stated, Companions:
| Cannot | Can |
|---|---|
| Use/open Levers, Chests, Barrels, Doors | Teleport (Portals) |
| Use Planar Rifts | Use Altars |
| Interact with anything |
Villains ignore Companions in Attacks, Passive Powers, Effects, and Favorite Targets. Villains only consider Companions when they Dark Surge.
Commander Dependence
Sharing Turns
- Companions take one Move and one Prime Action at the end of (i.e., during) its Commander's turn.
- Both Companion and Commander share the same Fatigue Cube.
- (Changed from Arena) "Once per turn" effects. Whatever already applied during the Commander's actions cannot apply again during the Companion's actions.
- If the Commander or the Companion takes a once per turn damage, the other can't take the same damage on that turn. (E.g., if the Commander enters Lava/Spikes and takes 4 DMG, neither will take that kind of DMG again — even if the Companion, on its Move Action, steps on a different Lava Tile.)
Sharing HP
- The Companion does not have an HP Stat. Instead, their HP is shared with the Commander.
- DMG/HEAL. Naturally, since they share HP, both are equally affected when one of them is targeted by an effect that changes HP.
- If the Commander dies, remove the Companion from the board.
- If the Commander is revived, place the Companion back too, in [2] of the Commander.
Mutual Independence
- Attack Effects apply either to the Commander or to the Companion (i.e., separately).
Other Cases
When the Commander is a Comrade
- Comrade Companion Card. Use this generic version (it has no Special Ability).
- Effects that mention a specific Comrade (e.g., the Pegasus). They apply for the Comrade's Companion.
(PvP-Mode Only): Double Jeopardy Immunity
- If the Commander is targeted, takes attack DMG, or receives an attack effect, the Companion is immune to being targeted, taking DMG, and receiving effects from the same attack, and vice versa.
- E.g., an attack can strike 2 enemies and has BLAST as one of its effects. If the Companion is declared its target, the Commander can neither be targeted (even if the strike against the Companion misses), nor can it take BLAST DMG if the attack hits (even if the Commander is in [1] of the Companion).
Appendix B — Attack Card Replacements for the Campaign
Some Attack Cards in Arena: the Contest and the Legendary Box are perfect for PvP. Since we want your experience to be as good as possible when playing Tanares Adventures as well, its game box comes with Attack Card replacements. Most of them keep the same spirit of the old attack but make it work better with the new combat system.
- The replacements are identified by a replacement symbol in the upper left corner of the card.
- When playing Tanares Adventures with the following heroes, replace their original Attack Cards for cards of the same name that come in this game box:
| Hero | Attack Cards to be replaced |
|---|---|
| Garion | Masterstroke / Memory Theft |
| Rokaru | Ancestral Katana |
| Rurik | Iron Wall |
| Taram | Sacred Flame |
| Thalia | Shield of Flowers / Spring Seeds |
| Catharina | Soul Link |
| Count Blake | Call of the Master |
| Myr | Shadow Dance |
| Liana | Maelstrom |
| Uster | Life Siphon / Death Ray / Vengeful Wraith |
| Elarine | Puppet Dance / Lobotomy / Cerebrokinesis |
| Zund |
Appendix C — Short Glossary
The following is not for you to memorize or even read: merely consult a specific entry if questions arise during gameplay. These lists are not exhaustive: we've merely compiled the words whose meanings have the highest probability of causing confusion.
Target Descriptions
- "A [villain]" x "The [villain]" (Skills), "A [ally]" / "An [ally]" (Skills). If a skill's description mentions that the target of the effect is "a [villain]" (or "an [ally]"), any villain (or ally) may suffer that skill's effect. If, however there is no indefinite article (a/an) preceding the symbol, the target is the combatant taking the current turn (the moment when you are applying that skill).
- "All combatants in a 3x3 area." All combatants occupying a determined area of attack, including yourself and allies.
- To determine the area of attack, you must point to any square in the grid within Range and Vision (even Walls, corners and empty squares). This becomes the central square (CS). You'll strike this square and all squares adjacent to it, regardless of Vision, as long as they're in Range.
- The Central Square can be empty (i.e., occupied by no combatants).
- All strikes against targets within Range are made as if they were on the central square. (E.g., if a combatant in the area of attack is off your Vision, but you can see the central square, you must strike this combatant.)
- Despite not having Vision of its enemy, the attacker has Vision over the central square. The enemy gets attacked as if it were on the central square.
- Diagram caption: "'A' has Vision over the central square, and it is within Range. An attack in that area can hit all green squares and the central square. Red squares are not struck because they are 9 squares away, putting them outside of the attack's Range."
- "Enemies in a straight line." All enemies in one orthogonal or diagonal line from the square you occupy — the first square of the line must be a square adjacent to you (the attacker), the second square in the line must be [2] away from your figure, and so on.
- There are eight possible directions: four orthogonal and four diagonal directions. (Think of how a Rook or Bishop moves on an empty chess board.)
- You must choose exactly one of the lines.
Keywords
Components and Their Manipulation
- Bear / Carry. To have a specific component on your card, usually one that may be lost or transferred to other combatants.
- Charge (a Skill Token). To flip a token to its "+1" side.
- Unflip / Uncharge (a Skill Token). To flip a token to the side that informs the maximum level of the skill to which it may be allocated.
- Choose (opposite of "randomly"). Unless otherwise stated, consider that every action with multiple options gives you a choice. E.g.: Draw 4 cards. You must put 2 cards in your hand and remove 2 from the Character Deck. This means you choose which cards to hold and which to remove.
- Deck / Pile. A stack with two or more cards. They may be face-up (i.e., with the content of its top card revealed) or face-down.
- Draw. Pick the card on top of a pile.
- Pick / Search. You may look at all available cards (even if they're facing down), and, contrary to the "draw" command, you're not restricted to picking the one on top.
- Flip (a Token). If it's not specified, choose whether you will charge or unflip the token.
- Flip (an attack card). It can only mean putting the attack card facing down.
- Place / Put / Transfer (a figure). Placing or putting is not considered movement. The figure is simply removed from its square and placed in another as if it were already there. As such, it cannot suffer terrain DMG or incite Reactions along the way it would take to its new square.
Interpretation of Effects / Instructions
- All / each. There's no difference: sometimes we use "each" to make it abundantly clear that an effect applies, individually, to each element in a group. E.g.: all heroes take 10 DMG = each hero takes 10 DMG. (I.e., this DMG must not be distributed.)
- Enemy (Attack Card). Since many Attack Cards are also used on PvP Mode, they mention "enemy" instead of "villain." If playing PvE, always consider that (your) "enemies" are the "villains."
- If you do / colon (:) / "to". Sometimes there are two "effects" in the same text. The second part depends on the occurrence of the first only when:
- Preceded by a colon (:) (e.g., Forgo your Move Action this turn: you may strike the enemy twice).
- Preceded by "to" (e.g., Pay 2 HP to deal +5 DMG).
- Preceded by "if you do" (e.g., You may flip an attack. If you do, an enemy takes 10 DMG).
- If preceded by "or," the second part depends on the first not occurring / being chosen.
- Otherwise. This always comes after the description of a situation or condition — if you don't meet this condition, apply whatever comes after this expression.
- E.g., If you have "Name" (fact) marked, OR if there is a Tactician in your Team, go to [45.2]. Otherwise, flip your Team Token to BLUE and go to [45.6] = You will only flip your token and head to Section 45.6 IF you have not marked this fact in the Campaign Log, and none of the heroes on your Team is a Tactician.
- Owner. The combatant that is taking the turn, or the combatant that can use the component owned.
- Place / Put. These words are used interchangeably. The important rule here is that you must apply it on a component that is not on the board. E.g., if there's a Reaper on the board and a quest instruction says "place a Reaper on an Altar square," you must not move the Reaper that is on the board (see "Transfer").
Numbers
- -1, -2 (negative sign before a number). Reduce another positive number (indicated in the text) to a minimum of zero.
- +X to HP Stat. This means that your Max HP (and therefore initial HP) is increased by X.
- [X]. Single numbers in brackets represent a distance, in squares, to something. This always implies Vision. Sections of the Journal will always have more than one digit within brackets (e.g., [43.2], [003]).
- E.g., a challenge requires -2 AP in each ability = If the normal requirement is 3 AP, you still need to produce 1 AP.
- In [X] of. Read "in" as "within" (the distance does not have to be exact).
- E.g., HEAL 5 an ally in [3] of you = You may choose an ally that is 1, 2, or 3 squares away from you. It needs to be in your Vision.
- "In [1] of" is the same as "adjacent to."
- Coordinates / dice. These may apply to coordinates (the numbers 1-24 found on the edge of the longest side of the board), or to a die roll (1-20).
- Even / odd. When you read the word "odd," it means a whole number that you cannot divide by two and obtain equal whole numbers. "Even" is a whole number that you can divide by two.
- Highest / lowest. Interpret this relatively — that is, in comparison with other combatants. "Hero with lowest HP" is not a hero with 0 or 1 HP; it's the hero whose current HP is lower than that of all other heroes.
- Increase / reduce (Time / XP / Torch). When you read "Time," it is short for "Time Token." This is only mentioned alongside movement the token along the HP Track.
Squares and Spaces
- Adjacent. The same as "in [1] of" (see "in [X] of" above). Diagonals count.
- Orthogonal / Diagonal. Orthogonal is up and down, left and right (Rook move). Diagonal is the Bishop's move. If you move orthogonally, you will enter a square that shares one of its sides with yours. If you move diagonally, you will enter a square that shares one of its corners (or vertices) with yours.
- Square. A space on the main board, or in a Room Tile. Two combatants can never occupy the same square, nor can two Tiles (such as Walls+Swamp). You will count squares when moving or checking distances.
- Free / unoccupied / valid (square). A square on which there are no figures (e.g., combatants, chest, a prisoner, etc.) or Barriers (e.g., walls, barricades).
- Unless otherwise stated, a square with a Terrain (e.g., Lava, Ruins, etc.) is not considered occupied.
- "Valid" is more often (but not necessarily) used when there are more restrictions and rules you need to observe. (E.g., if on a quest you can only step on Altar squares after grabbing the Tome Token, these would not be a valid square to move onto or to transfer a figure, even if they're "unoccupied.")
- Straight lines. Includes diagonals, unless it says "straight orthogonal line."
- Step on = Enter; (move) through. Typically, enemies cannot occupy each other's squares while moving (not even temporarily) = they cannot step on/enter enemy squares. Some cards will allow you to move across, or through, an enemy-occupied square, as long as you don't END your move action on the same square.
Appendix D — Specific Effects
The following is not an exhaustive list of effects. We've listed, in alphabetical order, those effect descriptions that require additional explanations or rules.
- The following may appear in all kinds of moments and components: Attack Benefits and Effects, Hero/Villain Cards, Skill Pads, etc.
"BLAST X"
- Deal X DMG to all enemies in [1] of the target.
- Only the blasted target, or the Central Square of a 3x3 area, needs to be in [8] of you. The other squares don't require vision, but they require proper distance.
- (See "All combatants in a 3x3 area" in Appendix C.)
"BLEEDING X"
- See "New Conditions" at the end of this Appendix.
"Cannot regain HP"
- Healing Effects may still target you, they just do not recover your HP.
Controlling a combatant
- Controlling happens and is resolved during the controller's Turn. The controller (and the controlled) combatants never lose their turns as a result of this effect.
- Since Reactions can only target the owner of the turn, the controlled combatant's actions do not incite them.
- All effects on the controlled combatant remain active. It consumes effects like Conditions from Tokens or "ends if used."
- If you control an enemy, invert that combatant's reference of enemies and allies (and hero/villains) when applying rules or when following the text of its cards.
- E.g., "Effect: another in [8] HEALS 6" means this effect may be applied to heal a hero, instead.
"DISPEL X"
- Remove up to X Condition Tokens currently applied on combatants.
- These combatants must be in [8] of you and in your Vision, as in all effects whose description doesn't state otherwise.
- E.g., if your attack has DISPEL 3, you may remove an orange token from a villain and two green tokens from an ally.
DISTRACTED
- See "New Conditions" at the end of this Appendix.
"ECHO X"
- Deal X DMG to an ally of the target, closest and in [8] of the effect's applier.
"FLEE X," "PULL X," "PUSH X," "RUN X"
- RUN = Move yourself toward a destination (taking the shortest possible path).
- FLEE = A ranged villain's effect. It moves away 3 squares from you (the opposite of RUN). Usually it is instructed to apply it only if it did no move (nor Side-stepped) prior to attacking.
- PULL = Move something in your direction.
- PUSH = Move something away from you.
Common rules (for FLEE, PULL, PUSH and RUN)
- The affected combatant must move, at most, X squares.
- E.g., if the pulled combatant is already in [1] of you, it stops moving.
- E.g., if a villain RUNS 6 toward a Barrel, it stops moving when it is in [1] of that Barrel, even if it has moved only 2 squares.
- Each square moved must decrease (PULL/RUN) or increase (FLEE/PUSH) the distance between the combatant and its described destination. When this is no longer possible, the effect ends.
- (Changed from Arena) If this path requires you to cross the edge of a barrier or any other blocked square, you must spend 2 points to move diagonally through it.
"FLIP (an attack)"
- This powerful effect allows you to ignore a weaker attack and Cycle faster (reactivating an Item on cooldown).
- This means to put an Attack Card face down (never the other way around).
- You may never target the card of the attack that is applying this effect.
- Do not confuse this with the natural flip that must happen shortly before an attack resolves. Since this is the result of an effect, it applies immediately.
- Ignore this effect if its target is a Comrade, or if all its Attack Cards are already flipped.
- If a specific target is not inferred or described, the applier of the effect must flip one of its own cards (instead of any Attack Card in the game). The same goes for any other kind of effect.
Forcing movement
- All movement not made by a combatant's Move Action (like applied by effects or Benefits) is considered "forced."
- Forced movement ignores the Slowed Condition. This means you must ignore Swamp/Ruins Tiles.
- Forced movement does not incite Reactions.
- The target cannot move past squares occupied by enemies of the combatant forcing the movement, but can pass through allies.
- The movement can never end on a square occupied by Barriers, combatants, or Obstacles.
"HEAL X"
- This is the same as "(the combatant) regains X HP" — increase the HP Token of the affected combatant by X.
- (Changed from Arena) This can't put a combatant above its Max HP Stat.
- The amount of healing is followed by the description of the affected combatant (e.g., "HEAL 5 a hero").
- (Changed from Arena) Sometimes, for the sake of clarity, the description of the combatant that must regain HP comes before this expression (e.g., "You or an ally HEALS 5").
- "An ally HEALS 5" means that the chosen ally regains 5 HP. It never means that the chosen ally chooses someone to regain 5 HP.
- Dead combatants and combatants with 0 HP cannot regain HP (only First Aid and "revive" effects can change their HP).
"LURE"
- Only villains apply this effect.
- The farthest hero in [8] and Vision of the target of the villain's attack must be PULLED to that target, as much as possible. It then takes DMG for each square it entered due to this effect.
"Ignores all effects enemies applied on the target."
- Effects currently affecting the target are ignored as if they didn't exist, but only IF they were applied by enemy attacks (includes self-inflicted effects).
- The ignored effects are not lost as a result of this Benefit, and remain applied on the target after the attack resolves.
- This happens even if the text of the ignored effect implies it should end after the next attack (e.g., "Reduce the next attack's damage to zero") (e.g., "ends if used").
Immunity to new effects from enemies
- Enemies cannot apply effects on you. If you are their target, the effects are lost.
- This effect only protects you against new effects. Do not remove enemy effects that were already active on you when you received immunity. These function normally.
"Meanwhile, you may strike each target at any time."
- This is present on Benefits that allow you to alternate between moves and strikes.
- You may strike before beginning to move.
- After one of your strikes is determined as either a hit or a miss, if the attack allows more strikes, you may reset the Attack Timeline to the "Benefit" step until all strikes are made.
"(You) MOVE X"
- You may move from zero to X squares. This is not considered spending movement points.
- This movement is independent of your Move Action, which you can spend before or after attacking.
- Since you are on your Prime Action, this movement does not incite Reactions. Only declaration of movement on a Move Action does.
- During this movement, you may step on squares occupied by allies, but not those occupied by enemies. Other movement restrictions apply as usual.
- (Changed from Arena) You cannot end this movement on an occupied square.
"Negating an attack"
- Applied only by Interrupt Attacks.
- The villain's attack is cancelled (it can go no further in the Attack Timeline).
- This does not work against Bosses.
- Only villains apply this effect.
"NOVA X"
- It deals X DMG to each enemy in [3] of that villain and in line with it (orthogonal or diagonal).
- (Changed from Arena) The target of the attack that applies NOVA is not included.
- Remember to decide ties in the villain's path to make sure as few heroes as possible take NOVA DMG.
"Pay X HP"
- Drop your HP by X to apply the rest of the effect in the description.
- You cannot prevent the loss of paid HP by any means (e.g., if you're required to pay 4 HP and you are under the Toughened Condition, this doesn't reduce the HP lost — you still need to pay 4 HP).
- You cannot apply an effect that requires payment if you don't have sufficient HP to pay its cost and remain with at least 1 HP.
"Pick a Card"
- It means to search for any card in a pile, even if it is shuffled and face-down. Otherwise, the effect would have said "draw a card."
- Piles who are meant to be random must be shuffled whenever you resolve an effect that tells you to pick or search for a card in it.
"PRESERVED"
- See "New Conditions" at the end of this Appendix.
"Regain 1 spent Special Attack"
- One of your spent Special Attacks changes its status to "unspent" and may be made again. Recover its card from outside the match.
- This cannot affect Special Attacks with currently-active effects (i.e., Special Attacks affecting a combatant with a Temporary or Permanent Effect).
Special Interrupts
- Some Interrupts like M'Bollo or Vaeraunt have a specific moment to be used that differs from the standard timeline.
- The rule on the card always supersedes any other rule, so this interrupt happens when they specify.
- For example, M'Bollo can use his special attack "Take Heart" after seeing if the enemy attack hit his ally or not.
"Revive a dead combatant"
- This is not a healing effect.
- The attack that applies this must roll a die against the dead target's Defense Stat and consider all applicable result modifiers, as if the target were alive.
- The attack's Range and Vision are verified in relation to the combatant's square of death (marked by the combatant's HP Token).
- If the target is revived, it is not affected by any effects (they ended when it died).
- The target's Items and mana cubes are not lost.
- The target's Special Attacks keep their status (spent or unspent). This is often addressed and changed by the effect's description.
- E.g., "revives with no Special Attacks" = regardless of their status when the combatant died, both are unavailable/spent.
- E.g., "revives with 1 Special Attack unspent" = even if both were spent when it died, one of them changes its status to unspent and is available for the revived combatant.
"SHIELDED"
- See "New Conditions" at the end of this Appendix.
"Take 10 R-DMG" / "Take 10 Damage before striking. This can't lower your HP below 1."
- Since this applies before the Strike Phase, the future result of the die roll is not relevant (you take the damage even if you end up missing the attack).
- Effects that reduce or negate damage do not affect this.
- This damage cannot kill you. (E.g., If at the time of this drawback you have 7 HP, or even 1 HP, you will drop to 1 HP, and no further. You can still attack.)
- This effect is not optional. For the rest of the attack to continue, it must be applied (even if you are already at 1 HP, because all the damage was done. It just couldn't drop your HP below 1).
New Conditions
DISTRACTED 3
- -3 to the attack roll.
BLEEDING 2
- At the end of a Bleeding combatant's Move Action, it takes 2 R-DMG per square it entered spending movement points.
- Sidestep deals 2 DMG. It is performed in a Move Action and with it you enter a single square (e.g., if you have one Bleeding 2 Token you take 2 DMG).
- Count squares entered, not movement points spent. E.g., entering Ruins does not deal more DMG.
- Other effects DON'T cause Bleeding DMG. E.g., an ally uses a skill that moves a Bleeding combatant on its Move Action (= no DMG). E.g., you apply your own Attack Benefit to move yourself (= no DMG).
- Removing the Condition Token. This Condition is deemed "considered" (i.e., it ends) only at the end of the combatant's Move Action, and only if it took at least 1 Bleeding DMG.
PRESERVED 5
- When a Preserved 5 combatant takes a DMG that would kill it, instead of dying its HP becomes 5. If it had multiple Preserved Tokens they are all consumed and the HP increases by 5 per extra Token used.
- Note: during attacks, combatants die only when the attack resolves.
SHIELDED X
- Reduce by X the Attack Damage from attacks that hit, or R-DMG from attacks that missed.
- Shielded DOES NOT reduce DMG from other, non-attack sources (e.g., Attack Effects, Reactions, Passive Power, Terrains, skills, etc.).
Effect examples (diagram captions printed in the rulebook)
- BLAST X example: A is the target, B and C take X DMG each.
- ECHO X example: A is the target, B is the closest target's ally in vision and range [8], so it takes X DMG.
- LURE example: A is the target, B is the farthest target's ally in vision and range [8]. In this case B was pulled 3 squares and therefore took 3 DMG.
- RUN (to a villain) example: the hero takes the shortest safe path, walking 3 squares and taking the lava DMG, as there is no way to avoid it without moving more.
Appendix E — "Solo" Team Deathmatch
This assumes knowledge of PvP — Team Deathmatch rules, contained in Arena: the Contest's rulebook. Apply the following rules to play without human opposition.
- Yours is the Player Team, with Player Heroes.
- The enemy Team is the AI Team, with AI Heroes (as in "Artificial Intelligence").
- Turn orders are as follows (decide ties). Position Heropads accordingly.
- Beginning of Round: Brutes and Shooters.
- Middle of Round: Tanks and Controllers.
- End of Round: Healers.
Preparation
A) Choose Heroes
- Decide if you'll play a 3x3 or 4x4 match. Since there are no other players to help you handle and manage components, we recommend the "lighter" experience of the 3x3.
- Choose your Team's heroes (all of different Combat Roles).
- Then, choose the heroes of the "AI" (Artificial Intelligence). You may choose only the heroes that come in the Core Box, and you may not choose Tacticians (see list of heroes ahead).
- Heroic Actions, Artifacts, Scrolls, and Spirit Skills (from Penumbral Box) are forbidden.
B) Position heroes on the board
- The match is played on the pre-painted (desert skin) side of the board in Arena: the Contest.
- Choose on which side of the board (low or high number coordinates) your Player Team will start the match. The AI takes the other side.
- Roll a d20 to determine whether you're Team Blue (1-10) or Team Red (11-20). Then, roll a second d20 to determine which table you'll consult. Position all heroes in the coordinates specified by that table, according to their Combat Role.
Placement table (Dice Result × Combat Roles. Each dice-result band has two rows of Combat Role icons: "Row A" = the icons in red, orange, yellow and blue; "Row B" = the icons in teal, blue, purple and brown. Coordinates are as printed.)
| Dice Result | Combat Roles | Red Team Hero 1 | Red Team Hero 2 | Red Team Hero 3 | Red Team Hero 4 | Blue Team Hero 1 | Blue Team Hero 2 | Blue Team Hero 3 | Blue Team Hero 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | Row A | 10-D | 12-K | 12-C | 12-N | 15-H | 13-F | 15-I | 15-L |
| 1-5 | Row B | 8-D | 7-I | 7-B | 7-M | 19-H | 19-F | 17-H | 17-N |
C) Attack Cards
- Grab the heroes' Attack Cards and HP Tokens.
- Replace the following Attack Cards of AI Heroes for one Primary and one Special Attack of its Combat Role:
| Hero | Attack Cards to be replaced |
|---|---|
| Katar | Mighty Blow / Whirlwind |
| Sedrik | Death Claws / Bestial Fury |
| Rurik | Crushing Blow / Iron Wall |
| Jorana | Whirling Strike / Lightning Reflexes |
| Taram | Sanctuary / Miracle |
| Thalia | Shield of Flowers / Breath of Life |
| Niary | Twin Shot / Perfect Hunt |
| Avelum | Arcane Blast / Counter Spell |
| Catharina | Black Plague / Dark Ritual |
| Zafara | Revenge of Dead |
- Divide AI Attack Cards into two piles: Primary and Special Attack card (each will have 2 cards).
- Place the replacement attack under the hero's original attack.
- If the attack applied a Temporary effect, do this when the turn of the applier of the effect begins; before this, track the effect as usual (placing the card on top of the affected Heropad).
D) Choose the Difficulty Level
- Easy: Each player hero starts the game with 5 HP under Max.
- Normal: Each player hero starts the game with 10 HP under Max.
- Hard: Each player hero starts the game with 15 HP under Max.
- Insane: Each player hero starts the game with 20 under Max.
How to Play
- The Player Team always takes the first turn.
- All regular PvP rules apply (e.g., Mob and Focus). You may turn the "advanced rules" off.
- Whenever multiple actions are possible within the guidelines and priorities below, you may choose what the AI Hero does.
AI Turns — Attacking with AI Heroes
1) Deciding the attack
- If the AI's Team Token is "Special Ready," the AI Hero makes the Special Attack on top of its pile. Otherwise, it makes the Primary Attack on top of its Pile.
- Special Attacks are spent as usual. After making its two Specials, the AI Hero can make only Primary Attacks.
- If the AI Hero makes a Primary Attack, put its card underneath the other Primary Attack card in the pile (i.e., it will alternate the attacks).
- If the AI Hero cannot make a Primary attack, it makes a Basic Attack.
- If there will be no valid targets to declare after its Move Action, the AI Hero makes a double move toward its target.
2) Determining the target
- Exclude all targets that cannot be reached, even after moving.
- From those that remain, the AI Hero determines its movement and target according to the following priorities:
- 1st — A target that enables the triggering of its Passive Power. Tanks want to end their turn in [1] of as many enemies as possible.
- 2nd — The target with lowest HP.
- 3rd — Its closest target.
- If still tied, you decide.
- Repeat the process, if it is a multi-target attack.
3) Moving the AI Hero
- After determining its target, the AI Hero moves (before attacking) with the following priorities:
- 1st — Trigger its Passive Power. Tanks want to end their turn in [1] of as many enemies as possible.
- 2nd — Receive the least amount of Reaction Attacks (it may Sidestep).
- 3rd — The path that takes the least amount of Terrain damage.
- 4th — If the attack is melee, choose the shortest path (in movement points spent). If the attack is Ranged, the farthest square from the target (still in Range).
- If still tied, you decide.
4) Applying effects
- AI Heroes behave as follows:
- Maximize, enable, or help the AI apply its Passive Power.
- Move enemies toward their closest Lava square.
- Deal as much damage or healing as possible.
- Prioritize the enemies with highest HP when applying Temporary or Permanent effects.
- For Instantaneous effects against enemies, follow the same priorities of "Determining the Target" step.
- For allies (especially healing effects), target the one with lowest HP.
5) End of turn and match
- After attacking, the AI Hero's turn ends.
- The game proceeds as a usual Team Deathmatch until all heroes in one of the Teams are dead.
Appendix F — Using Expansions
Dragori's expansions can improve your Tanares Adventures experience in one or more of the following ways:
- New heroes (to play quests). Tanares Adventures contains the Hero Cards for most heroes in our universe. These Hero Cards can be used in the City Phase, but you'll need the Attack Cards and Miniatures that come in the expansions to use them in the Journey Phase.
- Specific miniatures (villains and Characters). All villains in Tanares Adventures may be represented by miniatures found in Arena: the Contest and Tanares Adventures (i.e., you'll never be short of miniatures). Whenever there's a chance you might not have the specific miniature that represents a villain, its card indicates which miniatures can be used to best represent it (or Stat Sheet, when it's a Quest Boss, as these don't have a villain card).
- 3D Scenario (Walls, Doors, etc.). Tanares and Arena both come with sufficient tiles to assemble all scenarios in the game. Instead of Tiles, you may place the miniatures found in the Legendary Box and Scenario Pack. Whenever quest instructions refer to "tiles," consider that the rules apply to their miniature versions, too.
- New quests. Five quests in Tanares Adventures are added by the Dragon Collection expansion. The Penumbral Collection comes with the "Time Twist" 7-Quest mini-campaign, to be played under the rules of Tanares Adventures (after you finish its campaign).
- New board "skins". The "Four Game Board Scenarios — Packs I and II" come with "prepainted" and "empty" grids — Use the latter to assemble quests, for better immersion. We recommend the "frozen grounds" skin for "In the Realms of Madness" Epilogue.
Here's a list of the expansions that have been released thus far, and how they complement Tanares Adventures.
- We are suppressing information about content that does not communicate with Tanares Adventures (e.g., the Dragon Collection's "Boss versus Boss" Game Mode).
- We are suppressing information about Arena: the Contest, whose box is not optional (find the components you need to grab from it at the beginning of this rulebook).
Legendary Box
- 16 heroes (Emperor and Harun have Special Combat Roles and cannot be selected).
- Miniatures for monsters (Orc, Walker, Skeleton, Vampire, Ghost Dwarf, Golem).
- 3D Walls / Doors / Levers.
Dragon Collection
- 5 Huge Dragon Bosses.
- 5 sidequests (mini-arc, playable during the campaign).
- Talessa, the Queen of Dragons (Special Hero).
Penumbral Collection
- Includes the Villains, Classes, Characters, Penumbral, and, in some cases, the Mystical Pack.
- 16 heroes.
- Miniatures for Huradrin, Sara, Captain Sedura, and Zalir.
- 7 "Epic Level" quests.
- "Epic Level" villains, including the huge Penumbral Dragon.
- "Epic Level" Attack Cards, Items, and Skills.
Scenario Pack
- Miniatures for Barricades, Portals, Tool Tokens, Fatigue markers, and others.
- New board "skins".
Medusa Pack
- Hero (Lizz).
Dread / Gold Dragon / Elder Dragon Packs
- Each of these packs comes with impressive Boss miniatures for some of the most difficult fights in the game.
Four Game Board Scenarios (2 packs)
- Each pack contains four skins for main board quest scenarios, and preset scenarios for PvP matches.
Appendix G — Rules To Be Unlocked
The following are rules you unlock after reaching a certain point in the Campaign, presented in the order they are most likely to appear.
Relic Sidequests
Throughout your journey, you will find special objects that kick-start a new adventure: the relics. Relics are unique objects that help unveil part of the history of the world, either because they have historic meaning themselves, or because they somehow give access to places where one can learn more about a piece of Tanarean history.
- Adventure Cards that take you to Relic Sidequests are properly identified in their "required" section.
- They often contain difficult, complex, and unique puzzles related to the relic you've found. To win the quest, you will likely need to think more than usual about its rules and instructions.
- If you don't enjoy solving puzzles or complex quests, these are avoidable. Simply play other Adventures.
- You won't necessarily gain "Relic Hunting" Mastery Points when you win these quests: these are usually earned when you perform extraordinary achievements in certain investigations, or in obtaining other special objects and artifacts.
Puzzles
The City Book contains two types of physical and magical recurring challenges that you may face in the Campaign.
- Two types of puzzles in the game are recurring: Lockpick and Elemental.
- The first part of the City Book's Puzzle chapter contains the instructions to solve the puzzles, and the puzzles themselves. Mark in the Log whenever you attempt one, so that you always attempt the first undone puzzle in the list.
- Use cubes to register your solution in the Player Aid.
- For practice, puzzles whose numbers have already been checked may be attempted at any time, but you won't receive any reward for solving them.
- The second part comes with the solutions. They are randomly organized to make it more difficult for you to spoil the solution of a puzzle you haven't yet attempted.
Campaign Perks
These are boons that affect your whole Team in every quest going forward. You gain them when achieving War Point milestones. Their effect is described in the Log, but the whole list is found ahead, for further clarification of your most probable questions.
- When you reach 9, 23, and 42 Points in each specific War category, you get to choose one of two Campaign Perks.
- Perks are cumulative.
- E.g., you may have three Lv. 1 Perks from different War categories.
- E.g., if you unlock the Lv. 3 "Diplomats" Perk, you don't lose that category's lower-level Perks.
- The maximum number of active Perks you may have at any given time is FOUR. If you've gained your fifth Perk, choose one to permanently LOSE (you may choose not to gain — that is, LOSE — this 5th Perk that has just been unlocked). Simply cross the text box of the Perk you decide to lose. This decision is permanent.
Warriors
- Level 1
- War Veterans: +5 initial (not Max) HP. This affects all heroes.
- Side-weapon Training: Equip an extra Level 0 Weapon. This affects all heroes.
- Level 2
- Art of War: Draw 6 cards (instead of 4) in the World Phase. A total of twenty-four Character Cards will be drawn (instead of the usual 16).
- Martial Mastery: Each hero may swap a Lv. 1 Primary Attack for a Lv. 2.
- This ignores the Primary Attack hand limitation of City Structure Cards whenever it determines that one of your four cards must be, at most, a Lv. 1.
- Restrictions other than Level remain (i.e., you may not select a card from another Combat Role).
- Level 3
- Critical Roll: Your natural rolls of 16 or more are Critical Hits.
- The attack still needs to hit for the Critical effect (+5 Attack DMG) to apply. E.g., if a villain has 20 Defense, your attack roll of 16 still misses and doesn't apply Attack DMG.
- Strategic Positioning: Mob applies Vulnerable 4 and Exposed 4 (instead of Exposed 3).
- "Applies" merely means that the Condition exists only against attacks of the heroes that are part of the Mob. This doesn't change other Mob rules.
- Critical Roll: Your natural rolls of 16 or more are Critical Hits.
Spies
- Level 1
- Spiritualists: Start of quest: One hero gains 1 Preserved Token.
- This must be given at any time before the quest's first turn.
- Penumbralists: Start of quest: All villains take 6 DMG (this doesn't activate Guards).
- This doesn't affect villains that are not on the board on the quest's first turn.
- Spiritualists: Start of quest: One hero gains 1 Preserved Token.
- Level 2
- Farmers: When you win a quest, draw 1 extra Loot Card.
- Contrary to many other Perks, this is not "per hero": the Team gains a total of 1 additional card.
- Curers: First Aid Tokens HEAL 45 instead of 30 (use their red side).
- Farmers: When you win a quest, draw 1 extra Loot Card.
- Level 3
- Shamans: Start of Round: Turn owner HEALS 7 if it's in [8] of an active villain.
- Herbalists: Once per Quest: the turn owner HEALS the value of a First Aid, plus 10. That Token may not be spent.
Strategists
- Level 1
- Jacks of All Trades: +5 bonus to all rolls in ability tests.
- This doesn't affect other rolls required in the Journal, only those that are required of heroes in ability tests.
- Adrenaline Surge: +4 attack roll bonus and Empowered 10 in the Quest's first turn.
- This is once per quest.
- Jacks of All Trades: +5 bonus to all rolls in ability tests.
- Level 2
- Seasoned Adventurers: All heroes take -5 DMG whenever an Adventure deals DMG. (Only Journal.)
- This never heals; it only reduces DMG.
- DMG dealt in Quest Chapters do not count, only DMG from sources found in Adventure chapters.
- This may apply several times in the same Journey Phase.
- Mystical Knowledge: +1 max mana cube and start with +1 mana cube from an unused color.
- All heroes benefit from this; unused colors are those from Combat Roles not in your Team.
- Seasoned Adventurers: All heroes take -5 DMG whenever an Adventure deals DMG. (Only Journal.)
- Level 3
- Terrain Expertise: Heroes ignore all Terrain DMG, except Mission Tiles (e.g., Lava, Ice).
Diplomats
- Level 1
- Famous Ale: Immediately lose this Perk and upgrade the Tavern by 1 level, for free.
- Maddening Power: Start of quest: Each hero may charge two Skill Tokens.
- Level 2
- Natural Leader: One hero may have an extra NPC (Week 3 or lower).
- Prosperity: Start of City Phase: each Structure gains 1 mana cube.
- Level 3
- Foresight: Once per Quest: change a natural roll to any number from 1 to 20.
- Well Rested: Heroes not used in the last Journey Phase gain +2 initial mana cubes.
Endgame Fights
Endgame Fights are special quests whose sole purpose is defeating a special villain — one that is so big or powerful that its main characteristic is having four distinct Body Parts.
- To kill an Endgame Boss, you must Maim its four Body Parts.
Quests. Out of the 110 quests released for Tanares Adventures and Time Twist Expansion, only seven are considered Endgame Fights and apply the rules below: quests 93, 94, 95, 96, 103, 107.
- Endgame Bosses have Boss Perks, but they are not to be confused with the regular quest Bosses that appear in most other quests.
Components. In addition to the components found in regular quests, every Boss Fight requires the following components:
- A — Boss Card: contains the Boss's illustration, Stats, and the rewards you gain for Maiming each Body Part. All heroes benefit from this; unused colors are those from Combat Roles not in your Team.
- B — 4x Body Part Cards: contains the color of each Part, their attacks and Special Features. They begin the quest on the "Healthy" side — the other side is "Maimed."
- C — 4x Villain Tokens: matching the color of each Body Part, to track their HP. When the HP of a Body Part drops to zero, flip its card from "Healthy" to "Maimed."
- D — Miniature and Boss Base: place the miniature on the assembled 4x4 base. Some quests use four smaller miniatures, instead (check the quest instructions and Body Part Cards).
Representation of the Body Parts
- There are two types of Endgame Bosses:
- Multiple miniatures: each Body Part is represented by a different miniature.
- (Changed from Arena) One Huge miniature: a single figure concentrates the four Body Parts. This fight requires you to use a special base with four colors, as you must pay attention to the direction the miniature is facing.
Body Parts — Taking Action
- Treat each Body Part as an independent villain: they have their own attacks, HP, and all of them must Fatigue for the Round to end.
- I.e., the Boss attacks 4 times per Round (each with a different Body Part).
- (Changed from Arena) I.e., each Part follows Retaliation, Unprovoked, and Fatigue rules independently (you must choose which Body Part you are targeting).
- All Body Parts have Boss Perks.
Maiming a Body Part
- Each Body Part begins the quest with 140 HP: put their Villain Tokens on their "+70" side.
- (Changed from Arena) As usual, all heroes gain 1 mana cube when one of these Tokens is flipped to its regular side (i.e., you've dealt 70 DMG or more to it).
- When a Villain Token on its regular side drops to zero HP, three things must happen:
- Flip that Body Part's card: it is considered Maimed; and
- Heroes gain 1 mana cube (as when a villain dies); and
- (Changed from Arena) You may apply the rewarding effect described in the Boss Card (each Body Part entails a different effect).
- This effect (applied when a Body Part becomes Maimed) is independent of vision or range.
Fighting against Maimed Body Parts
- Maimed Body Parts still take turns and attack as usual. They don't have HP. Redirect all DMG they would take to the Body Part with highest HP.
- (Changed from Arena) You may apply effects on Maimed Body Parts.
- As soon as the four Body Parts are Maimed, the Boss dies.
One Huge Boss — Special Combat Rules
The following applies for Endgame Fights where the four Body Parts are represented in a single huge miniature.
- Huge Endgame Bosses must use a 4x4 base (each side the color of a Body Part).
- Each side of this base has the color of a Body Part and occupies four squares.
- The Body Part of that color occupies these four squares, only.
Attacking the Boss: Barriers
- Apply Wall rules to the four squares that each Body Part occupies (i.e., combatants cannot move, make Ranged attacks, or apply effects through them).
- Body Parts block vision of the others (i.e., you do not have vision of a color if all you can see of it is the corner it shares with another color).
- Blocked visions (diagram): the only vertex of the Green Body Part that the Shooter can reach is the corner it shares with the Orange Body Part. Therefore, even though the Shooter is only [1] away, it may not target the Green Body Part (only the Orange one).
- (Diagram): the Healer does not have vision of the Tank, as its line of sight crosses the corner of a square occupied by a Barrier. (The only Body Part that the Healer's Ranged attack can target is the Orange one.)
- Vision not blocked (diagram): on the other side of the Boss, the Brute is [1] away, too, but it has vision of multiple squares occupied both by the Blue and by Red Body Parts; therefore, the Brute may attack either.
- Other Body Parts are ignored when checking Favorite Targets. The Blue Part wants to target its farthest hero. Even though the Tank is [2] away from the miniature, the hero that is most distant to the Blue Body Part is the Shooter, who is 3 squares away from its closest blue square. The Boss will rotate 90º clockwise and attack the Shooter (since it's a Ranged Attack, it will incite a Reaction from the Healer or the Shooter) (see next section for rotation rules).
- Effects that allow heroes to move through enemies. You may only move through squares occupied by Body Parts; NEVER through the four squares in-between them (painted white in the example).
- Attacks in area; BLAST. Since they only require vision of the Central Square, sometimes they may deal DMG to Body Parts not in your vision.
Turning and Moving the Boss — Priorities
- Since they're all in one miniature, all Body Parts move together.
- Always move the Boss as little as needed to attack its Favorite Target.
- As soon as the Boss can reach its target, it stops moving.
- The Boss can spin on its axis. This happens AFTER the Boss ends its move, and ONLY IF:
- This is necessary to attain vision of its target; AND/OR
- (Changed from Arena) This enables the Boss to attack its target with fewer moves.
- Effects that move enemies. They apply as usual and move the Boss as a whole. Hero effects can NEVER rotate the miniature.
- No room for the Boss to end its movement. If there is no other position from which to attack its Favorite Target, the Boss checks the next Favorite in line.
- No targets are reachable. The Body Part Dark Surges, like any other villain.
- Other Body Parts may incite your Reaction. When a part moves you may deal Reaction DMG to any Body Part you can see and that is in [1] of you when the whole body moved (once per turn of a Body Part).
- Rotation does not incite Reactions. Spinning on one's own axis is not considered "moving."
- The Boss may Sidestep. It follows all other rules that apply to regular villains.
- Diagram notes: if the Favorite Target for the Red Part's melee attack is the Tactician, the Boss prefers to rotate 90º clockwise (so that the Wall no longer blocks its vision) instead of moving 1 square to the right. If its Favorite Target is the Shooter, the Boss prefers to rotate 180º and move 1, instead of rotating 90º and move 2 (or don't rotate at all and move several squares down).
Appendix H — One-Shot Quests
Perhaps you've played the Campaign, already, or you're curious about a particular scenario. If you want to pick and play any specific quest (outside of the context of a Campaign), browse all Quest Cards in the game, assemble a Team with four heroes, and apply the following table of modifiers, to assure that they are sufficiently equipped to deal with its difficulties.
Reading the "One-Shot Game Mode" section of a Quest Card
- Mission Briefing: A brief description of the challenge expected on the board.
- Special Challenge: Recommended for experts who have already finished the campaign, this especially difficult challenge will test your teambuilding and gameplaying abilities to the maximum.
- "Going Infinite": Read this Section of the Journal if you have completed the campaign and wish to replay quests with your heroes (or play those that you didn't get to experience in your first play-through).
Note: not all Quests in the game have a Quest Card. These may be difficult to play in this Game Mode because they rely too heavily in aspects of the Campaign. Still, you may browse the Quest Guide (instead of Quest Cards) to see if there's any that you want to experience. Just beware of spoilers!
Modifiers to apply
- The following must be applied or given to ALL heroes in your Team.
- The final instruction of most quests' "Initial Setup" tells you to head to a Section of the Journal. You'll find any additional instructions for this Game Mode there (such as "choose a hero to carry a Torch Token").
- After NPCs are drawn, heroes may swap them among themselves.
Increasing your difficulty. If you want to challenge yourself, you may consider as if you were at a higher line of the table, or one (or more) Kemet Hunt levels higher.
Modifiers table
| Quest number | Weapon and Armor (max. Level) | NPCs (max. Week) | Primary Attacks (Lv. 0/1/2/3) | Improved First Aid (45) | Skill Tokens (Lv. 1/2/3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01-02 | Lv. 0 (chosen) | - | 4/0/0/0 | no | 4/0/0 |
| 03-16; 95 | Lv. 0 (chosen) | 1 (random) | 2/2/0/0 | no | 3/1/0 |
| 17-31; 96 | Lv. 1 (random) | 2 (random) | 1/3/0/0 | no | 2/2/0 |
| 32-45; 97 | Lv. 1 (chosen) | 3 (random) | 1/2/1/0 | yes |