Avatar: The Last Airbender – Fire Nation Rising Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Key Concepts
  • Heroes and Teams
  • Missions and Locations
  • Building a Dice Pool
  • Phases
• Components
• Set Up
  • Balance Track and Ruin Track
  • Card Anatomy
• Solo Set Up
• Game Play
  • 1. Place Team Token
  • 2. Reveal and Resolve a Fire Nation Card
  • 3. Roll and Assign Hero Dice
    • Dice Symbols
  • 4. Resolve Hero Dice
  • 5. Conclude Turn
• Day of Black Sun
• End of the Game
• Additional Rules
  • Damage
  • Heroes and Hero Abilities
    • Hero Card Anatomy
  • Villains
    • Villain Card Anatomy
  • Pai Sho Tokens
• Game Play Difficulty Variants
  • For an easier game, try one or more of the following changes:
  • For a more challenging game try one or more of the following changes:
• Legend
  • Pai Sho Tiles
  • Dice Facings
  • Villain Card Icons

Key Concepts

Heroes and Teams

Each player controls one Team of Heroes (or 2 or more Teams in a solo game). A Team consists of all undefeated Hero cards that a player has recruited and placed in front of them.

A Team must be arranged in a single row. New Heroes may be added at either end of this row, but never in the middle. If a Hero on a Team is defeated it is removed from play and the line of Heroes slides together to close the gap. Players may not rearrange the order of their Hero cards without using an ability to do so. This is important for characters with abilities related to adjacent Heroes, meaning the Hero immediately to the left or right of their card.

Missions and Locations

On their turn, each player will send their Team on a mission to one of three locations. Each location contains 3 Character cards (Heroes and/or Villains). After the Day of Black Sun has been triggered, a Final Battle card is also added to each location.

Building a Dice Pool

On their turn, each player will gather a pool of dice as shown on their Team card. Hero abilities can increase this dice pool.

Symbols on rolled dice may be assigned to cards with matching symbols to recruit Heroes, Damage Villains, advance the Balance Track and activate abilities.

Phases

Fire Nation Rising has 2 main Phases.

• Phase 1: Preparation - Players will recruit new Heroes and fight Villains. They will also need to advance their position on the Balance Track, representing their preparation for The Day of Black Sun. The Day of Black Sun occurs when either the Heroes reach the top of the Balance Track or the Villains reach the top of the Ruin Track. The side that reached the top of the track and finished their preparations first will gain a significant advantage in Phase 2.
• Phase 2: Final Battles - Remove the Balance and Ruin Tracks from play. Add one Final Battle card to each location. Players will continue recruiting Heroes and fighting Villains and must also take on the three Final Battles. They must complete all three Battles to win the game.

Components

• 53 Character Cards — 40 Heroes and 13 Villains
• 5 Team Cards
• 3 Final Battle Cards
• 15 Fire Nation Cards
• 5 Team Tokens
• 16 Hero Dice (5 Green, 4 Blue, 4 Red, 3 Yellow)
• 1 Map Board with three locations
• 5 Double-sided Balance Track Cards
• 1 Ruin Track Card
• 30 Pai Sho Tokens
• 1 Balance Track Marker
• 1 Ruin Track Marker
• 60 Damage Counters
• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Fire Nation Figure, a Statue of Fire Lord Ozai, representing the Fire Nation

Set Up

1. Place the dice, the Damage counters and the Pai Sho tokens (shuffled and facedown) within easy reach of all players.

   Note: Dice are shared amongst all players.

2. Assemble and place the 9-sided Map board between the players. Randomly place the Ozai figure in the center of the Map board facing one of the three locations.

3. Place the Ruin Track card near the Map board. Select a difficulty level of easy, medium or hard. Choose a Balance Track card of that difficulty and place it to the left of the Ruin Track card. Put the track markers on the bottom space of both the Ruin and Balance Tracks.

4. Shuffle the Fire Nation cards and place them face down near the Map board.

5. Each player chooses a Team card and collects the matching Team token. The card indicates that player's starting dice pool as well as the starting Hero. Each player collects their Starting Hero card from the Character deck.

   In a 4 or 5 player game, each player also collects the starting ally Hero card indicated on their Team card.

6. Separate the Villain cards from the Character deck and shuffle them. As a group select a difficulty level. For a beginner game, add 10 Villain cards to the Character deck and place the rest into the box. For a more challenging experience add more Villain cards to the character deck, all the way up to 13 for expert level!

7. The Character Card deck will now contain any Starting Heroes that were not selected by a player, 10-13 Villains and all other Hero cards. Shuffle this deck and place it near the Map board. From this deck, place 1 card next to each of the 9 sides of the Map board.

Balance Track and Ruin Track

• Difficulty is shown by the red symbols on the Balance Track card: one symbol = Easy, two symbols = Medium, three symbols = Hard.
• The Balance Track's top space is the Day of the Black Sun. The banner above it reads "Assign 2 Damage to Villains." and the space below it is marked "3+ Defeated Villains" — you must defeat 3 total Villains Advancing to the Day of the Black Sun.
• Each space of the Balance Track shows the Cost to Advance the Balance Tracker, and some spaces carry a bonus or penalty, for example "Recruit an Air Hero", "Recruit a Fire Hero", "Recruit a Water Hero", or "Remove 1 die from your pool at the start of your turn."
• The Ruin Track's top space is also the Day of the Black Sun. The Ruin Tracker marker starts on the bottom space.

Card Anatomy

Villain Card: shows the direction Ozai turns (a rotation arrow) and the number of spaces the Ruin Tracker is advanced (for example, "Ruin 2").

Final Battle Card Front: shows the Card Title, the Damage Capacity, and the Cost to Damage.

Final Battle Card Back: shows the Card Title and the Reward for Defeating.

Team Card: shows the Hero Type, the Player Count, the Team Leader, the Team Ally (4+ Players Only), the Starting Dice Pool, and the Team Hero Abilities.

Character Card: shows the Hero Type, the Card Name, the Cost, the Hero Ability, and the Damage Capacity.

Team Token: Your Team token represents your Affiliation. You place this token on a Location at the start of your turn.

Solo Set Up

Fire Nation Rising can be played as a solo experience. In order to take on the Fire Nation alone, select two Teams, as you would in a 2-player game. Alternate turns between the two separate Teams, following the rules as normal. Experienced solo players can play with 3, 4, or even 5 Teams if they wish.

Game Play

The player who most recently watched Avatar: The Last Airbender goes first and play proceeds clockwise. On a player's turn, they progress through the following phases:

1. Place Team token.
2. Reveal and Resolve Fire Nation card.
3. Roll and assign Hero dice.
4. Resolve Hero dice.
5. Conclude Turn.

The five Team tokens are Team Aang (Air), Team Katara (Water), Team Sokka (Water), Team Toph (Earth) and Team Zuko (Fire).

1. Place Team Token

Choose a location for the mission by placing your Team token in one of the three locations on the Map board. All Heroes on your Team are now considered to be in that location. On your turn you can only interact with the three faceup Hero and/or Villain cards at this location and the Heroes on your team, unless an ability says otherwise.

After the Day of Black Sun event occurs, you may also interact with the Final Battle card in your location.

2. Reveal and Resolve a Fire Nation Card

The Fire Nation cards determine where the Villains will attack each turn, and how much their actions disrupt the Balance between the elements. Each card shows a direction and a number from 0-2. If the deck is ever depleted, shuffle all of the discarded Fire Nation cards and form a new draw pile. Cards are resolved as follows:

a. Advance the Ruin marker up the Ruin Track, 0, 1, or 2 spaces as shown on the card. b. Rotate the Fire Nation figure as shown on the card: Left (counterclockwise), Right (clockwise), or leave it in the same location if the card has the Ozai icon. c. The Fire Nation then attacks the Heroes in the location it is facing, adding a Damage counter to each of them (see Damage). This includes all Heroes your Team if your Team token is in that location. d. All Villains in the Fire Nation's location will then activate their abilities (see Villains). e. Some Heroes have abilities that activate on the active player's turn when they or an adjacent Hero take Damage – the active player should be sure to resolve these abilities during this phase. These abilities may only be used once per turn, regardless of the amount of Damage taken. f. If the Day of Black Sun occurred on a previous turn, the Fire Nation also activates the Final Battle ability in its location.

The Fire Nation card faces are: Turn Ozai Counterclockwise (Ruin 0), Turn Ozai Clockwise (Ruin 1), and Ozai Stays (Ruin 2).

3. Roll and Assign Hero Dice

Collect the four dice shown on your Team Ability card plus any extra dice earned from Hero abilities and/or spent Pai Sho tokens. Players may share Pai Sho tokens with each other for use during this phase (see Pai Sho Tokens).

Note: Dice are limited to what is provided in the game. If a player already has all the dice of one color and an ability would grant them another die of that color, then the ability is ignored.

Roll all of your unassigned dice. After each roll, you must either assign one or more dice to card(s) or discard one die from your pool. If there are any dice remaining in the pool you may roll again.

You may assign as many dice from a single roll as you would like and may assign them to more than one card in your location and/or Team. When assigning dice, color does not matter, only the symbol shown on the die. Once dice are assigned to a card they cannot be moved.

Tip: When deciding which dice to assign and which dice to keep in your pool, consider the ratio of symbols on those dice and which symbols you need to complete cards.

Dice may be assigned to match the symbols on:

a. Character cards: When dice have been assigned to match all symbols for a character, that character is either successfully recruited (in the case of Heroes) or Damaged (in the case of Villains) at the end of the turn. b. Hero Abilities and Team cards: Hero and Team card abilities may only be activated ONCE per turn. You may only activate the abilities of Heroes on your own Team. Hero abilities without a symbol cost may be activated at any time during this step of the turn. Abilities with a cost are activated immediately after the required dice are assigned! c. Balance Track: You may advance the Balance token a maximum of one space per turn by paying the cost shown in the next space above the Balance token on the track. This represents the Heroes preparing for the Day of Black Sun. These costs include assigning dice with the required symbol(s), damaging a Villain, discarding Pai Sho tokens, removing dice from your pool, and recruiting specific Hero types. d. Final Battles: Dice may only be assigned to a Final Battle if there are no Villain cards in that location. Similar to attacking a Villain, when dice have been assigned to match all symbols for a Final Battle, add one Damage token to it at the end of the turn.

Dice Symbols

The Hero dice have different combinations of symbols. These symbols represent: Avatar, Water, Earth, and Fire.

Each of the dice colors is stronger in one of the symbols, including a double symbol (2) which counts as 2 of that symbol. (See the Legend for a list of Hero Dice face combinations.)

A player may use a x2 symbol to overpay for a card but cannot split the symbol between two different cards.

4. Resolve Hero Dice

Resolution of dice begins after you have used or forfeit all of your dice. Dice are resolved in the following order:

a. Recruit Heroes b. Add Damage to Villains c. Advance the Balance track (maximum one space) d. Add Damage to Final Battles

Remember: Team and Hero abilities were resolved immediately when dice were assigned in the previous phase.

a. Recruit Heroes: A Hero is successfully recruited if dice were assigned to match ALL of their symbols. Recruited Heroes are added to the active player's team. Remove all Damage counters on them. Remember: Heroes on a Team must be arranged in a single horizontal row, and new Heroes must be added to either end of this row. b. Add Damage to Villains: A Villain is successfully attacked if dice were assigned dice to match all their symbols. Add a Damage counter for each complete set of matching symbols. You gain one Pai Sho token for each Damage counter added (see Villains and Damage). You also earn a Pai Sho token if you use an ability to move a Damage counter from one Villain to another or from a Hero to a Villain. c. Advance the Balance Track: If you met the requirement of the next space on the Balance Track, move the marker up 1 space. If either the Ruin or Balance marker reached the top track space this turn proceed to "Day of Black Sun", otherwise continue on with concluding the turn. d. Add Damage to Final Battles: A Final Battle card is successfully attacked if dice were assigned to match all of its symbols. Add a Damage counter to it for each complete set of matching symbols. You gain a Pai Sho token for each Damage counter added.

Aid from the Spirits: If after all your dice rolls you were not able to do any of the above actions or activate a Hero ability, you may draw 1 Pai Sho token. You may not choose this option if your dice roll would allow you to complete any of the other options.

5. Conclude Turn

• All dice are returned to the pool, unless an ability allows them to remain on a card.
• Remove your Team token from the Map board.
• Any Villains or Final Battles with full Damage are placed in a discard area (see Damage).
• Any Heroes with full damage are placed in a seperate discard pile (see Damage and End Game for more details).
• All open spaces around the Map board are filled with the cards from the Character deck.
• Play proceeds clockwise to the next player.

Day of Black Sun

If either the Ruin or Balance marker reaches the top track space, the Day of Black Sun has arrived at the end of the current player's turn. The Day of Black Sun event occurs only once per game and marks a change in the way some parts of the game are played.

1. Either the Balance Track or Ruin Track reaches the top this turn.

   1a. If the Balance Track or both Tracks reached the top this turn:

   Remove all Villains with the crescent moon Icon from play. If a Villain with the crescent moon Icon is revealed from this point forward, discard it immediately.

   OR

   1b. If the Ruin Track reached the top this turn:

   Remove all Heroes with the crescent moon icon from Locations and Teams. If a Hero with the crescent moon icon is revealed from this point forward discard it immediately.

   These Heroes are considered defeated and count towards the total number of defeated Heroes (see End of the Game).

2. Remove the Balance and Ruin Track and markers from play. These tracks are not used for the remainder of the game.

3. Place one Final Battle card in each of the three Locations. This card is added to the 3 Character cards in that location.

   You must complete the 3 Final Battles to win the game. A player can assign dice to a Final Battle on your turn if you are in its location AND there are no Villain cards there.

Important: defeated Villain cards are not removed until the end of the turn.

Tip: Aang's Team card ability can be used to move Villains out of a location by switching them with a Hero from another location. This can clear the way to complete Final Battles.

After resolving the Day of Black Sun, play continues as before, with the following changes:

The Ruin maker is no longer advanced when resolving Fire Nation cards.

The Fire Nation Figure will activate the ability of the Final Battle card in the location it is facing. (See Reveal and Resolve a Fire Nation Card for more details).

It takes 2 Damage to complete a Final Battle. After completing a Final Battle turn it over and immediately gain the reward on the back before removing the card from play.

See the following sections for more details on Heroes, Damage, Villains, Final Battles and Pai Sho tokens.

End of the Game

If the players can complete the three Final Battles before the Fire Nation carries out their plans, they will win!

Players can lose the game in a few different ways, as follows:

• If ten (or more) Heroes are defeated, all players lose, as they have taken too many losses to successfully mount a coordinated attack on the Fire Nation.
• If all the Heroes on any one Team are defeated, all players lose.

Note: If players were to both win and lose the game at the same time (for example: the 3rd Final Battle is completed AND a 10th Hero is defeated on the same turn) the players win!

Additional Rules

Damage

Each Hero and Villain has a specified amount of Damage they can have before being defeated, as indicated by the spaces on the top right side of their card. Damage cannot be added in excess of this amount. If a Hero's Damage spaces are full, it can not take additional Damage from attacks or activate abilities that require taking Damage.

Some abilities allow players to heal Heroes by removing Damage counters. This may require assigning a die to activate the ability.

Heroes and Hero Abilities

• Some abilities add additional dice to a player's dice pool. Others allow a player to change the value of a die or re-roll dice before assigning dice. Additionally, some Heroes may be able to draw Pai Sho tokens, or remove Damage counters. Note that some character abilities require a player to assign a specific symbol from their dice pool to use the ability. These are resolved immediately when the matching dice are assigned.
• Some abilities allow a player to reroll dice. Once per turn, after any roll, the player may use this ability to reroll some or all of the dice that were just rolled before deciding how to assign dice from that roll.
• Hero abilities that allow a player to change a certain symbol to a different die face may be used to change both the single and double version of that symbol to any other face available on that die, including changing a single symbol to a double version of the same symbol.
• Some Hero abilities refer to adjacent Heroes. These are the Hero cards immediately to the left and right of that Hero when it is on a player's Team.
• Some abilities activate when a Hero or an adjacent Hero is Damaged. These activate only when the Hero is on the active player's Team, and only once per turn. Be sure to resolve these when resolving Damage from the Fire Nation figure, Villain cards or Final Battles.
• Yue has a special ability that allows a player to draw a Pai Sho token for advancing the Balance Track. Heroes are recruited before the Balance track is advanced, which means her ability can be activated on the turn she is recruited.

Hero Card Anatomy

a. Hero type – this icon indicates the Hero's affiliation – and is important to note for resolving some Hero abilities, Villain attacks and Balance Track spaces. b. Damage Capacity spaces – this indicates how many Damage counters a Hero can have before being defeated (see Damage). c. Recruit symbols – this is the required combination of symbols that have to be rolled and assigned to the card to recruit the Hero and add it to a player's team. d. Hero ability - All Heroes have a special ability listed on their card. These abilities may only be used once per turn after a Hero is added to a player's Team. It may be helpful to turn these cards sideways to keep track of when they have been used. Return them to the upright position at the end of the turn.

Villains

All Villains have a special ability listed on their card. These abilities are activated on each turn where the Fire Nation figure is facing the Villain card's location.

• Some Villain abilities target the most or least Damaged Hero(es) on a Team or Teams. These effects are triggered based on the number of Damage counters on cards, regardless of each Hero's Damage capacity. If there is a tie, including a tie at zero Damage, all tied Heroes are affected.
• Ty Lee prevents players from gaining or using Pai Sho tokens. Players may still discard Pai Sho tokens to advance the Balance Track.

Villain Card Anatomy

a. Villain icon – this icon indicates the card is a Villain. b. Damage Capacity spaces – this indicates how many Damage counters a Villain can have before being defeated (see Damage). c. Damage symbols – this is the required combination of symbols that have to be rolled and assigned to the card to add 1 damage to the Villain. d. Villain ability - All Villains have a special ability listed on their card. These abilities are triggered when Ozai is facing the same location as the Villain card.

Pai Sho Tokens

Pai Sho tokens have a variety of effects and may be used only during the Roll and Assign Hero Dice phase of ANY player's turn including on the turn on which they are drawn. Players can use any number of earned tokens and can assist one another by sharing tokens! Players should keep tokens they earned in front of their Team card. This is important for resolving some effects, including the Pirate Captain Villain card.

A player can wait until after rolling and assigning dice before deciding if, and how, to use Pai Sho tokens. Once used, Pai Sho tokens are discarded face up. If the supply is depleted, turn all discarded Pai Sho tokens face down and shuffle them to create a new draw pile.

See the Legend for a list of all Pai Sho token abilities.

Game Play Difficulty Variants

As described in the End of the Game section there are two ways that players lose the game: ten or more Heroes are defeated, OR any one player has all the Heroes on their team defeated.

For an easier game, try one or more of the following changes:

Randomly remove some of 13 Villain cards from the Character deck during set-up. For your first game, we recommend removing 3 Villains. If this is too difficult, you may remove more.

Select an Easy Balance Track card during set-up.

Reduce the Damage needed to complete a Final Battle to 1 for some or all of the Final Battles

Increase the number of Heroes that can be defeated to more than 10. Try 12 to start.

For a more challenging game try one or more of the following changes:

Remove only 1 or none of the 13 Villain cards from the Character deck during set-up.

Select a medium or hard Balance Track card during set-up.

Increase the Damage needed to complete a Final Battle to 3 for some or all of the Final Battles.

Reduce the number of Heroes that can be defeated to less than 10. Try 9 to start and slowly decrease the number if you want an even more challenging game.

Legend

Pai Sho Tiles

Tile	Effect
Earth	Add 1 Extra Earth
Water	Add 1 Extra Water
Fire	Add 1 Extra Fire
Avatar	Add 1 Extra Avatar
Red die	Add 1 Red Die
Blue die	Add 1 Blue Die
Green die	Add 1 Green Die
Move Ruin Token back 1 space	Move Ruin Track back 1
-1 Damage from 2 Heroes	Remove a DAMAGE from two Heroes
-2 Damage from 1 Hero	Remove two DAMAGE from one Hero
Reroll all unassigned dice	Reroll all dice that have not been assigned
Pai Sho Tile Back	(reverse side)

Dice Facings

Die	Faces
Yellow (Avatar)	Avatar x2, Avatar, Avatar, Earth, Water, Fire
Blue (Water)	Water x2, Water, Water, Avatar, Earth, Fire
Green (Earth)	Earth x2, Earth, Earth, Avatar, Water, Fire
Red (Fire)	Fire x2, Fire, Fire, Avatar, Earth, Water

Villain Card Icons

• Clockwise arrow (Ruin 1): Ozai rotates clockwise one location, and attacks all Heroes in that Location including each Hero on your team IF your Team token is in the resulting Location.
• Counter-clockwise arrow (Ruin 0): Ozai rotates counter-clockwise one location, and attacks all Heroes in that Location including each Hero on your team IF your Team token is in the resulting Location.
• Fire Nation icon (Ruin 2): Ozai remains in the current Location, and will attack Heroes and trigger Villain abilities there.

Based on the Rising game mechanic previously created by The Op, USAopoly.