Blades of Legend Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Materials
• Setup
• Turns
• Ready / Unready
• Master Turns
• Wielder Turns
• Duels
  • Ties
• Spoils
• Liberate
• Endanger
• Etiquette
• Other Notes
• Collector Variant for Odd-sized Groups
  • Changes when playing with the Collector
  • Reveal the Collector Crest
• Collector Victory
• Collector Turn
• Dueling the Collector
• Collector Wins a Duel
• Collector Loses a Duel

Overview

Players: 6-11. Play Time: 30-60 minutes. Weight: Heavy. Genre: Epic Fantasy. Game Type: Secret Teams.

There are two kinds of players, Masters and Wielders. Masters are batteries who supply Wielders with power, while Wielders fight one another and hopefully do the bidding of the Masters that empower them. The Master is surrounded by Seals, two of which are vulnerable, and the rest of which belong to his Wielders. A team wants to protect its Master's Seals, and destroy its Wielders' Seals.

Wielders accumulate power, which they place onto Seals during the game. If a Seal has 7 power on it, it shatters. What happens next depends on whether a Master or a Wielder owns the Crest linked to that Seal.

When a Master's Seal is destroyed, the Master becomes endangered. When both of the Master's Seals are destroyed, that Master's team loses.

When a Wielder's Seal is destroyed, the Wielder tied to that Seal becomes liberated. Liberated Wielders are much more capable than normal, and receive a huge surge of power when their Seals are destroyed. If all of a team's Wielders become Liberated, that team wins the game.

There are two ways to win: destroy the Seals of all Wielders on your own team, or destroy the two Seals of the Master on the opposing team.

Materials

• 26 Blades Cards
• 13 Crest Cards (with a Wielder reference on the back)
• 12 Seal Cards (with a Seal Break on the back)
• 2 Master / Duel Reference Cards
• 1 Collector / Setup Reference Card
• Power Tokens (it is ideal to have both ones and fives)

Crests and Seals look the same on the front. Seal Cards have Seal Break backs, while Crest cards have a Reference.

Blades have a Normal (Blue-colored) and Liberated (Peach-colored) side. They begin with their normal side up.

Setup

Initial Game Setup (8-player game shown). The diagram labels the Master Setup (2 face-down crests, one from each array, and 1 power token per player, half this much for the second Master), the Wielder Setup (Normal Weapon unreadied, face-down crest, 3 power tokens), the Supply of Power (Unlimited), the Weapon Stack, and the Master Seal Array. Play starts with the Wielder to the left of the Master with more power.

1. Choose two players to act as the Masters.
2. The rest of the players sit so that there are an equal number of players between each Master (if your game has an odd number of players, see the Collector rules).
3. Choose a number of Seals equal to the number of players plus 2, and grab all of the corresponding Crest cards. Extra Seal and Crest cards will not be used.
4. Deal an equal number of Seals face-up to each Master. Arrange these in front of the Master so all are clearly visible.
5. Divide the Crests into piles, matching the face-up arrays, then shuffle each pile separately.
6. Give each Master one of the Crests from his opponent's pile, face-down, and one of the Crests from his own pile, face-down. These Crests that the Masters hold mark vulnerable Seals. The Seal from his own array that a Master holds is one of his own vulnerable Crests, and the Seal he holds from his opponent's array is one of that opponent's vulnerable Crests.
7. Shuffle the rest of the Crests together and deal one face-down to each Wielder. The Crests are kept secret. If a Wielder's Seal is in front of a particular Master, it means that he is allied with that Master. Destroying this Seal will liberate him and give him additional power. A Wielder will know from his Crest which team he is a part of, but no one else, including his own Master, will know this information.
8. Shuffle the Blades together and deal one to each Wielder face-up (the blue/normal side showing). Set the rest aside in a Weapon Stack in the center of the table. The top card of the Weapon Stack is visible to all players.
9. One Master takes 1 power token for each player in the game, and the other Master takes half this many tokens. Give each Wielder 3 power. Play begins to the left of the Master with more power, and moves clockwise.
10. Starting with this player and moving left, each Wielder reads his Blade's power aloud, so it is known what capabilities he has. All blades begin unreadied (turned 90 degrees on their side).

Turns

Turns move clockwise around the table until one team or the other wins the game.

Ready / Unready

Weapon powers and Strikes can only be used when your weapon is Readied. Weapons begin the game unreadied, but can be readied by various actions (Channel, Draw, and Duel). Turn a weapon 90 degrees on its side to show that it is unready, or straight up to show that it is ready.

Unready and Ready weapon cards.

Master Turns

Master turns are simple. A Master must get rid of all power tokens he holds by giving them away to Wielders, dividing them up however he wishes. Once he no longer has any power, the Master gains 1 power for each player in the game.

Between this distribution of power and influencing duels, Masters have no direct capability, and must rely on their Wielders to do their bidding. Don't be afraid to tell your Wielders what you expect them to do in exchange for the power you offer!

Wielder Turns

On a Wielder's turn, that Wielder must first gain 1 power from the supply, placing it into his pool, then take 1 power from the supply, and place it onto any Seal other than his own.

After doing this, he chooses one of five actions to commit:

• Channel - Place 1 power from your reserves onto any Seal that you wish. You can repeat this as many times as you like, choosing a different Seal each time. You cannot channel onto your own Seal! After channeling, ready your weapon.
• Draw - Take 1 power from up to three different Seals. After drawing, ready your weapon.
• Duel - Choose another player and initiate a duel with that player (explained in more detail next).
• Wield - If your weapon is ready, use your weapon's ability by paying its power cost (the number in the top left circle) to the supply, then unready it.
• Strike - If your weapon is ready and you have 3 or more power, pick any Seal other than your own, and declare that you are initiating a strike on that Seal. Pay 3 power to the supply. Starting with you and moving clockwise, every player may choose to place 1 power from his pool onto the Seal you chose, or to pass (this includes Masters as well). After the Strike, unready your weapon.

Duels

Wielders can issue duels to other Wielders only. When a duel is issued, the attacker, the defender, and both Masters secretly bid any amount of power from their pools. These players put the amount of power they wish to bid in closed fists. Then the Master who is next in the turn order declares which side he is supporting. The opposite Master automatically supports the other side. All power is pooled together, and the winning side is the one with the largest pool.

Diagram: The two Wielders in the duel, as well as the two Masters, each make a secret bid of power. The Master whose turn is coming up next will decide who he supports, and the other Master automatically supports the other side.

All power bid by the losing side is lost and returned to the supply. The power of the winning side is combined and then divided in half (if the amount is odd, put 1 power back into the supply to make an even split). Give half of the power to the losing Master, and half to the losing Wielder. The losing Wielder unreadies his weapon.

The winning Wielder readies his weapon. The winning Master must now choose a spoil to give to the winning Wielder from those below.

Diagram: beside the Master and Wielder cards are the multipliers x3, x0 and x5.

Ties

In a tie, the duel ends in a draw. Everyone reclaims their bid power, and both Wielders ready their weapons.

Spoils

After a duel, the winning Master grants one of these bonuses to the winning Wielder.

• Spy - The winning Wielder may look at the losing Wielder's Crest.
• Strike - The winning Wielder must choose a Crest other than his own and initiate a strike. He does not have to pay the 3 power normally required to begin the strike. He unreadies his weapon after doing this, as normal.
• Wield - The winning Wielder may immediately use his weapon's power without paying its cost. He unreadies this weapon after doing this, as normal.

Liberate

When a Wielder's Seal has 7 power on it, it is destroyed. He must reveal his Crest to all players. He takes all the power from the destroyed Seal into his own pool, then flips the destroyed Seal face-down, to show that it is broken. He also flips his weapon card over to its liberated side. The new Liberated power replaces his normal power, and he is unable to flip it back.

A liberated Wielder's weapon immediately readies when his Seal breaks. Also, his weapon readies at the end of each turn, regardless of which action he takes (so he can Strike or Wield every turn, unless he loses a duel).

Endanger

When a Master's Seal has 7 power on it, then that Seal is destroyed and the Master becomes endangered. He takes all power from the Seal card into his own pool, and then flips the Seal face-down to show that it is broken. When his turn begins, he now gains additional power equal to half the players in the game, rounded up (so in a 10 player game, for example, he would gain 15 power instead of the normal 10).

Etiquette

You can say anything–feel free to announce your crest, or to lie. It is fine to claim anything you wish, but you are not allowed to show a crest to another player except by a game effect. This means that you can freely announce 'I am Yellow', but it is forbidden to actually show off the Yellow Crest Card.

Whispering to other players or passing notes is forbidden. Anything you say or any information you exchange must be done publicly.

Other Notes

The supply of power is considered to be an infinite supply. If you run out, bring in more tokens to represent the additional power in larger amounts.

Whenever blades are destroyed or removed from play for any reason, they go onto the bottom of the Weapon Stack, with their normal side face-up.

Collector Variant for Odd-sized Groups

In a game with an odd number of players, one player will be the Collector. Playing as the Collector is complex, but adds a fun new dynamic to the game. It is recommended you do not introduce the Collector unless every player is familiar with the basic game.

Changes when playing with the Collector

Shuffle the Collector Crest into the Crests after you deal each Master his two Crests (step 7 in setup). The Wielder who receives this Crest is secretly the Collector. Until he chooses to reveal the Collector Crest, he acts as a Wielder, taking normal Wielder turns, and receiving power from Masters.

When counting the number of players for the purpose of determining how much power Masters receive on their turns, round down, as though there were no Collector.

Reveal the Collector Crest

The Collector can reveal his Crest at any time. When he does, his weapon immediately becomes liberated, and he gains 7 power from the supply.

The Collector is a unified Master-Wielder team all in one individual. Each turn, the Collector gains a new weapon. The Collector's weapons act like Wielders under his control–they can each follow a strike, they can participate in duels individually, and they each receive a turn. Left unchecked, the Collector can become unstoppable.

The Collector and all of his weapons share a single power pool. The Collector's power cannot be stolen or discarded by weapons like Arcturus and Nephilim.

Collector Victory

The Collector wins when more than half of the other Wielders in the game are liberated. If liberating a Wielder would cause both the Collector and a Master-Wielder team to win, the Collector wins instead. (For the Collector to win a [7, 9, 11] player game, then [3, 4, 5] Wielders other than the Collector must be liberated). It is possible for the Collector to win without revealing his Crest. Revealing early means you will be able to accumulate more weapons.

Collector Turn

On the Collector's Turn, he takes the following steps:

1. The Collector takes the top card from the Weapon Stack and adds it to his Collection. It is liberated as it comes into play.
2. Each of his weapons takes a Wielder turn, following all the normal steps for a Wielder turn. The Collector's weapons cannot duel with one another.
3. The Collector gains power equal to the number of players, then ends his turn. Unlike a Master, the Collector does not need to distribute power, and can hoard as much as he wishes.

Dueling the Collector

When dueling the Collector after his Crest is revealed, things work a little differently than normal.

Each of the Collector's weapons is considered a different Wielder, so you must choose an individual weapon that you wish to duel with when declaring the duel. The Collector contributes his own power in a duel as a Wielder, and both Masters and the opposing Wielder bid as normal.

After all bids are made, the Collector decides which Master supports which side.

Collector Wins a Duel

When the Collector wins a duel, he decides his own spoils.

Collector Loses a Duel

When the Collector loses a duel, all power from the winning side is given to him (he does not divide it with the Master who supported him) the weapon he owned that participated in the duel is destroyed and placed on the bottom of the Weapon Stack. If the last of the Collector's weapons is destroyed, the Master who won that duel immediately wins the game, along with the rest of his team.