Blight Chronicles: Agent Decker

Blight Chronicles: Agent Decker Rulebook

Table of Contents

Game Overview

A full game of Blight Chronicles: Agent Decker represents a single mission. Each mission is divided into several stages, each of which is played out as a mini-game. During a stage, you will play cards from your hand to remove obstacle cards through elimination or knockout. Cards that you eliminate become part of your deck, giving you access to better cards as the game progresses. Every time your deck is empty, you reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck and continue playing.

The stages of a mission create a non-linear storyline, offering you choices of which stage to do next. For example, after stage 1, you get the choice to go to either stage 2A or 2B. You do not have to play all stages of a mission in one sitting; you can 'save the game' between stages.

Components

1 Game board
17 Agent cards
130 Obstacle cards
15 Stage cards
1 Mission card
1 Storybook
1 Visibility marker
1 Suspicion marker
1 Mission marker
3 Blight tokens
5 Accomplishment tokens
15 +1/-1 tokens
15 Stage markers
1 Threat token

Mission Setup

Place the board in the center of the play area.
Choose a mission and place the corresponding Mission card. Take the Mission marker and place it on the top space of the Mission card.
At the bottom right of the board, place the Stage 1 card for the Mission face up.
Place the Suspicion marker on the zero space of the Suspicion track.
Place the Visibility marker on the Visibility track as instructed by the Stage card.
Take all of the Obstacle cards whose set matches the icons in the top left of the Stage card. Return the unused Obstacle cards to the box; they will not be used during this Stage.
Check the "Special Setup" section on the Stage card and follow any "Before" rules.
Shuffle the Obstacle cards for this Stage to make the Obstacle deck. Place it face down at the top left of the board, on the designated space.
Shuffle the 8 Agent cards that are marked "Level 1". Place them face down on the Agent deck space on the board.
Draw a number of cards from the Agent deck according to your starting hand size as indicated on the Mission card.
Deal cards from the top of the Obstacle deck onto each slot, starting with Slot 1 and proceeding to Slot 6. When a card with the Impact ability is placed in a slot, resolve that ability immediately before dealing the rest of the cards. If an Impact ability tells you to place the card somewhere else, draw a new card to fill the vacant slot.
Follow any "After" Special Setup rules as indicated on the Stage card.
Place the Accomplishment tokens, Blight tokens, and the Threat marker to the side.
Read the prologue in the Mission book.

Types of Cards

Stage Card

Name and number of the stage
Obstacle card sets used in this stage
Starting visibility
Special setup rules
Stage completion objective
Mission failure conditions
Alternative ways to gain Accomplishment tokens
Special threat for this stage

Agent Cards

Name of the card
Power amount and type (Red icons represent Physical power, Blue icons represent Evasion power)
Ability
Name of Agent and card level

Obstacle Card Anatomy

Name of the obstacle
Set
Type: locations, characters, electronic devices, doors
Abilities
Cost to target the obstacle
Suspicion value
Name, power, and ability of the card when played from your hand

Sequence of Play

Each stage is played over a series of rounds. Each round is divided into 5 phases, which are carried out in order.

Engage: Play cards from your hand and remove obstacles.
Reorganise: Draw up to your hand size.
Avoid: One of the Obstacle cards is avoided.
Move: The Obstacle cards move closer to Slot 1.
Look around: Reveal new Obstacle cards.

This sequence is repeated until you either complete the stage or fail the mission.

To complete the stage, you must fulfill the objective as printed on the Stage card. Before you can do this, you must first fill each accomplishment space (showing a circle with star) with an Accomplishment token. These tokens are gained in a variety of ways depending on the stage you are playing.

Once you have a certain number of Accomplishment tokens (shown in brackets next to the word "Objective") you can then resolve the objective during the Engage phase to complete the stage.

For example, the first Stage requires you to have 1 Accomplishment token. To get that token you need to eliminate Guard house. Once you have done that, you can discard 5 combined Power during your next Engage phase to jump over the fence and escape - this completes the Stage.

Also shown on the stage card are the conditions for failing the mission. Try to avoid this!

Phase 1: Engage

During this phase you may play any number of cards from your hand into the play area of the board in order to remove obstacles. You must play your cards one at a time. When you play a card, you may resolve any ability printed at the top of the card, but you must resolve it immediately. Remember, resolving the ability is optional.

Example: You play Hit and run. You decide not to use its ability. Then you play Careful approach which allows you to put a +1 counter on a Far obstacle. You do it immediately, before playing any other cards.

You do not have to play all of your cards; you may choose to keep some (or all) of them in your hand for the next round.

Some cards have printed abilities on them, such as prepare and sidestep. These abilities are described on page 14 of this rulebook and on the board.

You can play cards to no effect in order to get them out of your hand. You can also play cards after you have already targeted an obstacle.

After you have played your cards you may then use their combined value (printed on the top left of the card and gained from abilities) to target exactly one obstacle In Sight. A card is in sight if it is in any of the 6 slots or on the Mark spaces at the bottom right of the board.

The cost to target an Obstacle card is shown at the bottom right of the card. There are two types of cost: Physical or Evasion. Your total power - of the matching type - must equal or exceed the value shown.

Most cards show a Combined type. To target these cards, the sum of your Physical and Evasion power must equal or exceed the value shown.

Note: Obstacle cards in Slots 3-6 are Far obstacles. If you want to target a card in one of these slots, you must first pay either 1 Evasion (for slots 3 and 4) or 2 Evasion (for slots 5 and 6). This additional cost is separate from the cost of targeting the card.

In the example given (a board with the Obstacle cards Chloroform tissue, Noisy step, Focus and Don't move in Slots 6 to 3, Deep breath and Extendable baton in Slots 2 and 1, Night-vision goggles on the 1st Mark, and Anticipation, Blight Sight and Crowbar played from your hand), you will target one of the obstacles shown. Three of the cards are potential targets based on the cards you played. Try to work out which cards you can target and why. The answers are below.

Things you can target

Slot 1: Security guard: This card requires 4 combined power, which you have!
Slot 3: Motion activated camera: This card itself requires 4 combined power, and you must also pay 1 Evasion to target it because it is in Slot 3. You got this!
Slot 4: Staff entrance: It requires 5 combined power on top of 1 evasion you have to pay for targeting a Far obstacle in slot 4. The ability of your Crowbar card gives you 1 additional Physical power when you target a card with the door icon. Great!

Things you cannot target

Slot 2: Surveillance operator: This card requires 6 Combined power, too much for you this turn.- Slot 5: You would need to have 6 combined power (2 from Far obstacle penalty and 4 from targetting cost of Metal Detector), and you have only 5.
Slot 6 and Mark 1: Total cost is 8, way beyond what you are working with this round.

When you target a card, you must choose how to get rid of it: Knockout or Elimination.

To eliminate a card, you must have at least 1 Physical power; you cannot eliminate with Evasion alone. If you choose to eliminate a card, move the card to your discard pile. The card is now a part of your Agent deck and, for the rest of the mission, only the top part of the card is used. The rest of the card is considered blank, and none of the icons or text on it have any further impact on the game.

If you eliminate a card with an eliminate effect, resolve that effect immediately after placing the card in your discard pile.

If you choose knockout, flip it face down. Cards in Mark spaces cannot be knocked out, only eliminated.

In addition to targeting cards, you can also complete an objective or events as seen on obstacles or the Stage card.

Many cards will let you take other actions beyond targeting. You may still only target one obstacle per round, but you may perform these other actions before ending this phase.

Note: Some cards can be eliminated or knocked out by means other than targeting them or spending power. Doing this does not count as targeting that card.

(Example card: Chloroform tissue - Remove a card in your hand from the stage and discard Chloroform tissue to knockout 1 Near character.)

When you are ready for the Engage phase to end, move all the cards from your Played Area to your discard pile. Any cards in your hand are kept for the next round.

Note: You may look through the cards in your discard pile at any time. The order of cards in your discard pile does not matter.

Reveal / Discard / Vs Bonus / +1 token

When you Reveal a card, you take a number of cards from top of the Agent deck, as indicated by the effect, and reveal them. Finish resolving the ability of the card that triggered revealing first, then any abilities triggered by the revealing afterwards. All the cards that were revealed are put back on top of the Agent deck.

When an effect would require you to discard cards, it is referring to cards in your hand, unless specifically mentioned. Cards in the play area are not considered to be in your hand.

Vs Bonus is a keyword for a number of different bonuses, each with a syntax of "+X vs Y", where X is a power value and Y is a specific type of obstacle. This can include (for example) Far obstacles, Character obstacles, Door obstacles and more.

+1/-1 Tokens have different meanings depending on where they are located. When an obstacle has a +1 token on it, all the +1/-1 tokens in your player area are removed at the beginning of the engage phase and are added to physical power value for this round.

In general, +1 tokens are beneficial to you, no matter where they are.

Threat / Near / Chain / Impact

Some obstacle cards have Threat, Near, Chain or Impact abilities. These abilities affect the game itself and not just the card.

Threat abilities are active when the card is face up and in sight (in any of the slots or on any mark space). If there is an active threat ability in play, place the Threat token on top of the Obstacle deck to remind you.
Near abilities are active only when the card is in Slots 1-2, or any Mark.
Chain abilities trigger every time an obstacle moves during Phase 4 of the round.
Impact abilities trigger when an obstacle is placed on its slot from the obstacle deck.

Equipment

Some cards are marked as a tool or an outfit. Collectively, these cards are equipment.

When you Eliminate a tool, you may choose to immediately equip it by placing it face up in one of the tool slots at the bottom of the board. If both of your slots are full, you may discard one of your existing tools to your discard pile to equip the new one.

Alternatively, you may choose to place the new tool in your discard pile.

If you have a tool in your hand, you can play it in the Engage phase by placing it face up in one of the tool slots below the Play Area, discarding an existing tool if both slots are full. This indicates the tool is equipped and the ability on it can now be used. You cannot play a tool from your hand for the ability alone; it must be equipped.

When you Eliminate a uniform, you may choose to immediately equip (placing it face up in the outfit slot at the bottom of the board) or drop it (removing the card from the mission). You will not add it to your discard pile.

Whenever you equip a uniform, your visibility decreases by 2. If you choose to equip it and already have a uniform, drop the old one.

Visibility

During the game, your visibility will increase and decrease. If your visibility is at 1 and you are instructed to decrease it further, leave the marker on 1. However, if your visibility is at 4 and you have to increase it, gain 1 Suspicion instead and leave the visibility marker on 4.

Phase 2 - Reorganise

If you have fewer cards in hand than your current hand size, draw cards from your Agent deck until you have a number of cards in hand equal to your hand size.

If you have at least as many cards in hand as your hand size, do not draw any new cards. You do not need to discard cards if you exceed your hand size.

Empty Agent Deck

Whenever you need to draw (or reveal) a card from your Agent deck and there are not enough cards remaining, draw as many as you can. Then, shuffle the Agent discard pile, place the shuffled cards back on the Agent deck space, and keep drawing.

Each time you shuffle your discard pile to make a new Agent deck, you must increase your Visibility by 1.

Phase 3 - Avoid

If both Slot 1 and Slot 2 are empty, skip this phase. Otherwise, you must avoid one card. There are a few possibilities:

If there are face up cards in both slots, the card in Slot 1 is avoided.
If one card is face up and the other is face down, you can choose which one is avoided.
If there is only one card (face up or face down) and the other slot is empty, that card is avoided.

When a card is avoided, if it was already face down, place it on top of the Avoided Obstacles pile (still face down). If it was face up, you must increase your suspicion by the suspicion value of the obstacle - then resolve the Oversight ability on the card (if there is one). Afterwards, flip the card face down and place it on the Avoided Obstacles pile.

Eliminate or Knock Out

Choosing to eliminate a card or knock it out can sometimes be a tricky one.

If you eliminate a card, it becomes part of your Agent deck, so you will need to do this to get better cards. However, be careful! If you eliminate a card from Slot 1 or 2 and leave a face up card in the other slot, your suspicion will increase when that card is avoided.

If you knock out a card, you do not add it to your own deck, but the knocked out card will not increase your suspicion when it is avoided. This allows you to effectively avoid penalties and clogging your hand with less powerful cards.

Phase 4 - Move

In this phase you move each obstacle card closer towards you, from Slot 6 towards Slot 1.

Example: In this example, the card in Slot 2 was knocked out and therefore moved to the Avoided Obstacles pile during phase 3. So, the card in Slot 1 remains in place, and all other cards are moved down one slot.

At the end of the move phase, activate all Chain abilities on cards in Slots 1-6 that moved this round, starting with Slot 1.

Phase 5 - Look around

Draw new cards from the obstacle deck to refill all empty slots, starting with the lowest-numbered empty slot. Resolve any Impact abilities as the cards are drawn.

If the obstacle deck is ever empty, reshuffle the Avoided Obstacles pile and make a new Obstacle deck, then keep drawing.

If there are still not enough cards remaining to fill all the slots, you have failed your mission.

End of the Stage

The stage can end in one of two ways.

Failure: If you meet the conditions of the Mission Failure on the Stage card, then the entire mission is over. Your mission also fails if, during phase 5, there are not enough obstacle cards left to fill all the slots.
Success: The Stage card shows the objective which you must perform to complete this stage of the mission. Objectives are fulfilled during the Engage phase.

The number in parenthesis after the word "Objective" shows how many Accomplishment tokens you need. Only then can you realise the conditions printed after it.

Example: "Objective (1 star): Discard 6 to jump over the fence" means you must gain 1 Accomplishment token first. Then, you can discard 6 to jump over the fence and complete the stage.

Accomplishment tokens

All stages require Accomplishment tokens before the Objective ability can be carried out. These tokens are gained in a variety of different ways.

Many stages have Event abilities printed on them. These are carried out during the Engage phase and, if you have met their requirements, result in placing an Accomplishment token on the Stage card. Each Event ability can be performed only once during that stage.

Mission Failure

Sometimes evil prevails. If your stage ends in failure, you've lost the game entirely. You'll need to reset in order to try again. Begin by returning all dropped cards to the game. Separate all Agent and Obstacle cards, then divide the Obstacle cards by type.

To retry the mission, set up the game as shown on page 4 of this rulebook, starting at Stage 1. Better luck next time!

Completing a stage

If you succeeded in the Stage, follow these steps:

Flip the Stage card and read the story. Some stages give you a choice in where to go next. Before deciding, follow the rest of the steps below.
Your current suspicion level does not reset between stages.
Remove all tokens from your equipment and flip any face down tools face up.
Collect all of your cards from your Agent deck, discard pile, equipment, and hand.
Collect all remaining obstacles from the Obstacle deck, Avoided Obstacles pile, slots, and marks. Sort them by their set icon and put them back in the box. Any Obstacle cards that are part of your deck and are not returned to the box. Any obstacles that were dropped during the stage are NOT returned to their sets.
Return all cards removed (not dropped) from the stage to your deck.
Advance the Mission marker on the Mission card to the next slot and unlock any bonus indicated by the new position. Cards gained are added into your deck. You only get a bonus by advancing to a stage with higher number - so for example you do not recieve any bonus on transition from stage 3A to 3B or 4C to 4B.
Take a Stage marker of the mission you have completed to track your progression.

Save Game point

After completing a stage, you can save your game progress and continue at a later time. To do this, take all of your collected cards (the ones from your Agent deck, discard pile, equipment, and hand) and store them together in the box. Make sure they are kept separate from any other cards. Any dropped cards should be stored separately too. Make a written note of your suspicion, Stage markers you have, the stage you're about to face, and the position of your Mission marker.

When you are ready to start playing again, continue playing by setting up the next stage.

Setting up for the next stage

Decide which stage to do next based on the choices from the previous stage. Take that Stage card and setup the next stage as normal, but with the following changes.

You can customize your Agent deck for the next stage. Your deck must start with a minimum of 8 cards and a maximum of 21 cards. Any cards you remove from your deck are dropped (removed from the mission).
After you have customized your deck, if it contains a uniform, you must start with it in play, but you do not adjust your visibility down by 2 for a uniform that you start with.
If you have any tools in your deck, you may choose to start with two of them in play in your tool slots.

Glossary

+1 token: Lowers the cost of targeting if it's on an obstacle or gives you 1 Physical power if it's removed from your Play Area. Removed (with -1 tokens) at the beginning of your Engage phase.
-1 token: Raises the cost of targeting if it's on an obstacle or gives you -1 physical power if it's removed from your Play Area. If an obstacle would have both a -1 and +1 counter, remove them both.
Chain: Activates when this obstacle moves during the Move phase of the round.
Drop: Remove the card from the mission.
Event: May be completed during the Engage phase. If the conditions are met, place an Accomplishment token on the Stage card. A single event may only be completed once during that stage.
Far: An obstacle card in Slots 3-6.
Impact: When this card is placed into a slot for the first time, resolve this ability.
In Sight: An obstacle card in Slots 1-6 or on Mark 1-3.
Near: An obstacle in Slots 1-2 and Mark 1-3.
Oversight: Activates if the card is avoided.
Prepare: Take any one card from the Agent discard pile and place it on top of the Agent deck.
Remove from the stage: Put the card in a special zone. It will be available again after you finish this stage.

Appendix

Assault Rifle: We recommend putting counters on the card (and others similar to it) to remember its value.
Careful: You must remove one card from the stage, even if you reveal three cards that can be played when revealed.
Corner view: "Set aside" means place it anywhere near the game board. You can have multiple cards set aside from Corner view and you are free to take them to your hand in any combination.
Cunning: The effect of the returned card still applies, if you replay it, the effect is doubled.
Don't move: When you use an ability that reveals cards from top of the Agent deck and you reveal Don't move, you may play it as if it's in your hand.
Expertise: By "gaining a bonus from discarding a card" we mean gaining any sort of power, drawing a card and any other kind of benefit you recieve as a result of discarding a card from your hand.
Focus: For example, if you have a +2 vs Near obstacles bonus, you gain it again. If you would play two Focus cards, you would gain a combined +4 vs Near obstacles from them (on top of a +2 from the original bonus).
Get ready: If you have different vs bonuses (for example +2 vs Character and +2 vs Near obstacles), they all apply to the obstacle you target, even if it doesn't match the criteria.
Iron knuckles, Spy bug, X-ray vision: These cards count the instance of revealing/discarding/putting tokens, not the amount. If, for example, a card says "Reveal two cards..." only one token will be put on X-ray vision. You may only activate these cards twice per round, no matter which option you choose.