Comic Hunters
Comic Hunters Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Objective
In Comic Hunters, players want to make the most complete and relevant Marvel Heroes Comic Book collection. The game consists of three rounds and in which one of them you have different ways of getting Comic Book Cards in four different locations. Those cards are then played from your hand to make your collection.
You may get victory points having large collections of hyped Heroes, having a good variety of collections, having comics with Highlights and maintaining a good sized Secret Stash. At the end of the third round whoever has most points is the winner.
Contents
- 135 Comic Book Cards (Grouped in 3 Ages)
- 8 Hero Markers
- 1 First Player Marker
- 5 Highlight Markers
- 1 Schedule Marker
- 16 Player Markers
- 1 Score Pad
- 1 Board
Setup
Follow the instructions to setup the contents at the game area, as you can see below (example of a game for 2 or 3 players).
01 - The Suppliers: Comic Book Store, Flea Market and Auction Website
In 1, 2 or 3 players, choose 2 Heroes (except the ones excluded by the rules) to be removed from the game: remove cards that only have the chosen Heroes icons. Cards showing other Heroes icons will always be in play, even if they have one of the removed Heroes icon on it.
- In 2 or 3 players there will never be a collection of these removed Heroes (see End Game and Score).
- In Solo Mode games, depending on the game, this can happen (see Solo Mode).
- In 4 players, all Heroes will be in game.
Now split and shuffle the Comic Book Cards in three decks according to the Market Value on the back of them (values 1, 2 and 3). Put the decks in a row beside the board.
02 - The Big Convention
Without seeing the cards, make a fourth deck according to the following:
- 3 or 4 players: 10 cards of value 1, 10 cards of value 2 and 10 cards of value 3.
- 1 or 2 players: 6 cards of value 1, 10 cards of value 2 and 10 cards of value 3.
Shuffle these cards and put them beside the board as well.
Cards and Icons
Each Comic Book Card shows:
- Cover Art
- Title, Number and Year Published
- Hero Icon
- Highlight Icon
- Market Value (1, 2 or 3)
Hero Icons — each Comic Book Card shows the icon of the Marvel Hero it belongs to.
Spotlight (Highlight) Icons — New Look, First Appearance, Special Edition, Epic Battle, Number One.
Market Value Icons — 1, 2 or 3, shown on the back of each card.
03 - Schedule
Shows which locations you are going to visit to get Comic Books and in which step and round the game is. Put the Schedule Marker on the first step of the Schedule (of the first round) in the beginning of the game.
04 - Trending Heroes
Gather and organize the 8 Heroes markers according to the number of players:
- 4 players: draw 1 Marker for the first line of the Trending Track, 3 for the second and 4 for the third.
- 1, 2 or 3 players: return to the game box the Hero Markers of the heroes you have removed on item 01. Then draw 1 Marker for the first line, 2 for the second and 3 for the third.
05 - Secret Stash
This track represents the estimated value of your Secret Stash. To start the game, each player puts one Player Marker of their chosen color at location 15. This value is going to be used as exchange for the Auction Website. At the end of the game, the value on the track will count as victory points.
06 - Highlight Track
These tracks register the Highlight Icons each player has in their Collection. The players with more Highlights get more victory points at the end of the game. You will need one Player Marker of your chosen color for each track. Put each one of them on the left of the Highlight Markers.
In advanced games, you can draw a Highlight Marker for each one of the tracks, but we suggest that for your first games you use the Number One icon on the first track, First Appearance on the second and for the third randomly draw one among New Look, Special Edition and Epic Battle. Put the Markers on the first track space and the others back in the game box.
07 - Score Pad
The Score Pad will be used to help you count your score. At the end of the game, follow the instructions under End of the Game and Scoring.
08 - First Player
The First Player Marker is given to the player that bought a Marvel Comic Book most recently.
How to Play
A Comic Hunters game has three rounds. Each round has two phases:
- Phase 1: Treasure Hunt – You visit three of the four Locations to get Hero Comic Books from different Ages.
- Phase 2: Assemble Collection – You start or expand your Collections of Hero Comic Books and update on the track the Highlights you have got.
Phase 1: Treasure Hunt
In this phase you will get Comic Book cards in three of the four Locations of the game. Each Location is identified with a letter from A to D, followed by the name of the Location, and offers Comic Books from a different Age (or group of Ages), presenting different ways for you to earn the cards. The board shows your Schedule in each round, determining the exact sequence of Locations you must go to get cards.
Completely solve each Location of the Schedule before going to the next one. After solving the Flea Market, the Auction Website and the Convention, the First Player Marker will go to the next player on the right. Besides that, move on the Schedule track after the resolution of each step. The cards you get in each Location remain in your hand. Do not show your hand of cards to other players until Phase 2: Assemble Collection.
If any Comic Book card is missing to complete the number of cards of a Location, get a random card with a corresponding value from one of the removed heroes. If the Location is the Convention, prefer cards with Market Value of 3. This card cannot be added to Collections, only its Market Value can be used.
How to Play – Rules for 3 and 4 Players
The following rules apply to games with 3 or 4 players. To know how to play a game with 1 or 2 players, see the "2 Players Game" or "Solo Mode" sections of this rulebook.
Store
In this specialized Comic Book Store, you can find Releases and the most recent Comic Books, published since 2000 (Contemporary Age, Value 1).
To solve this Location, follow these steps:
- Each player draws the first 4 cards of the deck; these cards are not yet added to their hand. If the player has cards from previous rounds, keep them apart, turned down on the play area, in front of you.
- All players simultaneously choose 1 card to add to their hand, putting the selected card turned down in front of them. Then, each player passes the remaining cards to the player on the left (in the first round) or on the right (in the second round).
- Repeat step 2 until there are no cards left to give and put the last remaining card with the others you already have. Add to your hand all cards that were in front of you.
Note: The First Player Marker will not go to another player in this step.
Flea Market
In this Flea Market you can find Comic Books published during the 80's and 90's (Modern Age, Value 2).
In this Location, the players take turns clockwise, starting with the First Player.
Before starting to solve the Flea Market, get the cards from the Flea Market deck and make rows equal to the number of players, revealing one card of the deck to be in the first position of each row.
On your turn, take one of the following steps:
A. Reveal one card of the deck and put it turned up in the first available position from left to right, in one of the available rows. Each row must have at most 4 cards (the maximum number of columns) and there can be no more rows than the number of players still visiting the Flea Market (the maximum number of rows).
When there are no more positions available, the players must take option B.
B. Choose a row and get all the cards on it and put them on your hand. When you do it, your visit to this Location is ended. This row cannot be reset.
The possibility of taking one of the unfinished rows gives you the opportunity to grab a valuable or very disputed card, even if you have to leave this location with fewer cards than other players to do so.
As soon as all the players have gotten a card row, this step of the round is finished. At last, the First Player chooses another player to receive the First Player Marker.
Auction Website
In this Online Auction, the Collectors bid for Comic Books published in the 60's and 70's (Classic Age, Value 3).
Before starting this step, the First Player draws cards from the top of the deck and makes rows equal to the number of players. Those rows will be the lots of cards corresponding to Hero Comic Books to bid. The first lot must have 5 cards, the last one must have 3 cards. Each lot between the first and the last must have 4 cards.
Cards are revealed. The First Player chooses one lot to be auctioned and bids using Secret Stash points. At the beginning of the game, each player has 15 Secret Stash points, as you can see on the Secret Stash Track. Moving clockwise, each player can, on their turn:
A. Bid higher than the last player; or B. Pass, giving up the right to new bids on this lot.
Players continue to bid or pass until there is only one winning bid. The player who won the auction gets the cards from the lot, paying with Secret Stash Points, and puts them in their hand. A Player Marker must be put on the remaining number of the track, after the bid. Note: A player can never have less than zero Secret Stash Points. Each player can only win one auction per round.
If the lot is won by the player who made the starting bid, the player immediately on the left of the winner chooses a new lot to be auctioned. If not, the first player who bid will choose a different lot to bid.
When there is only one lot left, the player who did not win any auction will get it, paying Secret Stash Points equal to the number of cards on the lot. Important: If the last player does not have enough Secret Stash Points to pay for all the cards in one lot, they must spend all their Secret Stash Points and get as many cards as they can pay for, choosing the ones they want. Cards not taken will be added to the Convention Deck, which must be immediately shuffled.
The Secret Stash represents your other comic books that are somewhat secondary to you, are repeated, or less rare. This way you will use them as currency during the auction. Once spent, the Secret Stash value does not increase, remember: you will make two visits to the Auction Site during the game, and if you spend all your Secret Stash points on the first one, you will not be able to buy comics from the Auction Site on the second visit. Also, the Secret Stash points you do not spend at auctions will be converted to victory points at the end of the game!
The First Player chooses another player to receive the First Player Marker.
Convention
At the booths of this big Convention dedicated to the 9th art, there are Comic Books from all ages (Values 1, 2 and 3).
Before starting this step, the First Player draws 24 cards from the top of the Convention deck and organizes them in a grid with 5 columns and 5 rows, leaving the center empty, making the pattern displayed in the rulebook.
Starting with the First Player and moving clockwise, each player will have a turn to get cards. The last player will have two sequent turns, passing to the player on the right. The turn order will proceed, now counterclockwise, until the First Player gets cards for the second time.
On your turn, before choosing which Comic Book cards to get, you can orthogonally slide one card through empty spaces until a new position (it does not have to be the one you want to get). This movement is optional. The card can slide through any empty spaces there are horizontally and vertically, and there are no limits of continuous movements, but those movements cannot be made through the outside border of the grid or by jumping over another card.
After optionally making a movement, you choose a Hero and a column or a row from the grid. You can get all Comic Book cards in that column or row that has the icon of the Hero you chose.
Example: You want Black Widow Comic Book cards. On your turn, you decide to use your movement to slide a Black Widow card into the same row where there are already two other cards with the same icon (Green row). Then, choosing that row, you can get and add to your hand three Black Widow Comic Book cards.
The Convention will end when all players have gotten cards twice.
After that, the First Player will choose another player to receive the First Player Marker. All Comic Book cards discarded in this step will be added to the Convention deck that must be immediately shuffled.
Phase 2: Assemble Collection
In the second phase of the round, cards are played on the table, starting collections of a particular Hero, or adding Comic Book cards to existing collections. You must pay the Market Value of each card played. You can also relocate Comic Book cards from one collection to another at this stage. Finally, players check the Highlights of recently played cards and update the position of their respective markers in the Highlight track. It is allowed to hold a maximum of 2 cards from one round to the other. Excess cards must be added to the Convention deck that must be immediately shuffled.
Players can solve this phase simultaneously or by checking if each player was able to pay for the cards they have played.
Starting a Hero Comic Book Collection
Each collection assembles Comic Books of a particular Hero. To start a Collection, you need to play two or more Comic Book cards that have the same Hero icon at once; in addition to that you must pay the Market Value of these cards (see Paying the Market Value). However, collections with only two Comic Books do not count for Variety of Collections and Size of Collection scores (see more in "End Game and Score"). Remember: even if a card has the icon of two Heroes, this card will only be part of a collection of one of them.
You can start and maintain multiple collections in your play area, as long as each of them gathers Comic Books of a different Hero. So, it is not possible to have two collections of the same Hero. It is not allowed to start or maintain a collection of a removed Hero (games with 2 or 3 players). In Solo Mode, depending on the game, this can happen.
Expanding a Comic Book Collection
The idea of expanding a Comic Book collection is to make it more valuable and earn more victory points (after all, only collections with 3 or more Comic Book cards will score at the end of the game). If you already have a collection of a particular Hero in your play area, you can expand it at this step by playing new Comic Book cards that have the same Hero icon as the existing cards. Remember that you need to pay the Market Value of these new cards (see below).
New cards are initially played in a line just above the collection that they will enter. After you pay the Market Value and update the Highlights of the added cards, you can align the new cards with the rest of the collection.
Paying the Market Value
You must pay the Market Value of every Comic Book card you play, starting or expanding a collection. The value of a Comic Book card is shown on its back (1, 2 or 3) and below the Highlight icons. For example, a Modern Age card is worth 2 points in the Comic Hunters market.
To pay for cards played with this Market Value, you must discard from your hand cards that add up to enough to match or exceed this Market Value.
IMPORTANT: there is no change, any surplus is lost.
Example: To pay for your new Captain America collection, with a total Market Value of 4 points (2x Value 1 cards + 1 Value 2 card), you discard two cards that sum to the same value (a Value 1 card + a Value 3 card).
Discarding
All Comic Book cards discarded in this step are added to the Convention deck that must be immediately shuffled.
Relocating Collections
During Phase 2, you can also relocate cards from one collection to another, according to two conditions:
- The relocated card must have the Hero icon of the destination collection.
- The origin collection of the card must not remain with less than two Comic Book cards after relocation.
IMPORTANT: Relocated cards are NOT considered new cards. Their Market Value was already paid, and their Highlights were already updated.
Updating Highlight Track
Make sure the Comic Book cards you played contain any of the Highlight icons from the three tracks on the Comic Hunters board. For each icon that matches a track, advance your Player Marker on this track a number of spaces equal to the Market Value of the card that contains the icon.
Example: The new collection features 3 New Look icons. Two of them are on Contemporary Age Comic Book cards; the third is on a Modern Age Comic Book card. Advance your Player Marker a total of 4 (2x Value 1 + 1x Value 2) on the Highlight track. In addition to that, one of the Contemporary Age cards has the Number One icon, so advance your Player Marker a space on that Highlight track too.
The board contains only three Highlight Tracks, identified by Markers drawn from five possibilities: Number One, First Appearance, New Look, Special Edition and Epic Battle. There may be a case that your Comic Book cards contain only Highlight icons that have been left out of the game. In this case, you will not advance your Marker on any of the tracks.
End of the Round
On the Schedule, advance the Schedule Marker to the next round.
End Game and Score
The game ends after Phase 2 (Assemble Collections) of the third and final round.
Take the Score Block and start recording the points earned by each player in the following conditions:
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Size: For each collection with 3 or more Comic Book cards of a Hero you have in your play area, score points according to the number of cards in the collection.
Remember: Hero Markers on the Trending Track are drawn during preparation and therefore change position from one match to another.
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Variety of Collections: The more collections of different Heroes you have in your play area, the more victory points you will receive. See the Variety of Collections track on the Comic Hunters board.
Remember: Only collections with three or more cards are counted.
Example: Because of the size of their collections, Green receives 6 points for having 3 of one Hero's Comic Books, 5 points for having 3 of another, 10 points for having 5 of another and 16 points for having 8 of another. Green also receives 10 points for Variety of their collections. Green also has 2 of one Hero's Comic Books, but they do not score because it is a two-card collection.
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Highlights: For each Highlight track, follow the rules below. Depending on the number of players in the match, the board displays visual reminders for the score:
- 4 players: 15 for the first, 12 for the second, 8 for the third and 3 for the fourth.
- 3 players: 15 for the first, 12 for the second and 3 for the third.
- 1 or 2 players: 15 for the first and 8 for the second.
In case of a tie, add the points of the current position with the position immediately below and divide by the number of tied players, rounding it down.
Example: The positions of the three players in the Highlight track are: 1st track won by Black, followed by Green and third place was Orange (Points: 15, 12, 3). 2nd track won by Orange, tied in second place Green and Black (15, 7, 7). 3rd track tied in first place Orange and Green and in third place Black (13, 13, 3).
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Secret Stash: Check the Secret Stash track to see the position of your Player Marker. This will be the points scored for Secret Stash.
Example: On the Secret Stash track, Orange scored 5 points, Green scored 6 points and Black scored 7 points.
The player with the highest score assembled the best Comic Book Collection and won the game! In case of a tie, the player with the highest sum of Spotlights (Highlights) wins. If the tie persists, the player with the bigger Collection wins.
2 Players Game
The game happens the same way as in the 3-4 players, except for the following changes:
Setup
Follow the guideline for a two-player game in the beginning of this rulebook.
First Player Marker
Choose the First Player as shown in Step 8 (in the Setup section, under First Player). They will be player A. Then interchange the start of each phase between players "A" and "B", as shown on the Schedule track. Score the number of Highlights of each player on the three Highlight Track to check which player has less points. In case of a tie, player B will be the first to play in the last Convention.
Store
- Each player draws the first 7 cards from the Store deck; these cards are not yet added to their hand. If you have cards in your hand from previous rounds, leave them separate.
- The two players simultaneously choose 1 card to add to their hand by placing the card facing down in front of you.
- Both players simultaneously choose 1 card to return to the game box.
- The remaining cards are given to the opponent.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 until no more cards are left. When the draft is finished, add to your hand all the cards that were face down in front of you (including the ones from previous rounds).
Flea Market
Players alternate by performing action A or action B (as explained in the Flea Market rules for 3-4 players) but form only 3 rows of cards: the first with 4 columns at most, the second with 3 at most and the third with 2 at most. Just like the Flea Market for 3 or 4 players, reveal a card to start each row.
When a player chooses one of the 3 rows, their opponent can complete the remaining rows before choosing the row they want, respecting as many cards as that row holds.
All Comic Book Cards in the row that have not been chosen will be added to the Convention deck, that must be immediately shuffled.
Auction Website
Only two lots are created for the auction: one with 4 cards and one with 3.
The auction follows the rules for 3 and 4 players.
Convention
At the beginning of this step, the First Player reveals 20 cards from the Convention Deck, forming the pattern shown in the rulebook.
Players can take the same actions as in a 3-4 players game, but they alternate until they have performed twice.
Important: A player cannot move a card and the other player take the cards — the two actions are dependent on one another. So the player only moves and takes cards on their own turn.
Solo Mode
Jarvis, the Avengers' butler, wants to play Comic Hunters with you. Who will assemble the most valuable Collection? Jarvis or you? You are always the First Player in the locations and can choose first, but everything that stays with Jarvis goes directly to his Collection.
Setup
Choose one color for you and one for Jarvis.
Jarvis has a Marker on the Secret Stash Track, with an initial value of 15.
Prepare the Locations and Convention decks as usual.
The player will always be the first to play in all Locations.
IMPORTANT: Jarvis can start a collection with just one Comic Book Card. The cards acquired by Jarvis go straight to his collection (without paying his Market Value) and the Markers on Highlight tracks will be updated as soon as that happens. Cards received by Jarvis should be placed on the table next to the Board, so you always know what Jarvis is collecting and doing.
Store
The player buys 3 Comic Book cards from the deck, chooses 2 to add to his hand, and the remaining card goes to Jarvis' collection (on the table).
This is performed twice, so that when the tour to the Store is closed, the player has acquired 4 cards for his hand and Jarvis has acquired 2 cards for his collection.
Flea Market
The rows have a format similar to the 2 players game. Each of the three rows already starts with a Comic Book card and all will have different sizes. The first row will have a maximum of 2 Comic Book cards, the second will have a maximum of 3 cards and the third will have a maximum of 4 cards. The Trending Track will be the reference for this Location. The rows of the Track will correspond to the rows you will make for the Flea Market.
On Jarvis' turn, draw a Comic Book card and check the heroes on it. See which is the hero best positioned on the Trending Track row and add the card to the corresponding row of the Flea Market.
Example: If one Hero icon on the card is from a hero at the top of the Trending Track, add the card to the first row. If the hero icon(s) is at the intermediate level of the Track, add the card to the second row. If all hero icons are at the lowest level of the track, add the card to the third row.
If the row is already full (1st row = 2 cards, 2nd row = 3 cards, 3rd row = 4 cards), add the card to the smallest row that still has space available.
You can take any row on your turn. If you take one before it's completed, Jarvis will complete the remaining rows and buy the longest row left.
All Comic Book cards not chosen will be added to the Convention deck, that must be immediately shuffled.
Auction Website
Two lots are created, one with 4 Comic Book cards and one with 3 Comic Book cards. The player chooses one of the two lots. If you choose the lot with 4 cards, you must pay 5 points from the Secret Stash track. If you choose the lot with 3 cards, you must pay 1 point from the Secret Stash track. The remaining lot goes to Jarvis' collection, who pays the corresponding value with his Secret Stash track points.
Convention
Reveal 17 cards from the Convention deck, forming a grid with 5 columns and 5 rows of cards, positioning the cards only in the spaces on the edges of the grid and a card in the center, forming the pattern shown in the rulebook.
Jarvis is busy optimizing his Collection and does not play in this Location. A Discard turn will occur instead.
The player starts the turn and draws the cards normally, being able to move a card and choose a row or column to draw all the cards of the chosen hero. In the Discard turn, the player follows the same rules as above (can move a card and select a hero in a row or column), but these cards will be added to the Convention deck, which is reshuffled at the end of this Location's resolution. The player must perform four turns, two of which are the player's turns and two Discard turns. The player must alternate between their turn and the Discard turn.
All cards left on the Convention grid go to Jarvis' Collection.
Jarvis and the player can form Collections with characters removed from the game, only if they have been added to the game to complete the grid. Collections of these removed heroes do not add points by Size, but they advance markers on the Highlight Track and score points by Variety.
Note: During the game, it is noteworthy that the Comic Book cards that go to Jarvis' collection must meet the highest value criterion, that is, cards with two or more hero icons must go to the hero's collection with the highest value on the Trend Track. In case the heroes on the card have the same value on the Track, the player must always place the card in the largest collection, so that Jarvis can make more points.
At the end of the third round, score points as usual. If you scored more points than Jarvis, you won. The tiebreaker conditions are the same as the standard game.
Credits
Game Design and Development: Robert Coelho.
Art and Graphic Design: Diego Sá.
Rules: Thiago Leite, Thiago Castro and MC Zanini @ Zombie Dodo Studio.
Review: Thiago Leite, Thiago Castro, Romir Paulino, Gustavo Iachel and Matheus Migotto.
Layout: Marcel Lambertini.
Special thanks to: Amanda Angelo, Sérgio Halaban, Maurício Gibrin, Diego de Moraes, Rodrigo Sonesso, André Teruya, Igor Knop, Leandro Pires, Rodrigo Rego, Vinicius Figueiredo, Leonardo Sacramento and Kevin Arnold.
© Bucaneiros Jogos. www.bucaneirosjogos.com.br