Dare to Love Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Assembly Guide
• Setup
  • Oligarch setup
  • Rebel setup
• Gameplay
• Game End and Outcome
• Break Crystal Prisons
• Death of Characters
• Action Cards
  • Oligarch
  • Rebels
• Move
• Attack and Range
• Dice Roll
• Effect of Alert
• Talent Cards
• FAQ
• Character Introduction

Components

• Character boards x1
• Acrylic character figures x9 (Rebels x6, Oligarch x3)
• Battlefield game board x1
• Action cards x66
• Talent cards x9
• Prisoner cards x6
• Crystal character HP tokens x8
• Crystal round token x1
• Magic crystal tokens x5
• Rule book x1
• Castle dice tower x1
• Crystal prison HP tokens x12
• Combat dice x6

Assembly Guide

(Castle dice tower.)

1. Insert 3 boards into the slots of the side board.
2. Insert 3 boards into the other slots of the side board.
3. Insert the front castle board into the side boards, and slide down.
4. Insert the front board into the slots of side boards.
5. Finish.

Setup

1. Place the Battlefield game board at the center of the table. Place the Crystal round token on the starting point of the Round track on the board. Place 4 Crystal prison HP tokens on the circles near each Crystal prison, indicating that every Crystal prison has 4 health points.

2. One player plays as an Oligarch and does the following setup, then the rest of the players, playing as the Rebels, continue to do their setup.

   • Put the rest of the unused character items back into the game box. They will not be used for this game. The game is about to start.
   • Rebel players may openly discuss their Talent cards and hands, but may not show or exchange their cards with each other. All the players, including the Oligarch player, are allowed to hear all conversation.

Oligarch setup

The player chooses to play as one of the following characters: the Emperor, the Grand Inquisitor, or the Tycoon. Then, set up the game as follows:

I. Place the corresponding Character board in front of yourself and place 1 Crystal character HP token on space 32 of the health bar if there are 3 Rebels, or space 18 for 2 Rebels. If playing as the Tycoon, instead place 2 HP tokens on space 16 (indicating 32 HP in total) for 3 Rebels, or on space 9 (indicating 18 HP in total) for 2 Rebels.

II. Place the corresponding Acrylic character figure on the starting point on the middle top of the game board.

III. Take out all of the 6 corresponding Action cards as your hand. You are ready to start the game.

Rebel setup

Each Rebel chooses to play as one of the following characters: The Priest, the Apostate, the Rebel Soldier, the Knight, the Duchess, or the Prince. Then, all Rebels set up the game as follows:

I. Place the corresponding Character board in front of you and place 1 Crystal character HP token on space 8 of the health bar.

II. Take out the Prisoner cards according to the chosen characters. The Oligarch player secretly places 1 card for each Rebel under each Crystal prison under the top of the game board. (If there are only two Rebel players, one of the prisons will be empty.)

III. Randomly gain a Talent card and place it face down in front of you.

IV. After discussing with all the other Rebel players, place your Acrylic character figure on one of the starting points on the bottom of the game board.

V. Shuffle 8 corresponding Action cards. Place them on the left of your Character board to form a deck. Then, draw 4 cards as your hand. You are ready to start the game.

Gameplay

This is a turn-based game played by the following steps for each round:

1. All players select an Action card from their hands to play and reveal it simultaneously. Then, everyone says "1, 2, 3!" and flips the card in front of themselves simultaneously. The Rebel players may openly discuss strategies when choosing cards, but they must allow all players to hear the conversation, including the Oligarch player. (See Action Cards on page 13 for more details.)

2. Compare the initiative values on the top left corner of those revealed Action cards. The higher the value, the faster the Action card is. Players take turns performing their actions beginning from the highest to the lowest value.

3. There are actions such as move, attack, draw, and special actions for Action cards. Players may arrange the actions in any order. For example, they may attack then move, or move then attack. They may also skip any or all of the actions.

4. Once the player with the lowest value card performs their actions, i.e. all players finish their actions, the round ends. All players discard the card they played this round into their own discard pile (on the right of the Character board). Then, the Rebel players draw cards from their own deck to their hand until they have 4 cards in hand (if they already have 4 or more cards they simply do not draw). Lastly, advance the Crystal round token 1 space toward 13.

   • Once the deck is empty, shuffle the discard pile and reuse those cards.

5. Start a new round from step 1. Repeat until one of the teams wins.

Game End and Outcome

If one of the following conditions is met, the game ends immediately and the Oligarch wins:

1. When the Crystal round token advances to space 13 and that round ends, the prisoners in the Crystal prison will be sentenced to death. The Rebels fail to rescue all prisoners.

2. All the Rebels are eliminated.

On the contrary, if the Rebel players save all the prisoners in time and defeat the Oligarch, they win!

Break Crystal Prisons

At the start of the game, each Crystal prison has 4 HP. The Rebels must attack the prisons and drop their HP down to 0 in order to break the prisons and rescue the prisoners. To do so, the players must stand on the locations where there is a [red circle with up-arrow marker] next to the Crystal prisons on the game board. (The marker is a printed red circle icon on the board; the rulebook does not name it.)

• The players must also stand on the [red circle with up-arrow marker] location in order to perform a Ranged attack.

For example, the Apostate plays Focus Shot and deals 3 damage to the Crystal prison. Therefore, remove 3 HP tokens from that Crystal prison.

Once a prison is broken, the player may rescue its prisoner by flipping the Prisoner card face up under the corresponding prison slot. Then, hand that card to the corresponding player. The Rebel player who receives the card will be encouraged by the rescued prisoner and be able to fight against the Oligarch with more power.

• If a Rebel player dies, they will not be able to participate in the game but still share in the victory if the Rebels win. Also, the empowerment effect of the corresponding prisoner won't be triggered. The rest of the Rebels still need to rescue all prisoners. For example, after rescuing the Priest's son, if the Priest is still alive, activate the effect "Move the Crystal round token back 1 space." If the Priest is dead, the effect will not be activated after rescuing the Priest's son.

Death of Characters

When a Rebel's HP reaches zero, that character dies. Remove the Character figure from the game board. However, the rest of the Rebels still have to rescue all the prisoners and defeat the Oligarch in order to win (instead of not rescuing the corresponding prisoner of the dead characters).

If the Oligarch character dies and the Rebel players save all the prisoners, the Rebels win; if some prisoners remain imprisoned, the Rebels still need to rescue all of them by the end of the 13th round.

Action Cards

All the players play an Action card every round. Discarding cards from your hand is not allowed. The method and condition of playing Action cards differ between both sides as follows:

Oligarch

A. There are only the hand and discard pile (no deck) for the Oligarch player. At the end of the round, discard the card you played this round into the discard pile.

B. The player needs to meet the requirement of "the number of cards in the discard pile" mentioned on the Action card in order to play that card. For example, in order for the Emperor to play Raging Bellow, there must be at least 1 card in the discard pile already (not that the player needs to discard a card). On the other hand, since there is no requirement for Lead from Behind, the player can play this card regardless of the number of the cards in the discard pile.

C. After playing the Action cards with the effect of "At the end of the round, return all cards to your hand," the player must return the card and all the discarded cards to their hand without any cards remaining in the discard pile.

Rebels

A. Each Rebel player has their own deck and discard pile. At the end of each round, the players must discard the card they played this round into the discard pile, and then draw from the deck to their hand up to 4 cards (If they already have 4 or more cards in their hand, they do not get to draw at all).

B. Each Action card contains top and bottom rows of the effects. Players may arrange those actions, such as move, attack, draw, and special effects, in any order.

C. Bottom-row actions have the requirement of spending Mana. During your turn, if you want to perform the bottom-row actions, you must spend the required number of Mana listed on the Action cards from your hand. If you don't spend Mana, you cannot perform the bottom-row actions, but you may still perform and arrange the order of the top-row actions. That means, even if you don't have Mana, you may still play Action cards by only performing the top-row actions.

• Players spend Mana by directly discarding the Mana cards into the discard pile.

D. Players may not play Mana cards as Action cards.

Move

Each Move icon means movement that allows the players to move 1 space to an adjacent location. Characters may pass through but may not stop at the same space with other characters.

For example, when the Prince plays Brutal Swing with 2 Move icons, he may move 2 spaces to pass through the Emperor and stop behind him, move 1 space and stop next to the Emperor, or choose not to move at all.

Attack and Range

Each attack symbol consists of three components: "Power-Attack type-Range." Power means the number of Combat dice you roll, attack type means the symbol you need to roll in order to hit the target, and range means attack range. For example, the Prince plays Meteoric Sword, with the attack symbol of 2-Melee-2, to attack the Emperor who is 2 spaces away from him. Therefore, the Prince rolls 2 Combat dice and deals damage with Melee attack symbols.

Dice Roll

There are three types of attack: Melee, Ranged, and Penetrating. The requirement for each attack type to deal damage is as follows:

• Melee: Deal 1 damage for each Melee and Penetrating symbol you roll.
• Ranged attack: Deal 1 damage for each Ranged and Penetrating symbol you roll.
• Penetrating: Deal 1 damage for each Penetrating symbol you roll.

However, regardless of the attack type, reduce 1 damage you deal for each Miss (!) symbol you roll.

For example, the Apostate plays Focus Shot with the attack symbols of 5-Ranged-3. The rolling results are: Ranged, Ranged, Penetrating, Melee, and Miss. Deal (3 Ranged/Penetrating symbols) − 1 (Miss) = 2 damage.

The effects of the symbols on the dice are:

• Melee = Melee attack deals damage.
• Ranged = Ranged attack deals damage.
• Penetrating = Melee, ranged, and penetrating attack deal damage.
• Miss (!) = Miss. Reduce 1 damage you deal.

Effect of Alert

If there is an Alert (shield) symbol on the Action card you play this turn, you become alert and therefore are less likely to get hurt. When you are attacked by other players this round, the attacker has to reroll one of the dice once that rolled a Melee symbol if he deals Melee damage, or to reroll one of the dice once that rolled a Ranged symbol if he deals Ranged damage. Penetrating symbols are not affected by Alert!

Talent Cards

Each Rebel player randomly gets a Talent card during setup. Talent cards are secret, have different effects, and are played at different times. If used well, Talent cards may reverse the outcome of the game. Therefore, please read the card effects carefully, and play it at a proper time. Also, remember that each Talent card can only be used once in the entire game. Once used, the card will be put back into the game box and the card holder does not receive a new one.

FAQ

Q1: How do I deal damage with the Knight's Blitz? Can I attack an opponent who is 4 spaces away from me with Blitz?

A1: Blitz is a card that lets the player dash into the enemy. The card effect is "Move 3 spaces forward in a straight line. Stop in front of the first enemy encountered and deal 4 Melee damage to them with +1 damage for each space you moved forward." Therefore, the furthest you can attack an opponent is 3 spaces away from you. You cannot hit someone who is 4 spaces away from you because you will stop in front of the opponent instead of encountering them.

For example, the Knight can play Blitz to attack and deal 6 Melee damage to the Emperor who is 3 spaces away from him. (4 Melee + 2 damage for moving 2 spaces forward = 6 damage. Roll 6 dice to determine the outcome.)

Q2: Can the Knight play the Blitz to attack Crystal prisons at long range?

A2: When playing Blitz, the Knight will move forward in straight line and then attack the first enemy encountered. It's the same situation as Q1 (switch "Emperor" to "Crystal prison"), the Knight can deal 6 Melee damage to the Crystal prison which is 3 spaces away.

Q3: Can the Priest place the Magic crystal token on the same space as an ally and/or the opponent?

A3: Yes. Magic crystals can be placed onto the same space as any character. However, there can be only 1 Magic crystal in the same space.

Q4: What should I do if I use my character's Action cards to draw but there are not enough cards in the deck?

A4: Shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. For example, the Prince spends 2 Mana (by discarding the cards into the discard pile) to play With All One's Strength, which allows him to draw 3 cards. The player draws the last card, Noble Sacrifice, in the deck, shuffles the discard pile to form a new deck, and then draws two more cards to complete his action. When his turn ends, he discards the card With All One's Strength he played in front of him into the discard pile.

• Since the player spends Mana by discarding the cards, it is possible that, in this case, the second and the third card Prince draws may include the Mana cards he discarded earlier.

(Diagram: 1 - Play an action card; when the deck is out of cards, spends two Mana; 2 - Shuffle the discard pile.)

Q5: Can a Ranged attack with unlimited range be blocked?

A5: Yes. Unlimited range is shown as "Line − Power − Ranged − Unlimited range." It can only deal damage to the target when both the attacker and the target are on the same line, and when there are no other opponents between them. (If there is another opponent between the attacker and the target, the attacker has to target the closer person first.)

Q6: Can the Grand Inquisitor play Mind Control on an opponent and then attack the player he controls?

A6: Yes. The player under control has to give their entire hand to the Grand Inquisitor at the beginning of the round and lets the Grand Inquisitor play a card and take actions for them. That player is simply used by the Grand Inquisitor. Therefore, even though two of them are allies for this round, the Grand Inquisitor can still attack the character. Also, the Grand Inquisitor may force the player to use skills that apply to allies, such as the Duchess' Teleport and the Priest's White Magic, on the Grand Inquisitor since they are allies this round.

Q7: There are two HP bars, one is ♂ and one is ♀, on the Tycoon's character board. Also, some of his Action cards have "♂ ♀" symbols. What do those symbols do?

A7: The Tycoon is divided into two units, indicated with the "♂ ♀" symbols on the character board. Both units have their own HP bar (the total HP will be the same as other Oligarch characters). They also have their unique Action cards, with "♂" or "♀" symbols as indication. The way to play those cards is the same as other Action cards.

When the Rebel players deal damage to the Tycoon, they have to specify which unit's HP is reduced and cannot distribute the damage between the two units with a single attack. When one of the units' HP reaches zero, that unit dies. The Tycoon's character figure remains at the same location on the game board, but the player has to remove the dead unit's Action cards from their hand, discard pile, and from play and put them back into the game box. For example, if the ♂ unit dies, remove all Action cards with ♂ symbols. If the card that the Tycoon plays this round is removed, they do not get to do any actions this round.

Once both ♂ and ♀'s HP reach zero, remove the Tycoon's character figure from the game board. The Rebel players still have to rescue all the prisoners in order to win.

Character Introduction

Worldview. Asomrof Empire, founded more than a hundred years ago, is the ruler of the world. Although its government is not officially a theocracy, Zealostrasism, which was established more than a thousand years ago, has historically had great influence over royal power. To its believers, the Grand Inquisitor's position is even higher than the Emperor.

Grand Inquisitor. In the early summer of the 106th year of the Empire, the progressive faction of the imperial council shook the establishment by proposing a bill to decriminalize same-sex relationships. However, there was violent opposition within Zealostrasism to the bill. There was also a huge disagreement about the interpretation of the doctrine regarding the issue between the disciples. With the command of the Grand Inquisitor, Zealostrasism conducted a Holy Debate. In the end, the opinions of the anti-homosexual prevailed. Therefore, the Grand Inquisitor announced the New Oracle: homosexuals are the enemies of God and humans. Then, Zealostrasism started to purge society.

Emperor. Meanwhile, the Emperor's attitude was inscrutable. The empire has a mysterious tradition where every emperor must wear the Mask of the Imperial Will for their lifetime. A large number of magical needles pierce through the Emperor's face and into their brain to help them maintain control and ensure that their beliefs never get shaken. This tradition is known as One Empire One Will. The Emperor, who had not previously stated his position, publicly announced that same-sex relationships were the enemies of the country shortly after the Grand Inquisitor released the New Oracle.

Tycoon. A duet of emerging oligarchs, the Tycoon, also expressed their position that homosexuals were aberrations. The Tycoon had accumulated a great amount of wealth through corrupt favor trading with the royal family and the clergy. Eventually, the public envied the Tycoon's success and started to follow the oligarch's position, too.

Imperial Crystal Night. Under the pressure from politicians, disciples, and public opinion, the imperial counsel was forced to dissolve. The Emperor issued the Crystal Decree, in which homosexuals were labeled monstrosities. Families of homosexuals were also maliciously labeled "the devil's clan." A single homosexual would bring shame on the entire family.

Soon, a pogrom known as the Imperial Crystal Night started. Anyone who was considered a homosexual would be sealed in a magic crystal. If the seals are not broken, the crystals gradually crystallize the prisoners and eventually turn them into crystals. These magic crystals float over the sky above the Empire to warn the people to be vigilant and obedient whenever they look up.

At the night of the pogrom, all homosexuals captured by the Empire were imprisoned in the floating crystals. Crystallization could take place at any time. Their lovers, families, and friends ignored the Empire's tyranny and seek to save their beloved ones.

Duchess. The Duchess is extremely skillful and was the first female general in the Empire. She had had a promising future in front of her. However, she was put on the wanted list after she fell in love with the princess. Soon after the princess decided to run away with her, the imperial soldiers who had been watching her for a long time arrested the princess. The Emperor chose to crystalize the princess as a warning to the public. In order to save her lover, the Duchess returned to the Empire. Not only did she have to fight against the army she had led in the past, but also had to fight against the country to which she had sworn fealty.

Prince. The prince is the Emperor's half nephew, third in line for the throne, and the guardian of the mysteries of the royal sword magic. He liked to knit since childhood and designed his own gorgeous outfits. When he fell in love with another noble prince, he dissolved the marriage arrangement made by his Zealostrasist father. The church immediately arrested his lover. He gave up his right to inherit, and sought out to rescue his lover.

Knight. The Knight had defended the border and made a lot of wealth by trading favors with the Tycoon. He did not care about the world at first and even supported those who were hostile to homosexuals. However, it changed when he discovered that his daughter was arrested during the pogrom. The Knight decided to return to the castle to save his daughter. He would bring his daughter home or die trying.

Priest. The priest was born to a magician family and excelled at white crystal magic. White magic could heal both physical and mental damage, but was defiled by the Empire when the Emperor used it to execute the prisoners. She was distressed by the situation and then found out that her feminine son was reported as a homosexual and then was imprisoned. In order to save her beloved son, she dedicated her magic skills to the cause of freeing the prisoners.

Rebel Soldier. The Rebel Soldier long opposed the imperial dictatorship and sought a return to the liberal republic of legend, a word that seems strange and unfamiliar to the people nowadays. Rebel Soldier claims that this land, before the Empire was founded, was full of the so-called "air of freedom." Long ago, Asomrof was not the name of this land, but its name was said to be spelled backwards instead. The leader of the Rebels got arrested after an uprising, and the Rebel Soldier, who was the best archer in the army, vowed to rescue their leader and return the original name back to this land.

Apostate. Based on the tradition of Zealostrasism, after the former Grand Inquisitor passes away, the new one, who was selected beforehand, would succeed. However, the situation changed tremendously recently. The former Grand Inquisitor suffered from a serious illness and had to hand over the position to an obstinate new Grand Inquisitor. After the release of the New Oracle that was hostile to homosexuals, many disciples who supported same-sex partners were all excommunicated and became known as the Apostates. Meanwhile, the seriously ill former Grand Inquisitor became labeled a heretic.

The "apostates" strongly noted that, according to the ancient scriptures of the church, the Grand Inquisitors do not speak for God, but are merely a leader created by the religious system. One of the apostates decided to revolt, rescue their former leader, and restore the liberalism of the church.