Disastles Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• The Shop
• A Round
• Card Placement
• Connections
• Cards with Text
  • Actions
  • Links
  • Passives
  • Negative effects
  • Treasure
• Disasters
• Difficulty Modes
• Winning the Game
• Glossary
• Alternative Playmodes
  • Special Throne Rooms
  • Catastrophes
  • Traditional Card Game
  • No Disasters
  • Co-op
  • Singleplayer

Contents

• 100 Room cards
• 12 Disaster cards
• 13 Catastrophe cards
• 10 Throne Room cards
• 1 "I get to go first!" card
• 2 Rules cards
• 15 DIY custom cards

Setup

Every player places a "Throne Room" card in front of them. Start with the side of the Throne Room that has no text on it.

Take the deck of cards and separate out all of the Disaster and Catastrophe cards. Shuffle the deck. Then, take a small pile of about 15 cards off of the top of the deck. Shuffle 6 random Disasters into the remaining larger pile, then place the small pile on top. This will result in a deck of cards with no Disasters in the first 15 cards. This gives you a chance to build your castle before drawing any Disasters.

The player that was last in a castle of any kind (bouncy castles included) gets to go first, and receives the "I get to go first" card.

The Shop

Take the top 5 cards from the deck and place them face up next to each other in the center of the table. This is the shop. After each round has finished, the remaining cards in the shop are placed into the discard pile and the shop is restocked for the next round.

It should look like this. There is no traditional "hand" of cards.

A Round

The game is structured into rounds. Each round has its own turn order.

The player with the "I get to go first" card gets to take their turn first. Turns are taken clockwise around the table.

During your turn you can do one of the following:

• Choose a card from the shop and place it in your castle. -or-
• Take an action:
  • Basic actions
    • Move an outer room.
    • Swap two of your rooms.
  • Room actions
    • Use an "action" room. -or-
• Do nothing and pass your turn.

Keep in mind that taking a card from the shop is not an action. Any cards that allow you to take bonus actions don't allow you to take cards from the shop.

After all players have taken their turn, all cards remaining in the shop are placed into the discard pile and the "I get to go first!" card is passed to the next player. The player that took the first turn in the last round will now be the last to take their turn in this round.

Card Placement

All room cards have circles placed on at least one of their walls. These are called "connection points". For rooms to be placed in your castle these connection points need to line up. A connection point always has to be met with another connection point. You may never create a situation where a connection point is lined up with a card but not with another connection point, whether that be in your castle or somebody else's. You may not rotate a card before it's placed.

If part of your castle is no longer connected to the Throne Room, discard it.

Connections

Connection points contain one of these three symbols:

(The three symbols are printed as icons in the manual and are not named in its text. They are not reproduced here.)

You aren't required to match these symbols when placing cards but they can be used to reduce Disaster damage. This will be explained in the Disasters section.

To complete a connection, the two connection points must have matching symbols.

Symbols with a golden border around them are special! By matching all golden symbols on a card with corresponding symbols on other cards (don't have to be golden as well), you "activate" the text of the card. Only when a card is activated like this is it considered to have text.

The Throne Room has special connection points. They count as any symbol that is connected to them, including golden connection points.

Cards with Text

The text of cards only becomes active when you have matched their golden symbols properly. There are three different types of cards with text:

Actions

An action card is a card with a powerful effect that takes an action to be used. As explained above, you can take your turn to take an action and activate an action card. Their effects can be used more than once throughout the game. Action cards are marked with the keyword "Action".

Links

A link card can be used immediately when activated. Using Link rooms is optional, unless a card specifically uses the phrasing "you have to". After the effect takes place it can't be used again. However, links can be reused by moving, swapping or otherwise manipulating the required connection points in such a way that the old connection is broken and a new one is established. This allows for long chains of link effects to occur, although the most that may be used in a single chain are 5. Link cards are marked with the keyword "Link".

Passives

Once activated, passive cards provide continuous effects. Passive cards aren't marked by a keyword.

Negative effects

A few cards have negative effects. These always take priority over and override other effects. Special mention goes to Entropic and Cold Vault. If a link gets connected to them and both cards become active the link doesn't activate. If they are connected to a Generator or Energy Core they don't become active. If they then become active the regular way they deactivate Energy Core or Generator they are attached to.

Treasure

There are 25 Vault cards in the deck that give varying amounts of treasure once activated. After all Disasters have been played from the deck, the player with the most treasure wins the game. Vaults follow the same rules as rooms with effects.

In the example shown in the manual (the symbols are icons, see Connections above): You only have the 5 treasures if the room is matched with a [symbol] connection on its left side and a [symbol] connection on the right and bottom side. (The text layer of the PDF does not name these symbols; the printed example is the authority.)

As with all effect rooms: If a connection is missing the room is considered to have no text and no treasure. If the room is connected but then loses one of its connections you also lose the treasure until the room is properly connected again.

Disasters

Before the start of the game you shuffled 6 random Disaster cards into the deck. When a Disaster is drawn from the deck, it is instantly played. If it is drawn in the middle of someone's turn, then it must be dealt with immediately, and the turn will continue as usual afterwards. If a Disaster is discarded it's also instantly played, just as if it was drawn.

When a Disaster is drawn it deals damage to every player. Players have to deal with the damage independently from each other. All of the disasters list how much damage they do. For example:

The Entropy Demon deals X damage, which means it deals one point of damage for every disaster that has previously been drawn in the game.

She deals 1+X damage, which means the number of disasters previously drawn, plus one point of damage.

She simply deals one point of damage.

The damage value "X" deals 1 point of damage per previous Disaster drawn. For example, if the Entropy Demon is the third Disaster drawn it'll deal 2 damage, 3 damage and 1 damage.

Disaster damage is blocked by connections. For every connection in your castle you take one less damage. The same applies for the other symbols. In the previous example you would need 2 connections, 3 connections and 1 connection to not take damage.

For every point of damage you take, you must discard an outer room from your castle. It doesn't matter what kind of damage you take. You can choose which rooms to remove and you may remove them one at a time, meaning after the first was removed you now have a new option for an outer room to remove. If you run out of outer rooms and have to discard your Throne Room, you lose the game and are eliminated from the match.

After a Disaster has been played it goes into a separate discard pile. Replace the card that would usually have been drawn with a new card.

If you draw more than one Disaster, shuffle all but the first drawn Disaster back into the deck, and replace them with new card(s) from the top of the deck. If you then draw Disasters again, play them one after another.

Difficulty Modes

Disastles is a very flexible game and can be easily adjusted to fit your group of players. One good way to adjust the game is by changing the difficulty through changing the number of Disasters in the deck.

If it's your first time playing we recommend you play with 5 Disasters. This is also a good number for a fun casual experience.

For a normal match we recommend 6 Disasters shuffled into the deck. This makes for a nice challenging experience while still allowing everybody to play. The game was balanced around this difficulty.

If you want a challenge we recommend 7 Disasters. If you are more interested in playing a survival game, this difficulty is for you.

8 Disasters is hard mode. This is only recommended for very experienced players and for a group of less than 5.

Any higher than that is not recommended.

Winning the Game

The game ends after all the Disasters have been drawn.

However, if all but one player discards their throne room to Disasters, the surviving player wins the game. If all remaining players lose their throne room at once the game ends in a tie.

In a typical game, there are multiple survivors. Once the game has ended, the winner is decided by the amount of active treasure they have accumulated. If there is a tie in the amount of treasure the player with the most rooms wins instead. If that too is tied then the player with the most connections wins. If that is also tied, then the victory is shared.

Glossary

Action Something a player can do on their turn. Actions can either be swapping two of your rooms, moving one of your outer rooms, or using an "action" card. Taking a card from the shop is not an action.

Can't be manipulated A room that can't be manipulated may not be swapped, moved or rotated. Unless specified otherwise this applies to all players.

Connected If a room's connection point is lined up with the connection point of another room it counts as connected to it. They don't have to have matching symbols.

Discard pile A face up pile of cards next to the main deck of cards. Discarded cards go here. If you are discarding multiple cards, you can choose the order in which you discard the cards. When multiple players are discarding cards at the same time they do so in the current turn order.

Move Moving is a basic action, you also don't need to have a specific card laid out in your castle to be able to move. Moving still requires an action. When you move you may reposition one of your outer rooms to a new location. It has to be an outer room and placement rules have to be respected.

Outer room A room that currently only has a single connection to another room. A room may have multiple possible connection points and can still become an outer room, so long as only one of them is connected to your castle. The walls of the room lining up with another room has no bearing on whether or not the room is considered an outer room.

Rotate Specific cards let your rotate rooms in 90° increments. Unless stated otherwise you may rotate as many 90° increments as you want. This means you can rotate a card back into its starting position if you want. Always remember that you are never allowed to break placement rules, rotations have to still result in valid connections.

Surrounding room A card can have up to 8 surrounding rooms. The phrase "surrounding rooms" doesn't include the center room.

Swap Swapping is a basic action, meaning you don't need to have a specific card laid out in your castle to be able to swap. Swapping still requires an action. When you swap you exchange the positions of two of your already laid out rooms. As long as you respect placement rules you may swap any of your rooms. A few cards allow you to swap rooms with an opponent. This may not break placement rules.

Take X less Disaster damage Disaster damage reduction like this always takes place after all other calculations have been made. It can reduce any type of Disaster damage.

Alternative Playmodes

As part of our Kickstarter we promised to develop additional ways to play the game. Below you will find those alternative playmodes. They are a little experimental, so please let us know which ones you enjoyed!

Special Throne Rooms

Every Throne Room is double printed, one side with text and the other without. This alternate playmode simply uses the side with text on it, all other rules stay the same. This introduces a new keyword:

Flip: Flip the Throne Room, turning it into the simple version without any text. You can do this during your turn before you place a room or take an action. This isn't an action and you can use a Flip effect and in the same turn also place a room or take an action.

We highly recommend to not mix the two kinds of Throne Rooms. Either all players start with the version with text on it or all players start with the version without text. The text versions are more powerful than the ones without, mixing the two kinds would create an unbalanced playing experience. We also recommend that you play with 7 Disasters or mix in some Catastrophes.

Catastrophes

Included with Disastles you will find 13 Catastrophe cards. These are significantly more powerful Disasters and are recommended if you are looking for a more challenging playing experience. Whenever a Catastrophe is drawn it is played just like Disasters would be played. Their text always applies after their normal damage.

Catastrophes are much more dangerous than Disasters. We only recommend playing with a high amount of Catastrophes if you are playing with a group of experienced players. Try mixing them with the regular Disasters. Maybe shuffle in 4 Disasters and 2 Catastrophes and slowly work your way up. Disastles is a deep game with a lot to learn, so take it slow. But slowly ramping up the difficulty can be very fun.

We want to make special mention of the 13th Catastrophe "The 13th Seal". This card is only recommend for very experienced players. Not for the faint of heart.

Traditional Card Game

If you are looking for a more traditional card game experience, this mode is for you! Everything is setup as normal with one exception: Before you shuffle any Disasters into the deck, shuffle the deck and each player draws two cards. These two cards are their starting hand. Don't show your hand to other players.

The game is then played as normal except instead of having to play cards from the shop players draw a card from the shop and add it into their hand. Then they may play any card in their hand. They don't have to play a card from their hand, even if they added one to it.

No Disasters

Another way to play is by removing Disasters from the deck entirely. This will make for an experience that is more about player on player interaction. It can be quite fun and we recommend that you give this a try if your friends and family are the type that like to mess with each other. It does however lack the thrill of trying to survive the Disasters. In this version the game ends when the last card was drawn from the deck.

Co-op

Sometimes you don't want to play against your friend and family but instead alongside them. This mode is for you if you are looking for a cooperative survival experience. Unlike in the normal mode it's not player vs player but instead players vs the deck.

Setup: Place only one throne room. All players build their rooms to that throne room, there is only a single castle. Shuffle the deck of cards. Take off the top 10 cards, then shuffle 12 Disasters into the rest of the deck. Place the 10 cards back on top of the deck. Decide on who goes first.

Rule changes: There is no shop and there is no "I go first" card. After a player has taken their turn it simply goes around the desk clockwise. Before every players turn, discard the top card from the deck. Then the player draws 2 cards from the deck and may place one in the castle. The other is discarded. Anything that refers to the shop now refers to the 2 cards in your hand. Every 10 treasure in your castle reduces unblocked Disaster damage by 1. The following cards may only be used once per round. A round is defined as every player having taken their turn once, starting with the players that originally started the game. Any player may use the effects whenever they want but then no other player may use them until the round is over.

• Commanders Chambers
• Engineers Workshop
• Pilots Quarters

The goal of the game is to survive. With 12 Disasters this should prove quite challenging. As always you can easily decrease the difficulty by removing Disasters or increase it by adding Catastrophes.

If you like you can calculate your high score after surviving all Disasters by using this formula:

(Rooms + Treasure) * (Disasters + (Catastrophes * 1.5))

The following Catastrophes should be excluded from being shuffled into the deck:

• The Starchild
• Celestial Goddess
• Cult of Doom
• Time Anomaly

Singleplayer

In case you are traveling on your own and want to play some on your own, here is a solo version of Disastles!

The goal is to survive and get as high a score as possible. Set the game up as normal. Instead of laying out the shop, discard the top 2 cards from the deck and then draw the next 3. You may then take your turn by either playing one of those three cards or taking an action. Then, discard the remaining cards. Anything that refers to the shop now refers to your hand. For every 5 treasure in your castle you take one less Disaster damage.

After all Disasters have been played you can calculate your high score using this formula:

(Rooms + Treasure) * (Disasters + (Catastrophes * 1.5))

If you want to you can submit your high score by emailing us a picture of the castle you laid out as well as the Disasters or Catastrophe that you had shuffled into the deck. We'll try to have regularly updated leaderboards on our website. This is based on a trust system. If you shuffle the 13th Catastrophe, "The 13th Seal", into the deck it counts as adding a Catastrophe and a Disaster to the deck.

The following Catastrophes should be excluded from being shuffled into the deck:

• The Starchild
• Celestial Goddess
• Cult of Doom
• Time Anomaly