Dungeon Lite: Orcs and Knights Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Hero Profile Cards
• Experience Cards
• Action Cards
• Equipment Cards
• Magic Cards
• Chest Cards
• Enemy Phase Cards
• Enemy Profile Cards
• Terrain Segments
• Character Figures
• Doors
• Energy, Damage, Experience, and Time Tokens
• Dice
• Setup
• Phases of the Game
  • 1) Event Phase
  • 2) Player Phase
  • 3) Enemy Phase
• Tie-Break Roll
• Difficulty
• Tips
• Credits

Goal of the Game

The goal of the game is to find the "treasure room" and kill the Dragon that guards it. You must do it quickly, because the Orcs have sounded the alarm and soon too many enemies will arrive for you to escape alive. When the Dragon dies, the game ends. You can also complete missions to add more variety to the game.

Components

• 8 Hero Profile cards
• 4 Experience cards
• 21 Enemy cards
• 14 Enemy Profile cards
• 47 Action cards
• 28 Equipment cards
• 6 Magic cards
• 16 Chest cards
• 11 Terrain segments
• 4 Mission cards
• 8 Hero figures
• 1 Door figure
• 33 Enemy figures: 7 bosses, 10 Goblins, 6 Orcs, 3 Beast-Orcs, 3 Undead, 1 Troll, 2 Spiders, and 1 Spider Queen
• 15 Energy tokens
• 12 Damage tokens
• 4 Time tokens
• 4 Experience tokens
• 5 Chest tokens
• 6 Attack dice
• 3 Defense dice

Hero Profile Cards

These profiles contain the characters' attributes.

Melee attack: the number of attack dice you roll to attack enemies that are in your own zone.

Ranged attack: the number of attack dice you roll to attack enemies that are not in your zone. A ranged attack requires spending 1 energy token.

Range: the number of zones the shot can reach.

Example: a weapon with range 2 can fire at enemies that are 1 or 2 zones away from the hero.

Beyond this number you may still fire, but with a penalty of +1 extra defense die for the defender for every zone past the weapon's range, up to a maximum range of 4 zones. A ranged attack must target a maximum of 4 zones away and needs an orthogonal line of sight. Other figures do not block line of sight. These rules are the same for enemies.

Defense: the number of defense dice rolled when defending. The maximum in the game is 3 defense dice.

Life: the number of action cards the character has. When a character takes wounds, you must choose and discard that same number of action cards from your character. You can have 0 cards, but if you take wounds while holding no cards, your character is knocked out. When all heroes are knocked out, the game ends.

Energy: the number of energy tokens the heroes have. Energy is used to make ranged attacks, cast magic, or perform certain actions. Energy is replenished by the effect of some action cards and upon gaining 10 experience.

Movement: the number of zones the characters can move.

Example: with 2 movement, you can move 1 or 2 zones.

Movement must be completed before taking other actions. In other words, you cannot move, take actions, and then finish moving, except to open doors. You may move, open a door, and then move backward or forward if you did not use up all of your movement.

Critical: character abilities that trigger when they roll a critical result on the dice.

Class: the race or specialty of the heroes. You may choose the hero's gender, although the change is purely cosmetic. There may never be two characters of the same race in play at the same time; that is, if one player has chosen to play the Mage card, another player cannot choose the female Mage character card.

• Warrior: a balanced fighter. Their armor gives them the best defense.
• Dwarf: short and stocky; fearsome in melee combat.
• Elf: slender and agile; skilled with the bow.
• Mage: an expert in magic; physically weak.

Dazed: the back of the hero profile card is its dazed state. When a hero is dazed by any effect (such as being poisoned or falling into a trap), flip the hero's card to its "dazed" side to remember this effect, and their movement is limited to 1 during that player phase. It cannot be modified in any way. Its effect lasts only 1 turn for the hero, after which the hero's card is flipped back to its normal side.

Experience Cards

These cards keep track of the experience points gained by killing enemies. Each enemy, when it dies, grants a different amount of experience to the hero who kills it, as shown on its attribute card.

When you reach 10 experience, you may spend it to obtain equipment. You also recover all of your energy. The Mage, upon reaching 10 experience, may obtain equipment or a new magic spell. If you gain more than 10 experience, you keep the leftover amount.

Action Cards

These are cards the heroes use to perform actions. They are discarded to carry out the action written on the card, or to perform the basic actions move, attack, and revive. You may discard as many as you like, in any order.

Action cards also represent the hero's life, so use them carefully — the fewer you have left, the less life you have.

During each Event Phase you receive 2 new action cards, up to the maximum of your hero's life attribute. When the deck runs out, shuffle the spent cards and form a new deck.

Action cards must be used on the player's own turn unless a card specifies otherwise. Some cards may be used during the enemy turn, such as Counterattack, Defense, or Adrenaline.

Some action cards contain events that must be resolved without needing to discard the card, such as Trap, Chest, Adrenaline, and enemy appearances. Enemies generated this way are placed in the deployment zone closest to the hero.

Equipment Cards

These cards grant advantages to the hero for the whole adventure. They are obtained upon reaching 10 experience and from chests. There is no maximum number of these cards you can hold, but you may never hold 2 identical ones. You may choose which one to equip, although some are exclusive to a particular class.

They carry an energy symbol in the center of the card with a number indicating the energy cost to spend each time it is used.

Magic Cards

These cards can only be used by the Mage, who may keep them for the whole adventure. The game always starts with 1 card chosen by the player. You may obtain more, or learn more magic, upon gaining 10 experience. To use them, the player must spend as much energy as the card indicates.

The attack spells Fire, Lightning, and Mind Control count as attacks, and you must spend an action card plus the energy cost to play them. Their range, if they have one, cannot be exceeded. The rest of the magic spells do not require spending a card and have no limit on their use.

Chest Cards

These cards are drawn at random when searching chests found in the terrain. They are removed after use. They may contain equipment, weapons, and other aids.

Using these items does not require spending an action card or an energy token, although using some of them (such as weapons and spells) counts as an attack.

You cannot exceed the range shown on the card. You may not hold 2 identical cards; if you draw a duplicate, return it to the deck and draw another, then shuffle.

Heroes in the same zone may exchange these cards with each other at no cost. When the deck runs out, gather the used cards and shuffle a new deck.

Enemy Phase Cards

These cards are used to control the horde of basic enemies (Goblins, Orcs, and Beast-Orcs) during the Enemy Phase. They also represent the time the heroes have to complete their mission: when a new enemy card can no longer be drawn, the alarm has drawn in so many enemies that escaping the dungeon becomes impossible; at that moment the game ends.

At the start of the Enemy Phase, draw 1 enemy phase card. Follow its instructions, respecting the behavior of each enemy (see "Enemy Behavior" below).

The possible actions for basic enemies are:

A) The Goblins move and attack. B) The Orcs move and attack. C) The Beast-Orcs move and attack.

When one of these actions occurs, that enemy type activates: first they move, then they attack, in that order. If none of that enemy type is in play when the enemy phase card is revealed, 1 will be placed per hero in their nearest deployment zone. These enemies do not attack during this phase. The rest of the basic enemies neither move nor attack.

D) Everyone attacks: all basic enemies attack and do not move. E) Everyone moves and attacks: all basic enemies move and then attack.

In any of these 5 cases, if an enemy cannot attack because it lacks line of sight or is more than 4 zones from the hero, then instead it runs: it moves twice and does not attack. This applies only to basic enemies: Goblins, Orcs, and Beast-Orcs. The rest of the secondary enemies always activate on every Enemy Phase, regardless of what the "enemy phase" card shows. On their turn they first move, then attack, and do not stop at cover.

Enemy behavior:

Each activated enemy moves toward the nearest hero up to the maximum of its movement attribute without stopping at cover, and attacks in melee or at range depending on how far it ends up from the hero (with some exceptions).

Goblin: moves until it is 2 zones from the nearest hero, within line of sight, to attempt a ranged attack. If the hero is behind cover or 1 zone away, it moves there instead.

Orc: seeks melee combat. If its movement does not let it reach melee range, it stops at cover.

Undead: can be knocked down but not eliminated. If knocked down, lay the figure on its side to show it is disabled for 2 turns. Place a time token on it to track the turns. After 2 turns, during the following Event Phase, it gets back up at full life. It is only permanently removed with banishment spells (only then does it grant experience).

Spider / Spider Queen: if they deal damage, they poison the hero, dazing them. Flip the hero's card to remember this effect. The experience granted when the Queen dies applies to all heroes.

Troll: the experience granted when it dies applies to all heroes.

Enemy Profile Cards

These cards contain the attributes of each enemy.

Enemies are divided into:

• Basic: Goblins, Orcs, and Beast-Orcs.
• Secondary: the rest of the game's enemies (Spiders, Undead, Troll, and mission bosses).

Life: equal to the number of players.

Occupancy points in the zone.

Experience.

Terrain Segments

These small boards represent the dungeon's rooms and corridors.

Terrain name: shows the name of the terrain.

Terrain enemies: shows how many enemies appear when that segment is explored. Those enemies appear in this zone of the segment (B = Beast-Orcs, O = Orcs, and G = Goblins). This number scales with the number of players. Ignore negative results.

Example: in Corridor C there are -2 Beast-Orcs. If there is only 1 player, the result would be 1 - 2 = -1. This is understood as changing that -1 to zero.

Deployment zone: enemies that appear from exploring the terrain, or because of an event, are placed in this zone:

• They must be placed in order, from strongest to weakest. The strongest enemy is the one with the most melee attack dice.
• If enemies are generated in a zone that is fully occupied, they are generated in the nearest available deployment zone instead.
• If the hero who generates an enemy is standing on a deployment zone, the enemies are placed in the next-nearest deployment zone instead (even if another hero is standing there), or in the same zone if there is no other option.
• If several deployment zones are available at the same distance, enemies are placed where there are already the most enemies. In case of a tie, place them wherever hurts the mission the most.
• When in doubt, choose where to place it.

Zones: the terrain is divided into zones that are used to limit movement. If a hero's "movement" attribute is "2", they may spend any action card to move up to 2 zones of terrain.

Each terrain segment zone has an occupancy capacity of 6; once that occupancy is reached, the zone is said to be fully occupied. Heroes are considered to occupy 0, while each enemy has its own occupancy points as described on its enemy profile card. If an enemy ends its movement in a fully occupied zone, it must instead be placed in the previous zone that is not fully occupied. Fully occupied zones can be passed through if the movement ends in a zone that is not fully occupied. No more enemies can be generated in fully occupied zones; they are generated in the nearest possible zone instead. Heroes may occupy fully occupied zones.

Exits: the arrows show the terrain's exits. They are interpreted as closed doors leading to other rooms or corridors. Face-down terrain segments are placed at these exits and are flipped over when a hero opens the door.

Cover: some zones may have a highlighted object that serves as cover for characters. It grants +1 defense die against ranged attacks (the maximum of 3 defense dice can never be exceeded). Cover applies to all heroes and enemies standing in the zone with the cover.

Character Figures

The game includes figures representing the heroes and enemies.

The maximum number of enemies is limited by the game's components: 10 Goblins, 6 Orcs, 3 Beast-Orcs, 3 Undead, 2 Spiders, 1 Spider Queen, 1 Troll, and 1 Dragon (or final boss). If an instruction calls for generating one and all of that type are already in play, none is placed.

Doors

There is 1 Door figure. With the "bar the door" action card you can place a door between the exits of 2 terrain segments, blocking enemy advance and attacks. To place the door you must be standing in the exit's zone.

When enemies reach the zone with the barred door, they cannot open it during the next 2 Enemy Phases. Mark the door with time tokens to track the turns.

After 2 Enemy Phases, during the next Event Phase, the door opens (remove the door token).

If an enemy cannot attack the nearest hero because of a barred door, it attacks another hero instead.

Note: heroes may open the door whenever they want.

Energy, Damage, Experience, and Time Tokens

Energy tokens: mark the heroes' energy. Place energy tokens on the hero's card and discard them as they are spent.

Damage tokens: mark the damage taken by enemy figures. Place them next to a wounded enemy. When it has received as many as its life attribute, the enemy is eliminated.

Experience tokens: mark the experience gained from killing enemies. Place them on the appropriate experience level on the experience card.

Time tokens: used to track the number of phases that have passed.

Chest tokens: used to mark chests in the terrain.

Dice

Red dice are attack dice, and blue dice are defense dice.

On red dice: normal Hit and critical Hit.

On blue dice: normal Block and critical Block.

Setup

To set up the game, follow these instructions:

1. Place the Entrance terrain segment face-up in the center of the table.
2. Place the terrain segments called for by the mission you chose face-down around the Entrance segment, at each of its exits.
3. Each player chooses a hero and takes their hero card and an experience card. Each player places their energy and experience tokens on top of them.
4. Place the heroes on the hero symbol.
5. Place the indicated enemies on the terrain's deployment zone.
6. Shuffle the chest cards and the enemy cards separately and place each deck face-down.
7. Set aside the "Troll" action card. Shuffle the rest of the action cards and deal each player a number of action cards equal to their life attribute.
8. After dealing the cards, each player reveals any enemy cards they hold, and those enemies' figures are placed on the Entrance segment's deployment zone.
9. Set aside roughly one third of the action cards, shuffle the Troll card into the remaining portion, and place that portion beneath the part you set aside. Place this whole deck face-down.

Note: if the "Troll", "Undead", "Trap", or "Chest" card comes up in the initial deal, return it to the deck, draw a new card, and shuffle.

Phases of the Game

1. Event Phase
2. Player Phase
3. Enemy Phase

1) Event Phase

During this phase each hero receives 2 action cards taken from the top of the deck, without exceeding their life attribute, and any events are resolved. When a player receives an action card containing an event, they must reveal it, resolve the event, and keep the card so they can later use it to perform a basic action.

When the deck runs out, shuffle the spent cards and place them face-down again.

2) Player Phase

During each Player Phase, the players agree together on the heroes' turn order.

Each hero must finish all of their actions before a teammate's turn begins. A hero may spend as many action cards as they like to perform the following basic actions, in any order they choose:

A) Move B) Attack C) Action D) Revive E) Other actions

A) Move: discard any 1 action card from your hand to move up to your movement attribute, unless a card specifies otherwise. You may perform this action only once per turn. After moving, you cannot use another action that involves movement. For example, after moving you cannot carry out "Onslaught" even without moving again, because that action itself involves both attack and movement.

B) Attack: discard any 1 action card to attack. You may perform this action only once per turn unless a card specifies otherwise. The attack may be melee, ranged, or magical.

Note: a ranged attack requires spending 1 energy token and having line of sight. The range of ranged attacks by Heroes and basic enemies can be exceeded up to a maximum of 4 zones, but with a penalty of +1 extra defense die for the defender for every zone beyond the weapon's range. A magic attack requires spending the energy specified on the card and having line of sight.

Attacks are resolved by following these steps:

1st. Roll the dice: choose an enemy. Roll your attack dice and that enemy's defense dice at the same time. Each critical hit or block counts as a normal one but additionally triggers the attacker's or defender's effects, respectively, if any. Each block from the defender cancels 1 hit, canceling normal hits first. Each unblocked hit causes 1 wound. The maximum number of attack dice is 6.

2nd. Wounds: when an enemy takes a wound, place a damage token on it. When it has received as many wounds as its life attribute, it is eliminated and any excess wounds are ignored. You then gain experience according to the enemy. After attacking, you cannot use another action that involves attacking. For example, after attacking you cannot carry out Assault even without attacking again, because that action involves both attack and movement.

C) Action: discard 1 action card to carry out the action described on its text. If you use an action that involves movement (even if the character does not actually move), you cannot move again this phase. Likewise, if you choose an action that involves attacking (even if you do not actually attack), you cannot attack again this phase.

D) Revive: spend any 1 action card to revive a knocked-out teammate. You must be in the teammate's zone.

When a hero takes a wound while holding no action cards, they are knocked out (lay the figure down); they cannot level up, benefit from effects, or receive cards. When revived, they immediately receive 1 action card.

E) Other actions: during the game you may take other actions that do not require spending action cards, such as "opening doors" and "opening chests".

Opening doors: you may open as many doors as you like. To do so, simply be in the zone of an exit and flip the terrain segment face-up. Once revealed, it must be placed so that the exit arrow of the terrain matches the entrance arrow of the new terrain.

After this, place the new terrain's enemies, a chest token (if there is one), and more face-down terrain segments at its possible exits. You may then continue moving if you had not used up all of your movement when you opened the door. You are not required to enter the new terrain.

Important!: if the last terrain segment discovered would make it impossible to continue the mission, replace it with the next one from the deck and shuffle. Do the same if the mission's objective terrain is discovered before 5 segments have been placed (not counting the Entrance), or if the new segment has exits whose terrain would overlap with another terrain segment. If the terrain segments overlap and there is no other option, treat them as being on different levels.

Opening chests: place 1 chest token at the back of rooms with a chest. To open it, you must be in its zone and roll 3 attack dice. If you roll at least 1 normal hit, the chest opens and the hero takes 1 chest card.

For every enemy in the zone, roll 1 defense die (up to a maximum of 3). Each block (normal or critical) cancels 1 normal hit. Each hero in the zone may make one attempt per turn.

Enemies controlled by the Mage may also open chests.

Mission objects are obtained the same way (in addition to the chest card per player) and benefit all players.

Example of the Player Phase: The game has begun. The Mage begins her turn and spends the Goblin card and 1 energy token to make a ranged attack against an Orc in zone 3. She deals it 2 wounds. She then uses Bar the Door from zone 1 to place a door behind her and prevent attacks from the rear. She also uses Drain and spends Trap to recover the energy token. Finally, she spends Flask to recover all of her life next turn.

It's the Warrior's turn. He uses the Spider card to move to zone 3 and uses Dexterity to finish off the wounded Orc and kill the Goblin. He then opens the door on the left exit at no cost. The new terrain is placed and the enemies indicated are added to the deployment zone. The Player Phase ends.

3) Enemy Phase

1st. Draw an enemy turn card. If a card cannot be drawn, the game is lost. 2nd. The basic enemies on the enemy phase card and the rest of the secondary enemies activate. 3rd. The attack is carried out as described under the Player Phase.

Basic enemies (Goblins, Orcs, and Beast-Orcs):

• They activate according to the instructions on the enemy phase card.
• If none of that type are in play when the enemy phase card is revealed, 1 is placed per hero in its nearest respective deployment zone, and it will not attack this phase.
• If they cannot attack because they lack line of sight or are more than 4 zones away, they run: they move twice and do not attack.
• The range of Goblins', Orcs', and Beast-Orcs' ranged attacks can be exceeded up to a maximum of 4 zones, but with a penalty of +1 extra defense die for the hero for every zone beyond that, up to a maximum of 3 defense dice.

Secondary enemies (Spiders, Undead, Troll, mission boss):

• They always activate on every Enemy Phase, regardless of what the enemy phase card shows. They move toward the nearest hero up to the maximum of their movement attribute and attack in melee or at range depending on how far they end up from the hero.
• They do not stop at cover.
• They never run.
• They cannot exceed their range.

Enemy initiative:

Enemy initiative determines which enemy activates first.

• The first enemy to attack is the closest one (see note 1 below). Enemies then continue attacking in order of distance.
• At equal distance, the strongest enemy has initiative (see note 2 below).
• At equal strength, the enemy from the larger group has initiative.

Note 1: if the enemy can attack 2 or more heroes at the same distance, the first attack goes to the hero with the least life. If they have the same life, randomly decide which hero is attacked first with a tie-break roll (see "Tie-Break Roll" in this manual). If needed, establish an attack order with a tie-break roll. Then, at equal distance, the enemies alternate their attacks between heroes, respecting initiative.

Note 2: the strongest enemy is considered to be the one with the most melee attack dice.

Note: if a player spends cards during the enemy turn (for example, Defense or Counterattack), count the number of cards each player holds before spending them. This matters for determining what life level they had at the start of this phase, in order to break ties over which hero is attacked.

If several enemies have the same number of attack dice, initiative goes to the one that would hurt the party most. For example, the Spider goes before the Orc, and the Spider Queen goes before the Undead (since they can also poison the victim), or in case of a tie, the one with fewer wounds.

At equal distance, the mission boss always has initiative.

When in doubt, let chance decide.

During this phase, heroes may defend themselves and spend certain action cards such as Counterattack (EVEN IF YOU ATTACKED DURING YOUR OWN PHASE), Defense, or Adrenaline.

Tie-Break Roll

When a situation arises during the game that requires breaking a tie (for example, to determine which hero an enemy attacks), each hero rolls the same number of attack or defense dice as shown in this table:

Tied Players	Dice
4 players	2
3 players	3
2 players	4

Whoever rolls the most criticals wins the roll. If two or more players roll the same number of criticals, the player with the most normal hits or blocks wins. If needed, roll as many times as it takes to break the tie until you have an order for enemy attacks or other random decisions. Enemy attacks start with the loser and continue in increasing order of successes.

Example of the Enemy Phase: At the start of the phase, one of the players draws an enemy card that says "all enemies move and attack." The closest enemy is the Beast-Orc in zone 4, and it makes a melee attack against the Dwarf.

The next attack is made by the Orc in zone 1, since it is the strongest one that is closest, and it moves 1 zone to make a melee attack against the Warrior.

Next the Goblins attack. The ones in zone 3 attack first since they are the larger group compared to those in zone 1. They attack at range and alternate their attack between the Dwarf and the Warrior. First one Goblin attacks the Dwarf (since the previous attack was against the Warrior), another attacks the Warrior, and the last one attacks the Dwarf again. Finally, the Goblin in zone 1 backs away 1 zone and makes a ranged attack against the Warrior. The Enemy Phase ends.

Example 2 of the enemy turn: At the start of the Enemy Phase, a player draws an enemy card that reads: "all enemies attack."

The closest and strongest enemy is the Orc in zone 3, and it attacks the hero with the most wounds (the fewest action cards). In this case that is the Elf, who has 4 action cards left, while the Warrior has 5, so it makes a ranged attack against the Elf.

Next to attack are the Goblins in zone 3, being the larger group, and they attack at range, first one against the Warrior (the previous attack was against the Elf), then another against the Elf. Next to attack is the Goblin in zone 1, which attacks the Warrior at range. Finally, the Beast-Orc in zone 4 attacks the Elf at range.

The Enemy Phase ends.

Difficulty

If you find the game too difficult, follow one or more of the following instructions. The more options you choose, the easier the game becomes.

1. Each hero takes 1 free equipment card of their choice at the start of the adventure. Recommended if you are playing solo (with only 1 hero).
2. Remove 1 or 2 "Trap" action cards.
3. Remove 1 or 2 "Undead" action cards from the game.
4. Remove the "Troll" action card from the game.

Tips

Dungeon Lite, Orcs and Knights is a survival adventure, in which traps appear when you least expect them, enemies show up at the worst moments, and other obstacles ruin your strategy.

This makes winning a demanding but very rewarding task. With practice you'll learn to make the most of even the worst action cards to get by and hold out one more turn. Who knows what cards will come up next turn. Only by managing all the resources at your disposal and upgrading your equipment will you survive.

Make use of cover, the corners of the terrain, and close doors to avoid some attacks. Use your energy for opportune efforts, and flee if you think you won't survive the enemy turn; you don't have to attack on every turn. Spend consumables to save action cards. Don't get stuck lingering in the terrain — enemies will keep appearing, and time is not on your side.

Try different equipment combinations. Sometimes a light loadout that gives you agility is better than a heavy, lethal one.

Good luck and have fun! Thanks for playing!

Credits

Author and illustrator: José Marc Ruiz

Editor: Servando Carballar

Production and proofreading: Raquel Puerto

Published by: Gen X Games S.L.

Gen X Games s.l. — C/ Severo Ochoa 15, Nave 14, 28521 Rivas Vaciamadrid, Madrid — www.genxgames.es