Encounters: Bravest Warriors
Encounters: Bravest Warriors Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Blue vs. Red
There are two standalone game decks for Encounters: Bravest Warriors: Blue and Red. They are purchased separately and can be played separately, or they can be combined together to play a super-sized game! The rules may reference cards from either deck.
When combining both decks, all the same rules apply with the following exceptions:
- Gas Powered Stick: If both decks are being used, only use one Gas Powered Stick. If you are playing the Longer Game (see Winning The Game, below) and there are 5+ players, use both sticks. However, no person can have two sticks at once.
Encounter Card Symbols
- +2: Extra Heroic Points. If Heroic points are scored, this card scores an additional number of points, as indicated, beyond its normal column score.
- +1: Becomes Item Card. If this Encounter is defeated, immediately place it in your playing area as a "+X to any die roll" Item card. This card can be used at any time (including during the same battle) and is then discarded to the Encounter Deck when used.
- No Items: The Active Player may not use Items to defeat this Encounter.
- No Assists: No player may Assist the Active Player to defeat this Encounter.
Setup
Use the following rules to set up the game:
- Each player will need some way to track their Heroic points; piece of paper, smart phone, unauthorized cashews...whatever is your hero's preferred way.
- Separate the 55 cards into their respective card types: the Hero cards, the Encounter cards and the Item cards. The game also uses six-sided dice (sometimes abbreviated as "D6").
- Each player should select the Hero card they'll be using during the game. Place that card in your playing area in front of you; Item cards you purchase will be placed into this area during game play. Any Hero cards not selected by a player will not be used in the current game and are set aside.
- Shuffle the Encounter Deck and place it in the center of the table. If at any time during game play the Encounter Deck is empty, simply shuffle the discard into a new draw deck. From here on out the rules and cards will just say "Encounter(s)."
- Shuffle the Items Deck and place it in the center of the table. If at any time during game play the Items Deck is empty, simply shuffle the discards into a new draw deck. (If there are no discards because all Items are held by the players, then no Items can be purchased until one is used and placed in the discard pile to become the new draw pile.) From here on out the rules and cards will just say "Item(s)".
- Randomly determine who will start first--becoming the Active Player--and give them the 6 dice; set the bonus seventh die (which is a different color from the rest) aside to be used once the corresponding Item is in play.
You're now ready to play, mighty heroes!
Are You New to Encounters?
If you're brand new to Encounters: Bravest Warriors, each player draws one Item and puts it in their playing area. (Once you've played a game and figured out the strategies, heroes know it's more heroic to start the game without an Item and still achieve victory!)
The Golden Rule
If the rule on a card ever contradicts the rules here, the card wins. When in doubt, always go with the rules on the cards.
How to Play the Game
Each player enters a battle (their turn) and attempts to score as many Encounters as possible by rolling dice and using them to defeat each card (which locks those dice on a card). Encounters are revealed in columns with each new card placed below the previously defeated Encounter. If all dice are locked, a new column may be started by picking up all dice and placing newly revealed cards into a second column, then a third, and so on. A player may keep rolling unlocked dice against newly revealed Encounters until they fail to defeat an Encounter. At that time, other players may attempt to Assist, or Coattail. Regardless, play will pass to the left until one player scores enough Heroic points to win.
Basic Turn
Starting with the first Active Player, flip up the first Encounter into the First Column. The player then rolls all six dice.
To defeat the Encounter the player selects one or more dice with a total that exactly matches the Encounter Value shown on the card. Place these dice on the Encounter; depending upon the Encounter Value and the results of the die roll this could be anything from 1 to all the dice rolled. They are considered locked and out of play (for now). (Items allow for tweaking dice to appropriately match values on the Encounter; see Item Cards, below.)
The player can now choose to score, taking his earned Heroic points and end his turn, or he can choose to push his luck and flip up the next Encounter.
If a player flips up the next Encounter, he places it below the first Encounter, still in that First Column. He re-rolls any unlocked dice and then once again tries to match roll results to the Encounter Value. If the player fails to match dice to the Encounter Value, his turn his over.
A player's turn continues until one of three things happens: the player manages to secure all dice on defeated Encounter Cards (Escalation), the player chooses to end their battle and score all defeated Encounters (Scoring), or the player cannot match any dice to the Encounter Value (ending a turn in Defeat).
Escalation
If a player manages to lock all of the dice (including the bonus die, if used) onto Encounters and wants to push their luck, the player may choose to Escalate the battle! The next Encounter is flipped up into the Second Column.
Recover all locked dice. (If the bonus die was used, return it to the side of the game. It does not carry over.)
Play continues with the player rolling dice, using Items, and locking as many dice onto revealed Encounters just as they did before. If all dice are locked again, the player may Escalate into the Third Column, then a fourth, and so on.
As always, however, regardless of how many Encounters have been defeated or how many columns have been "unlocked," if a player fails to defeat an Encounter he's flipped up, he loses all accumulated points and his turn is over.
Scoring
At any time after the Active Player has defeated all revealed Encounters but before he or she reveals the next new Encounter, the Active Player may choose to score all defeated Encounters. This will end his or her turn.
The player scores 1 Heroic point for every Encounter defeated in the First Column, 2 Heroic points for every Encounter defeated in the Second Column, 3 in the third, and so on.
Some Encounters also earn the player bonus points. These are added over and above the value of each card. For example, a Memory Donk in the Third Column will earn 5 total Heroic points!
Once scored, all Encounters are discarded, and play passes to the next player on the left.
Ending a Turn
If the player cannot match any dice values to the current Encounter Value, the player's turn is over. The player receives no Heroic points, even for defeated Encounters, unless another player can Assist.
Not Using An Item To Defeat Encounter: The Active Player can choose to not use an Item (or Ability) to defeat an Encounter and voluntarily end his turn.
Assist
Any or all players may use an Item or Hero Ability (if applicable) to help the player defeat the current Encounter that the Active Player failed to defeat. If an Assist occurs and the Encounter is defeated, the entire battle (i.e. all defeated Encounters) score normally. However, divide the total by the number of players assisting (round down) and assign that value to each player (both the Active Player as well as any Assisting players). For example, if 10 points are up for grabs in the battle and 2 players Assist, the Active Player and the two Assisting players (3 players total) each get 3 Heroic points. If there is ever any doubt who offered to assist first, ties are resolved in clockwise fashion from the Active Player.
Assistance may not be refused, even if it means that no one scores any points!
Assists are also allowed if the current player could defeat the Encounter with an Item or Ability, but chooses not to do so.
If the Assisting player(s) was Defeated, discard the current Encounter. Play passes to the next player in clockwise order.
Next Player
The player to the left now becomes the Active Player and his or her turn follows the same path as the previous, with one possible exception: if the previous player was Defeated (see above) with Encounter Cards already locked, the new player may attempt to ride their coattails onto a more dramatic victory!
Coattailing
At the end of the previous player's turn, the next player (now the Active Player) can choose to either start fresh and discard all previous Encounter Cards--recovering all dice--or they can attempt to Coattail onto the previous player's turn, taking the locked Encounters as their own and continuing their turn.
Coattailing can only go once around the table. If everyone tries to coattail and they all fail and it returns to the original Active Player for those Encounters, they are all discarded and the player starts fresh with a brand new Encounter. Even if new defeated Encounters are added by additional players (but not scored so that it keeps coattailing), if it makes it back to the original Active Player, all Encounters are discarded.
Items Are Your Friends
It seems counter-intuitive to spend Heroic points to buy Items--since Heroic points lead to victory--which means you may be tempted to hoard your points and not buy Items. But trust us...it's extremely difficult to win the game without them. You get far more points out of them in the long run than you put in. In general, you should be looking to have 3 to 5 Items in your playing area as quickly as you can.
Item Cards
Items are most often used to tweak dice results or re-roll dice in order to match current Encounter Values.
After the Encounter is revealed, but before any roll to defeat an Encounter is made, a player may spend 2 Heroic points to purchase 1 Item which is drawn blindly from the Items deck. (This means players must defeat some Encounters and score them at the start of the game before having enough Heroic points to purchase Items.)
Players may purchase multiple Items in a single battle. However remember that only 1 Item may be purchased before any roll and every Item costs 2 Heroic points. This means the player must defeat an Encounter and then push his luck to roll up a new Encounter to then purchase a new Item (and, of course, have the necessary Heroic points available). In other words if a player successfully faces five Encounters during a battle, provided he has the 10 Heroic points it will cost, he could purchase a total of 5 Items; 1 Item before each Encounter roll.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, any number of Items can be used during a player's turn or when Assisting another player.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, all Items can only be used once before being discarded.
In summation, there are only two cardinal rules for modifying dice with items:
- You cannot "split" a value on a die.
- You cannot make the value lower than 1 or higher than 6.
Beyond that, you can modify dice values in any combination and multiple times with multiple Items to achieve a result that'll help defeat an Encounter.
The Discard
Some cards (most notably Plum's and Beth's Hero Abilities) allow players to pull cards from the discard. For this reason, Items should be discarded in the order they are used. Encounters, since they are often discarded in stacks, are considered randomly discarded; no player can make an effort to affect the order of discard just to invalidate an ability. Heroes don't do that.
Winning the Game
The first person to 30 Heroic points wins! This win occurs immediately; there is no final round of play around the table.
Shorter & Longer Game: For a shorter game, play to 20 points. For a longer game (especially when playing with 5+ players and both decks combined) go for 50 points!
Solo Play
The following rules changes allow for solo play (all other rules apply as is):
- Do not use the following cards: Chris, Gas-Powered Stick!, Vitamin B12.
- Ignore the Assist and Coattailing rules.
- You must reach 20 Heroic points at the end of 12 turns to win!
To make it more challenging, change that to 10 turns!