Ephios Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Welcome to Ephios
• Goal of the Game
• Quick Game
  • Components and Setup
  • Course of a Game
    • Affinity Card
  • End of Turn
  • End of the Game
• Campaign
  • Components and Setup
  • Course of a Campaign
  • End of the Campaign
• Solo Mode
  • Setup
  • Goal of the Game
  • Course of Solo Mode
  • End of Turn
  • Clarifications
  • Victory and Defeat

Welcome to Ephios

Contents of the rulebook: Welcome (p.2), Quick Game (p.3), Campaign Mode (p.10), Solo Mode (p.13), Credits (p.16).

There are three game modes in "Ephios":

• Quick Game: If this is your first game, we advise you to start with this mode to discover the basic mechanics of the game and the 5 great alliances.
• Campaign (bookmark-star symbol): After a few Quick Games, we invite you to play Campaign mode to learn more about Ephios and discover the 6 other alliances.
• Solo: In this mode, you must face the plot organised by the Dignitaries of the 5 great alliances.

"Politics is just a series of choices."

Goal of the Game

Recruit the personalities who animate political life in Ephios. Use their effects or use them to unite the great alliances and reach 70% popularity to win the game.

1st player: Whoever manages to convince the others that it should be them starts the game. Failing agreement, the owner of the box decides.

Quick Game

Components and Setup

Warning: Put back in the box all elements bearing the bookmark-star symbol. They are not used during a Quick Game.

1. Popularity board (x1) + Direction token (x1) + Markers (x8)

Place the popularity board (classic side) in the centre of the table.

Then, with 3 or 4 players, place the direction token (clockwise side) on the popularity board.

Then each player receives 2 identical markers, places one on the 0% space of the popularity track and keeps the second as a reminder.

2. Persuasion tokens (x20)

Take 5 persuasion tokens per player in the game to form a supply next to the popularity board.

Each player starts with 2 taken from the supply. These tokens represent your persuasion strength, which you will use to recruit the political personalities of the city.

Warning: You can only have 5 persuasion tokens maximum. If at any time you have more than 5 tokens, return the excess to the supply.

3. Alliance cards / Player aid (x4)

Each player receives one alliance card (front) / player aid (back). The remaining cards are put back in the box.

4. Character cards (x18)

Take the 18 character cards of the quick game mode (without the bookmark-star symbol). Shuffle them and form a face-down draw pile.

There are 2 types of characters in Ephios: personalities and inhabitants.

Personalities (x14):

1. Alliance symbol: There are 5 alliances in play in quick games: the Syndicate, the Academy, the Order, the Company and the Cult.
2. Persuasion value: This value goes from 1 to 3. It indicates the number of persuasion tokens that you must spend to recruit the personality.
3. Name and Alliance: Each personality belongs to an alliance.
4. Effect: Use a personality from your hand to apply its effect.

Inhabitants (x4):

1. Character name
2. Effect: Use an inhabitant from the crossroads to apply its effect.

Warning: An inhabitant card has neither a persuasion value nor an alliance.

5. Affinity cards (x5)

Shuffle the 5 affinity cards of the quick game mode (without the bookmark-star symbol) and deal one to each player, face down. Discard the remaining ones without revealing them. Secretly look at your card.

Your affinity can bring you more popularity when you unite an alliance. It does not count as a card in your hand.

6. The Crossroads

"The crossroads is the meeting place of influential personalities. Your ascension begins here."

Reveal the first 4 cards of the draw pile to form the crossroads. Leave a space available for the future discard pile.

Warning: Character cards are always discarded face up, but you may only look at the last card placed on the discard pile.

Course of a Game

Starting with the 1st player, on your turn, you must perform a single action of your choice among the following 4: 1. Recruit / 2. Debate / 3. Use / 4. Unite

1 - Recruit:

Add to your hand a personality of your choice from the crossroads, by spending as many persuasion tokens as the value indicated on the recruited card (return these tokens to the supply).

Warning: You cannot recruit inhabitants.

OR

Secretly add to your hand the first card of the draw pile by spending 1 persuasion token.

Warning: If it is an inhabitant, reveal the card, immediately apply its effect and discard it.

2 - Debate:

Gain 2 persuasion tokens, taken from the supply, by discarding a personality of your choice from the crossroads.

Warning: You cannot debate with inhabitants.

3 - Use:

Apply the effect (hand-card "use during your turn" icon) of a personality from your hand, or the effect (crossroads icon) of an inhabitant from the crossroads, during your turn.

The effects with the clock icon can be applied from your hand, during or outside your turn, if the required condition (in bold) is fulfilled. Effects with the clock icon do not count as your turn action.

• Hand icon: From your hand (during your turn).
• Clock icon: From your hand (when its condition is fulfilled).
• Crossroads icon: From the crossroads (during your turn).

When you apply an effect (hand, clock or crossroads icon): > Reveal the card > Apply the effect > Discard it.

When an effect says "Add to your hand", do not pay the persuasion value of the card. Unless otherwise indicated, you can add one or more inhabitant cards to your hand, but you must immediately apply their effects in the order of your choice and then discard them.

When a card says "Replay", first apply the effect of the card, then discard it, and finally perform a new action. Do not refill the crossroads (unless indicated on the card), because this new action is not a new game turn.

If you use the Medium and reveal the 1st card of the draw pile but there is no more room on the crossroads, add the card to the crossroads anyway. Refill the crossroads when it again has fewer than 4 cards.

If the effect of a card contradicts the rules, the effect of the card prevails.

Doubt about an effect? Go to: https://distostudio.com/Ephios-personnages

4 - Unite:

If 2 personalities in your hand belong to the same alliance, discard ALL your hand (the affinity is not part of your hand) to move your marker on the popularity board according to the popularity gain of the united alliance:

Warning: You must have 3 Syndicate personalities in hand to unite the Syndicate.

Alliance	Cards in the game	Popularity gain
Syndicate	x4	+20%
Academy	x3	+30%
Order	x3	+30%
Company	x2	+40%
Cult	x2	+40%

Affinity Card

You may apply the effect of your affinity card when you unite:

• If the united alliance matches your affinity, increase your popularity gain by 20%.
• If the united alliance does not match your affinity, but you have in hand at least one personality whose alliance matches, increase your popularity gain by 10%.

The affinity card is then discarded with the affinity cards set aside.

Warning: You only have one affinity per game. Even if the united alliance matches your affinity, you are not obliged to play it.

End of Turn

At the end of your turn:

• If you have more than 3 personalities in hand, discard the excess personalities to keep only 3 (do not apply the effects of the cards thus discarded).
• If there are fewer than 4 cards on the crossroads, complete it by revealing new character cards from the draw pile to reach 4 cards again.

When a player has finished their turn, the next player, following the direction token, must take theirs.

Warning: Rebuilding the draw pile: If you must draw one or more cards and there are not enough cards in the draw pile, rebuild a new draw pile by shuffling the discard pile.

End of the Game

"Ephios is a race for power. And at the top, there can be no tie."

When one of you reaches or exceeds 70% on the popularity board, the game stops immediately. This person is declared the winner, becoming the new High Governor of Ephios.

Campaign

The campaign mode lets you learn more about Ephios. It is played as a succession of quick games called rounds. At the end of each round, the personalities and alliances in play are modified. This time, to win the title of High Governor, you must win 2 rounds.

Components and Setup

Begin by doing the setup exactly as if you were about to play a quick game.

Then take the "Campaign" cards, recognisable by their bookmark-star symbol. Set them all aside without revealing them, except the alliances card (on the back of the "Warning campaign mode" card), which you place, "alliances" side up, next to the popularity board. The set-aside pile will be used from Round 2.

Option: If you want to play with the campaign mode inhabitants (bookmark-star symbol): set aside the Concierge, take the 7 other inhabitant cards, shuffle them, and draw 3 at random. These 3 cards + the Concierge are added to the character deck in play for the whole campaign. The remaining inhabitant cards are put back in the box.

The campaign mode has a few new elements:

1. Book of Victories (x1)

This booklet tells you the modifications to make between each round of the campaign mode. It has one page per alliance, as well as the achievements page on which you can record your exploits.

2. Alliance tiles (x6)

These tiles are used to indicate the new alliances that come into play as the rounds go by. They are placed on or under the alliances card placed near the popularity board. Set these tiles aside for now.

3. Character cards (x24) and affinity cards (x6)

During the campaign mode you will meet 24 new character cards, each with a new effect, as well as 6 new alliances that can be united instead of or in addition to the 5 alliances of the quick game mode.

Course of a Campaign

Course of a round:

Each round is played like a quick game and stops as soon as one of you reaches or exceeds 70% popularity. That person then wins the round.

• Round 1: is played with the 5 alliances of the quick game mode.
• Following rounds: are played with the modifications made by the Book of Victories.

End of round:

At the end of each round, each player discards their personality cards in hand and their affinity, and returns their persuasion tokens to the supply.

The player who won the round reads, in the Book of Victories, the victory page of the last united alliance and applies the modifications indicated on the page.

Warning: If the victory page has already been read during a previous round, go directly to the next round.

Victory pages:

Apply the modifications indicated on the victory page of the last united alliance:

• Remove from the game the indicated cards by putting them in the set-aside "campaign" pile.
• Add to the game the indicated cards by taking them from the set-aside "campaign" pile.

Place on the alliances card the alliance tile(s) concerned, following the indications of the victory page.

Example: Victory of the Company. Remove from the game: (four cards shown). Add to the game: (several cards and two alliance tiles shown).

Warning: A victory page may ask you to remove from the game cards that have already been removed. In that case ignore them and apply the rest of the modifications.

Then move on to the next round. The player who won the previous round starts the game. The setup is identical to the previous round, but you must keep the modifications made by the victory pages read previously.

At the end of each round, follow the end-of-round steps described above again.

End of the Campaign

When one of you has won two rounds, the campaign stops immediately. This person is declared the winner, becoming the new High Governor of Ephios.

Solo Mode

"You have just risen to the post of High Governor of Ephios! But it would seem that the Dignitaries of the 5 great alliances are meeting in secret to organise your removal. You will have to seal pacts with the alliances as quickly as possible to prevent them from turning against you."

Setup

1. Place the popularity board on its "Plot" side in the centre of the table. Choose your difficulty by placing a marker of your choice on: 30% (easy), 20% (normal) or 10% (hard).
2. Take the character cards of the quick game mode (without the bookmark-star symbol). Put all inhabitant cards back in the box. Then shuffle the remaining personalities to form a draw pile of 14 cards.
3. Reveal the first 4 cards of the draw pile, laying them in a row to the right of the draw pile; this row represents the crossroads. Leave a space at the end of the row for the future discard pile.
4. Place the 5 affinity cards of the quick game mode next to the board.
5. Finally, form a supply of 5 persuasion tokens. You start the game with 2 taken from the supply, which you place in front of you.

Warning: The Plot zone is the place where the Dignitaries gather to organise your downfall.

Goal of the Game

Unite each of the 5 alliances before your popularity falls to 0% or the Plot manages to recruit the 5 Dignitaries.

Warning: The Dignitaries are the 5 personalities with a persuasion value of 3.

Course of Solo Mode

Solo mode is played as a succession of turns. You play first, then it is the Plot's turn. If one of the victory/defeat conditions is fulfilled, the game stops immediately.

Player's turn:

You must perform a single action among the 4 basic actions (p.6 to 8; Recruit, Debate, Use, Unite above), or the 5th action specific to solo mode, "Corrupt".

• Corrupt: discard a Dignitary card of your choice located in the Plot zone.

Warning: If you choose the Corrupt action, the Plot will take 2 turns in a row.

When you Unite: gain only 10% popularity, regardless of the united alliance. If you unite an alliance for the first time, take the corresponding affinity and place it in front of you.

Plot's turn:

The Plot performs one of the actions below:

If at least one Dignitary card is on the crossroads:

• Recruit: the Plot adds to its zone the rightmost Dignitary card on the crossroads.

Warning: You cannot recruit the personalities located in the Plot zone.

If there is no Dignitary on the crossroads:

• Debate: the Plot discards the rightmost personality on the crossroads.

End of Turn

At the end of your turn or that of the Plot:

• If you have more than 3 personalities in hand, discard the excess personalities to keep only 3 (do not apply the effects of the cards thus discarded). The Plot has no card limit.
• If there are fewer than 4 cards on the crossroads, complete it by sliding the remaining cards to the right, then revealing new personalities from the draw pile to rebuild a row of 4 cards.

Warning: If you must shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile, reduce your popularity by 10%.

Clarifications

When a power specifies "an opponent" or "an opponent's hand", read instead "the Plot" and "the Plot zone".

Some effects of personalities are adapted for solo mode:

• The Perceptive (La Perceptrice): Choose a card in the Plot zone and add it to your hand.
• The Banker (L'Argentier): If you use the Banker to unite an alliance (other than the Company), do not gain your 10% popularity.
• The Preacher (Le Prédicateur): When the Plot debates with a personality, you may use the Preacher to add that personality to your hand.

Warning: The Plot never regains persuasion.

Victory and Defeat

You win: if you gather the 5 different affinities.

You lose: if you reach 0% popularity or if the 5 Dignitaries are in the Plot zone.