Etherstone Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Gameplay
  • Drafting Phase
  • Main Phase
    • Player Turn Overview
• General Concepts
  • Etherstones
  • Gaining Etherstones
  • Spending Etherstones
  • Life
  • Corruption
  • Points
  • Tokens
• Cards Overview
  • Entity Cards
  • Threat Cards
  • Leader Cards
  • Abilities
  • Ability Trigger Icons
• On Your Turn
  • 1. Refresh Dice Step
  • 2. Action Step
  • 3. Endgame Check Step
• Endgame & Final Scoring
  • Final Scoring
• First Game Premade Hands
• Glossary
  • Icons
  • Abilities
  • Example
• Credits

Components

• 75 x Entity Cards (15 red, black, green, white, and purple cards)
• 18 x Threat Cards (5 level I, 6 level II, and 7 level III)
• 13 x Leader Cards
• 5 x Etherstone Dice (1 each of red, black, green, white, and purple)
• 4 x Dice Display Tokens
• 1 x Starting Player Life Dial
• 3 x Life Dials
• 80 x Etherstone Tokens (20 each of red, black, green, and white)
• 32 x Point Tokens
• 32 x Counter Tokens
• 8 x Void Pact Tokens
• 1 x Endgame Trigger Token
• 4 x Player Aid cards

Setup

1. Place all Etherstone tokens, Counter tokens, Void Pact tokens, and the Endgame Trigger token into supply pools where all players can access them.

2. Create the dice display by placing the 4 dice display tokens in a square formation within reach of all players. Roll all 5 dice and place them inside their color matching display tokens. The purple die does not have a display token, it is instead placed in the middle of the dice display.

3. According to the player count, place the indicated number of Point tokens into a supply pool:

   • 2 players - 15 tokens
   • 3 players - 20 tokens
   • 4 players - 25 tokens

   Place all remaining Point tokens away from the pools in the reserve.

4. Separate the Threat cards by the level shown on their backs and shuffle each level separately. According to the player count, create the Threat deck by placing the indicated number of Threat cards face down into a pile, with level III on the bottom, level II in the middle, and level I on top. Return all remaining Threat cards to the box.

   • 2 players - 3 level I, 3 level II, 4 level III
   • 3 players - 4 level I, 4 level II, 5 level III
   • 4 players - 4 level I, 5 level II, 6 level III

5. Create the Threat display by taking the top 3 Threat cards from the deck and placing them face up in the middle of the table.

6. Each player takes a random Life dial, ensuring that one of these dials is the Starting Player Life dial.

7. Give each player one Player Aid card for reference.

8. Perform the Drafting Phase.

Gameplay

You are a powerful leader striving to gain the most points by Casting Entity cards, utilizing their abilities as effectively as possible, and overcoming the looming Threats. You will gain precious Etherstones by drafting dice that can activate powerful abilities on your cards and spend these Etherstones to Cast your Entity cards from your hand into existence on the table.

The game begins with a Drafting phase, where each player creates a hand of 7 cards that they will use for the rest of the game.

Then, the Main phase begins, during which a variable number of turns will be performed until the end of the game. On your turn, perform one action, and then the next player clockwise takes their turn.

Once an endgame trigger is met and every player has taken the same number of turns, perform Final Scoring. The player with the most points wins!

Drafting Phase

Perform the following steps:

1. Shuffle all Leader cards and each player draws 2, keeping them hidden from their opponents.

2. Shuffle all of the Entity cards and deal 7 to each player. Each player must simultaneously choose 1 of these cards and place it face down in front of them. Then, all players pass their remaining cards to the player on their left and then choose 1 of the cards that were passed to them to add to their facedown pile. Continue passing and choosing until all players have chosen 7 cards. These cards form the player's hand of cards, and they must be kept hidden from their opponents.

3. Each player simultaneously chooses one of their Leader cards, and places it face up in front of them. The unchosen Leader cards are removed from the game.

4. Players gain all Etherstones and Counters indicated at the bottom of their chosen Leader card. Place all gained Counters on top of the Leader card.

5. Players set their Life dial to the value shown in the top-right corner of their Leader card.

6. Perform the Main phase.

   Note: For your first game, you may replace Drafting steps 1 - 3 and play with pre-made hands of cards. Details are found in "First Game Premade Hands" below.

Main Phase

Beginning with the player with the Starting Player Life dial and moving clockwise, each player takes a turn.

Player Turn Overview

Perform each of these steps:

1. Refresh Dice

   If the dice display is empty, roll all five dice to replenish it.

2. Action

   Perform one of the following actions:

   • Dice Draft — Draft one die to gain two Etherstones and potentially activate your abilities.
   • Cast — Cast one card by paying its Etherstone cost and putting it in-play, face up in front of you.
   • Attack — Overcome a Threat from the display using your Leader and/or Followers.
   • Rest — Ready your exhausted Followers so that they are ready to Attack again.
   • Void Pact — Cleanse yourself by signing a Void Pact. This resets your Life, but costs you 7 points during Final Scoring.

3. Endgame Check Step

   If any of the three endgame conditions have been met, the endgame is triggered. Continue playing until every player has performed the same number of turns.

General Concepts

Etherstones

Etherstones contain the concentrated essence of the cosmic being that sacrificed itself to revive Nobura. You can spend them to Cast Entity cards which puts them into play. There are 5 different Etherstone colors:

• Black - Exalted
• Red - Limbics
• Green - Whisperers
• White - Luminary
• Purple - Void

Gaining Etherstones

Each time you gain an Etherstone, take a token of that color from the supply pool and place it in your area. When you gain one or more Void Etherstones from an ability, gain Etherstone tokens of the color(s) of your choosing up to the indicated amount.

Spending Etherstones

Each time you spend Etherstones, return them from your area to the supply pool. There are no Void (purple) Etherstone tokens, so you instead spend any mixture of Etherstone colors to pay Void costs.

Life

Your Leader card represents you on Nobura. You begin the game with Life equal to the value shown on your Leader card. You will gain and lose Life during the game, spinning your Life dial to your new Life value each time. You may gain more Life than the initial amount shown on your Leader card, up to a maximum of 16.

Corruption

If your Life dial reaches zero, you become corrupted and must place your Life dial on top of your Leader card to show this. While corrupted, you may lose any additional amount of Life without consequences, and you must perform a Void Pact as your next action to cleanse yourself.

Points

You will gain points from various sources during the game. Each time you gain points, take the indicated number of Point tokens from the supply pool. If the supply pool has no more Point tokens, continue taking Point tokens from the reserve. Never gain Point tokens for the points shown at the top of your Threat and Entity cards in-play. You will add these points to your score during the Final Scoring. The player with the most Points wins the game, so try to gain as many as possible!

Tokens

There is no limit to the number of Etherstone, Point, or Counter tokens you can possess. There is no limit to the quantities of these tokens. In the unlikely situation where there are not enough tokens of the correct type, use any suitable alternate tokens as a replacement.

If a card's text conflicts with the rules, the card's text is considered to be correct.

Cards Overview

There are three categories of cards in the game: Entities, Threats and Leaders.

Entity Cards

Each Entity card shows:

• Etherstone cost (top-left) — the number and types of Etherstones you must pay to Cast this card.
• Points (top-right) — the number of points that this card will be worth to the controlling player if it is in-play when the game ends.
• Card Name and background color — the background color of the card's name area always matches the color of the card.
• Card Type / Faction Name — printed under the card name.
• Abilities — printed in the card's text box.
• Card ID — printed in the bottom-left corner.
• Strength (bottom-right) — damage dealt to a Threat during an Attack action.

Each card is one of the following three types:

• Follower
• Ritual
• Technology

Threat Cards

Each Threat card shows:

• Endgame points (top-left) — points for the player who Attacked it.
• Life total (top-right) — this Threat's Life total.
• Threat Name
• Card ID — printed in the bottom-left corner.
• Reward — the effect printed in the card's text box, gained after the completion of an Attack action and any end of Attack effects.
• Strength (bottom-right) — damage this Threat deals to a Leader who joined the Attack action.

Leader Cards

Each Leader card shows:

• Starting Life (top-right) — the initial amount of Life this Leader begins the game with.
• Leader Name
• Abilities — printed in the card's text box.
• Card ID — printed in the bottom-left corner.
• Starting Etherstones and/or Counters — gained during setup.
• Strength (bottom-right) — damage dealt to a Threat when this Leader joins an Attack action.

Abilities

Abilities appear on most Entity and Leader cards. Abilities are triggered by dice that you draft, as well as other abilities that you perform. All triggered abilities are optional unless the card states otherwise. When multiple abilities are triggered, perform them in any order. Each ability is separated by a horizontal line. You may trigger abilities even if that card is Exhausted.

If an ability does not mention a target, then the target of that ability is the card with that ability.

When triggered, perform the ability once unless it has an X icon, which means you may perform it a variable number of times. You may perform the same ability multiple times during the same turn if triggered by other ability effects. You may trigger abilities even if they are on a card that was Cast by a previous ability during the same turn. Once a player begins performing an ability, they must perform it as much as possible before performing another ability.

If an ability refers to a player having the most of something, it does not activate if there is a tie.

If an ability refers to Life or Protection, then you are the target of that ability if no other target is specified.

If an ability refers to place/remove Counter tokens, then the target of that ability is the card with that ability if no other target is specified.

Ability Trigger Icons

Each of these abilities trigger according to its icon:

Icon	Meaning
Instant	Triggers immediately after this card is Cast.
Pre-Cast Instant	Triggers immediately before the card is Cast.
Persistent	Triggers each time the indicated condition is met while this card is in-play.
End game	Triggers during Final Scoring.
Attack	Triggers when you perform an Attack action.
Dice Color	Triggers when you draft a die of matching color.
Dice Value (e.g. "1•2")	Triggers when you draft a die of matching value.
Dice Range (e.g. "1->3")	Triggers when you draft a die with a value within the indicated range (including the numbers shown).

See the worked example under the Glossary for more details.

On Your Turn

Perform the following three steps during each turn:

1. Refresh Dice Step

If the dice display has no dice at the beginning of your turn, you must refresh it. Otherwise, you may optionally lose Life equal to the number of dice currently in the dice display to refresh it.

To refresh the dice display, take all 5 dice from wherever they are and roll them. Then, place the dice inside their color matching display tokens. The purple die does not have a display token, it is instead placed in the middle of the dice display.

2. Action Step

You must perform one of the following actions:

Dice Draft

Choose one die from the display and place it in your area. Gain 2 Etherstones of that die's color. The chosen die's value does not affect the quantity or color of Etherstones gained.

If the Void (purple) die is taken, you lose 1 Life. Choose one color and gain 2 Etherstones of that color. For the rest of your turn, the Void die will act as your chosen color for all purposes. Do not change the value of the die you take, unless an ability instructs you to.

After gaining Etherstones, you may perform all abilities shown on your Leader and in-play Entity cards that are triggered by your chosen die's color and/or value. Each ability is performed once for each time it is triggered, and they may be performed in any order.

Keep your chosen die in front of you until all of the dice are rolled during a future Refresh dice step. Dice drafted on previous turns have no effect.

Cast

Choose one Entity card from your hand and pay its Casting cost to put it into play. Return Etherstones from your area to pay the cost. Any combination of Etherstone colors can be spent to pay for the Void portion of the cost.

Before spending Etherstones, perform any Pre-Cast abilities on the card and then place the card face-up in your area. Its physical position in relation to your other in-play cards does not affect gameplay.

Finally, trigger all instant abilities on that card. This card is now in-play.

Attack

Perform the following steps:

1. Choose one Threat card in the Threat display.

2. Choose any number of your ready in-play Followers to join the Attack. Each chosen Follower adds their strength to your total Attack value and then rotate them to the side to show that they are exhausted. Exhausted Followers cannot join a future Attack action until you ready them with an ability or Rest action.

   As the Leader, you may also join the Attack by adding your Leader card's strength value to your total Attack value. Leaders are never exhausted, so you do not rotate your Leader card when you join an Attack.

3. You may trigger all Attack abilities on your Leader card and on all of your cards in-play in any order, including those not joining this Attack.

4. The Attack is successful if your total Attack value meets or exceeds the chosen Threat's Life amount. If your total Attack value is not high enough, you must either choose a different Threat card or choose a different action for your turn.

5. If you joined the Attack as a Leader, lose Life equal to the Threat's strength value.

6. Perform all end of Attack effects from triggered abilities.

7. After succeeding with the Attack, gain all of the rewards shown at the bottom of the Attacked Threat.

8. Place the Threat card face down into a stack with any other defeated Threat cards you have Attacked. This is your Spoils stack — you will gain the points shown on these cards during Final Scoring.

9. Draw the top card from the Threat deck and place it face-up into the Threat display. If the Threat deck is depleted, skip this step and continue playing with less than 3 Threat cards in the display.

Rest

Ready all of your exhausted Followers by rotating them upright in front of you.

Void Pact

This action is mandatory if you are corrupted and cannot be performed by non-corrupted players.

Cleanse yourself by setting your Life dial to the initial Life amount shown in the top-right corner of your Leader card. Then, remove your Life dial from your Leader card and gain one Void Pact token. Void Pacts each reduce your score by 7 points during Final Scoring.

3. Endgame Check Step

The endgame is triggered if any of the following conditions are met:

• You have no Entity cards left in your hand during this step of your turn. Due to card destruction abilities, you may have fewer than 7 cards in-play at this time.
• There are no cards remaining in the Threat deck. This trigger happens even if there are 3 threats in the display.
• The Point tokens pool is empty.

If the endgame is triggered during your turn, take the Endgame Trigger token and place it in your area.

As long as the game is not over, the next player clockwise from you now performs a turn.

Endgame & Final Scoring

Once the endgame is triggered, continue playing until every player has taken the same number of turns. This means the player to the right of the starting player will always perform the final turn of the game, and if they trigger the end of the game, the game ends immediately after their turn.

Final Scoring

Calculate your score by adding your points from the following sources:

• Points equal to the number of your Point tokens.
• 2 points if you have the Endgame Trigger token.
• All points in the top-right corner of your in-play Entity cards.
• Points for each endgame ability on your in-play Entity cards.
• All points in the top-left corner of the Threats in your Spoils stack.
• 1 point for every 2 remaining Life on your dial.
• -7 points for each Void Pact token in your area.
• -3 points if you are currently corrupted.

The player with the most points wins the game! If there is a tie, use the following tie-breaker conditions in order, until the tie is broken: the fewest cards in your hand, the most Etherstones in your area, and the most remaining Life on your dial. In the unlikely case that there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

First Game Premade Hands

For your first game, you can jump into the Main phase quickly by having each player choose a different premade set from the chart below. Find the indicated Leader and Entity cards according to the numerical IDs shown in their bottom-left corners. Then skip to Drafting phase step 4.

Note: It is strongly recommended that this chart only be used during your first game. These hands have powerful synergies that are stronger, on average, than a drafted hand. The drafting phase is a crucial element to the game and should be used as soon as possible.

Hand	Leader	Cards ID
A	LE002	EX010, WH001, LI003, LI006, LU011, VO007, VO014
B	LE003	EX001, EX002, EX014, LI002, LU015, VO003, VO006
C	LE004	WH002, WH003, WH010, WH011, LI012, LI009, VO012
D	LE005	WH004, WH007, LI004, LU001, LU005, LU009, VO004
E	LE010	EX004, EX005, EX006, LI001, LU003, LU012, VO005

Glossary

Icons

Cards

• Threat
• Leader
• Entities
  • Follower
  • Ritual
  • Technology

Etherstone & Card Colors

• Purple - Void (acts as any color)
• Black - Exalted
• Green - Whisperers
• White - Luminary
• Red - Limbics

Abilities — each of these trigger according to their icon:

• Instant - Triggered immediately when the card is Cast.
• Pre-Cast Instant - Triggered immediately before the card is Cast.
• Persistent - Triggered each time the indicated condition is met while this card is in-play.
• End game - Triggers during Final Scoring.
• Attack - Triggers when performing an Attack action, whether or not this card joined the Attack or is exhausted.
• Dice Color - Triggers when you draft a die of the matching color.
• Dice Value - Triggers when you draft a die of matching value.
• Dice Range - Triggers when you draft a die with a value within the indicated range (including the numbers shown).

Abilities

General Concepts:

• If an ability refers to Life or Protection, you are the target of that ability when no other target is specified.

• If an ability does not mention a target, the target of that ability is the card with that ability.

• If an ability refers to a player having the most of something, it will not activate when there is a tie.

• Opponents: Whenever an ability affects opponents, this refers to all players except yourself. Perform abilities that affect your opponents to the fullest extent possible, even if it benefits them.

• In-Play: This refers to Entity cards that have been Cast. They may be ready or exhausted.

• Attack: Gain a Threat into your Spoils stack by using strength equal to or higher than its Life total.

• Defeat: Attack a Threat using only this ability. You cannot use your Leader, Followers, or other abilities to modify the Attack value.

• Activation Effect: Perform a Dice Color, Dice Value, or Dice Range ability from another of your in-play cards as if it was triggered by a die.

• Counter tokens: Generic tokens that you place onto Entity and Leader cards. If an ability spends Counter tokens, you must remove the indicated number from the card with that ability.

• Life: You gain or lose the indicated amount of Life by rotating your Life dial to the new value.

• Point: Gain the indicated number of Point tokens from the supply pool. If the supply pool is empty, gain Point tokens from the Point tokens reserve.

• Reserve: When gaining Point tokens from the reserve, take them from those set aside during setup, not from the supply pool.

• Strength: Add or subtract the indicated number to your total Attack value when Attacking a Threat.

• X: It is a variable amount that either you choose or the ability dictates. The value of X is the same each time it appears within that ability.

• #X: If there is a number before an X value, multiply X by that number.

• Recall: Return one of your in-play Entity cards to your hand.

• Destroy: Remove the target card from the game.

• Protection: Prevents the indicated amount of damage to the Leader exclusively when facing a Threat.

• Ready: Ready one exhausted card by rotating it to the upright position.

• Exhaust: Exhaust one ready card by rotating it sideways.

• Cast: Perform the Cast action to place a card from your hand into play in front of you. This ability frequently shows an indicated condition and/or change to the overall Casting cost.

Example

Sarah has the Kind Shapeshifter and Ant Duchess in-play. She drafts a green value 2 die, which activates the Kind Shapeshifter's dice activation, letting her gain any one activation effect from one of her followers in-play. She chooses the Ant Duchess, activating the dice 3•4 ability. Since the effect did not specify a target, she places 1 Counter onto the Ant Duchess.

Credits

• Game Design: Simone Luciani and Virginio Gigli
• Illustrator: Paolo Voto
• Publisher: ThunderGryph Games
• Creative Director: Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi
• Art Direction: Pierpaolo Paoletti
• Rulebook Author: Jonathan Cox
• Rules Proofing: Jessica Longhurst
• Graphic Design: Pierpaolo Paoletti, Zhuang Huachong and Daniel Tosco
• Mockups: Erick Tosco

Worldbuilding based on the novel Etherstone: Nobura's Mysteries by Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi and William Allan Gosline.

Thanks to the Support of: Cristina Bisi, Cristina Aguirre Bisi, William Cavallieri, Flavio De Leonardis and Luis González.

Thundergryph SLU, Avda. República Argentina, 24 - 2o, 41011 Sevilla, España — www.thundergryph.com