Fantasy Realms
Fantasy Realms Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
OVERVIEW
In Fantasy Realms you will draw cards from the deck or discard pile in order to form the best combos possible. Victory goes to the player with the highest points.
Every card contains four pieces of information: its name, its suit, its base strength, and its bonus and/or penalty.
- Name – Every card has a unique name.
- Suit – Each suit has its own color. There are ten suits: Army, Leader, Wizard, Weapon, Artifact, Beast, Land, Weather, Flood and Flame, along with three Wild cards.
- Base strength – Base strengths run from 0 to 40.
- Bonus or Penalty – Every card has either a bonus or a penalty (some have both), based on the other cards held in your hand.
GAME PLAY
Setup: Deal every player seven cards. Choose a starting player randomly and play goes clockwise.
Turns: During each player’s turn, he or she has a choice of drawing the top card from the deck or taking any one face-up card from the discard area. The player who goes first must draw a card from the deck. At the end of each turn, a player must discard a card to the discard area. All cards in the discard area should be spread out so that they are visible to all.
End of Game: The game ends when there are ten cards in the discard area. The player holding the highest scoring hand wins. In case of a tie, the hand with the lowest total base strength wins.
SCORING HANDS
At the end of the game, add the base strengths, applying any bonuses and penalties, of all cards in your hand. Cards only care about what is in your hand (except for Mirage and Shapeshifter). Ignore any cards that are blanked.
Cards held by your opponents have no effect on the scoring of your hand.
These are terms that are used in the Bonus and Penalty sections of cards:
WITH
If a card receives a bonus WITH a certain other card or type of card, then it may only receive that bonus once.
EXAMPLE: You have the Magic Wand (Bonus: +25 with any one Wizard) and two Wizards. You only get the +25 bonus once.
FOR EACH
A card that receives a bonus or penalty FOR EACH of a particular kind of card may receive that bonus or penalty once for each card you hold of the variety named.
BLANKS
Certain penalty cards say that they BLANK certain other cards. A card which has been blanked has no suit, no bonuses or penalties, and no base strength.
BLANKED UNLESS WITH
This card is blanked, according to the rules above, unless one of the named cards is in your hand.
CLEARS
A special kind of bonus is the ability to CLEAR penalties or parts of penalties from other cards. A card that has had its penalty cleared still keeps its suit, base strength, and bonus. Clearing takes place before any penalties are applied.
All other bonuses and penalties should be self-explanatory.
VARIANTS
1. Two-player Realms
Setup: Neither player starts with any cards. On each turn, a player has the choice of taking one face-up card from the discard area, or taking two cards from the deck and discarding one. This continues until both players have seven cards.
Turns: After a player has seven cards, he or she continues turns as in the Basic version above.
End of Game: The game ends when both players have seven cards and there are at least twelve cards in the discard area.
2. Chaos Realms for 3-7 Players
Setup: All players receive seven cards. Choose a time limit. Five minutes is good for experienced players; inexperienced players may need a bit longer. It’s a good idea to play this in an open space where people can move around. Instead of its regular text, the player with the Necromancer may, after the trading period is over, draw three additional cards from the deck and choose one to add to his or her hand.
Play: Start timing. During the trading period, anyone may trade cards with anyone else at a one-for-one rate.
End of Game: When the time limit has expired, all players add up their scores. Whoever has the highest score wins.
Q&A
Q: What happens if two cards contradict each other?
A: There are rare circumstances where a chain of cards will affect one another. In these cases, first decide what the Doppelgänger, Mirage, and Shapeshifter are, in that order. Then use the Book of Changes. Then follow any instructions which call for the clearing of a penalty or part of a penalty. Finally, apply all penalties, beginning with cards not blanked by any other cards.
EXAMPLE: You have a Blizzard (blanks Floods), a Great Flood (blanks Flames and Lands), a Wildfire (blanks Lands), and Cavern (clears penalties on Weather). The Cavern clears the penalty from the Blizzard first. Since the penalty is cleared, the Great Flood is unaffected by the Blizzard, so it quenches the Wildfire and drowns the Cavern. However, even though they are blanked, the Cavern still has successfully cleared the Blizzard penalty. The active cards in the hand are the Blizzard and the Flood. If you did not have the Cavern, then the Flood would be blanked and the Blizzard and Wildfire would both be active.
Q: What happens if the Doppelgänger copies the Basilisk?
A: If there is no card that clears their penalties, both cards will be blanked. Magicians have long puzzled over exactly how the species reproduces.
Q: How does the Book of Changes work?
A: The Book of Changes transforms the suit of one other card. This should be done before any bonuses or penalties of any card are applied. It does not change the penalties, bonuses, or base strength of the card. The name of the card is also not changed, and any bonuses on other cards which name this card remain the same.
Q: Do the Rangers protect my armies against Wildfire?
A: No. The wording on the Rangers card is, “Clear the word Army from the penalty section of all cards.” Since the word “Army” does not appear on the Wildfire card, the fire still blanks armies normally.
Q: Can you explain the Shapeshifter and Mirage?
A: These cards take on the name and suit of any other card in the game from one of the named suits – it does not need to be a card in your hand. Usually, you will do this to give a bonus to another card in your hand, so the name and suit of the card you’re copying should be clear from that card. It’s possible, though, that you don’t care about what name a Wild card has, you just want to make it a particular suit, and that’s legal. For instance, if you need a Weapon to fill out a World Tree hand and give a bonus to the Forge, but you don’t care which weapon it is, you can just say “The Shapeshifter becomes a generic Weapon.”
Also, the base strength always remains 0 – which can be used as part of a run for the Gem of Order. You may also choose not to use a Wild card’s ability, and keep its original suit and name.