FantasyForm Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Upgrade Card Anatomy
• Key Concepts
• General Setup
• Row Setup / Reset
• Gameplay
  • 1. Outlands Phase
  • 2. Forge Phase
  • 3. Market Phase
  • 4. Exploration / Rival Phase
    • Exploration Phase
    • Rival Phase

Components

• 16 Upgrade Cards (each showing an Upgrade side and an Encounter side)
• 1 Rival Card
• 1 Shards Card

Upgrade Card Anatomy

Each Upgrade card (Companion, Elemental Form, or Artifact) shows:

1. Cost
2. Name/Type
3. Pack Size
4. Tags
5. Ability
6. Player Health
7. Player Ability
8. Rival Health
9. Rival Ability
10. Essence (when rotated with essence at the top)

Key Concepts

Forms: You always have a "form," starting with the basic form (Alchemist). Replacing it with an elemental form allows you to attack your rival and gain other stats and abilities.

Upgrades: Forms, companions, and artifacts grant you different tags and/or abilities. You always have exactly one of each upgrade type; when you buy a new one, exchange the positions of the new card and the existing card of the same type.

Rival: Represented by the Rival Card, your rival eventually gains an elemental form and starts attacking you. You must defeat them before the Rival Card's timer runs out.

Shards: Track this currency on the double-sided Shards Card by shifting your companion card to show the correct value. You may not have more than 25 shards or less than 0.

Essences: You may buy these resources from the Ethereal Row. Then sell them to earn shards, or discard an essence from your pack at any time to use its ability. Your form determines your pack size (the max number of essences you can have).

The four essences are Shadow Essence, Radiant Essence, Life Essence, and Martial Essence.

Tags: Some encounters and abilities depend on certain characteristics, called tags. You have all the combined tags shown across your form, companion, and artifact.

The tags are: Air, Water, Earth, Fire, Weapon, Slashing, Crushing, Piercing, Ranged, and Evasion.

General Setup

Locate the Shards Card, as well as the 4 starting cards (cards marked with starburst icons).

Equip the Torch by placing it on the Alchemist, offset to show 5 health and the Alchemist's ability.

Place the Guide on the Shards Card, offset to show the shards for your chosen difficulty:

Beginner	Standard	Hard	Expert
10	8	6	4

Place the Rival Card, starburst-side up, near the upper right of the play area.

Place the other cards in the discard pile. Cards in the discard pile are always kept upgrade-side up and rotated 90°.

Lastly, complete Row Setup.

Row Setup / Reset

When instructed to complete Row Setup or Reset, perform the following:

Shuffle the discard pile.

Deal 3 cards, upgrade-side up, to the Upgrade Row.

Deal 3 cards, encounter-side up, to the Encounter Row.

Deal additional cards to the Ethereal Row, encounter-side down, until there are a total of 6 cards in your pack and the Ethereal Row combined. Make sure the essences are at the top edge, and upgrades at the bottom. Forms will be oriented upside down while in the Ethereal Row.

Keep any remaining cards in the discard pile.

Gameplay

Over a series of turns, manage your resources and grow your power so you can reduce your rival's health to 0 before time runs out. Each turn, complete these 4 phases in order:

1. Outlands Phase

Resolve the Outlands Encounter on the leftmost card in the Encounter Row.

2. Forge Phase

Resolve the Forge Encounter on the middle card in the Encounter Row.

3. Market Phase

You may buy and sell essences, and buy upgrades, in any quantity and any order.

Important: Sold essences and replaced upgrades are not placed into the discard pile!

To buy an essence from the Ethereal Row, spend shards equal to its value in the Market Prices of the rightmost card in the Encounter Row. Then move it to your pack. To sell an essence, gain shards equal to its Market Price and place it in the leftmost position of the Ethereal Row. Shift the cards in the Ethereal Row as needed to make space or close gaps. You may buy and resell a given essence within the same turn.

To buy an upgrade (companion, artifact, or form) from the Upgrade Row, spend shards equal to the cost shown in the top left corner of the new card. Then exchange the positions of the existing card and its replacement. Elemental forms always begin at full health, and cannot be replaced by other forms.

4. Exploration / Rival Phase

If the Ethereal Row contains 2 or more cards, continue to the Exploration Phase. Otherwise, continue to the Rival Phase.

Important: Only one of these two phases (Exploration or Rival) can occur in a single turn. Never both!

Exploration Phase

Discard the rightmost card in the Upgrade Row and shift the 2 remaining upgrades to the right. (Remember to discard cards upgrade-side up and keep the discard pile rotated 90°.)

Flip the rightmost card in the Encounter Row and place it upgrade-side up in the leftmost position of the Upgrade Row. Shift the 2 remaining encounters to the right.

Flip the rightmost card from the Ethereal Row and place it in the leftmost position of the Encounter Row.

Skip the Rival Phase and begin the next turn.

Rival Phase

If your turn ends with 1 or 0 cards in the Ethereal Row, discard all cards in the upgrades, encounter, and Ethereal rows, then activate your Rival's elemental power.

You may then spend 4 shards to deal 1 damage to your rival, as many times as you can afford.

If you bring them to 0 health, you win. Otherwise, rotate the Rival Card down one number and reset for your next turn. If the Rival Card was already at 1, instead of rotating, you have lost the game.