Feste Druff
Feste Druff Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Feste Druff is a witty and very quickly learned card game in which the individual players try to knock their opponents out of the game with the most effective attacks possible. The key is the successful execution of the individual attacks, with as many nasty attack reinforcements as possible, which cost the opponent the most hit points. Unless, of course, he has the right defence in hand and leaves the attacker looking very foolish. The winner is naturally the player who makes the best use of his resources and is the last one left standing on his feet.
Contents
- 110 playing cards with attacks, defences, weapons, healing and reinforcements
- 2 cards advertising other incredibly great games
- 6 player boards with hit points, fighting styles and weapons
- 6 blood drops made of glass for marking hit points
- 1 short rulebook, which you are holding in your hands
Object of the Game
As has always been the custom in well-kept tavern brawls, the winner here is the fighter who is the last one still standing. Each fighter with 0 (or fewer) hit points is unconscious and may try again to prove himself in the next game.
Setup
Each player receives a player board and a blood drop, which he places on the number 20 to show that he has 20 hit points. The playing cards are shuffled well and placed so that every player can comfortably reach them, and so that any tipped-over beer mugs will not destroy the game at once (and you would have to buy a new game, which would fund our next trip to Hawaii). Afterwards each player receives 7 cards. The first player then begins his first turn. The player who bought this game begins, or the one with the longest hair, or the one who had to read this stupid manual... or you simply play rock, paper, scissors to decide, and no, the manual for that is not included!
Turn Sequence
Beginning of the Turn
At the start of your turn you may discard as many cards from your hand as you like onto the discard pile. Then you draw cards until you have 7 cards in your hand again. If the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile thoroughly and you have a new draw pile to draw from. During your turn you may play as many fighting styles, weapons and healings as you like, but you may only attack one opponent exactly once, unless you have playing cards that say otherwise.
Attack
The largest part of your turn is taken up by your attack. First you announce which of your opponents you want to attack, and then you play your attack card. This will annoy him, but it only becomes really nasty when you start to play your reinforcements. In this way a 2-point jab can become a painful, swinging, quickly spun 8-point strike that sends the strongest barbarian flat on the mat. For each attack you may play as many reinforcements as you have in your hand, but you may play each reinforcement only once per attack, because even quicker than quick is simply not possible.
Fighting Styles and Weapons
Fighting styles give you certain advantages against other fighters. In addition, fighters of different styles are especially good at different actions. This is noted on the fighting style card. To use a fighting style you must lay the card in the space provided for it on your player board. You may only have one fighting style laid out at a time. If you lay out a new one, the old one is placed on the discard pile. You may do this as often as you like in one round. For example, you may become a barbarian before your attack and swing your axe vigorously, and then after your attack become the peaceful monk (because he defends himself considerably better). Some cards, such as the monk fighting style or the shield weapon, give you a defence bonus which, after an attack has been made against you, is subtracted from the damage points.
Weapons work in the same way as fighting styles. Here too, different weapons give you bonuses to damage, to defence, or have other, even more dreadful effects on your opponents. Weapons can be used as an attack, and you do not have to place them on the discard pile after the attack. You can therefore attack again each round with the same weapon. Each weapon has its own damage value.
Healing
At any time during your turn you may play as many healings as you have in your hand. These give you hit points back so that you can survive the next attack well. You can never have more than 20 hit points. You may play each healing only once. After they have healed you, healings go onto the discard pile.
End of the Turn
At the end of the turn, all attack cards you played, and all reinforcements and defences of your opponents that you played, are placed on the discard pile. The player to the left of you (in England, the player to the right of you) is the next to take a turn.
Defence
Fortunately the game is fast and does not become boring even when you are not currently taking a turn. Because hitting someone over the head is only really satisfying when that person does not fight back, is that not so? As soon as an attack is announced against you, the attacker plays his attack card and all the reinforcements he wants to get rid of and is allowed to play (no duplicates). Then you may draw, with a mischievous smile, the matching defence from your cards and simply thwart his fine plan. Next time he can look for an easier target! If you play a card on which it says that an attack is ignored, the whole attack is negated and no damage at all is dealt. If you play a card or have laid out a card (fighting style or weapon) with a defence value on it, that value is subtracted from the damage and you have fewer hit points to lose. Several defence values add together.
Worked Examples
Turn Example
Nix is as illustrative as possible in an example. It is best to look for the matching cards for this example in the draw pile; then it may be clear even to you:
Paola has laid out a barbarian fighting style and has an axe. She attacks Felix with the axe (weapon attack) (2 damage and +2 damage, because as a barbarian she has a bonus for the axe) and reinforces her attack with the cards Quick-Strike (+1 damage) and Forceful (+1 damage, and +3 because as a barbarian she has a bonus for Forceful). In total she therefore deals 2+2+1+1+3 = 9 damage. Felix has no matching defence against a weapon attack, but he does have the card Counter-Attack, which means that Felix may carry out an attack against Paola before he takes the full damage from her attack. Felix has the monk fighting style laid out and no weapon. He attacks Paola with a disarming blow without reinforcements. The disarming blow deals 2 damage (+2 damage, because the monk has an advantage against barbarians, and +1 damage, because the monk has a bonus for unarmed combat). So Felix deals 5 damage to Paola, and Paola must lay down her weapon. Because Paola has already attacked, her complete 9 damage points are counted. Only after the damage has been distributed is her weapon placed on the discard pile. Felix then takes 8 damage points (9 damage - 1 defence because he has the monk fighting style laid out).
Second Turn Example
All right? OK, then one more:
Didi attacks Otti in monk style with a blow (3 damage, +1 damage because Didi carries no weapon). Otti has no fighting style and no weapon (poor Otti), but he has a counter-attack and a balance-breaking attack (2 damage, and the opponent loses his fighting style). Because Didi has already attacked, his entire damage, including the +1 from the fighting style, is counted, and Otti takes 4 damage. Through Otti's counter-attack, however, Didi loses his monk fighting style, so he no longer receives the +1 defence and must take 2 damage points. Fortunately, Didi still has a defence in hand and plays Divine Inspiration, which negates every attack effect (yes, even the original attacker may of course defend himself, so in practice he may play a defence card in his own turn). So Didi keeps his monk fighting style and takes no damage.
So, with these two very simplified turn examples, all eventualities should be covered. Should we nevertheless have built a blunder into these rules, then simply play by your own rules, because in love and in the game every means is allowed, is it not?
Playing Cards Versus the Rulebook
Many playing cards allow you to do things that this rulebook does not permit. In all such cases, trust the card: after all, it shines much more brightly, looks much better in any case, than this scrap of paper.