Flamecraft Duals
Flamecraft Duals Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 BOX/GAMEBOARD
- 1 RULEBOOK
- 1 FOUNTAIN MINIATURE
- 42 SHOP CARDS
- 6 FOUNTAIN CARDS
- 1 DRAGON TOKEN BAG
- 36 ARTISAN DRAGON TOKENS (6 of each color)
- 6 DUAL DRAGON TOKENS
- 1 BUDDY TOKEN
- 6 COINS
- 3 REFERENCE CARDS
- 8 FANCY DRAGON CARDS
- 2 WOODEN CARD HOLDERS (not pictured)
Design: Manny Vega Art: Sandara Tang Development: Luke Laurie Production: Peter Vaughan, Lauren Ino Cardboard Alchemists: Brad Brooks, Nicole Cutler, Judy Neff, Rozie Pocket, Christian Strain, Sarah Young Rulebook Layout: Jason Harris Special Thanks: Oniro Playtesting: Elli Burns, Torre Castle, Faith Chang, Áxel Cisneros, Joshua Cobb, Ben Cuff, Audrey Despins, Ellis Downs, Wot Fanar, Ike Halderan, Matthew Justice, Maximus Laurie, Odessa Laurie, Stephanie Noack, Anna Palmer, Chris Park-Thomas, Mike Vander Veen, Lies van Kessel, Oliver Vega
Setup
Set the Stage
- Open the game box and remove the 2-player reference cards, 6 coins, the deck of shop cards, and the bag containing the dragon tokens.
- Place the gameboard between the players.
- Give each player a 2-player reference card and 3 coins.
- Shuffle the deck of shop cards and put it face down beside the board.
- Each player draws 2 cards from the deck to form their hand. These cards are kept secret.
Dragon Tokens
- Remove the Buddy token from the bag and leave it in the box, unless you are playing Fancy Mode and using Buddy.
- Remove 6 artisan dragon tokens, 1 of each color, from the bag and place them randomly on the 6 starting spaces encircling the center of the board.
- Remove another 6 artisan dragon tokens, 1 of each color, and set them beside the board. These extra tokens are only used if needed at the end of the game.
- All other tokens should be in the bag (24 artisan dragon tokens and 6 dual dragon tokens). Put the bag beside the board, and mix it up.
Determine First Player
Each player draws a dragon token from the bag. The first player is the player who draws the dragon that is higher on the Fire Up Chart on the reference card. If there is a tie, both players return their dragons to the bag and draw again. Dual dragon tokens count as the higher of their 2 icons, and break ties. After determining the first player, return the dragon tokens to the bag.
Example: Rozie draws a dual dragon token with crystal and iron. Manny draws an iron dragon token. Since crystal is higher than iron on the Fire Up Chart, Rozie will be first player.
Overview
Your goal is to be the craftiest and most clever dragon at the table. You and your opponent will take turns playing dragon tokens from the bag and scoring shop cards, until either the bag is empty, or the deck runs out of cards.
Taking a Turn
Each of your turns has 3 phases that are carried out in order: PLAY, SCORE, and REFRESH. Any time before REFRESH, you may SPEND A COIN.
Play Phase
- First, pull a dragon token from the bag, without looking. See which dragon wants to come out and play!
- Next, decide where to place your token. You may choose any empty space or you can put the token on top of an existing stack. However, a stack may never contain more than 3 tokens.
- Finally, you may FIRE UP the token you just placed, activating the special ability of that token. Firing up a token is optional.
Stacks of tokens: Whenever you move tokens on the board, you may never do so in a manner that results in any space having more than 3 tokens in it. Abilities only affect the dragon token that is currently on top of a stack, although that can change during a turn (see IRON below).
Adjacent tokens: 2 tokens are adjacent if they are in hexes on the board that share a side.
Dual dragon tokens: You may choose to use 1 of the special abilities of the dragon types depicted on the token. Do not use both of the abilities.
Special Abilities
BREAD: Play another dragon. Pull a new dragon token from the bag and place this token in any permissible space on the board. Then you may fire up the token, activating its special ability.
CRYSTAL: Pull 3 dragons & place 1. Pull 3 dragon tokens from the bag. Choose 1 of the tokens to place on a permissible space of the board, and return the others to the bag. Do not fire up a special ability of the newly placed token.
MEAT: Move 1 adjacent to any space. Choose 1 dragon token adjacent to the meat dragon token and move it to any other permissible space. You may even move the chosen token on top of the meat dragon token you just placed.
IRON: Move 2 adjacent 1 space each. Choose 1 or 2 different dragon tokens adjacent to the iron dragon token and move each of them 1 space in any direction. These tokens may be moved on top of the iron dragon token you just placed. You may choose 2 tokens in the same stack, first moving the topmost token, then moving the revealed token.
Example 1: Moving 2 tokens 1 space each. Example 2: You can move the second token in a stack this way.
POTION: Swap any 2 dragons. Choose any 2 dragon tokens on the board and swap their positions. You may choose the potion dragon token you just placed as 1 of the tokens to swap.
PLANT: Fire up 1 adjacent dragon. Choose 1 dragon token adjacent to the plant dragon token and use the special ability of the chosen token. A plant dragon token may fire up another plant dragon token, and another, and so on until you fire up a different ability.
Score Phase
Check to see if you can score any of the shop cards in your hand. This phase is the only time you may score cards.
Compare the arrangement of tokens on the board to the patterns of icons on the shop cards in your hand. You may rotate your card to any orientation to see if it matches. If you can match a pattern on the board with a pattern depicted on a shop card, you may score that card, placing it face up onto your scored cards pile.
For each card, you may count dual dragon tokens as either of their 2 types. You may complete more than 1 shop card on your turn.
Dragons love to have the biggest reputation in town! Scored cards will be tallied at the end of the game according to their reputation icons (hearts).
Example — Scoring 2 shop cards: Violet ends their turn by scoring both cards they have in their hand. The first (A) matches the 2 plant and 1 potion icons in a straight line pattern by using the dual dragon as a potion. They score the second card (B) by matching the 3 crystal icons in a triangular pattern using the dual dragon again for the third crystal.
Spend a Coin
Sometimes, luck isn't on your side - that's what your coins are for! At any time before you REFRESH, but only once per turn, you may SPEND A COIN. If you do, discard the coin, and draw 2 shop cards. Then choose any 2 shop cards from your hand, and put them on the bottom of the deck. Dragons love coins - unspent coins are worth 1 heart each at the end of the game!
Example — Spend a coin mid-turn: Sandara has just fired up a crystal dragon to pull 3 tokens from the bag. She decides to interrupt her turn and SPEND A COIN to draw 2 cards. She chooses 2 to keep, and puts the other 2 on the bottom of the deck. Draw 2 cards. Add them to your hand. Choose 2 from your new hand to put on the bottom of the deck. Selecting which token to place, she returns the other 2 tokens to the bag.
Refresh Phase
Draw shop cards from the deck until you have a full hand of 2 cards. If you already have a full hand, you do not draw any cards. Play then passes to your opponent.
End of Game
End game trigger: You can trigger the end of the game in two possible ways: either by pulling the last token from the bag, or by drawing the last card from the deck. If you trigger the end of the game, finish your entire turn. If the bag is empty and you need to draw additional tokens, add the 6 extra tokens to the bag.
Special scoring phase: When you are done with your final turn, your opponent gets a final chance to SCORE and SPEND A COIN if they wish.
Example — Using extra dragon tokens: There are 3 tokens in the bag, when Drake takes his turn and pulls a crystal dragon token. Firing up the token requires 3 tokens from the bag, which only contains 2. (A) Drake pulls the 2 remaining tokens first. (B) He adds the 6 extra tokens to the bag. (C) Then he pulls 1 more dragon token to complete the crystal special ability. Since the bag emptied on his turn, this will trigger the end of the game, even though the bag has dragon tokens in it.
Determining Final Score and the Winner
Each player totals up the hearts on all of the shop cards in their scored cards pile. Each unspent coin counts as 1 additional heart. The player with the most hearts wins the game. If there is a tie, the player with the most cards in their scoring pile wins. If there is still a tie, players share a DUAL victory!
Fancy Mode
Fancy dragons love to play games too! When the fancies are around, you can play with advanced rules and new actions!
Setup
Before setting up the board, remove the 8 fancy cards from the box. Each player chooses 1 fancy card that will be used in this game. The 2 chosen cards are placed beside the board for both players to use. Any combination of active and passive fancies may be used. Return the other 6 fancy cards to the box.
If Buddy is one of the cards chosen, put the Buddy token into the bag.
Gameplay
There are 2 kinds of fancies: active and passive. Active fancies give you additional ways to use your coins, and passive fancies change the rules of the game. Both players get to use abilities of the chosen fancies.
Active fancies: You may SPEND A COIN on your turn to use the regular coin ability, or to activate an ability on an active fancy card instead. You are still limited to spending 1 coin per turn.
Passive fancies: These fancies have their own style, and change the rules of the game!
Active Fancies Clarifications
STARBURST: This effect is not repeated when you draw a second card. If you end your turn with a full hand of cards or more, you do not draw.
PRECIOUS: You must be holding an unplayed token to use Precious.
FLAIR: Can move a token between scoring cards.
TAYLOR: Return the other token to the bag.
Passive Fancies Clarifications
BUDDY: The Buddy token has no special ability. When scoring cards, Buddy can count as one type of dragon for 1 card, and a different type for another.
STERLING: Any player who still has 1 or more coins remaining at the end of the game scores zero hearts for their coins.
TRINITY: You may score all 3 of your cards on a single turn!
ORACLE: Whenever you draw a card for any reason, you may choose 1 of the face-up cards or draw from the deck. Do not refill the 2 face-up cards until after your turn has ended and you have refreshed your hand.
The Fountain
The Fountain provides a challenging mode of play that is recommended only for experienced players. The Fountain can be used in both the standard game and when using Fancy Mode!
Setup
After setting up dragon tokens, put the fountain miniature and all 6 fountain cards face up beside the board. Remove an additional 6 artisan dragon tokens, 1 of each color, from the bag and set them aside. They are not needed when playing this mode.
Gameplay
On each of your turns, during the SCORE phase, if there are 4 adjacent dragon tokens matching the pattern on an available fountain card, you may claim that fountain card. Take the fountain card and put it in your scored cards pile. You may not complete more than 1 fountain card per turn.
Next, take the fountain miniature and move it to any space on the board. If you move it to a space that contains a stack of dragon tokens, return all but 1 of the tokens to the bag. You will not pull a token on your next turn. You will play the token you kept instead.
The fountain miniature acts as a blocker while on the board. It may not be moved by any actions. It may only be moved when a fountain card is scored.
Solo Mode
Solo Mode uses the fountain miniature and fountain cards, but cannot be combined with Fancy Mode.
Setup
After setting up dragon tokens, put the fountain miniature in the center of the board. Shuffle all 6 fountain cards, and reveal only 1 face up beside the board. Remove an additional 6 artisan dragon tokens, 1 of each color, from the bag and set them aside. They are not needed when playing this mode.
Gameplay
You perform your turn in the same manner as a standard game, but you have no opponent. After each turn, you take another turn.
The challenge is this: each turn you must complete at least 1 card (shop or fountain card) or spend a coin to take a new turn. If you cannot, you have lost!
When you complete a fountain card, follow the normal rules for moving the miniature and returning tokens to the bag. Then, reveal a new fountain card.
You may SPEND A COIN to draw new cards, but this reduces the number of times you can take a new turn!
To win the game, you must complete all fountain cards before the deck or the tokens run out. Good luck!
You don't need to score all cards in your hand each turn. But doing so may lead to the most hearts. See the Solo Mode reference card to rank your high score!
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