Goblin Uprising Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Objective
• The Setup
• The Basics
  • Class Sheets
  • Dice
  • Cards
  • Tokens
  • Other Special Components
• The Tall Races
  • The Tyrant
  • The Generals
  • The Troops
• How to Play
  • Winning the Game
  • Losing the Game
  • Determining First Player
  • Turns and Rounds
  • Hero's Turn
  • Tyrant's Turn
• Combat
  • Fighting Against Troops and Generals
  • Fighting Against the Tyrant
  • Fighting Another Player
  • Rewards
  • Adventure
• Damage
• Spawning Enemies
• Renown
• Guardians
• Regions
• Keywords

Components

Boards

• 6 Tribe Tiles
• 7 Troop Tiles
• 8 Game Tiles
• 4 Boss Sheets
• 6 Character Sheets

Dice (the game has 4 dice sets)

• Region die: ×1
• Goblin die: ×8
• Enemy die: ×6
• Tyrant die: ×2

Meeples

• Cubic Pieces: ×42 (7 for each class)
• Experience Star: ×6

Tokens

• Exploration tokens: 10
• Quest: ×6
• Renown: ×1
• Essence: ×4
• Goblin: ×4
• Ambush: ×1
• Damage: ×30
• Fury: ×1
• Wolf: ×1
• Bear: ×1
• Crown: ×12
• Tyrannical Armor: ×10

Miniatures

• 6 Class Miniatures: Barbarian, Wizard, Ranger, Rogue, Druid, Bard
• 4 Boss Miniatures: Human Tyrant, Merfolk Tyrant, Elven Tyrant, Dwarf Tyrant
• 6 Guardian Miniatures: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Life, Death
• 6 General Miniatures: Merfolk General, Dwarf General, Elven General, Undead General, Human General, Dragon General
• 42 Troop Miniatures: 6 Dragon Soldiers, 6 Undead Soldiers, 6 Human Soldiers, 6 Merfolk Soldiers, 6 Elven Soldiers, 6 Dwarf Soldiers, 6 Champion Soldiers

Cards

• 24 Tribe Cards
• 86 Goblin Cards
• 60 Adventure Cards
• 100 Tyrant Scheme Cards
• 12 Behavior Cards
• 6 Guardian Cards
• 3 Pet Cards

Game Objective

The objective of the game is to defeat the Tyrant that is standing in their castle. But in your adventures you will see that this is anything but simple. In order to be able to damage the Tyrant you need to foil their schemes, defeat their armies and even then, a wrench might be thrown in your plans and the game's win condition may change in the middle of the match.

The Setup

Setting up the game is rather easy.

1. Set up the modular Board as shown below (You can set up in any way you want, but for your first time we recommend this one.)
2. Pick a Tyrant, their sheet and their scheme deck, place them on the table in an easy place to reach. Reveal their first scheme.
3. Every player picks a class, their initial ability, their special components, a tribe card and draws Goblin cards equal to their leadership.
4. Place exploration tokens face down on the numbers on the map until you run out of those.
5. Place the goblin deck, the adventure deck and the guardian deck on the table.
6. Pick a behavior card at random and place it on its designated space in the Tyrant's sheet.
7. Place the goblin villages on the edges of the board. And the chosen classes miniature on them. One per village.
8. Place one troop miniature on each region. The troop must belong to that region.
9. Place one extra troop on the region that the chosen Tyrant comes from. (E.G.: If you are playing against the Molten Empress, place an extra dwarf on the mountain.)

And you are all set.

Board regions (as printed in the setup diagram):

• The Tundra, dominated by the living dead
• The Corals, dominated by the merfolk
• The Mountains, dominated by the dwarves
• The City and Castle, controlled by the Tyrant
• The Forest, dominated by the elves
• The Prairie, dominated by humans
• The Desert, dominated by the dragon

The Basics

Class Sheets

Before playing the game, we will talk a little about some of the components and what you need to know to start your adventure in Eldain. Every player joining the rebellion needs to choose a class.

• HP: This is your life total. If it reaches zero, you fall in combat and go back to your starting village.
• Leadership: This stat shows how effective you are in leading your followers into battle. The higher it is, the better your goblins cards perform. This stat also defines how many goblin cards the player starts the game with.
• Essence: This shows how many essences this class can hold. Essences are a resource used in class abilities, adventures and battles.
• Class Passive: All classes have a passive ability, each one has an unique effect.
• Class Abilities: These are your abilities. They can only be used in combat but may have far reaching effects, such as healing or switching places with another player. At the start of the game you pick one level 1 ability to start the game with. As long as you follow your ability tree, you may acquire as many abilities as you want, at a price of course. Every ability has a die icon and a number beside it, this shows how many dice you roll when attacking with it. Besides that, every ability has a description box with its additional effect.
• Renown: In your travels, you will make a name for yourself and get stronger. Renown is the result of your actions in the game and a resource that will allow you to upgrade your character in multiple ways. By spending it, you can learn new class abilities, gain the favor of a powerful guardian and even momentarily bolster your forces.

Goblin Tribe: In addition to their classes, all players will need to choose a Goblin Tribe as their home. Each tribe has a different special ability that can be used once per game (although it is rumored that there are ways to circumvent that). These effects are powerful and can turn the tide of a battle, so use them wisely.

Class sheet fields (as printed on the sheet diagram): Class Name, Class Skill Tree, Ability Marker, Ability Name, Number of Dice or Actions, Special Effect, Hit Points, Leadership, Essence, Class Power, Class Passive, Renown.

Dice

The game has 4 dice sets.

• Region die: This one is used throughout the game, used to determine a region where an effect takes place. Faces: Human (represents the Prairie region), Elf (the Forest), Merfolk (the Reef), Dwarf (the Mountain), Kobold (the Desert), Zombie (the Tundra).
• Tyrant die: This is used when players are attacked by the Tyrant. It modifies them and can bolster the damage and add other effects to their attack.
  • Tyrant's Power: Represents the power of the current Tyrant. Resolve its effect.
  • Reinforce: Spawn a troop in a random region (roll a region die).
  • Extra Damage: Add the number to the damage.
  • Discard: Discard 1 Goblin Card from your hand.
• Enemy die: This is used when players are attacked by an enemy troop. It modifies them and can bolster the damage and add other effects to their attack.
  • +1, +2: Add the number to the damage.
  • Axe: Represents the Cleave keyword. The attack damages everyone in the region.
  • Arrow: Represents the Aimed keyword. The damage from this attack cannot be prevented by any means.
  • Essence: The player discards 1 essence.
• Goblin die: This die is the one that players use on combat, tests and adventures. It will be the most used die in the game.
  • Blank: Nothing happens. This is a failed roll.
  • Star: This is a successful result! The more of these, the better.
  • Essence: By spending 1 essence you can change this result to a success.

Cards

Goblin Uprising has some decks for you to manage.

• Goblin card: These cards represent the goblins loyal to your cause. Each goblin has 2 effects, the uprising one (on the colored stripe), that can only be used during combat if you manage to roll an uprising result. The other is an effect that can be used at any time during the hero's turn. In game, these cards are referred to as goblins. When instructed to draw a card, unless stated otherwise, draw from this deck.
• Adventure card: These cards represent your efforts other than fighting. To go on an adventure, roll 5 goblin dice. To be successful in an adventure, you need success equal to the number on the card. If you are successful, resolve the green effect, otherwise resolve the red effect. Some adventure cards do not have a number, this means that no test is necessary, all you have to do in this case is choose your preferred effect.
• Guardian card: These represent strong allies that can help you during your journey. Cards show a guardian type, the guardian's name, a passive ability, and an active ability.
• Tribe card: These are cards that you choose in the beginning of the game, they can be used at any moment. Once you do, turn them facedown, indicating that they are exhausted. There are a few effects that can turn them face up. Example printed on a tribe card (Fire Tribe): "You can reroll as many dice as you like once during this turn. Exhaust this card."

Tokens

In Eldain, some situations and curious locations might draw the attention of our heroes. They are represented by tokens.

• Quest Tokens: Some cards can place these tokens on the map. The card dictates the effect and the players can interact with this token.
• Exploration Tokens: Player can interact with this and gain the resource indicated in its front.
• Damage & Essence Tokens: Use these to track damage done and taken and your essences.
• Crown Tokens: Use these to track the effect of the current tyrant. Not all tyrants use this.
• Royal Armor Tokens: Use these to track the armor of the current Tyrant.

Other Special Components

There are other components that are used in game, sometimes by a single class, or just a single character, in these situations we will elaborate on them as they come up.

The Tall Races

The Tyrant

They are the ruling monarch of Eldain, the despot, the villains. These are the champions of the Tall Races, and as such, they have powerful abilities and special character sheets that affect the entire game.

Royal Armor: While most of these stats might be familiar to you already, one specifically is brand new. Royal Armor is a special stat that only the Tyrant has. Each Tyrant begins with the number of Royal Armor tokens indicated in their stat line. Every time they take damage, subtract the amount of Royal Armor tokens from it, any leftover damage is dealt to their health. Damage does not remove the Royal Armor tokens. The only way to remove these tokens is by foiling their schemes.

Scheme Cards: These cards represent the plans and machinations unique to each Tyrant. Each one of them has an effect, objectives to be met and a reward, if said conditions are met. Your main objective is to foil as many schemes as possible to chip away the Tyrant's defense and make it easier to defeat them. The game always starts with the first scheme, indicated by a ! next to its name. (Scheme card fields: Card Name, Effect, Winning Condition.)

Destruction Track: The Tyrant's Sheet has a destruction track, composed by a column of numbers, their associated effects and its several brackets. Every time you move the destruction marker down the track, resolve the effect of the space it just landed. You will also roll the region dice equal to the number beside the and spawn troops in those regions. If the destruction marker reaches the end of its track, any further movement will repeat the effect at the end of the track.

Note: the printed text reads "equal to the number beside the and spawn troops"; a word appears to be missing from the source at this point, and it is reproduced as printed.

Behavior Card: These cards represent how the boss will behave after the war is drawn out. In game, they have a wide range of effects. They can add modifiers to the Tyrant, spawn powerful foes and even change the game's win condition. At the start of the game, one is selected at random and placed face down within its designated space. (Behavior card field: Card Name.)

Tyrannical Ability: Every tyrant has an ability, and just like the scheme deck, they are unique to that tyrant. Some of these effects may require the players to track some sort of status, if they do, use the crown tokens to do that.

The Generals

Every leader needs their second in command, the generals are just that. Powerful villains that, if left unchecked, can set the whole realm on fire.

While they are relatively simple, they offer additional challenges and sometimes can enter the board with special effects that will hinder your progress.

The Troops

These are the rank and file of the Tyrant's army, and as such, they are relatively simple. Each troop can only spawn in their respective region. They also come with a tile that you can place next to their region to track damage dealt.

Their stat line just shows how much damage they deal and how much damage they can take. Every time they attack, roll the enemy die and add their effect to the damage.

How to Play

Winning the Game

If the players manage to defeat the Tyrant before the behavior has been revealed, they win the game. Otherwise, follow the rules established on the behavior card.

Losing the Game

The game ends when all players are defeated and removed from the game or if some other effect states so. These effects are found in behavior cards and the Oppress keyword at the end of every Tyrant's sheet.

It is important to say that while heroes' deaths do not mean defeat, they add up really quickly and can spell the end of your match. So be careful!

Determining First Player

The shortest person will play first, from there on out, follow clockwise order around the table.

Turns and Rounds

The game is divided in rounds, and each round is made up of two turns: the Hero's turn and the Tyrant's turn.

Move 1: Move to an adjacent space. Can be repeated.

Rest: Regain 2 HP or 2 Essences. You can only do this action once per turn.

Interact: Interact with an Exploration token and gain the designated bonus or with a Quest token and resolve its effect. Can be repeated.

Hero's Turn

This is where the bulk of the game happens. Players will do actions, battle and go on adventures in this phase. Each player starts this round with 3 actions. They can do the following: Move 1, Rest and Interact (see above).

You can also use this turn to spend Renown without spending any actions (more on that later). As soon as a player has exhausted their actions they must perform a heroic deed. They have to choose between:

• Battle (fight a target in your region)
• Adventure (draw an adventure card and resolve its effect)

When the player resolves their heroic deed, the next player begins their hero turn and so on. When all players have gone through their hero turn, the Hero's turn ends and the Tyrant's turn begins.

Tyrant's Turn

The Tyrant's turn represents the tyrant taking actions against the goblin's advances. Their iron grip tightening even further. This happens mainly by resolving scheme effects, spawning new troops and attacking the heroes in their general vicinity. The Tyrant's turn has 3 phases.

Upkeep Phase: A lot of scheme cards have powers that take effect in the beginning of the Tyrant's turn, they take place here. Resolve any effect written on the active scheme card, after that move on to the next phase.

Tyranny Phase: In this phase, advance the destruction marker by 1 on the Tyrant's sheet, reinforce according to the new bracket that you are in and resolve the effect designated at the current destruction level. After this, move on to the next phase.

Attack Phase: If the boss has the Aggressive keyword active, they attack everyone in the region with a single attack. If there are any other troops with the Aggressive keyword active, they also attack in this phase.

After the attack phase is over, the Tyrant's turn ends and a new round begins.

Combat

The time has come for you to come face to face with the Tall Races. Here you will learn what you need to fight them and win. You can only target enemies in your region.

Entering combat: There are only two ways you can enter combat. By performing a Heroic Deed at the end of your hero turn or by being attacked.

How does it work: Every combat has 2 turns, the attacker's turn and the defender's turn. The party that initiated the attack will always go first unless stated otherwise. After their turn, it's time for the defender to fight back, this is called a Counter attack. After both parties' actions, the combat ends. The combat turn goes as follows:

1. Select a target within your region.
2. Select one of your class abilities.
3. Roll the number of dice as indicated.
4. Resolve the ability effect.
5. Apply Uprising effects, if any.
6. Deal damage to the target.
7. The defender counter attacks if they can.
8. Combat ends.

If the damage dealt is equal or higher than the target's current HP, the target dies and there is no counter attack. Any surplus damage is lost, unless you are using a piercing ability, indicated by the spikes around the ability's text box. If that is the case, the surplus damage is inflicted to another troop in the region, they can counter attack. If you were the defender, the combat ends.

Dice roll: The number of successes rolled is the amount of damage you will deal. Before the damage is dealt there are 2 things that you can do with your dice results:

• Use Essences: Spending essences to transform essence results into successes is considered part of the dice roll. All you need to do to apply the effect is simply declare it and discard an essence token in your pool.
• Uprising & its effects: If you manage to roll an Uprising result on the dice, you can use the uprising effect of one of your goblin cards, indicated by the colored stripe on the card. If you choose to do so, discard the chosen goblin and resolve its effect.

Fighting Against Troops and Generals

When fighting against Troops, you choose a troop type in your region (E.G: Dwarf) and make an attack against the entire army of that troop. That means that the damage is done to the army, not the miniature. The one who deals the killing blow to a unit in that army chooses which miniature to remove from the board.

When it's their turn to attack, simply roll the enemy die and add the damage on their stat line to the dice effect. If there is more than one troop in the region, add +1 damage for each additional miniature. After the damage is dealt, this turn ends. If this is the second combat turn, the combat ends.

Fighting Against the Tyrant

Clashing with the big bad is pretty much the same as fighting with a troop, there are only 3 differences:

• They will ALWAYS strike first. Roll the Tyrant's die instead of the troop die.
• Every time they take damage, subtract the amount of Royal Armor tokens from it, any leftover damage is dealt to their health. Damage does not remove the Royal Armor tokens.

Note: the printed text lists three differences, but only the two above are printed.

Fighting Another Player

If you are facing another player, the rules remain unchanged. The attacker goes first and uses their ability and relevant effects, and the defender goes right after, doing the same thing.

Rewards

After a combat ends, the players involved in the battle reap their rewards.

• Survived the combat: +1 Renown (this reward does not stack with the others.)
• Defeating a troop: +2 Renown, +1 Essence, +1 Goblin card
• Defeating a General: +2 Renown, +1 Essence, +1 Goblin card
• Defeating a player: +1 Renown, +1 Goblin card that they have

Adventure

Instead of fighting, some players may choose to spend their heroic deed at the end of their turn by adventuring. To do so, simply draw a card from the Adventure deck, this is called Adventuring.

After reading the card, roll 5 dice, to be successful in an adventure you need success equal to the number on the card. If you are successful, resolve the green effect, otherwise resolve the red effect. You may also feel like an adventure is a little bit hard for you, if that is the case, you can spend one essence to invite another player to help, you can do this up to your leadership. If they accept, they will roll a die and add the result to yours. Do this before rolling your dice.

There are also some adventure cards that do not have the difficulty number, this means that no test is necessary, all you have to do in this case is choose your preferred effect. No matter the choice, you succeed.

After resolving the relevant effects, the adventure ends.

Damage

During your journeys, you will deal plenty of damage but also take a lot of it. In this section we will explain how to deal with damage. Damage can be tracked by the damage tokens that come in the box.

• Dealing & Taking damage: Damage can come from multiple sources. But no matter the source it works the same way. Track any damage by using the damage tokens.
• Preventing damage: Unless otherwise specified, damage can be prevented by discarding goblins from your hand. For every goblin discarded this way, prevent 1 damage.
• Falling in battle: In Goblin Uprising when your HP reaches 0, you are considered to have Fallen in Battle. A goblin hero that falls in battle loses 1 renown, discards their entire hand of goblins and moves the destruction down the track by 1. But that is not the end of your journey in Eldain. You return to your starting village, with full HP.

Spawning Enemies

• Spawning Troops: To spawn a troop, just place the miniature on the space marked on the designated region. If no region was designated or if the region is to be selected at random, roll a region die. If an effect tries to spawn a troop type and you have no more miniatures left to spawn, advance the Destruction track by one.
• Spawning Generals: To spawn a general, just place the miniature on the space marked on the designated region. If no region was designated or if the region is to be selected at random, roll a region die. If an effect tries to spawn a general that is already on the board, advance the Destruction track by one.

Renown

Renown is the result of your actions in the game and a resource that will allow you to upgrade your character in multiple ways. By spending it, you can learn new class abilities, gain the favor of a powerful guardian and even momentarily bolster your forces.

• Gaining Renown: You get Renown by fighting the Tall Races, going on adventures and foiling the schemes of the Tyrant.
• Spending Renown: Players can spend Renown during their Hero's turn to do a variety of things. Below you will find a list of what you can do with this resource. This is the main way to upgrade your character, but do not hesitate to use it to add an uprising result if you are in trouble.
  • Learn a class ability (Train): 2 Renown
  • Add an Uprising result to a dice roll (Rally): 1 Renown
  • Draw 1 Goblin (Recruit): 1 Renown
  • Summon a guardian (Commune): 5 Renown
• Losing Renown: Some effects or situations might make you lose some of your renown. If you can't lose renown, the effect is considered resolved.

Guardians

These powerful beings are a special part of the game. After you commune with the land and bring them to your side, they grant you new abilities that will aid you in your quest. Every guardian has 2 abilities, a passive and an active.

• Active Ability: The active one uses 2 actions on the hero's turn, while that is a steep price to pay, they almost always pay off, and combined with the passive ability, the guardians can really change the course of battle.
• Passive Ability: The passive ability usually needs a trigger to happen, like taking damage or defeating a troop. Once the conditions are met, resolve the effect. The effects do not need to happen during your turn.

Regions

Regions and interactions: Unless stated otherwise, you can only interact with tokens and players that are in your region. Some tokens, like the exploration and quest tokens, can only be interacted with if you are in the same space that they are.

• Goblin Villages: At the start of the game, each player will place one goblin village hexagonal tile on the edges of the map. These are the player's spawn points, they start the game and respawn there in case they fall in battle.
• Random Effects: Some effects can ask you to determine a random region, in this case, just roll a region die and determine where the effect is taking place. If, for some reason, the effect cannot happen in that region, reroll the result. If the result is still invalid, the effect is considered resolved.

Keywords

• Aggressive: Enemies with this keyword attack during the Tyrant's attack phase.
• Oppress: Every time the destruction marker would advance, deal 2 damage to every goblin hero. Heroes that fall in combat are removed from the game.
• Reinforcement: Spawn a troop in a random region.
• Cleave: This attack targets everyone in the region.
• Aimed: Damage from this attack cannot be prevented.
• Train: Spend 2 Renown to learn a class ability.
• Rally: Spend 1 Renown, add an Uprising to your combat dice roll.
• Recruit: Spend 1 Renown, draw 1 Goblin.
• Commune: Spend 5 Renown, choose a guardian and place your miniature on it.
• Exhaust: Turn this card face down. It cannot be used again unless an effect turns it face up.