Grimoire Rulebook

Table of Contents

Contents
Game Board
Quest Cards and Item Cards
Setup
Game Overview
Rules
Game End
Additional Information About Spells
Credits

5 Grimoires
30 VP Tokens
1 Spell Level Marker
5 Bookmarks
5 Turn Order Markers
1 Game Board
74 Quest Cards
21 Item Cards

Each Grimoire is a spell book. A spell page shows the Spell Name, Spell Level, Spell Type, Spell Description, Spell Effect, and Flavor Text.

Each Bookmark is a wizard-shaped marker used to mark the page a player has chosen in their Grimoire.

The Turn Order Markers are numbered 1 through 5.

Game Board

The Game Board has a Quest Card Zone, a Quest Deck Area, a Discard Area, an Item Deck Area, a VP Token Area, and a Spell Level Chart.

The Quest Card Zone has spaces for the Quest Cards, some played face up and some face down, depending on the number of players:

One space is used in a 2-4 player game (face up) and in a 5 player game (face down).
One space is used only in a 3, 4, or 5 player game (face up).
One space is used only in a 4 or 5 player game (face up).
One space is used only in a 5 player game (face up).

The Spell Level Chart is numbered 6 through 15 and tracks the highest Spell Level that may be chosen in the current round.

Quest Cards and Item Cards

Each Quest Card shows a Card Name, an Effect, a VP value, and a Card Type icon. Quest Cards can be either Treasures or Companions.

Each Item Card shows a Card Name, an Effect, and a VP value.

Setup

Place the Game Board in the center of the table,
Place all the VP Tokens in the VP Token Area,
Shuffle the Item Card and Quest Card decks and put them in the designated areas,
Put the Spell Level Marker under the "6" on the Spell Level Chart,
Put the Turn Order markers off to the side for now,
Give each player a Grimoire and the corresponding Bookmark.
The space in front of each player is referred to as their "Territory" and is where they will keep their Quest Cards, Item Cards and VP Tokens.

Game Overview

Game turns are broken down into three phases.

Setup Phase — Prepare the play area for the round.
Book Phase — Choose Spells and determine turn order.
Quest Phase — Cast Spells and obtain Quest Cards.

The game ends when one player has gained enough Treasures or Companions OR if you run out of Quest Cards. The player with the highest total VP wins the game.

Rules

Setup Phase

1) Advance the Spell Level Marker

Move the Spell Level Marker to the next numbered area on the MP chart.

This action is skipped in the first round.
Do not move the Spell Level Marker after it has reached 15.

2) Place Quest Cards

Take a number of cards from the top of the Quest Deck equal to the number of players plus 1 (keep the cards face down when taking them). Put one (in a 2-4 player game) or two (in a 5 player game) cards face down, and the rest face up, in the appropriate spaces in the Quest Card Zone.

If there are no cards left in the Quest Deck, shuffle the cards in the Discard Area to create a new Quest Deck. If you ever have to draw a Quest Card and there are no cards left in both the Quest Deck and Discard Area, the game ends immediately.

Book Phase — Performed by all players simultaneously

1) Choose Spells

Simultaneously, each player secretly selects a Spell from their Grimoire, places their Bookmark on that page and closes the Book. The chosen Spell's level cannot be greater than the current level shown by the Spell Level Chart.

2) Reveal Spells

Each player opens their Book to the page where they placed their Bookmark, revealing the Spell they selected.

3) Determine Player Order

The order of the players is determined in the following way:

Group A: players who selected a Spell no other player selected.
Group B: players who selected the same Spell as one or more other players.

First, each player in Group A receives a Turn Order Token according to the Spell Level of the spell they chose; the lowest level spell gets the #1 Token, the next lowest gets the #2 Token, etc.

After that, each player in Group B receives one of the remaining Turn Order Tokens according to the Spell Level of the spell they chose and the number on his or her Turn Order Token in the previous round so that the player whose turn was later in the previous round gets the lowest number token. If there are multiple groups of players that chose spells with the same level, the group with the lowest Spell Level gets their Turn Order Tokens first.

Example: During the Book Phase, Hallie chose Silence (Spell Level 2), Fletcher and Karen chose Cure (Spell Level 4), Paul chose Resistance (Spell Level 6), and Elizabeth chose Creation (Spell Level 7). Since Hallie, Paul and Elizabeth chose spells that no one else chose they will be assigned Turn Order Markers first. Hallie gets #1, Paul #2 and Elizabeth #3. Karen and Fletcher chose the same spell so they get their Turn Order Tokens last even though the Spell Level is lower than either Paul's or Elizabeth's. Last round Fletcher went second and Karen went fifth, so Karen gets Turn Order Marker #4 and Fletcher gets #5.

Players who revealed a Time Spell (Acceleration or Time Stop) in the current Book Phase uses its effect at this point.

Quest Phase — Performed in Turn Order

Players take turns performing the following set of actions:

1. Use the Book Effect

The player whose turn it is uses the effect of the page he or she just selected in the Book Phase. See Additional Information About Spells for more information on how to use each effect.

2. Take a Quest Card

The same player then takes the Quest Card of his or her choice from the Quest Card Zone.

A Companion is placed face up, and a Treasure is placed face down, in the player's Territory.
When taking the face-down card from the Main Zone, the player looks at it in secret first, then places it in his or her Territory, as stated above.

Item Cards

A player can draw an Item Card (or cards) only when he or she uses the Creation Spell or a related effect. Item Cards are placed face down in the player's Territory. If the Item Deck runs out of cards during the game, the players can no longer draw any Item cards.

When all the players have completed the above set of actions, put the remaining Quest Cards from the Quest Card Zone in the Discard Area.

When the Quest Phase is complete the round is over. If Game End conditions are not met, start a new round from the Setup Phase.

Game End

If a players has either 10 Companion Quest Cards OR 10 Treasure Quest Cards in their Territory at any time during a turn, continue playing until the end of that round and the game ends. However, if you need to draw a Quest card and both the Quest Deck and the Discard Area run out of cards, the game ends immediately.

Some Quest Cards (Rogue, Prince, Queen, and King) and the Junk Item Cards, can give you additional or fewer VP when the game ends. Determine the value of these cards then add the VP value of additional Quest Cards, Item Cards and VP Tokens. The player with the highest total VP wins.

Additional Information About Spells

Luck (Spell 1) — You can choose to discard the face-down Quest Card from the Quest Card Zone. If you do, you cannot look at the card you take from the Quest Deck; place it face down in appropriate space.

Cure (Spell 4) — When taking a random discard, shuffle all the discards into a face-down pile and choose one of the cards randomly.

Acceleration (Spell 5) — This card's effect is not used in the Quest Phase but in the Book Phase.

Creation (Spell 7) — After drawing an Item Card, do not reveal it to the other players. Put it face down in your Territory. The only possible exception is the "Blessed Shoes." When you draw this Item Card, you may use its effect immediately according to its instructions, but you cannot use its effect after you put it face down in your Territory.

Charm (Spell 9) — If 2 or more players have the highest number of Companions, the player who cast Charm can choose which one to target. Any players who used a Defensive Spell (Resistance or Time Stop) this round are ignored when determining the target of this spell.

Summon Elemental (Spell 10) — Even if you are tied for the lowest total, you can still use this effect.

Time Stop (Spell 11) — Reversing Turn Order Tokens happens during the Book Phase and the defensive effect continues through the Quest Phase.

Polymorph (Spell 12) — This effect applies to other player's VP Tokens only, not their Quest or Item Cards. If 2 or more players have the highest total VP, the player who cast Polymorph can choose which one to target. Any players who used a Defensive Spell (Resistance or Time Stop) this round are ignored when determining the target of this spell.

Domination (Spell 14) — If 2 or more players have the highest number of Companions, the player who cast Domination can choose which one to target. Any players who used a Defensive Spell (Resistance or Time Stop) this round are ignored when determining the target of this spell.

Wish (Spell 15) — When taking a random discard, shuffle all the discards into a face-down pile and choose three of the cards randomly. If the Quest Deck and Discard Pile are depleted while performing this effect, the player keeps any cards obtained and the game ends.

Credits

Game Designer: Hayato Kisaragi

Character Designer: Shusaku Kondo

Graphic Designers: Keita Komiyama & Paul Gerardi