Guardian's Call Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Overview
• What's in the Box
• Game Set-up
• Gameplay
  • Turn Overview
  • Drawing Cards
  • Making an Offer
  • Offer Rules
  • Making an Offer: Who Wins?
  • Example Turn
• Coins
  • Using coins
• Card Types and your Tableau
  • Weapons
  • Artifact
  • Shields
  • Villagers
  • Spells
  • Curses
• Quests
• Treasures
  • 3VP treasure
  • 5VP treasure
  • 7VP treasure
  • 10VP treasure
• Council
• War
• Guardian Affinities

Overview

Guardian's Call is a bluffing and deduction game for 2-5 players (ages 14+, 30-45 minutes).

Each player takes the role of a renowned Guardian, a leader of one of the mighty clans. Each turn you will gather provisions from the center pool and then make an offer of aid to another player. That player will decide if they think your offer is sincere or if they think you are trying to deceive them.

If they are correct in guessing, they gain all of the provisions that were offered. If they were incorrect, you gain the provisions. Each type of provision grants points in a different manner, and the more you collect, the greater their value.

What's in the Box

• 1 Castle game board
• 5 Guardian player boards
• 20 Offer tokens
• 120 Guardian game cards
• 16 Quest cards
• 20 Treasure cards
• 70 Victory Point tokens
• 40 Coin tokens
• 45mm Starting Player token
• 5 Player meeples

Game Set-up

1. Take all the Guardian cards, and set aside the Council and War cards. a. If your game has 2 players, remove 5 of each type of Guardian card: Artifact, Curse, Shield, Spell, Villagers, Weapons.
2. Shuffle the remaining Guardian cards together.
3. Deal three Guardian cards to each player, face-down.
4. Form a card pool in the center of the table by revealing five Guardian cards.
5. Set up the game deck: a. Split the remaining Guardian cards into four piles of approximately the same size. b. Shuffle the War card into the first pile and place this pile as the bottom of the deck. c. Shuffle the Council card into a second pile. Place this second pile on top of the War pile. d. Place the remaining two piles on top to finish constructing the deck.
6. Randomly assign a Guardian to each player and give them the matching player board.
7. Give each player the set of Offer tokens with their Guardian's color and name marked on the back. Even though your set of Offer tokens includes all Guardians, you cannot make an offer to a Guardian who is not playing, so you can set aside any Offer tokens for Guardians not active in this game.
8. Place the Castle board within view of all players. Place the Guardian token for each player on the first space of the Castle board.
9. Place one VP token per player, starting with the highest value, on each of the spaces 5, 10, 15 and 20 of the Castle Board. Place the 5VP tokens on top, and place the remaining beneath it in descending order. For example, for a four player game, you would place the tokens 5VP, 4VP, 3VP and 2VP on each spot.
10. Shuffle the Quest cards and place 3 of them face up next to the Castle Board. Place the remaining Quest cards back in the box.
11. Shuffle the Treasure cards and place them face down in a pile next to the Castle board.
12. The youngest player is the starting player.

Initial game setup for four players: the player markers all begin on the same square of the Castle board, and there are four VP tokens on each of the golden squares.

Gameplay

Players take turns in clockwise order gathering and offering Provisions. When the Council card is drawn or revealed, the Guardians score points for Quests and for the villagers they have protected in the Castle. Then play continues until the War card is revealed.

Turn Overview

1. Replenish the card pool from the Guardian deck to five cards.
2. Preparation (optional) -- do any number of these actions: a. Draw cards into your hand up to the hand size of 6. b. Buy a card directly to your tableau for 3 Coins. c. Remove a Curse from the pool for 5 Coins, and gain 5VP. d. Discard three Artifact cards to draw Treasure cards.
3. Offer a set of cards to another player.

Drawing Cards

On your turn you may draw cards until you have 6 in your hand. You may draw cards from the center pool or unseen from the top of the deck. Once you decide to stop drawing, or you have 6 cards in your hand, you must make an offer to another player.

Making an Offer

Choose another player and flip your offer token that matches their character face down. Then choose a number of cards of the same type from your hand and present them to that player, face-down. Declare what you are offering by saying, for example, "Here are two Weapons" or "I have three Artifacts for you". You may choose to be truthful about what you are offering or you may lie.

The player who is receiving the offer must then state whether they believe you or not by saying something along the lines of "I believe you, thanks for the Weapons." or "Those aren't Artifacts." After declaring, the receiving Guardian reveals the face-down cards.

• If they guessed correctly, they keep the cards, adding them to their tableau, and you take a coin.
• If they guessed incorrectly, the cards will join your tableau, and they take a coin.
• If you have no face-up offer tokens, turn all of your offer tokens face up before making an offer.

Offer Rules

A player may offer anything they want on their turn with these restrictions:

• An offer may consist of only one type of card.
• A player may never declare that they are offering Curses -- they must bluff.
• A player may only offer to a Guardian if they have an unused Offer token for that Guardian.
• A player may lie about the type of cards in an offer, but not about the number of cards.

When receiving an Offer, a player must state clearly whether they believe the Offer is true or false.

Making an Offer: Who Wins?

When receiving an Offer, a player must state clearly whether they believe the Offer is true or false.

• If you tell the truth, and they agree: They win the cards, adding them to their tableau.
• If you tell the truth, and they are wrong: You win the cards, adding them to your tableau.
• If you bluff, and they can tell: They win the cards, unless they're curses.
• If you bluff, and get away with it: You win the cards, unless they're curses.

You must bluff curses.

• If you successfully bluff Curses: They are cursed. Player board shows curse effects.
• If you are caught bluffing Curses: You are cursed. Player board shows curse effects.

Example Turn

It is Graham's turn and he draws two Weapons from the center into his hand and draws one card from the top of the deck. Graham flips the Archer Guardian Offer token to indicate that he is making an offer to Laura. He chooses the two Weapons and places them face-down in front of Laura. Graham declares to Laura that he is offering two Spells: "I have two Spells for you."

Laura thinks it over, remembers that Graham picked up two Weapons from the center and declares, "Those are not Spells." She then reveals the cards and sees that she was correct: they are Weapons. She adds the Weapons to her tableau. The card pool is replenished and Rob, the next player in clockwise order, begins his turn.

Coins

You can earn coins in a few different ways during the game:

• When making or receiving an offer if the other player gains any cards, you take 1 Coin, paid in tribute for your service.
• If you take any Curses, gain 1 Coin.
• Your Guardian's Affinity may earn you coins for particular kinds of cards received in Offers.

All coins are taken from the Supply, never from other players.

Using coins

• You may spend coins on your turn, prior to making an offer.
• You may take any number of cards from the pool and add them directly to your tableau, paying 3 Coins for each.
• You may also spend 5 Coins to remove a Curse from the pool and immediately gain 5VP.

Card Types and your Tableau

When you gain Guardian cards, you will add them to your tableau in stacks. You may only have one stack for each card type. The card types are as follows.

Weapons

After many years of peace in the kingdom, weapons are in high demand. Many people have heeded the call to battle, but no one wishes to fight orcs empty-handed.

At the end of the game the player with the most Weapons gains 20 points and the player with the second most gains 10 points. In case of a tie, both players receive 15 points each. A player must have at least one Weapon to be awarded these points.

Artifact

The foes you fight are no ordinary beasts, and so you must seek magical means to defeat them. A search has been called to find the ancient treasures to help in the battles to come. To be of value in battle you must join three Artifacts to unleash their power and create a Treasure.

On a player's turn, they may discard three Artifacts to draw two Treasure cards, and choose 1 to play face-up and discard the other. Treasures are worth points and often convey an immediate one-time magical effect.

Shields

The blades of the orcs are sharp and bloodthirsty. To persevere in combat, equip your army with enough Shields and defensive preparations to withstand the oncoming hordes.

The Shields are a useful addition to any army and their effectiveness grows with greater numbers. The more Shields you can assemble, the greater the defensive strength you will have and the more of your army that will survive to tell the tale of your greatness.

At the end of the game Shields award you points equal to the total you have collected. 1 = 3 points, 2 = 6 points, 3 = 10 points, 4 = 15 points, 5 or more = 20 points.

Villagers

Fighting for glory in the heat of battle is all well and good, but the first and most important task of a Guardian is to protect the people of the realm. In the midst of your effort to outfit your army you must not neglect the Villagers whose very lives are in danger.

For each Villager that you bring safely to the Castle, you will advance 1 step on the Castle Board.

When the Council is called and the War begins, the people's voices will be heard and the Guardian who has saved the most Villagers will gain 10 Points and the Guardian in second will gain 5 points.

A player must have advanced at least 1 space on the Castle board to be awarded these points.

When you advance on the track, if you end your move on a space where another player's pawn is, you advance to the next available space along the track.

You may also collect points from the board by passing special VP spaces. The first time you pass each VP space, if there are any VP tokens on the space you may take one. You may not take more than one VP token from each space, even if you cross a space twice due to being cursed.

Spells

With darkness at the doorstep a Guardian must be resourceful and adapt to each new threat. Luckily you have the power to draw on magical Spells that can be used for whatever is most needed at the moment.

Spells can be used as any type of card.

When you gain a Spell in an offer, you may immediately choose which card type it will be added to, provided you have at least one of that card type, or you may choose to leave them as spells and place them in their own stack.

Any time you successfully add a card to your tableau, you may choose to have any number of unassigned Spells become that card type. If you do this, you may choose the order in which they are added to the stack.

If, at any time, you lose the last non-Spell card from a stack (because of a Curse), then your Spells are returned to your Spell stack to be re-assigned as normal.

Note: Spells are only "wild" after being played. When offering Spells you must offer them as a group, they cannot be mixed with other card types.

Curses

In these dark times, evil runs wild throughout the land, and though you want the forces of good to succeed it is always better for Curses to fall on someone else.

A player may never state that they are offering Curses, they must instead bluff by declaring them to be another type of card. If the receiving player guesses wrong, they must suffer the effect of the Curse. If they guess correctly, the Curse is turned back on the player who made the offer. Curses have a negative effect on the player who receives them, depending on the strength of the Curse:

• 1 Curse - Discard any one Guardian card of your choice from your hand.
• 2 Curses - Discard one Guardian card of the opposing player's choice from your hand.
• 3 Curses - The opposing player chooses and steals one Guardian from your tableau.

The stolen or discarded card must be the most recently played card of that type (the one at the top of that particular pile). Whenever a player suffers the effects of a Curse(s) they also gain 1 coin.

Quests

Each game, 3 different Quests are set before the Guardians, giving the opportunity to gain more fame and prestige during the preparations for War.

Each Quest has a specific condition that must be met at the time shown on the card (either at Council or at War). All players who meet a Quest's condition gain the full point reward displayed on the card.

Treasures

Treasures are earned as your Guardian gathers Artifact cards. There are four different values of treasure, and some have an additional ability.

When you have gathered three Artifacts, you may discard them to draw two Treasure cards. Select one of these to keep, and discard the other.

3VP treasure

Name a card type. Reveal the top 5 cards of the Guardian deck and add any that match that type to your tableau.

5VP treasure

Advance two spaces on the Castle track.

7VP treasure

Draw 2 cards from the Guardian deck. Add 1 to your tableau and discard the other. If you draw 2 Curses, continue to draw until you draw a non-curse card, then add 1 to your tableau and discard the other card.

10VP treasure

Enjoy all those lovely points!

After the treasure action has been enacted, retain the card for the Victory points at game end scoring.

Council

When the Council Card is revealed, the Council will begin immediately. If the Council card is drawn from the deck, the player who drew it must reveal it as soon as they draw it. The warlords are called to Council for the upcoming war.

1. Castle Track - The 1st and 2nd player on the Castle Track score 10 and 5 points respectively.
2. Quests - Check and award points for any Quests with rewards during the Council.

After these effects are resolved, the player who revealed the Council card continues their turn.

War

When the War card is added to the Card Pool or drawn from the deck, the game immediately ends and these steps are followed to determine the final strength of each Guardian's army! (A player must immediately reveal the War card if they draw it.)

• Castle Track - The 1st and 2nd player on the Castle Track score 10 and 5 points respectively.
• Quests - Check and award points for any Quests with rewards during War.
• Cards - Award points for each card type.
• Coins - Coins are worth 1 point for every 3 at the game end.
• VP Tokens - Add any VP tokens collected.

The player with greatest number of Victory Points is called upon to be the Guardian of the Realm!

Guardian Affinities

Each Guardian has a unique special ability noted on their board.

Each Guardian will gain its affinity bonus whenever they receive the specified card during any offer (whether they initiate the offer or another player initiates).

• Gorbah'k, the Barbarian: Gain one coin for each Weapon you receive in an offer.
• Markus, the Archer: Gain one coin for each Villager you receive in an offer.
• Raven, the Mage: Gain one coin for each Spell you receive in an offer.
• Wilfrey, the Paladin: Gain one coin for each Shield you receive in an offer.
• Zira, the Priestess: Gain one coin for each Artifact you receive in an offer.