Hemloch
Hemloch Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
In Hemloch, each player is the last in his powerful bloodline. The twilight is waning, and he knows that in order to continue his family's legacy, he must use the Minions at his disposal to influence the denizens of the city to follow his house during the coming Season of the Sun. But time is short, and only a precious few nights remain, because when the sun rises, and stays in the sky, only one will hold all of the power.
Each Minion belongs to a specific Faction. Each Faction has an area of town they call home, aside from the Geared, being the leftover creations of some previous civilization with no place to call home. Controlling these Locations is key to tightening your bloodline's grip on the city.
Set Up
Separate the 2 Minion decks and give 1 Minion deck to each player. Give each player 15 Control Markers of a single color (if players cannot decide which color they wish to play, choose randomly). Place the 4 Location cards in the middle of the play area. Place the Festival Piece, the 9 Potion cards and the 9 Trinket cards to the side of the play area. Then, take the Week deck, and remove all Day cards from the deck, placing them to the side of the play area, face up. Shuffle the remaining Week deck and set it face down to the side of the play area.
Each player then shuffles together his Minion deck, sets it face down in front of him, and draws a starting hand of 5 cards.
To make things easy, the oldest player is the Start Player for the first round and the other player takes the Week deck. In future games, use whichever means you see fit to determine the Start Player for the first round.
Refer to the diagram below to ensure the game is set up correctly.
The Cards
Hemloch is a card game, and there are several different types of cards.
Minion Cards
Hemloch revolves around the drawing and playing of Minion cards. Each player begins the game with an identical deck of 30 Minion cards.
Each Minion card belongs to 1 of 5 Factions, indicated by the card's border color, as well as a Faction Icon in the upper left hand corner. Additionally, each Minion has an Influence Value, indicated by the large number beneath the illustration. Finally, each Minion has a Special ability.
Minion cards in a player's hand are kept secret from the opposing player. There is no maximum hand size in Hemloch.
The five Factions are: The Darkened, The Ghouls, The Alchemists, The Courtesans, and The Geared.
Location Cards
Location Cards represent 4 important Locations in Hemloch. During his turn, each player will play his Minion cards on his side of the Location Cards to attempt to gain control of the Location and access additional Special Abilities.
Each Location has a specific name, and is the Home for one of the city's Factions, indicated by the Faction Icon in the upper right and bottom left of each Location card, as well as the Location's border color. Minions of a Faction matching the Faction Icon depicted on the Location are in their Home Location, and provide more influence.
There are 5 to 8 Influence Spaces on each Location, and as the game progresses, each player will place his Markers on those spaces.
A Special Ability and the Activating Icon are located above and below the Location's Influence Spaces. Playing a Minion on a Location that matches the Location's Activating Icon grants the player use of the
Potion and Trinket Cards
The 9 Potion and 9 Trinket Cards represent sought after items of great power in the town of Hemloch. Various Minion and Location Special Abilities allow the players to acquire Potions and Trinkets throughout the game, or to steal them from the opposing player! Potions and Trinkets add to the player's Score at the end of the game, but can also grant the players additional abilities, at the cost of points.
Each Face-up Potion and Trinket a player has at the end of the game is worth 2 points. Face-down Potions and Trinkets are worth 1 point each at the end of the game.
If an ability would cause the player to gain a Potion or Trinket and there are none remaining, the player may instead flip one of his Potions or Trinkets, respectively, face-up.
Week Cards
The 4 Day Cards and the 4 Night Cards make up the ever changing Week Deck, and represent the coming of the Season of the Sun and the end of Eternal Twilight. This change, which happens every few decades, is ushered in with boisterous festivals.
The Week Deck is always comprised of 4 Day and/or Night cards. The deck begins with 4 Night Cards, and as the game progresses, Day Cards replace the Night cards.
Each Night and Day card states in which Location the daily Festival will be occurring. This is indicated by the Festival Piece, which is placed on the corresponding Location stated on the Day or Night Card that is revealed for the round. Since the Festival Location is busy with the celebration, it is not easy to influence, and as such, no Minions may be played on a Location with the Festival Piece on it.
Each Night card has a Corresponding Day card. Corresponding cards place the Festival in the same Location as each other.
Playing Hemloch
Hemloch is played over a series of Weeks (rounds), with each Week being made up of 4 Days and/or Nights. The game ends at the end of any Day or Night when:
Either player has placed all of his Markers or, at least 2 of the 4 Locations have no empty Influence Spaces remaining or, all Potions and Trinkets have been acquired or, a player has no cards left in his Minion deck or, there are 4 Days in the Week deck.
When the game ends, players score points for Markers they have placed and the Trinkets and Potions they have acquired. The player with the highest score wins the game.
Weeks
Each Week is broken into 2 steps: Night or Day and Week's End.
Night or Day
At the beginning of each Night or Day, the Start Player reveals the top card of the Week deck and moves the Festival Piece to the Location stated on the card. Then, the Start player takes his turn. When he is finished, the other player takes his turn. Once each player has taken a turn, the Day or Night ends, and a new card is revealed from the Week deck. This continues until there are no cards remaining in the Week deck.
If a Day card is revealed, after the other player takes his turn, there is an Influence Check.
Influence Checks
When an Influence Check occurs, the players check to see who has the most Influence in each of the 4 Locations.
To do this, beginning with the Location to the start player's left, each player tallies the total combined Influence Values of all of his Minions in the Location. Each Minion in its Home Location adds 1 to the player's overall Influence Value in the Location. The player with the highest overall Influence Value in the Location takes 1 of his unused Markers and places it in on empty Influence Space on the Location.
Repeat this process for the remaining 3 Locations.
In the event of a tie, beginning with the Start Player, each player places 1 of his Markers onto an empty Influence Space on the Location.
Player Turns
At the beginning of a player's turn, if the player has 0 cards in his hand, he draws 1 card from his Minion deck and adds it to his hand. During the player's turn, he may perform 2 Actions. With each action, he may either Draw a card or Play a card.
When the player draws a card, he draws 1 card from his Minion Deck.
To play a card, he selects a Minion card from his hand an places it onto his side of any Location that does not have the Festival Piece on it. The player may not play more than 1 Minion in a single Location per turn. Minions placed on the player's side of a Location are his Minions.
When the player plays a Minion on his side of a Location, he performs the Minion's Special Ability. If a played Minion matches the Activating Icon of the Location it is played on, the player also performs the Location's Special Ability. When this happens, the Minion's Special Ability is always performed before the Location's Special Ability.
Special Abilities are not optional, and are to be completed to the best of the player's ability to do so, circumstances pending.
Once per turn, the player also has the option of using the Special Ability of 1 of his Trinkets or Potions. It costs no Action to use a Potion's ability, while it costs 1 Action to use a Trinket's ability. When a player uses a Trinket's Special Ability, and gains control of an opposing Minion, it simply transfers from the opposing player's side of the Location to the player's side of the same Location. The transferred Minion's Special Ability is not performed.
Once a player has completed his 2 actions, his turn ends.
Example Turn
It's Scout's turn. With her first Action, she plays the Unfair Lady on her side of The Courtyard Location who allows her to place one of her Markers on the Location, which she does. Then, she uses her second action to play the Alley Cutpurse in The Boneyard Location and takes a Trinket from Britt. Since the Alley Cutpurse's Faction Icon matches the Boneyard's Activating Icon, she is granted the Location's Special Ability, which she uses to gain a potion.
Week's End
After the Night or Day step of the Week is complete, the Week's End step occurs.
At the beginning of Week's End, an Influence Check occurs.
Next, for each of the Locations, each player chooses half of his Minions in that Location, rounded down, and moves them to his Discard Pile.
Each player then draws cards from his Minion deck until he has 2 cards in his hand.
Finally, 1 Night card of the Start Player's choice is removed from the Week Deck and is replaced by the Corresponding Day card. The Start Player then hands the Week Deck to the other player, who will be the new Start Player, and a new Week begins.
Ending the Game and Scoring
When 1 of the end game conditions is met, the game ends and scoring takes place.
Each player gains 2 points for each face-up Trinket or Potion he has. He then gains 1 point for each face-down Trinket or Potion he has. Then, he receives points for the Markers he has placed on the locations.
Each of his Markers that is touching at least 1 of his other markers, orthogonally, are worth 2 points each. Each of his Markers that is not touching at least 1 of his other Markers are worth 1 point each.
The player with the highest score wins. In the event of a tie, the player with the most placed Markers wins the tie. If a tie still exists, the players reluctantly agree to a shared control of the city in the Season of the Sun.
Scoring Example
In this example, the Blue player would gain 3 points for his Markers in this Location. Since none of his Markers are touching any other of his Markers, they are all worth 1 point each.
The Orange player will gain 8 points for his Markers in this Location. 3 of his Markers are touching at least 1 of his other Markers, and are worth 2 points each. His remaining 2 Markers are not touching any of his other Markers, so they are worth 1 point each.
Draft Variant
Instead of giving each player a Minion deck, shuffle together both Minion decks. Deal out all Minion cards randomly into 20 face-up groups of 3 cards each. The First Player takes 1 group of his choice, then the other player takes 2 groups of his choice. Continue this way, alternating the First Player after each player has taken a group. When both players have selected 10 groups of cards, each player shuffles together his selected cards to form his deck without looking at the card backs of his selected cards! Set up and play the game as normal.