Hero Master: An Epic Game of Epic Fails

Hero Master: An Epic Game of Epic Fails Rulebook

Table of Contents

Object of the Game

The game takes place over a number of Encounters with monsters found on Location cards. Players work through the Location deck looking for the dragon, Crackletooth the Tepid.

Once the Dragon's Den Location has been played through, the game ends and each player adds up their gold. The player with the most gold wins and returns to the tavern in hope of buying their way into a less calamitous party!

In the result of a draw, players count up the number of total number treasure items in their possession, with the winner having the most. In the unlikely situation where it is still a draw, the drawing player nearest to the Party Leader (in turn order) wins.

Component List

145 Cards including:
- 8 Hero cards: 4 Races, 4 Classes
- 20 Race Action cards
- 24 Class Actions
- 12 starting equipment cards
- 13 Monster cards
- 6 Boss cards
- 16 Location cards
- 30 Treasure cards
- 10 Critical Fail cards
- 6 Protest cards
Other components
- Gold tokens and 2 action tokens
- 4 Player Boards
- 1 Game Board
- 2 D20 dice
- Party Leader Token
- This rulebook

Component Overview

Action Cards

Action cards come in two main categories: attacks and bungles. At the start of the game all Action cards must be separated based on their card type at the bottom of the card (10).

As heroes progress through the game their Action deck and hand will be upgraded with new Action cards from the Treasure deck or from the Protest deck.

Attack card: These are used at Encounters to attack monsters (see p5).

Bungle card: These are used at encounters to scupper the attacks of your fellow party members (see p5).

Permanent Cards

Permanent cards stay on your Player Board and do not form part of your Action Deck or hand. They are exhausted when used, but can be refreshed.

Hero cards: Each hero has two of these, one to represent their race and one for their class (see p6).

Weapon cards: These cards can be used to boost your attack values and sometimes have special text effects. You have two slots for weapon cards on your Player Board (see p6).

Armour cards: The shield in the top right gives your basic armour value that a monster needs to equal or exceed on a D20 to hit you (see p6). You only have one slot for an armour card on your Player Board.

Environment Cards

These cards are not owned by any players. They exist independently in the land of Snoozehaven, or are outcomes of a situation that is out of a player's control.

Monster cards: These are the nasties in Snoozehaven, eager to steal your lunch money, then eat you for their lunch as well. They are used in Encounters (see p5-6). They could be seen as walking bags of gold...

Location cards: These are the places in Snoozehaven that the heroes can choose to visit (see p4 & 8). Each game will take the heroes on a different path... If you were to see the map of Snoozehaven, you might notice how terrible the heroes' sense of direction is.

Critical Fail cards: The heroes are prone to failure. Some might say they even thrive on it at times. It's their comfort zone, even if it doesn't always feel that comfortable... These cards are drawn when a hero fumbles their attack badly... really badly (see p7).

Card Anatomy

Bonus to hero's roll (added to green D20) (see p7)
Card strength values (see p7)
Card armour bonus (see p6)
Card back
Card title
Card image
Flavour text (just for fun)
Special text effect icon (see p6)
Special text effect (see p6)
Card type
Critical fail threshold (see p7)
Damage type modifiers (see p5)
Hero discipline (see p6)
Special Hero card power (see p6)
Hit and damage type bonus modifiers (see p6)
Base armour value (see p6)
Monster armour value (see p5)
Monster defences (see p5)
Monster Ferocity (see p6)
Rewards for defeating monster (see p7)
Monster type (see p6)
Number of Monsters at Location (see p4)
Rewards available at Location (see p4)
Warning sign for Boss monsters (see p4)
Party Leader effect (see p4)
General party effect (see p4)
Critical Fail effect (see p7)

Player Boards

Player Boards are used to help players keep track of their hero and their Actions. It includes:

Hero cards slots: Players draw two Hero cards at the start of the game to create their hero. One card represents class and one represents race. Each Hero Card features a unique skill which is exhausted when used and only refreshed when a card effect says to.
Attack slots: There are three attack slots on the Player Board for players to play attack cards during an Encounter. Players place their attack cards in the slots from left to right. Players may not have more than three attack cards on their Player Board during an Encounter. Be careful not to over commit! Your hand has to last the whole Location!
Bungle slots: Other players may lay bungles in the slot above any of your played attacks to lower your chances of defeating the monster. Only one bungle may be played per attack slot.
Weapons slots: These are the blunt and pointy things your hero uses to prod and swish around at monsters. One or both weapons may be used to boost an attack and are then exhausted until the end of the location. Weapons and armour can be upgraded by taking treasure cards.
Armour slot: This gives a hero their basic armour value that a monster has to equal or exceed to hit them. More advanced armours will also feature special rules.
Health track: Heroes begin the game with ten health each. The marker is moved to the right of the track when they are wounded, and to the left when they are healed. Heroes may not heal themselves to more than ten health, and at zero health or lower, they are defeated (see Defeated Heroes p7).
Hand size track: Your hand size is reduced when you are defeated. Heal back to full health to return to full hand size (see p7).

Game Board

The Game Board helps players to keep track of what's happening in the Location they are exploring. It includes:

Lurking Monsters slots: The monsters your heroes will Encounter in Snoozehaven that are drawn at the start of a Location.
Current Location slot: Shows how the Game Board should be set up, and any special rules for the Location.
Encounter slot: The Party Leader may select which monster the party will Encounter by moving it from the Lurking Monsters or the Ambusher slot to the Encounter slot when it is empty (see p5).
Ambusher slot: Monsters in the Ambusher slot are dangerous and are allowed to attack if the encountered monster hits you (see p6)!
Loot Pile: This represents the finite amount of gold that is in possession of the monsters in that Location and can be won by defeating them.

Dice and Tokens

D20 dice: Used to hit in Encounters. Green is for heroes and black is for monsters (see p5).
Party Leader token: Used to show the turn order for the Resolving Attacks phase of an Encounter (see p5).
Skill tokens: Used with specific Action cards.
Coins: Used as both currency and victory points at the end of the game (see p7).

Game Setup

Create a hero: Shuffle the Class and Race cards separately and have each player draw one of each. Place your Hero cards on your Player Board.
Take Action cards and equipment: These are unique to your Class and Race. Place your weapons and armour in slots on your Player Board and shuffle all of your hero's Action cards together to make one deck and place it next to your player board. Remove any unassigned Hero cards, class cards or race Action cards from the game.
Prepare the Location deck: Remove the Dragon's Den card from the Location cards and shuffle all the rest. Draw two Location cards facedown, and shuffle the Dragon's Den in with them. Draw four more face down and place them on top of the other three so the Dragon's Den remains in the last three cards. Place this deck next to the Game Board. Remove the unused Location cards from the game.
Create Monster Deck: Separate the Boss and Legendary cards from the rest of the Monsters and shuffle the Monster deck. Place all the Boss and Legendary monster cards in a pile face up next to the Monster deck to the side of the board.
Shuffle other decks: Shuffle the Treasure deck, the Critical Fail deck and the Protest deck and place them near the game board.
Roll to see who starts the game: The player who rolls highest on a D20 is given the Party Leader token.
Get ready: Give each player three gold, this is your Stash. Place your health marker on ten, and your hand size marker on six.

Gameplay

Party Leader Token

With egos aplenty and squabbling rife amongst them, the leader of the party changes frequently. The Party Leader chooses which monster to Encounter (see Encounters), and which Location to visit.

The Party Leader changes when:

A card is played that changes the possession of the Party Leader token.
A monster is defeated: The victor takes the Party Leader token.
A Party Leader declines to initiate an encounter: The token is passed clockwise.
The Party Leader is defeated. In which case it is passed clockwise.

Note: Changing the Party Leader does not change turn order during phase one of the Encounter. Play still continues in the same order until you begin to resolve attacks in phase two.

Encounters

There are two phases to an Encounter: Initiating and Resolving the encounter. In the first phase, players play cards and may usurp the Party Leader which establishes the turn order for the second phase.

In the second phase players take turns to resolve their next attack (from left to right on their Player Board) in a clockwise order starting with the Party Leader until the monster is defeated, or all heroes are defeated, or all attacks on the Player Boards fail. At the end of an Encounter any Action cards that were played are placed in their owners discard pile.

Initiating an Encounter

Once a Location is chosen the Party Leader chooses a monster from the Lurking Monsters or the Ambusher slot and places it in the Encounter slot on the Game Board. Once the monster is defeated, the Party Leader chooses another monster at the Location to Encounter.

Upon declaring a monster to Encounter, the Party Leader places an attack card down in slot one on their Player Board. Play now passes to the left, with the rest of the players choosing to decline the Encounter or lay their own attack in slot one of their own Player Board.

Note: Players who have Action cards in play are considered present at an encounter. If you decline an encounter, you are not a part of it from the beginning. A decline is different to a pass in which case you would still be present at the encounter.

When play returns to the original player, he or she may:

Play another attack, in their next attack slot.
Play a bungle card on any attack card of a different hero in play.
Pass. Once a player has passed, he or she may not play more cards at the Encounter.

Play continues around until all players have passed. Then the Party Leader begins the Resolving an Encounter stage.

Note: Players may not have more than attacks cards than slots on their Player Board. When resolving attacks, each card is resolved one at a time, so attacks cannot be combined.

Bungle Cards

Bungles represent the heroes' quirky traits that grate on their fellow party members. Players can apply their hero's bungle cards to the attacks of their fellow heroes as long as there is not a bungle already applied to it. The bungling hero places their card in the slot above the attack they would like to bungle.

Note: Players may not play a bungle card first when joining an Encounter.

The stats on a bungle card (1) reduce the strength values on the hero's attack card making it harder for them to defeat the monster.

The red D20 value (2) is the Critical Fail threshold and increases the attacking hero's chance of rolling a Critical Fail (see p7)... However as failure is our heroes' comfort zone, it often works out better for the attacker in the long run!

Party Leaders Declining Encounters

The Party Leader may decline to initiate an Encounter because they do not have any attacks cards, or are simply too afraid. Pass the Party Leader token to the next player clockwise.

If all players decline to Encounter any available monsters, and the Party Leader token returns to the original declining hero, the last Lurking Monster (right most) in the Location rolls a single attack wounding any heroes it hits (based on their individual armour value) as normal and applying any effects to any the attack hits. The heroes may then travel to a new Location.

Resolving an Encounter

The player who is resolving the attack:

Reads the monster effects on the monster card.
Decides whether to apply any weapons or applicable Hero cards to the attack (you may apply more than one weapon card and one hero card).
Rolls both D20 dice. The green D20 represents the hero's attack and the black D20 the monster's attack.

There are two requirements for defeating a monster. If both are met the monster is defeated and a reward is collected (see p7).

First the hero must hit the monster by rolling the green D20 and equalling or exceeding the armour value of the monster (3).
If a hero scores a successful hit, they must equal or exceed one or more of the monster's defences (4) with the corresponding attack value on their attack card.

All cards applied to and including the attack; (a bungle card, any weapons, and Hero cards can modify a hero's chance to hit and wound the monster). It also can affect the hero's chance of being hit by the monster. Some Locations cards also have an effect on combat.

If the attack fails, exhaust any weapons or Hero cards applied to the attack and place the attack card and (if applicable) bungle card into their respective owner's discard pile. Play moves clockwise to the next attacker

Play moves clockwise to the next attacker to continue resolving their attacks.

Note: Attacks must be resolved regardless of their chance of success. They may still cause a Critical Fail!

Monster Attacks

During an Encounter, a monster will simultaneously attack the hero. This means a monster may attack numerous times during an Encounter, depending on how many attack cards are played by players.

Similar to heroes, a monster must equal or exceed the armour of the hero on their D20. A hero's armour on their Player Board has a basic value, and any modifiers from the cards in play are added.
If the monster rolls enough to hit the hero, the hero suffers a number of wounds equal to the monster's Ferocity (1).
Check the monster card again to see if there are any effects that occur (2).

Note: A hero and a monster can both be defeated in the same attack. Rewards are taken first, then penalties for defeat are applied.

Ambushers

When the Game Board is set up at the start of a Location, the first monster drawn is placed in the Ambusher slot.

If the monster is removed from the Ambusher slot by any means it is replaced by the leftmost Lurking Monster with the Ambusher trait (like the Gigantic Spider above) if one is available. Otherwise the slot is left empty until the next Location is set up. If a monster with the Ambusher trait would for any reason join the Lurking Monsters and the Ambusher slot is empty, it immediately takes the Ambusher slot.

When a monster attacks and hits a hero and there is a monster in the Ambusher slot, the Ambusher also makes an attack on the hero, rerolling the monster die and applying any wounds and effects.

Note: If the hero defeats the monster in the Encounter slot it does not defeat the monster in the Ambusher slot too.

Monster Types

Each monster falls into a different category which is written at the bottom of its card. Some monsters have more than one type.

Monsters with purple borders are Bosses, and gold borders are Legendary. Some text effects on cards affect certain types of monsters in different ways, so keep an eye on what you're up against!

Card Effects

Cards in the game may feature special ability icons that determine when the text effect written next to them is carried out. Only cards "in play" can activate these special abilities.

Cards considered to be in play are:

Applied Hero cards and weapons
Any cards in the Location, Encounter and Ambusher slots
The attack and any applied bungle that constitutes the current attack

Abilities are applied to you:

Crown icon: If you are Party Leader when you play this card
Red icon: If a Critical Fail occurs
Green icon: When you are about to resolve your attack
Blue arrow icon: When you play this card
Passive icon: As long as this card is in play (passive ability)
Dark red icon: If the monster scores a hit
Skull icon: If you defeat the monster

Note: If an attack card is removed from play, discard any bungles that have been applied to it unless a card effect says otherwise. In the event of an empty Attack slot, Action cards are moved left to fill the gaps, ensuring applied bungles remain applied to the original attack they were played on.

Hero Cards and Weapons

These cards can be used to boost attacks or affect gameplay and are exhausted when played. They must be turned over and may not be used until they are refreshed.

Weapons often add bonus stats to an attack (making it easier to equal a monster's defence values) and sometimes have special text effects, and Hero cards, generally have a powerful special text effect.

Weapons are refreshed when a party begins a new Location card or when other cards say to, but Hero cards are only refreshed when a card says to.

Some Hero cards feature a discipline such as "Strength" or "Magic" in the top left corner. These influence the effect of some cards in the game (for example some Locations offer bonuses to different discipline characters).

Note: Because a weapon card is not exhausted until after the attack it is applied to, any passive abilities (see above) persist during the attack.

Damage Types

Attack and weapon cards have different damage types. These are used against monsters' defences of the same type. As long as one of these equals or exceeds the equivalent monster's defence, the monster is defeated.

The damage types are: Regular, Fire, Ice and Spirit.

A weapon or attack is considered to be of a type based on the damage it features.

For example, 'Hot Forged Temper' is both a Regular and a Fire attack, because it has values for both of those damage types.

Note: When a card effect references a certain type of attack, it is based on the attack only and not the weapon(s) that have been applied. For this reason, a Spirit damage attack does not become a Fire attack, when a Fire weapon is applied to it.

Critical Hits

Both heroes and monsters can score a Critical Hit on a "natural" (unmodified) roll of a '20' on their D20 die.

For heroes, this doubles all of their individual attack strengths.
For monsters this doubles their Ferocity.

Note: Positive "to hit" modifiers do not modify the chance of a Critical Hit.

Critical Fails

Critical Fails occur anytime a '1' is rolled on the hero D20 (not monsters). This chance may be modified if a bungle has been played on the attack.

For example, the Barbarian's 'Huh?!' Bungle means that the affected attack will Critically Fail on an '8' or less.

Any time a hero rolls a Critical Fail, regardless of whether the rolls equals or exceeds the monster's armour value, the attack fails.

The acting player draws a Critical Fail card and applies the result immediately.

Defeated Heroes

When a hero reaches zero health, they are defeated. The defeated hero places three gold on the monster that defeated them from their stash if they have it (which can be won if another hero defeats the monster).

Note: You can only be defeated once during an attack. For example if you were defeated by a monster, the Ambusher would not need to attack. Or if a Bear defeats you it stops rolling for its Maul effect.

If the hero was defeated by any other condition than that of a monster's attack (from a Critical Fail for example), or if the monster is defeated simultaneously, the gold lost is placed in the loot pile. The defeated hero is removed from combat and all their remaining attacks and bungles are discarded, the Party Leader token is passed clockwise, and they resurrect immediately restoring five health.

Defeated heroes move their hand size marker down by one if they can, reducing the number of cards they begin a new location with. Any time a hero heals to full health, their hand size marker is placed back in the maximum position.

Note: Cards that affect hand size are always applied in addition to the marker.

Rewards and Defeated Monsters

When a player defeats a monster, they receive both the rewards listed at the bottom of the monster card, and they place the monster in the monster discard pile. The encounter is over, and all Action cards played during the encounter are discarded.

Rewards come in two forms: treasure and gold. All money in Snoozehaven is considered "gold", and comes in three different denominations: one, three and five. They are simply represented in different colours for easier recognition.

Players take their reward from the treasure available in the treasure pile (see Treasure cards), and take gold from the loot pile and add it to their stash next to their player board.

Note: If either reward piles are empty then the location has been stripped of its loot! So get in there quickly before the other heroes do! If there is gold left on a monster card, it is given to the hero that defeats the monster too.

Treasure Cards

Treasure cards can be weapon cards, armour cards, or Action cards (attacks or bungles). Depending on the item chosen, players immediately add treasure Action cards to their hand, replace their armour card on their Player Board or replace old weapons on their Player Board. Newly equipped items begin refreshed, so even if an item is exhausted when replaced the new one will be ready to use. Any treasure item may be added to the player's stash instead of their hand and sold at some Locations.

Note: If a hero equips an armour reward, this does not affect the armour value for the current attack from the monster.

Players keep their original weapons and armour in their stash (these cannot be sold). In the event that a piece of equipped treasure is destroyed or stolen, they may immediately replace it with their original item (refreshed).

Moving Location

When all monsters in the Location have been encountered, or the entire party has declined to Encounter the monsters that are left in the Ambusher and Lurking Monster slots (see p5 and remember if you flee you might get hit on the way out!), the heroes move onto the next Location following these steps:

Clear the Adventure Board; shuffling undefeated monsters back into the deck including Bosses and Legendary monsters. Any remaining treasure cards are discarded, and any gold is returned to the main supply. Shuffle the Critical Fail deck with any discarded Critical Fail cards and remove the current Location card from the game.
All players shuffle their Action card deck and Action card discard pile together. Keeping the cards already in their hand, they redraw up to their starting hand size, or discard cards of their choice if they exceed it. During a play in a Location players may exceed their starting hand size by using abilities to draw additional cards, however when moving Location they redraw to a maximum of their starting hand size.
The Party Leader follows steps 8, 9 and 10 of setup.

Protest Cards

The heroes are a petty bunch. They aren't satisfied until they're on top, and are prone to hissy fits. To represent this, when drawing their hand to start a new Location after the very first, the player with the least gold may choose to protest about their situation and draw a special Action card called a Protest card.

This card does not count towards hand size limitations and are used in the same way as normal Action cards. If two or more players draw with the lowest gold, each of them will receive a Protest card. Protest cards are shuffled back into the protest deck once used, or if they unused at the end of a Location. Protest cards should not be included when randomly choosing Action cards due to a special effect.

Example Encounter

Turn One

Gobbit the Halfling is the Party Leader. She's chosen the Crumbling Fort location, so using the Party Leader effect on the Location card she can look through her deck and pick out her favourite card, 'Brave'.

As her attack card has a bonus against Brutes, she chooses the Giant to fight, knowing she can add a weapon when she resolves for the extra one Regular damage she needs to defeat it.

She selects the Giant and moves it into the Encounter slot and initiates the Encounter by laying the 'Brave' attack card into the first Attack slot on her Player Board.

Dorf the Dwarf, sees what's happening and knows he has the perfect counter that will stop Gobbit adding a weapon to her attack. He's got the 'Portly' bungle card in his hand, but he can't use it yet as he needs to join the encounter with an attack. He lays 'Insubordinate' instead, which might be enough if he adds both his weapons to the attack shortly. Dorf is also happy as 'Insubordinate' has made him Party Leader, and now he'll resolve his attack before anyone else.

Brian is very keen to fight the Giant, he's got 'Wild Swings' in his hand, which is a big damage card.

Mary sees this as a tough encounter to beat, as her cards aren't strong enough and the other heroes seem to be really going for this. Maybe they'll waste all their good cards and she can clean up the other monsters!

So far all the attacks are just Regular Damage attacks. The Giant has a Regular defence of seven. At this point it looks like Dorf is going first, with four Regular damage. It's not enough but he might be able to add some weapons to help. Gobbit is to the left of Dorf so will go next, Mary has declined the Encounter and Brian is going to strike last with five Regular damage with his axe 'Crum' available to use which will push him to seven.

Turn Two

Gobbit plays her 'Unexpected' attack in her second attack slot and resumes her place as Party Leader!

Dorf, decides to change his bungle target after seeing Brian's attack card. Dorf plays his 'Portly' bungle on Brian's 'Wild Swings!' attack, meaning he can't add weapons to the attack and gives a minus one to his Regular damage. He won't be able to equal the Giant's Regular defence now.

Brian, disappointed, decides he can save his weapons for another time, and plays his 'Come 'ere!' bungle on Dorf. It doesn't help Brian much with bringing down Dorf's strength values, but the text effect allows him to swap the Giant for another monster that he can actually defeat. Brian chooses the Gigantic Spider. It has a Regular defence of three, so it's an easy target.

Turn Three

Gobbit feels pretty good about being in first place to act in the resolving attack stage as Party Leader and decides to pass.

Dorf decides that he's invested enough cards into what is now a low value monster compared to the Giant. He decides to pass.

Brian has no bungles left in his hand (he could still put one on Gobbit if he had one) and due to his 'Wild Swings!' cannot lay any more attacks so passes too. The players now move onto resolving their attacks.

Resolving Attack Example

As Gobbit managed to barge her way back into leading the party, she tries to hit the Spider first, using the first attack she played 'Brave'. She re-reads the monster card to make sure she's not missing anything. She doesn't need to add any weapons to the attack as she has more than enough Regular damage to defeat the Spider.

However she's not got loads of health, so she plays her Hero card. Which means she can avoid rolling the monster's attack die. She rolls and needs 'twelve' to hit. She rolls a 'seven' and misses.

It's Brian's turn to resolve his first attack and he steps up feeling very confident. He's even got a plus one to hit with his 'Wild Swings!' card. He doesn't need to add weapons or Hero cards to equal the Spider's Regular damage so just rolls both the D20 dice. The Spider hits him for two wounds, and there's an Ambusher waiting to strike! Brian's roll is also a 'seven'! But this time, it's in the Critical Fail threshold that Dorf's bungle card established. He draws a Critical Fail card immediately.

Hey it's not all bad! In some very close quarters fighting, his aggression has been misread for lust, and he's managed to accidentally flirt with the Spider, meaning he can ignore the attack it made (meaning he's also not attacked by the Ambusher), and he's so charming, it even lets him have a piece of the treasure! He takes his treasure from the offer, but the Spider still remains.

Dorf is ready to take his first shot. Frustratingly, as he's no longer Party Leader his 'Insubordinate' attack loses three Regular damage. So he has to add a weapon to push it up to three again. Fortunately as it's the first encounter in this location, he has both his weapons available, and uses his dagger for plus two Regular damage; enough to defeat the Spider. With a big roll, BOOM! He scores a natural 'twenty'! A Critical Hit! With double strength that's way more than enough to do it. The Spider rolls a three, which means it didn't hit Dorf back.

Dorf takes his reward from the loot and treasure pile of two gold and two treasure. He's also proved himself and taken the Party Leader token! Gobbit has to discard her unused attack. Everyone clears their player board and Dorf chooses a new monster to Encounter.

Example Encounter (Part Two)

Turn One

Roy and Dongleflop have formed a party, and while already sick of each other are trudging on regardless. Roy is the Party Leader as he won the previous Encounter. There are two monsters left in the location, a Grizzly Bear and a Fire Imp.

He's declared that he is going to Encounter the Fire Imp. He knows that Dongleflop is keen on fire and is going to struggle with this one, as the Fire Imp has a good defence against Fire damage. He leads with his 'Dirty Tactics' Attack. As he's already Party Leader, he elects to draw an additional card when he plays it. Its Cold damage should work well against the Fire Imp.

Dongleflop is not concerned, he's not going to decline the Encounter as he has a few tricks up his sleeve. He plays his 'Pyromaniac' attack, places it in his first attack slot and grins a wicked grin. He's managed to refresh his Hero card too, with his attack's special effect text.

Turn Two

Roy, confused, is fairly certain Dongleflop's motto of "fighting fire with fire" isn't the right strategy here, decides to play his 'Hide in Shadows' card.

It keeps him from passing (so he can react to any of Dongleflop's moves), and if Dongleflop defeats the Fire Imp, he can return it to his hand anyway... Win-win!

Dongleflop doesn't like the look of the cold damage on Roy's first attack, and has the perfect bungle. He casts his Magic Shield causing -2 to Roy's Cold damage rendering the attack ineffective.

Turn Three

Roy's also got tricks up his sleeve. He decides to do something pretty fancy... He plays his 'Evasion' attack. It would usually go into his third and final Attack slot, but this one is special. He can lay it in any card slot he already has an attack in, moving the original attack into the slot where 'Evasion' was going to be placed. 'Evasion' also freezes the bungle attached to the card he switched in place, so now his 'Dirty Tactics' attack is bungle free.

However, he's a bit concerned that it's all the way at the back of his attack queue. So at the same time, exhausts his Hero card. He's so 'Sneaky' he can take an attack card back into his hand.

He picks up 'Dirty Tactics', it is however now his only card left.

Dongleflop shrugs. He was never really planning on fighting the Fire Imp anyway. He plays 'Polymorph', and redraws the monster card from the monster deck in an attempt to improve his odds! He draws an Orc Warrior. That's a bit easier for Fire damage, but 'Pyromaniac' isn't quite enough still. He'll have to find a way to add more damage.

Turn Four

Hoping to pick up another card that will help him, now he's committed quite a lot to this Encounter, Roy plays his 'Dirty Tactics' from his hand a second time and draws a card. It's his 'Untrustworthy' bungle, and it couldn't have come at a better time!

Dongleflop passes, he's only got one card left, and wants to save it now Roy has an extra card.

Turn Five

With Dongleflop passing, Roy can lay his cards down with no retaliation! He plays his 'Untrustworthy' bungle on Dongleflop's first attack 'Pyromaniac'. This has neutralised the Fire Damage on it, and made it fairly useless!

He decides to use the optional card effect on his bungle to discard one of his attack cards in play. So he discards 'Evasion', as it doesn't have a damage value and means it's a bit useless to have when he's Party Leader and has first shot at the Orc. It has Dongleflop's bungle on it, which is discarded (see p6). His remaining attacks move along to the left to fill the second and third slots on his Player Board. He's out of cards and passes.

Resolving Encounter Example

Roy is going to go first, as he's managed to keep hold of the Party Leader token. He has 2 Regular damage with his Hide in Shadows card. To get up to the five he needs to defeat the Orc Warrior, he applies both his weapons to the attack. He rolls the dice for the attack, he adds his +1 to his hit roll for his 'Clobberstick' but still misses with a roll of an 8. The Orc, would have normally hit his base armour of 8 as it rolled a 10. However, Roy's 'Hide in Shadows' has +3 armour, so the Orc missed.

Dongleflop steps up. His attack in slot one now has zero damage. But, he's got more tricks up his sleeve.

He applies both his 'Staff of Inner Fire' and his Hero card. He chooses to make the Regular damage on the staff Fire damage. This makes the weapon a Fire weapon. Immediately he heals two wounds for making it a Fire weapon due to one of its card effects.

Even better, when a Fire weapon is applied to his 'Pyromaniac' skill, the Fire damage on the attack card is doubled. So he now has two fire damage on his weapon, four damage on his attack, minus the two damage from Roy's bungle: equalling four. Just enough to defeat the Orc.

Plus... (there's more) he heals one extra wound as a bonus from the staff's effects as his total fire damage of four exceeds three. That puts him back to full health.

Satisfied, he rolls to attack. He rolls a 6, and the Orc rolls a 20! Dongleflop has Critically Failed, and immediately draws a Critical Fail card. Uh oh! 'Triggered Trap', he takes three wounds.

The Orc does double wounds, scoring four against Dongleflop. That's a total of seven in one attack! Whoah! At least he healed those three wounds earlier, otherwise he would have been defeated. The Orc's card effect, 'Bruiser' also means that Dongleflop has to discard his last Action card.

Roy now resolves his final attack, 'Dirty Tactics'. He's used his weapons, so his only hope now is to score a Critical Hit and double his damage to defeat the Orc. He rolls the dice. The Orc hits him with a 15, giving him two wounds. Roy hits with 12, but his damage is insufficient to defeat the Orc. Roy has no Action cards to discard for the Orc's 'Bruiser' effect.

Dongleflop now resolves his final attack, 'Polymorph'. It's a good card against Greenies who typically are a bit weak-willed and have a low Spirit defence. He's also got +1 to hit. He rolls the dice: the Orc rolls a 2 which misses. However he rolls a 9, which with his bonus to hit is enough and he defeats the Orc! Unfortunately, there's no treasure left in the Location. So he'll have to make do with just the gold reward for the Orc.

The Player boards are cleared and Dongleflop takes the Party Leader Token. He should now declare the next Encounter, however he has no Action cards to play to initiate an Encounter, so must pass the Party Leader token to Roy. Roy also has none, so passes it back. As the original declining Party Leader has the Party Leader token again, the heroes flee the Location... but not before a parting attack from the Grizzly Bear as it is the right most (and only) monster left in the Location. The black D20 is rolled for the Grizzly Bear, who scores a 10, hitting both heroes. Dongleflop is defeated, he reduces his hand size marker by one, and must drop three gold in the Location (which is lost forever as they are moving Location!). He returns to five health immediately ready for the next Location. Roy takes three wounds, and the Bear rolls again for his 'Maul 3' card ability, it hits again causing an additional wound. It rolls a second time, and misses which ceases the attack. The Heroes refresh their weapons, shuffle their Action decks and redraw their hands. They clear the Game Board of any remaining gold and cards. Dongleflop as Party Leader, draws two new Location cards to choose from.