Idol A Live Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Components
• Preparing the Decks
  • Center Idol
  • The "All Mine!" Token and the [Obsessed] Status
• Game Setup
  • Playmat Areas
• Flow of a Turn
  • Standby Phase
  • Action Phase
• End of the Game
• A. Perform a Song
  • How to Perform a Song
  • A-1 Raising the Voltage
  • A-2 Resolving Fan Recruitment
  • Steps for Gaining Fans
• B. Trigger an Event Card
  • Steps for Triggering Event Cards
• C. Engage with Fans
• D. Use Cheer Token Effects
• Deck Building Steps and Rules
  • Step ①: Forming Your Idol Group
  • Step ②: Building Your Song Deck
  • Step ③: Building Your Event Deck
  • Deckbuilding Hint
• Tutorial Decks
• Hints for Improving Your Skills
  • Start by Raising Your Voltage
  • Perform Songs Frequently
  • Don't Fall Too Far Behind in Points!
• Strategy and Playstyle Matchups
• Card List

Game Overview

This is a two-player game where players compete to recruit fans by managing their own idol group. Each player uses a deck of song and event cards tied to their three chosen idols to outshine their opponent.

Players earn victory points by recruiting fans; the first player to reach 20 victory points is the winner!

Components

• Idol Cards x 6 (1 per idol)
• Song Cards x 52 (17 types)
• Event Cards x 10 (1 per type)
• Fan Cards x 29 (the number on a fan card's icon indicates how many copies of that card there are)
• Idol Pieces x 6 (1 per idol)
• Idol Stands x 6
• Stage Boards x 2
• Voltage Cubes x 4
• Cheer Tokens x 15
• "All Mine!" Token x 1
• Playmat x 1 (all cards are listed on the back of the playmat)
• Rulebooks x 2 (the original Japanese rulebook in the box, plus this printable English rulebook)

Preparing the Decks

Before starting the game, each player should prepare their deck using the elements listed below:

• 3 idol cards and their respective pieces
• Song deck (composed of 18 song cards)
• Event deck (composed of 3 event cards)

The rules for deckbuilding can be found under Deck Building Steps and Rules (printed on the back of the playmat). For your first time playing, it is recommended to use the "Tutorial Deck" from the back of the playmat.

Place the idol pieces into the stands.

Center Idol

Designate one of the three idols you chose when initially building your deck to be your "center idol." Flip your center idol's card over and take note of the following:

• Center skill: a skill unique to each idol that only becomes active when they are chosen to be the center idol. Depending on the idol, center skills can have very different effects on gameplay.
• Starting voltage: your baseline starting voltage.
• Starting hand size: the number of song cards you start the game with.

The "All Mine!" Token and the [Obsessed] Status

The idol Himeno Eri can apply the [Obsessed] status to fans with the "All Mine!" token by using her center skill. The rules for the token and status are as follows:

• When the "All Mine!" token is placed on a fan, that fan becomes [Obsessed], and can no longer be recruited by other players.
• You can place the "All Mine!" token on any fan that does not already have the [Obsessed] status.
• [Obsessed] cards are not affected by any other effects unless explicitly stated in the effect's description.
• When the other player recruits fans from the audience seats, they must skip over cards with the [Obsessed] status.
• When you recruit a fan card that has the [Obsessed] status, you get the "All Mine!" token back.

Game Setup

After each player has prepared their deck, set up the game as follows.

Shared setup

1. Open and place the playmat in the center of the play area. The playmat is asymmetrical in some areas, but this does not affect gameplay. For your first game, it is recommended to use the "Tutorial Decks" (A and B, written on the playmat) so that you can get familiar with the mechanics. Deck A is geared towards complete beginners, while deck B is aimed at players with some card game experience.

Setup for each player

2. Place your stage board in front of you.
3. Place your song and event decks.
   • Shuffle your song deck and place it facedown on the playmat's song deck space closest to you.
   • Place your event deck somewhere nearby; you may look at your own event deck freely.
4. Place your idol cards and decide on your center idol.
   • Place your 3 idol cards face up in front of the stage.
   • Decide on your center idol, then flip over that idol's card at the same time as the other player.
   • Place your center idol between the other two idol cards.
5. Draw your hand and set your starting voltage based on the values designated by your center idol.
   • Draw your starting hand of song cards from the song deck, keeping them hidden from your opponent. The number of cards you can draw is determined by your center idol.
   • Take two voltage cubes and place one at the starting voltage value noted on your center idol card.
   • Set the other cube to the side for now; it will only be used when your voltage passes 100%.
6. Place your idol pieces in the backstage area of your stage board.
7. Decide the starting player using your preferred method; the player going second gets +10% voltage.

The individual setup for each player is now finished. Now that the stages are set, it's time for the audience to come in!

Shared setup

8. Place the "Influencer" fan card to the side of the playmat.
9. Shuffle the 28 remaining fan cards facedown and place them on the audience deck space.
10. Draw 3 fan cards from the audience deck and place them faceup in audience slots 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
11. Put the cheer tokens in a place easily accessible to both players.

The three audience slots are collectively referred to as the "audience seats." Audience slot 1 is referred to as the "Front."

Playmat Areas

• Fan Area: When players recruit fans, they are placed in this area. Be sure to place the cards so that the victory points written in the top left corner are visible.
• Backstage: If an idol piece is in the backstage area, that idol may be used for performing songs or engaging with your fans.
• Memory: Once a song card is played, it is placed faceup in the memory pile. Song cards in your idols' memory can be used as the cost for event cards. Players may check each other's memory at any time.
• Discard Pile: Song cards that are discarded from memory as cost for event cards or due to other card effects are placed in the discard pile. In order to avoid getting the discard pile mixed with your memory pile, place the cards faceup and at a different orientation.
• Audience Row: The audience row consists of audience slots 1, 2 and 3 (the audience seats), with the audience deck beside them.

Flow of a Turn

Players will alternate taking turns, beginning with the starting player.

Standby Phase

1. Return all of your idol pieces to the backstage area.
2. Draw one card from your song deck.
   • On the starting player's first turn, they may not draw a card.
   • If there are no cards left in your deck, you may not draw a card.

Action Phase

First, activate any effects that automatically occur at the beginning of your action phase. During your action phase, you may perform actions in any order, as many times as you want:

• A. Perform a song
• B. Trigger an event
• C. Engage with your fans
• D. Use cheer token effects

When you run out of things you want to do, declare that your turn is over.

End of the Game

Add the numbers written on the top left of your recruited fan cards to get your victory points.

If either player earns 20 or more victory points, that player is the winner!

In the event that both players' song decks and hands run out of cards, the game ends, and the player with the most victory points wins! (If you have the same number of victory points, the game ends in a draw.)

A. Perform a Song

By having your idols perform songs, you can get the audience excited and recruit fans. In order to recruit fans, it is necessary to first raise your voltage.

How to Perform a Song

1. Pay the performance cost of the song card. Reveal the song card you want to play from your hand, and move the required idol pieces (noted on the top left corner of the song card) from backstage to the performance area. This is effectively "paying the cost" of the song card. (The ● icon indicates that any idol piece can be paid as cost.)
2. Choose your performance mode. When you perform a song, you can choose to either [raise your voltage] or [recruit fans]. In order to recruit fans, however, you must meet the voltage requirement noted on the song card.
3. Perform the effects of your chosen mode. For raising the voltage, see A-1. For recruiting fans, see A-2.
4. Place the used song card into your memory.

The idol icon on a song card's cost identifies the idol that must perform it; the printed example shows "Aizawa Hiyori must perform" and "Any other idol must perform" as the two readings of this icon.

Example: Resolving a song card. If you used the song "愛してくれない王子様" to raise your voltage by 20%, you would also earn one cheer token due to its voltage effect.

A-1 Raising the Voltage

1. If the card has the voltage effect (the VOL効果 label on it), activate that effect.
2. Move your voltage cube up by the percentage amount noted on the card.
   • If your voltage exceeds 100%, leave one voltage cube at the 100% mark and place the other at the relevant number.
   • There is no maximum voltage. If you cannot display it properly with voltage cubes, make a note of it somewhere.

Tip: Try raising your voltage as quickly as possible. You can recruit more fans that way!

A-2 Resolving Fan Recruitment

1. If the song card has the recruitment effect (the FAN効果 label on it), activate that effect.
2. Recruit fans by following the steps below. Audience slot 1 is referred to as the Front.
   1. Starting from the Front, take the number of fan cards indicated on the song card.
      • If there aren't enough fan cards in the audience slots, draw cards directly from the audience deck.
      • You cannot recruit a fan that your opponent has placed their "All Mine!" token on, so skip over that fan card during recruitment.
   2. If a fan card has an effect that occurs upon recruitment, resolve that effect. If you recruit more than one fan card at a time, you may choose the order in which you activate the fan cards' effects. Just be sure to resolve them one at a time.
      • "Recruiting more than one fan card at a time" refers to recruiting multiple fans with one single song card. This does not mean simply recruiting multiple fans during your turn.
   3. Place your recruited fan cards in the fan area. Place the cards so that both their name and victory point value are visible to both players.
   4. Replenish the audience slots. First, move any fan cards remaining in the audience slots forward. If slots 1 and 2 were empty, for example, the card in slot 3 would move all the way to slot 1. Then, draw cards from the audience deck to fill any remaining empty slots.
      • If there are no cards left in your deck, you may not draw a card.

Example: Replenishing audience slots. Below is an example of what would be done if someone recruited one card from the Front. The printed captions for the diagram read: "2. Fill the empty slot with a new card from the audience deck."

Example: Resolving fan card effects. Ex. 1) If you recruited the "Troublesome Fan" and the "Cheer Captain" at the same time, you could first activate the Cheer Captain's fan effect to earn one cheer token, then activate the Troublesome Fan's effect, which sends the Cheer Captain back into the audience deck. This example demonstrates the importance of choosing the right effect order, as not all effects will necessarily be beneficial.

Ex. 2) If you recruited two "Troublesome Fans" at the same time, you would activate one of their fan effects, sending the other back to the audience deck. Because the second card was returned to the audience deck before its fan effect was activated, the effect does not occur.

Tip: Either player can replenish the audience slots or shuffle the audience deck! Just because you're rivals doesn't mean you can't work together and have fun during the concert!

Steps for Gaining Fans

This summary is printed on the back of the playmat.

1. Apply the effect of the played song card.
2. Take fan cards starting from the front (Audience Slot 1).
3. Resolve any "when acquired" effects on the fan cards in any order (one at a time).
4. Place acquired fan cards in your fan area.
5. Shift fan cards forward to fill any empty spaces.

B. Trigger an Event Card

Event cards solidify the emotions and desires of your idols into artistic power. Use them when you think the time is right to pull yourself closer to victory!

Steps for Triggering Event Cards

1. Flip over the event card you want to use (from facedown to faceup). You may not trigger event cards that you have already triggered.
2. In order to use an event card, you must pay cards in your memory (song cards you have already played) as the cost. Event cards often require song cards associated with specific idols, which are both color and symbol-coded. When you pay the cost, move the song cards from your memory to your discard pile. Keep these two piles separate from each other. If you cannot pay the cost, you cannot trigger the event card.
3. Activate the effects listed on the event card.

Tip: While you're still getting used to the various card effects in the game, you can hold your event cards in your hand as you play if you'd like.

C. Engage with Fans

By engaging with your fans, you can earn additional cheer tokens! Cheer tokens can be used to activate powerful cheer effects.

By moving an idol piece from the backstage area to an engagement area, you earn one cheer token.

• You may only have one idol piece in each engagement area at a time.
• You may have a maximum of 7 cheer tokens at a time. If you earn any more while you already have 7, there is no effect.

D. Use Cheer Token Effects

The cheers of your fans power your idols forward, enabling them to do even more!

By expending the noted number of cheer tokens, you may activate the corresponding effects, which are listed on the stage board. (The cheer effects are printed on the stage board in Japanese; their text is not reproduced in this English rulebook.)

Example: Using cheer tokens. In this case, 2 cheer tokens are required.

Deck Building Steps and Rules

For deck building in Idol A Live, you can either use the casual rules (1 game box for 2 players), or the expert rules (1 game box per player).

Step ①: Forming Your Idol Group

Casual Rules: Players A and B will choose idols following the flow chart below. Each player ends with 3 idols.

• A chooses 1
• B chooses 1
• A chooses 1
• B chooses 2
• A chooses 1

Expert Rules: Choose 3 idol cards (you and your opponent may only have 1 idol in common). The cards you take from Step ② onward will change depending on the idols you chose.

Idol icons represent the same idol regardless of whether the idol's name is written on them or not.

Step ②: Building Your Song Deck

Casual Rules: Choose 9 songs that match the idol pieces you chose in step ① and take 2 of each song card for a total of 18 cards.

※ If you have both Rurikawa Otoha and Hiiragi Ryoko in your group, you won't have enough cards. You will need to put 3 copies of the "DETERMINATION" trio song card into your deck, plus 3 copies of another idol's trio song.

Expert Rules: Choose 18 song cards that match the idol pieces you chose in step ①. You may only have up to 3 copies of the same song card in your deck.

Step ③: Building Your Event Deck

Casual Rules: Choose 3 event cards that match the idol pieces you chose in step ①.

※ If both players agree, you may include ● icon event cards and build your decks using the expert rules. Decide which player may use which ● icon event cards using any method you like, like rock-paper-scissors.

Expert Rules: Build your deck by selecting 3 event cards from those that match the icons of the idols you chose in step ① and ● icon event cards. (Only one copy of each card is allowed in your event deck.)

Deckbuilding Hint

Start with 2 cards per song as a baseline (see the casual rules) and make adjustments as you get more used to the game!

Tutorial Decks

The playmat prints two tutorial decks.

Tutorial Deck A (beginner)

• Idols: Aizawa Hiyori (Center), Shinoda Saki, Kozuki Fumino
• Song deck (18 cards, 2 copies each): Magic Time!, GOストレート!!, ROCKET DASH!!!, emotions!, #ふて寝してまた明日, ハシャギたいんじゃNight？, 点線スピーチバルーン, 愛してくれない王子様, ブランニュー・マイ・ストーリー
• Event deck (3 cards): かけがえのない瞬間, その輝きに憧れて, 私のシンデレラストーリー

Tutorial Deck B (some card game experience)

• Idols: Himeno Eri (Center), Rurikawa Otoha, Hiiragi Ryoko
• Song deck (18 cards): ウザラヴ ×2, 純心ポイズン ×2, 私がスターライト ×3, 紫音〜SHION〜 ×2, Part of You ×2, Deal with ×2, Apart from You ×2, DETERMINATION ×3
• Event deck (3 cards): あの日の私に胸を張るために, 誰がためのアリア, 想いを繋いで

Note: Song and event titles that the printed rulebook gives only in Japanese are kept in Japanese.

Hints for Improving Your Skills

Start by Raising Your Voltage

Once you raise your voltage to 100%, every song card will allow you to recruit at least 1 fan. When raising your voltage, prioritize singing songs with a VOL効果 effect. Be sure to sing a variety of songs so you can be prepared for any situation!

Perform Songs Frequently

The more songs you sing, the more memories you accumulate, allowing you to play powerful event cards. Try combining solo and duet cards so you can sing two songs in one turn. This will help you build up memory even faster!

Don't Fall Too Far Behind in Points!

Idol A Live is a speed battle! If your opponent pulls ahead in points, you might find yourself in trouble. Keep an eye on the score so you don't get blown out.

Strategy and Playstyle Matchups

In Idol A Live, there are three main strategic playstyles. When building your deck or playing the game, consider which one suits your deck best and how to respond to the current situation.

• Speed Type: Aims to end the game quickly by rapidly gaining lots of fans. Strong against the powerful type, which needs more time to set up.
• Technical Type: A deck that scores efficiently by targeting high-value fans or gaining points from outside the audience area. Strong against the speed type.
• Powerful Type: A deck that aims for a big comeback with accumulated memory and cheer chips. Though slow, it can overpower the technical type with sheer force.

Card List

• Idol cards (1 each): Aizawa Hiyori, Shinoda Saki, Himeno Eri, Rurikawa Otoha, Hiiragi Ryoko, Kozuki Fumino
• Song cards (52 total): Magic Time! ×3, GOストレート!! ×3, ROCKET DASH!!! ×3, emotions! ×3, #ふて寝してまた明日 ×3, ハシャギたいんじゃNight？ ×3, ウザラヴ ×3, 純心ポイズン ×3, 私がスターライト ×3, 紫音〜SHION〜 ×3, Part of You ×3, Deal with ×3, Apart from You ×3, DETERMINATION ×4, 点線スピーチバルーン ×3, 愛してくれない王子様 ×3, ブランニュー・マイ・ストーリー ×3
• Event cards (1 each): かけがえのない瞬間, その輝きに憧れて, あの日の私に胸を張るために, 誰がためのアリア, 想いを繋いで, 私のシンデレラストーリー, シャッフル！, センタースイッチ, 会場トラブル, 機転
• Fan cards (29 total): ライトファン ×6, コアファン ×6, 応援隊長 (Cheer Captain) ×6, やっかいなファン (Troublesome Fan) ×6, 愛が重いファン ×3, 記者 ×1, インフルエンサー (Influencer) ×1

Note: The printed card list gives these fan titles in Japanese, with English only where the rules text uses an English name.