Into The Echoside Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Your Goal
• Contents
• Types of Cards
  • Reference Card
• Game Setup
  • Example setup for 2 players
• Card Layout
• Gameplay
  • Turns
  • Playing Cards
  • Obtaining Cards & Karma
  • Ending Your Turn
  • Drawing & Discarding Cards
• Juggalo Deck
• Item Cards
• Flavor Deck
• Abolish & The Abyss
• Stomp & Shielded Cards
• Crews & Unity Benefits
• The Wheel of Fate
• General Rules
• Game Finale & Gathering Points (GP)
• Advanced Play
  • Fiends
• Game Variants
  • Team Play
  • Abolish Made Easy
  • A Matter of Time
  • House of Mirrors
  • Relic of Power
• FAQ
• Glossary

Your Goal

Into the Echoside is a deckbuilding game where you have been empowered by the Dark Carnival to embark on a perilous quest to delve deep into the Nethervoid and defeat the evil forces that are plotting the decimation of all mankind. Starting with only a small band of warriors, you will soon build your Karma to obtain new, powerful allies, deadly Items, dope Flavor, and even bloodthirsty Fiends that you can unleash on other players! In the end, whoever has earned the most Gathering Points (GP) from the cards in their deck will win the game!

Contents

• Rulebook
• Game Board
• 12-Sided Die
• 107 Main Deck Cards
  • 23 Dark Carnival (Crew)
  • 23 Psychopathic (Crew)
  • 23 Underground (Crew)
  • 17 Items
  • 21 Fiends
• 12 Epic Cards
• 21 Juggalo Cards
• 30 Flavor Cards
• 35 Ninja Starter Cards
• 15 Hound Dog Starter Cards
• 4 Reference Cards

Types of Cards

Starter, Dark Carnival (Crew), Psychopathic (Crew), Underground (Crew), Item, Epic, Flavor, Fiend (Advanced Play), Reference.

Reference Card

Turn Summary

1. Play & obtain cards. a. Play cards to gain Karma and effects. b. Obtain cards and place them in your discard pile.
2. End your turn. a. Discard your cards. b. Reduce your Karma pool to 0. c. Replace empty card slots on the board. d. Draw 5 new cards. e. Play passes to the next player.

Unity Benefits

Anytime during your turn when you have 3 or more cards of the same Crew in play, you may gain the following:

• Dark Carnival = +2 Karma
• Psychopathic = Draw a card.
• Underground = Draw a Flavor card.

Note: You can only gain one of these benefits once during your turn.

Game Setup

Into the Echoside can be played with 2 to 4 players.

1. Place the game board between all players.
2. Place a Reference card in front of each player so they may consult it during the game.
3. Take the Toy Box Item card, the 2 My Axe Item cards, and all 21 Fiend cards and set them aside. These cards are used for advanced play only (see "Advanced Play," page 13).
4. Each player is given 7 Ninja and 3 Hound Dog Starter cards. (Set aside all unused Starter cards.) Shuffle these 10 cards and place them facedown in front of you to create your personal deck. Draw 5 cards from your personal deck to create your hand. Your hand is always kept secret from other players.
5. Shuffle all the Juggalo cards to form the Juggalo Deck. Place this deck faceup on the Juggalo Deck area.
6. Shuffle all the Flavor cards to form the Flavor Deck. Place this deck facedown on the Flavor Deck area.
7. Shuffle all the Epic cards to form the Epic Deck. Place this deck facedown on the Epic Deck area. Set aside the top 2 Epic cards if playing a 3-player game or the top 4 Epic cards if playing a 2-player game. Then draw 3 cards from this deck and place them faceup on the Epic Tier area.

Number of Players	2	3	4
Total Epic Cards Used	8	10	12

8. Shuffle all the remaining cards (all cards without star symbols at the bottom) to form the Main Deck. Place this deck facedown on the Main Deck area. Then draw 6 cards from this deck and place them faceup on the Gallery area.
9. Each player rolls the 12-sided die to determine who goes first (highest roll), with play proceeding clockwise from there.

Example setup for 2 players

Board areas: Epic Tier (with 3 cards drawn from the Epic Deck), Juggalo Deck, Main Deck, Gallery (with 6 cards drawn from the Main Deck), Epic Deck, Flavor Deck. Each player has a Reference card, a Personal Deck (with 5 remaining Starter cards) and a Starting Hand (with 5 Starter cards).

Card Layout

• COST: This number reflects how much Karma it costs to purchase the card.
• GATHERING POINTS: This is how many Gathering Points (GP) the card is worth. At the end of the game you will tally the GP from all the cards you have obtained. Whoever has the most GP wins!
• OR: If the card has an OR icon in its text, this denotes a choice between two different effects listed on the same card.
• NAME: This is the name of the card.
• TYPE: This is the type of card it is, which will determine how it's played. There are 8 different types of cards in the game: Starter, Dark Carnival, Psychopathic, Underground, Epic, Item, Fiend, and Flavor.
• EFFECT: This is the effect of the card, which is basically what the card does when it's put into play from your hand.
• SHIELDED: Cards with this shield icon can't be stomped.
• STOMP: This boot print icon indicates that this card can stomp.

Gameplay

Turns

During a game, each player will take turns in which they will be able to play the 5 cards from their hand. Each player's turn can be broken down as follows:

Turn Summary

1. Play & obtain cards. a. Play cards to gain Karma and effects. b. Obtain cards and place them in your discard pile.
2. End your turn. a. Discard your cards. b. Reduce your Karma pool to 0. c. Replace empty card slots on the board. d. Draw 5 new cards. e. Play passes to the next player.

Playing Cards

During your turn, you play cards from your hand one at a time in order to gain Karma and other effects. You can play as many of the 5 cards in your hand as you want (players typically play all 5), in any order you choose. To play a card, simply put it faceup in front of you; the card is then considered to be in play. Once you play a card, you must resolve the effect of the card immediately (unless it's an Item card; see page 10). The effect is the text written on the card, which is basically what it does. If a card's effect includes the words "you may," then that denotes a choice of some kind. If the card has an OR symbol, this denotes a choice between two different effects listed on the same card. Once a card's effect has been resolved, it remains in play but is considered dead. Later in your turn, you cannot go back to use any part of a dead card's effect, unless its effect states otherwise. However, Karma gained from a card's effect is always automatically pooled. Once a card is in play, it must remain there until the end of your turn (see "Ending Your Turn," page 9).

Example: You play Vanilla Ice ("+2 Karma & draw a Flavor card"). You would then gain +2 Karma, but before you could even spend the Karma or do anything else, you would first need to finish the card's effect by drawing a Flavor card.

Obtaining Cards & Karma

Cards have many varied effects, but most cards in the game grant you an increase to your Karma, which is pooled and can be used at any time during your turn, even after you have played all your cards. Karma is used as currency to purchase cards in the Gallery, Juggalo cards, or cards in the Epic Tier. The Karma cost of a card is reflected by the number in its top left corner. You can purchase any number of available cards during your turn up to your Karma limit; however, you may only purchase 1 Epic card per turn. Cards purchased with Karma or obtained by some other means go directly into your discard pile. You will then be able to use these cards later in the game. When cards are removed from the Gallery or Epic Tier, they are not replaced with new ones until the end of your turn (see "Ending Your Turn" below).

Example: You play 5 Ninja cards (+1 Karma each) during your turn, which increases your Karma pool to 5. You then decide to purchase a Juggalo card, which costs 3 Karma, and a Killer Carnie card, which costs 2 Karma, thus leaving you with 0 Karma left. As you purchase these cards, they would be placed directly into your discard pile.

Ending Your Turn

After you're done playing and obtaining cards, place all your cards in play (except Items and Flavor cards; see page 10) and any remaining cards in your hand faceup into your discard pile. Any unspent Karma in your pool is reduced to 0. Replace all empty card slots in the Gallery and Epic Tier with faceup cards drawn from the Main or Epic Deck, respectively. Draw 5 new cards from your personal deck, which you won't be able to play until your next turn. Play then passes to the next player in a clockwise direction.

Drawing & Discarding Cards

Whenever any effect allows you to "draw a card," take the top card from your personal deck (hereinafter referred to as your deck) and place it into your hand. Whenever you obtain new cards or need to discard cards, they are placed faceup into your discard pile, which should be set up next to your deck. If a card's effect allows you to take a card from your discard pile, you must let everyone see the card you choose. Whenever you need to draw (or reveal) a card and there are no cards left in your deck, shuffle your discard pile and place it facedown to create a new deck to draw from. When doing so, don't shuffle in any cards that are currently in play or in your hand.

Example: During the end of your turn you need to draw 5 cards but only have 2 cards left in your deck. You draw the last 2 cards, and since you need to draw 3 more but have no cards left in your deck, you would then create a new deck by shuffling your discard pile and placing it facedown. You would then draw 3 additional cards to bring the total number of cards in your hand to 5.

Juggalo Deck

All cards in the Juggalo Deck are kept faceup. There are three types of Juggalos: Dark Carnival, Psychopathic, and Underground. During your turn, you may purchase the top card of the Juggalo Deck. You may purchase more than 1 Juggalo card in a turn but must always purchase the top card before you can purchase the next card further down. Once per turn, you may spend 1 Karma to move the top card of the Juggalo Deck to the bottom.

Item Cards

Item cards are purchased and then placed into your discard pile just like any other card. Once played, however, you don't have to resolve the effect of an Item card immediately like other cards. Instead, you may choose to use an Item card's effect at any point during your turn, but only during your turn. Some Item cards have a continuous effect that will be ongoing the entire time it remains in play. At the end of your turn, Item cards that are in play are not sent to your discard pile like the rest of your cards. Instead they remain in play and may be used during each of your turns.

Flavor Deck

When an effect allows you to draw a Flavor card, take the top card of the Flavor Deck and put it into your hand (which can then be played any time during your turn). Flavor cards are played just like other cards; however, at the end of your turn, they're placed faceup in the Flavor Discard area instead of your discard pile. If you need to draw a Flavor card and there are none left in the Flavor Deck, then shuffle the Flavor Discard pile and place it facedown in the Flavor Deck area to create a new deck to draw from.

Abolish & The Abyss

When an effect allows you to abolish a card, simply put the targeted card faceup in the Abyss area. If the card was taken from your hand or discard pile, then it's effectively removed from your available cards for the rest of the game. Typically players use abolish to get rid of weaker cards (i.e., Ninja and Hound Dog Starter cards) so they can draw better cards in the future. Flavor cards and cards already in play may never be the target of abolish. Cards in the Abyss are considered to be out of play.

Stomp & Shielded Cards

A card with the stomp effect (noted by a boot print icon in the upper right corner) can be used to counter a card that's being played by an opponent (including a Flavor card) on their turn. To do so, simply announce you are using stomp immediately after an opponent puts a card into play. Show the card with the stomp effect, then put it into your discard pile, which will in turn cause the targeted card to be put into that player's discard pile as well (or Flavor Discard area if it was a Flavor card). A card that was stomped never really goes into play, so its effect can't be used. A stomped card also can't be counted toward gaining a Unity Benefit. Stomp must be used before any decisions associated with the targeted card's effect are made or dice are rolled (i.e., rolling on the Wheel of Fate). You may pause an opponent's turn at any time to examine a card that was just played to determine if you want to stomp it. Shielded cards (indicated by a shield icon in the upper right corner) can never be the target of stomp.

Crews & Unity Benefits

There are three types of cards that are considered to be Crews: Dark Carnival, Psychopathic, and Underground. Any effect that targets a Crew card can target any Dark Carnival, Psychopathic, or Underground card. Anytime during your turn when you have 3 or more cards of the same Crew in play, you may gain the corresponding Unity Benefit:

Unity Benefits

• Dark Carnival = +2 Karma
• Psychopathic = Draw a card.
• Underground = Draw a Flavor card.

You may only gain one of these Unity Benefits once during your turn, no matter how many cards you have in play. It is wise to try to obtain cards of the same Crew when building your deck so you can gain Unity Benefits more often.

Example: You play Soopa Ninjas and Sugar Slam, which are both Psychopathic cards. Next you play a Hound Dog ("Choose a Crew; this card remains that Crew until the end of your turn"), which is a Starter card. Since you already have 2 Psychopathic cards in play, you decide to use the Hound Dog's effect to make its Crew Psychopathic, which gives you 3 Psychopathic cards in play. Deciding not to gain the Unity Benefit yet, you play a Dark Carnival Juggalo card. Then you decide to take the Psychopathic Unity Benefit, since you still have 3 Psychopathic cards in play, so you draw a card.

The Wheel of Fate

When a card's effect allows you to roll on the Wheel of Fate, simply roll a 12-sided die and consult the table below to determine what random effect you gain. The highest result is always a 12 and the lowest a 1, no matter what modifiers you might have to the roll.

Roll	Effect
1	Nothing
2	You may abolish a card from the Gallery and replace it.
3	You may place a card of cost 3 or less from your discard pile on top of your deck.
4	+1 Karma
5	Draw a card.
6	You may place a card of cost 5 or less from your discard pile on top of your deck.
7	You may abolish a card from your hand or discard pile.
8	+2 Karma
9	You may place a card of cost 7 or less from your discard pile on top of your deck.
10	Draw 2 cards.
11	Draw a Flavor card.

General Rules

Any player may look through the cards of the Juggalo Deck, Abyss, or any discard pile at any time (basically all faceup cards). However, the order of the Juggalo Deck may not be changed when doing so. Players cannot look through the cards of any facedown deck.

Anytime a card is placed on top of any facedown deck, it's always placed facedown. Anytime a card is placed in a discard pile or the Abyss, it's always placed faceup.

If a card's effect directly contradicts the rules of the game, then the card's effect takes precedence.

Game Finale & Gathering Points (GP)

The game goes into the final round when the last card from either the Epic or the Main Deck is drawn. The current player finishes their turn as normal; then the game continues until the player to the right of the player that went first completes their turn. If this was the person that triggered the final round, then the game ends immediately after their turn is complete. This way, every player will have the same amount of turns. Players then count the Gathering Point (GP) value of all the cards they have obtained. The player with the most GP wins! In the event of a tie, the player with the most GP earned from Epic cards wins. If this is also a tie, then the first player to say "Gimmie my money, muddafocko!" wins.

Advanced Play

Fiends

To play the advanced game, shuffle the Toy Box Item card, the 2 My Axe Item cards, and all 21 Fiend cards into the Main Deck during game setup. Fiend cards are never worth any Gathering Points and have a one-time use. You purchase Fiend cards as normal; however, they don't go to your discard pile like other cards. Instead they go directly into play (put them faceup in front of you). When a Fiend card is put into play, its effect doesn't trigger immediately. Instead, it triggers at any point during your turn when you want it to. At the end of your turn, unused Fiend cards are not sent to your discard pile like most cards. Instead they remain in play to be used on one of your future turns. When you do choose to use a Fiend card's effect, it must be declared along with any potential targets of the card's effect. Once you complete a Fiend card's effect, leave it in play until the end of your turn; then place it faceup in the Abyss. Also take special note that stomp works differently on Fiend cards. Fiends cannot be affected by stomp when they're put into play (like all other cards) but can only be affected by stomp when their effect is used, which would nullify the effect of the card and cause it to be placed faceup in the Abyss. Players may first find out who any potential targets of a Fiend's effect are before deciding on whether or not to stomp it.

Example: During your turn, you purchase the Damien Fiend card ("+2 Karma & you may have an opponent discard a random card from their hand"), which goes right into play faceup in front of you. You decide not to use Damien at this time, so it remains in play at the end of your turn. On your next turn, you find yourself 2 Karma short of purchasing an Epic card, so you declare you're using Damien and that you're going to target your friend Lisa to discard a random card from her hand. Unfortunately, Lisa uses a card with the stomp effect on Damien, causing it to be placed faceup in the Abyss. You never gain the +2 Karma and Lisa no longer needs to discard a card from her hand at random.

Game Variants

Team Play

Players may decide to play in teams of 2. The game is played as normal with the following exceptions:

• Teammates sit opposite each other so that turns will always alternate between opposing team members.
• Any of your card's effects that target an "opponent" won't affect your teammate.
• You may spend an additional 1 Karma when purchasing a card so that it's placed in your teammate's discard pile instead of your own (or into their play area if it's a Fiend). If some effect allows you to obtain a card for free, you would still need to spend 1 Karma to give it to your teammate. If the card has an effect that happens when you first obtain the card, then that effect would happen to the player who is receiving the card.

At the end of the game, combine your Gathering Points with those of your teammate to determine which team won.

Abolish Made Easy

Whenever you get a Unity Benefit, you may choose instead to abolish a card out of your hand or discard pile.

A Matter of Time

During game setup, you can use any number of Epic cards to create a shorter or longer game. Alternatively, players may keep playing until the last card of the Main Deck is drawn.

House of Mirrors

The top cards of the Main, Epic, and Flavor decks are always turned faceup so that everyone can see what's coming up next.

Relic of Power

During game setup, choose or randomly determine an Item card (except Soopa Soaka) to be placed on the board just below the Gallery. To randomly determine this Item card, draw cards from the Main Deck until you reveal an Item card; then reshuffle the Main Deck. This card is considered to be the Relic of Power and may not be obtained, abolished, discarded, or manipulated in any way. All players in the game may then use the Relic of Power during their turns as if they had the Item card in their play area.

FAQ

If I play Boondox and copy the Item card Soopa Soaka, do I get to draw a card? Yes.

If I play the Hype Man and I choose Dark Carnival, is the Hype Man then considered to be both Underground and Dark Carnival? No. Once you choose a Crew, the Hype Man's type becomes that Crew until the end of your turn. Also, this card is always considered to be an Underground card while it's in your discard pile.

During a team game, if I play Willoughby Rags and I spend 4 Karma to buy a Dark Carnival Juggalo card for my teammate, do they get to put it into their hand? No. Willoughby Rags's effect only pertains to you. Also, the Juggalo card would count as the next Dark Carnival card you have obtained this turn, so you would lose that effect.

If I play Da Mafia 6ix, can the card I draw from the top of the Main Deck be stomped? Yes. However, the card would be sent to the Abyss instead of your discard pile.

If I have the Murder Cloak in play and someone plays the Killjoy Club to stomp a card I have just played, does the Murder Cloak protect my card? No. The Killjoy Club's effect allows it to stomp any card being played, period. If it's used to stomp a card that is stomping another card, then the Killjoy Club's stomp would go first, effectively stomping the other card before it could even be used.

If I have the Soopa Soaka in play and I use it to stomp an opponent's card being played, could they play the Killjoy Club to stomp my Soopa Soaka? No. Since Soopa Soaka is already in play, you are technically not playing the card, which is the only time a card may be the target of stomp (unless it's a Fiend). Your opponent could, however, stomp Soopa Soaka with the Killjoy Club when you are first putting it into play from your hand.

If I play Entourage to copy the effect of a Dark Carnival Juggalo, does the type of my Entourage card become Dark Carnival? No. The Entourage card only copies the effect of the card ("+2 Karma"), not its type. It would remain an Underground card.

If I play Entourage to copy the effect of a card, does the new effect remain until the end of my turn? Yes. Also, you might find it helpful to slightly overlap the Entourage card with the card that you're copying to help you remember.

If the first card I played on my turn is stomped, could I then play Sugar Slam to discard the rest of my cards and draw 5 new ones? No, because even though your first card never went into play, it is still considered to be played from your hand.

When is a card technically dead? Once you have taken any other action after the card in question has been played that is not part of the card's effect, including playing a card, obtaining a card, spending Karma, using a Fiend's effect, using an Item's effect, gaining a Unity Benefit, or drawing 5 new cards at the end of your turn.

What happens if I play a card with stomp but I didn't realize the targeted card was shielded? Normally you wouldn't be able to put a card back into your hand after it's been played. Unsuccessfully trying to stomp, however, is the only exception to this rule. Since shielded cards can't legally be the target of stomp, you would be able to put your card back into your hand.

What's the best way to keep track of Karma on a turn when you have accumulated a lot? Using a notepad or the 12-sided die that comes with the game can be very helpful.

What is the Murder Mix? When you play the game with the advanced rules and every variant (Team Play, Abolish Made Easy, A Matter of Time, House of Mirrors, and Relic of Power) all at the same time.

Glossary

• Abolish - When a card is abolished, simply put the targeted card faceup in the Abyss. Flavor cards and cards already in play may never be the target of abolish.
• Abyss - The area on the game board where abolished cards and used Fiends are placed faceup. Cards in the Abyss are considered to be out of play.
• Crew - There are three types of cards that are considered to be Crews: Dark Carnival, Psychopathic, and Underground. Any effect that targets a Crew card can target any Dark Carnival, Psychopathic, or Underground card.
• Discard Pile - The faceup pile of cards that is set up next to your personal deck. It is composed of cards obtained, stomped, or discarded.
• Effect(s) - The effect is the text written on a card, which is basically what it does. Anything rolled on the Wheel of Fate is considered to be an effect as well.
• Epic Deck - The facedown deck consisting of Epic cards that rests on the Epic Deck area of the board.
• Flavor Deck - The facedown deck consisting of Flavor cards that rests on the Flavor Deck area of the board.
• Flavor Discard - Whenever a Flavor card is discarded, place it faceup onto the Flavor Discard area of the board.
• Gathering Points (GP) - The point value that appears in the left middle area of a card. At the end of a game, players count the GP value of all the cards they have obtained. The player with the most GP wins!
• Hand - The cards you hold that haven't been played yet are considered to be "your hand."