Krom: Evolution Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Content
• Goal
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Movement Phase
  • 2. Action Phases
  • Glacial Board
• Combat
• Stunned
• Places
  • Cave
  • Forest
  • Savanna
  • Mountain
• Play a Bonus
  • Effects
• Realize Evolutions
• End of the Game
• Kromosaurus
  • Setup
  • Movement Phase
  • Combat
  • Bonuses

Content

• 6 standees
• 1 reversible gameboard
• 6 character boards + 1 Kromosaurus board
• 6 dice
• 1 Kromosaurus
• 50 Krom tokens
• 12 Wood tokens
• 12 Stone tokens
• 12 Bone tokens
• 7 Heart tokens
• 27 Destination cards
• 20 Picking cards
• 17 Hunting cards
• 31 Bonus cards
• 25 Evolution cards

Goal

Realize the best Evolutions to become the new chief. Visit the welcoming Cave, the mysterious Forest, the arid Savanna and the vertiginous Mountain to find resources, in order to realize Evolutions, and Bonuses to defend yourself against the other pretenders.

The first player to reach 10 Evolution points wins the game and becomes the new chief. In 5 players games, the first to reach 8 Evolution points wins. With 6 players, the first to reach 7 points wins.

Setup

Place the board at the center of the table. Shuffle the Evolution cards and form a deck placed, face down, on the dedicated location on the board. Do the same for Hunting, Picking and Bonus cards.

Draw 4 Hunting cards and 4 Evolution cards and place them, face up, on the dedicated locations on the board. Place Krom, Bone, Wood and Stone tokens on their dedicated location on the board.

Each player then chooses a character and picks up the corresponding character board and standee. Each player puts 1 Heart token on the 7 of the life ladder of their character board. Each player then gets 5 Krom tokens, draws 1 Bonus card and receives the 4 Destination cards, one for each place on the board. Then everyone places their standee on the Cave.

How to Play

Each game is divided in rounds. Each round is composed of one Movement phase and one Action phase per player.

1. Movement Phase

Each player secretly chooses the place they want to go to by placing in front of them, face down, the corresponding Destination card. Then they all reveal their card simultaneously and move their standee to the place they have chosen.

Players have to move each round: they can't pick the Destination card corresponding to the place they are on at the beginning of the Movement phase.

2. Action Phases

Action phases are resolved in the places order: players at the Cave play first, the ones at the Forest play second, the ones at the Savanna play third, the ones at the Mountain play last.

If several players are in the same place, when it comes to resolve their Action phases, a combat takes place and will decide the playing order between them.

When a player ends their Action phase, the next player begins theirs. Once every Action phase has been played, the round ends and a new one begins.

Example: Alma plays first because no one is at the Cave. Then play the players at the Savanna. Because they are in the same place, a combat has to be resolved to know who, between Mörhy and Valkyr, will play first.

Glacial Board

Krom's board is reversible. The back of the board allows you to bring the Kroms into a real ice age!

With this game mode, any round spend outside the warm comfort of the Cave refrigerates a bit more the players: an additional parameter to keep in mind in your schemes.

When a player begins their Action phase in the Forest, Savanna or Mountain, they automatically lose 1 hit point.

A player can't lose their last hit point that way. Therefore, they can't be stunned just because of the cold.

When a player begins their Action phase in the Cave, they automatically recover 1 hit point, in addition to those they can recover during the phase by resting or providing services.

Combat

If several players are in the same place, a combat takes place to determine who plays first.

Every player in this place rolls one die. The one with the highest score wins and plays first. The Action phases of the other players are resolved in the descending order of their scores.

Ties are settled by looking at the players weight indicated on their character boards. At the Cave and the Savanna, the heaviest wins; in the Forest and the Mountain, the lightest wins. If several players obtain the highest score on the dice, there is only one winner: the one winning with their weight.

Additionally, each defeated player loses as many hit points as the difference between their score and the winner's.

When a player loses hit points, their Heart token is moved down the life ladder of their character board accordingly. If a player drops to 0 hits points, they are stunned.

When a player recovers hit points, their Heart token is moved up the life ladder of their character board, to a maximum of 7.

Example: The 3 players on the place roll one die each. Kolos obtains the highest result (6) and will play first, following by Karok (3) and then Valkyr (2). Valkyr loses 4 hit points (6 minus 2). Karok loses 3 hit points (6 minus 3).

Because he had only 3 hit points left, Karok is stunned and loses his next Action phase. And Kolos will be able to empty his pockets...

Stunned

When a player's hit points drop to 0, they are stunned and won't be able to play their Action phase this round.

The winner of the combat who stunned them can steal them one Wood, one Stone or one Bone; or half their Kroms (rounding up); or one of their Bonus cards, drawn at random.

At the beginning of the next round, the stunned player gets back on their feet, recovers 7 hit points and resumes playing with no further effect.

Places

During their Action phase, a player can accomplish different actions, depending on the place they are in.

Cave

A player in the Cave has two choices:

• Enjoy a well-deserved rest to get 3 Krom and recover 2 hit points.

OR

• Provide services in exchange for any number of resources, hit points and/or Bonus cards:
  • Each Wood, Bone or Stone token costs 3 Krom;
  • each Bonus card costs 2 Krom;
  • each 3 hit points costs 1 Krom.

Forest

A player in the Forest begins their hike by drawing the first card of the Picking deck.

The player can spend Kroms to continue drawing Picking cards: the second card costs 1 Krom; the third one 3 Krom; the fourth one 4 Krom.

Each time a player draws a card, they get the indicated reward (if there is one), discard the card and then decide to draw another one or not.

Before drawing their first Picking card, a player has always the opportunity to shuffle the Picking deck with its discard pile to make a new deck.

Savanna

A player in the Savanna goes hunting and chooses one prey among the 4 Hunting cards face up on the board.

The player takes the number of dice indicated on the top left of the card (1, 2 or 3 depending on the creature's toughness), to which: they can add 1 additional die by spending 2 Krom or 2 additional dice by spending 4 Krom. They then roll all those dice.

Those additional dice need to be purchased before all the dice are rolled, never after.

(Hunting card diagram: the card's VALUE is at its top left, its DICE number just below it, and its REWARD at the bottom.)

If the total sum of the dice rolled is greater than or equal to the creature's value indicated on the top left of its card, the player catches their prey and gets the reward indicated on the bottom of its card.

The Hunting card is then discarded and a new one is drawn at once and placed face up on the board to replace it. On the other hand, if the sum of the dice is less than the creature's value, the player ends up empty handed. Regardless of their result, a player can hunt only one creature per Action phase.

Mountain

A player in the Mountain tries to climb the highest cliff by obtaining the best result with 5 dice.

The player rolls the 5 dice once. They can then roll again up to 4 times by spending Kroms: the first and second rerolls cost 1 Krom each; the third and fourth rerolls cost 2 Krom each.

During each reroll, the player can reroll all or part of their dice and keep the others.

When a player is satisfied with their result, they can stop and get the reward corresponding to their final combination:

• 2 identical scores = 3 Krom
• 2 different sets of 2 identical scores = 4 Krom
• 3 identical scores = 2 Krom + 1 Stone
• 3 identical scores and 2 identical scores = 2 Krom + (2 Stone OR 2 Bonus cards)
• 4 identical scores = 3 Stone OR 3 Bonus cards
• 5 identical scores = 2 Krom + 2 Stone + 2 Bonus cards + 2 hit points
• 5 dice with following scores (shown as two sequences of dice icons joined by OR, each die greater than the next; the exact faces are not legible as text) = 3 Stone + 1 Bonus card

Play a Bonus

Bonus cards grant advantages or inflict disadvantages to other players.

They are secretly kept face down and used by a player during their Action phase, unless a symbol indicates otherwise.

• A Bonus with the skull-and-crossbones symbol can only be played during a combat, after the dice have been rolled, to modify the result. Several of these Bonuses can be played during a combat. The final result is calculated when no more player involved wants to play a Bonus card anymore.
• A Bonus with the crossed-out star-burst symbol can be played whenever another player uses a Bonus card. This card is discarded without its effects being applied.
• Bonuses with the symbol of a place on it (Cave, Forest, Savanna or Mountain) can only be played when the player is in that place.

Effects

• +Y with a die: Combat: Roll Y additional dice and add them to your total.
• Die with +Y: Combat: Add Y to your total.
• +X: Gain X Kroms/Resources/hit points.
• Targeted-player symbol with -X: The targeted player loses X Kroms/Resources/hit points.
• Thief symbol with X: Steal X Kroms/Resources from the targeted player in the same place as you.
• -Y then +X: Lose Y Kroms/Resources to gain X Kroms/Resources.
• Targeted-player symbol with Y and X exchange arrows: Swap Y Kroms/Resources with X Kroms/Resources from the targeted player.

Realize Evolutions

A player can only realize Evolutions during their Action phase. To do that, a player needs to spend the resources indicated on the Evolution card.

Unless the symbol of a place is present on its card, an Evolution can be realized in any place. Evolutions with the symbol of a place on it can only be played when the player is in that place.

When realizing an Evolution, a player scores the number of Evolution points indicated on the top left of the card.

A new Evolution card is then immediately drawn and placed face up on the board to replace the one that has been realized.

To account for the Evolution points they score, each player keeps the Evolution cards they have realized face up next to their character board.

(Evolution card diagram: the EVOLUTION POINTS are at the top left; the COST is at the bottom, shown for example as -2 Wood and -5 Krom.)

End of the Game

The first player to reach 10 Evolution points immediately wins the game and becomes the new chief of the village.

In 5 players games, the first to reach 8 Evolution points wins. With 6 players, 7 points are necessary.

For longer games, you can increase by 2 the number of Evolution points necessary to win.

Kromosaurus

The Kromosaurus is an extension, completely optional, that allows you to spice up the game a bit more!

Randomly moving across the board and attacking every Krom it comes across, this big bad beast increases the number of combats. Nonetheless, a little reward awaits the one who will bring the beast down!

Setup

The Kromosaurus board is placed on the table near the game board. 1 Heart token is placed on the 10 of its life ladder. The Kromosaurus standee and its Destinations cards are kept closely.

Movement Phase

The Kromosaurus has three Destination cards for itself, one for each of the following places: Forest, Savanna and Mountain. Only in the Cave are the Kroms sure not to meet the Kromosaurus!

After the players' Destination cards has been revealed, a Destination card is randomly drawn for the Kromosaurus. Then its standee is moved to this place. Unlike the players, a Kromosaurus can stay several rounds in the same place.

Combat

If the Kromosaurus is in the same place as one or more players, it will fight with them before resolving their Action phases, exactly like another player. During a combat, a die is rolled for the Kromosaurus, then 2 is always added to its score.

The result of the combat is determined as usual, considering the Kromosaurus like another player. However, if it wins, the Kromosaurus doesn't steal anything from the ones it stuns.

If the Kromosaurus' hit points drops to 0, it is removed from the game. The player that stunned the Kromosaurus can't steal anything from it, but they can keep its standee as a trophy! This trophy yields 1 extra Evolution point.

If the player keeping the Kromosaurus trophy is stunned, in addition to being stripped of, the winner steals from him the trophy (and the Evolution point it yields)! The trophy can change hands several times during the game.

Bonuses

The Kromosaurus is not considered as a player for the purpose of the Bonus cards. Therefore, it can't be targeted by any Bonus that specifically targets a player.