Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game – Under Fu Leng's Shadow
Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game – Under Fu Leng's Shadow Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Components
The rules in this expansion explain how to play against the Shadowlands faction in the two game modes listed above, and assume that players are already familiar with the normal rules of the game. To that end, the rules are written to accommodate both the players who prefer the stronghold format (which uses 5 provinces and a stronghold) and players who prefer the skirmish format (which uses 3 provinces). The Learn to Play documents for both of those formats can be found on the publisher's website.
If a player has not played Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game, we recommend they learn the skirmish format before learning the stronghold format.
Components
The components of the expansion are presented here for identification purposes. For a detailed anatomy of the new Shadowlands cards, see Appendix II on page 22.
The expansion's 138 non-Shadowlands cards are made up of 64 dynasty cards, 72 conflict cards, and 2 stronghold cards. The Shadowlands warlord cards are double-sided: one side is used in cooperative play and the other in challenge play. The Shadowlands province and card counts are not legible in the text layer and are omitted here; see the printed components page.
Shadowlands Faction Rules
The Shadowlands faction introduced in this expansion changes the way that the game is played, as it exists as an external threat that the clans of Rokugan must defeat together. Below are a number of key concepts and rules that are unique to playing with the Shadowlands faction.
Shadowlands Faction Team Play
The Shadowlands is not a faction that is meant to be faced by a single opponent. Any players who wish to oppose the Shadowlands do so as a team, and the Shadowlands faction operates as a team of one. Even when playing a single-player cooperative game against a Shadowlands deck, all of the rules for team play must be observed. Full rules for team play can be found in Appendix III on page 24.
Throughout this rulebook, both the team of players opposing the Shadowlands and the Shadowlands itself are referred to as teams, regardless of the number of players on that team.
With the exception of the rules listed below, the Shadowlands faction is treated as a clan just like the seven opposing clans currently in the game. It can be identified by the clan symbol in text and by the unique card frame which features the clan's symbol. The following rules apply to the Shadowlands faction in all game modes.
Winning the Game
Unlike the Great Clans of Rokugan, the Shadowlands is not a faction made up of loyal vassals working toward a common goal. Should the warlord's command break down, the monsters and demons of the Shadowlands would scatter and their armies dissolve. Additionally, as an invading force from the hellish underworld of Jigoku, the armies of the Shadowlands care nothing for the honor of samurai.
Accordingly, when playing with or against the Shadowlands, only use the following win conditions:
- If the Shadowlands dynasty deck has 0 cards in it at the end of any game round, the Shadowlands deck (or player) loses the game.
- If all of the Shadowlands provinces are broken, the Shadowlands deck (or player) immediately loses the game.
- If each player's stronghold province is broken (stronghold format), or all non-Shadowlands provinces are broken (skirmish format), the Shadowlands deck (or player) immediately wins the game.
Honor
The forces of the Shadowlands have only scorn for all non-Shadowlands Rokugani society, and thus honor is meaningless to them. The Shadowlands faction has no clan honor, and a team of opponents cannot win by accumulating a sufficient honor total.
If an effect would cause the Shadowlands deck (or player) to gain or lose honor, it is ignored. Honor costs are always considered to be paid.
If a player would be instructed to take honor from or give honor to their Shadowlands faction opponent (or vice-versa), that player gains honor from or loses honor to the general token pool instead.
Surviving the Shadowlands
Because the Shadowlands dynasty deck is also the timer leading towards its opponents' victory condition, card effects cannot discard cards from the Shadowlands dynasty deck.
Banned Cards
When playing against the Shadowlands faction, the following cards are banned and players cannot include them in their decks.
- Trading on the Sand Road (Warriors of the Wind, 28)
- Haughty Magistrate (Imperial Cycle, 69)
- Waning Hostilities (Imperial Cycle, 100)
- Hige's Sermon (Clan War, 92)
- A Season of War (Dominion Cycle, 14)
Warlords
Unlike the samurai of Rokugan, who rally around a daimyō's stronghold in times of conflict, the Shadowlands only unifies when brought together by a vicious warlord. Each Shadowlands deck is built around a unique warlord who defines how the game is played from round to round.
Warlord cards have two sides: one that is used during cooperative play and one that is used during challenge play. Use the appropriate side of the card based on which game mode is being played. This is indicated by a tag at the bottom of the card's text box.
The warlord starts the game out of play, visible between the two Shadowlands decks. Instead of a cost, it has a fate value in the upper left corner of the card that indicates the amount of fate the Shadowlands collects each round. Additionally, each warlord has a powerful ability that can be triggered once per round, even while the warlord is out of play.
The warlord can be brought into play by card effects, at which point it functions in the same way as any other character. When it would leave play, it is returned to the out-of-play zone in which it started the game, from where its ability can continue to be used and it can be brought back into play at a later point.
Per-Player Icon
The per-player icon is used on warlord and province cards to scale a value by the number of players. If a number is followed by the per-player symbol, multiply that number by the number of non-Shadowlands players in the game to determine that number's value.
Players will not be eliminated during the game.
Tainted Status and Corrupted Keyword
Many card effects can taint a character or province. To indicate that a card is tainted, place a tainted status token on it. That card is stronger while tainted, but carries an honor cost in order to attack or defend. As the Shadowlands is always considered to pay honor costs, the honor cost to use a tainted card is ignored by the Shadowlands faction.
Many characters have the corrupted keyword. This indicates that they enter play already tainted.
For full rules on the tainted status and corrupted keyword, see Appendix I on page 21.
Shadowlands Ring Effects
In the Shadowlands, even the five elemental rings are corrupted by Jigoku's evil. When a Shadowlands player would resolve a ring effect, they use a different set of ring effects than their opponents, listed below.
- Air: Each opponent loses 1 honor.
- Earth: Each opponent chooses 1 faceup card in their provinces and discards it, then discards 1 random card from their hand.
- Fire: Each opponent chooses and taints a character they control.
- Water: Each opponent chooses and bows a character in their home.
- Void: Each opponent removes 1 fate from a character they control.
Assembling Shadowlands Decks
Each Shadowlands deck is built around its warlord and contains two 40-card decks and five provinces. For a player's first game against the Shadowlands, we recommend they play against Akuma no Oni.
The Shadowlands dynasty and conflict cards are organized into twelve encounter groups of ten cards each. These groups are identified by the numbers on the bottom of their card. There are six dynasty encounter groups and six conflict encounter groups in this expansion.
To build a Shadowlands deck, select the warlord and each of that warlord's provinces by title (listed below). Then, to build the dynasty and conflict decks, select the four 10-card encounter groups listed for that deck type and shuffle them together. This creates a 40-card dynasty deck and a 40-card conflict deck. The two decks, five provinces, and warlord together form the Shadowlands deck.
Akuma no Oni: Violence and Destruction
- Provinces: Blood Fields, Fallen Chrysanthemum Lake, Haunted Jungles, Maddening Emptiness, Spectral Watchtower
- Dynasty Encounter Groups: 1, 2, 3, and 4
- Conflict Encounter Groups: 1, 3, 4, and 6
Atsuko the Calamitous: Life From Death
Editorial note: on the printed page this set is interleaved with card art in the text layer. The province list and encounter groups below are the lists printed beside this warlord's heading; verify them against page 7 before relying on them.
- Provinces: Defiled Cavern, Forgotten Tomb of Fu Leng, Haunted Jungles, Maddening Emptiness, Sea of Shadows
- Dynasty Encounter Groups: 1, 2, 5, and 6
- Conflict Encounter Groups: 1, 2, 3, and 5
The Obsidian Flower: Proliferating Corruption
Editorial note: as above, this set is interleaved with card art in the text layer. Verify the lists against page 7.
- Provinces: Defiled Cavern, False Lantern Grove, Garden of Corruption, Sea of Shadows, Spectral Watchtower
- Dynasty Encounter Groups: 3, 4, 5, and 6
- Conflict Encounter Groups: 2, 4, 5, and 6
Cooperative Mode
With the Shadowlands faction, players can now play Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game as a cooperative game in which 1–4 players work together to defeat an army of minions that is besieging their provinces. This section details how to set up and play cooperatively against a Shadowlands deck.
The standard game rules apply wherever they are not explicitly altered, replaced, or negated by this document.
Cooperative Mode Setup
The Shadowlands Deck
In cooperative mode, a team of players opposes a Shadowlands deck that is not run by any individual player. Throughout the rules for this game mode, the Shadowlands faction is referred to as the "Shadowlands deck."
The players are one team, and the Shadowlands deck is considered to be the opposing team for the purposes of following the team rules outlined in Appendix III (page 24).
As stated previously, the Shadowlands deck is composed of a 40-card dynasty deck, a 40-card conflict deck, five provinces, and a warlord. These components are laid out in a pair of rows in front of the players, with the warlord and two decks behind the five provinces (further away from the players). The Shadowlands in-play home area is in front of the Shadowlands provinces (closer to the players). All Shadowlands provinces begin the game facedown and in a random order.
If playing the skirmish format, five province tokens are used instead of province cards (the skirmish format rulebook contains the rules for province tokens).
After setting up the Shadowlands deck, the players shuffle their own decks and set up their play areas as normal, filling their provinces and drawing their opening hands.
The Shadowlands deck has no hand of cards. Each of its provinces starts the game empty and tainted. The Shadowlands deck always starts the game with the first player token.
Key Concepts
Listed below are some key concepts to remember when playing cooperative mode. Additionally, see page 4 for the list of rules specific to the Shadowlands faction, regardless of game mode.
Making Choices
Throughout the game, card abilities will require the Shadowlands deck to make choices or selections. Whenever this occurs, the players decide together how that choice or selection is made.
"You" and the Shadowlands Player
Abilities on cards refer to "you" as if a player was responsible for playing the Shadowlands deck. When resolving card abilities in cooperative mode, the word "you" always refers to the Shadowlands deck and "your opponent(s)" always refer to the player(s) opposing it.
The Shadowlands deck is considered to be a player for the purposes of resolving card abilities even though there is no player operating it.
While many of the decisions made by the Shadowlands deck are made by the opposing team, certain decisions are made automatically. [Gap: the text layer scrambles the sentences that finish this paragraph, which describe how those automatic decisions are made and which opponent's character is affected. They are not reproduced here; consult printed page 9.]
Reinforcement Number
Each character has a reinforcement number located adjacent to its fate cost. This indicates how many rounds that character stays in play when playing cooperatively against the Shadowlands. When the Shadowlands deck plays a character, place fate on that character from the general token pool equal to that character's reinforcement number.
For example, Skull-Cleaving Oni has a reinforcement number of 3.
Exception: Sacrifice. When the Shadowlands deck is instructed to sacrifice a card in play, it will always sacrifice the card with the lowest printed fate cost among all possible options.
If a card effect puts a character into play from its provinces or discard pile, ignore that character's reinforcement number. It receives no fate beyond what is instructed by that card's effect.
Shadow Elements and Shadow Numbers
Shadow numbers are randomizers that are used to determine how the Shadowlands deck bids during the draw phase and during duels. They are also used to select which provinces are attacked when the Shadowlands deck declares a conflict. For example, Dark Bargain's shadow number is 1 and its shadow element is [element icon missing from the text layer; see the printed card].
Shadow elements are randomizers that are used to select the contested ring when the Shadowlands player declares a conflict. (Printed as "Shadowlands player" in this section.)
Abilities Are Not Optional
Most Shadowlands cards have action, reaction, and interrupt abilities, which are normally triggered at the discretion of the player controlling the card. Additionally, a number of Shadowlands cards present the Shadowlands deck the opportunity to pay an additional cost for an additional effect, or to pay a variable cost. The Shadowlands deck will always trigger its abilities whenever possible, and will always pay as many optional costs as it can.
As in the standard game, each action, reaction, and interrupt ability can only be triggered once each round.
Phase Sequence
When playing cooperatively against the Shadowlands, players use the same phase sequence as in any other format. The following sections cover the specific rules for each phase of a single cooperative mode game round.
Dynasty Phase
During the dynasty phase, the Shadowlands deck and each player reveals cards, collects fate, and takes dynasty actions. As described in the team play rules (Appendix III on page 24), both teams alternate taking dynasty actions starting with the team with the first player token. Once a team passes, no player on that team can take actions or play cards for the remainder of the phase.
Shadowlands Provinces
At the start of each dynasty phase, fill each Shadowlands province with one faceup card (1–2 players) or two faceup cards (3–4 players) from the Shadowlands dynasty deck, even if that province already has one or more cards in it.
Shadowlands provinces are never refilled when they are empty, and only receive new cards from the Shadowlands dynasty deck at the start of the dynasty phase (or through card effects).
Shadowlands Fate Collection
After filling each province, the Shadowlands deck collects 5 fate per player, as indicated by the warlord. After collecting fate, the Shadowlands deck triggers the warlord's ability, even if it is out of play.
Shadowlands Dynasty Actions
When it is the Shadowlands deck's turn to take a dynasty action, it attempts to play a character from its provinces. If it cannot, it passes instead and takes no more actions for the remainder of the round.
The character played by the Shadowlands deck during its dynasty action is the character in the leftmost province whose fate cost can be paid for by fate in the Shadowlands deck's fate pool. If the leftmost province contains two or more eligible characters, the Shadowlands deck always plays the most expensive of its eligible options first. In the case of a tie, the players choose which character is played.
After playing the character in its leftmost province, the Shadowlands deck attempts to play the next leftmost character (even if it is in the same province), moving to the right and skipping any character it cannot play with the fate in its fate pool.
When the Shadowlands deck plays a character, spend the appropriate amount of fate from its fate pool and place the character in the Shadowlands deck's home area. That character enters play with an amount of fate on it equal to the reinforcement number printed on the card, taking that fate from the general pool.
For example, with five fate in its fate pool, Akuma no Oni first plays the leftmost Goblin Brawler (1), skips the Kitsu Sokori it cannot pay for, then plays the Onikage Rider (2) with the rest of its fate.
Passing First
The team that passes first in the dynasty phase does not gain any fate, regardless of game format.
Draw Phase
During the draw phase, each player bids using their honor dial to draw cards while the Shadowlands deck counter-bids by using the top card of the Shadowlands conflict deck to gain fate. Each player compares their honor bid to that conflict card's shadow number and gains or loses honor equal to the difference.
Honor Bids
Each player selects a number on their honor dial to determine how many cards they wish to draw (1–5 in stronghold format, 1–3 in skirmish format). Once each player has made their selection, reveal those dials and discard the top card of the Shadowlands conflict deck.
- Each player whose bid is higher than the shadow number of the discarded card loses honor equal to the difference.
- Each player whose bid is lower than the shadow number of the discarded card gains honor equal to the difference.
- Each player draws cards equal to their honor bid.
- The Shadowlands deck gains fate equal to the shadow number of the discarded card times the number of players.
For example: If a Shadowlands deck facing two opponents discards a card with a shadow value of 2 during the draw phase, it will gain 4 fate and each opponent will gain or lose honor equal to the difference between their honor bid and 2 (the number of the discarded card).
Conflict Phase
During the conflict phase, both teams alternate declaring conflicts against each others' provinces, starting with the team with the first player token.
In the stronghold format, the team of players has two conflict opportunities (one military, one political) while the Shadowlands deck can continue declaring conflicts until it runs out of ready characters and/or unclaimed rings to attack with. In the skirmish format, each team (the team of players and the Shadowlands deck) has only one conflict opportunity.
Shadowlands Conflict Declaration
When the Shadowlands deck declares a conflict, four decisions are made. Three of these decisions are made automatically while the fourth is made by the defending players. An example of conflict declaration can be found below.
- Attacking characters: Each eligible character in the next wave (see below) is declared as an attacker.
- Contested ring: To determine the conflict's element, discard the top card of the Shadowlands conflict deck. The shadow element of the discarded card indicates the element of the contested ring. If the discarded card's shadow element does not match a ring in the unclaimed ring pool, continue discarding cards from the top of the Shadowlands conflict deck until a card whose shadow element matches an unclaimed ring is discarded.
- Attacked provinces: The same card used to determine the conflict's element is used to determine which province(s) are attacked. Each player's left-most non-stronghold province is in position #1, increasing numerically such that their rightmost province is in position #4. The conflict is declared against the non-stronghold province in the position matching the discarded card's shadow number. If the province in that position is broken, the conflict is declared against that player's stronghold instead.
- Conflict type: The players choose the conflict's type, as they are determining how they want to defend against the assault. If any attacking character has a dash skill value, or otherwise cannot participate in conflicts of a certain type, then the conflict cannot be of that type—the attack must still be legal!
Each Shadowlands conflict is declared against one province per player. This can result in a conflict that is declared against multiple provinces at once, if there are two or more players in the game. The conflict is considered to be at each of those provinces, but the players defend all of those provinces with a single group of defenders.
Shadowlands Waves
In order to determine which characters are declared as attackers or defenders in a conflict, the characters controlled by the Shadowlands deck are organized into "waves." A wave contains each ready character with a certain amount of fate on it among the Shadowlands deck's characters.
When a conflict is declared, only the wave with the fewest amount of fate attacks or defends in that conflict (this is referred to as the next wave). If any of those characters cannot participate in a conflict together, then each eligible character in that wave will participate in a conflict, and the remaining characters will form a new wave to participate in the next conflict.
Conflict Declaration Example
Three goblin characters, each with 1 fate, form the next wave. They are the attacking characters in this conflict. To determine the conflict's element and province, the top card of the Shadowlands conflict deck is discarded. In this example, this card is Madness. Its shadow element indicates a void conflict while its shadow number of 2 indicates that the province in position #2 (second from the left) is attacked. The team of players selects the conflict's type to be military, as that would make the attacking goblins have the least amount of skill.
Dash Skill Values and Participation Eligibility
A character with a dash skill value, or with Pacifism (Core Set, 174) or Stolen Breath (Underhand of the Emperor, 21) attached, cannot participate in a conflict of the corresponding type. This may force an attack to be a particular conflict type and it may prevent that character from defending against an attack of that conflict type. Additionally, cards such as Peacemaker's Blade (Clan War, 80) can prevent characters from being declared as attackers.
If every character in the next wave of attackers cannot be declared as an attacker (or participate in the conflict), then that wave is skipped over and the subsequent next wave attacks instead.
If every character in the next wave of defenders cannot be declared as a defender (or participate in the conflict), then that wave is not skipped over and the Shadowlands deck declares no defenders. This could be due to each character in the next wave having a dash of the declared conflict's type, if a card effect such as the covert keyword prevents each character in the next wave from defending, or some combination of the above.
If the Shadowlands deck would attempt to attack with a wave containing some characters that cannot participate in a military conflict and some characters that cannot participate in a political conflict, the players select the conflict's type and the character(s) unable to participate do not attack. Those character(s) form a new wave that will be involved in the next conflict.
Conflict Actions
During a conflict, the team of players and the Shadowlands deck alternate action opportunities. The Shadowlands deck always takes the first action in each conflict, regardless of which team is defending.
When the Shadowlands deck has the opportunity to take an action, reveal the top card of the Shadowlands conflict deck. If that card could be played (because the Shadowlands deck has enough fate, there are eligible targets, and the card's effect can change the game state) then it is played. All attachments played this way must be played on either a participating character or on an attacked province. If the revealed card cannot be played, discard it—the deck is considered to have "passed" its action opportunity.
Once the team of players passes, the Shadowlands deck immediately passes as well and the conflict resolves.
Running out of Cards
If the top card of the Shadowlands conflict deck is needed to randomize an honor bid, conflict declaration, or conflict action and there are no cards in the Shadowlands conflict deck, immediately reshuffle the Shadowlands conflict discard pile to form a new conflict deck. The Shadowlands deck does not lose honor for running out of cards.
If the Shadowlands dynasty deck has no cards in it at the end of any game round, the players win the game.
Resolving a Conflict
Once the team of players has passed, resolve the conflict following the normal conflict resolution rules. The following bullet points provide additional clarity on resolving a conflict as a team against the Shadowlands.
- Because a Shadowlands conflict is declared against multiple provinces, it can potentially break multiple provinces with a single attack. Each player determines whether their attacked province is broken independently of each other attacked province.
- The players win or lose the conflict as a team, regardless of who controls participating characters. Any card abilities that trigger when a player wins a conflict can be triggered if that player's team wins a conflict (the same is true for losing a conflict), as each player on that team counts as having won the conflict.
- If the players control no defending characters and are playing the stronghold format when the Shadowlands deck wins a conflict as the attacker, each player loses one honor for the conflict being unopposed.
- The team that wins the conflict claims the contested ring, placing it in their shared claimed ring pool. For the purposes of card and game effects, a team's claimed ring pool counts as the claimed ring pool of each player on that team.
- When a Shadowlands province is broken, discard each card in that province along with five cards from the top of the Shadowlands dynasty deck. A broken province cannot be attacked, but does receive cards during the dynasty phase (that can then be played). If all five Shadowlands provinces are broken, the players immediately win the game.
Conflict Resolution Example
A conflict is resolving in which the Shadowlands deck has declared a military fire conflict against a province controlled by each player.
As the Shadowlands deck's total of nine military skill exceeds the defending team's total of six military skill, the Shadowlands deck wins the conflict. Each player compares the Shadowlands deck's excess skill to their province's strength separately. With 3 excess skill on the attacker's side of the conflict, the Lion player's Art of War (3 strength) is broken, while the Crab player's Defend the Wall (4 strength) is not.
Finally, the Shadowlands deck resolves the Fire ring, causing each player to taint one of their characters, then adds the ring to its claimed ring pool.
Shadowlands Card Abilities
Abilities on non-unique cards are organized by card type to help players remember to resolve them.
- The warlord's ability triggers each round during the dynasty phase, after the Shadowlands deck collects fate.
- Each event is an action ability that can be played during a conflict, as that is when conflict cards are played.
- Each non-unique attachment has a reaction ability that triggers after the attachment is played. After it is played, that attachment provides only skill bonuses.
- Each non-unique character has a reaction ability that triggers when that character wins a conflict (on attack or defense). Each unique character has a reaction or interrupt ability with a triggering condition unique to that character.
- Each province card, and each attachment that attaches to a province, has an ability that triggers when a conflict is declared against that province.
- Each holding has an ability that triggers at the end of the conflict phase.
As in the standard game, each action, reaction, and interrupt ability can only be triggered once each round unless otherwise specified by the card.
Glory Counts and the Imperial Favor
The Imperial Favor can only be controlled by the team of players, and is shared by the team rather than any individual player. If any player on that team discards the Imperial Favor due to a card ability, it is lost by the entire team. The Shadowlands deck cannot have the Imperial Favor.
When a card effect or framework step calls for a glory count, each team adds together the total glory on ready characters they control and adds one for each ring claimed by their team. This total is compared to that of the opposing team, and one of the two teams wins the glory count. If the team of players wins the glory count, that team claims the Imperial Favor as normal. If the Shadowlands deck wins the glory count, discard the Imperial Favor from play—the Emperor has given their Favor to a different clan elsewhere in the Empire, and is ignoring the threat posed by the Shadowlands assault.
Fate Phase
The fate phase resolves as normal, discarding each character with no fate and removing one fate from each other character. In the stronghold format, place one fate on each unclaimed ring and discard each card from each broken province. Each team returns their claimed rings to the unclaimed ring pool and the first player token is given to the opposing team.
The end of the fate phase marks the end of the game round. Proceed to the dynasty phase of the next game round, and continue until one team has won the game.
For an Additional Challenge
The preceding rules explain how to play cooperatively against the Shadowlands in the standard difficulty mode. For players who find that the Shadowlands does not provide enough of a challenge, one or more of the following optional rules can increase the game's difficulty. For a truly nightmarish challenge, use all five!
- Cunning: When the Shadowlands deck would take an action during a conflict in which it is attacking, that action opportunity is passed if the Shadowlands deck is currently winning and breaking the province.
- Dangerous: When the Shadowlands deck declares a conflict, the conflict type is determined by the skill values of the attacking characters. Total the attacking characters' [military] and [political] skills separately and compare them. The conflict is always declared as a [conflict type icon missing from the text layer] conflict unless the attacking characters' total [skill icon missing from the text layer] skill exceeds their total [skill icon missing from the text layer] skill. If any characters cannot participate in a conflict of a particular type, the conflict cannot be declared of that type.
- Greedy: When the Shadowlands deck declares a conflict, if any rings have fate on them, it can only declare a conflict using a ring with the most fate on it. Discard conflict cards until one whose shadow element matches an unclaimed ring with the most fate and use that card to determine the conflict's type and location.
- Relentless: The Shadowlands deck collects 1 additional fate per player each round.
- Unpredictable: When the Shadowlands deck is instructed to make a choice or a selection while resolving card abilities, that choice or selection is made randomly among all available options. The players do not choose for the Shadowlands deck.
Challenge Mode
The new Shadowlands faction can also be played as a challenge deck, positioning one player as the Shadowlands player who takes on a team of 2–4 opponents. This section outlines how to set up and play against the Shadowlands challenge deck.
The standard game rules apply wherever they are not explicitly altered, replaced, or negated by this document.
Challenge Mode Setup
In challenge mode, a single player playing as the Shadowlands opposes a team of 2–4 opponents. Throughout the rules for this game mode, each team is referred to as a "team of players" even though the Shadowlands player has only a single person on their team.
The Shadowlands Player
The Shadowlands player has a 40-card dynasty deck, a 40-card conflict deck, five provinces, and a warlord. These components are laid out in a pair of rows in front of the players, with the warlord and two decks behind the five provinces (closest to the Shadowlands player). The Shadowlands in-play "home" area is in front of the Shadowlands provinces (closer to the opposing team). All Shadowlands provinces begin the game facedown and in a random order.
If playing the skirmish format, province tokens are used instead of province cards.
The Shadowlands player starts the game with a hand of zero cards and an honor dial. Each of their provinces starts the game empty and tainted.
The Opposing Team
The players on the opposing team shuffle their own decks and set up their play areas as normal, filling their provinces and drawing their opening hands.
Randomly determine which team starts with the first player token.
Phase Sequence
When playing against the Shadowlands challenge deck, players use the same phase sequence as in any other format. The following sections cover the specific rules for each phase of a single challenge mode game round.
Dynasty Phase
During the dynasty phase, each player fills their provinces or reveals the facedown cards in them, collects fate, and takes dynasty actions. As described in the team rules (see page 24), both teams alternate taking dynasty actions starting with the team with the first player token. Once a team passes, no player on that team can take actions or play cards for the remainder of the phase.
Dynasty Actions
Each team takes turns taking dynasty actions. When the Shadowlands player plays a character from their provinces, they may place any amount of fate on that character from their fate pool as in the standard game rules, ignoring the character's reinforcement number.
Passing First
The team that passes first in the dynasty phase does not gain any fate, regardless of game format.
Shadowlands Provinces
At the start of each dynasty phase, fill each Shadowlands province with one faceup card from the Shadowlands dynasty deck, even if that province already has one or more cards in it.
Shadowlands provinces are never refilled when they are empty, and only receive new cards from the Shadowlands dynasty deck at the start of the dynasty phase (or through card effects).
Shadowlands Fate Collection and Card Draw
After filling each of their provinces, the Shadowlands player collects five fate per opponent, as indicated by the warlord.
After collecting fate, the Shadowlands player draws two cards per opponent from their conflict deck and adds those cards to their hand.
Draw Phase
The Shadowlands player uses an honor dial to draw additional cards as in the standard game.
During the draw phase, each player bids using their honor dial to draw cards following the normal game rules. Each non-Shadowlands player compares their honor bid to the Shadowlands player's honor bid and gains or loses honor equal to the difference. The Shadowlands player has no honor value, and does not gain or lose honor for bidding high or low, although they can cause their opponents to gain or lose honor accordingly.
Conflict Phase
During the conflict phase, both teams alternate declaring conflicts against each others' provinces, starting with the team with the first player token.
In the stronghold format, the non-Shadowlands team has two conflict opportunities (one military, one political) each round, while the Shadowlands player has one conflict opportunity per opponent each round. They must alternate between declaring military and political conflicts. In the skirmish format, each team has one conflict opportunity each round.
The rules for declaring and resolving conflicts as a team can be found in Appendix III (page 24). Unlike in the cooperative mode, the Shadowlands player attacks a single province, controlled by a single player, with each conflict. The controller of the attacked province may declare one or more defenders if they choose, and each other player on their team may declare up to one defender.
The Shadowlands player cannot declare more than one conflict against the same opponent until they have declared a conflict against a province controlled by each opponent whose stronghold province is unbroken.
Shadowlands conflicts cannot be declared against an opponent's stronghold province unless that opponent controls at least one broken non-stronghold province and that player's team controls at least X total broken provinces, where X is the number of players in the game (including the Shadowlands player).
Glory Counts and the Imperial Favor
The Imperial Favor can only be controlled by the team of non-Shadowlands players, and is shared by the team rather than any individual player. If any player on that team discards the Imperial Favor due to a card ability, it is lost by the entire team. The Shadowlands player cannot have the Imperial Favor.
When a card effect or framework step calls for a glory count, each team adds together the total glory on ready characters they control and adds one for each ring currently claimed by their team. This total is compared to that of the opposing team, and one of the two teams wins the glory count. If the team of non-Shadowlands players wins the glory count, that team claims the Imperial Favor as normal. If the Shadowlands player wins the glory count, discard the Imperial Favor from play—the Emperor has given their Favor to a different clan elsewhere in the Empire, and is ignoring the threat posed by the Shadowlands assault.
Fate Phase
The fate phase resolves as normal, discarding each character with no fate and removing one fate from each other character. In the stronghold format, place one fate on each unclaimed ring and discard each card from each broken province. Each team returns their claimed rings to the unclaimed ring pool and the first player token is given to the opposing team.
The end of the fate phase marks the end of the game round. Proceed to the dynasty phase of the next game round, and continue until one team has won the game.
Appendix I: New Mechanics
This expansion introduces a number of new mechanics, including a new status token and two new keywords. These mechanics are highlighted when playing with or against the Shadowlands faction, but can be used in any format.
Corrupted Keyword
The new corrupted keyword appears on many characters featuring the Shadowlands Trait or clan symbol.
A character with the corrupted keyword enters play tainted. Abilities cannot be triggered from a corrupted character receiving the tainted status token from this keyword, as that card enters play already with that status.
Tainted Status
A new tainted status token featured in this expansion allows characters and provinces to become tainted by the corrupting presence of Jigoku.
When a card ability or ring effect would taint a character, place a tainted status token on it. A tainted character cannot be tainted again.
Each character that is tainted gets +2 [military] and +2 [political]. As an additional cost to declare a tainted character as an attacker or defender in a conflict, its controller must lose 1 honor.
Each province that is tainted gets +2 strength. As an additional cost to declare any number of defenders in a conflict against a tainted province, its controller must lose 1 honor.
Once a card is tainted, that tainted status cannot be removed unless a card ability discards (or moves) its status token. If a tainted province is turned faceup or facedown, do not discard its tainted status token.
A character's tainted status has no bearing on its personal honor, and a tainted character can be honored or dishonored the same as an untainted character.
Support Keyword
The support keyword which appears in this expansion allows multiple players to pay the fate cost of a card together. When a player plays a card with the support keyword, another player may choose to help pay the card's fate cost.
- When a player is playing a card with the support keyword, they may solicit the other players in the game to see if any player wishes to contribute to paying the card's fate cost. Alternatively, another player may offer to contribute fate.
- No other player is ever obligated to pay for a card with the support keyword. The player playing a card with the support keyword is never obligated to accept fate from another player.
- If a player attempts to play a card with the support keyword that they cannot fully pay for and no other player supports them to help pay for the card, it remains unplayed in that player's hand. They pay none of the card's costs.
Appendix II: Shadowlands Card Anatomy
The cards of the Shadowlands faction are easily recognizable by their distinct graphical frames. This section covers a brief introduction to the new fields that appear on many of these cards.
Card Anatomy Key
- Fate Value: The amount of fate this warlord provides each dynasty phase.
- Game Mode Indicator: Indicates which game mode that version of the warlord should be used in.
- Per-Player Icon: Indicates that the preceding number should be multiplied by the number of non-Shadowlands players.
- Reinforcement Number: The amount of fate placed on this character from the token pool when it is played from a province in cooperative mode.
- Encounter Group: Cards are included in decks by group rather than as individual cards. There are six dynasty encounter groups and six conflict encounter groups.
- Shadow Number: Used to determine honor bids and conflict declaration in cooperative mode.
- Shadow Element: Used to determine conflict declaration in cooperative mode.
Appendix III: Team Play
When playing a game against the Shadowlands, all of the following rules for team play must be observed.
The First Player Token
The first player token is given to a team rather than a player. Each player on that team is considered to be the first player.
During action windows, each team has an action opportunity (rather than each player). When a team wishes to take an action, one of the players on that team takes the action, then a player on the opposing team has an opportunity to take an action. This continues until both teams pass in sequence, and the action window closes.
At the end of the fate phase, the first player token is passed to the opposing team and they become the first players.
Playing Characters
When a player plays a character from their hand or provinces, that player chooses to either play it under their own control, or under the control of a teammate. Once played, control cannot be exchanged except by card effects. Fate is placed on the character from the fate pool of the player playing the character, regardless of which player controls it.
Passing Fate
The team that passes first in the dynasty phase does not gain any fate, regardless of format.
Participation in a Conflict
During a conflict, all players may control participating characters. Characters controlled by players on the same team participate on the same side of the conflict and contribute their skill towards the same total.
Characters controlled by any player may be moved to the conflict, put into play in the conflict, or played into the conflict on the side of its controller's team. Any card effect that would reference a player's side of the conflict references that player's team's side instead.
Claimed and Unclaimed Rings
A single unclaimed ring pool contains the five rings that can be used to declare conflicts. When a team declares a conflict, they select one of the rings from this unclaimed ring pool as in the standard game.
Each team has a shared claimed ring pool. For the purposes of card and game effects, a team's claimed ring pool counts as the claimed ring pool of each player on that team.
Declaring Conflicts
During the conflict phase, a team (not a player) declares a conflict or passes. Each team of players can only declare one military conflict and one political conflict in the stronghold format, and each conflict must be declared against a province controlled by a different opponent, if able. These conflict opportunities alternate between teams, starting with the team with the first player token.
Each player on a team may declare attackers in the same conflict, and those characters participate on the same side together. When an attacking team would gain fate from the contested ring, they choose which attacking player gains that fate.
Card effects may also grant players additional conflict opportunities; these are granted to that player's team.
A team of players (in this case, the Shadowlands player) cannot attack a single player's provinces more than once until they have attacked a province controlled by each opponent whose stronghold is not broken.
When a defending team declares defenders, the controller of the attacked province may declare one or more defenders if they choose, and each other player on their team may declare up to one defender. If multiple players' provinces are attacked, each of those players may declare any number of defenders. Those characters participate on the same side together. All players on the defending team count as defending players.
Resolving Conflicts
When resolving a conflict, players win or lose the conflict as a team, regardless of who controls participating characters. Any card abilities that trigger when a player wins a conflict can be triggered if that player's team wins a conflict (the same is true for losing a conflict), as each player on that team counts as having won the conflict.
If the defending team controls no defending characters in the stronghold format, the conflict is considered to be unopposed and each player on that team loses one honor. If any player on the defending team controls a defending character, no one on that team loses honor for being unopposed.
When resolving the [two ring icons missing from the text layer] ring effects against the Shadowlands, only a single player on the resolving team may benefit from the ring's effect.
Glory Counts and the Imperial Favor
The Imperial Favor is controlled by a team rather than an individual. When a card effect or framework step calls for a glory count, each team adds together the total glory on ready characters they control and adds one for each ring claimed by their team. This total is compared to that of the opposing team, and one of the two teams wins the glory count.
During each eligible conflict, the Imperial Favor contributes +1 skill to the side of the team that controls the Imperial Favor if any player on that team controls a participating character.
Duels
When choosing characters to be involved in a duel, both characters chosen must be controlled by players on opposing teams. All other parameters for choosing characters for a duel must still be followed as described in the Rules Reference.
Player Elimination (Stronghold Format)
Players are not eliminated from a team game until their entire team loses. If a player's stronghold province is broken in a stronghold format game, they continue to play with the following penalties:
- Treat the printed text box of that player's stronghold as if it were blank (except for Traits).
- That player cannot bid more than two during honor bids.
- That player cannot reshuffle either of their decks if those decks run out of cards.
If a player reaches zero honor, their stronghold province is immediately broken. Broken stronghold provinces are immune to all card effects.
Player Elimination (Skirmish Format)
Players are not eliminated from a team game until their entire team loses. If all of a player's provinces are broken in a skirmish format game, they continue to play with the following penalties:
- That player cannot bid more than one during honor bids.
- That player cannot reshuffle either of their decks if those decks run out of cards.
If a player reaches zero honor, each of their provinces are immediately broken.
Unique Cards
When playing a team game, use the following rules in place of the normal rules for unique cards found in the Rules Reference:
- A player cannot take control of or bring into play a unique card if any player on their team already controls or owns another in-play card with the same title or printed title.
- A player cannot bring into play a unique card owned by either of their opponents if one of those opponents already controls an in-play card with the same title or printed title.
- As a player action during the dynasty phase, a player may discard a copy (by title) of a unique character from their hand or provinces to place one fate on an in-play copy of that unique character that is controlled by any player on their team.
- While the players on a team control more than one copy of a unique stronghold, province, or holding, treat each copy of that card as if its printed text box were blank and as if it had a strength (or bonus strength) of 0.
"In Player Order" and "Pass Consecutively"
The phrase "in player order" is used to dictate the order in which players resolve or execute a game step or some card abilities. In a team game, when players are instructed to do something in player order, the team with the first player token does so as a team, selecting one of the players on that team to follow the instructions. Then the opposing team acts, selecting one of their players to follow the instructions. If resolving a card ability, each player on the remaining team fulfills the instructions one at a time in the order of their choice to complete the ability's resolution.
In a team game, when a game sequence would continue until each player "passes consecutively" it continues until both teams pass consecutively (a team passes instead of a player).
"Your Opponent"
Any card ability that refers to "your opponent" or "an opponent" refers to any single player on the opposing team, chosen when resolving the card ability.
When playing against the Shadowlands in cooperative mode, "your opponent" on non-Shadowlands cards refers to the Shadowlands deck.