Legendary: Game of Thrones Deck Building Game
Legendary: Game of Thrones Deck Building Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Overview
- The Houses and Their Icons
- Your First Game - Cards to Use in Full Allegiance
- Game Setup
- Game Decks
- Mastermind Stacks & Their Defenders
- Victory Point Tokens
- Completing Setup
- How to Play
- Step 1) Play the Top Card of the Ally Deck
- If the Card from the Ally Deck Is an Ally
- The Ally Enters the Battlefield
- The Ally Joins Allies of Its Own House
- Push Enemy Allies Forward if Necessary
- An Ally Might Escape
- The New Ally Might Ambush
- If the Card Is a Bystander or Minor Hero/Bystander
- If the Ally Deck Card Is an Event
- If the Ally Deck Card Is a Master Strike
- KO
- Step 2) Play Cards from Your Hand, Using Them to Fight and Recruit
- Triggered Special Abilities
- Fighting Allies and Recruiting Heroes
- Step 3) Discard Your Hand and Draw 6 New Cards
- Masterminds
- Defenders
- End of the Game & Final Scoring
- Additional Rules
- Keywords Abilities
- Specific Card Types
- Wounds
- Special Abilities on Cards
- Advanced Card Interactions
- Henchmen are Allies
- Masterminds and Defenders Are Not Allies
- An Ally Gets -1 Attack
- Alternative Game Modes
- Hero Classes
- Hero Teams
- Final Showdown (Optional)
- Game Contents
- Quick Reference Guide
Overview
In this 2-4 player game, each player starts with their own deck of twelve basic Hero cards. Ten of these will be nameless Merchants and Soldiers. The remaining two will be random Minor Heroes, lesser versions of characters who may have more powerful versions elsewhere in the game. At the start of your turn, you draw the top card of the common Ally Deck (which other Legendary® games call the Villain Deck.) The cards in the Ally Deck are a mix of warriors and strong personalities from each of the Houses, Bystanders, and Event Cards. After resolving the Ally card, you play Hero cards from your hand to generate Attack Points, Recruit Points, and activate other special abilities. You use Attack Points to defeat the Allies of your enemies or to support your own Allies and help them escape without being defeated. You use Recruit Points to gain better cards to add to your deck.
Whenever your deck runs out of cards, you shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck, including all the new Heroes you recruited. This way, your deck gets stronger over time. Build up enough Attack and you can defeat the enemy Masterminds.
If You Have Played Previous Legendary® Sets
If you have played other Legendary® games, you know many of the basic concepts of this game, but Legendary®: Game of Thrones transforms earlier Legendary® games' semi-cooperative gameplay into a cutthroat battle. You will need to read the rules fully to see how familiar elements have shifted.
How to Win
Defeating enemy Allies, supporting your own Allies, and capturing Bystanders earns each player Victory Points. When one player has lost three of their Masterminds, or a total of six Masterminds have been defeated, the game ends. The player with the most total Victory Points wins.
Your First Game
For your first game, use the Full Allegiance Hero Set-Up and Standard Victory rules.
Each player's Hero Deck, the powerful cards you recruit during your turn, will use all four 14-card Heroes card sets from their House. In a two-player game, one player plays as the Starks and the other player plays as the Lannisters. If there is a third player, they play as the King's Landing House. If there is a fourth player, they play as the Dothraki House.
The Houses and Their Icons
- House Stark — direwolf icon
- House Lannister — lion icon
- King's Landing — crowned stag icon
- Dothraki — horse icon
Your First Game - Cards to Use in Full Allegiance
2 Player: Starks and Lannisters
Starks
- Mastermind: Starks
- Defenders: Stark Defenders
- Heroes: Kingdom of the North; Lord Eddard Stark; Winter is Coming; Young Arya
- Allies and Henchman for the Ally Deck: The North and Stark Bannermen
Lannisters
- Mastermind: Lannisters
- Defenders: Lannister Defenders
- Heroes: Hound & Mountain; Jaime Lannister; Queen Cersei; Tyrion Lannister
- Allies and Henchman for the Ally Deck: Siblings & Comrades and Redcloaks
Note: In a 2-player game, add the King's Law and King's Guard as Neutral Allies.
3 Players: Add King's Landing
King's Landing
- Mastermind: King's Landing
- Defenders: King's Landing Defenders
- Heroes: Baratheons in Summer; Great Warriors; Robert Baratheon; Small Council
- Allies and Henchman for the Ally Deck: The King's Law and King's Guard
4 Players: Add Dothraki
Dothraki
- Mastermind: Dothraki
- Defenders: Dothraki Defenders
- Heroes: Daenerys, New Khaleesi; Jorah Mormont; Khal Drogo; Young Dragons
- Allies and Henchman for the Ally Deck: Young Daenerys and The Khalasar
Game Setup
Once you are used to the setup, the Quick Reference Guide on the back of this rulebook summarizes the setup steps.
Choose a House
The Hero Deck Selection Options below include several ways of choosing your House, or you've chosen your House as part of the First Game Setup earlier in this rulebook. In either case, when you choose a House, you use that House's Masterminds, Defenders, and at least one of its Ally groups and one of its Henchman groups.
Personal Decks & Minor Heroes
Give each player their own 12-card personal deck starting with these 10 cards:
- 6 Merchants
- 4 Soldiers
Then, shuffle the 20 Minor Hero cards. Give each player two random Minor Heroes. You may instead choose Minor Heroes from your own House if all players agree.
Each player shuffles their two Minor Heroes, Merchants, and Soldiers to make their starting 12-card Personal Deck.
Now take the leftover Minor Heroes and shuffle them together with the 12 Bystanders to create a Bystander deck. Yes, the Minor Heroes count as Heroes when in a player's Personal Deck and count as Bystanders when they are in the Bystander deck, the Ally deck, or a player's Victory Pile.
Hero Deck
There are 18 different Heroes in Legendary®: Game of Thrones. Each Hero has fourteen cards made up of 2 Common cards with 5 copies of each, 1 Uncommon card with 3 copies, and 1 Rare card. When a Hero is added to a Hero Deck, add all 14 cards for that Hero to the Hero Deck. Each player chooses 4 Heroes to put in their own Hero Deck for a total of 56 cards.
Hero Decks can contain Heroes from the same House or different Houses based on player's choice, or the Hero Set-Up option being used (see Hero Deck Selection Options below).
Game Decks
Put these Decks of cards face up in their spaces on the board. Use all the cards of each type:
- 12 Maesters as the Maester Deck
- 20 Wounds as the Wound Deck
Then add these decks, shuffled and face down:
- 28 Events as the Event Deck
- 12 Bystanders shuffled with the Minor Heroes that were not chosen for players' personal decks.
The Single Ally Deck
Unlike the separate Hero decks, the Ally deck contains cards from each House in the game, that all players may interact with on their turns. Additionally, this deck contains Event cards, Bystanders, and may contain Allies from Neutral Houses.
House Cards Mixed Together into the Ally Deck
Each player contributes an Ally group and a Henchman group to the game's single Ally Deck.
- An Ally Group is a group of 8 Ally cards that belong together, like "The North" or "Siblings & Comrades." Each Ally card lists its Ally Group under its card name.
- Similarly, a Henchman Group is a group of 5 identical cards associated with the House. Henchman cards are weaker and worth less Victory Points than other Allies.
IMPORTANT: In a two-player game, add an Ally Group and Henchman Group that are not from the two competing Houses as Neutral cards to the Ally deck!
Other Cards Added to the Ally Deck
- Add 12 random Events drawn from the Event Deck. (4-player: add 14 random Events instead.)
- Add 8 Master Strike cards to the Ally Deck. (4-player: add 10 Master Strikes instead.)
- Add 4 Bystanders drawn from the deck made of the Bystander cards and the leftover Minor Heroes/Bystanders. (4-player: Add 6 Bystanders instead.)
Mastermind Stacks & Their Defenders
- Shuffle each player's 5 Mastermind cards into a House's Mastermind stack.
- Place each player's Mastermind stack face-up on the Mastermind space of their House player board.
- Place 2 of each House's 5 Defender cards face down (as Inactive Defenders) in the Defender stack to the right of the Mastermind Deck on the player's House playboard. Place the other 3 Defender cards face up (as Active Defenders) on top of their Defender stack. When an opponent defeats one of your active Defenders, turn it face down and place it under any remaining active Defenders as an Inactive Defender.
- Masterminds with one or more Active Defenders cannot be fought.
Victory Point Tokens
To start, give each player 3 Victory Point tokens. Pool the rest of the Victory Point tokens somewhere accessible to all players. Victory Point tokens are used to track VP gained from card effects and from supporting your own Allies. If you're told to steal VP from an opponent who has run out of Victory Point tokens, you get nothing; they've got nothing to steal.
Completing Setup
- Shuffle the Ally Deck. Put it face down on the Ally Deck space.
- Each player shuffles their Hero deck placing it face down on the Hero Deck space on their player board. Add the top 5 cards of their Hero Deck to their Hero lineup.
- Each player shuffles their Personal Deck and draws a starting hand of 6 cards from it.
How to Play
Choose a random player to go first. Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn, do 3 things:
- Play the top card of the Ally Deck.
- Play cards from your hand, using them to fight and recruit.
- Discard your hand and all cards you have played, then draw a new hand of six cards.
Step 1) Play the Top Card of the Ally Deck
Reveal the top card of the Ally Deck. What you do with that card depends on what kind of card it is. There are four kinds of cards in the Ally Deck: Allies, Bystanders, Events, and Master Strikes.
If the Card from the Ally Deck Is an Ally
This character fights for its House! If it is not from your House, it is an enemy, and you can fight it, defeat it, and place it in your victory pile. If it is from your House, you can fight it, support it, and move it closer to escaping.
An Ally card shows: its Card Type, Card Name, Ally Group, Special Ability, Victory Points, and its Attack — the number of Attack points you must use to fight or support that Ally.
The Ally Enters the Battlefield
Move the new Ally into the range space closest to the Ally Deck, the space labeled "Bow." Allies in play are always faceup.
The Ally Joins Allies of Its Own House
Each of the 5 range spaces can hold up to 3 Allies of the same House. If there are one or two Allies of the same House as the new Ally at Bow-range enters, the new Ally joins them at Bow-range. If there are already three Allies at Bow-range, the new Ally pushes them as if they were enemy Allies.
Push Enemy Allies Forward if Necessary
Allies of different Houses never share a range-space. When an Ally enters a range space, if there is already an enemy Ally there, that existing Ally gets pushed one space to the left toward the Escaped Allies pile to make room. A single Ally entering the battlefield sometimes causes a chain reaction of several Allies getting pushed forward.
- Remember: Only push an Ally forward if it needs to make room for another Ally entering that space.
- Push Allies forward one at a time. If you push an Ally into a space that already holds one or two friendly Allies, it joins them.
An Ally Might Escape
If an Ally gets pushed out of the fifth and final range space (Claw-Range), then that Ally "escapes" the battle and goes face-up into the Escaped Allies pile above the range-spaces. When an Ally escapes, follow these steps:
- If the Ally belongs to one of the players, that player gains 1 Victory Point token.
- If the Ally had one or more Bystanders captured, they go into the Victory Pile of the Ally's owner. Bystanders captured by an escaped Neutral Ally go into the KO pile instead.
- If the Ally was not from your House and you have six or more cards in your hand, you must discard a card. Escaped Neutrals force all players with six or more cards in their hands to discard a card.
- If the Ally has an "Escape" effect on its card, do what it says.
The New Ally Might Ambush
If the new Ally has an "Ambush" effect on its card, do what it says immediately after resolving the following:
- Make sure that the newly entering Ally has fully moved into the Bow-range (pushing any other Allies as necessary) before doing its Ambush ability.
- If another Ally was pushed out of the battlefield and escaped when this new Ally entered the battlefield, handle all the Escape effects for the escaping Ally before handling any Ambush effect for the new Ally.
If the Card Is a Bystander or Minor Hero/Bystander
This innocent Bystander (or not-so-innocent Minor Hero) is captured by an Ally! Put the Bystander under the Ally in the range-space that is closest to the Ally Deck. Make sure the Bystander pokes out a bit so players can see it. (If there are no Allies in play, then the Bystander goes into the Victory Pile of the player whose turn it is.)
- Whenever an Ally with one or more Bystanders moves to a new range space, those Bystanders all go with the Ally.
- Bystanders are worth capturing for yourself! When an Ally with a Bystander is defeated or supported by a player, that player rescues that Bystander and puts it into their Victory Pile. Each Bystander is worth 1 Victory Point, so the more Bystanders you rescue, the more Victory Points you earn.
- Minor Heroes/Bystanders use their power when you play them as Heroes. They also use their power when you rescue them as Bystanders.
If the Ally Deck Card Is an Event
Events represent dramatic shifts that may force changes in your plans. Each Event card has two parts:
- an automatic Hero Line-up cycling effect that affects all players.
- the Event's text.
Hero Lineup cycling: When an Event is drawn, handle the lineup cycling effect first. Each Event has the word "Cycle" followed by a number between 1 and 5. The letters correspond to the lineup spaces on each player's playboard. Each player must cycle the card in that position in their Hero lineup. To cycle the card, put it on the bottom of your Hero deck and replace it with the top card of the deck.
Event text: After everyone has cycled a card, follow the instructions of the Event. If the Event addresses a single player — like "Crescendo" or "Oh No" — read the card as if it is speaking to the player whose turn it is.
If the Ally Deck Card Is a Master Strike
A Master Strike card represents one of your House's leaders acting directly against your enemies. Each Mastermind card has its own specific Master Strike effect. When a Master Strike card is played, move the top Mastermind card of the player whose turn it is to the bottom of their Mastermind stack. Then read the "Master Strike" effect of the Mastermind that is now on top. Do what it says and put the Master Strike card in the KO pile.
KO
Many card effects tell you to "KO" a card, meaning "knock out." Put that card in the shared, face up "KO pile" off to the side of the playmat, permanently knocked out of the game.
- Getting your starting Heroes KO'd is actually very good for you, since it means you will draw your more powerful Heroes more often, instead of drawing as many of the weaker starting Heroes.
- Note: If a card says to KO "one of your Heroes," that can be a Hero you have already played this turn or a Hero still in your hand. If you KO a Hero you already played this turn, you still get to use the Recruit, Attack, and special abilities that Hero produced. Other cards specify that they KO a Hero from your hand or your discard pile.
Step 2) Play Cards from Your Hand, Using Them to Fight and Recruit
The only types of cards that can typically be in your hand are Heroes and Wounds. Here are the different parts of a Hero card:
Hero Card
- Team Icon
- Card Name
- Class Icon & Card Color
- Hero Name
- Recruit
- Special Abilities
- Attack
- Cost
After you play the top card of the Ally Deck, you may play any of the cards from your hand. Some of your cards produce "Recruit" that lets you recruit more Heroes. Other cards produce "Attack" that lets you defeat or support Allies. Most cards may also give you powerful special abilities, like drawing more cards. Here is what you do:
- Play each card in your hand in any order, one at a time.
- Each time you play a card, do what that card says.
- You get any "Attack Points" listed in its Attack icon.
- You also get any "Recruit Points" listed in its Recruit icon.
- Keep the cards you play in front of you until the end of your turn. This prevents cards you have just played from getting shuffled as part of your discard pile if you must shuffle in the middle of your turn.
- To make it easier to count your Attack Points and Recruit Points, you can line up all the Attack icons as you go, so that you can read all the Attack Points in a row. You can do the same with lining up your Recruit icons.
- You can play all your cards, building up a pool of Attack Points and Recruit Points, before deciding which Enemies to fight and which Heroes to recruit, or you can spend some of your Attack and Recruit as you go if there are card effects that make that a wiser strategy.
Numbers Like 2+ or 2*
Some cards have numbers like "2+" inside their Recruit icon. The "2" means that you always get at least 2 Recruit from that card. The "+" symbol means that you might get even more Recruit based on what the card's special ability says. Heroes' Attack icons and Enemies' Attack icons can have numbers like "2+" too, working the same way.
Likewise, some Hero and Enemy cards in other sets have a number with an asterisk like "2*" inside one of their icons. This means the card's special abilities tell you something especially important about how to use that card's Attack, Recruit, or Cost. (It doesn't mean multiplication or a variable.) (For effects that count different costs, "4*" and "4" are the same cost.)
Triggered Special Abilities
Some cards have a triggered Special Ability with a hero class (color) icon and a colon, like "Strength: You get +2 Attack."
You can use that triggered special ability only if you have already played another card of that color earlier in your turn.
- A card's color is shown in the Hero Class icon in the card's upper left, and in the color of the card's border. (Each Hero has a "Rare" card with no border. You can see a rare card's color by checking the Hero Class icon.)
- Many cards, like "That Makes it Simple Then," and "Renly as Ally," have two colors.
- Important: You can only use a card's triggered special ability once, even if you played multiple cards of that color that turn.
- However, a few triggered special abilities will explicitly tell you to count a number of cards you have played, like "Basic (grey): You get +1 Attack for each other Basic Hero you played this turn."
- You do not have to use a triggered special ability if you do not want to.
- Some triggered special abilities require things like "Skill + Skill:" or "Strength + Strategy:" To use these, you must have played two Skill cards earlier in the turn or played a Strength card and played a Strategy card earlier in the turn.
Example of Triggered Special Abilities
Khal Drogo's "Never Defeated" card gives you +3 Attack when you play it.
- Thanks to Claw Mastery, it will also give you +2 Attack if there is an Ally at Claw-range when you play it.
- And if you played "He is Khal!" as a Strength card earlier in the turn, you also get +2 Attack from the Strength trigger on Never Defeated.
- The Claw-range trigger and the Strength trigger are separate, you could benefit from one, both, or neither. Depending on your hand and the situation, "Never Defeated" could be worth 3, 5, or 7 Attack.
Fighting Allies and Recruiting Heroes
In between playing cards from your hand, and/or after you have played all your cards, you can fight any number of Allies and recruit any number of Heroes until you run out of Attack and Recruit points. You can play cards, fight, and recruit any number of times in any order in the same turn.
How to Fight an Ally
As you play Heroes from your hand, you generate a pool of Attack Points. You can spend these to defeat enemy Allies or support your Allies in the battlefield, one at a time. You can only defeat or support an Ally if you have at least as many Attack Points remaining as that Ally's Attack number. You do not have to match up specific Heroes you play against specific Allies. It does not matter which battlefield space holds the Ally.
To fight and defeat an enemy Ally:
- Spend Attack Points equal to that Ally's Attack to put that Ally into your personal face up Victory Pile. (Also rescue any Bystanders it was holding, putting them all into your Victory Pile.)
- If the Ally card has a "Fight" effect on it, do what it says. Also do any "Rescue" effects or Minor Hero powers on any Bystanders you rescued this way. (Do these Fight and Rescue effects in any order.)
To fight and support one of your Allies:
- Spend Attack Points equal to that Ally's Attack to move them one space to the left down the battlefield track, away from Bow-Range towards Claw-Range and escape.
- Rescue any Bystanders it was holding, putting them all into your Victory Pile and using Minor Hero powers or Rescue effects, as above.
- If there are one or more enemy Allies in the space your just-supported Ally is now entering, they swap places, with the enemy Allies moving back. If the Ally you supported is part of a stack, its entire stack swaps places with the enemies in the next space.
- If there are two or fewer friendly Allies in the range-space your just-supported Ally enters, it stays there with them. (In the odd case in which your Ally would enter a space that already has three of your other Allies, your just-supported Ally swaps places with one of them.)
- When you support one Ally who is in a space with other Allies of yours, move them all together. Don't separate out the card you just supported, they all move together.
- Choose to either gain Victory Point tokens equal to the supported Ally's printed VP OR use the Ally's Fight effect.
- If your Ally does not have a Fight effect, you gain the Victory Point tokens.
- Rescue any Bystanders it was holding, putting them all into your Victory Pile and using Minor Hero powers or Rescue effects, as above.
- You can cause one of your Allies to escape by supporting it when it is in Claw-range and moving it out of play! Any Allies stacked with it will also escape! Follow the usual rules for your escaping Ally described above but remember that only opponents with 6 or more cards have to discard a card when one of your Allies escapes.
- Each Ally can only be supported once per turn.
You can also fight one or more of an enemy Mastermind's Defenders or an enemy Mastermind that is on top of its Mastermind stack. See the Defenders & Masterminds section for details.
Victory Piles
- Each player has their own personal Victory Pile. It holds all the enemy Allies they have fought and all the Bystanders they have rescued. It is face up. Players can look through face up Victory Piles (and discard piles) if they wish.
- Allies and Bystanders are not shuffled into your deck.
- Keep your Victory Pile horizontal so you do not accidentally mix it up with your discard pile.
- At the end of the game, Allies and Bystanders in your Victory Pile are worth the Victory Points shown on their cards.
- IMPORTANT: When you add a card to your victory pile, do not add VP tokens to your pile to represent this value. The card itself represents the VP value for end game scoring. Cards in your victory pile cannot be exchanged for Victory Point tokens.
How to Recruit a Hero
As you play Heroes from your hand, you generate a pool of Recruit Points. You can spend these to recruit Heroes from your Hero lineup, one at a time. You can only recruit a Hero if you have at least as many Recruit Points remaining as that Hero's cost. The Hero lineup area of your player board has five spaces, labeled 1 through 5 which always contain exactly five Heroes, all face up.
To recruit a Hero:
- Spend Recruit equal to that Hero's cost to "gain" that Hero and put it into your discard pile. A Hero's cost is in its lower-right corner. When your deck runs out and you shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck, you will soon draw that new Hero and be able to use their abilities.
- Then refill the empty space in the Hero lineup with a new card from that House's Hero Deck, face up. Whenever there is an empty space in the Hero lineup for any reason, refill that space immediately this way. You can even recruit a Hero, see what new Hero appears in its place from the Hero Deck, and then potentially recruit that new Hero too, if you have enough Recruit Points.
- You can also spend 3 Recruit Points to recruit the top Maester card from the Maester Deck (even multiple times).
Step 3) Discard Your Hand and Draw 6 New Cards
- At the end of your turn, put all the cards you played this turn into your discard pile, face up. Any unspent Attack and Recruit Points are lost.
- Also discard any cards in your hand that you did not play this turn.
- Then draw 6 new cards from your deck. If your deck runs out and you still must draw more cards, shuffle your discard pile into a new face down deck, then draw the rest of the cards you need.
- (Don't shuffle your discard pile into a new deck until your deck has completely run out and you still need to draw or reveal more cards.)
Masterminds
Mastermind cards represent the best efforts of the most powerful characters in the Game of Thrones storyline. Some Masterminds represent characters that also have Hero and Ally cards. Other Masterminds represent the great castles and places of power most important to a House.
A player who has generated enough Attack can choose to fight an enemy Mastermind atop its Mastermind stack that has no active Defenders instead of fighting an Ally. Like any other fight, you must use Attack equal to the Mastermind's Attack to fight that Mastermind.
A Mastermind card shows: Card Name, Card Type, Special Abilities, Victory Points, and Attack.
Masterminds and Defenders do not count as Allies. For example, the Young Dragons' card "Intimidation" has an ability that reads "The first time you defeat an Ally this turn, steal 1 Victory Point token from that House." Defeating an enemy Defender does not let you steal a VP from its owner. Neither does defeating an enemy Mastermind.
To fight a Mastermind:
- Spend Attack Points equal to the Mastermind's Attack. Take the Mastermind card and put it into your Victory Pile, face up.
- Do what the "Fight" effect on the Mastermind card says.
- All players shuffle their Mastermind stacks to randomize the Mastermind on top of their stack.
- The player who lost the Mastermind gains one active Defender.
You cannot fight your own Masterminds or Defenders, not even to support them.
Defenders
Defender cards represent underlings and warriors who protect their leaders. A Mastermind that has one or more active Defenders cannot be attacked. Luckily, Defender cards are easy to defeat, and have a Fight effect that you can use to cycle cards out of your Hero Lineup. (Inactive Defenders don't protect their Mastermind, and they can't be fought.)
To fight a Defender:
- Spend Attack Points equal to the active/face up Defender's Attack. Take Victory Point tokens equal to the Defender's printed victory points.
- Resolve the Defender's Fight effect.
- In the Legendary®: Game of Thrones base set, all Defenders have this Fight effect: Choose a card in your Hero lineup and place it face down at the bottom of your Hero Deck. Replace the empty spot in your Hero Lineup with the top card of your Hero Deck.
- The owner of the Defender you attacked flips the now inactive Defender face down to the bottom of their Defender stack.
End of the Game & Final Scoring
The game ends when a single player has had three of their Masterminds defeated or when a total of 6 Masterminds have been defeated.
- When fighting the final Mastermind, the current player still does that Mastermind's "Fight" ability. That player can still finish the rest of their turn in case they want to grab a few more Victory Points.
- Each player totals the Victory Points on the cards in their Victory Pile and their Victory Point tokens. The winner is the player with the most Victory Points. If two or more players tie for victory, the tied player who has more Masterminds in their Victory Pile wins. If those players are still tied, break the tie in favor of the player whose Victory Pile contains the highest total of Victory Points on Mastermind cards.
STOP – End of the Core Rules
Now you know all the rules you need to play! You can stop here and play the game. The rest of this rulebook contains additional clarifications, and other game modes. You can skim through them if a question comes up or read them later for more details about the game. There is also a Quick Reference Guide on the back of this rulebook.
Additional Rules
Hero Deck Selection Options
Once you have learned how to play, you can choose between a few different ways of selecting the Heroes for your Hero Deck.
- Full Allegiance: Each player chooses a House and uses four Heroes from that House. Randomly select which Ally group and each Henchman group each House adds to the Ally deck. In a two-player game, also randomly select a Neutral Ally group and Henchman group.
- Two Together: Each player selects a House. Then each player selects two Heroes from that House. Randomly select a player as the first player to choose their third Hero. They choose their third Hero from all remaining Heroes, either in their own House or a different House. Then the player to their left chooses their own third Hero, and so on until all players have chosen their third. The player who chose the last third Hero is the first to choose their fourth Hero, and so on back around the table to their right, until all players have four Heroes. Randomly select which Ally group and each Henchman group each House adds to the Ally deck. In a two-player game, also randomly select a Neutral Ally group and Henchman group.
- Three of One & One of Another: Each player chooses a House and uses three random Heroes from that House. Then each player selects between two random Heroes from a different House and chooses one as their fourth Hero. Select Allies randomly as for the Standard Game.
- Secret Draft: Shuffle a Secret Draft deck made of one card apiece from all 18 Heroes. Deal six per player in a two-player or three-player game, or four per player in a four-player game. Each player selects a Hero for their Hero Deck, then passes the remaining cards to the player on their left. Continue selecting a single card and passing left until all players have 4 Heroes selected for this game. Then each player selects a House which they have at least one Hero from. In the odd case in which not everyone can get a House they have a Hero from, let the left-out players choose a House that is still available.
Keywords Abilities
Several keywords appear on multiple cards. Most are terms used in other games in the Legendary® ecosystem. A couple of others are unique to Legendary®: Game of Thrones.
Bribe: This Ally can be fought with a mix of Attack and Recruit. An Ally with Bribe can be defeated by enemies using a mix or supported by its owner using a mix, just like normal Allies. A Mastermind with Bribe can only be defeated by enemies, as usual.
Cycle: Remove a card from a lineup or the top of its deck and move it to the bottom of its deck. When you cycle a card from your Hero lineup, the card goes to the bottom of your Hero deck and is replaced by the top card of your Hero deck. Cycle: 1 refers to the leftmost card in the Hero lineup, Cycle: 2 refers to the one to the right of that, and so on until Cycle: 5, which refers to the rightmost card in the Hero Lineup.
Elusive: You cannot fight this Enemy unless you have made at least this amount of Attack this turn. You don't have to spend the Attack, you just have to have made that much.
Lineup: When it appears in boldface on a Hero card, it indicates an ability that is effective when the card is in your lineup waiting to be recruited.
Mastery: Check if there is an Ally at the Mastery range. If there is, you trigger the indicated effect. The Ally does not have to belong to your House; you are only checking if the space is occupied by at least one Ally.
Smash: You may discard another card from your hand to get the amount of Attack indicated by the Smash ability. Note that you can only discard one card per Smash ability, but a card like Mountain Amok, that reads "Smash 3 Smash 3" means that you could discard one or two cards, gaining 3 Attack for each card discarded.
Soaring Flight: When you recruit this card, do not put it in your discard pile. Instead, add it as an additional card to the hand of cards you draw at the end of your turn.
Versatile: These points can be used as either Attack or Recruit but you cannot mix. All Versatile points from a single card must be used for either Attack or Recruit.
Specific Card Types
Starting Merchants and Soldiers Are Heroes
If a card effect says to "KO one of your Heroes," it's generally clever to KO one of your Merchant or Soldier Heroes. Merchant or Soldier Heroes have no Hero Class and are the color grey.
Maesters
You can always spend 3 Recruit Points to recruit a Maester. Gain the top card from the playmat's Maester Deck, putting it in your discard pile. You may recruit as many Maesters as you can pay for in Recruit.
Bystanders
Some card effects tell you to "rescue a Bystander." This means take the top Bystander from the Bystander Deck and put it into your Victory Pile. Use its rescue effect or Minor Hero effect if it has one. This represents saving innocent bystanders, capturing hostages, or plundering the populace, depending on the goodwill of your House. Each Bystander in your Victory Pile gives you additional Victory Points at the end of the game.
- Important: Cards that say "rescue a Bystander" cannot take Bystanders captured by specific Allies in the battlefield – you must fight those Allies to add those Bystanders to your Victory Pile.
Minor Heroes Abilities Trigger When Played AND When Captured
Minor Heroes function as both a Minor Hero while in your deck and as a Bystander when they are captured and rescued. Their card effects will trigger when they are played as a Hero and when they are rescued.
- As an example, when you play "Sansa, Little Bird" from your hand, you can get a bonus Recruit Point and a bonus Victory Point token if you put Sansa, Little Bird in your opponent's discard pile. And the same is true if you happen to capture Sansa, Little Bird by fighting an Ally that had the card captured as a Bystander, or by gaining a Bystander from the Bystander Deck and drawing Sansa.
Do Not Score Victory Points in Your Deck
Minor Hero cards are all printed with a 1 Victory Point symbol, but you only score Victory Points when the Minor Hero is in your Victory Pile. Minor Heroes in your deck are not worth any.
Wounds
Some card effects make you gain Wound cards, representing your House facing major setbacks. When a player gains a Wound, take a card from the Wound Deck, and put it into that player's discard pile. You can play Wounds from your hand, but they usually do not have any Attack or Recruit, so they weaken your turn.
- Some card effects let you KO your Wounds.
- Wound cards are not Heroes. Wounds do not have a Hero Class or color, not even grey. If a card tells you to "KO one of your Heroes," you cannot KO a Wound, since Wounds are not Heroes. However, if a card says, "KO one of your cards," then you can KO a Wound, since Wound cards are still cards.
- Wounds cost 0. However, you only gain Wounds when an effect tells you to. You cannot intentionally gain Wounds by paying 0 Recruit Points.
Healing Wounds
If you have one or more Wounds in your hand, you can use the ability written on the Wound card: "Healing: If you don't fight, support or recruit anything on your turn, you may KO all the Wounds from your hand."
- If you use this Healing ability, you cannot fight, support, or recruit any kinds of cards either before or after you use the Healing ability.
- Healing is often worthwhile if you have at least two Wounds in your hand, and/or if Wounds were weakening your hand enough that your turn would not have been very good anyway.
- You use this Healing ability directly from your hand, without playing the Wound cards.
- When you have Wounds, it is okay to play the rest of the cards in your hand and use some abilities like "draw a card" to see how your turn develops and how many Attack and Recruit you would have. Then you can decide whether to use the "Healing" ability on the Wounds, or whether to fight and recruit.
Healing with a Maester
You can also use the healing ability on a played Maester card: "If you don't fight any Allies, Defenders, or Masterminds this turn, you can KO a Wound from your hand or discard pile."
- If you use this ability, you cannot fight or support any kind of cards either before or after you use this ability.
- The Maester card must be played to activate this ability.
- You may play the rest of the cards in your hand, use abilities, and even recruit Heroes before deciding to use this ability.
Running out of Bystanders, Events, Maesters, or Wounds
If the Bystander, Event, Maester, or Wound Deck runs out, the game continues as normal. If a player gains one of these cards, and there are not any more left in the appropriate deck, then they just do not gain that card and the game continues. Do not take extra copies out of the KO pile.
Running out of Cards in a Hero Deck or in the Ally Deck
In the unlikely case in which no cards remain to be drawn from a player's Hero Deck or the Ally Deck, the game immediately ends. Simply count Victory Points and award Victory to the player with the most VP.
Special Abilities on Cards
Special abilities can override game rules.
- Some cards tell "each player" to do something. In those cases, the player whose turn it is does it first, then goes in clockwise order.
- If a card tells you to do something, and you cannot do all of it, then do as much as you can. For example: if a card tells you to KO two Bystanders from your Victory Pile, and you only have one Bystander, then KO that Bystander and move on.
- If a card calls for a choice, and it is not obvious who should make the choice, then the player whose turn it is makes the choice. For example," The Odd Companions" says "Ambush: Draw an Event." The current player is the player who draws the Event.
- If a card asks you to "KO one of your Heroes" or otherwise choose, discard, or KO a certain kind of card from "your heroes" or your hand, and you don't have any cards of that kind, reveal your hand to show you don't have any.
Revealing a Card
"Reveal a card" just means show the other players that you have it. You can reveal a card from your hand, or you can reveal a card in front of you that you have already played this turn. "Revealing" a card does not automatically play or discard that card. You can reveal the same card multiple times in a turn if necessary. Revealed cards are returned to where they were revealed unless an effect says otherwise.
- Say a card effect tells you to "Reveal a Basic card or gain a Wound." If you have a Basic card in your hand or that you have played this turn, you could reveal it to stop the Wound, or you could choose not to reveal it and just gain the Wound instead. In rare cases where you have lots of cards that benefit from gaining Wounds, you might prefer to just gain the Wound.
- If a card says, "do A or do B," you can choose either option that you can do. You cannot choose an option that you cannot do.
- If a card effect tells you to do something like "Discard a card that costs 0" and you do not have any of that kind of card, reveal your hand to show you do not have it.
"Reveal the Top Card of Your Deck"
If a card effect says to reveal the top card of your deck, and it does not say where to put that card afterwards, then that card stays where it was, face down on top of your deck.
"Each Hero You Played This Turn"
This phrase only counts cards you have already played this turn, not other cards still in your hand.
"Your Heroes" & "Heroes You Have"
These phrases include both the cards you have played this turn and the cards in your hand. The Heroes in your deck and discard pile do not count.
Advanced Card Interactions
This section covers some unusual card interactions. There is no need to read this section unless you have a particular rules question that you need help figuring out.
Cards You Played That Have Gone Somewhere Else
Cards you played this turn that have moved to the KO pile, or some other location still count as "cards you played this turn" so you can use them to trigger Abilities. However, since they are no longer in your "played cards" pile or your hand, they no longer count as "Your Heroes" or "Heroes you Have" and you cannot "Reveal" them for card effects, this applies to cards that have moved to the KO pile, your discard pile, deck, or Victory Pile, and so on.
- For example: Say your hand is all non-grey Heroes. You play your only Strength Hero, then fight a Villain that says "Fight: KO one of your Heroes." You choose to KO your Strength Hero. Later in that turn, you can still use a "Strength: You get +2 Recruit" Special Ability, since you still "played a Strength Hero this turn", but you can't "reveal a Strength Hero" if some card effect asks you to, since your Strength Hero has moved to the KO pile, so you don't "have it" anymore.
Printed Attack
A card's "Printed Attack" means the number literally printed inside the card's big Attack icon. Ignore any + or * symbols or special abilities on that card. Likewise, effects that say "If that card has an Attack icon…" check whether that card has a big Attack icon in its lower-left corner. Such effects do not care whether or not the card has any small Attack icons in its text box.
Cards That Do Not Have a Number
If a card effect needs to know a number from a card, and that card does not have that kind of number, use 0. For example, Robert at Court says, "Reveal a card from your hand. This card gains that card's printed Attack and Recruit." If you reveal Unknown Potential, since this card does not have either recruit or attack values, it would be considered to be 0 and add 0 Attack and 0 Recruit. (Also, this would be a terrible choice of a card to reveal, but we're covering corner-cases!)
"Copy a Hero" Effects
Daenerys, New Khaleesi's "Unknown Potential" and the "Petyr Baelish of the Small Council" Mastermind says: "You may play a copy of that card this turn." In effect, you are playing an "invisible copy" of the copied card that grants all the same Attack, Recruit, and special abilities of the copied card.
- If you play an "invisible copy" of a Strength card this way, you still "played a Strength card this turn" for the purposes of triggering "Strength:" triggered special abilities. However, "your Heroes" and "Heroes you have" do not include the copied card, since it is not actually in front of you.
Henchmen are Allies
Henchman Allies are a kind of Ally. Henchman Groups are likewise a kind of Ally Group. When a card refers to an Ally, this also refers to a Henchman.
Masterminds and Defenders Are Not Allies
Masterminds are so powerful that they do not count as mere Allies. Abilities that affect Allies do not affect Masterminds unless they explicitly say they do. This also applies to the Mastermind's active Defenders.
- The word "Enemy" includes Allies, Masterminds and Defenders.
An Ally Gets -1 Attack
Some cards reduce an Ally's Attack. If an Ally's Attack goes to 0, you can fight that Ally without spending any Attack. An Ally's Attack cannot go below 0. There are also cards that have abilities that reduce their own Attack, notably the Mastermind cards "King Robert Baratheon" and "Casterly Rock".
Alternative Game Modes
The Hand's Tourney
A Storyline Scenario for 2-3 Players playing as the Starks, Lannisters, or King's Landing
In a two-player game, each player chooses which of the three Houses they wish to play. Add the listed Ally group for the other House as Neutrals in the Ally Deck. Each House uses three of its own Heroes and one cross-House Hero. Each House has an Ally group and a Henchman group listed. And each House uses only three of its Mastermind cards, removing the others.
King's Landing House Heroes: Baratheons in Summer, Great Warriors, Robert Baratheon, and Jorah Mormont (who was secretly working for King's Landing, though not present at the Tourney). King's Landing Allies: King's Chamber, Gold Cloaks King's Landing Masterminds: Use only King Robert Baratheon, Petyr Baelish, and Varys.
Lannister House Heroes: Cersei Lannister, Hound & Mountain, Jaime Lannister, and Bronn (who had not arrived but would have fit into the shadows nicely). Lannister Allies: Siblings & Comrades, Redcloaks Lannister Masterminds: Use only Cersei Lannister, Jaime Lannister, and Tyrion Lannister.
Stark House Heroes: Lord Eddard Stark, Young Arya, Jon Snow Steward of the Watch (who fits in better than the other northerners) and Small Council (yes, there are King's Landing Heroes who are working for two different players). Stark Allies: Starks at Court, Stark Bannermen Stark Masterminds: Use only Lady Catelyn Stark, Lord Eddard of Winterfell, and Lord Eddard the Hand.
Special Rule for the Hand's Tourney: Honorable Duels
If you defeat a non-Henchman enemy Ally using only Attack from cards with the same Hero name, you gain a bonus VP Token.
Hero Classes
- Strength Heroes (Green) include brute force or raw power, and sometimes combat abilities that are based on brawn instead of instinct or training.
- Instinct Heroes (Yellow) use guts, bravery, and reflexes.
- Covert Heroes (Red) represent cunning, stealth, and the ability to act without being noticed.
- Strategy Heroes (Black) use big-picture manipulation, grand strategic and master plans.
- Skill Heroes (Blue) have prowess with weapons and combat, especially the combat styles practiced by trained warriors and knights.
- Basic Heroes (Grey) include normal Merchants, Soldiers, Minor Heroes, and Maesters. They all count as Heroes, though they do not get the job done as well as more powerful Heroes.
Hero Teams
Most Hero cards have a Team icon in their upper-left corner. Most of the Team icons are the same as the House icons. Special abilities or other special effects are sometimes triggered by Team icons instead of Hero Classes.
Stark: The honorable but sometimes overly trusting masters of Winterfell and the lords of the North. In this core set, the four Stark House Heroes depict Lord Eddard Stark, his family, their most trusted retainers, and their dire wolves. Lord Eddard Stark's Hero cards center on him alone. Young Arya's cards include her sister and her fencing master. Winter is Coming groups Stark family members, wolves, and retainers who stayed in the North while Lord Eddard went south to King's Landing. The Kingdom of the North Hero cards represent Robb Stark's forces and actions when war was forced upon them.
Lannister: The scheming masters of the kingdom's treasury and the heir to the Iron Throne. Three of the four Lannister Hero groups are devoted to Tywin Lannister's children: Queen Cersei, Jaime Lannister, and Tyrion Lannister. The fourth set of 14 cards, Hound & Mountain, depicts the Clegane brothers, Sandor and Gregor, two of the Lannister's most deadly warriors.
King's Landing: The heroes and characters in this team are all part of the court of King Robert Baratheon at the start of the Game of Thrones. Great Warriors groups four different knights who serve Robert or who served the Iron Throne. Small Council has a card for each of three main Council members and another portraying the unified group. Baratheons in Summer includes scenes from a happier court that was mostly off-camera in the Game of Thrones series. Robert Baratheon portrays the King as a mix of his former glory and his current debauchery.
Dothraki: This team includes Daenerys as a young bride, her husband Khal Drogo, his followers, and her dragons. Both Daenerys, New Khaleesi and Khal Drogo have a card or two from their most devoted Bloodriders. Jorah Mormont, on the other hand, is all alone in the Dothraki's service. Young Dragons includes one card for each of the three dragons and another putting them together.
Night's Watch: Jon Snow, Steward of the Watch is the only Hero from this team in this core set. There are likely to be other Night's Watch heroes in future sets, as well as Allies and Masterminds to make it a playable House.
Sell Swords: Bronn is the only Sell Sword in this core set. Although another version of Bronn could play off his association with Tyrion by portraying him as a Lannister, at heart Bronn is a clear-headed pragmatist who serves himself. If other Sell Swords arrive later, they'll include mercenaries, warriors no longer serving their original masters, and renegade priests.
Final Showdown (Optional)
When a player triggers the endgame by defeating a Mastermind, that player finishes their turn and draws six cards as normal. Then it is time for the Final Showdown between all players. Each player in turn now takes a special "Showdown Turn," starting with the player on the left of the player who triggered the endgame.
In a Showdown Turn, you do not play the top Ally card, you do not recruit Heroes, and you do not fight Allies or Masterminds. Instead:
- Play the cards in your hand as normal, using those cards' special abilities as normal, and producing Recruit Points and Attack as normal.
- Add together all the Recruit Points and Attack you produce into a single, big Showdown Total.
- Do not draw a new hand at the end of your Showdown Turn.
Whichever player has the highest Showdown Total wins the Final Showdown! That player puts the top Mastermind card of the opponent who had the lowest Showdown Total into their victory pile, regardless of whether that player's Mastermind had any active Defenders.
Tied Final Showdowns
If multiple players tie for the highest Showdown Total, then it is time for a Cliffhanger Showdown! Each of the tied players discards all the cards they played and draws a new hand of six cards. Each of those players then takes another Showdown Turn to find the winner of the Final Showdown. If players keep tying, run additional Cliffhanger Showdowns until someone wins the Showdown.
Game Contents
Rulebook, playmat, player boards, dividers, and 550 game cards:
- 18 Heroes, each with 14 cards (252 cards. Each Hero has 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 5 of one common, and 5 of another common)
- 9 Ally Groups of 8 cards each (72 cards)
- 8 Henchman Groups of 5 cards each (40 cards)
- 20 Masterminds (5 Mastermind cards for each team)
- 20 Minor Heroes
- 24 Merchants
- 16 Soldiers
- 12 Maesters
- 20 Defenders
- 12 Bystanders
- 20 Wounds
- 32 Events
- 10 Master Strikes
- 60 Dividers
- 63 Tokens
- 4 Player Boards
- 1 Battlefield Playmat
Quick Reference Guide
Setup
- Each player shuffles a personal deck of 6 Merchants, 4 Soldiers, and 2 Minor Heroes and draws 6 cards.
- Put the Maester, Event, Minor Hero/Bystander, and Wound Decks in the appropriate spaces. Decks of all identical cards can stay face up. Decks containing different cards should be shuffled face down.
- Each player shuffles their House's 5 Mastermind cards and places them face up in the Mastermind space on their player board.
- Each player places 2 of their House's Defenders face down in the Defenders space on their player board, then adds 3 Defenders face up on top of the stack.
Ally Deck
- Each player chooses 1 Ally Group and 1 Henchman Group from their House to add to the Ally deck.
- Add this many Bystanders and Events and Master Strikes to the Ally Deck.
| Players | Ally Groups | Henchman Groups | Bystanders | Events | Master Strikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3* | 3* | 4 | 12 | 8 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 8 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 10 |
- In 2-player games only: Add an additional Ally group and Henchman Group as a Neutral group.
Hero Deck
- Each player selects 4 Heroes using one of the methods on the Hero Deck Selection Options. (Use just the Heroes from your House if you're in a hurry.) Shuffle their cards together and put them on the Hero Deck space, face down.
- Put 5 cards from the Hero Decks into their Hero Line-up spaces, face up.
On Your Turn
- Play the top card of the Ally Deck.
- Play cards from your hand, using them to fight and recruit.
- Discard your hand and draw 6 new cards.
Hero Class icons: Strength, Instinct, Covert, Strategy, Skill. Card icons: Attack, Recruit, Cost, Victory Points.